India Post becomes logistics partner for crores of traders (GS Paper 3, Economy)
Why in news?
- Recently, India Post signed an MoU with Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) and Tripta Technologies.
Details:
- The MoU facilitates operationalisation of a portal called 'Bharat EMart', which will provide the facility of pick-up of consignments from the premises of traders and will ensure delivery at the doorsteps of the consignees across the country.
- It is believed that it will benefits eight crore traders associated with CAIT.
Similar agreements:
- India Post in the recent past has entered into similar agreements with Government e-Marketplace (GeM), Regional Centers of Tribal Cooperative Marketing Development Federation of India Limited (TRIFED), to provide pick-up and delivery of parcels at the doorsteps of the consignees.
- Shortly, India Post will onboard itself on the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) platform, being developed by Ministry of Commerce as a logistics service provider.
Transformation of Department of Posts:
- Technology induction and addition of new services have made India Post a modern and multiple service providers.
- Today, it provides banking, insurance, and the last mile delivery of benefits of several welfare schemes run by the Government to every village through its network of 1.59 lakh Post Offices.
Way Forward:
- The MoU with CAIT and Bharat e-Mart would provide much needed logistics support to small traders in the country which would increase their businesses and also the opportunities for employment.
BITS-Pilani Hyderabad develops illness-detecting mask with sensor
(GS Paper 3, Science and Tech)
Context:
- That a face mask can protect against COVID-19 and other respiratory diseases is well established.
- Now, it can also be used as a non-invasive device to check one’s health as has been successfully demonstrated by researchers at the Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems, Microfluids and Nanoelectronics Lab on the BITS-Pilani Hyderabad campus.
Key Highlights:
- They designed and developed a Kirigami-based stretchable, flexible Laser induced Graphene (LIG) a 3-D carbon nanomaterial, for real-time attachments with surgical masks.
- LIG is a widely used material for monitoring vital physiological signs such as breath rate (BR) or respiratory rate (RR), body temperature, pulse rate, and blood oxygen saturation.
- Researchers used the sensor attached to a gas mask to analyse the breath pattern of the subject seated on a chair by validating the change in resistance during inhalation and exhalation.
Applications:
- The rate of breathing generally varies based on age unless the person is diseased. Fitness of a person can be determined by Breath Index or simply, by measuring RR and BR.
- The sensor can be placed over the mouth and nose without causing any irritation while ensuring stable working.
- Applications in various scenarios have been carried out demonstrating potential in healthcare, disease diagnosis, e-skin, and so on with the detection capacity being less than one second.
