02.12.20 brahmos supersonic cruise missile in anti ship

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Daily News Decode (DND) by UPSC Hacks @249/Year

Daily News Decode

02.12.20

BrahMos Supersonic Cruise Missile in Anti-Ship mode

successfully test fired

• BrahMos Supersonic Cruise Missile in

Anti-Ship mode was successfully test fired

on Tuesday at 9 AM against a

decommissioned Ship. The test firing was

carried out by Indian Navy.

• The missile performed highly complex

manoeuvres and hit Bull’s eye of the target.

• Ministry of Defence in a statement said that

BrahMos is the supersonic cruise missile

jointly developed by DRDO and NPOM of

Russia as a Brahmos Aerospace joint

venture, which became Brahmos

Aerospace Private Limited.

• The missile has established itself as a major force multiplier in modern-day complex

battlefields with its impeccable anti-ship and land-attack capabilities with multi-role

and multi-platform abilities.

• It has been deployed in all the three wings of the Indian Armed Forces.

• The first launch of Brahmos took place in 2001 and till date numerous launches have

taken place from various ships, Mobile Autonomous Launchers and Su-30 MKI

aircraft, making it a versatile weapon.

Cyclonic Storm ‘Burevi’

• On November 28, a low pressure formed off

the coast of Tamil Nadu.

• It gradually intensified into a depression on

November 30. Meanwhile the JTWC issued a

Tropical Cyclone Formation Alert on

November 30.

• It intensified into a deep depression on the first day of December.

• Later that day, both the JTWC and the IMD upgraded the system to a Tropical Storm,

with the latter assigning it the name Burevi.

• A Cyclone Alert from Tamil Nadu to Sri Lanka has been issued by IMD

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Farm Reform Acts aim to transform agriculture sector &

enhance farmers’ income • The government has brought Farm

Reform Acts with an aim to transform

the agriculture sector in the country and

enhance farmers’ income.

• These Acts include Farmers’ Produce

Trade and Commerce (Promotion and

Facilitation) Act, 2020, the Farmers

(Empowerment and Protection)

Agreement on Price Assurance and

Farm Services Act, 2020.

• The Farmers' Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020

creates an ecosystem where the farmers and traders will enjoy freedom of choice of

sale and purchase of agri-produce.

• It will also promote barrier-free inter-state and intra-state trade and commerce

outside the physical premises of markets notified under State Agricultural Produce

Marketing legislations.

• The Act does not intrude into premises under the APMC Act and the same may

continue into the State.

• The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and

Farm Services Act, 2020 will empower farmers for engaging with processors,

wholesalers, aggregators, wholesalers, large retailers, exporters on a level playing

field without any fear of exploitation. It will reduce cost of marketing and improve

income of farmers.

India-Portugal Technology Summit 2020

• The 26th edition of India-Portugal Technology

Summit 2020 will be held over a digital

platform from 7th – 9th December 2020.

• Over the past 26 years, DST has been

co-organizing the Technology Summit in

partnership with CII.

• The summit has benefitted immensely the Indian industry and academic & research

institutions by forging partnerships, stimulating innovation, investment & trade and

facilitating technology transfers, joint projects, and market access.

• The Focus sectors of the summit for this year are Watertech, Agritech, Healthtech,

Energy, Climate change, Cleantech, IT, ICT, Advanced technologies, and

Space- Ocean Interactions.

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• The summit will bring together experts from India and Portugal to deliberate on their

country expertise in the focus sectors and to explore opportunities for future

collaboration. Other Highlights of the summit shall include technology leadership

plenaries, tech talks, business presentations, high technology virtual expo and B2B

networking opportunities with Indian and Portugal delegates.

• The event will be hosted on CII HIVE, its dedicated multi-feature, virtual online

exhibition and conferencing platform with 24X7 helpdesk with a digital B2B lounge.

• The 400-yr old partnership between India & Portugal in shared culture, history, and

kinship is now turning modern with partnerships in science & technology: Mrs. K.

Nandini Singla, Ambassador of India to Portugal

India International Science Festival (IISF) 2020

• The 6th India International Science Festival

(IISF) 2020 Curtain Raiser Event is being

conducted by various institutes throughout

the country to popularise the scientific events

among the masses. The IISF-2020 is

scheduled to be held from 22 to 25

December, 2020.

• IISF is the festival to celebrate science which was launched in the year 2015. It is a

way to promote science & technology (S&T) and demonstrate how S &T can lead

India towards a developed nation.

• The maximum participation and utilize this opportunity of virtual mode to the optimum

for greater involvement of the common masses in this festival. He further added that

the basic motto is to take science to the people and the achievement of Indian

scientists to the people.

Department of Posts decides to deliver Sabarimala

‘SwamyPrasadam' to devotees across the country at their

doorstep

• Keeping in view devotees across the country,

Department of Posts conceptualized and

developed a comprehensive booking and

delivery package for the delivery of “Swami

Prasadam” of Sabrimala Temple at the

doorstep of the devotees using the vast

network of postal department covering every

nook and corner of the country.

• Kerala Postal Circle entered into an agreement with Travancore Devaswom Board

for this purpose creating a tailor made product. The devotees can now book the

Swami Prasadam from any post office in India by paying only Rs. 450/- (Four

hundred and Fifty) for each packet of prasadam.

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• Keeping in view devotees across the country, Department of Posts conceptualized

and developed a comprehensive booking and delivery package for the delivery of

“Swami Prasadam” of Sabrimala Temple at the doorstep of the devotees using the

vast network of postal department covering every nook and corner of the country.

• Kerala Postal Circle entered into an agreement with Travancore Devaswom Board

for this purpose creating a tailor made product.

• The devotees can now book the Swami Prasadam from any post office in India by

paying only Rs. 450/- (Four hundred and Fifty) for each packet of prasadam.

Chardham Pariyojana

• Environmentalists have alleged that the

contractors deputed by the government to

make roads as part of the Chardham project

are violating the Supreme Court orders on

the appropriate road width to be followed in

mountainous terrain.

• The Char Dham project consists of widening and repairing 889-kilometres of national

highways leading to revered shrines of Kedarnath, Badrinath, Gangotri and

Yamunotri.

• It is a proposed two-lane expresses National Highway with a minimum width of 10

metres in the state of Uttarakhand.

• The project includes 900 km national highways will connect whole of Uttarakhand

state.

• The Chamba tunnel is 440 m long and is a Horseshoe type tunnel with 10-metre

carriageway width and 5.5m vertical clearance.

• The BRO achieved this major milestone by digging up a 440 m long Tunnel below

the busy Chamba town on Rishikesh-Dharasu road Highway (NH 94).

Facebook News to launch in U.K. next year

• It will launch its news tab feature in Britain from next

year, paying publishers for stories delivered through

the world’s leading social network.

• The arrival of Facebook News in January comes

after the service was rolled out in the U.S. in late

2019 and is part of plans to extend it worldwide

• Titles covered in the first wave of deals include The

Economist, The Guardian, The Independent and

the Mirror, and local newspapers the London

Evening Standard, the Manchester Evening News

and the Scotsman.

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• Lifestyle magazines such as Cosmopolitan, GQ, Vogue and Tatler have also signed

up, while there is a video partnership with Channel 4 News.

Basin trials of IAC Vikrant successfully completed at Cochin

Shipyard, sea trials next

• With successful completion of basin trials, the

IAC has entered the final phase of the project.

The sea trials are planned in the first half of

2021.

• The IAC was floated out of the dry dock in

December 2011 and two years later it was

launched.

• In tune with the 'Atmanirbhar Bharat' vision of the government, the IAC project

boasts of 75 per cent of desi material and equipment onboard.

India seeks chipset manufacturers to make its local GPS

alternative fly further into the market

• India’s tech self-sufficiency drive has extended

into satellite navigation, as the nation seeks

manufacturers to help drive adoption of its own

system.

• The nation already possesses an eight-satellite

navigation constellation, named NavIC, that it

touts as having superior coverage of its own

territory and the local region.

• NavIC is also strategically significant, because India possesses medium-range

missiles and needs celestial guidance if it were ever to use them in anger.

• The RFP seeks entities capable of making NavIC receivers at the rate of a million a

year and hopes the contracts will help local industry to grow.

• NavIC includes a messaging system intended for use as a carrier of emergency

information to ships at sea or other situations in which Indians are beyond the range

of other networks

Google map of universe’: Australian scientists map millions

of galaxies

• According to CSIRO, the new data will enable

astronomers to study and analyse the huge number of

galaxies the same way social scientists use

information from a national census

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• CSIRO, the national science agency, said in a statement that the survey is like a

“Google map of the Universe” in which most of the star-like points are distant

galaxies.

• The design and initial results of the study has been published in the Publications of

the Astronomical Society of Australia

• ASKAP is a new type of radio telescope, designed and built by CSIRO, which

makes images of radio signals from the sky, enabling astronomers to view the

universe at wavelengths that our eyes cannot see.

• CSIRO’s telescope is a collection of 36 dish antennas spread out over six kilometres

in remote outback Western Australia.

• The telescope creates high-resolution images by combining the signals from 36

smaller dish antennas at a much lower cost than using a single large dish antenna,

said the agency

India may impose anti-dumping duty on tyre imports from

Thailand

• India may impose anti-dumping duty of

$337.80- 527.08 per MT on new pneumatic

radial tyres of rubber for buses and lorries,

with or without tubes and/or flaps imported

from Thailand.

• The Directorate General of Trade Remedies

has recommended the duty based on an

application filed by the Automative

Tyre Manufacturers Association on

behalf of domestic industry comprising

Apollo Tyres Ltd, JK Tyre Industries Ltd,

• The government had in June restricted the imports of tyres to prevent dumping of

cheap imports into the country – a bulk of which came from China and Thailand.

These included tyres for cars, motorcycles, bicycles, buses and lorries.

• Thailand has already raised the issue at the World Trade Organization alleging that

its tyre exports to India fell 31% in July and 43% in August due to the restrictions.

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UK approves use of Pfizer's coronavirus vaccine - rollout to

begin next week

• The government has today accepted the

recommendation from the independent

Medicines and Healthcare products

Regulatory Agency (MHRA) to approve

Pfizer-BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine

for use," the government said.

"The vaccine will be made available

across the UK from next week."

Preimplantation diagnosis of embroys offers hope in

eliminating genetic disorders

Disorders such as thalassemia, cystic fibrosis,

sickle cell disease, Huntington’s disease and

spinal muscular atrophy can be diagnosed using

the preimplantation genetic testing (PGT), which

identifies genetically normal embryos in a given

cohort for implantation.

• Possibly the first PGT for albinism in India.

• Embryos are tested through a biopsy on the fifth day to make PGT more clinically

significant. However, it may not be successful in eliminating autism.

• “The chromosome that causes autism is extremely wide and the chances of finding

the anomaly in the gene are very difficult. So, PGT cannot help much in cases where

couples are looking to eliminate autism,

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02.12.20 brahmos supersonic cruise missile in anti ship

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