ISRO, Indian Railways - Current Affairs Questions and Answers

ANSWER: India

Explanation:
Following soaring temperatures in Kerala, scientists have striven to create one of the coolest places in Asia known as the new Cold Atom Lab at ISRO inertial systems unit which will be the first of its kind in Asia. This was inaugurated by ISRO chairman AS Kiran Kumar. It also marks the silver jubilee year or completion of 25 years at IISU.

• Scientists at this facility use laser beams to cool fundamental particles or rubidium atoms
• The laser beams split into two with the laser interferometer, one of which moves clockwise and the other anti-clockwise and meet at a point.
• The wave nature of the atoms leads to an interference pattern where tow waves carrying energy meet up and overlap
• Atom is then magnetically trapped and radio waves are used to cool the atoms 100 times lower
• Radiofrequency radiation slices away the hottest atoms from the trap; only the coldest remain
• It was Satyendra Bose and Albert Einstein who predicated the existence of such atoms at extremely cold temperatures.

ANSWER: Saksham

Explanation:
The Indian Railways will launch the country's largest time-bound "upskilling" exercise for government employees to upgrade the skillsets of its 13 lakh-strong workforce with a single drive spanning nine months.

Named Project Saksham, the exercise will start in January 2018 and go on till September, putting through training courses and specially designed skill-upgrade modules.

Employees from the rank of a peon to the Railway Board Members and everyone in between will undergo the training.

The launch date of the project has been tentatively scheduled to coincide with the 155^th birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda, sources said.

The nature of the short-duration training will range from refresher courses, with an eye on evolved global practices in the respective areas, to skills in the existing lining of functioning, sources said.

With growing services, newer benchmarks of service delivery and higher expectations of the clientele, employees need to build skills to rise to the occasion.

Employees can and do deliver only when they have the right skills, knowledge and the mindset to deliver to the new standards of excellence that we hold from them all.

General Managers would identify training modules, divide their workforce into small groups and communicate the entire plan to the ministry by December 31.

Each will be a five-day on-the-job training, or classroom sessions in Railway Training Centres, depending on the nature of the course. According to the directive, the reporting managers of all employees need to be actively involved in the pre-training and post-training process to ensure that the newly learned skills can be easily integrated into the regular jobs.

Groups of railway officers are going to Japan to train in various processes of the Shinkansen bullet train and heavy haul technologies.

ANSWER: 100

Explanation:
In a major boost to suburban rail services in Mumbai area, Indian Railways is introducing one hundred additional local train services on its Mumbai suburban network of Western Railway and Central Railway zones.

With these additional services, the total suburban services in Mumbai of Western Railway and Central Railway put together will increase from existing 2983 services to 3083 suburban services.

These services will be launched on 29th September 2017.

Out of these 100 services, thirty two new services will be introduced on Western Railway while sixty eight services will be introduced on Central Railway.

‘On Western Railway’, seventeen services will be introduced from 1st October, 2017 in ‘up’ direction and fifteen services will be introduced in ‘down’ direction from 1st October, 2017.

In all, thirty two new services will be introduced in Western Railway.

Western Railway presently runs 1323 sub-urban services. After addition of these services, the total sub-urban services on Western Railway will reach up to 1355.

‘On Central Railway’, fourteen suburban services will be introduced on ‘harbour line’ from 2nd October, 2017, fourteen suburban services will be introduced on ‘trans-harbour line’ from 2nd October, 2017, sixteen suburban services on ‘main line’ will be introduced from 1st November, 2017 and twenty four suburban services on ‘harbour’ and ‘trans-harbour lines’ will be introduced from 31st January, 2018.

In all, sixty eight services will be introduced in Central Railway. Central Railway presently runs 1660 sub-urban services.

After addition of these services, the total sub-urban services on Central Railway will reach up to 1728.

Introduction of these new suburban services will benefit 77 lakh commuters travelling daily over Mumbai suburban network by reducing congestion and providing faster commute.

ANSWER: All of the above

Explanation:
A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between the ISRO Telemetry Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC), Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), Department of Space and the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR)-National Physical Laboratory (NPL), Ministry of Science and Technology, in New Delhi.

The MoU provides for time and frequency traceability services to ISRO by CSIR-NPL

The scope of this MoU is the rendering by CSIR-NPL, of all the necessary actions, necessary to support the following:

• Time and Frequency Traceability services from National Time Scale of CSIR-NPL to IRNWT-I and IRNWT-II of ISTRAC/ISRO through Two-way Satellite Time and Frequency Transfer (TWSTFT).
• Time and Frequency Traceability services from National Time Scale of CSIR-NPL to IRNWT-I and IRNWT-II of ISTRAC/ISRO through GNSS CV.
• Annual audit of IRNWT-I and IRNWT-II as per ISO/IEC 17025 for ensuring correctness and accuracy of the time traceability.

The MoU came into force from date of signing of the agreement in Aug 2017 and shall remain valid for a period of 5 years thereafter.

Subsequently, the MoU will be renewed on mutual agreement between CSIR-NPL and ISTRAC/ISRO.

Scientists of two premier scientific institutions, NPL and ISRO, have made great efforts in this direction and he applauded them for their contribution.

This is very important landmark and an occasion to acknowledge the great contribution of our scientists.

NPL has one of the five Atomic Clocks in India and the people should be encouraged to visit the laboratories and understand science and its contribution to the development of the country.

The main success of Department of Space is that India has consistently widened the space technology use to various fields.

ISRO has achieved many milestones in the recent past e.g. successful launching of highest number of satellites, completion of 1,000 days of Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM), launch of South Asia Satellite etc.

ISRO has already signed MoUs with various ministries and departments which is contributing to the social applications of space technology.

The ISRO has signed MoU with Ministry of Agriculture for Geo-MNREGA, with Ministry of Railways for guarding the railway crossings.

ISRO is also contributing to the Smart City Programme and other initiatives.

ANSWER: UR Rao

Explanation:
Eminent space scientist and former Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Chairman Udupi Ramachandra Rao passed away in Bengaluru on 24th July 2017 due to age related ailments. He was 85.

Rao is survived by his wife, a son and a daughter.

Born in Adamaru area of Karnataka’s Udupi district, Rao was involved in all ISRO missions till date in one capacity or the other.

He is credited on account of contributions to the development of space technology in India and its extensive application to communications and remote sensing of natural resources.

Before his death, he was serving as the chairman of the governing council of the Physical Research Laboratory in Ahmedabad and the chancellor of the Indian institute of science and technology in Thiruvananthapuram.

Rao served as the chairman of ISRO for 10 years from 1984 to 1994.

After taking charge as chairman of the space commission and secretary, department of space in 1984, he accelerated the development of rocket technology which led to the successful launch of ASLV rocket and the operational PSLV launch vehicle.

He was also instrumental for the launch 2.0 ton class of satellites into polar orbit.

He also initiated the development of the Geo Stationary Launch Vehicle (GSLV) and the development of cryogenic technology in 1991.

Rao was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 1976 and the Padma Vibhushan in 2017 for his contribution to Indian space technology.

He has published over 350 scientific and technical papers covering cosmic rays, interplanetary physics, high energy astronomy, space applications, satellite and rocket technology and authored many books.

Rao also became the first Indian space scientist to be inducted into the prestigious ‘Satellite Hall of Fame’ in Washington DC on March 19, 2013, and the ‘IAF Hall of Fame’ in Mexico’s Guadalajara.

ANSWER: ISRO

Explanation:
ISRO demonstrated its solar hybrid electric car and there's a strong reason behind working on it.

Vehicles using fossil fuels persistently bring serious problems to environment and life.

In this perspective, Solar and Electrical energy based hybrid vehicles provide the most effective and viable long-term solution by using renewable energy sources for mobility.

Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), ISRO, Thiruvananthapuram, demonstrated the running of a solar hybrid electric car using in-house expertise and resources within ISRO.

Considerations involved the right solar panel to suit the roof top of car, a super-capacitor to meet the high peak current of beyond 100 A level, an integral gear box to augment the performance of the Brushless DC (BLDC) motor.

It also involved control electronics for the battery and solar panel interface and drive electronics for running the motor in a smooth way.

The biggest one of course was the conversion of the internal combustion engine (ICE) based vehicle, which was a Maruti Suzuki Omni, to fit in with the electric motor.

The Brushless motor had to be modified to improve torque

To drive the car, energy was supplied to the vehicle by energy density Lithium ion batteries connected across high power density super-capacitors.

The battery delivered the sustained energy requirement while the super-capacitor supported the peak power demand during high torque conditions.

This arrangement of power sharing helped in enhancing the life of power-restricted batteries.

Energy was supplied to the vehicle by energy density Lithium ion batteries.

A solar panel fitted on rooftop of the car charges the battery by absorbing the sunlight.

How it Works

• This electrical energy needed to be converted to mechanical energy to drive the wheels.
• This was achieved by integrating an efficient power conversion module between energy system and electric motor.
• The usage of a Brushless type motor helped in improving the torque and reducing energy input while also helping in weight savings.
• Concerted efforts were made to ensure that the associated safety aspects are not compromised while combining various active subsystems of different behaviour for a focused objective.

ANSWER: 5

Explanation:
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is going to launch five communication satellites by the end of 2017.

The main aim behind the launch is to improve the communication system within the country.

The specific use of the satellites would be to improve the number of available transponders for communications.

The move is expected to significantly enhance India’s communication capability.

An overview of the number of satellites launched by the space organisation and the purpose of each satellite in the areas of disaster management, weather forecasting, space exploration, education, agriculture and geo-spatial applications was also provided.

India is the only country to achieve the feat of having a large number of satellites.

ISRO along with the government has made it mandatory for all aircrafts to have a GPS-aided Geo Augmented Navigation (GAGAN) system by 2019 to ensure safety and precision landing.

Apart from this, ISRO plans to make an inventory and site management plan for 4000 heritage sites in India.

The organisation also helped India break the record for launching most satellites from a single rocket by launching 104 satellites in one go in February 2017.

GAGAN: Know More

• The GPS Aided GEO Augmented Navigation (GAGAN) is an implementation of a regional satellite-based augmentation system (SBAS) by the Indian government.
• It is a system to improve the accuracy of a GNSS receiver by providing reference signals.
• Project cost?: ?INR 7.74 billion (US$120 million)
• Fully operational by?: ?2013-14
• Launched?: ?2011-2012

ANSWER: 12

Explanation:
The Indian Space Research Organisation is trying to increase its capacity to deliver by scaling up the frequency of launches to 12 per year from the seven at present.

This is building more satellites and lowering the cost of access to space.

ISRO is trying to go up to 8-9 PSLV per year, two GSLV-Mk II and one GSLV-Mk III. Total about 12 per year,.

ISRO is trying to increase its capacity to deliver by scaling up the frequency of launches by building more satellites, lowering the cost of access to space and also to do heavier satellite launches.

The space agency is in the process of constructing a second vehicle assembly building to improve the turnaround time and throughput for the PSLV so that with the same launch pad ISRO can do more launches, he said.

ISRO plans to undertake the Chandrayaan-2 mission in the first quarter of the next calendar year.

ISRO has identified its next steps in terms of air-breathing propulsion system.

ANSWER: India

Explanation:
Indian Railways plans a dedicated train service for domestic and international tourists, catering to customers at different income levels.

This is a part draft tourism policy which IR is bringing out for the first time in a bid to increase private partnership in running tourist trains.

A concept of tourist train with differential tariff will be worked out. The train will comprise different classes of accommodation like Sleeper 3A, 2A and 1A coaches, as per demand.

The IR will operate the train on different circuits with normal tariff or with a mark up. Service providers like Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) will manage other services such as hotel accommodation and sightseeing for domestic and international tourists.

The Railways also proposes to reserve special coaches for tourists on trains running through tourist spots across the country.

It will auction such dedicated tourist coaches to tour operators at a premium based on which the tour operator may carry the passengers/tourists to be booked by it.

An effort will be made to involve private participation in operating more (hill tourist) trains and also to improve the financial conditions in hill railways in general through Public Private Partnership.

There will be ‘Bharat Darshan Trains’ catering “for the masses” with sleeper class coaches.

For promoting religious tourism, the IR proposed introducing Astha Circuit Trains and State Tirth Trains.

While the former will be operated by the IR at its own expense, the latter will be run on request from state governments at their cost.

Indian Railways: Know More

• Headquarters: New Delhi
• Number of employees: 1,331,000
• Founded: 16 April 1853
• Revenue: 1.683 trillion INR (US$25 billion, 2015–2016)
• Divisions: 17 Railways Zones

ANSWER: Lithium ion

Explanation:
The government has asked Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) to allow manufacturers interested in producing indigenous lithium-ion batteries.

This is including those from private sector, to obtain the technology for its mass production.

ISRO will now come up with a framework to make this process smooth.

The Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre under ISRO has developed indigenous technology to manufacture such high-power batteries for automobiles and e-vehicles and their feasibility tests in vehicles have been successful.

Over half a dozen major automobile companies, battery manufacturers and public sector undertakings have already approached ISRO.

This include Mahindra Renault, Hyundai, Nissan, Tata Motors, High Energy Batteries, BHEL and Indian Oil.

The aim is to develop indigenous technology for lithium-ion batteries so that their prices are within the reach of Indian customers.

ISRO had earlier developed similar batteries for satellite and the launch vehicle applications.

The government has set an ambitious target for pushing more use of electric vehicles to reduce air pollution, which has become one of the biggest health concerns.

Batteries are the key component of any electric vehicle.

At present, all lithium-ion batteries are imported and it's very expensive.

Such batteries have high-power, but these weigh less and their volume is much less as well in comparison to conventional batteries.

Government documents show the cost of lithium-ion batteries is high because of small volume of procurement.

Bulk procurement and mass production can reduce the cost by 80%, which is key to push demand.

Lithium Ion Batteries: Know More

• Specific energy: 100–265 W·h/kg (0.36–0.875 MJ/kg)
• Energy density: 250–676 W·h/L (0.90–2.43 MJ/L)
• Specific power: ~250-~340 W/kg
• Charge/discharge efficiency: 80–90%
• Self-discharge rate per month: 8% at 21 °C/15% at 40 °C/31% at 60 °C
• Cycle durability:400–1200 cycles
• Nominal cell voltage: NMC 3.6 / 3.85 V, LiFePO4 3.2 V
• A lithium-ion battery or Li-ion battery (abbreviated as LIB) is a type of rechargeable battery.