Daily Current Affairs : 6th May

Daily Current Affairs for UPSC CSE

1. 3D Bioprinted human Skin Model
2. Northeast India drying up rapidly
3. UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDDR)
4. INS Vishal
5. Business Correspondents
6. Cannabis /Cannabidiol
7. Gold Investment Schemes
8. Facts for Prelims – New space India Limited, Endobot

1. 3D Bioprinted Human Skin Model

Context : Researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi have successfully 3D bioprinted human skin models that have certain anatomically relevant structural, mechanical and biochemical features similar to native human skin.

What is Bioprinting

• Bioprinting is an additive manufacturing process where biomaterials such as cells and growth factors are combined to create tissue-like structures that imitate natural tissues.
• The technology uses a material known as bioink to create these structures in a layer-by-layer manner. 
• The technique is widely applicable to the fields of medicine and bioengineering. 

What is 3 D Bioprinted human skin Model

• The skin is composed of two important layers — the inner dermis (made of fibroblasts) and the outer epidermis (keratinocytes, melanocytes).
• The junction between the two layers is not flat but is undulatory or wavy.
• The undulatory morphology is important as it provides biochemical cues and mechanical support to the epidermis layer, provides structural stability to the skin by making the two layers adhere to each other, and not allow cells to cross the junction.
• Unlike the currently available tissue-engineered skin equivalents, the team was successful in creating this wavy junction in the bioprinted skin model.
• The undulatory junction was designed using 3D CAD and 10 layers of dermis were constructed through bioprinting followed by eight layers of epidermis. 
• The bioprinted skin also retained the original dimension without any shrinkage for up to three weeks.

Importance

• The bioprinted skin model will have wide applications in testing cosmetics.
• It can also reduce and probably even replace testing on animals.
• It can also be used for testing dermatology drugs on human skin and at a future date even help in testing drugs for personalised medicine.

2 . Northeast India drying up rapidly

Context : A team of researchers from the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Pune, and Assam University set out to understand whether this decline in rainfall in North East India is caused by anthropogenic activity or is it part of natural changes.

About the Issue

• Northeast India, one of the wettest places on the Earth has been experiencing rapid drying, especially in the last 30 years. Some places which used to get as high as 3,000 mm of rain during the monsoon season have seen a drop of about 25-30%.

Details of the Findings

• As per the report decreasing monsoon rainfall is associated with natural changes in the subtropical Pacific Ocean.
• Changes in the Pacific decadal oscillation (PDO) — a pattern of fluctuations in the ocean, particularly over the north Pacific basin — are mainly associated with this declined rainfall
• Just like El Nino/La Nina in the tropical Pacific, PDO has a signature for a longer time (on the decadal scale) in the sea surface temperatures and its interaction with the atmosphere, which in turn affects the northeast Indian summer monsoon.
• Results shows that the reduction in rainfall during a major part of the last 114 years may be associated with global man-made factors, while the trend during the last 36 years is associated with natural phenomena.
• Only about 7% of the rainfall in this region is associated with local moisture recycling, which means that anthropogenic activities can affect only this small percentage hence the recent rapid drying is a part of interdecadal variability of monsoonal rainfall which is strongly associated with the PDO

3 . UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDDR)

Context : The UN agency for disaster reduction has commended the Indian Meteorological Department’s “almost pinpoint accuracy” of early warnings of Cyclone Fani that helped authorities conduct a well-targeted evacuation plan and minimise the loss of life. India’s zero casualty approach to managing extreme weather events is a major contribution to the implementation of the SendaiFramework,

About UNDDR

• UNDRR was established in 1999 as a dedicated secretariat to facilitate the implementation of the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR).
• It is mandated by the United Nations General Assembly resolution to serve as the focal point in the United Nations system for the coordination of disaster reduction and to ensure synergies among the disaster reduction activities of the United Nations system and regional organizations and activities in socio‐economic and humanitarian fields.
• It is an organisational unit of the UN Secretariat and is led by the UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction (SRSG).
• UNDRR defines itself through its multi-stakeholder coordination approach based on the relationships it has developed with national and local governments, intergovernmental organizations and civil society, including the private sector, and by its mode of operating through a network of global partners.
• Disaster Risk Reduction aims to reduce the damage caused by natural hazards like earthquakes, floods, droughts and cyclones, through an ethic of prevention. There is no such thing as a ‘natural’ disaster, only natural hazards.

4 . INS VISHAL

Context : The United Kingdom is in talks with the Indian government on building a new state-of-the-art aircraft carrier along the lines of Britain’s HMS Queen Elizabethas part of the ongoing ‘Make in India’ negotiations, according to a media report.

About INS Vishal

• The talks are under way for the Indian Navy to buy detailed plans for the 65,000-ton British warship to build a so-called “copycat supercarrier” to be named INS Vishal in 2022.
• If a deal can be agreed, the new warship would be built in India but UK companies could supply many of the parts
• The report noted that the new naval carrier would serve alongside India’s 45,000-ton carrier INS Vikramaditya — bought from Russia in 2004 — and the currently under-construction 40,000-ton INS Vikrant , and could give India a larger carrier fleet than Britain.

5 . Business Correspondents

6 . Cannabis

Context : Two of China’s 34 regions are quietly leading a boom in cultivating cannabis to produce cannabidiol, or CBD, the non-intoxicating compound that has become a consumer health and beauty craze in the United States and beyond.

About Cannabis

• Cannabis is a drug that comes from Indian hemp plants such as Cannabis sativa and Cannabis indica. The main active chemical in cannabis is THC (delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol)
• Cannabis is a depressant drug. Depressant drugs do not necessarily make you feel depressed.
• Rather, they slow down the activity of the central nervous system and the messages going between the brain and the body.
• When large doses of cannabis are taken it may also produce hallucinogenic effects.

There are three main forms of psychoactive cannabis: marijuana, hashish and hash oil.

• Marijuana is the most common and least potent form of cannabis. Marijuana is the dried leaves and flowers of the plant.
• Hashish (“hash”) is dried cannabis resin, usually in the form of a small block. The concentration of THC in hashish is higher than in marijuana, producing stronger effects.
• Hash oil is a thick, oily liquid, golden brown to black in colour, which is extracted from cannabis. Hash oil is the strongest form of cannabis.

Cannabidiol (CBD)

• It is the second most prevalent of the active ingredients of cannabis (marijuana).
• While CBD is an essential component of medical marijuana, it is derived directly from the hemp plant, which is a cousin of the marijuana plant.
• While CBD is a component of marijuana (one of hundreds), by itself it does not cause a “high.”
• According to a report from the World Health Organization, “In humans, CBD exhibits no effects indicative of any abuse or dependence potential. To date, there is no evidence of public health related problems associated with the use of pure CBD.”

7 . Gold Investment Schemes

MMTC – PAMP

• Many players today offer a digital platform to buy gold directly from MMTC-PAMP, a JV between MMTC, a Government of India undertaking, and PAMP, a global refiner in gold. 
• You can buy gold for as less as ₹1,000 or 0.3 grams. Orders for buy/sell can be placed any time of the day and all seven days of the week. When you place a ‘buy’ order through the app, MMTC-PAMP buys an equivalent value of hallmarked gold in your name and stores it in its vault.
• When you decide to exit, you can sell your gold back to MMTC-PAMP through a ‘sell’ order in Me-Gold. You can also redeem gold in physical form in multiples of 1 gram by paying extra for making charge and it will be delivered at your registered address.
• Payments apps Paytm, PhonePe, MobiKwik and Google Pay also offer a digital platform to buy gold from MMTC-PAMP and the orders can be for as low as ₹1.
• However, there are a few restrictions. One, the maximum period for which you can store your gold at MMTC-PAMP is only five years. Also, every platform has a frequency in order to keep the account active – in case of Me-Gold, if there is no buy/sell/redemption order for 18 months, it will be deemed inactive and the money refunded by liquidating the gold at the then prevailing price. And there are transaction charges on these digital platforms.

Sovereign Gold Bond

• In sovereign gold bond scheme you get interest at 2.5% per annum on the face value of the bond.
• This means that when gold prices go up, you get the twin benefits of price gain as well as interest, and when gold prices fall, you are not impacted as much as your peers who invested in physical gold, as you will get the interest on the bond. These bonds are issued by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
• Everyone except for non-resident Indians (NRIs) can invest. Investment in these bonds can be made through cash (up to ₹20,000), cheque or demand draft. T
• he bonds are issued in denominations of one gram and in multiples thereof. Maximum investment in a year is capped at 4 kg for individuals.
• The RBI fixes the price of the bond. You can buy these bonds from banks, the Stock Holding Corporation of India, designated post offices and the National Stock Exchange of India and the Bombay Stock Exchange.
• The investment tenure of the sovereign gold bonds is eight years. Premature exit is allowed from the end of the fifth year. Investors who want to exit early, can sell the bond in the secondary market.

Gold ETFs

• Gold exchange traded funds (ETFs) are units of mutual fund schemes.
• You can buy/sell these units through a share broker, provided you have a demat and trading account. Each of the nine mutual funds, who have gold ETFs listed on the BSE and NSE, have issued units of gold to subscribers during their new fund offer (NFO).
• From the time of listing of these ETFs in the bourses, selling/buying happens at the market price between the existing holders of the ETFs and the new subscribers.
• These ETFs track the domestic price of gold. However, depending on the demand/supply of these units in the market, they can trade at a discount/premium to the market price or net asset value (NAV) of the fund.

About Metals and Minerals Trading Corporation of India ( MMTC )

• Metals and Minerals Trading Corporation of India, is one of the two highest earners of foreign exchange for India and India’s largest public sector trading body.
• Not only handling the export of primary products such as coal, iron ore, and manufactured agro and industrial products, MMTC also imports important commodities such as ferrous and nonferrous metals for industry, and agricultural fertilizers.
• MMTC’s diverse trade activities cover Third Country Trade, Joint Ventures and Link Deals and all modern forms of international trading.
• MMTC is one of the two highest foreign exchange earner for India (after petroleum refining companies)
• It is the largest international trading company of India and the first public sector enterprise to be accorded the status of Five Star Export Houses by Government of India for long standing contribution to exports
• Being the largest player in bullion trade, including retailing, MMTC’s share was 146 tonnes of gold out of the total import of 600 tonnes of the precious metal in 2008-09.

8 . Facts for Prelims

New space India Limited

• New Space India Limited is the second commercial entity registered by Department of Space (DoS)
• DoS already has a commercial venture, Antrix Corporation Limited, which was set up in September 1992 to market the products and services of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).

Endobot

• IIT Madras have developed a robot to check pipelines for leaks and other faults this robot is named as Endobot
• Endobot is about 6 inches high and can study any pipe having a diameter more than 8 inches. Since water pipes typically have an inner diameter of at least 15 inches, it suits the purpose well
• As the robot, which is electrically powered, runs through the pipes at about 15 cm per second, it captures videos and transmits a live feed to the base at the entry point. It also uses laser-based techniques to examine the pipes as it moves