CONTENTS

1. MLALAD Fund
2. AstroSat

MLALAD Fund

Context:

Recently, the Delhi cabinet approved a 50% hike in MLA-LAD (local area development) funds, increasing the annual allocation to legislators from the current ₹10 crore to ₹15 crore.

Relevance:

GS II: Governance Policies and Interventions

About MLALAD Fund:

• It is patterned after a similar scheme for MPs that provides funds to each constituency directly from the government.
• Like MPs, MLAs don’t get the money directly but are empowered to recommend work to be executed under the scheme.
• MLALAD and MPLAD have their own set of rules, but the projects sanctioned under them are normally restricted to “durable infrastructure work,” from repairing roads to building community centres.
• All MLAs are entitled under the scheme to recommend items to the Deputy Commissioner of their district, within the yearly allocations, for their constituency.
• MLALAD funds are issued annually to MLAs for local development, such as repairing roads, streetlights, developing parks, and laying sewer lines in colonies.
• The work must be developmental in nature, based on locally felt needs.
• The work should be completed within one financial year and result in the creation of durable assets.
• The assistance provided under the MLALAD Scheme is sanctioned as Grant-in-aid for utilisation by the districts.

AstroSat

Context:

Recently, India’s AstroSat and NASA’s space observatories have captured dramatic eruptions from stellar wreckage around a massive black hole.

Relevance:

GS III: Science and Technology

Dimensions of the Article:

1. About AstroSat
2. Scientific objectives of ASTROSAT mission are

About AstroSat

• AstroSat is India’s first dedicated multi-wavelength space observatory, designed to study celestial sources in X-ray, optical, and UV spectral bands simultaneously. It was launched from Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota, on September 28, 2015, by the Indian launch vehicle PSLV.
• With a lift-off mass of 1515 kg, AstroSat was placed into a 650 km orbit inclined at an angle of 6 degrees to the equator. The mission has a minimum useful life of around 5 years.
• Managed by the spacecraft control center at the Mission Operations Complex (MOX) of ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC) in Bengaluru, AstroSat aims to facilitate the study of cosmic sources such as active galactic nuclei, black holes, and supernovae.
• The observatory also seeks to investigate star birth regions and high-energy processes in binary star systems containing neutron stars and black holes. With its unique ability to observe sources ranging from a few milliarcseconds to tens of arcminutes, AstroSat provides a comprehensive view of the high-energy universe.

Scientific objectives of ASTROSAT mission are:

• To understand high energy processes in binary star systems containing neutron stars and black holes
• Estimate magnetic fields of neutron stars
• Study star birth regions and high energy processes in star systems lying beyond our galaxy
• Detect new briefly bright X-ray sources in the sky
• Perform a limited deep field survey of the Universe in the Ultraviolet region