Defence/Indigenisation of Technology/GSIII
BrahMos supersonic cruise missile

What's the NEWS

• BrahMos supersonic cruise missile, with increased indigenous content and improved performance, was successfully test-fired from Integrated Test Range, Chandipur off the coast of Odisha
• The launch was conducted by Brahmos Aerospace in close coordination with the teams of Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).
• The highly manouverable missile cruised at supersonic speed for its maximum range and all mission objectives were met.
• The missile was equipped with the advanced indigenous technologies and followed a modified optimal trajectory for enhanced efficiency and improved performance.
• The missile with the modified control system has been fine tuned to achieve an enhanced capability.
• The test comes within days of an extended range Sea to Sea variant of BrahMos Supersonic Cruise Missile being successfully test-fired on January 11 from Indian Navy's newly commissioned INS Visakhapatnam on the Western seaboard.

• A combination of the names of Brahmaputra and Moskva rivers, BrahMos missiles are designed, developed and produced by BrahMos Aerospace, a joint venture company set up by DRDO and NPOM of Russia.
• BrahMos Aerospace has been continuously upgrading the powerful, highly versatile BrahMos to increase its effectiveness and lethality against sea and land targets.
• BrahMos is the potent missile weapon system already inducted into the Armed Forces.
• The first test launch of the initial version Brahmos took place in 2001.
• Various types of the BrahMos including those which can be fired from land, warships, submarines and Sukhoi-30 fighter jets have already been developed and successfully tested since then.
• On December 8 last year, the Air version of BrahMos supersonic cruise missile was successfully test fired from the Indian Air Force's frontline fighter aircraft Sukhoi-30 MKI clearing the system for the serial production within the country.

What's the NEWS

• India & Denmark agreed to initiate joint research and development on green fuels including green hydrogen, during the Joint S&T Committee meeting

• The Joint Committee discussed national strategic priorities and developments in Science, Technology, and Innovation of both countries with a special focus on green solutions of the future - strategy for investments in green research, technology, and innovation at the virtual meeting.
• The committee emphasised on development of bilateral collaboration on mission-driven research, innovation, and technology development, including climate and green transition, energy, water, waste, food, and so on as agreed by the two Prime Ministers while adopting the Green Strategic Partnership - Action Plan 2020-2025.
• They agreed to organise 3-4 webinars for partnership development and stressed on promoting call for proposals in green fuels, including green hydrogen.
• The Joint Committee also reviewed the progress of the ongoing projects of last two joint calls being implemented in the areas of energy research; water; cyber-physical systems, and bioresources & secondary agriculture.

• The International Financial Services Centers Authority (IFSCA), with an objective of capacity building of professionals in the insurance sector in International Financial Services Centres (IFSCs), has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Insurance Institute of India (III).
• The Insurance Institute of India (III) in involved in devising and continuously upgrading the curriculums and imparting the training programs for the professionals in the insurance industry in India and abroad, to meet the needs of the ever-dynamic insurance sector.
• The certification by the institute is recognized by the insurance industry, regulators, and other internationally reputed insurance education providers.
• The Institute is also the member of the Institute of Global Insurance Education (IGIE).
• IFSCA's regulatory framework for insurance requires periodic professional examinations and training. It would design and conduct such examinations and training for professional in IFSC which would aid in having skilled talent in IFSC eco-system.

• It is the sole national apex body for insurance underwriters in India established in 1955 in Mumbai.
• It is under the ownership of Ministry of Finance, Government of India.
• It was created for the purpose of regulation and licensing of insurance underwriting profession in India.
• The institute conducts examinations at various levels. It is the professional institute in India devoted solely to insurance-underwriting education.
• Certificates and Diplomas are awarded by the institute to successful candidates.
• These are recognised by the Government of India, the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) and insurers in India and abroad.

• Indonesia's parliament passed a law approving the relocation of its capital from slowly sinking Jakarta to a site 2,000 kilometres away on the jungle-clad Borneo island that will be named "Nusantara".
• The House of Representatives vote provides the legal framework for the move, which was first tipped by President Joko Widodo in April 2019, citing rising sea levels and severe congestion on densely populated Java island.
• Home to more than 30 million people in its greater metro area, Jakarta has long been plagued by serious infrastructure problems and flooding exacerbated by climate change.
• The new capital will cover about 56,180 hectares in East Kalimantan province on the Indonesian part of Borneo.

Social Issues/GSII
Marital rape and gender neutral laws
What's the NEWS

• At a consultation organised by the National Commission for Women on amendments to criminal law,there was unanimity among speakers that marital rape should be criminalised.
• The meeting also discussed rising instances of cyber-crime against women and the need for gender-neutral rape laws.
• The NCW is expected to send the recommendations to the Ministry of Home Affairs, which is looking at a review of the Criminal Law, including the IPC, 1860, the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 and the Indian Evidence Act, 1872.
• The petitions have sought striking down exception to Section 375 of the IPC, which says forceful sexual intercourse or sexual acts by a man with his own wife, the wife not being 18 years, is not rape.
• The meeting also discussed the need for gender-neutral anti-rape laws which the civil society has demanded to recognise same-sex assaults among gay, lesbian and bisexual people as well as sexual crimes against transgender people.

• The chief executives of major US passenger and cargo airlines have warned of a "catastrophic" aviation crisis this week as AT&T and Verizon deploy new 5G services.
• The new C band 5G service set to begin could render a significant number of aircraft unusable, causing chaos for US flights and potentially stranding tens of thousands of Americans overseas.
• The United States auctioned mid-range 5G bandwidth to mobile phone companies in early 2021 in the 3.7-3.98 GHz range on the spectrum known as C band, for about $80 billion.
• The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has warned that the new 5G technology could interfere with instruments such as altimeters, which measure how far above the ground an airplane is travelling.
• Altimeters operate in the 4.2-4.4 GHz range and the concern is that the auctioned frequencies sit too close to this range.
• In addition to altitude, altimeter readouts are also used to facilitate automated landings and to help detect dangerous currents called wind shear.
• The higher the frequency in the spectrum, the faster the service. So in order to get full value from 5G, operators want to operate at higher frequencies.
• Some of the C band spectrum auctioned had been used for satellite radio but the transition to 5G means there will be much more traffic.

• Hundreds of thousands of deaths occur today due to previously treatable infections - such as lower respiratory and bloodstream infections - because the bacteria that cause them have become resistant to treatment.

• A comprehensive estimate of the global impact of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), covering 204 countries and territories and published in The Lancet, has found that 1.27 million people died in 2019 as a direct result of AMR, which is now a leading cause of death worldwide, higher than HIV/AIDS or malaria.
• The Global Research on Antimicrobial Resistance (GRAM) report used statistical modelling to estimate deaths linked to 23 pathogens and 88 pathogen-drug combinations.
• Apart from 12.7 lakh deaths caused directly by AMR (these would not have occurred had the infections been drug-susceptible), another 49.5 lakh deaths were associated with AMR (a drug-resistant infection was implicated, but resistance itself may or may not have been the direct cause of death).
• HIV/AIDS and malaria were estimated to have caused 8.6 lakh and 6.4 lakh deaths respectively in 2019.
• Of the 23 pathogens studied, drug resistance in six (E coli, S aureus, K pneumoniae, S pneumoniae, A baumannii, and P aeruginosa) led directly to 9.29 lakh deaths and was associated with 3.57 million.
• One pathogen-drug combination - methicillin-resistant S aureus, or MRSA - directly caused more than 1 lakh deaths.
• Resistance to two classes of antibiotics often considered the first line of defence against severe infections - fluoroquinolones and beta-lactam antibiotics - accounted for more than 70% of deaths caused by AMR.

KEEP Learning KEEP Evolving
TEAM CL IAS