Rapid Fire
Rapid Fire Current Affairs
- 21 Feb 2023
- 4 min read
Kamala Kasturi
Recently, Mrs. Kamala Kasturi passed away. She was an environmentalist who contributed to protecting the environment and was the founder of the Environment Society, Chennai. She was involved in several environmental protection projects and the campaign to save the Cauvery River from several dyeing units and take up the cleaning of the river. She had participated in several tree planting campaigns and was also a petitioner in the public interest litigation (PIL) petition against the slaughterhouse which was proposed to be constructed in Red Hills (Sengundram, Tamil Nadu).
Read More: Cauvery River & Related Disputes
Sansad Ratna Awards
The 13th edition of the Sansad Ratna award function will be held on 25th March 2023 in New Delhi. The Sansad Ratna Awards were instituted at the suggestion of Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam to honour top-performing Parliamentarians. He himself launched the first edition of the Award function in 2010 in Chennai. Till now, 90 top-performing Parliamentarians have been honoured. The 13th edition will be making history as it crosses the century of awards mark.
Read More: Parliament, Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam
Vinyl Chloride: A Threat to Human Body
Vinyl chloride, the chemical in several of the train cars that derailed and burned in East Palestine, Ohio recently can be extremely harmful to the human liver. The liver is the body's filter for removing toxicants from the blood. Specialized cells known as hepatocytes help reduce the toxicity of drugs, alcohol, caffeine and environmental chemicals and then send away the waste to be excreted.
The chemical has been shown to cause liver cancer, as well as a nonmalignant liver disease known as TASH, or toxicant-associated steatohepatitis. Vinyl chloride is used to produce Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC), a hard plastic used for pipes, as well as in some packaging, coatings and wires.
India’s First Hybrid Rocket
Recently, India’s first hybrid-sounding rocket by private players was launched from Chengalpattu, Tamil Nadu. Martin Foundation, in association with Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam International Foundation and Space Zone India, launched the Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam Satellite Launch Vehicle Mission- 2023.
The organisations mentioned that 5,000 students were involved in the project. The selected students designed and constructed a student satellite launch vehicle (rocket) and 150 PICO satellites (satellites at a mass below 1 kg, implemented by use of modern miniaturization techniques) research experiment cubes that contained different payloads. The rocket can be used for research in weather, atmospheric conditions and radiation.
Hybrid rocket is a bipropellant rocket engine which uses propellants that are in two different states, typically liquid and solid, which when reacted, create exhaust gases suitable for rocket propulsion.
In 2022, the Space technology startup Skyroot Aerospace also sent India’s first privately developed rocket Vikram-S. It is a single-stage spin-stabilised solid propellant rocket with a mass of approximately 545 kgs.
Read More: India’s Space Ecosystem, Vikram -S
