PSLV C-55

News: ISRO launches PSLV-C55 with two Singapore satellites

 

About the launch:

• The Indian Space Research Organisation launched Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C55) from Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota.

• It carries two Singapore satellites, TeLEOS-2 as the primary satellite and Lumelite-4 as a co-passenger.

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TeLEOS-2 

• It carries a Synthetic Aperture Radar payload.

• It was developed under a partnership between DSTA (representing the Government of Singapore) and ST Engineering, a Singapore firm.

• It will be used to support the satellite imagery requirements of various agencies of Singapore. 

• TeLEOS-2 will be able to provide all-weather day-and-night coverage, and capable of imaging at a 1-metre full-polarimetric resolution

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Lumelite-4 

• It is a technology demonstration nano-satellite.

• It is co-developed by the Institute for Infocomm Research (I2R) of Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) and Satellite Technology and Research Centre (STAR) of the National University of Singapore. 

• It is an advanced 12U satellite developed for the technological demonstration of the High-Performance Space-borne VHF Data Exchange System (VDES).

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PSLV-C55 

• It was a dedicated commercial PSLV mission of NewSpace India Limited (NSIL), for an international satellite customer from Singapore”.

• It is the 57th flight of PSLV and 16th mission which use  the PSLV Core Alone configuration (PSLV-CA).

• It will carry out in-orbit scientific experiments by using the spent PS4 stage as an orbital platform. This is the third time that PS4 will be used after satellite separations as a platform for experiments.

 

 

CARICOM

News: India's External Affairs Minister co-chaired the 4th India-CARICOM ministerial meeting with his Jamaican counterpart.

 

CARICOM:

• It stands for Caribbean Community.

• It is the oldest surviving integration movement in the developing world.

• It is an organization of Caribbean countries and dependencies originally established as the Caribbean Community and Commons Market in 1973 by the Treaty of Chaguaramas.

• Chairmanship: Rotated every six months among the member countries' Heads.

• Secretariat: It is located in Georgetown, Guyana, is the principal administrative organ of the Community and is headed by a Secretary General who is the Chief Executive Officer of the Community.

• In 2007, Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) was inaugerated which serves as the final court of appeal for CARICOM members and also handles regional trade disputes.

 

Mandate:

• To promote economic integration and cooperation among its members

• To ensure that the benefits of integration are equitably shared;

• To coordinate foreign policy;

 

Members

• It has 15 members; Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Montserrat, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago.

• Associate Member states: Anguilla, Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, and the Turks and Caicos Islands.

• Observer Status: Aruba, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and Venezuela maintain observer status. 

 

 

Logistics Performance Index (LPI) 2023

 

News: World Bank released Logistics Performance Index 2023 

About Logistics Performance Index (LPI):

• LPI is released by World Bank.

• It is an interactive benchmarking tool created to help countries identify the challenges and opportunities they face in their performance on trade logistics and what they can do to improve their performance.

• It measures the ease of establishing reliable supply chain connections and structural factors that make it possible, such as the quality of logistics services, trade and transport-related infrastructure, as well as border controls.

• Highlights of LPI 2023:

  • The LPI 2023 allows for comparisons across 139 countries.

  • The LPI 2023, for the first time, measures the speed of trade with indicators derived from big datasets tracking shipments.

  • Singapore and Finland are the most efficient and highest-ranked LPI countries as per the 2023 LPI.

  • India is ranked 38 out of 139 countries, climbing six places from the previous index.

  • Two major factors for India's jump in the index could be modernisation and digitalisation, which the report quotes as a reason for emerging economies like India to leapfrog advanced countries