★★★★★ 5/5
Prelims:Science & Tech. (Diseases), Haemophilia A, Indian Scenario of Haemophilia, World Federation of Haemophilia (WFH)
Mains: General Studies-III Science and Technology- Developments and their Applications and Effects in Everyday Life.
Why in the News ?
Recently, the Union Science and Technology Minister told that India has conducted the first human clinical trial of gene therapy for ‘haemophilia A’ at Christian Medical College – Vellore.
Source: IE
📌 FYI on Prelims
World Federation of Haemophilia (WFH)
- It is an international not-for-profit organization that was established in 1963.
- It is a global network of patient organizations in 140 countries and has official recognition from the World Health Organization.
- Its mission is to improve and sustain care for people with inherited bleeding disorders around the world.
About:
Haemophilia A
- It is a genetic disorder that affects the body’s ability to form blood clots.
- It is a rare disorder in which the blood doesn’t clot in the typical way because it doesn’t have enough blood-clotting proteins.
- It is a sex linked disorder. The gene for hemophilia is carried on the X chromosome.
- Causes: It is caused by a mutation or change, in one of the genes, that provides instructions for making the clotting factor proteins needed to form a blood clot. This type is caused by a lack or decrease of clotting factor VIII.
- Symptoms: Signs and symptoms of hemophilia vary, depending on the level of clotting factors.
- Males are much more likely to have hemophilia than are females.
- Treatment:
- It involves replacement therapy, which involves infusing clotting factor concentrates into the bloodstream to help the blood clot.
- Other treatments may include medications to promote clotting or surgery to repair damage caused by bleeding.
Gene Therapy
- It is a technique that modifies a person’s genes to treat or cure disease.
- Gene therapies can work by several mechanisms:
- Replacing a disease-causing gene with a healthy copy of the gene.
- Inactivating a disease-causing gene that is not functioning properly
- Introducing a new or modified gene into the body to help treat a disease
- Gene therapy products are being studied to treat diseases including cancer, genetic diseases, and infectious diseases.
Indian Scenario of Haemophilia
- According to the World Federation of Haemophilia’s Annual Global Survey 2017, there were over 1.96 lakh persons living with haemophilia across the world in 2017.
- In the country-wise data, India emerges with the highest count at nearly 19,000.
- It is estimated that 80% cases go unregistered, so that the actual count is close to 2 lakh.
UPSC CSE EXAMS Corner
Prelims: PYQ/FAQ
Q. With reference to Haemophilia, consider the following statements:
1.It is a medical condition, mostly inherited, in which the ability of blood to clot is severely reduced.
2.There is no proper treatment available for Haemophilia.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
A) 1 only
B) 2 only
C) Both 1 and 2
D) Neither 1 nor 2
Ans: a. 1 only
Explaination:
- Statement 1 is correct: Haemophilia is a medical condition, mostly inherited, in which the ability of blood to clot is severely reduced, so that even a minor injury can cause severe bleeding.
- The most common type of Haemophilia is called Haemophilia A. This means the person does not have enough clotting factor VIII (factor eight).
- Haemophilia B is less common. A person with Haemophilia B does not have enough factor IX (factor nine).
- Statement 2 is incorrect: The main treatment for Haemophilia is Replacement Therapy. Concentrates of clotting factor VIII (for Haemophilia A) or clotting factor IX (for Haemophilia B) are slowly dripped or injected into a vein. These infusions help replace the clotting factor that is missing or low.
★★★★★ 4.5/5
Prelims: Indian Economy (Agreement of National Importance), General Agreement on Goods in Services
Mains: General Studies-III, Effects of Liberalization on the Economy, Changes in Industrial Policy and their Effects on Industrial Growth.
Why in the News ?
Around 72 nations have agreed to take on additional obligations in services under the General Agreement on Goods in Services (GATS) to ease non-goods trade among themselves and extended the similar concessions to all other members of the World Trade Organisation (WTO).
Source: FE
Key Facts 🗝️
General Agreement on Goods in Services
- It was signed at the Uruguay Round of Multilateral Trade Negotiations’s conclusion and entered into force on January 1, 1995.
About:
General Agreement on Goods in Services
- It is a treaty of the World Trade Organization (WTO).
- It was created to extend the multilateral trading system to the service sector, in the same way, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) provides such a system for merchandise trade.
- It was signed at the Uruguay Round of Multilateral Trade Negotiations’s conclusion and entered into force on January 1, 1995.
- Members: All WTO members are at the same time members of the GATS including India.
- Basic obligations under the GATS may be categorized into two broad groups:
- General obligations that apply to all members and services sector.
- Specific commitments: These are obligations that apply only to the sectors inscribed in a member’s schedule of commitments. Such commitments are laid down in individual schedules whose scope may vary widely between members.
The GATS applies in principle to all service sectors, with two exceptions.
- Services supplied in the exercise of governmental authority: These are services that are supplied neither on a commercial basis nor in competition with other suppliers.
- These include social security schemes and any other public service, such as health or education that is provided at non-market conditions.
- The Annex on Air Transport Services exempts from coverage measures affecting air traffic rights and services directly related to the exercise of such rights.
New obligations
- The new obligations under their schedules in GATS seek to mitigate the unintended trade-restrictive effects of measures related to licensing requirements and procedures, qualification requirements and procedures and technical standards among themselves.
- The disciplines will be applied on a “most-favoured nation” principle, meaning that they will benefit all WTO members.
- These disciplines have been named Services Domestic Regulation (DSR) and came into force in the 13th Ministerial Conference of the WTO.
UPSC CSE EXAMS Corner
Mains: PYQ/FAQ
Q. World trade organisation (WTO) as a multilateral body is facing challenges on various counts. In this light discuss the relevance of WTO and also suggest suitable reform in its functioning.
★★★★★ 4/5
Prelims: International Relations (Institutions of global importance), Africa Club, African Union
Mains: General Studies-II Bilateral, Regional and Global Groupings and Agreements involving India and/or affecting India’s interests.
Why in the News ?
Recently, at the 37th African Union Summit member countries took the initiative of forming the Africa Club.
Source: DTE
📌 FYI on Prelims
- During the 37th African Union Summit, 2024 in Ethiopia, African heads of state unanimously agreed to a historic ban on the trade of donkey skin, thereby prohibiting the killing of donkeys across the continent for their hides.
- This is a significant outcome following the Dar es Salaam declaration adopted at the first African Union-Interafrican Bureau for Animal Resource (AU-IBAR) Pan-African Donkey Conference in December 2022.
About:
Africa Club
- It is the Alliance of African Multilateral Financial Institutions (which are African owned and controlled) launched at the African Union summit.
- The initiative aims to amplify Africa’s influence in the global financial system by aligning its functions with the SDGs and the African Union’s Agenda 2063.
- It seeks to introduce innovative financial instruments, provide a venue for debt management discussions and foster collaborative effort to address the specific needs of African countries.
- Its members include African Export Import Bank, Trade and Development Bank, Africa Finance Corporation, African Reinsurance Corporation, African Trade and Investment Development Insurance, Shelter Afrique Development Bank and ZEP – RE (PTA Reinsurance Co).
African Union
- It is a continental body consisting of the countries of the African Continent
- It was officially launched in 2002 as a successor to the Organisation of African Unity in Durban, South Africa.
- Member states: 55 nations of the African Continent
- Focus: It is to increase cooperation and integration of African states to drive Africa’s growth and economic development.
- Vision: An Integrated, Prosperous and Peaceful Africa, driven by its own citizens and representing a dynamic force in the global arena.
- Principal Organs: The Assembly of Heads of State and Government, the Executive Council, the Permanent Representatives Committee (PRC), the Peace and Security Council and The African Union Commission, Pan-African Parliament and the Economic, Social & Cultural Council (ECOSOCC).
★★★★★ 4/5
Prelims: Science & Tech. (Emerging Tech), Genie AI Model, AI
Mains: General Studies-III Achievements of Indians in Science & Technology; Indigenization of Technology and Developing New Technology.
Why in the News ?
Recently, Google DeepMind has just introduced Genie, a new model that can generate interactive video games from just a text or image prompt.
Source: IE
About:
Genie AI Model
- It is a foundation world model that is trained on videos sourced from the Internet.
- The model can “generate an endless variety of playable (action-controllable) worlds from synthetic images, photographs, and even sketches.”
- It is the first generative interactive environment that has been trained in an unsupervised manner from unlabelled internet videos.
Specifications:
- When it comes to size, Genie stands at 11B parameters and consists of a spatiotemporal video tokenizer, an autoregressive dynamics model, and a simple and scalable latent action model.
- These technical specifications let Genie act in generated environments on a frame-by-frame basis even in the absence of training, labels, or any other domain-specific requirements.
- Genie can be prompted to generate a diverse set of interactive and controllable environments although it is trained on video-only data.
- It makes playable environments from a single image prompt.
- It can be prompted with images it has never seen. This includes real world photographs, sketches, allowing people to interact with their imagined virtual worlds.
- It is trained more on videos of 2D platformer games and robotics.
- Genie is trained on a general method, allowing it to function on any type of domain, and it is scalable to even larger Internet datasets.
- The standout aspect of Genie is its ability to learn and reproduce controls for in-game characters exclusively from internet videos.
- This is noteworthy because internet videos do not have labels about the action that is performed in the video, or even which part of the image should be controlled.
- It allows you to create an entire new interactive environment from a single image
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
- AI is the ability of a computer, or a robot controlled by a computer to do tasks that are usually done by humans because they require human intelligence and discernment.
- Although there is no AI that can perform the wide variety of tasks an ordinary human can do, some AI can match humans in specific tasks.
- Characteristics & Components:
- The ideal characteristic of artificial intelligence is its ability to rationalize and take actions that have the best chance of achieving a specific goal. A subset of AI is Machine Learning (ML).
- Deep Learning (DL) techniques enable this automatic learning through the absorption of huge amounts of unstructured data such as text, images, or video.
Applications of AI in Different Sectors
- Healthcare: It aims to enhance diagnosis accuracy, enable personalized treatment, improve patient outcomes, streamline healthcare operations, and accelerate medical research and innovation.
- Recently, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) issued a guiding document- “The Ethical Guidelines for Application of AI in Biomedical Research and Health care”, which outlines 10 key patient-centric ethical principles for AI application in the health sector.
- Business: AI in the business sector helps optimize operations, enhance decision-making, automate repetitive tasks, improve customer service, enable personalized marketing, analyze big data for insights, detect fraud and cybersecurity threats, streamline supply chain management, and drive innovation and competitiveness.Education: AI could open new possibilities for innovative and personalised approaches catering to different learning abilities.
- IIT Kharagpur has collaborated with Amazon Web Services to develop the National AI Resource Platform (NAIRP), the future possibilities of which include monitoring eye movement, motion and other parameters for better teaching and learning.
- As demonstrated by ChatGPT, Bard and other large language models, generative AI can help educators and engage students in new ways.
- Judiciary: It is used to improve legal research and analysis, automate documentation and case management, enhance court processes and scheduling, facilitate online dispute resolution, assist in legal decision-making through predictive analytics, and increase access to justice by providing virtual legal assistance and resources.
- SUVAS (Supreme Court Vidhik Anuvaad Software): It is an AI system that can assist in the translation of judgments into regional languages.
- This is another landmark effort to increase access to justice.
- SUPACE (Supreme Court Portal for Assistance in Court Efficiency): It was recently launched by the Supreme Court of India.
- Cybersecurity/Security: It is used in security and cybersecurity to detect and prevent cyber threats, identify anomalous activities, analyze large volumes of data for patterns and vulnerabilities, enhance network and endpoint security, automate threat response and incident management, strengthen authentication and access control, and provide real-time threat intelligence and predictive analytics for proactive defense against cyber attacks.
UPSC CSE EXAMS Corner
Prelims: PYQ/FAQ
Q. With the print state of development, Artificial Intelligence can effectively do which of the following?
1. Bring down electricity consumption in industrial units
2. Create meaningful short stories and songs
3. Disease diagnosis
4. Text -to -Speech Conversion
5. Wireless transmission of electrical energy
Select the correct answer using the code given below:
A) 1, 2, 3 and 5 only
B) 1, 3 and 4 only
C) 2, 4 and 5 only
D) 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5
Ans: d. 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5
Notes:
- Artificial Intelligence (AI) refers to the simulation of human intelligence in machines that are programmed to think like humans and mimic their actions.
- Artificial Intelligence has various applications in today’s society. in multiple industries, such as Healthcare, entertainment, finance, education, etc.
- AI has been used in disease diagnosis, creating songs like ‘I am AI’ and ‘Daddy’s Car’ and creating short stories and fictions. AI has been used in Text -to -speech conversion, e.g. Cerewave AI.
- Artificial Intelligence has also found use in power industry, e.g. Machine -learning assisted power transfer (based on AI) using magnetic resonance and AI used for energy efficiency. Hence all the options are correct.
★★★★★ 4.5/5
Prelims: Polity (Constitutional Bodies, Statutory Bodies), Lokpal, Lokpal Search Committee
Mains: General Studies-II Appointment to various Constitutional Posts, Powers, Functions and Responsibilities of various Constitutional Bodies.
Why in the News ?
Former Supreme Court judge Justice Ajay Manikrao Khanwilkar was recently appointed as the chairperson of Lokpal.
Source: HT
📌 FYI on Prelims
Key Provisions of the Lokpal and Lokayuktas (Amendment) Act, 2016
- It amended the Lokpal and Lokayukta Act, 2013.
- It also amended section 44 of the 2013 Act that deals with the provision of furnishing of details of assets and liabilities of public servants within 30 days of joining the government service.
- It replaces the time limit of 30 days, now the public servants will make a declaration of their assets and liabilities in the form and manner as prescribed by the government.
About:
Lokpal
- It is a statutory body established under the Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act 2013.
- Mandate: To inquire into allegations of corruption against certain public functionaries and for related matters.
- Organisational Structure:
- The Lokpal will consist of a chairperson and a maximum of eight members.
- The Chairperson should be either the former Chief Justice of India, or a former Judge of the Supreme Court, or an eminent person who fulfils the eligibility criteria as specified.
- Out of the maximum eight members, half will be judicial members. The judicial member of the Lokpal should be either a former Judge of the Supreme Court or a former Chief Justice of a High Court.
- A minimum of fifty per cent of the Members will be from SC / ST / OBC / Minorities and women.
- How are members appointed?
- The Chairperson and the Members are appointed by the President of India on the recommendation of a selection committee composed of the Prime Minister as the Chairperson, the Speaker of Lok Sabha, the Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha, the Chief Justice of India or a Judge nominated by him/her, and one eminent jurist.
- They hold office for a term of five years from the date on which they enter upon the office or until they attain the age of 70 years, whichever is earlier.
- The salary, allowances, and other conditions of services of the Chairperson are the same as that of the Chief Justice of India.
- The salary, allowances, and other conditions of services of the members are the same as that of a Judge of the Supreme Court.
- Jurisdiction:
- It has jurisdiction to inquire into allegations of corruption against anyone who is or has been Prime Minister, a Minister in the Union government, or a Member of Parliament, as well as officials of the Union Government under Groups A, B, C, and D.
- It covers chairpersons, members, officers, and directors of any board, corporation, society, trust, or autonomous body either established by an Act of Parliament or wholly or partly funded by the Union or State government.
- It also covers any society, trust, or body that receives a foreign contribution above Rs 10 lakh.
- Exceptions for Prime Minister:
- Lokpal cannot inquire into allegations against the PM relating to international relations, external and internal security, public order, atomic energy, and space.
- Also, complaints against the PM are not to be probed unless the full Lokpal bench considers the initiation of the inquiry and at least 2/3rds of the members approve it.
- Powers of Lokpal:
- It has powers to superintendence over and to give direction to the CBI.
- If it has referred a case to the CBI, the investigating officer in such a case cannot be transferred without the approval of Lokpal.
- Powers to authorize CBI for search and seizure operations connected to such cases.
- The Inquiry Wing of the Lokpal has been vested with the powers of a civil court.
- Lokpal has powers of confiscation of assets, proceeds, receipts, and benefits arisen or procured by means of corruption in special circumstances.
- Lokpal has the power to recommend the transfer or suspension of public servants connected with the allegation of corruption.
- Lokpal has the power to give directions to prevent the destruction of records during the preliminary inquiry.
- In terms of Section 48 of the said Act, the Lokpal is required to present annually to the President a report on the work done by it, which is caused to be laid in both the Houses of the Parliament.
Lokpal Search Committee
- Under the Lokpal Act of 2013, the Department of Personnel & Training (DoPT) is supposed to put together a list of candidates interested to be the chairperson or members of the Lokpal.
- This list would then go to the proposed eight-member search committee, which would shortlist names and place them before the selection panel headed by the Prime Minister.
- The selection panel may or may not pick names suggested by the search committee.
- In September 2018, the government had constituted a search committee headed by former Supreme Court judge Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai.
- The 2013 Act also provides that all states should set up the office of the Lokayukta within one year from the commencement of the Act.
UPSC CSE EXAMS Corner
Mains: PYQ/FAQ
Q. Recent changes in filing complaints with Lokpal can significantly curb corruption. Critically analyse. (250 words)
★★★★★ 5/5
Prelims: Science & Tech. (Important scientific Projects), Genome India Project, Genome Sequencing
Mains: General Studies-III Achievements of Indians in Science & Technology; Indigenization of Technology and Developing New Technology.
Why in the News ?
The government recently announced the completion of sequencing 10,000 healthy genomes from various regions across the country, representing 99 different populations. The aim is to establish a comprehensive database of whole-genome sequences out of India
Source: TH
📌 FYI on Prelims
The Human Genome Project
- It was a significant global scientific endeavour whose primary goal was to create the first sequence of the human genome.
- The Project formally began in 1990 and was completed in 2003, to discover all the estimated 20,000-25,000 human genes and make them accessible for further biological study.
- Objectives: To create three research tools that will enable scientists to identify genes that are involved in both rare and common diseases.
- To investigate and educate the public about the ethical, legal, and social implications of new genetic technologies.
About:
Genome India Project
- Initiated: The Department of Biotechnology (DBT) has initiated it in 2020.
- Aim: To collect 10,000 genetic samples from citizens across India, to build a reference genome.
- Objective: Studying genetic differences in Indians for better diagnosis.
- Other Stakeholders involved: The project involves 20 institutions across India and is led by the Centre for Brain Research at the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore.
- Significance: Study India’s genetic diversity for personalized healthcare.
- India accomplished its first complete human genome sequencing in 2006.
Outcomes of the Genome India Project
- Population diversity: India has more than 4,600 distinct population groups, with many practicing endogamy. These factors contributed to the genetic diversity of the current population.
- Unique variations: Some Indian groups have a higher prevalence of disease-causing mutations due to unique variations in their population. This underscores the importance of studying India’s genetic landscape.
- Note All the data will be stored at the Indian Biological Data Centre (IBDC) for public research. The IBDC is the country’s only databank for life science data, established in 2022.
Genome Sequencing
- About: It is the process of determining the precise order of nucleotides (adenine, guanine, cytosine, and thymine) within an organism’s DNA.
- It involves reading the genetic code contained in the DNA molecules to identify specific sequences of nucleotides.
- Significance: It allows scientists to understand the complete genetic makeup of an organism, including its genes, regulatory sequences, and other functional elements.
- Applications: Medicine, agriculture, evolutionary biology, and forensic science.
- About: It is the process of determining the precise order of nucleotides (adenine, guanine, cytosine, and thymine) within an organism’s DNA.
UPSC CSE EXAMS Corner
Prelims: PYQ/FAQ
Q. With reference to agriculture in India, how can the technique of ‘genome sequencing’, often seen in the news, be used in the immediate future? (2017)
- Genome sequencing can be used to identify genetic markers for disease resistance and drought tolerance in various crop plants.
- This technique helps in reducing the time required to develop new varieties of crop plants.
- It can be used to decipher the host-pathogen relationships in crops.
Select the correct answer using the code given below:
A) 1 only
B) 2 and 3 only
C) 1 and 3 only
D) 1, 2 and 3
Ans: d. 1, 2 and 3
Explaination:
- Chinese scientists decoded rice genome in 2002. The Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) scientists used the genome sequencing to develop better varieties of rice such as Pusa Basmati-1 and Pusa Basmati-1121, which currently makes up substantially in India’s rice export. Several transgenic varieties have also been developed, including insect resistant cotton, herbicide tolerant soybean, and virus resistant papaya. Hence, 1 is correct.
- In conventional breeding, plant breeders scrutinize their fields and search for individual plants that exhibit desirable traits. These traits arise spontaneously through a process called mutation, but the natural rate of mutation is very slow and unreliable to produce all the plant traits that breeders would like to see. However, in genome sequencing it takes less time, thus it is more preferable. Hence, 2 is correct.
- The host-pathogen interaction is defined as how microbes or viruses sustain themselves within host organisms on a molecular, cellular, organism or population level. The genome sequencing enables the study of the entire DNA sequence of a crop, thus it aids in understanding of pathogens’ survival or breeding zone. Hence, 3 is correct.
