19 AUGUST 2023

Topic 1: India’s first 3D-printed post office

Context: India’s first 3D-printed post office was recently in Bengaluru’s Cambridge Layout.

Key details:

• Multinational company Larsen & Toubro Limited built the post office with technological support from IIT Madras.
• Relevance of 3D printing:
  • Invented in the 1980s, 3D printing burst into the mainstream around the 2010s.
  • The technology at the time was expensive, slow and prone to making errors.
  • In recent years, some of these flaws have been done away with, making 3D printing more prevalent than ever before.
  • For instance, it’s being used in automotive and aerospace sectors to make parts of cars and rockets respectively.
• What is 3D printing?
  • 3D printing, also known as additive manufacturing, is a process that uses computer-created design to make three-dimensional objects layer by layer.
  • It is an additive process, in which layers of a material like plastic, composites or bio-materials are built up to construct objects that range in shape, size, rigidity and colour.
• How is 3D printing done?
  • To carry out 3D printing, one needs a personal computer connected to a 3D printer.
  • All they need to do is design a 3D model of the required object on computer-aid design (CAD) software and press ‘print’.
  • The 3D printer does the rest of the job.
  • 3D printers construct the desired object by using a layering method.
  • 3D printers build from the bottom up by piling on layer after layer until the object looks exactly like it was envisioned.
  • It essentially adds hundreds or thousands of 2D prints on top of one another to make a three-dimensional object.
• Notable examples of 3D printing
  • Recently, aerospace manufacturing company Relativity Space launched a test rocketmade entirely from 3D-printed parts, measuring 100 feet tall and 7.5 feet wide.
    • Shortly after its take off, however, it suffered a failure.\
  • At the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, the healthcare industry used 3D printers to make much-needed medical equipment, like swabs, face shields, and masks, as well as the parts to fix their ventilators.

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Topic 2: Agnikul’s Agnibaan space vehicle

Context: Chennai-based space-tech startup Agnikul Cosmos announced that it had taken a rocket that it has developed to a launchpad in Sriharikota to “commence integration checks” for a proposed suborbital space flight.

Key details:

• A successful flight will make Agnikul the second Indian space-tech company to send a vehicle to space after Hyderabad-based Skyroot Aerospace.
• The launch of Skyroot’s 545-kg rocket named Vikram-S in 2022 marked the launch of India’s private space industry.

About Agnikul’s space vehicle

• Agnikul’s Suborbital Tech Demonstrator (SorTeD) single-stage launch vehicle, called Agnibaan, is driven by the company’s patented Agnilet engine.
• Agnibaan SOrTeD will lift off vertically & follow a predetermined trajectory.
• Agnibaan can carry payloads up to 100 kg to a low Earth orbit (LEO) up to 700 km and can carry one or more satellites.
• Engine:
  • The Agnilet engine is an entirely 3D-printed, single-piece, 6 kN semi-cryogenic engine.
  • The engine uses a mixture of liquid kerosene at room temperature and supercold liquid oxygen as propellant.
  • In 2021, Skyroot had successfully demonstrated the country’s first privately developed cryogenic engine, Dhawan-1, which too was completely 3D printed, using a superalloy, by a process that cut the manufacturing time by 95 per cent.
• Concerns about 3d printing in space vehicles:
  • While it does allow engineers to reiterate designs faster than with conventional manufacturing techniques, it is not as scalable.
  • With conventional techniques, once a design has been set, multiple copies can be made much faster.
  • 3D printing is still slow if you compare it to injection moulding or planar-based manufacturing where you can manufacture millions of pieces every month.
  • So it is not meant for manufacturing in large volumes.

Role of the private sector in space

• In 2020, the government approved the creation of the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe) to ensure greater private participation in India’s space activities.
• At the time that Indian industry had a barely 3% share in the rapidly growing global space economy, which was already worth at least $360 billion.
• Only 2% of this market was for rocket and satellite launch services, the rest 95% related to satellite-based services and ground-based systems.
• Indian industry was unable to compete, because its role has traditionally been to supply components and sub-systems.
• Indian industries did not have the resources or the technology to undertake independent space projects of the kind that companies such as SpaceX have been doing in the United States.
• ISRO was unable to keep up with the growing demand for space-based applications and services even within India.
• ISRO would provide all its facilities to private players whose projects had been approved by IN-SPACe.
• Private companies could even build their own launchpad within the Sriharikota launch station, and ISRO would provide the necessary land.

Benefit to ISRO:

• There are two main reasons why enhanced private involvement in the space sector is important:
  • Strategic:
    • Private participation will free up ISRO to concentrate on science, research and development, interplanetary exploration, and strategic launches.
    • Right now, too much of ISRO’s resources are consumed by routine activities that delay its more strategic objectives.
  • Commercial:
    • There is no reason why ISRO alone should be launching weather or communication satellites.
    • The world over, an increasing number of private players are taking over this activity for commercial benefits.
    •  And ISRO, like NASA, is essentially a scientific organisation whose main objective is exploration of space and carrying out scientific missions.
    • ISRO can earn some money by making its facilities and data available to private players.

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Topic 3: Camp David

Context: US President will host Japanese Prime Minister and South Korean President for their first-ever joint summit at Camp David, a Presidential Retreat in the US state of Maryland.

About Camp David

• Camp David is located 96 km away from the USA’s capital Washington DC.
• It was originally built as a camp for federal employees and their families, completed in 1938 as part of the New Deal.
  • This was a programme meant to stimulate the economy during the Great Depression, a period of mass unemployment and poverty in the early 20th Century.
  • The New Deal, in response to the economic crisis, saw many public works being undertaken to generate employment and aid the poor.
• The site began to be used by Presidents under Franklin Roosevelt.
• In 1942, he visited Camp David, which was then known as Camp Hi-Catoctin, and selected it for retreat.
• Roosevelt renamed Camp Hi-Catoctin “Shangri-La”.
• President Dwight Eisenhower changed the facility’s name to “Camp David” after his grandson.
• It has since hosted leaders such as UK PM Winston Churchill, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, Russian President Vladimir Putin and all of the G8 leaders during the 2012 Summit.
• The most famous diplomatic event, however, was the US-Egypt-Israel meetings of 1978

Camp David Accords

• Camp David Accords are agreements between Israel and Egypt signed on September 17, 1978.
• It led in the following year to a peace treaty between those two countries, the first such treaty between Israel and any of its Arab neighbours.
• The agreements became known as the Camp David Accords because the negotiations took place at the U.S. presidential retreat at Camp David, Maryland.

What has happened since the Camp David Accords?

• On one hand, it helped normalised ties between Egypt and Israel.
• In 1979, the Egyptian-Israeli Peace Treaty was signed at the White House.
• But the Arab world initially rejected it and ousted Egypt from the Arab League grouping (it would be re-admitted a few years later).
• At present, however, a growing number of countries in the region are establishing full-scale diplomatic relations with Israel or are participating in trade with it.
• The question of Palestine has not been addressed to date, though.
• The Accords also made note of resolving the “refugee problem”, referring to the Palestinian refugees of the wars, but not much progress has been made on that end.

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Topic 4: Air pollution and rise in antibiotic resistance

Context: A study throws new light on spread of antimicrobial resistance through air, has relevance for all areas where air pollution is higher.

Key details:  

• A recent study has found links between fine particulate matter (PM2.5) air pollution and antibiotic resistance.
• Africa and Asia could face the largest increase in antibiotic resistance. 
• The study presented the first global estimates of antibiotic resistance and burden of premature deaths attributable to antibiotic resistance resulting from PM2.5 pollution.

The linkage:

• Air pollution is considered to be the world’s largest environmental health threat, accounting for seven million deaths around the world every year. 
• Globally, a 10 per cent increase in annual PM2.5 could lead to a 1.1 per cent increase in aggregate antibiotic resistance and 43,654 premature deaths. 
• Countrywise data:
  • Saudi Arabia would have a three per cent increase in antibiotic resistance if PM 2.5 increases by 10 per cent,
  • Niger would see a 2.9 per cent increase,
  • United Arab Emirates a 2.6 per cent increase,
  • Pakistan a 2.6 per cent increase,
  • Nigeria a 2.5 per cent increase,
  • India a 2.5 per cent increase,
  • Cameroon a 2.2 per cent increase,
  • Bahrain a 2.2 per cent increase and
  • China a 2.1 per cent increase. 
• China and India could be the countries where changes in PM2.5 have the largest effect on premature deaths attributable to antibiotic resistance due to their large populations. 
• Impact of reduced air pollution:
  • The five microgramme per cubic metre (μg/m3) target of concentration of PM2.5 in the air quality guidelines set by the World Health Organization (WHO), if reached in 2050, was estimated to reduce antibiotic resistance by 16.8 per cent and avoid 23.4 per cent of premature deaths attributable to antibiotic resistance.
  • It will be equivalent to a saving of $640 billion.

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Topic 5: A-HELP Programme

Context: The government has recently unveiled the ‘A-HELP’ (Accredited Agent for Health and Extension of Livestock Production) programme along with an Infertility Camp.

Key details:

• This approach recognizes the significant role of women in the comprehensive development of the livestock sector
• The Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying, Government of India, is spearheading these initiatives as part of the Pashudhan Jagrati Abhiyaan under Inclusive Development.
  • Pashudhan Jagriti Abhiyaan equips farmers with knowledge and resources that address critical areas of livestock health, disease management, and animal infertility concerns.
• Aim:         
  • The ‘A-HELP’ programme aims to empower women by engaging them as trained agents who contribute significantly to disease control, artificial insemination under the Rashtriya Gokul Mission (RGM), animal tagging, and livestock insurance.

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Topic 6: Meitei Pangals

Context: The United Meitei-Pangal Committee of Manipur urged the President, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) and the National Commission for Minorities to urgently intervene and bring peace.

About the Meitei Pangals

• The Meiteis are the largest ethnic group in Manipur, making up 53% of the state’s population.
• More than 80% of the Meiteis are Hindu and just under 10% follow Islam, as per Census 2011.
• Meitei Pangals are the Meiteis who practise Islam.
• The first Muslims are believed to have settled in Manipur around the early 17th century.
• The Manipuri kingdom employed many Muslims in its military and administration.
• Muslim soldiers helped repel invasions from Burma in the 18th century and by the British in the 19th century.

• The descendents of the early Muslim migrants came to be known as Meitei Pangals.