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In a few weeks’ time, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) hopes to achieve a remarkable feat — the 200th successful launch of the Rohini RH-200 sounding rocket in a row.
The 3.5-metre-tall RH-200, a trusted member of the Rohini sounding rocket family used by the ISRO for atmospheric studies, has completed 198 consecutive successful flights, according to the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), Thumba.
The 199th launch, from Thumba, will happen on October 7 during the World Space Week celebrations. The 200th will take place either towards the end of October or the beginning of November.
When RH-200 was first introduced, we were taking our baby steps in rocketry. So there was focus on aspects such as spin-stabilisation and solid motors, in addition to atmospheric studies. Sounding rockets have since been used for a variety of experiments, including those on phenomena related to eclipses.
RH-200 is a two-stage rocket capable of climbing to a height of 70 km bearing scientific payloads. The first and second stages of RH-200 are powered by solid motors.
The ‘200’ in the name denotes the diameter of the rocket in mm. Other operational Rohini variants are RH-300 Mk-II and RH-560 Mk-III.
Sounding rockets have an important place in the ISRO story. The first sounding rocket to be launched from Thumba was the American Nike-Apache - on November 21, 1963.
After that, two-stage rockets imported from Russia (M-100) and France (Centaure) were flown. The ISRO launched its own version - Rohini RH-75 - in 1967.
The sounding rocket programme ‘‘was indeed the bedrock on which the edifice of launch vehicle technology was built.Today, these small rockets are launched both from the Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station (TERLS) and the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota.
The ISRO has launched more than 1,600 RH-200 rockets so far. The rocket celebrated its 100th consecutive successful mission on July 15, 2015.
Over the years, the rocket has served as a flexible platform for experiments and testing out new technologies.For years, the RH-200 rocket had used a polyvinyl chloride (PVC)-based propellant.
The first RH-200 to use a new propellant based on hydroxyl-terminated Polybutadiene (HTPB) was successfully flown from the TERLS in September 2020.
News
Operation Megh Chakra: 50 under CBI scanner over child pornography(Page no. 8)
(GS Paper 2, Social Justice)
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Saturday conducted searches at 59 locations across 20 States and one Union Territory, as part of a pan-India drive against the circulation and sharing of child sexual abuse material.
The operation code-named “Megh Chakra” was carried out following the inputs received from the Interpol’s Singapore special unit based on the information received from the authorities in New Zealand.
The CBI has registered two cases alleging that a large number of Indian nationals were involved in the online circulation, downloading and transmission of such material using cloud-based storage. Over 50 persons have come under the scanner.
The searches were carried out in Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Goa, Karnataka, Telangana and Tamil Nadu. The agency seized electronic devices belonging to the suspects.
A preliminary scrutiny of the devices using cyberforensic tools allegedly revealed that a huge quantity of child pornography material was stored in them.
The suspects are being questioned to identify the victims and the abusers, adding that the operation was one of the CBI-led global operations in recent times for a prompt response to online child sexual exploitation cases with international linkages.
The official said the operation sought to collate information from various law enforcement agencies in India, engage with the relevant law enforcement agencies globally and coordinate closely through the Interpol channels on the issue.
Last November, the agency had launched a similar exercise code-named “Operation Carbon”, searching the premises of suspects in 13 States and one Union Territory.
The previous operation was conducted at 76 locations. The persons named in the FIRs were booked under the relevant provisions of the IPC and the Information Technology Act, for allegedly being part of the syndicates that uploaded, circulated, sold and viewed such material.
The CBI had later decided to send requests to several countries for sharing and gathering information under the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaties (MLATs) on those involved in the racket.The probe had led to the identification of over 50 groups with more than 5,000 offenders.
At DefExpo 2022, India-Africa defence dialogue on the anvil (Page no. 8)
(GS Paper 3, Defence)
The forthcoming DefExpo 2022, scheduled to be held in Gandhinagar from October 18 to 22, will host the second edition of the India-Africa Defence Dialogue with invites extended to 53 African countries.
A separate Indian Ocean Region plus (IOR+) conclave with participation of approximately 40 countries is also on the anvil.
Defence Secretary Ajay Kumar reviewed the preparations of the Expo at a meeting on Saturday with Gujarat Chief Secretary Pankaj Kumar.
This edition will see the participation of only Indian companies. The Expo, earlier scheduled to be held in March, was postponed due to “logistical challenges” the Ministry had said.
For DefExpo 2022, Indian companies, Indian subsidiaries of foreign Original Equipment Manufacturers, Division of company registered in India, exhibitor having joint venture with an Indian company will be considered as Indian participants.
The theme of DefExpo 2022 is ‘Path to Pride’ and the aim is to showcase the might of the domestic defence industry, which is now powering ‘Make in India, Make for the World’ resolve of the Government.
The Expo earlier scheduled to be held in March was postponed due to ‘logistical challenges’
No viable options: farmers in Punjab forced to persist with paddy, go against the grain (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 3, Agriculture)
Rice growers in the State say they are keen on shunning the water-guzzling crop and cultivating alternative crops, reduce input costs and prevent stubble burning. However, the lack of assured procurement and guaranteed returns are forcing them to persist with paddy.
Traditionally, Punjab was not a rice-producing State. Farmers began cultivating paddy during the Green Revolution. Of the 881.32 lakhtonnes of paddy procured in the ongoing kharif season, as of August 31, 125.48 lakh tonnes has come from Punjab. Around 31.33 lakh hectares of land in the State is under paddy cultivation.
To produce a kilogram of rice and wheat, 5,000 litres and 2,500 litres of water is required, respectively, leading to the overexploitation of groundwater. Several farmers’ organisations have been supporting the efforts of the Centre and the State to implement crop diversification and demand that the crops that replace paddy be procured at the minimum support price.
With paddy cultivation, a system of agriculture was imposed on us. Farmers had to buy new machinery, fertilizers and pesticides. A new market system was introduced.
Now, farmers can’t go back to growing other crops,” says Joginder Singh Ugrahan, president of BharatiyaKisan Union (EktaUgrahan), one of the largest farmers’ groups in the State.
Punjab Agriculture University, says water shortage owing to overexploitation of groundwater poses the biggest threat. He says adoption of less water-intensive crops such as maize, cotton and certain fruits would be possible only with government’s financial and technical support.
In several fields, the formation of hardpan is impairing plant growth as it prevents roots from absorbing water and nutrients from the soil. Specific tractors have to be used to break the hardpan before sowing wheat. This adds to the farmers’ input cost.
In Fazilka, once known as the ‘California of Punjab’ for its rich varieties of cotton, fruit and grains, farmers growing cotton, fruit and sugar cane are not finding any support.Farmers began cultivating paddy in Punjab only during the Green Revolution
Science
BA.2.75 emerges as major sublineage in Maharashtra (Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Tech)
Since the first case of SARS-CoV-2 in March 2020, India has witnessed three pandemic waves. Delta (B.1.617.2) and its sublineages caused the second wave, and Omicron (B.1.1.529) and its sublineages (BA.1 and BA.2) are driving the third wave.
After the waning of the third wave, India saw a surge in COVID-19 cases from May 2022. On sequencing, these variants were characterised as BA.2 by Pangolin.
However, the predominance of BA.2 after the waning of the third COVID wave was unexplainable. Subsequently, the Indian isolates of BA.2 were further classified into sub-lineages BA.2.74, BA.2.75 and BA.2.76.
Since their designation, these new sub-lineages have already spread to over 40 countries. They have acquired additional mutations in their spike protein compared to BA.2.
These added mutations, over and above those of the parental BA.2 variant, have raised concerns about their impact on viral pathogenicity, transmissibility, and immune evasion properties of the new variants.
We have been the coordinating laboratory for the surveillance of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in the community in Maharashtra.
During our study, a total of 990 RT-PCR positive SARS-CoV-2 samples, with a cycle threshold value (Ct) of less than 25, were processed for whole genome sequencing between June 3 and August 7, 2022. A set of individual-level data was obtained corresponding to the samples.
Out of 990 samples sequenced, BA.2.75 (23.03%) was the predominant Omicron sublineage, followed by BA.2.38 (21.01%), BA.5 (9.70%), BA.2 (9.09%), BA.2.74 (8.89%) and BA.2.76 (5.56%).
When the world was experiencing the latest global outbreak driven by the BA.4 and BA.5 Omicron lineages, India did not see an exponential increase in cases due to these two lineages.
This probably could be as both Delta and BA.4/BA.5 share the L452R mutation on the receptor-binding domain (RBD) of spike protein, the convalescent sera from Delta infection may contain L452R-specific neutralising antibodies, which could have impaired the BA.4/BA.5 transmission in India.
Also, BA.2.75 has shown 57-fold higher binding affinity to ACE2 receptors when compared with BA.5, accounting for its higher transmissibility.
New insights on the ‘coffee-ring effect’ (Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Tech)
For about two decades now, the ‘coffee ring effect’ has been known as when a drop of spilt coffee dries up, the outermost edge of the dried drop is a little darker than the centre, forming a darker ‘ring’.
This is caused by the outward drift of suspended coffee particles from the centre, causing a denser, darkened rim. Now, researchers from Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, have shown that after reaching the rim, as the drop dries, some of the particles undergo an inward drift too.
This research has applications in agriculture, forensic science and even disease diagnosis. The present work has been published in the journal, Soft Matter .
Taking polystyrene microbeads of diameters 3 microns, 5 microns and 10 microns, the researchers suspend them in clean water at concentration of 30,000 beads per microlitre for the first two sizes and 10,000 beads per microlitre for the last, and place a drop of the suspension on a glass plate.
They are able to observe the inward drift. “After the particles reach the rim, they experience an inward drift and this is what we have newly discovered. He clarifies that while the inward drift would persist for sub-micron-sized particles, it would decrease with particle size.
The inward movement takes place because the particles are ‘squished’ between the solid plate and the evaporating liquid interface.
Hence, the ‘coffee’ ring is not formed at the point where the liquid touches the solid, but there is a small gap between the outermost edge and the ring.
We could convert the rate of flattening of the interface to the rate of inward movement of the particles. Hence, we were able to predict the extent up to which the particles recede, namely the stain recedes, also from the Chemical Engineering Department, and an author of the paper. Perhaps measuring the gap can help in forensics.
Prof. Basavaraj explains that some qualitative studies have shown that understanding the drying of biologically relevant fluids like blood can help diagnose anaemic and hyperlipidaemic conditions.
The evolution of lumpy skin disease virus (Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Tech)
Lumpy Skin Disease (LSD) is a viral disease that predominantly affects cattle. First identified in an outbreak in Zambia in 1929, the disease is caused by the LSD virus (LSDV), a poxvirus of the genus capripoxvirus.
Until the 1980s. multiple outbreaks of LSD were confined to the African continent. The first reports of infections outside Africa were in 1989 from Israel.
In 2016, LSD was reported from Russia and South-East European nations. In the Indian subcontinent, the disease was initially observed in Bangladesh in 2019, followed by China, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Vietnam, Hong Kong and Myanmar.
The first complete genome sequence of LSDV (Neethling strain) was available in 2001 and suggested a large DNA genome.
This strain was originally isolated in Kenya in 1958. Adaptation of poxviruses are dominated by genomic mutations, deletions and recombinations.
LSD outbreaks were reported in Russia during 2015-2019. The virus isolated from 2015 and 2016 was similar to the earlier genomes.
However, the use of homologous (attenuated) LSDV vaccine in 2016 did not end theoutbreak and subsequently vaccine-like isolates were obtained from affected cattle in 2017.
By 2018, all field isolates of LSDV in Russia were replaced by viruses bearing genetic signatures of the LSDV vaccine, suggesting that the outbreak of LSD in Russia during 2017-2019 was due to a novel LSDV recombinant variant.
Recombination events are now well catalogued in poxviruses and mediated by the poxvirus DNA polymerases in cells being co-infected by viruses of same or different genus.
Recombination of pathogenic and vaccine strains are, therefore, likely when an infected animal is immunised or infection occurs in the pre-immune phase after vaccination.
In August 2019, suspected cases of LSD were observed in Odisha. The first laboratory-confirmed outbreak of LSD was subsequently reported in November 2019.
Sequences of particular genes of the isolated virus from the 2019 outbreak were genetically similar to strains from Kenya.
In July 2022, large outbreak of LSD was reported from Gujarat and Rajasthan, which subsequently spread to 11 other States with over 80,000 cattle deaths.
FAQ
Why is Manipur revising its liquor policy? (Page no. 13)
(GS Paper 2, Governance)
The Manipur Cabinet headed by Chief Minister NongthombamBiren Singh on September 20 decided to lift the prohibition partially for generating at least ₹600 crore in annual revenue.
The decision did not go down well with organisations such as the Coalition Against Drugs and Alcohol (CADA) and MeiraPaibi, a social movement meaning ‘women torchbearers’, in a State used to the extremist-dictated ban on liquor since 1991.
Manipur is geographically and psychologically divided between the Imphal Valley and the hills around it. Valley-based extremist groups, primarily the People’s Liberation Army, hijacked a mass movement against liquor and imposed a total ban.
This led to the Manipur People’s Party government headed by R.K. Ranbir Singh enforcing prohibition in the State on April 1, 1991. The sale, brewing and consumption of liquor were subsequently banned for all residents excluding people from the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe communities who have been brewing it traditionally but not commercially.
Total prohibition has been in place in two other north-eastern States flanking Manipur — Nagaland since 1989 and Mizoram, which reimposed total prohibition in 2019 after partially lifting a 1997 ban for four years from 2015.
The church played a key role in imposing prohibition in these two Christian-majority States. There is no prohibition in the other five States of the northeast.
Biren Singh’s Bharatiya Janata Party-led government is not the first to have pursued partial prohibition since the Manipur Liquor (Prohibition) Act, 1991, came into existence.
His predecessor, OkramIbobi Singh’s Congress-led government amended the Act to lift prohibition in five hill districts — Chandel, Churachandpur, Senapati, Tamenglong and Ukhrul — on July 31, 2002.
The Ibobi government sought to remove prohibition from the rest of the State to ensure a “steady source of revenue” to lessen the “dependence on Central largesse”.
It also contended that lifting the ban would allow local Manipuri brews such as ‘yu’, two varieties of which came to be associated with Assembly constituencies Andro and Sekmai, to be sold across the country.
A wave of protests by civil society groups made Ibobi Singh drop the idea. Biren Singh tried to lift prohibition after coming to power in 2017. His bid to bring in the Manipur Liquor Prohibition (Second Amendment) Bill, 2018, met with stiff resistance from civil society and women’s organisations.
What is Supreme Court initiative on capital punishment? (Page no. 13)
(GS Paper 2, Judiciary)
A three-judge Bench of the Supreme Court has referred to a five-member Constitution Bench the issue of giving meaningful opportunity to those found guilty of a capital offence to present mitigating factors and circumstances so that they can better plead for a life term instead of a death sentence.
The reference was made to resolve differences between judgments, mainly on whether it is necessary to hold the hearing on sentencing on a subsequent day and not on the day of the conviction.
It is believed that an authoritative verdict on the question may lead to the judicial system making death sentences even rarer than it is now.
The issue arises from the legal requirement that whenever a court records a conviction, it has to hold a separate hearing on the quantum of sentence.
Section 235 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) says that after hearing arguments, the judge shall give a judgment; and, “if the accused is convicted, the judge shall hear the accused on the question of sentence and then pass sentence”.
This process gains significance if the conviction is for an offence that entails either death or life imprisonment. Section 354(3) says that when an offence is punishable with death or imprisonment for life, the judgment shall state the reasons for the sentence awarded, and if the sentence is death, “special reasons” for the sentence.
Taken together, these provisions would mean that the sentencing hearing following the conviction of a person for a capital offence is a matter of great importance, as it would decide if the death penalty should be imposed or a life term will be sufficient.
This would necessarily entail an inquiry into the nature and gravity of the offence and the circumstances in which it took place. Ever since the Supreme Court, in Bachan Singh vs State of Punjab (1980) laid down that the death penalty can be awarded only in the ‘rarest of rare cases’, the nature of the sentencing hearing has undergone a transformation.
Besides the gravity of the crime, the circumstances of the accused also came to be examined to determine the suitability of the death penalty in a given case. Trial courts were required to balance ‘aggravating circumstances’ and ‘mitigating circumstances’ to decide the sentence.
The Supreme Court noted in Bachan Singh that Section 235 is based on a recommendation in the 48th Report of the Law Commission, which had said that one of the deficiencies in sentencing policy was the lack of comprehensive information about the characteristics and background of the offender.
Business
BPCL signs pact with Petrobras to diversify crude oil sourcing(Page no. 15)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
State-owned Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd. (BPCL) said it had signed an agreement with Brazilian national oil company Petrobras for sourcing crude oil from the Latin American nation as part of plans to diversify sourcing.
BPCL imports a large volume of crude oil which is turned into fuel such as petrol and diesel at its three oil refineries at Mumbai, Bina in Madhya Pradesh and Kochi in Kerala.
The state-owned refiner, which gets a majority of its supplies from West Asian nations such as Iraq and Saudi Arabia, is looking to diversify its sources of supply in an attempt to cut down reliance on any particular region.
Company chairman and managing director Arun Kumar Singh and Petrobras CEO CaioPaes de Andrade signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in Brazil.
The signing of the MoU will strengthen future crude oil trade relations between the two companies and explore potential crude import opportunities by BPCL, on a long term basis, especially considering the current geopolitical situations.
Bharat PetroResources Limited (BPRL), the upstream oil and gas exploration and production subsidiary of BPCL, plans to invest $1.6 billion to develop an oil block in Brazil.
BPRL holds a stake in an ultra-deep water hydrocarbon block in Brazil, owned and operated by Petrobras.
The field development plan and final investment decision is expected to be declared soon, the Indian oil marketing company said without giving details.
On July 27, the Union Cabinet gave approval to the firm to invest an additional $1.6 billion in the Brazilian oil block BM-SEAL-11.
BPRL has a 40% stake in the block, with the entire stake devolving on it after the bankruptcy of its original JV partner Videocon. Petrobras is the block’s operator with a 60% interest.Multiple oil discoveries have been made in the block, which is being developed now.