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đ@Morning: Sela Tunnel In Arunachal To Be Another Great Feather In Modi Governmentâs Cap
1. đSela tunnel, a jewel in Indiaâs crown
The Sela tunnel will be ready by the end of this year.
Context: It will enable all-weather access to western Arunachal Pradeshâs Tawang near the LAC with China.
Vehicles travelling between Guwahati and Tawang will be able to bypass the 13,800 ft-high Sela Pass that remains under snow cover for many months every year.
BRO, which is building the tunnel, is putting in the finishing touches.
Good chance that the tunnel will be inaugurated by PM Modi in January next year.
The total length, including the two tunnels, link road, and approach road, is about 12 km.
More than just an infra project. Not only will the tunnel be an engineering marvel, it will mark many firsts in the world.
The project has created history for the fast pace of construction.
PM Modi laid the foundation stone for the mega project less than four years ago. And there was a pandemic in between.
The project stands out globally for its low cost of Rs 700 crore.
The tunnels can withstand high-intensity earthquakes.
Itâs a significant construction. The tunnel will help against the vagaries of weather.
In the winter months, the Sela Pass remains under thick snow cover.
During the monsoons, heavy rains accompanied by light snow make journey through the pass a challenging affair.
The perennially poor condition of the road forces vehicles to travel at a snailâs pace.
What it opens up: The two-tunnel project will reduce journey time between Bomdilla and Tawang by over one hour.
It will facilitate quick, round-the-year access to Tawang.
Tawang is a strategic military base about 53 km south of the border with China.
The twin tunnels, thanks to their overhead clearance, will allow all military equipment, including battle tanks, heavy field guns, and armoured vehicles to pass through easily.
2. đ«Whatâs UAPA under which PFI got into trouble?
PFI and its eight affiliates were declared "unlawful associations" under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act or UAPA.
What does it do? Under UAPA, the central government can declare an organisation as an âunlawful associationâ or a âterrorist organisationâ.
An âunlawful associationâ is one which encourages or aids persons to undertake any unlawful activity or offence defined under Sections 153A or 153B of the IPC.
These sections relate to religiously motivated hate crimes.
The provision criminalises acts promoting enmity between different groups on the basis of religion.
Penalties. There are several penalties that an unlawful association would have to bear.
These include prohibition on the use of funds of an unlawful association, notifying places used for the purpose of an unlawful association, and imprisonment for up to two years for anyone who stays on as a member of an unlawful association.
Can PFI free itself? On paper, PFI has a way out, such as by making an appeal. Though, in reality, it doesnât have a chance since the final say lies with the government.
Bottom line: As PFI has been declared an unlawful association, it will now have to bear several stringent consequences under UAPA.
3. đWell done on the Nobel medicine prize pick
This yearâs Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to Svante PÀÀbo.
He won for his work on the genomes of extinct hominins and human evolution.
PÀÀbo, who works with the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany, is considered as the principal founding father of this new discipline called paleogenomics.
Turning point: The year 2010 was an important one for PÀÀbo.
He and his colleagues reported a draft sequence of the Neanderthal genome created from three individuals.
The genome was composed of more than four billion nucleotides.
This was subsequently compared with the genomes of five modern humans.
The finding: âNeanderthals shared more genetic variants with present-day humans in Eurasia than with present-day humans in sub-Saharan Africa.â
Another study that year revealed a new hominin species.
Itâs heartening, said Dr Gyanshewar Chaubey of Banaras Hindu University on the medicine prize selection.
He told Swarajya how the conventionally held model of humans replacing Neanderthals has changed.
From a binary and conflict-based model, weâve moved to a more dynamic model of humans and Neanderthals having genetic, and perhaps even cultural, exchanges.
We all have Neanderthal and Denisovan genetic components in us. This makes our palaeontological past more complicated, but also richer and more interactive, Aravindan Neelakandan writes.
India should back such studies. The importance of paleogenomics is not appreciated at all in India, Dr Chaubey told us.
He hopes that the medicine Nobel would make Indian grant agencies pay more attention to, and promote more projects in, this domain.
After all, as Dr Niraj Rai has pointed out, India is blessed with rich paleogenomic data that has continuity over millennia.
And while we are on the subject of Nobel prizesâŠ
4. đ§ȘâClick chemistryâ earns Nobel prize
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2022 has gone to Carolyn R Bertozzi, Morten Meldal, and K Barry Sharpless.
Why? For the development of click chemistry and bioorthogonal chemistry.
Whatâs click chemistry? Itâs when molecular building blocks snap together quickly and efficiently, avoiding unwanted byproducts.
Meldal and Sharpless, independently, are behind âthe crown jewel of click chemistryâ â the copper catalysed azide-alkyne cycloaddition.
Among many other uses, it is put to work in the development of pharmaceuticals, for mapping DNA, and creating materials that are more fit for purpose.
Bertozzi, on the other hand, developed click reactions that work inside living organisms.
Her âbioorthogonal reactionsâ take place without disrupting the normal chemistry of the cell.
Thanks to these reactions, researchers have improved the targeting of cancer pharmaceuticals, which are now being tested in clinical trials.
Interestingly: This chemistry Nobel is Sharplessâ second.
5. đŁSocial buzz: Were Cholas Hindus or Tamils?
Tamil film director Vetrimaaranâs comment that emperor Raja Raja Chola was not a Hindu has led to plenty of social media chatter.
Quote. âThey are constantly taking away our identities. Let it be giving saffron clothes to Valluvar; depicting Rajaraja Chola as a Hindu king.â â Vetrimaaran.
The Chola king is depicted in the recent film Ponniyin Selvan: I.
Tamil actor Karunas has said that Raja Raja Chola was a Tamil king and the fact that he followed Shaivism has got nothing to do with Hinduism, as Hinduism is a later construct.
Tamil scholars, though, have a different take.
Thereâs evidence for the Chola dynasty's devotion towards Vishnu and their patronage of Vaishnavite traditions.
6. đVande Bharat and the need for speed
The advanced version of Vande Bharat trains will be able to attain a top speed of 200 km per hour.
The next version of Vande Bharat trains will be manufactured in Marathwada.
Nearly 1,600 coaches will be manufactured at the facility in Latur.
Each coach will cost Rs 8-9 crore.
The project will create opportunities for companies located within a radius of 400-500 km.
The first coach of this version will be rolled out in the next 15 to 16 months.
Bottom line: India continues to zoom towards bigger and better railway infrastructure.
7. đ Plenty of new ropeways coming up across India
Eighteen new ropeway projects are set to kick off across India over the next few months.
From Jammu up north to Tamil Nadu down south, Maharashtra in the west to Arunachal Pradesh in the east, ropeway projects will be kicked off everywhere.
They will cover about 90 km.
Recently, it came to light that a nearly 2 km-long ropeway will connect Ujjain Junction Railway Station to the Mahakaleshwar Temple in Madhya Pradesh.
Check this list of all the 18 new ropeways coming up at your leisure.
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