eChapters

13.1 Introduction and Physical Principles

A microscope is a tool that enables the user to see objects at a magnification greater than the actual specimen. Resolution and magnifying power are the two integral aspects of microscopy. Resolution is a measure of capability of an image forming system to separate images of adjacent objects. The resolving power (8) is numerically defined as d = 0.61l/n sin a, where,  l is the wavelength of the light, n is the index of refraction of the medium between the specimen and lens, a is half the angle of the cone of light from the specimen plane accepted by the front surface of lens and n sin a is the numerical aperture (NA). The NA represents the light gathering power of the lens aperture or in other words, the measure of obliquity of rays which the lens can accept and utlilize and is limited by blurring of image due to spherical aberration of the lens.

Electron Microscope

An electron microscope is a type of microscope that uses a particle beamof electronstoilluminate a specimen and createa highly-magnified image. Electron microscopes have much greater resolving power than light microscopes that use electromagnetic radiation and can obtain much higher magnifications of up to 1 million times, while the best light microscopes are limited to magnifications of 1000 times. Both electron and light microscopes have resolution limitations, imposed by the wavelength of the radiation they use. The greater resolution and magnification of the electron microscope is because the de Broglie wavelength of an electron is much smallerthan that of a photon of visible light.

The electron microscope uses electrostatic and electromagnetic lenses in forming the image by controlling the electron beam to focus it at a specific plane relative to the specimen. This manner is similar to how a light microscope uses glass lenses to focus light on or through a specimen to form an image.

ABSTRACT

This paper takes cues from the previous paper on the evolution of IPR concepts and attempts explaining the nuggets of TRIPS and analyzes the current trends in its implementation.

Introduction

As the TRIPS Agreement signifies stronger protection of conventional and new areas of intellectual property, the question that how implementation of TRIPS could influence developed and developing countries is to be addressed. The implications of such influence have far reaching consequences in terms of socio-economic development of Nation States, including geopolitical strategies and hence, a proper understanding on the plausible influence is essential.

Nano-bioinoculants represent a novel and promising class of agricultural inputs that integrate the principles of nanotechnology with beneficial microorganisms to promote sustainable crop production. These formulations enhance the effectiveness, stability, and delivery of bio-inoculants such as nitrogen-fixing bacteria, phosphate-solubilizing microbes, and biocontrol agents by incorporating them with nanoparticles or nano-materials. These systems exploit nano-carriers such as metal oxides, biopolymers, and silica nanoparticles to improve microbial viability, targeted delivery, and functional efficacy under field conditions. Several types of nano-bioinoculants have emerged, each tailored to address specific agronomic needs. Nano-formulated Rhizobium spp. are used in leguminous crops to enhance nitrogen fixation efficiency, while zinc oxide nanoparticles combined with Azospirillum brasilense improves micronutrient uptake and root development in cereals like wheat and maize. Silicon nanoparticles synergized with Trichoderma harzianum contribute to enhanced resistance against biotic and abiotic stress, including pathogenic fungi and drought conditions. Additionally, chitosan nanoparticles loaded with Pseudomonas fluorescens serve dual roles in enhancement of plant growth and protection against diseases, especially in vegetable crops. Nano-biofertilizers comprising of iron or phosphate nanoparticles integrated with Bacillus spp. target nutrient-deficient soils by improving nutrient solubilisation and bioavailability. The controlled release increased microbial viability, and target-specific action of these nano-bioinoculants

ABSTRACT

Concomitant with paradigm shift from agrarian and brick and mortar economy to knowledge and service based economy, India needs to adhere to the international conventions for the benefit of enriching its knowledgebase with which economic development and social welfare could be achieved. Although geoscientific research has been at the forefront and contributed immensely to our country’s economic development, number of applications for patents, copyrights, etc., on geoscientific concepts, databases, innovations, designs or processes has been negligible when compared with other branches of science. This paper intends drawing the attention of geoscientists on this lacuna and provides information on fundamental aspects of IPR that may be of help to geoscientists whose innovations are waiting to be filed for patents or copyright.

Nanotechnology has emerged as a revolutionary force in the food industry, providing innovative solutions to improve food quality, safety, and usefulness. Researchers have devised novel ways to numerous issues in food production and preservation by harnessing nanoparticles' unique traits, such as their high surface area-to-volume ratio and customizable physicochemical characteristics. Nanotechnology-enabled food additives provide a wide range of benefits, including improved texture, taste, color, and nutritional value, as well as increased shelf life and microbiological safety. Furthermore, nanoparticles are effective transporters for bioactive chemicals, allowing for targeted and regulated release within the food matrix.

Introduction 
India’s urban transition is among the most significant in the world, both in scale and complexity. With over 34% of the population residing in urban areas as of 2018 and projections indicating that nearly half the nation will be urban by 2047, the quality of urban governance will decisively shape India’s developmental trajectory (United Nations, 2018). Urban areas are expected to contribute over 70% of the GDP by 2030. However, cities face multifaceted governance challenges ranging from infrastructure deficits and environmental stress to inadequate service delivery and institutional fragmentation (NITI Aayog, 2021). In response, digital urban governance has emerged as a transformative paradigm, leveraging information and communication technologies (ICTs) to enable responsive, efficient, and inclusive urban administration. Digital technologies are increasingly embedded into urban governance structures and processes, from e-governance portals and grievance redressal apps to real-time traffic monitoring systems and digital financial tools. This shift is reflected in flagship national programmes such as Digital India, Smart Cities Mission, and the National Urban Digital Mission (NUDM), which aim to digitise public service delivery, enhance citizen engagement, and enable data-driven decision-making at scale (Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs [MoHUA], 2021; MeitY, 2015). At the heart of this transformation is the creation of robust digital infrastructure such as Integrated Command and Control Centres (ICCCs), city data platforms, and open APIs combined with evolving institutional frameworks that promote interoperability, decentralisation, and cooperative federalism (Kapur & Joshi, 2021; NIUA, 2023). The chapter explores the evolution and current landscape of digital urban governance in India by first outlining the conceptual underpinnings of urban governance and then transitioning into the digital domain. It analyses the role of urban digital infrastructure and the institutional architecture that supports it, highlighting the coordinated efforts under NUDM to build an open, interoperable, and citizen-centric digital ecosystem across India’s 4,400+ towns and cities (MoHUA & MeitY, 2021). Complementing this are the

Different basic as well as advanced laboratory equipment need to be used in a laboratory while conducting experiments. Many of them like pH meter, laminar air-flow hood, viscometer, thermometer, magnetic stirrer, microwave ovens, incubators, sand-bath, water-bath, oil-bath, etc. are the basic and simple equipment which require to be used routinely while conducting experiments in a laboratory. However, basic knowledge of their operation, handling procedure, when to be used, how to be used, and more importantly what not to be done with it, etc. are essential for keeping them in serviceable condition as well as for the accuracy/precision in their operation. In this chapter, we will discuss about some of the routinely used laboratory equipment along, while some other sophisticated equipment will be discussed in other chapters.

pH Meter

A pH meter measures exactly the H+ concentration of a solution; thus indicates acidity or alkalinity of a solution with greater precision. Actually, it measures the difference in electrical potential between a pH electrode and a reference electrode, and display the results converted into the corresponding pH value. Electrode is the key part (rod-like structure, usually made of glass) of a pH meter, having a bulb at the bottom containing a sensor. The pH meters range from simple and inexpensive pen-like devices (portable/pocket pH meter) to complex and expensive laboratory instruments with computer interface (Figure 5.1).

Frequent calibration of a pH meter using the solutions of known pH (standard solution of pH 4.01, 7.00, 10.01, Figure 5.2), generally before each use, ensures the accuracy of the instrument. For very precise work the pH meter should be calibrated before each measurement. For normal use calibration should be performed at the beginning of each day. This is necessary because the glass electrode does not give a reproducible measurement over a longer period of time.

Introduction

To accomplish experimentations in laboratories, sometimes we need microscope to test/validate our ideas/findings. A microscope is needed to examine objects which are very small which cannot be visualised by naked eyes. However, microscopic study requires some expertise in operating the microscope, particularly the sophisticated microscopes, as well as to prepare (peeling, sections, cutting, fixation, staining, dehydration, mounting, etc.) the sample, so that it can be appropriately examined for the anticipated details.

According to the scientific requirements different types of microscopes are used in the laboratories for research purpose. In this chapter, our aim is to acquaint you with the basics of using and handling of microscopes, particularly a compound microscope that is commonly used by the graduate and post graduate students for basic research.

Microscopy is often designated as the scientific investigation that is employed to review and analyse minute structures and objects using a microscope. The term “microscope” has been derived from ancient Greek words “micros” meaning “small” and “skopeîn” meaning “to look at or see,”.

Microscope

A microscope is a laboratory instrument used to examine objects (biological specimens) which are too small to be seen by the naked eye. The microscope must accomplish three tasks:

• Magnification- to provide a magnified image of the specimen.

• Resolution- to separate the details in the image.

• Contrast- to render the details clearly visible to the eyes.

Although we will tnroduce to you the different types of microscopes used for different speciments, our main focus is to discuss about compound microscope, which is commonly used in the laboratories. Compound microscope was developed around the beginning of 17th century.

A variety of glassware like burettes, pipettes, measuring cylinders, flasks, separating funnel etc. are used for experimental purposes in a laboratory. All of these need to be used and handled correctly, otherwise the chances of experimental error and damage to the glassware increase significantly. Being made of glass, they need special care while washing and using in experiments because even a minor mistake in handling of glassware may result in breakage of the apparatus. With this precautionary note, let us discuss about some of the specific glassware used in the laboratories.

Burette

Burette is a long graduated glass tube with a stopcock at one end for delivering a known/desired volume of a liquid, especially in titration experiments. It contains a stopcock at the lower end and a tapered capillary tube as the stopcock’s outlet. The flow rate of liquid from the tub stopcock’s outlet can be controlled with the help of stopcock valve. Burette is used for measuring the volume of a solution/chemical added in a quantitative (titrimetric) estimation experiment.

Procedure of using a Burette

The burette reading must be noted before and after delivering the chemical/ solution from the burette. The difference in these two readings is the volume of the chemical/solution released out of the burette. The solution should be released slowly/drop-by-drop to avoid any experimental error/mistake. If the solution/chemical is allowed to pour out too fast, the wall of the burette will not drain properly and some liquid may remain sticking to the surface of the walls. Moreover, excessive amount of chemical may be released/dropped during the experiment, particularly during the titration experiment wherein we need to know the exact amount of acid/base needed to get neutralization point. Thus, any minor mistake may lead to get a faulty reading. The measuring capacity of a burette usually used in a laboratory is 50 mL.

Since mouth pipetting of liquid reagents in a laboratory is not advisable, different tools are needed for safe, easier, and precise dispensing of liquid reagents. This chapter is devoted to make you aware of the tools like vacupette and micropipette which can be used for the handling of liquid reagents in a safe and precise way.

Vacupette

Glass pipettes have been traditionally used by sucking liquid solvent/solution directly using mouth. For safety reasons, mouth pipetting is no longer permitted in a laboratory. Hence, to fill a pipette vacupette is used by placing it on the top of glass or plastic pipette. It acts as a device to create vacuum for filling reagent in the pipette as well as for releasing the reagent with mechanical regulation on the flow out of the liquid. Vacupette can be of different types.

1. Rubber Bulb Vacupette

Rubber bulb vacupette is often used to transfer (pump up and discharge) liquid using a pipette when a larger quantity of chemicals is to be transferred. Small/tiny rubber bulb is attached to glass/plastic pipette for drawing little amount of reagents. Small vacupette is used to precisely discharge smaller volume/ drops.

Handling of Vacupette

• Insert the top of a pipette in the bottom of the rubber bulb vacupette (Figure 6.1).

• Remove air from the pipette by squeezing valve “A” at the top of the vacupette while simultaneously squeezing the rubber bulb. The amount of air released depends on the size of the rubber bulb.

11.1 Introduction

Nanotechnology is the manipulation or self-assembly of individual atoms, molecules, or molecular clusters into structures to create materials and devices with new or vastly different properties. Nanotechnology can work from the top down (which means reducing the size of the smallest structures to the nanoscale e.g. photonics applications in nanoelectronics and nanoengineering) or the bottom up (which involves manipulating individual atoms and molecules into nanostructures and more closely resembles chemistry or biology). The definition of nanotechnology is based on the prefix “nano” which is from the Greek word meaning “dwarf”. In more technical terms, the word “nano” means 10-9, or one billionth of something. It is a very promising new branch of small-scale technology named for the unit of measure at which it operates: the nanometer. Nanotechnology enables us to create functional materials, devices, and systems by controlling matter at the atomic and molecular scales, and to exploit novel properties and phenomena. Consider that most chemical and biological sensors, as well as many physical sensors, depend on interactions occurring at these levels and you’ll get an idea of the effect nanotechnology will have on the sensor world.

5.1 Introduction
One of the main methods for cost avoidance and prevention is value engineering/ value analysis. “Society of American Value Engineers (SAVE)” states that value Analysis is the systematic use of known procedures which determine the function of a product or service, define a monetary value for the function, and provide the essential function reliably at the lowest overall cost. If these are applied to a new product, it is called value engineering. By analysing the function of any product, material part, component, system, or service, it is possible to find extraneous expenditures connected with them and effectively remove them without compromising the product’s quality, functional dependability, or ability to provide services. The principles and steps of value analysis/ value engineering will supplement the effort of design thinking.
5.2 Symptoms for Introducing Value Analysis (VA)
If one or more of the following symptoms exist, starting a VA programme is expected to yield very positive effects.
i. Sales of the company’s products are declining.
ii. The prices of the products of the company are greater than those of the products of its rivals.

The curl of the vector A= xyi + yzj + zxk (i, j and k represents unit vectors along the three orthogonal axis) is

(A) xi + yj + zk         (B) – xi – yj – zk

(C) yi + zj + xk          (D) – yi - zj - xk

Q. 1 The question below consists of a pair of related words followed by four pairs of words. Select the pair that best expresses the relation in the original pair. 

Unemployed : Worker
(A) Fallow : land     (B) Unaware : sleeper
(C) Wit : jester        (D) Renovated : house

Introduction

A variety of glassware, plasticware, and other apparatus are used for experimental purposes in a laboratory. They need to be washed, cleaned, dried, and sometimes sterilized before they can be used in the next set of experiments. Glassware needs special care of handling during washing, drying, sterilization, etc. because even a minor mistake in handling of glassware may result in its cracking/breakage and it may become unserviceable. All of these may result in a delay in experimentation if spare piece of the glassware is not available or it may affect serviceability of the associated apparatus.

A large number of glassware such as beaker, flask, measuring cylinder, burette, test tube, etc. are regularly used in a laboratory, which requires careful handling during the different stages of experiment as well as after completion of the experiment while preparing them for another set of experimentation.

Glass being a complex silicate, its properties depends on the type of silicate anions in the structure and the cations formed. Thermal properties of glass changes by the addition of boron oxide (B2 O3 ); hence, borosilicate glass is extensively used in the laboratories. With this brief background information, let us discuss about the necessity, procedures, and precautions during washing, cleaning, drying and sterilization of laboratory-wares. Figure 3.1 shows various advantages of using borosilicate glass in a laboratory.

Good laboratory practices require clean glassware, because an experiment may give erroneous result if dirty glassware is used at any step of the experiment. Hence, the glassware must be physically and chemically clean; and in many cases, it must be microbiologically clean or sterile. The commonly used glassware in a laboratory include test tube, measuring cylinder, pipettes, beakers, flasks, microscopic slides, etc.

Q. 1 A submersible pump may be
(A) Single stage pump       (B) Multi stage pump
(C) Centrifugal pump         (D) Both (A) and (B)

7.1 Introduction

There are numerous wavelength dependent phenomena that may be used to modulate the wavelength of incident light source. These are wavelength dependent absorption, luminescence, dispersion, interference and scattering. Wavelength modulated sensors use a broadband source, a wavelength modulator or measurand (i.e. analyte), a form of spectrometer (using prisms, gratings or interference filters), a detector (single photodiode or array) and signal processing unit. Silicon photodiode is cheap and can be used for detection but it limits the detection wavelengths to the region 400 to 1050 nm. The sensitivity or the resolution of the wavelength modulated sensor depends on the characteristics of the detector, the inherent resolution of the spectrometer, mechanical stability of the modulation unit and the spectrometer, and the capability of the signal processing unit. However, wavelength modulated sensors do not require any form of referencing like intensity modulated sensors. In intensity modulated sensors, loss in intensity occurs due to connectors and splices, microbending, mechanical creep and misalignment of light sources and detectors due to environmental effect. Further the fluctuations in light source can affect the performance of the sensor. Thus, for intensity modulated sensors one needs referencing to cancel out these losses. In some intensity modulated sensors two wavelengths are used. One wavelength is used to cancel out all of the losses while the second is used to sense the measurand.

Wavelength detection is relatively easy if the spectral changes result from changes in chemical indicator dyes, fluorescence, phosphorescence, or black-body radiation. In these cases the incident and emitted wavelengths are far apart and therefore detection is easy. If the spectral change occurs due to mechanical movement, then the wavelength filtering mechanisms must have sufficient resolvable spectral points. The reasons for using fluorescence in the fiber optic sensors are well known. Fluorescence is intrinsically more sensitive than absorbance and is more flexible in that a great variety of analytes and physical parameters are known to change the emission of particular fluorophores. The fluorescence based sensors utilize the change in the intensity, lifetime or colour of fluorescence as the affected parameter by the measurand. That means, any interpretable observation of fluorescence can be made the basis of a sensor. In this chapter we shall first describe luminescence phenomenon and then various physical and chemical fiber optic sensors based on wavelength modulation and fluorescence phenomenon.

Introduction

In a research laboratory, we frequently need weigh chemicals and prepare different solutions of varying strength, as per the requirements. Accuracy in weighing and preparation of solution, with respect to weight/volume and strength, determines the success of experiment. In turn, the accuracy depends on weighing of solid chemical and/or measuring the volume of liquid chemical/making up the volume. In this Chapter, weighing of chemicals using appropriate weighing balance, preparation of solutions of different strength, their dilution, and precautions while preparing will be discuss in brief.

Weighing of Chemical

The primary method to determine the amount of chemicals to be used is weighing the chemical by using a balance.

In general, there are two types of balances to weigh chemicals in a laboratory:

1. Standard laboratory balance

2. Analytical balance

Standard Laboratory Balance

Generally, a standard laboratory balance is used for weighing a chemical when an error of ±0.02 g is acceptable. It is also used for pre-weighing, where approximate mass needs to be determined. Precise mass of the chemical is then determined using an analytical balance. Following are the steps in using a weighing balance in a laboratory.

What is Nanotechnology? Answers differ depending on who you ask, and their background. Broadly speaking however, nanotechnology is the act of purposefully manipulating matter at the atomic scale, otherwise known as the “nanoscale.” Coined as “nano-technology” in a 1974 paper by Norio Taniguchi at the University of Tokyo, and encompassing a multitude of rapidly emerging technologies, based upon the scaling down of existing technologies to the next level of precision and miniaturization. Taniguchi approached nanotechnology from the ‘top-down’ standpoint, from the viewpoint of a precision engineer.

Foresight Nanotech Institute Founder K. Eric Drexler introduced the term “nanotechnology” to the world in 1986, using it to describe a ‘bottom-up’ approach. Drexler approaches nanotechnology from the point-of-view of a physicist, and defines the term as “large-scale mechano synthesis based on positional control of chemically reactive molecules.” In the future,“ nanotechnology” will likely include building machines and mechanisms with nanoscale dimensions, referred to these days as Molecular Nanotechnology (MNT).