Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

Recently Prime Minister Narendra Modi paid tribute at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Warsaw.

• The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is a monument dedicated to the memory of Polish soldiers who gave their lives in service to their country.
• It is located at Pi?sudski Square, Warsaw of Poland and is a significant symbol of national remembrance and honour in Poland.
• The idea of building the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Warsaw was launched in 1923.
• It is a place of honour and respect.
• Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s tribute to the tomb underscores the deep respect and solidarity shared between India and Poland.
• To know more about India-Poland Bilateral Relationship click here.
• The countries that have honoured their fallen soldiers by building Tomb of the Unknown Soldier include:
  • Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia, United States.
  • National War Memorial in Ottawa, Canada.
  • Hall of Memory, Australia.
  • Monument to the Unknown Hero on Avala Mountain, Serbia.
  • Libingan ng mga Bayani, Philippines and
  • Chile, Ukraine, Britain, Italy and Greece.

Rail Force One

Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently arrived in Ukraine’s capital Kyiv from neighbouring Poland by Rail Force One.

• Rail Force One is a train that is run by the state-owned Ukrainian Railways or Ukrzaliznytsia, is painted blue and yellow, the colours of Ukraine’s flag.
• The train has several luxury compartments and was previously used to ferry wealthy tourists to the peninsula on the Black Sea.
• The train’s 10-hour, begins at Przemysl G?owny station in Poland, located around 400 km southeast of Warsaw, close to the country’s border with Ukraine, and ends at Kyiv.
• The first foreign dignitaries to travel to Kyiv by the train were the prime ministers of Poland, Slovenia and the Czech Republic, who visited in 2022.
• This train represents ‘Iron diplomacy’ to refer to the world leaders’ train trips.
• According to a CNN report, Ukrzaliznytsia is the 6th largest railway passenger transporter in the world and 7th for freight.

Van Allen Belts

SpaceX’s Polaris Dawn mission will be the first non-government mission to perform a spacewalk in the hazardous Van Allen Belts.

• The Van Allen Belts consist of charged particles locked in place by Earth’s magnetosphere, which includes its magnetic field.
• They were discovered by American physicist James Van Allen in 1958.
• It is two belts radiation namely inner belt and outer belt and situated beyond the beyond low-Earth orbit.
• The outer belt is made up of billions of high-energy particles that originate from the Sun and the inner belt results from interactions of cosmic rays with Earth’s atmosphere.
• The Van Allen Belts range from about 680 kilometres above Earth’s surface to what some estimates suggest is about 40,000 kilometres from the surface of the planet.
• And there’s a gap between the first and second belt.
• The inner “proton” zone is centred at about 3,000 kilometres from Earth’s surface and the outer “electron” zone is centred about 15-20,000 kilometres from Earth’s surface.
• The Artemis I mission – An initiative by NASA to understand the impacts to life beyond the Van Allen Belts by flying model organisms around the Moon and back.
• This research could help identify which crops to grow on the Moon, alternative sources of fuel.
• It also aids to ensure crew health during long periods of exposure to the harsh conditions of space beyond the protective layers of the Van Allen Belts.

MARXAN

A recent study using MARXAN have found that the population of Sunda clouded leopards have reduced in the Borneo’s wildlife of Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei.

• Marxan is a planning platform designed to map and inform conservation decisions around the world.
• It is the world’s first cloud-hosted, free and open–source spatial conservation platform.
• It is developed by the Nature Conservancy (TNC) and Microsoft in collaboration with European Commission’s Joint Research Centre and the University of Queensland.
• It is a flagship application of the Planetary Computer, a Microsoft's comprehensive compendium of international ecosystem data.
• Marxan uses mathematics, economics and ecology to analyse spatial data and identify cost-efficient priority areas for conservation action.
• It became the world’s leading decision-support tool for conservation, assisting governments, scientists and nongovernmental organizations in land and seascape planning.
• Maps of the distribution of biodiversity, human activities, traditional land uses and socio-economic data can be brought into a common collaborative and shared workspace.
• The Nature Conservancy is a global environmental non-profit working to create a world where people and nature can thrive.

Agreements between USA and India

India and the US have recently signed a Security of Supply Arrangement (SOSA) and Memorandum of Agreement regarding the Assignment of Liaison Officers, the latest in a series of bilateral military agreements.

• India and United States enjoy a comprehensive global strategic partnership covering almost all areas of human endeavour.
• The partnership is driven by shared democratic values, convergence of interests on a range of issues, and vibrant people-to-people contacts.
• USA is India’s largest trading partner with bilateral trade in goods and services crossing USD 191 billion in 2022.
• Important defence agreements between India and USA are:
  • Security of Supply Arrangement (SOSA) and Reciprocal Defence Procurement (RDP) Agreement,
  • General Security of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA),
  • Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement (2016),
  • Communications, Compatibility and Security Agreement (2018),
  • Industrial Security Annex (ISA) to the GSOMIA  (2019),
  • Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement (2020) and
  • Memorandum of Intent for Defence Innovation Cooperation (2018).
• The India-US Defense Acceleration Ecosystem (INDUS X) is a network of universities, incubators, corporates, think tanks, and private investment stakeholders was launched in June 2023.
• Other agreements between India and United Sates include:
  • 123 Agreement (Agreement for Co-operation between two concerning Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Energy),
  • Cultural Property Agreement,
  • Defence Trade and Technology Initiative (DTTI), 2012 to promote industrial cooperation and defence trade between the two countries and
  • Migration and mobility agreement (2020)
    • To facilitate the mobility of workers, students, academics, researchers, business people, and artists, based on the needs of each country's labour markets.
• Important bilateral exercises between India and United Sates include:
  • Yudh Abhyas (Army), Vajra Prahar (Special Forces), Malabar (Navy), Cope India (Air Force) and Tiger Triumph (tri-services).
  • Red Flag, RIMPAC, CUTLASS Express, Sea Dragon and Milan are some multilateral exercises in which the two countries participate.
• Asia-Pacific Trade Agreement (APTA) – Is a preferential regional trade agreement formerly known as the Bangkok Agreement.
• It aims to promote economic development of its members through the adoption of mutually beneficial trade liberalization to regional trade expansion and economic cooperation.
• United Sates is not a member of it and members include Japan, China, Singapore, Philippines, India and Indonesia.