Daily Current Affairs

Now, drones to monitor progress, quality of assets produced at MGNREGS worksites (GS Paper 2, Governance)

 Why in news?

• Increasing its surveillance of worksites under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), the Union Ministry of Rural Development is brining drones into service to monitor both the progress and quality of assets produced.

 

Four types of monitoring:

• According to a standard operating procedure (SOP) recently issued by the Ministry, the drones will be used for four types of monitoring:

1. surveying the ongoing works,
2. inspecting the completed works,
3. impact assessment, and
4. special inspection in case of complaints.

• The drones will be used by the ombudsperson in every district, who is responsible for registering suo moto complaints and disposing of them within 30 days.

 

Financing mechanism:

• For efficient monitoring and redressal of grievances, it is decided by the Ministry that the ombudsperson may use drone technology facilities for verification of the works virtually. It has directed State governments to provide the facility to ombduspersons.
• However, the Union government is not providing the States with any extra funds to deploy these drones. According to the guidelines, State governments are expected to draw the necessary funds from the administrative head, which is roughly 10% of a State’s MGNREGA budget.
• Rather than purchasing drones, the Union government has directed States to hire agencies specialising in drones for this purpose.

 

Centralised dashboard:

• The Ministry proposes to form a centralised dashboard to store the videos and photos collected from the drones, for data analysis and reporting purposes.
• From May 2022, the Union government had made it mandatory to capture attendance at all worksites using a specially-developed mobile-based application.

 

About MGNREGA:

• MGNREGA is one of the largest work guarantee programmes in the world launched in 2005 by the Ministry of Rural development.
• The primary objective of the scheme is to guarantee 100 days of employment in every financial year to adult members of any rural household willing to do public work-related unskilled manual work.
• This act was introduced with an aim of improving the purchasing power of the rural people, primarily semi or un-skilled work to people living below poverty line in rural India.

 

Indian scientist develops novel method to improve accuracy and precision of nanomechanical testing technology

(GS Paper 3, Science and Technology)

Why in news?

• A novel method to test nanomechanical properties of materials at very minute scales with high precision and accuracy has been developed by an Indian scientist in collaboration with two international institutions.
• The new methodology not only significantly improves the precision and accuracy of what is known as nanoindentation technique or testing of mechanical strength, but enables testing at much higher rates, thus facilitating high throughput.

Nanoindentation technique:

• With Conventional testing methods not always feasible at nano scales, which are usually of the order of 1/100th of the diameter of a human hair, the nanoindentation technique was invented by Dr. Warren Oliver and Dr. John Pethica in the 80s.
• The technique has been widely used to measure the strength of semiconductor devices and structural materials that have ubiquitously penetrated every aspect of our daily life through electronic gadgets.
• The technique has been used for a wide range of applications from identifying cancerous cells to establishing how meteorites are formed in deep space.

 

Key Highlights:

• The novel approach involved a combination of extensive modeling and simulation to understand the material response during an indentation test and subsequent tailoring of the methodology to improve the precision and accuracy.
• The modeling results have also been validated by experiments under extreme conditions. 

 

Way Forward:

• Setting the tone for high precision and high accuracy nanoindentation measurements at much higher rates, the new methodology is expected to impact a broad spectrum of scientific research on measuring the strength of materials at small scales.

 

Boeing begins production of Apache helicopters for Army

(GS Paper 3, Defence)

Why in news?

• American aviation major Boeing began the production of the AH-64E Apache attack helicopters for the Indian Army, the first of which will be delivered early 2024. 
• It was in 2020 that the Army went in for the procurement of the Apache helicopters, 22 of which are already in use with the Indian Air Force (IAF).

 

Details:

• The fuselage of every single Apache helicopter sold in the world is manufactured in India by Tata Boeing Aerospace Limited (TBAL) in Hyderabad. 
• The production of the helicopters for the Army has begun at its plant in Mesa, Arizona. 

 

Helicopters with Indian army:

• The Apache helicopter is one of the deadliest attack helicopters and comes equipped with a cannon, rockets and missiles. 
• Until recently, this was the only pure attack helicopter in India’s possession. Now the forces are equipped with the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL)-made Light Combat Helicopter Prachand. Both these helicopters are two-seaters. 
• The IAF, however, operated Mi-35 helicopters, classified as ‘assault’ choppers. The Mi-35s were designed to carry troops into heavily-defended territories.

 

Attack helicopters:

• Attack helicopters are used to provide direct close air support for ground troops and can perform anti-tank operations. 
• It was in 2015 that the IAF went in for the procurement of 22 AH-64E Apache helicopters at a cost of $2.1 billion, or Rs 14,910 crore. Their delivery was completed in 2020.