How is India addressing sickle cell anaemia (GS Paper 2, Health)
Why in news?
- Sickle cell anaemia (SCA), a genetic blood disorder, found mention in the Union Budget 2023-24. Finance Minister said that the government will work in “mission mode” to eliminate the condition by 2047.
- India is the second-worst affected country in terms of predicted births with SCA — i.e. chances of being born with the condition.
What is sickle cell anaemia?
- Haemoglobin which is tasked with carrying oxygen to all parts of the body, has four protein subunits, two alpha and two beta. In some people, mutations in the gene that creates the beta subunits impact the shape of the blood cell and distorts it to look like a sickle.
- A round red blood cell can move easily through blood vessels because of its shape but sickle red blood cells end up slowing, and even blocking, the blood flow. Moreover, sickle cells die early, resulting in a shortage of red blood cells that deprive the body of oxygen.
- These obstructions and shortages may cause chronic anaemia, pain, fatigue, acute chest syndrome, stroke, and a host of other serious health complications. Without treatment, quality of life is compromised and severe cases can become fatal in the initial years of life.
Does SCA only affect some?
- Research and screening programmes have found that the prevalence of haemoglobinopathies, disorders of the blood,is more common among tribal populations than non-tribal communities in India.
- Research has shown that SCA is prevalent in communities residing in areas where malaria is endemic. Around the middle 1940s, doctors found that those with sickle red blood cells were more likely to survive malaria.
- Those with the trait in some African countries were found to be potentially resistant to lethal forms of malaria and had a survival advantage. The sickle cell trait thus gave an evolutionary advantage, offering immunity to some people during malaria epidemics.
- In India, States and UTs with tribal populations contribute a significant malaria case load. Additionally, the documented prevalence of SCA is higher in communities that practice endogamy, as the chances of having two parents with sickle cell trait is higher.
Can it be treated?
- Sickle cell anaemia is a genetic disorder, making complete “elimination” a challenge that requires major scientific breakthrough. The only cure comes in the form of gene therapy and stem cell transplants — both costly and still in developmental stages.
- Blood transfusion, wherein red blood cells are removed from donated blood and given to a patient, is also a trusted treatment in the absence of permanent cures. But challenges include a scarcity of donors, fears around safe supply of blood, risk of infection etc.
What has India done so far?
- The Indian Council of Medical Research and the National Rural Health Mission in different States are undertaking outreach programmes for better management and control of the disease.
- The Ministry of Tribal Affairs launched a portal wherein people can register themselves if they have the disease or the trait, in order to collate all information related to SCA among tribal groups.
- In the Budget, the Union Health Minister said the government plans to distribute “special cards” across tribal areas to people below the age of 40.
Measuring an electron’s magnetic moment with extreme accuracy
(GS Paper 3, Science and Tech)
Why in news?
- In a new study, physicists recently reported measuring the electron’s magnetic moment with a precision of 0.13 parts per trillion (ppt). The resulting measurement is 2.2 times more accurate than the previous best, recorded 14 years ago.
- This, however, has raised some questions about one of physics’s most successful theories,the Standard Model of particle physics.
The Standard Model:
- The Standard Model (SM) is the theory that describes the properties of all subatomic particles, classifies them into different groups, and determines how they’re affected by three of the four fundamental forces of nature: strong-nuclear force, weak-nuclear force, and electromagnetic force.
- In the 1960s, physicists used SM to predict the existence of a particle called the Higgs boson, which was finally discovered in 2012.
- Similarly, the SM has allowed physicists to successfully predict the existence and properties of dozens of particles and is considered to be one of the most successful theories in the history of physics. However, it still can’t explain why the universe has more matter than antimatter, what dark matter is, or what dark energy is.
How does the electron’s magnetic moment matter?
- The SM’s most precise prediction is of the electron’s magnetic moment. Physically, the magnetic moment describes how willing an electron is to align itself in the direction of a magnetic field.
- Mathematically, it’s equal to –/B. Here, (pronounced mew) is the electron’s magnetic moment (measured in amperes sq.metres) and B is a physical constant called the Bohr magneton. Together,-/B is a dimensionless number.
- In the new study, researchers in the U.S. suspended a single electron in a magnetic field at an ultracold temperature inside a vacuum chamber, and measured currents induced in nearby electrodes by the electron’s movement. They measured the value of –/B to be 1.00115965218059, within 0.13 ppt.
- They achieved such a precise result by closely controlling the electric fields that hold the electron in place, stabilising the magnetic field, and finely adjusting the physical properties of the hardware, thus subtracting the sources of uncertainty that could affect the data.
Implications of the result:
While the result could be good for the SM, it is also affected by two open questions:
- First, the electron and the muon are very similar particles, but the muon is around 207 times heavier. Multiple measurements until 2021 have found that the muon’s magnetic moment disagrees with the SM prediction by about 0.00000000251.
- If this is the handiwork of beyond-SM forces acting on the particle, their effects should be visible on the electron’s magnetic moment as well.
- But because the electron is lighter, the effects will be 40,000 times weaker. By achieving such a highly precise result, the new result suggests that the physicists couldn’t find these signs.
Discrepancy:
- Second, a series of mathematical calculations connect the data that physicists record in an experiment and the value of the electron’s magnetic moment.
- One of these calculations involves the fine structure constant () – a universal constant that specifies the strength with which an electron couples to the electromagnetic field. (If it couples more strongly, the field will exert a greater force on the electron.)
- Two studies published in 2018 and 2020 measured the value of and reached two distinct answers differing by 0.00000016. They should have reached the same answer since is a constant. If this discrepancy is resolved, the physicists’ measurement can test the SM prediction to 10 times more precision.
What’s next?
- Physicists will test as many of the SM’s predictions as they can, to the extent they can, to look for a crack in its façade.
- Physicists have also built detectors to look for different kinds of hypothetical dark-matter particles, are combing through astronomical data to make sense of dark energy, and are scrutinising each other’s calculations.
- Many of them are also debating whether they need an even larger supercollider to succeed the Large Hadron Collider. The group that measured the electron’s magnetic moment itself has plans to upgrade its setup and repeat the measurement with the electron’s anti-particle, the positron.
- All together, the community hopes that at least one of these efforts, guided by the principles they uncover in their theoretical studies, will reveal a glimpse of a world beyond the Standard Model.
India plans to export solar power
(GS Paper 3, Environment)
Why in news?
- By 2026, Indian industry will be able to manufacture every year solar modules that can generate 100 gigawatts of power, and help the country be a net exporter of solar power.
- This will significantly aid India’s target of installing 500 GW of electricity capacity from non-fossil sources by 2030.
Challenges in India’s solar energy target:
- India was to have installed 175 GW of renewable energy, from solar, wind, biomass and small hydropower sources by December 2022, but has only installed 122 GW. Of this, solar power was to have been 100 GW, though only 62 GW has been installed.
- A key bottleneck has been the cost of solar modules (or panels). While India has traditionally relied on Chinese-made components such as polysilicone wafers, necessary to make modules, higher customs duty on them (to make equivalent Indian-manufactured components more competitive) has shrunk supply.
- Apart from module prices, land acquisition has been a major challenge for solar power manufacturers. Despite the Centre commissioning 57 large solar parks with a capacity of 40 GW in recent years, only 10 GW has been operationalised.
Future phase:
- The future phase of India’s renewable energy development will be led by hybrid projects and renewable energy parks that will host solar and wind projects along with battery storage systems.
- States have been demanding consistent, dependable power and that can be done only if solar and wind power is stored and made available on demand. This is, of course, a challenge globally.
PM KUSUM:
- The Pradhan Mantri Kisan Urja Suraksha evam Uttham Mahabhiyan (PM KUSUM) scheme, which aims to help farmers access reliable daytime solar power for irrigation, reduce power subsidies, and thereby decarbonise agriculture, was behind schedule because of the “high cost of finance” for farmers.
- Under the scheme, ₹34,422 crore is to be spent by the Centre to have farmers or farmer groups install 10,000-MW solar power plants, installation of 20-lakh solar-powered agriculture pumps that are not connected to the grid (off-grid), and converting 15 lakh agriculture pumps that are already connected to the grid into solar-powered pumps.
- As of December 31, 2022 only 88.46 MW of solar capacity had been added, 181,058 solar pumps had been installed, and 1,174 grid-connected pumps had been converted. The deadline for the scheme has been shifted to 2026.
