Priya Yadav,
We always said that women are goddesses and they always prove it. They handle both their personal and professional life before marriage they work for her parents and after marriage, she works for her husband and family and when she became a mother of a child one more responsibility came for her because of this, sometimes she has to choose personal life over professional life but there are lots of women who came back after a period of time to live there dreams.
Marry com give birth to 3 children in 2007 and 2013. But this doesn’t stop her from being in the ring and doing what she loves to do. After became a mother she won a bronze medal in Olympic 2012, gold medal in Tokyo 2020 in fact she won a gold medal in 2014 after became a mother. She became a first boxer in the history who wins 8 world meet medals last year she won a gold medal in New Delhi. In one of her interviews, she said that people use to think that I could win only when a was not married but after getting married and having children’s I had to struggle a lot she said that it is not easy to come back after getting married and having children. Of Couse, it is not easy but she did and follows her dreams.
Sania mirza a tennis player gives birth to a child in 2018 and take a maternity break of more than 2 years. She comes back to the 2020 summer Olympics and won this match. In one of her interviews, she said that “it is really amazing, something that I could only dream to come back like this and win a tournament straightaway. It is very difficult to play after giving birth to a child because it changes the shape of the body, gain weight, and lots of other challenges they face. She loses 23-26 kilos and nothing stops her.
Chandro and Prakashi Tomar two sisters who pick up a gun in their 60s and are known as the world’s oldest sharpshooters. Chandro Tomar won more than 30 national championships. Her husband neither opposed nor her shooting sports. Chandro has 5 children and 12 grandchildren. Prakashi Tomar wins more than 25 national and international championships. She has 8 children and 20 grandchildren her daughter Seema and Rekha Tomar are also a shooter, Rekha is retired as a shooter but her grandmother is going on. They both always wear her conventional village attire when they used to do the shooting. Does lots of work at home and after dinner they take shooting practice in their private range. A movie is also based on their story called “sand ki aakh” which inspired a lot of women in this world.
These women’s are the example for everyone that nothing can stop us for doing what we want to do they always attend to household chores of cooking, cleaning, tending to cattle, and feeding their family but between this, they took some minutes of time for themselves and fulfilled their dreams after a lot of difficulties in their life. There are lots of movies based on this concept like panga, sand ki aakh, Mark Kom and this only represents or tells us that if we decide to do anything in our life we can achieve it at any age and at any cost.
Day: September 6, 2020
Global Justice & Climate Change
A series of efforts to critique and develop theories of global justice have developed into major research programs for a range of political philosophers and theorists of late. Cosmopolitans argue that robust duties of justice exist between non-compatriots. Non-cosmopolitans either deny the existence of such duties of justice or assert that they are substantially less robust than those between compatriots.
The privilege of making use of fossil fuels has most often fallen to the comparatively wealthy sections of the world, while the burdens of climate change are obviously falling more drastically on the poor. The pressing question of who is responsible for the costs of climate change and the costs of adaptation to it lies at the heart of global justice. Another concern is how an international treaty will assign mitigation costs and whether costs will be assigned in a way that constrains poverty eradicating economic growth in the developing and least developed countries.
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), formed by international treaty in 1992, is the international institution wherein international agreements dealing with climate change occur. Both the treaty and the institution that developed as a result of the treaty. The UNFCCC provides the institutional setting for international negotiations and the Convention provides a deliberative framework in a set of guiding norms.
Cosmopolitans are likely to favour distinguishing the burdens of responding to climate change in a way that provides allowances to developing countries. The Convention applies to a world characterized by extreme poverty and global inequality. Economic development can eradicate poverty but it is energy intensive. A climate change treaty that raises energy prices in the developing world threatens to slow, or prevent, the process by which billions of people may be raised out of extreme poverty.
Considerations of global justice and the Convention’s language of common but differentiated responsibilities have led some people to conclude that a morally acceptable international treaty should distribute various responsibilities of states according to their historic contribution of greenhouse gasses. This idea is subsumed in the polluter-pays-principle. The idea is that those who pollute should pay in proportion to their contribution to the overall pollution problem.
Meanwhile the ability-to-pay-principle assigns responsibility in proportion to an agent’s capacity. The ability-to-pay is often used in the assignment of burdens for financing state activities such as defence against various threats and the provision of certain aspects of the well-being of citizens.
Sustainable development, on the other hand, would be consistent with theories of global justice that require eradicating poverty or decreasing inequalities. It would also be in line with the Convention’s commitment to sustainable development, a comprehensive conception of which had been laid down in its preamble. The goal of development is to eradicate poverty- this requires economic growth, which in turn requires growth in energy consumption and, when cheap fossil fuels are used, a by-product of energy consumption is CO2 emissions. To achieve a poverty eradicating development, developed countries would have to cut down on their emissions heavily. Thinkers such as Darrel Moellendorf have gone on record to say that since emissions growth over the next several decades will come mostly from the developing countries, an effective climate change treaty ought to address their concerns.
UGC: New Guidelines for Online Course and Distance Learning
University Grants Commission (UGC), on 5th September, finalized its integrated online and distance learning regulations to provide easier access to students.
“On Teachers Day, @ugc_india integrated distance and online regulations notified in the gazette focusing on access and equity on one side and quality-centric autonomy to the universities on the other,” Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ said on social media.
Under these regulations, the top 100 universities in the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) or those with 3.26 or above National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) grades will be permitted to provide online courses without prior permission.
“The integrated regulations are student-centric. Many quality provisions have been made to ensure mobility, equivalence among different modes of education, complaint handling mechanism,” Mr Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ said on social media.
The minister further added that the integrated distance and online regulations are compliant to budget and Aatma Nirbhar Bharat announcements made by the government.
The University Grants Commission (UGC) has also released a checklist for students regarding adherence to the duration of the academic session, the prohibition of franchising agreement, and ensuring all activities are within the territorial jurisdiction before enrolling them into distance learning programmes.
“Please ensure that the minimum duration, nomenclature, and qualification for degree programme under which they are enrolling is strict as per UGC notification on the specification of degrees and its amendments,” said UGC Secretary Rajnish Jain in a notice listing the precautions need to be taken by students before enrolling in Open and Distance Learning (ODL) programmes.
“Also ensure that all activities of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) including admission, counselling sessions, contact programmes, programme delivery and examinations are strictly conducted within the territorial jurisdiction,” he added.
As per norms, no university whether central, state, private or deemed to be university, can offer its programmes through franchising agreements with private coaching institutions for admitting learners and conducting courses through open and distance learning and online mode.
“Please ensure that the admission process is carried out through headquarters of the HEIs in a transparent manner. The learners are also advised to verify all details as claimed by the institution on the website. If any deviation is noticed, please communicate the same to UGC for necessary punitive action as per provisions defined under respective regulations,” Jain said.
The secretary also said that in view of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Commission has decided that the revised academic session for this year as decided by the commission for ODL programmes, shall be kept as a period of 12 months starting from September-October, 2020 and February-March, 2021.
The students have also been advised against taking admission in programmes which are prohibited in distance learning including engineering, medicine, law, dental, pharmacy, nursing, architecture, physiotherapy, agriculture, hotel management, culinary studies, valuation of real estate and MPhil or Phd programmes in any discipline.
Why OFFLINE is still the best idea!
In this world of new normal, Digital has replaced Traditional . But is it worth it ? NO, is atleast my answer . What good is the online classes doing ? I see nothing except the damage. Sticking to the screens for so many hours and plugging in your earphones is only causing an increase in the stress level . Who says there is an increase in concentration level..turning your videos off or even in your videos on and chatting on the Facebook and Whatsapp ..what kind of concentration is this ? How many people in the rural areas even have access to the technology required for attending an online class. Or even how many rural teachers even have access to technology to teach their students online. The literacy level was already bad in the rural areas the pandemic just made it worst.
Online classes has made students lethargic. Lying on the bed or on sofa and attending a class because i need my attendance is exactly what it has become now. The radiation of the laptop or mobile screens is of great harm to children under age. They are more prone to eye infections or weak eyesight. There is an increase in anger and agitation level of both the kids and adults.
Also , what a Traditional concept can do Online can never overtake .The sense of Belongingness can never be replaced by Whatsapp , the social strata,the smell of books can never be replaced by Ebooks ,the environment of a classroom can never be changed by the four walls of your drawing room. There are no technical issues just the emotional ones. You can always run into a staff room and disturb your teacher because you didn’t understand a concept . In the online mode you send a message to the teacher with the uncertainity of receiving a reply. Maybe the doubt will always remain a doubt.
The feeling of a high five you gave to a friend because you got an answer correct, can never be felt by a high five emoji! The programmes that were held on 5th of september, to thank our teachers for the efforts they put in and bring that smile on their face can never be replaced by a virtual wish . The collaborative learning in the classroom can never be repalced by the chaos of everybody unmuting themselves and speaking. The group projects are not the same now.
Maybe, Online is the need of the hour, but saying it is better than Offline doesen’t make much sense!
AFTERALL, “OLD IS ALWAYS GOLD”.
Big Deal in the Cement Industry!
India already is the second largest cement producer in the world.India’s overall cement production capacity was around 545 million tonnes in FY20.Around 98% is produced by private sector rest by public sector and the top 20 companies account of production i.e 70% of the total cement production in India.It is expected that till 2025 around 550-560 million tonnes will be produced because of the expanding divisions like housing,commercial construction and industrial construction.
The deal is between famous detergent maker Nirma and Lafarge cement. In which Nirma is in talks to buy the India business of Lafarge Cement in the deal of the value of Rs 9400 crore. By this, the soap to soda enterprise will become the sixth-largest manufacture in India. If the deal goes well then the company will take on brands like Piramal & JSW. Nirma itself is going to finance the acquisition with a mix of equity & debt. It will increase the cement business to around 13 million tonnes from 2 million tonnes in the state of Rajasthan.
Nirma’s MD Hiren Patel said that,”this will be an transformational and a landmark step for the company’s cement business”.He also added that strong platform like Lafarge’s India business,we plan to take cement business to next level.The best part of Nirma in many years has been that the products that they produce are at lower cost through which everyone can afford.As everyone knows it that Nirma has always given tough competition to the likes of HUL and P&G.It is one of the major players in the field of detergent & toiletries segments.
Nirma had a plan to build a large size cement unit in Gujarat but the plan failed due to environmental issues. But later in November, it commissioned its first cement plant in Rajasthan. The buyout will be the second acquisition after Jaypee Cement by Ultratech for Rs 16189 crore.Lafarge is trying to enter the deal so that its partnership with Swiss Holcim should conclude & operate as single operator in the country.Previously,it tried to sell part of its business to Birla Corp but due to issues of the law it could not.
Analysts expect that Narendra Modi led government has a confidence that it will boost the cement demand in the country.From an annual growth rate of 10% in 2008,of late the rate had fallen to 4% while the prices has came down from Rs 1300 per tonne to Rs 700 per tonne now.
YOU- Before anyone else !
In a society like ours , keeping yourself FIRST, is always termed as “selfish”. It is portrayed as something that is so wrong to do . But why ? Why do we have to prove ourselves everytime we take a decision for our own self. How does it matter ? And why does it matter ? In a democratic country like ours where we have all rights reserved for speech,for living ,for celebrating ,why is this concept of putting ourselves first so “stereotypical”
Every coin has two phases. One the positive one .Another the negative one . So is with ”SELFISHNESS”.
The negative side of selfishness is when you do not care about what others feel or think or if you are hurting somebody by being apathetic completely.
The positive side talks about keeping yourself first with no intentions of hurting somebody. In life, where everybody is competing to be on top ,it is necessary to keep yourself first without the guilt for it. You need to stand for yourself even if that means standing alone . People come and people go, what remains is the experiences ,the lessons you have learnt. When you start keeping yourself second on the list ,you give people a chance to keep you on second as well.Because it is often said “How you love yourself,is how you teach others to love you” . And i’m sure everybody wants to be a priority . It is possible in this journey of self love ,you lose people and may be you will lose bonds that matter ,but remember people who can not appreciate your journey are better staying away from your life because the real ones will always encourage and appreciate you to be the best version of yourself. Afterall it’s not your job to be everything to everyone . And obviously you can’t keep everybody happy ,so maybe it is better to focus on your happiness.
” TO FALL IN LOVE WITH YOURSELF IS THE FIRST SECRET TO HAPPINESS ”
The society is full of comments .Body shaming , racism, comparison ,criticism, and what not .Everything comes to your way . But what you have to do is TAKE A DEEP BREATH AND MEDITATE . Meditate by saying : I don’t want anything that doesen’t want me. And there will be no turning back . Stop listening to things that doesen’t deserve your attention. Stop listening to people who want you second . Start prioritising . Start getting your goals right. Start looking after yourselves .Start heading towards self love. Start keeping yourself first . Because if self love is being selfish become SELFISH . But, yes in a positive way!
A POEM BY JASZ GILL :
Dear Fellow Human Being, You are born wild, You do not deserve to be tamed! Tell yourself, You do not deserve this! All those toxic words you have to listen from people, All those fears they try to pin on your mind, All those giggles they aim at your dreams, All those judgmental stares inspecting your individuality, All those fingers pointing towards your crude character, All those shackles that tie your feet to social expectations, All those cages that do not let your imagination fly free, Listen deeply, you do not deserve any of it. My dear fellow human, you do not deserve this hostility. You are born wild, You do not deserve to be tamed!” ― Jasz Gill
The man behind the SC judgement on “basic structure” dies
Kesavananda Bharati, the seer of Edneer Mutt in Kasargod district of Kerala, whose case led to the historical judgment of the Supreme Court on the “basic structure” doctrine passed away Sunday morning at an age of 80. This case is regarded as the greatest constitutional case in the judicial history of India. In the Kesavananda Bharati vs the state of Kerala, 1973 by the majority of 7-6, the Supreme Court established the basic structure of the constitution which is inviolable and cannot be amended by the Parliament.
Constitutional expert Nani Palkhivala argued on behalf of Bharati challenging the Kerala Land Reforms (Amendment) Act 1969- which had the objective of distributing the land among the landless farmers. This restricted the management of the Edneer mutt’s property which was the only source of income for the asharam. The petition was against the 24, 25 and 29th constitutional amendments which as argued by Bharati breached his fundamental rights under Article 25 (right to practice and propagate religion), Article 26 (freedom of religious denomination, including managing and administering its property) and Article 31 (right to property).
The attempts to amend the constitution began write after its adoption. Initially the SC allowed the Parliament to have absolute powers in making amendments as in Shankari Prasad(1951) and Sajjan Singh(1965) cases, having full faith in the parliamentary leaders who were erstwhile freedom fighters. But later amendments were being made to suit the partisan political interests. Subsequently in the Golaknath case(1967), the SC ruled that the parliament cannot makes amendments in the Fundamental Rights under Part 3 of the constitution. The ruling interpreted the “laws” in article 13 as inclusive of the amendments and so by using Article 368 no laws or amendments were to be made in contradiction to the Fundamental Rights. The Indira Gandhi government hence came up with the 24,25 and 29th amendments.
The SC ruling in the Kesavananda Bharati case, 1973 said that the amendments could not alter the “basic structure” of the constitution and allowed a wide arena for judicial review. The bench however did not establish as to what constitutes the basic structure, leaving it open for the court to adjudicate on a case by case basis. The top court has interpreted the doctrine to include the supremacy of the Constitution, the rule of law, independence of the judiciary, doctrine of separation of powers, federalism, secularism, sovereign democratic republic, the parliamentary system of government, the principle of free and fair elections and the welfare state.
Men have a heart. They really Do!…
Just shut your eyes for a moment and imagine a man. What do you see? I’m sure you must be seeing a masculine body, strong personality and not any fat or weak person.
But why? Why it’s like this only? It’s because we’ve been how a man is portrayed and how a woman is portrayed, what are man things and what are women’s. Gender equality is actually a myth. So, people, there’s a day called Men’s day do exist. Does anybody know the date? I’m sure the number will be negligible, many of you must be getting to know that there’s a day like that now. So 19th November is World Men’s Day. We all remember and celebrate women’s day but on men’s day, there’s nothing. Now few will say, a man’s achievements cannot be celebrated in a day, so we don’t even celebrate or remember it.The society has built a typical stereotype about a man. A man needs to stay strong, he needs to take all the responsibility on his shoulders and most highlighted thing MEN CAN’T CRY.
Men do know that there are many expectations from them, to the society as well as their family. They try their level best to fulfil them. They work hard, give it all they have just to meet the expectations. But even after all the efforts, what if they fail? They can’t even speak up to anyone following the typical stereotype. They can’t even show the pain on their face as they always have to act MAN. They suffer deep inside, even depression eats them. But still, they don’t express anything and keep it buried inside. They always take it all on themselves just to keep their loved ones happy and safe.
Now do one thing, find a man around you, who’s smiling and laughing all day long, making people smile around. You must feel looking at him, wow I wanna be this happy. Now try to watch him when he’s alone and about to sleep. There you’ll find the real person, crying and mourning for all the scars life is giving him. They keep all the pain, sorrows inside and express in front of the pillow at night hiding it from the world.
And Yes! They do care but fail to express. The typical man thing makes them hide their emotions but deep down they really care. If anyone in the family is in trouble, maybe mother, daughter, wife or sister, a man will be always there for you. We speak out loud of gender equality but never act on it. They are still many who disrespect a man portraying themselves as a feminist. But one thing we all should remember that a woman completes a man and a man completes the woman. It takes a lot to be a man and they just need some affection in return. Go to your father, brother, husband or boyfriend, just hug them and say thank you, the typical man will melt in front of you. Believe me, a man is a human too. They too have a heart, they really do!…
Pseudo Feminism!…
A guy is guilty even if proven innocent, a girl is innocent even if she’s guilty. In the name of feminism, we all have lost gender equality concept. I’m not at all supporting men harassing women here. I know many men harass women in real-world as well as virtual. We must raise voice against it when something like this happens. But the bitter truth is men also get harassed by women. They are blamed for the sins they didn’t even commit. Men fall prey to false allegations at times. We’ve developed a mentality that only a man can be wrong every time. So these fake feminists use it as a weapon to harass men with dirty allegations. When it comes to judgement, women always get sympathy corner but not the men. But I say, nobody should crave for sympathy. For our judiciary system, men and women are equal, then who are we to put someone in victim’s place and other in criminal’s.
Now many will create hype misunderstanding my words. I’m not at all antiwomen. I believe in men and women equality by all kind. I too feel like demanding to shoot the rapists on-site when incidents such as Nirbhaya happens. Nobody has the right to slide into any women’s DM and flaunt their manhood. Unsolicited pictures and negativity on social media makes people weak nowadays. But then I see cases where a teenager was falsely alleged by a girl who then committed suicide as he couldn’t handle it. He was proven innocent when he was gone. Another incident where all the teenagers’ boys were blamed for the boys’ locker room, later got to know that it was a girl behind it. A guy in the capital was under false allegations. But he stood up for himself, took all the criticism, fought for years to get justice and finally was proven innocent. There are so many such cases happening around. Nowadays we see a new fad in the market. Pick a person, whether guilty or not and defame in social media, post stories, chat screenshots and gain unnecessary sympathy. This fad is way much dangerous. Even if the person is not guilty, they keep on receiving threats and hate messages. People don’t even give it a second thought before defaming them. I feel nobody has the right to defame anyone publically for the sake of sympathy followers. Fall for using a human card, let’s get judged on human basis and not on gender basis.
I saw a post on social media saying a day without men. But why anybody needs that? A man and women are meant to live together and happy. We ain’t going anywhere without each other. Supporting your own gender doesn’t necessarily mean you have to pull the other one down. Both the genders should get an equal amount of respect. Let’s keep our eyes and mind wide open before judging someone. Gender should not be the definition of innocence. Justice is for all, no matter what gender. If someone tries to take unnecessary advantage of their gender, then it’s our duty as a human being to stand together and fight out such mentalities.
Let’s stand out for equality as a human. Men and women are equal by all means. Both the genders should stand by each other when something wrong happens with one. Let’s stand for the right. Let’s not people take the unnecessary advantage of their gender. We all are equal as a human and we stand for truth and peace.
India registers highest single day recoveries with more than 70,000 COVID patients discharged
India’s TEST, TRACK and TREAT strategy is showing tangible results.The Recovery Rate of India touched a record high of more than 70000 patients being discharged in a single day.The highest ever single day recoveries of 70,072 were recorded in the last 24 hours. With this high number of COVID-19 patients recovering and being discharged from the hospitals and home isolation, the Recovery Rate now is 77.23%.This has also led to the declining Case Fatality Rate, which stands at a new low of 1.73%today.
Early identification through TESTING has led to higher daily number being reported but surveillance& contact TRACING along with focus on timely and appropriate clinical TREATMENT of patients have ensured speedy recovery.Higher number of recoveries and declining fatality has shown that India’s graded strategy has worked.
India has posted more than 22.6 lakh recoveries than the active cases (846,395).The active cases currently comprise only 21.04%of the total positive cases.
The total number of recoveries have crossed31 lakh (31,07,223) today.Five States have contributed to 60% of the total recoveries. Maharashtra has contributed the maximum recoveries amounting to almost 21%, followed by Tamil Nadu(12.63%) ,Andhra Pradesh (11.91%), Karnataka (8.82%) and Uttar Pradesh(6.14%).
Shri Piyush Goyal addresses the ACMA annual session;
Union Commerce and Industry & Railways Minister Shri PiyshGoyalhas called upon the Indian Automotive Component Manufacturers to work in the spirit of cooperation, collaboration, and commitment, and Compete with the rest of the world and grow with confidence.Addressing Automotive Component Manufacturers Association (ACMA)’s 60th Annual Session today, he said that Manufacturers have grown over the last few years and pushed themselves to be globally competitive.
The Minister said that the industry is ready for the future and going to emerge victorious in the post-COVID world. “It is only in the time of crisis that best comes out of our organisation. Through trade promotion, technology upgradation, quality enhancement, measures to collect and disseminate information, ACMA can be at the forefront of this new normal”, he added
Shri Goyal said that the entire country adopted the Prime Minister Shri NarendraModi’s clarion call of Aatmanirbhar Bharat to engage with the rest of the world from a position of strength and confidence for the way forward. He said that there is a huge demand for trusted partners in resilient global supply chains. “We will expand our global engagement. We see huge opportunities to expand businesses and provide truly high-quality products at competitive prices & become that trusted partner”, the Minister added.
Talking about the positive trends in the Indian economy, the Minister said “In the Railways, last month we have been able to grow our freight traffic by 4 percent over the corresponding period last year.In the current month, the trend is even better than that.Tractor sales have already been revived, two-wheelers and three-wheelers are also showing very good traction. It is a day to bring in positivity into our crystal gazing of the future, move out of pessimism. And look forward with hope and faith.”
The Minister said that we should start taking measures to tighten the belt, improve productivity, start looking at every element of cost and smarter solutions to become the preferred suppliers to customers. He said Aftermarket business can open up a lot of opportunities for ACMA if the industry starts looking at more affordability and more attractive ways. With perseverance towards quality and bringing in scale, the industry will certainly become more export competitive. He called for innovative financing for the auto industry.
Indian Railways to start Computer Based Test for notified vacancies from 15th December 2020
Indian Railways is going to start computer based tests for notified vacancies from 15th December 2020.
Indian Railways had notified 3 types of vacancies. These were 35208 for NTPC (non technical popular categories like guards, office clerks, commercial clerks etc), 1663 for Isolated & Ministerial categories (Steno & Teaches etc) and 103769 for Level 1 vacancies (track maintainers, pointsman etc). In all RRBs had notified a total of 1.40 lakh such vacancies for NTPC categories, Level-1 Posts and isolated and miscellaneous categories. Against the above vacancies, RRBs had received more than 2.40 crore applications. The Computer Based Test (CBT) for above vacancies had to be deferred due to Covid-19 pandemic and resultant lockdown which was imposed throughout country.
Scrutiny of the applications had been completed but the process of further examination had got delayed due to covid related restrictions.
RRBs of Railways are committed to hold the CBT for all the notified vacancies and have been actively assessing the ground situation imposed due to pandemic. Now that experience of conduct examination for the JEE for IITs and NEET is there, it was felt that Railways too can start the process which had to be stopped due to Covid pandemic.
SOPs for conduct of examination of this magnitude are being framed. Norms of social distancing and other protocols prescribed by the various Central and State authorities need to be followed which are essential in the interest of safety of candidates.
Railway now proposes to commence 1st stage online computer based tests from 15 December, 2020 and necessary action has been initiated in this regard.
Department of Biotechnology supported GCLP Facility for Viral Immunogenicity Testing now open for operations
Department of Biotechnology, Government of India has taken myriads of initiatives to increase investments in research and development (R&D) of affordable Biotech healthcare products. Establishment of National Biopharma Mission is one such endeavour to identify the needs and gaps of Biotherapeutics, Vaccine and Devices Industry and address those capacity bottlenecks.
Vaccine development requires extensive evaluation in humans to establish safety, immunogenicity and clinical efficacy. Centralised Viral and Bacterial clinical Immunogenicity labs meeting the stringent GCLP standards were therefore identified as a critical need for the vaccine Industry.
National Immunogenicity & Biologics Evaluation Center (NIBEC) for assessing clinical Immunogenicity of viral vaccines is established jointly by Bharati Vidyapeeth University through its constituent unit Interactive Research School for Health Affairs (IRSHA) and BIRAC-DBT, Government of India through National Biopharma Mission. The facility was inaugurated virtually by Dr Renu Swarup, Secretary, DBT, Government of India in an e-inauguration ceremony presided by Dr Vishwajeet Kadam, Minister of State; Government of Maharashtra.
NIBEC, having a dedicated area of about 10,000 sq ft, was established in a record time of just a year. It has state of the art one BSL-3+, 4 BSL-2 and 10 BSL-1 laboratories. Key immunogenicity evaluation tests like Plaque Reduction Neutralization Test (PRNT), Microneutralization assay, IgM and IgG ELISA have been developed, standardized and validated for Dengue, Chikungunya and SARS-CoV-2 viruses. The laboratory has already started associating closely with leading Indian vaccine manufacturing companies and National and International institutes engaged in vaccine developments.
Inaugurating the facility via video conference, Dr Renu Swarup, Secretary, DBT, said that she has very high expectations from NIBEC with regards to clinical immunogenicity testing of vaccine candidates specially with the COVID 19 vaccine pipeline in the country. She further elaborated that having domestic capabilities maintaining international standards in this space, will accelerate and fast track development of indigenous vaccines in the country.
Speaking on the subject, Dr Vishwajeet Kadam, Minister of State; Government of Maharashtra said that Government support for creation of such a facility at IRSHA is heart-warming. He acknowledged and thanked the support of DBT and BIRAC.
About DBT
The Department of Biotechnology (DBT), under the Ministry of Science & Technology, promotes and accelerates the development of biotechnology in India, including growth and application of biotechnology in the areas of agriculture, healthcare, animal sciences, environment and industry.
About BIRAC:
Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC) is a not-for-profit Section 8, Schedule B, Public Sector Enterprise, set up by Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Government of India as an Interface Agency to strengthen and empower the emerging Biotech enterprise to undertake strategic research and innovation, addressing nationally relevant product development needs
About National Biopharma Mission:
The Industry-Academia Collaborative Mission of Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Govt of India for accelerating discovery research to early development for Biopharmaceuticals approved by the Cabinet for a total cost US$ 250 million and 50% co-funded by the World Bank is being implemented at Biotechnology Research Assistance Council (BIRAC). This program is dedicated to deliver affordable products to the nation with an aim to improve the health standards of India’s population. Vaccines, medical devices and diagnostics and biotherapeutics are few of its most important domains, besides, strengthening the clinical trial capacity and building technology transfer capabilities in the country.
About IRSHA:
Interactive Research School for Health Affairs (IRSHA) is a unique constituent unit of Bharati Vidyapeeth (Deemed to be University), totally dedicated to research. The institute was established in 2001. The institute is mandated to conduct research in priority areas of human health in co-ordination with other constituents of the university like Medical, Ayurveda, Homeopathy, Dental colleges, Rajiv Gandhi Institute of IT & BT, Environmental sciences etc. The core area of research includes Mother and child health, Cancer, Diabetes, Obesity, Osteoarthritis & Herbal medicine.
Machine learning solution can make exploring geo-resources simpler
Scientists struggling with the manual interpretation of growing seismic data to explore causes of earthquake, particularly when the area is geologically complex, are now armed with a machine learning-based solution that can help in automatic interpretation of this data.
Effective detection of subsurface geologic features from surface seismic data is very important for understanding the geotectonic, basin evolution, resource exploration, and process that causes earthquakes (seismogenesis) of an area. For this, acquisition of seismic data keeps on growing, making the processing computationally intensive and interpretation tedious. Thanks to high-performance computing systems, that have allowed analysis of such voluminous data within a reasonable time after receiving guidance and inputs from interpreters. However, human analysts struggle for manual interpretation, particularly when the area is geologically complex and data is copious.
To automate the process and accelerate the interpretation, Scientists from Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology(WIHG), an autonomous Institute under the Department of Science & Technology, Govt. of India, have developed a neural-based (machine learning-based) practical approach for automatic interpretation of 3D seismic data. This first of its kind approach has been developed by computing a new attribute called meta-attribute.
The tabular sheet intrusions between older layers of sedimentary rock or beds of volcanic lava (sill complexes) significantly contribute to the transport and storage of hot magma, and leading to overburden. This acts as plausible structural traps for hydrocarbon accumulations in sedimentary basin. The petroliferous (petroleum containing) Canterbury basin off New Zealand is a classic example, where saucer-shaped magmatic sills are embedded within the Cretaceous to Eocene (geological period that lasted from about 145 to 33.9 million years ago) succession resulting into forced folds and hydrothermal vents above the sill terminations.
Scientists from WIHG captured this scenario by designing a workflow and computing Sill Cube (SC) and Fluid Cube (FC) meta-attributes. These are hybrid attributes that are generated by amalgamating a number of seismic attributes (associated with the geologic targets) using a neural-based approach. This study is published in the research journal ‘Tectonophysics’. The WIHG team prepared the meta-attributes following supervised neural learning (machine learning), where computing systems are trained under the guidance of a human analyst.
According to the findings of this study, individual sills cover from 1.5 km2 to17 km2 areas, respectively. Moreover, the fluxed-out magmatic fluids from the tip of the principal sills vertically rise to a height of around 800 m through hydrothermal vents and uplift the overburden. Such an interpretational approach is automated and effectively narrates subsurface magmatic activities from 3D seismic data.
This work is an important step forward towards application of machine learning to address geological problems and looks promising in understanding complex geological processes in an active mountain belt such as the Himalaya.
Low ozone over Brahmaputra River Valley brings good news for health of people
There is good news for the Brahmaputra River Valley (BRV). Researchers have found that the concentration of near surface ozone in this region in the North-East corner of India is low compared to the other urban locations in India
Scientists at the Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences (ARIES), Nainital an autonomous research institute under the Department of Science and Technology (DST) Govt. of India have evaluated the near surface ozone in the Brahmaputra River Valley (BRV) and found relatively low concentration of Ozone over Guwahati compared to the other urban locations in India. Their present work has been published recently in the journal ‘Atmospheric Pollution Research’.
Tropospheric, or ground-level ozone, is created by chemical reactions between oxides of nitrogen (NOx) and volatile organic compounds (VOC). It usually increases when pollutants emitted by cars, power plants, industrial boilers, refineries, chemical plants, and other sources chemically react in the presence of sunlight, impacting human health.
In the study led by Dr. Umesh Chandra Dumka (Scientist, ARIES, Nainital, India) along with contributions by Dr. A. S. Gautam (Professor at Hemvati Nandan Bahuguna Garhwal University), Dr. Suresh Tiwari (Scientist Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, New Delhi Branch) and Prof. Philip K. Hopke (Adjunct Professor, University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, USA) and Prof. R. K. Chakrabarty (Washington University, USA) and other team members analysed the variability of ozone and other air pollutants over Brahmaputra River Valley region. It also assessed seasonal, day of week, and characteristics of ozone to identify the emission source of ozone and its precursors, especially methane (CH4) and NMHCs, along with study the relationships between the meteorological parameters, ozone and its precursors in a tropical setting.
The examination of nitric oxide, nitrogen dioxide, and ozone concentrations in this study suggested that this site is well influenced by local sources such as adjacent major national highway. During the daylight hours, the site is in or nearly in a photo-stationary state, indicating a low impact of organic species on the ozone concentrations.
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