Parched UAE turns to cloud seeding (GS Paper 3, Science and Tech)
Why in news?
- The United Arab Emirates (UAE), located in one of the hottest and driest regions on earth, has been leading the effort to seed clouds and increase precipitation.
The precipitation in UAE remains at less than 100 millimetres (3.9 inches) a year on average.
Why cloud seeding?
- The effects of climate change, combined with a growing population and economy diversifying into tourism and other areas have pushed up demand for water in the UAE, which has relied on expensive desalination plants that make use of seawater.
- Scientists in Abu Dhabi combine shooting hygroscopic, or water-attracting, salt flares with releasing salt nanoparticles, a newer technology, into the clouds to stimulate and accelerate the condensation process and hopefully produce droplets big enough to then fall as rain.
- Cloud seeding increases rainfall rates by approximately 10% to 30% per year.
- Other countries in the region, including Saudi Arabia and Iran, have announced similar plans as they face historic droughts.
Challenges:
- As a twin-turboprop aircraft takes off under the burning desert sun with dozens of salt canisters attached to its wings, meteorological officials scans weather maps on computers screens for cloud formations.
- At 9,000 feet above sea level, the plane releases salt flares into the most promising white clouds, hoping to trigger rainfall.
- Cloud seeding requires the existence of rainy clouds, and this is a problem as it is not always the case.
Indian scientists find how black fever causing parasite spreads
(GS Paper 3, Science and Tech)
Why in news?
In a major medical breakthrough, Indian scientists have discovered how the Leishmania parasite, which causes black fever,targets and spreads faster in the body.
What is Visceral Leishmaniasis?
- Visceral Leishmaniasis, also known as Kala-Azar or black fever, is spread by sandfly bites, which carry ‘Leishmania donovani’ a parasite in their hair.
- The vector flies live in muddy areas.
- In 2020, ten countries like Brazil, China, Ethiopia, Eritrea, India, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, and Yemen, accounted for more than 90 per cent of all new kala-azar cases reported to the WHO.
- The symptoms of kala-azar include anemia, weight loss, spleen and liver enlargement, and irregular fever episodes lasting several days.
Basics of research:
- The scientists have long been looking at understanding the mechanism of the parasite to devise better treatment strategies.
- For the discovery of a drug-like candidate with higher efficacy and less toxicity, a better understanding of the interactions between host and parasite is essential.
- Leishmaniasis infects humans and replicates intracellular within macrophages, the cells that normally engaged in protecting the host from pathogens.
Key Findings:
- They discovered that Leishmania parasites modulate the host signaling mechanisms to suppress the host's protective immune responses.
- The Leishmania parasite hijacks SUMOylation, a key regulator of various cellular, nuclear, metabolic, and immunological processes, to spread in the body.
- The study revealed the involvement of the SUMOylation pathway in the modulation of protective immune responses and thus favoring parasite survival and that targeting of SUMOylation pathway can provide a starting point for the design and development of novel therapeutic interventions to combat leishmaniasis.
Way Forward:
- With increasing resistance to antileishmanial drugs, it seems promising to target host-directed approaches for therapeutic interventions and drug development.
- This discovery will open avenues for the development of novel drugs with a targeted approach for the control of this neglected disease.
Telangana, West Bengal and Sikkim top inflation charts
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
Why in news?
India’s retail inflation surged past 6% in January, but there are wide disparities in the pace of price rise experienced by consumers across the country, with a dozen States clocking an average inflation of less than 6% and another 12 States averaging more than 7% through 2022 so far.
Key Highlights:
- While headline inflation measured by the Consumer Price Index has averaged 6.8% in the first seven months of 2022, well above the 6% upper tolerance threshold set by policy makers, consumers in Telangana, West Bengal and Sikkim faced the steepest spike in prices, with their combined retail inflation for rural and urban areas averaging 8.32%, 8.06%, and 8.01%, respectively.
- As many as 14 States, along with the erstwhile State of Jammu & Kashmir, have witnessed price rise higher than the national average through 2022, with all but two of these States seeing higher than 7% inflation.
- Some of the other major States where inflation has stayed sharply elevated include Maharashtra and Haryana (7.7%), Madhya Pradesh (7.52%), Assam (7.37%), Uttar Pradesh (7.27%), Gujarat and J&K (7.2%), as well as Rajasthan (7.1%).
- Retail prices in States like Kerala (4.8%), Tamil Nadu (5.01%), Punjab (5.35%), Delhi (5.56%), and Karnataka (5.84%) have been rising at less than 6%.
- Smaller States like Manipur, Goa and Meghalaya have had an average inflation of less than 4% through this period, at 1.07%, 3.66%, and 3.84%, respectively.
Factors responsible for variation in the States’ inflation rates:
- One is food prices, where non-producing States have higher inflation as transport prices get added.
- Second is that some States lowered fuel prices while others didn’t, which also made a difference.
- Arunachal Pradesh, for which only a rural consumer price index is calculated by the National Statistical Office, has averaged 7.3% inflation this year, peaking at 9.2% in April when the headline retail inflation for the country had hit a 95-month high of 7.79%.
- In Andhra Pradesh and Jharkhand, consumers have faced an inflation of 6.9% so far in 2022, just a tad higher than the national inflation average of 6.8%.
- Price rise in Bihar (6.07%), Chhattisgarh (6.4%), Uttarakhand (6.5%) and Odisha (6.6%) has been below the national average but above the Central bank’s tolerance threshold for inflation.
Delhi Police first force to make forensic probe mandatory
(GS Paper 2, Governance)
Why in news?
Recently, the Delhi Police has become the first police force in the country to make collection of forensic evidence mandatory in crimes punishable by more than six years.
Details:
- The order was issued after Union Home Minister visited the Police Headquarters.
- Since Delhi is a Union Territory, its police force is under the administrative control of the Ministry of Home Affairs.
- The Union Home Minister while speaking at a Zonal Council meeting in Bhopal had said the government was going to overhaul the British-era Indian Penal Code and one of the changes being considered was making collection of forensic evidence compulsory in criminal cases punishable by more than six years.
Forensic mobile vans:
- According to the Delhi Police order, apart from the force’s mobile crime vans in the districts, a forensic mobile van shall be allotted to each district to provide scientific and forensic assistance on the spot whenever any such need arises.
- These forensic mobile vans shall not be under the administrative control of the police but shall be an independent entity responsible to the court of law.
- However, they shall visit the scene of crime whenever called by the Station House Officer or any other investigating agency of Delhi Police.
Focus on survelliance:
- The Union Home Minister emphasised on surveillance being a major part of policing and said that CCTV cameras installed at public places should be integrated with the police control room.
The cameras installed by the administration, police as well as in public places like airports, railway stations, bus stands and markets should be integrated with the police control room to ensure better surveillance.
