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NATIONAL: AGRICULTURE: SEEDS 0NLINE : Now buy certified seeds and planting material online for 1st time from National Seeds Corporation(NSC’s) MyStore platform

The onboarding of the National Seeds Corporation offices on the online marketplace will encourage farmers to buy certified seeds.

The state-run National Seeds Corporation (NSC) has initiated the onboarding of its area and regional offices on MyStore, an online marketplace connected to the Government’s Open Network for Digital Commerce. The move aimed at easing access to quality seeds will enable farmers across the country to buy seed and planting material online.

An official at the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare said the NSC has 48 area offices, 11 regional offices, and five farms across the country. Of these, 12 offices and farms (six area offices, four regional offices and two farms) have been onboarded on the MyStore platform, and started selling seeds and planting materials. The remaining offices will be onboarded by the first week of September, the officer added.

The dozen offices are located at places including Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh; Agra in Uttar Pradesh; Bengaluru, Chikkamagaluru, Dharwad, Davangere and Raichur in Karnataka ; Hisar and Karnal in Haryana; Jaipur in Rajasthan ; and Bhubaneswar in Odisha. These offices and farms have 211 products, of which 88 are available for sale on the MyStore.

The NSC sells seeds and planting material of 80 crops–38 field crops and 42 horticulture crops. The NSC has so far made seeds available through a network of 5,000 dealers, including 861 cooperatives and 1,354 farmer producer organisations. This is the first time it has made them available through an online platform so that farmers in far-flung areas could easily buy authentic seeds, the official said.

Apart from seeds, some of the NSC offices are also selling indoor and outdoor plants online, the official said. For instance, the Bhopal-based NSC office is selling plants such as aglaonema (lipstick plant), snake plant Haiti, golden pothos (money plant), peace lily, aloevera, and ashwagandha on the platform, where anyone can order.

The move to onboard the NSC offices will enable and encourage farmers to buy certified and quality seeds, the official said, adding that it would also help to increase the seed replacement ratio of major field crops.

source/content: indianexpress.com (headline edited)

INTERNATIONAL: SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY: Indian American Deblina Sarkar. The girl who flew away on the wings of her mind. Boss of the Nano-Cybernetic Biotrek research lab at MIT, Boston, and harvester of a dozen awards in the past year alone

Boss of the Nano-Cybernetic Biotrek research lab at MIT, Boston, and harvester of a dozen awards in the past year alone. And yet, bet you didn’t know that she comes inspired from a bereft corner of Bengal.

Deblina Sarkar is not keen to tell her story. She is not disinterested either. Over a Zoom call from Boston, US, she comes across as matter of fact, pleasant and rooted in her work — she cannot wait to be done with this interview and return to the lab.

The story of her journey from rural Bengal to Boston is full of silences — studied, not awkward — and shorn of specifics as if she has already measured the distance she wants to maintain between her story and audience.

But when she does talk, she doesn’t do platitudes. When I ask her what it is she wanted to do as a girl, she replies, “I wanted to create knowledge, add to the production of knowledge rather than just implement what already exists.” She says it simply, self-assuredly and in a non-self-important tone. If I slip into Bangla, she too replies in her mother tongue, but switches to English whenever she is discussing her work and the specifics of it.

And, yes, the only time she shows emotion and smiles a wide smile that rises to her eyes is when she talks about her parents, Barid Baran and Asima, and nephews Qubit and Quitron.

Barid Baran and Asima are far more animated when it comes to telling the story of Deblina’s journeying. Which is why, Deblina’s story is best told with them in the role of chief narrators.

“When she was only three, she threw a tantrum because she wanted to go to school,” says Barid Baran. Indulging her would mean quite the long commute. It meant walking two kilometres to the Nangi train station and then getting off at Tollygunge and walking some more to reach the school itself.

It was not very different from Barid Baran’s own story from his student days. In 1960s Bengal, there was no school in his village. So he trekked two miles on foot to go to the nearest school. He wanted to be a scientist, so when the time came to go to college he shifted to the nearest town with one.

Deblina was happy — no, delighted — to go to school. “I am lucky, my parents never treated me and my brother differently,” she tells me. As Asima tells it, if there was anything that made Deblina unhappy as a child, it was the teacher’s red pen. “She couldn’t bear to have anything in her notebook stricken off with a red pen.” Asima narrates a fond tale about the time Deblina was learning her English alphabet. Something about her mother saying “P” should be written in a certain way, and the little girl insisting her way was also correct.

In 1972, Barid Baran took the entrance test for the IITs and could not clear it. But the scientist in him continued to be, dabbling in inventions of his own. Deblina recalls watching her father build a washing machine that ran without electricity, a pulley that could lift heavy objects to the roof of the house.

Do dreams come coded with the DNA or does one contract them from close contact? Who can say? When she was in Class IX, Deblina started preparing for the Joint Entrance Examination. “Even the day before her Class X history exam, she was sitting with her physics texts,” says Asima. “I had to tell her, how will you go to IIT if you don’t pass your boards,” adds Barid Baran.

In 2004, Deblina joined what is today known as IIT Dhanbad. When news got around, the neighbours said, “Now she will be able to pay for her own dowry.” Deblina laughs at the memory. Thereafter, Deblina left for the US — a PhD in nanoelectronics at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

One might think it was a big leap, a big deal, and yet neither Deblina nor her parents make it sound that way. Instead they talk about how she comes home every year and behaves as if she never left, wears her old clothes, enjoys her mother’s maan kochu bata and machher jhol. And how they join her every time she has a conference in a new country — “She sends us tickets,” says Asima.

All three of them are more eloquent when it comes to holding forth on the nuts and bolts of life. Deblina talks about nanoelectronics like she is chatting about the weather. “Nanoelectronic devices consume a large amount of energy etc. etc.” So she started exploring other low-powered computational systems. She says, “If you think about it, the human brain is the most energy-efficient computational system.”

I am not sure if I am following the science talk, when she provides the answer herself. It was this line of inquiry that brought her to a territory she had vowed to never enter. Biology.

There were risks in making a transition this steep, but her mind was made up. To the question of what it feels like to be a woman in STEM, she just shrugs. “If I was ever discriminated against, I would not know,” is her answer.

What she and her team are doing today is this — trying to come up with a non-invasive, wireless nanoelectronic device that can coexist within the brain. They aim to treat diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and even brain cancer using this method. She says with a smile and a nod, “We are hoping to start the clinical trial within the next two years.”

And yes, she is thinking of starting a scholarship for girl-students who need it back home to encourage them to be able to study science in high school.

source/content: telegraphindia.com (headline edited)

NATIONAL: RESEARCH – SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY: Indian Scientists Make Major Breakthrough In Quantum Cryptography

Quantum cryptography, also known as quantum encryption, refers to various cybersecurity methods for encrypting and transmitting secure data based on the naturally occurring and immutable laws of quantum mechanics.

In a major breakthrough, a team of Indian scientists has created a user-friendly way to generate unpredictable random numbers crucial for stronger quantum data encryption and provide robust cybersecurity, the Ministry of Science & Technology has said.

Quantum cryptography, also known as quantum encryption, refers to various cybersecurity methods for encrypting and transmitting secure data based on the naturally occurring and immutable laws of quantum mechanics.

The Raman Research Institute, Bengaluru, which is an autonomous institute of the Department of Science and Technology (DST), performed a photonic experiment to demonstrate a violation of what is called the Leggett Garg Inequalities (LGI) — a litmus test for “quantumness” in a system in a loophole-free manner.

The team carried out extensive research in collaboration with researchers from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru, IISER-Thiruvananthapuram and the Bose Institute, Kolkata to use such LGI violation in a completely unexplored domain — truly unpredictable random number generation, secure against device tampering and imperfections.

These numbers are crucial in applications like cryptographic key generation, secure password creation and digital signatures, among others.

With further engineering interventions and innovations, devices adopting this method could find powerful applications not only in cybersecurity and data encryption but also in diverse areas like economic surveys and drug designing/testing.

“We have successfully generated random numbers using temporal correlations certified by the violation of the Leggett Garg Inequality (LGI),” said Professor Urbasi Sinha, faculty at the QuIC lab at Raman Research Institute, and the corresponding author of the paper published in the Physical Review Letters.

“Our experimental setup ensures a loophole-free violation of LGI, providing an additional advantage of generating loophole-free randomness,” Professor Sinha added.

According to the researchers, this new method offers the enhanced protection “we all need in our daily lives, by using truly random numbers to generate keys that will be used to encrypt the passwords”.

There are several advantages to generating certified random numbers using this method.

“These include the creation of strongly protected passwords, enhanced account security by resisting brute-force attacks, ensuring uniqueness, integrity thereby preventing forgery and token generation with multi-factor authentication, adding a crucial security layer in this vulnerable cyber world,” explained Dr Debashis Saha, IISER Thiruvananthapuram faculty and co-author of the study.

The experiment generated over 9,00,000 random bits at a rapid rate of nearly 4,000 bits/second.
 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

source/content: ndtv.com (headline edited)

INDIA: INNOVATION IN SPACE TECHNOLOGY: ‘Mission Rhumi 2024’: India to launch 1st reusable hybrid rocket on August 24

The rocket will be launched from Chennai using a mobile launcher and will carry “3 Cube Satellites and 50 PICO Satellites to a suborbital trajectory.”

India is set to launch its first reusable hybrid rocket – RHUMI 1 – on August 24, developed by the Tamil Nadu-based start-up Space Zone India. The rocket will be launched from Thiruvidandhai in Chennai using a mobile launcher and will carry “3 Cube Satellites and 50 PICO Satellites to a suborbital trajectory.” This launch, scheduled for 7 am on Saturday, is a collaboration between Space Zone India and the Martin Group and is designed to focus on flexibility and reusability.

According to a report by Money Control, the RHUMI series of rockets, which includes RHUMI-1, RHUMI-2, and RHUMI-3, is engineered to reach altitudes ranging from 1 km to 500 km.

This event marks the third collaboration between the Martin Group and Space Zone India. In 2023, as part of the ‘Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam Students Satellite Launch – 2023’ mission, over 2,500 students from government, tribal, and public schools across the country collaborated to design and build a student satellite launch vehicle. This mission included a payload of 150 Pico satellite research experiment cubes. In 2021, during the ‘Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam Space Research Payload Cubes Challenge 2021,’ 100 FEMTO satellites developed by 1,200 students were successfully launched.

Key features of RHUMI-1

– The rocket’s launch angle can be precisely adjusted between 0 to 120 degrees, allowing accurate trajectory control.

– A cost-effective, innovative, and eco-friendly descent mechanism uses CO2 to ensure the safe recovery of rocket components.

– The rocket’s applications extend beyond space exploration, impacting fields such as agriculture, environmental monitoring, and disaster management.

– The three cube satellites being sent will monitor atmospheric conditions, including cosmic radiation, UV radiation, and air quality, according to the Money Control report.

– Pico satellites will analyse environmental factors like vibration, accelerometer data, altitude, ozone levels, toxic content, and molecular bonding, contributing to a deeper understanding of atmospheric dynamics.

– The rocket utilises a hybrid propulsion system that combines solid fuel with liquid oxidizer technologies to ensure environmental safety.

– Space Zone India Founder and CEO Anand Megalingam highlighted that this system is reusable, offering a more sustainable and cost-effective approach to satellite launches.

source/content: hindustantimes.com (headline edited)

INTERNATIONAL: INDIA – POLAND : When India Gave Refuge To 5,000 Polish War Orphans, About Jam Saheb of Nawanagar, Kolhapur Memorials In Warsaw

PM Modi will visit the Jam Saheb of Nawanagar Memorial in Warsaw during his Poland visit. The memorial was built by the Polish government to honour Jam Saheb Digvijaysinhji Ranjitsinhji of Gujarat who gave shelter to around 5,000 Poles during World War II.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will pay respects to the Jam Saheb of Nawanagar Memorial in Warsaw on Wednesday during his two-day visit to Poland. He will also visit the Monte Cassino Memorial and the Memorial to Kolhapur Family.

The landmark visit, first by an Indian Prime Minister in 45 years, comes at the invitation of his Polish counterpart, Donald Tusk.

The Indian Ambassador to Poland, Nagma Mohamed Mallick, confirmed the significance of this visit, and stated, as quoted by ANI, “He will be the first Prime Minister to pay respects at all three memorials.” She also mentioned that Prime Minister Modi will address the Indian community in Poland during his visit, which is anticipated to be a “rousing meeting.”

What Do We Know About Jam Saheb of Nawanagar Memorial?

The Jam Saheb of Nawanagar Memorial honors Jam Saheb Digvijaysinhji Ranjitsinhji, the former Maharaja of Nawanagar (modern-day Jamnagar) in Gujarat. Revered as the ‘Good Maharaja,’ he is remembered for his extraordinary humanitarian efforts during World War II.

During the war, he provided refuge to hundreds of Polish children fleeing the atrocities of the USSR. The memorial, located in Poland, stands as a testament to his legacy of compassion and generosity.

Who Was Jam Saheb Digvijaysinhji Ranjitsinhji?

Jam Shri Digvijaysinhji Ranjitsinhji Jadeja was born in Saroda in 1895, and pursued his education at Rajkumar College, Malvern College, and University College London. His early career was marked by military service.

In 1919, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the British Army, eventually serving with the 125th Napier’s Rifles (later the Rajputana Rifles). Over his two-decade military career, he rose through the ranks, ultimately achieving the honorary rank of lieutenant-general in the Indian Army.

Upon the death of his uncle, the legendary cricketer KS Ranjitsinhji, Digvijaysinhji succeeded him as Maharaja of Nawanagar in 1933. He ruled until 1948 and was also the longest-serving President of the Governing Council of the Rajkumar College, Rajkot, holding the position from 1939 until his death in 1966. His contributions to society were recognised when he was knighted in 1935.

Why was His Memorial Built in Warsaw?

Jam Saheb Digvijaysinhji’s most enduring legacy lies in his role in the World War II when he provided shelter to more than 1,000 Polish children who had been evacuated from the Soviet Union in 1941.

These children, many of whom were orphans and refugees, found a safe haven under the care of the ‘Good Maharaja,’ who ensured they received food, shelter, education, and opportunities for cultural enrichment.

In 1942, he established a dedicated Polish children’s camp in Jamnagar-Balachadi, which included facilities such as a kindergarten, schools, a hospital, and a library. The Maharaja personally oversaw the camp’s operations, ensuring the children were provided with not only basic needs but also opportunities for artistic and cultural development. His efforts were instrumental in helping 5,000 Polish children survive the war years in India.

In 2011, he was posthumously awarded the Commander’s Cross of the Order of Merit by President Bronisław Komorowski, acknowledging his significant contribution.

The Polish parliament established the ‘Jam Saheb of Nawanagar Memorial’ in March 2016. Additionally, a school in Warsaw bears his name, honoring his contributions.

The Polish children’s camp in Jamnagar-Balachadi continued to operate until 1945, after which the children were relocated to Valivade, near Kolhapur, Maharashtra. Today, the site of the former camp is part of the 300-acre campus of the Sainik School in Balachadi.

How Valivade-Kolhapur Became Symbol of India-Poland Bond

Valivade is a village in Maharashtra where around Polish refugees took refuge from the Soviet repression during the World War II. These refugees included women, children, and the elderly who had endured tremendous hardship.

By 1943, Valivade was chosen for its favourable climate, located about 500 km south of Mumbai. This site was intended to provide a better living environment to Polish refugees compared to the harsher conditions in other regions.

Valivade was developed into a fully functional Polish settlement, equipped with various amenities including a church, community centre, multiple schools, a college, a post office, a theater, and even a cinema. The infrastructure aimed to replicate a typical Polish town, fostering a sense of community and normalcy for the refugees.

Polish children participated in scouting and physical activities, while religious and national holidays were observed with great enthusiasm.

After the Polish refugees left between 1946 and 1948, Valivade’s significance was preserved through memorials. A cemetery in Kolhapur, restored in 2014, honors the Polish individuals who died while in India. Additionally, an obelisk in Mahavir Garden Park, dedicated by the Association of Poles in India, stands as a testament to the enduring friendship between Poles and Indians.

The Association of Poles in India 1942-1948 was established in 1990, and has been instrumental in preserving the history and fostering connections between former refugees and their Indian hosts.

The Kolhapur Memorial is situated next to the Monte Cassino Memorial in Warsaw.

PM Modi’s Poland Schedule

His two-day visit to Poland from August 21 includes the following schedule:

9:30 am (IST): Departure from India for Warsaw

5:30 pm: Arrival at Warsaw Military Airport

7:55 pm – 8:20 pm: Wreath laying at Jam Saheb of Nawanagar Memorial

8:30 pm – 9:00 pm: Wreath laying at Monument to the Battle of Monte Cassino and Kolhapur Memorial

11:20 pm – 11:55 pm: Community event at Hotel Sheraton

After his Poland visit, PM Modi will depart for Ukraine on August 22 and arrive in Kyiv on August 23. During his brief visit, he will spend around seven hours in Ukraine and hold discussions with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. He will then return to Poland.

source/content: news18.com (headline edited)

NATIONAL: DEFENCE : TRANSPORT – MAKE IN INDIA: Army gets its First all-terrain terrain four wheel drive vehicles N1200 ATOR

The SMV N1200 ATOR is designed to enhance mobility, operational efficiency, and safety in diverse scenarios, ensuring optimal performance in the most challenging conditions.

In a first the Indian Army got 96 specialist mobility vehicle (SMV) N1200 ATOR all-terrain four wheel drive vehicle under the Make in India initiative from a Chandigarh based company thus making it the first defense force in the world to operationally deploy vehicles of this advanced technology with the ability to go-anywhere be it dense forests, shaky grounds, gravel, peat, marsh, swamps, snow, ice, lake or rivers.

These vehicles are being manufactured at JSW Gecko’s newly set-up manufacturing unit in Chandigarh and haves also been showcased by Indian Army during this year’s Republic Day parade.

Talking with the TNIE, Jaskirat Singh Nagra director of JSW Gecko Motors said,“ Beginning in July 2021, the Indian Army conducted exhaustive trials of the SMV N1200 across various challenging environments, including desert, high-altitude, rainforest, and the treacherous terrain of the Rann of Kutch. Simultaneously, JSW Gecko Motors collaborated with Copato to localize the components used in the SMV, ensuring that these vehicles could be manufactured under the Make in India initiative, as mandated by the Union Government.’’

“In June 2023 we were awarded a contract to manufacture 96 units of SMVs for deployment by the Indian Army in various forward sectors. A state-of-the-art manufacturing facility was established in Chandigarh in record time, and full-scale production commenced in January 2024. We have successfully delivered the 96 of these vehicles to the army in June and July this year, making it the first military force in the world to operationally deploy vehicles of this advanced technology. The company is now preparing to supply these vehicles, along with others using similar technology, to the Border Security Force (BSF), Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), Assam Rifles, National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), as well as other corporate and institutional clients,’’ said Nagra.

The SMV N1200 ATOR is designed to enhance mobility, operational efficiency, and safety in diverse scenarios, ensuring optimal performance in the most challenging conditions. These vehicles are designed with unique capabilities that enable them to traverse a wide range of terrains ( Ice glaciers and Snow Mountains, Deep Mud, Rocky fields, Loose sand, High and dense grasslands, Marsh lands, Swamps and Desert).

These capabilities make the Specialist Mobility Vehicles exceptionally versatile, capable of operating seamlessly across various challenging environments, including the ability to travel over water and return to land effortlessly.

Its standout feature of this amphibious vehicle is its ability to break through ice and swim before transitioning back to land, making it exceptionally versatile in challenging environments. Nagra said, “Over the past three years, the SMV has undergone successful trials with Army at Rann of Kutch, Pokharan, Tsogtsalu, Jaisalmer, for Assam Rifles at Haflong, at Sir Creek, Rann of Kutch, Dhubri for Border Security Force, at Dhubri with Central Reserve Police Force and for National Disaster Response Force at Manesar, Prayagraj and Mirzapur besides for Indo Tibetan Border Police at Pangong Tso.’’

” This vehicle can be used as, for logistics, search and rescue, medical evacuation and command centre. We have offered two vehicles to NDRF for free to bolster it’s capabilities in responding to natural disasters, including heavy rainfall, floods, and landslides,’’ he said and added that more orders are expected from the army and also from paramilitary forces.

source/content: newindianexpress.com (headline edited)

NATIONAL: ENERGY: FIRSTS: Bharat Petroleum unveils India’s first biofuel blend HFHSD bunker at Mumbai Port

Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) has set a new benchmark in the Indian maritime industry by launching first biofuel blend High Flash High Speed Diesel (HFHSD) bunker by an OMC at Mumbai Port. This pioneering initiative by BPCL underscores its unwavering commitment to green energy solutions and aligns with the global mandate to decarbonize the shipping sector.

As the maritime industry globally pivots towards reducing carbon emissions and mitigating environmental impact, BPCL’s introduction of the biofuel blend HFHSD bunker provides shipping companies with a cleaner, biodegradable alternative to traditional fuels. This initiative not only supports environmental sustainability but also strengthens BPCL’s position as a leader in the Indian bunkering market.

Speaking on the occasion, Sukhmal Jain, Director (Marketing), BPCL, remarked, “Today’s launch is a testament to our commitment to sustainable energy solutions. Our Project Aspire, with its focus on green energy, is driving our efforts towards a cleaner future. This biofuel blend bunker is a significant step in that direction and positions BPCL as a global bunkering leader”.

BPCL has consistently demonstrated its leadership in the Indian bunkering sector, being the first to introduce IMO 2020 compliant bunker fuel in the country. With a strong presence along the Western coast, BPCL has become a trusted supplier of marine fuels.

The company’s foray into biofuel blends is part of a broader strategy to expand its portfolio of green bunker fuels, including LNG, hydrogen, and methanol, thereby staying ahead in the evolving energy landscape.

source/content: milleniumpost.in (headline edited)

INTERNATIONAL : MIDDLE EAST: FINANCIAL : Going global: UAE merchants accept Rupee via UPI to attract Indian customers

UPI payments were launched in the UAE in the beginning of July. Apart from Lulu, payments through UPI are being accepted by many big and small merchants across the UAE.

The government of India has been promoting UPI as a global payment platform. Now merchants in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are accepting payments via UPI in Rupees to attract Indian customers.

One of the biggest retail companies in the UAE, Lulu has started giving customers the option to accept payments through UPI in all its stores in the country.

Indian citizens can easily make payments using the UPI app just like in India. The amount paid will be deducted from their bank account in India. So Indian citizens and NRIs can easily do shopping in UAE through UPI in Rupees like in India.

UPI payments were launched in the UAE in the beginning of July. Apart from Lulu, payments through UPI are being accepted by many big and small merchants across the UAE.

Indian citizens and NRIs in the UAE can easily pay through QR codes through Point of Sale (POS) machines.

According to the NPCI: “The number of Indian travellers in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) is estimated to reach 98 lakh in 2024. Around 53 lakh Indians are likely to reach UAE alone.”

The Government of India, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), and NPCI International are working together to promote UPI on the global platform.

UPI is officially accepted in Nepal, Sri Lanka, Mauritius, UAE, Singapore, France, and Bhutan.

The Unified Payments Interface (UPI)-based transactions surged 35 per cent on a YoY (Year on Year) basis in the month of July, reaching Rs 20.64 lakh crore against Rs 20.07 lakh crore.

The total UPI transaction count went up almost 4 per cent (month-on-month) to 14.44 billion in July from 13.89 billion in the previous month.

As the UPI success story is being adopted by several countries, the average daily transaction volume stood at 466 million last month, compared with 463 million in June.

source/content: siasat.com (headline edited)

NATIONAL: CITIES TRANSPORT INFRASTRUCTURE : Number of cities with Metro rail up from 5 to 21 in last 10 years: Manohar Lal

 Metro rail services have been extended to 21 cities in the country over the last 10 years from a mere five cities in 2014, Minister of Housing and Urban Affairs Manohar Lal told journalists.

The minister said that 700 km of new metro lines were constructed in the last decade since the Narendra Modi government came to power, taking the total track length to 945 km.

In addition, the Cabinet on Friday cleared three new mass-transit proposals — Integral Ring Metro Rail Project corridor in Thane and extensions of metro networks in Pune and Bengaluru which add up to 78 km in length, and are scheduled to be operationalised in 2029. These projects will add to the country’s expanding metro network, which is already the world’s third largest next only to the USA and China.

“We are poised to soon surpass the US and become second only to China driven by the success of the Make in India initiative,” the minister said.

He further stated that the remaining two priority corridors connecting Gurugram, Manesar and Dharuhera, and Sonepat and Panipat in the north of the national capital will also be sanctioned soon.

Highlighting the acceleration in the pace of development, the minister said that before 2014, an average of only 600 metres of the metro line was being constructed every month. There has been a 10-fold increase in this figure to 6 km every month during the last 10 years, he added.

The minister said that India has developed four state-of-the-art facilities to manufacture metro coaches. These have produced over 1,000 metro coaches in the last five years, supporting various metro rail systems across the country.

He also mentioned the international foray that India was making in the construction of metro rail systems. The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation is currently implementing a metro rail system in Bangladesh and has provided consultancy services to Jakarta.

Besides, countries like Israel, Saudi Arabia, Kenya and El Salvador have also shown interest in partnering with the DMRC for their metro development projects, the minister said.

–IANS

source/content: bhaskarlive.in (headline edited)

GLOBAL: NATIONAL: SPACE : Mission 100 pc success, rocket placed satellite in precise orbit: ISRO chief Somanath

Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO ) chief S Somanath  said that the Earth Observation Satellite-8 (EOS-8) was on Friday launched successfully on Friday was a success with the satellite placed in the precise orbit.

The ISRO chief expressed happiness on the successful launch from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota and said that the next program is to manufacture and launch it for commercial purposes.

Addressing a joint press conference in Sriharikota, the ISRO chief said, “It was a very successful mission. As of today, with the data available, the mission is almost a 100 per cent success with the satellite being placed in the correct orbit and all separation process happening nominally. We are very happy about completion of the development programme of SSLV with this third development flight.”

Recalling earlier missions, Somanath said that during the first launch which was a “near miss,” the orbit was a slightly shorter one leading to the re-entry of the satellite back into earth at a later some time though it was placed in the orbit.

“We made corrections and the second flight went very well and after that we have done this third development flight,” he said.

SSLV-D3 was the third and final developmental flight of SSLV. The first flight of the SSLV on August 7, 2022 ended in failure but its second flight on February 10, 2023 was a success.

Somanath said that now the focus will be to manufacture and launch this rocket for commercial purposes and for this the two routes are realizing and launching.

Explaining the process further, the ISRO chief said, “There are satellites which will be launch-weighting, which will be realized by NSIL in the interim period, where they will fund and realize the rockets. Whichever is required for commercial purpose, they will fund this route to realize and supervise from industries and launch.

“After that, there is a technology transfer process which in space has started and the technology transfer process will find out which industry consortium will take it up and they will work with ISRO for next two years to understand the technology and realize two weightings as a process of technology transfer,” he said.

Somanath said that they will be launched commercially by NSIL and after that launch, industry will be free to produce any number of hours they desire in their own facilities. “That’s the plan and whatever they cannot do, ISRO will do, otherwise everything is supposed to be done by ISRO,” he added.

NewSpace India Limited is a Public Sector Undertaking of the Government of India and under Department of Space.

He said that it is the first time a technology transfer of a satellite roger vehicle will happen in India.

“We have designed it in a simple manner which is industry friendly for production and at low cost and very short assembly time, integration time, testing time, and has an architecture which is more failure proof and they use commercial operational components,” he said.

The ISRO chief further highlighted that there are many features that has been built into the rocket to make it very industry friendly. “We are hoping that there is a huge amount of interest and they will come out with a good proposal finally and the whole activity of industry, technology transfer activities being initiated through in space after they finalize the industry consortium is where we work with the industry for,” he added.

As per ISRO, the six-and-a-half-hour countdown leading to the launch commenced at 2.47 am and was launched at 9.17 am on Friday.

This was the third and final developmental flight of the SSLV-D3/EOS-08 mission.

The spacecraft is designed for a mission duration of one year.

The primary objectives of the EOS-08 mission include designing and developing a microsatellite, creating payload instruments compatible with the microsatellite bus, and incorporating new technologies required for future operational satellites, an ISRO release said.

source/content: businessinsider.in (headline edited)