Category: Life & Style

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has jointly awarded the 2022 Nobel Prize in Chemistry to Carolyn R. Bertozzi, Morten Meldal, and K. Barry Sharpless “for the development of click chemistry and bioorthogonal chemistry.”

The trio has been awarded for their work in ‘click chemistry’, in which molecules snap together quickly and firmly, without the need for a lengthy and complex process and too many unnecessary byproducts. Their work has applications in medical science, including the treatment of cancer. Bertozzi is based at Stanford University in California, Sharpless with Scripps Research, California, and Meldal at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark.

Barry Sharpless and Morten Meldal won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2022 because they introduced chemistry into the age of functionalism, incepted click chemistry, and worked extensively on it. They share the prize with Carolyn Bertozzi, who brought an unexpected development of click chemistry and began using it to map cells. Her bioorthogonal reactions (a term she coined) are now helping in more targeted cancer treatments, among many other applications.

The Nobel prizes carry a cash award of 10 million Swedish kronor (nearly $900,000) and will be handed out on December 10.

The Nobel award for literature will be announced on Thursday, the peace prize on Friday, and the economics award on Monday.

On Thursday, Annie Ernaux was awarded the Nobel prize in literature for the year 2022 by the Swedish Academy in Stockholm. In its announcement, the Nobel prize committee praised Annie Ernaux’s courage and clinical acuity in exploring the roots, estrangements, and collective restraints of memory.

Annie Ernaux’s prose captures the restraints of personal memory, the creation of new ones, and estrangements without being overly verbose. Through her work, she engages with French society diligently, looking at social disparities like gender, language, and class neither through rose-coloured glasses nor with abject derision, but from a dignified, almost anonymous distance.

As a result of his uncompromising and compassionate exploration of colonialism and the fate of the refugee in the gulf between cultures and continents, Tanzanian-born writer Abdulrazak Gurnah won the Nobel prize in 2021 for his work focused on migration.

The award was presented to US poet Louise Gluck in 2020. As sex abuse allegations rocked the Swedish Academy in 2018, the Nobel literature prize was postponed. Svante Paabo, a Swedish scientist who has studied the DNA of Neanderthals, received the Nobel prize in medicine on Monday.

On Friday, the Nobel Peace Prize will be announced, and on Monday, the Nobel Prize in economics will be announced.

Australia intends to aim for zero extinction for its rare and special plants and animals, promising to preserve at least 30 percent of its land amid acute pressure on the country’s environment.

 Minister for the Environment and Water Tanya Plibersek, on Tuesday, said the 224.5 million Australian dollars ($145.9m) plan offers a way for threatened species conservation and recovery over the next decade.

It lays most emphasis on 110 species and 20 places that need urgent action and includes a commitment to inhibit any new extinctions of plants and animals.

Plibersek said the government was “determined to give wildlife a better chance” amid rising threats from climate change, natural disasters, feral predators, and human activity.

She blamed the previous government, which lost power in May’s elections, for taking no action on the environment.

“Our current approach has not been working,” she said in a statement, referring to Australia as the mammal extinction capital of the world. “If we keep doing what we’ve been doing, we’ll keep getting the same results. The need for action has never been greater. I will not shy away from difficult problems or accept environmental decline and extinction as inevitable.”

A government report that was released in July found that Australia’s environmental condition was “poor and deteriorating” and that it had lost more mammal species than any other continent in the world.

This Dussehra, Dubai will have a new Hindu temple. Jebel Ali in Dubai will be the site of the temple, which will be inaugurated the day before Dussehra. One of the oldest Hindu temples in the UAE, Sindhi Guru Darbar Temple, is being expanded into a new temple according to the Khaleej Times.

Dubai’s new temple will open its doors to the public on October 5. The foundation was laid for the temple in 2020, reports state. The people of this area had been seeking a place of worship for more than a decade. The temple had its soft opening on September 1 this year, with thousands of visitors allowed access to the premises, which featured 16 deities, ornate pillars, Arabic and Hindu geometric designs, and bells on the ceiling.

The deities are placed in the main hall, and the central dome is decorated with a pink lotus. As part of the online platform, temple management has also activated QR-code-based appointments. Dubai’s new Hindu temple will be open between 6.30 a.m. and 8 p.m., according to its official website.

There can be up to 1200 worshippers on a daily basis at the premises. It is currently prohibited to visit the temple more than once an hour.  Those who have booked an appointment through the temple’s official website will be allowed entry without any restrictions from October 5. It is located in Jebel Ali’s ‘Worship Village’. In addition to several churches, the location is home to a gurdwara. Guru Granth Sahib is also installed at the temple.

A new advanced visa system announced by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is set to go into effect on Monday. Golden visas will be extended for 10 years, green residency will be extended for five years, and a new multiple-entry tourist visa will be introduced to allow visitors to stay for 90 days in the country. In addition to tourists, those who wish to work or live in the UAE might also be affected by the changes in immigration laws.

Key changes under the UAE’s new immigration laws

1. Under the five-year green visa, foreigners won’t need the help of UAE nationals or their employers to sponsor themselves. Entrepreneurs, skilled workers, and investors are eligible for this visa.
2. Families of green card holders can also be sponsored by green card holders.
3. The permit of a green visa holder may be extended by up to six months in the event of an expiration.
4. With the golden visa, investors, entrepreneurs, and individuals with exceptional talents will be able to live in the country for 10 years in expanded residency.
5. Sponsorship of family members and children is possible for holders of golden visas.
6. It is also possible for family members of a golden visa holder to stay in the UAE after the death of the visa holder so long as the visa remains valid.
7. Additionally, golden visa holders will be able to own their businesses 100 per cent.
8. In the UAE, tourists will now be allowed to stay for 60 days on their tourist visas.
9. Up to 90 consecutive days can be spent in the UAE with a five-year multi-entry tourist visa.
10. Using the job exploration visa, professionals will be able to find employment in the UAE without the need for a sponsor or host.

On Thursday, UNESCO released a list of 50 iconic and exclusive heritage textile crafts. There were textiles from Tamil Nadu, Hyderabad, and Sambalpur in Odisha selected for the show. They include Toda embroidery and Sungadi, Himroo weaves, and Bandha tie and dye weaving.

Describes the complex and secret processes behind the production of traditional Indian textiles, discusses the reasons for their dwindling popularity, and discusses strategies for preserving them in Handmade for the 21st Century: Safeguarding Traditional Indian Textile.

South Asia faces a huge challenge in safeguarding its intangible cultural heritage due to a lack of proper inventories and documentation, according to UNESCO. These 50 textiles have been selected based on years of research, which has been compiled into a publication that aims to fill this gap.

Awadh Jamdani from Varanasi and Khes from Panipat are some iconic handcrafted textiles documented from north India. There is also Ilkal embroidery from Karnataka, Lambadi or Banjara embroidery from Thanjavur, as well as Sikalnayakanpet Kalamkari from Thanjavur.

There is also a place for the Kunbi weave from Goa, Mashru weaves from Gujarat, Patola from Gujarat, Himroo from Maharashtra and Garad-Koirial from West Bengal on the list of 50 iconic textiles.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday met the Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and conveyed his deepest condolences over the unexpected passing away of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe as he highlighted the late Japanese leader’s role in boosting the bilateral partnership and his vision of a free and inclusive Indo-Pacific region.

“Landed in Tokyo,” Modi tweeted, posting photos of him while getting off the plane. He also shared a similar tweet in Japanese.

PM Modi, along with several world leaders, paid tributes to Abe. Representatives from over 100 countries, including over 20 heads of state and governments, attended Abe’s state funeral on Tuesday.

The former prime minister reconstructed Japan’s foreign policy, including creating a bold vision for a quantum leap in ties with India. “I am feeling very sad about the sudden death of former premier Abe… He took Japan-India relations to a greater level and also expanded it in many areas,” Modi, who was a good friend to the deceased Japanese leader, said.

“India is missing Shinzo Abe,” he added.

PM Modi, ahead of the funeral ceremony, discussed with his Japanese counterpart about renewing their commitment to further strengthening the India-Japan Special Strategic and Global Partnership and working together in the region and different international institutions and organizations.

On Sunday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi wished Israeli Prime Minister Modi to greet Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid and the Jewish community on the occasion of the Jewish New Year- Rosh Hashanah.

He tweeted from his official tweeter handle, “Warmest greetings for Rosh Hashanah to my friend, Yair Lapid, Israel’s friendly people and the Jewish Community all over the world. May the new year bring good health, peace and prosperity to everyone.”

Rosh Hashanah means ‘heads of the year’ which is a two-day celebration that marks every autumn the beginning of Jewish Holy Days. The millennia-old holiday is an occasion for reflection and is often marked by prayer, symbolic foods, and the blowing of a traditional horn called a shofar. Aside from the Jewish New Year, this holiday commemorates the creation of the universe and the beginning of the Days of Awe, a period of repentance culminating in Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar.

During the Jewish New Year, the Israeli ambassador to India Nair Gilon celebrated with his team in India. He tweeted, “Happy Rosh Hashanah! Continuing the tradition of the Rosh Hashanah celebration with our @IsaeliIndia team and friends. With the sound of shofar & honey-dipped apples, we welcome the New Year.”

As a result of dwindling hydropower production, Nepal’s state-owned power utility is planning on buying up to 365MW from Indian power traders in winter. As Nepal prepares for the long-term purchase of electricity from India through competitive bidding, this is the first of its kind.

Due to this, Nepal’s homes will be illuminated with Indian energy during the winter months. An agreement for six months with India is being sought by the Nepalese power authority from December 1 this year to May 31 next year.

Dhalkebar-Muzaffarpur cross-border transmission line will deliver 300MW from the Muzaffarpur substation, and the Tanakpur substation will deliver an additional 65MW. According to the notice, electricity will be purchased round-the-clock.

During the monsoon, Nepal’s rivers have swollen, resulting in surplus hydroelectricity being exported. In winter, however, the country has to reverse the situation as the water levels in the rivers fall and the plants produce only 30-40 per cent of their installed capacity.

A total of 2,200MW of power is currently installed in the power projects, according to Nepal Electricity Authority. On Wednesday, 1866MW of electricity was consumed at its peak.

Denmark on Tuesday promised to aid over $13 million (100 million Danish crowns) to support developing nations that have faced the brunt caused by climate disruptions, becoming the first country to offer “loss and damage” compensation to areas that are most vulnerable to climate disturbances.

Danish Development Minister Flemming Møller Mortensen announced the decision on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, stating the new climate funds would be provided to the Sahel region in northwestern Africa and other frail regions.

“I am very happy that we have agreed to increase support for climate-related losses and damages,” he said in a statement. “It is grossly unfair that the worlds poorest should suffer the most from the consequences of climate change, to which they have contributed the least.” Said Mortensen.

Some of the world’s most climate-vulnerable regions such as low-lying islands are urging the creation of a funding facility for “loss and damage” – or after-effects of climate change that people cannot cope with- to be established at the U.N. climate negotiations in Egypt in November.

The United States, EU, and other rich countries that make up most historical greenhouse gas emissions are against the formation of a separate fund to address loss and damage.