e-Sahaj
- It is a portal launched by the Ministry of Home Affairs.
- It will enable individuals and private companies to submit application for security clearances and view its status online.
- The Home ministry is the nodal authority for granting security clearances in certain sensitive sectors.
Industrial licensing
- Recently, the home ministry has got the power to issue industrial licences for defence manufacturing from Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion (DIPP).
- The defence manufacturing includes electronic aerospace and defence equipment manufacturing.
- The following are the 5 industries which require compulsory licensing
- Arms and ammunition, explosives and allied items of defence equipment,
- Defence aircraft and warships,
- Narcotics and psychotropic substances,
- Hazardous chemicals, distillation and brewing of alcoholic drinks,
- Cigarettes/cigars and manufactured tobacco substitutes.
Space Technology Incubation Centre
- ISRO has recently launched a space technology incubation centre in Tripura capital Agartala.
- It is the first of six such centres planned nationally to build capacity in new locations.
- The Centre was launched at the first edition of ‘Spacetronics’ organised by the India Electronics and Semiconductor Association (IESA).
- The centre will incubate start-ups which would build applications, offer services and products which can be used internally and expolit global opportunities.
India and Germany Pact
- India and Germany have signed a memorandum of agreement (MoA) to focus on the field of dual vocational education and training and skill development.
- Under the MoA, students who complete specific training courses in India will get a certificate that is recognised in India and in Germany too.
- These students can apply for jobs in India and also in Germany.
Akash Missile
- Akash is an indigenously developed medium-range, surface-to-air missile defence system.
- DRDO developed Akash as part of the Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme initiated in 1984.
- It can target aircraft up to 30 km away, at altitudes up to 18,000 m.
- It consists of Rohini radar that detects incoming aircraft with a range of 120 km.
- It can intercept fighter jets, cruise missiles as well as ballistic missiles.
- It soon will get an upgraded variant and Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) gave its procedural approval to the variant.
- Recently, it was test fired with an indigenous radio frequency seeker.
- This is the first surface-to-air missile with indigenous seeker that has been test fired.
- With this success, India has achieved the capability of making any type of surface-to-air missile.
JUNO
- NASA’s Juno spacecraft has beamed back an image of a long, brown oval known as a “brown barge”.
- Brown barge is an elusive atmospheric feature in Jupiter’s South Equatorial Belt.
- The objective of Juno mission is to measure Jupiter's composition, gravity field, magnetic field, and polar magnetosphere.
- It completed a close flyby of Jupiter and its Great Red Spot.
- Jupiter‘s Great Spot is a 16,000-km wide storm monitored since 1830 and possibly existing for more than 350 years.
- Recently, the spacecraft reached "Perijove", the point at which an orbit comes closest to Jupiter‘s centre.
Source: PIB, The Hindu, The New Indian Express