Category: Science and Technology Current Affairs

Kappa Variant: Covid-19: Two cases of the Kappa variant of Covid-19 have been recorded in Uttar Pradesh (UP). According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), Kappa is one of the two Covid-19 variants, the other being Delta, first identified in India. Earlier a new variant Lambda was reported from Peru. As India raised objection over […]

WHO Pre-qualification, Or Emergency Use Listing (EUL): A WHO pre-qualification, or Emergency Use Listing (EUL), is necessary for a vaccine company to supply vaccines to global facilities such as COVAX or international procurement. So far, eight vaccines have got an EUL from the WHO. WHO will also take a decision on including Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin […]

India’s Covid-19 Emergency Response Package: Phase II: The Union Cabinet has approved a new scheme ‘India COVID-19 Emergency Response & Health System Preparedness Package: Phase-II’ amounting to Rs. 23,123 crore for FY 2021-22. The Phase-II of the Package has Central Sector (CS) and Centrally Sponsored Schemes (CSS) components. Under the Central Sector components: National Centre […]

Zika Virus Disease: Zika Virus Disease (ZVD) was reported for the first time in Kerala. Zika virus is a mosquito-borne flavivirus that was first identified in Uganda in 1947 in monkeys. It was later identified in humans in 1952 in Uganda and the United Republic of Tanzania. ZVD is caused by a virus transmitted primarily […]

NASA’s Cassini spacecraft: Findings: NASA’s Cassini spacecraft has made the following discoveries in the moons of Saturn by flying through their plumes: Titan has methane in its atmosphere. Enceladus has a liquid ocean with erupting plumes of gas and water. Researchers have concluded that there may be unknown methane-producing processes on Enceladus that await discovery. […]

Emvolio: DBT-BIRAC supported startup Blackfrog Technologies has developed Emvolio. Emvólio is a portable, battery-powered medical-grade refrigeration device that improves the efficiency of the immunization by strictly maintaining preset temperature for up to 12 hours, thus enabling the safe and efficient transportation of vaccines to the last mile. Emvólio has a 2-litre capacity, enabling it to […]

Kappa And Lambda Variants : Coronavirus Kappa and Lambda variants have been labelled as Variants of Interest (VoI) by WHO. Kappa was first detected in India and more than 3,500 of the close to 30,000 cumulative samples submitted by the country to the GISAID initiative are of this variant. In the last 60 days, the […]

INS Tabar Conducts Military Exercise With Italian Navy: INS Tabar joined Italian Navy and entered Port of Naples on July 3 as part of ongoing deployment in Mediterranean. Commanding officer Captain Mahesh Mangipudi called on senior officers of Prefect of Naples Authority, regional Italian navy headquarters and coast guard headquarters during the stay. While returning, […]

World’s First Database Of Genomic Variants Of Oral Cancer: DBT-National Institute of Biomedical Genomics (NIBMG), Kalyani has created world’s first database of genomic variants of oral cancer. NIBMG has made this database publicly-accessible. dbGENVOC is a browsable online database of GENomic Variants of Oral Cancer and is a free resource. First release of dbGENVOC contains […]

Lambda Variant of Covid-19: Even as the Delta variant of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus continues to drive the rise in infections around the world, another variant, Lambda, is increasingly being seen by scientists and health experts as a new emerging threat. On June 14, the World Health Organization designated the Lambda variant, previously known by its […]