NASA’s Kepler mission discovers ‘super-Earth

The planet is 2.5 times the diameter of Earth and follows a close, nine-day orbit around a star that is smaller and cooler than our Sun.

NASA’s planet-hunting Kepler spacecraft, which is carrying out a new mission has made its first exoplanet discovery — a ‘super-Earth’ located 180 light-years from Earth.

Lead researcher Andrew Vanderburg, a graduate student at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts, studied publicly available data collected by the spacecraft during a test of the new K2 mission in February 2014.

This led to the discovery of a planet, HIP 116454b, which is 2.5 times the diameter of Earth and follows a close, nine-day orbit around a star that is smaller and cooler than our Sun, making the planet too hot for life as we know it.

HIP 116454b and its star are 180 light-years from Earth, toward the constellation Pisces.

The discovery was confirmed with measurements taken by the HARPS-North spectrograph of the Telescopio Nazionale Galileo in the Canary Islands, which captured the wobble of the star caused by the planet’s gravitational tug as it orbits.

HARPS-N showed that the planet weighs almost 12 times as much as Earth. This makes HIP 116454b a super-Earth, a class of planets that does not exist in our solar system.

The exoplanet discovery was made after astronomers and engineers repurposed Kepler for its new mission.

“Last summer, the possibility of a scientifically productive mission for Kepler after its reaction wheel failure in its extended mission was not part of the conversation,” said Paul Hertz, NASA’s astrophysics division director at the agency’s headquarters in Washington.

“Today, thanks to an innovative idea and lots of hard work by the NASA and Ball Aerospace team, Kepler may well deliver the first candidates for follow-up study by the James Webb Space Telescope to characterise the atmospheres of distant worlds and search for signatures of life,” Dr. Hertz said.

Since the K2 mission officially began in May 2014, it has observed more than 35,000 stars and collected data on star clusters, dense star-forming regions, and several planetary objects within our own solar system.

The research paper reporting the latest discovery has been accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal.

A significant achievement

It has been a glorious year for the Indian Space Research Organisation. The successful launch of Mangalyaan into Mars orbit on September 24 on its maiden attempt was the crowning glory. On December 18, the space organisation followed it up with another stupendous success with the first experimental launch of a GSLV Mark III vehicle and the safe splashdown of an unmanned crew module in the Bay of Bengal off the Andaman and Nicobar Islands after re-entry into the atmosphere. These two achievements best exemplify the maturing of the Indian space programme and its capability to take the country’s space missions to greater heights. The experimental flight of Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mark III carrying a Crew module Atmospheric Reentry Experiment (CARE) as its payload is remarkable for a few reasons. Unlike Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) launches, GSLV launch history has been trouble-prone. Making it all the more challenging is the fact that the GSLV Mark III vehicle is heavier, taller and more advanced than others. The rocket has the capability to put into orbit communication satellites that are as heavy as 4 tonnes — twice as heavy as the ones that are currently carried by GSLV rockets. Once the new vehicle becomes fully operational, India may well stop relying on other countries to launch satellites weighing up to 4 tonnes. The space organisation is confident of launching in two years a developmental flight of this vehicle with a fully operational cryogenic engine.

Thirty long years after Rakesh Sharma became the first Indian to travel into space aboard a Soviet Soyuz spacecraft, India has now come a step closer to realising its long-held dream of sending humans into space, with the successful test flight of GSLV Mark III and the safe splashdown of the unmanned crew module. The capsule performed as expected after re-entry into the atmosphere and, remarkably, decelerated to 7 metres a second before splashing into the Bay of Bengal. This is the first time India had ever tested the deployment of parachutes for deceleration. But more than understanding the re-entry characteristics of the crew module, the primary objective of the current mission was to test the new design of the rocket, particularly at the time of lift-off and passage through the atmosphere. The fact that there was little deviation from the flight path during its entire course till it reached an altitude of 126 km, was proof that the two large solid boosters fired simultaneously at take-off. Also, the vehicle withstood the atmospheric loading as it travelled through the atmosphere. Tall and heavy rockets encounter greater atmospheric loading than smaller vehicles.

GST is single biggest tax reform since 1947: Jaitley

Touting it as the "single biggest tax reform" since independence, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today said theGST law will subsume all indirect levies including entry tax from April, 2016, which will ensure seamless flow of goods and services across the country.

The GST, which was hammered out after series of meetings with the states, is a "win-win" for both Centre and States and will provide for levy of 1% additional tax by states for inter-state transfer of goods for two years.

"GST will ensure seamless transfer of goods and services, absence of Inspector Raj and no tax on tax," Jaitley told reporters soon after tabling the 122nd Constitution Amendment Bill in the Lok Sabha.

The Bill will be considered for passing in the Budget session of Parliament beginning February, the Minister said, adding he did not feel the necessity of the legislation being referred again to a Standing Committee.

Under the provisions of the Bill, petroleum goods will be part of the GST but they will be levied at zero rate, implying that the states will continue to levy VAT while Centre will levy excise duty for initial few years.

Thereafter, it will be fully subsumed in the GST, the date of which will be set by the GST Council, which is made up of two third of states and the remaining of Centre.

The states, however, will continue to levy taxes on alcohol as is the practice now.

Explaining the Bill, Jaitley said that states will be allowed to levy 1% additional tax for two years.

The GST will be a "win-win situation for Centre and states and is the single biggest reform after 1947", he said.

Jaitley said: "This 1% tax and the compensation mechanism for 5 years during the transition phase will be adequate, We do not envisage revenue loss to the states."

As regards the compensation to the states on account of any possible loss of revenue following implementation of the GST, Jaitley said there will be 100% compensation in first three years, 75% in the fourth year and 50% in the fifth year.

Key Indicators of Debt and Investment in India for 2013

The National Sample Survey Office (NSSO), Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation has released the key indicators of debt and investment in India, generated from the data collected during January 2013 to December 2013 in its 70th round survey. NSS All India Debt and Investment Survey (AIDIS) are conducted decennially starting from 26th round (1971-1972) and the last survey was conducted in NSS 59th round (January to December, 2003).       The All India Debt and Investment Survey (AIDIS) aims at generating average value of assets, average value of outstanding debt per household and incidence of indebtedness, separately for the rural and urban sectors of the country, for States and Union Territories, and for different socio-economic groups.  These indicators are amongst the most important measures of the indebtedness of the respective domains of the population and are crucial inputs for estimation of credit structure.  The detailed results of this survey on debt and investment are planned to be brought out by the NSSO through a set of four main reports.  In order to make available the salient results of the survey, well in advance of the release of its reports, for use in planning, policy formulation, for decision support and as input for further statistical exercises, the NSSO has released the key indicators.       The key indicators are based on the Central Sample consisting of 4,529 villages in rural areas and 3,507 urban blocks spread over all States and Union Territories of the country. The required information was collected from a set of sample households through two visits to each household.  On considerations of operational necessity, the survey period of the first visit was seven months from January 2013 to July 2013 and the survey period of the second visit was of five months duration from August to December 2013. The total number of households from which information was collected, was 62,135 in rural India and 48,665 in urban India in Visit 1 and 61,650 in rural India and 46,771 in urban India in Visit 2. The average value of assets (AVA), percentage of indebted households, representing incidence of indebtedness (IOI) and average amount of debt (AOD) per household and ‘debt-asset ratio’ which is defined as the average amount of debt outstanding for a group of households expressed as a percentage of the average value of assets owned by them as on 30.06.2012 for rural and urban areas of India are presented in Table below: Table : AVA, IOI and AOD for rural and urban India sector AVA (Rs.) per household AOD per household (Rs.) IOI (%) Debt-Asset Ratio(%) (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) rural India 1006985 32522 31.44 3.23 urban India 2285135 84625 22.37 3.70 Some salient findings of (i) Household Assets, (ii) Household Indebtedness and (iii) Fixed Capital Expenditure obtained from the survey are as follows: Ø     Around 98% of rural households and around 94% of urban households in India owned some physical and financial assets as on 30.06.2012. Average value of assets (AVA) owned by a household was Rs. 10.07 lakh for the rural areas and Rs. 22.85 lakh for the urban areas. Ø     Land and building were found to be the two major components of household assets. In the rural areas, land and buildings together, accounted for 94% share in the total value of assets at the national level - with land 73 percentage points and buildings 21 percentage points. In the urban areas,land and buildings together, accounted for about 92% share in the total value of assets - with land 47 percentage points and buildings 45 percentage points. Ø     About 31% of the rural households and 22% of the urban households reported debt (cash loan) outstanding as on 30.6.12. The average amount of debt (AOD) for a rural household was Rs. 32,522 and that for an urban household was Rs. 84,625. Ø     As on 30.6.12, the `debt-asset` ratio at the all-India level was 3.7% for urban areas and 3.23% for rural areas. Ø     Around 31% of the rural households and 15.2% of the urban households reported fixed capital expenditure and the average amount of expenditure for fixed capital formation is Rs. 10,717 in rural and Rs. 14,493 urban India.         Ø      Among the social groups, in rural India, IOI (16.9%) was lowest for ST households and highest (35.7%) for OBC households. On the other hand, AOD was lowest for ST households (Rs. 9,610) and highest for ‘Others’ households (Rs. 44,565). In urban India, the lowest IOI was again that of the ST households (16.4%) and the highest that of OBC (26.0%).  But the IOI for ‘others’ was only 19% – lower than that of SC. The relative position of the four social groups, in terms of AOD, was found to be the same as in the rural areas. Ø     The results of the survey show that non-institutional agencies played a major role in advancing credit to the households, particularly in rural India. The non-institutional agencies had advanced credit to 19% of rural households, while the institutional agencies had advanced credit to 17% households.  In urban India, the picture is different; the institutionalagencies appear to have played a major role, advancing credit to 15% of households against 10% by non-institutional agencies. Ø     The indebtedness as on 30.06.2012, with simple interest is predominant for both rural (20.3%) and urban (13.4%) households. IOI for ‘interest-free loans’ (mainly taken from friends and relatives) was also quite significant - with 6.5% in the rural and 4.4% in the urban. Ø     The institutional agencies played a significant role in providing credit to the households with a moderate rate of interest (6% to 15%) for both rural and urban area. It is observed that among Total Cash Dues (TCD) funded by the institutional agencies, about 89% in the rural and 92% in the urban were provided at less than 15% interest rates. On the other hand, the non-institutional agencies provided a significant amount of its total loans to households at an interest as high as 20% or above, the share of such loans to total loans by the non-institutional agencies was 69% in the rural and 58% in the urban. Ø     About 65% of total amount of cash debt outstanding on 30.06.12 among rural households and 52% of the same among urban households had been contracted for a relatively shorter duration of less than 2 years and meagre 2% for a period of 10 years or more for both the sectors.

Key Indicators of Land and Livestock Holdings in India Released

The National Sample Survey Office (NSSO), Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, conducted a survey on Land andLivestock Holdings in the rural areas of the country as a part of NSS 70thRound during January, 2013 to December, 2013.  Similar survey on the same subject was last conducted by NSSO ten years back i.e. during January, 2003 - December, 2003 as a part of its 59th Round.     NSSO has released the key indicators of Land and Livestock Holdings in India based on the data collected in the 70th Round Survey.  The detailed results of the survey are planned to be released in two main reports, one on ‘Household ownership and Operational holdings in India’ and the other on ‘Livestock holdings in India’.    The main objective of the survey on Land and Livestock is to generate basic quantitative information on the agrarian structure of the country relevant to land policy. Detailed quantitative information on various aspects of land ownership holdings, operational holdings and ownership of livestock was collected in the survey. The collected information includes area of plots, type of use of plots, leasing pattern, ownership of plots, irrigation facility, type of crop production/farming, number of different types of livestock owned, etc.           The survey covered the entire rural areas of the Indian Union. The results of the survey are based only on the Central Sample canvassed by NSSO, consisting of 4,529 villages spread over rural areas of all States and Union Territories.The information of the round was collected in two visits from the same set of sample households. The first visit was made during January 2013– July 2013 and the second, during August, 2013 - December 2013.  A total number of 35,604 households were surveyed in first visit and 35, 337 of them in second visit.         Some key indicators on various aspects of land and livestock holdings by the rural households in the country are as follows: A.    Ownership of  Land ·         During the agricultural year July, 2012- June, 2013, rural India had an estimated total area of92.3 million hectares under household ownership of land and the average area owned per household was 0.592 hectares. ·         Within the rural households, the marginal land owners (i.e. possessing more than 0.002 but less than or equal to 1.0 hectare of land) constituted the highest proportion(75.42%)  of total rural households, whereas the large land owners (possessing land more than 10.000 hectares) constituted the lowest proportion (0.24% ) of the total households.  The landlesscategory (possessing land less than or equal 0.002 hectare) constituted 7.41% of the total rural households. ·         In terms of percentage of total area owned, the largestcategory was the marginal land owners (i.e. possessing more than 0.002 but less than or equal to 1.0 hectare of land) owing 29.75% of the total land area owned. ·         Among all the ownership holdings, the households with self-employed in cultivation as the major source of income, owned the highest share of land (81.4% of the total land area owned) with average area owned 1.104 hectares. Share of land owned by the households with self-employed in livestock farming and the households with self-employed inother agricultural activities were1.5% each of the total land area owned. B.     Operational Holding of Land ·         During the agricultural year July,2012- June,2013, rural India had an estimated 108 million household operational holdings, covering a total area of 98.6 million hectares of land. The average area operated per holding (ha) was estimated at 0.907 hectares.  Trends in cultivationpattern ·         88.6% of the household operational holdings were operated for the whole agricultural year, whereas 8.5% was operated only during July,2012 to December,2012, and 2.9% only during January,2013 to June,2013. ·         The land use pattern shows that the estimated land area used for crop production was around 94.7% during the season July,2012 – December,2012 and around 79% during the season January,2013 – June2013.  Percentage areas of land used for non-agricultural purposes were 2.83% and 13.85% in these two periods respectively.   ·         The highest percentage of area was used for growing cereals in both the periods July, 2012 – December, 2012 (56.21%) and January,2013 – June,2013 (57.74%). The next major use of land was for production of oil seeds (13.75% and 7.34%) and pulses (6.30% and 10.20%) in the two seasons respectively. ·         At all India level, the major source of irrigation was ground water (tube well, well, etc) covering 67% of irrigated land area during July, 2012-December, 2012 and 71% during January,2013-June, 2013. ·         During the season July, 2012 – December, 2012, the major States where land area was mostly affected by flood included Andhra Pradesh (26%), Assam (23%), Bihar (17%) and West Bengal (13%) . Amongst these, agricultural activities were mostly affected by flood in the States of Assam (7%) and West Bengal (4%). Trends in Livestock Farming ·         Among the land used for animal farming (i.e., dairy, poultry/ duckery, piggery, fishery and farming of other animals) the major use of land was made in dairy (53.8% and 69.7%) in July, 2012 – December, 2012 and January, 2013 – June, 2013 respectively. In about, 18.7% and 11.8% of land area was used forfishery during the two seasons. ·         The percentage of area used for all types of farming of animals is 0.97% in July,2012 – December,2012 and 1.69 % during January,2013 – June,2013. Also, 36.69% of household operational holdings reported farming of animals in July, 2012 – December, 2012, and 43.58% reported in January, 2013 – June, 2013. C.        Stock of Livestock/Poultry Birds holding in the country ·         The stock of cattle and buffalo of the country was estimated at 204 million during     2012-13. The estimated population of sheep & goat during the period was about 99 million. ·         The population of poultry birds has been estimated at 255 million during the year     2012-13.

Key indicators of situation of Agricultural Households in India

The National Sample Survey Office (NSSO), Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, conducted Situation Assessment Surveyof Agricultural Households in its 70thround (January – December, 2013).  The detailed results of this survey will be brought out through a series of three reports.  In order to make available the salient results of the survey to the data users, well in advance of the release of the main reports, NSSO has released the key indicators of situation of agricultural households in India. NSSO conducted a similar survey on ‘Situation Assessment Survey of Farmers’ during January - December, 2003 in the rural areas of the country as part of its 59th round.              The survey covered the whole of the Indian Union. The survey aimed at capturing the condition of agricultural households in the rural areas of the country in the context of policies and programmes of Government of India. It was designed to collect information on various aspects relating to farming and other socio-economic characteristics of agricultural households. Information on consumer expenditure, information on income and productive assets, their indebtedness, farming practices and preferences, resource availability, awareness of technological developments, access to modern technology in the field of agriculture and information on crop loss & crop insurance was also collected. With a view to collect relevant information, separately for the two major agricultural seasons in a year, the same set of sample households was visited two times during the survey period.  The first visit was made during January- July 2013 and the second during August- December 2013.  The reference period for data collection was the agricultural year July 2012- June 2013.             An agricultural household for this survey was defined as a household receiving  value of produce, more than Rs.3000/- from agricultural and having at least one member self-employed in agriculture either in the principal status or in subsidiary status during last 365 days.  On the other hand, in the ‘Situation Assessment Survey of Farmers’ conducted in NSS 59th Round, a ‘farmer’ was defined as a person who possesses some land and is engaged in some agricultural activities on that land during last 365 days preceding the date of survey. Thus the definition followed in NSS 59th Round had kept all agricultural activities of persons outside the scope of the survey which did not possess and operate any land. Due to the change in coverage and difference in some important concepts and definitions followed in this survey vis-a-vis the 59th round survey, the results of these two rounds are not strictly comparable. While making any comparison of results of these two rounds, sufficient care should be taken to account for these differences. The results of the survey are based on the Central Sample canvassed by NSSO, consisting of 4,529 villages spread over rural areas of all States and Union Territories. A total number of 35,200 households were surveyed in first visit and 34,907 of them could be re-surveyed in second visit. Some salient findings of the survey regarding situation of agricultural households in the country are as follows: A.     Number of Agricultural households ·         During the agricultural year July 2012- June 2013, rural India had an estimated total of 90.2 million agricultural households, which constituted about 57.8 percent of the total estimated rural households of the country during the same period. ·         Uttar Pradesh, with an estimate of 18.05 million agricultural households, accounted for about 20 percent of all agricultural households in the country. ·         Rajasthan had highest percentage of agricultural households (78.4 percent) among its rural households and Kerala had the least percentage share of agricultural households (27.3 percent) in its rural households. Out of the total estimated agricultural households in the country, about 45 percent belonged to Other Backward Classes. About 16 percent agricultural households were from Scheduled Castes and 13 percent from Scheduled Tribes. B.     Source of Income  of Agricultural households ·         Principal source of income of agricultural households is largely determined by the extent of land possession. ·         Majority of the agricultural households which possessed more than 0.40 hectare land,  reported cultivation as their principal source of income. ·         Among the agricultural households having less than 0.01 hectare land, about 56 percent reported wage/salary employment as their principal source of income and another 23 percent reported livestock as their principal source of income. ·         Agricultural activity (cultivation, livestock and other agricultural activities) was reported to be the principal source of income for majority of the agricultural households in all the major States, except Kerala where about 61 percent of the agricultural households reported to have received maximum income from sources other than agricultural activities. About 44 percent of the estimated agricultural households in the country had MGNREGA job card during the survey period. In rural India about 12 percent agricultural households did not possess any ration card as on the date of the survey. BPL card was possessed by about 36 percent of the estimated agricultural households and another 5 percent possessed ‘Antyodaya’ cards. About 13 percent agricultural households having land less than 0.01 hectare did not have ration card. C.     Possession of Land by Agricultural households About 0.1 percent of the estimated agricultural households in rural India were landless. About 93 percent of agricultural households in the country possessed some type of land other than ‘homestead land only’ and little less than 7 percent possessed only homestead land. Around 78.5 percent of the agricultural households did not possess any land outside the village they were residing during the survey period. Among the households reported land possession outside the village, about 17.5 percent had land within the State itself and about 4 percent had land outside the State. D.     Income, investment and indebtedness About 52 percent of the agricultural households in the country were estimated to be indebted. Among the major States, Andhra Pradesh had the highest share of indebted agricultural households in the country (92.9 percent) followed by Telengana (89.1 percent) and Tamil Nadu (82.5 percent). In rural India, about 60 percent of the amount of outstanding loans taken by the agricultural households was taken from the institutional sources, which included Government (2.1 percent), Co-operative society (14.8 percent) and banks (42.9 percent). Share of income of agricultural households from non-farm business in their average monthly income decreased with increase in land possession. Net investment in productive assets per agricultural household increased with increase in land size. E.     Farming practices, crop insurance etc. Of the estimated 90.2 million agricultural households in the country, 86.5 percent households were engaged in crop production during the period July 2012- December 2012. The average gross cropped area per agricultural household during this period was 0.937 hectare. The survey results indicated that very small segment of agricultural households utilized crop insurance. Lack of awareness was the most reported reason by the agricultural households for not insuring their crops during the agricultural year July 2012- June 2013.

Initiatives taken to Reduce Malnutrition

As per the World Bank Report titled ‘Nutrition in India’, India loses over 12 billion U.S. Dollar in Gross Domestic Product due to vitamin and mineral deficiencies in Indian population.  It also reports significant direct and indirect economic losses due to under-nutrition associated with direct productivity losses estimated at more that 10 percent of lifetime individual earnings and about 2-3 percent loss of GDP. Indirect losses are due to poor mental development and schooling, and increased costs of healthcare. As per the comparison from second and third National Family health Survey conducted in 1998-99 and 2005-06 respectively, the prevalence of stunting among children under-three years of age has declined from 51 per cent to 44.9 percent; however the prevalence of wasting among children under age three years has increased from 19.7 per cent to 22.7 percent.  The Government has accorded high priority to the issue of malnutrition in the country and is implementing several schemes/programmes under different Ministries/Departments through State Governments/UT Administrations, the details being as follows: ·         Under multi-sectoral approach for accelerated action on the determinants of malnutrition in targeting nutrition in schemes/programmes of all the sectors. The schemes/programmes include the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS), National Health Mission (NHM), Mid-Day Meal Scheme, Rajiv Gandhi Schemes for Empowerment of Adolescent Girls (RGSEAG) namely SABLA,  Indira Gandhi MatritvaSahyogYojna (IGMSY) as direct targeted interventions. Besides, indirect Multi-sectoral interventions include Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS), National Horticulture Mission, National Food Security Mission, Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, National Rural Drinking Water Programme etc.  All these schemes address one or other aspect of nutrition. ·         The specific interventions targeted towardsthe vulnerable groups include children below 6 years. The main schemes/programmes of Ministry of Women and Child Development which have a bearing on the nutritional status includes the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) Scheme which provides a package of six services namely supplementary nutrition, pre-school non-formal education, nutrition & health education, immunization, health check-up and referral services. ·         Under National Health Mission of Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, the remedial steps taken are as follows: -        Promotion of appropriate infant and young child feeding practices that include early initiation of breastfeeding, exclusive breastfeeding till 6 months of age and appropriate complementary feeding after 6 months of age. -        Management of malnutrition and common neonatal and childhood illnesses at community and facility level by training service providers in IMNCI (Integrated Management of Neonatal and Childhood Illnesses) training. -        Treatment of children with severe acute malnutrition at special units called the Nutrition Rehabilitation Centres (NRCs), set up at public health facilities. Presently 875 such centres are functional all over the country. -        Specific program to prevent and combat micronutrient deficiencies of Vitamin A and Iron & Folic Acid (IFA) in under-five children, children of 5 to 10 years of age, and adolescents.  -        Village Health and Nutrition Days and Mother and Child Protection Card are the joint initiative of the Ministries of Health & Family welfare and the Ministry of Woman and Child for addressing the nutrition concerns in children, pregnant women and lactating mothers.