4. IOC, BPCL, HPCL Sign Agreement to set World’s Largest Refinery.
The Public Sector Oil Marketing Companies, Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum has have signed the joint venture agreement to jointly set up the world’s largest refinery and petrochemical complex in Ratnagiri district of Maharashtra.
Key Highlights:
ü Indian Oil Corp (IOC) will hold 50% stake and the Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL) and Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL) will each hold a stake of 25% each in the new complex.
ü The refinery is expected to be set up at an estimated cost of Rs 3 lakh crore. The new complex is expected to be completed by 2022. The new complex will have a 60 million tonnes refining capacity. The complex would come up at Babulwadi, Rajapur in Ratnagiri district of Maharashtra located very close to the West coast. Being on the West coast will be helpful in easily sourcing the crude oil from the Middle-East, Africa and South America.
ü The refinery complex will have three crude units of 20 million tonnes each. The refinery will produce petrol, diesel, LPG, ATF and feedstock for making petrochemical.
ü The refinery complex will have an accompanying mega petrochemical plant which will include an aromatic complex, naphtha cracker and polymer complex.
5.DRDO Successfully Test-fires anti-Tank Nag Missile.
The anti-tank Nag missile is one of the five missile systems developed by the Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO) under the integrated guided missile development programme (IGMDP). The four other missiles developed under this programme include Agni, Akash, Trishul and Prithvi.
The Nag missile is a third generation anti-tank guided missile which works on “fire and forget” principle. The anti-tank Nag missile has been equipped with the highly advanced Imaging Infrared Radar (IRR) seeker along with integrated avionics.
This technology is possessed by very few nations. It also possess advanced passive homing guidance system. The missile has been designed mainly to destroy modern main battle tanks and other heavily armoured targets.
Nag can be launched from land and air-based platforms. The helicopter launched version known as helicopter-launched NAG (HELINA) can be fired from Dhruv advanced light helicopter (ALH) and HAL Rudra attack helicopter.
The land-based version of the missile is at present available for integration on the Nag missile carrier (NAMICA).
6. Ministry of Railways launches Mission Retro-Fitment.
Minister of Railways Suresh Prabhu has launched Mission Retro-Fitment to enhance the passenger experience by upgrading the existing fleet of coaches.
Key Highlights:
Mission Retro-Fitment is an ambitious program of the ministry or railways to upgrade the level of furnishing & amenities in the coaches of Indian Railways. The refurbished coaches will have better furnishing, aesthetics & amenities and better safety features which are aimed at providing a safe and comfortable travel to the railway passengers.
Under Mission Retro-Fitment, 40,000 coaches will be refurbished and retrofitted in the next five years. The mission aims to induct about 40,000 coaches with upgraded interiors by 2022-23. The mission will be one of the largest retro fitment projects in the world.
The mission will be carried out without affecting the traffic operation. It is estimated that cost of refurbishing per coach to be approximately Rs 30 lakhs.