International Organizations, Defence, Books & Authors, World History

Notes:
The book “Hema Malini: Beyond the Dream Girl” has been penned by author-columnist Ram Kamal Mukherjee. It’s about actress achievement as a politician apart from her sojourn as an actor, danseuse and filmmaker. It will offer a new perspective on Bollywood’s first female superstar.

Notes:
Pinaka is a multi-barrel rocket launcher (MBRL) developed by the Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO) for the Indian Army. The DRDO began developing the Pinaka in the late 1980s as an alternative to Russian-made systems. The Pinaka can fire 12 rockets and is designed to engage targets at a range of up to 40 km. It was used extensively by the Army during the Kargil War.
The Pinaka is named after “Pinaka”, the bow of Lord Shiva.

Notes:
The Indian Army Day is celebrated on 15 January every year in India. It is celebrated in recognition of Lieutenant General K. M. Cariappa who took over as the first Commander-in-Chief of the Indian Army from General Sir Francis Butcher, the last British Commander-in-Chief of India, on January 15, 1949.

Notes:
SIMBEX is a naval exercise that takes place between the navies of Singapore and India. It is an acronym for “Singapore-India Maritime Bilateral Exercise”. The exercise typically involves a variety of naval drills and training activities designed to improve the interoperability and cooperation between the participating navies. The first SIMBEX exercise was held in 1994, and it has been conducted annually ever since.

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The Kyoto Protocol is an international treaty related to Climate Change. It was adopted in Kyoto, Japan, in 1997 and came into force in 2005. It extends the 1992 UNFCCC to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

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The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development is an intergovernmental economic organisation with 37 member countries, founded in 1961 to stimulate economic progress and world trade. It is headquartered at Paris, France. The OECD publishes and updates a model tax convention that serves as a template for allocating taxation rights between countries.

Notes:
The Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property was signed on March 20, 1883 in Paris, France.   It was one of the first intellectual property treaties. The convention established a Union for the protection of industrial property.   It still applies today, and has 177 member countries.  The convention’s provisions fall into three main categories:

1. National treatment
2. Right of priority
3. Common rules

The convention applies to:  Patents, Trademarks, Industrial designs, Utility models, Service marks, Trade names, Geographical indications, Repression of unfair competition.  The convention’s provisions include a 12-month priority period. This period begins on the date of filing the first application to the first country.

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The United Nation Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre is an executive agency of UN Environment Programme, which is based in Cambridge (UK). It was previously managed by IUCN, UN Environment Programme and WWF.

Notes:
Dhruva is India’s largest indigenous research and production nuclear reactor. It is an indigenously built 100MWt research reactor at Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) in Mumbai. Operational since 1985, this heavy-water moderated and cooled reactor predominantly uses uranium as fuel. The reactor is used primarily for the production of weapons-grade plutonium for India’s nuclear deterrent program. Additionally, it is also used for research in materials science and to provide irradiation services.

Notes:
The book “Taj-ul-masir” was penned by Sadruddin Mohammad Hassan Nizami, popularly known as Hasan Nizami. The book, written in the Turki language, notably deals with political events in North India from approximately 1192 AD to 1228 AD. It offers a thorough examination of the reign of Sultan Qutub-ud-din Aibak, the founder of the Slave dynasty, and the early rule of Iltumish, Sultan Qutub-ud-din Aibak’s son-in-law.