Current Affairs - Technology

NASA collaborated with ISRO to jointly develop the NISAR satellite, a pioneering Earth-observation mission designed to capture high-quality polarimetric and interferometric data using advanced microwave imaging in both L-band and S-band. With a mission life of five years, it is engineered to study critical environmental aspects such as land and ice erosion, land ecosystems, and marine regions. The mission supports research areas of mutual importance to the United States and India, enabling scientists from both nations to better understand planetary changes, natural hazards, and climate-related transformations through continuous, global-scale monitoring.

The Union Minister of Science & Technology visited IIT Bombay to inaugurate its new Liquid Helium Facility, a major advancement for India’s quantum research ecosystem. This facility supports ultra-low-temperature experiments essential for cutting-edge quantum technologies, including superconductivity, quantum computing, sensing, and advanced materials research. The institute has also developed pioneering tools such as QMagPI—the nation’s first portable magnetometer—and India’s first indigenous Quantum Diamond Microscope for nanoscale magnetic imaging. These innovations place IIT Bombay at the forefront of India’s quantum mission, strengthening national capabilities in cryogenics, defence applications, healthcare diagnostics, and high-precision scientific instrumentation.

OncoMark is an AI-powered diagnostic tool developed by Indian researchers from the S N Bose National Centre for Basic Sciences in collaboration with Ashoka University. It maps cancer’s molecular hallmarks to provide highly personalised treatment strategies and more precise diagnosis. Unlike conventional staging methods, OncoMark identifies key biological programs such as metastasis, immune evasion, genomic instability, and uncontrolled proliferation, enabling individualised therapy plans. Trained on 3.1 million single cells across 14 cancer types and validated on 20,000 patient samples, it achieves over 99% internal accuracy and more than 96% accuracy across independent datasets, marking a major advancement in precision medicine in India.

IIT Kharagpur has launched Impact RISE, an initiative designed to promote sustainable technology, modern management practices, and broader societal transformation. Built on four key pillars—research, innovation, skilling, and entrepreneurship—the programme aims to create a collaborative environment that nurtures solutions for long-term development. A significant component of Impact RISE includes missions that address climate resilience in sensitive regions such as the Sundarbans. By integrating academic excellence with real-world challenges, the initiative seeks to empower communities, drive inclusive growth, and support the nation’s sustainability goals through skill-building and innovation-driven approaches.

BIRSA 101 is India’s first fully indigenous CRISPR-based gene therapy developed to treat Sickle Cell Disease (SCD), marking a major milestone in the nation’s genomic medicine capabilities. Launched by Dr. Jitendra Singh and dedicated to Birsa Munda on his 150th anniversary, the therapy represents a significant step toward India’s mission to eliminate SCD. It is designed as a low-cost alternative to global treatments that currently cost ₹20–25 crore, making advanced gene therapy accessible to a wider population. This innovation strengthens public health efforts while boosting India’s position in advanced biomedical research and healthcare technology.