Civil Service Bytes

#1. Defence Capability Enhancements   India’s biggest ship, aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya, finally arrives source: NDTV.com INS Vikramaditya is a Kiev class aircraft carrier  which was commissioned by Russian Navy in 1987 under the name Baku. It was later renamed as Admiral Gorshkov and last sailed in 1995 in Russia, before being offered to India. India agreed to buy it in 2004 for $974 million. The cost kept shooting up as Russia delayed the delivery by over five years. INS Kolkata – Biggest warship ever to be built in India till date source: NDTV.com INS Kolkata is the lead ship of the Kolkata-class stealth guided-missile destroyers of the Indian Navy. She was constructed at Mazagon Dock Limited (MDL),  and was handed over to the navy on 10 July 2014.  A bit of an old news but mightier still! INS Kolkata, under the Project 15 Alpha, belongs to the destroyer class and is the first of three ships currently under construction Being wholly constructed...

Imagine a planet with more than 60 moons, with a metallic hydrogen subterranean ocean 25,000 kilometres deep, with no solid surface to walk on, with clouds made of ammonia, with massive storms lasting several hundred years and with windspeeds of 400 mph, and with a magnetic field 20,000 times as powerful as the Earth. Welcome to Jupiter, the new frontier of humankind’s exploration of the Solar System. The last couple of decades have seen a flotilla of Missions to Mars — but with Juno, NASA begins a brand new trip into the mysteries of the Jovian system. Mars and Earth are similar in many aspects. They belong to the family of four planets from Mercury to Mars that are called Terrestrial Planets — thus, Mars and Earth are made of silicate rock and have broadly similar surface, interior and atmospheric processes. Hence, wind erosion, volcanic processes, the geochemical processes and the geophysics of the planetary interior on Earth and Mars bear a lot of similarities. In fact, before M...

Solar boat makes its debut in Andhra Pradesh  – Sci-Tech/Environment – The Hindu An eco-friendly solar-powered boat was launched on the pristine waters of River Krishna. There are only a handful of such boats operating on solar power in the country. The solar boat, facilitating clean and efficient cruise, has been imported from China. Solar-powered boats get their energy from the sun. Using electric motors and storage batteries charged by solar panels fitted to the roof, these boats can significantly reduce or eliminate use of fossil fuels. “Unlike conventional boats that operate using diesel engines which are fuel-guzzlers causing air and noise pollution and disturbance to the local habitat endangering the ecological balance of the surrounding areas, the solar boats are uniquely suited to transform light energy into movement.” The first solar boat designed in India was named  Surya ,  a 25-seater, by Kerala -based  TeamSustain in 2008. It operated...

7th IRNSS navsat to be launched next week India’s own Regional Navigation Satellite System, the IRNSS, is all set to be completed in space next week when the seventh and last of its spacecraft gets placed in orbit. IRNSS-1G will be launched on April 28 IRNSS will be to the subcontinent what the U.S. Global Positioning System, GPS, is to its users worldwide, but with far greater precision and in Indian control, according to ISRO. It will drive both everyday uses as a  24/7 standard service for air, sea, ship transport   and will also be used for  missile-related applications  as an encrypted and restricted service. IRNSS-1G is slated to be launched from the PSLV-C33 from Sriharikota and will be the 35th PSLV flight in the last two decades. An ISRO official said over the next three to six months, all the IRNSS satellites in the fleet would be stabilised as a constellation, their signals and performance verified and later put to use. The fleet ha...

RCEP draft moots tough curbs on cheap medicines Analysis of leaked chapter of the draft RCEP agreement Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) agreement – being negotiated by 16 countries (10 member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and 6 other countries that have Free Trade Agreements with the ASEAN) A leaked chapter of the draft RCEP agreement reveals that the  trade pact in its current form could reduce access to affordable medicines in many developing countries . The chapter on Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) is part of draft of the RCEP agreement. India has opposed some damaging proposals initiated by the RCEP members, particularly Japan and Korea,  involving patent extensions , restrictive rules on copyright exceptions , and  other anti-consumer measures . Some member countries, who are part of both the TPP [the U.S.-led Trans Pacific Partnership] and the RCEP, are trying to push for the TPP standards in...

India and US trade concerns and ties Open up services sector, Kant tells US The U.S. must open up its market for services to Indian firms, just as India has liberalised foreign direct investment in many sectors such as railways and defence for the benefit of American firms, Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant said. “India has opened up every sector of the economy in the last two years. While India is becoming more and more open, America must also open its services sector for Indians to go and work there. It can’t be a halfway house,” Mr Kant said,. The Indo-US relationship will only flourish further when there’s reciprocity in market access, Mr Kant said. “India has allowed American companies to come in and flourish otherwise GE would have never got the biggest contract to build locomotives for the Railways. Similarly, America must welcome Indian services and software companies to work there.”

Eight states have issued bonds worth over Rs.98,959.96 crore under UDAY Bonds scheme  in 2015-16, which is  aimed at improving operational and financial efficiency of state power distribution companies . As part of the scheme,  Reserve Bank had issued the special bonds (non-SLR special securities)  on behalf of eight state governments in the last fiscal, according to a Reserve Bank of India statement. The Power Ministry had unveiled UDAY (Ujwal DISCOM Assurance Yojana) on November 20, 2015. The  scheme is expected to help discoms save about Rs. 1.8 lakh crore in the next three years . The cumulative debt of discoms is Rs 4.37 lakh crore. These securities have been issued by the state governments under the Government Securities Act, 2006 and are eligible for market repo , RBI added. UDAY (Ujwal DISCOM Assurance Yojana) for financial turnaround of Power Distribution Companies  Ujwal DISCOM Assurance Yojna or UDAY – new scheme moved b...

The historic agreement on climate change  marked a milestone (on 22, April 2016), with a record 175 countries, including India, signing it. Paris Agreement on climate change was signed by 175 countries World leaders made it clear that more action is needed and it has to be quickly, to fight a relentless rise in global temperatures. Concerns  – planet heating up to record levels, sea levels rising and glaciers melting The ceremony was held on  Earth Day (April 22, 2016) The world is in a race against time. The era of consumption without consequences is over. Today world countries are signing a new covenant with the future. This covenant must amount to more than promises. The agreement  will come into force once 55 countries representing at least 55 per cent of global emissions formally join it, a process initially expected to take until 2020. But following a host of announcements at the signing event, observers now think it could happen lat...

3rd Asia Ministerial Conference on Tiger Conservation Has Been Inaugurated by PM Narendra Modi The third edition of Asia Ministerial Conference on Tiger Conservation has been inaugurated by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Vigyan Bhavan in New Delhi to save wild tigers. India is host of this edition of conference in which more than 700 tiger experts, scientists, managers, donors and other stakeholders are participating. Key facts: In this conference main discussion points will be issues related to tiger conservation and anti-poaching strategies. Ministers and government officials from all 13 tiger range countries (TRCs) participating in the conference. These 13 TRCs are: Bangladesh Bhutan Cambodia China India Indonesia Lao PDR Malaysia Myanmar Nepal Russia Thailand Vietnam Participating TRCs In this edition of conferences will share their: Good practices and success stories in conserving tigers Success stories i...

Palwal-Manesar stretch of KMP expressway opened – NATIONAL – The Hindu In News:  Long-awaited Palwal-Manesar stretch of the Kundli-Manesar-Palwal (KMP) Expressway inaugurated (April 06, 2016) General Studies  – PRELIMS – NH/Roads Maps The pace of building highways has picked up to 20 kms a day, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari said as he inaugurated the Palwal-Manesar stretch of the Kundli-Manesar-Palwal (KMP) Expressway. “Highways construction pace has now reached 20 kms a day with a target to reach 30 kms a day shortly. The focus is to bring in policies aimed at improving the condition of villages, poor people, farmers and labourers. A strong infrastructure plays a major role in fostering development. Now, the National Highway-2 (Delhi—Agra) is connected with NH-8 (Delhi-Jaipur), thus allowing vehicles going to Rajasthan and beyond a passage without entering Delhi. NH-1 and NH-2 are collectively called as the  Grand Trunk Road NH-7 is...