Sci&Tech, Medical and Envirnoment:

The government cleared a proposal to equip the French Mirage ground attack aircraft with 500 air-to-air missiles that would be procured from a western consortium.
The decision entails procuring the MICA interception and aerial combat fire and forget missile manufactured by MBDA
The government earlier cleared a proposal to upgrade 51 Mirage 2000 aircraft under a €1.47-billion agreement signed last year.

The Union Cabinet is likely to give its final approval for a national mission to try and improve the accuracy of monsoon forecasts by this month-end.
The mission, estimated to cost Rs. 350 crore, is designed to improve the current generation of dynamic numerical models for prediction through better insight of the highly complex phenomenon of monsoon.
Under the project, scientists would work on models from the United Kingdom's Met Office and the United States' National Centers for Environment Prediction .
- The mission would have two components relating to two different timescales — monthly, seasonal and intra-seasonal scale on the one hand and a medium range forecast, up to 15 days, on the other.
At present, India Meteorological Department makes its forecasts based on the system of a statistical model, which makes the prediction on the basis of several predictors.
The statistical system has several fundamental and inherent shortcomings. The dynamic numerical models, on the other hand, are expected to come out with better forecasts.