Lab-grown Diamonds (LGDs) and Upanishads: The PM of India gift Bidens during his first state visit to the US

What’s in today’s article?

• Why in News?
• What are Lab-grown Diamonds (LGDs)?
• What are the Properties of LGDs?
• What are the Advantages of LGDs?
• What are the Upanishads?
• 10 Main or Principal Upanishads
• The Ten Principal Upanishads

 

Why in News?

• As part of his first state visit to the US, the PM of India presented the Bidens (The US President and his wife) with a number of gifts, including a 7.5 carat lab-grown diamond and a first edition print of the book The Ten Principal Upanishads from 1937.

 

What are Lab-grown Diamonds (LGDs)?

• 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” (White Sapphire, YAG, etc) and are chemically, physically and optically diamond and thus are difficult to identify as “lab-grown.”
• The most common and cheapest method to produce LGDs is the “High pressure, high temperature” (HPHT) method.
• Usually graphite is used as the “diamond seed” and when subjected to extreme conditions, the relatively inexpensive form of carbon turns into the most expensive carbon forms.
• Like natural diamonds, LGDs undergo similar processes of polishing and cutting that are required to provide diamonds their characteristic lustre.
  • Thus, growth in the production of LGDs is unlikely to affect India’s established diamond industry which undertakes these tasks.

 

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.

 

What are the Advantages of LGDs?

• The LGDs production can be carried out using renewables or cleaner energy sources, making LGDs more eco-friendly than traditional diamond mining.
• LGDs skips the most socially exploitative aspects of diamond manufacturing, which often employs impoverished Africans in terrible conditions.
• As the Earth’s reserves of natural diamonds are depleted, LGDs are slowly replacing the prized gemstone in the jewellery industry.

 

What are the Upanishads?

• There are broadly two categories of Hindu sacred texts: shruti (“the revealed”) and smriti (“the remembered”).
  • The first category is considered to be the most authoritative and consists of the 4 Vedas (Rig, Yajur, Sama and Atharva) and accompanying texts [Brahmanas, Aranyakas and Upanishads].
  • The second category is less authoritative and is considered to be derived from the first but more popularly known [epics of Ramayana and Mahabharata, Dharmashastras, Puranas, etc].
• The Upanishads/Vedanta (800-500 BC) - as they signal the end of the total Veda - are the philosophical texts that discuss concepts such as transmigration, which have today become central to Hindu tradition.
• Much of the Upanishads are concerned with the relationship between the atman, or the distinct, unchanging self of an individual, and the brahman, the ultimate reality in the universe.
• As per the Chandogya Upanishad, those whose conduct here has been good will quickly attain a good birth - the birth of a brahman/kshatriya/vaishya.
• The Upanishads were given particular importance in Hindu theology by 8th century Hindu scholar Adi Shankara, whose interpretations synthesised the Advaita Vedanta tradition.

 

10 Main or Principal Upanishads:

• Esha
• Kena
• Katha
• Prashna
• Mundaka
• Mandukya
• Taittiriya
• Aitareya
• Chandogya
• Brihadaranyaka

 

The Ten Principal Upanishads:

• It is a version of the Upanishads translated by Irish poet W. B. Yeats and the Indian-born mendicant-teacher Shri Purohit Swami.
• The translation process occurred between the two authors throughout the 1930s and the book was published in 1937.

 

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Q1) What do you mean by vedanta?

The term Vedanta means in Sanskrit the “conclusion” (anta) of the Vedas, the earliest sacred literature of India. It applies to the Upanishads, which were elaborations of the Vedas, and to the school that arose out of the study (mimamsa) of the Upanishads.

 

Q2) Why is Adi Shankara famous?

Adi Shankara/ Adi Shankaracharya was an 8th-century Indian Vedic scholar and teacher. His works present a harmonising reading of the sastras, with liberating knowledge of the self at its core, synthesising the Advaita Vedanta teachings of his time.

 

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Source: PM Modi gifts Jill Biden with a lab-grown diamond: What is an LGD? | IE