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Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 06 April 2014

Exit polls banned

The Election Commission of India (ECI) has notified the period between 7am on Monday, April 7 and 6:30pm, May 12 as the period during which conducting any exit poll and publishing results by means of the print or electronic media or dissemination in any other manner whatsoever is prohibited.
The ECI has further clarified that under Section 126(1)(b) of the R.P. Act, 1951, displaying any election matter including results of any opinion poll or any other poll survey, in any electronic media, would be prohibited during the period of 48 hours ending with the hours fixed for conclusion of poll in the respective polling areas.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) successfully boosted the apogee and the perigee of its navigation satellite, the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS-1B).
The IRNSS-1B is India’s second navigation satellite and it was put into its initial orbit of 20,630 km x 283 km by the ISRO’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C24) on April 4 evening. A PSLV had put the first navigation satellite called the IRNSS-1A into orbit on July 1, 2013. A total of seven satellites will form the IRNSS constellation. The ISRO will put into orbit two more IRNSS satellites before the end of 2014 and another three by the end of 2015, thus completing the constellation.
India had become a member of the club of the U.S., Russia, Europe, Japan and China by building these satellites. While the U.S’ GPS, the Russian GLONASS and the European Galileo are global navigation satellites which can be used by anybody anywhere in the world with the help of a receiver, the IRNSS-1B forms part of the regional navigation system which will provide positional information to users only in India and the region extending 1,500 km from its borders.

Angkor Wat is not the first heritage monument that Google has captured on Street View, which allows users to explore and navigate a neighbourhood or a complex through panoramic street-level photographs. It recently put the Taj Mahal on Street View and the Qutb Minar before that.
Other world heritage structures such as the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris and the Eiffel Tower have also been put on Street View. But nowhere before this did Google have to meet the challenge of imaging minute stone etchings, carvings and sculptures as it did at Angkor Wat.
Google had to deploy people mounted with the Street View cameras on their backs. These so-called Street View Trekkers have a camera system on the top that has 15 lenses pointing in different directions to get a 360 degree view. These cameras take pictures every 2.5 seconds, each of 75 mega pixels resolution. The cameras can be controlled by an Android phone which the operator holds in his hand.

Wildlife officials and volunteers of Arulagam, a Coimbatore-based NGO involved in vulture conservation, sighted five long-billed vultures in the north-eastern slopes of the Nilgiris a few days ago.
Long-billed vultures are found only in the north-eastern slopes of the Nilgiris. White-backed, King and Egyptian vultures are the other three species found in the Nilgiris and the Moyar valley, its adjoining area.
Diclofenac, an anti-inflammatory drug used for both animals and humans, poses a major threat to the survival of vultures.

Hindustan Aeronautics Limited and its predominant customer, Indian Air Force, have decided to work out ‘joint plans’ to deal with the military aircraft projects that are on between them. The move is aimed at ironing out issues related to the projects and their prompt delivery. Project-specific plans and teams are expected to get under way in a month’s time.
A new, single group is to be formed to deal with foreign OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) on all matters of equipment bought by the three defence wings and other agencies. A successful example for this is Russia’s military commercial arm Rosoboronexport.
The conference discussed issues related to the fighter planes, namely the MiGs (21, 27, 29); Sukhoi-30 MKI, Mirage and Jaguar; trainer aircraft Hawk, Kiran and the recently acquired Swiss-made Pilatus; transport planes Avro and Dornier; helicopters Chetak/Cheetah, Cheetal and the Dhruv light helicopter, besides remotely piloted or unmanned aircraft and the target practice vehicle Lakshya, among others.

Two-time defending champion Australia powered to a six-wicket win over old foe England to win its third consecutive title in the women’s World Twenty20 in Dhaka .
Whereas, in men's category Sri Lanka emerged as the winner by defeating India in the final match.