9 August 2013 Current Affairs
Indian Physicist To Head Innovation Chair At New York University
On 9 August India-born distinguished experimental physicist, Dr Katepalli Sreenivasan, has been appointed to the Kleiner Chair for Innovation in Mechanical Engineering at the New York University (NYU). Sreenivasan, who currently serves at the Polytechnic Institute of NYU as dean of engineering and is known for his research on the behaviour of fluids and turbulence.The endowed chair, named in honour of Eugene Kleiner, co-founder of Fairchild Semiconductor, the world’s first computer chip producer, was given to Sreenivasan by NYU Provost David McLaughlin.
Indian-American Teens Win World Geography Championship
Three Indian American teens who represented the United States at the 11th National Geographic World Championship won the top prize defeating 17 other teams. Team captain Gopi Ramanathan from Sartell, Minnesota; along with Asha Jain from Minocqua, Wisconsin; and Neelam Kaur Sandhu from Bedford, New Hampshire , edged past Canada, which came in second.They also beat 3rd-place India in a tense tiebreaker round, according to the National Geographic website.
‘INS Arihant ‘ Nuclear Reactor Activated
On 9 August India has activated the reactor on board the ‘INS Arihant ‘ nuclear submarine, the first to be designed and built in India.With this success, India became a member of the exclusive club of countries that have built their own nuclear powered submarines along with Russia, US, UK, China and France.After the nuclear reactor is activated, INS Arihant has been undergoing trials at Navy’s key submarine base in Vishakhapatnam (Andhra Pradesh) and would be launched for sea trials soon since the nuclear reactor has gone critical.Nuclear triad has the ability to fire nuclear-tipped missiles from land, air and sea.Arihant means destroyer of enemies in Sanskrit is an Indian submarine, which is 111 meter long, 11 broad and 15 meter tall.The 6,000 tonne vessel was built under the Advanced Technology Vessel (ATV) project at the Ship Building Centre in Visakhapatnam ,at a cost of around Rs 15,000 crore .INS Arihant, was introduced to the public on 26 July 2009 at a symbolic launch ceremony by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s wife Gursharan Kaur.India operates the INS Chakra, which is an Akula II class submarine leased from Russia for ten years and has plans of building two more nuclear submarines indigenously.
Saudi King Pledges $100 Million To UN Counter-Terrorism Centre
On 9 August King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz announced that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia donated $100 million to the UN Counter-Terrorism Centre (UNCCT).In 2011, Saudi Arabia signed an agreement with the United Nations to create the UNCCT and donated $10 million to its establishment.
Cabinet Approved Proposal For Establishing ‘New Media Wing’
On 9 August the Union Cabinet approved the proposal for establishing a ‘New Media Wing’ in the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting for publicizing government’s initiatives through multiple social media platforms.The proposal for establishment of New Media Wing has been drawn on the basis of the experience of the initiative undertaken by the Ministry recently, on a pilot basis to position itself on the social media platforms such as Youtube, facebook and Twitter.
Number Of ‘ PhDs ‘ Increasing In India
On 9 August According to figures compiled by the University Grants Commission ( UGC) ,An increasing number of Indians are being awarded research degrees though the nation still lags behind countries like the US and China.The number of research degrees awarded increased by over 50 percent from 10,781 in 2008-09 to 16,093 in 2011-12. As per data compiled by Unesco Institute of Statistics, India’s contribution to world’s research publications has increased from 26,000 in 2002 to 44,000 in 2007.This, however, is far behind nations like the US and China.As per a paper published by the Yale University, the number of students to get PhDs in the US was 41,464 in 2007, while China had 48,112 PhDs in the same year.