Author: uditbagdai

Bentley’s Bentayga

Bentley is by far known as the world’s best luxury car producer in the past century. Bentley Motors Limited is a British manufacturer and marketer of luxury cars and SUVs, and a subsidiary of the Volkswagen Group since 1998. Headquartered in Crewe, England, the company was founded as Bentley Motors Limited by W. O. Bentley in 1919 in Cricklewood, North London, and became widely known for winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1924, 1927, 1928, 1929, and 1930.

Bentley recently came up with a top-notch SUV, the Bentayga a sheer and commanding design with top innovative technology. This all new-SUV can reach 100kmph in less than five seconds, equipped with a 6-liter W12 engine it truly roars on the road. It is also equipped with dynamic control; it consists of a 48-volt electric motor to cut down the body topple effect when the car is cornering at high speeds. This feature is a worthy add-on, giving complete control to the driver.

These features are nothing compared to the groundbreaking innovation they have made in terms of their wheels. These wheels are completely manufactured with carbon fiber alloy, this is the world’s largest full carbon fiber alloy wheel, having a diameter of 22 inches. This wheel reduces almost 6kgs of weight from the wheel weightage. Saving over 20kgs in the overall build of the car, further, it passed the German TUV (a test conducted on wheels to check its integrity) this carbon fiber alloy wheel, surpassed the conventional aluminum alloy wheel.

 The wheel has been developed for over five years. Apart from having better strength, as it is made of a fibrous structure it has a better braking and suspension system compared to those conventional wheels. These wheels were processed by a patented process that uses Resin Transfer Moulding, which consists of stacking prescribed carbon fiber to create a 3D surface.

The advancement of technologies is always growing and will never end, we as consumers must always appreciate such products and must be aware of such innovations.

A 600-million-dollar Yacht

This is a hydro-powered yacht over 370 feet long superyacht designed by Sinot Yacht Architecture and Design. Let’s take a look at what this means and who owns it now. Well, hydrogen power is considered a green source of energy, which implies this yacht does not harm our environment. But what’s this hydrogen power? Well, hydrogen power uses hydrogen fuel cells which produce electricity by combining hydrogen and oxygen atoms. When hydrogen reacts with oxygen across electrochemical cell water, electricity and a small amount of heat are produced.

Hydrogen energy was initially used over 200 years ago powering the first-ever internal combustion engine. It is light in weight, has easy storage options, and produces no direct emissions or any sort of greenhouse gases. There are various ways of producing hydrogen, it can be from fossil fuels, biomass, water, or a mixture of all three. Currently, over 70% of pure hydrogen comes from natural gas. This implies hydrogen power is safe for our future and hence this is a green source of energy.

Many media sources have reported that this yacht now belongs to Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates. Sinot’s 370 feet long hydrogen-powered concept AQUA received lots of attention when it was unveiled at the most recent Monaco Yacht Show. However, it looks like designer Sander Sinot may have caught lightning in a bottle. “With every project, I challenge my team and myself to surpass ourselves,” he explains. “For the development of AQUA we took inspiration from the lifestyle of a discerning, forward-looking owner, the fluid versatility of water, and cutting-edge technology to combine this in a 376-foot) superyacht with a fully operational liquid hydrogen and fuel cell system that features ground-breaking in technology, as well as design and aesthetics.”

According to advanced reports, AQUA’s power is fuelled by liquefied hydrogen, stored at extremely low temperatures, in vacuum isolated tanks. The liquefied hydrogen is converted into electrical energy by Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) fuel cells, with water being the only by-product.

Has the lockdown helped us?

In the first half of the year 2020, the citizens of our nation experienced their first-ever three-week lockdown. Initially, it was meant for a three-week duration which gradually grew to almost three whole months. Life has not yet revived to the usual normal, students and working professionals are still in the online phase even after a year. Some people condemn this as the worst phase faced by mankind of all time. While others are playing the blame game at their best. But we have not realized how the lockdown might have helped us. From improvising our hygienic habits, virtual meetings, family time and in various other ways.

Not only did mankind get benefitted from this lockdown but also the several other habitats dependent on our planet. According to a study, air pollution levels have been reduced by almost 20% in almost 20 countries. So, the lockdown not only helped contain the virus but also helped curb air pollution. This effort had been put by several countries to reduce the air pollution caused but was unsuccessful and finally, a virus had to come to the rescue.

The lockdown has also benefitted marine life, less movement in the ocean means less harm to the ocean and its habitants. The noise levels in the ocean have been reduced drastically saving hundreds of different species of marine life. To support this, a study in New Zealand proved that the ability of dolphins to navigate around the ocean doubled post the lockdown. This proves that the lockdown had a plus side to marine life.

Further, people have saved over 30% of their income because the lockdown has made people eat home. This not only lightens the pocket but also adds to healthy eating, improving the nutrition levels of a person. Apart from this, Work from home has made us connect on another level with people in our lives which would be nearly impossible in the normal scenario. Work from home has thought us technology has become a major part of our lives.

Although we were forced into our homes for almost a year we did learn new things and an experience is always a good thing in one’s life. So, we must take it positively and make the maximum of anything we are given in our lives.

What is water scarcity?

Water scarcity is defined as the lack of freshwater resources to meet the standard demand for water. We are facing a crisis of water in the global scenario, although the earth’s surface is filled with over 75% of water, only around 5-10% of this water is fit for drinking. On top of this, the resources of water are unequally distributed i.e., one part of the globe has surplus resources and the other part has almost no resources. This uneven distribution is mainly caused due to the erratic climate change for which we are solely responsible. Further, the World Economic Forum in 2019, stated that in the coming decade the global risk is due to water. Droughts, famine, floods are going to be the future of our planet.

Major reasons for this everlasting scarcity are the geographic features and the increasing population of the world. Further reasons, can be improvising standards of living, everchanging consumer market and expansion of agriculture. These factors are currently uncontrollable, a government cannot force down people to compromise on their standard of living or control population, one must realize these effects and take up their measures.

There are many types of scarcity like Physical water scarcity, economic scarcity and water stress. Let’s briefly see all these different types of scarcity; Physical scarcity is the type where there isn’t any water to meet the demands of a particular region. This type of scarcity usually occurs due to inadequate sources of water or poor management of the available sources. This can be tackled by constructing projects like dams, canals and irrigation tanks to store water.

Coming to economic scarcity, this type of scarcity usually occurs when the country is going through an economic crisis or war is going on a neighboring nation. Over 20% of the countries in the world are going through an economic scarcity of water. This can be overcome by accepting aids from foreign countries and even taking a loan from the world bank.

Whatever the scenario of a country, whether it is experiencing a scarcity or not. In the coming future, every country will face a crisis if the resources are not maintained and the population is not kept under control. Hence we must stand together in this fight to save water.

Changes in the structure of world economy

The Global economy is undergoing a long-term, structural transformation. In the past few decades, the key sectors responsible for the global output shift are the fall of agriculture, the decline of the manufacturing industry, and the rise in services. Next the capital expenditures are reducing.

Alessandro Magnoli Bocchi an Italian economist clearly stated in one of his books that by relying on the internet cheap interfaces with a large number of customers in other words, by inexpensively putting underutilized resources to use, it creates value with little capital cost. As a result, global net investment is close to its lowest level since the Second World War.

Moreover countries are making their economic structure more protective and are making their countries more self-sustained by encouraging industries in their countries to establish in their own country, therefore decreasing the import supply of goods and increasing their export supply to other countries to improve their economy. Currently, the United States is trying to do so. Decreasing their import supply of goods and increasing their export trade. US are going a step ahead by asking industries not to provide jobs to other nationalities.

Most of the countries are protecting their economies by encouraging their countries to establish industries in their own country. For example, Donald J. Trump went against General Motors for sending Mexican made model of Chevy Cruze to U.S car dealers-tax free across border. He says that General Motors must make in U.S.A or pay big border tax! Narendra Modi has encouraged industries to make products in India.

The Internet boom and its effects on our environment

On the fifteenth of August 1995, the internet was made available to the public in our country. Today we have billions of active users. The Internet has now become a mere necessity rather than the comfort of luxury. Back then in 1995, internet speeds were just in a couple of kilobytes, but today we are blazing past the net at speeds almost at gigabytes. The cost of the internet has also drastically changed for a speed of 9Kb/s for 250 hours it was charged at almost 2500 rupees!! Now we can suffice all our internet needs at amazing speeds for almost months at the same price. The irony is since then prices of land, water, fuels, precious stones have skyrocketed; but that of communication and the internet have decreased exponentially.

In the year 2015 India had over 300 million users, thanks to the severe competition between network providers and the ever-competitive network battle. Now India has over 9 billion users, not only the network rage has caused this; the pandemic also is a major reason for this. Everyone was forced into their house with no other option but to adapt to this new technology. According to Nasscom since the pandemic hit our nation the network traffic has increased by almost ten manifolds. Companies had to install several servers and network infrastructure to support this erratic change in the consumer market. Although the prices have reduced, connectivity is now at home, comfort at the tips of your hands. We are unaware of the harms of what this could cause.  

We are seriously obsessed with the speed provided by network companies, we frequently complain and crib about the services offered. Forcing companies to either increase their spectrum range or increase their frequency at existing cell towers or construct new towers. This causes serious damage to small birds and insects, sparrows, pigeons all small birds are adversely affected by these rays. We must ensure that these birds must not be affected due to our comforts. We must give them their place on our planet. I agree we need the internet to survive in our daily lives, but we also need to think of the harm we are doing to our environment.

In our foreseeable future do we have more forests or deserts?

Forests make up nearly 33% of the land area on our planet. 1.6 billion People rely on the benefits that forests offer, that include food, fresh water, medicinal herbs and shelter. Most o the world’s threatened and endangered animals live in forests.

Forests also counter the negative effects of climate change. They serve as carbon stores, taking in the carbon dioxide that would be left in the atmosphere.

Every year 58 thousand square miles are lost — the equivalent to one football field every two seconds. The study, from the nonprofit research organization Center for Global Development, predicts that as much as 2,890,000 square kilometers — or over a million square miles — of tropical forest could be lost to deforestation due to land being cleared for industrial agriculture. Jonah Busch, a coauthor on the report, said they found a pattern to the destruction.

“That amount of loss will have a big impact on the climate because trees store a lot of carbon,” Busch said, “and when they’re burned, and cleared for soy or beef pastures, or palm oil, all that the carbon that’s stored in the trees goes up to the atmosphere.” Busch and his colleagues estimated that 169 billion tons of carbon-di-oxide could be released, which is the annual quantity of pollution emitted from about fifty thousand coal-burning power plants. Busch also said that half of the projected deforestation could happen in Latin America, with the other half split between Asia and Africa.

The forest cover of the world will increase by at least 10 percent of its original value today in the next 5–10 years. A few countries will increase their forest cover drastically like northern parts of Africa and Mongolia. As far as the United States is concerned the forest cover has increased, at this point of time they have more trees now than what they had hundred years ago. The Indian and Chinese government will continue to implement their schemes unless they have reached their country’s goal. Hope other countries start to implement schemes and programs to improve their forest cover.

Will the transition to electric automobiles have a positive impact on our environment?

In the present scenario, the mightiest contributor to air pollution is the transport industry. Today we have automobiles zooming past us at an alarming rate. In our country, the previous year i.e., 2020 we saw the sales of passenger cars almost hit 3 million. If this trend continues how it is growing, we might not have a future to live. The possible solution to reduce the emissions from an automobile is to either shift to a Hybrid vehicle or an all-electric one. Let’s see what’s going to happen if we could successfully undergo this transition.

Firstly, let’s take a look at why the people in our country aren’t open to electric vehicles. The major issue is the easiness of refueling the vehicle. Currently, it is very easy to do so with fuel-run vehicles; but if forced to shift to an electric vehicle causes a major drawback in the time taken to refuel the vehicle. Next, we have the affordability; the current average price of a regular automobile ranges from 7.5 lakhs to 8.5 lakhs. The average cost of a hybrid or electric vehicle is approximately situated at 20 lakhs, which makes a major financial hindrance to the con-man of our country.

Although during a drive an electric vehicle produces almost no harmful emissions directly to the environment some indirect emissions cause harm to the environment. To charge an electric vehicle the need for electricity is very essential. Presently, in our country around 60% of the electricity produced comes from burning coal. Burning up fossil fuels results in enormous amounts of carbon emissions into the atmosphere. Here we are trying to reduce the effect of pollution on our environment by just finding new methods to harm our environment.

On the contrary, the emission produced by an electric vehicle is just half of that produced by a fuel-run car annually. This provides a huge amount of relief and satisfaction that we might able to reduce our carbon footprint. But questions arise whether it is possible to make one’s transport almost completely green and harmless to the environment. Possibly, there might be a way to do so. To reduce the amount of electricity generated by incinerating fossil fuels, we must explore other greener sources of energy. One might consider these to be energy produced from solar, wind, geothermal, hydel and many more., these sources might help us in building a better environment.

It is not a feasible approach to drastically switch to an electric approach; it will take immense time to completely switch. Although it seems to be nearly impossible, but with right investment and policies from the government we can ensure a smooth transition. By supporting this transition, we can reduce the emissions from our conventional automobiles. It is clear that the cost of electric automobiles is currently rocket high, but when manufacturing companies see the trend for EV’s they will consider mass production a large scale and then prices will gradually reduce.  

To conclude, EV’s are the future and will surely help reduce the effects of global warming, ozone depletion and many other environmental issues. Currently, a conventional gasoline run automobile can only provide an efficiency of 60-70%. Whereas an electric powered vehicle has an efficiency in the range of 80-90%. Hence the shift to electric powered vehicles, will not only reduce the harm on our environment, but also will be lighter on the pocket.

The Arctic’s last ice area

 A region present in Northern Greenland was named the Arctic’s last ice area. This was named as such because scientists believed that this area was the strongest and most resistant to global warming. Global warming has caused some major effects around the globe melting of ice caps, ever-rising sea levels, erratic weather conditions all of these occur due to global warming. Due to various human activities, harmful gases and pollutants are released into the atmosphere which results in increasing the temperature and also causing a breach in the ozone layer.

Let’s take a close look into what the last ice area means; the National Geographic in the year 2015 estimated the climatic changes and their effects on our environment and predicted that by the end of 2040, the final place to able to withstand global warming would be this area. It’s devasting to imagine that in another two decades there will only be a small island on which global warming would not have its effect. Furthermore, the World Wildlife Fund also stated that the current climatic conditions are majorly responsible for the shrinking Arctic and are not a good sign for the future. They also made it clear that not only the animals residing in the Arctic are exposed to danger, but also the local Inuit societies that survive on these lands.

This area was regarded important as it would help sustain several species that require the habitat as and when the surrounding areas would have melted. This area is now prominent with several polar bears who use this region as their hunting grounds. But now this area has begun to melt, raising concerns all around the globe. Researchers have stated in a Journal published in “Communications Earth & Environment” in August 2020 this region recorded an ever-low concentration of sea ice; suggesting that the Last Ice area has begun to deteriorate.

The main question that arises is that when did the melting start. Well According to research led by the University of Washington, the initial signs of melting were observed in the year 2018.  They also claimed that about 80% of melting had occurred due to weather-related scenarios like winds and the other 20% was due to global warming. This has resulted in the gradual melting of ice caps throughout the Arctic region, causing panic among the locals.

With the additional help of satellite imagery researchers have identified that sea ice levels were less than 50%. Although satellite imagery cannot be considered to be accurate, it does give us an idea about how worse the situation is. The lead author of the study under the University of Washington also stated the alternate reason for the melting was maybe due to the open ocean causing a cycle of absorbing heat energy from the ice, forcing it to melt.

Although the results and studies are unsatisfactory in giving any accurate reason behind this, it tells us that the effects due to global warming have begun sooner than we had expected and we must get together and must prevent further harm to our environment.

Is the war in Afghanistan finally coming to an end?

Recently we witnessed the withdrawal of the final group of the troops of the United States from Afghanistan. A Taliban group is utilizing this situation over the past few years generating profit from these battlefield casualties and weaponry. The locals are now scared that the war might become more violent and claim more lives after the foreign troops have been evacuated. The States and its alliances will finally receive back the war material and troops that were placed in the east for over 20 years. It has also been saying the United States will still have control to defend the Afghans from the Taliban until the end of September. The Sates have the authority to plan strikes from the warplanes present in the outskirts of the war-torn nation.

The war initially began in 2001 with an intention of the States and its allies to drive out the Taliban and to deny Al-Qaeda a safe base for operations. After the initial objectives were successfully carried out a coalition was made with over 40 countries to eradicate terrorism from Afghanistan. The main reason behind the US invading the Afghans was Osama Bin Laden. The man, who was responsible for the attacks in September 2001, was living in hiding in Afghanistan with support from the Taliban. Followed by the attacks the States ask the Taliban to hand over the man accused in their case. The Taliban requested evidence supporting the crimes Bin Laden had committed, which the authorities refused to share.

On the night of 7th October 2001, the United States along with the United Kingdom launched an operation code-named Operation Enduring Freedom. Post the invasion from the west the Taliban and its allies were defeated. By the end of 2001, the Taliban no longer had control over the nation and the Al-Qaeda was almost deceased. The nation suffered for a while until a solid political reform was put into place. According to a report the number of casualties amounted to around 150,000 civilians who had to succumb to the conflicts between organizations.

Some argue that this war has made the nation suffer but on the other hand when we take a look into the healthcare of the nation the numbers are quite surprising. Since the start of the war, life expectancy has increased from 56 to 61. Also, the mortality has immensely decreased to about half of the initial rate. Now about 90% of the citizens reside in the cities and have access to clean drinking water and other basic amenities. But the sad part is the number of people that have been displaced due to this war. The United Nations estimated that over 8 million rushed out of the nation when the invasion began, of which around 5 million returned after the situation improved in the war-afflicted zone. But to date, over 2 million remain dispersed throughout the world and some live in the refugee camps located at borders.

Once, Donald Trump came into power things finally began to settle between the Taliban and the States, providing hope to the residents of the country. The current scenario as it lies; the war may be finally coming to an end. Biden recently ordered the Pentagon to evacuate its troops present in Afghanistan by the end of 2021. So to answer the question; the war is finally at its climax and the Afghan nationals can see a brighter future.

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

In the year 2020, on August 28th several fans of the Black Panther were deeply disheartened due to the death of the lead actor Chadwick Boseman. Chadwick passed away due to a disease known as colon cancer, he was diagnosed with cancer in the year 2016. Although he was suffering from the disease for the past four years, he never gave up on his filming career. He was awarded by the Screen Actors Guild for outstanding performance in a motion picture in the year 2018. In the past four years, he appeared in four MCU films.

Several tributes were given to this amazing actor who led the Marvel Universe on a completely new path. The social media was raged up by several tributes and tweets to the man we knew as the Black Panther. Marvel even went ahead and created a video to pay tribute to the departed man. Chris Evans formerly known as Captain America stated Chadwick had a lot of work to be done in the Marvel Universe that would change everything as we know it. Furthermore, Robert Downey Jr famously known as the Iron Man applauded Boseman for the fight he put out to save his life from cancer.

Fans over the world are now concerned about the role of Boseman in the upcoming movies. The main question remains is who will step up into the shoes of the Black Panther, all we know is that T’Challa will not be recast. Few actors could step up to the role of Black Panther, but the most probable as of now appears to be Shuri. Shuri plays the role of the Black panther’s sister and is a tech genius in all of Wakanda.

It has been clearly stated that Ryan Coogler is currently in the works of writing and directing a sequel to the 2018 movie. The sequel would be named ‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’; Kevin Feige the main man behind the Marvel Universe recently stated in the Black Widow global fan event that everyone is keen to bring out the world of Wakanda back to its fan very soon. He also stated that the sequel would be made in such a way that it would make Boseman proud.

The initial film that was released in 2018 had a budget of a little over 200 million dollars but made over a billion dollars worldwide. Additionally, it was the only Marvel movie that has the best review on Rotten Tomatoes of 96%. This tells us that Black Panther is by far one of the greatest movies Marvel has ever made. It would be a great disappointment if Marvel discontinues this series.

The uplifting news for the fans worldwide is that production has begun for the sequel in Atlanta. The movie is scheduled to release on July 8th, 2022. Although, things remain unclear about how Marvel will continue the movie and storyline. All we can expect is a completely fun and thrill-packed sequel in the coming year. Hence, let’s patiently wait for the sequel Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.

The Future of Geothermal Energy in our nation

Geothermal energy is considered to be a clean source of energy. It mainly involves absorbing energy from the Earth’s molten core. Beneath the Earth’s surface is a hot layer of magma that erupts at some geological positions on the Earth. This eruption generates steam sufficient enough to rotate the blades of a turbine which generates electricity. The electricity generated can be then used to power up several houses or even small-scale industries solely depending on the velocity and pressure of the steam that vents out through the crust.

An alternative method is also present, known as thermal energy; this method involves burning coal or other fuels to generate steam which in turn rotates the blades to power up houses or industries. However, thermal energy is not considered a green source since it involves the combustion of several non-renewable fuels which only add up to the emissions emitted into the atmosphere. Whereas, geothermal is considered to be a more cost-effective and reliable source of energy. Some places are particularly favored to be potential geothermal points, as they can have access to steam within just a few hundred meters, therefore, avoiding drilling.

In the year 2010, the United States was the leader in geothermal power generation having a capacity of over 3000MW from over 70 plants present throughout the nation. The Philippines too followed the footsteps of the United States containing a capacity of around 1900MW powering up 18% of the nation’s electric grid.

In our nation according to a report in the year 2011, six prominent regions were identified as potential points for geothermal power generation. Located within these six regions where over 400 hot springs were used to estimate the thermal gradient present underneath the crust. The region in India containing the highest potential for a geothermal power plant was identified to be the Himalayan regions. These regions have a heat flow of 100w/m2 due to the highly built-up mountain ranges surrounded by them.

A 5kW installed capacity in Manikaran was abandoned in the year 2016 due to a catastrophic landslide. The energy obtained from this plant was used to suffice cold storage units, hot water baths and many other applications. Besides Manikaran, Tattapani too has a geothermal plant that helps sustain several mushroom cultivation industries, sericulture industry and also cold-storage production houses.

The government of our nation drafted a policy in the year 2019 which intends to get our nation to the top of the leader board in geothermal production. This policy intends to make our nation have a capacity of over 1,000MW by the end of 2022. The Ministry responsible for Renewable energy has put up an aim to develop 1000MW for thermal purposes and 20MW for electricity by 2022 and expect it to grow to 10,000MW and 1000MW respectively by the end of 2030.

By increasing the capacity for geothermal energy, we are not only reducing the effects of global warming or reducing our carbon footprint; we are also preparing sources for the erratic demand for energy we might experience in the coming years due to population explosion. We would require more economical sources of energy to help sustain the livelihood of the billions of people in our nation. This is merely just considered a start towards making our planet a better place to live in.

Hence, our nation is preparing itself to counteract several climate change phenomena by shifting to safer and cleaner modes of energy production. We must in every possible way either contribute our part in this shift to a cleaner world or just co-operate with people involved in this process.

Brazil’s fight against deforestation

The Amazon rainforest is considered to be the largest rainforest in the world spread over 6 lakhs sq. km it contributes to more than half of the forests present in the world. Home to a variety of species of animals like the Amazon River dolphin, the Howler monkey and many other rare and endangered species. It also hosts the most beautiful and diverse flora and fauna that cannot be found anywhere on the planet except here.

The Amazon currently lies in almost nine different countries, but a major part of it is situated in Brazil. It is the home of over 2 million insect species and thousands of varieties of plants and at least 1000 different species of mammals and birds. It is considered a haven for several thousands of migratory birds that reside in these thick rainforests.

During the pre-Columbian period, parts of the forest were highly populated solely for agriculture. Once the Europeans arrived in the 16th century, the hunt began for Gold and rubber. But later on, these settlements were abandoned due to famines and some slavery revolts. The Amazon has not only been home to flora and fauna and several other species, but it has also provided immense support and resources for the local tribes to sustain their lives in the forest.

Presently, environmentalists are severely concerned about the future of the Amazon rainforest. They are concerned about the loss of biodiversity that might occur due to deforestation. Due to deforestation, there might also be a huge imbalance in the carbon cycle which could lead to severe issues.

Deforestation has increased exponentially over the past few years; we have witnessed the most amount of deforestation this month over the past 12 years. Deforestation mainly occurs due to many factors like exploitation of resources, cattle grazing, agriculture and many others.

Well according to a paper published by the World bank in 2004 the cattle sector which contributed towards beef and leather industries contributed to over 80% of the deforestation caused. In the year 2019, a devastating forest fire lasted for over half a year shrinking the forest cover by around 1300 sq.km. To add on to this in the year 2020 deforestation caused rose by almost 50% in the first three months.

In efforts to curb the rates at which deforestation is occurring the President of Brazil has ordered troops into the forest to protect the forest by preventing illegal activities like mining and slaughtering of wild animals. This action was forced onto the president after the severe surge in deforestation and criticism from numerous international organizations and media houses.  

The move from the President was applaudable but did not contain any details on the number of troops sent into the forest or the target they intend to achieve in this fight against deforestation. Moreover, it is immensely important to note that a move has been taken to control deforestation.

The Vice President stated that the operation will be kept active for two months since the current season in the Amazon is very dry and allows easy mobility into the forests. The government’s main intention is to take control over the illegal activities occurring in the rainforest and help make the forest a haven for the species dependent on it.

What happens if mix-up several doses of the Covid-19 vaccine?

It has almost been a year since the country was forced to its knees by accepting the lockdown terms. On the evening of March 24th, 2020, Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared a nationwide lockdown. The lockdown caused immense times of difficulties and also claimed several lives. The lockdown period also thought us the need and urge of helping. We were united in this fight against the pandemic. Although, the virus claimed several lives; it also thought us about how to face a crisis and made us adapt to the online routine.

Several countries and research units immediately began working towards a cure against the virus. After several attempts and tries, many research centers came up with vaccines to help release the citizens of this devastating pandemic. The government too implemented policies to help ease the citizens of the nation. Currently in India, we are offered one particular type of vaccine to help us in developing antibodies to help fight the virus. The vaccine doses were administered to main people above the age group of 18, to mainly eradicate this virus from our nation. Doses are been given now to the youth in efforts to boost the country’s economy.

Recently, a Lancet medical journal reported that a mixed schedule of the Pfizer shot followed by the AstraZeneca dose has caused high amounts of antibodies in a patient’s body.

The doctors and medical health care unit are constantly working hard in improving the efficacy rates and efficiency of these vaccines. One way, of improving the vaccine’s efficiency is by giving the doses at a delayed time to have maximum impact on one’s body. In countries where several choices of doses are available, the other vaccines can be used as assistance to boost the immunity of a person.

Well according to the research, the order in which the people were administered the different vaccines affected the results. In cases where the AstraZeneca jab was given before the Pfizer vaccine displayed higher levels of antibodies than Pfizer tailed by AstraZeneca. Several methods and orders of mixing up these vaccines were carefully studied and finally, the most effective dosage was found to be Astra followed by Pfizer.

This trial was carried out by involving 830 people over the age of 50. It was tested solely against the primitive virus found in Wuhan in the year 2019. Further testing against the several strains and variants present now can help in widening this research and could help develop further such combinations of vaccines. This study will also attempt at implementing several other doses like Moderna and Novavx.

Initially, the shots of AstraZeneca were placed between 6-8 weeks, which has now been increased to a duration of 12 weeks to increase the efficiency of the vaccine. Furthermore, a study under Oxford also claimed that spacing the time between the two doses to 10 months further boosts the vaccine’s effectiveness.

The vaccines are our only hope in this fight against the virus, so we must believe in them and take up the doses diligently. Medical institutes will always come up with better ways of vaccinating the population. So, we must co-operate with the medical representatives and cause any trouble to them.