10 October 2024

• Economy: Cabinet approved the purchase of 31 MQ-9B drones for 3.99 billion dollars and enhanced UPI transaction limits for Lite and UPI123Pay wallets.
• Food security: Cabinet extended the universal fortified rice supply under the National Food Security Act until December 2028.
• Nobel Chemistry: The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2024 was announced for David Baker, Demis Hassabis, and John Jumper for computational protein design and AI-based protein structure prediction.
• Environment: The Living Planet Report 2024 documented a 73 per cent average decline in monitored wildlife populations since 1970.

GS area: Science and Technology (Biology, Chemistry, Artificial Intelligence)

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2024 was awarded in two parts:

• One half to David Baker: For computational protein design. Baker and his team at the University of Washington used computational tools to design entirely new proteins that do not exist in nature, tailored to specific functions. This is the reverse of the classical problem of predicting the shape of known proteins.
• One half jointly to Demis Hassabis and John Jumper: For protein structure prediction using the AlphaFold AI model. AlphaFold 2, developed at Google DeepMind, can predict the three-dimensional structure of any protein from its amino acid sequence with near-experimental accuracy.
• Why it matters: Proteins do almost all the work of living cells. Their function depends on their shape. Knowing the shape of a protein used to require years of crystallographic work. AlphaFold compressed this to hours. Baker's work allows scientists to design proteins for desired functions rather than only discover natural ones.
• Applications: New drugs, biological enzymes for industrial processes, vaccines, and biosensors.

Static linkage: Biotechnology, structural biology, AI applications in science (Science and Technology).

GS area: Defence, Science and Technology

The Cabinet Committee on Security approved the purchase of 31 MQ-9B unmanned aerial vehicles from the United States under a government-to-government deal.

• Split: 15 Sea Guardians for the Navy, 16 Sky Guardians divided between the Army and Air Force.
• Value: 3.99 billion dollars, making it one of India's largest single defence import contracts.
• Specifications: Operates above 40,000 feet. Endurance of over 40 hours. Payload capacity of 5,670 kilograms.
• Offset benefit: General Atomics, the manufacturer, will establish a Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul facility in India, supporting indigenous capability.
• Role: Persistent surveillance over land and maritime domain. The Navy's Sea Guardian variant tracks submarines and surface ships. The Army and Air Force variants conduct surveillance along the LAC.

Static linkage: India-USA defence cooperation, Defence Acquisition Procedure, ISR capabilities (Defence).

GS area: Economy (Digital Payments)

The Reserve Bank of India announced enhanced transaction limits for two UPI sub-systems.

• UPI Lite wallet limit: Maximum balance raised from 2,000 to 5,000 rupees. Per-transaction limit raised from 500 to 1,000 rupees. UPI Lite operates without a real-time bank connection for small payments.
• UPI123Pay limit: Per-transaction limit raised from 5,000 to 10,000 rupees. UPI123Pay allows feature phone users (without internet) to make UPI payments using Interactive Voice Response.
• RTGS/NEFT enhancement: RBI announced beneficiary name look-up for RTGS and NEFT transfers, allowing senders to verify the beneficiary's name before authorising a transfer. This reduces the risk of misdirected transfers.
• Context: UPI processed over 13,000 crore transactions in FY 2023-24, up from 92 crore in FY 2017-18.

Static linkage: Digital payments, RBI, financial inclusion (Economy).

GS area: Environment (Biodiversity)

WWF and the Zoological Society of London released the Living Planet Report 2024.

• Headline finding: Monitored wildlife populations declined by an average of 73 per cent between 1970 and 2020. The dataset covers 5,495 species across vertebrates.
• By ecosystem: Freshwater species declined by 85 per cent. Terrestrial species by 69 per cent. Marine species by 56 per cent. Freshwater ecosystems are the most severely impacted.
• Drivers: Habitat loss and degradation, overexploitation, invasive species, climate change, and pollution. Land use change (deforestation for agriculture) is the leading cause.
• India context: India's own biodiversity is under pressure. The Western Ghats and Indo-Gangetic Plain are globally recognised biodiversity hotspots facing habitat fragmentation.

Static linkage: Biodiversity, IUCN, COP summits, Wildlife Protection (Environment).

GS area: Government Schemes (Food Security, Nutrition)

The Cabinet extended the supply of fortified rice under the National Food Security Act (NFSA) to all beneficiaries until December 2028.

• What fortification adds: Iron (28 to 42.5 mg per kg), Folic acid (75 to 125 micrograms), and Vitamin B-12 (0.75 to 1.25 micrograms per kg).
• Scale of production: 925 manufacturers producing 111 lakh metric tonnes annually.
• Annual cost: 2,700 crore rupees per year.
• Nutritional rationale: Two-thirds of India's population is estimated to suffer from micronutrient deficiencies. Iron deficiency anaemia affects nearly 58 per cent of children under five. Fortified rice addresses multiple deficiencies through a widely consumed staple.
• NFSA coverage: The National Food Security Act of 2013 covers roughly 67 per cent of India's population (813 million people) through the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana and other schemes.

Static linkage: Food security schemes, National Food Security Act, public distribution system (Economy and Governance).

GS area: Science and Technology

AlphaFold's impact on pharmaceutical research is directly relevant to India's pharma industry.

• Protein prediction bottleneck solved: Before AlphaFold, predicting the 3D structure of a single protein could take years and cost millions of dollars. AlphaFold predicts it in hours for free.
• India's pharma opportunity: India is the world's third-largest pharmaceutical producer by volume and provides generic medicines to much of the developing world. Access to protein structure predictions accelerates the design of new generics and biosimilars.
• Global protein database: DeepMind has published AlphaFold predictions for over 200 million proteins, covering virtually all known proteins in biology. This is a freely accessible research commons.

Static linkage: Pharmaceutical industry, biotechnology, India's drug sector (Economy and Science).