Daily News Notes: 16th Feb, 2012

· Centre has approved the setting up of a new Rail Coach Manufacturing unit at Palakkad in Kerala to manufacture 400 coaches per annum. It shall also ensure induction of state of the art aluminium coaches on Indian Railways. The work on this project will commence during 2012-13 and will be completed within a period of 36 months.
· The Union Ministry of Home Affairs has issued the statement regarding number of major terror incident cases solved by investigating agencies. Since May, 2000 there have been 46 major terrorist incidents. Of these, all but 7 cases have been solved.
· In Madhya Pradesh, after successful experiment of reintroducing tigers, the Panna Tiger Reserve has added another feather in its cap. A five year old orphaned semi-wild tigress T-4 has given birth to two cubs in the Panna Tiger Reserve. This is for the first time in the world that a semi-wild tigress shifted to the wild has adjusted to new environs and begotten cubs. This tigress, born in Kanha Tiger Reserve in 2006, with her sister shifted to Panna in March 2011.
· Mi-17 V5 helicopter would be inducted into the IAF on 17 February 2012. This helicopter falls in the category of armed helicopter. Mi-17 V5, an upgrade of Mi-17 in the medium -lift category, is equipped with state-of-the-art avionics and onboard Navigation Systems. It is a glass cockpit variant; the first of its kind to get inducted into the IAF. It has onboard weather radar, state of the art autopilot and is compatible with the latest Generation (Gen-III) Night vision Goggles. With this, the helicopter can undertake all-weather, day and night operations in any kind of terrain. The helicopter is also equipped with a Bambi-Bucket that can be used for fire fighting. It is also fitted with a powerful winch – a feature useful in the Disaster Relief Operations in restricted areas where landing is not possible. The entire airframe has a high degree of ballistics tolerance and is crash-resistant. It also comes equipped with an emergency flotation system. In 2008, India had signed an agreement with Russia to induct 80 Mi-17 V5 helicopters for strengthening IAF’s helicopter fleet for high altitude Air Maintenance Ops, Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief Mission and Transport Operations. Indian Air Force first inducted helicopters in the year 1954.
· The third tri-lateral summit of the leaders of Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan for enhancing regional cooperation in fighting terrorism and drug trafficking has began in Islamabad.
· In Nepal, the Parliamentary Committee on Natural Resources has directed the government to strengthen the quarantine, surveillance and monitoring mechanisms in border areas and conduct mass awareness programmes at the grassroots level on bird-flu. The committee asked the government to increase the budget for programmes designed to control Bird flu.
· The World Health Organisation is beginning a two-day meeting in Geneva today, aimed at determining how much research should be done into the H5N1 or bird flu virus. The meeting comes two months after it was revealed that researchers in the United States and the Netherlands had managed to create a more easily transmissible form of the virus, one which could pass from human to human.
· Scientists claim to have found evidence that gene therapy can also alter shape of cells. Gene therapy is the method to help injured brain cells survive and re-grow. Prof Harvey said that previous work has shown that when growth-promoting genes are introduced into injured brain cells for long periods of time (up to nine months), the cells' capacity for survival and regeneration is increased. He added that now it is shown that these same neurons have also changed shape in response to persistent over-expression of the growth factors.