(Current Affairs For SSC Exams) Science & Technology | February : 2014

Feb-2015

Sci & Tech

Country’s highest zoo attempts to save high altitude herbivores

The initiative taken by Darjeeling’s Padmaja Naidu Himalayan Zoological Park (PNHZP) in conserving high altitude herbivores that have been on the path of extinction, has served to stem the rapid decline in their numbers.
Some of the animals that have been included in the conservation programme of PNHZP, the countries highest altitude zoo located at over 7,000 ft, are the Blue Sheep, the Himalayan Tahr, the Himalayan Goral and the Markhor.
All the four herbivores have been placed in the Schedule I of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, which denotes that the species are ‘threatened’. The conservation of these animals is also crucial for the Himalayan ecosystem.
“All the four herbivores are the main prey of the much endangered Snow leopard. A decrease in their numbers will naturally affect the existence of the elusive mountain cat,” Upashna Rai, the biologist in the PNHZP told.
Conserving these herbivores serves the dual purpose of protecting the snow leopard as well. The PNHZP is also involved in the global conservation and breeding programme of the snow leopard.
The Darjeeling Zoo has taken the initiative of breeding these high altitude herbivores and is also involving the other high altitude zoos in breeding and conservation of the species.
It has provided to each of the main zoos of Sikkim and Nainital one pair of the Blue Sheep and the Himalayan Goral as a part of an exchange programme.
4th navigation satellite launch in March 2015
The fourth navigation satellite of the country is getting ready for launch in March, and it will be another step forward for India in evolving its own navigation satellite system and not depend on the Geographical Positioning System (GPS) service of the U.S.
Cryogenic propulsion systems on board PSLV-C27 rocket that will launch the satellite are being developed by scientists of the ISRO Propulsion Complex at Mahendragiri in Tirunelveli district.
S. Ingersol, group director of the complex, told, “Totally, seven satellites are required to be launched to complete the configuration under the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS) and already three had been launched.
Dr. Ingersol said launch of the remaining four satellites would be completed in one year and after that India’s dependency on the U.S. for GPS service would be significantly reduced. “This will trigger the much-needed development in geographic information systems.”
The Mahendragiri complex was developing the second and fourth liquid stages needed for the launch vehicle. “Advance research by ISRO scientists has made India go for launching heavier satellites of three to four tonnes from our own soil,” he said.

TB rate going down, but not fast enough to meet WHO target

India is unlikely to reach the WHO target of elimination of tuberculosis (TB) by 2050 going by the rate at which incidence of the disease is declining in the country.
“Incidence of TB in India is declining at the rate of about 2 per cent per year. However, in order to reach the TB elimination target by 2050, the rate should be 19 to 20 per cent per year,” WHO Representative to India Nata Menabde told.
She, however, said that on using available strategies and technologies effectively, along with universal health coverage and social protection, the country could achieve a reduction of TB incidence rate of 10 per cent per year by 2025.
“To hasten the decline of TB incidence beyond that would require new tools such as new effective vaccines, new points of care, effective diagnostics and new effective shortened treatment regimens,” she suggested.
Additionally, social determinants of TB such as under-nutrition, overcrowding and poor ventilation in slums and clinical risk factors such as diabetes mellitus, smoking etc should be addressed simultaneously, she added.
Citing the WHO Global TB Report 2014, Ms. Menabde said that India has already met the Million Development Goals (MDG) target of 50 per cent reduction in the prevalence of TB by 2015 compared to 1990. “India is also well on track for reducing TB death by 50 per cent by 2015,” she stated.
Ms. Menabde, however, said there was a need to improve the quality of care provided to TB patients at private clinics and hospitals as most approached such facilities for treatment, especially in urban areas.
“At least one-half of the TB patients in India, especially in urban areas, approach private sector for TB care. But the quality of care in the private sector in most situations is not satisfactory.
“There is a need for wider dissemination of ‘standards for TB care’ to the private sector, targeted approaches to engagement with them and more stringent implementation of mandatory notification of TB cases.

Deficient southwest monsoon hits Rabi sowing

A delayed and deficient southwest monsoon has shrunk rabi sowing from last year’s level. If sowing was taken up on 597.15 lakh hectares of land last year, the figure this time was 566.18 lakh hectares.
What is worrisome is the gap of 30.97 lakh hectares between the areas sown in the previous week and its corresponding week last year, higher than the deficit of 26.82 lakh hectares when making such a comparison for the week earlier.
The southwest monsoon was 12 per cent lower than the long period average in the country and 21 per cent in northwest India, hitting kharif crop production by 2-3 per cent. The rain deficit is affecting rabi sowing now.
A meeting in the Agriculture Ministry to review the crop and weather situation noted that wheat has been sown in 4.92 lakh hectares less this year because of lower moisture in the soil. Although the area under wheat will be made up in the next few weeks, the harvest will depend on the weather conditions.
Of particular concern is the lower acreage of pulses. The area under gram is lower this year by 14.8 lakh hectares from last year’s because of the lower minimum support price. Farmers have turned away from sowing gram as the price is low, sources said.
The area under coarse cereals is lower by 4.57 lakh hectares mainly because of reduced sowing of maize and jowar in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat.

Almonds could Reduce belly fat, Study Found

Snacking on almonds instead of carbs could reduce belly fat and lower the risk of heart disease, a new study has claimed.
The study found that a daily snack of 1.5 ounces of almonds instead of a high-carbohydrate muffin, eaten as part of an overall healthy diet, improved a number of heart disease risk factors in study participants.
In addition to significantly improving LDL and total cholesterol, snacking on almonds instead of muffins also reduced central adiposity (belly fat), a well-established heart disease risk factor.
Reducing abdominal fat is particularly beneficial given its connection to metabolic syndrome and increased risk for heart disease. The twelve-week, randomised, controlled clinical study, led by researchers at Penn State University, was conducted in 52 overweight, middle-aged adults who had high total and LDL cholesterol but were otherwise healthy.
Participants ate cholesterol-lowering diets that were identical except that one group was given a daily snack of 1.5 ounces (42g) of whole natural almonds, while the other group was given a banana muffin that provided the same number of calories.
Participants were provided all meals and snacks in amounts based on their calorie needs to maintain body weight, and followed each diet for six weeks. The diet containing the almond snack, compared to the muffin snack, decreased total cholesterol, LDL-cholesterol non-HDL-cholesterol and remnant lipoproteins.
In addition, the diet with the muffin snack reduced HDL (good) cholesterol more than the almond diet. Despite no differences in body weight or total fat mass, the almond diet significantly reduced abdominal fat mass, waist circumference and leg fat mass compared to the diet with the muffin snack.
Common factors in divergent habitats of migratory birds, Studies found
To understand the diverse habitats of migratory birds and make comparison studies, the bird watchers’ team of Nature Society of Tirupur, that has been studying the arrival-departure patterns of such species in western region, travelled across the State where migratory birds flock in large numbers.
The assessment helped find the common factors that prompt certain bird species to visit areas such as Nanjarayan tank in Tirupur and the coastal lines of the State, though outwardly it looks as a divergent environment.
Disclosing the patterns of migrations and common factors that make respective species to seek abodes in different parts of the State, K. Ravindran, secretary of the Society, told that many of the species that flock the Nanjarayan irrigation tank area in Tirupur and its hinterland were also seen in coastal areas of the State, especially in Nagapattinam district.
The team found species like the Sandpipers, which come from Western Europe, the Northern Pintails, that migrates from Northern Europe and North America, and the Black-tailed Godwits, a bird species coming from Iceland area in Europe, among few others, which comes to western region of the State during winter season, in coastal areas too with some of them even noticed in smaller numbers around irrigation tanks in sanctuaries like Koonthankulam near Tirunelveli.

Indian vaccine Meningitis will protect infants

A meningitis A vaccine (MenAfriVac) manufactured by Serum Institute of India, Pune was approved by WHO a few days ago for use in infants in sub-Saharan African populations. The vaccine will be introduced as part of the routine immunisation programme.
“In the four years since its introduction in Africa, MenAfriVac has had an immediate and dramatic impact in breaking the cycle of meningitis A epidemics,” a WHO release said. The vaccine has already been used in those aged 1-29 years.
But with the WHO’s approval, the vaccine can be given to infants thereby “protecting million more children at risk of the deadly disease.” About 200,000 people suffer from meningitis every year in the region.
The disease kills 20,000 to 25,000 people in the region every year. “Like in the case of measles, not many meningitis cases are seen in children younger than one year,” said Dr. Suresh Jadhav, Executive Director of Serum Institute.
“A mother, who has had meningitis, transmits the meningitis antibodies to newborns and these antibodies protect them for one year.”
Every individual living in the meningitis belt (which stretches from Senegal in the west to Ethiopia in the east) gets infected with meningitis before the age of 29 years and hence mothers invariably carry antibodies against the disease.
The WHO has approved the use of a 5 microgram dose of the vaccine for children, which will be administered when theyare nine months old.
Immunisation at nine months will help achieve sustainable disease control following mass campaigns that target people belonging to the 1-29 age group
Explaining the rationale for choosing to immunise at ninth month, Dr. Jadhav said: “It’s one opportunity to treat both measles and meningitis,” he said. Measles vaccination is also given to children at nine months of age.
A booster dose will be given when the child is 12-18 months old. According to Dr. Jadhav, the first meningitis dose will protect a child for five years and a booster dose will confer lifelong protection.
Though a single campaign has been carried outto cover a large population in 15 countries, those born after the campaign have not received the MenAfriVac vaccine and are hence vulnerable to meningitis infection. But with the introduction of the vaccine as part of the immunisation schedule, these children will also be protected.

New dolphin-like creature identified near Scotland: scientists

A new dolphin-like species that lived around 170 million years ago has been identified from fossils found on the Isle of Skye off Scotland.
The 14-feet long marine creature has been named Dearcmhara shawcrossi in honour of an amateur enthusiast, Brian Shawcross, who recovered the creature’s fossils from the island’s Bearreraig Bay in 1959.
It is a member of a group called ichthyosaurs that were among the dominant marine reptiles when dinosaurs ruled the land. “The dolphin-like creatures were as long as 14 feet from snout to tail, and inhabited warm, shallow seas around Scotland during the Jurassic Period,” Scientist reported.
Dearcmhara, a moderate-sized ichthyosaur, swam in warm, shallow seas during the Jurassic Period, preyed on fish and other reptiles.
Playing music benefits the brain: research
More than a decade ago, there was great buzz in the press and media on something that was tantalizingly referred to as “The Mozart Effect”. Some researchers claimed that school students performed better in tests as they were listening to music by the great European classical music composer Mozart.
Compared to them, another set of students (control group, same age, same background and so forth) who took the same tests, but with no Mozart in the background, did less well.
This news spread like wildfire and parents began playing Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to their children with the hope of elevating their performance, and hopefully IQ values as well.
Several questions were raised about this Mozart effect, both in the professional and popular press. Is it reproducible (not always, low sample size)? Does listening to music only calm the mind and focus it to the task on hand? Why Mozart, why not Beethoven, Bach or Beatles? Why only western music, and not Carnatic, Hindustani, Japanese or even soothing chants? Is the effect temporary or long-lasting? Do lullabies make infants smarter, besides sleep-inducing?
Many of these questions were attempted to be answered by a variety of experiments — amateur and professional — and the overall consensus appears to be that music is good for you, but as far as the Mozart Effect goes, the jury is still out.
A more scientifically challenging question here is whether music makes noticeable change in your cognitive abilities, and affect and alter the brain in perceptible ways.
Is listening to music as a passive recipient sufficient, or should one actively engage in music — singing solo or in groups, playing an instrument, and improvising more effectively? Note that in the latter case, you are actually exerting and exercising your brain. In other words, listening to Mozart, or to play Mozart — which would be a better or true “Mozart Effect”?

Researchers identified Mutations causing abnormal heart muscle protein

An international team of researchers have sought to identify genetic mutations that produce abnormal forms of a key heart muscle protein. As a result of the mutations, the heart muscles weaken and produce a condition known as ‘dilated cardiomyopathy.’
The increased strain that is then put on the heart can lead to heart failure where the organ is unable to pump the requisite quantities of blood.
Changes to titin, a protein that is part of the mechanism muscles use to contract and relax, have been implicated as a cause for dilated cardiomyopathy.
Titin is the largest human protein and is produced by a gene whose genetic information exists as 364 separate segments, known as exons. Variations in how the genetic data from these exons are assembled mean that the protein can exist in a variety of forms.
A 2012 study carried out in severe and familial cases of dilated cardiomyopathy found that disruptive mutations in the gene, resulting in truncated titin variants being produced, were the commonest genetic cause for the ailment.
Researchers who carried out that study have gone on to examine titin gene sequences from over 5,200 individuals, with and without the condition, as well as scrutinising 150 heart tissue samples collected from patients who underwent heart surgery.
Polar bear clusters migrate to

Northwest Passages for longer lasting ice

Some polar bear clusters have slowly moved to islands situated in north of Canada’s mainland that are retaining the Arctic ice for longer says a new scientific study. According to the study the migration is linked to climate change and would continue.
The study published earlier this month in the journal PLOS ONE was based on DNA taken from nearly 2,800 polar bears in countries where the animals live - the United States, Russia, Canada, Greenland and Norway.
Bear clusters from Canada’s eastern Arctic area and a marine area off eastern Greenland and Siberia are journeying to the Canadian Archipelago, also known as the Arctic Archipelago, where ice is more abundant, the study found.
The channels through the islands, known as the Northwest Passages, have come to be seen as a potentially valuable shipping route as Arctic ice melts.
The region that has attracted a larger number of polar bears sits north of the Canadian mainland, close to Nunavut and the Northwest Territories. It is comprised of more than 36,000 islands and covers more than 550,000 square miles (1.4 million square km).
The migration has occurred during the last one to three generations of the predators, or between 15 and 45 years, U.S. Geological Survey researcher Elizabeth Peacock, the study’s lead author, said in a statement.
The bears choose this area because that is “where the sea is more resilient to summer melt due to circulation patterns, complex geography and cooler northern latitudes,” Peacock said.
The Canadian Archipelago could serve as a future refuge for polar bears, who rely on Arctic ice to cross between land masses, to forage and to mate, according to the researchers.

India’s ‘Mars Orbiter’ team wins award

India’s Mars Orbiter programme team has won the 2015 Space Pioneer Award in the science and engineering category from the US based National Space Society (NSS), the society said.
In a statement issued in Washington, the NSS said its 2015 Space Pioneer Award in the science and engineering category has been won by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Mars Orbiter Programme team.
“This award will be presented to an ISRO representative during the National Space Society’s 2015 International Space Development Conference, the 34th ISDC, to be held in Toronto, Canada,” the statement said.
The conference will run form May 20-24. According to the NSS, India’s Mars Orbiter launched on Nov 5, 2013 that went into Mars orbit on Sep 24, 2014 achieved two significant mission firsts in terms of an Indian spacecraft that has gone into orbit around Mars on the very first try and that no other country has ever done this.
Secondly, the spacecraft is in an elliptical orbit with a high apoapsis, and has a high resolution camera which is taking full-disk colour imagery of Mars.
Very few full disk images have ever been taken in the past, mostly on approach to the planet, as most imaging is done looking straight down in mapping mode.
These images will aid planetary scientists. The Mars Orbiter programme team located in Bangalore is headed by Mylswamy Annadurai, the statement said.
Playing music benefits the brain: research
More than a decade ago, there was great buzz in the press and media on something that was tantalizingly referred to as “The Mozart Effect”. Some researchers claimed that school students performed better in tests as they were listening to music by the great European classical music composer Mozart
Compared to them, another set of students (control group, same age, same background and so forth) who took the same tests, but with no Mozart in the background, did less well.
This news spread like wildfire and parents began playing Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to their children with the hope of elevating their performance, and hopefully IQ values as well.
Several questions were raised about this Mozart effect, both in the professional and popular press. Is it reproducible (not always, low sample size)? Does listening to music only calm the mind and focus it to the task on hand? Why Mozart, why not Beethoven, Bach or Beatles? Why only western music, and not Carnatic, Hindustani, Japanese or even soothing chants? Is the effect temporary or long-lasting? Do lullabies make infants smarter, besides sleep-inducing?
Many of these questions were attempted to be answered by a variety of experiments — amateur and professional — and the overall consensus appears to be that music is good for you, but as far as the Mozart Effect goes, the jury is still out.
A more scientifically challenging question here is whether music makes noticeable change in your cognitive abilities, and affect and alter the brain in perceptible ways.
Is listening to music as a passive recipient sufficient, or should one actively engage in music — singing solo or in groups, playing an instrument, and improvising more effectively? Note that in the latter case, you are actually exerting and exercising your brain. In other words, listening to Mozart, or to play Mozart — which would be a better or true “Mozart Effect”?

Britain’s “Beagle 2” spacecraft found on Mars

Britain’s infamous “Beagle 2” spacecraft, once dubbed “a heroic failure” by the nation’s Astronomer Royal, has been found on Mars — 11 years after it went missing searching for extraterrestrial life.
Beagle 2, part of the European Space Agency’s Mars Express mission, had been due to land on Mars on Christmas Day 2003, but went missing on December 19, 2003. Until now, nothing had been heard from it since then.
But in an announcement made to a packed news conference at London’s Royal Society scientific institution, space experts said the tiny Mars lander has been found on the surface of the red planet.
“Beagle 2 is no longer lost,” said David Parker, chief executive of the UK Space Agency. He said scientists now had “good evidence” that the spacecraft successfully landed on Mars on the date it was due — December 25, 2003 — but had only partially deployed.
“This find shows that the entry, descent and landing sequence for Beagle 2 worked and the lander did successfully touch down on Mars on Christmas Day 2003,” the UK space agency said in a statement.
Beagle 2 — which measures less than 2 metres across — was named after the ship Charles Darwin sailed when he formulated his theory of evolution. It was built by British scientists for about 50 million pounds ($85 million)
The plan was for it to report back from the Mars’ surface using instruments designed to help search for signs of life, but nothing was heard after it was dropped off to make its landing.

2014 Earth’s hottest year on record: scientists

2014 was Earth’s hottest on record in new evidence that people are disrupting the climate by burning fossil fuels that release greenhouse gases into the air, two U.S. government agencies said.
The White House said the studies, by the U.S. space agency NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), showed climate change was happening now and that action was needed to cut rising world greenhouse gas emissions.
The 10 warmest years since records began in the 19th century have all been since 1997, the data showed. Last year was the warmest, ahead of 2010, undermining claims by some skeptics that global warming has stopped in recent years.
Record temperatures in 2014 were spread around the globe, including most of Europe stretching into northern Africa, the western United States, far eastern Russia into western Alaska, parts of interior South America, parts of eastern and western coastal Australia and elsewhere, NASA and NOAA said.
“While the ranking of individual years can be affected by chaotic weather patterns, the long-term trends are attributable to drivers of climate change that right now are dominated by human emissions of greenhouse gases,” said Gavin Schmidt, director of NASA’s Goddard Institute of Space Studies in New York.
“The data shows quite clearly that it’s the greenhouse gas trends that are responsible for the majority of the trends,” he told reporters. Emissions were still rising “so we may anticipate further record highs in the years to come.”
U.N. studies show there already are more extremes of heat and rainfall and project ever more disruptions to food and water supplies. Sea levels are rising, threatening millions of people living near coasts, as ice melts from Greenland to Antarctica.

Parrikar hands over LCA SP-1 to Air Force

Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar handed over the first series-production version of the Light Combat Aircraft to the Indian Air Force.
Chief of Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha, received its technical documents from the Minister in the presence of R.K.Tyagi, Chairman of its manufacturer, Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd.
At Bharat Electronics Ltd, the Minister laid the foundation stone for a training academy. He rolled out the 750{+t}{+h}metro car made by BEML Ltd for Delhi Metro, the defence companies said.
The IAF looks set to get the final battle-ready version of the Light Combat Aircraft only around December this year, according to top officials involved in its development.
That means a further six-month delay in the 25-year-old aircraft project, which was expected to be achieved in June this year.

Agni-V missile to be test-fired on January 31

India’s strategic missile, Agni-V, will test-fired from the Wheeler Island, off the Odisha coast, on January 31
The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), which has developed the missile, will launch it from a canister mounted on a road-mobile launcher, which is a TATRA truck.
A gas generator at the bottom of the canister will push the 17-metre long, 50-tonne Agni-V out of the canister.
The missile, which can take out targets situated more than 5,000 km away, can carry a nuclear warhead weighing 1.1 tonnes. In the launch on January 31, 2015, it will carry a dummy payload.
The missile was earlier scheduled to be test-fired in the second week of January but was postponed to the last week of January or the first week of February due to “non-technical” reasons.

Changing face of tech spending and Indian IT

Last week, India’s big three IT firms — TCS, Infosys and Wipro — exuded optimism on the demand environment and IT spending even as research firm Gartner cut its global tech spending forecast for calendar year 2015.
Gartner pegs 2015 spending to grow 2.4 per cent to $3.8 trillion (tempered from its previous forecast of 3.9 per cent). Within the overall pie, IT services are expected to rise by 2.5 per cent to $981 billion, which is lower than 4.1 per cent projection the firm made in the last quarter.
The firm expects a subdued demand for software support services through 2018 in the backdrop of lower growth rate for enterprise software.
A slowdown in enterprise software means that the over $100 billion Indian IT services industry, which has thrived from traditional bread-and-butter business like application development and maintenance and infrastructure management, will now have to look at newer avenues for growth as clients move towards digital technologies to cut cost.

GPS tracking devices to monitor Obama convoy

Global Positioning System (GPS) tracking devices and satellite images would be used by intelligence and security agencies to keep a constant watch on the movements of U.S. President Barack Obama’s convoy during his visit.
It is learnt that a dedicated joint control room consisting of senior Indian and U.S. security officials has been set up to monitor the security arrangements for Mr. Obama. A part of ITC Maurya, where the U.S. President will stay, has been converted into a control room.
As a precautionary measure, agencies may block public access to online GPS maps of about a dozen places in Delhi, which Mr. Obama is scheduled to visit. GPS maps of all venues have been designed to keep track of his movement. However, no drones will be deployed for aerial surveillance.
U.S. sleuths have brought along anti-sabotage scanners to sanitise the venues in coordination with their Indian counterparts.
Cyber security experts have been engaged for surveillance of suspicious online activity. Mr. Obama will use his own vehicle ‘The Beast.’ “His will be a larger cavalcade with over two dozen vehicles,” .
Following several rounds of meetings, it has been decided that on Republic Day, Mr. Obama will not accompany President Pranab Mukherjee to the parade venue, but will arrive in his 18-foot long Presidential car with Mr. Mukherjee’s cavalcade.
“In 2007, as the chief guest at the Republic Day parade, the then Russian President Vladimir Putin had also used his own vehicle,” said the official. The entire city will be turned into a no-fly zone, allowing only the flypast of Indian Air Force aircraft.
‘The Beast’ is an explosion-proof heavily armoured vehicle fitted with a night vision system. It is a virtual shield capable of withstanding biochemical attacks and has its own oxygen supply mechanism. The seven-seater vehicle functions as a control room for the U.S. President to remain in touch with the Pentagon and senior U.S. government functionaries through video-conferencing or encrypted satellite phone communications. It is fitted with emergency medical equipment and has a bank of his blood type. The vehicle’s fuel tank, with a special foam coating, is armour-plated and its doors have eight-inch-thick armour plating. The car’s five-inch-thick windows are bulletproof. Its driver undergoes special week-long training at a secret service academy.

Major cause of blindness identified

Microscopic spheres of calcium phosphate have been linked to the development of age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a major cause of blindness. AMD affects 1 in 5 people over 75, causing their vision to slowly deteriorate.

Valmik Thapar moots PPP route to save tigers

Author Valmik Thapar feels experts, scientists, and non-governmental organisations should be involved in tiger conservation.
Though the recent tiger census, which has shown a 30 per cent increase in the number of tigers, is a remarkable achievement, the country should be able to sustain it, environmentalist and wildlife expert Valmik Thapar said . Mr Thapar made a strong pitch for public-private partnership in tiger conservation programmes in the country.
The latest Tiger Census in the country puts the number at 2,226, indicating a 30 per cent jump from the previous census. India now accounts for 70 per cent of the world’s wild tigers.
Speaking at a session on “Tigers in Red Weather” at the ZEE Jaipur Literature Festival here, Mr. Thapar warned that the tiger population could go up as sharply as it could come down.

TRAI issues draft rules for full mobile number portability

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has issued draft regulations to facilitate full mobile number portability, which is set to start from May 3.
The full or nationwide mobile number portability (MNP) will allow consumers to change the service provider in any part of the country while retaining their existing number.
At present, mobile number portability allows consumers to change their service provider within a telecom circle, which, in most cases, is limited to a State.
“In view of implementation of full MNP, some changes will be required in the MNP Regulations, 2009 (as amended).
Accordingly, a draft amendment to the Telecommunication Mobile Number Portability Regulation, 2009, has been prepared,” TRAI said in a statement.
The Department of Telecom on November 3, 2014, issued amendment to the MNP Licence Agreement, and asked telecom operators to implement full MNP within six months from the date of amendment to the licences.
In the new amendment, TRAI wants to introduce a clause to safeguard the interest of post-paid mobile service users who face disconnection in new network even after clearing all their dues of their old service provider.
The regulator has fixed timeline on the old or donor service provider and new or recipient service provider for clear communication about dues cleared by the subscriber to ensure continuity of service.
TRAI has sought public comments on the subject by February 6.

India, U.S. to extend Defence cooperation pact

Aiming for a transformative defence partnership, India and the U.S. agreed to extend the Defence Cooperation Agreement and identified four projects under the Defence Technology Trade Initiative (DTTI) for joint production and development and exploring cooperation for jet engines and aircraft carrier systems.
Mr. Modi said this would help upgrade the country’s domestic defence industry and expand the manufacturing sector in India.
Mr. Obama said the agreement would guide the bilateral defence cooperation for the next 10 years
In another significant step, the two countries agreed to set up a working group to explore aircraft carrier technology and design and develop jet engine technology in India.
The projects identified under the DTTI include next-generation Raven mini-unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), roll-on, roll-off intelligence kits for C-130 transport aircraft and mobile electric hybrid power source.
Indian Ambassador to the U.S. S. Jaishankar said these four projects were “pathfinder” schemes as they would determine how to go forward in defence co-development. Of these, two projects were with U.S. companies, while two were with the U.S. government.

HIV treatment to be linked to Aadhaar

Anti-Retroviral Therapy (ART) Treatment for HIV/AIDS infection will now be linked to Aadhaar. Even those coming for HIV infection testing will have to produce their Aadhaar cards. This is to avoid duplication of patients going to several ART Centres for testing.
The National Aids Control Organisation (NACO) has created a special software which will identify a patient who goes for testing at different centres and gets registered at all the centres.

Agni-V to be test-fired from canister today

Agni-V, India’s most powerful strategic missile, developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) will lift off from a canister mounted on a TATRA truck stationed on the Wheeler Island off Odisha.
This is the third launch, but the first from a canister, a method that will allow the missile to be fired even from roads. Avinash Chander, Scientific Adviser to the Defence Minister and DRDO Director-General, has called Agni-V “a game changer.” Mr. Chander, the architect of the Agni series, will be present at the launch scheduled for 8 a.m. Agni-V can carry a 1.1-tonne nuclear warhead over 5,000 km.
Swine flu

Deaths preventable: Centre

2,038 cases reported this year across the country, 191 dead
In the wake of a H1N1 (swine flu) outbreak, which has claimed 191 lives this year, the Centre said mortality on account of the flu can be contained with immediate medical intervention.
There have been 2,038 cases of H1N1 reported across the country in 2015, with Telangana reporting the highest number of cases at 629 and 34 deaths, followed by Delhi with 488 cases and 5 deaths, Gujarat with 309 cases and 38 deaths and Rajasthan with 205 cases and 49 deaths
Health Ministry officials said Delhi’s low mortality is attributable to the high awareness about the flu, followed by early detection and timely treatment.
The Centre is closely monitoring the surge in cases and Central teams have been dispatched to Telangana and Rajasthan.

Smart phone dongle to diagnose HIV, syphilis

A palm-sized dongle connected to a smartphone will soon be able to diagnose HIV and syphilis with good accuracy.
The device, which was recently field-tested on 96 patients in Rwanda, had high sensitivity and specificity for both HIV and syphilis.
The results are published today (February 5) in the journal Science Translational Medicine.
Sensitivity and specificity for both the infections are comparable to the lab-based ELISA.
In the case of HIV, the sensitivity was 100 per cent and specificity was 87 per cent. For syphilis, the sensitivity was 92-100 per cent and specificity was 79-92 per cent.