GSLV Successfully Launches South Asia Satellite

The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi at the Video Conference with Heads of Government from South Asian Nations, to mark the launch of the South Asia Satellite, in New Delhi on May 05, 2017.

India's Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV-F09) successfully launched the 2230 kg South |Asia Satellite (GSAT-9) into its planned Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO) today (May 05, 2017). Today’s launch of GSLV was its eleventh and took place from the Second Launch Pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre SHAR (SDSC SHAR), Sriharikota, the spaceport of India. This is the fourth consecutive success achieved by GSLV carrying indigenously developed Cryogenic Upper Stage. In its oval shaped GTO, the South Asia Satellite is now orbiting the Earth with a perigee (nearest point to Earth) of 169 km and an apogee (farthest point to Earth) of 36,105 km with an orbital inclination of 20.65 deg with respect to the equator. 

Few seconds before the launch countdown reached zero, the four liquid propellant strap-on motors of GSLV-F09, each carrying 42 tons of liquid propellants, were ignited. At count zero and after confirming the normal performance of all the four strap-on motors, the 139 ton solid propellant first stage core motor was ignited and GSLV lifted off at 16:57 IST. The major phases of the flight occurred as scheduled. About seventeen minutes after lift-off, South Asia Satellite was successfully placed in GTO. 

. Soon after separation from GSLV, the two solar arrays of the satellite were automatically deployed in quick succession and the Master Control Facility (MCF) at Hassan in Karnataka assumed control of the satellite. 

South Asia Satellite is a communication satellite built by ISRO to provide a variety of communication services over the South Asian region. For this, it is equipped with Ku-band transponders. 

Following the successful launch, the Honorable Prime Minister of India, Mr. Narendra Modi addressed along with the South Asian leaders. He congratulated ISRO and remarked that today was a historic day for South Asia and a day without precedence. The Prime Minister recalled that two years ago India made a promise to extend the advanced space technology for the cause of growth and prosperity of the people of South Asia and felt that the successful launch of South Asia Satellite today marks a fulfillment of that. 

In the coming days, the satellite orbit will be raised from its present GTO to the final circular Geostationary Orbit (GSO) by firing the satellite's Liquid Apogee Motor (LAM) in stages. The South Asia Satellite will be commissioned into service after the completion of orbit raising operations and the satellite’s positioning in its designated slot in the GSO following in-orbit testing of its payloads. 

Deepika peeved over being mistaken for Priyanka in the West

Mumbai, May 5 (PTI) Actress Deepika Padukone says it is not only ignorance but racist when the foreign media mistakes her for Priyanka Chopra.

International mediapersons often confuse Deepika for the "Quantico" star and have even addressed her as Priyanka.

"It's not just about me being offended. It's you all in this room who should be offended. It's not just ignorance, it's also racist.

"Two people of similar colour are not the same people.

So, you as fellow Indians should actually be calling them out and educating them instead of encouraging it," Deepika told reporters at the L'Oreal event today.

When asked what could be the reason behind this confusion, she says, "Ignorance is ignorance. I feel bad for them." 

Recently Priyanka had said that it was not fair to mistake Deepika for her.

"I guess I'm the most popular brown face that everyone has known. Every brown girl does not look the same. Don't mistake it. Let's try and tell us apart. That was not right and it's not fair. She's a massive star from India," she had said.

State GST Bill passed by 8 assemblies in April-May: Finmin

New Delhi, May 4 (PTI) Eight state assemblies have passed the State Goods and Services Tax (SGST) Bill in April-May as the Centre gears up to roll out the new indirect tax regime nationwide from July.

While Telangana passed the SGST Bill on April 9, the legislation was approved in Bihar on April 24. In Rajasthan, it was done on April 26, Jharkhand - April 27, Chhattisgarh - April 28, Uttarakhand - May 2, Madhya Pradesh - May 3 and Haryana - May 4, a Finance Ministry statement said on Thursday.

The remaining states/UTs (having Legislative Assemblies) are likely to pass the Bill before the end of this month, it said. Some that get left would be approving it next month.

The GST Council, the top decision making body headed by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, had approved the model SGST Bill at its 12th Meeting on March 16 this year.

The next GST Council meeting will be held at Srinagar on May 18-19 to fix the tax rates of various commodities.

The central government proposes to roll out the GST from July 1.

The quick passage of the State GST Act by the State Assemblies, the statement said, shows the keenness on their part to ensure timely roll out of the GST.

The tax officials of the centre as well as the states have already launched the outreach programme to create general awareness among people about the new tax regime which will subsume service tax, excise and various other levies.

President likely to promulgate banking ordinance tomorrow

New Delhi, May 4 (PTI) President Pranab Mukherjee is likely to promulgate tomorrow an ordinance giving greater powers to the Reserve Bank to tackle mounting bad loans, a top source said.

The Cabinet yesterday approved promulgation of an ordinance to amend the Banking Regulation Act for resolution of the non-performing asset (NPA) crisis.

The amendments to the Act will help in effectively resolving the bad loans problem, Finance Secretary Ashok Lavasa said today.

"It is not possible for me to put down a number on how this (NPAs) will go down, but certainly we feel that these changes will make the system more effective in handling the bad loans," he told reporters here.

The Cabinet's decision got a thumbs-up from the market as Bank Nifty rallied 1.85 per cent to close at 22,720.10.

"Banks are in a sweet spot due to a new framework to deal with NPAs and better quarterly results," said Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Financial Services.

The secretary further said "we should be able to reach resolution in many of the cases" on the back of professionalism in the banking system and participation of promoters themselves.

He is confident that the amendments will allow regulator Reserve Bank and lenders to take effective steps to deal with the toxic assets.

After discussions with stakeholders, the government felt that some changes were necessary in the statute book to take the problem head-on.

Lavasa, however, did not disclose the details of the proposed amendments.

He is of the view that there is enough appetite in the market to buy stressed assets.

"We should not judge the capacity that is there in the market because people do have appetite for investment in the Indian market. India is probably one of the best destinations for investment at this point of time," he asserted.

Lavasa acknowledged that the NPA situation has not worsened in the recent past and there has been a marked improvement in some of the infrastructure sectors like power and road.

CCRUM holds a three day National Workshop on e-Granthalaya

The Central Council for Research in Unani Medicine (CCRUM) has organized a three-day National Workshop on e-Granthalya 4.0 for Automation and Networking of Government Libraries in New Delhi from 2^nd-4^th May, 2017. With the objective to train library professionals on e-Granthalya 4.0, the latest version of the library management software developed by National Informatics Centre (NIC), the workshop comprises of theoretical and hands-on training sessions on its admin, cataloging, circulation and serial modules. 

 

Inaugurating the workshop, Prof. Vd. K.S. Dhiman, Director General I/C, CCRUM said that we are living in a world where not everyone is able to spare time to visit physical libraries and networking of libraries in such a condition can be very helpful in conducting research and academic activities efficiently. He further said that e-libraries could also be a tool for transmission from physical books to e-books that can preserve our environment apart from saving a lot of money spent on procurement of physical books. He urged the participants to get used to the e-Granthalaya software and adopt it for automation and networking of libraries at their respective institutions in order to ease the dissemination of knowledge.

 

Speaking on the occasion, Shri Ram Kumar Matoria, Technical Director, NIC said that the Government of India provides the free of cost facility of adopting e-Granthalya software and uploading the data on NIC cloud to the government libraries to facilitate their automation and networking. He urged that like CCRUM other institutes of AYUSH should also come forward and adopt this facility extended by the NIC.

 

Earlier in his welcome address, Shri R.U. Choudhury, Assistant Director (CCRUM) said that the CCRUM has already adopted e-Granthalaya software making the catalogues of its eight libraries attached with its various institutes freely accessible to all globally. He further said that since the NIC has launched 4.0 version of the software with various new features, there was a need to organize such a workshop in order to make the library professionals used to it.

 

The workshop has 43 participants from different institutions including research councils of AYUSH, Banaras Hindu University and University of Kashmir.

CSR Fair 2017 to begin tomorrow

Shri Anant G. Geete, Union Minister of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises will be inaugurating a three day long CSR Fair from tomorrow (4th to 6th May, 2017) at Hall no. 11 Pragati Maidan, New Delhi. This mega event is being organised by The Department of Public Enterprises, Ministry of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises; PHD Chamber in collaboration with ONGC, to provide a platform to all stakeholders, including Central Ministries/Departments, CPSEs/State PSUs, Private Companies, NGOs/Foundations etc. to showcase their CSR activities, sharing of their best practices and also an opportunity to connect with other stakeholders.

The uniqueness of this event lies in the activities as there will be:

§   Three days of dedicated information packed sessions on CSR

§   Never before opportunity to meet Who’s Who of CSR

§   Personalized solutions from CSR experts

§   Innovative case study presentations of successful CSR interventions by the leaders

§   Side Events: Exhibition by all stakeholders, including Central Ministries/Departments, CPSEs/State PSUs, Private Companies, NGOs/Foundations etc.

§   Launch of CSR Compendium, it will be an exhaustive review of success stories of CSR initiatives of CPSEs/State PSUs, Private Companies, NGOs/Foundations etc.

The objective of fair is to provide a leading platform to corporate leaders, organizations, implementing agencies and business experts to identify practical solutions for the problems concerning the participatory implementation of CSR projects at the ground level. Besides, this is to brainstorm a way forward to integrate CSR into core business values of the corporate houses, and to give an opportunity to network and build mutually enriching strategic relationships with various stakeholders and key partners.

On this occasion the success stories of creative and innovative CSR interventions will be shared and the stake holders will also be sensitized about leveraging CSR for competitive advantage.

The purpose is to disseminate key information on Section 135 and Schedule  VII of the Companies Act as well as the provisions of the Companies (Corporate Social Responsibility Policy) Rules, 2014 (CRS Rules) for an operational and comprehensive understanding in addition  to the reporting for disclosure of CSR activities and performance.

The agenda of CSR fair includes:

·           Business leaders and Directors of Companies to gain valuable insights into emerging trends and issues concerning CSR

·           CSR Heads, CSR Committee members seeking creative and innovative ideas for CSR planning

·           Compliance managers who wish to seek solutions and advise relating to CSR

·           Civil society groups, development sector organizations to explore partnership opportunities with industries

·           Development sector organizations seeking like-minded corporate houses for CSR projects and collaboration

·           Social entrepreneurs for mutually enriching networking and partnerships

·           CSR consultants for networking and partnerships

·           Academicians, researchers, implementing agencies and other stakeholders.

The importance of this event is in the light of sequences after the introduction of the Companies Act as it has changed the CSR landscape in India by putting in place-legal provisions that have had a domino effect that includes better informed and sensitized stakeholders, and a development sector that has begun to align itself to accepting CSR funds from corporates. In the realm of Business Sustainability, SEBI has mandated Business Responsibility Reporting for top 500 listed companies based on their market capitalization from 1 April 2016. This move is an effort to improve corporate governance practices and transparency in terms of reporting of socially responsible activities carried out by the business houses.

While some companies still view it as compliance, many have started to realize that solely focusing on profit will prevent a holistic and responsible approach to business that involves social goals such as creating livelihoods, making qualitative education available for all and providing health facilities to the people who cannot afford it, etc.

The questions that arise as we look towards a new fiscal year include what will be the way forward in the forthcoming years and the sustainability strategy of the implemented projects through community engagement thereby reducing the dependency on CSR funds. While the transition from legislation to implementation is always challenging and dynamic, the challenge is to ensure the sustainability and mentioned previously by inducing community ownership of projects.

Beheading of soldiers: India summons Pak high commissioner

New Delhi, May 3 (PTI) India today summoned Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul Basit in connection with the beheading of two Indian security force personnel in Jammu and Kashmir by Pakistan forces.

Basit was called in by Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar to convey India's strong views on the incident, the external affairs ministry said.

The Indian Director General of Military Operations (DGMO) Lt Gen A K Bhatt has conveyed to his Pakistan counterpart that such a dastardly and inhuman act was beyond any norms of civility and merits unequivocal condemnation and response.

Naib Subedar Paramjeet Singh and BSF Head Constable Prem Singh were slain by Pakistan Border Action Team (BAT) by sneaking 250 metres into Indian territory in Poonch of J-K on May 1.

Triple talaq: SC allows Khurshid to assist as amicus curiae

New Delhi, May 3 (PTI) The Supreme Court today allowed former union minister Salman Khurshid to assist it as an amicus curiae in hearing of a batch of pleas challenging constitutional validity of 'triple talaq', 'nikah halala' and polygamy among Muslims.

A bench comprising Chief Justice J S Khehar and Justices D Y Chandrachud and S K Kaul also permitted Khurshid, who is a senior advocate, to file his written submissions in the case.

"We will take it on record. It's not an issue," the bench said when the Congress leader said that the time for filing written submission in the matter has already expired and he intended to file certain pleadings in the case.

A five-judge constitution bench would commence hearing from May 11 to decide a batch of petitions challenging 'triple talaq', 'nikah halala' and polygamy among Muslims.

Indian DGMO calls Pak counterpart over dastardly act of mutiliation of Indian Soldiers

Indian Director General of Military Operations spoke to his counterpart in Pakistan and expressed grave concern about the incident of 01 May 17 in Krishna Ghati Sector opposite POK Battal, wherein Pakistani Army targeted Indian patrol on Indian side of LC and mutilated bodies of two soldiers.

The Pakistani DGMO was also apprised that while undertaking this dastardly act full fire support was provided by Pakistani Army Post located in vicinity of the incident site. He also raised concerns regarding presence of BAT training camps and teams in close vicinity of Line of Control in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir.

DGMO Indian Army conveyed that such inhuman act is beyond any norms of civility and merits unequivocal condemnation and response.
        

Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman : India should take lead in making quality products

The Minister of State for Commerce & Industry (Independent Charge), Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman at the inauguration of the 4th National Standards Conclave, in New Delhi on May 01, 2017. The Commerce Secretary, Ms. Rita A. Teaotia and other dignitaries are also seen.
New Delhi : Commerce and Industry Minister Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman has said that India should take lead in making quality products available to world at an affordable price. Inaugurating the 4th National Standards Conclave organized by the Department of Commerce in association with CII, BIS, EIC, FSSAI, APEDA and NABCB she emphasized while standards as signifying quality are important but they also need to be affordable for manufacturers to comply and consumers to buy. She said Prime Minister’s ‘Zero Effect Zero Defect’ idea aims at exactly this. She cited The Mangalyan launch costing and worldclass quality is a prime example of quality with affordability. 

Commerce and Industry Minister appreciated that a ‘standards strategy document’ is going to be the possible outcome of this conclave however, she emphasised that long term strategy should not lose sight of immediate challenges. Smt. Sitharaman stated that any national strategy for standards should be able to factor in technology to disseminate any change in import requirements in foreign countries so that our exporters are well prepared to overcome those barriers. This dissemination has to be in regional languages. She said this has become critical as number of notifications in WTO have increased and many deal with standards . 

The Minister highlighted the issues confronting agriculture sector, where the nature of standards set in international bodies often militate against the Indian varieties. She stressed that International standards especially in food produce must value variety over homogeneity and India must participate actively in such Standards setting. When Sanitary and Phyto-Sanitary (SPS) controls are put on agro products, like mango or grapes unilaterally, they hurt our farmers. Similarly, the Maximum Residue Limits (MRLs) of certain pesticides or biocides are altered too quickly in the foreign markets and farmers are taken by surprise. So, efforts must be put to create quick information system for such farmers and exporters. She hoped that the proposed strategy would provide a guide or a kind of framework so that we avoid such crises at negotiation stage it self. 

The Minister also launched the India Standards Portal – a one stop portal for all information on Standards, Technical Regulations, conformity assessment & accreditation practices, and the related bodies in India and adivsed that portal should also help exporters to identify regulations in various countries abroad. 

In his address, Mr. R V Deshpande, Minister for Large and Medium Industries and Infrastructure Development, Government of Karnataka, highlighted the strategy adopted by his state to put in place a robust standards eco system. These include besides providing incentives to the industrial units adopting standards, insistience on procurement of products and services which conform to the standards, ensuring infrastructure is available in the state and focus on Research and Development. 

Ms. Rita Teaotia, Secretary, Department of Commerce highlighted the legislative reforms that have been happening as a result of series of national and regional Conclaves. She stated that since the last edition of the Conclave, the new BIS Act had been passed and the Consumer Protection Act is also proposed to include a new chapter on Product Liability. This would help strengthen the standards ecosystem in the country. She also noted that for the first time, standards in the services sector were getting attention. She suggested that there was a need to develop a National Strategy for Standards as well as Vision Document for the same. 

Ms. Alka Panda, Director General, Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) highlighted the role that the BIS was playing in the development of standards in the country. Mr. Adil Zainulbhai, Chairman, Quality Council of India stated that there was a need to work with Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to help improve their standards. He also spoke of the need to create a standards compliance system which was easy to comply with and emphasized that standards should be seen as an opportunity rather than as a threat. 

Mr. Rakesh Bharti Mittal, President Designate, and Mr. Chandrajit Banerjee, Director General of CII also spoke in the inaugral affirming Industries’ commitment to graduate to a high Standards regieme in the country. 

Mr. Sudhanshu Pandey, Joint Secretary, Department of Commerce, Ministry of Commerce and Industry proposed the Vote of Thanks.