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Ancient tradition met modernity, when Britain’s King Charles III was crowned at Westminster Abbey in a two-hour ceremony that was watched by millions of Britons and many more across the world.
The constitutional monarch formally ascended the throne at the age of 74, as titular head of the U.K. and 14 former commonwealth countries.
Charles’s ascension to the throne is in sharp contrast to his mother’s. Queen Elizabeth II became queen in 1953 at the age of 25, as countries of the former British Empire were freeing themselves from their colonial past, and Britain occupied a more central role in the world.
Some 70 years later, on a characteristically wet and overcast English spring morning, the king, looking solemn as he travelled with the Queen Consort, Camilla, in a coach drawn by six ‘Windsor Greys’, arrived at a packed Abbey — which saw its first coronation in 1066.
In attendance were his extended family, friends, those involved with volunteering (one of the king’s pet causes), as well as heads of state and government.
India was represented at the weekend’s events by Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar and wife Sudesh Dhankhar.
French President Emmanuel Macron and First Lady Brigitte Macron, and U.S. First Lady Jill Biden, Prime Ministers of Commonwealth “realms”, of which the British monarch is the head of state, also attended Saturday’s coronation.
States
Scientists identify mutations in DNA for early diagnosis of drug resistant bacteria for TB (Page no. 6)
(GS Paper 2, Health)
Tuberculosis (TB) is a treatable disease, but drug resistance is now a major public health concern exacerbated by the emergence of multi and extensively drug-resistant TB.
India has the highest burden of Multi-Drug Resistant-TB (MDR-TB) bacteria with the World Health Organisation (WHO) putting the figure at 0.39 million cases worldwide and highlighting the need to stop its spread.
If long treatment, higher drug toxicity, and costly drug treatment make the MDR and extensively drug-resistant (XDR) TB challenging to treat, a group of scientists led by CSIR-Centre for Cellular & Molecular Biology (CCMB) director Vinay Kumar Nandicoori has, in a new study, established that mutations in DNA repair genes could be used for the early diagnosis of MDR/XDR-TB.
The study authored National Institute of Immunology (NII)‘s Saba Naz and University of Delhi’s CGMCP - Centre for Genetic Manipulation of Crop Plants, Paritiosh Kumar and researchers from other institutes had for the first time identified a ‘compromised DNA repair’ as one of the novel mechanisms for the evolution of drug resistance in Mycobacterium Tuberculosis (Mtb) which causes Tuberculosis (TB) in humans.
News
Early diagnosis, treatment of diabetes in pregnant women benefit infants, finds study (Page no. 7)
(GS Paper 2, Health)
Early diagnosis and treatment of gestational diabetes mellitus results in additional protection for babies and mothers from pregnancy complications, as per the results of a multi-centric, randomised controlled trial published recently in the New England Journal of Medicine.
The study, named TOBOGM, was performed at 17 hospitals in Australia, Austria, Sweden and India; recruited 802 women with a diabetes risk factor before 20 weeks’ gestation. Gestational Diabetes Mellitus (GDM) is a form of diabetes which is first diagnosed during pregnancy.
Lead author David Simmons from the Western Sydney University’s School of Medicine and Translational Health Research Institute said the study provided new evidence for those deemed to be at higher risk for early testing and treatment of gestational diabetes beyond the current recommended approach of intervening at 24-28 weeks.
The study assessed pregnancy outcomes with the initiation of treatment for GDM before 20 weeks, compared with no early treatment and subsequent initiation of treatment at 24-28 weeks gestation.
Over one in 20 babies avoided a group of severe birth complications including birth damage like broken bones or nerves, or getting stuck during birth. In addition, breathing problems requiring oxygen were almost halved and the number of days needed in neonatal intensive care or special care unit was down by 40%”.
From Chennai, the Madras Diabetes Research Foundation and Seethapathy Clinic, an obstetric care centre, were part of the global study.
MDRF chairman V. Mohan said the study is a clear game changer. He hoped that this study would result in revising (timing of) diagnosis and treatment for GDM, across the world.
Uma Ram of Seethapathy Clinic said, “The study will help in earlier diagnosis and management of GDM which today affects at least 25%, i.e. one in four of all pregnant women”.
R.M. Anjana, president, MDRF, pointed out that in India, screening for GDM in the first trimester has already been part of the guidelines, but, the study provides the first RCT-based evidence that treatment in the first trimester of GDM is not only beneficial but free of any significant adverse effects.
After crash, Army grounds advanced light helicopter fleet again for checks (Page no. 7)
(GS Paper 3, Defence)
The crash landing of the Army’s advanced light helicopter, ALH-MKIII, last week was not due to a snag in the control rods, unlike in earlier cases, but a different problem which is still being ascertained, it has been learnt.
Meanwhile, the Army has grounded its advanced light helicopter fleet once again for precautionary checks following the incident.
The fleet has been grounded as a precaution as required checks are being carried out,” a defence source said. In this case, it was not the control rods, but some other issue.
The three services and the Coast Guard had all grounded their advanced light helicopter fleets after a Navy ALH-MkIII was ditched at sea on March 8, followed by a Coast Guard ALH also reporting an incident.
The entire fleet was put through extensive checks by teams from Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL), and only a few batches were recently cleared to fly.
Senior defence officials said that the recent inquiry pointed to a critical design issue with the control rods, which had been the reason for several incidents in the past as well.
While the Navy advanced light helicopters continue to remain grounded, the Indian Air Force (IAF) and Coast Guard have a small batch of the helicopters flying.
The fleet of the IAF which has undergone the checks instituted by the HAL after the Navy and Coast Guard incidents in March is continuing with operations, Air Force sources said, adding that the helicopters which are undergoing these checks will be cleared for flying after completion.
Also, the IAF has taken no fresh decision with regard to flying the ALHs following the incident last week. The situation with the Coast Guard is also the same.
China will want to make India’s U.S. ties costly, says Joseph Torigian (Page no. 9)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
In the months since China’s Party Congress in October, protests around the country in November, and the sudden withdrawal of the ‘zero-COVID’ policy the following month, the ruling Communist Party of China is looking to course correct, says Joseph Torigian, Global Fellow at the Wilson Center’s History and Public Policy Program and an Assistant Professor at the School of International Service at the American University, Washington D.C., who researches the elite politics of authoritarian regimes and is currently visiting India.
General Secretary Xi Jinping has been able ‘to get away with these shifts’ in policy given his ‘dominant’ position in the party, he adds, and has maneuvered the Chinese system to avoid pushback at the elite level. Xi’s third term is unlikely to see a fundamental change in worsening China-U.S. relations.
While China will be concerned about pushing India too far in the direction of the U.S., it will also want to make India’s relationship with the U.S. costly. Edited excerpts.
World
Pakistan and China vow to press ahead with CPEC (Page no. 13)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
A day after India criticised the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), the Foreign Ministers of Pakistan and China on Saturday expressed their firm commitment to continue their cooperation on the multi-billion dollar infrastructure projects.
This came at the 4th edition of the Pakistan-China Strategic Dialogue co-chaired by Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and his Chinese counterpart Qin Gang here.
Pakistan and China have reiterated their abiding commitment to the high-quality development of China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project.
Earlier, speaking at a press conference after the SCO Foreign Ministers’ meeting in Goa, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar said: “On the so-called China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, I think it was made very clear, not once but twice in the SCO meeting, that connectivity is good for progress, but connectivity cannot violate the sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
Later, Mr. Bilawal addressing a joint press conference with Mr. Qin said this year marked the completion of a decade of CPEC, which has accelerated socio-economic development, job creation, and improvement of people’s livelihoods in Pakistan.
The CPEC is a $60 billion project being laid through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) with China’s assistance. India is opposed to the CPEC as it passes through the PoK, giving China access to the Arabian Sea through the Gwadar port in Pakistan’s Balochistan province.
The Chinese Foreign Minister said China stood ready to work with Pakistan to promote the high-quality development of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), accelerate the CPEC construction, and deepen cooperation in fields such as industry, agriculture, information technology, and disaster prevention and mitigation, and help Pakistan restore its economy and improve people’s livelihood.
Science
FDA approves first vaccine for respiratory syncytial virus (Page no. 14)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Technology)
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the first vaccine — Arexvy — for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) to lower respiratory tract disease in people older than 60 years. This is the first RSV vaccine to be approved anywhere in the world.
The vaccine is manufactured by the company, GSK, and the FDA approval was based on a phase-3 trial carried out on nearly 25,000 participants. About 12,500 participants received one dose of the vaccine, while the remaining participants received a placebo.
The trail showed that a single dose of the vaccine reduced the risk of people, older than 60 years, developing lower respiratory tract disease caused by the RSV virus by 82.6% and reduced the risk of developing severe disease by 94.1%.
According to the U.S. Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, lower respiratory tract disease caused by the RSV virus leads to approximately 60,000-1,20,000 hospitalisations and 6,000-10,000 deaths among adults who are 65 years of age and older.
The RSV virus significantly affects older adults with comorbidities. Like the common cold, the RSV usually causes mild symptoms but can turn deadly if it infects older people.
Besides older adults, infants too are at high risk from RSV. According to the Atlanta-based CDC, every year, 58,000 to 80,000 children in the U.S. who are younger than five years are hospitalised because of the RSV and the mortality is 100 to 300.
Scientists help find new kind of molecular motor (Page no. 14)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Technology)
An international team of researchers, including from the National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS), Bengaluru, has reported a new kind of molecular motor.
The finding, significant in its own right, opens the door to previously unanticipated cellular processes and potential applications in biology and medicine.
Each cell in the body is a complex soup of electrochemical reactions that produce energy, but they are not enough. Cells also need to move things, such as pull two organelles together, move cargo towards and away from the nucleus, and power the movement of subcellular molecules. Many of these actions are driven by molecular motors, which use biochemical energy to do mechanical work.
“Disruption or deregulation in these processes can lead to deleterious effects which can manifest as different diseases,” Saikat Chowdhury, a senior scientist at the CSIR-Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad, said in an email.
In a2016 paper, researchers from Australia and Germany reported that when an enzyme called Rab5 binds to a long protein calledEEA1,the protein loses its taut and rigid shape and becomes floppy. This ‘collapse’ pulls two membranes inside a cell closer to each other.
In the new study, researchers have reported that EEA1regains its rigid shape in another mechanism so that it can become floppy again to pull the membranes closer,creating a new kind of two-part molecular motor.
When the 2016 paper was published, it was unclear whether EEA1 could resume its rigid shape, so that the whole process could repeat itself without the help of other proteins.