Defence and Security+ Indigenisation of technology /GSIII
DRDO Flight Tests Final Deliverable Configuration of MPATGM

What's the NEWS

• Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) successfully flight tested the final deliverable configuration of Man Portable Anti-Tank Guided Missile (MPATGM) on January 11, 2022.
• The indigenously developed anti-tank missile is a low weight, fire & forget missile and is launched from a man portable launcher, integrated with thermal sight.
• The missile impacted the designated target and destroyed it. The final impact event was captured on camera and the test has validated the minimum range successfully.
• The present test was to prove the consistent performance for the minimum range.
• All the mission objectives were met.
• The missile has miniaturised infrared imaging seeker and advanced avionics for on-board control and guidance.
• The missile performance has been proven for the maximum range in earlier test trials.

• It is an Indian third-generation fire-and-forget anti-tank guided missile derived from Nag ATGM.
• It has been developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) in partnership with Indian defence contractor VEM Technologies Private Limited]
• The MPATGM is a low weight, long cylindrical missile with a group of four fins around its mid-section.
• It is fitted with high-explosive anti-tank (HEAT) warhead.
• The MPATGM is equipped with an advanced imaging infrared (IIR) sensor and integrated avionics.

• Advanced sea to sea variant of BrahMos Supersonic Cruise missile was tested from INS Visakhapatnam
• Successful test-firing of the extended-range BrahMos Supersonic Cruise missile from INS Visakhapatnam, Indian Navy's newest indigenously-built guided missile destroyer, represents a twin achievement: Certifies the accuracy of the ship's combat system and armament complex.
• BrahMos, deployed by the Navy on its warships first in 2005, has the capability to hit sea-based targets beyond radar horizon.
• The naval variant was originally tested in October and December 2020 from the Navy's indigenously-built stealth destroyer INS Chennai and Rajput-class destroyer INS Ranvijay, respectively.
• This version of the missile has been designed to launch either in a vertical or a horizontal mode from moving/stationary assets to target both land and sea targets.
• The missiles, fired at a speed of 2.8 Mach or nearly three times the speed of sound, significantly increase the capability of the ships in engaging long-range targets.

• BrahMos is a "short-range, supersonic anti-ship/land attack cruise missile" developed as part of a joint venture set up in 1998 between India's Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and the Mashinostroyenia of Russia.
• The name ‘BrahMos' is derived from India's Brahmaputra and the Moskva river in Russia.
• BrahMos is "distinguished" by its supersonic speed, flying at up to three-times the speed of sound at Mach 2.0-2.8 which, "in addition to making it difficult to intercept... also imparts a greater strike power".
• It has the ability to travel at a speed of a kilometre approximately in a second
• BrahMos' combination of "supersonic speed and warhead mass provides high kinetic energy ensuring tremendous lethal effect".
• BrahMos is the only known versatile supersonic cruise missile which is in service
• BrahMos is a universal, long-range supersonic cruise missile system that can be launched from land, sea and air".
• Its anti-ship, land-attack and air versions are already operational with the Indian Navy, Army and Air Force while a submarine-launch version was trialled in 2013 by way of a test carried out from a submerged barge.
• Depending on the variant and the launch platform, BrahMos has a range of between 300-500 km.
• The payload size - ranging from 200-300kg - too, varies on the basis of the version as does the missile's launch weight, which can be anywhere between 2,200-3,000 kg.
• The export version of the BrahMos will have a range of 290km to stay under the 300km ceiling imposed by the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR).
• India recently agreed to sell the missile to the Philippines even as several other countries around the world are known to have expressed an interest in acquiring it.
• A hypersonic version of the missile, BrahMos II, is also under development that would be able to hit speeds of over Mach 5.
• BrahMos Aerospace has begun work BrahMos-NG, for ‘next generation', which will be "a new, more advanced variant of the missile... having smaller, lighter and smarter dimensions", for deployment on a wider number of modern military platforms.
• The BrahMos Integration Complex in Hyderabad is where the integration and assembly of mechanical systems and the electronics for the missile is undertaken along with the testing of the sub-systems fabricated in other centres in India and Russia.
• In December 2021, a project to build a BrahMos Manufacturing Centre was inaugurated in Lucknow to produce the new BrahMos-NG.

• The permanent delegation of India to UNESCO announced that on the occasion of World Hindi Day, UNESCO's World Heritage Centre has agreed to publish Hindi descriptions of India's UNESCO World Heritage Sites on WHC website.
• UNESCO to publish Hindi descriptions of India's World Heritage Sites on WHC website
• Permanent Delegation of India to UNESCO, Paris organized the virtual celebration of World Hindi on January 10, 2022.

• It is celebrated every year on January 10 to mark the first World Hindi Conference that was held in 1975.
• It is celebrated across the world to promote the use of the Hindi language.
• The first World Hindi Conference was held in Nagpur on January 10 in 1975.
• In a meeting of the follow-up committee on the World Hindi Conference held on June 8 in 2005, it was decided to commemorate January 10 as World Hindi Day every year.
• Accordingly, World Hindi Day was celebrated for the first time on January 10 in 2006.
• India also celebrates National Hindi Divas on September 14. It, however, is different from World Hindi Day as National Hindi Divas is celebrated to commemorate the adoption of Hindi as an official language of India by the Constituent Assembly.
• Hindi reportedly has over 260 million native speakers and is the fourth most-spoken first language in the world.

• Union Minister of Science & Technology launched Artificial Intelligence (AI) driven Start-Up by IIT alumni for water purification through innovative technology.
• The facility aims to provide clean drinking water at a price much lesser than the market price.
• The Artificial Intelligence (AI) driven Start-Up initiative is a motivation for other Start-Ups as well.
• A MoU was also signed between Technology Development Board (TDB), a statutory body of Department of Science & Technology, Government of India and M/s Swajal Water Private Limited, a tech Start Up company founded by ex-IITians based in Gurugram.
• The Gurugram based company's patented system, ‘Clairvoyant' uses artificial intelligence to optimise purification systems and predict future breakdowns. Thus,allowing it to remotely manage, update, and repair each system in real time.

• The Government of India constituted the Technology Development Board (TDB) in September 1996, under the Technology Development Board Act, 1995, as a statutory body, to promote development and commercialization of indigenous technology and adaptation of imported technology for wider application. The board consists of 11 Board members.
• The TDB is the first organization of its kind within the government framework with the sole objective of commercializing the fruit of indigenous research.
• The Board plays a pro-active role by encouraging enterprises to take up technology oriented products.
• Provides equity capital or loans to industrial concerns and financial assistance to research and development institutions.

• The first Colombo Security Conclave Virtual Workshop on "Developing Regional Cyber Security Capabilities on Defensive operations, Deep/Dark Web handling and Digital Forensics" was hosted by the National Security Council Secretariat (NSCS), Government of India in association with National Forensics Science University, Gandhinagar (Gujarat) and the Secretariat of the Colombo Security Conclave, over two days on 10-11 January 2022.
• Delegates from Member and Observer States of the of Colombo Security Conclave (CSC) including Sri Lanka, Maldives, India, Mauritius, Seychelles, and Bangladesh participated in the workshop.

• India, Maldives, and Sri Lanka began a National Security Advisor (NSA)-level trilateral meeting on maritime security cooperation in 2011. This Trilateral framework was established back in 2011.
• Following a halt from 2014-2019, the trilateral meeting was resumed in 2020, when the decision was taken to establish the CSC.
• During the NSA level meeting in November 2020, all the three countries agreed to broad base cooperation by expanding the scope to improve intelligence sharing and include issues such as terrorism, radicalization, extremism, illegal drugs, weapons, and human trafficking, money laundering, cyber security, and effect of climate change on the maritime environment.
• A secretariat was set up at the SLN Headquarters in Colombo on 1 March 2021
• A virtual trilateral table top exercise was held in July 2021 to discuss best practices and procedures for countering common trans-national maritime crimes
• Deputy NSA level meeting was convened in August 2021 where the three countries identified four pillars of cooperation, namely, Marine Safety and Security, Terrorism and Radicalization, Trafficking and Organised Crime and Cyber Security.
• Maiden ‘Colombo Security Conclave (CSC) Focused Operation' was conducted between the Indian Navy (IN), the Maldives National Defence Force (MNDF), and the Sri Lankan Navy (SLN) on 27 and 28 November 2021 in the Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ) of the three countries in Southern Arabian Sea.
• The aim of the CSC Focused Operation was to "build understanding and interoperability between the lead maritime security agencies
• The Coastguards of the three countries have been participating in the biennial exercise Dosti regularly since 2012.
• The exercise Dosti was originally launched in 1991 as a bilateral exercise between India and the Maldives. Sri Lanka joined in 2012. Thus, though exercise Dosti enhances interoperability between the three countries, it does not directly come under the CSC.

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