launch of Cartosat-2 series satellite along with 30 co-passenger

29 nano satellites from 14 countries are being launched as part of the commercial arrangements between Antrix Corporation and international customers.

The 28-hour countdown for the launch of Cartosat-2 series satellite along with 30 co-passenger satellites from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh began at 5.29 a.m. IST on June 22, 2017.

The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, in its 40th flight (PSLV-C38), would launch the 712 kg satellite for earth observation and 30 other satellites together weighing about 243 kg into a 505 km polar Sun Synchronous Orbit (SSO) at 9.20 a.m. IST on June 23, 2017, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said.

The co-passengers, comprise 29 nano satellites from 14 countries — Austria, Belgium, Chile, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia, the United Kingdom and the United States of America besides a nano satellite from India. PSLV-C38 will be launched from the First Launch Pad of the Satish Dhawan Space Centre.

This will be the 40th flight of PSLV and the 17th of PSLV in ‘XL’ configuration (with the use of solid strap-on motors).

The space agency said the 29 international customer nano satellites are being launched as part of the commercial arrangements between Antrix Corporation Limited (Antrix), commercial arm of ISRO and international customers.

Cartosat-2 is a remote sensing satellite and it is similar in configuration to earlier satellites in the series with the objective of providing high-resolution scene specific spot imagery.

ISRO chairman A.S. Kiran Kumar told reporters at Chennai airport that all the activities for the launch were going on. He expressed happiness on the “Mangalyan” mission completing 1,000 days on June 19, 2017 and said it had been performing very well

Centre mulls different time zones across the country

Centre mulls different time zones across the country
One can actually save energy because the sunrise and sunset timings are different (in the country), but the office timings are one across the nation”

The Department of Science and Technology (DST) is conducting a study to assess the feasibility of having different time zones in the country.

The study is being conducted to give “scientific inputs” on the matter, DST secretary Ashutosh Sharma said. Recently, Pema Khandu, the Chief Minister of Arunachal Pradesh, had demanded a separate time zone for the northeast.

“The DST has been conducting studies on this, looking at what is the potential of energy saving if you have two different time zones,” Mr. Sharma said. “One can actually save energy because the sunrise and sunset timings are different (in the country), but the office timings are one across the nation,” he added.

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One India, two time zones
The study is also expected to cover the overall impact, especially on the transportation system.

Leaders from the northeast region argue that a separate time zone, a long-pending demand, would increase daylight savings and efficiency. One of the arguments is that early sunrise means that by the time they start their day, almost half the day has passed. This means an early sunset which requires extra use of lights in both homes, offices and public places, hampering the productivity.

‘Two time zones will create chaos’

05Time zone.eps
 Similar is the case with the archipelagos of the Andaman and Nicobar and the Lakshadweep where sunrise and sunset timings are different from the mainland.
Turn the clock forward by 30 minutes countrywide to save 2.7 billion units of electricity, say scientists

A dual time zone in India, which will be set in place if Assam turns its clock forward by an hour, will not only create “unimaginable chaos” in a country of India’s demographic size, but also barely meet its intended goal of saving energy, say authors of a new research paper that examines the merits of resetting the Indian Standard Time (IST).

Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi recently announced his decision to reset the clock in the State an hour ahead of IST to save energy and increase productivity. But “all States in the country stand to save electricity were IST to be advanced” — by 30 minutes — writes D.P. Sen Gupta, visiting professor at the National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS), and his colleagues, in the forthcoming edition of Current Science, the popular fortnightly science journal published by the Indian Academy of Science.

India would save 2.7 billion units of electricity every year by shifting the IST meridian eastward (from 82.5E longitude in Uttar Pradesh to 90E near the Assam-Bengal border), calculate the authors.

Prof. Sen Gupta tells The Hindu that by setting two time zones or introducing “daylight saving” schedules, India stands to gain little, and could in fact suffer from negative energy saving. Prof. Sen Gupta and his colleagues calculated the energy saving potentials of several scenarios.

The paper calculates the savings State-wise: 0.49 per cent of total energy consumption in Karnataka, 0.21 in Tamil Nadu, 0.28 in Andhra Pradesh, 0.64 in West Bengal and 0.68 in Madhya Pradesh.

“This would amount to a critical saving in energy for a country where 350 million people out of the total 1,200 million population still have no access to electricity and use kerosene lamps at night.” Prof Sen Gupta told The Hindu. “By making a one-time change to time, not only are people saved the trouble of changing clocks every time they cross a zonal boundary, it would also prevent chaos that could arise ... for instance, in manually operated railway lines,” he added.

For the study, the authors analysed thousands of daily power load curves that usually have two peaks — one in the morning and another in the evening.

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Achieving Durable Inflation

Achieving Durable Inflation
One of the major objectives of Government of India and the Reserve Bank of India is achieving durable inflation. Inflation in India had reached 10-11 percent in 2008 and remained elevated for several years. Over the past 3 years, inflation has come down from 9.4 percent in 2013 to 5.9 percent in 2014 to 4.9 percent in 2015 to a projected value of 4.7 percent in 2017. There has been a persistent demand for lowering policy rates. The dilemma is low policy rates are not possible with low inflation. The paper seeks to explore the challenges for RBI to lower policy rates.

The increase in inflation from 2008-13 coincided with rapidly rising food and commodity prices. Food prices rose sharply from 2008 and by the end of 2013 had nearly doubled compared to 2007 prices. Food inflation was the key driver of India’s high and persistent inflation. Further, international commodity prices exert an important influence on India’s inflation. The fuel component of the wholesale price index moves with the international commodity prices.

There are several consequences of high inflation. The conventional view was that high inflation affects growth, and persistently high inflation above a certain threshold level can be a drag on economic growth. Economic research has shown that there exists a statistically significant negative long term relationship between inflation and economic growth in India. Significant inflation-growth threshold effects have been observed in cases of inflation rates above 5.5 percent. The average growth is higher in States where the inflation was below 5.5 percent and a statistically significant negative effect of inflation on long term growth was visible where inflation was higher than 5.5 percent.

Inflation hurts middle class and poor households quite significantly. Middle class households confronted with high inflation bring forward their purchases of clothing, appliances, houseware or other products in the consumption basket. The consumption basket of the poor is disproportionately focused on food which cannot be brought forward because of its perishability. In a 2014 working paper, the IMF said with food inflation remaining persistently high for five years, monetary policy needs to remain tight to control generalized inflation. Given the elevated and persistent inflation, the RBI may need to raise rates to tackle inflation durably, particularly if faced with a persistent and sizable supply-side food price shock putting pressure on broad-based inflation. As inflation is mostly backward looking, monetary policy has to maintain a tight stance for a prolonged period of time.

Since 2014, the Government of India took several steps to rein in food inflation. The minimum support prices for key agricultural commodities were increased. Government released additional food grains from the Central Pool into the market. Government further notified that buffers norms of these food grains to levels significantly below prevailing actual stocks. These measures have helped lower cereal (rice and wheat) inflation.

In their 2017 Article IV consultations, the IMF has said that India’s CPI inflation is expected to remain contained in the near term, but inflationary pressures are set to rise in the second half of 2017. With temporary demand disruptions and increased monsoon-driven food supplies, CPI inflation is expected at about 4 ¾ percent by early 2017, in line with the RBI inflation target of 5 percent by March 2017. However, inflationary pressures are likely to reappear in the second half of 2017, in part reflecting government pay reviews and the waning effects of the oil price collapse. Upside risks to inflation stem from supply-side factors, such as volatility of agricultural prices, including due to possible smaller harvests as a result of cash shortages inhibiting purchases of agricultural inputs.

To conclude it can be said that inflation and growth are two sides of the same coin. The RBI has sets policy rates as low as it can, consistent with meeting the inflation objectives. The transition to a low inflation economy requires sustained fiscal policy support. India is on the path to building the institutions necessary to secure a low inflation future. The Government has taken the momentous step of amending the RBI Act to provide for a statutory and institutionalized monetary policy committee for maintaining price stability while keeping in mind the objective of growth. The MPC has been entrusted with the task of fixing the benchmark policy rate required to contain inflation within the specified target level. For the period, 2016-2021, Government has notified the inflation target as 4 percent with an upper tolerance level of 6 percent and lower tolerance level of 2 percent. Achieving Durable Inflation

National Mission for Clean Ganga: The challenges ahead

National Mission for Clean Ganga: The challenges ahead
Before the advent of the National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG), Ganga, the most revered and national river of India, was facing the challenge to its existence due to discharge of increasing quantities of sewage, trade effluents and other pollutants on account of rapid urbanization and industrialization. The stretch of Ganga covers a length of 2525 kilometers across five states namely Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal. It has a catchment area of 8,61,404 square km covering over a quarter of country’s land area and sustaining 46% of the total population of the country. It touches 118 towns and 1657 Gram Panchayats across 66 districts of 5 states of India.

The National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG), created in June, 2014, is being supported by State level Programme Management Groups (SPMGs) of Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Bihar, Jharkhand and west Bengal. The main activities undertaken under Namami Gange include sewage and effluent management including creation of new and rehabilitation of existing STPs, complete sanitation coverage of Gram Panchayats, development of model cremation/dhobi ghats, development of decision support system in GIS platform for efficient planning and monitoring and creation of an IT based monitoring centre with capabilities of real time alerts and prediction. For long term protection and rejuvenation, a provision has been made for 100% funding for the entire life time cost of the treatment of assets created including O&M cost for 10 years. Due importance has also been accorded to bio diversity, conservation, maintenance of flow in the river and afforestation along river side with medicinal and native plant species along with conservation of aquatic species.

The expenditure incurred on Namami Gange in the first three years, (ie; 2014-2015 to 2016-17) is Rs 3673.00 crore. For the current year (2017-18), an amount of Rs 2300 crore has been allocated in the budget. It is however, observed that the pace of utilization of fund under this programme has not been satisfactory. The slow implementation of project is attributed to delay in tendering, retendering, non- availability of land, legal issues, natural calamities, delay in permission for road cutting, crossing, local festivals, higher fund requirement and pending approvals of state Cabinet etc. Regular monitoring meeting of NMCG with concerned state is expected to help in expediting the pace of the projects implementation and eliminating bottlenecks in making land available and clear the projects through tendering.

The Order issued through the Gazette of India on 7thOctober, 2016 constituting River Ganga (Rejuvenation, Protection and management) Authorities under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 lays down a new institutional structure for policy and implementation in fast track manner and empowers NMCG to discharge its functions in independent and accountable manner. The said Authority has its jurisdiction spread over 5 states along the main stem of Ganga and 5 states and Union territory of Delhi along the major tributaries of the river Ganga.

The key principles identified for the Authority are:

1) Maintaining the continuity of the flow without altering the natural season variations.
2) Restoring and maintaining the integral relationship between the surface flow and sub-surface water (ground water),
3) Restoration and maintenance of the property and quality of water in time bound manner.
4) Regenerating and maintaining the lost natural vegetation in catchment area,
5) Regeneration and conservation of the aquatic and riparian biodiversity in river Ganga basin,
6) To keep the bank of river Ganga and its floodplains as construction free zone to reduce pollution sources and maintain its natural ground water recharge functions
7) Making public participation as integral part of process of rejuvenation, protection and management of the river.

River surface cleaning work has been undertaken in major cities on the bank of River Ganga in collaboration with Corporate bodies and Public Sector undertakings. Under Rural Sanitation programme, NMCG has provided Rs 263 Crore to Ministry of Drinking Water &Sanitation for construction of toilets. About 11 lakh toilets have been constructed so far. For renovation/modernization and construction of crematoria based on standard design, initially, 20-25 urban local bodies (ULBs) are being taken up with the target of developing 100 crematoria in a year’s time.

River front/ ghat development work has been taken up in 7 towns of Kedarnath, Haridwar, Delhi, Allahabad, Kanpur, Varanasi & Patna in addition to repair and modernization of existing ghats. Under medium term plan Effluents Management activity, real Time Effluent Monitoring stations have been installed in 508 out of 764 grossly polluting industries of distillery, pulp and paper; tanneries; textile and sugar. Regarding Zero Liquid Discharge, action plan has been under implementation for distilleries since the last quarter of 2016. Vigilance squad of Central Pollution Control Board is closely monitoring for improved compliance.

Biodiversity Conservation is being implemented in association with Wildlife Institute of India to cover Golden Mahaseer, Dolphins, Crocodiles, Turtles and Otters etc under conservation programme. 30,000 Hectares of land is targeted to be covered under afforestation programme. For water quality monitoring, in addition to 57 Manual monitoring stations, 113 Real-time monitoring stations are being set up with display boards at selected locations. Steps are being taken for public outreach. Resource materials such as posters, flyers, brochures, pamphlets, hoardings etc. have been circulated/displayed among stake holders.

Awareness activities are taken up through Pad Yatras, cleanliness drives, painting competitions for children, shramdaan, talk-shows and dialogues etc. Namami Gange song has been released and played on digital media and during public events. In addition to that featured articles and advertorials through audio-visual media have also been introduced. Regular updates are shared on Social Media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and You tube etc. Mass awareness campaigns, photo exhibitions , setting up Pavilions/Stalls at national/ International events have also been organized. For involvement of public in monitoring of pollution entering into the river Ganga, Bhuvan-Ganga Web App and mobile app have been launched.

In view of multi stakeholder nature of the Ganga rejuvenation challenge, 7 Ministries of Govt of India are working together on an action plan since June,2014. Besides, MoU has also been signed between NMCG and 11 Ministries of the Govt of India to ensure convergence of their activities in protection and rejuvenation of river Ganga. MoU has also been signed with National Remote Sensing Centre, a department under Indian Space Research Organization ISRO.

For Pollution abatement and cleaning exercise in river Ganga, the policy making authorities at higher level have emphasized the need of close monitoring, focus on minimizing waste generation and disposal of waste in eco- friendly manner and publicizing the use of electric crematoria for enhancing its acceptability among the masses. Uploading the monitoring reports in public domain has been recommended.

A number of decisions taken recently indicate that the pace of project implementation has picked up momentum for pollution abatement and making the flow of river incessant. State Ganga Committees and District Ganga Committees have been formed to ensure effective implementation and Participation of people in protection &rejuvenation of Ganga.

After successful Cartosat-2 launch, ISRO gears up for GSAT-17

After successful Cartosat-2 launch, ISRO gears up for GSAT-17
ISRO is also lining up more launches for the future.
Space agency ISRO is all set to launch the GSAT-17 from French Guiana on June 28, the third launch is less than a month.

“GSAT-17 is getting launched on June 28. We will be working on the replacement satellite for IRNSS-1. Our plan is to have two Mark-II and two Mark-III launches apart from eight to ten PSLV launches per year,” a beaming ISRO Chairman A S Kiran told reporters after the successful launch of PSLV-C38.

He was addressing the media after ISRO’s workhorse rocket, the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, in its 40th flight (PSLV-C38), successfully launched the Cartosat-2 series satellite, a dedicated one for the defence forces, along with 30 nano satellites from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre.

ISRO was geared up for the launch of GSAT-17 and lined up more for the future, he said.

On June 5, ISRO had launched its most powerful and heaviest geostationary rocket carrying advanced communication satellite GSAT-19, weighing 3,136 kg, from the spaceport here.

Kumar said, “we have approvals for Chandrayaan-II and Aditya. Meanwhile, we are finalising Mars Orbiter II and Venus mission. Study teams are looking at them. Very soon, we will be finalising our plan of action. Then we will get the necessary approvals from the government and move ahead.”

ISRO’s ‘Monster’ rocket sends ‘selfies’, Twitter is thrilled
About IRNSS-IA, the ISRO chief said a replacement satellite would be sent as the “clocks have stopped functioning and there is a need to replace them.”

Kumar said PSLV has emerged as a credible launch vehicle for anyone across the globe, because of the frequency at which launches are happening and also the access and timeline within which their satellites can be put into orbit.

“With each (PSLV) launch, we are trying to improve our capability in one new area, like multiple restarts, multiple orbits...different capabilities we are building. As we continue to do so, PSLV will be the in-demand vehicle for satellite launches across the world.”

“In future, we are planning communication satellites where electric propulsion systems would be used. Currently, we have put on electric propulsion system in GSAT-9 that has been tested out. The primary advantage is that it will reduce the mass of the satellite by replacing chemical propulsion system. We have a lot of plans,” he said in response to a question on what lies ahead for ISRO.

He lavished praise on the Cartosat-2 team, which soared into space this morning along with 30 other nano satellites from 14 countries apart from India.

Earlier, the mission director B Jayakumar said all the satellites launched today by PSLV-C38 had been positioned in orbit.

“With today’s launch, we have acquired the confidence that we can launch multiple satellites in multiple orbits in a single mission,” he said.

govt achievement as advertise by govt:uttarakhand

Quality of life in 116 major cities to be assessed; City Liveability Index launched

Quality of life in 116 major cities to be assessed; City Liveability Index launched

Andhra Pradesh tops in urban reforms; Rs.500 cr incentive disbursed to 16 good performers

In yet another major initiative, the Ministry of Urban Development today launched the ‘City Liveability Index’ for measuring the quality of life in 116 major cities including smart cities, capital cities and cities with a population of above one million each.
The Index, a Common Minimum Reference Framework to enable the cities know where they stand in terms of quality of life and the interventions required to improve the same was today launched by the Minister of Urban Development Shri M.Venkaiah Naidu here today at a National Workshop on Urban Transformation.
Stating that cities are now moving on a well thought out course of infrastructure development under new urban missions launched during the last three years, Shri Naidu said “ Time has now come to measure life quality in cities and rank them accordingly”.
In a first of its kind Index to be introduced in the country, cities will be assessed on a comprehensive set of 79 paratmeters to capture the extent and quality of infrastructure including availability of roads, education and health care, mobility, employment opportunities, emergency response, grievance redressal, pollution, availability of open and green spaces, cultural and entertainment opportunities etc.
After selecting the agency for undertaking this assessment next month, data collection will be completed in the next about six months.
The Ministry of Urban Development today disbursed Rs.500 cr as incentive to 16 States that performed well in implementing urban reforms during 2016-17. Progress in respect of reforms like e-governance, Audit of accounts, Tax revision policies and extent of tax revenue collection, Energy and Water Audit, Establishing State Level Financial Intermediaries for resource mobilization, Credit Rating etc., was taken into account.
Andhra Pradesh topped the list scoring 96.06% marks. Others who received the incentive fund in order of merit were; Odisha (95.38%), Jharkhand (91.98%), Chattisgarh (91.37%), Madhya Pradesh (90.20%), Telangana (86.92%), Rajasthan (84.62%), Punjab (77.02%), Kerala (75.73%), Goa (75.38*), Mizoram (75.00%), Gujarat (73.80%), Chandigarh (72.73%), Uttar Pradesh (70.67%) and Maharashtra (70.52). Marks scored by these States was considered for deciding the quantum of incentive with high scorers getting more.
Shri Rajiv Gauba, Secretary (UD) said that reform incentive fund for the next three financial years will be increased from the present allocation of Rs.900 cr to Rs.10,000 cr to promote next generation reforms that would make a substantial difference to urban governance and service delivery and resource mobilization by urban local bodies.