IANS

Skywatcher Illias Perimbalam said that the space station can be clearly viewed from Kerala on Sunday.

Peculiarities of the space station

• Travels between: an orbit of 330-435 kilometres
• Revolves around the earth 15 and a half times daily
• Speed: 26,600 kilometres per hour
• Time taken to revolve around the earth once: 92.69 minutes
• Size of a football ground
• Volume: 32,333 cubic foot
• Weight: 420 tonne
• A joint venture of US, Russia, Canada, Japan, Brazil, and 11 countries in the European Space Agency
• Astronauts stay here to conduct experiments and researches
• 240 people from 19 countries have visited till now

According to The Verge, the plan, which WhatsApp has detailed in a white paper before rolling out to users on iOS and Android in the coming weeks, is meant to secure the backups WhatsApp users already send to either Google Drive or Apples iCloud, making them unreadable without an encryption key.

WhatsApp users who will choose to opt into encrypted backups will be asked to save a 64-digit encryption key or create a password that is tied to the key.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a statement, "WhatsApp is the first global messaging service at this scale to offer end-to-end encrypted messaging and backups, and getting there was a really hard technical challenge that required an entirely new framework for key storage and cloud storage across operating systems."

If someone creates a password tied to their accounts encryption key, WhatsApp will store the associated key in a physical hardware security module, or HSM, that is maintained by Facebook and unlocked only when the correct password is entered in WhatsApp.

An HSM acts like a safety deposit box for encrypting and decrypting digital keys.

Once unlocked with its associated password in WhatsApp, the HSM provides the encryption key that in turn decrypts the accounts backup that is stored on either Apple or Googles servers.

A key stored in one of WhatsApps HSM vaults will become permanently inaccessible if repeated password attempts are made. The hardware itself is located in data centers owned by Facebook around the world to protect from internet outages.

The system has been designed to ensure that no one besides an account owner can gain access to a backup, the head of WhatsApp, Will Cathcart, told The Verge.

He said the goal of letting people create simpler passwords is to make encrypted backups more accessible. WhatsApp will only know that a key exists in an HSM, not the key itself or the associated password to unlock it.

This move by WhatsApp comes as governments around the world like India, WhatsApps largest market, are threatening to break the way that encryption works.

"We expect to get criticized by some for this. Thats not new for us ... I believe strongly that governments should be pushing us to have more security and not do the opposite," Cathcart said.

This announcement by WhatsApp means that the app is going a step further than Apple, which encrypts iMessages but still holds the keys to encrypted backups that means Apple can assist with recovery, but also that it can be compelled to hand the keys over to law enforcement.

As per The Verge, Cathcart said WhatsApp has been working on making encrypted backups a reality for the past couple of years, and that while they are opt-in to start, he hopes, over time, to "have this be the way it works for everyone." (ANI)

IANS

The study was carried out by the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore along with IIT Mandi and IIT Guwahati and supported by the Department of Science and Technology.

Eight states in the country, Jharkhand, Mizoram, Odisha, Chattisgarh, Assam, Bihar, Arunachal Pradesh, and West Bengal, all in eastern India, are found to have higher vulnerability, Akhilesh Gupta, Senior Adviser and Head, Policy Coordination and Programme Management (PCPM) Division, and a climate change expert at the Department of Science and Technology (DST), underlined at a policy dialogue.

"All 612 districts in India studied are vulnerable to climate change, but there are 100 districts mostly on eastern parts of the country which are most vulnerable as per a vulnerability assessment study carried out by IISc, Bangalore along with IIT Mandi and IIT Guwahati and supported by the Department of Science and Technology," a statement by the DST said.

Pointing out to an Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Gupta said the global temperature which has already increased to 1.1 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial era level is likely to further increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius in next two decades.

India too is expected to experience greater impact of global warming in the time to come and there may be an increase in frequency, severity and duration of heat waves. Monsoon may become more erratic, Gupta said.

There may be more frequent droughts and floods. The Indian seas may witness more sea-level rise. There has already been increase in sea level in last two decades, he added.

Tropical cyclones may also increase in number. With the increase of carbon dioxide content in the oceans, the sea water may become more acidic, Gupta pointed out at the programme organised by National Institute of Disaster Management (NIDM), Ministry of Home Affairs and DST in collaboration with Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH.

"Next two decades are going to be very crucial. IPCCs working group report gives stark warnings for global climate impacts. The two-degree rise in global temperatures may come earlier than expected. It may have a huge impact on India, especially on agriculture, health and water security. India is confronted with a challenge of addressing such impacts," he added.

Maj Gen M K Bindal, Executive Director, NIDM, MHA warned that the danger mark has been reached, rapid access to information is needed to protect lives and livelihood and the use of science, technologu and innovation (STI) is key to fight climate change problems.

PTI

Dr Atmanand was the former Director of National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT), Chennai. He had chaired the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission Regional Committee for the Central Indian Ocean under UNESCO. He was also a member of the executive planning group for preparing the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development, a forum which became the backbone of Oceanic development.Thus he had represented India in many international forums and the past 34 years of his life has been devoted for incessant studies on ocean.

Atmanand, an Electrical and Electronics Engineering graduate from the NSS Engineering College, Palakkad completed his M Tech and PhD from IIT Madras. When he decided to opt oceanography as his career, there were no distinct courses in India to learn about it. His fascination for the subject intrigued him to make headway in this direction.

The first project in which he took part was the development of technology for the mining of manganese nodules under Deep Sea Mining. As a signatory of the International Seabed Authority, India was mandated to evolve technology for the extraction of those minerals. Later he led the development of underwater crawlers for deep sea operations. All his inventions were backed by his knowledge in general physics and mathematics as there were no existing resources to enrich oceanic studies in those times. He is also proud to say that his team could place a soil tester about 6 kilometres deep in the central Indian Ocean basin, which was unachievable when he stepped into the field of oceanic studies.

The gulf countries are relying much on desalination for the purpose of drinking water. What hinders India to take up such projects even when water scarcity is a major concern?

A project on desalination had already been set up in India under NIOT. The first of its kind had been initiated in the three islands of Lakshadweep and now the project is widening to three more islands. As a thickly populated land, Lakshadweep faces drinking water issues like the mixing up of ground water with the sewage system. But wherever the desalination project has been implemented, people are content about it and they even call the water obtained as 'NIOT water'.

But we have limitations to employ the methods of Gulf countries in India. They use a reverse osmosis plant to generate pure water from the sea water. Using this technology, the major chunk of the water processed can be made capable of drinking. At the same time, the salt content of this water gets carried to the remaining small quantity of water and they dump this highly concentrated brine back into the ocean. This solution will turn out to be a threat to the marine organisms.

The technology that NIOT adopts in Lakshadweep does not pose any such threats as only a small amount of water taken for the process is able to drink. The water sent back to the sea will be less concentrated without forming brine. Hence, drinking water obtained through the process might be very less in amount, but it does not cause any hazard to the marine ecosystem.

Another challenge to use this technology on a large scale in India is that the sea needs to have 800 metres to 1000 metres depth near the coast to install the technologies of desalination. Only the islands as in Lakshadweep have that much depth in its vicinity which makes it impossible to take up desalination in the coast of mainland India.

NIOT is trying to use similar technology to create drinking water from the cooling water used in thermal power plants. Presently the water from thermal plants has been dumped into the sea which is a threat to aquatic life. This too can be avoided if we could generate portable water from thermal power plants.

A plan to produce drinking water from sea using solar energy is also under consideration at Kanyakumari. But all these plans would be limited only in and near coastal India.

Currently India is taking up the lead role in promoting clean energy globally. What are the possibilities in the energy sector that India can rely upon in the seas and ocean in its vicinity?

The technology of Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion is the most suitable method of energy extraction from the ocean for India. The system works by an ammonia turbine which runs using the temperature difference between the surface and bottom of the sea. As this method needs a huge difference in the temperature of water collected from the surface and an underlying layer of the ocean, it is ideal for countries near the equator. But its high capital expenditure and huge infrastructure impede investments in this project.

Although the capital expenditure seems to be high, the operational and maintenance costs are very low for the renewable resources. In the case of offshore wind energy, it has been employed only in Jakhau, Kanyakumari and Rameshwaram in India. Wave potential is very weak near the equator, thereby, it will not work well for India.

Even in this dire situation of severe climate change, India's coastal management seems to be straining. How can we overcome this?

The two causes of coastal erosion are natural and anthropogenic. Whatever the cause is, the present state of the coasts need a long term solution. But what usually happens is a knee-jerk reaction. When the people raise agitations to protect their land from the sea, the government resorts to unloading rocks in the coasts which is just a temporary and unsustainable solution. We have to conduct a systematic study as we did in Puducherry and Kadalur Periyakuppam. It took incessant studies of more than two years to collect data and find a solution that matches to the conditions of those particular coasts.

If the government responds quickly on account of the agitations from the people, the problem of erosion will not be addressed permanently. It will again continue and end up in a vicious circle.

An attempt to bring about a long term solution for the coast is going to be implemented in Shangumugham by consulting with NIOT. Lets hope such initiatives shall be taken up in a full fledged manner.

The world has been moving to Arctic and Antarctic regions for more explorations. What are the contributions of NIOT and India in this field?

The Antarctic and Arctic projects of India had been undertaken by the National Centre for Polar and Ocean Research. NIOT had backed many programmes in the polar region and one such incident was by creating the polar variant of ROVs (remotely operated underwater vehicle) to collect the samples from the icebergs in the ocean of Antarctic for studying on evolution.

In the Arctic, a mooring has been set up for collecting data from its waters. The Arctic region stands as a ground of detailed study for India as a hypothesis exists on a correlation between the Arctic and our monsoon patterns. But to confirm the presence of any such telecommunication, we need data to prove or disprove it. Hence, India has a crucial function to play in the Arctic.

What are the steps taken by the nation to make the most out of our blue economy and how far is India from achieving its sustainable development goals by the targeted year 2030?

The present government is concentrating deeply on the possibilities of the blue economy. The Ministry of Ports and Harbours is taking up many coastal infrastructure projects to boost the economic activities via sea routes. The Sagarmala project connecting the major ports in the country and the energy extracting programmes from the ocean that mentioned earlier were all part of this.

Sustainable mining is one of the actively emerging areas of oceanography. But it should be approached with extreme care as they are irreplaceable and may lead to erosion if proceeded in an unscientific manner. The central Indian Ocean, almost 2,500 kilometres away from Kanyakumari, is rich with the deposits of Manganese nodules. Among them, manganese is terrestrially available, but the same is not the case with cobalt and nickel. They are high in demand without any availability on land.

Beach restoration programmes are also taking up at a more rapid pace. I have visited various countries in the world as a part of several projects, but I could not see a place that is more beautiful and comfortable as Kerala. Kerala is undoubtedly a promising land for tourist developments.

Extracting benefits from sea shall also bestow economic gains for the fishermen. For this, NIOT had initiated cage culturing in which the fish are reared in huge cages made in the sea. With this, fishermen will not have to go far to the deep sea for fishing and it is cost effective too. It will also provide fresh fish and the fishermen can catch only the quantity necessary by preventing the wastage of fish through by catch. This had been initiated in Kollam at a small scale. But for now it is halted due to the outbreak of Covid. The methods employed there were inspired from the models used in developed countries, particularly that of Norway. To deploy such initiatives, we need to form certain co-operatives of the fishermen and related industries.

Extraction of polymetallic nodules from the seabeds will be a pivotal step in the realm of Oceanography. What are the researches going on in this field?

As of now, all the technologies that are developing for the extraction of polymetallic nodules are in a demonstration stage. The International Seabed Authority, which is a United Nations' body, had only given rights to develop technology and to document its effect on the oceanic environment. The actual mining activities will only begin after that- maybe not in my life span. It will certainly take much more time.

After gaining Independence, India spent abundantly for the development of space research and the oceanography lagged behind. It is undeniable that ISRO had increased our competence and strengthened the global stature of India along with its success stories in space technology. However, being a nation bordering two seas and an ocean, we could have given weightage to the studies on the ocean too. The recently changing trends by giving more focus on the prospects of oceanic research is definitely a glimmer of hope.

The website and the app, titled 'MyEV' will be inaugurated on Wednesday by electricity minister K Krishnankutty. They will be fully functional only after the inauguration.

The initiative is part of the 'Go Electric' campaign launched by the EMC. They aim to launch 10 lakhs of electric vehicles in a year.

The scooters will get a subsidy of up to 47 percent, EMC director Dr R Harikumar said. The subsidy rate will depend on the battery capacity.

The website currently has listed 12 e-scooters including Ather, Hero and the e-bike Revolt. EMC is in talks with other companies as well. A discount will also be given to the customers who buy through the website.

The insects were spotted at Mulankunnathukavu and Irinjalakkuda regions. The report regarding the species was first published in the national science publication Journal of Threatened Taxa.

The major contributors behind the discovery are TB Suryanarayanan, a research scholar in the Zoology department, and Dr Bijoy C, the research guide. Usually, this new species were wrongly idetntified as praying mantis.

Future of the Ghats

Our report is quite different from a government report. We did not please political vested interests. We were forthright in describing what we saw in the ground. The recommendations we made were in tune with our mandate as well as the constitution and other laws in India, says Gadgil. The future of the protection of the Western Ghats is the democratic implementation of the suggestions of his report, he says.

The condition of the Western Ghats is grim, says Kunhikannan. We have to arrive at a consensus immediately. Farmers, environmentalists, politicians and other stakeholders must discuss it. However, the Gadgil report is the foundation for all discussions, according to him.

Speaking about the policies of the CPM, politburo member M A Baby said there cannot be two opinions about the protection of what remains of Western Ghats.

"But, we must have a comprehensive and scientific approach. With alarming reports regarding the disastrous impact of climate changes due to unscientific human interventions on nature in the name of growth, we need to be very careful with our perspective on such important issues," the former minister says.

LDF has one entry in its manifesto for 2021 elections about the Western Ghats. The special economical packages announced for Idukki and Wayanad ahead of elections gets a mention in it. The packages will be a model for the plan to protect the Ghats with the help of farmers and other natives, it reads.

We have to trust the people in the hill areas to protect the Western Ghats. Like how Adivasis protect the forests. There are two types of people in the Western Ghats. The migrated people for survival, who have been living there for a long time without harming the environment, and the intruders. The latter must be dealt with differently. They are the ones responsible for creating situations leading to the landslide and such disasters. Rock quarries may be a reason for such disturbances. There has to be a balance between development and environmental protection. Anything that will lead to irretrievable damage to a valuable ecosystem should be prevented from implementation, he added.

When asked if we need a new committee on the Western Ghats protection, Baby said he cannot comment on it now. The government has to decide on it. CPIM will discuss and inform the government of its opinion when such a question is broached.

Talking about the policies of the current government, Gadgil said: All governments are hand in glove with the interests which pollute and destroy the environment.

Now there is increasing awareness to honestly consider the recommendations especially due to the floods and landslides, he says. In earlier interviews, he had criticised that such commemorations are useless.

According to Vinayaraj, this perspective is missing the forest for the trees. Keralites are not responsible for what happened in 2018, 19 or in 20. It is climate change that we blame, right? Countries like the US and Canada use more energy and exert high amounts of carbon. Our contribution in this is negligible, he says.

Western Ghat must be protected. But it cannot be at the cost of the people who live there, Vinayaraj says. It has been just 60-70 years since we started to live here properly. People started to make money and live the life of a normal human being. How can we ask them not to use cement to build their home, he asks.

It may be true that the soil must not be disturbed in the slopes. But that is not the major issue here. Who will control the pollution in the industrial capital of Kerala, Ernakulam? Flooding was caused because there was no room for water to go. Who will demolish the buildings there, asks Vinayaraj.

The COE would be hiring superior talent, training them in cutting-edge engineering operations in a range of technology development and support services for the advanced operational requirements of FreshToHome.

COE will open the doors to at least 100 high-end developers trained in technology, leadership skills, and methodologies to become a part of the FreshToHome team.

Thrissur: Three new wild balsam (popularly known as 'Kaashi Thumba' or 'Sheema Thumba') species have been identified in Kerala, in a research conducted at Western Ghats. The new species belong to genus Impatiens which comes under family Balsaminaceae.

The plants were identified by S. Arya, who is doing research under the guidance of Dr V S Anilkumar, Associate Professor at Botany department in University College in Thiruvananthapuram. The team is leading a research about flora in Western Ghats.

Among the three species identified, two were named after VS Achuthanandan and KK Shailaja as an honour to their contributions in environmental protection and for containing Nipah/COVID-19 virus outbreaks in Kerala, respectively. The plants are named Impatiens achudanandanii and Impatiens shailajae.

Meanwhile, the third species is named after Dr Mathew Dan, Principal Scientist at Jawaharlal Nehru Tropical Botanic Garden and Research Institute in Thiruvananthapuram. The plant was named Impatiens danii.

Tier 2 and 3 cities have driven almost 55 per cent of total user signups on WazirX in 2021, overtaking tier 1 cities which demonstrated a signup growth of 2,375 per cent.

The cryptocurrency exchange currently has more than 7.3 million users and has clocked over $21.8 billion in trading volume in 2021 till date.

"Crypto has immense potential to remove the financial barriers for rural India, and provide cheaper access to capital, more online jobs," said Nischal Shetty, CEO, WazirX.

Cities like Ahmedabad, Lucknow and Patna have reported an average growth of 2,950 per cent whereas Ranchi, Imphal and Mohali have reported an average growth of 2,455 per cent on WazirX. IANS

Moreover, women from these regions contribute to 65 per cent of the total signups by women from all over the country.

Starting from August 11, the company said it has organised a week-long giveaway to thank the crypto community and support home-grown projects and talent.

There are more than 1.5 crore Indians holding over Rs 1,500 crore worth crypto-assets.

According to industry experts, crypto may become the most important asset class of the 21st century.

Mandaviyas office has said anyone who wants to download the certificate can send a message covid certificate on WhatsApp to a number +91 9013151515 and receive it.

"Revolutionising common mans life using technology! Now get #COVID19 vaccination certificate through MyGov Corona Helpdesk in 3 easy steps. Save contact number: +91 9013151515 Type & send covid certificate on WhatsApp Enter OTP Get your certificate in seconds," Mandaviyas office tweeted.

Earlier, the COVID-19 vaccination certificate could be downloaded from Co-WIN Portal, or Arogya Setu/Umang Mobile Application. It could be downloaded after each dose (Provisional Certificate after first dose and Final Certificate after second dose).

The web link for COVID-19 vaccination certificate is available in the Text SMS sent to the beneficiary after vaccination and successful updation of vaccination status in Co-WIN. ANI

The project, titled driver drowsiness and fatal accident prevention system has been approved by the department and will be made available to the public for a reasonable price. This feature already exists in luxury cars.

This equipment is costly in the market. &ldquoWe will take measures to instal the system in as many vehicles as possible,&rdquo Transport Minister Antony Raju said.

A night-vision camera fixed in the cabin will monitor the driver and detect if the driver dozes off by analysing the facial expressions and movements of the eyebrows. It will disconnect the accelerator immediately and alert the driver. Vehicles with a manual gearbox will jerk as the vehicle slows down.

The system was developed by Motor Vehicle Inspectors, DD Arun, A Noufal, NK Deepu, PV Vijesh and Assistant Vehicle Inspectors, VV Vineeth and S Ranjith. Even though it costs Rs 25,000, large scale production will make it cheaper.

The process to ensure a patent is underway.

The researchers on amphibians in Delhi University are behind the discovery of these tiny frogs. The report of the findings of Uttar Pradesh native Dr Sonali Garg and Keralite Prof. Satyabhama Das Biju appeared in the latest edition of the journal 'Asian Herpetological Research'.

The frogs which belong to the Minervarya genus in Western Ghats always perplex the herpetologists. The researchers confirmed Minervarya Pentali as a distinct species after analysing the difference in their physiological, genetic and crying patterns. This newly discovered Minervaryan is the tiniest among the others in its family.

The Systemic Lab functioning under Dr Biju in the Environmental Department of Delhi University has conducted the study of one-fourth of amphibians discovered from the Indian Subcontinent.

Dr Biju reverently remembers the encouragement offered by the then Vice Chancellor Prof. Deepak Pentali to open the lab in 2006. The newly discovered species has been named after him to honour his efforts, said Dr Biju.

Dr Sonali who secured Phd in the study of amphibians under the guidance of Dr Biju is a post doctoral researcher in the Delhi University now.

(IANS)

The Beauval Zoo, south of Paris, said the twins were born shortly after 1 a.m. They weigh 149 and 129 grams (5.3 and 4.6 ounces).

Their mother Huan Huan and father Yuan Zi are at Beauval on a 10-year loan from China aimed at highlighting good ties with France. The twins are their second and third cubs after the first panda ever born in France, Yuan Meng, in 2017.

&ldquoHuan Huan is taking care of them very well. She took them in her mouth to lick them and clean them. We can hear little cries,&rdquo the zoo said in a statement.

The zoo said the sex of the cubs were determined by the Chinese experts in charge of taking care of them but will need to be definitively confirmed since external genitalia does not appear until they are several months old.

The birth comes after the zoo announced with great joy in March that Huan Huan and Yuan Zi had &ldquomated eight times." Veterinarians then carried out an artificial insemination &ldquoto have as much chance as possible&rdquo to see a pregnancy.

Giant pandas have difficulty breeding and their pregnancies are notoriously difficult to follow.

&ldquoWe just lived a moment of rare intensity. These births are always very exceptional but they also bring some surprises,&rdquo said Delphine Delord, director of the Beauval Zoo.

The cubs will not be named before 100 days. They will spend a few years in France before being sent to China, the zoo said.

Other nations in Europe also have giant pandas, including Austria, Britain, Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain and Finland.

There are about 1,800 pandas living in the wild in China and about 500 in captivity worldwide.

China for decades gifted friendly nations with its unofficial national mascot in what was known as &ldquopanda diplomacy.&rdquo More recently the country has loaned pandas to zoos on commercial terms.

Michael Ranger extracted the reflection on the visor of Aldrin in the famous photo captured by Armstrong and created a 360-degree panoramic photo.

&ldquoIt allowed me to see from Buzz's perspective,&rdquo Ranger said in his Reddit post.

He also made a video with the image. It can be viewed .

The VFX artist has also explained how he did the extraction in his post.

The American crew landed on the moon on Apollo Lunar Module Eagle on July 20, 1969.

Neil Armstrong was the commander of the flight and Buzz Aldrin was the pilot of the lunar module.