Daily Current Affairs :17th and 18th February 2022

Daily Current Affairs for UPSC CSE

Topics Covered

  1. Embryonic Stem Cell treatment for HIV
  2. IRENA
  3. Green Hydrogen Policy
  4. India – UAE CEPA
  5. Facts for Prelims

1 . Embryonic Stem Cell treatment for HIV


Context : A U.S. patient with leukemia has become the first woman and the third person to date to be cured of HIV after receiving a stem cell transplant from a donor who was naturally resistant to the virus that causes AIDS.

What do we know about the treatment?

  • This week at a Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections, Colorado, United States. researchers described the case of a 60-year-old African American woman who was diagnosed with an HIV infection in 2013 was started on the standard HIV treatment regimen of anti-retroviral treatment (ART) therapy consisting of tenofovir, emtricitabine and raltegravir. She was also later diagnosed with leukemia in 2017
  • In that year she received cord blood, or embryonic stem cells, from a donor with a rare mutation that naturally blocks the HIV virus from infecting cells. She was also given blood stem cells, or adult stem cells, from a relative. The adult stem cells boosted the patient’s immunity and possibly helped the cord blood cells fully integrate with the lady’s immune system.
  • A little over three years after the transplant, the lady discontinued the ART and today more than 14 months down, her doctors report that she has no sign of HIV in her blood and also has no detectable antibodies to the virus.
  • Embryonic stem cells are potentially able to grow into any kind of cell and hence their appeal as therapy, though there is no explanation for why this mode of treatment appeared to be more effective.

What is unique about the recovery of this woman?

  • Only two people have reportedly been cured of HIV so far and both have relied on bone marrow transplants from donors who carried the mutation, called CCR5 delta 32, that naturally makes one immune to an HIV infection and AIDS.
  • Timothy Ray Brown, or the ‘Berlin patient’ staved off the virus for 12 years but died of cancer in 2020. Another patient, Adam Castillejo, was the second reported case of a cure. Both men received bone marrow transplants from donors who carried a mutation that blocks HIV infection.
  • However, the previous transplants involved adult stem cells and these cells from the bone marrow replaced their immune system. The body’s natural tendency is to reject foreign stem cells and so both donors suffered side effects such as graft versus host disease where the donor’s cells attack the recipient’s body.
  • Both men developed severe illnesses throughout their HIV remission but in contrast the woman was discharged from hospital within 17 days of the transplant and did not develop graft versus host disease.
  • Her doctors theorise that it was a combination of the embryonic and adult stem cells that led to a better health outcome. However, because it’s only been five-odd years of being HIV-free, it remains to be seen if the lady will live longer than Brown or Castillejo.

CCR5 Protein

  • HIV uses the CCR5 protein to enter immune cells, but it can’t latch on to cells that carry the delta 32 mutation. IciStem, a consortium of European scientists studying stem cell transplants to treat HIV infection, has a database of 22,000 donors with this HIV-resistant mutation.
  • About 1% of people of Northern European descent, mainly Swedes, are born with a mutation known as CCR5-delta 32, which “locks ‘the door’ which prevents HIV from entering into the cell
  • This is only going to work if someone has a virus that really only uses CCR5 for entry.
    Patient would still be vulnerable to a form of HIV called X4, which employs a different protein, CXCR4, to enter cells.

Is this treatment the long-sought cure for AIDS?

  • Not at all. While this approach is certainly a welcome addition to the arsenal of treatments, stem cell therapy is a cumbersome exercise and barely accessible to most HIV patients in the world. Moreover, this requires stem cells from that rare group of individuals with the beneficial mutation. Anti-retroviral therapy, through the years, has now ensured that HIV/AIDS isn’t always a death sentence and many with access to proper treatment have lifespans comparable to those without HIV.
  • A vaccine for HIV or a drug that eliminates the virus is still elusive and would be the long sought ‘cure’ for HIV/AIDS.

What is the prevalence of HIV/AIDS in India?

  • As per the India HIV Estimation 2019 report, the estimated adult (15 to 49 years) HIV prevalence trend has been declining in India since the epidemic’s peak in the year 2000 and has been stabilising in recent years. In 2019, HIV prevalence among adult males (15–49 years) was estimated at 0.24% and among adult females at 0.20% of the population.
  • There were 23.48 lakh Indians living with HIV in 2019. Maharashtra had the maximum at 3.96 lakh followed by Andhra Pradesh (3.14 lakh) and Karnataka.
  • India’s National Aids Control Organisation says that ART is “freely available” to all those who require and there are deputed centres across the country where they can be availed from.

What Are Stem Cells?

  • Stem cells are special human cells that are able to develop into many different cell types. This can range from muscle cells to brain cells. In some cases, they can also fix damaged tissues. Researchers believe that stem cell-based therapies may one day be used to treat serious illnesses such as paralysis and Alzheimer disease.

Types of stem cells

Stem cells are divided into 2 main forms. They are embryonic stem cells and adult stem cells.

  • Embryonic stem cells. The embryonic stem cells used in research today come from unused embryos. These result from an in vitro fertilization procedure. They are donated to science. These embryonic stem cells are pluripotent. This means that they can turn into more than one type of cell.
  • Adult stem cells. There are 2 types of adult stem cells. 
    • One type comes from fully developed tissues such as the brain, skin, and bone marrow. There are only small numbers of stem cells in these tissues. They are more likely to generate only certain types of cells. For example, a stem cell that comes from the liver will only make more liver cells.
    • The second type is induced pluripotent stem cells. These are adult stem cells that have been changed in a lab to be more like embryonic stem cells. Scientists first reported that human stem cells could be changed in this way in 2006. Induced pluripotent stem cells don’t seem to be different from embryonic stem cells, but scientists have not yet found one that can develop every kind of cell and tissue.

2 . International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA)


Context : While India ramps up its solar power capacity, the nation does not yet have a firm policy on managing waste that results from used solar panels or from the manufacturing process.

About the issue

  • The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) last December estimated that the global photovoltaic waste will touch 78 million tonnes by 2050, with India expected to be one of the top five generators of such waste.
  • India currently considers solar waste a part of electronic waste and does not account for it separately
  • A committee had been constituted under the chairmanship of the Ministry’s Secretary to propose an action plan to evolve a “circular economy” in solar panel, through reuse/recycling of waste generated.
  • There was no commercial raw material recovery facility for solar e-waste operational in India, but a pilot facility for solar panel recycling and material recovery had been set up by a private company in Gummidipoondi in Tamil Nadu. India has set a target of producing 100 GW of solar energy by 2022.
  • The cumulative capacity of grid-connected solar photovoltaic (PV) installations is around 40 GW and of the current capacity, about 35.6 GW, is generated from ground-mounted plants and 4.4 GW from rooftop solar. A gigawatt is 1,000 megawatt.

Impact on India

  • Solar panels have an estimated life of 25 years, and given that India’s solar manufacturing industry took off around 2010, most of the installed systems were new and early in their calendar lifecycle and therefore unlikely to generate a large quantity of solar waste.
  • That, however, is only partially accurate, according to the Council for Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW), a Delhi based think-tank. End-of-life was only one of the possible waste streams for PV modules and there were several other stages where modules could get damaged.
  • Additionally, modules could develop defects during the plant operations and be discarded even before their scheduled life span.
  • In the CEEW’s reckoning, PV modules had so far likely generated a cumulative waste of nearly 2,85,000 tonnes, as of FY21, from the early-life loss of the installed 40 GW grid-connected solar capacity.
  • Despite its ambitious expansion plans, much of India’s solar PV manufacturing uses imported components with parts mostly sourced from China.

About IRENA

  • The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) is an intergovernmental organisation that supports countries in their transition to a sustainable energy future, and serves as the principal platform for international cooperation, a centre of excellence, and a repository of policy, technology, resource and financial knowledge on renewable energy.
  • IRENA promotes the widespread adoption and sustainable use of all forms of renewable energy, including bioenergy, geothermal, hydropower, ocean, solar and wind energy in the pursuit of sustainable development, energy access, energy security and low-carbon economic growth and prosperity.
  • With a mandate from countries around the world, IRENA encourages governments to adopt enabling policies for renewable energy investments, provides practical tools and policy advice to accelerate renewable energy deployment, and facilitates knowledge sharing and technology transfer to provide clean, sustainable energy for the world’s growing population.
  • With more than 180 countries actively engaged, IRENA promotes renewable resources and technologies as the key to a sustainable future and helps countries achieve their renewable energy potential.

In line with these aims, IRENA provides a wide range of products and services, including:

  • Annual reviews of renewable energy employment;
  • Renewable energy capacity statistics;
  • Renewable energy cost studies;
  • Renewables Readiness Assessments, conducted in partnership with governments and regional organisations, to help boost renewable energy development on a country by country basis;
  • The Global Atlas, which maps resource potential by source and by location;
  • Renewable energy benefits studies;
  • REmap, a roadmap to double renewable energy use worldwide by 2030;
  • Renewable energy technology briefs;
  • Facilitation of regional renewable energy planning;
  • Renewable energy project development tools like the Project Navigator, the Sustainable Energy Marketplace and the IRENA/ADFD Project Facility.

3 . Green Hydrogen Policy


Context : Hon’ble Prime Minister launched the National Hydrogen Mission on India’s 75th Independence Day (i.e. 15th August, 2021). The Mission aims to aid the government in meeting its climate targets and making India a green hydrogen hub. This will help in meeting the target of production of 5 million tonnes of Green hydrogen by 2030 and the related development of renewable energy capacity.

About Green Hydrogen Policy

Hydrogen and Ammonia are envisaged to be the future fuels to replace fossil fuels. Production of these fuels by using power from renewable energy, termed as green hydrogen and green ammonia, is one of the major requirements towards environmentally sustainable energy security of the nation. Government of India is taking various measures to facilitate the transition from fossil fuel / fossil fuel based feed stocks to green hydrogen / green ammonia. The notification of this policy is one of the major steps in this endeavour.

The policy provides as follows :

  1. Green Hydrogen / Ammonia manufacturers may purchase renewable power from the power exchange or set up renewable energy capacity themselves or through any other, developer, anywhere.
  2. Open access will be granted within 15 days of receipt of application.
  3. The Green Hydrogen / Ammonia manufacturer can bank his unconsumed renewable power, up to 30 days, with distribution company and take it back when required.
  4. Distribution licensees can also procure and supply Renewable Energy to the manufacturers of Green Hydrogen / Green Ammonia in their States at concessional prices which will only include the cost of procurement, wheeling charges and a small margin as determined by the State Commission.
  5. Waiver of inter-state transmission charges for a period of 25 years will be allowed to the manufacturers of Green Hydrogen and Green Ammonia for the projects commissioned before 30th June 2025.
  6. The manufacturers of Green Hydrogen / Ammonia and the renewable energy plant shall be given connectivity to the grid on priority basis to avoid any procedural delays.
  7. The benefit of Renewable Purchase Obligation (RPO) will be granted incentive to the hydrogen/Ammonia manufacturer and the Distribution licensee for consumption of renewable power.
  8. To ensure ease of doing business a single portal for carrying out all the activities including statutory clearances in a time bound manner will be set up by MNRE.
  9. Connectivity, at the generation end and the Green Hydrogen / Green Ammonia manufacturing end, to the ISTS for Renewable Energy capacity set up for the purpose of manufacturing Green Hydrogen / Green Ammonia shall be granted on priority.
  10. Manufacturers of Green Hydrogen / Green Ammonia shall be allowed to set up bunkers near Ports for storage of Green Ammonia for export / use by shipping. The land for the storage for this purpose shall be provided by the respective Port Authorities at applicable charges.

Benefits

  • The implementation of this Policy will provide clean fuel to the common people of the country. This will reduce dependence on fossil fuel and also reduce crude oil imports. The objective also is for our country to emerge as an export Hub for Green Hydrogen and Green Ammonia. 
  • The policy promotes Renewable Energy (RE) generation as RE will be the basic ingredient in making green hydrogen.  This in turn will help in meeting the international commitments for clean energy.

4 . India – UAE CEPA


Context : India and UAE signed the historic Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) aimed at boosting the merchandise trade between the two countries to US$ 100 billion over next five years. The deal was signed during the virtual summit meeting between Hon’ble Prime Minister of India, Shri Narendra Modi and H.E. Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi.

Details of the Agreement

  • Agreement was not an interim arrangement but a complete and comprehensive economic partnership finalized in the shortest possible time in history.
  • Agreement covered the widest possible array of subjects from free trade to digital economy to government procurement and several other strategic areas of mutual interest.
  • CEPA would generate 10 lakh jobs across multiple labour-intensive sectors, the Minister said that major sectors like gems and jewellery, textiles, leather, footwear, furniture, agriculture and food products, plastics, engineering goods, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, sports goods etc. will benefit from this deal and create large scale, employment for our young boys & girls.
  • UAE had agreed to automatic registration and market authorization for Indian medicines in case of their regulatory approval in developed countries such as USA, EU, UK and Japan.
  • Agreement also had a permanent safeguard mechanism which can be resorted to in a situation of sudden surge in imports along with strict rules of origin, which will prevent products from other countries through the CEPA route.
  • India-UAE CEPA is a milestone in the relationship between India and UAE and has been built on decades of enterprise and aspires to establish a new era of progress and prosperity for the people of both nations.

5 . Facts for Prelims


Def Expo

  • 12th edition of Defexpo 2022, to be held in Gujarat for the first time, is expected to see the participation of more than 1,000 companies, including over 100 foreign companies from 55 plus countries that have sent confirmations
  • Spread over 1 lakh sq.m, this year’s DefExpo will be the largest since its inception in 1996. Over 900 exhibitors have so far confirmed participation, including over 100 foreign companies
  • Over 50 Defence Ministers or service chief-led delegations are expected at the show and officials said they expected confirmations to pick up in the next couple of weeks
  • Along with initiatives such as IDEX meant to boost start-ups, venture capitalists were being invited to the expo to identify prospective projects for investment.
  • Invitations have been extended to 52 African countries, and so far 27 African countries have confirmed their participation.

Crimson rose butterflies

  • Crimson Rose, a large butterfly with a mix of black, white and crimson colours on its wings and body, is known for crossing the sea to migrate to Sri Lanka.
  • Crimson Rose is known to migrate along the coast, inland and crosses the sea often.

Refugees Convention

  •  India has not signed the United Nations Refugee Convention, 1951
  • Refugees and asylum seekers were entitled to the rights in Articles 14, 20 and 21 of the Constitution.

First Water Taxi service

  • India’s first water taxi service was inaugurated in Maharashtra connecting the Navi Mumbai area to mainland Mumbai.

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