Current Affairs for IAS Exams – 25 August 2016

:: National ::

India began multiple investigations to determine the extent of damage caused by the reported leak of huge quantity of secret data detailing the combat and stealth capabilities of soon-to-be-inducted Scorpene submarines.
The Navy, in its early response, said the leak was from outside India while downplaying the operational impact of the leak.
The source of the leak, if confirmed, can have a serious bearing on the significantly large defence ties between India and France with French companies in the race for deals worth billions of dollars including the Rafale fighter deal.
The incident emerged in a news report in The Australian , which also released a few sample documents.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is set to conduct air-breathing propulsion experiment using its RH-560 rocket fitted with a supersonic combustion ramjet (Scramjet) engine on August 28 from Sriharikota.
ISRO is looking forward to conducting the air-breathing propulsion test using the two-stage, three-tonne RH-560 rocket because it involves cutting edge technologies.
The test was to have been done on July 28 but the search by the Indian Air Force and the Navy for the IAF’s transport aircraft An-32, which disappeared over the Bay of Bengal has delayed it by a month.
The Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), Thiruvananthapuram, has developed the engines to be used in the RH-560 rocket: the booster engine in the first stage; and the sustainer and the scramjet engines in the second stage.
Air-breathing propulsion along with re-usable launch vehicles is the key to low cost access to space.

A powerful earthquake rattled a remote area of central Italy, leaving at least 120 people dead and scenes of carnage in mountain villages.
With 368 people injured and an unknown number trapped under rubble, the figure of dead and wounded was expected to rise in the wake of the pre-dawn quake.
The devastated area is just north of L’Aquila, the city where some 300 people died in another quake in 2009.
The shocks were strong enough to be felt 150 km away in Rome, where authorities ordered structural tests on the Colosseum.

Air passengers will soon be able to use Wi-Fi services on board while flying anywhere across the country.
The Union civil aviation ministry is working with the telecom ministry and the home ministry to allow passengers to use Wi-Fi services during the course of a flight.
The Department of Telecom has taken up the matter and we are working on it. In order to enable Wi-Fi services, the government was working towards allowing security agencies to monitor the call and data transmission.
Globally, it is a standard offering and is a win-win for passengers and airlines.
It will help common passengers with in-flight entertainment, business travellers to work on last-minute presentations and help airlines earn money.