Prelim Booster

News Discussion
01-April-2021
 Exercise Vajra Prahar
Recently, Special Forces of India and the USA conducted the joint
military exercise ‘VAJRA PRAHAR 2021’ in Himachal Pradesh.

👉 About Exercise Vajra Prahar

◎ What is it? è Exercise Vajra Prahar is a
Special Forces joint military training exercise.
It takes place alternately in India and the US
since 2010.
◎ Aim è The exercise enables sharing of best
practices and experience in areas such as joint
mission planning capabilities and operational
tactics.
 Exercise Vajra Prahar
👉 Special Forces
◎ Special Forces of India refer to those Special forces units that are
specifically organised, trained, and equipped to conduct and support
special operations.
◎ The three branches of the Indian Armed Forces have separate special
forces units namely:
○ Para SF à Parachute Regiment (Special Forces) is the special force of
the Indian Army. This unit formed in 1966 in the aftermath of the 1965
Indo-Pakistan war.
○ MARCOS à Marine Commando Force also called MARCOS established
in 1987. It is the special forces unit of the Indian Navy.
○ Garud Commando Force à It was established in 2004. They are the
special forces of the Indian Air Force (IAF).
 Exercise Vajra Prahar
◎ Note: There are other special forces that are out of military control. They
operate under civilian organizations such as the Home ministry’s National
Security Guard.
 Global Wind Report 2021
2020 was a record year for the global wind power industry despite the
impacts of COVID-19, but we are still falling short to meet the world's
climate targets.

👉 About
◎ Released by è The Global Wind Energy
Council (GWEC).
◎ The Global Wind Report highlights the role of
wind power on the road to net zero
emissions.
 Global Wind Report 2021
👉 Key Findings of the report:
◎ Wind Energy è The world’s capacity to generate electricity from wind
jumped 53% in 2020.A total 93 gigawatts (GW) capacity was installed in
the year.
◎ Current Global Wind Energy Capacity è At present, the world has a total
wind energy capacity of 743 GW.
◎ China and the United States accounted for 75% of the new installations
and over half the world’s wind power capacity.
◎ India’s Wind Power Capacity è Wind power generation capacity in India
has significantly increased in recent years.
○ As of February 2021, India’s total installed wind power capacity was
38GW, the fourth largest installed wind power capacity in the world.
 Global Wind Report 2021
👉 Global Wind Energy Council(GWEC)
◎ The Global Wind Energy Council(GEWC) was established in 2005 to provide
a credible and representative forum for the entire wind energy sector at
an international level.
◎ Aim è It’s mission is to ensure that wind power is established as one of
the world’s leading energy sources, providing substantial environmental
and economic benefits.
◎ Headquarters è Brussels, Belgium.
 DSIR-PRISM Scheme
Union Minister for Science & Technology inaugurates the Event for
Publicity of the PRISM (Promoting Innovations in Individuals,
Startups, and MSMEs) scheme.

👉 About
◎ Nodal Ministry è It is an initiative of the
Department of Scientific and Industrial
Research (DSIR).
◎ Aim è To help an individual innovator to
become a successful technopreneur. It
promotes, supports, and funds implementable
and commercially viable innovations created
for society.
 DSIR-PRISM Scheme
◎ Eligibility è Under the initiative, an innovator of Indian nationality –
student, professional and common citizen is eligible.
◎ Features è Eligible candidates are provided with technical, strategic, and
financial assistance by DSIR-PRISM. Assistance is provided on the stages
like idea development, prototype development, and pilot scaling and
patenting.
◎ Sectors Covered è The proposals under the scheme will be accepted for
the following sectors:
○ Green technology
○ Clean energy
○ Industrially utilizable smart materials
○ Waste to Wealth
○ Affordable Healthcare
 DSIR-PRISM Scheme
○ Water & Sewage Management and
○ any other technology or knowledge-intensive area.
◎ Financial Assistance è The grant under the scheme is given in two phases:
◎ Phase I à
○ Category-I: For proof of concept/prototype/models, a grant amount of
around Rs. 2 lakhs to Rs. 20 lakhs.
○ Category-II: For fabrication (!नमा%ण) of working model/ process know-
how/ testing, a grant amount of around Rs. 2 lakhs to Rs. 20 lakhs.
◎ Phase II à For Enterprise incubation, a grant amount of a maximum of
around Rs.50 lakhs.
 New Development Bank
Recently, the Union Finance Minister has urged the New Development
Bank (NDB) to consider working closely with India’s new development
financing institution for funding infrastructure.

👉 About
◎ What is it? è It is a multilateral development
bank operated by the BRICS states (Brazil,
Russia, India, China and South Africa).
◎ It was agreed to by BRICS leaders at the 5th
BRICS summit held in Durban, South Africa in
2013.
 New Development Bank
◎ It was established in 2014, at the 6th BRICS Summit at Fortaleza, Brazil.
◎ Purpose è The bank is set up to foster greater financial and development
cooperation among the five emerging markets.
◎ Headquartered è Shanghai, China.
◎ Voting è Unlike the World Bank, which assigns votes based on capital
share, in the New Development Bank each participant country will be
assigned one vote, and none of the countries will have veto power.
◎ Roles and functions è The Bank will mobilise resources for infrastructure
and sustainable development projects in BRICS and other emerging
economies and developing countries, to supplement existing efforts of
multilateral and regional financial institutions for global growth and
development.
 New Development Bank
◎ In 2018, the NDB received observer status in the United Nations General
Assembly, establishing a firm basis for active and fruitful cooperation with
the UN.
 Asteroid Apophis
Recently, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
has ruled out the possibility of the dreaded asteroid Apophis causing
any damage to the Earth for the next 100 years.

👉 About
◎ Size è Apophis is a near-Earth asteroid with a
relatively large size (about 335 meters wide).
◎ Name & Discovery è Named after the ancient
Egyptian god of chaos and darkness, it was
discovered in 2004, after which NASA had said
that it was one of the asteroids that posed the
greatest threat to Earth.
 Asteroid Apophis
◎ The astronomers used the 70-metre radio antenna at the Deep Space
Network’s Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex near Barstow,
California in order to track Apophis’ motion.
◎ Apophis is categorised as a potentially hazardous asteroids (PHAs).

👉 What are asteroids?

◎ Asteroids are rocky objects that orbit the Sun, much smaller than planets.
They are also called minor planets.
◎ Asteroids are divided into three classes.
1. First, those found in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter,
which is estimated to contain somewhere between 1.1-1.9 million
asteroids.
 Asteroid Apophis
○ The second group is that of trojans, which
are asteroids that share an orbit with a
larger planet.
§ NASA reports the presence of Jupiter,
Neptune and Mars trojans.
§ In 2011, they reported an Earth Trojan
as well.
○ The third classification is Near-Earth
Asteroids (NEA), which have orbits that
pass close by the Earth.
 Giga Mesh
Recently, a women-led startup Astrome has developed ‘Giga Mesh’.

👉 About Giga Mesh

◎ It is an innovative wireless backhaul (High-speed
lines capable of transmitting high bandwidth at
very fast speeds) solution, based on patented
millimeter wave wireless technology for Mesh
Architecture.
◎ It is an innovative wireless product that gives
fibre like bandwidth at fraction of cost of fibre to
help telecom operators deliver reliable low-cost
internet services to suburban and rural areas.
 Giga Mesh
Benefits of Giga Mesh
◎ It reduces network congestion and also makes the
existing infrastructure 5G ready.
◎ A single GigaMesh device can provide upto 40
links with 2+ Gbps capacity each, communicating
upto a range of 10 kilometers.
◎ The high-speed multiple point-to-point (Multi-
P2P) communication yields up to 6 times
reduction in capital expenditure (CapEx) per link.
 Quick revision (True/False)

Question True / False

1. Exercise Vajra Prahar -> joint military exercise of India and France.

2. Global Wind Energy Council -> established in 2005. HQ: Brussels,

Belgium.

3. New Development Bank -> established in 2014. HQ: Beijing, China.

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 Quick revision (True/False)

Question True / False

1. Exercise Vajra Prahar -> joint military exercise of India and France. False

2. Global Wind Energy Council -> established in 2005. HQ: Brussels, True
Belgium.

3. New Development Bank -> established in 2014. HQ: Beijing, China. False

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