Current Affairs - 2nd Feb 2014
India’s first shore based test facility
Asia’s first Shore Based Test Facility (SBTF) was commissioned into the Indian Navy recently with which India joined the select league of just two countries – the United States and Ukraine.
This SBTF has been established at INS Hansa in Panaji (Goa) – The SBTF is primarily used for flight testing of Naval aircraft that operate from aircraft carriers. The SBTF has two parts including the Take-off Area with a ski-jump facility and the Landing Area with arresting wire facility, both of which are a replica of INS Vikramaditya.
Harish Rawat, New Chief Minister of Uttarakhand
Harish Rawat was sworn in as the new CM of Uttarakhand. Rawat was the Union Water Resources Minister in Union Government and he succeeded Vijay Bahuguna who was asked by the Congress high command to step down in a bid to boost the party’s prospects ahead of the April-May Lok Sabha polls.
Bahuguna relinquished his post on 31 January 2014. Rawat became the 8th Chief Minister of the state.
Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre (LPSC) of ISRO
Mahendragiri centre, at Tamil Nadu’s Tirunelveli is the new LPSC which is elevated to the status of ISRO’s propulsion complex.
The Mahendragiri centre, which was functioning under LPSC in Valiyamala near Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala, would henceforth directly report to the ISRO chairman. The Mahendragiri centre has been instrumental in assembling and testing as many as 125 engines made by ISRO so far.
The elevation would be a challenge to the scientists working in the centre.
India’s aviation sector safety ranking downgraded
For the first time, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on 31 January 2014 downgraded India’s aviation safety ranking, bringing it below Pakistan and at par with countries like Ghana, Barbados and Bangladesh.
Air passengers to and from the US may have to face problems as Indian airplanes would have to go through more engineering and other safety checks on the American soil.
The effect of such downgrade will be that this downgrade would effectively bar Air India and Jet Airways from increasing flights to the US from the current level and they would also not be able to enter into any new code-share relationships with any US airline.
The downgrade does not mean that these airlines are unsafe but depicts that the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA’s) safety planning is not enough to properly monitor safety performance of Indian carriers. As per the FAA, the downgrade means that the DGCA does not meet the safety standards set by UN agency International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO).
British nuclear power site, Sellafield
British nuclear power site Sellafield came to news after an alert was declared after discovering higher than usual levels of radioactivity, which was later removed, saying naturally occurring radon gas had caused the alarm. Sellafield is the largest nuclear site in Europe and is situated in northwest England.
It is the site of Britain’s worst nuclear accident in 1957 and once the producer of plutonium for nuclear bombs. The plant’s operating company said there was nothing wrong with its operations, but for several hours the cause of the higher reading at an air monitor near a perimeter fence was unclear, raising fears of a radioactive leak.
