5

Current Affairs Related To Indian Agriculture Current Affairs Related To Science, Technology And Public
Health
Issue Number-1: How to protect farmers against risks
Issue Number-2: The Food-Fuel Conundrum Section-A
Issue Number-3: Is Sugar Industry Finally Coming Of Age?
Issue Number-4: Technology and Blockchain in Pulses and Oilseeds Issue Number-1: India needs a world-class chip-making ecosystem
Production Issue Number-2: Pradhan Mantri Public Wi-Fi Access Network
Interface (PM-WANI) is key to affordable internet for all
Current Affairs Related To Environment, Ecology, Climate Issue Number-3: New Double Perovskite
Change, Biodiversity & Disaster Management Issue Number-4: ISRO after Unity and Blue Origin
Issue Number-5: Desalinate Using Less Energy
Section-A
Section-B
Issue Number-1: Boosting the gas economy
Issue Number-2: Check Green Damage Short Take-1: Hubble In Safe Mode
Issue Number-3: E-Waste Policy needs a hard re-look Short Take-2: Car AC from exhaust heat
Short Take-3: Neuromorphic Computing
Section-B Short Take-4: Delta Variant
Short Take-5: mRNA Vaccines
Short Take-1: Compensation for Covid-19 deaths
Short Take-2: Sikkim Blossoms
Short Take-3: Ghost Nets and Marine Life
Short Take-4: Biocentrism and Anthropocentrism
Short Take-5: The Wicked Smiling Jaws
Short Take-6: Long Journeys
Short Take-7: Dead Fish in Guwahati Tank
Short Take-8: Clean Facts on Plastic Pollution
Short Take-9: Rare Arctic Lightning Storms
Short Take-10: Lemru Elephant Reserve

Unlock Free Classes For This Workbook On The Un Academy App Using The Code PAVNEET10
 76

CURRENT AFFAIRS OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY: JULY-2021

Issue Number-1: India needs a world-class chip-making ecosystem

Source: Financial Express Editorial

Syllabus: Science and Technology- Developments and their Applications and Effects in Everyday Life.

Why digital territory

matters?

What is the importance

of digital space?

What is the role of

silicon ships here?

What is the status of

electronics industry in
India?

Unlock Free Classes For This Workbook On The Un Academy App Using The Code PAVNEET10
 77

What is Government
trying to do now under
Performance Linked
Incentive Scheme?

Why digital self-

reliance in chip
fabrication matters?

What international
strategic partnerships
can be explored and
what role can Taiwan
play here?

Unlock Free Classes For This Workbook On The Un Academy App Using The Code PAVNEET10
 78

Issue Number-2: Pradhan Mantri Public Wi-Fi Access Network Interface (PM-WANI) is key to affordable internet for all

Source: The Hindu Business Line

Syllabus: Awareness in the fields of IT

What is the status of

net usage today?
What is the concern?

What is PMWANI and

how it helps?

How does PMWANI

solve access point
issue?

Unlock Free Classes For This Workbook On The Un Academy App Using The Code PAVNEET10
 79

Issue Number-3: New Double Perovskite

Source: The Hindu Business Line

Syllabus: Indigenization of Technology and Developing New Technology.

What is Perovskite? In material science, perovskite means a certain arrangement of molecules and materials whose structures resembles
that of calcium titanate are called perovskite. In other words, perovskite is a material that has two positively charged
ions (cations) and one negatively charged ion (anion) and the general formula is ABX3.
Why does solar industry The traditional solar cells use conventional crystalline silicon photovoltaic cells. But the perovskite based solar cells
love Perovskite? milk more electricity from the sunlight than the silicon cells. The silicon cells at max convert 22% of sunlight into
electricity but perovskite cells convert much more.
What is the problem in The issue is that if a solar silicon photovoltaic cell lasts 25 years, the perovskite lasts only one year.
perovskite?
What is the issue in The industry is struggling to combine stability and energy efficiency but a team of IIT-Madras scientists have achieved
solar industry? some success.
How do PV cells work? Electricity is a flow of electrons. As per the classical understanding of the atomic structure, electrons keep orbiting
the nucleus of the atom. They have different energy levels. Even electrons in the same orbit could have varying energy
levels. The energy levels are ‘grouped’ into different ‘energy bands’. The energy band of the electrons that are farthest
from the nucleus — valence electrons — is called the ‘valence band’. To get a flow of electrons going, you need to
‘nudge’ the electrons in the valence band to leave the atom. The electron should be supplied with energy from outside,
to raise its energy level to the higher ‘conduction band’. The electron will then move to the next atom. (As electrons
jump from atom to atom, their vacant places are immediately taken by other electrons, just as the space vacated by a
droplet of water in a river is immediately taken by another water droplet.) The difference between the valence band
and conduction band is called ‘band gap’ and represents the minimum energy required to nudge electrons in the
outermost orbits to leave the atom. In a PV cell, the job of ejecting electrons is done by the photons of sunlight. PV
materials that have smaller band gaps convert more solar energy into electricity.

Unlock Free Classes For This Workbook On The Un Academy App Using The Code PAVNEET10
 80

What is double The ‘double perovskite’ is essentially a three-dimensional extension of a single perovskite. The formula of a double
perovskite? perovskite is A2B2X3.Typically, solar cells have band gaps less than 2 eV (or electron-volt, the energy unit of
subatomic particles). Good solar cells have band gaps of 1.5 eV. But the ‘double perovskites’ have much higher band
gaps, which is a thumbs-down, as it calls for more sunlight to get a certain amount of electricity.
What did the team of IIT They engineered a double perovskite alloy using caesium, silver, sodium and bismuth as cations and chlorine as the
Madras do? anion. This had a much smaller band gap (around 2.6 eV).

Unlock Free Classes For This Workbook On The Un Academy App Using The Code PAVNEET10
 81

Issue Number-4: ISRO after Unity and Blue Origin

Source: The Times of India

Syllabus: Awareness in the fields of Space

What is space?

What is Karman Line?

What is New Shepard Blue

Origin?

What is New Shepard? It is a tribute to Alan Shepard, the first American astronaut to go the space.
How does New Shepard
work?

What does Blue Origin or They want to take tourists to space so that they can have a few moments of weightlessness and make space an
Unity aim to achieve? arena of tourism for those who can afford money.
What are the risks in
spacefaring?

What about the Outer

Space Treaty?

What can India do?

Unlock Free Classes For This Workbook On The Un Academy App Using The Code PAVNEET10
 82

Does Indian commercial

space sector have effects
on national security?

What should India do to

tackle security issues?

Unlock Free Classes For This Workbook On The Un Academy App Using The Code PAVNEET10
 83

Issue Number-5: Desalinate Using Less Energy

Source: The Hindu Business Line

Syllabus: Indigenization of Technology and Developing New Technology.

Why desalination Desalination is, by far, the best water production technique the world has, but, despite technological improvements, the
matters? process remains an energy guzzler. However, some low- or no-energy desalination techniques are emerging on the
horizon. They are still some distance from commercial adoption but, nevertheless, cue the nature of things to come.
How to produce Add aluminium metal, preferably nicely shredded, to seawater and Nature will do the rest. Metals naturally have a high
hydrogen from affinity for oxygen. The aluminium will pick up oxygen from seawater and become alumina (which is really the stuff of
seawater? the aluminium ore, bauxite). As oxygen leaves water and joins the metal, hydrogen in the water is liberated. Once you
produce hydrogen, it can be put to many different uses. The original idea of the researchers was to get the hydrogen to
react with carbon dioxide, which is available aplenty, to make methanol.
How to make There is a need to react the hydrogen with atmospheric oxygen to produce water. Energy is required for recycling alumina.
seawater potable? Some energy is produced within the process. Two constituents of the process are heat-producing (exothermic). First, the
reaction of (sea) water with aluminium to produce hydrogen (and alumina) itself is exothermic. Second, when hydrogen
reacts with atmospheric oxygen (to form water), again heat is produced. If the energy that is developed within the process
itself is tapped, then little or no external energy is required for the conversion of alumina into aluminium. For any top-up,
solar could be brought into play — which would be much less than the solar energy needed for electrolysis of seawater to
produce hydrogen.

Unlock Free Classes For This Workbook On The Un Academy App Using The Code PAVNEET10
 84

SHORT TAKE: CURRENT AFFAIRS: SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY-JULY

Short Take-1: Hubble In Safe Mode

Source: The Indian Express

Syllabus: Awareness in the fields of Space

What is Hubble?

Why is Hubble
important?

What happened in
2021?

What does the

Power Control
Unit do?

Unlock Free Classes For This Workbook On The Un Academy App Using The Code PAVNEET10
 85

Short Take-2: Car AC from exhaust heat

Source: The Hindu Business Line

Syllabus: Indigenization of Technology and Developing New Technology.

What is the issue? The AC in the cars take power from the engine and this reduces the availability of power for the vehicle.
What is the solution? An engineer in Tamil Nadu has invented a method to obtain cooling of the vehicle from exhaust pipe.
How does the system The system is made up of a tube with 10 liters of deionized water that has a boiling point of 90 degrees. When
work? vehicle runs, the exhaust heat is utilised to change deionised water into steam. The pressurized steam is then sent
into the impulse turbine with enormous velocity and is used to rotate the shaft of co-generator at 250 rpm to produce
24 V power. The steam gets condensed and flows back through gravity into the copper tube. The cabin is cooled
with the thermoelectric effect.

Short Take-3: Neuromorphic Computing

Source: The Hindu Business Line

Syllabus: Indigenization of Technology and Developing New Technology.

What is Neuromorphic A process where engineers build intelligent machines inspired from the working of the mammal brains. The intelligence
Computing? in the brain is from neurons and synapses.
What is DEXAT? The Double Exponential Adaptive Threshold is a new spiking neuron model developed by Indian scientists that will
help build fast, accurate, energy-efficient neuromorphic AI systems for real world applications like speech recognition.

Unlock Free Classes For This Workbook On The Un Academy App Using The Code PAVNEET10
 86

Short Take-4: Delta Variant

Source: The Economic Times

Syllabus: Science and Technology- Developments and their Applications and Effects in Everyday Life

What is Delta Variant?

What is unique about it?
What are spike proteins?
What is VOC?
Why does it matter?
Does a vaccine work?
What is its spread?
What needs to be done?

Short Take-5: mRNA Vaccines

Source: Slate: The Hindu Business Line

Syllabus: Bio-technology and issues relating to Intellectual Property Rights.

What do vaccines do? Human immune systems are slow to identify and target fast replicating viruses. In the backdrop, a vaccine
introduces the target to the immune system in advance and gears up the system to tackle a virus before it enters.
To train immune cells, the traditional vaccines use a weakened virus or a dead virus.
How is mRNA different? The mRNA vaccines consist of genetic information of the virus and are encoded with genetic information of target
virus. They carry the instructions to the body that then develops a spike protein and activate immune cells to
identify spike proteins, thus enabling the process of making anti-bodies. So, when the virus attacks the body, the
immune cells are ready to attack it.

Unlock Free Classes For This Workbook On The Un Academy App Using The Code PAVNEET10