24 APRIL 2016

Ø  To make exploration more attractive for private players, the Union government will reimburse the costs to mining firms that fail to find adequate mineral wealth and offer them a share of the revenue from blocks where they do strike valuable reserves. However, the exploration firms will not enjoy any preferential right to the blocks where they find viable mineral reserves or be eligible for direct compensation from firms that end up operating the mines they discover, as was earlier envisaged. The Union Ministry of Mines has set forth these ideas in the final Cabinet note on the new mineral exploration policy, which was circulated for inter-ministerial consultations this week. “Under the Mines and Mineral (Development and Regulations) Act of 2015, reconnaissance permits cannot be converted into a prospecting licence or a mining licence, though there was a provision for that in the earlier law,” So, there would have been no guarantee that a player will get anything out of exploration. Mr. Kumar was explaining why the models that were considered earlier — such as granting the right of first refusal to explorers for forming a mining joint venture with public sector firms to tap blocks where they find reserves — seemed out of sync with the spirit of the new law that mandated auctions for all mineral block allocations. “So now we are saying if we give you a reconnaissance permit and you manage to find something, you will be paid a certain percentage of the revenue throughout the 50-year period of the mining lease,” he said

Ø  Two futuristic space technologies that will impact cost and human space travel are due to be tested shortly, according to A.S.Kiran Kumar, chairman of Indian Space Research Organisation. A small, plane-like prototype of a reusable launch vehicle (RLV) is planned be flown first in May or June. A crew escape or pad abort system will follow it later, he said delivering the Air Force's ninth annual L.M.Katre memorial lecture on Saturday. On Friday, we completed the acoustic test of a technology demonstrator of a reusable launch vehicle at the NAL's facility. This is our first winged body vehicle and will provide us with the capability to put objects into Space at significantly lower cost. The spacecraft is on its way to Sriharikota and we are getting ready for its launch. ISRO is also developing crew modules which have environments controlled for supporting two or three astronauts for a few months. An RLV TD, according to information on ISRO site, can be used as a flying test bed for various future technologies including space agencies' dream hypersonic flight, autonomous landing, and air breathing propulsion. Slated earlier for 2015, it can also test fire-proof technologies such ISRO’s silica tiles that protect the crew module from burning on re-entry. The RLV TD will be useful for future human missions where astronauts or objects must be safely brought back to Earth.

Ø  President Pranab Mukherjee on Saturday inaugurated the war monument at Khongjom in Manipur on the occasion of the 125th anniversary of the last battle of independence of the Manipuris against the British army. Manipur Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh explained that the tripod monument, inaugurated by the President, depicts strength, the indomitable spirit and courage of the Manipuris.

Ø  All the radar systems, lighthouses, barracks, ports and airfields that China has set up on its newly built island chain in the South China Sea require tremendous amounts of electricity, which is hard to come by in a place hundreds of miles from the country’s power grid. Beijing may have a solution: floating nuclear power plants. A state-owned company, China Shipbuilding Industry Corp., is planning to build a fleet of the vessels to provide electricity to remote locations including offshore oil platforms and the contentious man-made islands, Global Times reported on Friday. The paper quoted a company executive, Liu Zhengguo, as saying that “demand is pretty strong” for the floating power stations. In January, Xu Dazhe, the director of the China Atomic Energy Authority, told reporters that China was planning to develop floating nuclear energy plant, linking it to China’s desire to become a “maritime power”. China would not be the first country to employ floating nuclear power plants. In the 1960s, the U.S. Army installed a nuclear reactor inside the hull of a World War II freighter to provide electricity for the Panama Canal Zone. And nuclear power has been on vessels since 1955, when the commanding officer of the Nautilus, an American submarine, sent word that the craft was “underway on nuclear power”. Since then, nuclear reactors have provided propulsion, and electrical power, for ships.