NEW DELHI: President Ram Nath Kovind today announced the country's highest civilian award-- the Bharat Ratna-- to be given to former president Pranab Mukherjee, social activist Nanaji Deshmukh (posthumously) and musician Dr Bhupen Hazarika (posthumously). Prime Minister Narendra Modi issued congratulatory notes for the three personalities. All you need to know about Bharat Ratna awardee Nanaji Deshmukh: 1.Nanaji Deshmukh was born in 1916 in a Marathi family in Parbhani, Maharashtra. As a child, he was inspired by freedom fighter Bal Gangadhar Tilak. 2.Nanaji Deskhmukh had been a member of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), which is the BJP's ideological mentor. He had worked as the RSS Pracharak in Uttar Pradesh. 3.As a social activist, he laid emphasis on education. He established first Saraswati Shishu Mandir at Gorakhpur in 1950. 4.Nanaji Deskmukh was also the general secretary of the RSS' political branch, the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, which was dissolved in...
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NEW DELHI — India's Air Force has raised objections to the indigenous new generation anti-radiation missile (NGARM) currently in development. The future of India's homegrown new generation anti-radiation missile (NGRAM) is likely to face a major roadblock following serious objections by its user, the Indian Air Force (IAF) over its capabilities The 60-kilometer-range NGARM, developed by state-owned Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), will undertake flight trials in three months but Indian Air Force (IAF) officials say the missile is too bulky. DRDO is developing NGARM for the service's Mirage-2000H, Jaguar, Su-30 MKI and the upcoming Light Combat Aircraft. "NGARM being developed by DRDO weighs around 140 kilograms and is too heavy, whereas IAF wants only such missiles that do not weigh over 100 kilograms; this one will not meet our requirement," said a senior Air Force official. "DRDO has never kept us ...
NORTH SENTINEL ISLAND An American visiting one of the islands in India’s remote cluster of Andaman and Nicobar has been killed by a group of hunter-gatherers who live there isolated from the outside world NOTES The North Sentinel Island is home to the Sentinelese community, who allegedly killed the American, identified as John Allen Chau, after he was illegally ferried there by fishermen THE NORTH SENTINEL ISLAND North Sentinel Island is inhabited by a group of indigenous people, the Sentinelese. Their population is estimated to be between 50 and 400 individuals. They reject any contact with other people, and are among the last people to remain virtually untouched by modern civilization. IS IT LEGAL TO GO THERE? North Sentinel Island is about 50 km west of Port Blair, the capital of the island cluster. The Times of India reported in August this year that the Ministry of Home Affairs had relaxed the restricted area permit foreigners needed to travel to 29 islands in Andaman and ...
The 32nd GST Council Meeting was held on 10th January 2019 at New Delhi. The decision taken in this meeting with respect to GST turnover limit and composition scheme changes would be effective from 1st April 2019. In the meeting, the Government took steps to provide compliance relief to small businesses by providing various concessions as discussed in this article. GST Turnover Limit Increased The Central Government has decided to provide two threshold limit for GST registration for suppliers of goods, Rs.20 lakhs and Rs.40 lakhs. However, each of the individual State Governments must decide on the threshold limit within a week as the State’s revenue is also tied to GST. This decision will now lead to various States having different GST threshold limits overtime. Service providers will continue to be required to register for GST once they cross a turnover of Rs.20 lakhs and in case of Special Category States at Rs 10 lakhs. Composition Scheme Simplified ...
Tue 15 Jan 2019 06.00 GMT Last modified on Tue 15 Jan 2019 06.02 GMT Shares 452 D onald Trump’s “big, beautiful wall” has become the trademark of his presidency. It is the promise that more than any other has energized his base, and riled his opponents, and his dogged attachment to it has now brought a large part of the US government to a historic 25 days of partial shutdown. The potency of Trump’s wall – for his supporters and his detractors – stems from its simplicity. Build it tall, build it wide – he has pledged 1,000 miles of it – and America will be safe again. But how does that uncomplicated notion compare to the complexity of the border itself? Taken as a whole, the 1,954 miles of US-Mexican border is a place of astounding diversity – of terrain, of land-use, of city and countryside, of ethnicity. It traverses desert, river, mountain and sea. There is diversity, too, of political view among the 7.5 million peop...
Renuka Ji dam project : Union minister inks agreement Six states--Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Delhi, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh--on Friday signed an agreement for construction of Renukaji Dam Multi-Purpose Project in the presence of Union Water Resources Minister Nitin Gadkari. Chief Ministers ML Khattar, Jairam Thakur, TS Rawat, Arvind Kejriwal, Ashok Gehlot and Yogi Adityanath signed the agreement. Three projects are proposed to be constructed on the Yamuna and two of its tributaries, Tons and Giri, in the hilly regions of Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh of the Upper Yamuna Basin. These include Lakhwar project on the Yamuna in Uttarakhand, Kisau on the Tons in Uttarakhand and Himachal, and Renukaji on the Giri in Himachal. The states had already signed an agreement in respect of sharing of cost and benefits of Lakhwar project in August 2018. After signing the agreement, Gadkari said an agreement among the states concerned regarding the Kis...
What is electric mobility? What types of vehicles does it include? Electric mobility, according to the definition of the German government and the National Development Plan for Electric Mobility (NEP) comprises all street vehicles that are powered by an electric motor and primarily get their energy from the power grid – in other words: can be recharged externally. This includes purely electric vehicles, vehicles with a combination of electric motor and a small combustion engine (range extended electric vehicles – REEV) and hybrid vehicles that can be recharge via the power grid (plug-in hybrid electric vehicles – PHEV). Furthermore, the National Development Plan for Electric Mobility does not just look at specific vehicles but at the overall system. Aside from electric cars, this so-called systemic approach also includes the energy supply side as well as the charging and traffic infrastructure in its definition of electric mobility, since those components are interconnecte...
Print X Close Press Information Bureau Government of India Ministry of Civil Aviation 01-December-2018 19:12 IST Digital Sky Platform launched – India to start registration of drones, pilots, and operators Registration portal for online permission The Drone regulations come in effect from today Nano drones in India can start flying legally from today. For micro and above categories, operators and pilots are required to register on the Digital Sky Portal Remotely Piloted Aerial Systems (RPAS), popularly referred to as drones, are a technology platform with wide-ranging applications. In August 2018, India had announced the release of its Civil Aviation Regulations (CAR) to enable safe flying of RPAS in India. The CAR detailed the obligations of operators, remote pilots/ users and manufacturers/ OEM for safe operations of RPAS and co-operative use of airspace. It also announced Digital Sky Platform, a first of its kind that implements 'no permission, no take-off’ (NPNT...
Weighing about 5,854 kg, the GSAT-11, built by ISRO, is to enable much faster Internet services than now to users down home over the next 15 years. As most of India slept, its heaviest and most advanced communication satellite, GSAT-11, was shot to space from a European spaceport in faraway South America. The mission of the 5,854-kg giant 'bird' is to enable much faster Internet services than now to users down home over the next 15 years. GSAT-11 was launched from the Guiana Space Centre at Kourou in French Guiana at 2.07 a.m. IST on Wednesday, December 5. The large high-throughput satellite (HTS), along with two smaller HTS satellites GSAT-19 and GSAT-29 launched earlier (by ISRO from Srihsrihkota) will kick off effective satellite-based broadband services in remote, hitherto uncovered rural areas of the country. These and a few more upcoming HTS fleet will also innovatively enable the use of the superior and efficient Ka frequency band. The lift off of GSAT-11 ...
What is an underwater mountain range called? Question: What is an underwater mountain range called? Mountain Ranges: Mountain ranges are formed by different geologic processes, tectonic plates being one of them. When these plates move together, they push against each other and move upwards to create mountains. In certain areas, tectonic plates move apart, allowing magma to flow to the surface of the Earth. As it cools, it hardens and can form mountains and volcanoes. Mid-ocean ridges are mountain ranges that are found underwater. Tectonic plates that are underneath the ocean move apart and allow magma to flow through them. As the magma cools, it creates underwater mountains. There are many such underwater mountain ranges. Two of the most well-known are called the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and the East Pacific Rise. Although the majority of mid-ocean ridges are underwater, a small stretch of the mid-ocean ridge near Iceland actually is above sea level. Mid-ocean ridg...
Operation Neptune Spear Send keyboard focus to media Operation Neptune Spear, 2011, was a precision strike operation executed by the United State's Navy Seals in which the long sought after Osama Bin Laden was eliminated under cover of darkness in Abbottabad, Pakistan. Planning Send keyboard focus to media January, 2011: On receiving Intel about Bin Laden's presence in the Abbottabad compound in Pakistan, Vice Admiral William McRaven, the commander of the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) handpicked a team to start extensive planning at the CIA Campus, Langley, Virginia, for a raid on the compound. Strike Team Training Send keyboard focus to media In April, 2011, a group of members of the highly specialized Seal Team Six just then returning from Afghanistan, were asked to report at North Carolina for a training exercise. The Seals trained by simulating the soon-to-be-conducted raid on Bin Laden's compound. A full size replica of the compou...