Indian air force and drone federation of India to co-host

Bharat Drone Shakti 2023

• The event will take place at the IAF’s airbase in Hindan (Ghaziabad) and feature live aerial demonstrations by the Indian drone industry.
• These demonstrations will encompass a diverse range of drone applications, including survey drones, agriculture drones, fire-fighting drones, tactical surveillance drones, heavy-duty logistics drones, loitering munition systems, drone swarms, and anti-drone solutions.
• The event will also witness the active participation of more than 75 drone start-ups and corporate entities.
• The event promises to showcase the capabilities of Indian drones and provide a platform for networking, knowledge exchange, and collaboration among industry leaders, innovators, and enthusiasts.

Gifts to spouses of G20 heads draw on art heritage of India

Cheriyal scroll painting

• It is a popular and modified version of Nakashi art, considered highly rich in the local motifs.
• This art form is unique to the state of Telangana and made mostly in Hyderabad currently.
• The Nakashis are the artists of Telangana and the scrolls constitute a key element of the social and cultural setting of Telangana.
• This traditional art form is considered an inseparable part of the profession comprising the story-telling and balladeer community called Kaki Padagollu.
• Themes:
  • These scrolls are painted in a narrative format similar to a film roll or even comic strips and depict stories from Indian mythology as well as the shorter stories related to the Puranas and Epics (Mahabharata, Ramayana, Shiva Puranam, Markandey Puranam)
  • The Cheriyal paintings represent a distinct local invention, based mainly on local traditions.
  • The ballads and folk stories of Gauda, Madiga and other communities.
• Characteristics:
  • These are painted in vivid hues with mostly primary colors, showing a predominance of red colour in the background.
  • The main narrative involves scenes from the common rural life such as women performing kitchen chores, men working in fields or experiencing merry, festival settings, etc.
  • Artists have displayed these scrolls which are also accompanied by music and dance.
  • The traditional scrolls are mostly of vertical format and illustrate the stories through a series of horizontal panels.
  • Compared to the long scrolls in the past, artists have adapted to paint smaller versions of these scrolls that only depict any single episode or few characters from the traditional stories.
  • One of the recent innovations is the painting of single pictures instead of a continuous scroll for the purpose of wall decorations.
• This painting also received the Geographical Indication (GI) tag in the year 2007.

Airbus Proposes A400M Atlas Capable Of Reshaping India''s Strategic Airlift Capabilities

A400M Atlas

• It is a multi-national four-engine turboprop.
• The aircraft is manufactured by Airbus Defence and Space, a division of the European aerospace and defence firm Airbus.
• It is a multi-role aircraft that serves as both a tactical airlifter and a strategic airlifter.
• Features:
  • It can be used for transport, air-to-air refueling, and paratroop missions.
  • The A400M’s normal operating speed is 555km/h, but it can reach a maximum speed of 780km/h.
  • The aircraft weighs approximately 76,500kg, and the maximum take-off weight is 141,000kg.
  • It stands out for its ability to carry oversized cargo, including vehicles and helicopters.
  • The A400M cockpit is fully night-vision compatible and provides accommodation for two pilots and an additional crew member.
  • It can be converted into a tactical tanker that has the ability to refuel a range of aircraft and helicopters.

''Bharat: Mother of Democracy'' portal launched at G20 exhibition

“Bharat: The Mother of Democracy” Portal

• The portal showcases the content on the history of democracy in India, showcasing 7,000 years of democratic ethos starting from the Sindhu-Saraswati civilisation to 2019.
• It is available in 16 languages, including German, French, Spanish, Arabic, Portuguese, Italian, Turkish, and Russian besides English and Hindi.
• The portal is divided into five sections and 22 sub-sections starting from Sindhu-Saraswati Civilisation (6000-2000BCE), Mahajanapada and Gantantra (7-8 BCE), Vijaynagar Empire (14-16 century), and Mughal emperor Akbar reign (1556-1605) to Constitution of India (1947) and Elections in Modern India (1952 onwards).
• The website-- www.motherofdemocracyg20.com- is curated by the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA).

IAF deputy chief flies HTT-40 trainer aircraft in Bengaluru

HTT-40

• The Hindustan Turbo Trainer-40 (HTT-40) is a basic trainer aircraft (BTA).
• Manufactured by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), the aircraft has been indigenously designed and developed by the Aircraft Research & Design Centre of HAL, and is based on the training requirements of the Indian Armed Force (IAF).
• The aircraft will meet the shortage of BTAs for the training of newly inducted pilots of the Indian Air Force (IAF).
• It will be used for basic flight training, aerobatics, instrument flying, and close formation flights, in addition to undertaking secondary missions such as navigation and night flying flights.
• Features:
  • It is a turboprop aircraft designed to have good low-speed handling for better training effectiveness.
  • It is a fixed-wing aircraft incorporating an all-metal airframe design.
  • It has a maximum take-off weight of 2.8 tonnes.
  • It can achieve a top speed of 450 Km/hr and a maximum range of 1,000km.
  • The fully aerobatic tandem seat HTT-40 has an air-conditioned cockpit, modern avionics with multifunction displays, hot refueling, and zero-zero (zero speed and zero altitude) ejection seats.

Turboprop aircraft

• A turboprop aircraft uses a turbo-prop engine rather than a piston-powered engine or a jet engine.
• They have one or more gas-turbine engines connected to a gearbox that turns the propeller(s) to move the aircraft on the ground and through the air.
• They have lower operating costs than jets because they burn less fuel, but they are also slower than jets.

Phase II of India-France bilateral exercise ''Varuna 2023'' conducted in Arabian Sea

NAVAL EXERCISE VARUNA

• It is the bilateral Naval Exercise between India and France initiated in 1993.
• The exercise witnessed participation of guided missile frigates, tanker, Maritime Patrol Aircraft and integral helicopters from the two sides.
• Units of both navies endeavoured to enhance and hone their war fighting skills, improve interoperability and demonstrate their ability to promote, peace, security and stability in the region.
• The exercise also facilitates operational level interaction between the two Navies to foster mutual cooperation for good order at sea, underscoring the shared commitment to ensuring security, safety and freedom of the global maritime commons.

Sun-observing spacecraft sheds light on the solar wind''s origin

Picoflare jets

• These small-scale picoflare jets were observed within emissions from the coronal hole under observation.
• They lasted only a few dozen seconds, scientists calculated that they provide enough energy to supply a considerable fraction of solar winds.
• These jets from the sun are named so because they carry approximately one-trillionth the energy of the largest flares the sun is capable of producing,
• Significance:
  • The discovery is important because strong gusts of solar winds, while creating beautiful auroras in polar areas, are capable of disrupting the earth’s magnetic field as well as damaging electronics in satellites in space and in circuits on the ground.

Solar Orbiter Aircraft

• It was launched in 2020 and will take images of the Sun from closer than any spacecraft before.
• It contains six remote-sensing instruments and four sets of in situ instruments.
• Objectives
  • To observe the Sun’s 11-year cycle of rising and subsiding magnetic activity.
  • To study the upper layer of its atmosphere, the corona.

Central Empowered Committee: SC hands over its green watchdog committee to Environment Ministry

Central Empowered Committee

• It was set up in 2002 (reconstituted in 2008) by the Supreme Court.
• It served as a watchdog for issues pertaining to environmental conservation and compliance.
• Recent changes: According to the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change notification, instead of an ad hoc body, CEC should be instituted as a permanent statutory body on environmental issues.
• Composition of the new CEC
  • It will have a chairman with experience of 25 years in the field of environment, forests and wildlife or proven administrative experience of not less than 25 years in the central or state governments.
  • Age limit 66 years and the level, not below the rank of additional secretary.
  • The member secretary will be a full-time serving officer of the government not below the rank of Deputy Inspector General of forests or director in the Government of India.
  • This person is required to have special knowledge in the field of environment, forests or wildlife, and experience of at least 12 years.
  • The three expert members will be one each from the fields of the environment, forests and wildlife with experience of at least 20 years.
  • The members will be nominated by the Centre for a tenure of three years.

Botanical Survey of India gets patent for bamboo based reusable straw

Schizostachyum andamanicum

• It is only found in some forested areas of Andamans.
• It grows primarily in the wet tropical biome.
• This species of bamboo is characterized by a thin large hollow erect culm (stem) with long internodes and has the potential to develop into a straw.
• It has small, white flowers that are arranged in clusters. The seeds are small and black, and the seedlings have thin, light green leaves.

Botanical Survey of India

• It is the apex taxonomic research organization of India.
• It works under the Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change, Government of India.
• It was established in 1890 under the direction of Sir George King.
• The mandate of the organization has been broadened to biosystematics research, floristic studies, documentation, databasing of the National Botanical collection, digitization of herbarium specimens etc.
• Headquarters: Kolkata

Paleontologists Uncover New Species of Titanosaur in Egypt

Igai semkhu

• It belongs to a diverse group of long-necked plant-eating dinosaurs called Titanosauria.
• Igai semkhu roamed the earth during the Campanian age of the Late Cretaceous epoch, approximately 75 million years ago.
• The group is known for large body sizes, long necks and wide stance. It includes species ranging from the largest known terrestrial vertebrates to ‘dwarfs’ no bigger than elephants.
• Igai semkhu constitutes one of the most informative dinosaurs yet recovered from the latest Cretaceous of Afro-Arabia.

Cretaceous epoch

• It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era, which is often referred to as the "Age of Dinosaurs."
• The Cretaceous Epoch lasted from approximately 145 million years ago to about 66 million years ago, making it one of the longest geological epochs.
• Mass Extinction:
  • The Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) mass extinction event marks the end of the Cretaceous Epoch.
  • It occurred around 66 million years ago and resulted in the extinction of approximately 75% of Earth''s species, including the non-avian dinosaurs.
  • This event is believed to have been triggered by a combination of factors, including the impact of a large asteroid or comet and massive volcanic activity.