AWARDS
Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award, 2011
Ace Indian shooter Gagan Narang has been conferred India’s highest sporting honour.
Arjuna Awards, 2011
Arjuna Awards were instituted in 1961 by the government of India to recognize outstanding achievement in National sports. The award carries a cash prize of Rs 500,000, a bronze statuette of Arjuna and a scroll.
The 2011 awardees are: Zaheer Khan (Cricket), Rahul Bannerjee (Archery), Preeja Sreedharan (Athletics), Vijas Gowda (Athletics), Ashish Kumar (Gymnastics), Rakesh Kumar (Kabaddi), Tejaswini Bai (Kabaddi), Rajpal Singh (Hockey), Sanjay Kumar (Volleyball), Sunil Chhetri (Football), Ravi Kumar (Weightlifting), Ravindra Singh (Wrestling), Suronjoy Singh (Boxing), Jwala Gutta (Badminton), Virdhaval Khade (Swimmimg), Sandhya Rani Devi (Wushu), Somdev Devvarman (Tennis) and Prashant Karmakar (Disabled).
Dhyan Chand Award, 2011
Former India striker Shabbir Ali, who took up full-time coaching after hanging up his boots, has become the first footballer to get the prestigious Dhyan Chand award as recognition for his lifetime achievement in sports. The other awardees are: Sushil Kohli (Swimming) and Rajkumar (Wrestling)
The Dhyan Chand Award is India’s highest award for lifetime achievement in sports and was instituted in 2002.
Dronacharya Award, 2011
Inukurthi Venkateshwara Rao (Boxing), Devender Kumar Rathore (Gymnastics), Shri Ramphal (Wrestling), Kuntal Roy (Athletics) and Rajinder Singh (Hockey) have been given the award.
Dronacharya Award is an award presented by the government of India for excellence in sports coaching. The award comprises a bronze statuette of Dronacharya, a scroll of honour and a cash component of Rs.500,000. The award was instituted in 1985.
Prem Bhatia award for excellence in reporting, 2011
For the first time since its inception 15 years ago, the Prem Bhatia Awards for excellence in political reporting and analysis, as well as that for excellence in environmental reporting have been shared by two journalists each.
The award for political reporting goes to Josy Joseph of The Times of India for his consistently fine reporting of the scandals that have made headlines, like the 2-G Spectrum allocation, Commonwealth Games and Adarsh Housing Society scams.
Jyotirmoy Dey of Mid-Day shares the award posthumously for his superlative work all through his career in exposing Mumbai's underworld and corruption in the police and bureaucracy, and he had to pay for that with his life.
The two winners of the environmental award are Madhuraj, chief news photographer of Matrubhumi, for his vivid photographs that focused national and international attention on the catastrophic consequences of the use of endosulfan pesticide in Kerala, and G. Nirmala, who has written powerfully on the same subject in one of the publications of Samakalika Malyalam Vaarike.
Magsaysay Awards, 2011
Harish Hande, from India. He is being recognized for “his passionate and pragmatic efforts to put solar power technology in the hands of the poor, through a social enterprise that brings customized, affordable, and sustainable electricity to India’s vast rural populace, encouraging the poor to become asset creators.”
Nileema Mishra, from India. She is being recognized for “her purpose-driven zeal to work tirelessly with villagers in Maharashtra, India, organizing them to successfully address both their aspirations and their adversities through collective action and heightened confidence in their potential to improve their own lives.”
Koul Panha, from Cambodia. He is being recognized for “his determined and courageous leadership of the sustained campaign to build an enlightened, organized and vigilant citizenry who will ensure fair and free elections — as well as demand accountable governance by their elected officials – in Cambodia’s nascent democracy.”
Hasanain Juaini, from Indonesia. He is being recognized for “his holistic, community-based approach to pesantren education in Indonesia, creatively promoting values of gender equality, religious harmony, environmental preservation, individual achievement, and civic engagement among young students and their communities.”
Tri Mumpuni, from Indonesia. She is being recognized for “her determined and collaborative efforts to promote micro hydropower technology, catalyze needed policy changes, and ensure full community participation, in bringing electricity and the fruits of development to the rural areas of Indonesia.”
Alternative Indigenous Development Foundation, Inc. (AIDFI), from the Philippines. The organization is being recognized for “their collective vision, technological innovations, and partnership practices to make appropriate technologies improve the lives and livelihoods of the rural poor in upland Philippine communities and elsewhere in Asia.”
The Ramon Magsaysay Award was created in 1957, the year the Philippines lost in a plane crash a President who was well-loved for his simplicity and humility, his passion for justice, particularly for the poor, and his advancement of human dignity. Among the many friends and admirers of the late President around the world were the Rockefeller brothers. With the concurrence of the Philippine government, the trustees of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund (RBF) established the Award to honor his memory and perpetuate his example of integrity in public service and pragmatic idealism within a democratic society.
CYBER SPACE
Intel develops world’s smallest data centre
Chip maker Intel is showing off what they are calling the world’s smallest data centre. Dubbed as “Cloud-in-a-Box” system, the Intel unit is designed to be used as a demonstration tool to illustrate the power and efficiencies of cloud computing. Intel is powering the unit with Xeon processors, but they are also promoting several other security and optimisation technologies like Intel AES New Instructions for more efficient encryption, Intelligent Power Node Manager to better control power needs for increased server density and Intel's Virtualisation Technology.
Intel anticipates that by 2015, 2.5 billion people with more than 15 billion devices will access the Internet. By then, online traffic will reach a zettabyte or ‘one million million billion bytes’.
Intel foresees that soon companies will have to develop data centres with smaller footprint, which are at the same time secure and energy-efficient. According to the company, their new technology will cater to this necessity and will help companies to deploy cloud faster than ever before.
The “Cloud Vision 2015”, Intel’s futuristic vision, anticipates an environment where cloud data centres are seamlessly and securely connected, fully automated “with little or no human interaction and client-aware” providing secure access and optimal experience across a range of devices, from smartphones to notebooks.
DEFENCE
Deal to upgrade Mirage fighter planes
India has inked a $2.4-billion (Rs 10,900 crore) deal with French armament majors Thales and Dassault Aviation for the upgrade of 51 Mirage-2000 multi-role fighters in IAF's combat fleet. Under this long-awaited project, the first two jets will be upgraded in France with new avionics, radars, mission computers, glass cockpits, helmet-mounted displays, electronic warfare suites, weapon delivery and precision-targeting systems.
After their delivery to IAF in 44 months, the rest of the jets will be retrofitted in India by Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) after transfer of technology and training from the French companies.
Consequently, the overall Mirage upgrade package, including the fire-and-forget MICA missiles and the infrastructure build-up at HAL, will eventually cross the Rs 15,000-crore mark. While this has been dubbed exorbitant by some, IAF argues the “retrofitted” Mirages will remain “top-notch multi-role fighters” for almost two decades more.
INS Satpura commissioned
The second indigenously built stealth warship—INS Satpura—that is the biggest in the world among its classification of ‘stealth frigates’ was commissioned in August 2011. Its stealth features will curb enemy radars, sensors and submarines from estimating its true size, which is 6,200 tonnes and 143 m in length.
Tactically, the ship can fire its weapons even before the enemy detects it. The first of the same type of warship, INS Shivalik, was commissioned in April 2010. The third one—INS Sahyadari—will follow soon.
Ships like these will form the core of the India’s battle fleet in the first half of this century.
The INS Satpura will carry on board long-range surface-to-surface Klub missiles, surface-to-air-missiles, the Barak, area defence missile Shtil, anti-submarine torpedoes, 100 mm mounted gun and six-barrelled 30 mm gun.
The Sea King Choppers on board will carry torpedoes to hit submarines which are out of the ship’s range. It will have an array of sensors and an anti-missile defence system for its own protection and also coordinate the firing of onboard weapons.
The combat management system developed by the Bharat Electronic Systems will give the ship’s captain a view of all weapons and data on one screen.
The ship will be powered by a unique combination of gas and diesel engines. Diesel engines will be in operation during cruising. Gas turbines will take over when the ship needs to run faster—up to 32 knots (59 kmph). The ship can stay out in sea for more than three weeks at a stretch or cover more than 10,800 km (6,000 nautical miles) at a stretch without re-fuelling.
PERSONS
Browne, Air Marshal N.A.K.
Ace fighter pilot Air Marshal Norman Anil Kumar Browne has taken over as the 23rd chief of the Indian Air Force (IAF).
Born in Allahabad on December 15, 1951, Browne was commissioned into the fighter stream of the IAF on June 24, 1972. He has the wide-ranging experience of flying Soviet-era MiG 21s to the very latest Sukhoi-30, besides Jaguars and Hunters, logging about 3,100 hours of flying.
He is a recipient of the Param Vishist Seva Medal (PVSM), Ati Vishist Seva Medal (AVSM), Vayu Sena Medal (VM) and was appointed one of the Honorary ADCs to the President of India.
He was a member of the initial core team which trained on the Jaguar aircraft in the United Kingdom and went on to command a premier Jaguar strike squadron subsequently. He is a fighter combat leader and a graduate of the Air Command and Staff College, Alabama, USA. He has also had instructional tenures at the Tactics and Air Combat Development Establishment (TACDE) and the tri-services Defence Services Staff College (DSSC), Wellington.
Kumar, Pradeep
Pradeep Kumar has been appointed as the Chief Vigilance Commissioner (CVC) of India. An IAS officer of the Haryana cadre of the 1972 batch, he held several sensitive and “lucrative” posts in his long career, but never ever was a finger raised on his integrity. Even after holding the post of secretary, town and country planning in Haryana for about five years, Pradeep Kumar was not involved in any controversy.
After SY Qureshi, Chief Election Commissioner of India, Pradeep Kumar is the second officer of the Haryana cadre to hold a statutory post at the Centre.
PROJECTS
First renewable energy-based mini-grid system
On Jluy 1, 2011, a renewable energy-based smart mini-grid system, the first of its kind in the country, was formally commissioned on the campus of The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) in Gurgaon.
The system, which uses advanced digital and control techniques, has been designed and developed by TERI, with support from the Union Ministry of New and Renewable Energy and others.
A smart mini-grid is an intelligent electricity distribution network, operating at or below 11KV, to provide electricity to a community. The smart mini-grids use advanced sensing, communication and control technologies to generate, manage, distribute and utilise electricity at the local distribution levels more intelligently and effectively. The system intelligently manages and balances multiple loads through inter-connected energy resources, providing rapid responses to network disturbances, minimising outages and preventing black-outs. The electricity is supplied by a diverse range of Distributed Energy Resources (DERs) and typically include small conventional generators such as diesel gensets, and/or a range of renewable generators such as solar PV, micro-hydro power plants, wind turbines, biomass etc.
These smart mini-grids can be wisely used to strengthen the country’s electricity sector and also enhance the performance of rural electricity supply systems.
RESEARCH
Salt with iron boosters to fight anaemia
The scientists at the National Institute of Nutrition (NIN), Hyderabad, have developed a technology for double fortification of salt with iodine and iron, a feat that can help effectively tackle the problem of anaemia in the country. It took nearly two decades of research for the NIN scientists to develop the formulation and complete the required tests for safety and efficacy.
Impressed by the technology that can boost the measures to tackle malnutrition, the Prime Minister’s Office has decided to promote the Double Fortified Salt (DFS) in the ICDS programmes and public distribution system schemes. All the States have been asked to promote consumption of iron-fortified, iodised salt.
With a high prevalence of anaemia in the country, iron-fortified iodised salt could serve as an effective tool to bring down the levels of malnutrition, particularly among adolescent girls, women and children. Anaemia is caused by inadequate intake and poor absorption of iron. It can be prevented and cured by promoting consumption of iron-rich foods and iron supplements.
A major challenge before while developing the DFS technology was to ensure that iodine levels are not lost because of the presence of iron. So, extensive research was done to inhabitate a stabiliser so that this does not happen. The formulation was subjected to extensive field trials and tested among school-children through the mid-day meal scheme.
The DFS salt has a shelf life of about one year.
SPACE RESEARCH
GSAT-12 launched successfully by PSLV
Scripting yet another success in its space programme, India, on July 15, 2011, launched its latest communication satellite, GSAT-12, onboard the indigenous PSLV-C17 rocket.
PSLV-C17, using the most powerful configuration of ISRO’s workhorse launch vehicle, blasted off at 4.48 pm from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre.
The 1,410 kg GSAT-12, with an eight-year mission life is equipped with 12 Extended C-band transponders and will augment the availability of transponders for various communication services, including tele-medicine and tele-education.
With GSAT-12, India now has 175 transponders, but it will still be way behind the target of 500 by 2012, set by Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), to meet the booming demand in telecom, direct-to-home and V-SAT operations.
For ISRO, this was the third successful mission in 2011, after GSAT-8 which was put into orbit by Ariane-5 rocket from Kourou in French Guyana in South America on May 21, and Resourcesat-2 onboard PSLV C-16 on April 25.
Final mission of space shuttle Atlantis
On July 21, 2011, Space shuttle Atlantis touched down safely in its final landing at the Kennedy Space Centre, bringing the curtain down on the NASA’s 30-year space shuttle programme, considered one of the most eventful eras in the US history of manned spaceflight.
It was the 33rd voyage for Atlantis, and the 135th for NASA’s reusable winged spaceships. The 30-year space shuttle programme, which began with the launch ofColumbia on April 12, 1981, is at a close.
The end of the mission heralds a difficult time for NASA, where the space agency finds itself without an American vehicle to fly astronauts for the first time since 1975, when the last Apollo capsule flew on the Apollo-Soyuz mission. The gap between the Apolloand the shuttle programs lasted six years, and NASA is now looking at a gap of at least four years between the shuttle era and what will come next.
Five NASA shuttles—Atlantis, Challenger, Columbia, Discovery and Endeavour—comprised a fleet designed as the world’s first reusable space vehicles.
Columbia exploded in 2003 and Challenger was destroyed in 1986. The decision to retire the shuttles was made in the wake of the Columbia accident that killed seven astronauts, including Indian-American Kalpana Chawla.
For the near future, US astronauts will ride Russian Soyuz spacecraft at a cost of up to $63 million per seat. NASA hopes that soon US private space companies will take over the job of ferrying cargo and crew to the space station.
The agency plans to devote its resources to developing a new heavy-lift rocket and crew capsule that can carry humans beyond low-Earth orbit. President Obama has set the goal for NASA for sending people to an asteroid by 2025, and on to Mars by the mid 2030s.
Saturn’s moon is its water source
Planetary scientists claim they have finally solved a 14-year mystery by discovering the source of the water in Saturns upper atmosphere. A team, led by Paul Hartogh of Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Germany, says that the Herschel space observatory has found giant jets of vapour from the planets moon Enceladus are responsible for its water.
The latest discovery has revealed that the planets sixth-largest moon Enceladus is covered with ice and is providing water to Saturn, creating a rain-showering halo. The water vapours are visible as tiger-like stripes of gas and ice that escape at the southern pole of the moon and become a main water-source vapour for its upper atmosphere, say the planetary scientists. In fact, the ring is 10 times greater than Saturn’s radius.
Juno—NASA’s mission to Jupiter
Juno is a NASA’s New Frontiers mission to the planet Jupiter. Juno was launched from the Kennedy Space Center on August 5, 2011. The spacecraft is to be placed in a polar orbit to study the planet's composition, gravity field, magnetic field, and polar magnetosphere. Juno will also search for clues about how Jupiter formed, including whether the planet has a rocky core, the amount of water present within the deep atmosphere, and how the planet's mass is distributed. It will also study Jupiter's deep winds, which can reach speeds of 600 kilometers per hour.
The spacecraft's name comes from Greco-Roman mythology. The god Jupiter drew a veil of clouds around himself to hide his mischief, but his wife, the goddess Juno, was able to peer through the clouds and see Jupiter's true nature.
Juno will reach Jupiter around July 4, 2016, after travelling roughly over a total distance of 2,800 million kilometers. The spacecraft will orbit Jupiter 33 times during one Earth year. Juno’s trajectory will use a gravity assist speed boost from Earth, accomplished through an Earth flyby in October 2013.
In 2016, the spacecraft will perform an orbit insertion burn to slow the spacecraft enough to allow capture into an 11-day polar orbit. Once Juno enters into its orbit, infrared and microwave instruments will begin to measure the thermal radiation emanating from deep within Jupiter's atmosphere. These observations will complement previous studies of the planet’s composition by assessing the abundance and distribution of water, and therefore oxygen. While filling missing pieces of the puzzle of Jupiter's composition, these data will also provide insight into the planet’s origins.
Juno will also investigate the convection that drives general circulation patterns in Jupiter’s atmosphere. Meanwhile, other instruments aboard Juno will gather data about the planet’s gravitational field and polar magnetosphere. The Juno mission is set to conclude in October 2017, after completing 33 orbits around Jupiter, when the probe will be de-orbited to crash into Jupiter.
No comments:
Post a Comment