Daily Current Affairs for 24th February 2023

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Navy’s IFC-IOR ties up with Seychelles

Why in News?

Navy’s Information Fusion Centre for Indian Ocean Region (IFC-IOR), signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Regional Coordination Operations Centre (RCOC), Seychelles.

What is the importance of the partnership? 

  • MoU seeks to foster collaboration towards enhancing maritime domain awareness, information sharing and expertise development.

About Information Fusion Centre

  • Information Fusion Center – Indian Ocean Region (IFC-IOR), was established in 2018.
  • It is hosted by India Navy at Gurugram to further Maritime Safety and Security in Indian Ocean Region.
  • IFC-IOR also hosts International Liaison Officers (ILOS) from partner countries such as Australia, France, Italy, Japan, the United States, and the United Kingdom to enable better correlation and timely inputs.
  • IFC-IOR has developed relationships with several maritime security centres.

What is the need for Maritime Security for India?

  • Economic Interest Maritime transit accounts for over 90% of India’s commerce output and 70% of its trade worth.
  • Energy Interest Approximately 80% of India’s crude oil requirements are supplied via maritime channels.
  • Strategic Interest – China’s aggressive incursions into the Indian Ocean through its string of pearls policy necessitates India’s development of marine security capabilities.
  • Internal Security –The Indian Ocean functions as a transit path into India for drugs, counterfeit money, and cross-border terrorists.

What are the initiatives taken for maritime security?

  • National Maritime Security Coordinator (NMSC): Appointment of India’s first National Maritime Security Coordinator (NMSC) aims to create an interface between the civilian and military maritime domains to enhance India’s security architecture and energy security.
  • Security and Growth for All in the Region (SAGAR), to strengthen commercial and security ties with its marine neighbours.
  • Project Mausam aims to re-establish connections and communication channels between countries surrounding Indian Ocean.
  • Joint Maritime Training such as Malabar and Indo Thai Corpat are used to improve navy forces’ interoperability.
  • The Indian Ocean Naval Symposium (IONS) aims to strengthen maritime relations among the fleets of the Indian Ocean region’s coastal nations.
  • Acquisition and upgrading of defence assets, such as scorpion class submarines and aircraft carriers (INS Vikrant)
  • Sagarmala Initiative– The Sagarmala initiative will encircle India’s coastline with several ports. It aims to promote port-led direct and indirect development and to provide infrastructure to transport goods to and from ports quickly, efficiently and cost-effectively.

GS Paper III News

Messier 92

Why in News?

Recently, astronomers have released an image of the globular cluster Messier 92 (M92) captured by the James Webb Space Telescope.

What is Messier 92?

  • Messier 92 (M92) is a bright and large globular cluster in the constellation of Hercules.
  • It is located at a distance of 26,700 light-years from Earth.
  • Johann Elert Bode, a German scientist, found it for the first time in 1777.
  • Hydrogen and helium are the most abundant elements in Messier 92.
  • Messier 92 is thought to have a mass of up to 330,000 solar masses.
  • The cluster is travelling at about 112 km/s (403,200 km/h; 250,500 mph) towards the Milky Way galaxy.

What is a Globular Cluster?

  • A globular cluster is a spheroidal conglomeration of stars.
  • Globular Cluster orbits mostly in the extended stellar halossurrounding most spiral galaxies.
  • Globular Cluster contain some of the oldest stars in a galaxy.
  • These Cluster are thought to have formed early on in the Universe and they can serve as perfect astrophysical laboratories for astronomers to understand how stars evolve through various phases.

What is Solar Mass?

  • The solar mass (M☉) is a standard unit of mass in astronomy, equal to approximately 2×1030 kg.
  • It is approximately equal to the mass of the Sun, which is M☉ = (1.98847±0.00007) ×1030 kg.
  • Solar mass is about 333000 times the mass of Earth (MEarth).

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