Newly identified tectonically active zone in Himalayas:
- The suture zone of the Himalayas or the Indus Suture Zone (ISZ) in the Ladakh region where Indian and Asian Plates are joined has been found to be tectonically active, as against current understanding that it is a locked zone.
- This could have major implications in terms of earthquake study, prediction, understanding the seismic structure of the mountain chains well as its evolution.
- Scientists have found through observations and detailed mapping of geological features that the suture zone of Himalaya that was conventionally thought to be locked is tectonically active. They carried out the mapping of the remote regions of Ladakh that forms the most hinterland part of the Himalaya. The study was published recently in the journal ‘Technophysics’.
- Himalaya were known to be made up of north dipping thrusts like the Main Central Thrust (MCT), the Main Boundary Thrust (MBT), and the Main Frontal Thrust (MFT).
- As per the established models, all of these thrusts except MFT are locked, and overall deformation in Himalaya is being accommodated only along with the MFT.
- The new findings, which suggest a more remote fault at the suture zone being neo-tectonically active, could call for a serious relook into the existing evolutionary models using new techniques and a larger geological database
Indian astronomers collaborated with Nobel laureate on TMT Project:
- 2020 Physics Nobel Laureate Prof. Andrea Ghez had worked closely with Indian astronomers on the design of back-end instruments and possible science prospects of the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) project being installed at Maunakea in Hawaii, which can revolutionized the understanding of the universe and the enigmas in it.
- The Thirty-meter telescope (TMT) project is an international partnership between CalTech, Universities of California, Canada, Japan, China, and India; through the Department of Science and Technology (DST) and Department of Atomic Energy (DAE).
- Some of the Indian astronomers like Dr. Annapurni Subramanium, Director of the Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA) and Dr. Shashi Bhushan Pandey, a scientist at Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences (ARIES) along with many others collaborated with Prof. Ghez in the ongoing research and developmental activities of the TMT project.
- The scientific prospects and simulations by the first generation instrument for the TMT called the Infrared Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS), were described in one of the SPIE proceedings in 2016. The latest end-to-end data simulator on Solar System bodies, the Galactic center, energetic transient objects, active galactic nuclei, and distant gravitationally-lensed galaxies were used.
- It showed the capabilities of IRIS/TMT to continue front-line scientific research in the near future to understand the nature of the supermassive compact object at the centre of our Galaxy and many more new aspects to discover “unknown-unknowns”. The scientists highlighted the necessity of an advanced data management system and data reduction pipeline.
- The Thirty Meter Telescope, which seeks to advance scientific knowledge while fostering connection among the partner countries and their citizens, and in which Indian astronomers worked closely with Prof. Andrez Ghez, is expected to provide facilities with even greater capabilities to gather the observations needed to answer new and emerging questions in astronomy and physics in general.
IIT-Guwahati anti-aging compounds from agricultural resources:
- IIT Guwahati researchers have developed a low-cost membrane technology to produce psychoactive drugs and anti-aging compounds from wide range of agricultural resources like camellia sinensis, citrus fruits and peels especially orange peels, berries, ginkgo biloba, parsley, pulses, tea, sea buckthorn and onions.
- This process doesn’t require any organic solvents as used commercially in the industry and so, can cut down the production cost and price drastically.
- The health-related benets of psychoactive drugs (caffeine) and anti-aging compounds (avonoids) come from the stimulating detoxication of enzyme activity and inhibition of cell invasion and angiogenesis.
- The low-cost technology developed by IIT Guwahati doesn’t use any organic solvents. The commercially available techniques are using various costly organic solvents like: Chloroform, Acetone, Acetonitrile etc.
- As a result, the price of these important pharmaceutical raw materials is quite high and that ultimately increases the price of the antioxidant.
- Since organic solvents are used, the technology suffers various disadvantages like: low product quality and yield, high operating and product cost, more time consuming and high energy intensive process for solvent recovery and has limitation to run continuation mode in industrial scale.
- The technology developed by Prof. MK Purkait doesn’t require any costly organic solvents and uses only water. Hence, the cost of the process and price of pharmaceuticals thereon is much cheaper than that of existing solvent-based separation technique.
Namami Gange- Ganga Utsav 2020:
- It is a cultural and educational festival to celebrate the glory of holy river Ganga.
- On 4th November 2008, Ganga was declared “National River”.
- Since 2016, every year the National Mission for Clean Ganga has been celebrating Ganga Utsav on November 4.
- NMCG is the implementation wing of National Ganga Council (set in 2016; which replaced the National Ganga River Basin Authority (NRGBA).
- The aim is to connect masses to the cause of river rejuvenation and sensitive them about ecological issues through conversations and entertainment.
- Ganga Utsav has received support from different countries.
- This year’s Utsav will be a fun-filled occasion with a variety of events which includes storytelling, folklores, dialogues with eminent personalities, quizzes, displaying traditional artforms, dance & music performance by renowned artists, photo galleries, exhibitions and much more.
