National
Bina (MP)-Panki (UP) Multiproduct Pipeline Project
⇒ Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi inaugurated Bina (MP)-Panki (UP) Multiproduct pipeline project.
Prime Minister dedicated the Multiproduct pipeline project from Bina Refinery (MP) to POL Terminal at Panki, Kanpur (UP) to the nation on 28 December 2021.
About Project:
- 356 Km long project has a capacity of around 3.45 million metric tonne per annum.
- This Project also includes augmentation of Tankage capacity and construction of Rail Loading Gantry at Panki POL Terminal.
- Total cost of the project is Rs.1524 crore (Rs.1227 crore in UP and Rs. 297 crore in MP).
- Project will cover 5 districts of UP: Lalitpur, Jhansi, Jalaun, Kanpur Dehat and Kanpur Nagar, and 2 of MP: Sagar and Tikamgarh.
Defence Technology & Test Centre and BRAHMOS Manufacturing Centre
⇒ Raksha Mantri Shri Rajnath Singh laid the foundation stone for Defence Technology & Test Centre and BRAHMOS Manufacturing Centre, established by Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO) in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh on December 26, 2021.
A first of its kind Defence Technologies & Test Centre (DTTC), over approximately 22 acres is being set up to accelerate the growth of the defence and aerospace manufacturing clusters in Uttar Pradesh Defence Industrial Corridor (UP DIC).
It will consist of the following six subcentres:
- Deep-Tech Innovation & Startup Incubation Centre
- Design & Simulation Centre
- Testing & Evaluation Centre
- Centre for Industry 4.0/Digital Manufacturing
- Skill Development Centre
- Business Development Centre
- The BRAHMOS Manufacturing Centre, announced by BrahMos Aerospace, is a modern, state-of-art facility in the Lucknow node of UP DIC.
- It will cover over 200 acres and produce the new BRAHMOS-NG (Next Generation) variant, which carries forward the lineage of the BRAHMOS weapons system.
- This new centre would be ready over the next two to three years and will commence production at a rate of 80-100 BRAHMOS-NG missiles per year.
» The BRAHMOS supersonic cruise missile system is one of the most successful missile programmes in the world.
BOB Financial and Indian Navy Launch Co-Branded Credit Card
⇒ BOB Financial Solutions Limited (BFSL), a wholly owned subsidiary of Bank of Baroda (BoB) and Indian Navy have launched a co-branded credit card for the personnel of Indian Navy.
- The co-branded credit card will be equipped with contactless features and will be offered on the RuPay platform.
Key Points:
- The Indian Navy personnel up to the age of 64 years will be eligible to choose from 3 variants of the cobranded credit card.
- While the base variant will be offered as a Life Time Free (LTF) credit card, the other two variants will be offered at very attractive joining and annual fees, with attractive welcome gifts and easily achievable spend-based fee reversal/waiver.
- As an introductory offer, the joining fee will be waived off for applications in the first three months from launch.
- The top variant will offer unlimited complimentary domestic airport lounge access and reduced markup on international spends.
Science monthly magazine in Hindi, Urdu and English
⇒ Union Minister of State (I/C) Science & Technology; Minister of State (I/C) Earth Sciences; MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh formally released Science monthly magazine in Hindi, Urdu and English on 29 December 2021.
- He also announced that the Dogri and Kashmiri versions of the same, along with other vernacular versions, will be released soon.
» The Hindi and English versions are based on the theme “Dream 2047” referring to the 100th year of India’s independence.
» The Urdu version is named Tajassus (Curiosity) and was prepared in association with Central University of Kashmir.
SCoPE:
- Vigyan Prasar in the Ministry of Science & Technology has launched SCoPE (Science Communication, Popularisation and Extension)-in-Indian languages.
- As a part of this SCoPE Vigyan Bhasha initiative, a big push is sought to be made to communicate the latest developments in Indian languages.
- The information would be disseminated through print via books, periodicals, booklets and posters.
- Television and radio programmes in all Indian languages would be produced for communicating science to the public.
- In this regard, Vigyan Prasar has started India Science TV, India’s only OTT channel. This channel has created more than 3000 programmes so far in Hindi & English.
International
PANEX-21
⇒ Tri-services Humanitarian Aid and Disaster Relief Exercise: PANEX-21, a multi-national – multi-agency exercise was organised in Pune from 20-22 December 2021.
Aim:
3rd Humanitarian Aid and Disaster Relief (HADR) Exercise was organised with a focused aim to foster common and develop capabilities in Disaster Management aspects for the BIMSTEC nations.
Participants:
The exercise was attended by delegates and subject matter experts from India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Thailand.
» Raksha Mantri Shri Rajnath Singh witnessed the Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) Exercise PANEX-21 for BIMSTEC member nations organised at College of Military Engineering in Pune, Maharashtra on December 21, 2021.
» The first BIMSTEC Disaster Management Exercise (DMEx) was organized by India on 10-13 October 2017 in New Delhi, and the second BIMSTEC DMEx on 11-13 February 2020, in Odisha.
Death
Legendary filmmaker, K S Sethumadhavan
⇒ Award-winning legendary filmmaker K S Sethumadhavan, died in Chennai on 24 December 2021. He was 90.
His Telugu film ‘Sthree’ (1966) had won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Telugu.
He was conferred the JC Daniel Award, the highest Kerala state award for film personalities, in 2019 for his outstanding career and contributions. J C Daniel Award is the highest honour in the film sector instituted by the Kerala government, in the year 2010.