Daily Current Events – 02.03.17

NATIONAL

1. Supersonic Prithvi interceptor missile successfully test-fired

• The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) on Wednesday successfully tested an interceptor missile, further validating the reliability of the under development, two-layered Ballistic Missile Defence (BMD) in shooting down enemy missiles.

• The BMD consists of two interceptor missiles, the Prithvi Defence Vehicle (PDV) for exo-atmospheric ranges and the Advanced Area Defence (AAD) missile for endo-atmosphere or lower altitudes.

• The DRDO expects deployment of BMD shield by 2022. India will be fourth country in the world after the US, Russia and Israel to successfully built effective anti-ballistic missile system.

        What is anti-ballistic missile

• An anti-ballistic missile (ABM) is a surface-to-air missile designed to counter ballistic missiles Ballistic missiles are used to deliver nuclear, chemical, biological or conventional warheads in a ballistic flight trajectory

         Integrated Guided Missile Development Program

• The Integrated Guided Missile Development Program (IGMDP) was a Ministry of Defence (India) programme for the research and development of a comprehensive range of missiles. The program was managed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO)

• Short range surface-to-surface missile (code-named Prithvi)

Short range low-level surface-to-air missile (code-named Trishul)

Medium range surface-to-air missile (code-named Akash) and

Third-generation anti-tank missile (code-named Nag).

1. Thiruvananthapuram tops city governance ranking: ASICS

• Thiruvananthapuram, capital of Kerala has topped in city governance ranking of the Annual Survey of India’s City Systems (ASICS) 2016 conducted by Janaagraha Centre for Citizenship and Democracy. This year it was the fourth edition the annual survey which had evaluated 21 major cities from the 18 states. It highlighted inadequacies in urban governance that could affect public service delivery and quality of life.

• The ASICS is designed to help city leaders pin point issues in urban governance in their cities and help them chalk out a reform roadmap to make them more livable. It ranks citites in the scale of 0 to 10 scale. Thiruvananthapuram topped in 2016 Survey. Pune is ranked second, up two ranks from 2015. Kolkata retained its third slot. Delhi ranked 9th and Mumbai ranked 4th.

Jaipur (Rank -20)improved its scores because of the Rajasthan Urban Land (Certification of Titles) Bill that enabled better urban land                         utilization.

RAJASTHAN

1. Rajasthan 2nd largest crude oil producer in country.

• Rajasthan has become the second largest crude oil producer in the country after the offshore field Bombay High, Governor Kalyan Singh said in the Assembly today, highlighting the achievements of the state government.

• Delivering his speech on the first day of the Budget Session, Singh said oilfields in the state were producing nearly 90 lakh tones oil annually, which is 24 per cent of the total domestic crude oil production.