India Ki Udaan Project (GS Paper 3, Infrastructure)
Collaboration:
- As part of the countrywide celebrations, Google also announced its collaboration with the Ministry of Culture focused "on reaching informative online content that showcases the contributions of Indians and the evolution of India since 1947 to support the Government's year-long 'Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav' programme”.
Doodle4Google contest:
- It also announced that its popular Doodle4Google contest for 2022, themed on 'In the next 25 years, my India will ', is now open for entries to students of classes 1-10.
- The winner of this year's Doodle4Google will see their artwork on the Google homepage in India on 14 November, and win a Rs 5,00,000 college scholarship, a Rs 2,00,000 technology package for their school/non-profit organisation, a recognition of achievement, Google hardware, and fun Google collectibles.
Key Highlights:
- The centrepiece of its celebrations is a new online collection titled 'India Ki Udaan' available on the Google Arts & Culture website.
- The collection pays tribute to India's rich cultural history and includes iconic moments from the last 75 years for people to relive, experience, and be inspired by.
- Published in English and Hindi, it allows anyone to explore more than 120 illustrations and 21 stories created by 10 talented artists, alongside exhibitions from various institutions across India including the Ministry of Tourism, Museum of Art & Photography, Heritage Directorate of the Indian Railways, the Indian Academy of Sciences and Dastkari Haat Samiti.
Way Forward:
- This initiative offers a unique view of India's remarkable moments and lets people discover some of the most memorable moments in India's modern history, its iconic personalities, its proudest scientific and sporting achievements, and how women in India continue to inspire the world.
Indian Army Exercise codenamed ‘SKYLIGHT’
(GS Paper 3, Defence)
Why in news?
- Recently, the Indian Army conducted the first of its kind large-scale exercise to boost its space domain capabilities.
- The aim of the exercise, codenamed skylight, was to test operational readiness of satellite communication assets and training of personnel manning these.
Details:
- This was a pan-India exercise covering the islands of Andaman and Lakshadweep to the high reaches of the northern borders where all satellite communication assets of the Indian Army were activated.
- The Indian Army uses the services of a number of ISRO satellites that connect hundreds of communication terminals of various types. These include static terminals, transportable vehicle mounted terminals, man-portable and small form factor man-pack terminals.
Indian Army satellite by 2025:
- The Indian Army has been using satellite communication networks in some of the remote border areas. While the Navy and Air Force have a satellite of their own, the Army is looking to have one by 2025.
- The Defence Acquisition Council gave the go ahead for the Indian Army’s Satellite GSAT-7B in March 2022.
- The satellite has been designed as an indigenous multiband satellite with advanced security features.
- It will support tactical communication requirements for not only troops deployed on the ground, but also for remotely piloted aircraft, air defence weapons and other mission critical and fire support platforms.
Way Forward:
- Taking a cue from the same and also the latest trends in satellite technology, the Indian Army has placed some realisable challenges before the industry and academia.
- These include the future requirement of fighting troops for small form factor handheld secure satellite phones, satellite IoT and satellite high-speed data backbone, some of which will call for utilisation of Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite constellations.
- It is expected that in the coming days, there will be an increased collaboration of the Indian Army with the Private Indian Space Industry for the realisation of complex satellite communication projects.
- Towards this end, it has recently published Request for Information for its own student satellite, for training engineering students in Military College of Telecommunication Engineering on satellite technology.
First Himalayan spice garden inaugurated
(GS Paper 3, Environment)
Why in news?
- A Himalayan spice garden, a first of its kind in the entire Indian Himalayan Region and country, was inaugurated by noted historian Shekhar Pathak in Uttarakhand's Ranikhet.
Objective:
- The main objective of the establishment of this spice garden was to popularize and create awareness about various spices of the Indian Himalayan region.
Stakeholders:
- The garden has been established over an area of around 4 acres in Ranikhet, with funding from the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA) over a period of two years.
- It has been developed by the research wing of the Uttarakhand Forest Department.
Key Highlights:
- It showcases major Himalayan spices ranging from Kesar from Kashmir to famed Tejpat, Timoor and Wild Heeng, found in the Bhairoghati area of Uttarkashi District.
- It presently houses more than 30 different spices out of which there are 8 spices from the Allium family (onion) of the Himalayan region.
- Apart from other spices, it has Kala jeera (which grows at very high altitude area only and is more nutrient/spicy than common one), Jakhya (one of the most popular spices of Garhwal region, used for tempering Daal and vegetables), Gandrayani (Pungent spice used as a flavouring agent in vegetable and daal).
- The garden has Badri tulsi (Origanum vulgare), Lakhori Mirchi of Almora (having a very distinct yellow colour and unique to Almora, this chilli is extremely hot and has antidiabetic, antibacterial properties and rich in vitamin C) and Jambu (Leaves used for seasoning and also as vegetable and in soup).
Interpretation Centre:
- The garden has an interpretation centre also where information about these spices has been displayed.
750 girls from rural India created 8-kg microsatellite AzaadiSAT
(GS Paper 3, Science and Tech)
Why in news?
- On 7 August, 750 girls from rural India will make history, as the Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) newly developed Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV) leaves for its maiden spaceflight from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh.
- Onboard the SSLV will be AzaadiSAT, an eight-kilogramme microsatellite carrying 75 small payloads developed by schoolgirls from 75 rural schools across India.
What’s the microsatellite about?
- On its first flight, the SSLV will carry one of India’s experimental Earth Observation Satellites, EOS-02 – that will have applications in mapping and developing various GIS (Geographic Information System) applications.
- At an altitude of 356 kilometres from Earth, it will part with AzaadiSAT which will get injected into the Lower Earth Orbit (LEO).
- The eight-kg satellite has 75 Femto experiments, selfie cameras to click pictures of its solar panels, and long-range communication transponders.
- The mission life of the satellite is six months.
How did the girls develop AzaadiSat?
- The satellite was developed by an all-girls team from rural corners of India and the project was coordinated by Space Kidz India (SKI), a space start-up.
- The girls, mostly from Class 8 to Class 12, were selected from 75 government schools. The first-of-its-kind space mission in the country was undertaken with the idea to promote women in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics).
- The Chennai-based organisation, Space Kidz, led the work on AzaadiSAT along with NITI Aayog, teaching the girls to build small experiments.
- The main systems, including the onboard computer, flight software, electrical power system, telemetry and telecommand were developed and tested by the SKI.
What is AzaadiSAT’s mission?
- AzaadiSAT will be a normal orbital satellite.
- A key aim of AzaadiSAT will be to demonstrate the LoRA (long-range radio) transponder for creating a space-based LoRA gateway, which will be mostly used for amateur radio communication during this mission.
- The indigenous nano-satellite subsystems built by students will be demonstrated. And the selfie camera, which will take pictures of the satellite and send it back to earth, can help study the impact of solar winds on the surface of the satellite and solar panels.
- AzaadiSAT will carry a recorded version of the national anthem sung by Rabindranath Tagore, which will play in space as a tribute to the country.
What about the SSLV?
- The SSLV, carrying AzaadiSAT, is the smallest vehicle at 110-tonne mass at ISRO.
- It will take only 72 hours to integrate, unlike the 70 days taken now for a launch vehicle. Only six people will be required to do the job, instead of 60 people. The entire job will be done in a very short time and the cost will be only around Rs 30 crore.
- With a growing market for the global launch services for small satellites, ISRO’s SSLV would make for an attractive option because of its low cost, ability to launch on demand, and capacity to carry multiple loads.
- It will cater to a market for the launch of small satellites into low earth orbits, which has emerged in recent years, from developing countries, private corporations, and universities.
- Operating SSLV on smaller and more commercial missions will free up the massively used Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) for bigger missions to space.
