World Summit on Accreditation
- Union Human Resources and Development ministry has recently inaugurated world summit on Accreditation.
- The summit is a biennial Summit organised by National Board of Accreditation (NBA).
- The summit provides platform to stakeholders to share their knowledge and information on accreditation.
- NBA has already organised three Summits in 2012, 2014 and 2016.
National Board of Accreditation
- NBA is an autonomous organisation under Ministry of Human Resource Development.
- It engaged in quality assurance of the programs offered by the professional and technical institutions in India through accreditation.
- It has been accorded Permanent Signatory Status of Washington Accord since June, 2014.
- It has adopted internationally implemented outcome-based assessment and accreditation to ensure the graduates are globally competent.
Dawn Mission
- Dawn mission was launched by NASAdeploying spacecrafts to study the asteroid Vesta and dwarf planetCeres.
- It is the only mission ever to orbit two extraterrestrial targets and will characterize the early solar system andthe processes that dominated its formation.
- Vesta and Ceres are celestial bodies believed to have accreted early in the history of the solar system.
- Dawn orbited giant asteroid Vesta for 14 months from 2011 to 2012, then continued on to Ceres, where it hasbeen in orbit since March 2015.
- The spacecraft is likely to run out of a key fuel known as hydrazine which keeps it oriented and in communication with Earth.
Ceres and Vesta
- Ceres is the earliest known and smallest of the dwarf planet.
- It is also the largest object in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.
- Thus Ceres is both dwarf planet and asteroid.
- Vesta is the second most massive body in the asteroid belt, surpassed only by Ceres.
Indo-France Space Relationship
- France has offered India its expertise in space medicine, astronaut health monitoring, life support and radiation protectionfor India’s proposed manned space mission – Gangayaan.
- French space agency (CNES) has already launched human spaceflights in its Proxima mission in 2016.
- The partnership will also allow the French space agency to learn from India’s developments in the field of crew transport.
Wind Power Generation
- India has set an offshore wind power capacity target of 5 GW by 2022 and, 30 GW by 2030.
- As per the estimates of the Institute for Energy Economics & Financial Analysis (IEEFA), both China and India will ride the offshore wind power wave
- India's offshore wind power generation capacity is seen climbing to 30 GW by 2030, on par with China.
- It accounts for 30 per cent of the envisaged capacity of 100 GW in Asian economies.
- The balance capacities will be contributed by South Korea , Japan, Taiwan and the rest to be added up jointly by Indonesia, Philippines and Vietnam.
Source: PIB, Business Standard