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The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has placed the Aditya-L1 spacecraft in a halo orbit around the Lagrangian point (L1).
India’s maiden solar mission, Aditya-L1, reached the L1 point on Saturday, 127 days after it was launched on September 2, 2023.
After a 1.5-million-km journey, the spacecraft was placed in the orbit following a firing manoeuvre carried out by scientists and engineers at the ISRO Telemetry Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC), Bengaluru.
ISRO Chairman S. Somanath told presspersons that the halo orbit insertion process was carried out as intended. “Today’s event was to place the Aditya L-1 in the precise halo orbit.
The spacecraft was moving towards the halo orbit, but we had to make some corrections to put it in the right place. If we do not do the correction today, there could have been a possibility that it could escape from this point [L1].
But we would not have allowed that to happen as there are some contingencies in place, but I am only telling mathematically it can escape,” he said.
New digital tools set to save Kashmiri script from disuse (Page no. 1)
(GS Paper 1, Culture)
For centuries, the Kashmiri language has survived only through oral traditions; by 2013, those who could write the script fell to just 5%.
This year, two tech giants, Microsoft and Google, will infuse a new lease of life into the language, whose rich literature continues to remain accessible only to a small section of people.
As most adult Kashmiris, Azar Nazir, 40, a poet and resident of Srinagar, can only transliterate Kashmiri words into English; he cannot write in his mother tongue.
When I was growing up in the 1980s and 1990s, the Kashmiri language was neither taught in schools nor preferred at homes. Like many, I have the handicap of not being able to read and write in Kashmiri.
Linguists in the Kashmir Valley are hoping for a turnaround this year, thanks to the giants of Silicon Valley. Microsoft India’s MS Translator software has now included the Kashmiri language.
In November 2023, an online campaign was on to get Kashmiri included in Google Translate as well; this demand has also been accepted and is likely to be rolled out in the next six months.
News
Centre notifies revised rules for quality control of pharma products (Page no. 9)
(GS Paper 2, Health)
Aimed at ensuring robust quality control for pharma and biopharmaceutical products, the Union Health Ministry notified revised rules under Schedule M of the Drugs and Cosmetics Rules, 1945.
Schedule M prescribes the Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) for pharmaceutical products and the revised Schedule M has been notified as rules to ensure that GMP is adhered to and requirements of premises, plant, and equipment for pharmaceutical products are met.
The GMP is the mandatory standard that builds and brings quality into a product by way of control of materials, methods, machines, processes, personnel, facility/environment and so on. GMP was first incorporated in Schedule M of the Drugs and Cosmetics Rules, 1945 in 1988 and was last amended in June 2005.
With the amendment, the words ‘Good Manufacturing Practices’ (GMP) have been replaced with ‘Good Manufacturing Practices and Requirements of Premises, Plant and Equipment for Pharmaceutical Products’.
To keep pace with fast-changing manufacturing and quality domain, there was a necessity to revisit and revise the principles and concept of GMP mentioned in current Schedule M.
This would bring our GMP recommendations on a par with global standards, especially to those of the World Health Organization (WHO), and ensure production of globally acceptable quality of drug.
World
Myanmar rebel group takes control of a key town near Chinese border (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
A Myanmar rebel alliance has gained control of a key town along the country’s volatile northern border with China after weeks of fierce fighting with junta troops.
The Three Brotherhood Alliance, as the group is known, said on Friday it had taken over Laukkai town after the military’s regional headquarters located there surrendered.
The fall of Laukkai is the rebels’ latest victory in a sweeping offensive that began in October and has become the most significant threat to Myanmar’s military government since it seized power in a 2021 coup.
All Kokang (Laukkai) region has become a land with no Myanmar Military Council anymore,” the rebels said in a statement.
Junta spokesman Zaw Min Tun told local media Popular News on Saturday that the military had decided to surrender after “great consideration.
The alliance comprises three groups with extensive fighting experience — the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), the Ta’ang National Liberation Army and the Arakan Army.
Science
Study reveals the oldest evidence of photosynthesis (Page no. 11)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Technology)
The oldest evidence of photosynthetic structures reported to date has been identified inside a collection of 1.75-billion-year-old microfossils, a paper published in the journal Nature reveals. The discovery helps to shed light on the evolution of oxygenic photosynthesis.
Oxygenic photosynthesis, in which sunlight catalyses the conversion of water and carbon dioxide into glucose and oxygen, is unique to cyanobacteria and related organelles within eukaryotes.
Cyanobacteria had an important role in the evolution of early life and were active during the Great Oxidation Event around 2.4 billion years ago, but the timings of the origins of oxygenic photosynthesis are debated owing to limited evidence.
Catherine Demoulin from the University of Liège, Liège, Belgium and others present direct evidence of fossilised photosynthetic structures from Navifusa majensis.
The microstructures are thylakoids; membrane-bound structures found inside the chloroplasts of plants and some modern cyanobacteria.
The authors identified them in fossils from two different locations, but the oldest, which come from the McDermott Formation in Australia, are 1.75 billion years old.
Should India study wastewater to track malaria, dengue? (Page no. 11)
(GS Paper 2, Health)
Wastewater surveillance is an excellent tool to monitor the presence of specific pathogens well before they can be detected through laboratory testing.
It has been routinely used for decades for tracking the polio virus in almost every country. Water-borne viruses can be best studied through testing sewage samples.
If wastewater surveillance provides accurate information about the presence of polio virus excreted by humans, in the case of other pathogens, for instance SARS-CoV-2 virus, it helps provide information on new variants and virus load which serves as a proxy for the extent of virus spread in the community.
The biggest advantage of wastewater surveillance is that it is cost-effective and can independently confirm the presence of pathogens before laboratory testing throws up a warning signal.
For instance, wastewater surveillance carried out by theTata Institute for Genetics and Society (TIGS) in Bengaluru was able to detect a silent wave of theXBB.1.16 Omicron variant in the city last year.
With the usefulness of wastewater surveillance during the pandemic established, researchers in developed countries have used it for tracking other diseases such as monkeypox, influenza and cholera.
In a paper published in November last year in the journalScience Translational Medicine, researchers in the U.S. have suggested that wastewater surveillance be expanded to track dengue, malaria, Zika and typhoid.
FAQ
How has Red Sea trouble impacted India? (Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
A spate of attacks on cargo ships in the Red Sea since November by the Houthi militia of Yemen has turned the quickest marine route linking Asia with Europe through the Suez Canal unsafe.
It has forced freighters to take a longer transit around the Cape of Good Hope in Africa’s southern tip, making shipments both dearer and longer to deliver.
It has compounded the woes of global trade as it emerges from the aftermath of the pandemic, feels the heat of the Russia-Ukraine war and grapples with a global economic slowdown.
After the attacks, major cargo shipping lines decided they would not operate on this route. Even small feeder vessels have of late stopped plying in these waters.
Almost 90% of western hemisphere cargo, both inbound or shipped from India, that used to go through the Red Sea is now getting re-routed through the Cape of Good Hope, according to the Federation of Indian Export Organisations’ Director-General Ajay Sahai.
Whether exporting to Europe, the U.S. east coast and even to countries in North Africa, the longer route is being used. The remaining 10% of Indian import or export cargo is either not moving or using a transit facility.
Why have truck drivers called for a strike? (Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 2, Polity and Constitution)
Truck drivers announced a month-long strike on January 1 to protest against stricter punishment for hit-and-run cases under the new law, the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023.
As drivers of trucks, buses, and oil tankers staged demonstrations and blocked roads at several places across States, including Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Punjab, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, it led to fears of fuel shortage. On the second day of the strike, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) held a meeting with one of the transporters’ bodies, the All-India Motor Transport Congress (AIMTC), to defuse the situation.
Section 106 (1) of the BNS says, “Whoever causes death of any person by doing any rash or negligent act not amounting to culpable homicide, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to five years, and shall also be liable to fine.”
And Section 106 (2) states, “Whoever causes death of any person by rash and negligent driving of vehicle not amounting to culpable homicide, and escapes without reporting it to a police officer or a Magistrate soon after the incident, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description of a term which may extend to ten years, and shall also be liable to fine.”
Business
New AIF norms mandate investment in demat form (Page no. 14)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) brought into effect its November 2023 Board decisions that, among other things, extended the requirement of mandatory appointment of custodians by Alternate Investment Funds (AIFs) to schemes with a corpus of less than or equal to ₹500 crore.
Till now, this norm was applicable to Category III, II and I AIFs with a corpus of more than ₹500 crore. Now, the norm has been extended to all AIFs.
Effective January 5, SEBI has amended its 2012 regulations to also stipulate tha that AIFs can hold securities of investments only in dematerialised form subject to certain exceptions.
The exclusions are investments by AIFs in instruments which are not eligible for dematerialisation and investments held by a liquidation scheme of AIF that are not available in dematerialised form.
SEBI has also empowered itself to specify in future such other investments of AIFs or such other schemes of AIFs that need not be covered under the dematerialisation requirement.