Daily Current Affairs for UPSC CSE
Topics Covered
- Nuclear matrix
- Antimicrobial resistance
- Small cells
- Facts for Prelims
1 . Nuclear matrix
Context: A group of researchers from CSIR-Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad (CCMB) and Tata Institute for Genetics and Society, Bengaluru (TIGS), have established a way of studying the nuclear matrix of the fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster) without removing the nucleus from the embryo. This allows comparative study of nuclear matrix in different cells within the embryo, giving a boost for fruit fly genetics.Two of the most recent papers on this work have been published in the journals Nucleus and Molecular and Cell Proteomics.
About Nuclear matrix
- Every cell that makes up an organism contains a copy of its genome.
- This genome is packaged in special ways with the help of a structure known as the nuclear matrix.
- The nuclear matrix gives an organization and architecture to the nucleus. A familiar figure, the nuclear matrix of fruit flies, for instance, has been studied for many years, mainly by isolating it in nuclei that have been taken out from fruit fly embryos.
- The nuclear matrix is like a scaffolding. Using biochemical means, if the nucleus is taken out and treated with an enzyme that digests all the DNA, then washed with a solution of high salt concentration so that viable DNA proteins or protein-protein interactions are removed, what is then left is a fibrous meshwork of proteins called the nuclear matrix.
- Analogous to the building, the nuclear matrix creates the architecture in which the genome is packaged.
- “The genome is in the nucleus, embedded and protected by the jelly-like nuclear matrix. This is a dynamic material providing access for the regulation of different genes in different cells.
- Significance: Studying the nuclear matrix is, therefore, very important to get a better picture of how precisely development progresses every time a new individual is born
Packaging of the genetic material
- There are 220 different types of cells in the body, but all contain identical genomes.
- The same genome sequence is present in neurons, where it works for thinking; in the liver, the same sequence enacts metabolism; and in the intestine, it works to digest. So, this information is packaged differently in different cell types.
- Proteases are enzymes that digest proteins and are active in the intestine.
- The intestine contains a lining that prevents these enzymes from digesting the proteins present there, thereby protecting the intestine.
- The same is found in the brain cells also. If they were allowed to be active, they would digest the brain cells which do not have the protective epithelium, and that would be disastrous.
- So, the genome, despite carrying all the genetic material, is packaged such that some genetic material is hidden in such a way that it is never seen by transcription machinery.
New Method
- Now, using a novel method, a group of researchers from CSIR-Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad (CCMB) and Tata Institute for Genetics and Society, Bengaluru (TIGS), have established a way of studying the nuclear matrix of the fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster) without removing the nucleus from the embryo.
- This allows comparative study of nuclear matrix in different cells within the embryo, giving a boost for fruit fly genetics.
Significance of the new method
- Earlier, much of the work in this area was by tracking single molecules such as DNA-binding regulatory proteins, typically, studying one at a time.
- This new method will open new avenues for studying complex regulatory processes.
- This method opens the whole field of Drosophila genetics to study nuclear organisation or nuclear architecture using genetic and cell biology approaches, which was limited earlier only to biochemical approaches.
2 . Antimicrobial resistance
Context: Reckless use of antibiotics, including penicillin, has given rise to bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites that have become resistant to commonly used antimicrobials. These microbes are evolving faster than drugs are invented to tackle them. Stocks of antimicrobials are drying up while more drug resistant ‘superbugs’ are evolving and taking over the world.
What is Antimicrobial resistance (AMR)
- Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) occurs when bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites change over time and no longer respond to medicines making infections harder to treat and increasing the risk of disease spread, severe illness and death.
- As a result of drug resistance, antibiotics and other antimicrobial medicines become ineffective and infections become increasingly difficult or impossible to treat.
- It is an urgent global public health threat, killing at least 1.27 million people worldwide and associated with nearly 5 million deaths in 2019.
- In the U.S., more than 2.8 million antimicrobial-resistant infections occur each year. More than 35,000 people die as a result, according to CDC’s 2019 Antibiotic Resistance (AR) Threats Report.
- It has the potential to affect people at any stage of life, as well as the healthcare, veterinary, and agriculture industries. This makes it one of the world’s most urgent public health problems.
How Resistance Spreads?
- Resistant germs can spread between people, animals, and the environment, and can cause deadly infections.
- Healthcare facilities
- People receiving medical care in healthcare facilities like hospitals or nursing homes can get serious infections called healthcare-associated infections (HAIs).
- People can get HAIs during or after procedures like surgery, or from devices like catheters or ventilators.
- Sometimes these infections can be caused by antimicrobial-resistant germs.
- People can also enter healthcare facilities with infections from the community or from another healthcare facility when transferred and these germs could spread without appropriate infection control measures.
- Community spread
- Germs, including resistant germs, can spread between people, animals, and food, through common activities.
- For example, germs can spread from food to people and between people and animals without appropriate hand hygiene.
- People can also get an infection when traveling, then spread these germs when they return.
- Other examples include gonorrhea, a common sexually transmitted disease (STD) that has progressively developed resistance to almost every drug ever used to treat it.
- Through Water, Soil, & the Environment
- Human activity can contaminate the environment (water, soil) with antibiotics and antifungals, which can speed up the development and spread of resistance. Contamination can occur from:
- Human and animal waste
- Use of antibiotics and antifungals as pesticides on plants or crops
- Pharmaceutical manufacturing waste
- Human activity can contaminate the environment (water, soil) with antibiotics and antifungals, which can speed up the development and spread of resistance. Contamination can occur from:
- Through food supply
- Animals, like people, carry germs in their gut, which can include antimicrobial-resistant germs.
- These germs can spread between animals and in their environments (such as on farms, in animal markets, and during transport). When animals are slaughtered and processed for food, these germs can contaminate meat or other animal products.
- Animal waste can also carry antimicrobial-resistant germs. Fruits, vegetables, and other produce can become contaminated through contact with soil or water containing untreated or un-composted waste from animals.
How to tackle it?
- Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a growing health crisis, and tackling it needs a multi-pronged approach.
- Newer, more effective antimicrobial drugs, improved access to life-saving antimicrobials across the globe; better diagnostics to identify drug-resistant infections and treat them with drugs that work, and robust surveillance systems to monitor the spread of drug resistant infections.
- While discovering new antimicrobial drugs through pharmaceutical research and development is expensive, time-consuming, and often out of reach for many low- and middle-income countries, India can rely on collaborations and innovations to build game-changing strategies in tackling the AMR crisis and catch up with the evolving superbugs.
Scale of AMR crisis
- In 2019 alone, drug-resistant superbugs killed about 1.27 million people globally — a toll more than HIV/AIDS or malaria — and according to the United Nations’ (UN) estimates, that number could reach 10 million by 2050.
- In India, the largest consumer of antimicrobials globally, AMR is gaining ground, and the use of last-resort antibiotics like cephalosporins is soaring.
- The country is projected to have 1.6 million multi-drug resistant infectious cases in 2040, which is significantly higher than any country.
- The warnings are stark, but our current approaches to reign in the spread of superbugs seem inadequate.
Diagnostic innovations
- One way to prevent the reckless overuse of antimicrobials is to diagnose what’s causing an infection early, which helps determine the right course of drugs.
- In India, many doctors prescribe antibiotics to treat infections that are likely caused by viruses.
- Rapid diagnostics, which can help identify the exact microbe and the drug to which they are susceptible to, can avoid antibiotic misuse at the point of care.
- Diagnosing AMR needs research on identifying the appropriate biomarkers to detect multi-drug resistant pathogens and developing accurate and affordable detection tools. Agencies like ICMR, BIRAC could fund such development.
Antibiotic discovery
- While the consumption of antibiotics like cephalosporins, quinolones, and macrolides has sharply increased in low-and middle-income countries, the pipeline of new antibiotics is dry.
- Lack of funding in pharmaceutical research, clinical trial and supply chain challenges, and regulatory hurdles have slowed down new antibiotics development.
- Developing new antibiotics is expensive and it takes a few years for new drugs to become available in low- and middle-income countries.
- India needs to start in-house development of new antibiotics by leveraging public-private partnerships between pharma companies and government research labs.
- Government agencies like ICMR and CSIR, along with DBT, DST could work with international partners like Global Antibiotic Research Development Partnership (GARDP), Wellcome Trust and others to pursue antibacterial research, develop world-class clinical trial infrastructure to accelerate drug development.
- In India, where 80% urban healthcare providers are private, resource-starved hospitals struggle to procure pricey antibiotics.
- Innovative pricing models, bulk procurement of such antibiotics and guaranteed purchase commitments from hospitals could not only reduce cost but also imbibe confidence in pharma companies that have invested in antibiotics research.
- The rollout of universal health coverage in India could improve access to antibiotics for more than 100 million families by reducing out-of-pocket spending for individuals while also easing procurement for the government with bulk orders.
Conclusion
- AMR is an emerging pandemic, and India is the AMR capital of the world.
- With India’s demonstrated prowess in pharmaceutical knowledge, experience and infrastructure, it has the opportunity to tackle AMR and show the way for other low- and middle-income countries.
- In this direction, fostering innovation and international partnerships are key. With millions of lives at stake with the soon-to-become AMR pandemic, the country must act now.
3 . Small cells
Context: To expedite the roll-out of 5G, telecom operators in the country will leverage street furniture such as poles, advertisement hoardings and bus shelters for deploying low-power base stations called ‘small cells’ that will help bring the network closer to the consumers.
What are small cells
- A small cell is an umbrella term used to describe a miniature radio access point (AP) or wireless network base station with a low radio frequency (RF) power output, footprint and range.
- They enhance cellular network coverage and capacity in areas — such as densely populated city centers — where use demands are the highest. Going forward, the fifth-generation (5G) small cell is poised to usher in an era of innovation on a massive scale, ensuring significantly improved signal penetration and superior coverage.
- They are low-powered radio access nodes or base stations that have a coverage range from a few metres up to a few hundred metres.
- They are portable, easy to deploy and help provide localised coverage.
- They provide coverage for very short distances and therefore they are installed in a large number — even more than 200 per square kilometre — for good geographical coverage to provide highly reliable and high-capacity broadband.
How do small cells work?
- Operator-controlled small cells can be deployed indoors or outdoors in a licensed, shared or unlicensed spectrum. The device’s physical size inspired the name of these miniature base stations.
- Small cells look entirely different from macrocells, which are the tall cell towers that people have grown accustomed to seeing on the highway or on top of buildings. Small cells are much smaller.
- Because they are small and compact, one can find these low-powered small cell stations installed every few blocks to complement macrocells in densely populated areas. In this scenario, mobile operators running carrier networks usually attach small cells to physical structures, such as the sides of buildings, streetlights and signs.
- They are essential to the transmission of data to and from wireless devices.
Types of small cells
- There are three types of small cells are the following:
- Femtocells: These devices are similar to wireless routers with a typical maximum range of 10 m. Femtocells can only accommodate a few users at a time and are usually deployed indoors.
- Picocells: Boasting a more extensive range of up to 200 m, picocells can support a maximum of 100 users and are typically installed in larger indoor areas, such as hospitals, airports and train stations.
- Microcells: These are the most potent type of small cell and have a range of up to 2 km. Microcells are usually attached to traffic lights and street signs.
Why is small cell important to 5G?
- Small cells are needed for deploying 5G as opposed to earlier generations such as 4G, because of the frequency.
- The higher the frequency, the lower the wavelength, which means that the distance they travel is less.
- Higher frequencies in the range of 3.3-3.6 GHz, which are expected to be used for offering 5G services, the waves will travel 100-150 metres.
- At present, telecom towers, which are about 30 metres high, are placed at a distance of about 5 km apart.
- They will play a critical role in the success of 5G as these are needed to exploit features of 5G such as support low latency, ultra-high speeds, and massive connection densities.
The mechanism to install it
- Lower height (6-7 meters) poles are sufficient to install small cells, and a good ecosystem of such poles already exists in the form of street lights, electricity and traffic lights poles.
- Leveraging of existing street infrastructure will also save the hassle and investments needed for erecting new poles along roadside, especially in highly populated areas.
- The Department of Telecom notified the amended Right of Way Rules, which pave the way for deployment of 5G small cells on existing street infrastructure, and expects these reforms to enable launch of 5G services in the country by October, 2022.
- The amendments include rationalization of charges, introduction of a single window clearance system and doing away with the need for consent from a government authority for installing infrastructure over private property.
- To facilitate faster 5G roll-out, RoW application procedures for small cells have been simplified and telecom licensees will be able to use street infrastructure to deploy telecom equipment at a cost of ₹150 a year in rural areas and ₹300 in urban areas.
4 . Facts for Prelims
Falkland Island
Context: India reiterated support for international negotiations regarding a territorial matter between Argentina and the United Kingdom in the Southern Atlantic Ocean. The External Affairs Minister held official discussions on a wide range of topics including the decades old Malvinas or the Falklands territorial issue, and expressed India’s interest in exploring payment through local currencies.
About the Falkland Island
- The Falkland Islands is an archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean on the Patagonian Shelf.
- The archipelago, with an area of 4,700 sq m. comprises East Falkland, West Falkland, and 776 smaller islands.
- As a British overseas territory, the Falklands have internal self-governance, and the United Kingdom takes responsibility for their defense and foreign affairs. The capital and largest settlement is Stanley on East Falkland.
- Controversy exists over the Falklands’ discovery and subsequent colonisation by Europeans.
- At various times, the islands have had French, British, Spanish, and Argentine settlements. Britain reasserted its rule in 1833, but Argentina maintains its claim to the islands.
- In April 1982, Argentine military forces invaded the islands. British administration was restored two months later at the end of the Falklands War.
- Almost all Falklanders have voted in favor of the archipelago remaining a UK overseas territory. The territory’s sovereignty status is part of an ongoing dispute between Argentina and the United Kingdom.
Single brand fertilizer
Context: After the Opposition’s criticism that the Centre’s decision to introduce “One Nation One Fertilizer” by branding it as the Pradhanmantri Bharatiya Janurvarak Pariyojna (PMBJP) is for self-promotion, Union Minister for Fertilizers and Chemicals said the scheme is aimed at reducing logistics cost involved in the transportation of fertilizers.
About single brand fertilizer
- The single brand name for fertilisers such as urea, di-amonimum phosphate (DAP), muriate of potassium (MOP) and nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium (NPK) sold by companies, state trading entities and marketing companies will be henceforth named as Bharat urea, Bharat DAP, Bharat MOP and Bharat NPK.
- A common logo indicating fertilizer subsidy schemes named Pradhanmantri Bhartiya Janurvarak Pariyojna will be used in all fertilizer bags.
- Significance of this move:
- It would stop the crisscross movement of fertilizers for longer distances.
- It will reduce logistics costs and also ensure the availability of fertilizers to the farmers throughout the year.
- This concept will strengthen to monitor real-time movement, availability and sales of fertilizers in a State.
- After the introduction of the ‘Bharat’ brand under One Nation One Fertilizer, farmers would not be confused to choose the brand.
- It will also encourage capturing the local market by selling fertilizers by companies and would lead to timely availability of fertilizers to the farmers.
- There is no compromise in the quality of fertilizers under the single brand ‘Bharat’.
- Production and distribution processes will be redrawn as the companies will not have to transport their products beyond 500 kilometers on average.
Tank and armoured carrier
Context: The Indian Army is looking to procure a new generation ‘Future Tank’ under the Future Ready Combat Vehicle (FRCV) project in a phased manner, with expected induction by 2030.
Battle tanks of Indian Army
- The Army has a large fleet consisting of Russian T-72 and T-90 tanks and two regiments of indigenous Arjun tanks with an upgraded Arjun-MK1A to be inducted shortly.
- The tank has been the dominant battle-winning factor of the land forces for a long time and future wars will have mobile protected systems taking the lead.
- T-72s have been the main battle tank of the Armoured Corps for close to 40 years and are now required to be replaced with a modern state-of-the-art tank
- With the rapid advancement in asymmetric technologies, threats from the air have emerged as the biggest challenge for the tank, with the proliferation of small drones, unmanned combat aerial vehicles (UCAV) and loitering munitions among others.
- The improvement in Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) has also made the targeting of land systems easier.
- The battlefield now requires all forces to operate in a synergetic and networked environment.
- To counter the drone threat, the existing air defence guns are being modified for hard kill, to shoot down small drones.
New infantry combat vehicles
- The Army’s Mechanised Infantry operates the versatile BMP-IIs which are in the process of being upgraded including night enablement and the second generation Konkurs wire guided Anti-Tank Guided Missiles (ATGM) on them are being replaced with an indigenous third gen ATGM.
- In parallel, the FICV project and induction of other new platforms are also underway, officials explained.
- Elaborating on the modernisation plan of the Mechanised Infantry, planned acquisitions include a tracked FICV to replace the BMP-II.
- The indigenous third gen Nag Missile System (NAMIS) is being inducted for reconnaissance and support battalions.
- In the wheeled category of vehicles, DAC has already approved the procurement of 105 New Wheeled Armoured Fighting Vehicles (Wh-AFV) and 1,080 ATGMs to replace the existing ones.
- Procurement of a new Light Armoured Multi-Purpose Vehicle (LAMV) with enhanced mobility and protection to replace the existing modified Maruti Gypsy with the Recce Platoons is also underway.
- Firepower upgradation underway include fire and forget ATGMs, acquisition of canister launched Loitering Munitions integrated on the BMP-II chassis and a project for IST System (ISAT-S) on BMP chassis.
Khula
Context: Data available at the Imarat-e-Shariah’s Darul Qaza or Islamic arbitration centres show most cases of divorce are filed through the khhula method, and an increasingly larger number of women are opting to end their marriage through khhula.
About Khhula
- The literal meaning of khula is “to lay down” before the law. The husband lays down his right over his wife. It signifies an arrangement entered into to dissolve a connubial connection in lieu of compensation paid by the wife to her husband out of her property, everything that can be given as a dower.
- Khula is a divorce with mutual consent and at the instance of a wife in which she agrees to give some consideration to her husband. It is basically a “redemption” of the contract of marriage. Khula or redemption literally means to lay down. In law, it means laying down by a husband his right and authority of his wife.
- In the case of khhula, it’s the woman who initiates divorce, and surrenders her mehr (wealth transferred or promised to the woman at the time of marriage) at the time of such a divorce.
- Khhula can be effected orally or through a document called the ‘Khhulnama’.
- It has the effect of an instant divorce. If the mehr had not been given to the woman by the time she opted for khhula, she cannot demand the mehr as the marriage is being called off at her behest.