Cellular Agriculture: It’s Time To Farm Cells, Not Animals

To fulfill the demand for products like dairy, leather, and meat, animal farming is being practiced globally for over decades. Being the most positive and nutritional for society, they are now proving to be more destructive because of increasing allergic responses to the consumers. Earlier people were dependent on animals for their need for agricultural products but now humanity has experimented with a lot of means to replace this necessity with a novel approach called “cellular agriculture”.

The Key Concept behind Cellular Agriculture

Cellular Agriculture is defined as a concept of farming that produces animal-based products without the need of rearing and raising animals on the farm. This is not only beneficial for human health but also addresses the issues of environment and animal rights. Therefore, it now has the potential to revolutionize the world which was earlier dependent on animal farming. This technique of creating animal-based products is poised to fulfill the growing demands of precision nutrition with the least impact on the environment.

How Does It Work?

The cellular agriculture technique makes use of individual cells from animals, plants, or unicellular organisms to make agricultural products. These products include meat, dairy, seafood as well as other protein-rich foods required for human use. Tissue Engineering is the method employed to make animal identical products from cell cultures. To produce these cell-based products such as meat & seafood stems cells(either natural or genetically modified) are taken from a live animal and then grown in nutrient-rich conditions that promote growth. Tissue engineering is an emerging pursuit in Agri products with a previous focus on clinical applications such as organs for patients requiring organ transplantation or growing skin cells for burn victims.

Approaches Behind cellular agriculture

Two different approaches comprise cellular agriculture;

• Cellular cultivation
• Precision fermentation

Cellular cultivation is a method to produce meat & seafood by initially taking stem cells from animals through painless biopsy and then feeding them with nutrients in bioreactors where they multiply & differentiate. As they multiply and grow, they become the main component of meat called muscle tissue. Precision fermentation, another approach to cellular agriculture makes use of microbes instead of cell cultures to produce dairy products such as egg-white, soy-heme, enzymes, milk & proteins. The process of producing these products is simple as practiced before by the food industry. In this approach, DNA is taken from the source and inserted into yeast with the help of genetic engineering. Following fermentation, the product made can be used as an alternative.

Cellular Agriculture is here to replace animal farming with these advantages

 Cell-based agriculture products have the potential to provide nutrient-rich food to the growing population without even worrying about owning land & natural resources. The benefits of cellular agriculture are wide-ranging as the whole process is performed is carried out in controlled environmental conditions and largely dependent on smart technologies. Compared to conventional counterparts, cellular agriculture:

• Have the least environmental impacts
• Is Reliable for consistent supply
• Provides purer & safer product

And the list of advantages is not exhausted yet! Here is another aspect of cellular agriculture that is more exciting than the above advantages. Cellular Agriculture provides you the ability to tune & design whatever you are making. For Example, If you are making meat you can make it with less saturated fats & more unsaturated fats. Another example of the advantage of this biotechnological method is that you can also design leather of different levels of thickness which was not possible earlier. With this method, you can also make milk without lactose which is an added advantage for the population that is lactose intolerant.

By Shivani Meena | June 8, 2022

BSc. (Hons) Microbiology

Alumni of Lovely Professional University, Punjab, India.

Hey! Can you tell me what is that thing that has modified the whole narrative of people’s lives in the 21^st century? If you are really thinking about technology then you are absolutely right. Technological advancements play a significant role in every aspect of life. It has no doubt that technology does not make our work easier. With the help of technological advancements all the sectors in India improving day by day. Nowadays lives without technology are not possible in other words it’s very difficult to believe life without technologies. This article discussed the role of technological advancements in the Indian healthcare system. Now let’s take a look at how innovative technologies completely changed the face of the Indian healthcare system.

As we know that India is listed as the 2^nd most populated country in the world due to which the nation possesses a distinctive healthcare challenge. In previous Indian healthcare system face several challenges due to lack of use of technologies but after the use of technological advancements, the healthcare system of India grew rapidly day by day. Technology introduces numerous opportunities for developing and alternating healthcare systems. The use of technology reduces human errors, develop practice efficiencies, reduces time consumption, improves clinical outcomes and enables care coordination. When there is just one doctor for every 1,000 people, technology can be transformative in healthcare delivery. Rural India is severely disadvantaged by a significant disparity in which metropolitan areas have four times the number of medical providers as rural areas. Now with the use of technological advancements biggest and most critical operations get easily done even in less time.

• Health Information Technology:

A technology designed to store, distribute, and analyze the data gathered in any medical facility is known as health information technology (HIT). The usage of healthcare technology can assist in the improvement of patient care. There are several types of healthcare information systems that deal with administrative issues as well as patient clinical records, among many other things. The significance of health IT now originates from a mix of improving technology and altering government regulations that affect the quality of patient care. Health information technology (health IT) involves the processing, storage and interchange of health data. The widespread use of health IT in the healthcare sector will enhance the quality of care, reduce health care costs, increase operational effectiveness, eliminate documentation, as well as increase access to affordable healthcare. Electronic health information is stored and exchanged electronically and protecting its security and privacy.

• Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) in Healthcare system:

The usage of Artificial Intelligence (AI) Technology is now becoming more prevalent in the healthcare system of India. The elderly population and rising rates of non-communicable diseases have created a requirement for technologies that might assist people to forecast diagnoses as well as future health difficulties. Algorithms for finding patterns in vast volumes of data are included in Machine learning and artificial intelligence (ML). AI in the health care system has the potential to help clinicians understand which risk factors lead to disease. In India, heart disease and cardiovascular disorders have become the main cause of mortality, and clinicians intend to employ artificial intelligence to analyze information and learn more about the factors contributing to this growth.

Thanks to these characteristics of medical technologies help to promote the Indian healthcare system. Hospitals in India may combine data and patient transfers as well as referrals which are becoming more controlled only because of medical technologies. These databases may also help doctors to make better diagnosis and treatments by allowing them to quickly access prior cases which help them to make judgments about new patients. Among the most significant advantages that technology brings to the healthcare industry is the better and faster availability of information both for patients and healthcare providers.

By Bipul Kumar Burman | May 10, 2022

Electrical & Electronics Engineering,

Govt. Polytechnic Jagannathpur, Chaibasa, Jharkhand, India.

Solar panels effectively convert sunlight into energy using the sun as the primary source. But why can’t solar panels create power cheerfully at night? Yeah alright! Solar panel design and technology have been created to operate with the sun. Moonlight can be utilized to power PV cells, according to a few specialists. Given that moonlight is just sunlight reflected off the moon, you’ll be relieved to learn that yes, solar panels can operate with moonlight. Your solar panels will, however, create very little power at night, even if the moon is shining directly on them with no clouds in the sky. You should only anticipate 0.3 percent of the energy generation that you would get from direct sunlight on a clear night with a full moon. That implies that if your solar panels normally produce 300 watts during the day, they will only produce around one watt under full moonlight. That’s not even close to the amount of energy necessary to power an ultra-efficient LED light bulb – in fact, operating one lamp with an LED bulb would take nearly 18 times more electricity and that’s with the moon full! Your solar panels will generate even less electricity from moonlight for the remainder of each moon cycle.
What happens at night? Because heat is easier to store than electricity, solar panels with solar thermophotovoltaic (STPV) cells may create electricity at night if the heat they received during the day is retained. STPV increases the amount of solar energy available for conversion by adjusting the energy to fit the preferred wavelength of the PV cell. The PV cell is getting more solar energy at the appropriate wavelength, enabling it to generate more electricity while using the same amount of total solar energy. The researchers aren’t quite sure how the heat will be kept. I’m wondering whether the emitter material can have a significant thermal mass, allowing it to heat up slowly and hold its heat after the sunshine has faded away. Instead of a surge of energy when the sun shines and then nothing after sunset, you’d have a more consistent energy output day and night. Modified solar panels that function at night create enough electricity to charge a cell phone or power an LED light, eliminating the need for off-grid places to store energy in batteries. Solar power is created when the sun’s energy is directed towards a comparatively cool solar panel. Solar cells are layers of a semi-conducting substance, commonly silicon, that make up the panel. A flow of electricity is generated when light shines on this substance.

Source: Saur Energy International

At night, however, since heat goes in the direction of lower temperatures, solar panels transmit heat to outer space, which has a temperature of roughly 3 kelvin (-270.15°C). As a result, the solar panel is colder than the night air, creating a temperature differential that may be used to generate power. A customized solar cell with a power output of 50 milliwatts/square meter was produced when directed towards a clear night sky during testing. This is just 0.04 percent of the power output of a standard solar cell when used during the day. Low-power gadgets, such as a phone charger or a low-wattage LED light, would be able to work with 50 milliwatts per square meter of radiation, though.
At night, the solar panel may really achieve a temperature below that of the surrounding air, which is an exceptional possibility for power collecting. “The good thing about this strategy is that at night, you basically have a direct power supply that doesn’t need any battery storage”.

By Jagvijay Singh | April 7, 2022
B.Tech Electrical Engineering,
Alumnus, St. Andrews Institute of Technology and Management, Gurgaon, Haryana

The National Assessment & Accreditation Council (NAAC) has issued a new policy that allows new colleges and universities to apply for provisional accreditation after completing one academic year. Previously, only institutes with at least six years of experience or at least two batches of graduated students could apply for NAAC accreditation. The Provisional Accreditation of Colleges (PAC) provision would be able to chart a course for providing quality education.

According to Anil Joseph Pinto, Registrar at Christ University in Bangalore, “PAC is a progressive step taken by NAAC that will allow newly established institutes to prepare a roadmap for delivering quality education in the early stages.” It will improve institutes in Tier II and III cities that require assistance. This will set the tone for the country’s current undergrad college system to be upgraded to higher standards. Because approximately 70% of HEIs are private, this provision would instill competitive zeal among colleges.” There are over 40,000 HEIs in India, and NAAC has only accredited about 4000 – 5000 of them in the last 25 years.” Several government institutes avoid applying for accreditation because they lack teachers and have unappealing infrastructure. Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and Karnataka, on the other hand, have made efforts to improve teacher ratios and infrastructure. Furthermore, because accreditation is not required for issuing degrees, government institutes are not motivated to apply for accreditation,” Pinto adds.

“According to the NEP 2020, all institutes must become degree awarding institutes within the next 10 – 15 years, and their degrees will be invalid if they do not have accreditation.” The problem with NAAC’s current system is that it lacks the bandwidth to accredit a large number of institutes; thus, provision accreditation is a simple way to accredit because it would facilitate the entry of newly established institutes into the accreditation process,” says Pinto. Institutes that apply for PAC must obtain a minimum of 15 points out of a possible 40 by answering 10 quantitative and qualitative questions.

“As per NEP 2020, every HEI should receive NAAC accreditation,” says Davinder Narang, director of Jaipuria Institute of Management in Ghaziabad. “As of now, it has accreditation only for 14,200 colleges.” The current NAAC system is exhaustive, as colleges must submit a self-assessment report based on seven NAAC-defined parameters.” It takes about a year for any college to work after fulfilling these seven parameters because it is a time-consuming process. “The PAC will ease the process of new institutes by evaluating them on fewer parameters and facilitating the entry of newly established HEIs into accreditation; every HEI is required to submit an Annual Quality Assurance Report (AQAR) yearly.” 

Courtesy: The Times of India

By Aayush Gupta | March 10, 2022

Mechanical Engineering (Gold Medallist), 

Jagran Lakecity University, Bhopal

On December 9, 2013, the Sexual Harassment of Women at Work (Prevention, Prohibition, and Redressal) Act, 2013 (POSH Act) came into effect. Despite the fact that it was approved after 16 years of Supreme Court’s Vishaka decision, it was a massive progress in enshrining women’s basic workplace rights.

The act which is celebrating its eighth anniversary in existence in December 2021, and this would be good occasion to look at its journey of the legislation, and take a look at some of the most glaring flaws.

HIGHLIGHTS FROM VISHAKA CASE:

• The writ petition was filed for the enforcement of the fundamental rights of the working women under Articles 14, 19, and 21 of the Constitution of India in view with the prevailing climate in which violation of these rights was not Uncommon.
• With increased knowledge and attention on gender justice, there is a greater attempt to prevent such violations, as well as an increase in resentment of sexual harassment instances.
• Sexual harassment need not involve physical contact. Any act that creates a hostile work environment, by cracking lewd jokes, verbal abuse, circulating rumors etc. can be considered as sexual harassment.

GUIDELINES SET FORTH:

1.Employers should take preventive measures like an express preclusion of harassment and provide healthy work conditions in the matters of hygiene, comfort and health.

2.If there is an event of the infringement of administration rules in the workplace, suitable disciplinary action should be made.

3.If the offences submitted fall under the domain of the Indian Penal Code, 1860, the employer must report to the authorities.

4.To counter harassment, an organization should create a redressal committee. This should be done regardless of whether the protest constitutes a crime under the Indian Penal Code, 1860.Women must make up more than half of the members of such a committee, and the chairperson must also be a woman, as well as a counselling facility.

5.The business should take proper measures to spread awareness on the said issue.

The lawmakers took the safe route and just followed the Supreme Court’s decision from 1997. One evident consequence of this was the rise in popularity of two untested entities: the Internal Committee (IC) and the Local Committee (LC). The government was given authority under Section 30 of the Act to eliminate any obstacles to the implementation of the Act’s provisions. In November 2015, the Ministry of Women and Child Development released a guidebook on the POSH Act along with the manual, it would have been extremely beneficial to the new ICs and LCs if the government had released some explanations on IC appointment, conducting inquiries, and so on. The judicial review of the POSH Act by several High Courts and the Supreme Court has clarified some of the Act’s terms. The judiciary has resolutely refused to compromise some of the provisions of this statute on the basis of hyper-technicality or procedural infirmities, continuing to carry the torch for women’s rights (LS Sibu vs. Air India Limited and Others).

The following are the main areas that need to be revisited:

1.There were two major periods in the history of women’s protection against sexual harassment. The more obvious one was quid pro quo, but it took the State and the courts a long time to recognise the more subtle one: a hostile work environment. These two broad categories are subsumed under the POSH Act’s definition of “sexual harassment,” which is included in Section 2(n) and Section 3(2). For Example:-If the victim does not come forward to file a complaint, a respondent intimidating or physically harassing a complainant’s coworker while not directly interacting with the complainant would undoubtedly be traumatic for the complainant, and thus may need to be addressed through a hostile work environment.

2.The definition of “workplace” needs a relook. The discussion currently revolves around the judicial expansion that has occurred in relation to “workplace” under the Employees Compensation Act, 1923 (ECA). For example: A woman is interviewed at a company, and thereafter the male interviewer keeps proposing to her. In this case, the incidents of proposing may have been done by the respondent from his home, and when the complainant was also at her home when she received the messages/chats/calls. As a result, ICs around the country are wrestling with how to interpret the definitions of “workplace” and “during the course of work” in order to address such issues. Currently, there do not appear to be any constitutional court judgements addressing this issue.

3.Many procedural parts of the POSH Act may need to be reconsidered in light of the past eight years’ experiences. To begin, the time limit for making a complaint by a victim should be expanded, as the present model of 3+3 months is insufficient. It ignores the fact that many Indian women are still unaware of their rights and must overcome social shame in order to file a complaint. Second, the IC can only conduct an investigation if the complainant presents a formal complaint. While permitting third parties to file complaints presents a number of issues, it may be worth considering whether the IC can at least conduct a preliminary investigation without a written complaint.

4.The IC is now made up of personnel who are inexperienced in managing investigations and have no legal understanding. In this circumstance, how may an IC use Section 11(3) to exercise civil court power? Another argument is that these inputs would come from an external member present in the IC. Strangely, Rule 7(7) only requires “a minimum of three Members of the Complaints Committee, including the Presiding Officer or the Chairperson, as the case may be, to be present in conducting the inquiry.” The external member is not required to be present. It’s past time for this to change. One can look at how the system of independent directors has been systematized over the past few decades through introduction of Director Identification Number (DIN), training for directors, a registry for directors, etc. Something akin to this for IC members may go a long way in creating a more informed IC.

By Abhishek George | February 1, 2022

Law Scholar, BBA LLB (Hons),

Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, Delhi.

A new SARS-CoV-2 variant of concern (VoC), omicron, was revealed on November 25, 2021, roughly 2 years after the first recorded case of COVID-19 and after an estimated 260 million infections and 52 million fatalities worldwide.  Omicron was born into a COVID-19-weary world, replete with rage and resentment at the pandemic’s extensive detrimental social, emotional, and economic consequences. Although earlier VoCs appeared in a world where natural immunity to COVID-19 infections was frequent, this fifth VoC appears at a time when global vaccination immunity is developing. The advent of the alpha, beta, and delta SARS-CoV- VoCs was linked to additional waves of illnesses, which spread throughout the globe at times.  

Because of its capacity to evade natural immunity, the delta VoC’s greater transmissibility was linked with, among other things, a larger viral load, longer duration of infectiousness, and high rates of reinfection, resulting in the delta VoC fast becoming the worldwide prevalent variety. The appearance of the alpha, beta, and delta SARS-CoV-2 VoCs was linked to fresh waves of illnesses, which spread throughout the globe at times. Because of its capacity to evade natural immunity,6 the delta VoC’s greater transmissibility was linked with, among other things, a larger viral load,4 longer duration of infectiousness, and high rates of reinfection, resulting in the delta VoC becoming the worldwide prevalent variety quickly. Vaccination drives have been ramped up across the country and now, there are more vaccines available for use. With the latest approval being granted to Moderna Inc’s, novel mRNA vaccine, India now has four vaccines in its ambit. The four vaccines which have received emergency use authorization (EUA) in India are all made using different platforms. If you are yet to get vaccinated, here’s a comparison of the different vaccines we have today!

Equitable access to safe and effective vaccines is critical to ending the COVID-19 pandemic, so it is hugely encouraging to see so many vaccines proving and going into development. WHO is working tirelessly with partners to develop, manufacture and deploy safe and effective vaccines. Safe and effective vaccines are a game-changing tool: but for the foreseeable future we must continue wearing masks, cleaning our hands, ensuring good ventilation indoors, physically distancing and avoiding crowds. Being vaccinated does not mean that we can throw caution to the wind and put ourselves and others at risk, particularly because research is still ongoing into how much vaccines protect not only against disease but also against infection and transmission.

Author: Er. Bhanu Pratap Chauhan | Jan’ 2022

M.Tech, Biotechnology, Jaypee Institute of Information Technology, Noida, INDIA.