Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO) today successfully test fired indigenously designed & developed Long Range Sub-Sonic Cruise Missile “Nirbhay” from the Integrated Test Range (ITR), Chandipur Odisha.
It is the sixth development flight trial with objective to prove the repeatability of boost phase, cruise phase using way point navigation at very low altitudes. The missile took off vertically turning horizontally into desired direction, booster separated, wing deployed, engine started, cruised all the intended waypoints. The missile demonstrated its sea-skimming capability to cruise at very low altitudes.
The entire flight was fully tracked by a chain of Electro Optical Tracking Systems, Radars and Ground Telemetry Systems deployed all along the sea coast.
Payments made on the UPI platform saw a remarkable growth of over 400% in the April to March period, from a little more than ₹27,000 crore in April 2018 to ₹35 lakh crore in March 2019.
Why UPI is outperforming e- wallets? People are changing the way they transact, choosing bank-to-bank methods such as the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) over other instruments such as e-wallets. This is because UPI is completely interoperable and as such, it is unique in the world, where you have an interoperable system on the ‘send’ and ‘receive’ side.
The rapid growth of UPI is accompanied by a reasonably strong growth in the value of transactions done using e-wallets, but the latter’s growth has not taken off much following the fillip it received in the aftermath of demonetisation in November 2016.
What is Unified Payments Interface (UPI)? Unified Payments Interface (UPI) is a system that powers multiple bank accounts into a single mobile application (of any participating bank), merging several banking features, seamless fund routing & merchant payments into one hood. It also caters to the “Peer to Peer” collect request which can be scheduled and paid as per requirement and convenience.
How is it unique? Immediate money transfer through mobile device round the clock 24*7 and 365 days. Single mobile application for accessing different bank accounts. Single Click 2 Factor Authentication – Aligned with the Regulatory guidelines, yet provides for a very strong feature of seamless single click payment. Virtual address of the customer for Pull & Push provides for incremental security with the customer not required to enter the details such as Card no, Account number; IFSC etc. Bill Sharing with friends.
Best answer to Cash on Delivery hassle, running to an ATM or rendering exact amount. Merchant Payment with Single Application or In-App Payments. Utility Bill Payments, Over the Counter Payments, Barcode (Scan and Pay) based payments. Donations, Collections, Disbursements Scalable. Raising Complaint from Mobile App directly.
Participants in UPI: Payer PSP. Payee PSP. Remitter Bank. Beneficiary Bank. NPCI Bank Account holders. Merchants UPI – Benefits to the Ecosystem participants:
Benefits for banks: Single click Two Factor authentication. Universal Application for transaction. Leveraging existing infrastructure. Safer, Secured and Innovative. Payment basis Single/ Unique Identifier. Enable seamless merchant transactions.
Benefits for end Customers: Round the clock availability. Single Application for accessing different bank accounts. Use of Virtual ID is more secure, no credential sharing. Single click authentication. Raise Complaint from Mobile App directly.
Benefits for Merchants: Seamless fund collection from customers – single identifiers. No risk of storing customer’s virtual address like in Cards. Tap customers not having credit/debit cards. Suitable for e-Com & m-Com transaction. Resolves the COD collection problem. Single click 2FA facility to the customer – seamless Pull. In-App Payments (IAP).
The Double Asteroid Redirection Test, or DART, is a spacecraft designed to determine whether an asteroid can be redirected with a high-speed collision. SpaceX will launch the spacecraft toward an asteroid named Didymos about 4 million miles from Earth. It then will ram into the asteroid’s small moon at about 13,000 miles per hour.
About the DART: DART would be NASA’s first mission to demonstrate what’s known as the kinetic impactor technique – striking the asteroid to shift its orbit – to defend against a potential future asteroid impact.
How it impacts? The target for DART is an asteroid that will have a distant approach to Earth in October 2022, and then again in 2024. The asteroid is called Didymos – Greek for “twin” -because it is an asteroid binary system that consists of two bodies: Didymos A, about 780 metres in size, and a smaller asteroid orbiting it called Didymos B, about 160 metres in size.
DART would impact only the smaller of the two bodies, Didymos B. The Didymos system has been closely studied since 2003. The primary body is a rocky S-type object, with composition similar to that of many asteroids. The composition of its small companion, Didymos B, is unknown, but the size is typical of asteroids that could potentially create regional effects should they impact Earth. After launch, DART would fly to Didymos and use an APL-developed onboard autonomous targeting system to aim itself at Didymos B.
Then the refrigerator-sized spacecraft would strike the smaller body at a speed about nine times faster than a bullet, about six kilometres per second. Earth-based observatories would be able to see the impact and the resulting change in the orbit of Didymos B around Didymos A, allowing scientists to better determine the capabilities of kinetic impact as an asteroid mitigation strategy.
The kinetic impact technique works by changing the speed of a threatening asteroid by a small fraction of its total velocity, but by doing it well before the predicted impact so that this small nudge will add up over time to a big shift of the asteroid’s path away from Earth.
Key facts: It is carbon-composite plane built by Stratolaunch Systems Corp. It is called Roc. It has a wingspan the length of an American football field and is powered by six engines on a twin fuselage.
The plane is designed to drop rockets and other space vehicles weighing up to 500,000 pounds at an altitude of 35,000 feet and has been billed by the company as making satellite deployment as “easy as booking an airline flight.”
Context: The only known female member of one of the world’s rarest turtle species has died at a zoo in southern China. The animal was one of four Yangtze giant softshell turtles known to be remaining in the world. The Suzhou zoo, where the female turtle lived, also houses a male Yangtze giant softshell turtle. The other two live in Vietnam.
It is also known as the Red River giant softshell turtle, Shanghai softshell turtle, Swinhoe’s softshell turtleor speckled softshell turtle. It is listed as critically endangered in the IUCN Red List. It may be the largest living freshwater turtle in the world.
Context: India was a net importer of steel during the 2018-19 fiscal year, the first time in three years, as the country lost market share among its traditional steel buyers and imports jumped on demand for higher quality steel domestically.
India’s exports during the fiscal year declined after rival steelmakers in China, Japan, South Korea and Indonesia, blocked from markets in the United States and Europe by tariffs and other protectionist measures, ate away at the country’s markets in West Asia and Africa.
Imports from the four Asian countries also climbed as they diverted supply into India. Imports of value-added steel, primarily for the auto sector and high-end electrical steel, were the biggest source of imports.
Context: In 2015, astronaut Scott Kelly set off for the International Space Station while his twin, Mark Kelly, remained on Earth. Scott returned in 2016, and both brothers are now retired, but over the one year Scott spent in space, 10 teams of researchers in the US carried out a landmark study on the twins’ biological profiles (Scott was sending his samples from space). With the twins sharing the same genetic code, the researchers looked for variances in their bio-markers.
Details of the study: The results showed that a long stay in space can cause changes in the human body. These were epigenetic changes — chemical “tweaks” to DNA that can influence gene activity, without affecting the underlying genetic code itself. When epigenetic changes occur at the wrong time or place, the process can turn genes on or off at the wrong time and place. In Scott’s case, most of the changes were reversed within months of his return to Earth.
What changed, what did not? Telomeres: These are special features at the ends of each DNA strand. Telomeres tend to get shorter as one ages; however, certain factors can affect the rate of this shortening. In Scott’s case, the study identified a change in telomere length dynamics during spaceflight and within days of landing.
Gene expression: Samples taken before, during and after Scott’s mission in space revealed some changes in gene expression. These were different from the changes Mark experienced on Earth. Of the changes Scott experienced, most (about 91.3%) reverted to baseline after he returned, while a small subset persisted after six months. Some observed DNA damage is believed to be a result of radiation exposure.
Gut bacteria: Scott’s microbiome during flight was profoundly different from pre-flight. This could be due to the food he consumed in space, although other space-specific environmental factors may have also contributed. When he landed on Earth, Scott’s microbiome returned to pre-flight state.
Arteries: The inside of an artery wall can narrow due to plaque buildup. Researchers found indications of inflammation and carotid artery wall thickening in Scott during and immediately after his mission, but no such changes were observed in Mark. Researchers have not yet established whether this adaptation is reversible.
Some of the findings were encouraging for researchers: Vaccination: Scott received three flu vaccines — on Earth, in space, and back on Earth — each a year apart. This study found that his body reacted appropriately to the vaccine.
Cognition: With few exceptions, Scott’s cognitive performance (such as mental alertness, spatial orientation, recognition of emotions) remained largely unchanged during his time in space, and relative to Mark on the ground.
Context: Recently, more than 150 senior military veterans, including several former service chiefs, wrote a letter to the President expressing their anguish over the ‘politicisation’ of the military.
Concerns: Using military achievements for electoral gains is dangerous. The current political atmosphere is already vitiated by the use of communally polarising tactics. Exploiting India’s military, so far a remarkably politically neutral force, for partisan ends adds to the already morally degraded political environment in which the elections are taking place. It sends the signal to the top brass that there is nothing wrong in intermixing politics with the military. The eventual lesson they will learn is that they can interfere in the political process with impunity since the civilian leadership has already legitimised the military’s use in the political realm.
In recent years, many senior serving officers have commented on important domestic and international issues, such as immigration and India-Pakistan relations, that until recently had been off limits for the military brass.
Need of the hour: Political parties must forthwith desist from using the military, military uniforms or symbols, and any actions by military formations or personnel, for political purposes or to further their political agendas. Political leaders should not take credit for military operations such as cross-border strikes.
Conclusion: The use of the military for short-term political gains and the propensity of serving officers to make politically charged statements — augment each other. This nexus does not bode well for Indian democracy. This is an unprecedented development that needs to be reversed in order to preserve civilian supremacy over the armed forces and keep the political and military arenas distinct.