Measures to augment domestic availability and stabilize prices of essential food commodities

 The Union Minister of State for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Shri Ashwini Kumar Choubey in a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha today informed that there is a strong correlation between retail inflation measured by year-on-year changes in Consumer Price Index (CPI) and food price inflation measured by the year-on-year variations in Consumer Food Price Index (CFPI) as CFPI carries a weightage of 47.25% in the CPI. As per the CPI data released by the Ministry of Programme Implementation, retail inflation has remained more or less stable during the past one year.

 The Department of Consumer Affairs monitors the daily retail and wholesale prices of 22 essential food commodities submitted by the 179 price monitoring centres that have been set up with Central assistance by State Governments and UT Administrations across the country.

   Taking into account price trends, the Government takes various measures from time to time to augment domestic availability and stabilize prices of essential food commodities. These steps, inter alia, include releases from the buffer to cool down prices, imposition of stock limits, monitoring of stocks declared by entities to prevent hoarding as also requisite changes in trade policy instruments like rationalization of import duty, changes in import quota, restrictions on exports of the commodity etc.

    In May 2021 advisories were issued to States/UTs to monitor prices of essential food commodities and to ensure disclosure of pulses stocks held by millers, importers, and traders under the Essential Commodities Act, 1955. Imposition of stock limit on all pulses except Moong was notified on 2.7.21. Thereafter, an amended order was issued on 19.7.21 imposing stock limits on four pulses, namely, Tur, Urad, Masur, Chana for a period up to 31.10.2021.

  To improve availability and stabilise prices of pulses, the Government has allowed the import of Tur, Urad and Moong under the ‘Free category’ w.e.f 15.5.2021 till 31.10.2021. The Free regime was thereafter extended in respect of Tur and Urad till 31.3.2022. This policy measure has been supported with facilitation measures and close monitoring of its implementation by the concerned Departments/organisations to ensure smooth and seamless imports. The import policy measures have resulted in a substantial increase in import of Tur, Urad, and Moong as compared to the corresponding period for the past two years. In order to soften the impact of higher international prices on domestic consumers, the Government reduced duty on Masur to zero till September 30, 2022, and waived off the penalty on pulses import consignments from methyl bromide phased out countries for not being fumigated with methyl bromide in the country of origin till June 30, 2022. To augment the availability of pulses in the market, 3 Lakh Metric Ton of Chana stock has been released between June and August 2021 through open market sales and to stabilise prices, futures trading in Chana has been suspended from August 16, 2021. State Governments have been supplied pulses from the buffer on an ongoing basis for their nutrition and welfare programmes.

   In order to stabilise retail prices of onion, a buffer stock of 2.08 LMT had been built in 2021-22. Open market releases of onion from the buffer were targeted towards States/Cities where prices were increasing over the previous month. Releases were also made in source markets to augment the availability in these key mandis and thereby reduce retail prices. States/UTs had also been offered onion at Rs.21/kg ex-storage locations.

   In order to improve the domestic availability of edible oils and to keep prices under control, the Government has rationalized the duty structure on edible oils by reducing the effective duties. As per the notification dated 14.10.2021, the total duty on crude palm oil has been reduced from 22.5% to 7.5%, and on crude soyabean oil and sunflower oil, it has been reduced from 22.5% to 5%. The basic duty on RBD palmolein, refined soyabean oil, and refined sunflower oil has been reduced from 32.5% to 17.5%. Thereafter, the basic duty on refined palm oil has been further reduced from 17.5% to 12.5% w.e.f 21.12.2021, and duty on crude palm oil reduced from 7.5% to 5% w.e.f 13.2.2022. Futures trading in essential commodities relating to food security had been suspended to curb speculative trading. Stock limits on edible oils and oilseeds have been imposed for a period up to 31.3.2022 to prevent hoarding.

    Further, the Government has issued an advisory to States/UTs to set up the State-level Price Stabilisation Fund (PSF) corpus with central assistance and has requested States which have set up the Fund already, to make appropriate interventions for cooling down retail prices of essential food commodities.

Why Companies use UGC

User-Generated Content (UGC) is one of the most influential methods of social media marketing or social commerce. Any content that is created by customers or individuals who are not working for brands, and published on social media is classified as User-Generated Content. UGC can be images, videos, and other social media content. It could also be reviews and testimonials regarding a product. The content created by the customer is then made use of by the brand, making it a part of their marketing strategy.

Brands like GoPro and Apple have used UGC effectively in their social media pages like YouTube and Instagram. The video equipment company shared videos created by its customers using their equipment on YouTube, successfully gaining lots of attention and views. Apple introduced the “Shot on iPhone” campaign some years back, encouraging users to share great photos they captured with the latest model of the iPhone. The best photos were shared by Apple not just on social media, but even on billboards and posters of their Ads outside.

Sites like Amazon and Tripadvisor have also used UGC for a long time, getting customers to post public reviews of a product or service online. These companies try to engage with customers, communicating politely and addressing their reviews and grievances. Such testimonials help build customer trust and give the brand a positive image.

How does UGC help a Brand?

Contributes Authenticity:

There is a greater chance of people believing everyday people who are relatable than a brand about a product. So, when they see a common man recommending a product, they consider it more authentic than brand-created content.

Provides Brand Loyalty:

Involving consumers in the brand’s growth is a great way of deepening the connection between brand and consumer. The customer now feels like they are part of the brand’s community. An engaged community helps build brand loyalty.

Holds People’s Attention:

UGC has turned out to be very efficient in grabbing people’s attention. In most cases, it is even considered more catchy than traditional advertising.

Influences Purchasing Decisions:

When people get to see actual social proof that a particular product is useful and worth buying, it greatly influences their final purchasing decisions. It is seen to be even more impactful than products advertised by celebrities or influencers. UGC also helps increase conversion rates of the audience into potential new customers of the company.

Cost-effective:

UGC is very cost-effective as the brand can rely on the customers for useful content. They do not have to worry about spending money on professionals, studios and equipment. The brand only needs to maintain a healthy relationship with its customers to get positive content for free and without being asked.  

BREAST CANCER

Cancer is a physical disorder in which abnormal cell growth is observed. the change in DNA is also observed. The cells divide uncontrollably and destroy body tissue. The uncontrolled cells growth in the breast is called breast cancer. There are various types of breast cancer. Breast cancer occurs in women and rarely in men. In 2020 2.3 million women diagnosed with breast cancer and 685000 death globally. In men, it was observed only 0.5-1%. October is breast cancer awareness month.


Causes of breast cancer= 1) Family risk- In the patient’s family history if anyone has cancer then it is possible that the next generation is also observed. sometimes inheritors cancer is also produced.
2)Radiation Exposure= continuous contact with radiation or pollution also develops the risk of cancer. Due to radiation, the DNA gets destroyed new cancer is produced.
3)Early menstruation and late menopause= Due to hormonal imbalance breast cancer may produce.
4)Prolonged use of oral contraceptives
5)Hormone replacement therapy after menapause= this therapy is useful for osteoporosis. but its prolonged use is harmful to the breast.


Symptoms of breast cancer=1) The main symptom increases in the weight of a patient (obesity). 2) The lumps are observed in the breast and sometimes lumps are easily filled to the hand. 3) In a later stage bloody discharge from the nipple may observe. 4)There is a change in the size of the breast. texture and shape of a breast are also observed.5) pain in underarms because lymphatic node swells.


Treatment of breast cancer= 1) chemotherapy In the early stages it is easy and effective as well. Tamoxifen is a much safer drug.
2) Surgery is done to remove lumps or that cancerous cells.
3)Radiation therapy= In this the cancer cell kills at its place.
4) Hormone therapy= If cancer produces due to hormonal imbalance then it is cured by hormonal therapy.


Prevention of Breast cancer= 1)Physically active give release from lots of diseases. Daily exercise at least 30 min and aerobics 75 min weekly.
2)Keep weight in check. Weight should not increase suddenly. and it is much more.
3)Eat all fruits and vegetables. Take a balanced and healthy diet.


4)Don’t smoke. And intake of alcohol is also injurious to health.
5)Breastfeeding if possible. Lactate gland if producing milk may cause lumps if milk remains in the breast.which further results in cancer.
6)Avoid birth control pills, particularly after 35 yrs.
7)Breast screening is called mammograms. It should be done yearly after 40 yrs. otherwise done timely when risk is observed.
8) Regularly change inner-wear(bra). and don’t wear it at night.

So regular exercise, a healthy diet, time to time mammograms, and taking care of innerwear prevent the risk of breast cancer.

“Policy and Regulatory framework on Conformity Assessment for Telecom products: Global Best Practices and Priorities”

 Telecom Engineering Centre (TEC), a National telecom standard setting organization under the aegis of Department of Telecommunications, Ministry of Communications has conducted a webinar titled “Policy and Regulatory framework on Conformity Assessment for Telecom products: Global Best Practices and Priorities” here yesterday. This webinar is organised by TEC in collaboration with TIC Council (India) and witnessed the presence of senior policy makers from Department of Telecom, India, E.U & FCC (U.S) along with senior Industry representatives from the Telecom, Labs, sharing their experience, global trends, and best practices towards ensuring Quality and safety of Telecom products in India. During session, Mr Luis , Policy officer from EU and Mr George from FCC, USA shared global best practices and Mr Prasanth DDG , TEC and Mr Zutshi TIC Council  have presented  India specific regulatory framework.

 

The event was graced by Shri K.Rajaraman, Secretary (Telecom), Government of India as chief guest and Shri Ashok Kumar Mittal, Member (Services), DoT, Smt. Deepa Tyagi, Sr. DDG (TEC) and Shri Sh. Suresh Sugavanam, Chairman TICC, India.  This event was witnessed by participants from across the globe and it is moderated by Dr Aparna  ED, TICC.

Shri K.Rajaraman, Secretary (Telecom) in his keynote address mentioned that the country is investing heavily in public and private partnership model to increase the penetration in mobile and broadband sector in urban and rural area. He also stressed that the telecom services shall be affordable to the bottom of the pyramid. He mentioned that testing and certification ecosystem should be the integral part of manufacturing ecosystem to become manufacturing hub. He also mentioned that very robust capacity of testing facilities, skills set is required to meet the requirement of manufacturing hub. He also urged the industry to explore the innovative idea of lab equipment lying in various part of the country to use as a service model like OLA/UBER type platform based model in testing.

Shri Ashok Kumar Mittal, Member (Services), DoT in his opening address mentioned that it is matter of pleasure that TEC has come up to organise internationally collaborative knowledge sharing webinar on the regulatory practices. He also appreciated the endeavours of TEC encouraged to do such discourses as many as possible.

Smt Deepa Tyagi Sr DDG, TEC has emphasised the importance of global collaboration and bringing global best practices so that India would become global test bed for ICT products.

RKJ/M

Pegasus Spyware

Recently, a global collaborative investigative effort titled the Pegasus project, revealed that Israeli company NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware targeted over 300 mobile phone numbers in India. As per reports, at least 40 journalists, Cabinet Ministers, and holders of constitutional positions were possibly subjected to surveillance. The reports are based on a leaked global database of 50,000 telephone numbers.

What is Pegasus?


It is spyware created by NSO Group, an Israeli cybersecurity firm founded in 2010.The NSO Group’s founders come from Unit 8200 – Israel’s elite defense force. It is also the Israel Defence Force’s largest military unit and probably the foremost technical intelligence agency in the world.Pegasus spyware can hack any iOS or Android device and steal a variety of data from the infected device.It works by sending an exploit link and if the target user clicks on the link, the malware or the code that allows the surveillance is installed on the user’s phone.Pegasus can be deleted remotely. It’s very hard to detect and once it’s deleted, leaves few traces.It can also be used to plant messages/mails which is why there are theories it may have been used to plant fake evidence to implicate activists in the Bhima Koregaon case.
Pegasus is designed for three main activities:
1 collection of historic data on  a device without user knowledge
 2 continuous  monitoring of activity and gathering of personal information and
3 transmission of this data to third parties.
Israel identifies Pegasus as a cyberweapon and claims that its exports are controlled.

Pegasus spyware has evolved from its earlier spear-phishing methods using text links or messages to ‘zero-click’ attacks which do not require any action from the phone’s user. It is the worrying aspect of spyware.

  • It helps spyware like Pegasus to gain control over a device without human interaction or human error.
  • Most of these attacks exploit software that receives data even before it can determine whether what is coming in is trustworthy or not, like an email client.
  • They are hard to detect given their nature and hence even harder to prevent. Detection becomes even harder in encrypted environments, where there is no visibility on the data packets being sent or received

The Kardashev scale – Classifying Alien civilization

The observable universe is consists up to two trillion galaxies that are made of billions and billions of stars. In the Milky Way galaxy alone, scientists assume that there are some 40 billion earths like planets in the habitable zone of their stars. When you look at these numbers, there are a lot of possibilities of alien civilization to exist. In a universe that big and old, the possibilities of civilizations may start millions of years apart from each other, and develop in different directions and speed. So their civilization may range from cavemen to super advanced. We know that human started out with nothing and then making tools, building houses, etc. we know that humans are curios, competitive, greedy for resources, and expansionists. The more of these qualities that our ancestors had, the more successful they were in the civilization building process.

 Like this, the other alien civilizations also must have evolved. Human progress can be measured very precisely by how much energy we extracted from our environment. As our energy consumption grew exponentially, so did the abilities of our civilization. Between 1800 and 2015, population size had increased sevenfold; while humanity was consuming 25 times more energy. It’s likely that this process will continue into the far future. Based on these facts, scientist Nikolai Kardashev developed a method for categorizing civilizations, from cave dwellers to gods ruling over galaxies into a scale called the Kardashev scale. It is a method of ranking civilizations by their energy use. It put civilizations into four categories. A type 1 civilization is able to use the available energy of their home planet. A type 2 civilization is able to use the available energy of their star and planetary system. A type 3 civilization is able to use the available energy of their galaxy. A type 4 civilization is able to use the available energy of multiple galaxies

. It’s like comparing an ant colony to a human metropolitan area. To ants we are so complex and powerful, we might as well be gods. On the lower end of the scale, there are type 0 to type 1 civilization. Anything from hunting, gatherers to something we could achieve in the next few hundred years. These might actually be abundant in the Milky Way. If that possible, why they are not sending any radio signals in space. But even if they transmitted radio signals like we do, it might not be very helpful. In such a vast universe, our signals may extend over 200 light years, but this is only a tiny fraction of the Milky Way. And even if someone were listening, after a few light years our signals decay into noise, impossible to identify as the source of an intelligent species. Today humanity ranks at about level 0.75. We created huge structures, changed the composition and temperature of the atmosphere. If progress continues, we will become a full type 1 civilization in the next few hundred years. The next step to type 2 is trying and mine other planets and bodies.

 As a civilization expands and uses more and more stuff and space, at some they may start a largest project that extracting the energy of their star by building a Dyson swarm. Once it finished, energy has become unlimited. The next frontier moves to other stars light years away. So the closer a species gets to type 3, they might discover new physics, may understand and control dark matter and energy, or be able to travel faster than light. For them, humans are the ants, trying to understand the galactic metropolitan area. A high type 2 civilization might already consider humanity too primitive. A type 3 civilization might consider us bacteria. But the scale doesn’t end here; some scientists suggest there might be type 4 and type 5 civilizations, whose influences stenches over galaxy clusters or super clusters. This complex scale is just a thought experiment but, still it gives interesting things. Who knows, there might be a type omega civilization, able to manipulate the entire universe, and they even might be the actual creators of our universe.

James Webb space telescope – Working and Application

The James Webb space telescope or JWST will replace the Hubble space telescope. It will help us to see the universe as it was shortly after the big bang. It was named after the second head of NAS James Webb. James Webb headed the office of space affairs from 1961 to 1968. This new telescope was first planned for launch into orbit in 2007 but has since been delayed more than once, now it’s been scheduled for 18 December 2012. After 2030 the Hubble will go on a well deserved rest since its launch in 1990 its provided more than a million images of thousands of stars, nebulae, planets and galaxies. The Hubble captured images of stars that are show about 380 million years after the big bang which supposedly happened 13.7 billion years ago. These objects may no longer exist, we still see their light. Now we expect James Webb to show us the universe as it was only 100 to 250 million years after its birth. It can transform our current understanding of the structure of the universe. The Spitzer space telescope and Hubble telescopes have collected data of gas shells of about a hundred planets. According to experts, the James Webb is capable of exploring the atmospheres of more than 300 different exoplanets.

The working of James Webb space telescope

The James Webb is an orbiting infrared observatory that will investigate the thermal radiation of space objects. When heated to a certain temperature, all solids and liquids emit energy in the infrared spectrum; here there is a relationship between wavelength and temperature. The higher the temperature, there will shorter the wavelength and higher the radiation intensity. James Webb sensitive equipment will be able to study the cold exoplanets with surface temperatures of up to 27° Celsius. An important quality of this new telescope is that it will revolve around the sun and not the earth unlike Hubble which is located at an altitude of about 570 kilometers in low earth orbit. With the James Webb orbiting the sun, it will be impossible for the earth to interfere with it, however he James Webb will move in sync with the earth to maintain strong communication yet the distance from the James Webb to the earth will be between about 374,000 to 1.5 million kilometers in the direction opposite of the sun. So its design must be extremely reliable.

The James Webb telescope weighs 6.2 tones. The main mirror of the telescope is with a diameter of 6.5 meters and a colleting area of 25 square meters, it resembles a giant honeycomb consisting of 18 sections. Due to its impressive size, the main has to be folded for start up; this giant mirror will capture light from the most distant galaxies. The mirror can create a clear picture and eliminate distortion. A special type of beryllium was used in the mirror which retains its shape at low cryogenics temperature. The front of the mirror is covered with a layer of 48.25 grams of gold, 100 nanometers thick; such a coating best reflects infrared radiation. A small secondary mirror opposite the main mirror, it receives light from the main mirror and directs it to instruments at the rear of the telescope. The sunshield is with a length of 20 meters and width of 7 meters. It composed of very thin layers of kapton polyimide film which protects the mirror and tools from sunlight and cools the telescope’s ultra sensitive matrices to 220° Celsius.

The NIRCam- Near Infrared Camera is the main set of eyes of the telescope, with the NIRCam we expect to be able to view the oldest stars in the universe and he planets around them. The nurse back near infrared spectrograph will collect information on both physical and chemical properties of an object. And the MIRI mid-infrared instrument will allow you to see stars being born many unknown objects of the Kepler belt. Then the near infrared imager and sliteless spectrograph or NIRIIS camera is aimed at finding exoplanets and the first light of distant objects. Finally the FGS- Fine Guidance Sensor helps accurately point the telescope for higher quality images updates its position in space sixteen times per second and controls the operation the steering and main mirrors. They are planning to launch the telescope with the help of the European launch vehicle Ariana 5 from the kourou Cosmodrome in French Guiana space center. The device is designed for between 5 to 10 years of operation but, it may serve longer. If everything goes well, $10 billion worth of construction and one year of preparation will have finally started in orbit.

 

Medical breakthroughs – Laproscopy

 

Treating illness b using tools to remove or manipulate pats of the human body is an old idea. Even the minor operations carried high risks, but that doesn’t mean all early surgery failed. Indian doctors, at the beginning centuries before the birth of Christ, successfully removed tumors and performed amputations and other operations. They developed dozens of metal tools, relied on alcohol to dull the patient, and controlled bleeding with hot oil and tar. The 20th century brought even more radical change through technology. Advances in fiber optic technology and the miniaturization of video equipment have revolutionized surgery. The laparoscopy is the James Bond like gadget of the surgeon’s repertoire of instruments. Only a small incision through the patient’s abdominal wall is made into which the surgeon puffs carbon dioxide to open up the passage.

 Using a laparoscope, a visual assessment and diagnosis, and even surgery causes less physiological damage, reduces patient’s pain and speeds their recovery leading to shorter hospital stays. In the early 1900s, Germany’s George Kelling developed a surgical technique in which he injected air into the abdominal cavity and inserted a cytoscope – a tube like viewing scope to assess the patient’s innards. In late 1901, he began experimenting and successfully peered into a dog’s abdominal cavity using the technique. Without cameras, laparoscopy’s use limited to diagnostic procedures carried out by gynecologists and gastroenterologists. By the 1980s, improvements in miniature video devices and fiber optics inspired surgeons to embrace minimally invasive surgery. In 1996, the first live broadcast of a laparoscopy took place. A year later, Dr. J. Himpens used a computer controlled robotic system to aid in laparoscopy. This type of surgery is now used for gallbladder removal as well as for the diagnosis and surgeries of fertility disorder, cancer, and hernias.

Hypothermia is a drop in body temperature significantly below normal can be life threatening, as in the case of overexposure to severe wintry conditions. But in some cases, like that of Kevin Everett of the buffalo bills, hypothermia can be lifesaver. Everett fell to the ground with a potentially crippling spinal cord injury during a 2007 football game. Doctors treating him on the field immediately injected his body with a cooling fluid. At the hospital, they inserted a cooling catheter to lower his body temperature by roughly five degrees, at the same time proceeding with surgery to fix his fractured spine. Despite fears that he would be paralyzed, Everett has regained his ability to walk, and advocates of therapeutic hypothermia feel his lowered body temperature may have made the difference. Therapeutic hypothermia is still a controversial procedure. The side effects of excessive cooling include heart problems, blood clotting, and increased infection risk. On the other hand, supporters claim, it slows down cell damage, swelling, and other destructive processes well enough that it can mean successful surgery after a catastrophic injury. Surgical lasers can generate heat up to 10,000°F on a pinhead size spot, sealing blood vessels and sterilizing. Surgical robots and virtual computer technology are changing medical practice. Robotic surgical tools increase precision. In 1998, heart surgeons at Paris’s Broussais hospital performed the first robotic surgery. New technology allows an enhanced views and precise control of instruments.

“After a complex laparoscopic operation, the 65-year-old patient was home in time for dinner”. – Elisa Birnbaum, surgeon

 

History of Steam Engines – Thomas Savery

Thomas Newcomen, a Devonshire blacksmith, developed the first successful steam engine in the world and used it to pump water from mines. His engine was a development of the thermic siphon built by Thomas Savery, whose surface condensation patents blocked his own designs. Newcomen’s engine allowed steam to condense inside a water-cooled cylinder, the vacuum produced by this condensation being used to draw down a tightly fitting piston that was connected by chains to one end of a huge, wooden, centrally pivoted beam. The other end of the beam was attached by chains to a pump at the bottom of the mine. The whole system was run safely at near atmospheric pressure, the weight of the atmosphere being used to depress the piston into the evacuated cylinder.

 Newcomen’s first atmospheric steam engine worked at conygree in the west midlands of England. Many more were built in the next seventy years, the initial brass cylinders being replaced by larger cast iron ones, some up to 6 feet (1.8 m) in diameter. The engine was relatively inefficient, and in areas where coal was not plentiful was eventually replaced by double-acting engines designed by James Watt. These used both sides of the cylinder for power strokes and usually had separate condensers. James watt was responsible for some of the most important advances in steam engine technology.

In 1765 watt made the first working model of his most important contribution to the development of steam power, he patented it in 1769. His innovation was an engine in which steam condensed outside the main cylinder in a separate condenser. The cylinder remained at working temperature at all times. Watt made several other technological improvements to increase the power and efficiency of his engines. For example, he realized that, within a closed cylinder, low pressure steam could push the piston instead of atmospheric air. It took only a short mental leap for watt to design double-acting engine in which steam pushed the piston first one way, then the other, increasing efficiency still further.

Watt’s influence in the history of steam engine technology owes as much to his business partner, Matthew Boulton, as it does to his own ingenuity. The two men formed a partnership in 1775, and Boulton poured huge amount of money into watt’s innovations. From 1781, Boulton and watt began making and selling steam engines that produced rotary motion. All the previous engines had been restricted to a vertical, pumping action. Rotary steam engines were soon the most common source of power for factories, becoming a major driving force behind Britain’s industrial revolution.

By the age of nineteen, Cornishman Richard Trevithick worked for the Cornish mining industry as a consultant engineer. The mine owners were attempting to skirt around the patents owned by James Watt. William Murdoch had developed a model steam carriage, starting in 1784, and demonstrated it to Trevithick in 1794. Trevithick thus knew that recent improvements in the manufacturing of boilers meant that they could now cope with much higher steam pressure than before. By using high pressure steam in his experimental engines, Trevithick was able to make them smaller, lighter, and more manageable.

Trevithick constructed high pressure working models of both stationary and locomotive engines that were so successful that in 1799 he built a full scale, high pressure engine for hoisting ore. The used steam was vented out through a chimney into the atmosphere, bypassing watt’s patents. Later, he built a full size locomotive that he called puffing devil. On December 24, 1801, this bizarre-looking machine successfully carried several passengers on a journey up Camborne hill in Cornwall. Despite objections from watt and others about dangers of high pressure steam, Trevithick’s work ushered in a new era of mechanical power and transport.

How do we measure distances in space? Light years

In the 1800s, scientists discovered the realm of light beyond what is visible. The 20th century saw dramatic improvements in observation technologies. Now we are probing distant planets, stars, galaxies and black holes where even light would take years to reach. So how we do that? Light is the fastest thing we know in the universe. It is so fast that we measure enormous distances by how long it takes for light to travel them. In one year, light travels about 6 trillion miles. It is the distance, we call one light year. The Apollo 11 had to travel four days to reach the moon but, it is one light second from earth. Meanwhile, the nearest star beyond our own sun is Proxima Centauri but, it is 4.24 light years away. Our Milky Way galaxy is on the order of 100,000 light years across. The nearest galaxy to our own, Andromeda is about 2.5 million light years away.

 The question is how do we know the distance of these stars and galaxies? For objects that are very close by, we can use a concept called trigonometric parallax. When you place your thumb and close your left eye and then, open your left eye and close your right eye. It will look like your thumb has moved, while more distant objects have remained in place. This same concept applies in measuring distant stars. But they are much farther than the length of your arm, and earth is not large enough, even if you had different telescopes across the equator, you would not see much of a shift in position. So we look at the change in the star’s apparent location over six months, when we measure the relative positions of the stars in summer, and then again in winter, nearby stars seem to have moved against the background of the more distant stars and galaxies.

 But this method only works for objects less than a few thousand light years away. So, for such distances, we use a different method using indicators called standard candles. Standard candles are objects whose intrinsic brightness, or luminosity that we know well. For example, if you know how bright your light bulb is, even when you move away from it, you can find the distance by comparing the amount of light you received to the intrinsic brightness. In astronomy, we consider this as a special type of star called a Cepheid variable. These stars will constantly contract and expand. Because of this, their brightness varies. We can calculate the luminosity by measuring the period of this cycle, with more luminous stars changing more slowly. By comparing the light that we received to the intrinsic brightness we can calculate the distance.

 But we can only observe individual stars up to about 40 million light years away. So we have to use another type of standard candle called type 1a supernova. Supernovae are giant stellar explosions which is one of the ways that stars die. These explosions are so bright, that they outshine the galaxies where they occur. So we can use the type 1 a supernovae as standard candles. Because, intrinsically bright ones fade slower than fainter ones. With the understanding of brightness and decline rate, we can use the supernovae to probe distances up to several billions of light years away. But is the importance of seeing distant objects? Well, the light emitted by the sun will take eight minutes to reach us, which means that the light we see now is a picture of the sun eight minutes ago. And the galaxies are million light years away. It has taken millions of years for that light to reach us. So the universe is in some kind of an inbuilt time machine. The further we can look back, the younger we are probing. Astrophysicists try to read the history of the universe, and understand how and where we come from.

“Dream in light years, challenge miles, walk step by step” – William Shakespeare

Why Waves Occur? Waves and Tides

Why do waves form?

A wave begins as the wind ruffles the surface of the ocean. When the ocean is calm and glasslike, even the mildest breeze forms ripples, the smallest type of wave. Ripples provide surfaces for wind to act on, which produces larger waves. Stronger winds push the nascent waves into steeper and higher hills of water. The size a wave reaches depends on the speed and strength of the wind. The length of time it takes for the wave to form, and the distance over which it blows in the open ocean is known as the fetch. A long fetch accompanied by strong and study winds can produce enormous waves. The highest point of a wave is called the crest and the lowest point the trough. The distance from one crest to another is known as the wavelength.

On November 11, 2011, US surfer Garrett McNamara surfed a massive wave (78-foot (23,8-meter)) at Nazaré.

Although water appears to move forward with the waves, for the most part water particles travel in circles within the waves. The visible movement is the wave’s form and energy moving through the water, courtesy of energy provided by the wind. Wave speed also varies; on average waves travel about 20 to 50 Mph. Ocean waves vary greatly in height from crest to trough, averaging 5 to 10 feet. Storm waves may tower 50 to 70 feet or more. The biggest wave that was ever recorded by humans was in Lituya bay on July 9th, 1958. Lituya bay sits on the southeast side of Alaska. A massive earthquake during the time would trigger a mega tsunami and the tallest tsunami in modern times. As a wave enters shallow water and nears the shore, it’s up and down movement is disrupted and it slows down. The crest grows higher and be gins to surge ahead of  the rest of the wave, eventually toppling over and breaking apart. The energy released by a breaking wave can be explosive. Breakers can wear down rocky coast and also build up sandy beaches.

Why does a tide occur?

Tides are the regular daily rise and fall of ocean waters. Twice each day in most locations, water rises up over the shore until it reaches its highest level, or high tide. In between, the water recedes from the shore until it reaches its lowest level, or low tide. Tides respond to the gravitational pull of the moon and sun. Gravitational pull has little effect on the solid and inflexible land, but the fluid oceans react strongly. Because the moon is closer, its pull is greater, making it the dominant force in tide formation.

Gravitational pull is greatest on the side of earth facing the moon and weakest on the side opposite to the moon. Nonetheless, the difference in these forces, in combination with earth’s rotation and other factors, allows the oceans to bulge outward on each side, creating high tides. The sides of earth that are not in alignment with the moon experience low tides at this time. Tides follow different patterns, depending on the shape of the seacoast and the ocean floor.  In Nova Scotia, water at high tide can rise more than 50 feet higher than the low tide level. They tend to roll in gently on wide, open beaches in confined spaces, such as a narrow inlet or bay, the water may rise to very high levels at high tide.

There are typically two spring tides and two narrow tides each month. Spring tie of great range than the mean range, the water level rises and falls to the greatest extend from the mean tide level. Spring tides occur about every two weeks, when the moon is full or new. Tides are at their maximum when the moon and the sun are in the same place as the earth. In a semidiurnal cycle the high and low tides occur around 6 hours and 12.5 minutes apart. The same tidal forces that cause tides in the oceans affect the solid earth causing it to change shape by a few inches.

 

 

Delhi-LSA to break myths regarding health effects of EMF exposure from mobile towers

 Department of Telecommunications (DoT), Delhi License Service Area (LSA) organized an awareness webinar on “EMF Emissions and Telecom Towers” here yesterday. This session was organized as a part of DoT’s public advocacy programme to make the consumers aware about the growing need for mobile towers to build reliable telecom infrastructure and to break myths regarding the health effects of EMF exposure from mobile towers.

The Webinar was addressed by Sh. Nizamul Haq, Advisor, DoT, New Delhi and Sh. Arun Kumar, DDG, DoT, Delhi LSA. Presentation on various aspects of EMF and steps taken by DoT was covered by Sh. Vijay Prakash, Director and Sh. Kamal Deo Tripathi, ADG, DoT, Delhi LSA. Various health related queries and myth about harmful effect of EMF radiations from mobile towers was also clarified by a medical expert, Dr Vivek Tandon, Associate Professor (Neurosurgery), All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi.

Shri Nizamul Haq, Advisor, DoT, Delhi LSA put a spotlight on the importance of telecommunications as an effective tool for socio-economic development of a nation. It has become core infrastructure for rapid growth and modernization of various sectors of the economy. To provide best quality of telecommunication service to the customers, the expansion of mobile network including tower infrastructure are inevitable.

Shri Arun Kumar, DDG and Shri Vijay Prakash, Director, Delhi LSA further addressed that the EMF emissions from a mobile tower, which are below the safe limits prescribed by International Commission on Non Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) and recommended by World Health Organisation (WHO), have no convincing scientific evidence of causing adverse health effects. Various judgements of High Courts of India on the issues of radiation from mobile tower says that there is no conclusive data to show that radiation from mobile tower is in any way harmful or hazardous to the health of citizens.

Dr. Vivek Tandon, Associate Professor AIIMS Delhi clarified various myth about health related issues due to EMF radiations from mobile towers and handsets. Misconceptions among a section of the population around the health hazards of EMF radiations should not override the factual information made available to us through scientific research. Dr Tandon explained various aspects of health related issues in a simplified way and touched various studies and its impact in real life situation.

Department of Telecommunication (DoT), through its field units has already taken necessary steps and adopted stricter norms for safety from EMF radiation that are emitted from mobile towers. DoT has adopted the radiation norms which are 10 times stricter than the norms prescribed by ICNIRP as recommended by WHO. All the information on Mobile tower radiation is available to the public on DoT’s website: https://dot.gov.in/journey-emf

Till date, 46000 mobile base transceiver stations (BTS) have been tested in Delhi LSA and all sites have been found EMF compliant as per DoT norms.

For tower EMF emission visit http://tarangsanchar.gov.in/EMFportal.

Reality Show: Shark Tank India

Shark Tank is an American business reality series that was started on August 9, 2009. In this show, entrepreneurs make their business presentations to a panel of investors which are known as “Sharks”. These “Sharks” decide whether to invest in their company or not. These sharks often find weaknesses and faults in entrepreneurs’ valuation of companies, products, etc. The “Sharks” are paid as cast stars of the show, but the money they invest is their own. The entrepreneur can make a handshake deal on show if a panel member is interested. And if all panel members opt out, the entrepreneur leaves empty-handed. This show is now worldwide and now also continuing is in different countries. For example, Shark Tank India, Shark Tank Australia, Shark Tank Mexico, Shark Tank Colombia, Shark Tank Nepal.

Shark Tank India is an Indian Hindi language business reality show that airs on Sony Entertainment Television. The first season of Shark Tank India premiered on 20 December 2021 and concluded on 4 February 2022. The first season contained 35 episodes. This show was hosted by Ranvijay Singha. The first season received 62,000 aspirants from India, out of which 198 businesses were selected to pitch their ideas to the “Sharks”.

All “Sharks” in Shark Tank India

Ashneer Grover, Managing Director and Founder of “BharatPe”; Aman Gupta, Co-founder and Chief Marketing Officer of “boAt”; Anupam Mittal, Founder and CEO of “Shaadi.com”; Ghazal Alagh, Co-founder and Chief Mama of “MamaEarth”; Namita Thapar, Executive Director of “Emcure Pharmaceuticals”; Piyush Bansal, Co-founder and CEO of “Lenskart”; and Vineeta Singh, CEO and Co-founder of “SUGAR Cosmetics are all “Sharks” in Shark Tank India.

The biggest deal ever is done by Piyush Bansal in Sid07 Designs in Rs. 25 Lakhs for 75% equity and 22 lakhs as debt.

Piyush Bansal: Deal for 75% equity

Snapchat: share your every moment

Snapchat Logo

Snapchat is an American multimedia instant messaging app developed by Snap Inc., which is originally called Snapchat Inc. It is a mobile app for Android and iOS devices. The app is often called Snap by its users. The app has evolved from originally focusing on person-to-person photo sharing to presently featuring users’ “Stories”. The content is in chronological order, along with “Discover”. It also allows users to keep their photos in the “my eyes only”, which is also protected with a password. It has limited use of end-to-end encryption.

Evan Spiegel, Boby Murphy, and Reggie Brown are the original authors of Snapchat. It was released in September 2011. Snapchat has 82.0 MB size in Android phones and 223.1 MB in iOS. There are total 37 languages available on Snapchat. Some of them are English, Arabic, German, Greek, Korean, Japanese, Hindi, Marathi, Chinese, etc.

From left to right: Boby Murphy, Evan Spiegel, Reggie Brown

Primarily Snapchat was focused on private, person-to-person photo sharing. But now it is also used for a range of asks, including sending videos, live video chat, messaging. It includes photo sharing, instant messaging, video chat, and multimedia. Other features include the ability to add filters and AR-based lenses to snaps and shows live location on the world map. As of July 2021, Snapchat had 293 million daily active users, having 23% growth over a year. On average, more than four billion Snaps are sent daily.

In September 2015, an 18-year-old was using a Snapchat feature called “Lens” to record the speed she was driving her Mercedes C230 when she crashed into a Mitsubishi Outlander in Hampton, Georgia. Also during the 2020 lockdown to inhibit the spread of COVID-19 in France, the app emerged as a hub for the dissemination of revenge porn of underage girls.

Black Holes – The Hawking Radiation, definition and facts

When a massive star dies, it leaves a small but dense remnant core in its wake. If the mass of the core is more than 3 times the mass of the sun, the force of gravity overwhelms all other forces and a black hole is formed. Imagine the size of a star is 10times more massive than our sun being squeezed into a sphere with a diameter equal to the size of New York City. The result is a celestial object whose gravitational field is so strong that nothing, not even light can escape it. The history of black holes was started with the father of all physics, Isaac Newton. In 1687, Newton gave the first description of gravity in his publication, Principia mathematica, that would change the world. Then 100 years later, John Michelle proposed the idea that there could exist a structure that would be massive enough and not even light would be able to escape its gravitational pull. In 1796, the famous French scientist Pierre-Simon Laplace made an important prediction about the nature of black holes. He suggested that because even the speed of light was slower than the escape velocity of black hole, the massive objects would be invisible. In 1915, Albert Einstein changed physics forever by publishing his theory of general relativity. In this theory, he explained space time curvature and gave a mathematical description of a black hole. And in 1964, john wheeler gave these objects the name, the black hole.

The “Interstellar” black hole was created using a new CGI rendering software that was based on theoretical equations provided by Thorne.

In classical physics, the mass of a black hole cannot decrease; it can either stay the same or get larger, because nothing can escape a black hole. If mass and energy are added to a black hole, then its radius and surface area also should get bigger. For a black hole, the radius is called the Schwarzschild radius. The second law of thermodynamics states that, an entropy of a closed system is always increases or remains the same. In 1974, Stephen hawking– an English theoretical physicists and cosmologist, proposed a groundbreaking theory regarding a special kind of radiation, which later became known as hawking radiation. So hawking postulated an analogous theorem for black holes called the second law of black hole mechanics that in any natural process, the surface area of the event horizon of a black hole always increase, or remains constant. It never decreases. In thermodynamics, black bodies doesn’t transmit or reflect any radiation, it only absorbs radiation.

When Stephen hawking saw these ideas, he found the idea of shining black holes to be preposterous.  But when he applied the laws of quantum mechanics to general relativity, he found the opposite to be true. He realized that stuff can come out near the event horizon. In 1974, he published a paper where outlined a mechanism for this shine. This is based on the Heisenberg uncertainty Principe. According to the principle of quantum mechanisms, for every particle throughout the universe, there exists an antiparticle. These particles always exist in pairs, and continually pop in and out of existence everywhere in the universe. Typically, these particles don’t last long because as soon as possible and its antiparticle pop into existence, they annihilate each other and cease to exist almost immediately after their creation.

In 2019, the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) collaboration produced the first-ever image of a black hole

In the event horizon that the point which nothing can escape its gravity. If a virtual particle pair blip into existence very close to the event horizon of a black hole, one of the particles could fall into the black hole while the other escapes. The one that falls into the black hole effectively has negative energy, which is, in Layman’s terms, akin to subtracting energy from the black hole, or taking mass away from the black hole. The other particle of the pair that escapes the black hole has positive energy, and is referred to as hawking radiation. Due to the presence of hawking radiation, a black hole continues to loss mass and continues shrinking until the point where it loses all its mass and evaporates. It is not clearly established what an evaporating black hole would actually look like. The hawking radiation itself would contain highly energetic particles, antiparticles and gamma rays. Such radiation is invisible to the naked eye, so an evaporating black hole might not look like anything at all. It also possible that hawking radiation might power a hadronic fireball, which could degrade the radiation into gamma rays and particles of less extreme energy, which would make an evaporating black hoe visible. Scientists and cosmologists still don’t completely understand how quantum mechanics explains gravity, but hawking radiation continues to inspire research and provide clues into the nature of gravity and how it relates to other forces of nature.