Researchers discover world's first blood incubator

With the help of laser technology, researchers have discovered the world's first blood incubator, which will prevent blood
transfusions and detect antibodies in pregnant women that may kill a fetus.

According to the study published in the journal -- Nature's Scientific Reports -- these findings can bring pre-transfusion testing out of
the pathology lab to point-of-care, with blood incubation time slashed to just 40 seconds, as compared to the industry gold standard
of five minutes.

Benefits of this discovery

This breakthrough has the potential to improve the pre-transfusion testing of millions of patients undergoing blood transfusions
across the world, especially those having major surgery, going into labour or causalities of mass trauma and individual trauma.

The detection of immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibodies requires incubation at 37°C, often for up to 15 minutes. But the current
incubation technology relies on slow thermal procedures such as heating blocks and hot-water baths.

This delay adds to pathology costs and turnaround time, which substantially affects a patient's chance of survival.

To address this problem, BioPRIA's blood diagnostics team developed a laser incubation model where a targeted illumination of a
blood-antibody sample in a diagnostic gel card is converted into heat, via photothermal absorption.

National centre for I-T e-assessment to be based in Delhi

A national e-assessment centre (NeAC) will be setup in the national capital as part of the government's ambitious plan to launch
faceless and nameless assessment for income tax payers from next month.

The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), that frames policy for the Income-tax department, has issued an order for the creation of
the Centre.

I-T e-Assessment Centre

The Centre will have 16 officials and will be headed by a Principal Chief Commissioner of Income-tax (PCCIT) as its chief.

The NeAC will be an independent office looking after the exclusive work of e-assessment, a senior official told PTI.

The NeAC will serve notices to the assessees specifying the issues for selection of their case for assessment and after a response is
received from them within 15 days, the centre will allocate the case to an assessing officer using an automated system.

Doctors, nurses need not take TOEFL, IELTS exam to practice in UK

Doctors, nurses, dentists and mid-wives who wish to practice in the UK will no longer have to appear for English language tests like
TOEFL and IELTS as the country will now accept scores of Occupational English Test (OET) which the candidates have to anyway
clear for registering with the relevant healthcare regulator.

What is OET?

The OET is an international English language test that assesses the language communication skills of healthcare professionals, who
seek to register and practise in an English-speaking environment.

OET is conducted by Cambridge Boxhill Language Assessment (CBLA), a venture between Cambridge Assessment English and
Box Hill Institute. Cambridge Assessment English is a not-for-profit department of the University of Cambridge.

The candidates had to earlier take OET to register with Nursing and Midwifery Council and the General Medical Council, which are
the two healthcare boards in the UK, as well as TOEFL or IELTS like exam to apply for visa.
The change will apply to all Tier 2 (General) visa applications submitted from October 1.

Gully boy has been nominated for 92nd Oscar Awards

The movie Gully Boy has been selected as India's official entry to the 92nd Oscar Awards.

The ceremony has been scheduled to take place on 9 February 2020.

Gully Boy

 The Zoya Akhtar directorial has drawn inspiration from the lives of Mumbai street rappers Vivian Fernandes aka Divine and
Naved Shaikh aka Naezy. The story revolves around the underground rap movement in India.
 Gully Boy was starred by Ranveer Singh, Alia Bhatt along with Kalki Koechlin, Siddhant Chaturvedi and Vijay Raaz in
pivotal roles.
 The film received a number of awards including the NETPAC Award for Best Asian Film at the Bucheon International
Fantastic Film Festival, South Korea and Best Film at the Indian Festival of Melbourne in August 2019.

92nd Academy Awards will be presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS).

The award honors the best films of the year 2019. The award ceremony will take place at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los
Angeles, California on February 9, 2020.

New book to mark Gandhi's 150th birth anniversary

A new book titled ‘Being Gandhi’ written by award-winning author Paro Anand will be released to mark the 150 th anniversary of
Mahatma Gandhi.

The book is published by Harper Collins Children’s Books, explores the life events of Gandhiji.

The story revolves around a boy, Chandrashekhar who is bored of doing projects on Gandhi.

ISB Hyderabad ranked 7th globally in Forbes Best International 1-Year Business Schools 2019

Indian School of Business (ISB) Hyderabad, Telangana ranked 7th globally and 1st in Asia in the Forbes Best International 1-Year
Business Schools 2019 rankings.

The Forbes surveyed more than 100 schools. The annual Forbes list ranked the schools on their 5-year MBA (Master of Business
Administration) gain.

ISB participated in the ranking for the first time.

ISB’s Post Graduate Programme in Management (PGP) is currently ranked 24 worldwide as per the Financial Times Global MBA
Rankings 2019.

The top most institutes are:

1 International Institute for Management Development (IMD) Lausanne, Switzerland

2 Insead Fontainebleau (France) & Singapore

3 Judge Business School Cambridge, United Kingdom

4 SDA Bocconi School of Management Milan, Italy

5 Said Business School Oxford, United Kingdom