Relevance IN - Prelims (about RO)
What's the NEWS

• R0 (pronounced "R-naught") is the rate at which a virus is transmitted.

• It indicates the average number of people who will contract the virus from a person who has already been infected, in a population that does not have immunity for the said disease.
• R0 is the division of the number of new infections by the number of existing infections, or the average number of new infections over an infectious period (R0= new infections/existing infections).
• The virus is assumed to be introduced to a population that does not have herd immunity or vaccination against it.
• To illustrate with an example, if the number of people diagnosed with a disease increases from four to eight in two days, it is likely to increase to 16 two days later, or in four days from the start. This makes the R0 two.
• The higher the R0, the more contagious the infection.
• When the R0 is 1, it means the number of infected persons in a population is constant. For every person who is cured of the disease or dies due to it, there will be one fresh case in the population.
• When the R0 is below 1 it means the infection is transmitted to fewer people. When such a rate is maintained over a considerable period of time, the disease is eradicated.
• WHO has estimated the R0 for coronavirus at 1.4 to 2.5.

• The Jawaharlal Nehru Tropical Botanic Garden and Research Institute (JNTBGRI) here has launched a project for the restoration and conservation of Myristica swamps
• The institute has begun work on a swamp conservatory under a project funded by the Union Department of Biotechnology.

• It is a vanishing ecosystem that could yield precious information about evolutionary biology and climate change.
• Myristica swamps are characterised by tropical freshwater swamp forests with an abundance of Myristicaceae trees, one of the most primitive of the flowering plants on earth.
• The evergreen, water-tolerant trees have dense stilt roots helping them stay erect in the thick, black, wet alluvial soil.
• The swamps also provide habitat for a rich diversity of invertebrate and vertebrate species, including amphibians, reptiles, and mammals.
• The swamps could promote better understanding of the influence of climate change on the evolution of plants. They are considered to be living museums of ancient life.
• Owing to their water holding capacity round the year, Myristica swamps act as a sponge, helping to sustain water in the streams and groundwater sources
• Myristica swamps also have higher biomass and carbon sequestration potential
• In Kerala, Myristica swamps are now largely confined to a few patches in the forested valleys of the Shendurney Wildlife Sanctuary and Kulathupuzha in the southern Western Ghats.

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about Dhauladhar mountain range )
What's the NEWS

• The Dhauladhar mountain range of Himachal , seen after 30 years, from Jalandhar(Punjab) after pollution drops to the lowest level in 30 years. The Dhauladhar mountain range is approx. 200 km away from Jalandhar
• Several Indian cities have recorded a decrease in pollution and improved air quality following the nationwide lockdown.

• The Dhauladhar range is part of a lesser Himalayan chain of mountains. It rises from the Indian plains to the north of Kangra and Mandi.
• Dhauladhar range, also known as the Outer Himalayas or Lesser Himalayas begin from near Dalhousie at the northwest end of Himachal Pradesh and pass through the state to the vicinity of the bank of the Beas River in the Kulu district of Himachal Pradesh.
• While they end near Badrinath in Garhwal, they lie almost entirely in Himachal Pradesh.
• The elevation of the Dhauladhars ranges widely from 3,500 m to nearly 6,000 m. From the banks of the Beas river in Kulu, the range curves towards the town of Mandi, Himachal Pradesh, India. Then, running north, it passes through Barabhangal, joins the Pir Panjal range and moves into Chamba, Himachal Pradesh.

Relevance IN - Prelims (about plasma therapy + about antibodies) + Mains ( GS III Achievements of Indians in science & technology; indigenization of technology and developing new technology)
What's the NEWS

• Indian council for medical research (ICMR) the top authorising body in India has given approval to the Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology (SCTIMST) an Institution of National Importance under the Department of Science and Technology for carrying out the novel treatment.
• Technically called "convalescent-plasma therapy", the treatment aims at using the immune power gained by a recovered person to treat a sick person.

Know! about convalescent-plasma therapy

• When a pathogen like novel coronavirus infects, our immune systems produce antibodies.
• The antibodies span out to identify and mark the invading virus.
• White blood cells attach the identified intruders, and the body gets rid of the infection.
• The therapy, like blood transfusion, harvests the antibody from a recovered patient and ingest into a sick person.
• Helped by the antibody, the immune system mounts robust combat on the virus.

Know! about antibodies

• Antibodies are one of the front-line immune response to an infection by a microbe.
• They are a particular type of proteins secreted by immune cells called B lymphocytes when they encounter an invader, such as a novel coronavirus.
• The immune system designs antibodies that are highly specific to each invading pathogen.
• A particular antibody and its partner virus are made for each other.

Science & Technology
Wormivet

Relevance IN - Prelims (about Wormivet + about NIF + about IGNITE) + Mains GS III (Achievements of Indians in science & technology; indigenization of technology and developing new technology)
What's the NEWS

• National Innovation Foundation India (NIF) has brought out an indigenous herbal medication (dewormer) in form of commercial product for livestock owners as an alternate to chemical method of treatment of worm.
• In order to make the indigenous herbal dewormer titles ‘wormivet' available for livestock owners, NIF worked on a medication in treatment of endoparasite (worm) infestation among livestock.

Know! about NIF

• National Innovation Foundation (NIF) - India is an autonomous body of the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India.
• It was set up in February 2000 at Ahmedabad, Gujarat to provide institutional support for scouting, spawning, sustaining and scaling up the grassroots innovations across the country.
• NIF conducts a biennial national competition for grassroots green technologies, developed by farmers, mechanics, artisans and others, through their own genius, without any recourse to professional help.
• NIF then gets these innovations validated with the help of experts and if the innovation is deemed novel, NIF files a patent on behalf of the innovator in his/her name.
• NIF also funds value-addition initiatives in these innovations to upscale them and make them more useful for a larger segment of people.
• IGNITE is an annual competition for student's ideas and innovations conducted by NIF in partnership with the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE).

Science & Technology
Technology Development Board (TDB)
Relevance IN - Prelims ( about TDB and its objective + about GITA) + Mains ( GS III Science and technology - Achievements of Indians in science & technology; indigenization of technology and developing new technology
What's the NEWS

• The Indian industry and the start-up ecosystem have responded enthusiastically to the invitation by the Technology Development Board (TDB), a statutory body of the Department of Science and Technology (DST), for proposals from Indian companies and enterprises for supporting technologically innovative solutions towards fighting COVID-19.
• TDB provides financial support to Indian companies for commercialization of indigenous technology or adaptation of imported technology and had invited proposals to strengthen the nation's core capacities in fighting COVID 19.

Know! about TDB

• The Government of India constituted the Technology Development Board (TDB) in September 1996, under the Technology Development Board Act, 1995, as a statutory body, to promote development and commercialization of indigenous technology and adaptation of imported technology for wider application.
• The TDB is the first organization of its kind within the government framework with the sole objective of commercializing the fruit of indigenous research.
• The Board plays a pro-active role by encouraging enterprises to take up technology oriented products.
• Provides equity capital or loans to industrial concerns and financial assistance to research and development institutions. The loan carries a simple interest rate of 5% per annum.

Global Innovation & Technology Alliance (GITA)

• In order to stimulate private sector's investment in R&D, TDB established Global Innovation & Technology Alliance (GITA) as a Section 25 company in a joint venture between Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and TDB with an equity contribution of 51:49 respectively.
• The GITA will assist Department of Science & Technology (DST) in implementing industrial research and development programme with different countries under bilateral and multilateral science and technology cooperation agreements.

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