Technology Day: PM to lay foundation stone of LIGO-India project on Thursday

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will lay the foundation stone of Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory iquest India LIGOIndia on Thursday when the country celebrates the 25th anniversary of the PokhranII nuclear testsPM Modi will also dedicate to the nation a Rare Earth Permanent Magnet Plant at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre campus at Visakhapatnam and a Fission Moly99 Production Facility in Mumbai to produce the radioisotope used in more than 85 per cent of imaging procedures for early detection of cancer and heart diseaseMay 11 marks the 25th anniversary of the 1998 nuclear tests carried out at Pokhran test range including its first test of a thermonuclear device which has since been celebrated as the National Technology Day to honour scientists engineers and technologists who made the tests possibleThe prime minister will lay the foundation stone and dedicate to the nation multiple projects related to scientific and technological advancement in the country worth more than Rs 5800 crore an official statement saidThe projects whose foundation stone would be laid include Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory iquest India LIGOIndia Hingoli Homi Bhabha Cancer Hospital and Research Centre Jatni Odisha and Platinum Jubilee Block of Tata Memorial Hospital MumbaiLast month the Union Cabinet gave its nod to a project to construct and set up a LIGOIndia at an estimated cost of Rs 2600 crore which is likely to be completed by 2030LIGOIndia will be an advanced gravitationalwave observatory to be located in India as part of a worldwide network It is envisaged as a collaborative project between a consortium of Indian research institutions and the LIGO Laboratory in the USA along with its international partnersLIGOIndia had received the governments inprinciple approval in February 2016 Since then the project reached several milestones towards selecting and acquiring a site and building the observatoryThe United States will provide key components for the lab worth USD 80 million which amounts to Rs 560 croreAlso Read Maharashtra political crisis SC likely to pronounce verdict on pleas on May 11The LIGOIndia project will be built by the Department of Atomic Energy and the Department of Science and Technology with a memorandum of understanding MoU with the National Science Foundation the US along with several national and international research and academic institutionsLIGOIndia will be an extremely sensitive interferometer of four km arm length capable of sensing gravitational waves generated during the merger of massive astrophysical objects such as black holes and neutron stars the statement saidThe projects that will be dedicated to the nation include Fission Molybdenum99 Production Facility Mumbai Rare Earth Permanent Magnet Plant Visakhapatnam National Hadron Beam Therapy Facility Navi Mumbai Radiological Research Unit Navi Mumbai Homi Bhabha Cancer Hospital and Research CentreVisakhapatnam and Women amp Children Cancer Hospital Building Navi Mumbai it saidRare Earth Permanent Magnets production facility has been developed on the campus of Bhabha Atomic Research Centre at VisakhapatnamThe facility will produce rare earth permanent magnets using indigenous Rare Earth material India will join a select group of nations with capacity to produce such magnets that have applications in the manufacture of computer hard disk drives wind turbine generators and MRI machinesThe National Hadron Beam Therapy Facility of Tata Memorial Centre Navi Mumbai works to undertake highly precise delivery of radiation to the tumour with minimal dose to the surrounding normal structures The precise delivery of dose to target tissue reduces the early and delayed side effects of radiation therapyFission Molybdenum99 Production Facility located in Trombay Campus of Bhabha Atomic Research Centre is expected to enable about 9 to 10 lakh patient scans per year the statement saidThe laying of foundation stone and dedication of several cancer hospitals and facilities will decentralise and enhance provisioning of world class cancer care in different regions of the country it addedThis years National Technology Day celebrations have a special focus on Atal Innovation Mission AIM and will showcase live tinkering sessions engage in tinkering activities and witness outstanding innovations and products by startupsThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever