Daily UPSC Current Affairs | 16th May 2020
Dear AspirantsIASbhai Daily Current Affairs for UPSC is an initiative to dilute major articles from leading Newspapers in India which are most relevant to UPSC preparation –‘THE HINDU, LIVEMINT , INDIAN EXPRESS’ and help millions of readers who find difficulty in answer writing and making notes everyday. Hence we choose articles on daily basis and analyse them with respect to UPSC PRELIMS2020.
There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure.– Paulo Coelho
ORANGE COLOUR: Important for Prelims.
RED COLOUR: Important for Mains.
BLACK COLOUR: Must Read !
BLUE COLOUR : Important Links/Survey.
PINK COLOUR: Reports/Themes/Summits.
Page Contents:
INAE Young Entrepreneur Award 2020
HEADLINES:
INAE invites nomination for INAE Young Entrepreneur Award 2020
WHY IN NEWS:
Hot from PIB !
SYLLABUS COVERED: GS 1: Awards
ISSUE:
KEY POINTS :
AWARD:
- The award would carry a citation and a cash prize of Rs 2 lakhs to the selected individual candidate or to be shared by the group of individuals not exceeding three persons.
ELIGIBILITY :
- The award presented to upto two candidates in a year has been instituted to encourage and recognize innovation and entrepreneurship among young engineers.
- Engineering innovations and concepts that have been actually realized and implemented in the industry either in new processes or products are preferred, and Indian citizens not older than 45 years as on 1st of January 2020 are eligible for consideration.
PREFERENCE :
- Both innovation and entrepreneurship together would be considered important and young innovators from academia/research organization or industry whose novel engineering/technology ideas have been translated into successful start-up enterprises would be given preference.
IASbhai WINDUP:
- The institute has sent a letter seeking nominations for INAE Young Entrepreneur Award 2020 to INAE Fellows.
SOURCES:THE HINDU & PIB/DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS for UPSC CSE Prelims & Mains
Lightweight carbon foam
HEADLINES:
DST INSPIRE Faculty from Bhopal develops lightweight carbon foam that can replace lead batteries
WHY IN NEWS:
The carbon foam will also be cost-effective for the removal of arsenic, oil, and other metals from contaminated water
SYLLABUS COVERED: GS 3:Health:Diseases
ISSUE:
KEY FACTS FROM THE RESEARCH :
WHAT IS CARBON FOAM ?
- These carbon foams are non-toxic, easy to fabricate, affordable, and insoluble in water.
- It can also be useful for heat sinks in power electronics, electromagnetic interference shielding in aerospace, hydrogen storage and electrode for lead-acid batteries and water purification systems.
- These carbon foams are non-toxic, easy to fabricate, affordable, and insoluble in water.
- ADVANTAGES OF LITHIUM ION BATTERY : The present grid-scale energy-storage sector is dominated by lithium-ion batteries, because of their higher energy density & specific power and long cycle life.
- DISADVANTAGES : However, there are some serious concerns regarding Li-ion batteries, such as safety risk, limited resource supply, high cost, and lack of recycling infrastructure.
- This necessitates the development of an alternative battery system with lower environmental concerns, economic and higher energy density.
- As a result, lead-acid batteries are still one of the most reliable, economical, and environmentally friendly options.
- However, electrodes in the lead-acid batteries suffer from the problem of heavyweight, corrosion, poor thermal stability, and diffusion of electrolytes in one dimension, which ultimately affects the output power.
- The foam is highly resistive to corrosion, has good electrical and thermal conductivity with high surface area, and have recently attracted a lot of attention owing to their potential applications in various field.
IASbhai WINDUP:
- The raw material for the fabrication of carbon foam is easily available everywhere, and there is no requirement of any costly equipment for the fabrication of carbon foam and filtration.
- Such materials can be safely used in remote areas where power supply is scarce.
SOURCES:THE HINDU & PIB/DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS for UPSC CSE Prelims & Mains
Injectable Silk Fibroin-based hydrogel
HEADLINES:
JNCASR scientists develop injectable Silk Fibroin-based hydrogel for sustained Insulin delivery in diabetic patients
WHY IN NEWS:
Scientists at Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR), an autonomous research institute under the Department of Science and Technology, have recently developed an injectable Silk fibroin-based hydrogel for sustained insulin delivery in diabetic patients.
SYLLABUS COVERED: GS 3:Health:Diseases
ISSUE:
DIABETES :
- Diabetes affects more than 70 million people in India, the second-highest in the world.
- It results from inadequate production of insulin due to loss of beta cells or insulin resistance within the body, which imbalances the glucose homeostasis is leading to an abrupt increase of blood glucose level.
CONVENTIONAL WAY :
- The conventional and last resort of treatment involves repeated subcutaneous insulin injections to maintain the physiological glucose homeostasis.
- The multiple subcutaneous insulin injections are associated with pain, local tissue necrosis, infection, nerve damage, and locally concentrated insulin amyloidosis responsible for inability to achieve physiological glucose homeostasis.
- This problem can be overcome with controlled and sustained insulin delivery.
FINDINGS :
- The iSFH has demonstrated successful delivery of active insulin in rats, and the results have been published in the journal ACS Applied Bio Materials.
- The viscous additives used by the team restricted the mobility of SF protein backbones and results in the rapid gelation.
- Thus, encapsulation and sustained delivery of insulin in its active form (without loss of activity) is the key to the development of such controlled and sustained in vivo delivery of Insulin.
IASbhai WINDUP:
- The iSFH has proved to be an effective insulin delivery tool for diabetic patients with excellent mechanical strength, biocompatibility, encapsulation, storage, and demonstration of its sustained delivery of active insulin in the diabetic animal.
- The active encapsulation and delivery of insulin by iSFH may also have implications for the future development of formulations for oral insulin delivery.
- The JNCASR team hopes that pharmaceutical companies will come forward and further develop it for human use.
SOURCES:THE HINDU & PIB/DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS for UPSC CSE Prelims & Mains
Rapid melting in the Himalayas
HEADLINES:
The curious case of rapid melting in the Himalayas
WHY IN NEWS:
Nearly one-third of the world’s population depend on the Hindu Kush Himalayas (HKH) for water.
SYLLABUS COVERED: GS 1:Geography
ISSUE:
The Hindu Kush Himalayas are the freshwater towers of South Asia and parts of Southeast Asia.
- Within this, there is a little understood core area known as the Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH) region.
- According to an estimate, HKH has the maximum snow storage after the poles.
- Being a major source of water for the rivers, these glaciers are the lifeline for one-third of the population across the globe.
- Not just this, the region is expected to lose half of its present-day glacier area by 2060, a decade earlier than the previously expected deadline of 2070.
- However, according to the first-ever assessment of climate change impacts on the HKH region by the regional intergovernmental body International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), the number of glaciers in the Himalayan area has increased!
SOURCES : DOWNTOEARTH
NOW, HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE?
It’s possible because the increase in the number of glaciers is primarily due to glacier fragmentation.
- In other words, the big ones are splitting into smaller ones.
- And this is happening due to global warming and consistent loss in areas the glaciers occupy.
- It’s natural because when there is an increase in the surface area or the surface exposed to the sun, the fragmented and smaller glaciers shrink faster than the larger ones.
IASbhai WINDUP:
- The assessment establishes the HKH region firstly as an incredibly important asset for Asia and the world.
- It is a key source of water, energy, carbon stocks, as well as rich biodiversity.
- For example, rivers starting from the HKH region sustain over 200 crore people and have a hydropower potential of 500 gigawatts (GW).
