Can Internet be delivered by balloon?
- For years, Alphabet — the parent company of Google — worked to perfect an Internet-balloon division service called Loon. It shut down that project in January, saying it wasn’t commercially viable.
- Prior to the shutdown, Loon balloons had been providing service in mountainous areas in Kenya through a partnership with a local telecom, Telkom Kenya.
- The service also helped provide wireless communications in Puerto Rico in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, which destroyed the island’s mobile network.
- Loon partnered with AT&T to make service available.
How does that work?
- The Loon balloons were effectively cell towers the size of a tennis court.
- They floated 60,000 to 75,000 feet (18,000- 23,000 meters), above the Earth, well above commercial jetliner routes.
- Made of the commonplace plastic polyethylene, the balloons used solar panels for electricity and could deliver service to smartphones in partnership with a local telecom.
- Each balloon could serve thousands of people.
Challenges
- But they had to be replaced every five months or so because of the harsh conditions in the stratosphere.
- And the balloons could be difficult to control.
2. REGISTRATION PROCESS FOR VINTAGE MOTOR VEHICLES
Salient Features
- All 2/4 wheelers, 50+ years old, maintained in their original form and which have not undergone any substantial overhaul, shall be defined as Vintage Motor Vehicles.
- Application for registration/re-registration shall be made as per Form 20 and shall be accompanied by an insurance policy, fee, bill of Entry in case of imported vehicles, and old RC in case of an already registered vehicle in India.
- The State Registering Authority shall issue a certificate of registration as per Form 23A, within 60 days.
- Vehicles already registered can retain their original Registration Mark. However, for fresh registration, registration mark will be assigned as “XX VA YY*”, where VA stands for vintage, XX stands for State Code, YY will be a two-letter series and “8” is a number from 0001 to 9999 allotted by the State Registering Authority.
- Fees for a new registration – Rs. 20,000 and subsequent re-registration – Rs. 5,000.
- Vintage motor vehicles shall not be driven on roads for regular/commercial purposes.
3. AWAS PAR SAMVAAD
About:
- Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) announced it on the occasion of sixth anniversary of PMAY-U on June 25, 2021.
- ‘Awas Par Samvaad’ aims to create awareness and promote discussion, deliberation and dissemination on 'Housing for All' among multiple stakeholders belonging to varied streams of learning and practices, e.g. engineering, urban community development, planning, finance, etc.
- This will be done through 75 nation-wide workshops and seminars to be conducted between July 1 to September 30, 2021 by educational institutions and Primary Lending Institutions in association with States/UTs.
- These workshops can be held offline through a classroom model, adhering to all COVID-19 best practices or via online medium. MoHUA will issue certificate of participation to all participants.
4. KHUSHIYON KA AASHIYANA
About:
- Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) announced it on the occasion of sixth anniversary of PMAY-U on June 25, 2021.
- For the short film contest, applications are invited from PMAY-U beneficiaries, students, youth, members of the civil society, institutions and individual/groups on the broad theme of six years journey of PMAY-U Mission and how it has impacted lives of people, thereby bringing transformation, dignity and enabling empowerment.
- The competition is open to all Indian Nationals above the age of 18 years and the final date for submission is September 1.
- The results will be declared on September 30, 2021 and 25 each winners will be rewarded in three categories with cash prizes of Rs 25000, Rs 20000 and Rs 12500 along with certificate.
5. ZERO-CLICK ATTACK
About:
- A zero-click attack helps spyware like Pegasus gain control over a device without human interaction or human error.
- So all awareness about how to avoid a phishing attack or which links not to click are pointless if the target is the system itself. Most of these attacks exploit software which receive data even before it can determine whether what is coming in is trustworthy or not, like an email client.
Can zero-click attacks be prevented?
- Zero-click attacks are hard to detect given their nature and hence even harder to prevent. Detection becomes even harder in encrypted environments where there is no visibility on the data packets being sent or received.
- One of the things users can do is to ensure all operating systems and software are up to date so that they would have the patches for at least vulnerabilities that have been spotted.
6. MH-60R HELICOPTERS
About:
- MH-60R helicopters manufactured by Lockheed Martin Corporation, USA is an all-weather helicopter designed to support multiple missions with state of the art avionics/ sensors.
- 24 of these helicopters are being procured under Foreign Military Sales from the US Government. The helicopters would also be modified with several India Unique Equipment and weapons.
- The induction of these MRH would further enhance Indian Navy’s three dimensional capabilities.
- In order to exploit these potent helicopters, the first batch of Indian crew is presently undergoing training in USA.
7. CONJUGAL RIGHTS
About:
- Conjugal rights are rights created by marriage, i.e. right of the husband or the wife to the society of the other spouse.
- The law recognises these rights— both in personal laws dealing with marriage, divorce etc, and in criminal law requiring payment of maintenance and alimony to a spouse.
- Section 9 of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 recognises one aspect of conjugal rights — the right to consortium and protects it by allowing a spouse to move court to enforce the right.
- The concept of restitution of conjugal rights is codified in Hindu personal law now, but has colonial origins and has genesis in ecclesiastical law. Incidentally, in 1970, the United Kingdom repealed the law on restitution of conjugal rights.
- Similar provisions exist in Muslim personal law as well as the Divorce Act, 1869, which governs Christian family law.
- The law is being challenged now on the main grounds that it violative of the fundamental right to privacy.
8. MOON WOBBLE
What is the Moon wobble?
- The moon wobble is nothing but a regular swaying in the moon’s orbit.
- It was first documented way back in 1728.
- This wobble takes over an 18.6-year period to complete, and continues in a cyclic fashion.
What impact does this wobble have on Earth?
- The moon wobble impacts the gravitational pull of the moon, and therefore, indirectly influences the ebb and flow of tides here on the Earth. In fact, as per the NASA study, each wobble cycle has the power to amplify and suppress the tides on Earth.
- One half of the 18.6-year cycle suppresses the tides, which means that the high tides get lower, while the low tides get higher than normal. Once this cycle completes, the situation flips—in the subsequent cycle, the tides are amplified, with high tides getting higher and low tides, lower!
- The lunar cycle is expected to shift again by mid-2030, and in the coming phase, the tides will amplify once again.
Moon wobble and climate change: A double whammy situation
- The upcoming changes in the lunar cycle will pose a serious threat, as the amplified high tides coupled with the rising sea levels will make the risk of flooding far greater across all coastal regions of the globe.
- The study predicts that the high tide-associated floods—also known as nuisance floods or sunny day floods—may occur in clusters that could last for months or even for longer periods!
9. TIPU SULTAN
About:
- Tipu Sultan (1750 –1799) was the ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore based in South India and a pioneer of rocket artillery.
- He introduced a number of administrative innovations during his rule, including a new coinage system and calendar, and a new land revenue system which initiated the growth of the Mysore silk industry.
- He expanded the iron-cased Mysorean rockets and commissioned the military manual Fathul Mujahidin.
- Tipu's father, Hyder Ali, rose to power and Tipu succeeded him as the ruler of Mysore upon his father's death in 1782.
- He won important victories against the British in the Second Anglo-Mysore War and negotiated the 1784 Treaty of Mangalore with them.
- Tipu's conflicts with his neighbours included the Maratha–Mysore War which ended with the signing of the Treaty of Gajendragad.
- In the Third Anglo-Mysore War, he was forced into the Treaty of Seringapatam, losing a number of previously conquered territories.
- In the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War, a combined force of British East India Company troops supported by the Marathas & the Nizam of Hyderabad defeated Tipu. He was killed on 4 May 1799 while defending his stronghold of Seringapatam.
10. NBDriver
About:
- By looking at the neighbourhood, or context, of a mutation in the genome, it can look at harmful “driver” mutations and distinguish them from neutral “passenger” mutations.
- This technique of looking at the genomic neighbourhood to make out the nature of the mutation is a novel and largely unexplored one.
- The nature of the mutation depends on the neighbourhood, and how this tool may be used to draw the line between driver and passenger mutations.
- The method of distinguishing between driver and passenger mutations solely by looking at the neighbourhood is novel.