NASA’s Spitzer space telescope
- The Spitzer Space Telescope (SST), formerly the Space Infrared Telescope Facility (SIRTF), was an infrared space telescope launched in 2003 and retired on 30 January 2020.
- Spitzer carries three instruments on board:
- Infrared Array Camera (IRAC)
- Infrared Spectrograph (IRS)
- Multiband Imaging Photometer for Spitzer (MIPS)
Arvind Krishna elected IBM CEO
- Indian-origin technology executive Arvind Krishna has been elected Chief Executive Officer of American IT giant IBM after a “world-class succession process”, succeeding Virginia Rometty
- Krishna is currently IBM Senior Vice President for Cloud and Cognitive Software
- Krishna (57), had joined IBM in 1990 and has an undergraduate degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, and a PhD in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
India-Bangladesh JT Exercise SAMPRITI-IX
- As part of the ongoing Indo-Bangladesh defence cooperation, a joint military training exercise SAMPRITI-IX is being conducted at UMROI, Meghalaya, India from 03 Feb to 16 Feb 2020. Exercise SAMPRITI is an important bilateral defence cooperation endeavour between India and Bangladesh and will be the ninth edition of the exercise which is hosted alternately by both countries.
- During the joint military exercise SAMPRITI-IX a Command Post Exercise (CPX) and a Field Training Exercise (FTX) will be conducted. For both the CPX and FTX, a scenario where both nations are working together in a Counter Terrorism environment will be simulated under the UN Charter.
Indian Railways implementing Automatic Identification and Data Collection (AIDC) of Rolling Stock (RFID Project)
- the RFID project has been taken up which aims to automatically and accurately track and trace rolling stock as they move across the country with a special focus on improving their safety and reliability. Two works for RFID project have been sanctioned by Railway Board for a total of Rs. 112.96 Crores.
- For implementing this project over Indian Railways, the Centre for Railway Information Systems (CRIS, the IT arm of the Indian Railways), GS1 India and the Indian Industry have come together in alignment with the Hon’ble Prime Minister’s ‘Make in India’ initiative. Thereby creating a new segment in the AIDC (Automatic Identification and Data Collection) industry in India uniquely suited for the Indian Railways requirements. This project is being spearheaded by the Rolling Stock Department of the Indian Railways.
Digital Gandhi Gyan Vigyan Exhibition Phase-II inaugrated
- The Exhibition showcasing Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) based exhibits on the events related to life of Mahtma Gandhi has been launched by the DST, in collaboration with M/s Vizara Technologies Pvt. Ltd, Delhi, a technology start-up under incubation of IIT Delhi.