IASGYAAN-Celebrating Knowledge

www.iasgyann.com
http://iasinsights.in

AIR summary for Science Monitor (28/10/2017)

Headlines:

1. Better coverage of measles vaccine under the Indradhanush Yojana

2. Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize 2017

3. Bhavnagar scientist converted sugar industrial waste material into Batteries

4. JC Bose National Fellowship is now open for active scientists

1. Better coverage of measles vaccine under the Indradhanush Yojana

World Health Organization (WHO) recently declares that measles cases have dropped
by significant number in the country. This acts another feather in the cap of Government
mission Indradhanush to immunize every child against preventable, disease what has
contributed to curbing measles in the country and what are plan of the Government in the
near future as it is intensify by it vaccine program.

Every Year nearly five lakhs children died due to this disease, there are completely
preventable vaccine can prevent children against disease like Measles, Rubella, Diphtheria
& Tuberculosis. Due date nearly 89 lakhs children remain addressed because unimmunized
or partially immunized against vaccine preventable disease. Government of India launched
a mission Indradhanush in 2014 with the mission to expand the coverage of Immunization
to reach more than 90% infant & pregnant women by 2020, which are present ranges from
40-60%. In a recent development, the WHO number of cases of Measles cases dropped
from whopping 30,168 in 2015 to 17,250 in 2016. According to the reports, the coverage of
measles vaccine improved significantly.

First according to the historical, text the disease measles was known as small box
and every child have measles at least once in their lifetime. Drastically changed now
because 1963,the first vaccine was introduced by John F Enders and Dr.Thomes C.Peter in
1964 in USA, recollected blood sample from several people and school student during the
measles out broke. They wanted the outbreak measles virus from the blood cells to
develope the measles vaccine. USA Government licensed this vaccine.

 Measles is life-spreading disease among young children.

 It is a respiratory disease caused by paramyxo virus.
 IASGYAAN-Celebrating Knowledge
www.iasgyann.com
http://iasinsights.in

 Characterized by symptoms runny nose, muscle pain, skin rashes, red watery eyes this
infection highly contagious infection spread by coughing, sneezing, sharing water ,saliva and
mucus.
 It is very complicated when children developed Pneumonia and selling brain or Encephalitis
to prevent from occurring measles by dose with the MMR vaccine.
 It is a three in one vaccine contains live activated and inactivated virus, one administered in
the body. Virus in the body elicit immune response, the body produced protective anti-
bodies against the disease and also helps to generate specialized cells called Memory B cells
divide, increase in number and produce antibodies when the body encounters the virus in
reality.
 This vaccine is very safe and effective but less coverage because of lack of awareness.
Parents must be participated routine vaccination programmes.
 Routine immunization program that helps to protect from two major disease polio and
small box in the past most rigorously followed the vaccination drive for measles vaccine can
help to achieve similar success in the future.
 The mission Indradhanush of Government of India aims to provide free vaccination to all
infant less than 2 years of age and pregnant women in health centre.
 The mission will increase the coverage of vaccination and reach the remote location of the
countries.
 It is a significant step to achieve the target of eliminating measles in the country of the year
2020.

2. Shanti Swarup Bharnagar Prize 2017

The Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize in Biological Sciences for the year 2017 has been
awarded to Dr. Sanjeev Das for his contributions towards understanding of functional and
 IASGYAAN-Celebrating Knowledge
www.iasgyann.com
http://iasinsights.in

regulatory aspects of tumor suppressor p53 family and sirtuins. His work provides
mechanistic insights on regulatory and metabolic perturbations intrinsic to tumorigenesis. It
also highlights the vulnerabilities in tumor cell biology which could be exploited for
therapeutic interventions.

NEWS BACKGROUND:

 The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) announced winners of its prestigious
Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for excellence in science and technology for 2017 on
September 28.
 Deepak Thankappan Nair of the Regional Centre for Biotechnology, Faridabad, and Sanjeev
Das of the Molecular Oncology Laboratory at the National Institute of Immunology, New
Delhi, have won the prize for biological sciences, while G. Naresh Patwari of the Indian
Institute of Technology, Bombay, has got the prize for chemical sciences. S. Suresh Babu of
Space Physics Laboratory at Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Thiruvananthapuram, has
bagged it for earth, atmosphere, ocean and planetary sciences.

The other winners are:

 Engineering sciences – Aloke Paul, Department of Materials Engineering, and Neelesh B.

Mehta, Department of Electrical Communication, both at Indian Institute of Science,
Bengaluru
 Medical sciences – Amit Dutt, Advanced Centre for Treatment, Research and Education in
Cancer, Tata Memorial Centre, Navi Mumbai, and Deepak Gaur, School of Biotechnology,
Jawaharlal Nehru University
 Physical sciences – Nissim Kanekar, National Centre for Radio Astrophysics, Tata Institute of
Fundamental Research, Pune, and D. Vinay Gupta, CSIR National Physical Laboratory, New
Delhi

The S.S. Bhatnagar prize is one of the most prestigious multidisciplinary science awards in
the country. It was instituted in 1958 in honour of the late Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar, the
founder of the CSIR labs, and carries a cash component of Rs 5 lakh.

The awards were announced at a function to mark the 76th Foundation of CSIR. On the
occasion, President Ram Nath Kovind also presented the CSIR Young Scientists Awards for
2017. The winners are:

 Sakhya Singha Sen, National Chemical Laboratory, Pune

 Prosenjit Das, Central Mechanical Engineering Research Institute, Durgapur
 Sathravada Balaji, Central Glass and Ceramic Research Institute, Kolkata, and
 Amit Laddi, Central Scientific Instruments Organisation, Chandigarh.
 IASGYAAN-Celebrating Knowledge
www.iasgyann.com
http://iasinsights.in

The president also presented the special gold medal of excellence in biological sciences and
technology, named after the eminent biologist G.N. Ramachandran, to Kandala Venkata
Ramana Chary of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai.

The CSIR Technology Awards were presented to various labs to encourage multidisciplinary
in-house team efforts and external interactions for technology development, transfer and
commercialization. The awardees are:

 Institute of Minerals and Materials Technology

 Central Road Research Institute
 Central Leather Research Institute
 Central Mechanical Engineering Research Institute, and
 Central Institute of Mining and Fuel Research

3. Bhavnagar scientist converted sugar industrial waste material into Batteries

 Indian scientists have demonstrated that wastewater from some of the dirtiest industrial
processes can be turned into a carbon source for preparation of energy storage materials.
 Researchers led by scientists from Bhavnagar-based Central Salt and Marine Research
Institute (CSMRI) have used sugar and distillery industry waste to develop functionalised
carbon material which has energy storage properties. Such electrochemical material can be
used to make electrodes, sensors and supercapacitors which find applications in digital
devices.
 In a two-step process, spent wash from a distillery was acidified to bring its pH down to
about 2. The acidified solution was stirred overnight at room temperature, resulting in
precipitation of solid mass or sludge. This solid mass was then sun-dried and calcined at
elevated temperatures to generate functionalized carbon material which has energy storage
properties, scientists explained.
 Water-intensive industries like sugar and distilleries produce huge amounts of liquid and
solid wastes including biomethanated spent wash which was used in the study. “Instead of
dumping into landfills and generating leachate, solid sludge can be activated with a metal
precursor and calcined at elevated temperatures under inert atmosphere. The inherent
presence of sulphur and nitrogen containing impurities in the sludge acts as dopants and in
combination with the metal precursor it can provide an alternate charge storage
mechanism to the material,” Dr Ramavatar Meena, one of the co-authors of the group
told India Science Wire. The study results have been published in Journal of Hazardous
Materials.
 The sulfur and nitrogen impurities in the sludge in combination with a metal precursor
impart ‘pseudocapacitance’ to carbon material. “Electrochemical studies have shown good
 IASGYAAN-Celebrating Knowledge
www.iasgyann.com
http://iasinsights.in

charge-discharge cycles with almost 100 percent capacitance retention even after 1000
cycles,” Dr Meena added.
 After recovery of sugar from sugarcane juice in an evaporation process, the residue left is
molasses which is fermented in distilleries for bio-ethanol production. For every litre of
ethanol produced, 12 to 14 liters of water is consumed. This results in high quantities of
waste in the form of spent wash which is an environmental hazard.
 The methodology developed can be used for wastewaters with high ‘total organic carbon’
content generated by other polluting industries such as tanneries. Besides extraction of
carbon material, a combination of adsorption and low pressure reverse osmosis (RO) can be
used to further treat wastewater making it reusable in sugar industries as well as for
irrigation purposes. “Our aim is to reduce dependency of sugar industries and distilleries on
fresh water by making them self-sufficient in terms of water consumption,” researchers
said. Studies are also underway to recover potable water from this highly contaminated
wastewater.
 The research team included Ashesh Mahto, Rajeev Gupta, Krishna Kanta Gharab, Divesh N.
Srivastava, Pratyush Maitib, R. Meena (all from CSMRI), D. Kalpana (Central Electrochemical
Research Institute -Madras Unit), Paul Zavala-Revirae (Chemical Engineering & Metallurgy
Department, Universidad de Sonora, Mexico) and S.K. Nataraja (Centre for Nano and
Material Sciences, Jain University). The study was supported by the Department of Science
and Technology (DST).

4. JC Bose National Fellowship

The JC Bose fellowship is awarded to active scientists in recognition for their
outstanding performance. The fellowship is scientist-specific and very selective.

Scope:
All Areas of Science (in the broadest terms) will be covered by the fellowship.

Eligibility:
 Should be an active scientist with a record of outstanding performance apparent from
the award of SS Bhatnagar prize and or fellowship of science academies (including
engineering, agriculture and medicine).
 The scientist should be in service at the time of nomination to this fellowship.
 The nominee should be an Indian national working in institutions in India.
Duration:
 IASGYAAN-Celebrating Knowledge
www.iasgyann.com
http://iasinsights.in

 The duration of the fellowship will be initially for five years. Should the fellow
superannuates during the term of the fellowship, the fellowship can be continued if a
host institution is willing to host the fellowship.
 The tenure of the fellowship may be extended for subsequent term of 5 years based on
rigorous assessment of research performance during the tenure of the fellows hip. A
minimum of 25% of the applicants seeking extension will not be granted extension.
 The fellowship can be held up to 68 years of age.
Nature of Support:
 The fellowship amount is Rs. 25,000 per month in addition to regular income.
 Research grant of Rs. 15.00 lakh per annum.
 Overhead of Rs.1.00 lakh per annum to the host institute.
Nomination:
 The nominations can be sent by the Heads of the Institutions; JC Bose Fellows and
Presidents of National science academies.
 The nominations are received throughout the year.
Selection:
Selection of JC Bose Fellows will be made periodically (normally twice a year) by a
Search-cum-Selection Committee specially constituted for the purpose, as per the
broad guidelines of the fellowship scheme.