Indian Armed Forces at a glance

The Achievements of ISRO By: Kartikeya Semwal ISRO (Indian Space research Organization) doesn’t needs any introduction. Till date ISRO has successfully launched many satellites in the earth’s orbit. Today we will discuss some of its major achievements which have made it a leading space organization in the world. ISRO recently launched 104 satellites in a single launch using its PSLV-C37 rocket. Of the 104 satellites, India owned CARTOSAT-2 & 2 other Nano satellites while the remaining 101 were 1 each from UAE, Netherland, Kazakhstan, Israel, Switzerland and 96 from USA. ISRO’s big success stories started from October 2008 when it launched its first Moon Mission ‘Chandrayan-1’ successfully. The mission lasted 312 days and ended in August 2009. It mapped the moon’s surface and discovered water on it in the form of condensed ice.  In November 2013, ISRO launched ‘Mangalyaan’ or Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM). This made it only the world’s 4 th space agency acros...

The Paris Agreement & its Importance By: Kartikeya Semwal The Paris Agreement also known as ‘Paris Climate Change Agreement’ or the ‘Paris Climate Change Accord’ is an agreement under the UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) which will deal with greenhouse gas emissions by the year 2020. Till June 2017, 195 countries have signed it and 153 of them have ratified it.  Under the agreement, each signatory country will determine, plan and report its contribution in reducing the greenhouse gas emissions to in turn reduce global warming and rise in global temperature. USA is the only country that has not signed the agreement due to its aggressive industrial policy.  The Paris Agreement aims at keeping the global temperature rise in this century to below 2 degree Celsius. The agreement also aims to strengthen and improve the ability of all signatory countries to effectively deal with the impacts of climate change. To achieve this goal, the ...

Why India needs Israel & US? By: Kartikeya Semwal India, a developing nation moving forward to become a developed one; shares its borders with 2 nations that are considered as threat to its sovereignty- namely China and Pakistan. Throughout the time, India faces a threat of fighting a two-front war on any given day with its twin neighbors. In order to deal with them effectively, India needs help of Israel and US in terms of weapons and technologically superior defense systems; that will help it to win the war. Israel has recently signed a deal with India to provide it with its latest Barak-8 missile defense system and armed UAV Heron TP. Israel will also provide India with close to 800 anti-tank missiles named ‘Spike’. Already, India is using AWACS early warning airborne missile defense system to guard its borders.  US is equally important for providing high tech weapons and systems for India. US has already provided C-130J Super Hercules transport aircraft and w...

Importance of Russian Friendship for India By: Kartikeya Semwal Russia has been a friendly neighbor of India for decades; and ever since President Vladimir Putin took over, Indo-Russian friendship has reached new heights. Russian friendship is of great importance for India for multiple reasons, some of which have been described below:- 1  1.   Strong defense ties- Russia has been providing weapons for Indian armed forces for ages. The army has T-72 and T-90S tanks, the navy has Mig-29K fighters and the air-force has the Mig-21, 23, 27 and Sukhoi-30 MKI fighters. The two countries have also jointly developed the world’s only supersonic cruise missile BRAHMOS. Russia also provides licensed manufacturing of certain weapons to India to fulfill its requirements on time. In case of war with China, Russia has also promised India unconditional support, a big deal of a kind.                         ...

One Nation One Tax: GST, India By: Kartikeya Semwal Till date, India had different types of taxes for different things; and people had to pay them in order to purchase and use various products and services across India. Some of those taxes include Service tax, Excise Duty, VAT (Value Added Tax), Customs Duty, STT (Securities Transaction Tax), Stamp Duty, House tax, Water tax, Entertainment tax, etc. But now all these taxes will be gone and will be replaced by one single tax called ‘GST’ (Goods & Services Tax). The GST has been implemented in India from 1 July 2017 onwards, through the 101 st Constitutional Amendment Act 2017.  The GST will be governed by the GST Council with India’s Finance Minister Arun Jaitley as its chairman. The GST will be divided under various categories of goods and services; and its rates will be in 5 slabs of 0%, 5%, 12%, 18% and 28% accordingly. There will be a special rate of 3% on gold and gold jewellery.  There will be 3 kinds of ...

Future of Air India By: Kartikeya Semwal Air India the country’s national carrier is in news these days due to its ailing condition. The national airline has a huge debt of Rs. 52,000 crore and is currently running due to government funding of Rs. 30,000 crore. Now the Indian government has decided to sell its stake in the airlines by privatizing it. The idea is good but the question is- who will buy Air India and pay off its huge debt? And who has the guts and enough finances to revive its economic condition? Though the answers to those two questions aren’t clear yet but Indigo, a private airlines and Ratan Tata have shown interest in buying Air India. The next question comes- Why would anyone buy the national carrier? The answer is simple- Air India has daily flights to 72 national and 41 international destinations. It has a fleet of 140 planes of which many are new. Air India has prime properties in form of offices in Delhi and Mumbai which are priced at 16,000 crore. It a...

Dealing with Wannacry Ransomeware        By: Kartikeya Semwal Countries all over the world got a shock in May 2017 when an unknown group of hackers attacked computers all over the world with a worm called “Wannacry Ransomeware”. It is a crypto worm that attacks computers running on Microsoft Operating System, by encrypting the data present in the computers and locks them, asking for password to unlock it. The password is present with the hackers only, who then demand money in ransome in Bitcoins in exchange of providing password to unlock the computer. This cyber-attack took place from 12 to 15 May 2017 and infected 3,00,000 computers and 2,00,000 people across 100 countries. Its impact was huge as most of the people were using various new versions of Windows such as 7, 8.1, 10, Windows Servers 2008, 2012, 2016 and Windows Vista. “Wannacry Ransomeware” used the computers’ ‘Eternal Vulnerability’ to spread itself.   Surprisingl...