Nobel Prize 2022 in Medicine (GS Paper 3, Science and Tech)
Why in news?
- Recently, Svante Paabo was awarded the 2022 Nobel Prize in Medicine for his extraordinary discovery which proved modern humans share DNA with extinct relatives Neanderthals and Denisovans.
- He sequenced the genome of the Neanderthal, an extinct relative of present-day humans, and made the sensational discovery of a previously unknown hominin, Denisova.
- Svante Paabo is the son of Sune Bergstrom, who won the Nobel prize in medicine in 1982.
Research by Svante Pääbo:
- He sequenced the genome of the Neanderthal, an extinct relative of present-day humans. He also made the sensational discovery of a previously unknown hominin, Denisova.
- He also found that gene transfer had occurred from these now extinct hominins to Homo sapiens following the migration out of Africa around 70,000 years ago.
- This ancient flow of genes to present-day humans has physiological relevance today, for example affecting how our immune system reacts to infections.
About Nobel Prize in Medicine:
- A total of 112 Nobel Prizes in Physiology or Medicine have been awarded between 1901 and 2021, of which only 12 have been women.
- The prestigious award comes with a gold medal and 10 million Swedish kronor (over $1.14 million).
- The prize money comes from a bequest left by the prize’s creator, Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel, who died in 1895.
- The other prizes are for outstanding work in the fields of physics, chemistry, literature, peace, and economics, which will be announced in the coming days over the span of a week.
Yunqing Tang bags SASTRA Ramanujan Prize 2022
(GS Paper 3, Science and Tech)
Why in news?
- The SASTRA Ramanujan Prize for 2022 will be awarded to Yunqing Tang, Assistant Professor with the University of California, Berkeley, U.S.A.
What is SASTRA Ramanujan Prize?
- The award, instituted by the Shanmugha Arts, Science, Technology & Research Academy (SASTRA) in 2005 with a cash prize of $10,000.
- It is presented annually to individuals aged 32 and below, who made outstanding contributions in the field of mathematics, influenced by SrinivasaRamanjuan in a broad sense.
Why she has been chosen?
- Her works display a remarkable combination of sophisticated techniques, in which the arithmetic and geometry of modular curves and of Shimura varieties play a central role, and her results and methods are bound to have major impact on future research in this area.
About Yunqing Tang:
- Ms. Yunqing, born in China, completed her B.Sc in Peking University in 2011, following which she went to Harvard University.
- She completed her Ph.D in 2016 at Harvard under the supervision of Mark Kisin. After stints in Princeton University, she joined UC Berkeley in July as Assistant Professor.
What’s next?
- The prize will be awarded at the International Conference on Number Theory during December 20-22, at SASTRA University.
Over 69% houses constructed under PMAY in rural India are owned by women
(GS Paper 2, Government Policies)
Why in news?
- Over 69% of houses constructed under the Prime Minister’s special housing scheme are either wholly or jointly owned by women in rural areas.
Details:
- According to the data shared by the government, as on September 29, 2022, a total of two crore houses had been constructed out of the 2.46 crore houses that were sanctioned.
- Of this, 69% are owned partly or completely by women.
Pradhan MantriAwasYojana (Gramin):
- The Pradhan MantriAwasYojana (Gramin) was launched by the Prime Minister in 2016 with the aim of constructing 2.95 crore houses.
- To achieve the objective of “Housing for All” by 2022, the erstwhile rural housing scheme Indira AwaasYojana (IAY) was restructured to Pradhan MantriAwaasYojana-Gramin (PMAY-G).
Pradhan MantriUjjwalaYojana:
- According to the government, another initiative which has helped safeguard the health of women and children was ensuring supply of clean cooking fuel under the Pradhan MantriUjjwalaYojana.
- It is a scheme of the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas for providing LPG connections to women from Below Poverty Line (BPL) households.
- The scheme was originally launched on May 1, 2016, in Ballia, Uttar Pradesh by the Prime Minister of India with a target of releasing 8 crore connections by March 2020.
- Over 9.4 crore LPG connections have been released under the UjjwalaYojana.
- This scheme also received global recognition from International Energy Agency, which has described it as a major achievement in improving the environment and health of women.
Swachh Bharat Mission:
- Another scheme that has helped women gain dignity and security is the Swachh Bharat Mission under which 11.5 crore toilets were constructed in the rural areas and 70 lakh were built in the urban areas.
- It was launched in 2014 by the Ministry of Jal Shakti to accelerate the efforts to achieve universal sanitation coverage and to put focus on sanitation.
- Access to toilets and the safety, convenience and self-respect of women in rural India, to claim that after the construction of toilets, 93% of women reported that they were no longer afraid of being hurt by someone or harmed by animals while defecating.
- As many as 93% of women reported they are no longer afraid of contracting health infections; 92% of women said they were no longer afraid of going to the toilet in the dark of night.
Way Forward:
- It had been the government’s endeavour to ensure women get a fair share of government schemes under the Nari Shakti initiative.
- The idea behind the initiative is to have “women-led” development instead of “development of women”.
Ministry issues Advisory against advertisements of betting still visible on Television and Digital Media
(GS Paper 2, Governance)
Why in news?
- Recently, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting issued two Advisories, one for private television channels and the other for digital news publishers and OTT platforms strongly advising them to refrain from showing advertisements of online betting sites and surrogate advertisementsof such sites.
Background:
- The Ministry had earlier issued an Advisory in June, 2022 advising newspapers, private TV channels and digital news publishers to refrain from publishing advertisements of online betting platforms.
- It had come to the notice of the Government that several sports channels on television, as well as on OTT platforms, have recently been showing advertisements of offshore online betting platforms as well as their surrogate news websites.
Key Highlights:
- The Advisories were supplemented with evidences which contained direct and surrogate advertisements of offshore betting platforms such as Fairplay, PariMatch, Betway, Wolf 777, and 1xBet.
- In the Advisories, the Ministry has informed that online offshore betting platforms are now using news websites as a surrogate product to advertise the betting platforms on digital media.
- In such cases, the Ministry has found that the logos of surrogate news websites bear striking resemblance to betting platforms.
- Moreover, the Ministry has stated that neither the betting platforms nor the news websites are registered under any legal authority in India. Such websites are promoting betting and gambling under the garb of news as surrogate advertising.
- The Advisories issued by the Ministry stated that since betting and gambling is illegal in most parts of the country, advertisements of these betting platforms as well as their surrogates are also illegal.
- The Advisories relied upon the provisions of the Consumer Protection Act 2019, Cable TV Network Regulation Act 1995 and the IT Rules, 2021.
Prohibition:
- The Ministry has stated that such advertisements are not in conformity with various related laws and has strongly advised TV channels as well as digital news publishers from broadcasting such betting platforms or their surrogate news websites, reminding TV channels that violation may invite penal action.
- The Ministry has also advised online advertisement intermediaries to not target such advertisements towards Indian audience.
Way Forward:
- The Ministry has mentioned that betting and gambling pose significant financial and socio-economic risk for the consumers, especially youth and children.
- Accordingly, the promotion of offline or online betting/gambling through advertisements is not advised in larger public interest.
