Mentor july 2017 national india launches South-Asia satellite

Purnima Devi Burman and Sanjay Gubbi Wins Prestigious Whitley Awards

Sanjay Gubbi of Karnataka and Purnima Barman of Assam have won the prestigious Whitley Award for their contributions in wildlife conservation. Whitley awards are popularly known as Green Oscars. The two Indians were among the six selected out of 169 applicants from 66 countries. Purnima Devi Burman has been selected for her efforts for the conservation of greater adjutant storks and its habitat. She created an all female network in three villages of Kamrup district to save the adjutant storks and their habitats. The global population of adjutant storks is 1200-1800. Around 800 of them are found in Assam and 150 in Bihar. Sanjay Gubbi has been selected for his contribution to protect tiger corridors in Karnataka. Gubbi who is wildlife biologist and scientist works with the Mysuru-based Nature Conservation Foundation. Gubbi is also a member of the State Board for Wildlife and works actively to mitigate conflict issues. In 2012, he was instrumental in securing the largest expansion of protected areas in India since 1970. He helped to increase the size of protected areas in Karnataka by 37%.

Whitley Awards

Whitley Awards are instituted by the U.K.-registered charity Whitley Fund for Nature. These awards are given annually to recognise national and regional conservationists and supports them in their endeavour to conserve wildlife and nature. The awards are worth £35,000 and particularly seeks to recognise wildlife conservationists from outside the developed world.

Indian Army gets its First Artillery Gun in 30 Years

Nearly after 30 years after the induction of Bofors howitzers, Indian Army will get its first artillery guns called M777 from BAE Systems. Swedish Bofors guns were inducted in late 1980s after which Army has not inducted any modern artillery guns. The two M777s has arrived in New Delhi and will be tested at the Pokhran field firing range in Rajasthan. The two M777 guns will be used for compilation of firing tables. Indian Army has plans to equip 169 regiments with 3,503 guns by 2020.

The deal for procuring M777 guns from the United States was initiated in 2010. Finally, the contract worth Rs 2,900-crore to buy 145 M777 guns were struck in November 2016. The government-to-government deal was struck under the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) route. The 155 mm/39-caliber howitzers will increase the army’s capabilities in high altitude and will be deployed in the northern and eastern sectors. The modular design of the guns would come handy in towing the guns along the narrow and treacherous mountain roads that is found in India’s borders with both Pakistan and China. It will be especially used by the army’s new mountain strike corps which is being raised to counter China in the Northeast. The new corps is expected to be fully operational by 2025. The guns can also be airlifted by using heavy-lift helicopters like the Chinook. India has signed an agreement to acquire Chinook from the US. The C130J Super Hercules, which are used for strategic airlift by India is also capable of airlifting M777 guns. The M777 guns are already in service in the countries like the US, Canada and Australia. These guns were deployed by these armies in Afghanistan and Iraq. The first 25 guns will be inducted directly. The rest 120 guns will be be assembled in India by BAE Systems in collaboration with Mahindra Defence.

Union Cabinet Approves Proposal to Build 10 Atomic Reactors

The Union Cabinet has cleared a proposal allowing for the construction of 10 indigenous Pressurised Heavy Water Reactors (PHWR). The reactors will have a capacity of 700 MW. These reactors will add 7000 MW capacity and will ramp up nuclear power generation in the country.

Pressurised Heavy Water Reactors use natural uranium as fuel and heavy water as both moderator and coolant. India’s first PHWR was constructed at Rawatbhata in Rajasthan in technical cooperation with the Atomic Energy Canada Ltd (AECL). However, the Canada’s support was immediately withdrawn after India’s first nuclear experiment at Pokhran in 1974. India’s first nuclear power plant with a different design was built at Tarapur in Maharashtra. PHWR units are in operation in Rawatbhata, Kaiga, Kakrapar, Kalpakkam and Narora. Recently, it was announced that the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) is ready to sell Pressurised Heavy Water Reactors of 220 MWe or 540 MWe capacity to other countries.
Anshu Jamsenpa: First Indian Women to scale Mount Everest Four Times

Anshu Jamsenpa, a native of Bomdila in Arunachal Pradesh has scripted history by becoming the first Indian woman to scale Mount Everest for the fourth time. Anshu Jamsenpa who is a mother of two children had already had ascaled Mount Everest twice in a season that too taking only a gap of 10 days between the two climbs. She scaled the highest peak twice in May 2011. She again conquered the peak on May 18, 2013. Anshu began her summit expedition after 38 days of acclimatization and scaling several nearby peaks and passes. Anshu Jamsenpa also plans to scale Mount Everest again in this season to create a new record for becoming the first woman to do a “double” twice. She had sought the blessings of the Dalai Lama on 2nd April from Guwahati before embarking upon the journey to Nepal. Edmund Hillary of New Zealand and Tenzing Norgay of Nepal were the first climbers to conquer Mount Everest. They achieved this feat on May 29, 1953. Reinhold Messner, an Italian explorer became the first person to scale Mount Everest without supplemental oxygen in 1978. He is also first climber to ascend all fourteen peaks over 8,000 metres (26,000 ft) above sea level, including the Mount Everest.

BSF to use Invisible Laser Wall Kavach to Secure Border

The Border Security Force will make use of a newly developed technology that is capable of detecting intrusions and relaying information to the nearest post for action to safeguard the 198 km India-Pakistan international border in Jammu and Kashmir. The technology developed by the Delhi-based defence IoT firm, CRON Systems is expected to bolster BSF’s defences amid strained ties and increase in the number of infiltration bids and ceasefire violations. The new technology called Kavach (KVx) series laser walls has been built indigeneously and are a notch higher than the existing laser walls. BSF is presently pilot testing the Kavach walls along the Samba sector border in Jammu and Kashmir.

Kavach walls have intrusion detection system based on infrared array and hence are invisible. They will also be effective in transparent water and glass. Kavach walls are all-terrain weather-proof system that uses complex, encrypted technologies to monitor and immediately alert the nearest outpost about intrusion attempts. It is capable of monitoring large swathes of any territory from a single interface. The devices will use CRONet, an encrypted network, to communicate with each other. Five such KVx-series walls will be capable of securing a kilometre-long stretch.
Tejas Successfully Test Fires Air-to-Air Beyond Visual Range Missile

tjas, the Light Combat Aircraft has successfully test fired Derby Air-to-Air Beyond Visual Range (BVR) missile in RADAR guided mode. The test was performed on a Manoeuvrable Aerial Target at the Interim Test Range (ITR), Chandipur. The objective behind the test was to assess the Derby integration with aircraft systems on-board Tejas including the aircraft avionics, fire-control radar, launchers and Missile Weapon Delivery System and evaluate its performance. The test firing achieved all its planned objectives and the missile hit directly on the target with complete destruction of it. The flawless launch is a major step towards clearing BVR capabilities on LCA aircraft for final operational clearance.

The Indian Light Combat Aircraft is the world’s smallest, light weight, multi-role combat aircraft in its class amongst modern supersonic aircraft. It is a single seat, single jet engine developed by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited for the Indian Navy and the Air Force. the aircraft has delta wing configuration, with no tailplanes or foreplanes, features a single vertical fin. The LCA is constructed of aluminium-lithium alloys, carbon-fibre composites, and titanium. LCA integrates modern design concepts and the state-of-art technologies such as relaxed static stability, flyby-wire Flight Control System, Advanced Digital Cockpit, Multi-Mode Radar, Integrated Digital Avionics System, Advanced Composite Material Structures and a Flat Rated Engine.
Amitabh Bachchan appointed as Goodwill Ambassador for Hepatitis in South-East Asia Region May 1

World Health Organization (WHO) has appointed Amitabh Bachchan as its Goodwill Ambassador for Hepatitis in South-East Asia Region. He has been appointed to boost awareness to stop the spread of hepatitis, which is one of the leading causes of liver cancer and cirrhosis. As an ambassador, Amitabh Bachchan will participate in public awareness programmes to scale up prevention measures, early diagnosis and treatment. It is estimated that around 325 million across the world suffer from chronic hepatitis which is an inflammation of the liver resulting in liver scarring, liver cancer and death if untreated.

Hepatitis

Hepatitis viruses is one of the common cause of liver damage but other infections, toxic substances such as alcohol, certain medicine, food contaminants, bad lifestyle and autoimmune diseases may also result in chronic hepatitis. Of the five hepatitis viruses, namely, types A, B, C, D and E, types B and C are the most deadly. These two types are mostly responsible for liver damage. Hepatitis viruses B, C and D spread by contact with contaminated blood or body fluids. Hepatitis A and E spreads through unsafe food and drink. Symptoms of Hepatitis include yellowing of the skin and eyes, abdominal pain and swelling, yellow urine, pale or dark stools, chronic fatigue, nausea and loss of appetite. Hepatitis B vaccination are administered at 0, 1, 2, and 6 months to children to protect them against the disease as well as to prevent mother-to-child transmission of the disease.

Indian Exclusion Report (IXR): Historically Disadvantaged Groups remain Worst Off

According to the 2016 Indian Exclusion Report (IXR) released by the Centre for Equity Studies (CES), in terms of exclusion from access to public goods, Dalits, Adivasis and Muslims continue to remain the worst-hit communities. The report has found out that the same historically disadvantaged groups such as Dalits, Adivasis, Muslims, and persons with disabilities and age-related vulnerabilities continue to remain as the most severely and consistently excluded groups of the society.

Salient Highlights

Criteria The 2016 IXR Report determines exclusion by taking into account four public goods, namely, pensions for the elderly, digital access, agricultural land, and legal justice for undertrials.

Agricultural Land

With the respect to the criteria of agricultural land as a public good, the report has found that the landowners to be invariably belonging to the upper castes, cultivators to be belonging to the middle castes. Dalits and Adivasis remain largely as the agricultural workers and landlessness was highest among Dalits (57.3%). Also, 52.6% of Muslims and 56.8% of women-headed households were landless. In addition, Adivasis constituted around 40% of all those displaced by the developmental activities. The report has highlighted that the Land reform efforts have not benefited Dalits, women or Muslims significantly. The land holdings of Dalits, Muslims and women were found to be meagre in size. Also, it has noted that the Land allotments to SC/ST households were not implemented efficiently.

Internet reach

The report has observed that even though India has been ranked among the top five nations in terms of the number of internet users, almost 1.063 billion Indians were found to be offline. It has cited Poverty and geographic location to be the two major barriers to digital access. The report has cited problems like poor infrastructure, inadequate institutional frameworks, low literacy in the targeted areas, and poor cooperation from government officials as the major reasons behind poor implementation of government schemes aimed at enhancing digital access. The report has also cited the reluctance on the part of government to be a signatory to a non-binding UN Human Rights Council resolution to protect human rights on the Internet.

Agni-II Ballistic Missile Test Fired Successfully

India has successfully carried out a fresh user trial of Agni-II ballistic missile from a defence test facility in the Abdul Kalam Island off the coast of Odisha. The objective of the test was to re-establish the operational effectiveness of the weapon system.

Agni-II Ballistic Missile

Agni-II missile is a nuclear-capable, surface-to-surface missile which forms a part of India’s strategic forces arsenal for nuclear deterrence with a range of over 2000 km. It can carry a payload of 1000kg. It is equipped with an advanced high accuracy navigation system and guided by a novel state-of-the-art command and control system. It is powered by a solid rocket propellant system and already been inducted into the army. Agni-II weighs 17 tonnes and the range of the missile can be increased to 3000 km by reducing the payload. It can be fired from both rail and road mobile launchers and it takes only 15 minutes for the missile to be readied for firing. The Agni-II missile being developed by the Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO) is one of the sophisticated weapons that can act as a deterrent against nuclear-armed neighbours.

To inspire youngsters to work dedicatedly for the scientific research, the state government of Odisha has renamed the Wheeler Island in Bhadrak district as Abdul Kalam Island as a humble tribute to former President Dr APJ Abdul Kalam. Prior to the renaming, the island was named after an English commandant Lieutenant Wheeler.
Indian Army Test-Fires Advanced Version of Brahmos Cruise Missile

Indian Army has successfully test-fired advanced Block-III version of Brahmos cruise missile in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. During the test, the Brahmos cruise missile had successfully hit the land-based target with desired precision in a top attack configuration demonstrating its high level and complex manoeuvring and its unmatched lethality of hitting the target with at most precision. Recently, on April 22, the Indian Navy had successfully carried out its first test-firing of the sea-to-land attack version of Brahmos.

Brahmos

The Brahmos is a supersonic cruise missile developed by a joint-venture between Russia’s Mashinostroyenia and India’s Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO). It operates on ‘fire and forget principal’ and is capable of being launched from land, sea, sub-sea and air against sea and land targets. It is capable of carrying a warhead of 300 kilogram and has top supersonic speed of Mach 2.8 to 3 (that is roughly three times the speed of sound). It is a two-stage missile, the first one being solid and the second one ramjet liquid propellant. It is hailed as the world’s fastest anti-ship cruise missile in operation. After India has become the member of the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) in 2016, India and Russia have proposed to jointly develop a new generation of Brahmos missiles with a range of 600-km plus and capability to strike the targets with pinpoint accuracy.

Sanjay Pratihar bags INSA Medal for Young Scientist

Sanjay Pratihar, a scientist at Assam’s Tezpur University, has been selected for the prestigious Indian National Science Academy (INSA) medal for the Young Scientist Award, 2017, for his contribution to “multi-metal complexes, theoretical understanding, selective sensing of Hq2+ions and important applications in agriculture”. Sanjay Pratihar has done his PhD in Organometallic Chemistry from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur. Much of his research work focused on the re-source-efficient design of products and processes which entails maximum utilization of all the products or processes as far as possible. Sanjay Pratihar had earlier received ‘DST-INSPIRE Faculty’ award in 2012. The INSA award consists of a bronze medal and a cash award of Rs. 25,000. The award will be presented during INSA’s anniversary meeting scheduled to be held in December.

INSA Medal for Young Scientist

The INSA medal was instituted in 1974 by the Indian National Science Academy. Since then, the medal is awarded annually to honour talented young Indian scientists in recognition of their outstanding contributions in science or technology. The award is considered to be the highest recognition of promise, creativity and excellence in a young scientist. Till date, more than 700 young scientists have been recognised by the INSA awards.

Tejas Express: New Premier Train between Mumbai and Goa

Indian Railways is expected to launch a new 20 coach premier train called the Tejas Express connecting Mumbai and Goa in June. The Tejas service aims to provide comfort to passengers in the inter-city journeys. Once the Mumbai-Goa run becomes operational, the Railways is likely to extend the Tejas service in Delhi-Chandigarh route. The Tejas service was promised in the Union Railway Budget 2016-17.

Salient features

The Tejas Express will be the first train of Indian Railways to have automatic doors and secured gangways for all coaches. At present automatic doors are only operational in metro trains in the country. The coaches of Tejas Express would have integrated braille displays, digital destination boards, and electronic passenger reservation charts. The fare of the Tejas Express would be fixed similar to that of Rajdhani and Shatabdi trains. The Tejas Express will have fire and smoke detection and suppression systems as well as improved aesthetics. The other facilities include tea and coffee vending machines, magazines and snack tables. In addition, passengers can enjoy the taste of choicest cuisine curated by celebrity chefs. All the coaches will have water level indicators in the bio-vacuum toilets. Individual LCD screens have been made available for all the passengers for entertainment purpose and for disseminating passenger related information and safety instructions.

Maharashtra becomes First State to Use Automated Weather Stations (AWS) for Farmers

Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis has inaugurated the state’s first automatic weather station at Dongargaon in Nagpur. The state government proposes to install around 2,065 such weather stations across the state on a public private partnership (PPP) mode in this year and 1,000 in next year. The weather stations will be helpful in measuring the wind direction, wind speed, air temperature, relative humidity and record amount of rainfall. The information gathered by the weather stations would be shared among the farmers by making them available on Mahavedh portal (Maharashtra agriculture weather information network) as well as on the mobile application of Skymet. Weather forecast firm Skymet Weather Private Ltd will be setting up these weather stations.

The farmers of the state can make use of the information to manage sowing in a much better and planned way as per the weather conditions. These weather stations are significant because the IMD forecast is limited to only four zones. The weather related information is not made available by the IMD at the level of taluks. But, the AWS will provide forecast up to taluka level. As one weather station will be installed for an area of around 12×12 km, micro-level weather forecasts will be possible. In addition, the digital kiosks will be set-up in every Gram Panchayat to disburse weather related information and expert advice on crop pattern to the farmers. During the first phase, information will be shared using SMS. In the second phase, half hourly updates will be provided to all the Gram Panchayats. The sensors of the AWS will be able to record important parameters relevant for agriculture like temperature, relative humidity, wind speed and direction, rainfall, solar radiation, leaf wetness, soil moisture and temperature and atmospheric pressure and evapotranspiration. The state government plans to use the data provided by the AWS to prepare location-specific agriculture advisories, better disaster management, design crop insurance schemes and establish a weather database bank.
Indian Railways to Track Wagons and Coaches with RFID tags

Leveraging information technology in a big way, the Indian Railways is set to make use of the radio-frequency identification tags (RFID) for tracking of wagons, coaches and locomotives to ensure the effective and transparent functioning of the system. For this purpose, the RFID tags have been designed by the Centre for Railway Information System (CRIS) at an estimated cost of Rs 1000 per tag. For the first phase of implementation of this project, the Railways have sanctioned a sum of Rs 57 crore. The trackside readers that will be installed at stations and other key points would read the RFID tag fitted in the rolling stocks and would transmit the wagon identity over a network to a central computer. From here afterwards, all new wagons coming out of manufacturing units would be equipped with RFID tags as a part of the standard practice. Indian railways have about 2.25 lakh wagons, 50,000 coaches and 9,000 locomotives in its possession. Earlier, the Railways used RFID tags on Vishakhapatnam-Talcher-Paradeep section as a pilot project.

RFID tags will help the railways in knowing the exact location of wagons, locomotives and coaches. Such data at present is manually maintained and hence are prone to errors. By the use of RFID tags, the railways plans to address the issue of shortage of wagons, locomotives and coaches in a more transparent and expeditious manner. As the RFID tags have a lifespan of 25 years, RFID tags can be removed and reused.

RFID tags will be of significant use especially in freight maintenance management, locomotive management and coach maintenance management.

RFID tags

The RFID uses electromagnetic fields to automatically identify and track tags attached to objects. The RFID tags contain electronically stored information. Unlike a bar code, the tag need not be within the line of sight (LoS) of the reader, so it can be easily embedded in the tracked object. Hence, RFID is a powerful enabling technology that is being applied in an astonishing range of applications ranging from supply chain management and product inventory control to identity authentication and access control.

Basava Jayanthi 2017

On the occasion of Basava Jayanti 2017, PM Modi released the translated volumes of Vachanas in 23 Indian languages. Basavanna was a 12th-century philosopher, statesman, Kannada poet and a social reformer during the reign of the Kalachuri-dynasty king Bijjala I in Karnataka, India. Basavanna spread social awareness through his poetry, popularly known as Vachanaas. Basavanna rejected gender or social discrimination, superstitions and rituals.

He introduced new public institutions such as the Anubhava Mantapa (or, the “hall of spiritual experience”), which welcomed men and women from all socio-economic backgrounds to discuss spiritual and mundane questions of life, in open. As a leader, he developed and inspired a new devotional movement named Virashaivas, or “ardent, heroic worshippers of Shiva”. This movement shared its roots in the ongoing Tamil Bhakti movement, particularly the Shaiva Nayanars traditions, over the 7th- to 11th-century. Basava championed devotional worship that rejected temple worship and rituals led by Brahmins, and replaced it with personalized direct worship of Shiva through practices such as individually worn icons and symbols like a small linga. Basaveshwara is the first Kannadiga in whose honour a commemorative coin has been minted in recognition of his social reforms. In November 2015, the Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi inaugurated the statue of Basaveshwara along the bank of the river Thames at Lambeth in London.

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