(Current Affairs) Science & Technology, Defence, Environment | February: 2016

Science & Technology, Defense, Environment

PSLV C-29 launch on Dec 16

  • Space scientists of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) are all set to launch the PSLV C-29 rocket from the Sriharikota space centre in Nellore district here on December 16 at 6 p.m
  • Through this launch, ISRO will be sending six satellites belonging to Singapore. Of these, the TeLEOS-1 will be the main satellite which weighs 400 kg and it is meant for remote sensing applications for commercial purposes

Use of Colistin has raised

  • Five years after an antibiotic resistant superbug was traced to India, the mar-ket size of colistin , the last antibiotic that can work on resistant infections ,has more than doubled in the country.
  • Usage of the last-resort drug has shot up in hospitals 91 lakh units (one unit is one injection vial), estimated at Rs. 80 crore, was sold in 2015, up from units valued at Rs. 30 crore three years ago.

New system of Desalinisation developed

  • With desalination that involves converting saline sea water to potable water being out of reach currently for the shallow pockets of the government, researchers of Indian Institute of Science (IISc) have hit upon the idea of utilising copious solar energy in the South to reduce the costs of the process.
  • The Department of Electronic Systems Engineering at IISc, have developed a solar hybrid desalination system that works for saline and brackish water

New drugs of TB

  • For the first time, child-friendly TB drugs for first-line medication in a fixed-dose combination was launched by TB Alliance, UNITAID and WHO at the 46th Union World Conference on Lung Health. These drugs, which meet the WHO’s revised dosage guidelines of 2010, are meant for children weighing less than 25 kg.
  • The fixed-dose drugs are already available and countries can place an order, which can take 2-3 months for delivery.
  • The Mumbai-based Macleods Pharmaceuticals is the only company manufacturing the child-friendly drugs. The medicines will cost $15.54 for the six-month course of treatment.
  • The availability of child-friendly TB drugs of correct dosages will increase drug adherence and thereby reduce acquired drug resistance. According to the WHO, each year, at least 1 million children become ill with TB.

Concern over large gaps in airspace security

  • There is no guarantee that India's air defence systems would be able to detect enemy nation, or a terrorist organisation and launch a counter-at-tack to shoot it down before it wreaks havoc on targets.
  • The vulnerability of Indian cities and other strategic as-sets have been exercising military planners for long. Their efforts to develop a robust air defence network received a major boost with the first successful test of the Long Range Surface to Air Missile (LR-SAM), jointly developed by India and Israel, from an Israeli warship on Thursday.
  • The test came just a few days after the November 22 successful interception of Orissa by an Advanced Air Defence (AAD) missile of a dummy in-coming ballistic missile.
  • However, officials point out that given the large airspace, there still remain significant gaps in the air defence network and most systems in service, largely old Russian ones, are in urgent need of re-placement.
  • While efforts have been on for over a decade to procure new systems or develop them indigenously or in collaboration, most of them have been repeatedly delayed due to time and cost overruns.
  • Air defence networks are meant to detect, track andshoot down incoming enemy aircraft, missiles or drones.
  • Any incoming hostile target is first detected by long-range radars connected to the SAM system and once the threat is identified and its trajectory determined, the long-range missiles are fired.
  • As the last resort if the missile is in close proximity, man-portable systems and shoulder-fired missiles like Igla are fired along with anti-aircraft guns. At the moment, upgrade and replacement programmes are in the pipe-line in every single category among the three services.

2015 to be hottest year on record: WMO

  • This year will be the hottest on record and 2016 could be hotter due to the El Niño weather pattern, According to the World Meteorological Organisation
  • Warming inaction on climate change could see temperatures rise by 6 degrees Celsius or more.
  • But decisions taken at a summit of world leaders in Paris starting on Monday could keep global temperature rises within 2 degrees Celsius over pre-industrial times, a target set down in 2010 to try to prevent dangerous climate change.
  • Global average surface temperatures in 2015 were likely to reach what the agency called the “symbolic and significant milestone” of 1 degree Celsius above the pre-industrial era.
  • This is due to a combination of a strong El Niño and human-induced global warming.

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