• Adding a new dimension to the burgeoning Indo-US strategic partnership, US Navy Ship (USNS) Charles Drew arrived at L&T’s Shipyard at Kattupalli, Chennai for undertaking repairs and allied services.
• This is the first ever repair of a US Navy ship in India. This will give a huge boost to ‘Make in India’ & ‘Aatmanirbharta in Defence sector.
• Ministry of Defence in a statement said that the US Navy had awarded a contract to L&T’s Shipyard at Kattupalli for undertaking maintenance of the ship.
• The event signifies the capabilities of Indian shipyards in the global ship repairing market. Indian shipyards offer wide ranging and cost-effective ship repair and maintenance services, using advanced maritime technology platforms.
• Indian defence exports have seen a massive increase in the last four-five years.
• The exports, which were worth about 1,500 crore rupees in 2015-16, have now grown by 800 per cent to around 13 thousand crore rupees.

• Lithium-powered battery expert N Kalaiselvi has been appointed first woman Director General of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).
• Kalaiselvi, who was heading council lab Central Electrochemical Research Institute, Tamil Nadu, is the first woman chief of the CSIR in the institution’s 80 years of history and will lead a network of 37 national laboratories, 39 outreach centres, three innovation complexes and five units with a pan-India presence.
• The CSIR has 3,460 active scientists supported by 4,350 scientific and technical personnel.
• Kalaiselvi’s area of research interest includes lithium-powered batteries, a key to the achievement of India’s pledge of net zero carbon emissions by 2070 the PM made at the COP26 in Glasgow recently.
• She is expected to lead the transition, with the government mulling changes to the Mines and Minerals Act to permit private players to mine a range of atomic minerals, including lithium.

• The Indian Space Research Organisation Chairman S Somanath has said that the maiden launch of the Small Satellite Launch Vehicle, SSLV failed to place the satellites in the intended orbit due to sensor anomaly.
• SSLV-D1-EOS 02 launched from Sriharikota launch pad had placed the satellites into 356kmX76 kms elliptical orbit instead of 356 km circular orbit. Due to which the two satellites remained unstable and are no longer usable.
• The ISRO Chairman has said the launch vehicle took off majestically at the intended time from the launch pad in Sriharikota. Its propulsion stages, overall hardware, aerodynamic design and new generation electronics, the separation system used for the first time performed very well.
• However, after reaching an altitude of 356 kms there was a failure of logic to identify sensor failure and go for the salvage motion. Hence the launch vehicle developed an anomaly.
• The ISRO Chairman has said that a team of experts will go deeper to find out the reason for this isolation. He emphasised that after a small correction and revalidation, SSLV-D2 will be launched very soon.
• The SSLV was carrying an Indian Earth Observation Satellite EOS-02 weighing 145 kg and AzaadiSat, made by 750 school girls to celebrate the 75 years of independence under SpaceKidz India, weighing 8kg.

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired the seventh meeting of the Governing Council of Niti Aayog at Rashtrapati Bhawan Cultural Centre in the national capital on 7th August 2022.
• This was the first in-person meeting of the Governing Council since July 2019. The agenda of the meeting includes crop diversification and achieving self-sufficiency in oilseeds and pulses and agri-communities; implementation of the National Education Policy-school education; implementation of the National Education Policy-higher education; and urban governance.
• In the drive toward building a steady, sustainable and inclusive India, the seventh governing council meeting of the government think tank Niti Aayog is expected to pave the way for synergies towards a new era of collaboration and cooperation between Centre and states and union territories.
• As part of preparations for this meeting, the National Conference of Chief Secretaries was held in Dharamshala in June 2022 which was the culmination of the six-month-long rigorous exercise by the Centre and States.
• The conference was chaired by the Prime Minister and attended by the Chief Secretaries of all States and UTs, along with senior officials of the Central and State Governments.
• The statement said that the meeting is particularly important as the country enters Amrit Kaal against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic and in light of India hosting the G20 Presidency and summit next year. The meeting would also lay emphasis on the importance of the Presidency for India for the federal system and the role that states can play in highlighting their progress at the G-20 Platform.
• The governing council comprises the Prime Minister of India; Chief Ministers of all the states and union territories with the legislature; Lt Governors of other UTs; Ex-Officio Members; Vice Chairman, NITI Aayog; Full-Time Members, NITI Aayog; and Union Ministers as Special Invitees.
• Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao has boycotted the meeting.

• The National Fertilizers Ltd (NFL) will establish an NFL chair in Chaudhary Sarwan Kumar Agriculture University, Himachal Pradesh (CSKAUHP), at Palampur.
• Nirlep Singh Rai, CMD of NFL, gave this information. He said an MoU would be signed with the CSKAUHP tomorrow at Palampur. The NFL will fund research carried out at its farms by scientists of the CSKAUHP.
• It was the first-of-its-kind MoU being signed by the NFL to fund research in an agriculture university.
• Nirlep Singh said presently, the NFL was producing fertilisers. The company was, however, looking to diversify into other fields in agriculture. The company had already entered the business of selling seeds developed at its farms. NFL is entering into an MoU with the CSKAUHP with an idea that it would help the company develop various varieties of crops, cropping patterns and other technology related to farming that it can further sell in the market.
• Prof HK Chaudhary, VC of the CSKAUHP, said it was common in developed countries that the companies funded research projects in universities. However, it was for the first time in the northern region that a leading public sector undertaking (PSU) would be directly investing in research in a government university.
• The NFL chair would be established in the university after the signing of MoU and the university would soon take up research projects as per the requirements of the PSU.
• Chaudhary further said the university scientists would soon be visiting agriculture farms of the NFL located on the borders of Punjab and Himachal in Una district to start the research projects as specified by the officials of the NFL.

• Education and Art, Language and Culture Minister Govind Singh Thakur said that the seven-day-long international Kullu Dussehra festival will commence from October 5.
• While presiding over a meeting convened for the organization of the festival, he said that for the last two years, Dussehra festival could be celebrated only symbolically due to Covid, but this time Dussehra will be celebrated on a large scale.
• The festival this year would be linked to “Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav”. He asked the district administration to constitute separate committees. He said that the festival souvenir would be published in a new format as it was the pride of the festival and helped preserve the memories of the event. He added that articles of budding writers and historians would be included in the souvenir.
• The leader said that cultural evenings would be organized in the open-air auditorium Kala Kendra.
• He directed communication through the Indian Council for Cultural Relations and Embassies to invite international level artistes for the festival. He said that it was the responsibility of the festival committee to provide opportunities to local artistes in the festival. The artistes should be selected only through auditions.
• Kullu Dussehra is celebrated for seven days after Vijaya Dashami and the speciality of the Kullu Dussehra is the chariot procession of Lord Raghunath.
• The center of festivities of the Kullu Dussehra is the Dhalpur Maidan in Kullu.

HISTORY

• The history of this carnival dates back to the 17th century when the local king, Jagat Singh, installed an idol of Lord Raghunath on his throne on the advice of a Brahmin in order to eradicate his curse, after taking it from Lord Rama’s kingdom, Ayodhya.
• After this, Lord Raghunath was declared as the ruling deity of the valley. According to traditions, a huge statue of the deity is now installed on a beautifully designed chariot, on the first day of the festival, in the presence of other village gods and goddesses.
• The devotees after offering their prayers and respects to the deity take him to different sites across the Dhalpur Maidan.

• George Miller, 75 years and eight months old, became the oldest player to win a medal at the Commonwealth Games when he bagged the mixed pairs Gold in lawn bowls for Scotland.
• It is also the first time that Team Scotland have won the event.
• Born in 1946, Miller was already the oldest member of any Team Scotland squad in history.
• He has beaten the record of Willie Wood who was 72 at his final Games in 2010.

• The first science-Sanskrit film in the history of world cinema, ‘Yanam’ that revolves around India’s successful Mangalyaan mission, is all set to reach audiences in August, 2022.
• The much-awaited science documentary in the classical language, revolving around the success story of India’s historic ‘Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) alias ‘Mangalyaan’, would be premiered before a selected audience on August 21 in Chennai.
• MOM was successfully launched in 2013 by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).
• ISRO Chairman S Somanath would launch the premier in Chennai at a function, which would also be attended by former chairman of the space agency K Radhakrishnan and the present VSSC Director S Unnikrishnan Nair.
• Ravi Kottarakkara, secretary, South Indian film chamber, would also take part in the programme, said national award winning filmmaker Vinod Mankara, who helmed the docu-film.
• He said ‘Yaanam ‘ is based on Radhakrishnan’s book “My Odyssey: Memoirs of the Man Behind the Mangalyaan Mission”.
• The objective of the documentary is to project the potentials of the ISRO and the capabilities of its scientists before the world.
• It explains how the Indian scientists have overcome all the limitations and made the complex Mars mission a huge success in the first attempt itself.
• Mankara said the movie was made with the complete support of the ISRO.
• He said the 45-minute documentary is a complete Sanskrit film by all means as the entire script and dialogues are in the ancient language.
• Majority of the ancient texts of the sub-continent including that of space and astronomy were compiled in Sanskrit.
• Besides screening it for the scientists community and in universities and colleges in the country, the director also plans a global premier of his documentary.
• The 4K digital DTS movie is produced by AV Anoop under the banner AVA Productions.

• Reserve bank of India increased the Repo Rate by 50 basis points to 5.40 percent.
• RBI Governor Shaktikant Das announced the bi-monthly Monetary Policy.
• While announcing the policy, Shaktikant Das said that the Monetary Policy Committee which held a three-day MPC Meeting, unanimously decided to increase the Repo Rate.
• Under Section 45ZB of the amended RBI Act, 1934, the central government is empowered to constitute a six-member Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) to determine the policy interest rate required to achieve the inflation target. The first such MPC was constituted on September 29, 2016.
• Accordingly, Standing Deposit Facility Rate was adjusted to 5.15 percent from 4.65 percent. Marginal Standing Facility Rate and Bank Rate revised to 5.65 percent from 5.15 percent.
• The RBI Governor said that the Repo Rate is now back to pre-pandemic level highest since August 2019.
• He said that the real GDP growth projection for 2022-23 is retained at 7.2 percent with Q1- 16.2 percent, Q2-  6.2 percent, Q3 -4.1 percent, and Q4- 4.0 percent with risks broadly balanced.
• The real GDP growth for the first quarter of the ensuing fiscal year is projected at 7 percent.

• Among the countries that have evinced interest in Tejas, the light combat aircraft (LCA), are the US, Australia, Malaysia, Egypt, Indonesia, Argentina and the Philippines, the Ministry of Defence informed the Lok Sabha in a written reply.
• The single engine plane is manufactured by the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), a defence PSU under the Ministry of Defence.
• In case of Malaysia, the HAL has responded to a Request for Information received from Royal Malaysian Air Force, Malaysia, in February 2019.
• Subsequently, in October 2021 a Request for Proposal was issued against tender by Malaysia 18 jets, the HAL had offered the twin-seater variant, said Ajay Bhatt, Minister of State in the MoD.
• Malaysia is procuring the aircraft to replace its ageing fleet of Russian MiG-29 fighter planes.
• To a separate question on whether the government proposes to manufacture a stealth fighter jet, Minister of State for Defence Ajay Bhatt said “yes” and added the “autonomous flying wing technology demonstrator” has been successfully tested by the DRDO.