MILAN

• The Indian Navy will host the multi-national MILAN series of exercises at Port Blair in Andaman and Nicobar islands from March 6 to March 13, 2018.
• MILAN is a congregation of littoral navies conducted biennially by the Indian Navy under the aegis of the Andaman and Nicobar Command.
• It began in 1995 with the participation of four littoral navies and has steadily grown in size and complexity encompassing participation of maritime forces from not just the Bay of Bengal and South East Asia but the larger Indian Ocean Region.

Ring tailed Lemurs (Lemur catta)

• Lemurs are primates found only on the African island of Madagascar and some tiny neighboring islands.
• Ring-tailed lemurs have powerful scent glands and use their unique odor as a communication tool and even as a kind of weapon.
• It is under the endangered category in the IUCN red list.
• It is listed on Appendix I of CITES.
• Ring tailed lemurs is hunted for food and frequently kept as a pet.

International Conference on Sustainable Biofuels

• A two- day International Conference on Sustainable Biofuels is jointly being organized by Department of Biotechnology, Govt. of India on behalf of Mission Innovation and Biofuture Platform at New Delhi.
• The Sustainable Biofuel is one of the Seven Mission Innovation Challenges and India Co-leads this along with other countries Brazil, Canada and China. The sustainable biofuel innovation challenge under MI aims to accelerate research, development and deployment of low cost, high GHG impacting advanced biofuels.
• Mission Innovation (MI) is a global initiative of 22 countries and the European Union to dramatically accelerate global clean energy innovation. As part of the initiative, participating countries have committed to double Clean Energy Research and Development investments over five years.
• The Biofuture Platform aims to be an action-oriented, country-led, multistakeholder mechanism for policy dialogue and collaboration among leading countries, organizations, academia and the private sector conscious of the need to accelerate development and scale up deployment of modern sustainable low carbon alternatives to fossil based solutions in transport, chemicals, plastics and other sectors.

Tungabadra Otter conservation reserve

• Karnataka declared first otter conservation reserve, 34 km along the Tungabhadra ,in 2016.
• The Otter reserve stretches from from Mudlapura village to Kampli in Ballari district.
• The reserve also passes through Hampi, a UNESCO heritage site.
• The reserve houses a good number of smooth-clawed otter, Eurasian and smooth-coated otters, mahseer fish, fresh water crocodiles and giant soft shelled turtles.
• Smooth-coated otter is distributed throughout the country from the Himalayas and to the south in India.
• According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, Smooth-coated species is vulnerable.
• The highest protection under Schedule 1 (small-clawed otter) and Schedule 2 (smooth-coated otter) of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972 is provided for the otters.

Rustom 2 drone:

• Rustom 2 drone is a medium-altitude, long-endurance unmanned aerial vehicle, developed on the lines of predator drones of the United States. The objective of this drone is to carry out surveillance for the armed forces with an endurance of 24 hours.
• The drone was developed for use by all three services of the Indian armed forces, primarily for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) operations.
• The medium-altitude prototype can fly at over 22,000 ft and is a long-endurance (MALE) UAV that has an approximate flight time of 20 hours.
• It can fly at around 280 km/h and carry a variety of payloads like Medium Range Electro Optic (MREO), Long Range Electro Optic (LREO), Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), Electronic Intelligence (ELINT).
• Rustom 2 can fly missions on manual as well as autonomous modes. The onboard way-point navigation system allows the drone to conduct missions autonomously.

Indian Ocean Rim Association

• The Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA), formerly known as the Indian Ocean Rim Initiative and Indian Ocean Rim Association for Regional Cooperation (IOR-ARC), is an international organisation consisting of coastal states bordering the Indian Ocean.
• The IORA is a regional forum, tripartite in nature, bringing together representatives of Government, Business and Academia, for promoting co-operation and closer interaction among them.
• The IORA is an association of 21 countries and 7 dialogue partners which have identified 6 areas of cooperation including medicinal plants. The Coordinating Secretariat of IORA is located at Ebene, Mauritius.

Aviation Multi Skill Development Centre

• A first-of-its-kind Aviation Multi Skill Development Centre (MSDC), a CSR initiative of Airports Authority of India (AAI) was inaugurated in Chandigarh.
• The Centre has been set up in collaboration with the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) and is supported by the Aerospace and Aviation Sector Skill Council (AASSC) of India.
• The National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) is a one-of-its-kind, Public Private Partnership (PPP) model in India, under the Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship (MSDE). It aims to promote skill development by catalyzing creation of large, quality and for-profit vocational institutions.

Raman effect

• The Raman Effect is a change in the wavelength of light that occurs when a light beam is deflected by molecules.
• When a beam of light traverses a dust-free, transparent sample of a chemical compound, a small fraction of the light emerges in directions other than that of the incident (incoming) beam.
• Most of this scattered light is of unchanged wavelength.
• A small part, however, has wavelengths different from that of the incident light; its presence is a result of the Raman effect.