PIB Summary- 28th February, 2021 | PIB (Press Information Bureau) Summary - UPSC PDF Download

Maritime India Summit 2021

Context: PM to inaugurate Maritime India Summit 2021 on 2nd March.

About Maritime India Summit 2021

• It is a virtual summit being organised by the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways.
• The Summit will visualize a roadmap for India’s maritime sector for the next decade and will work to propel India to the forefront of the global maritime sector.
• Eminent speakers from several countries are expected to attend the Summit and explore the potential business opportunities and investments in the Indian maritime domain.
• Denmark is the partner country for the three-day summit.

Morarji Desai

Context: PM remembers former PM Shri Morarjibhai Desai.

Details

• Morarji Desai’s birth anniversary falls on 29 February.

What happened?

The Sixth Prime Minister of India, Morarji Desai was born on 29th February 1896 in Gujarat. In today’s edition of This Day in History, you can read about an important personality in Indian history for the many amendments his Government made to the Indian Constitution during the emergency. 

Morarji Desai

• Morarji Desai was born in Bulsar, District (now known as Valsad) in Gujarat.
• After graduating from Wilson College, Bombay (now Mumbai),  he served as the Deputy collector of Godhra. He resigned from the post in 1930.
• After that, he became part of the Indian freedom struggle and joined the Civil Disobedience Movement against British rule.
• Shri Desai was imprisoned thrice during the freedom struggle.

Morarji Desai’s Timeline (Political Career)

Morarji Desai as the Finance Minister

• With eight annual and two interim budgets, Morarji Desai is the Finance Minister who has presented the maximum number of budgets so far.

Prime Minister Morarji Desai
The Janata Party won in the general elections held in March 1977 for the sixth Lok Sabha. Desai was elected to the Lok Sabha from the Surat constituency in Gujarat. He was later unanimously elected as the leader of the Janata Party in Parliament and sworn in as the Prime Minister on March 24, 1977. Shri Desai was India’s prime minister from March 24, 1977, till July 28, 1979.

• He was the first Indian Prime Minister who did not belong to the Indian National Congress. 
• He was also the world’s oldest person to become the Prime Minister (aged 81), a record which he holds till date. 
• He condemned Indira Gandhi’s rule as dictatorial. 
• He tried to re-position India as a non-aligned state, countering what he saw as too close a relationship with the Soviet Union by improving links with the United States, hosting a visit from Jimmy Carter in 1978. 
• Visiting the Soviet Union in June 1979, he expressed India’s opposition to the occupation of Afghanistan. 
• He improved relations with China, frozen since a border dispute in 1962.
• He worked to improve relations with the neighbour and arch-rival Pakistan.
• His government undid many amendments made to the constitution during the emergency and made it difficult for any future government to impose a national emergency.

PSLV-C51/Amazonia-1 Mission

Context: PM congratulates NSIL and ISRO on the success of the 1st dedicated commercial launch of PSLV-C51/Amazonia-1 Mission.

Details

• India’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle PSLV-C51 successfully launched Amazonia-1 along with 18 co-passenger satellites from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre SHAR, Sriharikota.
• PSLV-C51/Amazonia-1 is the first dedicated commercial mission of NewSpace India Limited (NSIL), a Government of India company under the Department of Space and the commercial arm of ISRO.
• PSLV-C51 is the 53rd flight of PSLV and the 3rd flight of PSLV in ‘DL’ configuration (with 2 strap-on motors).
• With today’s launch, the total number of customer satellites from foreign countries placed in orbit by PSLV is 342 satellites from 34 countries.
• Amazonia-1 is a Brazilian satellite weighing 637 kg.
  • It is an optical earth observation satellite and the primary payload of PSLV-C51.
  • This satellite would further strengthen the existing structure by providing remote sensing data to users for monitoring deforestation in the Amazon region and analysis of diversified agriculture across the Brazilian territory.
• The 18 ‘co-passengers’ include four of IN-SPACe and 14 of NSIL.
  • The IN-SPACe satellites include three UNITYsats from a consortium of Indian academic institutes and one Satish Dhawan unit from Space Kidz India, which will study space radiation, among other things.
  • It also includes an engraved picture of Prime Minister Narendra Modi symbolising his Atmanirbhar initiative and space privatisation.
  • An e-copy of the Bhagavad Gita, saved on an SD-card, is also part of the package according to Space Kidz.

National Science Day

About National Science Day

• February 28 is annually observed as National Science Day in India to commemorate the discovery of the Raman Effect by Nobel laureate Dr C V Raman.
• The day is celebrated since 1987.
• The theme for National Science Day 2021 is “Future of STI: Impacts on Education, Skills, and Work”.
• The observance of this day aims to motivate the students to gain hands-on experience in the field of science.
• The celebration of National Science Day consists of public speeches, science movies, science exhibitions, events based on science themes, concepts, and many more activities.
• The government of India felicitates scientists who have contributed immensely in the field of science.

Sir C V Raman Biography

• C V Raman was born on 7 November 1888 in Tiruchirapalli in modern Tamil Nadu.
• His parents were R Chandrasekhara Iyer and Parvati Amma. His father was a lecturer of Physics and Mathematics at a college in Visakhapatnam.
• So, from an early age, Raman was exposed to science. He was a brilliant student and joined the Presidency College at Chennai in 1902 aged just 13 for his graduation. He passed out in 1904 with a Gold Medal in Physics. He completed his post-graduation from the University of Madras in 1907 with distinction.
• At his father’s behest, Raman took the Financial Civil Service and aced the exam. He joined the Indian Finance Department as Assistance Accountant General in Calcutta.
• Even though employed in the civil services, Raman’s heart was with science. He continued to do research at the Indian Association for Cultivation of Sciences in Calcutta (IACS) whenever he got time. He also published papers in leading international journals such as ‘Nature’ and ‘Physics Review’.
• In 1917, he resigned from his government job and pursued his true calling when he was offered the Palit Chair of Physics at Calcutta University.
• He continued his research at the IACS at this time. His research was on acoustics and optics. It was at IACS that Raman along with his collaborators discovered what is now called the ‘Raman Effect’.
• This discovery on the scattering of light was made on February 28, 1928. This effect proved the quantum nature of light and had huge value at that time. The Raman Spectroscopy was based on this phenomenon. Consequently, February 28 is celebrated as National Science Day in India since 1987 annually in honour of this discovery.
• For this discovery, Raman was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in the year 1930. The Nobel Committee stated that the award was given “for his work on the scattering of light and for the discovery of the effect named after him”.
• He was the first Indian, Asian and non-white person to win a Nobel Prize for the sciences.
• In 1933, he became the first Indian Director of the Indian Institute of Science (IISC) in Bangalore. He was the institute’s director till 1937 and the Head of the Physics Department till 1948.
• In 1948, he founded the Raman Research Institute (RRI) in Bangalore for conducting experiments in Physics. He continued to do research at RRI till his death in 1970.
• Raman died of natural causes on 21 November 1970 aged 82 in Bangalore.

Honours and Awards

• Fellow of the Royal Society – 1924
• Knighthood – 1929
• Nobel Prize (Physics) – 1930
• Franklin Medal – 1941 (Franklin Institute, USA)
• Bharat Ratna – 1954
• Lenin Peace Prize – 1957
• Several phenomena in science related to the Raman Effect are named after him.
• There are many institutes and places, including a crater on the moon named after Sir CV Raman.