current affairs for ias exam 2011 science technology defense environment october 2010...

Science & Technology, Defense, Environment A boost to coastal security

• The Director-General of the Indian Coast Guard, Vice Admiral Anil Chopra, commissioned the C-148 Interceptor Boat enhancing the close-coast surveillance capability of the coast guards at an impressive ceremony at Veraval in the Saurashtra coast of Gujarat.

• Built at the ABG Shipyard in Surat, the C-148 is the sixth in the series of 11 such boats to be built indigenously with ultra-modern navigational and communication equipment, an official spokesman of the Indian Coast Guard said.

• The 28-metre Interceptor Boat with a 90 tonne displacement, manned by 12 people, has an endurance of 500 nautical miles at an economical speed of 25 knots and can achieve a maximum speed of 45 knots. In addition to various state-of-the-art navigational and communication equipment, the boat is also equipped with automatic small arms and 12.7 mm ‘Prahari' Heavy Machine Gun (HMG) for effective fire power.

• With the induction of C-148, the coast guard fleet now comprises of 44 ships, 19 interceptor boats, six hovercrafts, 24 Fixed Wing Aircraft (Dornier) and 21 Helicopters to undertake its vast charter, including search and rescue, anti-smuggling and anti-poaching operations.

CIA chief meets Chidambaram • The American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) chief, Leon Panetta, met Union Home

Minister P. Chidambaram and discussed the overall security scenario in the region.

• He was accompanied by U.S. Ambassador Timothy J Roemer to the North Block. Mr. Panetta came from Islamabad where he had held discussions with Pakistani leaders as Western intelligence reports indicated that the Al-Qaeda was planning attacks in Britain, France and Germany. Mr. Panetta is said to have shared with Mr. Chidambaram information about his visit to Pakistan. He also met Home Secretary G.K. Pillai, Research and Analysis Wing chief A.K. Verma and Intelligence Bureau chief Rajiv Mathur.

Climate deal unlikely at Cancun • As the last round of negotiations before the year-end Cancun climate conference begins

in Tianjin, a port city near here, Chinese officials played down the chances of a binding climate deal being reached this year, citing persisting differences between developed and developing countries.

• China's top climate official Xie Zhenhua said this week developed countries needed “to do more and do better” to take on greater emission cuts, if a binding deal was to be reached.

• China has committed to reducing the carbon intensity of its emissions, or emissions per unit of GDP, by 40 per cent of 2005 levels by 2020.

• But as the world's biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, developed nations say China should take on greater commitments.

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INO project headquarters to be set up in Madurai • The headquarters of the Rs.1,200-crore India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO) project,

coming up in the Western Ghats, will be set up in Madurai.

• While the country's first-ever underground neutrino observatory will be set up in Theni district, it was decided to have the headquarters in Madurai to provide facilities for scientists, administrative operations and for residential quarters.

• The INO Project is an underground facility with a huge detector and two man-made caves amidst a rock mass to study the properties of neutrinos through experiments and understand the various processes in the universe. Once started, this project is expected to take five years for execution.

Centre has overreached court on Polavaram project: Orissa • The Supreme Court issued notice to the Centre on Orissa's application seeking a stay on

the operation of the final approval granted by the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) for the Indira Sagar Polavaram project in Andhra Pradesh and for a direction to maintain status quo in its execution.

• A Bench of Justices Dalveer Bhandari and Mukundakam Sharma also permitted Maharashtra and Karnataka to file applications for impleading themselves in the suit filed by Orissa against Andhra Pradesh.

• Drawing a distinction between the original and revised proposals, the application pointed out that Orissa entered into the 1980 agreement with Andhra Pradesh based on a maximum backwater level of 174.22 feet for a maximum discharge of 36 lakh cusecs as put forth by that State. However, according to the Andhra Pradesh government's application before the MoEF, backwater spread would go as high as 182 feet for 36 lakh cusecs. Therefore the basic or most fundamental assumption of fact, on which the agreement was entered into, turned out be wrong.

Experts call for comprehensive global cancer control mechanism • Global health experts, in the October 2 issue of The Lancet, have called for a

comprehensive cancer control mechanism on the scale of the existing measures to combat HIV and tuberculosis in low and middle income countries.

India watching developments in neighbouring countries” • Stressing that the government was watching the developments in all the neighbouring

countries with caution, Air Chief Marshal P.V. Naik said that consequently, it was also looking into developments in China.

• “Anything that upsets the growth of our nation is a matter of concern. It is viewed as such and planned for,” he said at his annual press conference.

• “All neighbours — borrowing Chanakya's quotes — have to be watched with caution for their impact on the growth of our nation. So, we watch all neighbours, be it the smallest or the largest, with caution,” he added.

Fast Breeder Test Reactor to turn 25 • A small board at the entrance announces, “Fast Breeder Test Reactor (FBTR).” On

October 18, 2010, it will be 25 years since the FBTR, the symbol of the country's self-


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reliance and ingenuity in nuclear power technology, attained its first criticality at Kalpakkam in Tamil Nadu.

• The FBTR is at the heart of the Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR) at Kalpakkam, and it is a forerunner to the second stage of the country's nuclear power programme, under which several breeder reactors will be built.

• The FBTR's successful working has given enough confidence to the Department of Atomic Energy to build the 500 megawatt electrical (MWe) Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR), also at Kalpakkam. It is silver jubilee too for the Radiometallurgy Laboratory (RML) at IGCAR, which became the foundation for testing the FBTR's fuel, control rod materials and fuel pins

• IGCAR Director Baldev Raj called the FBTR, “a unique reactor in the world, and it has worked wonderfully well in the last 10 years

• he said. The FBTR uses a “unique” plutonium-uranium carbide fuel, which was developed specially for it, and its behaviour has been excellent. Liquid sodium is the coolant. “Today, we are the world leader in Fast Reactors, or we are among the world leaders. We are definitely there,” asserted Dr. Raj.

• Fast Reactors use “fast' (high energy) neutrons to sustain the fission process, in contrast to water-cooled reactors that use “thermal” (low energy) neutrons. Fast Reactors are commonly known as breeders because they breed more fuel than they consume.

• In Homi Bhabha's vision for the country's nuclear electricity programme, the breeder reactors occupy the centre stage and form a bridge between the first and third stages.

• Under the first stage, 17 Pressurised Heavy Water Reactors (PHWRs) that use natural uranium as fuel are already operating in India.

• The second stage envisages building a series of breeders that will use plutonium reprocessed from the PHWRs' spent fuel and their depleted uranium. The Fast Reactors will form the “bread and butter” of the country's nuclear power programme. For they will be able to generate about 6 lakh MWe with the country's uranium reserves.

• In the third stage, abundant thorium reserves in the country's and uranium-233 produced in the breeders will be used to generate electricity.

• “So the FBTR is extremely important for us. But there were huge uncertainties and we had a long struggle,” said Dr. Raj. Developing the carbide fuel was difficult. Industries in the country had to make all the components for the reactor. Sodium had to be purified to a high level. Sensors and instrumentation to test sodium purity and detect leakages had to be robust. The FBTR had to be loaded with 100 tonnes of liquid sodium and a large quantity of plutonium-bearing fuel.

India on the threshold of exporting n-reactors' • India is on the threshold of exporting nuclear power reactors, Atomic Energy

Commission chairman and Secretary, Department of Atomic Energy, Srikumar Banerjee said here on Wednesday.

• Dr. Banerjee was addressing a technical meeting on the “Power Scenario in West Bengal — Role of Nuclear Power,” organised by the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd. (NPCIL), the Variable Energy Cyclotron Centre and the Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics in the city.

• Elaborating on Dr. Banerjee's comment, NPCIL chairman and managing director S.K. Jain said the corporation was targeting the Asia-Pacific market, and offering Pressurised Heavy Water Reactors (PHWRs) of 220 megawatt (MW) and 540 MW capacity.


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• “A memorandum of understanding for a feasibility study has already been signed with Kazakhstan. Additionally, detailed interactions were held with delegations from other counties such as Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam,” Dr. Jain said.

Climate finance, key issue

• Financial assistance from developed countries for projects to combat climate change in the developing world has emerged as a key sticking point at the climate meet in Tianjin, which is the last round of negotiations before the year-end Cancun conference.

• Negotiators from India, China and other developing nations have called on the West to step up commitments with promises, as yet, falling short of expectations. Differences have also surfaced over developed countries repackaging earlier development aid as climate-related funding.

• At the Copenhagen summit in December last year, developed countries pledged to commit $30 billion to “fast start” projects in the next three years. While much of this amount has been identified, differences have persisted on how much funding would be new commitments and how much would be derived from earlier pledged development assistance.

India, Russia closer to mega defence deals • India and Russia inched closer to two mega defence deals that have been under

negotiation for a while. They also discussed the resolution of wrinkles in contracts under implementation at a high-level meeting, co-chaired by Defence Ministers of both countries — A.K. Antony and A.E. Serdyukov.

• The two sides also decided to step up the tempo of joint exercises by making them an annual event. A top Russian general will visit the country next month to firm up the schedule. Both sides will hold the Indra exercises here after a gap of three years, and moves are on to hold the next edition in Russia next year, said official sources.

• At a joint press conference, Mr. Antony said India will receive 250-300 Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft (FGFA) that both countries intend developing together. The announcement comes against the backdrop of bleak chances for the MiG-35 of making it to the top, in another $10 billion tender for 126 multi-role fighters.

• The 10th Meeting of the India-Russia Inter-Governmental Commission on Military Technical Cooperation (IRIGC-MTC) also tied up the loose ends of another ambitious co-development project — the multirole transport aircraft (MTA), for which the shareholder agreement was signed in September.

Situation in region volcanic: IAF Chief

• Air Force Chief Air Chief Marshal P.V. Naik called on his personnel to be prepared to meet any internal and external challenges as the current security scenario in the country's neighbourhood was volcanic.

• “[The] current security scenario is like a volcano and may test your skills at any time without warning. These times require swift action,” he said at the 78th Air Force Day Parade at Hindon.

• MMRCA on course

• The winner of the multi-billion dollar contract for 126 Medium Multirole Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) may be decided by next July-end, the Air Chief Marshal said.


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• “We submitted the MMRCA report to the Defence Ministry on July 30 and if everything goes well, the contract should be signed by July 30 next.”

• American F/A-18 E/F and F-16, European Eurofighter, Russian MiG 35, French Dassault Rafale and the Swedish Saab 39 Gripen are in the race for the contract.

• The IAF issued a global tender in 2007 and subsequently subjected the aspirants to gruelling tests in all types of terrain.

Indian Naval ships in Sri Lanka • Four Indian naval ships — INS “Tir”, INS “Shardul”, INS Tarangini and ICGS “Varuna”

— arrived in Sri Lanka for training and exercises with the Sri Lankan Navy.

• While INS “Tir”, INS “Shardul” and ICGS “Varuna” arrived at the port of Trincomalee, INS Tarangini arrived at the port of Colombo.

• The ships were ceremonially welcomed in accordance with naval traditions and are scheduled to stay till October 15.

• A special programme has been arranged for the group of 160 Indian Naval officer cadets while

Guardian of the sea' is here to take care of pollution

SEA CHANGE:Coast Guard vessel Samudra Prahari seen in Mumbai.

• Maritime security measures moved up a notch in the wake of the recent oil spill off the Mumbai coast as the Coast Guard (CG) got “a state-of-the art” Pollution Control Vessel (PCV), touted to be “the first of its kind in South Asia” in terms of sophistication of technology.

• Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan commissioned the ship ‘Samudra Prahari' or ‘Guardian of the Sea' at a ceremony at the naval dockyard. Vice Admiral Sanjeev Bhasin, Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief of the Western Naval Command, and Vice Admiral Anil Chopra, Director-General, CG, also attended the event.


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• The 95-metre PCV was designed and built by Surat-based private shipping company ABG Shipyard Ltd. “The ship is equipped with the most advanced and sophisticated pollution response equipment for mitigating marine oil spills in the Indian Exclusive Economic Zone. It is also equipped with the advanced navigational and communication sensors and equipment and is capable of embarking helicopter. [Its tonnage is] 4,300 tonnes. It has an endurance of 6,500 nautical miles and can stay at sea for prolonged duration of up to 20 days without any replenishment,” an official release stated.

• ‘Samudra Prahari' and the two more PCVs which are to be commissioned are believed to have cost Rs. 20 crore each. Contracts for them were given to ABG five years ago.

Saraswat: DRDO working on India's own computer operating system • The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) is working on creating a

futuristic computing system, including India's own operating system, said V.K. Saraswat, Scientific Adviser to the Defence Minister and DRDO Director-General.

• Two software engineering centres are being set up for this purpose in Bangalore and New Delhi.

Agni-II Plus to be launched in 2011: DRDO • Director-General of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) V.K.

Saraswat said that Agni-II Plus, a modified version of the Agni-II strategic missile, would be launched next year.

• Dr. Saraswat said it would have a higher range, higher performance, with respect to the thrust and weight ratio than Agni-II, which has a range of 2,000 km.

• He said that BrahMos Aerospace Ltd, a joint venture between India and Russia, would be launching the aircraft version of the super-sonic missile

• On the indigenous light combat aircraft (LCA) Tejas, negotiations were going on to acquire the GE4141 engines and this would be completed within a month.

Reject protectionism in climate talks: Jairam Ramesh • Climate officials from developing countries met to come up with a strategy to ensure that

any climate agreement will have provisions to restrict attempts by developed nations to impose trade penalties on carbon emitters.

• Officials from the BASIC group of developing countries — Brazil, South Africa, India and China — have, in negotiations, pushed for the introduction of a text to “reject the use of unilateral protectionist measures” by developed countries, said Minister of Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh.

• The United States and European countries have called for trade restrictions, known as border adjustments, on goods imported from countries such as India and China who do not agree to binding emissions reduction targets. They argue that import tariffs are needed to offset the loss of competitiveness industries in countries which accept binding targets are likely to face.

• The text, which India first proposed in Bonn in August last year, says developed countries “shall not resort to any form of unilateral measures including countervailing border measures, against goods and services imported from developing countries on grounds of protection and stabilisation of climate”.


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• Violation

• Mr. Ramesh said moves to do so would violate the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. However, he expressed concern over reports that have argued that some of the measures were compatible with World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules, under carefully crafted conditions.

Evaluation of Western Ghats to begin this week • The evaluation of serial sites in the Western Ghats to gauge whether its conservation and

biological diversity values are universally outstanding will begin this week.

• The appraisal, to be carried out by an International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) team, is part of the preparatory process for nominating the Ghats as a World Heritage site. India had been campaigning for including the 39 serial sites in the Ghats in the world list for quite some time.

• The Union Ministry of Environment and Forests had earlier submitted a dossier for all the serial sites to the World Heritage Committee of the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization.

We won't compromise on three-stage nuclear power programme: Chavan

• Even as India looks forward to expand its nuclear power programme with imported reactors and fuel, “there will be no compromise with our commitment to the indigenous three-stage nuclear power programme, to our own research and our own technology,” Union Minister of State for Science and Technology Prithiviraj Chavan said .

• Mr. Chavan was delivering the presidential address at a function to mark the silver jubilee of the Fast Breeder Test Reactor (FBTR) attaining first criticality on October 18, 1985, at Kalpakkam, near .

• The Minister was responding to fears that India's plans to import 36 reactors would lead to dilution of Homi Bhabha's vision of a three-stage nuclear electricity programme. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had assured the country that he would stand by the programme. Breeder reactors were essential for India's energy security, Mr. Chavan said.

• (In the first stage, India has so far used natural uranium as fuel to build 17 Pressurised Heavy Water Reactors (PHWRs).

• In the second stage, plutonium reprocessed from the spent fuel of the PHWRs, depleted uranium and thorium kept in the blanket form will be used as fuel to power a series of breeder reactors. Thorium used in the breeders gets converted into uranium-233, a fissile material.

• In the third stage, reactors will use thorium and uranium-233 to generate electricity. Thus, the three stages are inter-linked. Fast reactors are commonly called breeder reactors as they breed more fuel than they consume).

• Mr. Chavan said the FBTR, which formed the corner-stone of the second stage, had an impeccable safety record. The Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR) had mastered the use of liquid sodium. Its use could lead to fire. Excellent performance of the sodium systems had removed fears about the handling of liquid sodium at high temperatures.


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• Though the FBTR, with an output of 40 MWt, was an experimental reactor, it had the complexities of a power reactor. The IGCAR's bold decision to deploy plutonium-uranium carbide fuel in the FBTR had paid rich dividends, in the form of experience gained in the design, fabrication and testing of advanced fast reactor fuel. He was glad that the FBTR would work for up to 2030 and fulfil all its original missions.

• Dr. Banerjee also lauded C. Ganguly, who had headed the Nuclear Fuel Complex, Hyderabad, for developing the mixed carbide fuel, the first of its kind, for the FBTR.

• IGCAR Director Baldev Raj said the FBTR's steam generator had worked for 25 years without any failure. India would build six breeder reactors, including the PFBR and two more at Kalpakkam, of 500 MWe each. Beyond 2020, breeders of 1000 MWe capacity, using metallic fuel, would come up.

Chavan rules out private participation in nuclear power sector

• Union Minister of State for Science and Technology Prithviraj Chavan ruled out private sector participation in the atomic energy sector.

• Government companies, such as the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL), would continue to build and operate nuclear power stations in the country.

• (As the situation stands today, the NPCIL, a public sector undertaking of the Department of Atomic Energy, builds and operates Pressurised Heavy Water Reactors and Light Water Reactors in India. Bharatiya Nabhikiya Vidyut Nigam Limited, also of the DAE, builds breeder reactors).

• Mining natural uranium

• The Union government was thinking about setting up a company on the lines of the ONGC Videsh Limited (OVL) to mine natural uranium abroad. Some models, on the lines of the OVL, were being looked at.

India opposing Endosulfan ban at Stockholm Convention • Governments and abroad are watching India's stand on Endosulfan at the sixth meeting of

the Persistent Organic Pollutants' Review Committee (POPRC) of the Stockholm Convention that began in Geneva, Switzerland.

India, Vietnam to extend defence ties

• India and Vietnam on Wednesday decided to extend the frontiers of their defence-related cooperation. As the centrepiece, New Delhi agreed to expand assistance to Hanoi in its ongoing military modernisation, according to sources.

• The modalities of toning up cooperation were discussed, from a broad political perspective, by Defence Minister A. K. Antony and his Vietnamese counterpart Phung Quang Thanh in Hanoi. Their talks followed India's participation in the first-ever Asia-Pacific Defence Ministers' meeting, which ended in the Vietnamese capital.

Fast attack craft Kalpeni commissioned

• The indigenous Water Jet Fast Attack Craft (FAC), INS Kalpeni, was commissioned by Chief Justice of the Kerala High Court Jasti Chelameswar at a formal ceremony held at the Navy's


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Southern Naval Command. It is the seventh of the 10 new generation Car Nicobar class FACs designed and built by Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers (GRSE), Kolkata.

• Kalpeni, propelled by three powerful water jets, can achieve speeds in excess of 35 knots.

• Based at the Southern Naval Command, it will bolster the capabilities of the Command in coastal surveillance and search and destruction of fast moving targets. Its main armament is a 30mm CRN-91 gun with an Optronic Pedestal Sight as its director.

• It has also been fitted with 11 machine guns of various types and shoulder-fired IGLA surface-to-air missiles.

Indo-Russia military drills begin • After a gap of three years, India and Russia will conduct a 10-day joint anti-terrorism

exercise starting in the picturesque setting of Uttarakhand's Ranikhet district, home of the highly-decorated Kumaon Regiment as well as elements of the Gorkha and Naga Regiments.

• Termed Indra 2010, Indian and Russian military personnel will form a joint task force and plan and carry out a series of mock anti-terrorism missions in the mountains.

Rustom 1 test-flown successfully

Rustom 1.

• Rustom 1, a medium-altitude and long-endurance Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), developed by the Bangalore-based Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE), was successfully test-flown.

• According to an official statement, Rustom 1 was flown from the Taneja Aerospace and Aviation airfield at Hosur near . “The aircraft took off even in inclement weather conditions for a first flight, flew for 12 minutes and landed successfully, meeting all its objectives.”

• A Defence Research Development Organisation (DRDO) spokesperson told that Rustom 1 followed the two other UAVs developed by the ADE — Lakshya and Nishant. While Lakshya — a drone that is remotely piloted by a ground control station — provides aerial sub-targets for live-


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fire training, Nishant is a surveillance aircraft primarily tasked with intelligence gathering over enemy territory.

• “Unlike the other UAVs, which used to have a free fall with parachutes after executing their tasks, Rustom will carry out copybook style landing,” the spokesperson said.

• “In the coming days Rustom can be used as unmanned combat aerial vehicle and also to carry war-heads,” the spokesperson said.

• The aircraft has many auto features such as GPS controlled Way Point Navigation and Get U Home included even in its first flight, but will be exercised in subsequent flights.

• Features

• “The UAV has an endurance of 12 to 15 hours and can carry payloads up to 75 kg. It has an altitude ceiling of 25,000 feet. Such flights of UAVs remove the risk to human pilots when they have to fly them in hazardous zones,” the statement said.

• The data link system for this UAV was designed and developed by another DRDO laboratory called Defence Electronics Applications Laboratory (DEAL) situated in Dehra Dun. Its airframe is made by a private company called Zephyr situated in Coimbatore and most of its onboard systems are also manufactured by private industries in different parts of the country.

• “This UAV can be used by all the three armed services of our country,” the statement added.

Neutrino project approved at Bodi West Hills in Theni

• After denying permission to the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) to locate the India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO) at Singara in Nilgiris district in Tamil Nadu .the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) accorded both environmental and forest clearance for locating the project in the Bodi West Hills (BWH) in Theni district, also in Tamil Nadu.

• The INO will be a major underground experimental facility to study the elusive and nearly mass-less fundamental particles of nature called neutrinos,

Environment panel split on Posco clearances

• In a 3:1 split opinion, an Environment Ministry panel has disagreed on whether or not to scrap all environment and forest clearances for South Korean giant Posco's Rs. 51,000-crore integrated steel project in Orissa.

• While the forest panel will consider the split report on October 25 and the coastal and environment clearance divisions will also examine it, Union Minister of Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh will take a final call on the project's fate after discussions with the State government as well.

• The Posco project came into existence with an MoU signed between the Orissa government and the Korean steel giant in June 2005.

• While Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is slated to attend the G-20 summit in Seoul on November 11, Mr. Ramesh insisted that there was no “externally imposed deadline” for him to take a decision on the project.


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Species facing mass extinction: U.N. • The world must act immediately to stop the rapid loss of animal and plant species and the

habitats they live in, the United Nations warned at the start of a major summit on biodiversity.

• The 193 members of the U.N.'s Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) began gathering in the central city of Nagoya in Japan to try to work out strategies to head off a manmade mass extinction.

• The 12-day conference aims to throw a spotlight on a global environmental issue that has drawn less attention in recent years than the related problem of manmade climate change, blamed on a surge of greenhouse gas emissions.

• Delegates in Nagoya plan to set a new target for 2020 for curbing species loss, and will discuss boosting medium-term financial help for poor countries to help them protect their wildlife and habitats. But similar pledges to stem biodiversity loss, first made when the U.N. biodiversity convention was adopted in 1992, have not been fulfilled. At the start of the decade, U.N. members pledged under the Millennium Development Goals to achieve “a significant reduction” in the rate of wildlife loss by 2010, the International Year of Biodiversity.

PM to scientists: make a break with the past

• Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday called for greater participation of the private sector in science and technology and suggested creation of research and development facilities that were owned publicly, but run by the private sector.

• Dr. Singh was speaking at a function organised by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) for giving away its prestigious Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar prize for 2009 and 2010.

• The awardees for 2010 include G.K. Ananthasuresh of the Indian Institute of Science (IISc.), Bangalore; Swapan K. Pati and Umesh Vasudeo Waghmare of the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR), Bangalore; Shubha Tole and Kalobaran Maiti of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai,

• The other recipients are Mitali Mukerji of the Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology, New Delhi; Sanjeev Galande of the National Centre for Cell Science [NCCS], Pune (presently at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune); Sanghamitra Bandyopadhyay of the Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata, and Sandeep Verma of IIT-Kanpur.

• The awardees for 2009 include N. Jayaraman, S.K. Satheesh, Giridhar Madras and J.R. Haritsa of the IISc.; Amitabh Joshi of JNCASR; Abishek Dhar of the Raman Research Institute; Venapally Suresh of the University of Hyderabad; and S.G. Honavar of the L.V. Prasad Eye Institute, Hyderabad. The other awardees are: Charusita Chakravarty of IIT-Delhi; Bhaskar Saha of NCCS; and Rajesh Gopakumar of the Harish Chandra Research Institute, Allahabad.

• Dr. Singh also presented the CSIR's award for S&T Innovations for Rural Development for 2009 to the Indian Oil Corporation's Research and Development Centre at Faridabad for its ‘Servo Agro Spray Oil' for pest control in crops.


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IAF deploys AWACS in air exercise • The flying missions of the Indo-United Kingdom Air Exercise “Indradhanush” began at

the Kalaikunda Air Force base in West Bengal's Paschim Medinipur district on Wednesday, two days after elaborate briefings on standard operating procedures and familiarisation of the local flying area.

• The exercise will conclude on November 3.

• While the Indian Air Force (IAF) has fielded SU-30 MKIs, Mirage 2000s and MiG 27s for the friendly mission, the Royal Air Force is participating with Typhoon Eurofighters, E 3 D Sentry and VC-10 mid-air refuellers, according to a statement released by the Eastern Air Command.

• The IAF has also pressed into service its AWACS for the first time in a joint exercise.

JLR unveils armoured vehicles • Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) has unveiled the armoured range of its Range Rover and

Discovery sports utility vehicles (SUVs) that would be priced at Rs.4.75 crore and Rs.3.75 crore, respectively. The Tata Motors-owned company is also looking at launching the armoured version of the Jaguar XJ sedan, which could be priced around Rs.5.50 crore.

Number portability from November 1

• Mobile number portability, which allows a subscriber to change his operator and retain his mobile number, will be launched on November 1, Communications and Information Technology Minister A. Raja said. “Starting from the Haryana circle, the facility will be rolled out across the country from next month… All the 22 circles will get this service in a phased manner by this year-end,” Mr. Raja told journalists.

• The Department of Telecommunications has divided 22 circles into two geographic zones. Each zone is further broken down into 11 service areas that represent cities within the zone. Zone 1, which covers the northern and western regions, has been given to Syniverse Technologies, while Zone 2 that includes the south and east regions has been awarded to MNP Interconnection Telecom Solutions, a 74:26 joint venture between the U.S.-based Telcordia and Deepak Talwar Consultants Pvt. Ltd.

Indian achieves breakthrough in encryption technology

• A cryptologist of the Indian Statistical Institute here has made a breakthrough in securing information over the internet and his work may be submitted for being considered as the world standard.

• The “family of algorithms,” developed by Professor Palash Sarkar, for the encryption and authentication of data can be customised according to the user's needs and, not governed by any patents, can easily be adopted as a standard.


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“ Coastal security strengthened since 26/11”

• Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram on Wednesday said that significant progress had been made, since the 26/11 terrorist attacks in Mumbai, to strengthen the coastal security of the country.

• The identified gaps in security would be addressed through Phase-II of the Coastal Security Scheme (CSS) to be launched next year, he said. Mr. Chidambaram was addressing the Parliamentary Consultative Committee of his Ministry, which focussed on the “Coastal Security”.

Army to get unmanned ground vehicles

• The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) is preparing a road map for induction of unmanned ground vehicles into the Army, S. Sundaresh, Chief Controller Research and Development, Armament and Combat Engineering, DRDO, said.

• Inaugurating the “Driving Innovation - DRDO Student Robot Competition 2010” at the Combat Vehicles Research and Development Establishment (CVRDE) at Avadi near, Mr. Sundaresh said the Army had agreed to induct 20 Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs), developed by the DRDO's R&D establishment in Pune.

• Daksh, the ROV, would locate, handle and destroy hazardous objects safely. Designed to operate remotely from a range of 500 metres, it was capable of handling improvised explosive devices.

Defence probe doesn't rule out collusion • A Defence Ministry inquiry into the Mumbai Adarsh Housing Society project has ‘ prima

facie' unearthed a criminal conspiracy and it does not rule out “collusion” among some officers at the ground level.

• After Defence Minister A.K. Antony ordered a probe, reports from the Director-General of Military Estates and the Army have reached the Ministry which is taking a “close look,” sources in South Block said.


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