Hindu Notes from General Studies-01

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Digging into ancient know-how of building temple.

News:

Adopting the use of organic matter, the Sri Kailasa Prastara Mahmeru Panchamukha Umamaheswari temple, being constructed by Jyothirvastu Vidya Peetham a spiritual charity organisation based in Sangareddy , is coming up on the outskirts of the district headquarters.

Beyond News:

The land was dug seven feet into the ground and the construction commenced using sand and stones. One layer of sand was laid at the bottom, then stones cut in rectangular shape were placed, framed in a symmetric system. The sand and stone were placed alternately and the action repeated over and over.
It was stated that this was an age-old method, going back to thousands of years, applied for huge constructions, particularly temples, to give them strength and a long-standing life.

The temple is being constructed in Thri-bandhanam, using the three materials such as sand, lime and jaggery for the construction, and Ashta-bandhanam, using sand, lime, jaggery, aloe vera pulp, lakka, liquid form of bael, honey and wax. Sometimes, instead of honey and wax, jute fibre and Haritaki is used to prepare the mix. It being a mix of natural ingredients, it was stated to offer longer life to the structure.

• The adherence to both Thri-bandhanam and Ashta-bandhanam is being called Sri-bandhanam.
• The zero base of the sanctum sanctorum will be 28 feet from the ground level. The base part of the temple will be in tortuous shape floating on a lotus. Dawadasha Jyotirlingams (12 lingas of Lord Shiva) will be erected around the temple. Similarly, thoranams (entry points) will also be established.

This will be the unique temple with devotees getting a chance to offer prayer to Maha Meru, a form of Goddess Durga.

Hindu Notes from General Studies-02

Jaipur Foot to be exhibited at the U.N.

News

The world-famous and most widely used artificial limb, Jaipur Foot, will be exhibited at the United Nations headquarters in New York from May 15 to 18.

Beyond News

• An exclusive seminar on Jaipur Foot and an exhibition have been organised at the U.N. Gallery at the initiative of India’s permanent representative Syed Akbaruddin.
• The event will be the first of its kind in the U.N., D.R. Mehta, founder and chief patron of Bhagwan Mahaveer Viklang Sahayata Samiti (BMVSS), the makers of Jaipur Foot, said.

  The seminar and exhibition will highlight India’s contribution in providing mobility and dignity to the differently abled, with the BMVSS giving aids and appliances free of cost to the beneficiaries.

The Jaipur Foot has benefited 17 lakh people across the world and has its presence in 29 countries. The BMVSS has recently entered into an agreement with the Ministry of External Affairs for holding camps abroad.

Hindu Notes from General Studies-03

Bacteria isolated from domestic sewage remove organophosphorous pesticide

News

Using three bacterial species isolated from domestic sewage, researchers from India have successfully removed chloropyrifos pesticide from both water and soil.

Chloropyrifos

Chloropyrifos is an organophosphorous pesticide and is moderately toxic to humans. Poisoning from chlorpyrifos may affect the central nervous system, the cardiovascular system and the respiratory system.

Beyond News

The highlight of the work is the wholesome removal of the pesticide by the three species of bacteria, without leaving behind any toxic metabolites that persist in the soil for a long time. This was because, unlike other studies, none of the three bacteria used by the team from Haldia Institute of Technology, Haldia, degraded the pesticide.

Bacteria found in domestic sewage are quite regularly exposed to low levels of this pesticide. So the bacteria adapt themselves to pesticide exposure for survival.

To isolate the bacteria that can absorb the pesticide, the researchers exposed the bacteria found in sewage to different concentrations of pesticide along with nutrient media. The next day, seven bacteria that showed tolerance to 50 mg/ml of pesticide were isolated.

The next step was to check whether the isolated bacteria species could coexist with each other or displayed antagonism. Only three bacteria species were found to coexist without any antagonism.

The ability of the bacteria to remove the pesticide was then tested by using very high concentration of 500 mg/l of the pesticide. In the case of pesticide added to water, all the three bacteria both individually as well in a mixed culture were able to remove over 90% of the pesticide in three days.

In the case of soil containing 300 mg/kg of pesticide, the mixed culture of bacteria could remove up to 50% in 30 days. The mixed culture comprising all three bacteria showed better uptake of pesticide compared with individual species.

The greater ability of the bacteria to absorb the pesticide arises from their ability to reduce the hydrophobic nature of the pesticide through the production of biosurfactants.

Since the bacteria multiply in the soil or water, the pesticide released from the dead microbes will be absorbed by the newly formed ones. So it is quite possible that the soil or water will be free of the pesticide.

NASA launches InSight spacecraft to Mars to study Red Planet’s quakes

News

NASA blasted off its latest Mars lander, InSight, designed to perch on the surface and listen for “Marsquakes” ahead of eventual human missions to explore the Red Planet.

Beyond News

The $993 million project aims to expand human knowledge of interior conditions on Mars, inform efforts to send human explorers there, and reveal how rocky planets like the Earth formed billions of years ago.

If all goes as planned, the lander should settle on the Red Planet on November 26. Its name, InSight, is short for Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport.

The key instrument on board is a seismometer, called the Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure, made by the French Space Agency. After the lander settles on the Martian surface, a robotic arm is supposed to emerge and place the seismometer directly on the ground.

The second main instrument is a self-hammering probe that will monitor the flow of heat in the planet’s subsurface. Called the Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package, it was made by the German Space Agency with the participation of the Polish Space Agency.

The probe will bore down 10 to 16 feet (3 to 5 metres), NASA said, 15 times deeper than any previous Mars mission. Understanding the temperature on Mars is crucial to NASA’s efforts to send people there by the 2030s, and how much a human habitat might need to be heated under frigid conditions, said Mr. Green.

Daytime summer temperatures near the Martian equator may reach 70°F (20°C), but then plunge by night to -100°F (-73°C). It is an important part of knowledge of how this planet is evolving.

The solar and battery-powered lander is designed to operate for 26 Earth months, or one year on Mars, a period in which it is expected to pick up as many as 100 quakes.

A RAT that spies on computers

News

GravityRAT, a malware allegedly designed by Pakistani hackers, has recently been updated further and equipped with anti-malware evasion capabilites, Maharashtra cybercrime officials said.

Beyond News

The RAT was first detected by Indian Computer Emergency Response Team, CERT-In, on various computers in 2017.
It is designed to infliltrate computers and steal the data of users, and relay the stolen data to Command and Control centres in other countries. The ‘RAT’ in its name stands for Remote Access Trojan, which is a program capable of being controlled remotely and thus difficult to trace.

Maharashtra cybercrime department officials said that the latest update to the program by its developers is part of GravityRAT’s function as an Advanced Persistent Threat (APT), which, once it infiltrates a system, silently evolves and does long-term damage.

GravityRAT is unlike most malware, which are designed to inflict short term damage. It lies hidden in the system that it takes over and keeps penetrating deeper.
According to latest inputs, GravityRAT has now become self aware and is capable of evading several commonly used malware detection techniques.

One such technique is ‘sandboxing’, to isolate malware from critical programs on infected devices and provide an extra layer of security.

Officials said that GravityRAT infiltrates a system in the form of an innocuous looking email attachment, which can be in any format, including MS Word, MS Excel, MS Powerpoint, Adobe Acrobat or even audio and video files.

The other concern is that the Command and Control servers are based in several countries. The data is sent in an encrypted format, making it difficult to detect exactly what is leaked.

CERT-In had issued an alert for it last year, with an advisory asking users to review cybersecurity measures and update anti-malware tools.

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