Why in News ?

Foreign Minister of Maldives, Abdulla Shahid, was elected as new President of UN General Assembly (UNGA).

About:

Abdulla Shahid won against Afghanistan’s former foreign minister Zalmai Rassoul with three-fourth majority. He fetched 143 votes while Rassoul got 48 votes out of 191 votes polled. Maldives will occupy office of President of UNGA for the first time.

Election to UNGA President:

Election to UNGA presidential post is held annually. It is rotated amongst various regional groupings. 76th UNGA session for 2021-22 was the turn of Asia-Pacific group.

Why in News ?

• MIT engineers have discovered a new way of generating electricity using carbon nanotubes. A new material made up of carbon nanotubes has potential to generate electricity by collecting energy from its environment.

How electricity is generated ?

• These micro carbon particles can create current by interacting with liquid around them.
• Liquid, an organic solvent, attracts electrons out of the nanoparticles, which generates current.
• This current can be used to drive chemical reactions or to power micro or nanoscale robots.
• This electric current can also be used to drive a reaction known as alcohol oxidation.

Properties of discovery

This discovery grew out of research on carbon nanotubes. Carbon nanotubes are hollow tubes made of lattice of carbon atoms. These tubes have unique electrical properties. Potential of carbon nanotubes to generate thermopower waves was demonstrated way back in 2010. When Carbon nanotube is coated with layer of fuel, moving pulses of heat or thermopower waves travelling along tube generates electrical current.

Why in News ?

• Clinical trials of Chimeric Antigen Receptor T-cell (CAR-T) therapy were conducted globally. Therapy has emerged as a breakthrough in cancer treatment. It has shown promising results on end stage patients, especially in patients of Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia.
  • About:
• CAR-T technology has a remarkable therapeutic potential for cancer patients.
• This technology is not available in India, currently.

Background

• BIRAC and DBT have initiated and launched specialised calls and invitation to promote and support development of CAR-T cell technology against cancer and other diseases.

What are the challenges?

• CAR-T cell therapy costs rupees 3-4 crore for each patient. Thus, biggest challenge is there to develop this technology in cost-effective manner and make it available patients. Manufacturing of this technology is complex which increases the cost.

First CAR-T cell Therapy

• First CAR-T cell Therapy was done by IIT Bombay and cancer care in India at Bone Marrow Transplant unit of Tata Memorial Centre in Mumbai. CAR-T cells were designed and manufactured at Bioscience and Bioengineering (BSBE) department, IIT Bombay. This was also supported by BIRAC-PACE scheme. Now, this therapy will undergo Phase I and II trial of their CAR-T product through National Biopharma Mission.

Why in News ?

• Recently, Turkey’s Sea of Marmara, which connects the Black Sea to the Aegean Sea, has witnessed the largest outbreak of ‘sea snot’.
• A ‘sea snot’ outbreak was first recorded in the country in 2007.

About:

• Sea Snot and its Formation:
  • It is marine mucilage that is formed when algae are overloaded with nutrients as a result of water pollution combined with the effects of climate change.
    • The nutrient overload occurs when algae feast on warm weather caused by global warming.
  • It looks like a viscous, brown and foamy substance.

Why in News ?

• World will observe the World Ocean Day on June 8, 2021 under the theme- ‘The Ocean: Life and Livelihoods’.

About World Ocean Day

• The day is observed annually on June 8. The day provides governments across the world an opportunity to inform people about impact of economic activities and human actions on ocean.

How this day is significant?

• Oceans play a major role in everyday life of people and are considered as lungs of our planet. It is an important part of biosphere as it provides us with water which is an integral element of our daily lives. However, oceans are bearing the brunt of man-made destruction over the years. Industrial waste and unwanted litter into ocean are degrading & destabilizing earth’s dynamics with its natural resources. It might lead to an eventual and unfortunate end. Thus, it becomes important to save oceans and World Ocean Day is committed towards it.

Background

• World Ocean Day was first suggested in 1992 during Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro with the aim of celebrate this vast water body, its benefits in our lives and to raise awareness to make it a part of sustainable development. Following this, UN general assembly passed the resolution on December 5, 2008 to designate this day.

Why in News ?

• The Defence Acquisition Council (DAC)has approved the issuance of a Request for Proposal (RFP) for the construction of six conventional submarines under Project-75I (India).

About the Project:

• This project envisages indigenous construction of submarines equipped with the state-of-the-art Air Independent Propulsion systemat an estimated cost of  43,000 crore.
• Project 75 (I),approved in 2007, is part of the Indian Navy’s 30 year Plan for indigenous submarine construction.
• It will be the first under the strategic partnership modelwhich was promulgated in 2017 to boost indigenous defence manufacturing.
  • The strategic partnership modelallows domestic defence manufacturers to join hands with leading foreign defence majors to produce high-end military platforms to reduce import dependence.
  • Acquisitions under the Strategic Partnership model refer to participation of private Indian firms along with foreign OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) in ‘Make in India’in defence.

Why in News ?

• Indian Navy’s oldest hydrographic survey ship INS Sandhayak was decommissioned at Naval Dockyard in Visakhapatnam after serving the nation for 40 years.

About INS Sandhayak:

• INS Sandhayak was the lead ship of the Sandhayak class of survey ships.
• The ship operatedas a hydrographic survey ship in the Indian Navy, under the Eastern Naval Command.
• Purpose: The ship conducted shallow coastal and deep-sea hydrographic surveys. The ship also collected oceanographic and geophysical data.
  • In addition to conducting surveys, it also assisted as military transport and casualty-carrying vessels in times of war and natural disasters.
• Developed by:
  • The ship was conceptualised by the then Chief Hydrographer to the Government of India, Rear Adm FL Fraser.
  • The ship was developed by Garden Reach Ship Builders Limited(GRSE), Kolkata.
  • The ship was thencommissioned into the Indian Navy in 1981.
• Operations: The ship has been an active participant in many significant operations such as
  • Operation Pawan(assisting the Indian Peace Keeping Force in Sri Lanka in 1987) and
  • Operation Rainbow(rendering humanitarian assistance in Sri Lanka post Tsunami of 2004).
• The ship also participated in the maiden joint INDO-US HADR (humanitarian assistance and disaster relief) exercise ‘Tiger-Triumph’in 2019.

Why in News ?

• Interpol has launched a new global database named “I-Familia”.

About I-Familia:

• I-Familiais a global database launched to identify missing persons through family DNA. It will help the police to solve cases in member countries.
• Interpol applies cutting-edge scientific research and uses the DNA of relatives to identify missing persons or unidentified human remains around the world.
  • DNA kinship matching is used mostly in cases where a direct sample of the missing person is not available.
• Components:I-Familia has three components:
  • Dedicated global database to host the DNA profiles provided by relatives. It is held separately from any criminal data;
  • DNA matching software called Bonaparte developed by Dutch company Smart Research; and
  • Interpretation guidelinesdeveloped by Interpol.

Why in News ?

The recently declared Srivilliputhur-Megamalai Tiger Reserve in Tamil Nadu will provide protection to Megamalai.

Establishment:

• It was established in February 2021. It was jointly declared by the Centre and Tamil Nadu governments.
• For this, the Megamalai WLS and the adjoining Srivilliputhur WLS were clubbed together.
• Srivilliputhur-Megamalai Tiger Reserve is the fifth Tiger Reserve of Tamil Nadu, and 51^thtiger reserve of India.

Ecological Diversity:

• Animals seen here are Bengal tiger, elephants, gaur, Indian giant squirrel, leopard, Nilgiri Tahrs, etc.
• It has a mix of tropical evergreen forests and semi-evergreen forests, dry deciduous forests and moist mixed deciduous forests, grassland.

Why in News ?

• World No. 1 Novak Djokovic captured the 83rd title of his career with victory on home soil at the Belgrade Open.
• The Serbian superstar lost his serve three times in the first set before changing his game to defeat Slovakian qualifier and first-time ATP Tour finalist Alex Molcan 6-4, 6-3 in 88 minutes at the Novak Tennis Center.