Amid Vikram lull, MOM completes 5 yrs around Mars:

• Martian Orbit for Isro`s Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM), bringing subdued cheer at the space agency, amid a lull caused by an unsuccessful attempt at soft-landing Vikram, Chandrayaan-2`s lander on Moon.
• MOM was designed for just six months around Mars its long life a feat for Isro, which had failed to achieve to Chandrayaan-1, its first mission to Moon, in 2008.
• 2.5 Martian Years
• MOM had completed five Earth years around Mars it only amounts to two-and-a-half Martian years.The Mars actually take more than the double of 365.

Google to launch AI Research Lab in Bengaluru:

Google Pay has grown more than three times to 67 million monthly active users, driving transactions worth over $110 billion on an annualized basis across offline and online merchants.

The two-thirds of the transactions are coming from tier-II and -III cities and towns.

Google Pay competes with players like Paytm and PhonePe is introducing the Spot platform that will enable merchants to create branded commercial experiences and reach new customers.

Google already onboarded merchants like UrbanClap, Goibibo, MakeMyTrip, RedBus, Eat.Fit and Oven Story through its early access programme.

Google Pay is also rolling out tokenized cards in the next few weeks to offer a secure way of paying for things using a digital token on the phone rather than the actual card number. 

This is a free app for small and medium-sized merchants to enable digital payments where verification process is carried out remotely. The massive growth in digital payments, a vast majority of India’s over 60 million small businesses is still not benefiting from the growing digital economy.Google launched Jobs as a Spot on Google Pay to help job seekers find and prepare for entry-level positions.

Google is also introducing Job Spot with 24 early partners in retail like 24 Seven and Healthkart, delivery and logistics partners like Swiggy, Zomato and Dunzo and hospitality providers like Fabhotels.

He is partnering with the National Skills Development Corporation for its Skill India programme.

The partnering state-run BSNL to bring high-speed public WiFi to villages in Gujarat, Bihar and Maharashtra.

Vodafone Idea for ‘Vodafone-Idea Phone Line’ to enable 2G customers of the telecom major get access to information without using data. 

The users can call a toll-free number to get answers to questions ranging from sports scores to traffic conditions or even getting help with homework.

The service, supported by Google Assistant will be available in Hindi and English.

First-ever arrested landing of LCA Tejas successfully executed by DRDO, ADA:

The first ever arrested landing of the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas was successfully executed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation(DRDO) and Aeronautical Development agency(ADO) of DRDO at INS Hansa, Goa at a shore based facility centre. This achievement would pave way to take up aircraft carrier landing demonstration on Indian Naval Aircraft Carrier, INS (Indian Naval Ship) Vikramaditya.First-ever arrested landing of LCA Tejas successfully

Key points:

i. LCA(navy): It is the naval version of Tejas after it was developed for Indian Air Force(IAF). The arrested landing of the naval version of the LCA would be test on INS vikramaditya. INS vikrant which is also known as Indigenous Aircraft Carrier 1(IAC-1) will be delivered to the Indian Navy(IN) in 2021 and would also feature LCA on its board.

ii. Flight test team: Commander JA Maolankar (Chief Test Pilot), Captain Shivnath Dahiya, Landing Safety Officer(LSO) and Commander J D Raturi (Test Director) successfully executed the arrested landing after years of flight testing and 4 dedicated campaign tests.

iii. Makers involved: ADA, DRDO, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited-Air Research and Development Command(HAL-ARDC), CSIR(Council of Scientific and Industrial Research) labs.

About DRDO:

Headquarters- New Delhi.

Minister responsible- Rajnath Singh (Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh).

Chairman- G.Satheesh Reddy.

Oscars of science awarded to Event Horizon Telescope Team: 

The Event Horizon Telescope Team consists of 347 scientists produced the world first image of a black hole. They were felicitated with breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics. The prize is known as the Oscars of science with prize money $3 million. The team published the image of black hole circled by a flame-orange halo of white-hot plasma on the Messier 87 (M87) galaxy.

Directed by Shep Doelman at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, the team spent over a decade simulating an Earth-sized computational telescope that combined the signals received by eight radio telescopes working in pairs around the world with their sights trained on the Messier 87 (M87) galaxy, 55 million light-years away.

Through this technique, they were able to achieve an unprecedented resolution and observe the black hole`s silhouette for the first time in history, confirming theoretical predictions about these celestial objects.

The event horizon of a black hole is the point at which its gravitational effects are strong that light cannot escape its pull.

The Breakthrough Prize was launched by Silicon Valley entrepreneurs to recognize and reward the world`s top scientists.

They will be recognized at a gala awards ceremony on November 3, at NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California.

Chandrayaan 2 Lander has been located in Moon:

Chandrayaan-2`s Lander module Vikram has been located on the lunar surface. The Lander was located by the image sent captured by the on-board camera of Chandrayaan-2 orbiter. The image also showed that rover Pragyan is housed inside it. The Indian space agency also said the data that was received is being analyzed.

Orbiter:

The camera of the orbiter has the highest resolution camera of 0.3m in any lunar mission so far. It is expected that it will provide high-resolution images which will be immensely useful to the global scientific community. 

The orbiter has 8 payloads to map the lunar surface and study the outer atmosphere of the Moon. The payloads of the Orbiter will conduct remote-sensing observations from a 100 km orbit.

BHEL commissions 1,320 MW thermal plant in Jharsuguda, Odisha:

Govt.of India owned state run engineering firm Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) announced commissioning of 1320 MegaWatt(MW) power project in Ib Thermal Power Station(ITPS) in Odisha’s Jharsuguda district. This generated power will be supplied to Grid Corporation of Odisha(GRIDCO).

Key points:

The project is owned by Odisha Power Generation Corporation Limited (OPGC), which is a joint venture company between govt. Of Odisha and AES(Applied Energy Services), a United States(US) based energy company.

DRDO successfully test fires indigenous MP-ATGM in Kurnool, Andhra Pradesh:

Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) successfully flight tested indigenously developed low weight, fire-and-forget Man Portable Anti Tank Guided Missile (MP-ATGM) from a firing range in Kurnool, Andhra Pradesh.DRDO successfully test fires indigenous MP-ATGM in Kurnool. It was the third successful test-firing of the 100% indigenous ATGM, developed for the infantry battalions of the Indian Army.

The missile, incorporated with state-of-the-art Infrared Imaging Seeker along with advanced avionics, was launched from a man-portable tripod launcher and it hit the target of mimicking a functional tank in top attack mode and destroyed it with precision.

First-ever arrested landing of LCA Tejas successfully executed by DRDO, ADA:

The first ever arrested landing of the Light Combat Aircraft(LCA) Tejas was successfully executed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation(DRDO) and Aeronautical Development agency(ADO) of DRDO at INS Hansa, Goa at a shore based facility centre. This achievement would pave way to take up aircraft carrier landing demonstration on Indian Naval Aircraft Carrier, INS (Indian Naval Ship) Vikramaditya.First-ever arrested landing of LCA Tejas successfully

Key points

i. LCA(navy): It is the naval version of Tejas after it was developed for Indian Air Force(IAF). The arrested landing of the naval version of the LCA would be test on INS vikramaditya. INS vikrant which is also known as Indigenous Aircraft Carrier 1(IAC-1) will be delivered to the Indian Navy(IN) in 2021 and would also feature LCA on its board.

ii. Flight test team: Commander JA Maolankar (Chief Test Pilot), Captain Shivnath Dahiya, Landing Safety Officer(LSO) and Commander J D Raturi (Test Director) successfully executed the arrested landing after years of flight testing and 4 dedicated campaign tests.

iii. Makers involved: ADA, DRDO, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited-Air Research and Development Command(HAL-ARDC), CSIR(Council of Scientific and Industrial Research) labs.

About DRDO:

Headquarters- New Delhi.

Minister responsible- Rajnath Singh (Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh).

Chairman- G.Satheesh Reddy.

Yutu 2 found gel like substance in the far side of Moon:

• Iranian Army unveiled a high-precision jet-propelled drone called Kian.The capacity of carrying long-time surveillance missions and attack the targets far from the country’s borders.
• The unmanned military drone developed in two models.It was developed by Iranian technicians of the Army.
• The tensions between Iran and the United States President Donald Trump in 2018 withdrew the US from the Iran nuclear deal -2015 and reimposed sanctions on Iran.
• The new home-grown air defense system called Bavar-373.The US withdrew from the Joint.
• Comprehensive Plan of Action, an agreement on Iran’s nuclear program reached in July 2015 . 
• Iran, the P5+1 (the 5 Permanent members of the United Nations Security Council-China, France, Russia, United Kingdom, United States + Germany) and the European Union.

ESA and NASA partners for asteroid deflection:

The European space agency (ESA) has announced its plan to partner with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to stop asteroids hitting Earth. The teams from both the space agencies will meet in Rome in the month of September. The teams will discuss to deflect the potentially threatening asteroids away from colliding with the planet. 

In the meet, Asteroid researchers and spacecraft engineers are to propose the Asteroid Impact Deflection Assessment (AIDA) which is a viable method of planetary defence. according to the ambitious technique, one spacecraft will be sent to hit an asteroid and another will be sent out to obverse and gather data from the crash site.

Collision Mission:

• The asteroid researchers aim for the smaller body of the double Didymos asteroids between Earth and Mars.
• For this purpose, NASA is building the Double Asteroid Impact Test, or Dart spacecraft, which has been scheduled to launch in 2021. DART will reach its target at 6.6 km/s in September 2022. 
• DART will be accompanied by an Italian-made miniature CubeSat called LICIACube. This will travel alongside to capture the moment of impact.
• On the other hand, ESA`s HERA will perform a detailed measurement of the asteroid`s size and the crater shape. By this study, the researchers can figure out whether the technique can be used against a real threat. The mission has been planned to be launched in October 2024.

Reliance Jio launches wired broadband starting at ?699

Mukesh Ambani`s Jio announced the launch of its fiber-based broadband service, offering minimum internet speed of 100 Mbps for ?699 a month, a rate 35-45 per second.

Jio Fiber will offer free voice calling anywhere in the country, unlimited data and video conferencing.

Jio Fiber - Plans and Advantages

• The annual subscribers will get 4K set top box, for streaming TV channels, free while a 4K television set would be complementary with plans with higher payouts such as `Gold`.
• The company announced complementary high definition set-top box and an advanced modem Jio Home Gateway, zero-latency gaming and device security of up to five devices in all the plans priced between ?699 to ?8,499 per month.
• The Device Security, Home Networking, VR Experience, Video Content services, provided by RCITPL (a platform service company) and TV Video Calling & Conferencing, subscribers need to purchase compatible devices.
• They offer complementary television sets to annual subscribers of broadband plans in the range of ?2,499 to ?8,499. The company is offering television set on two-year subscription of gold plan priced at ?1,299 per month.
• The launch of Jio Fiber, with its revolutionary services is just the beginning of a new and exciting journey. The company announced the launch of the service across 1,600 cities.
• Reliance Jio, Mukesh Ambani`s vehicle for re-entry into the telecom space, had three years back begun mobile services, offering free voice calling and data. That got millions hooked on to his network which started charging for internet data usages from April 1, 2017, while voice calls continue to remain free.
• Jio 3.5 lakh crore investment in 4G telecom services coupled with aggressive pricing had unleashed intense competition in the market that forced rivals to either fold up or merge to better compete with it.
• Currently, the average fixed-line broadband speed in India is 25 Mbps. Even in America, which is the most developed economy, it is around 90 Mbps. Jio Fiber, India`s first 100 per cent all-fiber broadband service, will start from 100 Mbps and go all the way up to 1 Gbps. This will propel India to top 5 broadband nations globally.
• Jio Fiber customers subscribing to ?699 plan will get three-month complimentary access Jio Cinema and Jio Saavn app and ?849 plan subscriber will get three-month access to video entertainment apps. The customers opting for Jio Fiber will need to pay ?1,000 installation charges and ?1,500 refundable fee.
• BSNL tops fixed line broadband service segment with 9.05 million customers. It is followed by Bharti Airtel with 2.4 million customers, Atria Convergence Technologies 1.45 million, Reliance Jio`s subsidiary Hathway Cable & Datacom 0.84 million and MTNL 0.74 million.

Jio Fibre Bronze plan:

1) Jio Fibre ?699 per month basic plan will offer a minimum speed of 100 megabit per second.

2) The plan offers a data cap of 100 GB plus 50 GB extra.

3) Jio Fiber customers subscribing to ?699 plan will get three month complimentary access to Jio Cinema and Jio Saavn.

4) You will be required to make a one-time payment of ?2,500 which comprises ?1,500 security deposit and ?1,000 non-refundable installation.

5) Reliance Jio will also provide high definition set-top box, router, free voice calling anywhere in India, television-based video calling and conferencing service, along with ?699 Jio Fibre Bronze plan.

6) The company will also provide zero-latency gaming and device security of up to five devices in all the plans ranging between ?699 and ?8,499.