Army’s Project Udbhav started

GS Paper - 1 (Art and Culture)

The Indian Army has started an initiative, named Project Udbhav, to rediscover the “profound Indic heritage of statecraft and strategic thoughts” derived from ancient Indian texts of “statecraft, warcraft, diplomacy and grand strategy” in collaboration with the United Service Institution of India, a defence think-tank.

More about the Project

• In connection with this, USI will conduct a Military Heritage Festival on 21-22 October 2023, to acquaint “future thought leaders with the dynamics of comprehensive national security with special emphasis on India’s strategic culture, military heritage, education, modernisation of security forces and Atmanirbhar Bharat,” according to an Army statement.
• The project endeavours to explore India’s rich historical narratives in the realms of statecraft and strategic thoughts.
• It focuses on a broad spectrum including indigenous military systems, historical texts, regional texts and kingdoms, thematic studies, and intricate Kautilya Studies.
• As part of this process, a panel on 29 September discussed the “evolution of Indian military systems, war fighting and strategic thought”, exploring both current research in the field and the way forward.
• The initiative stands testimony to the Army’s recognition of India’s age-old wisdom in statecraft, strategy, diplomacy, and warfare.
• Project Udbhav seeks to bridge the historical and the contemporary. The goal is to understand the profound depths of indigenous military systems, their evolution, strategies that have been passed down through the ages, and the strategic thought processes that have governed the land for millennia.

Indigenous vocabulary

• The aim of Project Udbhav is not limited to just rediscovering these narratives, but also to develop an “indigenous strategic vocabulary”, which is deeply rooted in India’s “multifaceted philosophical and cultural tapestry”. The overall aim is to integrate age-old wisdom with modern military pedagogy.
• A study to compile Indian stratagems based on ancient texts has been ongoing since 2021, and a book has been released listing 75 aphorisms selected from ancient texts.
• The first scholarly outcome of the initiative is the 2022 publication titled, Paramparik Bhartiya Darshan…Ranniti aur Netriyta ke Shashwat Niyam, meant to be read by all ranks of the Indian Army.

Aditya-L1 departs Earth's sphere of influence

GS Paper - 3 (Space Technology)

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) reported that the Aditya-L1 spacecraft successfully departed Earth's sphere of influence and will from now on be navigating its path towards the Sun-Earth Lagrange Point 1 (L1). This marks the second time in a row that the space agency has managed to send a spacecraft beyond the sphere of Earth's influence, with the first instance being the Mars Orbiter Mission (Mangalyaan).

More about the Mission

• The launch of PSLV rocket carrying the Aditya-L1 orbiter took place on 2 September 2023 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh.
• This launch of maiden solar mission came weeks after ISRO's historic lunar landing mission, Chandrayaan-3.
• The Aditya-L1 mission will reach its observation point in four months according to ISRO. It will be positioned in a halo orbit around Lagrangian Point 1 (or L1) that is located 1.5 million kilometres from Earth in the direction of the Sun.
• The spacecraft is equipped with seven different payloads designed to carry out a study of the Sun.
• Four of these payloads will observe the light from the sun, while the remaining three will measure in-situ parameters of the plasma and magnetic fields.
• The primary objectives of India's solar mission encompass the study of the physics of solar corona and its heating mechanisms, solar wind acceleration, coupling and dynamics of the solar atmosphere, solar wind distribution and temperature anisotropy and origin of Coronal Mass Ejections (CME) and solar flares along with their impact on near-Earth space weather.

Perseverance explored high dust devil on Mars

GS Paper - 3 (Space Technology)

While exploring the Jezero crater on Mars, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) Perseverance rover caught a surprise weather event—a dust devil. The huge swirling vortex of dust was captured moving east to west at a speed of about 19 kilometres per hour along the “Thorofare Ridge”.

More about the News

• Dust devils are a common occurrence on Earth as well. They form when rising warm air mixes with descending columns of cooler air.
• But the Martian version can grow to be much larger than what we find on Earth.
• They are also more prominent during the spring and summer months on the planet.
• Perseverance is currently located on Mars’s northern hemisphere, where it is currently summer.
• Dust devils like this one on Mars are generally much weaker and smaller than tornadoes on Earth, but they act as an important mechanism that moves and redistributes dust around Mars.
• Scientists study them to better understand the red planet’s atmospheric and weather patterns.