Sahakar Pragya
The issue in news
Union Minister unveiled Sahakar Pragya.
Main points
- The 45 new training modules of Sahakar Pragya of the National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC) will impart training to primary cooperative societies in rural areas of the country along with Lakshmanrao Inamdar National Cooperative Research and Development Academy (LINAC).
- Sahakar Pragya is the latest in the series of farmer-focused steps by NCDC.
- These 45 training modules pf Sahakar Pragya to be delivered at LINAC and its countrywide network of Regional Training Centres will address the need for training of primary cooperatives, FPO-cooperatives and self-help groups.
- NCDC had earlier launched various initiatives and programmes like:
- SAHAKAR-22 to develop cooperatives in Focus 222 districts, including aspirational districts
- SAHAKAR MITRA – Scheme on internship programme
- YUVA SAHAKAR – Start-up scheme in cooperatives
- AYUSHMAN SAHAKAR – for the creation of healthcare infrastructure and services
- Desalination Plants
The issue in news
Maharashtra setting up a desalination plant in Mumbai.
Maharashtra will be the fourth state to experiment with Desalination Plants.
Main points
- Desalination is the process of removing salts from water to produce water that meets the quality (salinity) requirements of different human uses. Seawater desalination can extend water supplies beyond what is available from the hydrological cycle, providing an “unlimited”, climate-independent and steady supply of high-quality water.
Desalination Plants:
- A desalination plant turns salt water into water that is fit to drink. An external pressure is applied to push solvents from an area of high solute concentration to an area of low-solute concentration through a semi-permeable membrane.
- The microscopic pores in the membranes allow water molecules through but leave salt and most other impurities behind, releasing clean water from the other side.
- These plants are mostly set up in areas that have access to sea water.
Advantage of Desalination Plants:
- It can extend water supplies beyond what is available from the natural hydrological cycle
- Water desalination plants can also reduce pressure on freshwater supplies coming from over-exploited water resources).
Disadvantage of Desalination Plants:
- Desalination is an expensive way of generating drinking water as it requires a high amount of energy. The other problem is the disposal of the byproduct — highly concentrated brine — of the desalination process. While in most places brine is pumped back into the sea, there have been rising complaints that it ends up severely damaging the local ecology around the plant
- Land-attack Version of BrahMos Missile
Recently, India successfully test-fired a land-attack version of the BrahMos supersonic cruise missile.
Main points
Features of New Land-attack Version:
- The range of the new land-attack version of the missile has been extended to 400 km from the original 290 km but its speed has been maintained at 2.8 Mach or almost three timesthe speed of sound.
- The land-attack version of the missile was test-fired in the Andaman and Nicobar and it was a successful trial.
- BRAHMOS supersonic cruisemissile featuring Indian propulsion system, airframe, power supply, and other major indigenous components has been successfully test-fired.
- BRAHMOS is a joint venture between the Defence Research and Development Organisation of India(DRDO) and the NPOM of Russia.
- It is a two-stage(solid propellant engine in the first stage and liquid ramjet in second) air to surface missile
- Cruise missiles are defined as “an unmanned self-propelled guided vehicle that sustains flight through aerodynamic lift for most of its flight path and whose primary mission is to place an ordnance or special payload on a target.”
- Depending upon the speed, such missiles are classified as Subsonic (around 0.8 Mach), Supersonic (2-3 Mach) and Hypersonic cruise missiles (more than 5 Mach).
- The missile has a flight range upto 290-km. However, India’s entry into the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) has extended the range of the BrahMos missile to reach 450-600 km.
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