Science and Technology
Vaccine Ledger - Blockchain-based open source system to track vaccine supply chains worldwide

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about Vaccine Ledger) + Mains ( GS III awareness in the field of science and technology)
What's the NEWS

• Tech Mahindra will roll out a blockchain-based open source system to track vaccine supply chains worldwide.
• The Pune-based company has partnered with startup StaTwig to implement ‘VaccineLedger' globally.

Know! more about Vaccine Ledger

• The partnership aims to roll out blockchain-based traceability solution for global vaccine supply chain transparency, predict and prevent failures in supply chains, including problems related to expired vaccines, stock out and counterfeiting
• The blockchain-based application will build peer-to-peer bridges on current systems that support real-time data sharing, authentication and validation.
• Vaccine manufacturers can use the system to track inventory, vendor payments through Internet-of-Things (IoT) integration and smart contracts, according to the company.
• The companies will work with vaccine researchers, governments, pharmaceutical companies, distributors and healthcare workers to understand various steps of the supply chain.
• Tech Mahindra will also develop a mobile and web application that will support the requirements of manufacturers and state governments
• This partnership "will not only ensure safety and validity of vaccine supply but also help in adherence to complex regulatory requirements, set up by Drug Administration Authority in any country

Blockchain

• It is a system of recording information in a way that makes it difficult or impossible to change, hack, or cheat the system.
• A blockchain is essentially a digital ledger of transactions that is duplicated and distributed across the entire network of computer systems on the blockchain.
• Each block in the chain contains a number of transactions, and every time a new transaction occurs on the blockchain, a record of that transaction is added to every participant's ledger.
• The decentralised database managed by multiple participants is known as Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT).
• Blockchain is a type of DLT in which transactions are recorded with an immutable cryptographic signature called a hash.

• This means if one block in one chain was changed, it would be immediately apparent it had been tampered with.
• If hackers wanted to corrupt a blockchain system, they would have to change every block in the chain, across all of the distributed versions of the chain.

Culture
Ramapppa Temple's nomination to World Heritage Site status deferred
Relevance IN - Prelims ( about Both Dholavira and the Kakatiya heritage sites + UNESCO World Heritage List - Indian sites
What's the NEWS

• The decision to examine Ramappa Temple for a World Heritage Site inscription has been deferred by the World Heritage Committee
• The World Heritage Committee's Extended 44th meeting is scheduled to be held online hosted in Fuzhou in China between July 16 and 31.
• The provisional agenda reveals that Dholavira in Gujarat, which has Harappan relics, is set to get the World Heritage Site inscription.
• Both Dholavira and the Kakatiya heritage sites were added to the tentative list in 2014.

Ramappa Temple (Ramalingeswara temple)

• It is located 77 km from Warangal, 15 km from Mulugu, 209 km from Hyderabad in the state of Telangana in southern India.
• An inscription in the temple dates it to the year 1213 CE and says it was built by a Kakatiya General Recherla Rudra Reddy, during the period of the Kakatiya ruler Ganapati Deva.
• The temple is a Sivalayam, where Lord Ramalingeswara is worshipped.
• Marco Polo, during his visit to the Kakatiya Empire, allegedly called the temple "the brightest star in the galaxy of temples
• Ramappa Temple stands majestically on a 6 ft high star-shaped platform.
• The hall in front of the sanctum has numerous carved pillars that have been positioned to create an effect that combines light and space wonderfully.
• The temple is named after the sculptor Ramappa, who built it, and is perhaps the only temple in India to be named after a craftsman who built it.
• The main structure is in a reddish sandstone, but the columns round the outside have large brackets of black basalt which is rich in iron, magnesium and silica.
• These are carved as mythical animals or female dancers or musicians, and are "the masterpieces of Kakatiya art, notable for their delicate carving, sensuous postures and elongated bodies and heads
• The Temple is included in the proposed UNESCO World Heritage Site "The Glorious Kakatiya Temples and Gateways", in 2019 on the "tentative list".

Connect the dots (Previous NEWS)

• The cultural sites of Dholavira, a historical Harappan city, and the glorious Kakatiya Temples and Gateways -- Rudreshwara (Ramappa) Temple in Telangana, are India's nominations for the UNESCO World Heritage List, and are among the global sites to be reviewed by the World Heritage Committee's 44th session slated to be chaired from Fuzhou (China) from July 16-31.
• On July 16, UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay will take part in the opening of the session, during which the World Heritage Committee will notably examine the state of conservation of 255 sites already inscribed on the World Heritage List, 53 of which also figure on the List of World Heritage in Danger, says UNESCO.
• The World Heritage Committee has inscribed 1,121 sites in 167 countries on the World Heritage List to date, says UNESCO.
• India currently has 38 properties inscribed on the prestigious list, ranging across the cultural, natural and mixed sites.
• The cultural sites, along with the year in which they were inscribed, include Agra Fort (1983), Ajanta Caves (1983), Archaeological Site of Nalanda Mahavihara at Nalanda, Bihar (2016), Buddhist Monuments at Sanchi (1989), Champaner-Pavagadh Archaeological Park (2004), Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (2004), Churches and Convents of Goa (1986), Elephanta Caves (1987), Ellora Caves (1983), Fatehpur Sikri (1986), Great Living Chola Temples (1987,2004), Group of Monuments at Hampi (1986), Group of Monuments at Mahabalipuram (1984), Group of Monuments at Pattadakal (1987), Hill Forts of Rajasthan (2013), Historic City of Ahmedabad (2017), Humayun's Tomb, Delhi (1993), Jaipur City, Rajasthan (2019).
• Also included are Khajuraho Group of Monuments (1986), Mahabodhi Temple Complex at Bodh Gaya (2002), Mountain Railways of India (1999,2005,2008), Qutub Minar and its Monuments, Delhi (1993), Rani-ki-Vav (the Queen's Stepwell) at Patan, Gujarat (2014), Red Fort Complex (2007), Rock Shelters of Bhimbetka (2003), Sun Temple, Konarak (1984), Taj Mahal (1983), The Architectural Work of Le Corbusier, an Outstanding Contribution to the Modern Movement (2016), The Jantar Mantar, Jaipur (2010), and Victorian Gothic and Art Deco Ensembles of Mumbai (2018).
• For the natural sites, those included from India are: Great Himalayan National Park Conservation Area (2014), Kaziranga National Park (1985), Keoladeo National Park (1985), Manas Wildlife Sanctuary (1985), Nanda Devi and Valley of Flowers National Parks (1988,2005), Sundarbans National Park (1987) and Western Ghats (2012).
• The Khangchendzonga National Park (2016) is a mixed site from India on the List.
• The session this year will combine current work and issues left outstanding since last year, when the annual meeting was postponed due to Covid-19.
• Starting on July 24, the World Heritage Committee will start inscribing nominated sites on the UNESCO World Heritage List, beginning with nominations that could not be reviewed last year.

World Heritage Sites

• World Heritage is the designation for places on Earth that are of outstanding universal value to humanity and as such, have been inscribed on the World Heritage List to be protected for future generations to appreciate and enjoy.
• Places as diverse and unique as the Pyramids of Egypt, the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, Galapagos Islands in Ecuador, the Taj Mahal in India, the Grand Canyon in the USA, or the Acropolis in Greece are examples of the natural and cultural places inscribed on the World Heritage List to date.

Bilateral Relations
Nepal signs $1.3 billion mega deal with India's SJVN to develop hydropower project

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about Lower Arun Hydropower project + Arun-III hydropower plant + Arun river) + Mains ( GS II bilateral relations)
What's the NEWS

• Nepal signed a pact with India's state-owned Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam to develop the 679-megawatt Lower Arun Hydropower project in eastern Nepal.
• The $1.3 billion project, the single biggest foreign investment project, as per the 2017 cost estimates, is located in Sankhuwasabha and Bhojpur districts.
• This is the second mega project undertaken by the southern neighbour after the $1.04 billion 900-MW Arun-3 hydroelectric project in the Arun river.
• A memorandum of understanding was signed by the Investment Board of Nepal chief atta and Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam Chairman and Managing Director
• According to the board, the developer should complete the detailed project study of the project and submit the detailed project report for approval at the board within two years from the agreement date.
• The project will be built under the build, own, operate and transfer (BOOT) model.

Lower Arun Hydropower project

• The 679-megawatt Lower Arun Hydropower project is the second mega project undertaken by India after the USD 1.04 billion 900-MW Arun-3 hydroelectric project.
• The project will not have any reservoir or dam and will be a tailrace development of Arun-3 hydro project, which will mean water re-enters the river for the Lower Arun project.
• In 2018, Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli and visiting Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi jointly laid the foundation stone for the Arun III Hydropower Project, remotely from Kathmandu.

Arun-III hydropower plant

• The Arun-III hydropower plant is being developed on the Arun River in Sankhuwasabha District of Province 1, East Nepal.
• The Arun-3 Hydro Electric project (900 MW) is a run-of-river project
• It is an export-oriented project with a power generation capacity of 900MW.
• The power from the project will be exported from Dhalkebar in Nepal to Muzaffarpur in India.
• It is being developed on a build-own-operate and transfer (BOOT) basis by Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam (SJVN) Arun 3 Power Development Company (SAPDC), a joint venture of the Government of India and the Government of Himachal Pradesh.
• SJVN was established in 2013 with an aim to plan, promote, organise and execute the Arun-III power plant.
• SJVN signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for the execution of the project with the Government of Nepal (GoN) in March 2008.
• SJVN will operate the power plant for a concession period of 30 years. Then, the ownership will be transferred to the GoN. It will provide 21.9% of free power to Nepal during the concession period.
• The Ministry of Science, Technology & Environment, GoN, approved the environmental assessment report for the project in August 2015.
• The hydropower plant construction commenced in May 2018 and completion is scheduled for 2023
• The Arun-III hydropower project will include the construction of a 70m-tall and 466m-long concrete gravity dam on the Arun River.

Build Own Operate and Transfer (BOOT)

• It is a public-private partnership (PPP) project model in which a private organization conducts a large development project under contract to a public-sector partner, such as a government agency.
• In this model, the public-sector partner contracts with a private developer with specific expertise - to design and implement a large project.
• The public-sector partner may provide limited funding or some other benefit (such as tax exempt status) but the private-sector partner assumes the risks associated with planning, constructing, operating and maintaining the project for a specified time period.
• During that time, the developer charges customers who use the infrastructure that's been built to realize a profit.
• At the end of the specified period, the private-sector partner transfers ownership to the funding organization, either freely or for an amount stipulated in the original contract.

Run-of-the-river Project

• Run-of-the-river hydroelectric projects are hydroelectric systems that harvest the energy from flowing water to generate electricity.
• Run-of-the-river primarily uses the natural flow rate of water to generate power-instead of the power of water falling from a height.

For a run-of-the-river system to be possible in a given location, there needs to be two specific geographical features:

• A substantial flow rate, either from rainfall or a melting snowpack.
• There must be enough of a tilt to the river to speed the water up significantly.

The Arun River

• It is a trans-boundary river and is part of the Kosi or Sapt Koshi river system in Nepal.
• It originates in Tibet Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China where it is called the Phung Chu or Bum-chu.
• The Kosi or Sapta Koshi drains eastern Nepal. It is known as Sapt Koshi because of the seven rivers which join together in east-central Nepal to form this river.
• The main rivers forming the Koshi system are - the Sun Kosi, the Indravati River, the Bhoté Koshi, the Dudh Kosi, the Arun River, Barun River, and Tamur River.
• The combined river flows through the Chatra Gorge in a southerly direction to emerge from the hills.
• The Sun Kosi contributes 44 per cent of the total water in the Sapta Koshi, the Arun 37 per cent and the Tamur 19 per cent.
• The Arun is the largest trans-Himalayan river passing through Nepal and also has the greatest snow and ice-covered area of any Nepalese river basin.
• The Arun drains more than half of the area contributing to the Sapta Kosi river system but provides only about a quarter of the total discharge.

Prelims Factoids
Riemann Hypothesis
Relevance IN - Prelims ( about Riemann Hypothesis)
What's the NEWS

• The Riemann Hypothesis remains open," said Martin Bridson, president of Clay Mathematics Institute, when asked about the claim by Hyderabad-based Kumar Eswaran of solving the problem that has puzzled mathematicians for past 162 years.
• On the website of Clay Mathematics Institute, the final word on Riemann Hypothesis is: "The problem is unsolved".

Riemann Hypothesis

• It is one of the Millennium Prize problems, for which $1,000,000 had been announced by the CMI from their inception in 2000.
• The problems are considered "important classic questions that have resisted solution over the years".
• The Riemann Hypothesis, postulated by German mathematician G.F.B. Riemann, is about prime numbers and their distribution.
• While the distribution does not follow any regular pattern, Riemann believed that the frequency of prime numbers is closely related to an equation called the Riemann Zeta function.

The Clay Mathematics Institute (CMI)

• It is a private, non-profit foundation, based in Peterborough, New Hampshire, United States.
• CMI's scientific activities are managed from the President's office in Oxford, United Kingdom.
• The institute is "dedicated to increasing and disseminating mathematical knowledge."
• It gives out various awards and sponsorships to promising mathematicians.
• The institute was founded in 1998 through the sponsorship of Boston businessman Landon T. Clay. Harvard mathematician Arthur Jaffe was the first president of CMI.
• While the institute is best known for its Millennium Prize Problems, it carries out a wide range of activities, including a postdoctoral program (ten Clay Research Fellows are supported currently), conferences, workshops, and summer schools.

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