66th Foundation Day of DRDO – 1st January 2024
Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO), the Research and Development (R&D) wing ofthe Ministry of Defence (MoD), annually celebrates its Foundation day or Raising Day on 1 January.DRDO, formed in 1958, celebrated its 66th foundation day on 1stJanuary 2024.
Formation of DRDO:
DRDO was formed in 1958 from the amalgamation of the thenalready functioning Technical Development Establishment (TDEs)of the Indian Army and the Directorate of Technical Development& Production (DTDP) with the Defence Science Organisation(DSO).
At present, DRDO is a network of 52 laboratories and 5 DRDOYoung Scientist Laboratories (DYSLs).
Key points:
- DRDO received Acceptance of Necessity (AoN) worth aroundRs. 1,42,000 crore for the induction of several DRDO-developedsystems.
This is the highest ever accorded to DRDO-developed systems inany year - 1,650 Transfers of Technology (ToTs) of in-house developed systems have been handed over to Indianindustries.
In 2023, 109 Licensing Agreements for Transfer of Technology (LAToTs) were signed with indigenouscompanies for manufacturing DRDO products. - DRDO filed more than 141 patents and 212 of them were granted.
About Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO):
Chairman– Dr Samir V Kamat
Headquarters– New Delhi, Delhi
Gujarat Emerges as ‘Petro Capital’ of India
Gujarat has been recognised as the ‘petro capital’ of India, due to the presence of the Reliance IndustryLimited’s Jamnagar refinery and ONGC PetroAdditions Limited (OPaL)’s state-of-the-artpetrochemical complex at Dahej in Bharuchdistrict.
Key points:
- Jamnagar refinery is the largest and mostcomplex single-site refinery in the world.
- The refinery can process 1.4 million barrels ofcrude oil per day.
- The Refinery has a complexity index of 21.1which is the highest in the world.
- The Jamnagar refinery complex houses someof the world’s largest units, such as the Fluidised Catalytic Cracker (FCC), Coker, Alkylation, Paraxylene,Polypropylene, Refinery Off-Gas Cracker (ROGC) and Petcoke gasification plants.
- The refinery complex was established in 2000.
GoI Constitutes 16th Finance Commission of India with Arvind Panagariya asChairman
The Government of India, has constituted the 16th Finance Commission of India with Dr ArvindPanagariya, former Vice-Chairman(VC), NITIAayog(National Institution for Transforming India)(2015 to 2017) as Chairman.
Ritvik Ranjanam Pandey, JointSecretary(Revenue), Ministry of Finance, wasappointed as the Secretary to the Commission. Heis a 1998 batch IAS officer of Karnataka cadre.The other members of the 16th commission will benotified seperately.
Key points:
- Distribution between the Union and the States ofthe net proceeds of taxes which are to be, or maybe, divided between them under Chapter I, Part XIIof the Constitution and the allocation between the States of the respective shares of such proceeds.
- Principles that will govern the grants-in-aid of the revenues of the States out of the Consolidated Fund ofIndia and the sums to be paid to the States by way of grants-in-aid of their revenues under article 275 of theConstitution for the purposes other than those specified in the provisos to clause (1) of that article.
- Efforts that should be taken to increase the Consolidated Fund of a State to supplement the resources ofthe Panchayats and Municipalities in the State on the basis of the recommendations made by the FinanceCommission of the State.
Nadia Calviño of Spain took over as 1st Woman President of European InvestmentBank
Nadia Calviño Santamaría, a Spanish economist and civil servant, took over as the 8th President of theEuropean Investment Bank (EIB), the lending armof the European Union(EU).
- With this appointment, she became the firstwoman President of EIB.
- She succeeds Werner Hoyer of Germany, whoheld the post since 2012.
Note: She has been serving as the First VicePresident(VP) and Minister for Economy, Tradeand Companies, Government of Spain since July2021.
About Nadia Calviño:
- She started her career as a civil servant in theMinistry for Economy in Spain.
- She joined the European Commission in 2006 and served as Assistant Director-General for Competition ofthe European Commission till 2010.
- She also served as Director-General for Internal Market of the European Commission (2010-2014) andDirector-General for Budget of the European Commission(2014-2018).
- She has also served as the Minister for Economy and Business (2018-2020); Third Vice-President andMinister for Economy and Digitalization (2020-2021) and Second Vice-President and Minister for Economyand Digitalization (March-July 2021).
- She has also served as the Chair of International Monetary and Financial Committee (IMFC) of theInternational Monetary Fund (IMF) (since 3rd January 2022).
About European Investment Bank (EIB):
EIB the biggest multilateral financial institution in the world, and one of the largest providers of climatefinance.
President– Nadia Calviño
Headquarters– Boulevard Konrad Adenauer, LuxembourgFounded in– 1958
ISRO launches PSLV-C58/XPoSat: India’s 1st X-ray Polarimeter Satellite to studyBlack Holes & Neutron Stars in Space
Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) launched XPoSat (X-ray Polarimeter Satellite), India’s 1stdedicated polarimetry mission onboard the PolarSatellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV)-C58 from SatishDhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, AndhraPradesh (AP). PSLV-C58 has launched XPOSATSatellite into an Eastward low inclination orbit.It was PSLV-C58’s 60th mission and lifted a massof 260 ton. It should be noted that this launch wasby PSLV-DL variant. It was PSLV-DL’s 4thmission.
The satellite is expected to operate for at least 5years
Key Points:
- The mission aims to study various dynamics of bright astronomical X-ray sources like blackhole, neutronstars, active galactic nuclei, pulsar wind nebulae etc. in extreme conditions
- With this, India becomes the 2nd country in the world (after the United States of America(USA)) tolaunch a specialised astronomy observatory to study black holes and neutron stars in our galaxy.
About the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO):
Chairman– Sreedhara Panicker Somanath
Headquarters– Bengaluru, Karnataka
Establishment– 1969
Indian American Academic and Padma Bhushan Awardee Professor Ved PrakashNanda Passed Away
Padma Bhushan Awardee Professor Ved Prakash Nanda, an IndianAmerican academic and a expert on international law, passed away inDenver, Colorado, the United States of America(USA). He was bornon 20th November 1934 in Gujranwala, Punjab, British India (now inPakistan).
Key points:
- He worked as a professor of law at the University of Denver USA.He has also served as the director of the International Legal StudiesProgram at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law.
- Since 1970, he served as a professor of law at Denver Thompson G.Marsh, a part of the University of Denver.
- He was a Vice-chair executive council of the World FederationUnited Nations (UN) Association, Geneva (Switzerland).He served asits vice-chairman from 1995-2001.
- He was also the Founding Director and Director Emeritus of the International Legal Studies Program.
- He was a Director of the Ved Nanda Center for International and Comparative Law, which was founded inhis honour by the alumni of the University of Denver’s Sturm College of Law
- He also served as:
- Honorary President of the World Jurist Association;
- Former Honorary Vice President of the American Society of International Law; and
- a member of the advisory council of the United States Institute of Human Rights.
Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan launches K-SMART App to Offer Digital Access to LocalGovt Services
Pinarayi Vijayan, Chief Minister (CM) of Kerala, launched the K-SMART (Kerala Solutions for ManagingAdministrative Reformation and Transformation) software/mobile application, in an event held in Kochi,Kerala.
K-SMART is a unified platform to provide digitalaccess to the services provided by the local selfgovernment bodies across Kerala.
Key points:
- K-SMART app will streamline the servicesprovided by local government bodies in Keralawith its 35 different modules.
- These modules include services like registrationof birth, death, and marriage, business licenses,property taxes, and others.
This is in line with the effort to strengthen localself-governance through ICT (Information &Communication Technologies) applications.
About Kerala:
Chief Minister– Pinarayi Vijayan
Governor– Arif Muhammed Khan
Capital– Thiruvananthapuram
Stadium-Chandrasekharan Nair Stadium; Trivandrum Tennis Club