Indian Navy to Get Upgraded Fuel HFHSD – IN 512
Why in news?
- Vice Admiral G S Pabby launched the Upgraded High Flash High-Speed Diesel (HFHSD- IN 512), a special class diesel conforming to NATO grade for use in ships and vessels of Indian Navy.
Key highlights:
- The upgraded HFHSD blend has been developed by State-owned Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) and is being supplied from Haldia and Paradip refinery.
- The customized HFHSD- IN 512 has the unique combination of low pour and Cold filter plugging point (CFPP) and High Flash Point.
- It has the highest cetane number amongst all marine diesel fuel and exceeds MIL-DTL 16884M specifications in terms of Fuel Hygiene parameters and other critical properties.
Significance:
- The upgraded fuel now exceeds the MIL DTL 16844M specifications which is considered benchmark standard across in the world.
- This fuel will facilitate the Indian Navy to enhance its global footprint and will allow India to fuel the vessels of friendly foreign countries at places where fuel conforming to NATO grade is supplied.
- It also has lesser environmental impact due to low Sulphur content and would result in the better performance of engines.
World Future Energy Summit to begin in Abu Dhabi
Why in news?
- The World Future Energy Summit will begin in Abu Dhabi. 33,500 participants from 170 countries and 800 specialist exhibitors are expected to attend the four-day annual event.
Key highlights:
- The theme for this year’s summit is “Rethinking Global Consumption, Production, and Investment.” World Future Energy Summit is the Middle East’s largest future energy and sustainability event.
- It is held annually at Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre.
- The 2020 edition includes exhibition and forum programmes across five main pillars: energy, solar, water, waste and smart cities, hosting an unrivalled gathering of top-level government and business leaders.
- The event is starting to set an example for best practice, supporting the circular economy through recycling, and acting to remove single-use plastics from the event.
- Also held alongside the World Future Energy Summit are the Climate Innovations Exchange, ‘CLIX’ for short and the Future Sustainability Summit.
- The event will showcase 42 of the world’s most disruptive innovations, selected from 1,402 global submissions from 128 countries, related to the future of energy, food, agriculture and sustainability in space.
Govt. launches road accident database
Why in news?
- The government on Monday launched a central accident database management system that will help in analysing causes of road crashes and in devising safety interventions to reduce such accidents in the country.
- The IT tool, known as the Integrated Road Accident Database (IRAD), has been developed by the Indian Institute of Technology-Madras (IIT-M) and will be implemented by the National Informatics Centre.
- The project costs ₹258 crore and is being supported by the World Bank.
Highest fatalities:
- The system will be first piloted in the six States with highest fatalities from road crashes — Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh.
- The IRAD will be improved on the basis of the learnings from the trial, following which it will be rolled out across the country.
- There are around 30,000 tablets would be distributed to police personnel across the country to record data on accidents.
How it works?
- The IRAD mobile application will enable police personnel to enter details about a road accident, along with photos and videos, following which a unique ID will be created for the incident. Subsequently, an engineer from the Public Works Department or the local body will receive an alert on his mobile device.
- He or she will then visit the accident site, examine it, and feed the required details, such as the road design. Data thus collected will be analysed by a team at IIT-M, which will then suggest if corrective measures in road design need to be taken.
- Road users will also be able to upload data on road accidents on a separate mobile application, which is expected to go live from April 1, according to a Ministry official.
Overspeeding:
- India sees the largest number of road fatalities in the world. More than 1.5 lakh people lost their lives in road crashes in the country in 2018, according to government data.
- Of the total people killed in road crashes in 2018, 48% were between 18 years and 35 years old, and more than 60% of such fatalities were due to overspeeding.
Tiny ‘complex’ volcano
Why in news?
- In the Philippines, a volcano called Taal on the island of Luzon, 50 km from Manila, erupted on Sunday (January 12), spewing lava on the ground, and ash and smoke into the sky.
- Although Taal is a tiny volcano, the eruption has caused concerns in the Philippines. There are several reasons:
A complex volcano:
- Taal is classified as a “complex” volcano by the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS).
- A complex volcano, also called a compound volcano, is defined as one that consists of a complex of two or more vents, or a volcano that has an associated volcanic dome, either in its crater or on its flanks. Examples include Vesuvius, besides Taal.
- The Taal volcano does not rise from the ground as a distinct, singular dome but consists of multiple strato-volcanoes (volcanoes susceptible to explosive eruptions), conical hills and craters of all shapes and sizes, as per NASA’s Earth Observatory. Taal has 47 craters and four maars (a broad shallow crater).
Unpredictability:
- Taal has erupted more than 30 times in the last few centuries. Its last eruption was on October 3, 1977.
- An eruption in 1965 was considered particularly catastrophic, marked by the falling of rock fragments and ashfall.
- Before that, there was a “very violent” eruption in 1911 from the main crater. The 1911 eruption lasted for three days, while one in 1754 lasted for seven months.
- Because it is a complex volcano with various features, the kinds of eruption too have been varied. An eruption can send lava flowing through the ground, or cause a threat