Important Facts For Prelims (19th April 2019) | 19 Apr 2019

As per a recent study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, U.S. scientists used ‘HIV’ in making a gene therapy that cured eight infants of "bubble boy" disease.
- The study details how scientists turned the enemy virus (HIV) into a saviour, altering it so it couldn’t cause disease and then using it to deliver a gene that babies with "bubble boy" disease lacked.
Bubble Boy Disease, also known as Severe Combined Immunodeficiency Syndrome (SCID) is caused by a genetic flaw that keeps the bone marrow from making effective versions of blood cells that comprise an immune system.
- An immune system is a complex network of cells, tissues, organs that helps the body in fighting infections and other diseases.
It affects 1 in 2,00,000 newborns, almost exclusively males. Without treatment, it often kills in the first year or two of life.
The nickname ‘bubble boy disease’ has come from a famous case in the 1970s- a Texas boy with SCID, lived for 12 years in a protective plastic bubble for isolation from germs.
A bone marrow transplant from a genetically matched sibling can cure SCID, but most people lack a suitable donor. Transplants are risky too; the Texas boy died after one.
Doctors think gene therapy could be a solution. It involves removing some of a patient’s blood cells, using the modified HIV to insert the missing gene, and returning the cells to the body.

Scientist and businessman Yusuf Hamied is among a host of Indian-origin experts honoured in the 2019 list of new fellows of the U.K.’s Royal Society.
- The Royal Society is an independent scientific academy of the U.K. and the Commonwealth, dedicated to promoting excellence in science.
- It is the world’s oldest scientific academy, in continuous existence since the seventeenth century.
- Cipla Chairman, Hamied is a Padma Bhushan awardee, and is known for efforts to produce low-cost drugs to treat diabetes, cancer and other diseases.
Among other Indian-origin scientists elected as fellows this year are microbiologist Gurdyal Besra, mathematicians Manjul Bhargava and Akshay Venkatesh and health experts Gagandeep Kang and Anant Parekh.

The South American nation, Venezuela has topped the rankings of Bloomberg’s Misery Index, which is calculated as the sum of a country’s inflation and unemployment rates.
- It relies on the age-old concept that low inflation and unemployment generally illustrate how good an economy’s residents should feel.
- This year’s scores are based on Bloomberg economist surveys, while prior years reflect actual data.
- The index compared the median estimate of economists’ forecasts for each country’s rates in 2019 to 2018 published data. There are total 62 countries in the index.
Joining Venezuela in the most-distressed cuntries are Argentina, South Africa, Turkey, Greece and Ukraine -- each of which retained the same rank as last year, showing intense economic stress and scant progress in taming price growth and getting people back to work.
Thailand again claimed the title of the “least miserable” economy, though the government’s unique way of tallying unemployment makes it less noteworthy than Switzerland’s improvement to second-least and Singapore managing to stay in the bottom three.
The U.S. moved six spots toward 13th least miserable, and the U.K. improved four spots to 16th least.
Russia’s 17-spot deterioration in its score, to the 17th most miserable economy, is owed to projections of higher prices and stagnation in joblessness.

Nepal has successfully launched its first satellite into space from Virginia in United States to gather detailed geographical information of the Himalayan nation.
Developed by the Nepalese scientists, was launched at 2:31 am (Nepal time), according to Nepal Academy of Science and Technology (NAST).
NepaliSat-1 satellite has been developed by the two Nepali scientists, Aabhas Maskey and Hariram Shrestha under the BIRDS project of the Kyushu Institute of Technology, Japan.
- NAST initiated the launch of the country's own satellite under the BIRDS project of the Japanese Kyushu Institute of Technology.
- The BIRDS project has been designed in association with the United Nations and aims at helping countries launch their first satellite.
NepaliSat-1 is a low orbit satellite which will be in the 400-km distance from the Earth's surface.
- It will be stationed at the International Space Station (ISS) for a month and then it will be sent to orbit the earth.
- It is a small satellite weighing 1.3 kilograms, with limited capability.
The satellite will take photographs on a regular basis to gather geographical information of Nepal.

According to the data from Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), 14 products have received a Geographical Indication (GI) tag from the government so far in 2019.
Himachali Kala Zeera, Jeeraphool from Chhattisgarh, Kandhamal Haldi from Odisha, Coorg Arabica coffee from Karnataka, Wayanad Robusta coffee from Kerala, Araku Valley Arabica from Andhra Pradesh, Sirsi Supari from Karnataka and Himachali Chulli oil are among those 14 products.
Once a product gets this tag, no person or company can sell a similar item under that name.
This tag is valid for a period of 10 years following which it can be renewed. GI tags are covered under a law of the World Trade Organization.

The annual ‘Vasantotsavam’ is being held at the temple of Lord Venkateswara in Tirumala, Andhra Pradesh.
The Annual Vasanthotsavam is performed for 3 days of Trayodasi, Chaturdasi and Pournami in the month of Chaitra (March/April) every year.
It is believed to be started by King Achyutaraya in 1460's to mark the arrival of Spring Season.
Vasantotsavam is the combination of 2 words - "Vasantha" (Spring season in Sanskrit) and "Utsavam" (festival in Sanskrit).

An oral Urdu storytelling tradition.
It has the dastango or storyteller whose voice is main artistic tool at the centre.
While it originated in Persia, the art form travelled to Delhi and other parts of India, with the spread of Islam.
It reached its pinnacle during the sepoy mutiny of 1857, when a number of Dastangos migrated to Lucknow, and popularized the art form in the city.
The artform died for a while with the demise of Mir Baqar Ali in 1928, and was revived in 2005 only.

Researchers have discovered the fossils of an enormous carnivore who lived in Kenya 22 million years ago.
It has been named as Simbakubwa kutokaafrika, Swahili for “big lion”. It weighed about a tonne and was 8 feet long.
Simbakubwa is neither a bear nor a member of the extended feline family (big cat family).
The massive mammal was a Hyaenodon, a now-extinct lineage of carnivores. Hyaenodon are not, by the way, related to modern hyenas, but they do have similar dentition (the arrangement or condition of the teeth in a particular species).