India set to launch 1st human space & ocean missions in 2023

• Trials for both the space and ocean manned missions have reached an advanced stage and the unique feat will be achieved, most likely, in the second half of 2023.
• Sea trials of 500-metre rated shallow water version of the manned submersible are expected to take place in early part of 2023, followed by the MATSYA 6000, the deep-water manned submersible that will be ready for trials by the second quarter of 2024.
• Similarly, for Gaganyaan, major missions like the test vehicle flight for the validation of crew escape system performance and the first uncrewed mission of Gaganyaan are scheduled in the second half of 2022.
• That will be followed by the second uncrewed mission at the end of 2022 carrying “Vyommitra”, a spacefaring human robot developed by ISRO, and finally the first crewed Gaganyaan mission in 2023.
• The Union government will soon unveil the “Blue Economic Policy” and added that an estimated 40 million people will be employed by ocean-based industries by 2030.

Govt enhances funding under DRDO''s TDF scheme

• The TDF scheme, executed by Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), supports indigenous development of components, products, systems and technologies by MSMEs and start-ups.
• The TDF Scheme aims to provide a major fillip to the defence manufacturing sector by encouraging the industry to innovate and develop defence technologies in order to place India on the self-reliance trajectory.
• The scheme facilitates up to 90 per cent of the total project cost and allows industry to work in consortium with another industry/academia. With the enhanced funding, the industry and startups will be able to develop more complex technologies for existing and future weapon systems and platforms.
• It may be recalled that 25 per cent of defence R&D budget was earmarked for private industry, start-ups and academia in Union Budget 2022-23. The enhanced funding is in line with the budget announcement.

Ayush Institute gets NABL Accreditation

• NARIP is one of the premier research Institute under the Central Council for Research in Ayurvedic Sciences, Ministry of AYUSH, Government of India.
• This is the first Institute under CCRAS to get NABL accreditation for its clinical laboratory services.
• This accreditation of laboratory ensures that citizens get quality health care service especially for those residing in villages, small towns.

Union Cabinet allows transfer of 10 In-orbit Communication

• The Union Cabinet has also approved increasing the authorized share capital of NSIL from Rs.1000 crore to Rs.7500 crore.
• Transfer of these assets to NSIL will further provide the desired financial autonomy to the company to realize capital intensive programmes/ projects and thereby offering huge employment potential and technology spin-off to other sectors of the economy.
• This approval is expected to trigger domestic economic activity in space sector and increase India''s share in the global space market.
• The Space Sector reforms mandated NSIL to undertake end-to-end commercial space activities and function as a full-fledged satellite operator. NSIL functioning as a single-window operator will also facilitate the ease of doing business in space sector.
• NSIL Board will now be empowered to price the transponders as per the market dynamics and global trends in the Satellite Communication sector. NSIL is also authorized to offer and allocate capacity as per its internal policies and guidelines.

Cabinet approves MoU between India and Australia for technical cooperation in urban water management

• MoU would reinforce bilateral cooperation between the two countries in the area of urban water security.
• It would strengthen institutional capacities at all levels for urban water management; improve accessibility and affordability & quality of water and sanitation services through initiatives for accessible infrastructure.

Novel Magnetic and Topological Quantum Materials

• The Union Cabinet approved the signing of a MoU between the S. N. Bose National Centre for Basic Sciences (SNBNCBS), Kolkata and the Leibniz-Institut fur Festkorper- und Werkstoffforschung Dresden e.V. (IFW Dresden e.V.), Dresden, Germany for scientific cooperation in the field of “Novel Magnetic and Topological Quantum Materials”.
• The goal of this joint venture will be to foster Indo-German collaboration in the area of magnetic and topological quantum materials.
• The S. N. Bose National Centre for Basic Sciences (SNBNCBS) is an Autonomous Research Institute established under the Department of Science and Technology in 1986 as a Registered Society. The Centre was established to honour Professor S. N. Bose who was a colossal figure in theoretical physics.
• The IFW is a non-university research institute and a member of the Leibniz Association. IFW Dresden is concerned with modern materials science.

NHAI creates Guinness World Record

• The total length of the 75 kilometres of single lane continuous bituminous concrete road is equivalent to 37.5 kilometres of two-lane paved shoulder road and the work started on June 3, at 7:27 am and was completed on June 7, at 5 pm.
• The previous Guinness World Record for the longest continuously laid bituminous was for building 25.275 kilometres of road that was achieved in Doha, Qatar in February 2019 and that task was completed in 10 days
• The Amravati to Akola section is part of NH 53 and this is an important corridor which connects major cities like Kolkata, Raipur, Nagpur and Surat.

National Commission for the Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) has launched a “CiSS application” under the Baal Swaraj

• Baal Swaraj is a portal launched by NCPCR for online tracking and digital real-time monitoring mechanism of children in need of care and protection.
• The portal has two functions- COVID care and CiSS.
• COVID Care link caters to the children who have lost either or both parents due to COVID-19 or otherwise post March 2020.
• The CiSS application is used for receiving data of children in street situations from all the states and union territories, tracking their rescue and rehabilitation process. The initiative is taken under the direction of the Supreme Court of India.