SIMBEX 23
- SIMBEX, a bilateral exercise between India and Singapore, started in 1994 and celebrated its 30th edition in 2023.
- The opening ceremony was on 21 September 2023, featuring the unveiling of the 30th edition logo and was attended by both navies’ personnel.
- The Harbour Phase included professional exchanges, combined exercises, and the signing of a Joint Standard Operating Procedure (JSOP) for Submarine Rescue.
- The Indian Navy representatives visited the Kranji War Memorial in a wreath-laying ceremony.
- Additional Harbour Phase activities were sports exchanges, cross-deck visits, and a visit from school children and Indian High Commission personnel.
- The Sea Phase ran from 25 to 28 September 2023, with naval units from both countries participating.
- The Sea Phase involved advanced anti-submarine warfare, surface and air defence exercises, tactical manoeuvres, and weapon firings.
- SIMBEX 23 concluded by reinforcing the strong friendship and interoperability between the maritime nations of India and Singapore.
Source: PIB
KEEP Namma Pondy Clean
- The “KEEP Namma Pondy Clean” initiative in Puducherry, India, aims to make the city one of the cleanest coastal areas in the country.
- Over 40 schools participated in the initiative during the Swachhata Pakhwada- Swachhata Hi Seva campaign.
- The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) supports this initiative, which has launched a ‘Zero Waste Initiative’ in local schools.
- The initiative has made significant strides in diverting waste away from Kurumbapet landfill, and has involved the younger generation in its efforts.
- The KEEP Team worked closely with institutions, conducting awareness sessions for students before providing each school with a Zero Waste Kit – including one blue bin and two compost bins.
- Students and staff were educated on how to segregate waste at the source and utilise the compost bins on their campuses.
- Regular door-to-door campaigns are conducted by the KEEP Team to ensure that waste segregation is well understood and practised by residents.
- Sanitation workers manage the compost bins, fostering a sense of community ownership and promoting the idea of repurposing waste.
Source: PIB
ATMAN 2023
- The ATMAN 2023 program, managed by the Department of Science & Technology (DST) and four Technology Innovation Hubs, selected 24 startups from a pool of 55.
- These startups will receive both technical and financial support from a fund of Rs 20 Cr.
- The support mechanism was established to boost promising ideas, innovations, and technologies.
- The Technology Innovation Hubs are located at four IITs (Ropar, Bombay, Indore, and Kharagpur) under the framework of the National Mission on Interdisciplinary Cyber Physical Systems (NM-ICPS).
- The selected startups showcased their innovative solutions across five panels focused on precision farming, agro IoT and agri 4.0, mechanisation and automation, market intelligence and yield prediction, and farm advisory and communication.
- The program also awarded the best pitch and exhibited 20 key agri-tech technologies developed by the four Technology Innovation Hubs.
Source: PIB
NASA And CNES End CALIPSO Mission
- The CALIPSO mission, launched by NASA and France’s CNES, has ended after 17 years.
- This venture aimed to study climate, weather, and air quality.
- The mission stopped on August 1, as announced by NASA.
- CALIPSO, or Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation, recorded more than 10 billion LIDAR measurements.
- Thousands of scientific reports were produced thanks to the data from CALIPSO.
- Alongside CALIPSO, the cloud-profiling radar system on the CloudSat satellite was also launched.
- NASA had to develop a sophisticated lidar for the first time for use in space.
- The plan was to fly the satellite close enough to match the lidar profile measurements of CALIPSO with the radar profile measurements from CloudSat.
- The Lidar and radar instruments on the satellite work by directing energy beams towards Earth. These beams reflect off the clouds and aerosols in the atmosphere.
- This method is different from other space experiments that typically use passive sensors. These sensors measure the sunlight or other radiation that the Earth or clouds reflect.
- CALIPSO and CloudSat satellites were launched on April 28, 2003.
- They followed a Sun-synchronous orbit from the North to the South poles.
- This meant they crossed the equator every day in the early afternoon.
- These satellites measured cloud altitude and airborne particles like dust, sea salt, ash, and soot, by examining the atmosphere’s “vertical structure”.
- The data from these satellites helped scientists create advanced models to understand complex atmospheric processes.
- These processes included cloud formation, atmospheric convection, precipitation, and particle transport.
- This information was particularly valuable during events like the massive 2020 wildfires in Australia.
- During this event, CALIPSO observed smoke rising between 15 and 20 kilometres above the Earth’s surface.
- This altitude is high enough to reach the stratosphere, making them some of the highest plumes ever recorded.
Source: HT
Return Of Shivaji’s ‘Wagh Nakh’ To India
The ‘Tiger Claws’ or ‘wagh nakh’, a historical 17th-century weapon, is set to return to India. The Victoria and Albert (V&A) Museum plans to sign an agreement with the Maharashtra government on October 3.
ISRO Gears Up For India’s Second Mars Mission
India is preparing for another Mars mission, according to officials at the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). This comes nearly a decade after ISRO successfully orbited a spacecraft around Mars on its first attempt.