| |
Read More
- Crew Escape System is an emergency escape measure to quickly pull the the astronaut cabin along with crew out to a safe distance from launch vehicle during a launch abort.
- The first 'pad abort' test critical for a future human space mission was conducted successfully on Thursday morning, the Indian Space Research Organisation has announced. The test was conducted at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota.
- “The Pad Abort Test demonstrated the safe recovery of the crew module in case of any exigency at the launch pad,” the space agency said.
- Describing it as a major technology demonstrator the space agency said the PAT (pad abort test) is the first in a series of tests to qualify a crew escape system technology of a manned mission in the future.
- The Crew Escape System is an emergency escape measure to quickly pull the crew module the astronaut cabin along with astronauts out to a safe distance from the launch vehicle in the event of a launch abort.
- ISRO Chairman K.Sivan said the teams also tried out at least five new secondary technologies related to satellite communication, navigation and telemetry during the test. A few more trials related to the safety of astronauts would be taken up later.
- The countdown began at 2 a.m., five hours ahead of the test. At 7 a.m., the Crew Escape System with a simulated 12.6-tonne crew module lifted off from its pad.
- It was propelled on its own seven specially made complex in-built rockets. In the next four-odd minutes, it reached a height of 2.7 km and curved down into the Bay of Bengal on parachutes. It landed in sea at a distance of 2.9 km from the launch centre.
|
Read More
- Hundreds of ancient pottery items have been discovered in an Alexandria museum in a hiding place "most probably" created during World War II, Egypt's antiquities ministry said. Pots and other receptacles dating back to Greek, Roman, Coptic and Islamic eras were discovered "during restoration work" in a garden inside the Greco-Roman museum of Alexandria in northern Egypt, the ministry said in a statement.
- "These pots were most probably hidden by (British) archaeologist Alan Rowe and employees in the museum's garden during World War II", Ayman Ashmawy, head of Egyptian antiquities at the ministry, said in the statement.
- The artefacts were hidden to "protect them from looting or being destroyed by repeated bombardments during the war", he said. "The hiding process was carried out quickly without being documented or recorded on the museum's list", he added.
- The haul includes "Hidari" cremation urns intended for ashes during Greek times, said another official, Nadia Khadre. "The hiding place contains a collection of pottery of different sizes and shapes", said Khadre, head of the central department of Egyptian, Greek and Roman antiquities.
|
Read More
- With the onset of the monsoon season, residential water birds have begun thronging Bhitarkanika National Park in Odisha's Kendrapara district, a forest official said.
- The winged species visit the park in thousands during this time of the year for nesting and breeding. "The water birds have started arriving at the wetland in small groups. The arrival of local migrant birds has re-established Bhitarkanika as a prominent heronry (breeding ground) of the state, said Prasanna Kumar Acharya, Divisional Forest Officer, Rajnagar Mangrove (wildlife) forest division. The congregation will only get larger when the monsoon picks up pace, he said.
- "There will be larger gathering of the migrant species at Bagagahana heronry, inide the park, in the days to come. The birds build nests and lay eggs atop the mangrove trees. Their sojourn usually lasts for three to four months, after which they embark on their homeward journey," he explained. Around 10,000 local resident water birds have so far made their way to the dense mangrove cover in Bagagahana, Acharya said.
- "Prominent among the species arriving here for nesting are Grey Heron, Purple Heron, Darter, Cormorant, Large Egret, Intermediary Egret and Little Egret," he added. Last year 1,03,853 avian species were spotted at Bhitarkanika park. The forest officials are hoping that the figure would rise this time.
- The birds' habitat is spread across a four-hectare stretch, which provides an ideal climatic condition, said another forest official. "There is ample food for the birds as the place has innumerable water inlets and nullahs that are free of human interference," he added.
|
Read More
- The Ministry of Coal has launched the Coal Mine Surveillance & Management System (CMSMS) and ‘Khan Prahari’ mobile application. Speaking at the event, Minister for Coal and Railways, Piyush Goyal, said, “Illegal mining is a serious problem in the country 5 july, particularly in areas where coal mining is carried out.”
- An official statement said, “The basic objective of CMSMS is reporting, monitoring and taking suitable action on unauthorised coal mining activities.
- The CMSMS is a Web-based GIS application through which location of sites for unauthorised mining can be detected. The basic platform used in the system is of Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology’s (MeiTY) map which provides village level information.”
- The leasehold boundary of all the coal mines are displayed on this map. The system will use satellite data to detect changes by which unauthorised mining activity extending beyond the allotted lease area can be detected and suitable action can be taken on it.
- The ‘Khan Prahari’ app is for reporting any activity taking place related to illegal coal mining like rat hole mining, pilferage etc. One can upload geo-tagged photographs of the incident along with textual information directly to the system, the statement added.
|
Read More
- Project to train local women that will add honey to their incomes It’s a busy bee operation. The Forest department, with the UNDP-GEF-EGREE (United Nations Development Programme-Global Environment Facility-East Godavari River Estuarine Ecosystem) Foundation, has launched a multi-purpose operation to increase honeybee population in the Coringa mangroves here. It will train women in villages abutting the mangroves in bee keeping, ensuring their livelihood and reducing dependency on the mangrove forest in a phased manner.
- Bee busters - Unlike the Sundarbans in West Bengal and Bhitarkanika mangroves in Odisha, Coringa has been lagging in terms of honey production owing to deforestation coupled with the use of pesticides in the abutting farms and fish tanks.
- Money in honey - According to statistics, the largest mangrove Sundarbans produce about 1.1 lakh kg of honey every year, while the third largest mangrove Bhitarkanika extract 30,000 kg. Coringa, the second largest mangrove in the country, is seeing an alarming decrease in the honeybee population.
- A study by the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation on honey production in Coringa mangroves about four years ago has found that 'aegiceras corniculatum,' popularly known as 'black mangroves' andGuggilam in Telugu, is the source of quality nectar in Coringa, but the trees are felled for firewood.
- While Sundarbans and Bhitarkanika are away from the farm fields, Coringa is amidst agriculture fields and fish tanks, where the honeybees are getting affected by pesticides use.
- “Bee keeping has been highly successful in the Sundarban mangroves and has helped in diversifying livelihood options for the locals. Since the activity requires minimum efforts after establishment and it can go alongside other livelihood activities, we are encouraging women from the villages to take up the activity,” said Ananth Shankar, DFO (Wildlife), and additional CEO of EGREE Foundation.
|
Read More
- The National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom), India’s premier software lobby, on 5 july opened a Center of Excellence (CoE) for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence here.
- “Nasscom also signed a MoU with NITI Aayog to collaboratively foster applied research, accelerating adoption and ethics, privacy and security,” Nasscom said in a statement.
- “With the aim to strengthen the country’s AI ecosystem, the CoE and MoU, both aim to serve as a platform for intelligence-sharing and technology collaboration between stakeholders to build collective capabilities for the industry and country in the cutting-edge areas artificial intelligence,” it said.
- Supporting AI strategy -Nasscom would support the government’s National Strategy for AI and will facilitate collaboration between NITI Aayog and CoEs. It will also include NITI Aayog as a knowledge partner. “Leveraging their skilling platform FutureSkills, Nasscom and NITI Aayog will together accelerate innovation and cultivate skilling in India,” the software lobby said.
- The CoE initiative is a nationwide programme on innovation, focusing on solutions in smart manufacturing, automotive, healthcare, agriculture, energy, IoT, banking and financial services, retail, telecom, and host of emerging technologies.
- Nasscom has partnered with Intel and IBM as its founding members and technology advisors for augmenting and accelerating the data science and artificial Intelligence ecosystem in the country.
- The center aims to “support SMBs, by fast-tracking their product development, provide market access to enterprises and assist them by co-creating programs along with other industry partners and start-ups to solve complex and real-world business problems.”
|
Read More
- The entire animal kingdom, including avian and aquatic ones, are declared as legal entities having a distinct persona with corresponding rights, duties and liabilities of a living person.
- In a unique ruling, the Uttarakhand High Court on 4 july accorded the status of “legal person or entity” to animals in the State, saying “they have a distinct persona with corresponding rights, duties and liabilities of a living person.”
- A Division Bench of Justices Rajiv Sharma and Lokpal Singh bestowed the unique status on animal kingdom while issuing a series of directions to prevent cruelty against animals. “to protect and promote greater welfare of animals including avian and aquatic, animals are required to be conferred with the status of legal entity/ legal person,” the Bench said.
- The entire animal kingdom, including avian and aquatic ones, are declared as legal entities having a distinct persona with corresponding rights, duties and liabilities of a living person. All the citizens throughout the State of Uttarakhand are hereby declared persons in loco parentis as the human face for the welfare/protection of animals, it added.
- The court also declared all Uttarakhand natives the guardians of animals and endowed them with the duty to ensure their welfare and protection.
- In common law jurisprudence, there are two types of persons natural persons or human beings and artificial person, which are also known as juristic persons, juridical entity or a legal person other than a natural person.
- Legal or juristic persons are created by law and recognised as a legal entity, having distinct identity, legal personality and besides duties and rights. They include private business firm or entity, non-governmental or government organisations, trusts and societies, besides others.
- The Division Bench also gave directions ranging from the amount of load allowed to be pulled by various animals in accordance with the kind of carriage being pulled to the amount of riders per carriage.
|