Focus Merit

Category: National Current Affairs

Govt authorizes Rs. 5559 cr for “Indradhanush” gas grid project

January 9, 2020

The Union Government has authorized the amount of Rs 5559 crore for 1656 Km long Indradhanush Natural Gas Pipeline Grid project. The amount will be provided as Viability Gap Funding (VGF). The amount will be used to set up Natural Gas Pipeline Grid connecting 8 North Eastern states which includes: Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura and Sikkim. 

The total expenditure of the project is estimated as Rs 9,256 crore and the above sanctioned amount is expected to cover 60% of the project. The Indradhanush Gas Grid project is expected to provide natural gas to different types of customers and will also reduce the dependence on liquid fuels.

India, top sourcing market for Sri Lankan tourism

January 8, 2020

India continued to be the top sourcing market for Sri Lankan tourism with Indian tourists constituting maximum 19 per cent of total tourist arrivals to the island nation in 2019.

The latest data released by Sri Lankan Tourism revealed that 3,55,002 Indian tourists visited Sri Lanka last year against total arrival of around 1.91 million. Over 48 thousand Indians visited Sri Lanka during last month of December alone including over thousand by sea route.

India, United Kingdom, China, Germany and Australia were Sri Lanka’s top five international tourist generating markets last year. Sea beaches and religious places connected to Ramayana circuit remain the top attractions for Indian tourists.

India-Oman will conduct bilateral naval exercise ‘Naseem Al Bahr’

January 8, 2020

India and Oman will conduct 12th edition of bilateral maritime exercise ‘Naseem Al Bahr’ in Mormugao Port, Goa. ‘Naseem-Al-Bahr’ (or sea breeze) is a naval exercise between the Indian Navy and the RNO, being conducted since 1993. Indian Navy ships Beas and Subhadra and Oman Navy ships RNOV Al Rasikh and RNOV Khassab are participating in this exercise.

Lucknow: PM Modi to inaugurate Defence Expo 2020

January 7, 2020

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath announced that ‘Defence Expo-2020’ will be held in Lucknow in February this year. Defence Expo 2020 will be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on February 5. The theme of the Defence Expo India – 2020 will be ‘India: The Emerging Defence Manufacturing Hub’ and focus will be on ‘Digital Transformation of Defence’.

Uttar Pradesh will become a destination for defence manufacturing and aerospace manufacturing. This is only the second time that the biennial event will be held outside Bengaluru. In 2018, Chennai hosted the biennial show for the first time ever. A number of foreign defence firms will bring their top-tier products to the Def Expo. The event offers an opportunity for Indian firms to get engaged in Business-to-Business (B2B) interaction with foreign companies.

Isro-Astrophysics Institute partners to set up optical telescope

January 7, 2020

The Indian Space Research Organization signed a pact with Indian Institute of Astrophysics to establish an optical telescope under “Project NETRA”. The organisation also tied up with NIT-Karnataka to set up a regional academic centre for space to promote research and development.

Project NETRA was launched by ISRO in September 2019. Under the Project, ISRO plans to set up observational facilities that will help in making early warnings to satellites about debris and hazards in their orbit. It includes radars, telescopes, control centres and data processing units. The aim is to make the facilities powerful enough to track even the smallest particle of 10 cm diameter up to a range of 3,400 km.

Apart from ISRO, DRDO (Defence Research Development Organisation) operates NETRA (Network Traffic Analysis). It is a software network used to analyse internet traffic. It is used by Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), Intelligence Bureau (IB) and other intelligence agencies of Government of India.

Wipro partners up with HAL to make 3D-printed aircraft parts

January 7, 2020

Hindustan Aeronautics (HAL) and Wipro 3D, the metal additive manufacturing business of Wipro Infrastructure Engineering, have partnered to develop 3D-printed components that could potentially be used on aircraft manufactured by state-run HAL. Wipro 3D is the first Indian company to locally develop an industry-grade metal-additive 3D-printing machine, jointly with the Indian Institution of Science.

As part of the memorandum of understanding, HAL and Wipro 3D will jointly design, develop, prove out, manufacture and repair aerospace components using metal 3D printing technology. This initiative between HAL and Wipro 3D will create a unique synergy of capabilities that can accelerate the adoption of metal additive manufacturing in aerospace in India. Metal 3D printing has the potential to play a significant role in the success of national aerospace and defence platforms including HAL’s own needs. Globally, the aerospace industry has been one of the foremost adopters of metal 3D printing.

IRDA introduces a standard health cover policy ‘Arogya Sanjeevani’

January 7, 2020

The ‘Arogya Sanjeevani’ policy is a first of its kind standard health insurance product. As per the guidelines issued by the IRDAI, every general and standalone health insurer should offer a standard health product, the Arogya Sanjeevani Policy, with a minimum sum insured of Rs 1 lakh, with a upper limit of Rs 5 lakh. The policy term will be for one year. The minimum entry age will be 18 years with lifelong renewability and there is no exit age.

The policy covers 22 diseases and treatments with a varying waiting period of from 24 to 48 months. It will be offered on indemnity basis, and should not be combined with critical illness covers or benefit-based covers. The premium under this product will be the same across India, and no geographic location and pricing will be allowed. The insurers will now come up with product filing to the regulator and will have to offer it from April 1, 2020.

Navigation facilities for visually impaired inaugurated in Chandigarh railway station

January 7, 2020

Navigation facilities for visually impaired were inaugurated at Chandigarh railway station in Punjab. This facility has been introduced by the Indian Railway Stations Development Corporation through NGO ‘Anuprayaas’. Chandigarh is fifth Railway station in the country and first in North India to have this facility.

This step will help visually impaired passengers to know about the passenger amenities at the Chandigarh Railway Station. In addition to Braille Tactile Map, signages are also installed for all the facilities and offices in the premise like Enquiry, Station Manager, waiting rooms, lifts, and toilets etc.

Visually impaired people can identify these facilities independently. With this, the common challenges faced by the visually impaired people at railway stations like missing trains because of wrong guidance will be minimized and they will be empowered to travel independently.

2020 to be observed as ‘year of mobility’ by CISF

January 7, 2020

The Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) will observe 2020 as the ‘year of mobility’ that will have a special focus on the creation of more residential units and implementation of various welfare measures for the troops. In the year 2020, the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) will aim at creating an infrastructure for their families and also focusing on sports and physical fitness leveraging modern gadgetry.

It is essential to equip the forces with modern instruments as the force plays a major role in the security system of the country. They guard civil airports, nuclear power stations, mines, thermal power stations in the private domain as well.

ISRO’s astronaut training hub in Challakere, Karnataka

January 7, 2020

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has proposed Human Space Flight Centre (HSFC) at Challakere in Chitradurga district of Karnataka. The facility is expected to become operational in 3 years.

ISRO aims to establish a self-contained training facility here. At present, astronauts part of Gaganyaan Mission, the Human Spaceflight Programme of ISRO are trained in Russia. The centre aims at bringing in all the features that are provided by Russia and begin training astronauts within the country.