Japan Government’s Highest Civilian Award to Professor C.N.R. Rao

Eminent scientist C N R Rao was conferred with Japan’s highest civilian award recently.

• Highest Civilian Award of Japan, that is conferred on
  • academicians,
  • politicians and
  • military officers–
    the “Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Star”, will be conferred on Professor C.N.R. Rao for his

‘Contribution to promoting academic interchange and mutual understanding in science and technology between Japan and India’.

Other details:

• N.R Rao has been bestowed with about 70 honorary doctorates and has received the highest civilian award of India, Bharat Ratna. Professor Rao had made substantial contributions to the development of Science in India and the Third World.
• Rao is also the only Indian to be elected as a foreign member of the Japan Academy in Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research.

Sources: The Hindu, PIB.

Maglev train rockets into record books

Japan’s state-of-the-art Maglev train recently clocked a new world speed record in a test run near Mount Fuji, breaking the 600-kmph mark. Japan has planned to sell the technology abroad.

• The seven-car maglev (short for magnetic levitation) train hit a top speed of 603 kmph, and managed nearly 11 seconds at over 600 kmp.
• The new record came less than a week after the company recorded a top speed of 590 kmph, breaking its own 2003 record of 581 kmph.

Sources: The Hindu.

Terrorism threatens Japan

Beheading by Islamic State (IS) of two Japanese journalists

• 1) Freelance Journalist Kenji Goto Jogo (left)
  2) Jordanian Pilot Haruna Yukawa (Right) Jordan is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the south and east, Iraq to the north-east, Syria to the north, and Israel to the west.
• Japan does not maintain an army with war potential, except for the de facto Japan Self-Defence Forces (JSDF) that is intended to maintain peace and order.
• But now The defense budget was considerably enhanced, the ban on arms exports was lifted and the capabilities of the JSDF were expanded
• The video, identified as being made by the Islamic State group’s al-Furqan media arm
• Extremist to PM Shinzo Abe: “To the Prime Minister of Japan – Although you are more than 8,000 and 500 kilometers from the Islamic State, you willingly have volunteered to take part in this crusade,” says the knife-brandishing militant in the video. “You have proudly donated $100 million to kill our women and children, to destroy the homes of the Muslims.”
• IS demands $200 million ransom (पापांची खंडणी म्हणून.) for lives of 2 hostage
• The 2005 book Goto wrote about the suffering of children in Sierra Leone was titled “We Want Peace, Not Diamonds.”
• President Barack Obama has condemned the murder of a Japanese hostage