6 DECEMBER 2014: NASA orion space capsule experiment successful

Ø  Ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s election rally in Srinagar and Anantnag , four separate militant attacks rocked the Kashmir Valley. In the most serious attack of the day, six militants stormed an Army camp at Uri, 20 km from the Line of Control, around 3 a.m. In the ensuing gun battle, eight soldiers, including a Lieutenant-Colonel, three Jammu and Kashmir policemen and all the six militants were killed.

Ø  Responding to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s request to World Bank President Jim Yong Kim, a team of World Bank Group experts is currently in India to suggest key reforms and support India’s efforts to improve its business environment. Mr. Modi is particularly concerned about India’s ‘Doing Business’ ranking that is at an abysmally low 142 among 189 countries ranked, down from 140 last year. Improving India’s ranking is essential to the success of the Prime Minister’s pet project “Make in India” and improving investor sentiment in India. The team, comprising experts from the World Bank Group’s Trade & Competitiveness Practice, will suggest changes in commercial legislation — at local, State and national levels — so that the government can undertake reform.

Ø  With the Maldivian capital facing water crisis after a fire in the city’s water treat-ment plant, India has sent a large consignment of water on an IAF aircraft & naval vessels.

Ø  Prime Minister Narendra Modi has convened a meeting of all Chief Ministers to seek their views on restructuring the Planning Commission so that it will remain relevant for another “five decades.” This information was provided to the Lok Sabha by Mr. Modi himself during the Question Hour in a surprise intervention made in the wake of continuing criticism over his absence from Parliament. According to Mr. Modi, there have been wide-ranging deliberations within the Commission itself for sometime on making the institution more in tune with the changing requirements of the nation. “We are just taking this forward,” he said, adding that a large number of experts were being consulted.

Ø  Cabinet Secretary Ajit Seth has been given a further six-month extension in service. He was due to retire on December 13. The Narendra Modi-led Appointments Committee of Cabinet approved the extension in service to Mr. Seth, according to an official release. Mr. Seth, a 1974 batch IAS officer of the U.P. cadre and the senior-most serving bureaucrat in the country, was appointed the Cabinet Secretary by the UPA government in June 2011 for a two-year tenure. His term was extended for one year by the then Manmohan Singh government and the BJP-led Modi government, which came to power in May this year, also extended his tenure by six months.

Orion Space Capsule

Ø  NASA's unmanned Orion space capsule splashed down in the Pacific Ocean off Baja California following its first flight test, the US space agency said. NASA had to postpone an initial launch a day before after a boat entered the launch area, strong winds forced automatic aborts, and two valves failed to close properly. Friday’s launch went smoothly, and cameras mounted on the rocket beamed back stunning pictures of the Earth as Orion blasted into the sky. The mission could have huge implications, despite its brief four-and-a-half-hour duration. Orion will fly farther than any spacecraft made for astronauts has in decades, about 5,800 km above the Earth’s surface, and is a test case for a capsule that NASA hopes will one day land on Mars. As its second orbit comes closer to the planet, the Orion capsule will separate and re-enter the atmosphere, eventually splashing down into the Pacific off the coast of southern California, from where it will be recovered. The mission will test how Orion fares in the extreme conditions of space travel. NASA has designed the capsule to take up to six astronauts into deep space, and its 16ft-wide heat shield and sophisticated service module are among the features whose durability will be inspected upon return. The capsule must not only survive launch and orbit, but temperatures of about 2,200C as it returns through Earth’s atmosphere. NASA will also test an emergency abort function developed to save astronauts in the event of a malfunction during launch. NASA has planned a second unmanned flight for 2018, and a manned mission to travel around the moon for the 2020s. Eventually, the agency hopes to send astronauts on an Orion mission through deep space to an asteroid and Mars in the 2030s.

Ø  China is looking towards India for establishing an “Indo-Pacific era,” based on shared interests in developing new routes to Europe, and avoiding the “Asia Pivot” doctrine of the United States. People’s Daily , the official newspaper of the Chinese government is running a commentary that analyses India’s “Look East,” and now “Act East” foreign policy that is being steered by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Ø  The 1962 Nobel Prize medal won by biologist James Watson for the discovery of the structure of DNA has fetched more than $4.7 million, setting a world record for any Nobel Prize sold at auction. The medal was sold to an anonymous telephone bidder for a record-setting price of $4,757,000, marking the first time a living Nobel laureate sold his gold medal.