General Awareness

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY - July 2019

Jul 2019

Mar 26, 2020

Indian Govt To Launch CoWin-20 App To Help Curb Spread Of Coronavirus

The Indian government is reportedly working on a smartphone app to help stop the spread of coronavirus. The app called "CoWin-20" is currently in beta testing and it will launch for both Android and iOS platforms.
CoWin-20 app will track users through their smartphone location to stop the community spread of coronavirus. The app will also record the user's travel history to determine if they're at risk of Covid-19 and people they may have come in contact with.
In addition to this, users will also get to know the location of coronavirus testing centres and quarantine sites in India. The CoWin-20 app will also host government advisories and information on coronavirus. Users will be alerted on all the latest coronavirus updates issued by the Indian government.

Scientists of ARI, Pune Develop Biofortified, High Protein Wheat Variety

Scientists from Agharkar Research Institute (ARI), Pune, an autonomous institute under the Department of Science & Technology, Government of India, have developed a biofortified durum wheat variety MACS 4028, which shows high protein content.
The wheat variety developed by the ARI scientists group on Wheat improvement, shown high protein content of about 14.7%, better nutritional quality having zinc 40.3 ppm, and iron content of 40.3ppm and 46.1ppm respectively, good milling quality and overall acceptability.
MACS 4028, the development of which was published in the Indian Journal of Genetics and Plant Breeding, is a semi-dwarf variety, which matures in 102 days and has shown the superior and stable yielding ability of 19.3 quintals per hectare. It is resistant to stem rust, leaf rust, foliar aphids, root aphids, and brown wheat mite.
The MACS 4028 variety is also included by the Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK) programme for United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) to alleviate malnutrition in a sustainable way and can boost the Vision 2022 "Kuposhan Mukt Bharat", the National Nutrition Strategy. An endeavor to tackle the hidden hunger in the rural areas of India is being continued using traditional plant breeding approach to achieve "Kuposhan Mukt Bharat."

First Made-in-India COVID-19 Test Kit By Mylab Gets Commercial Approval

Pune-based molecular diagnostics company Mylab Discovery Solutions Pvt Ltd, which specialises in molecular diagnostic kits has developed first made-in-India test kit for COVID-19 in a record time of six weeks. The kit -- Mylab PathoDetect COVID-19 Qualitative PCR kit -- is the first one to receive commercial approval from the Indian FDA/ Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO). Besides, Mylab is the only Indian company to have achieved 100 per cent sensitivity and specificity in the ICMR evaluation.
Mylab has several years of experience in manufacturing RTPCR kits. It manufactures a range of kits at the facility approved by Indian FDA/CDSCO and is compliant with MDR 2017 regulation for manufacturing medical devices of Class C and D, the most stringent and regulated products by the government.

Mar 16, 2020

Scientists Develop Solar Receiver Tube Technology for Industrial Process Heat

Scientists at the International Advanced Research Centre for Powder Metallurgy and New Materials (ARCI), Hyderabad (Telangana), developed a cost-effective 'solar receiver tube technology' that absorbs solar radiation and converts it into heat for the targeted applications, especially in industries.
ARCI has filed 2 patent applications for this technology, and also inked an MoU (Memorandum of understanding) with Greenera Energy India Private Limited for technology transfer, that aims to develop the solar receiver tube for wider market absorption.
The solar receiver tube, which has a high corrosion resistance, functions based on the Concentrating Solar Thermal (CST),that provides a better solution to handle the demands on industrial process heat (≤ 250 °C).
The receiver tube has the capability of 93% absorption, 14% emittance and has better thermal stability as well. The trial of absorber coating has been made successfully for heat gain and heat loss studies in a testing facility established at ARCI.

Mar 13, 2020

Wasp-76b: The Exotic Inferno Planet Where it Rains Iron

Astronomers have observed a distant planet where it probably rains iron.
It sounds like a science fiction movie, but this is the nature of some of the extreme worlds we're now discovering.
Wasp-76b, as it's known, orbits so close in to its host star, its dayside temperatures exceed 2,400C - hot enough to vaporise metals.
The planet's night side, on the other hand, is 1,000 degrees cooler, allowing those metals to condense and rain out.
It's a bizarre environment, according to Dr. David Ehrenreich from the University of Geneva.
"Imagine instead of a drizzle of water droplets, you have iron droplets splashing down.
The Swiss researcher and colleagues have published their findings on this strange place in the journal Nature.
The team describes how it used the new Espresso instrument at the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope in Chile to study the chemistry of Wasp-76b in fine detail.

Mar 11, 2020

New Type of Pulsating Star Discovered After 40-Year Search

A star that pulses on just one side has been predicted in theory. But it took two simultaneous discoveries on opposite sides of our planet to uncover the first such example of a 'one-sided pulsator.
A star that pulsates on just one side has been discovered in the Milky Way about 1500 light-years from Earth. It is the first of its kind to be found and scientists expect to find many more similar systems as technology to listen inside the beating hearts of stars improves.
Stars like this are usually fairly rich with metals — but this is metal poor, making it a rare type of hot star.

Mar 07, 2020

SpaceX Announces Partnership to Send Tourists to ISS

The first fully private mission to the International Space Station (ISS) is taking shape as soon as next year (2021) under a deal involving NASA, SpaceX and a Texas-based company that will sell the mission.
Axiom Space said that it has signed an agreement with Elon Musk's Space Exploration Technologies for a flight of four tourists to the space station, possibly sometime late next year.
The initial trip to the ISS would last at least eight days. Axiom said that it is targeting two flights annually.

Share on

TCY Analytics (View Subscription Plans)

Subscribe to GK Updates

I want to receive

GK Tags

September GK, August GK, July GK, INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS, ENVIRONMENT, BUSINESS AND ECONOMY, SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY, SPORTS, NATIONAL AFFAIRS, DEFENCE, PERSONS IN NEWS, DAYS AND EVENTS, AWARDS AND HONOURS, GOVERNMENT POLICIES AND SCHEMES, GENDER/ HEALTH/ EDUCATION, ART AND CULTURE, BOOKS AND AUTHORS, TOURISM AND HOTEL INDUSTRY AWARENESS, ART AND CULTURE, LAW AND CONSTITUTIONAL AFFAIRS

Start Discussion

On any topic

Take Tests

Compiled from GK updates

Login

Sign Up

Forgot Password

Download TCY App

Unlock All Services And Enjoy The Premium Benefits

US$ 10

US$ 13

US$ 15

US$ 17

US$ 19

US$ 20

US$ 21

US$ 22

US$ 23

US$ 24

US$ 25

US$ 26