Sci Tech January 2015 2

KI
IW
Sci
KI
IW
Content
Wave energy could prove to be more steady, cheaper renewable energy s
Bridge gap between planning and engineering to shift to sustainable m
Countries rushing to ban Styrofoam food containers
India denies Gilead patent for hepatitis C drug, sofosbuvir
New antibiotics found from soil a breakthrough against drug resistanc
Is America the right partner for India to deal with antimicrobial res
NASA curiosity rover smashes Mars rock
Fukushima rice passes radiation tests for first time since disaster
Bovine TB: culling of badgers less effective strategy for controlling
10
WHO approves use of meningitis vaccine on infants
10
Scientists discover 'safe' GMOs
11
How will science aid development in India in near future?
12
Real pride of ancient indian science
14
NASA explores inflatable spacecraft technology
15
Question corner: What is the difference between GSLV and PSLV?
17
Charles Townes, Nobel winner for co-inventing laser, dies aged 99
18
Gilead licences Strides to make, distribute AIDS drug in 112 countries
20
Novel mechanism may lead to better TB control
21
Notes by RAJESHNAYAK on www.kiwipaper.com
KI
IW
Content
Hubble captures images of Eagle Nebula's 'Pillars of Creation'
22
Scientists without a scientific temper
23
Testing for pesticide residues in vegetables
25
'EU should curb mercury emissions from cremations'
26
First nuclear bomb set off the Anthropocene
27
Neutrino Observatory project may get nod soon
29
'ISRO working on aspects of manned mission'
29
Scientists find promising new antibiotic
30
Rosetta hints at 'key to life' on comet's core
32
Mythology and science
32
Researchers to look at farm practices, 'superbugs' link
33
What will be the India-based Neutrino Observatory's impact?
34
Bt cotton not to blame for farm distress: scientists
35
Obama calls for stronger, standardised online data protection
37
Here is our big fat problem
38
Ice deposits waxed, waned on Mars: study
41
Weak backbone
42
Researchers produce two biofuels from single algae
43
KI
IW
Content
Statins can reduce heart disease risk in women
44
NASA's Opportunity rover completes 11 years on Mars
45
All you wanted to know about: Black Box
46
ISRO gears up to launch IRNSS 1D
47
Innovation - make it smart and frugal
48
New antibiotic kills pathogens without resistance
50
Giant leap for ISRO
51
Scientific Research to be the Engine for 'Make In India' in Years to Come
56
India already a world leader in 'Space': Dr Jitendra Singh
59
The Academic Performance Indicators Regime and Its Follies
60
KI
IW
Wave energy could prove to be more steady, cheaper renewable energy s
Wed, Jan 14, 2015
Down to Earth, science & tech,
Power generated by waves can be can be forecast with a high degree of accuracy without
much variability for hours at a time, which is a huge advantage for any renewable
source, says study
Energy from ocean waves is more reliable and could prove cheaper, say scientists.
Oregon State University (OSU), in its findings published in the journal Renewable
Energy [2] , has asserted that wave energy in areas with high potential, such as
northwestern Pacific, will be comparatively stable and can be integrated into the grid
at lower costs, especially wind power. This study was a collaboration of researchers at
OSU, the University of Victoria, and industry.
According to the report [3] , power generated by waves can be can be forecast with a
high degree of accuracy without much variability for hours at a time. This is a huge
advantage for any renewable source since power from renewable sources is intermittent
and unreliable. The study examined the hypothetical addition of 500 megawatts of
generating capacity in the region by 2025, which would be comparable to approximately
five large wind farms.
The predictability is also important for grid integration of renewable power. Ted Brekken,
associate professor, College of Engineering at OSU, opined, "By producing wave energy
from a range of different sites, possibly with different types of technology, and taking
advantage of the comparative consistency of the wave resource itself, it appears that
wave energy integration should be easier than that of wind energy."
However, wave energy is not a commercially viable, not even in the Pacific Northwest,
but like any technology, costs would come down with more deployment. The Pacific
Northwest has some of the US' best wave energy resources, and is home to the Northwest
National Marine Renewable Energy Center, supported by the U.S. Department of
Energy. "Wave energy off the West Coast has incredible potential. Now we have reached
an important step in the leasing process for the nation's first grid-connected facility in
federal waters to test commercial-scale wave energy devices." said Walter Cruickshank,
acting director, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), a US government
agency.
It is imperative that new forms of energy like wave energy are explored and develop
for economic growth especially to diversify the energy portfolio for any country.
Page 1
KI
IW
Bridge gap between planning and engineering to shift to sustainable m
Mon, Jan 19, 2015
The Eighth Regional Environmentally Sustainable Transport forum held at Colombo

in November 2014 gave an interesting insight into policy formulation, implementation
and management of environmentally sustainable transport systems.
Among significant discussions at the conference was the one at BAQ-EST on the crisis
of air pollution and global health burden that has already reached alarming levels. All
nations are already revising their vehicle emission norms. Euro VI norms, which are
now in place, are so stringent that there cannot be a Euro VII. The European Union is
now trying to reduce vehicular emissions through modal shift towards the use of public
transport, cycling and walking.
BAQ-EST also threw light on developing nations like India which see two sides of this
reality. On the one hand, our cities are still developing with urbanisation of new areas.
On the other hand is our increasing capacity to spend which leads more and more people
to buy private cars.
At a session hosted by Delhi-based non-profit Centre for Science and Environment,
Director General Sunita Narain had explained, "Unlike developed nations which have
already developed their cities in a pattern which encourages use of private vehicles and
are now looking to reduce vehicle dependency through car restraint measures, we have
the opportunity to choose the appropriate pattern of development which can keep the
dependence on personal motorised vehicles at its minimum. Developing nations of the
world now face the challenge of transforming their pattern of development to encourage
use of public transport, cycling and walking."
The Bali declaration had set the vision of "Three Zeros--Zero Congestion, Zero Pollution,
and Zero Accidents towards Next Generation Transport Systems in Asia". Bali vision
highlighted the commitment of member nations to encourage sustainable mobility
options through policy, planning, design, enforcement, operation, administration and
awareness measures.
While most nations are working towards policy formation, almost all of them are facing
problems in implementation and improvements on the ground. As a first step, countries
have started acknowledging that policies need to encourage sustainable mobility options.
In India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Myanmar, a lot of effort has gone into
preparing policies for introducing integrated land use and transport planning through
transit-oriented development, roadmaps for preparing transportation plans, encouraging
use of public transport, policies for encouraging use of non-motorised transport and
pedestrianisation. These countries have also attempted to make policies for car restraint
through mechanisms of travel demand management. However, most of these countries
Page 2
KI
IW
face common problems such as difficulties in working in existing cities, lack of technical
expertise, lack of general awareness, inter-departmental and inter-project issues along
with lack of funding and need for reform in other policies.
When we analyse the reports of all these countries, we realise that all their efforts are
being carried out in isolation rather than working on them in conjunction. They are
concentrating on construction of only a few infrastructure projects, rather than
implementing the whole strategic plan of environmentally sustainable transport.
In the current institutional setup in countries, policies for promoting and adopting
sustainable transport are already in place. It is time that the intergovernmental forum
for environmentally sustainable transport in Asia now starts focusing on internal
restructuring and capacity building of its institutions. They must also start sharing
knowledge regarding capacity building of agencies and implementation of projects with
each other.
One of the main reasons for this disconnect between policy formulation and implementation
can be attributed to planning mechanisms of member countries. If we look back into
the history of these countries, we see that almost all of these countries were initially
colonised by traders largely from Europe. Our planning systems, which originated from
our colonial past, are still grappling to adapt to the changing needs. Back then, the ideas
of planning and governance were derived from an anarchist line of thought, which
would require the governmental agencies to implement the ideas of the decision makers
and hence, the implementation would largely depend on engineers. After independence,
the same government agencies now have to work towards technical support for decision
making, policy formulation, and then implementation, while the work is still largely
done by engineers and is still implemented by identifying specific infrastructure projects.
The compartmentalisation of work has led to a disconnect between the intent of the
policy and the actual infrastructure work implemented.
To understand this better, let us take the example of road retrofitting works. A planning
approach would understand a road as a complex environment made of physical entities
embedded in the natural environment, socio-cultural beliefs of citizens of the city and
its communities manifest in various spaces, memories of the people embedded in various
parts of the road, existing and future infrastructure needs and surrounding buildings,
uses and activities. This approach would try to find out a set of solutions to balance all
components, without getting into engineering details of each component.
On the other hand, an engineering approach would try to break this complex environment
into simplified components. It would then take the physical components and infrastructure
requirements to prepare construction manuals. It would leave the other aspects for the
concerned professionals to look into.
Both these approaches have benefits only when they complement each other, rather
Page 3
KI
IW
than competing with each other.

Various member countries of the intergovernmental forum are trying to address problems
through a planning approach. It requires a lot of initiative towards public participation,
stakeholder consultation, sustainable planning, awareness building, educating, operation
& management and enforcement. When the same countries report on implementation,
they only consider engineering solutions as deliverables and leave the rest to something
that cannot be addressed. This gives a clear indication of the disconnect between planning
and implementation which is guided by a simplified engineering approach.
To sum it up, the intergovernmental forum for environmentally sustainable transport
needs to now look at institutional restructuring and capacity building of its associated
governmental agencies to marry both approaches and achieve transition towards
environmentally sustainable transport.
Countries rushing to ban Styrofoam food containers
Fri, Jan 9, 2015
Use of the compound in making cups and plates dangerous as hot liquids cause partial
breakdown of styrofoam, thus releasing toxins into food items
Countries across the world are gradually beginning to accept styrofoam or the material
most widely used to make disposable cups and plates as a serious hazard to the
environment. This is the reason why various countries are mulling bans on use of
styrofoam. Environmental Protection Administration in Taiwan has recently announced
that it aims to impose a nationwide ban on the use of Styrofoam cups. "The agency has
mapped out draft measures restricting the use of expanded foam plastic to manufacture
drink containers such as styrofoam cups, of which more than 200 million are used per
year, but only about 20 percent are recycled," says a report published in Taipei Times.
Meanwhile, the mayor of New York City in the US has announced a citywide ban on
the material. Before this, in 2011, according to ABC News, the U S Department of
Health and Human Services had added styrene, a synthetic compound in styrofoam, to
its list of known or possible carcinogens.
Styrofoam--a silent killer?
Styrofoam or expanded polystyrene foam is a non biodegradable substance. A paper,
published in the Journal of Environmental Sciences [2] says that styrene can adversely
affect humans in a number of ways, which raises serious public health and safety
questions regarding its build-up in human tissue. Although there is evidence that styrene
causes cancer in animals, it has not yet been proven to cause cancer in humans.
Use of the compound to serve food and drinks is particularly dangerous because hot
Page 4
KI
IW
foods and liquids actually start a partial breakdown of the styrofoam, causing some
toxins to be absorbed into our bloodstream and tissues.
Besides this, the non-biodegradable nature of the substance makes it a menace for the
environment. Marine pollution and threat to wildlife are other serious problems.
India denies Gilead patent for hepatitis C drug, sofosbuvir
Fri, Jan 16, 2015
Companies that have not signed any licence agreement with US pharma giant are now
free to produce generic versions of the drug
The Indian Patent Controller, on Thursday, rejected one of Gilead's key patent applications
for the drug Sofosbuvir, used to treat hepatitis C (HCV). People campaigning for
affordable medicine have welcomed the decision.
The oral drug first received regulatory approval in the US in November 2013, and has
been priced by Gilead at US$84,000 for a treatment course ($1,000 per pill) in the US.
It has caused a worldwide debate on the pricing of patented medicines. Interestingly,
a study from Liverpool University showed that sofosbuvir could be produced for as
little as $101 for a three-month treatment course. Sofosbuvir is a nucleotide analog
inhibitor that blocks a specific protein needed by the hepatitis C virus to replicate itself.
Gilead has signed voluntary licence agreements with multiple generic producers in
India--Cadila Healthcare Ltd, Cipla Ltd, Hetero Labs Ltd, Mylan Laboratories Ltd.,
Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd, Sequent Scientific Ltd and Strides Arcolab Ltd. But these
agreements impose many restrictions, including which countries can access the drugs
produced under these licences, as well as invasive restriction on medical providers and
patients with respect to distribution and use of the drug.
With the patent being denied, other companies that have not signed the licence are now
free to produce the drug. Entry by additional generic manufacturers should increase
the open competition needed to bring prices down dramatically, especially in those
countries that have been excluded from the voluntary licence agreement, and thereby
increase access to the medicine. Health activists said the move will improve access to
the drug. Executive director of Medicins Sans Frontieres (MSF) Access Campaign,
Manica Balasegaram, says, "India's status as the 'pharmacy of the developing world'
is once again in the spotlight and this is a good opportunity for generic producers in
India to swiftly ramp up production to levels needed to treat the 185 million people
infected with hepatitis C worldwide." "The move to reject Gilead's patent application
really opens up the playing field, so we hope to now see many other generic companies
starting to produce more affordable versions of this drug. The bottom line here is that
India's patent law doesn't give monopolies for old science, for compounds that are
Page 5
KI
IW
already in the public domain. Gilead's strategy of charging as much as US$84,000 per
treatment for a drug that is predicted to be simple and cheap to produce, and is now
un-patentable in India, has been exposed for what it is - seeking to squeeze as much
profit out of the sick as possible," said MSF.
Tahir Amin, lawyer and director of the Initiative for Medicines, Access & Knowledge
(I-MAK.org) which opposed the patent application, said, "This is a happy day for the
millions of people who urgently need hepatitis C treatment across the globe. People
with hepatitis C everywhere should be able to have access to this treatment, but millions
of our friends in middle-income countries have been left out in the cold by Gilead. This
decision provides hope that people in countries that have been excluded from Gilead's
licensing deals will be able to access low-cost generic versions of sofosbuvir."
New antibiotics found from soil a breakthrough against drug resistanc
Thu, Jan 8, 2015
The discovery of new class of antibiotics has ended 25 years of wait

Though still in its infancy, a discovery recently made in the domain of medicine, is
being seen as a breakthrough for the medical fraternity.
Scientists have found new antibiotics that will be able to kill an array of germs that
have become resistant to existing drugs. Not only this, the new method of growing
bacteria has potential to yield more antibiotics in future. This was declared in a study
that was published in journal Nature on Wednesday. Despite the world inching closer
and closer to a post-antibiotic era, the last worthy discovery in the domain was made
long back in 1987.
Titled, 'A new antibiotic kills pathogen without detectable resistance' the study claims
that experts believe it may prove to be a game changer. The much needed discovery,
however, has not been tested on humans yet. But the method was found to be effective
on mice.
A cure hidden in dirt
The new class of antibiotic, uncovered by screening 10,000 bacterial strains from the
soil, has been called teixobactin. The antibiotic will be investigated further in animals
before being tested on humans. Kim Lewis, the lead author of the research and a professor
at Northeastern University in Boston said, "If all goes well, we will be in clinical trials
two to three years from now to prove its efficacy."
The research has appeared when the whole world community is under-stress to deal
with drug resistance because of widespread and increasingly indiscriminate use of
existing antibiotics. Due to this unregulated use, bacteria in recent years have acquired
Page 6
KI
IW
mutations and new genes that render them more resistant to drugs.
Promising 'un-cultured' bacteria
The problem was getting compound because scientists were unable to find new antibiotics.
One of the main barriers in the way of this innovation was inability to tap the vast
storehouse of "un-cultured" bacteria. The research paper says that approximately 99
per cent of all species in external environments do not grow under laboratory conditions
means they are un-cultured, but they are quite promising source of new antibiotics.
These scientists developed several methods to grow "un-cultured" organisms by
cultivation in their natural environment and for this, they created a "subterranean hotel"
for bacteria. One bacterium was placed in each "room" and the whole device was buried
in soil. It allowed the unique chemistry of soil to permeate the room, but kept the bacteria
in place for study.
It is known to all that innovation of antibiotics in the early 20th century had transformed
medicine and also the public health.
Is America the right partner for India to deal with antimicrobial res
Thu, Jan 29, 2015
The joint statement issued by the US President Barack Obama and Prime Minister
Narendra Modi on Sunday covers antimicrobial resistance (AMR) as an area of health
cooperation. The two leaders committed to multi-sectoral actions to counter the emergence
and spread of AMR and cooperation in training of health workers in preparedness for
threats of infectious diseases. Both the leaders also agreed to focus on science and
technology partnerships to counter resistant bacteria and promote the availability,
efficacy and quality of therapeutics.
Commenting on the development, Ramanan Laxminarayan, vice-president (research
and policy) with the Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI), a public-private initiative,
said, "This is a very welcome development that recognises that the US and India face
a common threat of resistance. Much progress needs to be made in both countries and
this is an opportunity to work together."
But first a vital question: is the US the right choice for India to build a partnership with
in order to counter AMR? Let us look at US and the European Union (EU) on how they
have been addressing use of antibiotics in food-producing animals, which contributes
to the development of AMR. With an objective of eliminating medically important
antibiotics as growth promoters, the US has largely relied upon voluntary measures to
curb the misuse of antibiotics in livestock and poultry, and that too in 2012-13 after
having debated the matter for about 40 years when the Food and Drug Administration
Page 7
KI
IW
(FDA) issued guidance for industry on labelling of antibiotics to remove growth

promotion claims. So, in practice antibiotic growth promoters (AGPs) can still be used
as there is no mandatory law to ban it. The executive order by President Obama in
September 2014, also talks about continuing with FDA's measures.
EU's legislation-based approach
The EU, meanwhile, has adopted a legislation-based approach. It banned the use of
AGPs in animal feed about a decade ago in 2006 and antibiotics can only be administered
therapeutically under the supervision of a veterinarian. Laxminarayan said, "The US
executive order does call for the phasing out of AGPs. This faces challenges from the
livestock industry that does not recognise the impact of use of antibiotics on resistance
even in the face of growing evidence. India has not taken this issue seriously enough
and needs to act before AGP use gets out of hand." When asked if India can learn much
better from the EU than the US, Laxminarayan said, "Certainly a lot from the EU but
the political challenges in the EU are quite different and there is greater recognition of
the AGP problem."
In a related development this week, India challenged before World Trade Organization
(WTO) its October, 2014 ruling [2] , which forces India to lift the ban on imports of
poultry products from the US. Also, as part of India's first regulatory move on this
issue, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has proposed ban on
AGP use in food-producing animals. Experts at Delhi-based non-profit, Centre for
Science and Environment, supports both developments because this will safeguard
Indian consumers from poultry products made with high inputs of antibiotics. Curtailing
chicken meat imports from the US would also prove more meaningful to the proposed
cooperation.
NASA curiosity rover smashes Mars rock
Thu, Jan 15, 2015
NASA scientists will now have to find a new target from which to pull up a sample for
analysis
NASA's curiosity rover on Mars has smashed up the latest rock it has tried to drill.
The test drilling cracked the target rock, Mojave, and dislodged pieces of it. The robot's
power tool split the stone slab into several pieces as it hammered down to make a test
hole.
Scientists working on the NASA mission will now have to find a new target from which
to pull up a sample for analysis. "The rover team is evaluating whether an alternate
target location in this area would make an appropriate site for sample-collection drilling,"
NASA said in a press release.
Page 8
KI
IW
The agency is planning a close-up investigation of the resulting rock fragments with
freshly exposed surfaces.
"On Earth, field geologists carry rock hammers to crack rocks and expose fresh surfaces,
but this is an unusual opportunity in a Mars rover mission," the release said.
Fukushima rice passes radiation tests for first time since disaster
Tue, Jan 6, 2015
The earthquake that hit Japan nearly four years ago had forced the country to stop export
of fish and other produce from the area near Fukushima nuclear plant
Fukushima rice, for the first time since 2011 when a nuclear disaster had hit Japan, has
passed radiation tests. The rice had failed the test in 2012 and 2013 and had to be
destroyed.
Fukushima official Tsuneaki Oonami, according to a Reuters report, said that about
360,000 tonnes of rice, nearly all of last year's harvest, had been checked and none had
tested above the 100 becquerels per kilogram limit set by the government. "The fact
that the amount of rice that does not pass our checks has steadily reduced in the last
three years indicates that we're taking the right steps," Oonami who heads the department
that oversees Fukushima rice farming further said.
The earthquake and the tsunami that hit Japan nearly four years ago had caused a
meltdown of three reactors of the Tokyo Electric Power Company and even forced the
country to stop export of fish and other produce from the area. A report published in
Food Safety News says that since the disaster, rice planting had resumed in the area
around the nuclear facility known as the "no-go" zone, which has been redefined to
allow access where radiation levels are relatively low. Some farmers and other residents
near where the rice paddies are located had to be evacuated and are now only allowed
in during the day.
Nearly a month ago, it had been reported that the first rice crops cultivated on an
experimental basis near the plant were served at the cafeterias of the environment
ministry. However, before this, a few media reports had pointed out that the debris
cleanup work by Tokyo Electric Power Company at the Fukushima No 1 nuclear plant
may have led to the contamination of rice crops in nearby areas.
In August last year, Japan had decided to resume the export of rice varieties from the
area, which had been banned since the disaster.
Page 9
KI
IW
Bovine TB: culling of badgers less effective strategy for controlling
Fri, Jan 16, 2015
New study suggests that testing cattle is more effective

Researchers from Queen Mary University of London's School of Biological and
Chemical Sciences used computer modelling to conclude that regular and frequent
testing of cattle for bovine tuberculosis could eventually lead to eradication of the
disease.
According to an article [1] on the university website, the study found that in a region
where 3,000-15,000 cows may have been infected with the disease, culling of badgers
could account for a reduction of only 12 in the number of infected cattle.
Research has shown that cows and badgers interact frequently, leading to transmission
of TB between the two species. Wildlife protection groups have been protesting the
culling of badgers for several years.
Matthew Evans, professor of ecology at the university, said, "Of the available bovine
tuberculosis control strategies, we believe that how frequently cattle are tested and
whether or not farms utilise winter housing have the most significant effect on the
number of infected cattle."
The research concluded that of effective disease control strategies, cattle movement
must be controlled and the practice of housing farm cattle together in winter should be
discontinued to bring down transmission rates.
The research has been published [2] in Stochastic Environmental Research and Risk
Assessment.
WHO approves use of meningitis vaccine on infants
Wed, Jan 14, 2015
The inexpensive and safe vaccine MenAfriVac can now be used in routine immunisation
drives
The World Health Organization has allowed the use of meningitis vaccine MenAfriVac
on infants in Africa. The vaccine, which is inexpensive and effective, has been in use
since 2010 and is manufactured by the Serum Institute of India Ltd. The move would
allow the use of the vaccine for routine immunisation of children.
In a news release dated [1] January 9, the World Health Organization (WHO) said, "In
the four years since its introduction in Africa, MenAfriVac(r) has had an immediate and
Page 10
KI
IW
dramatic impact in breaking the cycle of meningitis A epidemics, leading the safe,
effective technology to be approved by WHO through its prequalification process for
use in infants, and paving the way for protecting millions more children at risk of the
deadly disease."
Meningitis is a major killer in Africa, particularly in the "meningitis belt" of sub-Saharan
Africa which stretches from Ethiopia in the east to Senegal in the west. The vaccine,
which costs less than half a dollar, was tailor-made for Africa under the Meningitis
Vaccine Project -- a partnership formed in 2001 between non-profit PATH and WHO--after
the disease killed 25,000 people in its worst ever outbreak in 1996-97.
Scientists discover 'safe' GMOs
Thu, Jan 22, 2015
The synthetic organisms need amino acids to survive

American scientists claim to have developed "safer" genetically modified organisms
(GMOs) that cannot spread in the wild. These GMOs have been created using synthetic
biology. "What we've done is engineered organisms so that they require synthetic
amino acids for survival or for life," Farren Isaacs of Yale University, who led one of
the two studies [1] , told BBC.
According to a report by the news service, GMOs are used in Europe, the US and China
to produce drugs or fuels under restricted industrial conditions. They can also be used
to remove pollutants from contaminated areas. However, strict measures are required
to test them in the open.
Researchers say their findings are a "milestone" in synthetic biology. George Church
of Harvard Medical School, who led the other study, said that the scientific community
needs to develop robust biocontainment mechanisms for GMOs to protect natural
ecosystems. This work provides such a foundation by relying on synthetic metabolites,
he adds.
There are, however, different views on the necessity for such trials. Huw Jones of the
Rothamsted Research in Hertfordshire, which carries out research on GM plants, told
BBC that these were research-stage ideas to prevent the unintended spread of GM
microbes from contained industrial units. "I see no need for this in crop plants that are
anyway risk-assessed and approved for field cultivation and for use in food and feed,"
he added.
Julian Savulescu, an ethicist at the University of Oxford, agreed that the research would
make GMOs and synthetic organisms safer as they would need to be fed special food
(synthetic amino acids) to survive, but warns that all risk can never be removed. "There
Page 11
KI
IW
is still a small chance of some natural event enabling these organisms to change so as
to be able to survive in the wild," he said.
How will science aid development in India in near future?
Wed, Jan 7, 2015
The theme of the 102nd session of the Indian Science Congress--Science and Technology
for Human Development--happens to echo the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government's
emphasis on "development". Down To Earth talked to experts at the conference on
how science is likely to contribute to human development in the next few years and the
achievements so far. Edited excerpts of their interviews
Space research S Arunan, project director, Mars Orbiter Mission, ISRO
Space technologies like satellites already contribute to the society and are behind
consumer services such as ATM, television, weather forecasting and navigation. Satellites
like the Mars orbiter have indirect benefits through innovations in energy storage. India
is part of an international coordination group of 12 countries that have set 2030 as a
deadline for colonising Mars. The scientific community in India is also developing a
plan on what the country would want from Mars. The community needs to give the
requirements to ISRO which would then plan the next move. Another mission is likely
in 2018, 2020 or 2022. Chandrayan 2 launch is also scheduled in the next few years.
Agriculture Arun K Pandey, professor, Department of Botany, University of Delhi
(sectional president, plant sciences)
Researchers are trying to develop crops which would grow well in changed climate in
the future. They are looking for plants which grow better in, say, higher carbon monoxide
or in sunny conditions. For example, sugarcane grows better in sunny environment. In
the coming years, wasteland development would be of paramount importance and
researchers are looking for crops which can grow in degraded land. In the future,
emphasis has to be on using natural products. For this we need to quickly create
inventories of plants, animals and microbes in India. This would help us identify wild
relatives of cultivated plants which can be used for useful traits.
Archaeology Vasant Shinde, Vice-Chancellor, Deccan College, Pune (archaeology,
spoke in the symposium Future of the Past)
There is much to learn from archaeology. In the future, we could learn from the water
management systems of ancient people. The next few years are likely to throw light on
the mystery around the origin of ancient Indian civilizations like the Harappan civilization.
We have not been able to analyse the genetic makeup of this community as they buried
their dead in moist conditions and the DNA has not survived. We are now using
Page 12
KI
IW
innovative techniques like studying the genetic material of microbes present in the
remains in the hope that the human DNA would also be present in them. The technique
has worked well in other scenarios.
Energy, technology Ravi Pandit, Chairman, KPIT, Pune (industry representative, he
gave lecture on 'Innovate and Make in India')
In the next few years, we are likely to see a change in the way energy is used and stored.
The focus is likely to be on renewable like solar, wind and biogas. Storing this energy
is also going to see changes. Energy would need to be generated and consumed in a
distributed manner. Just like the milk cooperatives, we can look forward to hydrogen
cooperatives. The shift to this energy would happen in both homes and in applications
like transport.
We (KPIT) are developing technologies to use such renewable energy in transport
sector. Personalised technologies like 3D printing would be more in use.
Life sciences M K Jyoti, former dean of life sciences at the University of Jammu
(sectional president animal, veterinary and fishery science)
In the next decade, we have to address the problems created by development. Development
is inevitable, but we have to develop in a cautious manner. We need to find ways of
overcoming the effects of imbalanced developments. In case of fisheries, we are growing
only invasive species. Jammu was rich in Mahaseer fish, but dams have restricted the
movement of the fish and the population has dwindled. This was the dominant fish till
a decade back. In the recent floods, we are talking about rehabilitating humans and
animals but no one is talking about fish. In the future, we need to build hatcheries and
breed fish artificially. Once we lose the water due to development, we cannot think
about fish.
Technology Atul Padalkar, founder and principal of Flora Institute of Technology, Pune
(sectional president, engineering science)
In the next decade, efforts have to be made to develop low cost technologies. In the
future, we can look forward to indigenous hydrocarbon-based technologies for refrigeration
and air conditioning. This would be help combat climate change.
History and science Vijay Bhatkar, creator of the first supercomputer in India and
Chancellor of India International Multiversity
There is so much to be learnt from the history of science. In the next few years, innovation
is going to be the way forward. We would go back to our roots. The cow would become
an important part of our lives. People are looking for something different and the cow
is the source of health foods. Work towards exploiting this is already being carried out.
Page 13
KI
IW
Real pride of ancient indian science
Mon, Jan 19, 2015
I write this with considerable impatience and one question. Do we really have the time
to waste on controversies like what ancient India did or did not achieve by way of
scientific discoveries? This is when there is the huge unfinished agenda to use the best
of science to tackle current challenges and crises.
At the recently concluded annual ritual of the Indian Science Congress, the Union
science and technology minister drew solace from the fact that ancient India had
mathematical prowess--we gifted the Pythagoras theorem and algebra to the world.
There is truth in this, no doubt. But this is about the past. At best, it tells us to be proud
of our legacy. But what does it tell us about what needs to be done to innovate for our
needs?
There is no doubt that Indian science is losing ground; every indicator shows this. The
ranking of our top scientific educational institutions is consistently falling and our
achievements are fewer by the day. Most importantly, Indian scientists are nowhere to
be seen in the world you and I inhabit. This is when our modern world requires science
to be integrated into every aspect of daily life.
This is also the problem I have with the current controversy about Vedic science--whether
we flew aircraft or mastered plastic surgery is immaterial for modern India. What
matters is ancient Indians understood the science and art of settlement planning,
architecture and governance of natural resources. This is the history we need to learn
because it tells us what we must do right. These are the real symbols of ancient India's
scientific prowess.
Take water, for instance. Traditionally, we built highly sophisticated systems, which
varied to suit different ecosystems, for harvesting every drop of water. Archaeological
excavations near Allahabad have found evidence of early Indian hydraulic engineering.
Dating back to the end of 1st century BC, the Sringaverapura tank is a remarkable
system to take the floodwater of Ganga into a set of desilting chambers, including water
weirs, to clean the water for drinking. It can be a matter of belief that Lord Ram drank
water from this tank. But it is a fact that the technological system is so evolved that it
would put to shame all public works engineers of today's India.
Dholavira, a settlement off the coast of Gujarat, dates back to the Indus Valley civilization.
Archaeologists have found this desert city had built lakes to collect monsoon runoff,
bunds and inlet channels to divert water, and intricate drainage system for storm water,
drinking water and waste. Today, we cannot even build city roads that do not get flooded
each monsoon, or protect lakes for storing rainwater.
Page 14
KI
IW
Till the time the British came to India, the water traditions were in vogue. British
gazettes speak of these systems, at times with awe, calling us a hydraulic society. Sir
William Willocks, a British irrigation engineer, who was called in 1920 to advise the
administration on how to handle famines, said the best answer was to go back to the
ingenious system of flood management of Bengal. This was never done, of course.
Ancient Indians also understood the art of water governance. Kautilya's Arthasastra,
written around 300 BC, has details of how tanks and canals are to be built and managed.
The key was to clarify the enabling role of the state--the king--and the management role
of local communities. The kings did not have armies of public works engineers; they
provided fiscal incentives to communities and individuals who built water systems.
The British changed all this, by vesting the resource with the state and creating large
bureaucracies for management.
The British rulers also changed the tax system; collection of revenue became paramount,
even during droughts. There was little then to invest in community assets. The decline
came quickly and was cemented by polices of independent India. This is the history of
resource management we need to learn.
But if we must be proud of our water heritage and relearn its art and science, then we
must also reject its ills--the focus on rituals and the evils of the caste system. We are
such a dirty nation today--look at the untreated sewage in our rivers and garbage on our
streets--because we come from a society where waste is an "untouchable" business. As
long as we can live with the idea of manual scavenging--somebody from a "lower" caste
will carry our excreta away--we will never get a clean India.
If we must glorify the past, we must be proud of our present. This is what we need to
learn. Quickly.
Mon, Jan 5, 2015
The Hindu, science & tech,

Devising a way to one day land astronauts on Mars is a complex problem and NASA
scientists think something as simple as a child's toy design may help solve the problem.
Safely landing a large spacecraft on the Red Planet is just one of many engineering
challenges the agency faces as it eyes an ambitious goal of sending humans into deep
space later this century.
At NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, engineers have been
working to develop an inflatable heat shield that looks a lot like a supersized version
of a stacking ring of doughnuts that infants play with. The engineers believe a lightweight,
Page 15
KI
IW
inflatable heat shield could be deployed to slow the craft to enter a Martian atmosphere
much thinner than Earth's.
With goals, the challenges Such an inflatable heat shield could help a spacecraft reach
the high-altitude southern plains of Mars and other areas that would otherwise be
inaccessible under existing technology. The experts note that rockets alone can't be
used to land a large craft on Mars as can be done on the atmosphereless moon. Parachutes
also won't work for a large spacecraft needed to send humans to Mars, they add.
"We try to not use propulsion if we don't have to," said Neil Cheatwood, the senior
engineer at Langley for advanced entry, descent and landing systems. "We make use
of that atmosphere as much as we can, because it means we don't have to carry all that
fuel with us."
NASA's leaders acknowledge that getting humans safely to and from Mars as early as
the 2030s will poses extreme challenges. The agency's scientists acknowledge they
also must design new in-space propulsion systems, advanced spacesuits, long-term
living habitats aboard spacecraft even communication systems for deep space. Work
is proceeding, sometimes fitfully.
When an unmanned private rocket destined for the International Space Station exploded
in October soon after lift-off from Wallops Island, Virginia, numerous scientific
experiments went up in flames with it. But one NASA experiment that Orbital Sciences
Corp. originally invited aboard for a second-generation inflatable spacecraft never made
it for lack of time to get it together, NASA officials say.
Limitations of technology now That experiment calls for testing how second-generation
inflatable spacecraft technology performs upon re-entry in Earth's atmosphere. The
test is important because NASA officials believe an inflatable heat shield could be what
helps them land astronauts on Mars and return larger loads of supplies from the
International Space Station. The experiment is now scheduled to go up on the next
Antares rocket in 2016.
New technology is needed to get astronauts to Mars because the type of spacecraft that
would land humans would be much larger than anything that's landed on the planet
previously. Current heat shield technology weighs too much to be on larger spacecraft,
which means scientists can't land anything much larger than the rovers that have been
sent there previously.NASA has relied on parachute-based deceleration on Mars since
the Viking program in the 1970s.
Engineers at Langley have been working on the inflatable technology for about a decade,
and believe it is close to being ready for operational use. "If I had the budget and we
had the funding to do it, I think we could get as large a scale as needed for humans in
five to ten years," Dr. Cheatwood said.
Page 16
KI
IW
Because the inflatables are made of lightweight material and filled with nitrogen, more
room is left aboard a spacecraft for science experiments and other things astronauts
will need. The inflatable is covered by a thermal blanket of layers of heat-resistant
materials.
"The idea is that you would have something that could be packed up, put in a very small
volume and then deployed into a very large size," Anthony Calomino, principal
investigator for materials and structures for hypersonic re-entry at Langley.
Smaller scale, inflatable experiments have been launched on rockets before, but never
into orbit. That work was recently part of a NASA review in October. The information
gathered from those earlier projects will be applied to the upcoming, larger-scale
experiment in 2016.
It still won't be large enough to protect a spacecraft carrying astronauts, but NASA
scientists believe the technology is sound.
"When you first tell people you're going to do an ... inflatable spacecraft, they have in
their minds something really floppy like a jellyfish and it's really not that way," Dr.
Cheatwood said. "They're very durable ... This is a technology that I think is ready to
use, whether it's for humans in 20 years on Mars or whether it's a large robotic mission
sooner than that."
Thu, Jan 1, 2015

What is the difference between GSLV and PSLV?
ANUJ SAINI
New Delhi
Both PSLV (Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle) and GSLV (Geosynchronous Satellite
Launch Vehicle) are the satellite-launch vehicles (rockets) developed by ISRO. PSLV
is designed mainly to deliver the "earth-observation" or "remote-sensing" satellites
with lift-off mass of up to about 1750 Kg to Sun-Synchronous circular polar orbits of
600-900 Km altitude.
The remote sensing satellites orbit the earth from pole-to-pole (at about 98 deg
orbital-plane inclination). An orbit is called sun-synchronous when the angle between
the line joining the centre of the Earth and the satellite and the Sun is constant throughout
the orbit.
Page 17
KI
IW
Due to their sun-synchronism nature, these orbits are also referred to as "Low Earth
Orbit (LEO)" which enables the on-board camera to take images of the earth under the
same sun-illumination conditions during each of the repeated visits, the satellite makes
over the same area on ground thus making the satellite useful for earth resources
monitoring.
Apart from launching the remote sensing satellites to Sun-synchronous polar orbits,
the PSLV is also used to launch the satellites of lower lift-off mass of up to about 1400
Kg to the elliptical Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO).
PSLV is a four-staged launch vehicle with first and third stage using solid rocket motors
and second and fourth stages using liquid rocket engines. It also uses strap-on motors
to augment the thrust provided by the first stage, and depending on the number of these
strap-on boosters, the PSLV is classified into its various versions like core-alone version
(PSLV-CA), PSLV-G or PSLV-XL variants.
The GSLV is designed mainly to deliver the communication-satellites to the highly
elliptical (typically 250 x 36000 Km) Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO). The
satellite in GTO is further raised to its final destination, viz., Geo-synchronous Earth
orbit (GEO) of about 36000 Km altitude (and zero deg inclination on equatorial plane)
by firing its in-built on-board engines.
Due to their geo-synchronous nature, the satellites in these orbits appear to remain
permanently fixed in the same position in the sky, as viewed from a particular location
on Earth, thus avoiding the need of a tracking ground antenna and hence are useful for
the communication applications.
Two versions of the GSLV are being developed by ISRO. The first version, GSLV
Mk-II, has the capability to launch satellites of lift-off mass of up to 2,500 kg to the
GTO and satellites of up to 5,000 kg lift-off mass to the LEO. GSLV MK-II is a
three-staged vehicle with first stage using solid rocket motor, second stage using Liquid
fuel and the third stage, called Cryogenic Upper Stage, using cryogenic engine.
S.P.S. JAIN, former Member Engineering, Indian Railways, Greater Noida, Uttar
Pradesh
P.K. JAIN, Deputy Director, Satellite Communication, ISRO, Bengaluru
Charles Townes, Nobel winner for co-inventing laser, dies aged 99
Thu, Jan 29, 2015
Townes shared the 1964 Nobel Prize in physics with Russian physicists Aleksandr M.
Prokhorov and Nicolai G. Basov.
Page 18
KI
IW
Charles H. Townes' inspiration for the predecessor of the laser came to him while
sitting on a park bench, waiting for a restaurant to open for breakfast.
On the tranquil morning hours of April 26, 1951, Townes scribbled a theory on scrap
paper that would lead to the laser, the invention he's known for and which transformed
everyday life and led to other scientific discoveries.
Townes, who was also known for his strong religious faith, famously compared that
moment to a religious revelation.
The 99-year-old Nobel Prize-winning physicist died on Thursday.
In 1954, his theory was realised when Townes and his students developed the laser's
predecessor, the maser (microwave amplification by stimulated emission of radiation).
"I realised there would be many applications for the laser," Townes told Esquire
magazine in 2001, "but it never occurred to me we'd get such power from it."
The laser paved the way for other scientific discoveries that revolutionize everything
from medicine to manufacturing, including DVD players, gun sights, printers, computer
networks, metal cutters, tattoo removal and vision correction.
"Charlie Townes had an enormous impact on physics and society in general," Steven
Boggs, the chairman of the physics department at Berkeley, said Wednesday.
Townes shared the 1964 Nobel Prize in physics with Russian physicists Aleksandr M.
Prokhorov and Nicolai G. Basov.
A devoted member of the United Church of Christ, Townes drew praise and scepticism
later in his career with speeches and essays investigating the similarities between science
and religion.
"Science tries to understand what our universe is like and how it works, including us
humans," Townes wrote in 2005 upon being awarded the Templeton Prize worth more
than $1.5 million for his contributions in "affirming life's spiritual dimension."
"My own view is that, while science and religion may seem different, they have many
similarities, and should interact and enlighten each other," he wrote.
Born on July 28, 1915, in Greenville, South Carolina, Townes found his calling during
his sophomore year at Furman University and went on to earn a master's degree from
Duke University in physics and a doctorate at the California Institute of Technology.
Demonstrating that masers could be made to operate in optical and infrared capacities,
Townes and his brother-in-law, the late Stanford professor Arthur L. Schawlow, jointly
published a theory in 1958 on the feasibility of optical and infrared masers, or lasers.
Page 19
KI
IW
A laser controls the way that energised atoms release photons, or light particles.
"I feel that very rarely have I done any work in my life," he told Esquire . "I have a
good time. I'm exploring. I'm playing a game, solving puzzles, and having fun, and
for some reason people have been willing to pay me for it."
Townes is survived by his wife and four daughters, Linda Rosenwein, Ellen
Townes-Anderson, Carla Kessler, and Holly Townes.
Gilead licences Strides to make, distribute AIDS drug in 112 countries
Tue, Jan 20, 2015
Strides will be able to launch its product by mid-2016

U.S. pharmaceutical major Gilead Sciences has signed a licensing agreement with
Bengaluru-based Strides Arcolab, under which Gilead has extended non-exclusive
rights to Strides to make and distribute Tenofovir Alafenamide (TAF), both as a single
agent product and in combination with other drugs.
This is seen as a goodwill creation exercise by sections of the Indian pharmaceutical
industry as multinationals have been increasingly viewed with scepticism in developing
markets.
TAF is a novel nucleotide reverse transcriptase inhibitor used in human immunodeficiency
virus (HIV) patients in the treatment of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS).
TAF is awaiting U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval, and is expected
to go to market by year-end.
A statement from Strides said the licence extends to 112 countries, which together
account for more than 30 million people living with HIV. Strides will receive a technology
transfer from Gilead, enabling it to make low-cost versions of TAF for developing
countries.
Strides will be able to launch its product by mid-2016. TAF has demonstrated high
antiviral efficacy at a dose 10 times lower than Gilead's Viread (tenofovir disoproxil
fumarate), as well as an improved renal and bone safety profile, the statement said.
Gilead pursuing different model for developing markets
Today's announcement follows last week's rejection of Gilead's patent application
for its blockbuster drug sofosbuvir by the Indian patent office. Sofosbuvir is considered
a breakthrough drug in the treatment of Hepatitis C and Gilead's application covered
the metabolites of sofosbuvir. The main patent application for the product is still pending
and Gilead is to appeal against the decision.
Page 20
KI
IW
In September, 2014, Gilead signed agreements with seven Indian generic drug
manufacturers licensing them to make sofosbuvir to supply it to 90 countries. Sofosbuvir
is priced at $84,000 per patient in the U.S., and the effective price for generic version
is around $900 and a 10 per cent royalty.
"Gilead's chosen voluntary licensing model is refreshing, and will certainly earn it
goodwill. It ensures protection of intellectual property (IP) and simultaneously ensures
access to medicines,'' D. G. Shah, Secretary-General, Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance
(IPA), told The Hindu . "Today, its TAF licensing announcement is just an extension
of its existing model for developing markets. ''
Other multinational pharmaceutical giants such as GSK opt for a price differentiated
model for developing markets mainly for their older products, which Merck uses the
discounted model, pricing its drugs at 75 per cent of U.S. prices.
"Pharmaceutical multinational prefer Indian manufacturers over other generic
manufacturing destinations like South Africa and Brazil because India is already
supplying generics to 200 countries and has proven capability, cost-effectiveness and
quality,'' Mr. Shah said.
Novel mechanism may lead to better TB control
Thu, Jan 8, 2015
A recent finding by scientists of a novel mechanism in which one of the proteins of

Mycobacterium tuberculosis suppresses the adaptive immune response in the host could
lead to development of new drugs to control the disease.
The team of scientists led by Dr. Sangita Mukhopadhyay, Group Leader, Laboratory
of Molecular Cell Biology at the Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics
(CDFD) has found that Mycobacterium tuberculosis protein ESAT-6 suppresses host's
protective functions. They identified that ESAT-6 directly binds with host molecule
beta-2 microglobulin and inhibits antigen presentation to CD8 T-cells which play a key
role in protective immune response mechanism of the host.
Dr. Sangita said the CD8 T-cells recognise the infected immune cells and directly kill
them.
The ESAT-6 protein through its interaction with the host molecule would delay or
inhibit the CD8 T-cells immune response, which was important to control the disease.
The novel mechanism involving the interaction between ESAT-6 and beta-2 microglobulin
not only shed new light on host-pathogen relationship, but could open up new avenues
for development of novel drugs or vaccine for TB therapy, she added.
Page 21
KI
IW
Dr. Sangita said beta-2 micro globulin would be free to do its protective role once the
interacting domain gets neutralised and the process would help in antigen presentation
and activation of CD8 T-cells.
The work of the CDFD team was published in October 2014 issue of PLoS Pathogens
.
The scientists are now planning to develop an ESAT-6-beta-2m crystal structure for
designing of small molecule inhibitor. "Once that is done, we can go for in-vitro
experiments initially and animal studies subsequently", she added.
She said there was a need to develop newer drugs for TB in view of the growing
incidence of multi-drug resistance to the disease.
Quoting WHO statistics, she said about 2.3 million cases occur annually in India,
one-fifth of global incidence, with one death occurring every 23 seconds. It has also
has one of the highest number of multi-drug-resistant patients.
As estimated by WHO, 300,000 people die from TB each year in India.
There were about 1.5 million deaths in the world in 2013 -- about one death every 21
seconds.
It is estimated that about 40 per cent of Indians are infected with TB bacteria, the vast
majority of whom have latent rather than active TB disease.
Hubble captures images of Eagle Nebula's 'Pillars of Creation'
Wed, Jan 7, 2015
The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has revisited the famous Eagle Nebula's
Pillars of Creation and has captured high-definition images.
The telescope had earlier captured the three impressive towers of gas and dust in 1995,
which revealed never-before-seen details in the giant columns and now the telescope
is kickstarting its 25th year in orbit with an even clearer, and more stunning, image of
these beautiful structures.
The captured image is part of the Eagle Nebula, otherwise known as Messier 16 and
although such features are not uncommon in star-forming regions, the Messier 16
structures are by far the most photogenic and evocative ever captured.
The recent images show the famous pillars, capturing the multi-coloured glow of gas
clouds, wispy tendrils of dark cosmic dust, and the rust-coloured elephants' trunks with
the newer Wide Field Camera 3, installed in 2009.
Page 22
KI
IW
In addition to this new visible-light image, Hubble has also produced a bonus image,
which is taken in infrared light, penetrating much of the obscuring dust and gas and
unveils a more unfamiliar view of the pillars, transforming them into wispy silhouettes
set against a background peppered with stars.
Although the original image was dubbed the "Pillars of Creation", this new image hints
that they are also pillars of destruction. The dust and gas in these pillars is seared by
intense radiation from the young stars forming within them, and eroded by strong winds
from massive nearby stars. The ghostly bluish haze around the dense edges of the pillars
in the visible-light view is material that is being heated by bright young stars and
evaporating away.
The infrared image shows that the reason the pillars exist is because the very ends of
them are dense, and they shadow the gas below them, creating the long, pillar-like
structures and the gas in between the pillars has long since been blown away by the
winds from a nearby star cluster.
Scientists without a scientific temper
Sat, Jan 17, 2015
India has not produced any Nobel Prize winner in science in the last 85 years -- largely
because of the lack of a scientific environment in the country
Jawaharlal Nehru coined the term 'scientific temper' in his book The Discovery of
India , which was published in 1946. He was also the President of the Association of
Scientific Workers of India (ASWI), which was registered as a Trade Union, and with
which I was closely associated with in the 1940s and the early 1950s. (This may be the
only example of a Prime Minister of a democracy being the President of a Trade Union.)
One of the objectives of ASWI was to propagate scientific temper. It was very active
in the beginning, but fizzled out by the 1960s as the bulk of scientists in the country,
including many who were occupying high positions, were themselves not committed
to scientific temper which calls for rationality, reason and lack of belief in any dogma,
superstition or manifest falsehood.
The conclusion that our very own scientists -- who would be expected to be leaders in
the development of scientific temper -- did not possess scientific temper themselves and
were just as superstitious as any other group was supported by another incident in 1964.
Following a statement by Satish Dhawan (who later became Secretary, Department of
Space), Abdur Rahman (a distinguished historian of science) and I, set up an organisation
called The Society for Scientific Temper, in January 1964, the founding members of
which included distinguished scientists like Francis Crick, a Nobel Prize winner. For
membership to the society, the following statement had to be signed: " I believe that
Page 23
KI
IW
knowledge can be acquired only through human endeavour and not through revelation,
and that all problems can and must be faced in terms of man's moral and intellectual
resources without invoking supernatural powers ."
We were disillusioned when we approached scientist after scientist and all of them
refused to sign the statement. Clearly they were devoid of scientific temper. Following
this disillusionment, I persuaded Professor Nurul Hasan, then Education Minister, to
have the following clause included in Article 51A in the 42nd Amendment of the
Constitution in 1976: "It shall be the duty of every citizen of Indian "to develop the
scientific temper, humanism and the spirit of enquiry and reform."
This should have woken up our scientists and reminded them of their duty vis-a-vis
scientific temper, but I do not believe that the situation in this respect is any better, even
today, than what it was 50-60 years ago. Let me cite three examples.
During the previous Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government, then Human Resources
Development Minister Murli Manohar Joshi asked the University Grants Commission
to issue a circular to all universities stating that they should start a degree course in
astrology. For this, he said, a special grant would be given. My colleague Chandana
Chakrabarti and I filed a writ petition in the Supreme Court challenging this dispensation.
Our lawyer was Prashant Bhushan. The petition was admitted but was eventually
dismissed (as could be expected), for belief in astrology -- which is totally unscientific
and irrational and has been repeatedly shown to be a myth -- is widespread, with those
who dispense justice also not being immune to it. Not one scientist came forward in
support of us; nor did any of the six national science academies we have, on which a
substantial amount of public funds are spent every year. Our supporters, who even sent
us unsolicited funds to fight the case, were all non-scientists. In fact, recognising the
above inadequacies of our science academies and their insensitivity to science-related
social problems in general, I resigned from the fellowship of three of our science
academies in 1993.
The second example would be the silence of our scientists and the six science academies
when, last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while addressing a group of scientists
in Mumbai, claimed that organ transplantation was known in ancient India -- he gave
Ganesha with his elephant head and human torso as an example.
The third example would be the much publicised symposium on "Ancient Sciences
through Sanskrit" at the 102nd Indian Science Congress in Mumbai, which was held
earlier this month. At this meeting, it was said that India had jumbo aircraft (60 x 60
feet; in some cases 200 feet long) that flew between continents and planets 9,000 years
ago (some 4,500 years before Harappa and Mohenjo-daro). Not only that, it was also
claimed that we had a radar system better than the present one, based on the principle
that every animate or inanimate object emits energy all the time. And in the 21st century,
"fusion of science and spirituality will happen because of the law of inter-penetration,"
Page 24
KI
IW
it was said. I doubt if any serious academic would have heard of this law which would
not make any sense. These and many other absurd claims made at the symposium were
an insult to the several real scientific accomplishments of ancient and medieval India.
None of our so-called scientists of note and scientific academies has raised a voice
against these claims. Surely, the distinguished scientists who organised the Science
Congress knew what was likely to be said at the symposium, but, perhaps, they believed
in it all or were pressurised politically. Therefore, there is a strong case for the annual
Indian Science Congress to be banned (as I also argued in my article in The Hindu,
"Why the Indian Science Congress meets should be stopped" (Open Page, September
30, 1997), or its name to be changed to Indian Anti-science Congress.
As regards the science academies, they can easily be wound up without any damage
being caused to Indian science. India has not produced any Nobel Prize winner in
science in the last 85 years - largely because of the lack of a scientific environment in
the country, of which scientific temper would be an important component.
Thu, Jan 8, 2015

Vegetables cultivated in Kerala have been found safe for consumption according to the
latest test reports from Pesticide residue testing laboratory at Vellayani under Kerala
agricultural University (KAU).
The reports based on tests conducted on samples collected from farmers' fields in
various districts during the first half of 2014 says 99 per cent of the vegetables cultivated
by Kerala farmers are safe to eat as they do not contain any hazardous chemicals.
The only exception was some of the vegetables produced in some areas of
Thiruvananthapuaram District as some samples of amaranthus, chilli, bittergourd,
snakegourd and cowpea contained pesticide residues above permitted levels.
Notably, the vegetable samples collected from Kasargod and Idukki, the districts once
under the scanner for alleged indiscreet use of chemicals, have been found to contain
no pesticide residues at all.
Dr.Thomas Biju Mathew, under whose supervision the testing procedure took place,
says "the main pesticides found in these vegetable samples were chloreperifos and
cunalfos."
After the testing process and analysis of results farmers were advised to avoid indiscreet
use of pesticides and insecticides and stick to scientific practices for effective pest and
Page 25
KI
IW
disease management.
The latest results vindicate the after effect of farmers adhering to the advice.
Vice-Chancellor, Kerala Agricultural University, Dr.P.Rajendran attributed the positive
development to increased public awareness on the need to produce, buy and eat safe
food.
"The persistent efforts of our pesticide residue lab and publication of test results have
made the producers and buyers more and more conscious about the importance of safe
food and need to adhere to scientific practices," he says.
KAU's lab also offers free testing of vegetables produced by farmers.
They only have to bring one kg each of the vegetables packed in materials other than
pla
'EU should curb mercury emissions from cremations'
Tue, Jan 13, 2015
Increased cremation, as shortage of land makes burial expensive, has coincided with a
rise in emissions of the toxic metal from fillings in teeth.
Environment campaigners are calling for curbs on mercury emissions from human
cremations as part of pollution controls that EU authorities will debate this month.
Increased cremation, as shortage of land makes burial expensive, has coincided with a
rise in emissions of the toxic metal from fillings in teeth. An average cremation releases
2 to 4 grammes of mercury, data compiled by U.S. researchers shows.
Mercury is associated with mental development problems. After entering the air and
then falling in rain it becomes concentrated in fish that, if eaten during pregnancy, can
cause harm to unborn children.
Some 2,00,000 babies are born in the EU annually with mercury levels harmful to their
development, public health researchers have found.
The European Environment Bureau, which is coordinating NGOs in Brussels in an
increasingly polarised debate on air quality, says crematoria should be included in new
standards on incinerating waste. One option would be removing teeth from corpses
before cremation, although the campaigners acknowledge that may raise ethical issues.
"What matters is to deal with protecting the living environment from extremely hazardous
pollutants," Christian Schaible, a senior EEB policy official, said.
Page 26
KI
IW
Of the 28 EU states, so far only Germany has a mercury emissions limit, although the
EU has regulated large coal power plants - the biggest source of mercury pollution.
Sweden and Denmark have banned mercury in dental fillings.
Draft EU air quality legislation from 2013 included national ceilings for pollutants and
emissions from medium-sized combustion plants (MCPs), theoretically including
crematoria.
The new European Commission, the EU executive, last year proposed abandoning
national targets and debate on MCPs, at the request of member states, excludes crematoria.
Keen to counter Euroscepticism, particularly in Britain, which has objected to national
targets on several issues, the Commission says it is preventing over-regulation.
The EEB will take part in debate on the waste issue with representatives of the
Commission, EU nations and industry between January 19 and 22.
Separately, the European Parliament votes on Thursday on an objection to the Commission's
plan to scrap some environmental proposals, including on waste and air quality.
Even before the Commission's new plan, the NGOs say the national ceilings were
inadequate and did not deal with mercury.
Data from the Cremation Society of Great Britain show that in Europe in 2012, the
highest rate of cremations was in non-EU Switzerland, at 85 per cent, followed by
Denmark with 77 per cent and Britain with 73 per cent.
First nuclear bomb set off the Anthropocene
Wed, Jan 21, 2015
When, precisely, did the 12,000-year-old, Holocene epoch transition into the Anthropocene,
an epoch of catastrophic human-led change that threatens Earth's future?
Did it begin several millennia ago with agriculture and altered carbon dioxide levels?
Was it spurred by the Industrial Revolution in the early 1800s with the increasing use
of fossil fuels?
Now, two recent scientific papers say the Anthropocene could be pinned down to a
precise moment on 16, July 1945, the day the world's first nuclear bomb exploded in
Alamogordo, New Mexico.
The atomic bomb represents an instantaneous shift into another geological epoch, much
the way the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary is placed at the moment a meteorite
impacted the Yucatan Peninsula (triggering, among other changes, the extinction of
dinosaurs 66 million years ago), says a paper in the latest edition of journal Quarternary
Page 27
KI
IW
International .
The Alamogordo explosion, followed soon by the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs in
August 1945 and other bombs "detonated at the average rate of one every 9.6 days until
1988" produced markers across the globe in the form of radionuclides, found in all
continents and in polar ice on both poles.
Physical and chemical markers -- especially in deposits in rock strata and their fossil
contents -- are vital tools in defining epochal boundaries as they signal substantial
changes in the Earth system.
The Alamogordo explosion also signalled the beginning of the "Great Acceleration,"
the phase of massive economic growth and environmental changes post World War II,
also associated widely with the beginning of the Anthropocene.
In another paper in Anthropocene Review scientists describe unprecedented global
shifts that the mid-20 century Great Acceleration spurred: global average surface
temperature increased by nearly 0.9degC; atmospheric concentrations of the three greenhouse
gases - carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide and methane - reached levels well above the
maximum observed at any time during the preceding Holocene; and biodiversity loss
may be approaching mass extinction rates.
The first atomic bomb "provide a unique signal of the start of the Great Acceleration"
with the release of radioactive isotopes that spread worldwide and entered the sedimentary
record, says the paper. "In little over two generations - or a single lifetime - humanity...
has become a planetary-scale geological force," says the paper.
A third paper in Science that coincided with these studies, says that in this phase, the
Earth crossed four out of nine "planetary boundaries": climate change, loss of biosphere
integrity, land-system change, altered biogeochemical cycles (phosphorus and nitrogen).
"These transgressions mean that the risk of destabilising the global environment is
increasing with obvious risks for human well-being," Will Steffen, professor at the
Stockholm Resilience Centre, Stockholm University and the lead author of the second
two papers said in an email to this Correspondent.
"We need new technologies to de-couple economic growth from environmental impact.
And we need to solve global equity issues, stabilising or reducing consumption in the
wealthy countries to allow further development elsewhere to bring people out of poverty,"
he noted.
Page 28
KI
IW
Sat, Jan 3, 2015

Approval for the India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO) Project in Theni, Tamil
Nadu, is likely to be announced soon, highly placed sources have told The Hindu .
The INO is a Rs 1,600-crore science project conceived nearly 15 years ago and can put
India on the world map in the field of neutrino physics. It will house a massive iron
detector which will be placed more than a kilometre below the surface of the earth.
With a weight of nearly 50,000 tonnes, it will be the largest particle detector in the
world, by present standards.
Scientists from nearly 25 institutions across India are involved in this project, and it
promises to engage engineers and the industry as the massive detector and tunnel would
be built up indigenously, the source said.
In fact, setting up this observatory would mean a revival of a lost opportunity for India
because in 1965 pioneering Indian scientists at the Kolar Gold Field (KGF) observatory
were among the first in the world to discover traces of the atmospheric neutrinos.
With the closure of KGF mines in the mid-1990s, experimental research on neutrinos
came to an end in India.
Now the field has grown and diversified. Initially thought to be a massless particle, the
neutrino is now believed to come in three types and have a small mass as well. In this
context, fundamental questions such as the mass ordering of different types of neutrino
could be answered by experiments planned at the INO.
Subsequently, in 2002, R. Davis (USA) and M. Koshiba (Japan) were awarded the
Nobel Prize for their work in this field.
Sun, Jan 4, 2015

'Pride of India Expo' showcases cutting-edge technologies
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is working on developing technology
for manned space mission, Dr. K. Radhakrishnan, former head of ISRO, said during a
public interview here on Saturday. He was interviewed by senior space scientist Pramod
Page 29
KI
IW
Kale at the 102nd Indian Science Congress inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra
Modi at the Mumbai University.
He said ISRO was working on various aspects of a manned mission such as minimising
failure rate, developing an escape system, providing environment and life support
system for the crew.
Meanwhile, as a part of the Indian Science Congress, Union Minister for Science and
Technology Harsh Vardhan inaugurated a mega science and technology exhibition at
the city's MMRDA ground at Bandra-Kurla Complex.
The exhibition named 'Pride of India Expo' showcases the cutting edge technologies,
leading scientific products and services, path-breaking research and development
initiatives, schemes and achievements of India's leading public and private sectors,
government departments, research labs and educational institutions, a press release by
the Press Information Bureau said.
The exhibition will be open from January 4 to January 7.
Scientists find promising new antibiotic
Thu, Jan 8, 2015
The bacterium, Eleftheria terrae, yielded an entirely new sort of antibiotic

Using a novel technique to culture soil bacteria that previously could not be grown in
the laboratory, a team of U.S. scientists has isolated a promising new antibiotic to which
resistance may not develop easily.
The research, published this week in Nature , comes at a time when there is growing
alarm both at the spread of antibiotic-resistant microbes and the failure to find new
classes of antibiotics in recent decades.
During the 'golden age of antibiotics' from about 1940 to around 1960, scientists were
able to find a number of new drugs by carefully screening soil bacteria, looking for
anti-microbial activity. However, they were able to examine only bacteria that could
be grown in the laboratory and more than 99 per cent of the bacterial species in the soil
resisted such efforts, with the result that such leads eventually petered out.
Dr. Kim Lewis, director of the Antimicrobial Discovery Center at the Northeastern
University in the U.S., and colleagues used an 'isolation chip' (iChip) developed at
the university to culture previously uncultivable soil bacteria.
This chip has a larger number of tiny chambers to hold individual bacterial cells. Covered
with semi-permeable membranes, the chip could be then placed in the soil, allowing
Page 30
KI
IW
vital nutrients and growth factors to diffuse into its chambers.

With the iChip, the scientists could grow 10,000 bacterial strains. The extract from one
such bacterium, provisionally named Eleftheria terrae , yielded an entirely new sort of
antibiotic, teixobactin.
Laboratory tests showed that this molecule was effective against many human pathogens,
including drug-resistant ones, that come in the category of gram-positive bacteria.
The drug was "exquisitely active" against a number of hard-to-deal-with bugs, said Dr.
Lewis during a press briefing. It might also offer a single-drug therapy for tuberculosis,
which currently required prolonged treatment with a multi-drug combination.
Teixobactin worked by binding to highly conserved precursors that bacteria used to
build their cell walls, according to Tanja Schneider of the University of Bonn in Germany,
one of the co-authors of the Nature paper, whose team worked on the drug's mode of
action.
Even when the susceptible forms of the bacterium Staphylococcus aureus and the one
that causes tuberculosis, Mycobacterium tuberculosis , were grown in the presence of
low doses of the antibiotic, drug-resistant mutants could not be found.
Nor did such mutants evolve after S. aureus cultures were repeatedly exposed to
sub-lethal doses of the antibiotic over several days.
It could be that resistance was less likely to develop against antibiotics that targeted
precursors for cell wall synthesis, observed Gerard Wright of McMaster University,
Canada, in a commentary published in the same journal.
When, on the other hand, the antibiotic acted on bacterial proteins, genes for those
proteins could mutate and produce resistance.
Resistance against vancomycin, which too binds to cell-wall precursors, did not emerge
in the clinic till almost four decades after its discovery, he pointed out. Such resistance
came about through genes for a self-protective mechanism used by vancomycin-producing
bacteria getting transferred to pathogenic strains.
The bacterium producing teixobactin, on the other hand, was protected by an outer
membrane, and so there was no self-resistance mechanism that could be passed on, he
noted.
Page 31
KI
IW
Rosetta hints at 'key to life' on comet's core
Fri, Jan 23, 2015
The discoveries are detailed in seven papers published by the journal 'Science'
Scientists have found further evidence that comets harbor the building blocks of life,
and have collected the first close-up data that will help them understand how these
celestial bodies evolve as they hurtle toward the sun.
The discoveries are the result of months of observation by instruments aboard Europe's
Rosetta space probe, which has been flying alongside comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko
since August. They are detailed in seven papers published Thursday by the journal
Science .
"These papers collect the first results, our first scientific analysis of the comet, and set
us up for the next year alongside the comet," said project scientist Matt Taylor.
One of the most exciting findings is the discovery of a surface covered by complex
mixtures of organic materials possibly containing carboxylic acids, which also occur
in amino acids essential components for life.
While much of the public attention has been on the fate of of the small lander that
successfully touched down on 67P in November but soon fell silent, scientists say the
bulk of their data will be collected by Rosetta itself.
Tue, Jan 6, 2015

The 102nd Indian Science Congress being held in Mumbai will be remembered for a
very long time to come, but for all the wrong reasons. For the first time, the science
congress had a session on "Ancient Sciences through Sanskrit". If the Indian Science
Congress had long lost its eminence as a forum where results of serious science being
done in the country are presented and discussed in most sessions, the inclusion of
Ancient Sciences through Sanskrit has only lowered its standing further. Even as a
public session, there is no real reason whatsoever for it to have been included in the
proceedings. At best, a session could have been devoted to the history of Indian science
which has real and substantial achievements to celebrate, with serious scholars working
on the subject presenting papers. With Prime Minister Narendra Modi setting the tone
for this antiquity frenzy with his implausible claims that cosmetic surgery was practised
thousands of years ago and in-vitro fertilisation-like procedure was resorted to long
Page 32
KI
IW
back, and different political leaders following it up with several other incredulous claims
well before the start of the national event, the reason for the inclusion of the session
becomes supremely clear. Instead of fostering scientific temper, the congress has
provided a forum to seed the minds of young people with pseudoscience. Some of the
papers presented were about Indians' "knowledge of making aeroplanes" that could
undertake interplanetary travel, between 7000 and 6000 BC, and "radars" that worked
on the principle of detecting energy given out by animate and inanimate objects and
finding out if a body was dead or alive.
Science is grounded on the principle of reproducibility of results. The claims of advanced
science and technology in the ancient world are based on some references in ancient
scripts that may be wholly imaginary. Flying, for instance, has caught humankind's
imagination across cultures right from ancient times. Such references should be taken
for the myths they are, not as scientific facts. Scientists have been able to create animal
chimeras that have cells/organs of different species, much as what Greek mythology
describes. Should the Greeks then be taken as pioneers in the science of chimera
production? Thanks to our understanding of genetics and the ability to fertilise eggs
outside the body, producing designer babies is no longer in the realm of science fiction.
Should the creators of the science fiction then be credited with devising the procedures?
Compare this with how Sir Arthur C. Clarke documented his idea of communications
satellites in a concept paper published in 1945. Dozens of geosynchronous satellites
launched each year do precisely what Sir Arthur had visualised there.
Researchers to look at farm practices, 'superbugs' link
Mon, Jan 19, 2015
Researchers at Colorado State University are rolling out a series of projects to track
antibiotic-resistant bacteria in the livestock industry, in an attempt to determine whether
farm practices are fuelling the rise of "superbugs." Using a $2.25 million grant from
the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the scientists will focus on the DNA of these
bacteria to help identify and trace back where such organisms become drug-resistant.
Scientists and government regulators have grown increasingly concerned that the
widespread use of antibiotics given to livestock on farms may be a factor in the rise of
"superbugs -- bacteria that grow resistant to drugs, infect humans and defy conventional
medicines.
"We're trying to answer the question, 'Are agricultural production systems truly
affecting human health by increasing antimicrobial resistance?'" said veterinarian Dr.
Paul Morley, a professor of epidemiology and infection control at Colorado State
University, Fort Collins.
Tracing specific genes Using DNA sequencing technology, Dr. Morley and Dr. Keith
Page 33
KI
IW
Belk, professor in the school's Center for Meat Safety and Quality, and others plan to
trace the specific genes that cause resistance in bacteria. That, in turn, will help them
uncover sources and ways such "superbugs" travel between animal and human, said
Dr. Morley, one of the lead researchers in the project.
The seven research projects will focus mostly on beef and dairy operations, though
some of the research will be conducted on hog and poultry farms. The projects are
expected to begin in the coming weeks, Dr. Morley said.
What will be the India-based Neutrino Observatory's impact?
Thu, Jan 8, 2015
The INO will be like a 2-inch hole made to insert a pipe through a 10-foot-high wall;
it will not affect the stability of the hill
In a landmark move, the Government of India's Union Cabinet recently approved the
India-based Neutrino Observatory project. Coming soon after the approval of the
30-metre telescope which will be located in Hawaii, this decision will cause India to
step into big fundamental science. "A pioneer in the field of neutrino science, India
was a world leader in 1965. In the mid-1990s, with the closing of the Kolar Gold Fields
which was the site of the experiments, experimental neutrino research in India came to
a halt, and the INO is expected to revive the lost advantage," says Prof. G. Rajasekaran
of the Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Chennai, a founder member of the INO.
The three types of neutrinos, which were initially thought to be mass-less, are now
believed to have a small mass.
This was shown by observations of neutrino oscillation, which is a phenomenon by
which one type of neutrino transforms into another.
There is a hierarchy among the masses of these three types of neutrino and the experiments
at the INO will study this mass ordering using a magnetised iron calorimeter (ICAL).
The ICAL is a massive detector which will be made of iron -- 50,000 tonnes of it! The
project will be housed in the 63 acres of land, about 2 km away from the settlement, in
the Bodi West Hills about 100 km from Madurai, Tamil Nadu.
One might wonder at the need for such a massive detector and for drilling underground.
The reason is that the neutrinos interact very weakly with the surroundings. We are all
being washed by a stream of neutrinos every passing minute as they just pass through
us without leaving a trace. Since they interact so weakly, detecting them over other
interactions is impossible. We need to have a barrier of at least 1 km of earth to block
out other radiation and particles, such as muons from cosmic rays. This is the reason
scientists are now going underground. They will construct a tunnel at a depth of 1,300
Page 34
KI
IW
metres below the peak and which is 2 km by 7.5m by 7.5m. This will lead to a chamber
that will house the detector.
Questions have been raised as to whether this tunnel will harm the mountain. D.
Indumathi, physicist and outreach co-ordinator of INO says, "This is exactly like making
a 2-inch hole to insert a pipe through a 10-foot-high wall. It will not affect the stability
of the hill." About the ecological impact of the construction process, Dr, Indumathi
says, "There will be hardly any disturbance after the construction period. During
construction, we will take a lot of precautions and proceed in a controlled manner.
Controlled blasting of the rock will last a few seconds, twice a day. At a few hundred
metres from the site, this will produce a ground vibration less than 1 mm per sec."
The members of INO had to deal with many more questions such as the effect of the
construction on distant dams and the impact of the development on the villagers, and,
according to her, detailed answers to questions on the impact of various aspects of the
project are outlined in the INO website.
"In Idukki itself, there are more than 200 quarries, which are working without impacting
the dam.
Even the Chennai Metro Rail project can dig just metres under the buildings without
damaging them because of advances in technology," she says.
While experiments around the world are being set up in the South Pole, on top of
mountains and even in outer space, big basic science projects are still new in India. The
INO's project director Naba Mondal says, "This will be the largest experimental facility
to come up in the country and students will get a chance to work with cutting edge
technology and build sophisticated instruments.
It will be a boon for students all over the country, especially Tamil Nadu."
For instance, S. Pethuraj, who passed out of Madurai Kamaraj University, has joined
the INO's PhD programme at TIFR, Mumbai. "Meeting the INO scientists at the
university was inspiring, and the exposure I get at TIFR is of a very high level," he
says.
Tue, Jan 6, 2015

Monday's ISC session on GM crops didn't have a single critical paper
Farmer suicides in Maharashtra's Vidarbha area and other parts of the country have
Page 35
KI
IW
nothing to do with Bt cotton, scientists said at the Indian Science Congress here on
Monday.
"There is a lot of negative public perception about Bt crops... Even a paper in Nature
says linking these two [Bt. Cotton and farmer suicides] is our imagination," said Dr.
Anupam Verma, INSA [Indian National Science Academy] Senior Scientist at the
Indian Agriculture Research Institute, speaking on 'GM crops -- use of modern technology
in agriculture.'
Some scientists said there were interesting research prospects in the field of biotechnology.
"We could be extracting oil from leaves, instead of seeds. Imagine what it would mean
for us, when our government is spending over Rs. 60,000 crore on oil import," Dr.
Deepak Pental, former Vice-Chancellor of the Delhi University, said. "We can produce
oil indigenously if we use Bt. But unfortunately, it is caught up in a debate taken up by
the Left and now supported by the neo-right." Dr. Pental is an award-winning genetic
scientist who has been credited with major breakthroughs in hybrid seed science.
In the recent past, there had been a sharp increase in the acreage of GM crops in the
country, and over 90 per cent of the cotton cultivated was GM crop, scientists said.
They refuted arguments about monopolisation and said there were over 1000 Bt Cotton
hybrids available in the country. Dr. Verma referred to Project Sunshine in Gujarat and
explained how Bt Cotton had powered the growth in agriculture in Gujarat. He said
GM Maize had taken nutrition to Adivasi farmers.
The session, attended by over 100 delegates, including students, farmers and scientists,
didn't have a single critical or dissenting paper on GM crops.
The scientists called for a clear policy decision by the Central government on genetically
modified crops. Some scientists questioned the need for stringent regulations. The need
of the hour was more of confined field trials. "How will there be trust among the people
if there is not enough data for analysis?" asked renowned scientist and Padma Bhushan
awardee R. Paroda.
Scientists said the ambiguous policy relating to GM crops had caused disillusionment,
and it was keeping young researchers from venturing into the field.
A debate ensued after a journalist questioned the basis for selection of scientists to
present the papers. He wondered why there was not a single critical voice. He claimed
scientists were fudging data and not giving out clear information about the adverse
impact of GM crops. He accused them of fear-mongering about food insecurity.
But while one scientist answered some of the questions, a few others called the journalist
'neo-leftist' and claimed there was no scientific basis for his arguments. "We have
created a gene bank with over four lakh samples. It has been acknowledged as one of
the best biodiversity programmes in the world. We have understood the need of our
Page 36
KI
IW
farmers and have helped them flourish. We have doubled cotton production and have
reduced the load of pesticides. We are now exporting cotton worth $3 billion. But it is
people like you who have created policy paralysis," Mr. Paroda told the journalist.
He later acknowledged that there was a need for post-release monitoring system.
Dr. Pental said a country had to make choices and take an alternative course of action
if it did not want genetically modified crops. "We should go ahead and say we don't
want to research in the field of GM technology. In that case, we have to invest in
alternatives.
"For example, Europe is investing hugely in new generation pesticides. But we are still
using old pesticides," he said.
Obama calls for stronger, standardised online data protection
Tue, Jan 13, 2015
U.S. President Barack Obama has said that he will introduce a new legislation to step
up and standardise data protection on the Internet, for guarding the identity and privacy
of Americans from commercial interests.
"We're introducing a new legislation to create a single, strong national standard so
Americans know when their information has been stolen or misused," Mr. Obama said
in his speech at Federal Trade Commission, on Monday.
Right now almost every state has a different law on this and it's confusing for consumers
and it is confusing for companies. And it is costly, too, to have to comply to this
patchwork of laws, he said.
"Sometimes folks don't even find out their credit card information has been stolen until
they see charges on their bill and then it's too late. So under the new standard that
we're proposing, companies would have to notify consumers of a breach within 30
days," he said.
"In addition, we're proposing to close loopholes in the law so we can go after more
criminals who steal and sell the identities of Americans, even when they do it overseas,"
he added.
Mr. Obama said that more banks, credit card issuers and lenders are stepping up and
equipping Americans with another weapon against identity theft and that's access to
their credit scores free-of-charge.
They include JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, USAA, State Employees Credit
Union, Ally Financial.
Page 37
KI
IW
The administration, he said, is also going to be introducing new legislation, a consumer
privacy bill of rights to better help customers control how their data is shared.
"We've identified some basic principles to both protect personal privacy and ensure
that industry can keep innovating. We believe that there ought to be some basic baseline
protections across industries," he said.
"Finally, we are taking a series of actions to protect the personal information and privacy
of our children. Those of us with kids know how hard this can be. Whether they are
texting or tweeting or on Facebook or Instagram, our children are meeting up, and they
are growing up in cyber space. It is all pervasive," he said.
"We need a structure that ensures that information is not being gathered without us as
parents or the kids knowing it. We want our kids' privacy protected, wherever they
sign on or log on, including at school," said the U.S. President as he proposed the
Student Digital Privacy Act.
"That's pretty straightforward. We're saying that data collected on students in the
classroom should only be used for educational purposes, to teach our children, not to
market to our children.
"We pioneered the Internet, but we also pioneered the Bill of Rights. And the sense
that each of us, as individuals, you know, have a sphere of privacy around us that should
not be breached, whether by our government, but also by commercial interests," Mr.
Obama said.
Here is our big fat problem
Fri, Jan 16, 2015
science & tech, Businessline,
Diabetes is reaching epidemic proportions among India's middle class and could blunt
the country's demographic dividend
Diabetes is one of the most serious problems that plague the world today. It is already
recognised as the 21st century's fastest growing epidemic, and kills millions every
year. It places a disease burden on world economies that runs into the tune of trillions
of dollars. The disease is increasingly becoming rampant in new geographies and
demographics.
The economic growth seen by India over the past two decades has lifted over 400
million people into the middle class bracket. But genes shaped over generations for
malnutrition and manual labour are now leaving Indians unable to cope with high calorie
food and a largely sedentary lifestyle. Obesity, one of the major causes of diabetes, is
reaching epidemic proportions among India's middle-class children and adolescents.
Page 38
KI
IW
In a recent study, Indian Council of Medical Research projects that India would have
over 62.4 million people with diabetes pre-diabetes. Several alarming statistics demonstrate
this dire scenario -- diabetes is hitting India's population at an average age of 42.5 years
(about a decade earlier than it strikes people in Europe).
The disease costs India the equivalent of 2.1 per cent of the GDP, mostly from lost
earnings and productivity. To add to the situation, an estimated 77.2 million people in
India are suffering from pre-diabetes -- a condition in which patients have high blood
glucose level but are not in the diabetes range. As per the study, the take-off point in
prevalence is at 25-34 years with a decline after age 65.
The decrease in prevalence of diabetes after 65 years is possibly due to survivor bias,
possibly reflecting deaths at earlier ages due to complications of diabetes. The high
prevalence of prediabetes is worrisome as it implies a huge population at risk of
developing diabetes in the near future.
While the basics of diabetes are becoming well-known, there are several startling facts
about the condition that are largely unknown. One such fact is that Indians in particular
have a significantly larger genetic disposition to diabetes, even though China tops global
diabetes figures with 90 million people living with diabetes.
The triad
There are 400 million adults worldwide who are obese and one billion who are overweight.
Children are getting increasingly overweight too. Worldwide, 17.6 million children
under five are estimated to be above optimal weight. The big lifestyle shift that occurred
in the latter half of the 20th century has been the primary driver of this malaise -- we
moved from plant-based diets to high-fat, energy-dense animal-based diets while at the
same time becoming physically inactive.
Overweight people are at high risk to develop hypertension, diabetes and atherosclerosis.
The incidence of heart disease too is increasing at a rapid rate. From a very manageable
1.09 per cent in the 1950s, it increased to 9.7 per cent in 1990, and 11 per cent by 2000.
This rising trend will make India the front- runner in the global incidence of heart
disease too.
Today, Indians face a dual risk of heart disease and diabetes. The risk of death due to
myocardial infarction is three times higher in diabetics as compared with non-diabetics.
Life expectancy too is reduced by 30 per cent in diabetics as compared to non-diabetics.
Economic impact
The costs involved in the care and management of diabetes are considerable for both
the individual and the healthcare system. Caring for diabetics involves a direct cost
Page 39
KI
IW
borne by the affected individuals, their families and healthcare authorities. While these
by themselves are high, the indirect and intangible costs are much higher.
The indirect costs result from lost production as a result of frequent absence from work,
an inability to work because of disability, premature retirement and even premature
mortality as a result of complications. Intangible costs are those that reduce the quality
of life, because of pain, anxiety and stress. As a society, all of us have to bear the
cumulative costs of diabetes.
In India, a study showed that total annual expenditure by patients on diabetes care was,
on average, [?]30,000 in urban areas and [?]6,260 in rural areas. The medical costs incurred
by a person with diabetes are two to five-fold higher than those incurred by people
without diabetes. Therefore, the estimated annual cost of diabetes care would be about
[?]180 billion.
In India, nearly 85 per cent of all healthcare costs are borne by individuals and their
families. Obviously, the lowest income groups bear the greatest burden, paying a larger
proportion of household income toward diabetes care. Direct expenses can consume
27-34 per cent of household incomes of rural and urban poor people.
And year-on-year increases in this proportion are greater in impoverished groups, with
the worsening of diabetes, presence of complications, hospitalisation, surgical therapy
and glycemic control requiring insulin. Delay in the initial diagnosis of diabetes results
in unexpected complications, which in turn leads to average annual diabetic care costing
anything between [?]3-6 lakhs. Also consider that with the rise of diabetes in young
people, the economic cost to the nation is only going to increase.
We are faced with a situation where is the prevalent conditions go unchecked India's
tremendous demographic dividend could we be blunted with this disease burden.
We can check this
Our healthcare system has to look at diabetes with sense of urgency and wake up to the
fact that diabetes is no longer a disease of the rich and affluent. We need large-scale
programmes to generate awareness about the risk of diabetes and educate people about
their lifestyle choices.
An effective method of combating diabetes is also linked to its early diagnosis. Diabetic
complications (secondary prevention) can be especially beneficial in terms of patient
quality of life and cost-effectiveness. Any measure that can reduce hospitalisation will
reduce the major expenditure associated with advanced diabetes. Several studies have
estimated that cost savings of up to 75 per cent can be made by re-focusing the provision
of care toward an outpatient basis.
With a high ethnic susceptibility for developing diabetes, a national screening programme
Page 40
KI
IW
could also be a vital and cost effective measure for lessening the impact of diabetes.
Taking the fight to diabetes, and formulating a robust plan to counter the epidemic, is
one of our key priorities as a nation. Ignoring this imperative will have catastrophic
effects on both our nation's health and wealth. It's time for all the stakeholders in the
Indian healthcare ecosystem to come together and walk the talk.
Ice deposits waxed, waned on Mars: study
Thu, Jan 29, 2015
Scientists have found new evidence that glacier-like ice deposits advanced and retreated
multiple times in regions of Mars in recent past.
For the study, researchers from the Brown University looked at hundreds of gully-like
features found on the walls of impact craters throughout the Martian midlatitudes.
They conclude that many of those gullies were formed by melted water from icy deposits,
which are known to have covered the Martian midlatitudes within the last 2 million
years.
The study also turned up evidence of multiple gully-forming events, suggesting that
these ice deposits waxed and waned several times over the last several million years relatively recently in Mars' 4.5-billion year history.
"These recent climate cycles have been predicted by computer models, but have not
been documented with widespread geological evidence until now," said Jay Dickson,
a researcher at Brown and the study's lead author.
"This research shows that gullies have been episodic across the entire southern hemisphere,
a distribution that is required for this to be a signal of global climate change," said
Dickson.
At present, most of the water ice on Mars is concentrated at its poles, but there's a
wealth of evidence that it wasn't always that way.
The researchers looked at detailed images taken by NASA's High Resolution Imaging
Science Experiment (HiRISE) of 479 gullies in the midlatitudes of Mars' southern
hemisphere.
The gully systems, which form on steep crater walls, consist of an alcove at the top
from which sediment is excavated, a channel through which material is carried, and a
delta-like fan at the bottom where material is deposited.
The survey showed gully systems in various states of erosion and degradation. In some
places, older gully fans, eroded over many years by the elements, had been crosscut by
Page 41
KI
IW
new gully fan systems.

That suggests at least two gully-carving events. In other examples, gully fans were
clearly visible, but the alcoves and channels that supplied them had disappeared, covered
by a new layer of ice-rich soil. That too suggests multiple periods of glacial deposition,
researchers said.
"We show solid evidence of at least two periods of emplacement of the latitude-dependent
mantle," said Brown geologists James Head, an author on the new paper.
"That's consistent with the idea of cyclical ice ages on Mars related to its obliquity,"
said Head.
The work also bolsters the idea the many of gullies were carved by flows of liquid
water, researchers said.
The research was published in the journal Icarus .
Weak backbone
Fri, Jan 30, 2015
The government needs to create an enabling environment for creating the infrastructure
for a digital India
It is disappointing that the National Optical Fibre Network, envisaged to bring broadband
services to 2.5 lakh gram panchayats across the country, will miss yet another deadline.
Four years after the Centre approved the [?]20,000-crore project, only 6 per cent of the
work has been completed. Though the UPA government had initially set a target of
rolling out the network by 2013, lack of coordination between the various agencies
involved and delays in procuring equipment have set back the project by several years.
The blame for the slow progress lies squarely with the Department of Telecom, which
failed to speed up the roll out, despite repeated prodding by the TRAI and the Prime
Minister's Office. A project of such national importance could have been better executed
by involving private players. By entrusting it to public sector undertakings such as
Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd, which do not have a great track record of completing projects
on time, the DoT paved the way for the project to get entangled in time-consuming
tendering processes and bureaucratic hurdles. As a result, BSNL, which is supposed to
lay 1.64 lakh route kilometre of optical fibre cable by March, has so far done only
11,680 km. Powergrid and Railtel, the other two PSUs involved in the project, have
fared worse.
In a digital world, connectivity needs to be treated as a fundamental requirement.
Infrastructure creation in the telecom space is plagued with difficulties regarding securing
Right of Way for cable networks and erection of communication towers. Each State
Page 42
KI
IW
has its own set of rules, requiring multiple approvals and clearances. This not only
escalates costs but is also time consuming. As a result, not many telecom companies
have ventured beyond the top 100 cities to lay cables, while mobile operators struggle
to get site approvals to erect base stations, leading to network congestion. A centralised,
single-window clearance system will address many of these problems.
Along with creating the optic fibre, attention needs to be paid to reaching fibre to homes,
which will enable users access to stable, high-speed networks at lower costs. Our policy
focus has been distorted towards wireless connectivity. Given the lack of availability
of radio spectrum, the delays in freeing up additional bandwidth and the rising cost of
scarce spectrum, fibre-optic connectivity offers a sustainable alternative. The more
robust the telecom network becomes, the more telephone conversations and data traffic
it can carry. Telecom users in the US and Japan, for instance, are able to access video
and live streaming at over 100 Mbps speeds. In contrast, the 2.5 lakh gram panchayats
identified under the optical fibre project do not have access to any data network. If the
Modi government is serious about putting India on the world's digital map, it must
quickly put in place a regulatory mechanism that enables and encourages infrastructure
creation in this space.
Researchers produce two biofuels from single algae
Thu, Jan 29, 2015
A common algae commercially grown to make fish food holds promise as a source for
both biodiesel and jet fuel, according to a new study.
The researchers, led by Greg O'Neil of Western Washington University and Chris
Reddy of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, exploited an unusual and untapped
class of chemical compounds in the algae to synthesise two different fuel products, in
parallel, from a single algae.
"It's far from a cost-competitive product at this stage, but it's an interesting new strategy
for making renewable fuel from algae," said O'Neil, the study's lead author.
Algae contain fatty acids that can be converted into fatty acid methyl esters, or FAMEs,
the molecules in biodiesel.
For their study, O'Neil, Reddy and colleagues targeted a specific algal species called
Isochrysis for two reasons: First, because growers have already demonstrated they can
produce it in large batches to make fish food. Second, because it is among only a handful
of algal species around the globe that produce fats called alkenones.
These compounds are composed of long chains with 37 to 39 carbon atoms, which the
researchers believed held potential as a fuel source.
Page 43
KI
IW
Biofuel prospectors have dismissed Isochrysis because its oil is a dark, sludgy solid at
room temperature, rather than a clear liquid that looks like cooking oil.
The sludge is a result of the alkenones in Isochrysis -- precisely what makes it a unique
source of two distinct fuels, researchers said.
Alkenones are well known to oceanographers because they have a unique ability to
change their structure in response to water temperature, providing oceanographers with
a biomarker to extrapolate past sea surface temperatures.
Reddy and O'Neil began their collaboration first by making biodiesel from the FAMEs
in Isochrysis.
Then they had to devise a method to separate the FAMEs and alkenones in order to
achieve a free-flowing fuel.
The method added steps to the overall biodiesel process, but it supplied a superior
quality biodiesel, as well as "an alkenone-rich fraction as a potential secondary product
stream," the researchers said.
"The alkenones themselves, with long chains of 37 to 39 carbons, are much too big to
be used for jet fuel," said O'Neil.
But the researchers used a chemical reaction called olefin metathesis. The process
cleaved carbon-carbon double bonds in the alkenones, breaking the long chains into
pieces with only 8 to 13 carbons.
"Those are small enough to use for jet fuel," O'Neil said.
The study was published in the journal Energy & Fuels.
Statins can reduce heart disease risk in women
Sun, Jan 11, 2015
Statin treatment can reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease in women just as it does
in men, a large new international study has found.
The research confirms that statins are beneficial not only to women who have already
had a cardiovascular event such as a heart attack or stroke, but also in those who -whilst they have not yet developed cardiovascular disease -- are at an increased risk of
such diseases.
"These results resolve a major uncertainty about the value of treating women with statin
therapy, and reinforce the need for recommendations to treat women to be included in
Page 44
KI
IW
national and international guidelines," lead investigator Anthony Keech, Professor of

Medicine, Cardiology and Epidemiology at the University of Sydney said.
"It has long been known that, by reducing low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol,
statin medications prevent heart attacks and strokes in people at risk of these diseases,"
said Keech.
However women tend to develop cardiovascular disease later in life than do men, so
have been under--represented in most statin trials.
As a result, the benefits of statin therapy in women have been uncertain, especially in
the absence of any previous history of cardiovascular disease.
"This analysis of the effects of statins on 174,000 patients, undertaken by combining
results from 27 different trials, shows beyond any reasonable doubt that women gain
the same benefits from statins as men," Keech said.
Overall, statin treatment reduced the risk of a major vascular event (heart attack, stroke,
bypass surgery, cardiac death) by 21 per cent for each 1 mmol/L reduction in LDL
cholesterol achieved.
The percentage risk reductions were similar in women and men, irrespective of any
history of cardiovascular disease.
Such benefits from statin treatment translated into a significant reduction (9 per cent
risk reduction for each 1 mmol/L reduction in LDL-cholesterol) in the overall risk of
death in both men and women -- a finding for women which has not been previously
reported by any individual statin trial.
"There has been a recent worldwide shift towards recommending treatment with statins
to people without existing cardiovascular disease but with a sufficiently high risk of
future disease. The results of this study will reassure doctors that these risk-based
guidelines for treatment can be applied to men and women equally," Keech said.
NASA's Opportunity rover completes 11 years on Mars
Tue, Jan 27, 2015
NASA's Mars Opportunity rover has celebrated its 11th anniversary on the Red Planet,
marking the milestone with a stunning panorama of a Martian crater.
The panorama from one of the highest elevations that Opportunity has reached in its
11 years on Mars includes the US flag at the summit, the US space agency said.
The view is from the top of "Cape Tribulation," a raised section of the rim of Endeavour
Crater. The panorama spans the interior of the 22-kilometre-wide crater and extends
Page 45
KI
IW
to the rim of another crater on the horizon.

Opportunity has driven 41.7 kilometres since it landed in the Meridiani Planum region
of Mars on January 25, 2004.
That is farther than any other off-Earth surface vehicle has driven. The rover's work
on Mars was initially planned for three months.
"During that prime mission and for more than a decade of bonus performance in extended
missions, Opportunity has returned compelling evidence about wet environments on
ancient Mars," NASA said.
Opportunity has been exploring Endeavour's western rim since 2011. From a low
segment of the rim that it crossed in mid-2013, called "Botany Bay," it climbed about
135 meters in elevation to reach the top of Cape Tribulation.
The US flag is printed on the aluminium cable guard of the rover's rock abrasion tool,
which is used for grinding away weathered rock surfaces to expose fresh interior material
for examination.
"The flag is intended as a memorial to victims of the September 11, 2001, attacks on
the World Trade Centre in New York. The aluminium was recovered from the site of
the Twin Towers in the weeks following the attacks," NASA said.
Tue, Jan 6, 2015

The year 2014 will be recorded in the annals of history as one of the worst for the
aviation industry, with multiple airplane crashes flagging the need for investments in
airline safety. The crashes killed over 1,180 people, the most recent of which was the
Air Asia crash two weeks ago. Apart from the loss of life, the accidents also dealt a
severe blow to the finances of the airlines in question. For instance, Malaysian Airlines,
after the still-unexplained crash of its flight MH 370 in March, widened its losses instead
of reporting a turnaround as analysts expected. A critical piece of equipment which
allows investigators and airlines to decipher the causes of such disasters is the plane's
so-called "black box". What is it? A black box is an electronic recording device placed
in an aircraft solely for the purpose of facilitating the investigation of an accident.
Consisting of a flight data recorder and a cockpit voice recorder, the box stores critical
data from the plane's diagnostic systems as well as conversations between the pilots.
It serves as testimony of a flight's history if the plane meets with an accident. The term
"flight recorder" is more precise and the term "black box" is only used informally and
almost never within the flight safety or aviation industry. The recorders are not even
Page 46
KI
IW
black in colour, but usually bright orange, as they are intended to be spotted and recovered
after accidents. Why is it important? A black box does nothing to help a plane in the
air, but it is a vital piece of a equipment in a crash as it helps investigators find out what
happened just before the crash. Often, for example when a plane crashes into the sea,
as happened with the 1985 bombing of Air India flight 182 by terrorists over the Atlantic
Ocean, investigators have very little to go on -- on this specific occasion the plane
crashed before the pilot could even issue a mayday signal and much of the debris sank
into the sea, leaving few clues. The discovery of the black box helped investigators
unravel a Mexican plane crash that killed fourteen, including the interior minister of
Mexico, on November 4, 2008. The black boxes for MH370 and the recent AirAsia
flight are yet to be recovered. Why should I care? Flight safety is obviously a serious
issue and part of flight safety relates to the unpleasant task of deciphering what went
wrong in an accident so that preventive steps can be taken. A black box is the most
objective way to determine exactly what was going on in a flight that doesn't make it
back safely to the ground, especially when the passengers or crew are no longer be
around to help piece together the causes for a crash. But they're not fool-proof and
there's an urgent need to upgrade the flight recorders of today, a fact which was driven
home after the fruitless search for evidence to explain mysterious disappearance of the
Malaysian MH370. Black boxes are usually fitted with underwater locator beacons
which allow search teams to home in on them. But they come with a limited battery
life of 30 days. The MH370 search, which involved trawling some of the deepest sections
in the Indian Ocean brought home the difficulty of locating the black box before the
locator beacons stopped functioning. The bottom line Air crashes are black swan events
and airlines are under constant pressure to cut costs. But the spate of recent accidents
shows that it certainly doesn't pay to cut corners on technology and safety equipment.
A weekly column that puts the fun into learning
Tue, Jan 6, 2015

Fourth of a seven-satellite navigation system Chennai, Jan 6: After completing an
eventful year, ISRO is gearing up for some satellite launches this year, with the IRNSS
1D being the first, which would put in place India's own navigation system on par with
the Global Positioning System of the US. "The launch campaign for IRNSS 1D has
come, which starts on January 16. Within two months, all components from other ISRO
labs have to reach Sriharikota. The launch is likely after March 15," a senior ISRO
official told PTI. IRNSS 1D is the fourth in the series of seven satellites, the national
space agency is planning to launch to put in place the Indian Regional Navigation
Satellite System (IRNSS). While four satellites would be sufficient to start operations
of the system, the remaining three satellites would make it more accurate and efficient.
Page 47
KI
IW
The other launches also relate to the IRNSS series with the IRNSS1E and IRNSS1-F
satellites to be launched before the year-end, he said. The first three satellites in the
IRNSS series were launched from Sriharikota on July 1, 2013, April 4 and October 16
last year respectively. The fully deployed IRNSS would consist of three and four
satellites in GEO stationary and in inclined geosynchronous orbits respectively, about
36,000 km above Earth. The system would provide two types of services -- Standard
Positioning Service, which is provided to all the users and Restricted Service, which
is an encrypted service provided only to authorised users. The IRNSS system was
targeted to be completed by this year at a total cost of Rs 1,420 crore. IRNSS is designed
to provide accurate position information services to users in the country as well as the
region extending up to 1,500 km from its boundary, which is its primary service area.
A select group of countries have their own navigation systems -- Russia's Global Orbiting
Navigation Satellite System (GLONASS), the US' Global Positioning System (GPS),
the European Union's Galileo (GNSS), China's BeiDou satellite navigation system,
and the Quasi-Zenith Satellite System. ISRO not only launched a GLSV rocket, a GSLV
Mk III, besides two PSLVs during 2014 but also successfully inserted its Mars orbiter
into the Martian atmosphere and tested the re-entry of an unmanned crew module from
space.
Innovation - make it smart and frugal
Fri, Jan 30, 2015
Products often come with features irrelevant to a cost-conscious market like India.
However, cars, scooters have done better
In the past, engineering feats emanated from industrialised countries. Today, India is
ranked among one of the most innovative countries in the world. In fact, over the last
few years, the country has been able to advance from the position of a technology
borrower to the role of a technology innovator.
India is now a country that is pioneering 'frugal innovation or engineering'.
Typically, products have been transferred from industrialised countries including, very
often, features not needed or not relevant to emerging countries such as India.
To overcome this problem companies tried to develop their available products for India
-- often with little success.
The key roadblocks remain high cost sensitivity and scarce resources.
More with less
The solution to these problems lies in reducing complexity and costs. All this meant
removing non-essential features from a product during design in order to increase its
Page 48
KI
IW
buyability in a developing country.

Frugal engineering entails a sustainable approach focusing on the critical factors like
'market requirement', 'environmental conditions', 'resource limitation' in order to
create cost effective solutions, if not new 'business models'. The real needs in countries
like India come into the picture.
The efficient use of scarce resources has increased considerably. Example: The energy
efficiency of a washing machine has increased by 63 per cent since 1998, while the
water consumption has fallen 31 per cent.
Similarly, the power consumption in a refrigerator freezer has decreased up to 75 per
cent over the last 15 years.
In the automotive sector, existing products of an engine control unit (ECU) for diesel
systems have been expensive and/or big. The number of electronic control units in a
car also increased over the years.
The constantly increasing cost for these electronic control units and the need to meet
higher emission norms without a substantial increase in price led to high cost pressure
on the OEMs.
The market required the size of the product be reduced by over 30 per cent. Soon the
need for a successful frugal engineering approach became inevitable.
The systems approach now focused on higher integration and replacement of sensors
by models. There was a 30 per cent reduction in size, 40 per cent reduction in cost,
reduction in the number of control units and an elimination of sensors by the use of
modelling techniques.
This application of frugal innovation proved to be a great aid to the automotive industry.
Innovating for efficiency
Two wheelers in Asia initially were carburettor-dominant. Also, the emission legislation
was beginning to get more stringent.
The market at this stage required a very small cost increase with the replacement of the
carburettor by an injection system.
Since many users do not replace their battery in case it dies out, the system also needed
to work without battery. Lastly, there were high vibration and temperature requirements.
Totally new design using frugal innovation led to an ECU with the size of a credit card
and a new mould technology.
This enabled a cost reduction and the possibility to cope with the needs of an emerging
Page 49
KI
IW
country like India.

Frugal innovation is the key for success in emerging markets, but is not limited to such
countries. It has been successfully used in the development of optimized solutions for
specific market segments e.g. Dacia Logan.
Successful frugal products can also be migrated to industrialised countries.
Frugal innovation is widely applied by many OEMs today. Successful frugal innovation
requires a change in the mindset. An excellent understanding of the market needs is
crucial.
Frugal engineering helps raise the standard of people and aids in increasing market
size. Lastly, although customers are price sensitive and affordability is crucial, customers
need to realise the importance of acceptable quality levels.
To meet this requirement, India seems to possess an inherent advantage in creating
attractive frugal solutions with global appeal.
The writer is the vice-president of Robert Bosch Engineering and Business Solutions
New antibiotic kills pathogens without resistance
Sun, Jan 11, 2015
A newly discovered antibiotic eliminates pathogens without encountering any detectable

resistance, a finding that may lead to treatments for chronic infections such as tuberculosis
and MRSA.
For years, pathogens' resistance to antibiotics has put them one step ahead of researchers,
which is causing a public health crisis, according to Northeastern University Distinguished
Professor Kim Lewis.
The pioneering work to develop a novel method for growing uncultured bacteria led
to the discovery of the antibiotic, called teixobactin, and Lewis' lab played a key role
in analysing and testing the compound for resistance from pathogens.
Lewis said this marks the first discovery of an antibiotic to which resistance by mutations
of pathogens have not been identified.
The research team says teixobactin's discovery presents a promising new opportunity
to treat chronic infections caused by staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, that are highly
resistant to antibiotics, as well as tuberculosis, which involves a combination of therapies
with negative side effects.
Lewis and biology professor Slava Epstein tapped into a new source of antibiotics
Page 50
KI
IW
beyond those created by synthetic means: uncultured bacteria, which make up 99 per
cent of all species in external environments.
They developed a novel method for growing uncultured bacteria in their natural
environment.
Their approach involves the iChip, a miniature device Epstein's team created that can
isolate and help grow single cells in their natural environment and thereby provides
researchers with much improved access to uncultured bacteria.
Researchers have since assembled about 50,000 strains of uncultured bacteria and
discovered 25 new antibiotics, of which teixobactin is the latest and most interesting,
Lewis said.
The antibiotic was discovered during a routine screening for antimicrobial material
using this method.
Lewis then tested the compound for resistance development and did not find mutant
MRSA or Mycobacterium tuberculosis resistant to teixobactin, which was found to
block several different targets in the cell wall synthesis pathway.
"Our impression is that nature produced a compound that evolved to be free of resistance.
This challenges the dogma that we've operated under that bacteria will always develop
resistance. Well, maybe not in this case," Lewis said. PTI SAR AKJ SAR 01111445
Giant leap for ISRO
Fri, Jan 23, 2015
Frontline, science & tech,
GSLV-Mark III puts a 3.75-tonne unmanned crew module into a sub-orbit as per plan,
making it the perfect launch vehicle for India's human spaceflight. By T.S. SUBRAMANIAN
THE year 2014 was a great year for the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)
with a row of successes that turned the world's attention on it. On January 5, 2014, its
20-year old "tapas" to build an indigenous cryogenic engine ended on a triumphant
note when its Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSAT-5), powered by an
indigenous cryogenic engine, put the communication satellite GSAT-14 into a precise
orbit. On September 24, India became the first country in the world to put its spacecraft
Mangalyan into Mars' orbit in its very first attempt.
On December 18, ISRO's GSLV-Mark III, the newest, heaviest and the most powerful
launch vehicle it has built so far, put a 3.75-tonne unmanned crew module into a sub-orbit
at an altitude of 126 kilometre. As per plan, the crew module started coming down
immediately, sliced through the earth's atmosphere at a perfect angle, surviving a fiery
re-entry, decelerated and, with its three huge parachutes opening up, splashed down in
Page 51
KI
IW
the Bay of Bengal, about 700 km from Port Blair, Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The
Coast Guard personnel from the vessel Samudra Pehereden recovered the module.
The spectacular event signalled that India had taken the first steps towards its ambition
to send Indian astronauts into space. The mission demonstrated ISRO's mastery of the
re-entry technology and its ability to develop the braking techniques, deceleration
technology and thermal protection systems for the crew module.
ISRO notched up two more successes in 2014. Its Polar Satellite Launch Vehicles
(PSLVs) put into orbit two navigation satellites, the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite
Systems, IRNSS-1B and 1C, on April 5 and October 16.
For ISRO Chairman K. Radhakrishnan, who retired on December 31, it must have been
a professionally satisfying year.
Weighing 630 tonnes, the GSLV-Mk III is a new-generation launch vehicle. It is 43.43
metres long. Its core liquid stage, called L110, uses 110 tonnes of liquid propellants.
Clinging on to the core stage are two strap-on, solid propellant booster motors, named
S-200, each guzzling up 200 tonnes of solid propellants. They are the biggest solid
motors built by ISRO. Above the core liquid stage is the indigenous cryogenic engine
that will use 25 tonnes of liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen. On December 18, ISRO
did not fire the cryogenic engine. It was a dummy cryogenic stage that sat on top of
L110. So the mission was an experimental, passive one. As the module was unmanned
it neither had life-support system nor crew escape systems in case of an emergency.
The mission was remarkably smooth for a totally new vehicle. There were no holds in
the countdown that lasted 24 hours and a half. The majestic vehicle, painted in white,
stood on the launch platform of the second launch pad on Sriharikota's beachfront. The
legends "ISRO, LVM3-X" were prominently written on the vehicle. LVM-X stood for
Launch Vehicle Mark III, Experimental Mission. It was titled, LVM3-X/CARE Mission.
CARE stands for Crew Module Atmospheric Re-entry Experiment. On top of the dummy
cryogenic stage was mated the unmanned crew module which, in itself, was sheathed
in heat shields. The vehicle vaulted off the launch pad at the appointed time of 9-30
a.m. "Lift-off normal" came the announcement from the saucer-shaped Mission Control
Centre, situated about 6 km from the second pad. Then came another announcement,
"S-200 performance normal"
The L110 engine came to life at 114.71 seconds after the lift-off as planned. A novel
aspect of the mission was that the two S-200 motors continued to fire for about 34
seconds after the L110 had ignited. So two solid motors and one liquid engine were
firing together for about 34 seconds. The two solid motors fell away 148.98 seconds
after the lift-off. About 84 seconds later, the payload fairing (the heat shield protecting
the unmanned crew module from intense heat during the vehicle's ascent into the
atmosphere) parted in two and fell into the Bay of Bengal. About 317 seconds after the
Page 52
KI
IW
lift-off, the L110 engine shut down. It separated from the vehicle three seconds later.
At T plus 325 seconds, at an altitude of 126 km, the unmanned crew module separated
from the dummy cryogenic stage and went into a sub-orbit. It started coming down
immediately and splashed down in the Bay of Bengal. The entire mission, from the
vehicle's lift-off to the module's touchdown in the waters, lasted 20 minutes.
Radhakrishnan hailed the GSLV-Mk III mission "a great event" and said "this was the
largest launch vehicle programme that ISRO undertook". He promised the country that
the first developmental launch of GSLV-Mk III, with its own cryogenic engine fuelled
by 25 tonnes of liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen, would take place in two years.
Flourishing a golden-hued replica of the GSLV-Mk III, S. Somanath, Project Director,
GSLV-Mk III, declared: "India has a new launch vehicle now. We have done it again."
Both Radhakrishnan and Somanath stressed that the GSLV-Mk III's two booster motors,
each powered by 200 tonnes of solid propellants, were the biggest motors built by
ISRO. Somanath said the indigenous cryogenic stage had "simulated" propellants,
which had the same mass, density and temperature of the liquid oxygen and liquid
hydrogen. The simulated propellants, which filled the liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen
tanks, were liquid nitrogen and gaseous nitrogen respectively. It was the liquid engine,
fired by 110 tonnes of liquid propellants, that catapulted the unmanned crew module
into a sub-orbit at a velocity of 5.4 km a second
S. Unnikrishnan Nair, Project Director, Human Spaceflight Project, ISRO, called the
mission "a grand success" "and "a dream come true for us". After the module separated
from the vehicle, "it [the module] performed as expected," he said. Its re-entry into the
earth's atmosphere at an altitude of 80 km was perfect. Three parachutes opened in
sequence and the module's velocity of descent was reduced. The braking systems and
the deceleration technology worked to perfection. The mission was so precise that the
module splashed down just five nautical miles from the expected area, Unnikrishnan
Nair said.
M.C. Dathan, Director, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, (VSSC), Thiruvananthapuram,
said: "Once GSLV-Mark III is reliably proved, it will be launch vehicle for India's
Human Spaceflight Programme," he said. Besides, a lot of countries "will be in a queue"
to launch their satellites, using GSLV-Mk III, he added. Dathan made a pitch for more
allotment of funds from the Centre for ISRO's Human Spaceflight Programme. A.S.
Kiran Kumar, Director, Space Applications Centre, Ahmedabad, said: "This is the first
step for GSLV-Mk III and CARE mission. ISRO is now looking forward to its manned
mission to space," Kiran Kumar added.
In the assessment of M.Y.S. Prasad, Director, Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC),
Sriharikota, the mission's primary objective of proving the vehicle's flight through the
atmospheric phase was fully met in the mission. He was proud that the 200-tonne solid
Page 53
KI
IW
motors were assembled at Sriharikota. A massive plant for manufacturing the solid
propellants for them had been built at Sriharikota, Prasad said.
S. Ramakrishnan, former VSSC Director and former Project Director, GSLV-Mk III,
was happy that it was such a trouble-free mission for a newborn vehicle. It was akin to
the PSLV missions, which have had 27 successes in a row from 1993, he said.
ISRO cleverly made use of the current two-year delay in developing the indigenous
25-tonne cryogenic engine for GSLV-Mark III in sending the unmanned crew module
into a sub-orbit. Since ISRO had not built a satellite weighing four tonnes to put into
orbit using this experimental mission in which the cryogenic engine did not fire, it
decided that it would build an unmanned crew module and put it into a sub-orbit at an
altitude of 126 km and recover it when it returned to the earth. Indeed, the very first
forerunner to India's manned mission to space was when the PSLV put a satellite called
Space Capsule Recovery Experiment (SRE) into orbit on January 10, 2007. The SRE
splashed down in the Bay of Bengal 12 days later and was recovered.
"It [GSLV-Mk III experimental mission] was a chance for us to take the unmanned
crew module on it and recover it because its overall shape and mass will be simulated,"
said Dathan. (The VSSC, which he leads, was the key agency for building both the
vehicle and the module.) "The re-entry technology--the temperature and turbulence that
the module will experience when it re-enters the earth's atmosphere--will be proved.
The thermal protection systems will be proved," he added.
GSLV-Mk III is the third generation launch vehicle of ISRO to use a cryogenic engine.
The first-generation GSLV rockets used Russian cryogenic engines, which were plagued
by failures. GSLV-Mk II, with its indigenous cryogenic engine, tasted its first success
on January 5, 2014, and put into orbit GSAT-14.
New design
The Union government approved the GSLV-Mk III project in 2002 with an outlay of
Rs.2,500 crore. "We were able to complete the project with Rs.2,500 crore. Besides,
we reached a stage where we could have this first flight," said Somanath. "GSLV-Mk
III's design is totally new. It is not like that of the PSLV or the earlier generation
GSLVs," he added. While the PSLV's solid motors have a diameter of 2.8 metres,
GSLV-Mk III's S-200 motors have a diameter of 3.2 metres each. Its flight on December
18, 2014, was to prove the vehicle's design and the maturity of the S-200 motors. "The
purpose of the flight was to make the launch vehicle experience the rigours of the actual
flight," he added.
The two solid motors, together burning up 400 tonnes of solid propellants, and the
liquid engine, burning 110 tonnes of propellants, fired simultaneously for 34 seconds
before the two solid motors fell away. "This has not been done before. It is a complex
Page 54
KI
IW
thing to do," said Somanath. Since the cryogenic stage was passive, the velocity that
was imparted to the module was only half of what a regular vehicle would give it, he
explained.
The velocity of 5.4 km a second imparted to the module was not sufficient for it to stay
in orbit unless the cryogenic stage fired and gave it sufficient velocity. So it started
coming down immediately. As the module de-mated from the dummy cryogenic stage
and started coming down, it experienced severe disturbances. But the control systems,
that is, the six thrusters on board the module, re-oriented the module for a proper re-entry
into the earth's atmosphere.
The module re-entered the earth's atmosphere at an altitude of 80 km at a velocity of
11 Mach, surviving about 1,000deg Celsius of heat generated during the re-entry, said
Unnikrishnan Nair. The angle of attack at the point of re-entry was 0deg. The ablative
carbon-phenolic tiles plastered around the module's bowl-shaped outer surface enabled
the module to survive this agni pariksha [test by fire]. It was like a shuttle-cock, with
the cock facing the floor and coming down. From 80 km down, it was flying like a
ballistic body. This velocity was reduced by aero-braking.
At an altitude of 15 km, the parachutes came into play. The parachutes developed by
the Aerial Delivery Research and Development Establishment (ADRDE) in Agra. The
ADRDE is a premier Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO)
laboratory and only one of its kind in the country that specialises in the design,
development and production of para-drop systems for a comprehensive range of military
applications. A variety of parachute systems, such as Combat Free Fall Systems, Free
Fall Systems and those that are capable of dropping battle tanks and infantry combat
vehicles weighing between seven tonnes and 16 tonnes from aircraft, have been realised
by the ADRDE. Big aerostats, for surveillance, have been developed by the ADRDE.
In the December 18 mission itself, three parachutes helped to arrest the speed of descent
of the module. One was a drogue parachute while the other two were the main parachutes.
The main parachutes were massive contraptions with a diameter of 31 m each. As a
measure of redundancy, there was another set of these three parachutes in case the first
set failed to deploy.
When the parachutes opened up at a height of 15 km, the beacon aboard the unmanned
crew module started beaming data about the module's latitude and longitude to ISTRAC,
Bangalore. ISTRAC sent the data to Sriharikota which, in turn, transmitted the coordinates
to the Coast Guard vessel.
Once the parachutes opened up and the velocity of the module's descent came to 7.2
metres a second, the module splashed down. Sensing the impact, the parachutes
disconnected autonomously. The module hit the waters about 700 km from Port Blair.
Soon, dye-markers from the module sprayed the waters with a fluorescent green-coloured
Page 55
KI
IW
dye, which could be seen from an aircraft. The Coast Guard vessel, which received the
coordinates of the splash-down point, reached the area soon to recover the module.
ISRO engineers belonging to its Human Spaceflight Programme are happy that the
mission supplied them with enormous data on the module's aerodynamics, the performance
of the control thrusters and the thermal protection systems, and the unfolding of the
parachutes, among other things. The Human Spaceflight Programme team includes P.
Sunil, its Deputy Project Director, P. Damodaran, B. Anzar and S.S. Vinod.
If the space suits the VSSC has developed are any indication, ISRO's dream of sending
astronauts into space will be realised sooner than expected.
Thu, Jan 8, 2015
PIB, science & tech,

The
Minister for Science & Technology (S&T) Dr. Harsh Vardhan, has said that scientific
research in the country is to made the engine for 'MAKE IN INDIA' in years to come.
Addressing a press conference along with Shri Y.S. Chowdary, the Minister of State
for S&T in Hyderabad today, Dr. Harsh Vardhan said he was optimistic that all scientists
of Indian origin would respond positively to the Narendra Modi government ' s invitation
to participate and bring an S&T-based industrial renaissance in our country. He said
the focus of the present government will be to take scientific research to the field for
implementation, for industrial progress. Dr. Harsh Vardhan said that India today is
definitely a more happening place in the areas of Science, Technology, Engineering
and Mathematics (STEM) than the West. The Prime Minister ' s confidence is definitely
having an effect, he added. The Modi government has already announced a package of
incentives to Indian-origin STEM researchers so that they could get competitive salaries
in India. Many private sector companies have already succeeded in wooing back to
India talented scientists. This is reflecting well on India ' s image as a country with
innovation and STEM-based entrepreneurship. Dr. Harsh Vardhan said that "Ministry
of Science & Technology (BIRAC and CSIR) would work with State Industry Development
Corporations for enabling deployment of technology benefitting SMEs". The spurt in
the number of India ' s intellectually talented students turning to the pure sciences has
been noticed worldwide. Recently, the widely respected US think tank, Brookings
Institution, has revealed in a report that 8 of the top10 cities worldwide in terms of
sending STEM scholars to the United States on F-1 visas are in India. These cities are:
Vijayawada, Hyderabad, Secunderabad, Chennai, Bangalore, Mumbai, Kolkata and
Pune. The Minister said that falling world oil prices will not distract India ' s commitment
to seeking breakthroughs in making renewable energy harnessing and its affordable
Page 56
KI
IW
adoption in everyday lif

Solar power
The Minister said that he would
drive the Department of Science and Technology (DST) to push the frontiers of research
into renewable energy research, particularly solar power.
"World oil prices
have fallen from $ 115 a barrel in June to less than $ 50 this week. But Prime Minister
Modi, himself a great backer of solar energy research, development and adoption in
everyday life, has instructed me not to be distracted from the pursuit of the ultimate
goal of having a fossil fuel free economy. This is definitely good news for the Environment
as the present dependence on non-renewable forms of energy is killing us all and would
be disastrous for the future generations"the Minister said.
The total renewable
energy potential from various sources is conservatively estimated at 2.5 lakh MW.
According to United Nations, India has achieved less than 12.5 percent of the potential.
As for solar power, he said, the potential is "unlimited".
Dr. Harsh Vardhan
said, "In solar power the present trend is to think in terms of Gigawatts and not Megawatts
because that would lead to prices dropping. In Germany, the government is encouraging
house owners to rent out their rooftops so that more and more solar power can be
harnessed for feeding into the grid. This policy needs to be incorporated into our national
policy". Milestones: 2014-15
Extending his warm New Year ' s greetings to
the media representatives, Dr. Harsh Vardhan said that the Ministries of S&T and Earth
Sciences, which he heads, have had a most fruitful 2014. He congratulated all scientists,
researchers, technicians and administrative staff of government laboratories and
foundations who have made "Mangalyaan"and other milestones possible.
"The
Indian private sector should also be congratulated because it is functioning in many
start up fields and competing with established players in the West. In the past 20 years
many Indian companies based on biotechnology, biological sciences and other fields
have attracted world recognition "the Minister said. Dr. Harsh Vardhan said that India
a large youth are now expected to take the country to its glory through the scientific
path. He listed the following achievements of the Department of Science and Technology
at the Press Conference. * Cutting-edge Technology: Make in India. India is a partner
in the Thirty Metre Telescope (TMT) project at Mauna Kea, Hawaii, USA at a total
cost of [?] 1,299.8 Crore from 2014-23. 70% of India ' s contribution will be in kind, in
the making of quality mirrors and engineering in India. Partners: USA, Japan, Canada,
China and India. * High performance computing resource of 800 TFLOPS has been
commissioned for weather and climate modeling. Most powerful machine in the SE
Asia. * Supercomputing for the future: India has mounted an ambitious "National
Supercomputing Mission (NSM): Building Capacity and Capability "with the aim of
building Exascale computing with a total budget outlay of [?] 4,500 Crore over 7 years
(jointly with Department of Information Technology). * Understanding Climate Change
and Saving the Himalayan Ecosystem: National Mission for Sustaining the Himalayan
Ecosystem. National Mission on Strategic Knowledge for Climate Change. * Tsunami
Early Warning System at ESSO-INCOIS designated as Regional Tsunami Service
Provider (RTSP) for providing advisories to all Indian Ocean Rim countries. India
only country capable of providing advisories for both tsunamigenic zones: Makran
Page 57
KI
IW
coast and Andaman-Sumatra sub-duction zone. * Cyclone Prediction. Remarkable

improvements: Recent events such as Thane, Phailin, and Helen and Hudhud. * Modeling
Monsoon: A dynamic model employed to predict quantitative precipitation associated
with the southwest monsoon. * Helping Recovery of Naval Science and Technological
Laboratory (NSTL) heavy weight torpedo 'VARUNASTRA ' . The support and
participation by Vessel Management Cell of MoES ESSO-NIOT and crew of Sagar-Nidhi
vital. * Make in India in High-end S&T: Deployed first Sub-surface Ocean Moored
Observatory in the Arctic. ESSO-NCAOR and the ESSO-NIOT successfully deployed
IndARC, the country ' s first multi-sensor moored observatory in the Kongsfjorden
fjord of the Arctic, roughly half way between Norway and the North Pole. This is a
testimony to the capabilities of India in designing, developing and installing underwater
observatories. * Investing for our future talent:, New thrust in Human Resource
Development. Indian Scientists teach and train in Scale. International Scientists to teach
in India. Opportunities for attracting Overseas Indian Scientists to return to India. *
Enhanced Innovation Ecosystem: Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council
now supports nearly 300 companies, 100 young entrepreneurs. Biotechnology Translational
research and industry academia partnership are being promoted through 3 Biotech
clusters, 8 Biotech Parks and 13 Bioincubators. * Rotavirus vaccine indigenously
developed. The developed Rotavirus Vaccine at $1 per dose has been cleared for market
license. * Decoding the Wheat Genome: 15 countries joined hands to complete this huge
task of decoding 17,000 million bases. Indian Scientists participated in Decoding
Chromosome 2A. * The Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR) provides
significant technological interventions in many areas of economic and social importance
which include environment, health, drinking water, food, housing, energy, farm and
non-farm sectors. * CSIR has 90% of US patents granted to any Indian publicly funded
R&D organization. CSIR licenses 13.86% of its patents - above global average. *
National Capacity Building and in some areas, global leadership. Example: CSIR
technology provides gasoline with less than 0.3% benzene. A 0.60 MMTPA plant is
being constructed at Reliance Refinery in Jamnagar. First in world. * Novel Broad
Spectrum Confocal Microscope: Under CSIR-CGCRI and NMITLI programme a Broad
Spectrum Confocal Microscope, world class ' Made in India ' High-end Product based
on Supercontinuum Light Source. Paved the way for India ' s presence in global
photonics research. * Strategic Sector: DHVANI, a state-of-the-art marksmanship
training system and Drishti Systems, airport visibility measuring tools. * KrishiShakti,
an indigenous diesel engine tractor. * Just Announced: Indian Neutrino Observatory.
A major high-tech Make in India initiative and a new-thrust in High-Energy Experimental
Physics. Collaboration with Department of Atomic Energy. Secretary, Ministry of S&T
Dr. K. Vijay Raghavan and Secretary, Ministry of Earth Sciences Dr. Shailesh Nayak
made presentation-
Page 58
KI
IW
Thu, Jan 22, 2015
PIB, science & tech,

Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Development of North
Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions, Atomic
Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh said here today that even as India is making rapid
strides towards achieving the goal of becoming a world power within next one decade,
it has already attained the position of a world leader in "Space" technology through
some of the recent landmark achievements. Dr Jitendra Singh expressed these views
at a meeting of Space Department officials accompanying Dr A.S.Kiran Kumar,
Secretary, Department of Space, Chairman, Space Commission and Chairman, Indian
Space Research Organisation (ISRO), during the first visit to New Delhi by the Secretary
after assuming office. Dr Jitendra Singh said, in more ways than one, ISRO and the
Indian space activities truly illustrate Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi's "Make in
India" concept. In this regard, he referred to "Mangalyaan" and the successful launch
of "Mars Orbiter Mission" (MOM) which was developed and executed through 100%
indigenous sources, material and equipment, making India the first nation which had
succeeded in its maiden attempt and ISRO, the first Asian agency to reach Mars orbit.
Similarly, India has achieved the distinction of providing cost effective launch pads for
commercial satellites for several developed countries, he added. Today ISRO conducts
a variety of experiments for foreign nations, said Dr Jitendra Singh and informed that
till December 2014, India had already launched over 30 foreign satellites for 19 countries.
Its telecommunication satellite network is one of the largest in the world, he claimed.
Some of the world acclaimed scientists at the ISRO beginning from Vikram Sarabhai
and Satish Dhawan to contemporaries like Dr U.R.Rao and Dr K.Radhakrishnan have
not only done the nation proud but have also inspired generations of youth in this
country, said Dr Jitendra Singh. The Minister added that today, the space achievements
of ISRO team are looked up by the whole world with great respect. Dr A.S.Kiran Kumar,
gave a resume to the Minister of some of the projects of ISRO in the near future and
said that the ISRO plans to carry out a Mission to the Sun during the next one year and
Chandrayaan-II Mission to the Moon around 2016-17. Similarly, Astronomy Satellite
Missions as well as Multimedia Broadcast Satellite Missions will also be carried forward
to a higher functional level in the times to come, thus further raising the graph of ISRO
capabilities in the international arena, he added.
Page 59
KI
IW
Sat, Jan 31, 2015
EPW, science & tech,

The University Grants Commission does not seem to view higher education and research
as having anything to do with the culture of intellectual activity. Rather it looks at
research as a matter of regulation, monitoring and measurement of academic "output".
This reflects in the UGC's policy to evolve universal and homogeneous evaluation
indices for academic performance where productivity is mistaken for creativity.
V Sujatha ( vsujatha011@gmail.com ) teaches Sociology in the Jawaharlal Nehru
University, New Delhi and is the Coordinator of the Global Studies Programme at the
Centre for the Study of Social Systems.
During a recent visit to one college in the interior part of central India for a conference,
I was surprised to see a state-of-the-art podium with built-in audio and video players.
The mikes functioned perfectly without the usual screeching and interruption. Development
has reached every nook and corner of the country, it seemed. But the materiality of
technology is misleading; it had nothing to do with the content of the presentations,
nor did it generate any discussion in the sessions that followed. College teachers had
sophisticated mobile phones in which they stored their notes. Proceedings of a previous
conference in a CD containing 150 articles were released. With no title, but only an
ISBN number, the CD cover said "double blind peer reviewed carrying 7.5 API (Academic
Performance Indicators) marks". The contributors to the proceedings were discussing
the money they paid to get their paper into the collection which was never reviewed;
the collection was put together haphazardly and several papers did not make sense.
Measuring Academic Performance
The point is technological infrastructure is a necessary, but not a sufficient condition
for strengthening academic performance, if we do not have a way to cultivate human
abilities along with technological provisions. Measuring academic performance through
quantitative measures of output cannot ensure that the output is of good quality unless
we have a social mechanism like the formation of academic community and peer
influence to motivate people to conduct serious research. Equating material infrastructure
and sheer output with academic excellence is not good for any science, definitely not
for the social sciences. Unfortunately, the apex government organisation in charge of
higher education, the University Grants Commission (UGC), seems content doing this
and there are very few alternatives to foster the qualitative and contextual aspects of
learning and research.
In the past, societies have fostered cultural and intellectual creativity by promoting both
Page 60
KI
IW
institutional norms and non-institutional channels as part of an atmosphere for learning.

But the UGC does not seem to view higher education and research as having anything
to do with the culture of intellectual activity. Rather it looks at research as a matter of
regulation, monitoring and measurement of academic "output". A "statist" approach
as I would call it, the UGC's policy seeks to evolve universal and homogeneous
interventions to all "problems" including quality of intellectual output. There is little
thought about the conditions of intellectual work and creativity while talking about
academic performance and often productivity is mistaken for creativity.
Language Issues
One of the key problems of the API system of measuring academic performance in the
university system is that it treats capabilities in social science and natural science
research as the same. Social sciences rely more on language skills than the natural
sciences; they require far more reading ability as part of training and research and the
felicity with language to bring out observed complexities of social life. The large
majority of books used are in English. Moreover, reading social science books and
writing academic articles in English requires much more than a basic knowledge of
English. This has been a persistent issue since the beginning, but has been compounded
by the recent expansion of higher education in the social sciences outside the higher
echelons of society.
There is little or no translation of social science writings in most regional languages;
there is very little even in Hindi, which is the national language. South Indian students
from upwardly mobile communities resolve the language problem by either avoiding
the social sciences altogether in favour of vocational or professional courses or, adopt
the survey method and bring out statistical results that could be discussed with limited
linguistic skills in English. But this may not be adequate for disciplines like social
anthropology and sociology and the enrolments for philosophy and literature are
dwindling. This is not a good sign because a narrow growth-centred education system,
where social sciences are reduced to surveys evaluating government projects, will
completely undermine the civilisational future of this country. Understanding social
life from academic social science requires some degree of conditioning and intellectual
socialisation into the historical experience of different civilisations. This is different
from the kind of conditioning and intellectual socialisation required for the physical
and natural sciences, whose dependence on language is not so fundamental. Several
generations of social science professors in India have addressed the gulf ingeniously
by using classroom teaching as an "epistemological bridge" between the world that the
student is familiar with and the world that the social science books represent. Teachers
also often explain several arguments in the regional language. But these things are not
written up for publication and so there is little available by way of social science books
and articles in the regional languages, except probably in Malayalam and Bengali.
Further the UGC API assigns least scores for publication in regional languages and
Page 61
KI
IW
does not consider translation as a valid academic activity for the social sciences. This
is a big disincentive for bilingual or trilingual writers in social sciences to write in
languages other than English as they used to do in the early 20th century.
History of ideas shows that the quality of social science research is deeply linked to
the social thought of a region, namely, the literary, cultural and political debates outside
the university. There are vibrant debates in literary and cultural circles in languages
like Tamil, Marathi and other languages which deal insightfully with the subject matter
of the social sciences, but academic social science departments in the university mostly
keep themselves aloof from these initiatives. Where the curriculum and teaching is able
to establish the link between the social thought and social science, we have pockets of
creativity. Students with weak knowledge of English also do exceedingly well, while
working upon materials in their language, rather than researching on a textbook topic
in an unknown language. Their knowledge of English and of social science simultaneously
improves as they ask questions from their own material and seek and search for answers
in social science writings. Even in surveys, access to media reports and documents in
the regional language enriches the findings.
Need of a Well-Thought-Out Pedagogy
While there is a lot of emphasis on the bureaucratic requirements of affirmative action
and reservations in the academy, there is scant attention to the need for an informed
and well-thought-out pedagogy for a heterogeneous classroom as in the Indian university.
At best UGC may focus on infrastructure like chairs, tables, buildings and amount
sanctioned for remedial classes in English. There is generally no reference to strengthening
the human element of teacher-student relationship and between student interactions. If
some institutions in this country are doing well in the social sciences, it is because of
the formation of an academic community that exerts influence on students and teachers
to think and read more to keep up with each other.
It is common for us to hear about the expansion of higher education in purely quantitative
terms, as an expansion of the number of central universities or Indian Institutes of
Technology (IITs). Rarely does the discussion venture into substantive issues about
what kind of abilities do the MA or PhD in social sciences are expected to create, what
the non-tangible (social) benefits of social science education are and how to assess
them. The UGC policy on higher education does not seem to be based on an engagement
with issues of pedagogy, translation of reading material and their connection to academic
performance in the social sciences. These crucial matters have always been part of the
tacit awareness of teachers, but discussed informally in the corridors, while recruitments,
percentage of reservations, projects and administrative procedures are part of the formal
discussions about the university system.
Today the government directives in public education do play a significant role in shaping
the modalities of learning and research and there are no powerful cultural and intellectual
Page 62
KI
IW
movements to counter the bureaucratisation of higher education. There is no doubt that

a purely managerial approach to higher education will have an adverse impact on the
intellectual culture of this subcontinent.
An education system that places high premium on academic performance in terms of
marks and focuses heavily on technical education marginalises the social sciences and
humanities also. This eliminates the possibilities of sensitising youngsters to think
critically about prevalent social practices in a growth-driven economy. Youngsters
could take to cutting-edge science and technology while remaining uncritical of social
inequalities and deprivation. The official bodies of social science on their part have
reduced the social sciences into mute degree-producing disciplines in which the
curriculum has little connection to the linguistic and cognitive universe of the students.
Social science students are likely to have little to take back from social science to their
social milieu and less chance of bringing the richness of their cultural world into
academic research.
The urban middle class is already alienated from the idea of tradition as knowledge of
body, ecology, proverbs, folk tales, etc, and largely experience tradition in terms of
caste rules or religious rituals. Youngsters who are more and more estranged from the
regional knowledge traditions of their region in the broader sense - mother tongue,
dialects, music, dance, literature, folk arts, medical lore and philosophy - end up holding
on to narrow religious identities and practices in the face of economic prosperity. Several
studies have noted the resurgence of religious identity in the present generation even
more than those of the 1970s and 1980s. Thus we could have a flourishing technocracy,
bureaucracy along with parochial theocracies.
This is happening in other Asian countries which have adopted growth-centred and
managerial models of development in the education sector. While their universities
have all the amenities, there is little work in social science and virtually no possibility
of contribution to philosophy, literature and creative arts from the university system,
nor any link between university education and social thought outside the formal system.
Religious polarisation and identity assertion are already on the anvil among students
here; democracy and freedom of expression are precarious.
The system of global ranking of universities is oblivious to the social and cultural role
of the university as an institution in heterogeneous societies of the global South. The
managerial approach to higher education is devoid of a vision of intellectual and creative
potential of the people and will lead to a lopsided civilisation. The recent directive of
the Ministry of Human Resource Development to IITs about separating mess arrangements
for vegetarians and non-vegetarians is a good example of how "human resource
development" could have more to do with identity and nothing to do with human abilities
and creativity.
In Conclusion
Page 63
KI
IW
This does not mean that evaluation is not desirable, but that the criteria should be
context-sensitive and the interventions should take human and cognitive aspects of
learning along technological and administrative considerations. Holding separate
workshops to collate suggestions from teachers in the humanities, creative arts and the
social sciences, strengthening students' participation in curriculum design and supporting
reading and discussion groups could be some steps in these directions. But this is
possible only under two conditions: the narrow mindset that privileges science and
technology and neglects the significance of philosophy, linguistics, arts, social sciences,
etc, has to go and the managerial approach of reducing everything to tangible quantitative
measures and to encashability has to be substituted by a more inclusive approach.
Page 64

Sci Tech January 2015 2

Încărcat de

Informații document

Drepturi de autor

Formate disponibile

Partajați acest document

Partajați sau inserați document

Opțiuni de partajare

Vi se pare util acest document?

Este necorespunzător acest conținut?

Drepturi de autor:

Formate disponibile

Sci Tech January 2015 2

Încărcat de

Drepturi de autor:

Formate disponibile

KI

Bridge gap between planning and engineering to shift to sustainable m

Countries rushing to ban Styrofoam food containers

India denies Gilead patent for hepatitis C drug, sofosbuvir

New antibiotics found from soil a breakthrough against drug resistanc

NASA curiosity rover smashes Mars rock

Bovine TB: culling of badgers less effective strategy for controlling

WHO approves use of meningitis vaccine on infants

Scientists discover 'safe' GMOs

How will science aid development in India in near future?

Real pride of ancient indian science

NASA explores inflatable spacecraft technology

Question corner: What is the difference between GSLV and PSLV?

Charles Townes, Nobel winner for co-inventing laser, dies aged 99

Gilead licences Strides to make, distribute AIDS drug in 112 countries

Novel mechanism may lead to better TB control

Notes by RAJESHNAYAK on www.kiwipaper.com

Scientists without a scientific temper

Testing for pesticide residues in vegetables

'EU should curb mercury emissions from cremations'

First nuclear bomb set off the Anthropocene

Neutrino Observatory project may get nod soon

'ISRO working on aspects of manned mission'

Scientists find promising new antibiotic

Rosetta hints at 'key to life' on comet's core

Mythology and science

Researchers to look at farm practices, 'superbugs' link

What will be the India-based Neutrino Observatory's impact?

Bt cotton not to blame for farm distress: scientists

Obama calls for stronger, standardised online data protection

Here is our big fat problem

Ice deposits waxed, waned on Mars: study

Researchers produce two biofuels from single algae

Notes by RAJESHNAYAK on www.kiwipaper.com

NASA's Opportunity rover completes 11 years on Mars

All you wanted to know about: Black Box

ISRO gears up to launch IRNSS 1D

Innovation - make it smart and frugal

New antibiotic kills pathogens without resistance

Giant leap for ISRO

Scientific Research to be the Engine for 'Make In India' in Years to Come

India already a world leader in 'Space': Dr Jitendra Singh

The Academic Performance Indicators Regime and Its Follies

Notes by RAJESHNAYAK on www.kiwipaper.com

Wave energy could prove to be more steady, cheaper renewable energy s

Wed, Jan 14, 2015

Down to Earth, science & tech,

Notes by RAJESHNAYAK on www.kiwipaper.com

Mon, Jan 19, 2015

Down to Earth, science & tech,

The Eighth Regional Environmentally Sustainable Transport forum held at Colombo

Notes by RAJESHNAYAK on www.kiwipaper.com

Notes by RAJESHNAYAK on www.kiwipaper.com

than competing with each other.

Countries rushing to ban Styrofoam food containers

Fri, Jan 9, 2015

Down to Earth, science & tech,

Notes by RAJESHNAYAK on www.kiwipaper.com

India denies Gilead patent for hepatitis C drug, sofosbuvir

Fri, Jan 16, 2015

Down to Earth, science & tech,

Notes by RAJESHNAYAK on www.kiwipaper.com

New antibiotics found from soil a breakthrough against drug resistanc

Thu, Jan 8, 2015