Anti-inflammatory drugs Subject: Science and Tech Context: The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday a clinical trial in 52 countries would study three anti-inflammatory drugs as potential treatments for COVID-19 patients. Concept: These therapies – artesunate, imatinib and infliximab – were selected by an independent expert panel for their potential in reducing […]
SMILE – Support for Marginalized Individuals for Livelihood and Enterprise Subject: Science and Technology Context: The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment has formulated a scheme “SMILE – Support for Marginalized Individuals for Livelihood and Enterprise”, which includes subschema – ‘Central Sector Scheme for Comprehensive Rehabilitation of persons engaged in the act of […]
Bitcoin mining Subject: Science and Technology Context: Minister of State for Finance Ministry Pankaj Chaudhary also informed the Lok Sabha that “the government does not collect data on environmental impact due to mining of cryptocurrency.” Concept: Crypto investments in India grew from $923 million in April 2020 to $6.6 billion in May 2021 […]
Heterologous boosting Subject: Science and Technology Context: Mixing Covishield and Covaxin, the two main vaccines against Covid-19 in use in India, has found by a new ICMR study to be safe and also to provide better immunity. Concept: Heterologous boosting The idea of heterologous boosting initially emerged in Europe,. Vaccine platforms may vary in their ability to induce antibody […]
Variants of Covid 19 Subject: Science and Technology Context: The continued spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus has spawned a Greek alphabet of variants – a naming system used by the World Health Organization to track concerning new mutations of the virus that causes COVID-19. Concept: DELTA The Delta variant first detected in India remains the […]
Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee Subject: Science and Technology Context: Recent interministry communication points to strong indication that a decision is likely to be made soon on import of Soyabean meal for meeting the current feed shortage in the country. Concept: Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC) is the apex body that allows for commercial release […]
Immunogenicity Subject: Science and Technology Context: A combination of Covishield and Covaxin elicits better immunogenicity than two doses of the same vaccine, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said on Sunday. Concept: The council released its findings which suggest that immunisation with a combination of an adenovirus vector platform-based vaccine followed by […]
Battery Cell Technologies Subject: Science and Technology In news: The suitability of some frontier battery technologies are likely to be evaluated by NITI Aayog and Ministry of Power based on the end-use application of the battery storage projects in electric vehicles (EVs). The new technologies include a novel rechargeable iron-air battery developed by […]
Perseverance rover Subject: Science and Technology Context: NASA’s Perseverance rover is exploring the Jezero Crater on Mars and attempting to collect its first rock samples. Concept: NASA says that sampling Mars is one of the most complicated tasks and involves drilling holes, collecting and then storing the samples in test tubes. Perseverance rover […]
Absorption Spectroscopy Subject: Science and Technology In news: Researchers from IIT Madras and IISER Kolkata have developed a method to detect minute quantities of chemicals in solution. They use a variation of absorption spectroscopy that surpasses the systemic limits imposed by conventional absorption spectroscopy. With this technique, they can, in principle, illuminate the […]