ISRO will receive assistance from the French space agencyCNES, with respect to training of Flight surgeons and long term activities on bioastronautics, combined development and experiments in space medicine area.
Discussions are in with Russia in the areas of environmental control and life support system and part of the crew selection and training.
Plan to make use of Nuclear Wastes
The nuclear waste produced as a byproduct of nuclear energy generation is highly radioactive and extremely dangerous for the environment and human populations.
Nuclear waste is recyclable, once reactor fuel (uranium or thorium) used in a reactor, it can be treated and put into another reactor as fuel.
There are many Nuclear Fuel cycles for recycling and India has adopted “Closed fuel cycle”.
This cycle aims at reprocessing of spent fuel for recovery of Uranium and Plutonium and recycling them back to reactor as fuel.
High level radioactive waste also contains many useful isotopes like Caesium-137, Strontium-90, Ruthenium-106 etc.
With the advent of new technologies, emphasis is accorded to separation and recovery of these useful radio-isotopes so as to make use of the waste for various societal applications.
Using this kind of fuel cycle, the nuclear power can truly be considered sustainable.
The nuclear waste management practices are at par with international practices following the guidelines of ‘International Atomic Energy Agency’.
The legacy of Maharaja Ranjit Singh
A Statue of Ranjit Singh, who ruled Punjab for almost four decades (1801-39), was recently inaugurated in Lahore.
He is Known as the Sher-e-Punjab (Lion of Punjab).
The statue has his favourite horse named Kahar Bahar, a gift from Dost Muhammad Khan, the founder of the Barakzai dynasty.
Earlier Punjab was ruled by powerful chieftains who had divided the territory into Misls.
Ranjit Singh overthrew the warring Misls and established a unified Sikh empire after he conquered Lahore in 1799.
He brought unity and welded together warring states.
He combined the strong points of the traditional Khalsa army with western advances in warfare to raise Asia’s most powerful indigenous army of that time.
The boundaries of his empire went up to Ladakh in the northeast, Khyber pass in the northwest, and up to Panjnad in the south.
Both Hindus and Muslims were given powerful positions in his darbar.
He turned Harimandir Sahib at Amritsar into the Golden Temple by covering it with gold.
His general Hari Singh Nalwa built the Fort of Jamrud at the mouth of the Khyber Pass, the route the foreign rulers took to invade India.
He amassed huge wealth and was also in possession of the Koh-i-Noor diamond.
In his will, Ranjit Singh gave it to Jagannath Temple in Puri, which was administered by the East India Company.
