Distribution of Sodium on the Moon’s surface

Context:

• Scientists from Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) have mapped out the global distribution of sodium on the Moon’s surface.
• They used the CLASS instrument (Chandrayaan-2 large area soft X-ray spectrometer) carried by the second Indian Moon mission, Chandrayaan-2.

How was it done?

• This is the first effort to provide a global-scale measurement of sodium on the lunar surface using X-ray fluorescent spectra.
• Non-destructively analysing the composition of materials is a popular application for X-ray fluorescence.
• When the sun emits solar flares, the moon is exposed to a significant amount of X-ray radiation, which causes X-ray fluorescence.
• The CLASS counts the total amount of X-ray photons arriving from the moon and assesses their energy.
• The intensity is a measurement of how many atoms are present, and the energy of the photons reveals the number of atoms (for example, sodium atoms release X-ray photons of 1.04 keV).

Other Findings:

• Rock samples were returned from earlier lunar trips like Apollo-11, Luna, and Chang’e-5.
• The sodium content of the rocks was properly measured in those missions.
• Apart from the trace amounts detected in lunar rocks, a recent analysis by the Chandrayaan group reveals that there is a thin veneer of sodium atoms that are weakly linked to the lunar surface (as mentioned earlier).
• When enough energy is provided to them by solar UV light and solar wind ions, these sodium atoms on the surface are released.

Way Forward:

• This achievement by Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), is a great step towards scientific exploration of lunar surfaces.
• The scientists of Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) have stated that “As the solar cycle is in its ascending phase, we expect more solar flares that would ensure a larger coverage of all elements on the moon by CLASS at the highest spatial resolution ever”.

Indian woman elected in RRB of ITU

An Indian woman has for the first time won a seat in a United Nations-linked technical body with a mandate to resolve disagreements between UN members over radio spectrum. Revathi Mannepalli, an official of the Department of Telecommunications, won the most votes in the Asia and Australasia region to become a member of the Radio Regulation Board (RRB) of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).

More about ITU

1. The ITU is the UN agency looking at everything to do with information and communication technologies, including radio spectrum.
2. With the world going digital at an exponential pace and countries vying to send more satellites into space, the value of this finite resource is no lesser than gold.
3. India last had a representative on the RRB from 1998 to 2014.
4. In the voting held in Romania, she was up against four other candidates from China, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Indonesia.
5. The RRB is divided into five regions, namely Region A (The Americas), Region B (Western Europe), Region C (Eastern Europe and Northern Asia), Region D (Africa), and Region E (Asia and Australasia).
6. Each region is allotted a specific number of seats and Region E, of which India is a part, has three seats. This is why Revathi had to bag enough votes to be counted among the top three candidates in Region E.

Why ITU, RRB are important

1. Simply put, the ITU allocates global radio spectrum and satellite orbits to countries while it is the task of the RRB to resolve disagreements over the allocation.
2. Needless to say, these spats between countries are complicated and carry enough weight to influence geo-political equations.

Quality Council of India (QCI)

Union Minister of Commerce and Industry, Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution and Textiles, recently asked the Quality Council of India (QCI) to strive to bring about convergence of all the various quality and standards organizations in the country.

About Quality Council of India:

• Quality Council of India (QCI) was established as a National body for Accreditation on recommendations of Expert Mission of EU through a Cabinet decision in 1996.
• Accordingly, QCI was set up through a PPP(Public-Private partnership) model as an independent autonomous organization with the support of Government of India and the Indian Industry represented by the three premier industry associations:
  • Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM),
  • Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and
  • Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI).
• QCI is a non-profit organization registered under the Societies Registration Act XXI of 1860.
• The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, Ministry of Commerce and Industry was designated as the nodal point for all matters connected with quality and QCI to structure and help implementation of the Cabinet decision.
• QCI has been established to create a mechanism for independent third party assessment of products, services and processes.

Governance Structure of QCI:

The various bodies of QCI which makes Governance Structure are:

• The Governing Council (GC)
• The Governing Body (GB)
• Finance Committee (FC)
• Accreditation Boards (ABs) and Quality Promotion Board

Key Objectives:

• QCI has been established to create a mechanism for independent third party assessment of products, services and processes.
• It plays a pivotal role at the national level in propagating, adoption and adherence to quality standards in all important spheres of activities including education, healthcare, environment protection, governance, social sectors, infrastructure sector and such other areas of organized activities that have significant bearing in improving the quality of life and wellbeing of the citizens of India.

Additional Information:

Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC):

• ONDC is in an early stage of formation that been incorporated as a Section 8 company in December 2021 with the Quality Council of India and Protean eGov Technologies Limited as initial promoters.
• ONDC is an initiative aiming at promoting open networks for all aspects of exchange of goods and services over digital or electronic networks.
• The foundations of ONDC are to be open protocols for all aspects in the entire chain of activities in exchange of goods and services, similar to hypertext transfer protocol for information exchange over internet, simple mail transfer protocol for exchange of emails and unified payments interface for payments.

About Food Corporation of India (FCI)

• The Food Corporation of India was setup under the Food Corporation’s Act 1964 , in order to fulfil following objectives of the Food Policy:
  • Effective price support operations for safeguarding the interests of the farmers.
  • Distribution of foodgrains throughout the country for public distribution system.
  • Maintaining satisfactory level of operational and buffer stocks of foodgrains to ensure National Food Security
• Since its inception, FCI has played a significant role in India’s success in transforming the crisis management oriented food security into a stable security system.

Objectives of FCI:

In its 50 years of service to the nation, FCI has played a significant role in India’s success in transforming the crisis management oriented food security into a stable security system. FCI’s Objectives are:

• To provide farmers remunerative prices
• To make food grains available at reasonable prices, particularly to vulnerable section of the society
• To maintain buffer stocks as measure of Food Security
• To intervene in market for price stabilization

Early Warning System for Heatwaves

Context:

• Total duration of heatwaves has increased by about three days during the last 30 years and a further increase of 12-18 days is expected by 2060.
• In future climate, heatwaves will be spread to new areas including southern parts of India. Climate change is causing heatwaves more frequently, and they are much stronger and can last for more days.

Background:

• A heatwave is a stretch of unseasonably high temperatures that normally lasts three days or longer.
• Heatwaves typically occur in India between March and June. Every season, two to three heatwave incidents are typical.
• Due to favourable meteorological conditions, heatwaves are primarily witnessed over two regions: central and northwest India and the coasts of Andhra Pradesh and Odisha.

Causes:

• Heat waves have numerous, interconnected effects on the economy, environment, agriculture, energy, and water.
• Devastating effects were caused by the recent March–April 2022 heatwave in Pakistan and India.
• At least 90 deaths are thought to have resulted from it in Pakistan and India. In northern Pakistan, it also caused a severe Glacial Lake Outburst Flood.

Early Warning System in India:

• The India Meteorological Department (IMD), the National and State disaster management authorities, and municipal entities are all part of the country’s robust national framework for heat response plans.
• The core of this heat action plan is the early warning system.
• The Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) had set up an advanced forecasting system for early warnings of heatwaves as part of the National Monsoon Mission.
• IMD has the capacity to reasonably accurately forecast the genesis, length, and intensity of heatwave events up to four or five days in advance.

Weapon System branch for officers in the Indian Air Force (IAF)

The government has approved the creation of a Weapon System branch for officers in the Indian Air Force (IAF) which will bring all weapon systems operators of the force under one roof.

• This is the first time since Independence that a new operational branch is being created.
• The IAF also unveiled a new digital camouflage uniform for its rank and file.
• Creation of the new branch would entail unification of all weapon system operators under one entity dedicated to the operational employment of all ground-based and specialist airborne weapon systems.
• This will essentially be for manning of four specialised streams of Surface to Surface missiles, Surface to Air Missiles, Remotely Piloted Aircraft and weapon system operators in twin and multi crew aircraft.
• Creation of this branch would result in savings of over ₹3,400 crore due to reduced expenditure on flying training.