ISRO succeeds in landing Reusable Launch Vehicle
- The space agency conducted the ‘Reusable Launch Vehicle Autonomous Landing Mission (RLV LEX)’ at the Aeronautical Test Range of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) in Karnataka’s Chitradurga district.
- According to ISRO, the RLV took off as the underslung load of a Chinook Helicopter of the Indian Air Force and, after reaching an altitude of 4.6 km, was released for carrying out an autonomous landing on a runway.
- ISRO said the experiment was carried out under the exact conditions of a space re-entry vehicle’s landing such as “high speed, unmanned, precise landing from the same return path”.
- The RLV is essentially a space plane with a low lift-to-drag ratio, requiring an approach at high glide angles that necessitated a landing at high velocities of 350 kmph.
- ISRO first demonstrated the re-entry of its winged vehicle RLV-TD in its HEX Mission in May 2016. During that experiment, the vehicle had landed on a hypothetical runway over the Bay of Bengal as “precise landing” on a runway was an aspect not included in the HEX mission.
Lithium find in J&K: Chile, with most reserves, ready to share know-how
- Chile has around 48 per cent of the total lithium reserves in the world, contained mostly in the Salar de Atacama, a large salt flat located in the country’s north.
- Chile, the country endowed with most lithium reserves and home to SQM, the second largest global lithium producer, is keen to partner with India on tapping into the lithium value chain. This includes potentially extending technical expertise in exploiting the newly established “inferred” lithium resources of 5.9 million tonnes in Salal-Haimana area of Reasi district in Jammu and Kashmir.
- Chile has around 48 per cent of the total lithium reserves in the world, contained mostly in the Salar de Atacama, a large salt flat located in the country’s north.
- In March 2019, during the visit of the President of India to Chile, the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Indian and Chile on cooperation in geology and minerals was renewed for five years. In 2022, there were stepped up efforts by Khanij Bidesh India Limited (KABIL), a joint venture company formed by central utilities including NALCO, HCL and MECL, to source strategic minerals from countries like Australia, Argentina and Chile. As per a government release in December 2022, KABIL is focusing on identifying and sourcing battery minerals like lithium and cobalt and engagement with a few companies is underway in Australia, Argentina and Chile.
- The Geological Survey of India (GSI), an attached office of Ministry of Mines, carried out a G3 stage —fairly advanced — mineral exploration project during Field Season 2020-21 and 2021-22 in Salal-Haimna areas of Reasi district, Jammu & Kashmir and estimated an inferred resource of 5.9 million tonnes of lithium ore.
Secondary patent for Johnson & Johnson TB drug rejected: How this will help in India’s fight against tuberculosis
- The patent office in India rejected the secondary patent of the Johnson and Johnson’s TB medication bedaquiline, used for the treatment of those with drug resistant infections.
- At the time of receiving an approval from US Food and Drug Administration in 2012, bedaquiline became the first new TB therapy to become available after a period of 40 years.
- The drug first became available in India under the government’s TB programme in 2015, but with a six-month course – which is the minimum required – costing Rs 21,000 per person, availability remained an issue. Although the drug is more widely available now, there are still issues in accessing the treatment in smaller cities and towns.
- The primary patent of bedaquiline and “its salts, isomers and enantiomers” expires on July 18 this year. The company had, however, filed for a secondary patent for the fumerate salt and a wetting agent of the same active pharmaceutical ingredient. This would have extended the monopoly of the company on the drug for over four years till December 2027.
- India has taken up the challenge of eliminating TB by 2025, five years ahead of the global target.
Remembering the Vaikom satyagraha
- Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin, will inaugurate the centenary celebrations of the Vaikom Satyagraha, on Saturday (April 1).
- On March 30, 1924, in the temple town of Vaikom in the princely state of Travancore, a non-violent agitation started, marking the beginning of “temple entry movements” across the country.
- At the time, caste discrimination and untouchability was rife across India, with some of the most rigid and dehumanising norms documented in Travancore. Lower castes like the Ezhavas and Pulayas were considered polluting and various rules were in place to distance them from upper castes. These included a prohibition, not just on temple entry, but even on walking on the roads surrounding temples.
- The Vaikom Satyagraha was launched in opposition to this. Amidst rising nationalist sentiment and agitations across the country, it foregrounded social reform. Not only that, for the first time, it brought Gandhian methods of nonviolent protest to Travancore.
- The issue of temple entry was first raised by Ezhava leader TK Madhavan in a 1917 editorial in his paper Deshabhimani. Inspired by the success of Gandhi’s Non-Cooperation Movement, by 1920, he began to advocate for more direct methods. That year, he himself went beyond the restrictive notice boards on a road near the Vaikom temple in north Travancore to make a point.
- When Gandhi came to south India in 1921, Madhavan managed to arrange a meeting with him and secured his support for a mass agitation to enter temples. Due to various reasons, it would take two more years before any concrete progress was made in the matter.
- In the 1923 Kakinada session of the INC, a resolution was passed by the Kerala Provincial Congress Committee to take up anti-untouchability as a key issue. This was followed by a massive public messaging campaign and a movement to open Hindu temples and all public roads to avarnas.