News Roundup - 04 December 2014

1. Union Science and Technology Minister Harsh Vardhan on Tuesday signed a multilateral agreement admitting India’s participation in the development of the Thirty-Metre Telescope (TMT) in Hawaii.
2. India has agreed to spend Rs.1299.8 crore in a multilateral agreement in the development of the Thirty-Metre Telescope (TMT), world’s largest,  in Hawaii. TMT will contain 492 hexagonal mirror segments of 82 different kinds. These will behave like a single mirror with an aperture of 30-metre diameter. This large collecting area of 650 square metres is thrice as sensitive as the Hubble Space Telescope. India’s role will primarily be to create the control systems and software that keep the mirrors aligned and collect the data. The control system is an intricate process involving edge sensors that detect the mutual displacement of mirrors, actuators to correct their alignment, and the segment support assembly. These will be manufactured by General Optics (Asia) in Puducherry, Avasarala Technologies and Godrej in Bengaluru respectively. India would also manufacture 100 aspherical mirror segments in Hoskote near Bengaluru. The telescope is expected to be ready by 2024. Institutions from the United States, Canada, Japan and China are also participating in the construction of the world’s largest telescope on Mount Mauna Kea. This telescope, 4207 metres above sea level, may cost more than $1.47 billion.
3. Anil Kumar Sinha is the new CBI chief.
4. Global Corruption Perception Index 2014 : India now ranks 85 among 175 countries, with countries such as Sri Lanka, Thailand and Burkina Faso for company. Denmark ranks first, as it did in 2013, while Somalia and North Korea share the bottom spot. India ranks better than all its South Asian neighbours, except Bhutan.
5. GSAT-16, the communications satellite being put in orbit for ISRO from French Guiana on December 5 will significantly improve the national space capacity with 48 transponders. The addition is important as GSAT-16 comes 11 months after the last Indian communication satellite GSAT-14 was flown in January this year. In fact, this launch was advanced by about six months to meet user needs, ISRO Chairman, K.Radhakrishnan, noted ahead of the launch. This is also the highest number of transponders packed into an Indian spacecraft so far.
6. Google has launched a new application, Google My Business, for SMBs.
7. Relaxing norms for Pre-paid Payment Instruments (PPIs), the Reserve Bank of India, doubled the card limit to Rs.1 lakh. 
8. The once impregnable Golconda Fort suffered damage when one side of its huge door fell due to ‘rust and decay’. The left door of the historic Moti Darwaza got uprooted and rested precariously on the other door. Right door had collapsed similarly in 2006 due to decay before being replaced.

Credits: The Hindu, Google.