4 DECEMBER 2014: India joins TMT in Hawai @ Rs1299Crore

Ø  The Times Higher Education BRICS & Emerging Economies Rankings 2015, covering 18 countries , has placed China on top with 27 universities in the top 100. India now has four universities in the top 40 – IISc, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay, IIT Roorkee and Punjab University, Chandigarh – and seven more in the top 100. Punjab University, ranked 13th last year, however, has fallen to 39th in the rankings. China’s Peking University and Tsinghua University occupy the first and second positions. Taiwan is the next best represented country in the list published.

Ø  India, backed by the United States, opposed a U.N. General Assembly (UNGA) resolution calling on New Delhi to voluntarily abandon its nuclear weapons. The resolution, which also targeted Israel and Pakistan. The U.S. joined India to vote against a key part of the resolution on achieving a nuclear weapons-free world that called on India, Israel and Pakistan to immediately and unconditionally accede to the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty and put all their nuclear facilities under International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards. This clause would require the three countries to give up such weapons and the ability to manufacture them. Israel and Pakistan also voted against the provision, while France, Britain and Bhutan abstained from voting. It was passed with 165 votes in the 193-member UNGA. 

30 Metre Telescope

Ø  Union Science and Technology Minister Harsh Vardhan signed a multilateral agreement admitting India’s participation in the development of the Thirty-Metre Telescope (TMT) in Hawaii. The Cabinet rapidly cleared the project and India has agreed to spend Rs.1299.8 crore on it over the next decade. Besides learning about the universe, India will gain the technology to manufacture fine aspherical mirror segments from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). This technology, say experts, will form the basis of the next generation of spy satellites. TMT will contain 492 hexagonal mirror segments of 82 different kinds. These will behave like a single mirror with an aperture of 30-metre diameter. This large collecting area of 650 square metres is thrice as sensitive as the Hubble Space Telescope. India’s role will primarily be to create the control systems and software that keep the mirrors aligned and collect the data. The control system is an intricate process involving edge sensors that detect the mutual displacement of mirrors, actuators to correct their alignment, and the segment support assembly. These will be manufactured by General Optics (Asia) in Puducherry, Avasarala Technologies and Godrej in Bengaluru respectively. G.C. Anupama of the Indian Institute of Astrophysics explained that India would also manufacture 100 aspherical mirror segments in Hoskote near Bengaluru. “These thin glass slabs made in Japan have minimal expansion when heated. We will apply a protective layer and a reflective coating using technology from Caltech,” The telescope is expected to be ready by 2024. Institutions from the United States, Canada, Japan and China are also participating in the construction of the world’s largest telescope on Mount Mauna Kea. This telescope, 4207 metres above sea level, may cost more than $1.47 billion.

Ø  India has marginally improved its ranking on the global Corruption Perception Index this year, on the back of prosecutions of high-level officials and hope that the new leadership will reduce corruption, Transparency International said. India’s two-point improvement (on a total possible score of 100) did not count as a “significant change” unlike that in countries such as Egypt, Jordan and Afghanistan. With a score of 36, India now ranks 85 among 175 countries, with countries such as Sri Lanka, Thailand and Burkina Faso for company. Denmark ranks first, as it did in 2013, while Somalia and North Korea share the bottom spot. India ranks better than all its South Asian neighbours, except Bhutan. The composite index is made up of a combination of surveys and assessments of public sector corruption by international agencies including the World Bank and the World Economic Forum. Of the nine surveys and assessments used for India, most relied on expert opinion on the extent of corruption and the rule of law and only one polled the general public.

Ø  GSAT-16, the communications satellite being put in orbit for ISRO from French Guiana, on December 5, will significantly improve the national space capacity with 48 transponders. The addition is important as GSAT-16 comes 11 months after the last Indian communication satellite GSAT-14 was flown in January this year. In fact, this launch was advanced by about six months to meet user needs, ISRO Chairman, K.Radhakrishnan, noted ahead of the launch. This is also the highest number of transponders packed into an Indian spacecraft so far.