SIMBEX is the Maritime Bilateral Exercise between Singapore and India, held in the Bay of Bengal.
The exercise had witnessed successful missile engagements of aerial targets by ships of the two navies, anti-submarine warfare (ASW) and rocket firings.
Indian Navy Hawk Jet fighters and INS Shakti has participated in the exercise.
SIMBEX 18 marks the largest edition of these exercises thus far which have been progressing uninterrupted for the since inception in 1994.
Nuclear version of Agni-I
The Agni missile is a family of medium to intercontinental range ballistic missiles developed by DRDO of India under the Integrated Guided Missile Development Program.
Recently the night trial of the indigenously developed nuclear capable Agni-I India’s surface-to-surface ballistic missile was successfully conducted from the Abdul Kalam Island off Odisha coast.
The missile has a strike range of beyond 700 km has a specialized navigation systems and it has already been inducted in the Indian Army.
International Tourism Mart
International Tourism Mart is an annual event organized in the North Eastern region with the objective of highlighting the tourism potential of the region in the domestic and international markets.
It brings together the tourism business fraternity and entrepreneurs from the eight North Eastern States.
The International Tourism Marts are organized in the North Eastern States on rotation basis, this year the 7th edition of International Tourism Mart will be held in Agartala, Tripura.
The earlier editions of this mart have been held in Guwahati, Tawang, Shillong, Gangtok and Imphal.
Amur Falcon
Amur falcons are known to breed in southeast Russia and northern China.
These birds migrate west through India and across the Arabian Sea to southern Africa where they spend their winters, making a round-trip of at least 20,000 km every year, travelling between their breeding and wintering grounds.
This arduous journey includes a non-stop flight over the Arabian Sea after passing across India.
The resilient falcons arrive in large numbers, during October in Nagaland and a few other places in northeastern India.
The Amur falcon is protected under the Indian Wildlife Protection Act, 1972.
River Delta in Mars
NASA has picked an ancient river delta as the landing site for its un-crewed Mars 2020 rover.
The landing site is named as Jezero Crater, it was filled with a 500-meter deep lake that opened to a network of rivers some 3.5 to 3.9 billion years ago.
The delta is a good place for evidence of life to be deposited and then preserved for the billions of years that have elapsed since this lake was present.
Experts believe the 45-km wide basin could have collected and preserved ancient organic molecules and other signs of microbial life.
Largest Sugar Producer
Brazil traditionally the world’s top sugar producer, this year the output from the nation will tumble 21 percent to 30.6 million tons due to adverse weather and a shift to produce more cane-based ethanol.
By this India will hold the title of world’s largest sugar producer for the first time in 16 years.
However Brazil is expected to remain the top exporter, followed by Thailand.
