India Himalayan Telescope observes one of the most energetic objects in universe (GS Paper 3, Science and Technology)
Why in news?
- The Indian Astronomical Observatory located in Hanle of Ladakh has joined hands with 10 other global telescopes to observe the brightening of BL Lacertae (BL Lac), a blazar located about 950 million light years away from Earth.
What is a blazer?
Key Highlights:
- Astronomers from Raman Research Institute has now studied the brightening of BL Lac, which was first discovered almost a century ago and has been slowly inching close to the maxima. These are compact structures showing anomalous luminosity from time to time.
- They said that the deviation in their brightness levels can vary and last either for a few hours, days, weeks or even months.
- They used the global pool of telescopes to pick up the electromagnetic emissions that are visible across the radio, microwave, infrared, optical, ultra-violet, X-ray, and gamma wavelengths.
Earlier observations:
- Astronomers had in July 2020 suspected that BL Lac was beginning to flare up and the 11 telescopes including the Himalayan Chandra Telescope located in Ladakh’s Hanle were targeted at the blazar for 84 days.
- As time progressed, it was observed that the flare was becoming brighter gradually, indicating that BL Lac was turning more active. For the first time on August 21, 2020, BL Lac’s brightness reached its maximum. This was captured well by the Modified Dall–Kirkham telescope located in Poland.
- The observations revealed that the brightness of BL Lac increased from magnitude 14 to 11.8 and the international team of researchers calculated the source’s magnetic field, which was found to range from 7.5 Gauss to 76.3 Gauss during the flare.
Way Forward:
- These new parameters shall form the basis for future multispectral studies of BL Lac.
Cabinet approves Production Linked Incentive Scheme 2.0 for IT Hardware
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
Why in news?
- Recently, the Union Cabinet approved the Production Linked Incentive Scheme 2.0 for IT Hardware with a budgetary outlay Rs. 17,000 crore.
Context:
- Electronics manufacturing in India has witnessed consistent growth with 17% CAGR in last 8 years. In 2023, it crossed a major benchmark in production; 105 billion USD (about Rs 9 lakh crore)
- India has become the world’s second largest manufacturer of mobile phones. Exports of mobile phones crossed a major milestone of 11 billion USD this year (about Rs 90 thousand crore).
- The global electronics manufacturing ecosystem is coming to India, and India is emerging as a major electronics manufacturing country
- Building on the success of Production Linked Incentive scheme (PLI) for mobile phones, the Union Cabinet approved PLI Scheme 2.0 for IT hardware
Salient features:
- PLI Scheme 2.0 for IT hardware covers laptops, tablets, all-in-one PCs, ervers and ultra small form factor devices
- The budgetary outlay of the scheme is Rs. 17,000 crore
- The tenure of this scheme is 6 years
- Expected incremental production is Rs. 3.35 Lakh crore.
- Expected incremental investment is Rs. 2,430 crore.
- Expected incremental direct employment is 75,000.
Significance:
- India is emerging as a trusted supply chain partner for all global majors.
- Large IT hardware companies have shown keen interest in establishing manufacturing facilities in India. This is further supported by strong IT services industry having good demand within the country.
- Most majors would like to supply domestic markets within India from a facility situated in India as well as make India an export hub.
