Sebi proposes corporate governance norms for high value debt listed entity

• An entity which has listed its non-convertible debt securities on a recognised stock exchange and has an outstanding principal value of listed non-convertible debt securities of 500 Crore and above will be categorized as a ‘High-value debt listed entity’

''Non-Convertible Debentures (securities)

• Debentures are long-term financial instruments which acknowledge a debt obligation towards the issuer.
• The debentures which can''t be converted into shares or equities are called non-convertible debentures (or NCDs).
• To compensate for this drawback of non-convertibility, lenders are usually given a higher rate of return compared to convertible debentures.
• In India, usually, these have to be issued with a minimum maturity of 90 days.

What is Skye UTM, cutting-edge drone air traffic management system unveiled by Minister Nitin Gadkari

• What is it? It is a Cloud-based aerial traffic management system that integrates unmanned air traffic with manned aviation airspace.
• Purpose: It has been built towards providing situational awareness, autonomous navigation, risk assessment, and traffic management to all drone/other aerial mobility operators across the airspace.
• Operation:
• It captures more than 255+ parameters of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) movements and stores them into its ''Blackbox,'' a published systematic description of the entire flight.
• The platform offers the first 3-Dimensional view of the drone airspace along with operations and regulations mapping servers which provide the latest airspace status, verified paths and display real-time UAV movements.
• It connects and communicates with all types of drones, from survey drones to delivery drones to aerial taxis.
• It can handle more than 4000 flights per hour.
• The platform offers regulatory access to Air Traffic Controllers and other regulatory authorities, allowing them to have real-time drone traffic movement information, pilot information, and other necessary data for evaluation and coordination.

No construction in core areas of tiger reserves, national parks: Supreme Court

• A Supreme court-appointed panel noticed that illegal constructions for the establishment of a tiger safari were being done within the buffer area of Corbett Tiger Reserve in Uttarakhand.

Corbet Tiger Reserve

• It is located in the Nainital district of Uttarakhand. This reserve encompasses the Patli Dun valley.
• The Ramganga, Sonanadi, Palain and Mandal, and Kosi rivers form the prominent hydrological resource for the Corbett.
• The core area of the reserve contains the Corbett National Park and the Sonanadi Wildlife Sanctuary is part of its buffer area.
• Flora: The trees which contribute to the Flora of Corbett consist of evergreen Sal and its combined trees, the Sheesham, and the Kanju found extensively on the ridges.
• Fauna: Tiger, Leopard, Elephant, Hog deer, spotted deer, Samber etc.

Eight projects under NICDIT sanctioned and approved by government

• The NICDIT is the implementing agency of the National Industrial Corridor Programme.
• The Government of India is developing various Industrial Corridor Projects as part of the National Industrial Corridor Programme.
• The Industrial Corridors are envisaged to be implemented by a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) in the form of a company set up under the Companies Act, 2013 as a joint venture between the central and the state governments.
• In 2016, the government approved the expansion of the scope of the existing DMIC-Project Implementation Trust Fund (PITF) and re-designated it as NICDIT.
• Nodal Ministry: Under the administrative control of the Department of Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), Ministry of Commerce and Industry.

Israeli scientists develop sniffing robot with locust antennae

• A new sniffing robot equipped with a biological sensor that uses the antennae of locusts could help advance disease diagnosis and improve security checks.
• The robot uses the antennae of a locust to diagnose disease and improve security checks.
• Locusts smell with their antennae. The scientists will use the locust''s antennae to hone the computer''s scent detection abilities.

Bio-hybrid robot

• Bio-hybrid robots are those that combine biological and artificial components, such as electronics and mechanics.
• Using biological components can provide benefits such as increased dexterity, adaptability, and energy efficiency.
• These rebuilt biological functions in mechanical systems will give a better understanding of biological designs.

Tree rings unlock mystery of Hittite Empire’s fall in 12th century BCE

• Hittites, were members of an ancient Indo-European people who appeared in Anatolia (also known as Asia Minor, modern-day Turkey )at the beginning of the 2nd millennium BCE.
• The Hittite language was a member of the Anatolian branch of the Indo-European language family.
• The Hittite economy was based on agriculture, with the main crops being emmer wheat and barley.
• Although their civilization thrived during the Bronze Age, the Hittites were the forerunners of the Iron Age and were manufacturing iron artifacts from as early as the 14th century BCE.
• The Hittites were famous for their skill in building and using chariots.

Hittite empire:

• Between 1400 and 1200 B.C.E. the Hittites established one of the great empires of the ancient Middle East.

• The Hittite empire, with its capital at Bogazköy (also called as Hattusas), was the chief power and cultural force in Western Asia from 1400 to 1200 BC.

• The head of the Hittite state was the king, but other officials exercised independent authority over various branches of the government.

• After c. 1180 BCE, the empire came to an end during the Bronze Age collapse and splintered into several independent “Neo-Hittite” city-states, some of which survived until the 8th century BCE.

  

Quick Reaction Surface to Air Missile System

• QRSAM is a Short Range Surface to Air Missile system designed to protect moving armoured columns from aerial attacks.
• It was designed and developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).
• The entire weapon system is configured on highly mobile platforms and is capable of providing air defence on the move.
• Range: 30 km
• It is propelled by Single Stage Solid Rocket Motor.
• It can engage 6 targets simultaneously.

Ring discovered around dwarf planet Quaoar confounds theories

• Quaoar is a dwarf planet that’s located in the Kuiper Belt at the solar system’s edge.
• It is about 697 miles wide (1,121 kilometers).
• It is roughly one-twelfth the diameter of Earth, one-third the diameter of the Moon, and half the size of Pluto.
• Quaoar is greater in volume than all known asteroids combined.
• Quaoar has its own moon, the 100-mile-wide (160 km) Weywot.
• Its surface is moderately red and composed of low-density ices mixed with rock.
• It takes about 288 years for Quaoar to go once around the sun in a roughly circular orbit.

Kuiper Belt

• Kuiper belt, also called the Edgeworth-Kuiper belt, is a flat ring of small icy bodiesthat revolve around the Sun beyond the orbit of the planet Neptune.
• There are millions of these icy objects, collectively referred to as Kuiper Belt objects (KBOs) or trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs), in this belt.
• The Kuiper Belt is a region of leftovers from the solar system''s early history.
• It is thought to be the source of most of the observed short-period comets, particularly those that orbit the Sun in less than 20 years.

IEEE C-DOT Certified Telecom Expert Program (ICCTEP)

• ICCTEP is a concrete step in the furtherance of wide-ranging collaboration between the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and the Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DOT).
• IEEE is the world’s largest technical professional organization dedicated to advancing technology for the benefit of humanity.
• IEEE and its members inspire a global community through its highly cited publications, conferences, technology standards, and professional & educational activities.
• Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DOT) is the premier R&D centre of the Department of Telecommunications, Ministry of Communications, Government of India.
• C-DOT has indigenously designed various cutting-edge Telecom technologies including 4G/5G, Disaster Management, Cyber Security and Quantum Communications.

Benefits

• This platform will offer a specially-tailored certification program that aims at providing quality learning in diverse areas of Telecom.
• The key focus is on building skills that would accelerate the participation of students, academia, technologists, industry, start-ups and other relevant stakeholders in developing globally-competitive Telecom technologies and solutions.
• The first program launched on the platform is on 5G and beyond

ISRO workhorse Vikas engine passes key test

• VIKAS (an acronym for Vikram Ambalal Sarabhai) engine is a family of liquid-fuelled rocket engines conceptualized and designed by the Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre of ISRO in the 1970s.
• The early productions involved imported French components, which were later replaced by domestically produced equivalents.
• These engines are deployed for ISRO’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) and the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) series of expendable launch vehicles for space launch use.
• The fuel load of the Vikas engine is 40 tonnes for the PSLV, GSLV Mark I and II, and 55 tonnes for the GSLV Mark III.

Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre (LPSC):

• The LPSC is a research and development center functioning under ISRO.
• It is the center for the design, development, and realization of liquid propulsion stages for ISRO''s Launch Vehicles.
• LPSC activities and facilities are spread across its two campuses: LPSC, Valiamala, Thiruvananthapuram, and LPSC, Bengaluru, Karnataka.