Relevance IN - Prelims ( about the benefits of making the app open source + about the bug bounty programme) + Mains ( GS II Important aspects of governance, transparency and accountability, e-governance- applications
What's the NEWS

• The Government of India made Aarogya Setu app for Android open source.
• The iOS counterpart of the government's covid-19 tracking app will be open-sourced within two weeks.

• This means that researchers and cybersecurity experts will now be able to audit the Aarogya Setu app at their full discretion, helping find potential flaws in India's first truly comprehensive COVID-19 tracking app
• The code for the Arogya Setu Android app has been uploaded on GitHub and will be available for tinkering by developers
• The process of supporting the open source development will be managed by National Informatics Centre (NIC).

• While making the code Open Source, Government of India also seeks the developer community to help identify any vulnerabilities or code improvement in order to make Aarogya Setu more robust and secure.
• The National Informatics Centre (a part of MeitY) has also announced the bug bounty programme for developers who can find vulnerabilities in the app.
• The bug bounty programme is aimed at encouraging the Indian developer community to find security flaws in the app and get rewarded Rs 1 lakh.
• The programme has been organised by the MyGov team, which looks after the delivery of the government's digital programmes to citizens via apps.
• There is an additional Rs 1 lakh bounty for suggesting improvements in the Aarogya Setu app

Relevance IN - Prelims (about Chambal tunnel + about Chardham Pariyojana +location based MCQs)
What's the NEWS

• The Union Minister for Road Transport & Highways inaugurated the breakthrough event of Chamba Tunnel under Chardham Pariyojana through video conference mode.

Know! more about it

• Border Roads Organisation (BRO) achieved this major milestone by digging up a 440 m long Tunnel below the busy Chamba town on Rishikesh-Dharasu road Highway (NH 94).
• The Rishikesh-Dharasu-Gangotri road in Uttarakhand has a very significant role from socio economic and religious point of view.
• The tunnel will be through for traffic by October this year, almost three months before its scheduled date of completion.

Know! about Chardham Project

• Under prestigious Chardham Project costing around Rs 12,000 Crore with approximate length of 889 Km, BRO is constructing 250 Km of National Highways leading to holy shrine Gangotri and Badrinath.
• The Ministry has taken up separate programme for connectivity Improvement for Char-Dham (Kedarnath, Badrinath, Yamunothri & Gangothri) in Uttarakhand.
• The highway will be called Char Dham Mahamarg (Char Dham Highway) and the highway construction project will be called as Char Dham Mahamarg Vikas Pariyojana (Char Dham Highway Development Project)
• Road will include several long bridges and tunnels to eliminate accident and slide prone areas.
• Indian Railway and National Highways Authority of India have been directed to ensure that rail and road highway routes are integrated on this circuit.

Science & Technology
RT-LAMP based test for Coronavirus

Relevance IN - Prelims (about RT-LAMP test and its comparison with RT-PCR test) + Mains (GS III Achievements of Indians in science & technology; indigenization of technology and developing new technology.)
What's the NEWS

• CSIR-IIIM, Jammu a constituent laboratory of CSIR has partnered with Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) to develop and scale-up a new Reverse Transcriptase-Loop Mediated Isothermal Amplification (RT-LAMP) based COVID-19 diagnostic kit for which a formal MOU has also been signed between CSIR-IIIM, Jammu and RIL.

Know! about COVID-19 RT-LAMP test

• Reverse Transcription Loop-Mediated Isothermal Amplification (RT-LAMP) is a potentially effective tool for COVID-19 on-the-spot detection by using swabs or saliva - addressing the community need for simple surveillance.
• It is a nucleic acid based test carried out from nasal/throat swab sample from patients.
• The test recipe has been developed and successfully demonstrated using synthetic templates.
• It is rapid (45-60 min), cost effective and accurate test.
• It has been tested with a small number of patients samples and validating the kit on more number of patient samples is planned and will be done together with RIL.

Know! the Benefits of RT-LAMP

• The advantage of this test is that the RT-LAMP based COVID-19 kit components are easily available and these can be completely manufactured in India.
• The RT-LAMP test can be done in a single tube with minimal expertise in a very basic lab setup
• The end detection of the test is a simple colored reaction, which is easily visible in UV light, and now is being modified such that it can be detected in regular light.

RT-PCR (challenges)

• Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction(RT-PCR) is a nuclear-derived method for detecting the presence of specific genetic material from any pathogen including a virus.
• The current COVID-19 testing is done by real-time PCR their components are mostly imported.
• These tests are expensive
• It require highly trained manpower, costly instruments and a relatively high-end lab and cannot be deployed at remote locations in quarantine centers, airports and railway stations, etc.

Prelim Factoids
CoAST India (Collaboration/Covid Action Support Group)
Relevance IN - Prelims ( about CoAST India and its objective)
What's the NEWS

• India Observatory, an open-source database, has come up with a GIS-enabled dashboard that includes an India map reflecting the movement of migrants in real time on their long journeys,along with facilities and relief organisations on their routes.

Know! more about the platform

• The platform, a collaboration with Foundation for Ecological Security (FES), Anand as its main nodal point, is called CoAST India (Collaboration/Covid Action Support Group).
• It draws information from 55 organisations on the ground, mostly in villages, and aims to make such data available so that it would enable governments and small local civil society groups to be of assistance.
• The map matches "time and spatial data, on administrative facilities in the area, transportation and healthcare facilities of an area and summaries, on the fly, in real time of people passing by

Know! about India Observatory

• India Observatory was set up in December 2019, with FES focused on ecological issues about forests, water bodies, conservation, etc. that needed "a bird's eye view or a satellite's vision".
• It is India's first socio economic ecological open source integrated Geospatial data platform
• It aims to provide comprehensive information on India's social, ecological and economic parameters on a single platform to supplement local level decision making
• Now they decided to recraft the site to take into account movements of people, and formed a group called RCRC (Rapid Community Response to Covid).

Health
Sero Survey
Relevance IN - Prelims ( about Sero Survey and its objective + terms associated with it)
What's the NEWS

• The ministry of health and family welfare decided to conduct a population-based 'sero survey' in select districts of the country with an aim to monitor the trend in the prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 virus which causes the Covid-19

Know! about Sero- Survey

• A sero-survey involves testing of blood serum of a group of individuals and this will be used to monitor trends in prevalence of the novel coronavirus, or SARS-COV-2, infection at the district level.
• The surveillance will be conducted by the Indian Council of Medical Research and the National Centre for Disease Control in collaboration with key stakeholders and state health departments.
• The facility-oriented surveillance is an expansion of the testing of flu and serious respiratory cases in hospitals being carried out by the government.

Know! the reason behind sero-testing

• A more focused population-based sero-survey of high and low-risk groups in select districts will be in addition to routine testing.
• The move will not only help the government and its agencies monitor Covid-19 trends but also check for community transmission in any part of the country.
• The health ministry has so far maintained that there is no evidence yet of community transmission in the country.
• There are large outbreaks in some clusters but the sharp exponential rise in cases as in community transmission has not happened.

Know! how will it be conducted

• For the sero-survey, population groups will consist of low- as well as high-risk populations.
• The low-risk group will include outpatient attendees (non-ILI patients) and pregnant women, while healthcare workers will be surveyed among the high-risk population.
• The agencies will use a combination of RT-PCR and Elisa antibody kits for these surveys.
• Throat and nasal swabs will be collected for RT-PCR tests and samples tested in a one-time pool of 25.
• In addition to RT-PCR tests, blood samples will be collected for detecting IgG antibodies for Elisa testing.

Elisa testing kit to replace rapid antibody test kits from China

• The Elisa testing kit has been developed by National Institute of Virology in Pune along with Zydus Cadila.
• ELISA stands for enzyme-linked immunoassay and it is commonly used in laboratory test to detect antibodies in the blood.
• The kit is expected to play a critical role in surveillance of a proportion of the population exposed to the infection, after rapid antibody test kits from China failed the ICMR quality tests.

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