INS Tarmugli Joins the Indian Navy

INS Tarmugli Joins the Indian Navy

The Indian Navy today commissioned the highly maneuverable Fast Attack Craft INS Tarmugli at the hands of Vice Admiral HCS Bisht AVSM, Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Eastern Naval Command at a formal ceremony held at Naval Dockyard, Visakhapatnam. INS Tarmugli is being based in Visakhapatnam under the Naval Officer-in-Charge (Andhra Pradesh) and would be deployed for coastal patrol and surveillance operations along the East Coast of India.

Built by M/s Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers Ltd (GRSE), INS Tarmugli is the first Follow-on Water Jet Fast Attack Craft (WJFAC), is an improved version of WJFAC, earlier constructed by GRSE. Conceived, designed and built indigenously, the commissioning of this ship completes the addition of another chapter to the nation’s ‘Make in India’ initiative and indigenisation efforts in the field of warship design and construction.

Named after a picturesque island in the Andaman group, the 320-tonne INS Tarmugli, measuring 48 meters in length, can achieve speeds in excess of 30 knots. The ship is manned by a team comprising four officers and 41 sailors with Commander Sreejith S Nair at the helm as Commanding Officer. The ship is capable of operating in shallow waters at high speeds and is equipped with enhanced fire power. Built for extended coastal and offshore surveillance and patrol the warship is fitted with advanced MTU engines, water jet propulsion and the latest communication equipment.

The ships armament consists of a 30 mm CRN 91 gun manufactured by Ordnance Factory Medak. An electronic day-night fire control system namely Stabilised Optronic Pedestal (SOP) manufactured by Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) controls the gun. The ship is also equipped with two 12.7 mm heavy machine guns (HMG) and multiple medium machine guns, besides shoulder-launched Igla surface-to-air missiles to combat aerial threats. 

Lucknow tops Fast Track competition; 13 more Smart Cities announced

Lucknow tops Fast Track competition; 13 more Smart Cities announced

Warangal, Bhagalpur, Raipur, New Town Kolkata, Port Blair, Imphal, Ranchi among the winners

Tie between Meerut and Rai Bareilly in UP and Jammu and Srinagar to be resolved

Urban renaissance set in motion as part of country’s transformation, says Shri M.Venkaiah Naidu

5 year action plans for cities for the first time, competition among urban bodies, citizen participation, outcome based planning mark the revival, asserts Minister

Water taps to all urban households, adequate water supply in urban areas by 2019

Housing sanctions based on land availability, options to beneficiaries to ensure Housing for All

Central assistance to improve urban infrastructure hiked manifold, says Minister

Total investment potential under new schmes-Rs.18 lakh cr; approved so far-Rs.1,48,093 cr

            Central Government today announced 13 more smart cities from as many States. Lucknow topped the list of winners of the Fast Track competition conducted for 23 cities from as many States and Union Territories. Announcing the winners at a media conference on the occasion of two years of the Government in office, Minister of Urban Development and Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation Shri M.Venkaiah Naidu said that the cities that participated in the competition improved the quality of smart city plans by up to over 25% to become eligible for selection. With the selection of these 13 cities, 25 States/UTs are now covered under Smart City Mission

            On the occasion, Shri Naidu released a publication ‘Urban Renaissance : May,2014-May,2016’ giving a detailed account of paradigm shift in attitudes and approaches to urban planning and governance and the major drivers of urban revival and transformation set in  motion during the last two years.

            Shri Naidu informed that Lucknow that missed the list of first 20 smart cities improved the quality of its smart city plan by 19% to make it to the select list. Other winners of Fast Track competition were ; Warangal, Telanagana (13%), Dharamshala, Himachal Pradesh (27%), Chandigarh (9%), Raipur, Chattisgarh (25%), New Town Kolkata (11%), Bhagalpur, Bihar (25%), Panaji, Goa (9%), Port Blair, Andaman & Nicobar Islands (26%), Imphal, Manipur (27%), Ranchi, Jharkhand (27%), Agartala, Tripura (25%) and Faridabad, Haryana(12%).

            These 13 cities were selected based on the marks scored by them in the Fast Track competition and the bench marks set by the top performers in the first round of Smart City Challenge competition in which the first 20 cities were selected from among 98 mission cities.

            Shri Naidu stated that the 13 cities have substantially improved their smart city plans by addressing the deficiencies identified in the first round of competition by ensuring better profiling of respective cities in terms of infrastructure gaps and baseline service levels, ensuring consistency between citizens’ aspirations and action plans, more feasible resource mobilization plans and coordinated and integrated picture of how individual projects will contribute to area level changes.

            Other cities that participated in Fast Track Competition were : Namchi, Sikkim and ranked 14, Aizawl, Mizoram(15), Pasighat, Arunachal Pradesh(16), Dehradun, Uttarakhand(17), Kohima, Nagaland(18), Oulgaret, Puducherry(19), Silvassa, Dadra, Nagar & Haveli(20), Kavaratti, Lakshdweep(21), Diu, Daman & Diu(22) and Shillong, Meghalaya(23). These cities can submit their revised smart city plans for evaluation in the second round of regular competition underway by the end of June.

            Shri Venkaiah Naidu informed that the tie between Meerut and Rai Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh and Jammu and Srinagar in J&K will be resolved by allowing them to participate in the smart city competition and one city from each of these two States will be selected based on the quality of smart city plans. Seven capital cities left out of Smart City Mission will also be allowed to participate in the competition. These cities are : Patna, Shimla, Naya Raipur, Itanagar (Arunachal Pradesh), Amaravati (Andhra Pradesh), Bengaluru and Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala).

            The Minister said that as a part of efforts for country’s transformation towards higher levels of social and economic development, renaissance of urban sector has been set in motion through a paradigm shift in policies and programmes. “The new approaches introduced, the new churning at the level of urban local bodies and States/UTs, the new spirit of competition among cities and Stated to do better than others, the new enthusiasm and vigor being demonstrated, the new clarity of thought about outcomes and actions to be taken and the new beginning towards urban transformation in a more purposeful and holistic manner marked the process of urban renaissance” he said.

            Extensive stakeholder consultations and citizen participation, selection of cities based on competition and other objective criteria, full autonomy to cities and States/UTs to formulate, appraise and approve projects, replacing project based sanctions of the past to area and outcome based planning, convergence based implementation of schemes and substantial enhancement in Central assistance are the major drivers of urban revival, said Shri Naidu.

            Giving an account of the gains of new initiatives and approaches, Shri Naidu said that for the first time in the country, 98 smart cities and 497 Atal Mission cities accounting for over 70% of urban population now have long term five year action plans based on comprehensive analysis of infrastructure gaps. Other positives the Minister stated include : Atal Mission cities acquiring technology platforms for transparent and accountable governance and citizen engagement, about 100 cities initiating action for obtaining Credit Ratings necessary for resource mobilization, approvals for plans for providing water taps to the unconnected 25 million urban households besides ensuring water supply at the norm of 135 litres per head per day to all urban households by 2019, smart city development benefitting 130 million urban people, streamlining approvals for building permits in urban areas, efforts for sanitation benefitting all 80 million urban households, well considered initiatives to ensure affordable housing for all the urban poor etc.

            Shri Naidu further informed that Central assistance for improving basic infrastructure in urban areas has been increased to Rs.1,13,143 cr under new urban missions as against only Rs.33,902 cr during 2004-14.  For affordable housing for urban poor, Central assistance of Rs.10,050 cr has already been approved as against only Rs.17,889 cr during the previous ten years.

            6.84 lakh houses have already been sanctioned for Economically Weaker Sections under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban) accounting for more than half of 13.70 lakh houses sanctioned during 2004-14 out of which only 8.04 lakh houses could be built. Availability  of  land is being ensured before agreeing to  fund housing schemes besides giving four options to the beneficiaries to choose from based on their needs and incomes to enable targeted construction of affordable houses, the Minister observed.

            Shri Venkaiah Naidu informed that the new urban sector initiatives of PMAY(Urban), Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT), Start City Mission, Swachh Bharat Mission and Heritage Development and Augmentation Yojana (HRIDAY) have a total investment potential of Rs.18 lakh crore. Of this, an investment of Rs.1,48,093 cr has already been approved. This include ; Affordable housing-Rs.43,922 cr, Atal Mission-Rs.20,882 cr, Smart City Mission-Rs.80,789 cr, Swachh Bharat Mission-Rs.2,000 cr and HRIDAY- Rs.500 cr.

Isro takes the first step in developing reusable launch vehicle

The Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) on Monday successfully took a first step in developing a ReusableLaunch Vehicle (RLV).

The organisation successfully tested RLV-TD (technology demonstrator). It is a small, aircraft-like, winged structure.

A spokesperson from Isro said that RLV-TD HEX-01 mission was accomplished successfully. The lift-off happened at 7 am.

The RLV-TD is a rocket-aircraft combination measuring about 17 m, whose first stage is a solid propellant booster rocket and the second stage is a 6.5-m long aircraft-like winged structure sitting atop the rocket.

The RLV-TD is a series of technology demonstration missions that has been considered as a first step towards realising a Two Stage To Orbit (TSTO) fully re-usable vehicle. 

A winged Reusable Launch Vehicle technology Demonstrator (RLV-TD) has been configured to act as a flying test bed to evaluate various technologies, namely, hypersonic flight, autonomous landing, powered cruise flight and hypersonic flight using air-breathing propulsion.

These technologies will be developed in phases through a series of experimental flights. The first in the series is the hypersonic flight experiment (HEX), followed by the landing experiment (LEX), return flight experiment (REX) and scramjet propulsion experiment (SPEX). Reusable Launch Vehicle Technology Demonstrator Hypersonic Experiment (RLV-TD HEX1) wherein the hypersonic aero-thermo dynamic characterization of winged re-entry body along with autonomous mission management to land at a specified location and characterization of hot structures are planned to be demonstrated.

Earlier Dr K Sivan, director of the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), Thiruvananthapuram, where the RLV-TD was designed, assembled and where it underwent basic tests, said that the objective is to achieve hypersonic speeds to test the characterisation of the winged body’s re-entry, its control and guidance systems, autonomous mission management to land at a specific location at sea and testing of hot structures that make up the structure of the RLV.

The test is termed as Hypersonic Experiment 1 (HEX-1).

The first test launch HEX1 is a very preliminary step and Isro has to go a long way before it could be called a re-usable launch system. But these are very essential steps Isro has taken.

A reusable launch vehicle is the unanimous solution to achieve low cost, reliable and on-demand space access, says the space organisation.

He was quoted saying a conventional launch vehicle (LV) spends the lowest time of its flight in the atmosphere, whereas the RLV system spends all the time in the atmosphere.

The technology of an RLV is much more complex basically arising from the design of the control and guidance systems, he pointed out.

The objective of the RLV programme of ISRO is to enable the vehicle traverse a very wide range of flight regimes from Mach 0 to Mach 25 based on air-breathing propulsion for achieving two-stage-to-orbit (TSTO) launch capability.

The international context of Narendra Modi's Iran visit

It is the world's worst kept secret that China's chequebook diplomacy is giving the world a new definition of friends and foes. India has its task cut out

New Delhi has invested heavily in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Tehran visit but it is going to be equally closely tracked in three world capitals – Islamabad, Beijing and Riyadh.

What is the context?

Several political pundits in Delhi noted the reception Iranian President Hassan Rouhani got during his two-day visit toPakistan in March this year. It was the first visit by any Iranian head of state to Pakistan in 14 years. Sunni-dominated Pakistan has tended to side with Saudi Arabia rather than majority-Shia Iran in the two states’ long-running competition for regional influence.

Moreover, in the ongoing war in Afghanistan, Iran’s (covert) blessings to a section of Islamic militants in that country has complicated things for Pakistan in the past.

So for Pakistan, Rouhani’s visit was a sign of cautious political normalization. 

Initiatives between Pakistan and Iran are also crucially important in the context of the gradual lifting of US sanctions on Iran. During the Rouhani visit, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif somewhat optimistically claimed that the two countries would grow annual trade volumes to $5 bn by 2021. Trade between Pakistan and Iran fell to $432 mn in 2010-11 from  $1.32bn in 2008-09, and reached a record low of USD 229mn in 2013-14 mainly because of sanctions. 

During the Rouhani visit, Iran committed to investing in a number of areas to develop Pakistan’s infrastructure including increasing Pakistan’s imports of electricity from Iran from the current 100 megawatts to 1000 megawatts, accelerating the pace of the Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline and importing iron and steel from Iran. 

Where Pakistan is, China is. Eventually, much of the infrastructure will service the $46 bn China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). India is opposed to the CPEC because it runs through territory India claims belongs to it. On the other hand, the railroad that China wants to build between Iran and China could be extremely useful for India which could then leverage the creation of that infrastructure without spending a rupee itself.

It is the world’s worst kept secret that China’s chequebook diplomacy is giving the world a new definition of friends and foes. China is spending money it – possibly – does not have, to create infrastructure through the world, creating assets that it will then use diplomacy to protect. India cannot compete – it neither has the power, nor the money. Lofty pronouncements about how India does not believe in transactional relationships are all very well, but New Delhi has to create counterbalances.

Iran is one such counterbalance. In February this year, Iran’s former president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani asked Tehran to expand special economic zones on the offshore islands of Kish and Oeshm to attract private investment. There was a time this would not even have been counternanced, let alone been possible. India believes it is best-positioned in the region to take advantage of this economic opportunity and others as Iran integrates more fully with the world, working off previous trade and investment ties – the automotive, pharma and heavy manufacturing sectors are the most obvious.

Prime Minister Modi’s Iran trip comes weeks after his Saudi Arabia visit. Although there is no word from Riyadh on the PM’s Iran tour, former Indian ambassador in Saudi Arabia, Talmiz Ahmad provides a perspective when he writes: “The contentions between Iran and the Arab sheikhdoms pose a far greater challenge, because the continued conflict and proxy war between the Islamic giants could easily deteriorate into an all-out conflict, with horrific consequences for India, the region and the rest of Asia. India should give up its traditional posture of non-involvement in contentions issues outside South Asia and lead a diplomatic effort to address the mutual grievances and loss of trust between Saudi Arabia and the Islamic Republic of Iran”.

UK RO/ARO EXAM DATE :26TH JUNE 2016.

UK RO/ARO EXAM DATE :26TH JUNE 2016.
Dear candidates focus on uk special,computer and science,current affairs apart geography,history,polity and economics

Isro space shuttle completes first successful test demo

Isro space shuttle completes first successful test demo
The test was a step towards developing the final space shuttle as part of the Reusable Launch Vehicle Technology Demonstrator

In a milestone towards developing its own reusable launch vehicle, Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) successfully carried out a technology demonstration of its reusable space launch vehicle at Sriharikota on Monday at 7am.

A reusable launch vehicle will be capable of taking satellites to space and then landing back on earth so that it can be used more than once and is expected to drastically reduce the cost of space missions in the future.

“Mission has been accomplished and all the parameters and trajectories were fulfilled. The liftoff was sharp at 7am and then the vehicle landed in the Bay of Bengal,” an Isro spokesperson told Mint. “This was the hypersonic flight experiment (HEX), the next test will be focussed on landing the vehicle,” added the Isro official.

The Monday test was one of the many tests and demonstrations towards developing the final space shuttle as part of Reusable Launch Vehicle Technology Demonstrator (RLV-TD). For the test, Isro scientists had developed a scaled model of the vehicle which was one-fifth the size of the final reusable launch vehicle. This scaled model was capable of going up to an altitude of 70 km, which was not designed to land on a runway.

“Hearty congratulations to our space scientists at ISRO on successful launch of India’s first-ever indigenous space shuttle RLV-TD,” said President Pranab Mukherjee in a tweet after the technology demonstration was carried out.

A Winged Reusable Launch Vehicle Technology Demonstrator will be used in a series of tests to assess various technologies, including hypersonic flight, autonomous landing, powered cruise flight and hypersonic flight using air-breathing propulsion.

“We are not even looking at landing. This is more of an experiment to see whether we are able to achieve certain conditions on flight. We need a vehicle that can come from a speed of Mach 25 to Mach Zero, has material that can survive very high temperatures and also test our own mission management software,” said K. Sivan, director of Isro’s Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre.

According to the space agency’s last annual report, the agency has completed studies related to the rocket by carrying out various simulations. It also validated the on-board software and conducted a successful test of the solid booster motor (HS9) with Secondary Injection Thrust Vector Control system.

This scaled model is nowhere near the real Two Stage to Orbit reusable vehicle the space agency is aiming to develop which is expected to bring the cost of launches to a tenth of what they are today.

“Many such experiments will be carried out in the future, such as for the parachute system which will be put together eventually. We are looking at frugal engineering, developing advanced systems efficiently,” said K. Sivan, director of Isro’s Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre. “The final reusable launch vehicle will not be ready for another decade,” he added.

Fact Sheet on Development of Solar Parks and Ultra Mega Solar Power Projects

Fact Sheet on Development of Solar Parks and Ultra Mega Solar Power Projects

The scheme for “Development of Solar Parks and Ultra Mega Solar Power Projects” has been rolled out by Ministry of New & Renewable Energy on 12-12-2014. The Scheme has been conceived on the lines of the “Charanka Solar Park” in Gujarat which is a first-of-its-kind large scale Solar Park in India with contiguous developed land and transmission connectivity.

This scheme envisages supporting the States in setting up solar parks at various locations in the country with a view to create required infrastructure for setting up of Solar Power Projects. The solar parks will provide suitable developed land with all clearances, transmission system, water access, road connectivity, communication network, etc. This scheme will facilitate and speed up installation of grid connected solar power projects for electricity generation on a large scale.

Objectives

The scheme aims to provide a huge impetus to solar energy generation by acting as a flagship demonstration facility to encourage project developers and investors, prompting additional projects of similar nature, triggering economies of scale for cost-reductions, technical improvements and achieving large scale reductions in GHG emissions. It would enable States to bring in significant investment from project developers, meet its Solar Renewable Purchase Obligation (RPO) mandate and provide employment opportunities to local population. The State will also reduce its carbon footprint by avoiding emissions equivalent to the solar park’s installed capacity and generation. Further, the State will also avoid procuring expensive fossil fuels to power conventional power plants.

Programme Targets

Under this scheme, it is proposed to set up at least 25 Solar Parks and Ultra Mega Solar Power Projects targeting over 20,000 MW of solar power installed capacity within a span of 5 years starting from 2014-15.

Projects Underway

Approvals have been accorded to 33 Solar Parks of aggregate capacity of 20,000 MW to be set up in 21 States