Category: Tech

India’s first semi-high speed regional rail service has been named ‘RAPIDX’ by the National Capital Region Transport Corporation (NCRTC). The Regional Rapid Transit System (RRTS) will help connect urban nodes of the national capital region (NCR). As per the NCRTC, the ‘X’ signifies next-generation technology and new-age mobility solutions. “It also represents youth, optimism and energy,” NCRTC said.

The brand name has been chosen as RAPIDX since it is easy to read and simple to pronounce in various languages. The green leaf symbol in the logo is the highlight of the brand’s aim towards decarbonisation by not only decongesting NCR by reducing the number of vehicles on the road, but also by the use of green energy.

A joint venture company of the Union government and states of Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh, the NCRTC is tapping green energy by the installation of solar panels on stations and depots as well as the use of blended power in traction, which is planned to be increased progressively.

According to the NCRTC, ‘RAPIDX’ will connect the people who choose to live in their hometowns in NCR, with the national capital through a modern, sustainable, convenient, fast, safe, and comfortable means of travel. The RAPIDX services on the first Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut RRTS corridor will bring down the travel time between Delhi to Meerut significantly.

The NCRTC is aiming to commission the entire Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut corridor for the public by 2025.

Rayyanah Barnawi, a breast cancer researcher, is set to become the first Saudi Arabian woman to blast off on a mission to space this May. She is part of a private mission and will be joined by fellow Saudi Ali Al-Qarni, a fighter pilot; Peggy Whitson, a former National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) astronaut; and John Shoffner, a businessman from Tennessee who will serve as pilot on the trip, the NASA officials said on April 6.

The four-member crew will travel to the International Space Station (ISS) aboard a SpaceX Dragon capsule, marking the launch of private space company Axiom Space’s second mission. Barnawi will serve as a mission specialist for Axiom Mission 2 (Ax-2).

Barnawi earned her undergraduate degree in Biomedical Sciences from University of Otago, New Zealand. She has done a Master’s in Biomedical Sciences from Riyadh. Barnawi has over nine years of experience in cancer stem cell research. She, along with the crew, will set off from Florida, United States, on May 8 in the private mission seen as an important step towards the first commercial space station in the world – a possible replacement for ISS, NASA said on its website.

Barnawi earned her undergraduate degree in Biomedical Sciences from the University of Otago, New Zealand. She has done masters in biomedical sciences from Saudi Arabia itself. A research laboratory technician with nine years of experience in breast cancer and stem-cell cancer research, she will be the first Muslim female astronaut to fly to space on a 10-day mission to ISS, NASA said.

The Indian Space Research Organization, joined by DRDO, successfully conducted the autonomous test landing mission of the reusable launch vehicle (RLV) on April 2 at the aeronautical test range in Karnataka’s Chitradurga.

The RLV took off at 7:10 am by a Chinook Helicopter of the Indian Air Force. The release of RLV was autonomous. Then using the Integrated Navigation, Guidance & Control system, the vehicle completed an autonomous landing on the ATR at 7:40 am. With that, ISRO successfully achieved the autonomous landing of a space vehicle.

“The autonomous landing was carried out under the exact conditions of a Space Re-entry vehicle’s landing high speed, unmanned, precise landing from the same return path as if the vehicle arrives from space. LEX utilised several indigenous systems. Localised Navigation systems, instrumentation, and sensor systems, etc., were developed by ISRO,” the statement added.

The space agency had demonstrated the re-entry of its winged vehicle RLV-TD in the HEX mission in May 2016. The re-entry of a hypersonic sub-orbital vehicle was an accomplishment in developing RLVs. The LEX began with an Integrated Navigation test in 2019 and followed multiple engineering model trials and captive phase tests in subsequent years.

Along with ISRO, Indian Air Force (IAF), Centre for Military Airworthiness and Certification (CEMILAC), Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE), and Aerial Delivery Research and Development Establishment (ADRDE) contributed to this test.

US’ Pacific Northwest National Laboratory has found a new method to convert waste plastic to fuel and raw materials that promises to help close the carbon cycle at mild temperature and with high yield. The new process is conducted at low temperatures and with high yield, bringing down the cost of recycling plastics. It combines cracking of plastics with alkylation catalysts to create gasoline-like fuel without unwanted byproducts. The research team reported their discovery in Science.

There is a lot of potentially useful raw materials in used face masks, grocery bags and food wrap. However, it has been much cheaper to keep making more of these single-use plastics than to recover and recycle them.

Usually, recycling plastics requires splitting apart the tough and stable bonds, which also make them persistent in the environment. This splitting needs high temperatures, making the process expensive and energy intensive. The innovation here is combining this splitting or cracking step with a second reaction step that immediately completes the conversion to a liquid petrol-like fuel without unwanted byproducts. The second reaction step deploys what are known as alkylation catalysts. These catalysts provide a chemical reaction currently used by the petroleum industry to improve the octane rating of gasoline.

A study author and chemist at PNNL, Oliver Y. Gutiérrez said, “The secret formula here is that when you break a bond in our system, you immediately make another one in a targeted way that gives you the end product you want. That is also the secret that enables this conversion at low temperature.”

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on March 26 successfully launched India’s largest Launch Vehicle Mark-III (LVM3) rocket/OneWeb India-2 Mission with 36 satellites onboard from Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh.

“LVM3 standing 43.5 metres tall and weighing 643 tonnes lifted off from the second launchpad rocket port carrying OneWeb’s final installment of 36 Gen1 satellites,” said the ISRO officials.

The launch was the second mission for Network Access Associates Limited, United Kingdom (OneWeb Group Company) under a commercial agreement with NewSpace India Limited (NSIL) to launch 72 satellites to Low-Earth Orbits. The first set of 36 satellites was launched in the LVM3-M2/OneWeb India-1 mission on October 23, 2022. India’s Bharti Enterprises is a major investor in OneWeb group, which is engaged in the implementation of the constellation of low earth satellites. The launch was the 18th for OneWeb Group company, while it was the second mission for ISRO in 2023 after the successful launch of SSLV/D2-EOS07 mission undertaken in February.

With the latest mission, OneWeb would have 616 satellites in its fleet which would be more than enough to launch global services later this year. Across India, the company would bring secured solutions to enterprises and towns, villages, municipalities, and schools, including the remotest areas across the country.

A ‘smart bandage’ that can help heal chronic wounds faster and provide real-time updates about its conditions has been developed at California Institute of Technology, US, promising better care to diabetics, as the lifestyle disease can interfere with the healing process and create wounds that will not go away and could become infected and fester.

Made from a flexible polymer containing embedded electronics and medication, the badge can transmit data wirelessly to a nearby computer, tablet or smartphone. It can also deliver medication stored within bandage directly to wound site, and apply a low-level electrical field to the wound to stimulate tissue growth resulting in faster healing.

“There are many different types of chronic wounds, especially in diabetic ulcers and burns that last a long time and cause huge issues for the patient,” said Wei Gao, in whose lab the badge was developed. The Assistant Professor of Medical Engineering, Heritage Medical Research Institute Investigator, and Ronald and JoAnne Willens Scholar added, “There is a demand for technology that can facilitate recovery.”

The paper describing the research – done on animal models under laboratory conditions – appeared in the March 24 issue of the journal Science Advances.

The Department of Health Research and the Artificial Intelligence Cell of Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) have released the initial ethical guidelines for applying artificial intelligence (AI) in biomedical research and healthcare in India.

According to a document drafted by the two organisations, AI for health considerably depends on data obtained from human participants and invokes additional concerns related to potential biases, data handling, interpretation, autonomy, risk minimization, professional competence, data sharing, and confidentiality. “It is therefore imperative to have an ethical framework that addresses issues specific to AI for biomedical research and healthcare,” the guidelines stated.

AI as data-driven technology has many potential ethical challenges which include algorithmic transparency and explainability, clarity on liability, accountability and oversight, bias and discrimination, said ICMR Director General Dr Rajiv Behl. “These guidelines will provide the ethical framework for the development of AI-based tools which will benefit all stakeholders, including innovators, developers, patients, technologists, researchers, healthcare professionals, ethics committees, sponsors and funding agencies involved in research related to AI in biomedical research and healthcare,” he said.

The induction of AI into healthcare can be the solution for challenges such as diagnosis and screening, therapeutics, preventive treatments, clinical decision-making, public health surveillance, complex data analysis, and predicting disease outcomes, the document said.

India’s first cloned cow-calf of the indigenous Gir breed has been produced at the National Dairy Research Institute in Haryana’s Karnal. The institute said the calf has been named ‘Ganga’ and that it weighs 32 kg and is growing well. The Gir cow breed is capable of producing 15 litres of milk every day.

NDRI scientists produced the female cloned calf from the somatic cell of the tail of the indigenous Gir cow breed, which is a native tract in Gujarat and is popular for its docile nature, disease-resistance, heat-tolerance and high milk-producing qualities. The breed is also in high demand in Brazil, the USA, Mexico and Venezuela.

The scientists used three animals for producing this calf of a cow. Oocyte was taken from the Sahiwal breed, somatic cell from the Gir breed and a surrogate animal was a cross breed. The scientists used hand-guided cloning technology which is an economical and efficient method of cloning in comparison to other technologies of the world. They claimed the research would prove to be a major milestone in the conservation of the indigenous breeds of cattle that were on the verge of extinction.

On February 6, 2009, NDRI scientists gave the first cloned calf to the world, but it could survive only for five-six days. On June 6, 2009, a female cloned calf Garima was produced, which survived for over two years. Later, they produced Garima-2 on August 22, 2010, which has so far produced seven normal calves. Scientists also produced the first male calf Shresth on August 26, 2010, whose semen is being used for multiplication of good germplasm.

Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) plans to launch Chandrayaan-3 in mid-2023. Aditya-L1, India’s maiden solar mission, will be launched into space in the same time period as Chandrayaan-3, said Indian space agency chief S Somnath.

Chandrayaan-3 is a follow-on mission to Chandrayaan-2 to demonstrate end-to-end capability in safe landing and roving on the lunar surface. It consists of the Lander and Rover configuration. Somanath said it would have a similar structure as that of Chandrayaan-2, with the orbiter, a lander, and a rover. However, the orbiter this time is devoid of all the payloads that are there in Chandrayaan-2. Isro’s primary objective is to take the lander to the orbit of the moon and make it land.

Speaking at the 4th Indian Planetary Science Conference, from 22-24 March 2023, in Ahmedabad, Somnath said that Aditya-L1 is going to be a very unique solar observation capability for which instruments have already been delivered, and ISRO is in the process of integrating them into the satellite.

The Aditya mission will be launched to Lagrangian Point L1, a vantage point to observe the Sun continuously without disturbance over a long period of time. Calling the mission to be a very unique solar observation capability, Somnath said that the instruments for the mission have already been delivered and are currently undergoing testing for integration with the satellite.

The Embassy of Israel in India has donated an Israeli-invented technology and Made-in-India drip irrigation system to the Children’s Park near India Gate in New Delhi. The initiative took place on World Water Day to encourage water-efficiency and teach young children about water conservation, the Embassy said in a statement.

H.E. Naor Gilon, Ambassador of Israel to India said, “We are happy to share the drip irrigation system with the Children’s Park near India Gate to assist them in their water conservation efforts. This is another example of the multifaceted partnership between Israel and India in the field of water. We are looking forward to collaborating with NDMC to transform this park into a water-efficient park,” he said.

In recent decades, the cutting-edge innovations developed by Israel to tackle water shortages have helped the country in positioning itself as a world leader in all aspects of water management. Israel is proud to share its expertise in water to promote water security around the world, and especially with India, the statement added.

The World Water Day, observed on March 22 every year, aims to address the sustainable management of water. The theme for World Water Day 2023 is ‘Accelerating Change.’