A milestone crossed in the making of a new cryogenic rocket engine set the stage for the first flight of the country’s most powerful satellite launcher to date, the GSLV-Mark III. The cryogenic stage and the entire launch vehicle’s readiness is closer to fruition after the engine, technically called CE20, passed the ‘high altitude flight acceptance test’ lasting about 25 seconds at Mahendragiri in mid-December. The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) plans to fly its new launch vehicle powered by this new engine around March, and send the 3,200 kg GSAT-19 communication satellite to space on it. The launch was earlier slated for December 2016. MkIII, when it completes trials and commences functioning in the coming years, will double ISRO’s lifting power for communications satellites to 4,000 kilos. Vital stage In a few days from now, the rocket’s complete cryogenic third stage, replete with fuel tanks and systems built around the engine, will undergo its qualifying tes...
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A walkway to come up for visitors so that they can move around without the hassle of taking the main road Riding a bike or hailing an auto to reach the Golkonda fort from seven tombs may be a thing of the past for the visitors if the latest plan of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) materialises. The city’s civic body wants to develop a walkway between Deccan park, Qutb Shahi tombs and the Golkonda fort for the tourists so that they can move around without the hassle of taking the main road. The proposal was discussed on Monday during an inspection of the Deccan Park by GHMC Commissioner B. Janardhan Reddy along with MLAs Akbaruddin Owaisi and Kauser Mohiuddin. The GHMC wants to develop the Deccan Park near Quli Qutb Shahi tombs by providing basic facilities such as toilets, drinking water and upgradation of infrastructure to attract more visitors. The Commissioner said that modernisation of the park was in store as the State Tourism Department, as part of Swadeshi...
Concerned over the deteriorating air quality in Delhi and the NCR, the Environment Ministry has amended laws and formally tasked a Supreme Court-appointed panel with implementing a graded action plan for pollution control. The comprehensive plan, prepared by the CPCB, focussing on Delhi was submitted to the Supreme Court on December 2. The court had accepted the plan and asked the Centre to notify it. Once the plan is notified, measures like odd-even car rationing scheme and ban on construction activities will be enforced if level of PM 2.5 breaches 300 micrograms per cubic metre and PM 10 levels stay above 500 micrograms per cubic metre for two consecutive days.
But says thatpost-bifurcation it is the Krishna board that has to decide the share of AP, Telangana Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu has promised his Tamil Nadu counterpart O. Panneerselvam to extend all possible help in addressing Chennai’s drinking water crisis. In the same breath, Mr. Naidu said the Krishna River Water Management Board (KRWMB) would have to decide the quantum of water to be released by Andhra Pradesh and Telangana from the Telugu Ganga project. The agreement to provide water to Chennai from the Telugu Ganga project was entered into with the Tamil Nadu government much before bifurcation of the State. “After bifurcation, both Andhra Pradesh and Telangana would have to honour the agreement and share the amount of water to be released to Tamil Nadu,” Mr. Naidu told Mr. Panneerselvam when the latter met him at the Interim Government Complex at Velagapudi, near here, on Thursday. The Tamil Nadu Chief Minister said the drinking water sources in Chennai had a ...
“Let’s be vigilant, but not afraid,” President Barack Obama told fellow Americans in an emotional farewell speech in Chicago, reflecting on the state of democracy in the country, 10 days before handing over the baton to Donald Trump. Striking an optimistic note for the U.S., still reeling from a divisive election campaign, the 44th President — the first African American in the country’s 240-year-old dem- ocracy — said: “The work of democracy has always been hard, contentious and sometimes bloody… But the long sweep of America has been defined by forward motion.” He identified four areas to watch out for the preservation of democracy — ensuring economic opportunity for everyone when technology destroys jobs faster than trade did, guarding against prejudices, keeping faith in reason and maintaining “some common baseline of facts” and not taking democracy for granted. Mr. Obama returned to the city of Chicago where he cut his teeth as a community volunteer in the early 1990s, befor...
Creation of 21 new districts places additional burden on the budget Irrigation sector with Rs 31,000 crore will take away the lion’s share of the budget proposed by various government departments for 2017-18. Thursday is the last day for online submission of proposals by the departments. The budget approved for irrigation in 2016-17 was Rs 25,000 crore, including Rs 7,861 crore for Palamuru - Ranga Reddy and Rs 6,286 crore for Kaleswaram project. This time, the trend was reversed as a sum of Rs 11,000 crore was sought for Kaleswaram and Rs 6,000 crore for Palamuru - Ranga Reddy. There was no change in the budget of Rs 2,500 crore for minor irrigation which includes Mission Kakatiya programme of de-silting tanks. By proposing Rs 31,000 crore, the government has gone a step ahead of its plan to allot Rs 25,000 crore each year from 2016-17 to 2018-19, aggregating to Rs 75,000 crore for irrigation. Demonetisation factor The finance officials have estimated the resources of the S...
Other proofs of identity will be allowed till March 31 From April 1, workers in rural areas enrolled under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), which mandates 100 days of work for a household a year, must have Aadhaar. Those who have registered themselves under the scheme will be required to give proof of possession of Aadhaar or undergo the enrolment process till March 31, a senior official in the Cabinet Secretariat said. However, ration card, driving licence, voter identity card, Kisan passbook with photo, job card issued under the MGNREGS and a certificate issued by a gazetted officer or a tehsildar will be admissible as proof of identity for the people to get the benefits till they get Aadhaar. Those who have applied for Aadhaar can produce their enrolment slip or a copy of the application for getting the 12-digit unique identification number. “Orders are being issued to make enrolment of Aadhaar mandatory for the States such as Jammu a...
Talks between the Prime Minister, Mrs. Indira Gandhi, and the underground Naga leaders which concluded to-day [January 5, New Delhi] have been described by both sides as “a serious effort to narrow the differences”. Neither the spokesman of the Government of India nor Mr. Z. Ramyo, who spoke for the Nagas, would elaborate on this statement. Both sides stated that the talks were “free and frank”. The spokesman of the Government of India said that the two sides “agreed to think over what has been discussed.”
Ace shuttler P.V. Sindhu has been allotted a house site of 1,000 square yards area in Bharani Layout at Shaikpet in the city by the Government of Telangana as part of its reward to her silver medal-winning performance at Rio Olympics last year. Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao had announced a reward of Rs. 5 crore and 1,000 square yards plot in Hyderabad to Ms. Sindhu in recognition of her sterling performance. Pullela Gopichand, coach of Ms. Sindhu was also announced a reward of Rs. 1 crore in August last year. Accordingly, Special Chief Secretary (Revenue) to Government M.G. Gopal issued the orders on Monday. Following the proposal from the District Collector of Hyderabad, the 1,000 square yard house site would be carved out of two adjacent plots, No. 7 and 8 measuring 753 SY and 645 SY, respectively, in TS No.1, Block-F, Ward 9, correlated to Survey No.403 in Shaikpet. It was also stated in the orders that the District Collector of Hyderabad and Chief Commissioner of Land ...
Thakur, Shirke declared ‘unfit’to continueat the helm Noting that its diktats are not “written in sand” and are meant to be complied with, the Supreme Court on Monday stripped BCCI president Anurag Thakur and secretary Ajay Shirke of their posts and ordered them to “forthwith cease and desist” from associating themselves with Indian cricket’s most powerful body. A three-judge Bench of Chief Justice T.S. Thakur and Justices A.M. Khanwilkar and D.Y. Chandrachud declared Mr. Thakur and Mr. Shirke “unfit” to continue at the helm of the BCCI for their “obstructionist” attitude and specious pleas in court about their incapacity to make affiliated State associations fall in line with the Justice Lodha reforms. The court primarily referred to how Mr. Thakur had “washed his hands of a duty and obligation to ensure compliance” with the Lodha panel reforms, citing the excuse that he had been “rendered totally incapable and without any authority” to compel the members to comply with the ord...
Ministry of Power gives clearance for the undertaking coming up at Manuguru in Kothagudem district The Union Ministry of Power has given its clearance for the 1,080 MW (270x4) Bhadradri Thermal Power Project (BTPP) at Manuguru in Kothagudem district being established with sub-critical thermal generation technology. In a letter addressed to the State Chief Secretary with copies marked to the Principal Secretary (Energy) of Telangana and Chairman and Managing Director of Telangana State Power Generation Corporation (TS-Genco) two days back, the Ministry of Power stated that it has “no objection for establishment of the said coal-based thermal power plant with sub-critical technology subject to its completion by December-end 2017”. The nod from the Ministry of Power follows Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao’s request to the Centre last month by writing a letter seeking to exempt the Bhadradri power project from allowing (commissioning) only the super-critical technology thermal p...
They are demanding that the govt. increase it to Rs. 2,000 from Rs. 500 To demand that the State government increase monthly pension under old age, widow, Devadasi and disabled schemes, several beneficiaries, most of them women, sent Rs. 500 back to the government when they received it through money order in Raichur on Friday. Members of the Rashtriya Pension Parishat and several beneficiaries were standing in a queue at a post office branch in the city to send back the pension amount of Rs. 500 to government. They said that the monthly pension amount received by them is very little. Their demand to increase pension from Rs. 500 to Rs. 2,000 per month remained unattended due to the negligence of the government. Monthly pension for the beneficiaries in other States had been increased at a time when the salary of government servants was increased. But, the State government has still not shown interest in adopting such a move here, they said. Abhaya, Sharanappa Hanumamm...
The Centre has constituted a high-level committee, led by the former Supreme Court judge B.N. Srikrishna, to draw a road map to make India a global arbitration hub. The committee would comprise another former SC judge, R.V. Raveendran, Delhi High Court judge S. Ravindra Bhat, senior advocates K.K. Venugopal and Indu Malhotra, Additional Solicitor-General P.S. Narasimha, Director of Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy Araghya Sengupta, representatives of Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry and Confederation of Indian Industry. A statement said the terms of reference included analysing the effectiveness of the arbitration mechanism, identification of amendments in other laws that need to encourage International Commercial Arbitration and devise an action plan for implementation of the law to ensure speedier arbitrations.
By the end of this year, 50 young men had been arrested by various investigating agencies for their alleged links to the Syria-Iraq-based terrorist outfit, the Islamic State (IS). In another instance, a group of 21 persons, which includes women and children, quietly left the country to live in Afghanistan, where the terrorist outfit is said to have gained a foothold. Investigators insist the number of Indians leaning towards the terrorist group is miniscule in proportion to the Muslim population and much less when compared with countries such as France, the U.K, Russia and even China. “Most of them were caught before they could execute their plan. Almost all of them told us that they were asked to target vital installations, religious places around them as travelling to the IS-controlled territory in Syria and Iraq had become difficult,” said a senior NIA official. Recently, during a presentation at the annual Directors-General of Police conference in Hyderabad, the Intellige...
The century-old Scherzer’s span, designed and installed at Pamban rail bridge by a German engineer to allow vessels to pass through the channel, would be replaced by an ultra modern vertically lifting single-truss span, to be designed and fabricated by an international firm, M. Suyambulingam, Chief Engineer (Bridges), Southern Railway, said. Unveiling the likely model of the span, presently used in a bridge connecting a road and a canal in France, after inspecting the bridge here on Tuesday, he said Rail Vikas Nigam Limited (RVNL), chosen by Indian Railways to execute the project, floated global tenders a few months ago and it was likely to finalise a firm by the month-end. Six international firms had expressed interest to design and install the span at a cost of Rs. 40 crore, he said, adding the new span could be operated by remote control by the staff sitting in the bridge office at Pamban. Though the railways initially contemplated making the span using aluminium alloy, it had ...
The Department of Pre-University Education on Tuesday announced the final timetable of the second pre-university exam. The 2017 exam will be held from March 9 to 27. The department has made some changes in the timetable after considering objections raised by the public. The exam will be held from 10.15 a.m. to 1.30 p.m.
Did Father Jean-marie Auguste Bouteloup greet his congregation in 1851 with “Salve, Bengalori!”? We will never know but thanks to the self-effacing polyglot, linguist and lexicographer’s efforts some 160 years ago, we can translate the phrase as “Greetings, Bengaluru’ or ‘Bengalori’ as it was referred to by the early European missionaries. These missionaries took it upon themselves to master Kannada and compiled dictionaries in an effort to reach out to the local people. Two forgotten lexicons of historic and linguistic importance — a Kannada-to-Latin and a Latin-to Kannada dictionary, compiled by Catholic priests of the Paris Foreign Mission Society in the mid-19th century — were found in the archives of St. Mary’s Basilica, the oldest church in Bengaluru. The Kannada-Latin Dictionary or Dictionarium Canarense-Latinum: ad usum Maissurensis Catholic Seminarii for the use of the Mysore Catholic Seminary, is believed to have been compiled by Father Bouteloup in 1855. The Latin-Kan...
With a spectacular ‘Mahabrinda Natyam’ show, a dizzying array of 6,117 performers created a new Guinness World Record here on Sunday, for the largest Kuchipudi dance. The record-creating entry is “Jayamu Jayamu,” presented in unison, and the certificate for the feat was handed over to Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu by Guinness adjudicator Rishinath. The dancers were from various age groups: as young as 5 to more than 60 years old. The record event was preceded by two days of Kuchipudi conferences, including lecture demo for the budding artistes. Veteran dancers took part to encourage younger talent. Vempati signature theme ‘Jayamu Jayamu’, is considered a rich example of Kuchipudi, choreographed by the legendary Vempati China Satyam, and it was chosen for the record attempt ‘Mahabrinda Natyam’. Dancers from across the country were joined by those from U.S., Dubai, U.K., Russia, Hong Kong and Mauritius.
States to be ranked annually for various indicators The government think tank NITI Aayog on Friday rolled out a ‘Performance on Health Outcomes’ index that will rank various States on the basis of their performance on measurable health indicators. “It [the index] is meant to capture the annual incremental improvements by States, rather than focus on historical achievements,” the Aayog said in a press release. Feedback from States The index has been developed over several months, with inputs from domestic and international experts, including academicians and development partners as well as feedback from States. The indicators in the index have been pre-tested in two States. “This initiative is envisioned to bring about the much required improvements in social sector outcomes, which have not kept pace with the economic growth in this country. It will be used to propel action in the States to improve health outcomes and improve data collection systems,” the think tank sai...
ILO finds women form 60% of lowest paid wage labour, but only 15% of highest wage-earners India had among the worst levels of gender wage disparity — men earning more than women in similar jobs — with the gap exceeding 30 per cent, the Global Wage Report 2016-17 released by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) revealed last week. In contrast, Singapore had among the lowest, at 3 per cent. Among major economies, only South Korea fared worse than India, with a gap of 37 per cent. In India, women formed 60 per cent of the lowest paid wage labour, but only 15 per cent of the highest wage-earners. “Not only are women poorly represented in the top bracket of wage-earners, the gender pay gap at the bottom is also very wide in India,” said Xavier Estupinan, a wage specialist at the ILO. In other words, not only were women paid less, there were fewer women in highly paid occupations. The report also found that the share of women among wage earners was among the lowest in South Asi...