China’s Moon Mission 25/04/2019 – Posted in: Daily News
Underground tunnels for storage of ammunition
Indian Army is planning to construct underground tunnels for storage of ammunition along the border with China and Pakistan and Public Sector Undertaking NHPC Limited is being roped in for the purpose.
Underground storage offers improved safety, easier camouflage from enemy observation and satellite imagery and protection from enemy strikes. Major armies, including China and the U.S., already use underground ammunition storage.
These tunnels will be built in high altitude areas in the Northern and Eastern borders. Initially, four pilot projects would be taken up at four different locations along the Northern border and in Jammu and Kashmir at a cost of Rs. 15 crore.
China’s Moon Mission
Beijing plans to send a manned mission to the moon and to build a research station there within the next decade.
China aims to achieve space superpower status and took a major step towards that goal when it became the first nation to land a rover on the far side of the moon in January.
Beijing plans to launch a Mars probe by 2020 and a fourth lunar probe, the Chang’e-5, will be launched by the end of the year.
Development of bacteria-resistant antibiotics
In yet another attempt to find an alternative to bacteria-resistant antibiotics, scientists at the Council of Scientific & Industrial Research – Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CSIR-CCMB) have found out that milk of an egg-laying mammal contains a novel anti-microbial protein that keeps its young ones safe from infections.
Echidnas are unique egg-laying mammals found only in Australia and New Guinea. Their young ones hatch from eggs at a very early stage of development and depend completely on their mother’s milk. But the mammary glands of the female echidnas are devoid of nipples, forcing the young ones to lick milk from the mother’s body surface and potentially making them vulnerable to microorganisms.
The milk of the echidna has a protein that can puncture the cell membranes of multiple bacterial species, thus destroying the source of infection.
The research team has found out ways to produce the protein in large quantities
The Divestment of RBI in NHB and NABARD
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has divested its entire stake held in National Housing Bank (NHB), the regulator for housing finance companies, and National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) to the government, which now holds 100% in these entities.
Divestment of RBI’s stake in NABARD and NHB has its basis in the recommendation of Narasimham Committee II and the Discussion Paper prepared by RBI on Harmonizing the Role and Operations of Development Financials Institutions and Banks.