Lab-grown diamond (LGD)

GS Paper - 3 (Science and Technology)

As part of his first state visit to the United States, Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived at the White House in Washington DC  where he was received by US President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden. The prime minister gifted the Bidens with an exquisite sandalwood box, a first edition print of the book The Ten Principal Upanishads from 1937, and a 7.5 carat lab-grown diamond.

What are lab-grown diamonds?

• Lab-grown diamonds (LGDs) are diamonds that are produced using specific technology which mimics the geological processes that grow natural diamonds. They are not the same as “diamond simulants” – LGDs are chemically, physically and optically diamond and thus are difficult to identify as “lab-grown.”

• While materials such as Moissanite, Cubic Zirconia (CZ), White Sapphire, YAG, etc. are “diamond simulants” that simply attempt to “look” like a diamond, they lack the sparkle and durability of a diamond and are thus easily identifiable.

• However, differentiating between an LGD and an Earth Mined Diamond is hard, with advanced equipment required for the purpose.

How are LGDs produced?

• There are multiple ways in which LGDs can be produced. The most common (and cheapest) is the “High pressure, high temperature” (HPHT) method.

• As the name suggests, this method requires extremely heavy presses that can produce up to 730,000 psi of pressure under extremely high temperatures (at least 1500 celsius).

• Usually graphite is used as the “diamond seed” and when subjected to these extreme conditions, the relatively inexpensive form of carbon turns into one of the most expensive carbon forms.

• Other processes include “Chemical Vapor Deposition” (CVD) and explosive formation that creates what are known as “detonation nanodiamonds”.

• Any of these methods can be carried out using renewables or cleaner energy sources, making LGDs more eco friendly than traditional diamond mining. Furthermore, mined diamonds, the production of LGDs skips the most socially exploitative aspects of diamond manufacturing, namely the highly exploitative mining process which often employs impoverished Africans in terrible conditions.

What are the properties of LGDs?

• LGDs have basic properties similar to natural diamonds, including their optical dispersion, which provide them the signature diamond sheen.

• However, since they are created in controlled environments, many of their properties can be enhanced for various purposes.

• For instance, LGDs are most often used for industrial purposes, in machines and tools.

• Their hardness and extra strength make them ideal for use as cutters. Furthermore, pure synthetic diamonds have high thermal conductivity, but negligible electrical conductivity.

Ten Principal Upanishads

GS Paper - 1 (History and Culture)

Prime Minister Narendra Modi was met by US President Joe Biden and the First Lady Jill Biden at the White House in Washington DC – where the first couple hosted him for a private dinner. PM Modi presented the Bidens with a number of gifts, including a first edition print of the book The Ten Principal Upanishads from 1937. The Ten Principal Upanishads, translated from Sanskrit by Shri Purohit Swami, a scholar of Hindu scripture, and Irish poet WB Yeats, is considered to be one of the best translations of the Upanishads, some of the most important Hindu religious texts.

What are the two categories of Hindu scriptures?

• There are broadly two categories of Hindu sacred texts: shruti (loosely translated as “the revealed”) and smriti (“the remembered”).

• The first category is considered to be the most authoritative and consists of the four Vedas (Rig, Yajur, Sama and Atharva) and accompanying texts. These include Brahmanas (ritual texts), Aranyakas (“forest” or “wilderness” texts), and Upanishads (philosophical texts).

• The second category of Hindu scriptures is less authoritative – in many ways they are considered to be derived from the first – but more popularly known. These include the great epics of Ramayana and Mahabharata, Dharmashastras, Puranas and all other post-Vedic scriptures.

What are the Upanishads?

• The Upanishads, also known as the Vedanta – as they signal the end of the total Veda – speculate about the ontological connection between humanity and the cosmos.

• They serve as foundational texts in many traditions of Hindu theology and have hence attracted far more attention than the Vedas themselves.

• Dated to roughly 800-500 BC, the Upanishads discuss concepts such as transmigration, which have today become central to Hindu tradition.

• The Upanishads were given particular importance in Hindu theology by eighth century Hindu scholar Adi Shankara, whose interpretations synthesised the Advaita Vedanta tradition.

• This is a non-dualistic philosophy that has in modern times, under philosophers such as Swami Vivekananda and S Radhakrishnan, become the most dominant force in Hindu intellectual thought.

There are ten main (or principal) Upanishads:

1. Esha

2. Kena

3. Katha

4. Prashna

5. Mundaka

6. Mandukya

7. Taittiriya

8. Aitareya

9. Chandogya

10. Brihadaranyaka

Japan increased the age of consent

GS Paper - 2 (Social Issues)

As part of revamping its laws relating to sex crimes, Japan has raised the age of sexual consent from 13 to 16 years. The limit had remained unchanged for over a century and faced flak for being one of the lowest in the world. This is the first time that Japan has changed its age of consent since 1907 when it was first enacted.

What are the new laws being introduced?

• Apart from criminalising sexual intercourse with a person below the age of 16 by terming it “rape”, the upper house of the Diet, or Japan’s parliament, passed a series of laws on 16 June 2023.

• The first and foremost change is in the definition of “rape” itself. Earlier “rape” was defined as sexual intercourse or indecent acts committed “forcibly” and “through assault or intimidation”, or by taking advantage of a person’s “unconscious state or inability to resist”.

• However, the new definition moves away from just forcible sexual intercourse and broadens the ambit to include ‘non-consensual sexual intercourse” in a society where the concept of consent is still poorly understood, the BBC said.

• The revised law also specifies eight scenarios of “consentless sex crimes,” where it is difficult for a victim to “form, express, or fulfil an intention not to consent” to sexual intercourse. These include forced sexual intercourse and assault under the influence of alcohol or drugs, fear, or intimidation.

• Situations where the victim has been subjected to violence or threats; or is “frightened or astonished” or even “worried” about the consequences of refusing have been included too.

• Thus, those who were previously unable to voice resistance due to shock or other “psychological reactions” or their attacker’s economic or social status can do so now.

• The offence of rape will attract up to 15 years of imprisonment. However, a person having sex with a minor aged 13-15 will be punished only if the person is five years older than the minor or more.

• A new crime has also been carved out by criminalising the practice of upskirting,” or photo voyeurism.

• This means that Japan has now prohibited the taking, distribution, or possession of photographs of someone’s genitals without their consent. Additionally, taking photographs “of people being manipulated without their knowledge into sexual positions” has also been made a crime.

What are the ages of consent across the world?

• Some countries have a lower age of consent than Japan, such as Nigeria, the Philippines, and Angola, where the minimum ages are 11, 12, and 12 years, respectively. However, among the developed nations, Japan fared relatively poorly while the age was still 13 years old.

• Raising the age of consent to 16 years has placed Japan in a similar spot as several American states and European nations like the United Kingdom, Norway, and Finland.

• In fact, the minimum age of consent is still 14 in several EU countries like Germany, Italy, Portugal, Austria, Hungary, Estonia, and Bulgaria. However, in Spain, the age of consent was raised from 13 to 16 years only in 2015.

• Besides Europe, several South American countries like Brazil, Columbia, Peru, Paraguay, Ecuador, and Bolivia have set 14 as the minimum age too.

• Meanwhile, Bahrain has the highest age of consent in the world at 21 years, followed closely by India and Malta at 18 years.

• In India, the age of consent used to be 16 years originally, but it was later increased to 18 years in 2013 after the passage of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012, to ensure conformity with the Act. Recently, the 22nd Law Commission, which is looking into the age of consent, also held a meeting with officials of the Women and Child Development Ministry to seek details on the subject.