UTTARAKHAND
Must repopulate deserted areas near border in Uttarakhand: CDS
Chief of Defence Staff General Anil Chauhan emphasised the need to repopulate the unoccupied areas near the border in Uttarakhand, saying if repopulation isn’t possible, then such areas should be made tourist hubs.
“In Uttarakhand, there are vast unoccupied areas which are even far away from the last villages of the state towards the border. We have to see if we can repopulate them and, if, that is prob-lematic, we have to see if we can popularise border tourism there,” the CDS said at an event in New Delhi.
INTERNATIONAL
The Earth’s ozone layer is slowly recovering, finds UN report
The Earth’s protective ozone layer is on track to recover within four decades, closing an ozone hole that was first noticed in the 1980s, a United Nations-backed panel of experts announced on Monday. The findings of the scientific assessment, which is published every four years,more than 35 years after every nation in the world agreed to stop producing chemicals that chomp on the layer of ozone in Earth’s atmosphere that shields the planet from harmful radiation ,follow the landmark Montreal Protocol in 1987, which banned the production and consumption of chemicals that eat away at the planet’s ozone layer.
Scientists said the recovery is gradual and will take many years. If current policies remain in place, the ozone layer is expected to recover to 1980 levels — before the appearance of the ozone hole — by 2040, the report said, and will return to normal in the Arctic by 2045. Additionally, Antarctica could experience normal levels by 2066.
Scientists and environmental groups have long lauded the global ban of ozone-depleting chemicals as one of the most critical environmental achievements to date, and it could set a precedent for broader regulation of climate-warming emissions.
NATIONAL
ISRO ‘Shukrayaan I’ mission to planet Venus reportedly shifted to 2031
In the budget year 2022–2023, ISRO was given an allocation of 13,700 crores, a small increase from the previous year. Gaganyaan, the human spaceflight mission, received the majority of it. Various industry groups have created a wishlist ahead of the upcoming budget announcement and in response to recent reforms in the private spaceflight sector, which include increases in local manufacturing and procurement.
The VERITAS and EnVision missions of the American and European space agencies, respectively, both have Venus missions scheduled for 2031, but “China might go anytime: 2026, 2027, whenever they want to go.”
The pandemic was mentioned by ISRO as the reason for delaying Shukrayaan I’s launch from mid-2023 to December 2024. Delays in manufacturing and obligations to commercial launch services have also had an impact on other ISRO projects, such as Aditya L1 and Chandrayaan III.
Shukrayaan-I will be a mission for an orbiter. A high-resolution synthetic aperture radar and a ground-penetrating radar are two of its current scientific payloads. From an elliptical orbit, the mission will likely research Venus’s geological and volcanic activities, emissions on the surface, wind speed, cloud cover, and other planetary features.
Under SPRINT Scheme Indian Navy to Get Autonomous Weaponised Boat Swarms
iDEX has signed its 50th SPRINT contract with Sagar Defence for Autonomous Weaponised Boat Swarms for the Indian Navy. Autonomous Weaponised Boat is one of the technologies introduced out of the 75 challenges by the Indian Navy under the Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav in 2022.
Sagar Defence has developed the country’s first Autonomous Weaponised unmanned boat with the capability for swarming. The contract was signed under an Indian Navy project of the Defence India Start-up Challenge (DISC 7) SPRINT initiative.
DRDO has tested 3 remote unmanned weaponized boats in Pune ahead of Defence Expo.
The Autonomous Weaponised Boats were developed in collaboration with Sagar Defence Engineering, a private start-up.
The vessel is capable of relying on the video feed to the ground control station and can be very useful for surveillance and patrolling.
iDEX is an initiative by the Government of India to build an ecosystem to foster innovation and technology development in Defence and Aerospace by engaging innovators and entrepreneurs to deliver technologically advanced solutions to India’s armed forces.
The objective of iDEX is to engage industries including MSMEs, Startups, individual innovators, R&D institutes, and academia to provide them with funding and support to carry out R&D development.
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