• The US Chamber of Commerce released the 12th edition of its International IP (intellectual property) Index.
• The United States emerged at the top of the list followed by the United Kingdom and France.
• The index evaluates the IP framework of the world’s top 55 economies and found 20 economies significantly improving.
• India maintained its 42nd position on the International IP Index 2024, with a score of 38.64%, unchanged since 2022.
• Issues
  • The report highlighted concerns over India’s intellectual property (IP) regime, citing the dissolution of the Intellectual Property Appellate Board in 2021 and an under-resourced judiciary.

• Under the ambitious Amrit Bharat Station Scheme, PM Modi laid down the foundation stones for redevelopment of 553 railway stations.

ABOUT THE SCHEME

• Indian Railways has initiated the Amrit Bharat Station Scheme, aimed at redeveloping 1309 stations nationwide.
• Prime Minister laid the foundation stone for the redevelopment of 508 railway stations on August 6 last year.
• The scheme’s primary objective is to enhance station facilities with modern infrastructure, including roof plazas and city centers, fostering a more convenient and comfortable experience for passengers.
• Their design will draw inspiration from local culture, heritage, and architecture.
• Furthermore, these stations are envisioned to be environmentally friendly and accessible to Divyang individuals.

 OTHER FACTS

• Indian Railways, renowned as one of the world’s busiest and oldest railway systems, served a staggering 52 billion passengers and transported 1512 MT of freight in 2023.
• Aptly dubbed the lifeline of India, it operates over 13,000 trains daily, connecting 7,325 stations across the nation.

• Ministry of Education (MoE) recently launched the SWAYAM Plus platform.
• The SWAYAM Plus is aimed at enhancing the employability of both college students and professionals by offering learning programs across multiple sectors.
• The platform is designed to offer employability and professional development‐focused courses developed collaboratively with industry experts from players such as L&T, Microsoft, CISCO, and more.
• The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras, which is among the founder institutions of Swayam-NPTEL, will be operating the ‘SWAYAM Plus’ Platform.
• It will offer programs in sectors like Manufacturing, Energy, Computer Science and Engineering/IT/ITES, Management Studies, Healthcare, Hospitality, and Tourism besides Indian Knowledge Systems, and more.
• It is funded by Department of Higher Education of Ministry of Higher Education.

ABOUT SWAYAM

• The Swayam-NPTEL is a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) platform providing educational opportunities for a vast number of learners.
• The e-learning platform has the largest enrolment base, with the total enrolment increasing from 31 lakh in 2017 to more than 72 lakh by the end of 2023.

• National Science Day is celebrated every year on February 28^th.
• It is celebrated to commemorate the day, Sir CV Raman discovered the Raman Effect.
• The theme for this year is ‘Indigenous Technologies for Viksit Bharat’.
• The theme ‘Indigenous Technologies for Viksit Bharat’ aims to reflect a strategic focus on promoting public appreciation for Science, Technology and Innovation and the accomplishments of Indian scientists to address challenges through home-grown technologies for overall well-being.
• The ‘Raman Effect’ was discovered by physicist Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman, also known as CV Raman.
• For his contributions to science, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1930.
  • He was the first time an Asian received this prize.
• In 1986, the Government of India designated February 28 as National Science Day, to commemorate the announcement of the discovery of the “Raman effect”.

ABOUT RAMAN EFFECT

• The Raman Effect refers to the phenomenon in which when a stream of light passes through a liquid, a fraction of the light scattered by the liquid is of a different colour.
  • In general, when light interacts with an object, it can either be reflected, refracted or transmitted.
  • One of the things that scientists look at when light is scattered is if the particle it interacts with is able to change its energy.
  • The Raman Effect is when the change in the energy of the light is affected by the vibrations of the molecule or material under observation, leading to a change in its wavelength.
• The discovery found its use in chemistry, giving birth to a new field known as Raman spectroscopy.
• It is a basic analytical tool to conduct non-destructive chemical analysis for both organic and inorganic compounds.
• It is used in disease diagnosis, monitoring cellular processes, studying art, analysis of air and water pollutants, and detecting drugs, fibres, and chemicals, among various other things.

• The ‘Investor Information and Analytics Platform’ was launched recently.
• This platform will act as a one-stop shop for startups to seamlessly access venture capitalists (VCs) and investors networks, government schemes and several other components of the startup landscape for all stakeholders.
• This platform has been developed by the researchers at the Centre for Research on Start-ups and Risk Financing (CREST) of IIT Madras.
• An important feature of this unique platform is “StartupGPT” which is an AI-based conversational platform whose function is to help ease information access for those who are navigating exhaustive data.

• India-born media executive Dr Samir Shah was confirmed as the new BBC chairman after his selection cleared the stages of scrutiny to be approved by King Charles III.
• Shah, who has worked in UK broadcasting for over 40 years, was picked as the government’s preferred candidate in December last year and went on to be quizzed by cross-party MPs of the House of Commons Media Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee for his pre-appointment scrutiny.
• The 72-year-old has now been confirmed for four-year term role to take charge as the public broadcaster’s first Indian-origin Chair from March 4 until March 2028.

• Algeria recently inaugurated the “Africa’s biggest mosque” and the third-biggest mosque in the world, following over a decade of construction and preparation.
• The Great Mosque of Algiers is situated in the capital, with a minaret towering 265 meters (869 feet) high and a large prayer room.
• The entire facility could host over 120,000 worshippers.
• This follows the largest two mosques –holy mosque ‘Masjid al-Haram’ in Mecca and the prophet’s mosque ‘Al-Masjid an-Nabawi’ in Medina, both located in Saudi Arabia.

• Raghu Vamsi Machine Tools Pvt Ltd, a Hyderabad-based manufacturer of high precision engineering components has developed a fully indigenous micro turbojet engine – INDRA RV25: 240N.
• Though the engine, developed in academic partnership with IIT-Hyderabad, has primarily been developed for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) or drones, it can also have applications in air taxis, jetpacks, auxiliary power units, range extenders and power generation in future.

• An India-specific artificial intelligence model to precisely determine the gestational age (GA) of a foetus in the second and third trimester of pregnancy, has been developed.
• The model has been designed by researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras and the Translational Health Science and Technology Institute, Faridabad.
• It is part of an interdisciplinary group for advanced research on birth outcomes — the DBT India initiative (GARBH-Ini) programme.
• The Garbhini-GA2 is the first late-trimester GA estimation model to be developed and validated using Indian population data.
  • Currently, models used for the Western population are in use which could prove erroneous when applied in the later part of pregnancy due to variations in the growth of the foetus in the Indian population.
• The Garbhini-GA2 accurately estimates the foetus’ age, reducing error by almost three times.

• India’s first septic tank/manhole cleaning robot, offering an end-to-end solution to eliminate manual scavenging, is strengthening the swachhata abhiyan in different corners of the country.
• The technology called Homosep Atom developed by the startup Solinas, incubated in the Department of Science and Technology (DST)-Technology Business Incubator (TBI) of IIT Madras, solves manual cleaning methods and transforms it to robotic cleaning methods.
• It has integrated Artificial Intelligence (AI) to inspect, clean, and manage confined space for sanitation purposes.
• It has reached 16 cities in different parts of India and empowers extensive blade cleanings, solid waste desilting, suction and storage at one device; thereby reducing the cost of owning multiple assets and promotes robotic cleaning in sewers.

ABOUT SOLINAS

• Solinas is a deep-tech and climate tech startup born out of IIT Madras, founded with the intent to solve the challenges that revolutionizes the water and sanitation sector and improves the climatic conditions.
• DST-Technology Business Incubators (TBIs) are established in Academic /Technical /R&D Institutions as part of NIDHI programme to support and nurture knowledge driven innovative start-ups into successful enterprises.
• The startup specialises in developing miniature robots, including India’s 1st 90mm water robot and 120mm sewer robot, capable of navigating through pipelines below 100mm to address contamination challenges in water-sewer pipelines.