China successfully launched 2 more satellites for its proposed Beidou Global Navigation and Positioning Network being built to counter the US Global Position System (GPS).
With these two satellites, China has so far launched 13 satellites to form part of the Beidou system.

The Beidou-2 satellites, launched from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in the southwestern province of Sichuan, was boosted by a Long March-3B carrier rocket and has entered the scheduled orbit. It is the first time that China has launched two navigation satellites with one rocket, and the two satellites will help to improve the accuracy of the Beidou, or Compass system.

What is BeiDou Navigation System?

• The BeiDou Navigation System or BeiDou (Compass) Navigation Satellite System - a project by China to develop an independent satellite navigation system.
• Refers to either one or both generations of the Chinese navigation system.
• BeiDou Global Navigation and Positioning Network being built to counter the US Global Position System (GPS).
• China: BeiDou-1, BeiDou-2; Europe: Galileo Systems; Russian: GLONASS ; US: GPS
• BeiDou-1: The first BeiDou system (officially called BeiDou Satellite Navigation Experimental System, or known as BeiDou-1) - consists of 3 satellites and has limited coverage and applications. Offering navigation services mainly for customers in China and from neighbouring regions since 2000.
• Difference with others: Unlike the American GPS, Russian GLONASS, and European Galileo systems, which use medium Earth orbit satellites, BeiDou-1 uses satellites in geostationary orbit. This means that the system does not require a large constellation of satellites, but it also limits the coverage to areas on Earth where the satellites are visible.
• Compass or BeiDou-2: The 2nd generation of the system, known as Compass or BeiDou-2, which will be a global satellite navigation system consisting of 35 satellites, is still under construction. It became operational with coverage of China in December 2011 with 10 satellites in use. It is planned to offer services to customers in Asia-Pacific region by 2012 and the global system should be finished by 2020.

The Defence Ministry has barred 2 Indian and 4 foreign firms for 10 years from all business dealings due to their engagement in abnormalities in the recent past. The debarred foreign companies are from Singapore, Israel, Switzerland and Russia. The two Indian companies are located in New Delhi and Ludhiana. Minister of State for Defence MM Pallam Raju held that the Defence procurement was going on via alternative indigenous and foreign sources.

Manu Raju an Indian-American journalist was among the journalists, who have won the White House Correspondents Journalism award for 2012.
Manu Raju was honoured with the Merriman Smith Award for Excellence in Presidential Coverage under pressure, in the print category, at the Association's traditional annual dinner with US President Barack Obama in Washington.

The Northern Railway has introduced Automatic Ticket Vending Machines (ATVM) for buying platform and second class journey tickets with smart card. The ATVMs will be unmanned and operated by the passengers themselves. Insert your smart card into an Automatic Ticket Vending Machine (ATVM) and wait for the ticket to be dispatched from the machine. The passengers can buy smart cards from the special counter after paying a security deposit of Rs 50 and it could be recharged with the minimum amount of Rs 20 and maximum of Rs 1,000 at a time.
30 railway stations in the NCR have been installed with ATVM. These stations include New Delhi, Hazrat Nizamuddin, Delhi Junction, Anand Vihar, Faridabad, Sahibabad, Delhi Shahdara, Narela, Ghaziabad, Tughlakabad, Delhi Cantt, Meerut City, Sonipat and Gurgaon.

The new initiative would not only help passengers in saving time but the Railway would also overcome the problem of currency change at the ticket counters.

India and Japan have agreed to launch dialogue mechanisms on cyber and maritime security. The dialogue b/w the two nations will be held at the level of foreign Ministry officials. External Affairs Minister Mr S M Krishna expressed satisfaction over the strategic and global partnership b/w the two nations and held that during the 6^th India - Japan Strategic Dialogue, both sides reviewed political and security cooperation between the two nations.