Defence and Security/GSIII
Surface-to-Surface missile ‘Pralay'

What's the NEWS

• Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) successfully conducted second flight-test of indigenously developed conventional Surface-to-Surface missile ‘Pralay' from Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Island off the coast of Odisha
• This is the first time in history that two consecutive tests of conventional ballistic missile like ‘Pralay' were conducted successfully. Now, India has a response to a conventional missile attack as it has no first-use nuclear policy.
• This launch proves the system in both the configurations of the missile.

• In the second launch, the ‘Pralay' missile was tested for heavier payload and different range to prove the precision and lethality of the weapon.

• The Missile is powered with solid propellant rocket motor and many new technologies.
• The missile has a range of 150-500 kilometre and can be launched from a mobile launcher.
• The missile guidance system includes state-of-the-art navigation system and integrated avionics.
• This is a new generation surface-to-surface missile equipped with modern technologies and induction of this weapon system will give the necessary impetus to the Armed Forces.

• 'Pralay' is India's first conventional ballistic missile and is an answer to any conventional missile attack from northern or western borders.
• The missile development is significant as India had no conventionally armed ballistic missile and was hampered by 'No First Use' nuclear policy.
• The missile is an offensive weapon to destroy targets across land and sea and is Indian answer to any carrier task force of the adversary in future.
• The solid-fuel, battlefield missile developed by the Defence Research Development Organisation (DRDO) is based on Prithvi Defence Vehicle from the Indian ballistic missile programme.
• The advanced missile has been developed in a way to be able to defeat interceptor missiles.
• It has the ability to change its path after covering a certain range mid-air.

• DRDO successfully conducted the flight test of Indigenously developed High-speed Expendable Aerial Target (HEAT) Abhyas from Integrated Test Range (ITR), Chandipur off the coast, Odisha.

• During the flight trial, High subsonic speed trajectory at a very low altitude with high endurance was demonstrated.
• Two boosters provided initial acceleration during launch and a small turbo jet engine is used to sustain high subsonic speed with long endurance.
• The indigenous data link designed by Bengaluru based Industry partner has been successfully flown and tested during the flight.
• Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE), bengaluru based DRDO laboratory along with other DRDO laboratories has developed this indigenous unmanned aerial target system to meet the requirement of aerial targets of Indian Armed Forces.
• The aircraft is controlled from a ground based controller and an indigenously developed MEMS based Inertial Navigation System along with the Flight Control Computer which helps it to follow the pre-designated path in a fully autonomous mode.

• The Indian Army, launched a contemporary messaging application named, ASIGMA (Army Secure IndiGeneous Messaging Application) which is a new generation, state of the art, web based application developed entirely in-house by team of officers of the Corps of Signals of the Army.

• The application is being deployed on the Army's internal network as a replacement of Army Wide Area Network (AWAN) messaging application which has been in service for past 15 years.
• The application has been fielded on Army owned hardware and lends itself to lifetime support with future upgrades.
• It has a variety of contemporary features including multi-level security, message prioritisation and tracking, dynamic global address book and various options to meet the Army's requirements.
• This future ready messaging application will meet real time data transfer and messaging requirements of the Army, especially in the backdrop of current geo political security environment and is in line with the Government of India's, Make in India initiative.

• The winter session of Parliament ended. Both Houses were adjourned sine die a day ahead of schedule.

• The session began with the suspension of 12 Opposition members in the Rajya Sabha and concluded with the passage of the controversial Election Laws (Amendment) Bill 2021, which seeks to link the electoral rolls with the Aadhaar database, despite strident protests by the Opposition.
• Productivity of the Lok Sabha was around 82% and that of the Rajya Sabha around 48%.
• During the session, 13 Bills (12 in the Lok Sabha and one in the Rajya Sabha) were introduced, while 11 Bills were passed by both Houses of Parliament.

Current Status of Bills Taken Up During Winter Session
Passed By Both Houses

• Election Laws (Amendment) Bill
• The Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (Amendment) Bill 2021 (awaiting President's nod)
• The Delhi Special Police Establishment Amendment Bill 2021 (President assent given on Dec 21. Bill is now Act)
• The Central Vigilance Commission Amendment Bill 20212021 (President assent given on Dec 21. Bill is now Act)
• The High Court and Supreme Court Judges (Salaries and Conditions of Service) Amendment Bill
• Farm Laws Repeal Bill, 2021 (Presidential Assent given. Bill is now an Act.)
• Assisted Reproductive Technology Regulation Bill 2020
• The Surrogacy Regulation Bill, 2019
• Dam Safety Bill
• The National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (Amendment) Bill, 2021 (President Assent received on Dec 18. Bill is now an Act)

• Prohibition Of Child Marriage Amendment Bill
• Mediation Bill 2021 (Before select committee)
• The Chartered Accountants, Cost and works accountants and Company secretaries (Amendment) Bill
• The Biological Diversity Amendment Bill 2021

• Wildlife Protection Amendment Bill, 2021
• National Anti Doping Bill

• India has overtaken the UK to rank third with 54 unicorns, according to a new Hurun India report.
• The report, shows that Bengaluru has more unicorns than cities like Boston, Palo Alto, Paris, Berlin, Chicago among others, with a tally of 28 such companies--the seventh-highest in the world.
• Unicorns are unlisted private companies with a valuation of $1 billion or more.
• India currently has 54 unicorns, 33 more than what the country had in 2020, while the UK currently has 39 unicorns, 15 up from a year earlier, according to the Hurun report.
• Hurun Research said India led the way for emigrant unicorn founders, followed by China, Israel and Russia.
• According to the report, Indians have founded 65 unicorns outside India, including Postman, Innovaccer, Icertis, Moglix among others.

• The Indian unicorns list is led by edtech start-up Byju's with a valuation of USD 21 billion and followed by Inmobi (USD 12 billion), Oyo (USD 9.5 billion) and Razorpay (USD 7.5 billion)
• Adding 33 'unicorns' in a single year has helped India displace the United Kingdom to be third in the list of countries that are home to such enterprises valued at over USD 1 billion each.
• India was placed fourth when it comes to the number of unicorns last year.
• The US and China, who occupy the first two ranks, are way ahead, according to the data compiled by Hurun Research Institute.
• The US added 254 unicorns and now totals 487 companies in the coveted list, while China added 74 to take its tally to 301 start-ups having a valuation of over USD 1 billion
• The U.K. added only 15 unicorns to take its total to 39, and hence got displaced by India
• The top-two occupants are home to 74 per cent of the unicorn universe

• Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar has released the book titled Spices Statistics at a Glance 2021'.

• The book is a compendium of all the spices statistics like area, production, productivity, export, import, price and value of output of various spices produced in the country.
• The book has been published by the Directorate of Arecanut and Spices Development, the nodal agency for collection and compilation of area and production estimates of spices at the National level.
• The book highlights the growth achieved in spices sector during the last seven years. Spices production in the Country has grown from over 67 lakh tonnes in 2014-15 to over 106 lakh tonnes in 2020-21 with an annual growth rate of 7.9 percent.
• Among the major spices, Cumin, Garlic, Ginger, Fennel, Coriander, fenugreek, Red chilli and Turmeric have shown significant growth rate in production.
• Spices export has grown from nearly 9 lakh tonnes to 16 lakh tonnes during this period logging an annual growth rate of 9.8 percent in terms of volume.
• In terms of value, the annual growth rate of spices export has been 10.5 percent during this period.

• With the initiative of the Department of Animal Husbandry & Dairying, Government of India, after extensive stakeholder consultation, a unified Conformity Assessment Scheme was chalked out by BIS with the help of NDDB.
• This is a novel and first of its kind certification scheme considering the perishable nature and short shelf-life of milk and milk products, as well as the extensive cold-chain involved in the production and supply of milk and milk products.
• This has brought ‘Product-Food Safety Management System-Process' certification under one umbrella with a unified logo featuring the earlier respective logos BIS-ISI mark & NDDB-Quality Mark and Kamdhenu Cow.

• Simplify the certification process
• Create an instantly recognisable logo for public to be reassured about dairy product quality
• Increase the sales of milk and milk products in organized sector and in turn enhancing income of farmers
• Develop a quality culture in the dairy sector

• NDDB and BIS have been involved in certification of Process and Products respectively.
• NDDB has been awarding ‘Quality Mark' to the dairy plants of cooperatives adhering to the process standards across the dairy value chain helping in building the brand identity for cooperative dairies and enhanced consumer confidence.
• On the other hand, BIS has a product certification scheme for manufacturers, including dairy product processors which also ensured food safety at product level allowing licensees to use ‘ISI Mark' on their products.
• However there was no unification of product and process certification- making it difficult to dairy plants to avail end to end certification.
• To rectify this a unified Conformity Assessment Scheme was chalked out by BIS with the help of NDDB.