Important Facts for Prelims (30th July 2018) | 30 Jul 2018

It is an advanced air defence system jointly developed by United States (US) and Norway.
India is in talks with the US to procure NASAMS-II to defend the National Capital Region (NCR), Delhi from aerial attacks (9/11 type attacks). It is in the Acceptance of Necessity (AoN) stage now.

NOTE: 'Acceptance of Necessity' clears the way for the tendering process to start.

India is deploying a multi-tiered air defence network to fully secure its airspace from incoming fighter aircraft, missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV).
The system would complement other systems such as the medium and long-range surface-to-air missile (SAM) systems that are under procurement in India.
Apart from these imports, India is also developing an indigenous Ballistic Missile Defence (BMD) system.

The Civil Aviation Ministry is close to rolling out DigiYatra service at airports which seek to make flying speedy and hassle-free.
The basic objective is to reduce queues at airports and bring efficiency to the boarding process.
The ‘DigiYatra’ is an industry-led initiative coordinated by the Ministry of Civil Aviation in line with Digital India’s vision to transform the nation into a digitally empowered society.
The DigiYatra initiative envisages providing airline travellers in India, a pioneering ‘digitally unified flying experience’ across all stages of their journey.
It will deliver Indian customers a seamless, consistent and paperless service experience at every touch point of their journey.
The platform will be built on 4 key pillars, like Connected Passengers, Connected Airports, Connected Flying and Connected Systems.

Global Tiger Day, often called International Tiger Day, is celebrated on July 29 to give worldwide awareness about tigers.
It was established at the St. Petersburg Tiger Summit in 2010 as a means to draw worldwide attention to the global plight of wild tigers.
The celebration is one of the many features of the Tx2 pledge by 13 tiger range countries who committed to efforts that would double the world’s tiger population by 2022.
Out of 9 subspecies of Tigers, 4 have become extinct. The extinct subspecies are: Bali, Javan, Caspian and South China tiger. The remaining 5-- Bengal, Indochinese, Malayan, Sumatran and Amur tiger are still found in the range countries.
India had launched Project Tiger in 1973 to conserve tigers. Till now, the coverage of “Project Tiger” has increased from 9 reserves to 50 tiger reserves spread across 18 states.