Parched Panchayat Raj Ministry on verge of closure
With an aim to provide grassroots democracy, in 1992, the 73rd amendment mandated a three-tier structure with Panchayats at:
Village level
Block level
District level
Functions of Ministry of Panchayat Raj:
Monitoring of the implementation of 73rd amendment
Making Panchayat Raj Institutions secure economic develoopment and social justice in thier respective areas
Funding research studies, workshops and seminars for development of Panchayats
Funds are provided from Grants-in-aid and through Panchayats’ power to levy taxes.
Source : The Hindu
CSIR lab to certify coal used in power plants
The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) has signed an annual Rs. 250-crore deal with several state-run coal and thermal power companies to certify the quality of the coal being supplied and used in their facilities. The certification will help power plants use coal appropriate to the machinery and technology available in the plant and contribute to efficient use and, in the long run, reduce emissions.
The Dhanbad-based CSIR-Central Institute of Mining and Fuel Research (CSIR-CIMFR), Dhanbad, a constituent laboratory of CSIR, will be doing the certification and it expects to analyse about 300 million tonnes of coal samples per year. While the grading of a coal would be voluntary and organisations affiliated to the Coal Ministry would have already checked the quality of coal, the CSIR’s grading would be finer and more reliable.
There have been disputes between power companies and coal suppliers over the quality of coal. India’s coal is known to be of high ash content and of a lower quality, compared with that of several countries, that has forced many private companies to import coal.
Source : The Hindu
Median marriage age up: Census data
New Census data released by the government shows that the median age at the time of marriage has increased across categories of people and genders, a trend that experts say will continue due to the socio-economic changes taking place in the country.
The data, released by the Registrar-General and Census Commissioner, show that the median age for men increased to 23.5 at the time of the 2011 Census, from 22.6 as per the 2001 figures. These numbers were 19.2 years and 18.2 years for women in the respective years.
Reasons
The reason for the upswing is the increasingly mobile and migratory nature of work in the country. However, migration is only part of the explanation since the increase in the age at the time of marriage was seen among marginal workers and non-workers as well. The median age for marginal workers increased from 21.8 to 22.5 for men and from 17.6 to 18.7 for women. For non-workers, the age at the time of marriage increased from 22.8 to 23.5 for men and from 18.5 to 19.4 for women.
The other reason for the change could be higher levels of school enrolment. School enrolment is about 90 per cent everywhere, across most castes. It is 80 per cent-plus for Dalits. People are sending their children to school, which also has an effect on the age of marriage.
Source : The Hindu
Deep space rocket booster tested
NASA performed its second and last test-fire of a rocket booster for the Space Launch System (SLS), a powerful engine that may one day launch astronauts to Mars.
NASA has described the SLS as the “world’s most powerful rocket.
The first test flight of SLS with NASA’s Orion spacecraft, known as Exploration Mission-1 in late 2018 will carry 13 tiny satellites to test innovative ideas. These small satellite secondary payloads or ‘CubeSats’ will carry science and technology investigations to help pave the way for future human exploration in deep space.
Exploration Mission-1 (EM-1), provides the rare opportunity for these small experiments to reach deep space destinations, as most launch opportunities for CubeSats are limited to low-Earth orbit.
On this first flight, the SLS will launch the Orion spacecraft to a stable orbit beyond the moon to demonstrate the integrated system performance of Orion and the SLS rocket prior to the first crewed flight. The CubeSats will be deployed following Orion separation from the upper stage and once Orion is a safe distance away.
Source : The Hindu
New method to kill cancer cells in two hours
Researchers have developed a new, non-invasive method that can kill cancer cells in two hours, an advance that may significantly help people with inoperable or hard-to-reach tumours as well as young children stricken with the deadly disease.
The method involves injecting a chemical compound, nitrobenzaldehyde, into the tumour and allowing it to diffuse into the tissue. A beam of light is then aimed at the tissue, causing the cells to become very acidic inside and, essentially, become dead. Within two hours, up to 95 per cent of the targeted cancer cells are dead or are estimated to be dead.
Though there are many different types of cancers, the one thing they have in common is their susceptibility to this induced cell suicide.
All forms of cancer attempt to make cells acidic on the outside as a way to attract the attention of a blood vessel, which attempts to get rid of the acid. Instead, the cancer latches onto the blood vessel and uses it to make the tumour larger and larger.
Chemotherapy treatments target all cells in the body, and certain chemotherapeutics try to keep cancer cells acidic as a way to kill the cancer. This is what causes many cancer patients to lose their hair and become sickly.
This non-invasive method will help cancer patients with tumours in areas that have proven problematic for surgeons, such as the brain stem, aorta or spine. It could also help people who have received the maximum amount of radiation treatment and can no longer cope with the scarring and pain that go along with it, or children who are at risk of developing mutations from radiation as they grow older.
Source : The Hindu