Monday, April 23rd, 2012

HEADLINES

• Maoists set 72 hour deadline for collector's release. Want Operation Green hunt to be reduced.
• Early exit polls put Hollande in front

NATIONAL NEWS

• Indonesia keen to sign sister pact with Tamil Nadu
  • Tourism was accorded highest priority in investment and business promotion. Last year, 1.80 lakh Indians visited Indonesia and it was likely to go up to 2.40 lakh this year.
  • Garuda would start operating direct flights from Jakarta to four Indian metros.
  • The bilateral trade between the two countries touched $20 billion but the two-way trade was heavily loaded in favour of Indonesia, with the former doing a business of $11 billion and India about $9 billion. Indonesia supplied coal, wood, rubber and palm oil among other things. the two-way trade was heavily loaded in favour of Indonesia, with the former doing a business of $11 billion and India about $9 billion. Indonesia supplied coal, wood, rubber and palm oil among other things.
    
    
• RISAT all set for launch in Sri Harikota
  • The RISAT-1, which has been ten years in the making, will be the Indian Space Research Organisation's (ISRO) first radar-imaging satellite.
  • RISATs use synthetic aperture radars and the great advantage of RISATs is that they can take pictures of the earth at all times, through rain, sun, clouds, fog and cyclones.
  • “This is not only the first radar imaging satellite to be built by India but this is the heaviest remote-sensing satellite built by the ISRO. Besides, it is the heaviest satellite to be put in orbit by the PSLV. RISAT-1 weighs 1858 kg.” A powerful PSLV-XL is being used to put RISAT-1 in polar orbit at an altitude of 480 km. The satellite's propulsion system will then be used to take it to the final orbit at an altitude of 536 km,
  • The rocket is called PSLV-XL (XL stands for extra-large) because it uses six more powerful strap-on motors than those used in the standard PSLV version. If the normal PSLV version's six strap-on motors each use nine tonnes of solid propellants, each of them in the PSLV-XL use 12 tonnes of propellants. This is the third time the ISRO is using a PSLV-XL version.
  • RISAT-1 would be used to estimate the crop yield — especially to monitor paddy crop, assess its acreage and predict its health during the kharif season, when the sky is covered with clouds. The satellite's images can be used for disaster management during cyclones and floods, to assess how much area has been inundated and so on. RISAT-1's life-span is five years.
  • unlike the normal, optical remote-sensing satellites, the RISATs use a synthetic aperture radar (SAR). This radar emits waves in a special way and collects part of the reflected radiation. From this reflected radiation, images of the earth can be built and these images have excellent clarity. Since it is difficult to carry a radar/antenna with a big aperture on a satellite, an SAR is used because it can synthesise (that is, artificially create) a larger aperture electronically. Hence it is called a synthetic aperture radar.
  • Although this is the first time the ISRO is launching its own RISAT, it has twice launched Israel's RISATs in orbit using the PSLVs from Sriharikota. The ISRO first put Israel's RISAT, Tecsar, in orbit in January, 2008, and the agency deployed Israel's RISAT-2 in orbit in April 2009. Both Tecsar and RISAT-2 are reconnaissance/surveillance satellites. While Israel uses the images from Tecsar, India uses the images from RISAT-2 for surveillance.
    
    
• Maharashtra wakes up to growing urban malnutrition
  • Rising trends in malnutrition among children under six here and in other cities have prompted the Maharashtra government to introduce an Urban Malnutrition Mission.
  • A quarter of children below six years in the city weighed at anganwadis are underweight, according to the latest monthly progress report (MPR) of the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS).
  • Home deliveries, low birthweight and lack of basic amenities were putting more and more women and children at risk.
    
    
• ITBP rafting expedition from Tomorrow
  • The Indo-Tibet Border Police has launched a rafting expedition, “Ganga Punardarshan”, starting from Gomukh on April 24 and finishing at Gangasagar on June 2 as part of its year-long golden jubilee celebrations.
  • Covering 2,500 km across five States and 30 major cities, the ITBP team is seeking to create a record as the first to raft across the entire stretch of the Ganga. The aim of the expedition is to create awareness regarding clean practices for discharge of effluents into the river and preservation of the ecosystem and the flora and fauna of the Ganga.
    
    
• IONS gearing to tackle piracy
  • Sea-faring nations and littoral countries in the Indian Ocean region have decided to work to address immediate and emerging challenges in the form of Piracy, Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA) and Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR).
  • The recent meeting of the 35-member Indian Ocean Naval Symposium (IONS) in Cape Town, South Africa, decided to farm out the task of preparing concept papers for three countries — Australia on anti-piracy, Singapore on MDA and India on HADR.
  • India also took the opportunity to flag an issue related to piracy and is not happy that the waters closer to Indian shores in the Arabian Sea continue to be identified as a high risk area for piracy. The label has led to international insurance companies levying higher premium, which is detrimental to merchant ships that transit through these waters.
  • At the third edition of the IONS, initiative for which was taken by the Indian Navy in 2008, there has been a growth in participation, with 23 delegations from including four nations — Brazil, France, Germany and Italy — led by their Naval Chiefs taking part.

• Punjab bans pesticide causing cancer
  • Following directions of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), the Punjab Government has banned the manufacture, import and use of carcinogenic pesticides, which according to reports, caused cancer among the small farmers in the Malwa region that consists of Southern districts — Bathinda, Faridkot, Moga, Muktsar, Ferozepur, Sangrur and Mansa.

• EU battles Pirates off Somalia coast, Indian ocean
  • Launched in 2008 to repress increasing acts of piracy and armed robbery off the Somali coast and in the Indian Ocean, the European Union's Naval Force Somalia (EU NAVFOR) –– Operation ATALANTA – has so far arrested and transferred 117 suspected pirates for prosecution and in 2011 disrupted 27 pirate action groups.
  • EU NAVFOR – Operation ATALANTA also draws strength from additional international military maritime presence in the area, comprising the Combined Maritime Force (CMF), the NATO and independent national units such as China, India, Japan and Russia – all committed to counter piracy.
  • There are about 25 warships at any given point of time in their area of operation covering the southern Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden and a large part of the Indian Ocean, including Seychelles, to include Somali coastal territory as well as its territorial and internal waters. It represents an area of almost 40,00,000 sq. km, an area, which is one-and-half times the size of European mainland.
  • Suspected pirates or robbers can be prosecuted by an EU member State, by regional States or any other third states, which wish to exercise their jurisdiction over the them and the seized property

INTERNATIONAL

• Afgan – US strategic partnership pact
  • Afghanistan and the United States have agreed the contents of a long-awaited deal to define their relationship after most foreign troops leave at the end of 2014, though the document sidesteps some of the thorniest questions about the U.S. military presence
  • Negotiations on the strategic partnership deal have dragged on for over a year, initially held up by two demands from Afghan President Hamid Karzai that he said were critical to restoring national sovereignty: Afghan control of jails and an end to night raids on Afghan homes.
  • The main U.S. prison is now in the middle of a six-month handover, and Afghan forces have taken control of night raids, under two separate agreements signed within a month of each other, paving the way for the strategic partnership deal.
  • In the U.S. it will go to the houses of Congress and the president; in Afghanistan the President will consult with national leaders plus both Houses of Parliament.
  • By opening the way for a smaller but longer-term U.S. presence in Afghanistan, the agreement would give western leaders a rationale for supporting Kabul after combat troops are withdrawn in 2014. It also aims to reassure Afghans that the West will not cut and run, and is critical to Afghanistan's financial stability. The World Bank forecasts the country will have a $7-billion hole in its annual budget after 2014.

• Watergate conspirator Chuck Colson dead.

EDITORIALS, OPINIONS AND COLUMNS

• An article on Agni V and what it means to Asia