Science and Technology (S&T) Digest, 01-15 November 2022, Issue 1 |

In this Issue

I. DEFENCE AND SECURITY

Sonar Systems Developed for the Indian Navy

Giving impetus to the ‘Aatma Nirbhar Bharat’ and India’s ‘Make in India’ commitment, Defence Research & Development Organization (DRDO) launched Hull Module of Submersible Platform for Acoustic Characterization & Evaluation (SPACE) facility at Naval Physical & Oceanographic Laboratory (NPOL) Kochi recently. It is a state-of-the-art testing and evaluation facility for sonar systems developed for use by the Indian navy onboard various platforms, including ships, submarines and helicopters.
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Five Make II Projects for the Indian Army Approved

Indian Army is spearheading actions to provide impetus to “Make Projects” as the prime drivers of infusion of niche technologies through indigenous development. To give a further boost to the ongoing projects, Indian Army has now approved Project Sanction Orders (PSOs) of five Make II Projects: High Frequency Man Packed Software Defined Radio (HFSDR); Drone Kill System; Infantry Training Weapon Simulator (IWTS); 155mm Terminally Guided Munitions (TGM); and, Medium Range Precision Kill System (MRPKS). Make II projects are essentially Industry funded projects involving design, development and innovative solutions by Indian vendors for development of prototypes.
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DRDO Conducts Flight-Test of Phase-II BMD Interceptor AD-1 Missile

Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO) conducted a successful maiden flight-test of Phase-II Ballistic Missile Defence (BMD) interceptor AD-1 missile with large kill altitude bracket from APJ Abdul Kalam Island off the coast of Odisha on 2 November 2022. The flight-test was carried out with participation of all BMD weapon system elements located at different geographical locations. The AD-1 is a long-range interceptor missile designed for both low exo-atmospheric and endo-atmospheric interception of long-range ballistic missiles as well as aircraft.
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Charging Stations for Electric Vehicles (EV) Setup

The Indian Army through it’s ‘Go-Green Initiative’ has collaborated with TATA Power, India’s largest integrated utility, to setup 16 charging stations for electric vehicles (EV) at various locations in Delhi Cantonment.
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II. EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES AND APPLICATIONS

Start-up Ideas Taking Shape

Number of Start-Ups Increased in India

Prime Minister Narendra Modi who had given a call for “Start-Up India Stand Up India” from the ramparts of Red Fort in his Independence Day address of 2015 that initiated a mass interest, as a result of which the number of Start-Ups in India has increased from mere 350 in 2014 to over 80,000 in 2022 with more than 100 unicorns.
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Start-Up Needs to Continuously Upgrade Technology

Under the Startup India Plan at Atal Incubation Centre, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, Minister of Commerce & Industry and Textiles, Piyush Goyal, interacted with youth engaged in startups in Varanasi on 11 November 2022 and urged them to continuously upgrade technology to find cost effective solutions to benefit society. Over 236 startups had been registered from Varanasi and over 7,000 startups had been registered from across the state of Uttar Pradesh.
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Promoting Agri-Techs

India International Agro Trade and Technology Fair 2022

Indian Chamber of Food and Agriculture (ICFA) has organized “AgroWorld 2022” – India International Agro Trade and Technology Fair 2022 from 9-11 November 2022 at Indian Agriculture Research Institute, Pusa Campus, New Delhi for showcasing the development and modernisations achieved by key stakeholders in major sectors like food, agriculture, horticulture, animal husbandry, fisheries & allied. National Fisheries Development Board (NFDB), Hyderabad, was awarded with “India Agribusiness Awards 2022” for supporting various need-based projects for technology upgradation, species diversification in aquaculture, dissemination of new and improved fish varieties, among others.
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Huge Potential of Agri-Tech Start-ups in J&K

Inaugurating the Start-up summit in Srinagar on 9 November 2022, Minister of State (Independent Charge) Ministry of Science and Technology and Earth Science; Dr Jitendra Singh said that J&K has huge unexplored potential of Agri-tech Start-ups as the geography and climatic conditions here favour the cultivation of medicinal and aromatic plants. A new wave of Agri-tech Start-Ups has emerged in the country in the last few years and these Start-Ups are solving problems related to supply chain management, cooling and refrigeration, seed management and distribution, besides helping farmers to access a wider range of markets.
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S&T in Energy

The Green Energy Open Access Portal Launched

In continuation of several initiatives to promote clean and green energy, the Government of India on 11 November 2022 launched the Green Energy Open Access Portal that can be accessed at https://greenopenaccess.in/. The portal provides a transparent, simplified, uniform and streamlined procedure for granting open access to green energy that will be key to facilitating deepening of electricity markets and enabling integration of Renewable Energy (RE) resources into the grid. It is aimed at ensuring affordable, reliable, sustainable, and green energy for all.
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Using S&T in Tackling Environment Problems

The Commission for Air Quality Management in NCR and Adjoining Areas (CAQM) has decided to tap the technical/ academic expertise of the reputed scientific institutions working in the field of air pollution for joint and augmented approach towards prevention, control and abatement of the menace of air pollution in Delhi-NCR. After detailed technical and financial evaluation and appraisal, seven (07) proposals have been approved by the Commission, including: Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI)/ Machine Learning (ML) tool for vehicle counting by uploading the CCTV footage on Cloud Platform; Addressing Vehicular Traffic Induced Road Dust Re-suspension with Science & Technology (S&T) based Action Plans for Air Quality Improvement; and, An Autonomous Drone Swarm Framework for Real Time Air Quality Monitoring and Pollutant Quantification.
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S&T in Health

Digital Storage of Health Records

DigiLocker, the authentic documents exchange platform, has successfully completed its second-level of integration with Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM). The secure cloud-based storage platform of DigiLocker can be used now as a health locker for storing and accessing health records such as vaccination records, doctor prescriptions, lab reports, hospital discharge summaries etc.
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S&T in Education

Promoting S&T Research through Fellowships

A total of 301 young researchers were selected for support under Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB)-National Post-Doctoral Fellowship (N-PDF). The selected researchers will work for 2 years in broadly five thematic areas of science and engineering: Chemical Sciences, Earth & Atmospheric Sciences, Engineering Sciences, Life Sciences, and Physical & Mathematical Sciences. In 2015, the fellowship was launched to tap the young budding researchers and support them to graduate to an independent scientist and so far 3800 researchers are benefited.
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Other Social Sectors

Digital Public Services

The government of India has launched a nation-wide campaign for promotion of Digital Life Certificate (DLC) for Central Government pensioners. In November 2021, it had launched the milestone Face Authentication Technique of submitting Life Certificate through any Android Mobile Phone. This special nation-side campaign will help ‘Ease of Living’ of pensioners.
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STI Hubs for Achieving Inclusive Socio-Economic Development

The Department of Science and Technology (DST) had so far established 10 exclusive “Science Technology and Innovation (STI) Hubs” in different parts of the country for holistic development of Scheduled Tribe (ST) communities. Four out of 10 such STI Hubs had been established in the Northeast, in the States of Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Sikkim and Tripura to create sustainable livelihoods for the ST population of North-Eastern States. About 100 new projects were supported during the last three years in diverse technology areas and these projects are expected to benefit more than 50,000 ST population in various regions of the country.
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III. INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION

India Looks to Shape the Technology and Digitalization of the World

India which takes over G20 presidency soon, will play a key role in shaping the technology and digitalization of the world. “Technology and digitalisation are going to play a significant role in shaping of the economies, the trades and the multipolar world of the future and India, is sitting there in a sweet spot, to play a significant role in the shaping of that future.” Post-Covid, India has fared way better than other major countries of the world. “The report card of India shows that we have come out with great marks – 200 crore vaccinations, fastest growing economy, highest FDI, while for others it has been unprecedented inflation, recession, lockdowns and shutdowns.” Technology, Digital India, use of technology in government has kept India’s economy chugging on track.
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Agri-Tech Cooperation with BIMSTEC Countries

On 10 November 2022, India hosted the Second Agriculture Ministerial-level meeting of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) under the chairmanship of the Union Minister for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Narendra Singh Tomar where he urged the member countries to cooperate in developing a comprehensive regional strategy to strengthen cooperation for the transformation of agriculture. The Minister said that along with digital farming and precision farming, initiatives under the ‘One Health’ approach are also taking shape in India.
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India-ASEAN Tech Cooperation

In the Joint Statement on 12 November 2022, India and the ASEAN countries declared to explore fintech cooperation including unified and interoperable digital financial systems between ASEAN and India, which would expand opportunities for businesses and e-commerce.
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S&T Cooperation between the SCO Member States

On 1 November 2022, the twenty-first meeting of the Council of Heads of Governments (Prime Ministers) of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Member States was held in a video conference format where the heads of delegations noted a growing role of digitalization and innovative technologies in promoting economic growth and sustainable development in the SCO region. They stressed the need to implement the Concept of Cooperation between the SCO Member States in Digitalization and Information and Communication Technologies.
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India-US Tech Cooperation Reviewed

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Joseph Biden met on the margins of G-20 Leaders’ Summit in Bali on 15 November 2022 where the two sides reviewed the India-US strategic partnership including bilateral cooperation in future oriented sectors like critical and emerging technologies (CET), advanced computing, artificial intelligence (AI), etc.
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India-Finland STI Cooperation

A high level delegation led by Finland Minister of Education and Culture, Petri Honkonen met with Union Minister of Science and Technology Dr Jitendra Singh on 14 November 2022 where the two sides discussed to enhance bilateral cooperation in the field of Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) including in areas such as Digital Partnership in Future ICT, Future Mobile Technologies and Digital Education. Honkonen assured that Finland is keen to cooperate with India in 5G, Environment and Clean Technologies, Bio-based Economy, BioBanks and Affordable Healthcare.
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Indo-German Week of the Young Researchers 2022

The Indo-German Week of the Young Researchers 2022, which was inaugurated on 7 November 2022, brought 30 promising young researchers from the two countries together to share their research interests and build long-term research partnerships. The interaction will be the first of its kind among the researchers of two countries in the post-pandemic world. The main goal of the conclave is to foster collaboration among early and mid-career researchers and scientists who will be setting the agenda of scientific cooperation in the near future.
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IV. REGIONAL AND GLOBAL TRENDS

Biden Administration’s Efforts in Building STEMM Ecosystem

The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), in collaboration with the American Association of Colleges and Universities, the Association of Science and Technology Centers, and the Kapor Center, on 27 October virtually convened leaders across multiple sectors, who are working to advance equity and broaden participation in Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics and Medicine (STEMM).
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Japan Invests to Strengthen Semiconductor Development and Production

Japan is investing 70-billion-yen ($490-million) to beef up semiconductor development and production in a “last chance” attempt to keep its position as a major player on the global technology stage. According to the Japanese Ministry of Economy Trade and Industry, the new company Rapidus, which means “quick” in Latin, will work on developing next-generation, or “post-5G,” semiconductors.
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FTX’s Collapse Forcing US Lawmakers and Regulators to Regroup

Bahamas-based FTX, one of the world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchanges, filed for bankruptcy on 11 November 2022 and founder Sam Bankman-Fried stepped down as CEO after its affiliated trading firm Alameda Research blew through billions of dollars in user deposits on risky bets. Once worth roughly $32 billion, FTX’s value has been wiped out and its customers face a long, potentially fruitless road to getting their money back.
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WhatsApp Rolls Out New Features for its Communities

The Meta-owned platform WhatsApp has rolled out in-chat polls and will allow file transfer of up to 2GB files, which was limited to up to 16 MB earlier. “WhatsApp is also releasing three more features: the ability to create in-chat polls, 32-person video calling, and groups with up to 1,024 users.
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