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PIB – February 5 , 2020

General Studies- II

Topic- Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Education, Human Resources.

Classical Swine Fever (CSF)

Context

IVRI releases Live attenuated Classical Swine Fever (CSF) cell culture vaccine (Indigenous strain).

About

  • CSF is one of the most important diseases of pigs causing high mortality.
  • A lapinized CSF vaccine (Weybridge strain, UK) is being used in India since 1964 for controlling the disease.
  • The vaccine is produced by sacrificing large numbers of rabbits for each batch.
  • Only 50 doses of lapinized vaccine are produced from a single rabbit spleen.
  • In order to do away sacrificing of rabbits and increase the productivity, IVRI had earlier developed a cell culture CSF vaccine by adapting the lapinized vaccine virus in cell culture.

Classical Swine Fever (CSF) cell culture vaccine

  • Cell culture vaccine is from a foreign strain (Weybridge Strain, UK).
  • IVRI has further developed a new CSF Cell Culture Vaccine by attenuating an indigenous virulent CSF virus in cell culture.
  • The vaccine virus has very high titre and lakhs of doses can be produced very easily in cell culture and country’s requirement can be easily fulfilled using this new vaccine.
  • The vaccine is safe, potent, does not revert to virulence and provide protective immunity from day 14 of the vaccination till 24 months studied so far.
  • The vaccine has been tested on around 500 pigs at multiple locations.

Significance

  • The new vaccine is ready for release and commercial production will be completed in less than a year.
  • The vaccine would be the best choice for use in the CSF Control Programme (CSF-CP) already launched by DAHD (CSF-CP).

Economic viability

  • This vaccine would be the most economical CSF vaccine costing around less than Rs 2/- per dose as against Rs 15-25/- of lapinized CSF vaccine and 30/dose (approx) for an imported Korean vaccine being used in the country.
  • Besides, the new vaccine gives immunity for two years as compared to 3 to 6 months protection under the vaccines currently being used.

Indian Veterinary Research Institute (IVRI)

  • Indian Veterinary Research Institute (IVRI) is located at Izatnagar, Bareillyin Uttar Pradesh state.
  • It is India’s premier advanced research facility in the field of veterinary medicine and allied branches.
  • It has regional campuses at Mukteshwar, Bangalore, Palampur, Bhopal, Kolkata and Srinagar.
  • Formerly known as Imperial Bacteriological Laboratory, it was renamed in 1925 as Imperial Veterinary Research Institute.
  • The name of the Institute was changed following independence to Indian Veterinary Research Institute.
  • Administrative control of the Institute is currently under Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), New Delhi.
  • The Ministry of Education, Govt. of India on the recommendation of University Grants Commission conferred the status of theDeemed to be University.

General Studies-III

Topic- Achievements of Indians in science & technology; indigenization of technology and developing new technology.

Sophisticated Analytical & Technical Help Institutes (SATHI)

Context

Department of Science & Technology has launched a unique scheme called “Sophisticated Analytical & Technical Help Institutes (SATHI)”

About

To address the need for building shared, professionally managed and strong Science and Technology infrastructure in the country which is readily accessible to academia, start-ups, manufacturing, industry and R&D labs, The DST has launched a unique scheme called “Sophisticated Analytical & Technical Help Institutes (SATHI)”.

Key features of SATHI

  • Address the need for shared, professionally managed and strong Science and Technology infrastructure in the country which is easily accessible to academia, start-ups, manufacturing, industry and R&D labs.
  • Address the problems of accessibility, maintenance, redundancy and duplication of expensive equipment in Institutions.
  • Address the issue of Intellectual property (IP) creation and protection.

SATHI Centres

  • The DST has already set up 3 such centres in the country, one each at IIT Kharagpur, IIT Delhi and BHU.
  • It is planned to set up 5 SATHI Centres every year for the next four years.
  • These Centres are expected to house major analytical instruments to provide common services of high-end analytical testing,thus avoiding duplication and reduced dependency on foreign sources.
  • These would be operated with a transparent, open access policy.

Way forward

  • These clusters will be set up across different technology sectors including in new and emerging sectors for designing, fabrication and proof of concept and further scaling up technology clusters.
  • The research profile of the supported Departments will align with the national priorities of excellence in manufacturing, waste processing, clean energy and water, and Start-up India, etc.
  • This will empower our Scientific Community to gain global leadership in select frontier areas of Science.

General Studies-III

Topic- Indian Economy and issues relating to planning, mobilization, of resources, growth, development and employment.

Agri Export Policy

Context

APEDA organizes first ever awareness programme on Agri Exports in A&N Islands

About

  • An awareness programme was organized by Agriculture and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA), along with the Directorate of Industries of the Andaman & Nicobar Islands (A&N Islands) in Port Blair.
  • It aims to examine ways to promote the exports of agri products and implementation of the Agri Export Policy in the Islands.

The Agri Export Policy

The Agriculture Export Policy is framed with a focus on agriculture export oriented production, export promotion, better farmer realization and synchronization within policies and programmes of Government of India.

Vision

Harness export potential of Indian agriculture, through suitable policy instruments, to make India global power in agriculture and raise farmer’s income.

Objectives

  • To double agricultural exports from present ~US$ 30+ Billion to ~US$ 60+ Billion by 2022 and reach US$ 100 Billion in the next few years thereafter, with a stable trade policy regime.
  • To diversify our export basket, destinations and boost high value and value added agricultural exports including focus on perishables.
  • To promote novel, indigenous, organic, ethnic, traditional and non-traditional Agri products exports.
  • To provide an institutional mechanism for pursuing market access, tackling barriers and deal with sanitary and phytosanitary issues.
  • To strive to double India’s share in world agri exports by integrating with global value chain at the earliest.
  • Enable farmers to get benefit of export opportunities in overseas market.

Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA)

  • The APEDA was established by the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority Act 1985.
  • It functions under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
  • The Authority has its headquarters in New Delhi.

For Prelims

Ujh Multipurpose (National) Project

Highlights

  • Ujh Multipurpose Project is planned to fast track utilization of India’s rights under Indus Waters Treaty.
  • The project will enhance the utilization of waters of Eastern Rivers allotted to India as per the Indus Water Treaty.
  • The project is planned to be constructed in Kathua District of J&K on the River Ujh.
  • River Ujh is a major tributary of River Ravi.
  • After construction of the project, utilization of waters of Eastern Rivers allotted to India as per the Indus Water Treaty would be enhanced by utilizing of the flow that presently goes across border unutilized.

 

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