Supreme Court approves Union Government’s guidelines to protect Good Samaritans to victims

Supreme Court has approved the Union Government’s guidelines to protect Good Samaritans, who help the road accident victims, from being unnecessarily harassed by the police or any other authority. These guidelines based on the recommendations K S Radhakrishnan committee were approved by the SC bench comprising justices V Gopala Gowda & Arun Mishra. These guidelines will be binding on all states and Union Territories untill the union government enacts a law to this effect. The bench also has asked the Union Government to give wide publicity to these guidelines so that people who help others in the time of distress are not victimised by any authority. It should be noted that SC took on record these guidelines to protect Good Samaritans placed by the Union Ministry of Road Transport & Highways. The Ministry had approached the SC for issuing these guidelines on all states and Union Territories by its order as it was facing difficulty to enforce them in the absence of any statutory backing.
Background:

The Guideline of the Transport Ministry were based on the recommendations of the 3 member committee headed by the former judge K S Radhakrishnan. The committee was appointed by the SC in 2014 to monitor steps taken by the Centre and state governments to ensure the road safety. The committee had given 12 major recommendations including setting up of State Road Safety Councils, evolving a protocol for identification of black spots, their removal and monitoring to see the effectiveness of the action taken. The committee had also suggested strengthening of enforcement relating to drunken driving, red light jumping, over-speeding and helmet or seat belt laws.

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Supreme Court approves Union Government’s guidelines to protect Good Samaritans to victims

India’s 1st indigenously developed sonar dome flagged off

India’s 1st indigenous composites sonar dome, a ship’s underwater eyes & ears, was flagged off by the Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar. Sonar dome was dedicated to the nation dedicated to the nation and will be delivered to Mazgaon Docks, Mumbai for use in the war-ships of Indian Navy.
Some Key facts:

• Sonar dome is dsigned and produced by Defence & Research Development Organisation’s (DRDO’s) Research & Development Establishment (Engineers) lab based in Pune.


• It is a 1st of its kind in the country to be manufactured by the Goa based composites manufacturing company Kineco.


• The sonar dome functions as the ship’s underwater eyes & ears and mostly all anti-submarine warfare (ASW) ships have a sonar array fitted to the ship structure below the waterline.


• Sonar dome is a structure is fitted over the sonar array to make it acoustically transparent in order to avoid exposure of its electronics and sensors to surrounding hostile environment.


• With successfully building indigenous sonar dome, India joins a select group of nations which have the capability of realising large composites structure with complex geometry, high structural rigidity and multi functional requirements with acoustic transparency.

Sonar: It is an acronym for Sound Navigation And Ranging. It is a technique that uses sound propagation (usually underwater) to navigate, communicate with or detect objects on or under the surface of the water, such as other vessels.

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India’s 1st indigenously developed sonar dome flagged off

PM Narendra Modi unveils Asia’s largest optical telescope ARIES at Nainital

Asia’s largest and 1st of its kind optical telescope Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences (ARIES) was unveiled at Devasthal in Nainital District, Uttrakahnd. It was remotely activated by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Belgian counterpart Charles Michel from Belgium.
Key facts:

Aries telescope was joint collaborative technological effort between Indian & Belgian scientists.

Location: It has been located at a height of 2,500 metres at Devasthal in Nainital district. The site was chosen for getting a clear view of the sky.
Features: The ARIES optical telescope has mirror of 3.6 m diameter. The telescope facility has been incorporated with high end technology which enables it to be operated with the help of remote control from anywhere in the world.
Applications: It will help in the study and exploration of planets, starts, magnetic field and astronomical debris. It will also help research of star structures and magnetic field structures of stars.
Background :The ARIES telescope has been a joint international effort between Indian, Russian & Belgian scientist. In March 2007 ARIES & Belgian company Advanced Mechanical & Optical Systems had entered a contract for design, manufacture, integration, testing, supply & installation of the telescope. Belgium also had funded 7 % of the project whose total cost is estimated to be more than 120 crore rupees.

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PM Narendra Modi unveils Asia’s largest optical telescope ARIES at Nainital

Outcomes of 13th India-European Union Summit

13th edition of India-European Union Summit was held on in Brussels, capital of Belgium. PM Narendra Modi represented Indian side in the summit. While the European Union (EU) was represented by the President of the European Council, Donald Tusk and President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker. The 13th summit laid out concrete priority actions for the strategic bilateral partnership in areas like trade and investment, climate, energy, water & migration in the next 5 years.
Key Outcomes:

EU-India Agenda for Action 2020: Both sides endorsed the agenda to concrete the road map for the EU-India Strategic Partnership for the next 5 years. EU-India Broad-based Trade & Investment Agreement (BTIA): Both sides agreed to further the negotiations on early conclusion of the BTIA.

Terrorism: Both sides adopted a Joint Declaration on Counter terrorism to step up co-operation to counter radicalisation and violent extremism. It will also allow jointly countering the flow of sources of terrorist financing, Foreign Terrorist Fighters and arms supply.
Loan assistance to Lucknow Metro:

The European Investment Bank agreed to lend loan of 450 million Euros for the construction of the 1st metro line in Lucknow.

G20 Skills Strategy: Both sides reaffirmed their commitment to implement G20 Skills Strategy and also expressed their intention to organise a high level skills seminar.

India-EU Water Partnership: The Joint Declaration was adopted in this regard to enhance co-operation on environment issues, including on the ‘Clean Ganga’ and ‘clean india’ flagship programmes.

India-European Union Science and Technology Cooperation Agreement: Both sides agreed to extend this agreement until 2020 to boost innovation and research in India & Europe.

Common Agenda on Migration & Mobility: Both sides agreed to establish this agenda in order to enhance involvement of citizens’ in the strategic partnership.

Arbitration procedure on the Italian Marines: Both sides expressed their confidence in solving the marine case currently underway in the framework of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

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Outcomes of 13th India-European Union Summit

Russia approves OVL’s deal to acquire 15 Percent stake in Vankor oilfield

The Russian Government has approved a deal of ONGC Videsh limited (OVL) to acquire 15% stake in Vankor oilfield from Rosneft. The deal was signed between the OVL and Rosneft in September 2015 and is worth 1.3 billion US dollars. Vankor is Russia’s second biggest oil field with capacity of total 2.5 billion recoverable reserves barrels (or 500 million tonnes). As per the deal OVL’s stake in Vankor will raise to 26% from 15% and will give it about 3.5 million metric tonnes of oil a year Consequently, Rosneft will retain the remaining 50.1 per cent and also retain full control of infrastructure of the Vankor cluster. This deal is in addition to another deal that was signed in March 2016 between the OVL and three other oil companies. Both of these deals will help India to secure access to lucrative Russia’s oil market, while Rosneft in turn will through OVL gain access to the Indian market. Vankor oilfield was discovered in 1988 and is main source supplier to the East Siberia Pacific Ocean (ESPO) Pipeline that is key contributor to the energy needs of China.

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Russia approves OVL’s deal to acquire 15 Percent stake in Vankor oilfield

Htin Kyaw sworn in as 1st elected President of Myanmar

Htin Kyaw (69) sworn in as the 1st elected civilian (non-military) President of Myanmar after 53 years of military rule. Myanmar’s Army was in power since 1962 coup. He belongs to National League for Democracy (NLD) Party and succeeds Thein Sein, who had stepped down after end of 5 years of army backed rule. Apart from him, Military backed Myint Swe and NLD member Henry Van Thio were sworn in as 1st vice-president or 2nd vice-president of the country along 18 Cabinet ministers. Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi who is the leader of NLD party that has majority in the Parliament was sworn in as foreign affairs Minister. She also is Minister of President’s office, education, and energy and electric power. Htin Kyaw is a close aide and adviser of Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. He was as the 1st civilian President of the country by the Myanmar’s Parliament on 15th March 2016. Even though NLD is having majority in Parliament, Aung San Suu Kyi was not able to become President as the military drafted 2008 constitution of country bars citizen having children of another country nationality. Her children hold British passports.

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Htin Kyaw sworn in as 1st elected President of Myanmar

China succesfully aunches 22nd BeiDou navigation satellite

China has successfully launched the 22nd new generation satellite into space as part of its domestic BeiDou Navigation System (BDS). It was launched using Long March-3A carrier rocket from Xichang Satellite Launch Center located in the south-western province of Sichuan. It was the 225th launch of the Long March carrier rocket.
About the BeiDou Navigation System (BNS):

BNS is second generation of the Chinese navigational system seen as rival to the US’s Global Positioning System (GPS). BeiDou is Mandarin means magnetic Compass which was one of the Chinese major invention in the history which had revolutionized the sea voyages. The system comprises total 35 satellites in 2 separate satellite constellations:

(i) Limited test system (operational since 2000)

(ii) A full-scale global navigation system which is currently under construction. The BNS became operational in China in December 2011, with the constellation of 10 satellites. In December 2012, the system began offering services to customers in the Asia-Pacific region and on its completion in 2020 it will provide services to globle customers. After completion, the project would become an equivalent of the United State Global Positioning System, Russia’s Glonass, & Europe’s Galileo.
Applications:

(i) Civilian services: navigation, messaging, transportation and weather forecasting sectors. (ii) Military applications: ensure privacy for its military communications and missile launches by reducing the dependence on US operated GPS.

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China succesfully aunches 22nd BeiDou navigation satellite