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A new class of superhydrophobic cotton composites with Metal-Organic Framework (MOF) that promise marine oil-spill clean-up in near future.   GUWAHATI, 20th September 2021: Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati Researchers have developed a novel highly porous and water repellent superhydrophobic cotton composite material containing Metal-Organic Framework (MOF), which can absorb oil selectively from oil-water mixture.   The MOF composite has great capability for selective separation of the oils from oil/water mixtures, and the separation efficiency lies between 95% and 98%, irrespective of the chemical composition and density of the oils. Besides, the MOF composite is also able to absorb large volumes of oils and can be reused for minimum 10 times so that the sorbents can provide more recovery of the spilled oil.   The practical applications of this Research include Cleaning the spilled oil from environmental water (river, sea or ocean water) during oil transportation with high efficiency and large absorption capacity, thus reducing environmental water pollution Both heavy and light oils can be effectively absorbed by the material The material is easy to prepare, cost-effective and recyclable   The research team was led by Dr. Shyam P. Biswas, Associate Professor, Department of Chemistry. IIT Guwahati. The results of this pathbreaking work have recently been published in the reputed peer-reviewed journal ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces (https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acsami.0c21337)”, belonging to American Chemical Society.   Explaining the motive of the research, Dr. Shyam P. Biswas, Associate Professor, Department of Chemistry, said, “In our work, we focused on a real problem in environmental water pollution in current time. Our goal was to develop a new material which could be synthesized easily and should be cost effective. We have grown our new MOF material on the surface of medical cotton, which is environment friendly and cost effective. Such low-cost material will reduce the production cost of the material for large scale industrial synthesis for real applications, compared to currently available materials in the market”.   Further, elaborating on how this research will benefit the country, Dr. Shyam P. Biswas said, “In a vast country like India where petroleum hydrocarbons are the major sources of fuel, accidental oil spills occur frequently here during transportation and storage of oils. The material developed in our laboratory will certainly be beneficial to reduce the environmental water pollution by efficiently absorbing the spilled oil from environmental water.”   In the petroleum industry, oil leakage and oil spill accidents happen frequently during offshore oil exploitation and oil transportation. This severe water contamination threatens the health of human beings including other living species. Therefore, the treatment of industrial oily wastewater and the separation of oil spill from water has become a worldwide challenging task.   To overcome this problem, the IIT Guwahati researchers have synthesized a superhydrophobic MOF composite with cotton to absorb oil selectively from water. MOFs are a class of compounds containing of metal ions coordinated to organic ligands to form 3D structures, with the special feature that they are often highly porous materials that act like a sponge.   The team led by Dr. Biswas initially developed a superhydrophobic MOF which can repel the water and float on the water surface. Then, they grew the same MOF on the surface of medical cotton. It was observed that the medial cotton changes from hydrophilic to superhydrophobic material and can float on the water surface. The MOF-coated cotton fiber composite showed water repellence with a water contact angle (WCA) of 163°.   The flexible superhydrophobic MOF composite showed an oil absorption capacity more than 2500 wt%. Motor oil, kerosene and gasoline were used by the team in this study to investigate the real-life potential of the material for oil-spill clean-up. The research team has also demonstrated the separation of oil from oil/water mixture by simple gravity-directed filtration and also collection of underwater oil against gravity.   The growing environmental pollution is a serious threat to our society for sustainable development. Among the various environmental problems, water pollution is one of the serious issues in India. Until now, petroleum hydrocarbon products are the main energy sources in the world.

Asper the orders by The Supreme Court, every admission into all the government and private medical colleges should be made through a centralized counseling system based on the NEET examination results. Keeping this in mind, Delhi HC said, “Many students burn the oil day and night working hard to get into the educational institution based on merit. Therefore, our moral duty is to ensure that there is no backdoor entry for admissions in any institutions, including medical colleges”. This observation by the highcourt came into the limelight whiledismissing an appeal made by five students who were granted admissions in 2016 by LN Medical College Hospital and Research Center, Bhopal, without centralized counseling conducted by the Department of Medical examination. Henceforth, the Medical Council of India issued a dismissal letter regarding these five petitioners in April 2017. Afterward, a lot of communications were also sent, but neither the students nor the institution paid attention. Source: theindianexpress.com

For a long time, women’s rights and gender equality have remained the most discussed topics in the world. Though women have a lot of freedom in different ways but have we noticed any monumental changes? The answer to that is yes.   Throughout the years, women have achieved what they had been manifesting for a long time. Some of the highlighted rights they demand include freedom from sexual violence, the allowance to hold public office and equal rights in family laws. So far, the response and support they’ve received are somewhat pleasing, but often it is associated with bias.   Firstly, we will look at the learning levels between the two genders. Throughout the learning levels between genders, gender equality is prominent. The National Achievement Survey (2017) was amongst the most trustworthy surveys conducted on a national level. They experimented on over 22 Lakh elementary students that comprised of boys and girls. The result was astounding. It clearly showed that the learning levels of boys and girls were indeed similar. We can conclude this if we consider average scores in Mathematics of girls and boys from Class 3 and 5, it is the same at 63 and 53. This conclusion also applies to Class 10 students where the grade difference between the two genders does not make it up to one per cent. However, a positive result is not always evident.   Even though the number of girls approaching education has increased over the past two decades, the count of girls who achieve attainment in education is still not appreciable. The number of girls enrolling for elementary and secondary education at the crucial stages of a child’s complete development has tripled from just 1.7 years in 1990 to 4.7 in 2018. Boys are also moving closer to completing their education. However, according to observations, many girls prefer not to continue their education after completing secondary education.   The latest Annual Status of Education Report “Early Years” proves that parents tend to invest more money for the graduation of their sons from private colleges with high fees. Whereas, parents often encourage their daughters to graduate from government facilities where the fees required to pay is negligible when compared to private facilities.   In the present world, artificial intelligence is replacing humans. But we still haven’t learnt to respect women and appreciate their presence in a highly male-dominated society.

The Lok Sabha MP Kuldeep Rai Sharma for the constituency Andaman and Nicobar Island has recently requested to fill all the vacant positions of principal, vice-principal, headmaster, and teachers in the government schools situated within the union territory. The Congress MP made this demand while he met the Director of Education Department Administration; he had asked to fill up all the vacant posts in the government schools on the island. Rai mentioned that almost all the schools are running without a principal and vice-principal, and headmaster, which negatively impacts the education system and affects the school management. Source: thetimesofindia.com