Tag Archives: India Records

NATIONAL: SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY / DEFENCE / AEROSPACE: ISRO’s Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre carries out Parachute Airdrop test of Gaganyaan Human Spaceflight programme

The Gaganyaan deceleration system consists of three main parachutes, besides the smaller ACS, pilot, and drogue parachutes, to reduce the speed of the crew module to safe levels during its landing.

ISRO’s Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre has conducted the Integrated Main Parachute Airdrop Test (IMAT) of its crew module deceleration system for the much-awaited maiden Gaganyaan human spaceflight programme at the Babina Field Fire Range (BFFR) in Jhansi district of Uttar Pradesh.

The IMAT conducted on Friday marks a significant milestone toward realising the nation’s ambitious Gaganyaan project, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said in a statement.

The Gaganyaan deceleration system consists of three main parachutes, besides the smaller ACS, pilot, and drogue parachutes, to reduce the speed of the crew module to safe levels during its landing, the space agency said.

Two of the three main chutes are sufficient to land the astronauts on earth, and the third is redundant, ISRO said adding that the IMAT test simulated the case when one main chute failed to open.

The IMAT test is the first in a series of integrated parachute airdrop tests planned to simulate different failure conditions of the parachute system before it is deemed qualified to be used in the first human spaceflight mission.

In this test, a five-tonne dummy mass, equivalent to the crew module mass, was taken to an altitude of 2.5 kilometres and dropped using the Indian Air Force’s IL-76 aircraft. Two small pyro-based mortar-deployed pilot parachutes then pulled the main parachutes.

The main parachute sizes were initially restricted to a smaller area to reduce the opening shock. After seven seconds, the pyro-based reefing line cutters cut the area restricting line, allowing the parachutes to inflate fully.

“The fully inflated main parachutes reduced the payload speed to a safe landing speed. The entire sequence lasted about 2-3 minutes as the scientists watched the different phases of the deployment sequence unfold with bated breath. There was loud cheer and applause as the payload mass landed softly on the ground and the gigantic parachutes collapsed,” the statement read.

The design and development of the parachute-based deceleration system is a joint venture of ISRO and the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).

“The overall system design, analytical simulations of parachute deployment and crew module descent under various conditions, the design and development of ordnance devices for parachute extraction and ejection, assembly, mechanical and electrical integration of deceleration system, it’s instrumentation and avionics for conducting this drop tests are done at ISRO’s leading Research and Development centre, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), Thiruvananthapuram,” the space agency explained.

Senior ISRO and DRDO scientists and airforce officers were present when the crucial test was done.

“Besides proving the calibre of the scientists of ISRO and DRDO, the test also demonstrated the active coordination between the country’s premier agencies, namely ISRO, DRDO, the Indian Air Force, and the Indian Army,” ISRO said quoting a senior official.

source/content: telegraphindia.com (headline edited)

NATIONAL: CHILDREN’S DAY:10-year-old Shlok Mukherjee from Kolkata wins Google Doodle for 24 hours on November 14th, Children’s Day.

Shlok Mukherjee’s drawing was the Google doodle for 24 hours on November 14, selected from over 1,15000 entries from across 100 cities in India.

A 10-year-old boy’s hope that his country will be at the centre stage of scientific advancement in 25 years and the image he drew to portray it won him the Doodle for Google competition 2022 on Children’s Day.

Shlok Mukherjee’s drawing was the Google doodle for 24 hours on November 14, selected from over 1,15000 entries from across 100 cities in India.

The day started at 4am at their home in Kankurgachhi, when Shlok’s mother woke up to her son’s doodle on Google. A few hours later, phone calls followed and of course, celebration.

The student of Delhi Public School New Town in his doodle married science with nature. “My doodle has an eco-friendly robot that plants trees and stops them from getting uprooted. I have shown India at the centre stage and the rest of the world applauding our advancement,” the Class IV boy told The Telegraph.

About 10 days back, when Shlok was getting off the school bus one afternoon, his mother told him he was one of the finalists of the competition and he would have to go to Delhi.

“In Delhi, he was one of the 20 finalists from across the country. We were told that the winner’s doodle would be up on Google on November 14. I woke up at 4 am today to check and there it was,” said Shlok’s mother Paromita Chatterjee.

The theme for this year’s competition was “In the next 25 years, my India will…”

The entries were judged on artistic merit, creativity, alignment with the contest theme, uniqueness and novelty of approach, Google said in a video.

“We appreciate his ability to think deeply about the future of the nation and the environment,” said Sonali Sen, principal of the school.

Google said that it was heartening that “advancement of technology and sustainability emerge as common themes across many of the Doodles”.

source/content: telegraphindia.com (headline edited)

GLOBAL: POPULATION: With 177 million, India Largest Contributor to the Global Population Milestone of 8 billion: UN. Expected to Surpass China as the World’s Most Populous Nation Next Year.

India is expected to surpass China as the world’s most populous nation by next year.

India’s population 1,414,815,318 as on 14.11.2022

As the world population touched 8 billion on Tuesday, India was the largest contributor to the milestone, having added 177 million people, while China, whose contribution to the next billion in the global population is projected to be in the negative, the UN said.

India is expected to surpass China as the world’s most populous nation by next year.

The UN Population Fund (UNFPA), in a special graphic to mark the global population reaching eight billion, said Asia and Africa has driven much of this growth is expected to drive the next billion by 2037, while Europe’s contribution will be negative due to declining population.

The world added a billion people in the last 12 years. UNFPA said that as the world adds the next billion to its tally of inhabitants, China’s contribution will be negative.

“India, the largest contributor to the 8 billion (177 million) will surpass China, which was the second largest contributor (73 million) and whose contribution to the next billion will be negative, as the world’s most populous nation by 2023,” UNFPA said.

The UN said that it took about 12 years for the world population to grow from 7 to 8 billion, but the next billion is expected to take about 14.5 years (2037), reflecting the slowdown in global growth.

World population is projected to reach a peak of around 10.4 billion people during the 2080s and is expected to remain at that level until 2100.

For the increase from 7 to 8 billion, around 70 per cent of the added population was in low-income and lower-middle-income countries.

For the increase from 8 to 9 billion, these two groups of countries are expected to account for more than 90 per cent of global growth, the UN said.

Between now and 2050, the global increase in the population under the age 65 will occur entirely in low income and lower-middle-income countries, since population growth in high-income and upper-middle income countries will occur only among those aged 65 or more, it said.

The World Population Prospects 2022, released in July this year said that India’s population stands at 1.412 billion in 2022, compared with China’s 1.426 billion.

India is projected to have a population of 1.668 billion in 2050, ahead of China’s 1.317 billion people by the middle of the century.

According to UNFPA estimates, 68 per cent of India’s population is between 15-64 years old in 2022, while people aged 65 and older were seven per cent of the population.

The report had said that the global population is growing at its slowest rate since 1950, having fallen under 1 per cent in 2020.

The world’s population could grow to around 8.5 billion in 2030 and 9.7 billion in 2050.

China is expected to experience an absolute decline in its population as early as 2023, the report had said.

At the launch of the report in July, Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs Liu Zhenmin had said that countries where population growth has slowed must prepare for an increasing proportion of older persons and, in more extreme cases, a decreasing population size.

“China provides a clear example. With the rapid ageing of its population due to the combined effects of very low fertility and increasing life expectancy, growth of China’s total population is slowing down, a trend that is likely to continue in the coming decades,” Liu said.

The WHO pointed out that China has one of the fastest growing ageing populations in the world.

“The population of people over 60 years in China is projected to reach 28 per cent by 2040, due to longer life expectancy and declining fertility rates,” the WHO said.

In China, by 2019, there were 254 million older people aged 60 and over, and 176 million older people aged 65 and over.

In 2022, the two most populous regions were both in Asia: Eastern and South-Eastern Asia with 2.3 billion people (29 per cent of the global population) and Central and Southern Asia with 2.1 billion (26 per cent).

China and India, with more than 1.4 billion each, accounted for most of the population in these two regions.

More than half of the projected increase in the global population up to 2050 will be concentrated in eight countries: the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines and the United Republic of Tanzania.

Countries of sub-Saharan Africa are expected to contribute more than half of the increase anticipated through 2050, the report added.

PTI

source/content: telegraphindia.com (headline edited)

GLOBAL: INDIA APPLAUDED: Bali G20 Summit: WHO Chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus thanks Prime Minister Modi for Collaboration in Building a Global Traditional Health Centre to ensure ‘Health for All’

Centre, supported by an investment of $250 million from India, aims at harnessing the potential of traditional medicine from across the world.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Tuesday thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for collaborating with the world health body on hosting and building the global traditional health centre.

Prime Minister Modi, World Health Organisation Director-General Ghebreyesus and Mauritius Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth laid the foundation stone for the WHO Global Centre for Traditional Medicine (GCTM) in Gujarat’s Jamnagar city in April.

The centre, supported by an investment of USD 250 million from India, aims at harnessing the potential of traditional medicine from across the world through modern science and technology to improve the health of people and the planet, according to the WHO.

Taking to Twitter, Ghebreyesus, who is in Bali to attend the ongoing G20 summit, tweeted, “Thank you #India Prime Minister @narendramodi for your collaboration with @WHO on hosting and building the global traditional health centre. Together for #HealthForAll! #G20.”

Ghebreyesus also posted a picture of him with Prime Minister Modi at the G20 Summit in Bali.

According to WHO, around 80% of the world’s population is estimated to use traditional medicine. To date, 170 of the 194 WHO member states have reported the use of traditional medicine, and their governments have asked for WHO’s support in creating a body of reliable evidence and data on traditional medicine practices and products.

During his address at the G20 Summit, Ghebreyesus underlined that food and energy are fundamental to human life, and human health. The lack of either, or their over-consumption, can have severe consequences for health and economies.

“The heaviest price for the crises in food and energy security is paid in human health. My ask for the @g20org leaders is to ensure that measures to protect and promote health are central to the global response,” he added

source/content: telegraphindia.com (headline edited)

GLOBAL: RESEARCH RANKING: Dr Manjeshwar Shrinath Baliga of Mangalore Institute of Oncology in Top 2% Scientists for Exceptional Research in the World in a study by Stanford University and Published by Elsevier BV

Dr Manjeshwar Shrinath Baliga, senior radiobiologist, in-charge of research and chief operating officer (COO) of Mangalore Institute of Oncology, has featured again in the global Top 2% for exceptional research work.

Dr Baliga’s current global ranking in all fields of research is 64,930; while in his specialized area of Cancer (Oncology & Carcinogenesis) is 2,786. In the 2019 report, Dr Baliga was also ranked in the top 2% with 3188th. Among Indian researchers working on cancer, his current ranking is 7th and second in the state of Karnataka.

The study was conducted by Prof John PA, Loannidis of Stanford University and published by Elsevier B V, and considered the contribution of 200,409 scientists from 1960 until the end of September 1, 2022 in 22 scientific fields and 176 sub-fields. The Stanford team focused on impact (citations) and analyzed the research citation in the “Scopus database”, considered to be the “benchmark” by the scientific community around the world.

Dr Baliga is the eldest son of popular travel’s proprietor Prabhakar Baliga and Prema Baliga. He did his schooling and undergraduate studies at St Aloysius College and Masters in Biosciences from Mangalore University. He did his doctoral studies in radiation biology from Kasturba Medical College, Manipal with research on anticancer and radio modulatory properties of novel agents in 2003. He received advanced training at Tata Memorial Centre, Mumbai and post – doctoral fellowship at the University of Alabama, Birmingham, USA and a second post doctorate from the University of Illinois, Chicago in areas of cancer prevention and metastasis.

Dr Baliga also has adjunct degrees in Masters of business administration in education management, from Alagappa University and Masters in Psychology and Psychotherapy from Kuvempu University. In addition to this Dr Baliga has been one of the founding members of the UNESCO Bioethics in India and has been active in studies on ethical issues in health care and Oncology in specific. He has done advanced research training in pharmacogenomics at University of Delhi, South Campus under the prestigious Indian National Academy of Sciences fellowship. Dr Baliga was inducted as a fellow in “The International Institute of Organizational Psychological Medicine (IIOPM), Melbourne Australia in 2019 for his work in health and work place psychology.

In his three decades long scientific career, Dr Baliga has carried out studies in the areas of cancer epidemiology, cancer prevention, radiation-modulation, Onco-psychology, cancer ethics, cancer education, health economics and pharmacovigilance. Till date he has published around 202 scientific articles and 92 text book chapters in the above said areas in national and international journals and books. Dr Baliga has mentored 61 students till date and most of his students are in premier institutes of Europe, USA and Australia.

Dr Baliga’s current research at Mangalore Institute of Oncology is focused on aspects important to local society, like cancer trends in Dakshina Kannada, effective integration of Ayurveda and Yoga in post treatment recovery and health economics in cancer care. These areas have been highly neglected and Dr Baliga’s emphasis is towards bridging the gaps for the benefit of the local society and country at large.

source/content: daijiworld.com (headline edited)