Prime Minister extols value of Pacific island nations at third FIPIC summit

• Small island nations of the Pacific Ocean are in fact “large ocean states”, said Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday, highlighting the importance of the 14 members of the Forum for India Pacific Islands Cooperation (FIPIC). Mr. Modi spoke in favour of free and open Indo-Pacific region and focused on India’s commitment to assist the development goals of the member-countries.
• The previous two meetings of the India-Pacific Islands Cooperation were held in November 2014 in Fiji, and August 2015 in Jaipur.

FIPIC

• Forum for India-Pacific Islands cooperation (FIPIC) is a multinational grouping developed in 2014 for cooperation between India and 14 Pacific Islands nations which include Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, Niue, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu.
• The first and second editions of the FIPIC took place in Fiji (2015) and Jaipur (2016). During the FIPIC Summits Prime Minister articulated India’s desire to be a close partner of the Pacific Island nations and its readiness to work closely to advance their developmental agenda.
• To further enhance people-to-people contact, PM announced a Distinguished Visitors Programme under which eminent persons from these countries can visit India.
• India would also welcome the visit of a Parliamentary delegation from the Pacific Island Countries to India.

Cough syrups for export to be tested from June 1

• Cough syrup exporters will have to undertake testing of their products at specified government laboratories from June 1 before getting permission for the outbound shipments.
• The direction has come after quality concerns were raised globally for cough syrups exported by Indian firms.
• The World Health Organization said last year the syrups, made by Indian manufacturer Maiden Pharmaceuticals Ltd, contained lethal toxins ethylene glycol (EG) and diethylene glycol (DEG) – used in car brake fluid. These ingredients can be used by unscrupulous actors as a substitute for propylene glycol (PG), which is a key base of syrupy medicines.

Education Ministry holds meet on PARAKH aimed at unifying 60 school Boards

• The Education Ministry organised a workshop in New Delhi on Monday with the aim of unifying a network of 60 school examination Boards of various States and Union Territories under one umbrella.
• The workshop will study school assessments, examination practices and equivalence of Boards across the country.
• The main component of this plan is PARAKH, the National Assessment Centre, which has been set up as an organisation under the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT).

PARAKH

• PARAKH has been launched as part of the implementation of the National Education Policy (NEP)-2020 that envisaged a standard-setting body to advise school boards regarding new assessment patterns and latest research, and promote collaborations between them.
• It will act as a constituent unit of the NCERT.
• It will also be tasked with holding periodic learning outcome tests like the National Achievement Survey (NAS) and State Achievement Surveys.
• It will work on three major assessment areas: large-scale assessments, school-based assessment, and examination reforms.
• Objective:
  • Uniform Norms & Guidelines: Setting norms, standards and guidelines for student assessment and evaluation for all recognized school boards of India.
  • Enhance Assessment Pattern: It will encourage and help school boards to shift their assessment patterns towards meeting the skill requirements of the 21st century.
  • Reduce Disparity in Evaluation: It will bring uniformity across the state and central boards which currently follow different standards of evaluation, leading to wide disparities in scores.
  • Benchmark Assessment: The benchmark assessment framework will seek to put an end to the emphasis on rote learning, as envisaged by the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.
• Significance:
  • Removes Disparity in College Admission:
    • It will help tackle the problem of students of some state boards being at a disadvantage during college admissions as compared to their peers in CBSE schools.
  • Innovative Evaluation:
    • It will develop and implement the technical standards for the design, conduct, analysis and reporting of tests at all levels of school education.
  • Holistic Approach:
    • PARAKH further aims to facilitate an inclusive, participatory and holistic approach to education, which takes into consideration field experiences, empirical research, stakeholder feedback, as well as lessons learned from best practices.
  • Progressive Shift:
    • It is a progressive shift towards a more scientific approach to education.
    • The prescribed structure will help to cater to the ability of the child – stages of cognitive development as well as social and physical awareness.

How lasers are helping calcium-41 break into radiometric dating

• Since its invention in 1947, carbon dating has revolutionised many fields of science by allowing scientists to estimate the age of an organic material based on how much carbon-14 it contains. However, carbon-14 has a half-life of 5,700 years, so the technique can’t determine the age of objects older than around 50,000 years.
• In 1979, scientists suggested using calcium-41, with a half-life of 99,400 years, instead.
• Calcium-41 produced when cosmic rays from space smash into calcium atoms in the soil, and is found in the earth’s crust, opening the door to dating fossilised bones and rock.

Radiometric dating

• When an organic entity is alive, its body keeps absorbing and losing carbon-14 atoms. When it dies, this process stops and the extant carbon-14 starts to decay away. Using the difference between the relative abundance of these atoms in the body and the number that should’ve been there, researchers can estimate when the entity died.
• A significant early issue with carbon dating was to detect carbon-14 atoms, which occur once in around 10 12 carbon atoms. Calcium-41 is rarer, occurring once in around 10 15 calcium atoms.
• In the new study, researchers at the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), Hefei, pitched a technique called atom-trap trace analysis (ATTA) as a solution. ATTA is sensitive enough to spot these atoms; specific enough to not confuse them for other similar atoms; and fits on a tabletop.

ATTA:

• It is based on laser manipulation and detection of neutral atoms.
• The sample is vaporized, and the atoms are laser-cooled and loaded into a light and magnetic field cage.
• By tuning the laser’s frequency**, Calcium-41 atoms can be detected through electron transitions.**
  • Electron transition: In an atom, an electron in one orbital can transition to the next if it’s given a specific amount of energy; then it jumps back by releasing that energy.
• The researchers reported being able to spot one calcium-41 atom in every 1016 calcium atoms with 12% precision in seawater.
  • It is selective and avoids confusion with potassium-41 atoms.
• Applications of ATTA:
  • The successful application of a calcium isotope opens the possibility of extension to other metal isotopes.
    • ATTA can be adapted to study other isotopes, such as argon-39, krypton-81, and krypton-85.
  • In warmer climates, glaciers retreat and allow rock below to accumulate calcium-41. In colder climates, glaciers advance and block the calcium-41 from reaching the rock. This way, scientists hope to use ATTA to study how long some rock has been covered by ice.