India, Saudi Arabia conduct first joint military exercise SADA TANSEEQ (GS Paper 2, International Relation)
Why in news?
- The validation phase of 'SADA TANSEEQ', the first joint military exercise between the Indian Army and the Royal Saudi Land Force was completed at the Mahajan Field Firing Ranges recently.
Key Highlights:
- The Indian contingent of the 20th Battalion of The Brigade of Guards Regiment and the Saudi Arabian contingent comprising a group of 45 soldiers participated in the exercise conducted in two phases.
- The first phase focused on combat conditioning and tactical training.
- The second culminated in physical exercises and validation.
- Both contingents jointly took part in the validation phase which included the creation of a temporary operating base, the establishment of an intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance grid and a mobile vehicle check post and carrying out cordon-and-search operations, heliborne operations and house intervention drills.
Details:
- The 12-day exercise was aimed at achieving interoperability between the two forces and acquaint each other with operational procedures and combat drills under the UN mandate.
Cabinet nod to spectrum for Railways without TRAI reply
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
Why in news?
- A day after the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) floated a consultation paper on whether Indian Railways should be able to get 5 Megahertz of wireless spectrum for carrying real-time data that would enhance passenger safety, the Union Cabinet approved the proposal, even though TRAI’s response was pending.
Background:
- The Railways had sought additional 5 Mhz of paired spectrum, free of charge, in the 700 MHz band in July 2023, a month after the Balasore incident that left 296 dead and nearly 1,200 injured.
- In the past, when the Railways had received spectrum grants, for which they only needed to pay an annual royalty without bidding for the airwaves, the data transfer capacity was not sufficient to allow trains to continuously upload video footage for safety purposes.
- The video feeds were instead “dumped” at railway stations with a WiFi connection.
- The Railways wrote to the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) that it is important to capture large-scale data and videos from moving trains on a real-time basis.
- It further said that during exigencies, networks of telecom service providers get choked, thereby adversely affecting relief and restoration operations.
Why additional spectrum?
- Because the Railways was only granted 5 Mhz of its original demand for 15 MHz in discussions post the Balasore tragedy, it had again asked for an additional 5 MHz of paired spectrum in the 700 MHz band.
- Railways had said that it wants additional spectrum for implementing several safety features such as the Modern Train Control System, Train Collision Avoidance System, signal aspect in loco cabs, and emergency mobile communications.
- It had also highlighted other advantages that the spectrum allocation could bring, such as increased speed, augmenting train’s running capacity, passenger security, CCTV network-like live feed at security control centres, video surveillance, video analytics, and asset reliability.
