1. Over 60 people dead in the Indonesian earthquake
Tags: place in news Science and Technology International News
A 5.6-magnitude earthquake killed more than 60 people and injured hundreds in Indonesia's West Java province on 21 November 2022. However the death toll is likely to rise further as many are still trapped under the rubbles.
The epicentre was near the town of Cianjur in West Java, about 75 km (45 miles) southeast of the capital, Jakarta.
Indonesia lies across the "Pacific Ring of Fire", a highly seismically active zone, where different plates on the Earth's crust meet and create a large number of earthquakes and volcanoes.
In 2004, a 9.1 magnitude quake off Sumatra Island in northern Indonesia triggered a tsunami that struck 14 countries, killing 226,000 people along the Indian Ocean coastline, more than half of them in Indonesia.
Earthquake
Earthquakes happen when the plates of the earth collide with each other. The earth's lithosphere consists of 7 major plates and they float over the molten surface of the upper mantle. When they collide energy waves are released which causes vibration on the surface of the Earth known as Earthquake.
The location below the earth’s surface where the earthquake starts is called the hypocenter, and the location directly above it on the surface of the earth is called the epicenter.
Earthquakes are recorded by instruments called seismographs. The recording they make is called a seismogram.
The scale for measuring earthquakes is called the Richter scale. It is a mathematical scale used to measure the intensity of earthquake waves. It ranges from 0 to 9. However it can be more than 9.
2. India and European Union sign agreement for cooperation in high-performance computing
Tags: National Science and Technology
India and the European Union (EU) have signed an agreement on cooperation in hi-tech areas such as climate modelling and quantum technologies on 21 November 2022. This agreement seeks to implement the provision of the India-EU TTC (Trade and Technology Council) agreement signed during the visit of the European Union Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on 25 April 2022 at New Delhi.
The agreement named ‘Intent of Cooperation on High Performance Computing (HPC), Weather Extremes and Climate Modelling and Quantum Technologies’ was signed by the ministry of electronics and IT (MeitY) and the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology (DG CONNECT) during a virtual ceremony. The agreement was signed by MeitY secretary Alkesh Kumar Sharma and DG CONNECT director general Roberto Viola.
The agreement aims to facilitate collaboration on high performance computing applications using Indian and European supercomputers in areas such as bio-molecular medicines, Covid-19 therapeutics, mitigating climate change, predicting natural disasters and quantum computing.
India-EU TTC (Trade and Technology Council)
The India-EU TTC (Trade and Technology Council) was established between India and the European Union during the visit of the European Union Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on 25 April 2022 at New Delhi.
The India-EU TTC (Trade and Technology Council) is a strategic mechanism that gives New Delhi access to advanced technologies and allows the two sides to set standards in crucial areas such as 5G and artificial intelligence.
This is the first such trade and technology council set up by India with any of its partners.
India is the second country after the United States of America with which the European Union has signed such an agreement.
European Union
The European Union is a group of 27 European countries.
The United Kingdom which was the founding member of the European Union has left the organisation.
It was founded on 1 November 1993
Headquarters: Brussels, Belgium
3. India to take over Chairmanship of the Global Partnership on AI from France
Tags: place in news Science and Technology Summits
India will take over the Chairmanship of the Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence (GPAI) from France during the third edition of the annual Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence (GPAI) being held in Tokyo, Japan on 21 November 2022. India will be chairman for the 2022-23 period.
France will symbolically hand over the chairmanship to the Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar who is representing India at the 2day (21-22 November) Tokyo summit meet.
AI which stands for artificial intelligence refers to systems or machines that mimic human intelligence to perform tasks and can iteratively improve themselves based on the information they collect.
Artificial Intelligence is expected to contribute 450 to 500 billion US dollars to India’s GDP by 2025 accounting for 10 per cent of the country’s 5 trillion dollar GDP target. It is expected to contribute 967 billion US dollars to the Indian economy by 2035.
What is Global Partnership in Artificial Intelligence?
It was launched on June 15, 2020, with fifteen members as its founding member. India is one of the founding member country of Global Partnership in Artificial Intelligence (GPAI).
The initiative facilitates international cooperation on artificial technology by bringing together on a single platform, experts from fields such as science, industry, civil society, governments, international bodies, and academia.
At present, GPAI has twenty-five member Countries. They are : Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, the Republic of Korea (South Korea), Singapore, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom, the United States, and the European Union (EU).
4. India moves up 6 place to be ranked 61st on the Network Readiness Index 2022
Tags: INDEX National Science and Technology
India has improved its rank by 6 places to be ranked at 61 place in the recently released Network Readiness Index 2022 (NRI 2022). The report prepared by the US-based non-profit body Portulans Institute compliments India and says that “India has a greater network readiness than would be expected given its income level”.
The Network Readiness Index ranks the 131 countries on 58 variables across four pillars of four different pillars: Technology, People, Governance, and Impact.
India’s Performance
- India improved its score from 49.74 in 2021 to 51.19 in 2022.
- India has secured 1st rank in “AI talent concentration”,
- 2nd rank in “Mobile broadband internet traffic within the country” and “International Internet bandwidth”,
- 3rd rank in “Annual investment in telecommunication services” and “Domestic market size”, 4th rank in “ICT Services exports” and
- 5th rank in “FTTH/Building Internet subscriptions” and “AI scientific publications”.
- India is ranked 3rd out of 36 in the group of lower-middle-income countries after Ukraine (50) and Indonesia (59).
Top three countries on the Network Readiness Index
The United States topped the list with an overall score of 80.3. It was followed by Singapore with a score of 79.35 and Sweden with a score of 78.91.
In the Asia Pacific region, the list was led by Singapore, followed by South Korea and Japan.
Full Forms
FTTH: Fiber to the Home
ICT: Information Communication Technology
AI: Artificial Intelligence
5. India's first privately built rocket, Vikram-S, launched by ISRO
Tags: Science and Technology
India's first ever private Vikram-S (Suborbital) rocket was launched on 18 November from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota.
Important facts
The rocket reached an altitude of 89.5 km with three payloads weighing a total of 83 kilograms.
Vikram-S, designed by Skyroot Aerospace as a tribute to the father of the country's space programme, Vikram Sarabhai, successfully completed its maiden mission.
Skyroot Aerospace has become the first privately owned rocket manufacturing company in India after the Center opened up the space sector to private players in 2020.
This first mission of Skyroot Aerospace has been named 'Prarambh'.
The rocket after taking off from Sriharikota splashed down safely in the waters of the Bay of Bengal, about 115 km away.
Two indigenous and one foreign payloads are also going on this rocket. This six metre high rocket is the world's first all composite rocket. It has 3D-pretended solids to handle its spin capability.
Through this rocket, avionics, telemetry, tracking, inertial measurement, global positioning system, onboard camera, data acquisition and power system will be tested.
It is a sub-orbital flight carrying satellites from Chennai-based space startup SpaceKidz, Andhra Pradesh-based N-SpaceTech and Armenia's BazoomQ Space Research Lab.
6. Blackstone launches its Asian Data center business from India
Tags: place in news Economy/Finance Science and Technology
American multinational private equity investor Blackstone has started its data centre business in Asia from India. It plans to increase it to 600 MW over the next two years through presence in five locations in the country.
Blackstone launched its data center platform Lumina CloudInfra on 15 November 2022. The Lumina CloudInfra is owned and managed by Blackstone’s Real Estate and Tactical Opportunities funds.
Initially the data center will be set up in Mumbai and Chennai, and later on it will be set up in Delhi-NCR, Hyderabad and Pune.
National Data Center
The government data center has been set up and managed by the National Informatics Centre (NIC).The first Data Centre was launched in Hyderabad in 2008, followed by NDC Pune in 2010, NDC Delhi in 2011 and NDC Bhubaneswar in 2018.
It operates 37 small Data Centres at various State Capitals to provide services to the Government at all levels.
National Data Centre (NDC) at Bhubaneswar is a Cloud-enabled Data Centre which has been offering cloud services to Government Departments since its inception.
The National Data Centres form the core of e-Governance Infrastructure in India by providing services to various e-Governance initiatives undertaken by the Government of India.
What is a Data Center?
A data center is a facility that centralizes an organization’s shared IT operations and equipment for the purposes of storing, processing, and disseminating data and applications. Because they house an organization's most critical and proprietary assets, data centers are vital to the continuity of daily operations.
7. NASA launches its Artemis 1 mission from Kennedy Space Centre, Florida
Tags: Science and Technology International News
The US space agency NASA launched its Artemis 1 mission on 16 November, 2022 from Kennedy Space Centre, Florida.
Important facts
About eight minutes after launch, the core stage's engines cut off and the core stage separated from the rest of the rocket.
After this, the Orion spacecraft was propelled by the Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage (ICPS).
NASA also deployed the four solar arrays of the Orion spacecraft.
After completing "translunar injection", Orion separated itself from the ICPS and is now on its way to lunar orbit.
About Artemis 1 mission
For the first time in 50 years since the end of the Apollo program, the launch of Artemis 1 is an ambitious US mission to return astronauts to the surface of the Moon.
The Artemis 1 launch will also be the first flight of NASA's 21st century moon-exploration program.
With Artemis 1 on the surface of the Moon, NASA aims to demonstrate new technologies, business approaches and capabilities that are essential for future explorations, including Mars.
The launch aims to further aid in the study of the Moon, its origin and history.
ISRO’s Moon Exploration Mission
Chandrayaan 1
Chandrayaan-2
The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) recently announced India's third lunar mission Chandrayaan-3, which will consist of a lander and a rover.
8. Government has extended the term of DGCI V G Somani again by three months
Tags: Science and Technology Person in news
The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has again extended the term of the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) Dr V G Somani by another three months. The extension will come into effect from 15 November 2022.
He was earlier given an extension in August this year for three months. His extended term was to expire on 15 November 2022.
Dr Venugopal Girdharilal Somani played a key role in the approval of covid-19 vaccine, approval of lifesaving drugs and ensuring its quality in combating the covid-19 pandemic.
About DCGI (Drugs Controller General of India)
The Drugs Controller General of India is the head of the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation under the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
Under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, CDSCO is responsible for approval of Drugs, Conduct of Clinical Trials, laying down the standards for Drugs, control over the quality of imported Drugs in the country
Drugs Controller General of India: Venugopal Girdharilal Somani
Headquarters: New Delhi
9. Union Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal inaugurates international travelling Exhibition “Vaccines Injecting Hope”
Tags: Festivals place in news Science and Technology Person in news
Union Minister of State for Culture & Parliamentary Affairs Ajun Ram Meghwal inaugurated an international travelling exhibition “Vaccines Injecting Hope” at the National Science Center, New Delhi on 15 November 2022.
The exhibition “Vaccines Injecting Hope” has been organised by the National Council of Science Museums (NCSM) and Science Museum Group, London.
The exhibition tells the story of the global effort to develop covid vaccine started on 15 November 2022 and will tour five cities of Delhi, Nagpur, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Kolkata till September 2025 and is expected to reach out to more than 2 million people.
The exhibition has sections on ‘The Arrival of New Virus’, ‘Designing a New Vaccine’, ‘Trials, Results and Approvals’, ‘Scaling Up and Mass Production’, ‘Vaccine Rollout’, ‘Living with COVID’.
Novel Coronavirus or Covid-19
The novel coronavirus was first detected in Wuhan,China in December 2019 and was later declared a Public health emergency of International concern by the World Health Organisation on 30 January 2020 and a Pandemic on 11 March 2020.
The first case of the virus in India was confirmed in Kerala on 30 January 2020.
Bharat Biotech, Indian Council of Medical Research and National institute of Virology, Pune developed an indigenous corona vaccine called Covaxin.
The Covid vaccination in India was started on 16 January 2021.
National Council of Science Museums (NCSM)
It is an autonomous body under the Union Ministry of Culture. It is a premier body in the field of science communication.
It popularizes Science and Technology through a network of science centers, Mobile Science Exhibitions (MSE) units that visit rural schools and organise various activities for public and students in particular.
Headquarters: Kolkata, West Bengal
10. Jitendra Singh dedicates first Indian Biological Data Center to the nation
Tags: Science and Technology
Union Minister of state for Science and Technology, Jitendra Singh dedicated India’s first national repository for life science data ‘Indian Biological Data Center’ (IBDC) to the nation on 10 November 2022 at Faridabad.
About Indian Biological Data Center
In this data centre Indian researchers will store biological data from publicly funded research.
The digitised data will be stored on a four-petabyte supercomputer called ‘Brahm’. A petabyte equals 10,00,000 gigabytes (gb).
The government has mandated that data on all publicly funded research should be stored in this central repository.
It will not only provide researchers a platform to securely store their data within the country, but also provide access to a large database of indigenous sequences for analysis.
The Bio-Bank currently accepts nucleotide sequences to digitise the genetic of humans, plants, animals and microbes.
The bio-bank now has 200 billion base pair data, including 200 human genomes sequenced under the '1,000 Genomes Project', an international effort to map genetic variations in people.
The project will also focus on populations that are vulnerable to certain diseases.
