- Remote Control Gun.
- Ordnance Factory Tiruchirappalli hands over Fifteen 12.7 mm M2 NATO Stabilized Remote Control Gun to Indian Navy & 10 to Indian Coast Guard.
KEY POINTS
- It is manufactured with transfer of technology agreement from Elbit Systems, Israel.
- The gun is meant for marine applications and can remotely engage targets.
- It is equipped with an inbuilt CCD camera, thermal imager and a laser range finder for observation and tracking of targets through day and night operations.
- Registration Process for Vintage Motor Vehicles formalized.
- The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has amended Central Motor Vehicle Rules 1989, formalising the registration process of vintage motor vehicles.
KEY POINTS
- This is aimed at preserving and promoting the heritage of old vehicles in India.
- all two and four wheelers over 50+ years old, maintained in their original form and have not undergone any substantial overhaul, shall be defined as Vintage Motor Vehicles.
- The State Registering Authority shall issue a certificate of registration within 60 days. Vehicles already registered can retain their original Registration Mark.
- Vintage motor vehicles shall not be driven on roads for regular and commercial purposes.
3. Successful trial of movement of train between Jaynagar in India and Kurtha in Nepal undertaken.
- Successful trial of movement of train between Jaynagar in India and Kurtha in Nepal was undertaken .
KEY POINTS
- The 34.50 km-long rail section is the first section of the rail line links between the two countries which connects Jaynagar in Madhubani district of Bihar to Kurtha in Mahottari district of Nepal.
- The cost of this rail section is 619 crore. The Jayanagar – Kurtha Railway link has been set up by IRCON under India – Nepal friendship rail project with finance granted by the Indian government.
- The Chief Public Relations officer of East Central Railway Rajesh Kumar said that the train movement on this rail section will start soon after fulfilling technical and other formalities between two countries. Remaining 34 km rail line will be built in two phases.
- The 17-km-long second section will link Kurtha and Bhangaha while the third phase is 17-km-long and will extend from Bhangaha to Bardibas.
- Indian Railways has delivered two modern DEMU trains to Nepal for Jayanagar-Kurtha railway link.
About IRCON
Ircon International or Indian Railway Construction Limited (IRCON) is a subsidiary of the Indian Railways and a construction & engineering corporation which specializes in infrastructure used for transport. The subsidiary was established in the year 1976 with the primary aim of construction of various railway projects in India as well as abroad. At present, Ircon has successfully completed over 1650 major infrastructure projects in India and over 900 major projects around the world in 31 countries.
- K Singh is the current chairman of Ircon.
- Indian Panorama calls for entries for 52nd edition of IFFI.
- The 52nd International Film Festival of India (IFFI) has announced call for entries for Indian Panorama, 2021. Indian Panorama is a flagship component of the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) under which best of contemporary Indian films are selected for the promotion of film art.
KEY POINTS
- The 52nd edition of IFFI will be held in Goa from 20th to 28th November, 2021.
- Indian Panorama was introduced in 1978 as part of the International Film Festival of India to promote the Indian Films and its rich culture and heritage through the Indian films.
- The Indian Panorama has ever since been completely devoted to showcasing the best of the Indian films of the year.
AIM
The aim of the Indian Panorama, organized by the Directorate of Film Festivals, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India, is to select feature and non feature films of cinematic, thematic and aesthetic excellence, for the promotion of film art through the non-profit screening of these films in international film festivals in India and abroad, Indian Film Weeks held under Bilateral Cultural Exchange Programmes and Specialized Indian Film Festivals outside cultural exchange protocols, and special Indian Panorama festivals in India.
5. Indian golfers Anirban Lahiri, Udayan Mane, Aditi Ashok to represent the country at Tokyo Olympics.
- India is now a well-known name in the world of Golf. The country has produced some quality golfers over the years who have made their presence felt at the international level and are now being looked at as India’s medal prospects in the prestigious quadrennial event.
KEY POINTS
- Three prominsing talents Anirban Lahiri, Udayan Mane, and Aditi Ashok are spearheading India’s golf contingent in the Tokyo Olympics.
- While Anirban and Udayan have secured their berths in the Men’s golf events, Aditi is set to lead India’s charge in the Women’s events.
- Anibarn and Aditi had also tried their luck in the Rio Olympics in 2016.
- The seasoned Indian golfer, Anibarn made it to the Summer Games as India’s highest-ranked golfer.
- Best wishes of the people of country are with the three Indian golfers. A total of 120 participants compete for medals in two golf events in the mega Sporting event. Golf events will be played for the fourth time at the Tokyo Olympics.
- Before the Tokyo Olympics, Golf has been included in the Summer Games only three times –in the 1900, 1904 and 2016.
- The United States has so far dominated the Golf competition at the Olympics followed by England.
- ZERO-CLICK ATTACK
- One of the worrying aspects of the Pegasus spyware is how it has evolved from its earlier spear-phishing methods using text links or messages to ‘zero-click’ attacks which do not require any action from the phone’s user. This had made what was without a doubt the most powerful spyware out there, more potent and almost impossible to detect or stop.
KEY POINTS
- 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.
- Foreign investors pull out over Rs 4,500 cr from Indian equities market in July.
- Reversing their five-month buying streak, foreign investors withdrew a net sum of Rs 475 crore from the Indian capital markets in the first week of July amid global trade tensions and pre-Budget anticipation.
KEY POINTS
- Prior to this, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) were net buyers for five consecutive months.
- FPIs invested a net Rs 10,384.54 crore in June, Rs 9,031.15 crore in May, Rs 16,093 crore in April, Rs 45,981 crore in March and Rs 11,182 crore in February into the Indian capital markets (both equity and debt).
- As per latest depositories data, FPIs withdrew a net amount of Rs 3,710.21 crore from equities but invested Rs 3,234.65 crore in the debt segment during July 1- 5, resulting in a net outflow of Rs 475.56 crore. “
- FPIs took out a substantial amount of money from Indian equities this week. It seems the global trends related to US-China and US-Iran are still impacting sentiments. A pre-Budget anticipation might also have had a role to play,” Groww COO Harsh Jain said.
- Sales of listed private manufacturing companies surge 31% in Q4 FY 2020-21: RBI
- Reserve Bank of India yesterday released data on the performance of the private corporate sector during the fourth quarter of 2020-21. It is drawn from abridged quarterly financial results of 2,608 listed non-government non-financial companies.
KEY POINTS
- Sales of 1,633 manufacturing companies surged by 31.0 per cent on year on year basis in Q4:2020-21 as compared with 7.4 per cent growth in the previous quarter. On year on year basis, Sales growth of information technology (IT) sector companies accelerated to 6.4 per cent in last quarter of FY 2021.
- Sales of non-IT services companies recorded a marginal growth after declining in the previous three quarters. This improvement was largely led by trading companies. Manufacturing companies increased their expenditure on raw materials in tandem with the rise in sales during Q4 of FY 21. Staff cost increased for manufacturing companies while remained steady for IT companies in last quarter of FY 2021. It remained in the contraction zone for non-IT services companies. Operating profits of companies of all sectors expanded in this quarter.
- AWAS PAR SAMVAAD.
- Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana – Urban (PMAY-U) has launched Awas Par Samvaad – series of 75 seminars and workshops to take ahead the Prime Minister’s vision of ‘Housing for All’.
KEY POINTS
- 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.
- New Gecko Species: Odisha
- Odisha’s forest officials have announced measures to preserve the newly discovered tiny gecko species of the genus Hemiphyllodactylus. Residents of Ganjam, where the tiny reptile of Hemiphyllodactylus genus is found, will be sensitised, state forest department officials said.
- This was first spotted in Ganjam district, Odisha in 2014. The new species of Hemiphyllodactylus minimus is the smallest member of the genus with a maximum body size of little over six cm.
- It is called Ganjam Slender Gecko.
- The new species is the seventh Indian species of the genus, the second from the northern Eastern Ghats and 41st globally. It is the first non-island species of the genus which is distributed in lowland habitats.
Geckos
Geckos are reptiles and are found on all the continents except Antarctica. These colorful lizards have adapted to habitats from rainforests, to deserts, to cold mountain slopes.
Most geckos are nocturnal, which means they are active at night, but day geckos are active during the day and depend on insects, fruits, and flower nectar.
Geckos are spread across six families: Carphodactylidae, Diplodactylidae, Eublepharidae, Gekkonidae, Phyllodactylidae, and Sphaerodactylidae
