India International Science Festival 2020:
- The 6th India International Science Festival 2020 (IISF 2020) was organized by the Ministry of Science and Technology, Ministry of Earth Sciences & Vijnana Bharati (VIBHA) from 22nd to 25th December 2020 in New Delhi through virtual mode and was hosted by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research-National Institute of Science, Technology and Development Studies (NISTADS), New Delhi.
- IISF provides a platform for young scientists, students, and technocrats to exchange knowledge and ideas.
- The theme of IISF-2020 is ‘Science for self-reliant India and Global welfare to support the Government’s initiative of making Atmanirbhar Bharat’.
- The first and second IISF were held in New Delhi, the third in Chennai, the fourth in Lucknow, and the fifth IISF was held in Kolkata. ALL these IISFs had generated immense response from people within India and from abroad.
International Science Film Festival of India:
- International Science Film Festival of India (ISFFI) was a major attraction of India International Science Festival 2020. This year, the ISFFI received 634 science film entries from 60 countries. It is a vital platform to attract enthusiasts and young film-makers towards science film making and contribute in science popularization.
- The International Science Film Festival of India seeks to promote science popularization among citizens and aims at attracting talented young science film-makers and science enthusiasts. This event offers an opportunity for students and film makers to get involved with the process of science communication through films.
- Science film is an effective tool for science communication to foster and create an excitement of science amongst people at large; it also helps inculcate a scientific temper among the audience thereby shaping the analytical thinking, a prerequisite for the inclusive development of the nation.
- The ISFFI offers an opportunity for students and other participants to get involved with the process of science film-making and improve their understanding of various feats in science and technology. The initiative recognizes the effort and contribution of film producers in the specialized areas of science and technology and motivates them to develop this unique profession of science film making with innovative quality content especially relevant to our country.
- ISFFI 2020 was organised in a virtual environment from December 22nd to 25, 2020.
Amazonia-1:
- The Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) is set to launch Amazonia-1, the first satellite to have been developed completely in Brazil by the National Institute for Space Research (INPE), the Latin American nation’s apex space research body.
- Emirates SkyCargo, the freight division of Emirates airline, has executed a cargo charter to transport Amazonia-1 from Sao Jose dos Campos, Brazil to Chennai. This is the first time that Emirates SkyCargo has transported a space satellite from South America.
- The earth Observation has been designed, assembled and tested in Brazil and took eight years to be developed. Once launched into space, it will help monitor the ecosystem of the Amazon rainforest, the world’s largest tropical rainforest. The satellite is due to be sent to space in February 2021 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre on the East coast of India.
- The Amazonia series satellites are composed of two independent modules: a Service Module, which is the Multi-Mission Platform (MMP), and a Payload Module, which houses image cameras and equipment for recording and transmitting image data.
- Amazonia-1 is a Sun synchronous (polar) orbiting satellite that can generate images of any part of the world every five days. For this, it has a wide-view optical imager (camera with 3 visible frequency bands – VIS – and 1 near infrared band – Near Infrared or NIR) with swath of 850 km and 60 meters of resolution
- India and Brazil signed a Framework Agreement for cooperation in the field of outer space in January 2004. Apart from this, an agreement on the programme of cooperation between the two space agencies was also signed. Under this, Brazil received data from ISRO’s remote sensing satellite ResourceSAT-1.
- The two countries, in July 2014, also signed an agreement on cooperation to alter a Brazilian earth station to receive and process data from the Indian Remote Sensing satellites (IRS) series.
- The agreements also meant that ISRO is obliged to make data from its projects available to the National Institute for Space Research (INPE), the Brazilian executive agency receiving earth observation data, and remote sensing data from areas under the INPE’s domain.
