Topic 1: Lab meat
Context: Recently, two California-based companies were cleared to make and sell cell-cultivated chicken.
About Lab meat and how it is produced?
- Cell cultivated chicken is the official name of chicken meat that is grown in a laboratory for human consumption.
- To make cell-cultivated meat, the company isolates the cells that make up the meat (the meat that we consume).
- It starts with cells, which can come from a fertilized egg, a special bank of stored cells or tissue initially taken from a living animal.
- Then it is put in a setting where they have all the resources they need to grow and make more copies of themselves.
- These resources are typically nutrients, fats, carbohydrates, amino acids, the right temperature, etc.
- The ‘setting’ in which this process transpires is often a bioreactor (also known as a ‘cultivator’).
- A bioreactor is a sensor-fit device like a container that has been designed to support a particular biological environment.
- Once there are enough of these cells, which takes around two to three weeks, they resemble a mass of minced meat.
- Cells are triggered to turn into skeletal muscle, fat and connective tissues.
- After days or weeks, the cells are removed from the tanks and shaped into products such as nuggets.
Arguments for lab meat:
- Prevention of emissions:
- The FAO has estimated that global livestock is responsible for 14.5% of all anthropogenic greenhouse-gas emissions.
- The production of beef as a commodity accounted for 41% whereas chicken meat and eggs accounted for 8%.
- Efficient land use:
- A report estimated that lab-cultivated meat would use 63% less land in the case of chicken.
- Prevention of animal cruelty
- Food security:
- Alternative meat’s proponents have advanced it as a way to meet the world’s nutritional security needs
Challenges
- Consumer acceptance:
- Perfectly substituting animal meat with alternative meat requires it to match the original in taste, texture and appearance.
- High cost:
- The cost of cell-cultivated meat is expected to remain high in the near future.
- One 2020 analysis concluded that it may never be cost-competitive.
- Huge resources required:
- For cultivation, researchers require high quality cells, a suitable growth-medium in which the cells can be cultured, plus other resources required to maintain the quality of the final product.
- Uncertainties associated with it:
- If cell cultivation requires a highly refined growth medium, like that used in the pharmaceutical industry, the environmental impact of near-term [cell-cultivated meat] production is likely to be orders of magnitude higher than median beef production.
Conclusion:
- Until this meat costs and tastes the same as traditional meat, it’s going to stay niche.
- Also, some people find the idea of meat from cells strange.
- There are several potential issues, such as microbial contamination at various points in the process, biological residues and by-products and scaffolding that some people might be allergic to.
- But experts noted that conventional meat also carries risks, such as bacterial contamination before and during the slaughtering and packaging process.
- Overall, these advances are the result of the global necessity to renovate our approaches to nutrition and health systems toward providing for both individual and planetary health.
Topic 2: The Wagner Group
Context: The Wagner Group has taken control of the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don as part of an attempt to oust the military leadership.
About the Wagner Group
- The mercenary organisation was first identified in 2014, during Russia’s annexation of Crimea.
- It’s essentially a network of contractors that supply soldiers for hire and the group got registered as a company in 2022.
- Headquarters: St Petersburg.
- Initially, the Wagner Group remained mostly secretive and consisted of just 5,000 fighters, active particularly in Africa and West Asia.
- It expanded to comprise 50,000 fighters just in Ukraine.
- Countries where the Wagner Group has been active
- Ukraine
- Syria
- Sudan
- Central African Republic
- Mozambique
- Mali
- Burkina Faso
- Libya
Topic 3: Rani Durgavati
Context: Recently, the Government in Madhya Pradesh launched the six-day Rani Durgavati Gaurav Yatra.
Who was Rani Durgavati?
- Her life:
- Rani Durgavati is said to have been born in 1524, in Mahoba’s Chandela dynasty.
- The region comes under present-day Uttar Pradesh, near the southern border with MP.
- The Chandelas were known for building the famous Khajuraho temples in the 11th century.
- She was later married to Dalpat Shah, the son of the Gond King Sangram Shah of the kingdom of Garha-Katanga.
- Durgavati was widowed in 1550, a few years after her marriage.
- Her young son Bir Narayan presided over the throne in name and she then ruled the country with great vigour and courage.
- Her rule:
- During her reign, Durgavati fought with Baz Bahadur, the sultan of the neighbouring Malwa who was eventually defeated by Akbar.
- She constructed a large public reservoir near Jabalpur that is now called Ranital (the queen’s tank).
- Mentioned by Abul Fazl:
- Abul Fazl, the court historian of Akbar who chronicled these years in Akbarnama, described Durgavati as a combination of “beauty, grace and manlike courage and bravery”.
- He adds that the prosperity of the kingdom was such that people paid their taxes in gold coins and elephants.
- Battle with the Mughals:
- The Mughal governor of Allahabad, Asaf Khan attacked her kingdom and the first battle was therefore won by the Gond queen.
- However, soon the Mughals fortified the area and overwhelmed the Gonds.
- Rani Durgawati died in the battle.
- Akbar later restored the kingdom to Chandra Shah, the younger son of Sangram Shah, after he accepted Mughal suzerainty.
