Software Defined Radio (SDR) for Indian Army
- Communication is vital and critical to all military operations.
- The Combat Net Radio (CNR) is the mainstay of communications for the Indian Army in the battlefield. The contemporary CNR equipment in the Indian Army supports voice communication only and has limited or no data transmission capability.
- To arm the soldiers with advantages offered by technology and equip him to fight a war in the Net–Centric battle space, present radios are to be replaced soon by indigenously developed Software Defined Radio (SDR), which have
- Enhanced data transmission capability, enhanced voice clarity and data transmission accuracy in spectrally noisy environments, support multiple waveforms, greater system security and better communication survivability in clear and secure mode to meet the operational requirements of the Indian Army.
- Indian Army is in the process to revamp its communication systems by procuring Very/Ultra High Frequency (V/UHF) Manpack SDRs under Make-II category.
- Development of V/UHF Manpack SDR under Make-II will be a game changer for Indian Army. It is in sync with the “Aatmanirbhar Bharat” policy of the Government which will lead to “Self Reliance” in advanced communication systems.
PIB
Jiya Rai
Why in News?
- Miss Jiya Rai, a 12 year old daughter of a Naval sailor Madan Rai, created history by swimming from Bandra-Worli Sea Link to Gateway of India, a distance of 36 Km in 08 hrs and 40 minutes.
- She is a known case of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and dedicated the swimming feat to raise awareness about Autism.
- The swimming event was conducted under observation of Swimming Association of Maharashtra, a recognised body of Swimming Federation of India.
- The event was also associated with FIT India Movement by Ministry of Youth and Sports Affair.
What Is Autism Spectrum Disorder?
- Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a complex developmental condition that involves persistent challenges in social interaction, speech and nonverbal communication, and restricted/repetitive behaviors. The effects of ASD and the severity of symptoms are different in each person.
- ASD is usually first diagnosed in childhood with many of the most-obvious signs presenting around 2-3 years old, but some children with autism develop normally until toddlerhood when they stop acquiring or lose previously gained skills.
- Autism spectrum disorder is also three to four times more common in boys than in girls, and many girls with ASD exhibit less obvious signs compared to boys. Autism is a lifelong condition.
PIB
Nurturing Neighbourhoods Challenge Cohort Announced
Why in News?
- The Smart Cities Mission, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, announced twenty-five (25) shortlisted cities for the ‘Nurturing Neighbourhoods Challenge’ cohort, in collaboration with the Bernard van Leer Foundation (BvLF) and technical partner WRI India.
- The Challenge is a 3-year initiative aimed at supporting early childhood-friendly neighbourhoods under the government’s Smart Cities Mission.
- The cohort will receive technical assistance, capacity building and scale-up support to experiment, and implement trials and pilots over the next six months to demonstrate early wins, solicit citizen participation, and build consensus around their proposals.
About the Challenge
- Under its prime objective of inclusive development, the Government of India is committed to enhancing opportunities in urban areas for all vulnerable citizens, especially young children.
- The Nurturing Neighbourhoods Challenge, launched on November 4th, 2020, invited participation from all Smart Cities, capitals of States and UTs, and other cities with population above 5 lakhs were eligible to participate.
- Over the 3-year initiative, selected cities based on their proposal, readiness, and commitment – will receive technical support and capacity-building to develop, pilot and scale solutions that enhance the quality of life of young children.
- Over time, the programme will enable city leaders, managers, staff, engineers, urban planners, and architects to incorporate a focus on early childhood development into the planning and management of Indian cities.
PIB
Trainers’ Training Programme for the All India Surveys
Why in News?
- Ministry of Labour & Employment launched the trainers’ training programme for the All India Surveys being conducted by Labour Bureau, an attached office of Ministry of Labour & Employment by releasing the Instruction Manuals & Questionnaires for the surveys and the software application developed.
- The five All India surveys on migrant workers, domestic workers, employment generated by professionals and transport sector have tremendous role to play at national level by providing data on the most effected labour market participants.
- The Government has constituted an Expert Group under the chairmanship and co-chairmanship of Dr. S. P. Mukherjee and Dr. Amitabh Kundu respectively with leading economists and statisticians as members to guide Labour Bureau for conducting these surveys.
- This is the first time that the Bureau will collect data through greater use of information technology which will enable it to effectively meet the rapid demands for data in the field of labour and employment.
The Labour Bureau is entrusted with five All India surveys
- All India Survey of Migrant workers,
- All India survey of Domestic Workers,
- All India survey of employment generated by Professionals,
- All India survey of employment generated in Transport Sector and
- All-India Quarterly Establishment based Employment Survey
- The Bureau is also going to launch All India Quarterly Establishment Based Employment Survey to assess the employment situation in establishments with more than 10 workers and also less than 10 workers.
- These surveys will fill the huge data gap that exists on the employment numbers in the unorganized sector.
- The Bureau is also gearing up to take up its role as the nodal agency for collating statistical returns under all the four labour codes.
- Besides being the repository of data on labour, the Bureau is also nationally and internationally renowned for compilation and generation of vital statistics like the Consumer Price Index for Industrial Workers (CPI-IW) the base of which was recently revised to the year 2016, Consumer Price Index Numbers for Agricultural and Rural Labourers (CPI-AL/RL) and for undertaking numerous surveys and studies on different aspects of labour.
PIB
Jiling-Langlota Iron ore Block and Guali Iron ore Block
Why in News?
- Union Minister for Mines and Chief Minister of Odisha jointly inaugurated the production in two new iron ore mines of Odisha namely Jiling-Langlota Iron ore Block and Guali Iron ore Block.
- Both the mines have production capacity of 15 lakh tonnes per month and they possess approx. 275 million tonnes of consolidated iron ore reserves.
- These Mines will help in stabilising the supplies for small industries and will generate huge employment opportunities in the state. The two mines will generate approx. Rs. 4000-5000 crores of annual revenue forthe state of Odisha.
PIB
Award for excellence in PSU for Investment in Start-ups
Why in News?
- Team TRIFED has won 4 awards in the 19th Global edition and the 4th India Edition of World Leadership Congress and Awards. The Economic Times presents Business Leader of the Year, which took place in Mumbai.
Award
- Recognised for its diligent efforts towards the transformation of lives of the tribal population across the country, TRIFED won a collective award of Excellence in PSU – for investment in start-ups in the Organisational Award Category.
- Shri Pravir Krishna, Managing Director won threeawards in the Individual Category for his exemplary and inspirational leadership – CEO of the year; Brand Builder of the Year and Entrepreneur of the Year.
- Hosted by the World Leadership Congress and Awards, the Economic Times presents Business Leader of the Year, recognises the ability of leaders to steer their organisations through turbulent times and contribute to the country’s development.
PIB
NASA’s Perseverance rover
Why in News?
- NASA’s science rover Perseverance, the most advanced astrobiology laboratory ever sent to another world, streaked through the Martian atmosphere and landed safely on the floor of a vast crater, its first stop on a search for traces of ancient microbial life on the Red Planet.
- The robotic vehicle sailed through space for nearly seven months, covering 293 million miles (472 million km) before piercing the Martian atmosphere at 12,000 miles per hour (19,000 km per hour) to begin its approach to touchdown on the planet’s surface.
- The landing represented the riskiest part of two-year, $2.7 billion endeavor whose primary aim is to search for possible fossilized signs of microbes that may have flourished on Mars some 3 billion years ago, when the fourth planet from the sun was warmer, wetter and potentially hospitable to life.
- Scientists hope to find biosignatures embedded in samples of ancient sediments that Perseverance is designed to extract from Martian rock for future analysis back on Earth – the first such specimens ever collected by humankind from another planet.
- Two subsequent Mars missions are planned to retrieve the samples and return them to NASA in the next decade.
Search for ancient life
- NASA scientists have described Perseverance as the most ambitious of nearly 20 U.S. missions to Mars dating back to the Mariner spacecraft’s 1965 fly-by.
- Perseverance is set to build on previous findings that liquid water once flowed on the Martian surface and that carbon and other minerals altered by water and considered precurors to the evolution of life were present.
- Perseverance’s payload also includes demonstration projects that could help pave the way for eventual human exploration of Mars, including a device to convert the carbon dioxide in the Martian atmosphere into pure oxygen.
- The box-shaped tool, the first built to extract a natural resource of direct use to humans from an extraterrestrial environment, could prove invaluable for future human life support on Mars and for producing rocket propellant to fly astronauts home.
- Another experimental prototype carried by Perseverance is a miniature helicopter designed to test the first powered, controlled flight of an aircraft on another planet. If successful, the 4-pound (1.8-kg) helicopter could lead to low-altitude aerial surveillance of distant worlds.
- Perseverance’s immediate predecessor, the rover Curiosity, landed in 2012 and remains in operation, as does the stationary lander InSight, which arrived in 2018 to study the deep interior of Mars.
- Last week, separate probes launched by the United Arab Emirates and China reached Martian orbit. NASA has three Mars satellites still in orbit, along with two from the European Space Agency.
THE HINDU
Niti Aayog’s Governing Council meeting
Why in News?
- Prime Minister will chair Niti Aayog’s Governing Council meeting on February 20 where issues related to agriculture, infrastructure, manufacturing and human resource development will be discussed.
- The council, the apex body of Niti Aayog, includes all chief ministers, lieutenant governors of Union Territories (UTs), several union ministers and senior government officials.
- The sixth meeting of the Governing Council will witness the entry of Ladakh for the first time, in addition to the participation of Jammu and Kashmir as a U.T.
- Prime Minister is the Chairman of Niti Aayog. The council will deliberate on issues related to agriculture, infrastructure, manufacturing, human resource development, service delivery at grassroots level and health and nutrition.
- The Governing Council meets regularly and its first meeting took place on February 8, 2015.
THE HINDU
Air Pollution Deaths
Why in News?
- Air pollution claimed approximately 54,000 lives in Delhi in 2020, according to a Greenpeace Southeast Asia analysis of cost to the economy due to air pollution.
- Six Indian cities — Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad and Lucknow — feature in the global analysis.
- Globally, approximately 1,60,000 deaths have been attributed to PM 2.5 air pollution in the five most populous cities — Delhi, Mexico City, Sao Paulo, Shanghai and Tokyo.
- According to the report, the ‘Cost Estimator’, an online tool that estimates the real-time health impact and economic cost from fine particulate matter (PM 2.5) air pollution in major world cities, was deployed in a collaboration between Greenpeace Southeast Asia, IQAir and the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA).
- Using real-time ground-level PM 2.5 measurements collated in IQAir’s database, the algorithm applies scientific risk models in combination with population and public health data to estimate the health and economic costs of air pollution exposure.
- To show the impact of air pollution-related deaths on the economy, the approach used by Greenpeace is called ‘willingness-to-pay’ — a lost life year or a year lived with disability is converted to money by the amount that people are willing to pay in order to avoid this negative outcome.
- The need of the hour is to rapidly scale up renewable energy, bring an end to fossil fuel emissions and boost sustainable and accessible transport systems.
- Of the 28 global cities studied, Delhi bore the highest economic cost of air pollution with an estimated loss of 24,000 lives in the first half of 2020 despite a strict COVID-19 lockdown.
- In Mumbai, air pollution from PM 2.5 and NO2 was responsible for the loss of an estimated 14,000 lives since January 1, 2020.
THE HINDU
2021 TIME100 Next
Why in News?
- Five Indian-origin personalities, including Twitter’s top lawyer Vijaya Gadde and U.K.’s Finance Minister Rishi Sunak, and Bhim Army chief Chandra Shekhar Aazad feature in TIME magazine’s annual list of 100 “emerging leaders who are shaping the future”.
- The 2021 TIME100 Next is an expansion of TIME’s flagship TIME100 franchise of the most influential people in the world and highlights 100 emerging leaders who are shaping the future.
- Other Indian-origin personalities on the list are Instacart founder and CEO Apoorva Mehta, doctor and Executive Director of nonprofit Get Us PPE Shikha Gupta and founder of nonprofit Upsolve, Rohan Pavuluri.
THE HINDU
Siberian Mammoth
Why in News?
- Scientists have recovered the oldest DNA on record, extracting it from the molars of mammoths that roamed northeastern Siberia up to 1.2 million years ago in research that broadens the horizons for understanding extinct species.
- The researchers had recovered and sequenced DNA from the remains of three individual mammoths — elephant cousins that were among the large mammals that dominated Ice Age landscapes — entombed in permafrost conditions conducive to preservation of ancient genetic material.
- While the remains were discovered starting in the 1970s, new scientific methods were needed to extract the DNA.
- The oldest of the three, discovered near the Krestovka River, was approximately 1.2 million years old. Another, from near the Adycha river, was approximately 1 to 1.2 million years old. The third, from near the Chukochya river, was roughly700,000 years old.
- Until now, the oldest DNA came from a horse that lived in Canada’s Yukon Territory about 700,000 years ago. By way of comparison, our species, Homo sapiens, first appeared roughly 300,000 years ago.
- DNA is the self-replicating material that carries genetic information in living organisms — sort of a blueprint of life.
- Most knowledge about prehistoric creatures comes from studying skeletal fossils, but there is a limit to what these can tell about an organism, particularly relating to genetic relationships and traits.
- Ancient DNA can help fill in the blanks but is highly perishable. Sophisticated new research techniques are enabling scientists to recover ever-older DNA.
- Morphological analyses on bones and teeth usually only allow researchers to study a handful of characteristics in the fossils, whereas with genomics we are analysing many tens of thousands of characteristics.
- The last mammoths disappeared roughly 4,000 years ago.
- DNA analyses showed that genetic variants associated with enduring frigid climes such as hair growth, thermoregulation, fat deposits, cold tolerance and circadian rhythms were present long before the origin of the woolly mammoth.
THE HINDU
End of Neanderthals
- The flipping of the Earth’s magnetic poles together with a drop in solar activity 42,000 years ago could have generated an apocalyptic environment that may have played a role in a major events ranging from the extinction of megafauna to the end of the Neanderthals, researchers say.
- The Earth’s magnetic field acts as a protective shield against damaging cosmic radiation, but when the poles switch, as has occurred many times in the past, the protective shield weakens dramatically and leaves the planet exposed to high energy particles.
- One temporary flip of the poles, known as the Laschamps excursion, happened 42,000 years ago and lasted for about 1,000 years.
- Now scientists say the flip, together with a period of low solar activity, could have been behind a vast array of climatic and environmental phenomena with dramatic ramifications.
- The team have collectively termed this period “the Adams event”, a nod to Douglas Adams, the author of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy in which 42 was said to be the “answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe and everything”.
- Ice core records suggest such dips in solar activity, known as the “grand solar minima”, coincided with the Laschamps excursion.
- The results reveal that the atmospheric changes could have resulted in huge shifts in the climate, electrical storms and widespread colourful aurora.
- As well as the environmental changes potentially accelerating the growth of ice sheets and contributing to the extinction of Australian megafauna, the team suggest they could also be linked to the emergence of red ochre handprints, the suggestion being that humans may have used the pigment as a sunscreen against the increased levels of ultraviolet radiation hitting the Earth as a result of the depletion of ozone.
- The rise in the use of caves by our ancestors around this time, as well as the rise in cave art, might be down to the fact that underground spaces offered shelter from the harsh conditions.
- The situation may also have boosted competition, potentially contributing to the end of the Neanderthals.
- The Earth’s magnetic field has weakened by about 9% over the past 170 years.
The Guardian
Accelerated Evaporation of Droplets
Why in News?
- Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Guwahati researchers have developed an advanced technique for rapid evaporation of droplets. It is a novel method of controlling the overall lifetime of droplet.
Significance of Study
- The inferences drawn from this study could have far-reaching implications ranging from biomedical engineering to biological sample diagnostics, ink-jet printing, surface patterning and many more, the researchers claimed.
- The new research focuses on manipulating small fluid volume using an externally applied magnetic field. This aspect of the field dynamics research is known as magnetofluidics.
- Using this magnetofluidics-based technique, researchers have explored a new avenue for controlling evaporation of small fluid volume.
- The evaporation of fluid volume is critical especially in applications such as inkjet printing, DNA patterning and surface patterning. Researchers have established in their recent study that using magnetic particles of small volume fraction and the externally applied magnetic field, the evaporation rate of small fluid volume can be expedited.
- By tuning the strength of applied magnetic field as well as its frequency, it is possible to have precise control over the lifetime of the droplet containing suspended magnetic nanoparticles, which is an important area of biomicrofluidics.
- The research has shown that the evaporation rate of the droplet can be effectively controlled by varying the applied magnetic field frequency.
DTE
Zig-Zag Kilns
Why in News?
- The National Green Tribunal (NGT) passed an order allowing only a limited number of brick kilns using zig-zag technology to operate in the national capital between March and June.
- The order, however, stated that the number of brick kilns operational every month between March and June would vary depending upon the carrying capacity of the area. These kilns will be allowed to operate only when the air quality is not severe.
- In case of severe conditions, they will be banned from running.
- In zig-zag kilns, bricks are arranged to allow hot air to travel in a zig-zag path.
- The length of the zig-zag air path is about three times that of a straight line, and this improves the heat transfer from flue gases to the bricks, making the entire operation more efficient.
DTE