Chandrayaan-2 mission planned for April

The launch of India’s second Moon mission, Chandrayaan-2, is planned for the middle of April, ISRO chairman K. Sivan said on January 11. ISRO had earlier said Chandrayaan-2 will be launched in a window between January and February 16. The mission, costing nearly Rs 800 crore, is an advanced version of Chandrayaan-1 mission launched about 10 years ago. “Chandrayaan is scheduled from March 25 to April-end. Most probably, the normal targeted date is April middle,” said Sivan. He said the space agency had earlier planned to launch the spacecraft sometime between January and February, but it could not materialise because certain tests could not be conducted. “Once we missed the February target, next available target is April. Right now it is planned for April,” he said.

‘No room for gay sex, adultery in Army’

Months after the Supreme Court passed a historic law decriminalising homosexuality and struck down the adultery law, Army chief Gen Bipin Rawat said there no room for gay sex and adultery in the Indian Army. Rawat said though his force is not above the law, it won’t be possible to allow gay sex and adultery in the Army. “The Army is conservative. The Army is a family. We cannot allow this in the Army,” he said on adultery, adding soldiers and officers deployed along the borders cannot be allowed to be worried about their family. The conduct of Army personnel is governed by the Army Act.

CBI director Alok Verma ousted again

A committee led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi removed CBI director Alok Verma on January 10 after it found that he had not been functioning with the integrity expected of him. Verma - whose fixed tenure of two years was to end on January 31 - is the first chief in the CBI’s 55-year history to face such an action. The panel comprising Leader of Congress in Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge and Justice A.K. Sikri, appointed by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi as his nominee, took the decision to remove Verma, a 1979-batch IPS officer. Kharge has expressed his dissent to the decision that was taken by a majority of 2:1.

‘India has moved beyond non-alignment’

Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale said on January 10 that India has moved beyond the policy of non-alignment in foreign relations and is currently aligned with various countries and groups, but on issues concerning national interest and not on ideological terms. Speaking at the Raisina Dialogue, India’s flagship event on geopolitics, organised by the Ministry of External Affairs and think tank Observer Research Foundation, he said there has been a broad consensus in India on its foreign policy for the past 70 years. He said foreign policy is determined by India’s resolve to maintain its decisional and strategic autonomy.

‘India on cusp of waterways revolution’

Waterways transport in India is all set for a revolution and has potential to bring down logistics cost by 4 per cent, which will propel exports by 30 per cent, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari said after kicking off PSU Concor’s maiden containers voyage through coastal shipping from Kandla to Tuticorin. He said massive works are underway for turning 11 rivers into waterways, besides the pilot run of aeroboats on the Ganga on January 26. “The share of coastal shipping (in movement of cargo) in China is 24 per cent, Germany 11 per cent and in US it is 9 per cent, but in India it is barely 4.5 to 5 per cent,” he said.

Cabinet nod for Indo-Japan currency swap

The Union Cabinet has approved a proposal for a $75 billion bilateral swap arrangement between India and Japan, a move aimed at enhancing the RBI’s ability to manage exchange rate volatility. The arrangement authorises the RBI to sign the agreement for bilateral swap with the Bank of Japan for a maximum amount of $75 billion. “The swap arrangement is an agreement between India and Japan to essentially exchange and re-exchange a maximum amount of $75 billion for domestic currency, for the purpose of maintaining an appropriate level of balance of payments for meeting short-term deficiency in foreign exchange,” a press release said. The deal was announced during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Japan last October.

Chhattisgarh withdraws consent for CBI

Two months after Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal withdrew general consent accorded to the CBI to probe cases in the states, the Congress-led Chhattisgarh government followed suit on January 10. The Bhupesh Baghel government has written to the Union Home Ministry and the Ministry of Personnel to convey its decision. With this, the CBI would now require the state government’s nod to conduct raids and probes in Chhattisgarh. AP Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu withdrew general consent to the CBI, accusing the NDA government of using central agencies against political opponents. West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee followed suit.

Competitive exam reforms on the anvil

The Supreme Court has approved the setting up of a three-member committee including Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani to suggest reforms to government bodies such as the Staff Selection Commission (SSC), which conduct competitive exams, as there are several cases of question paper leaks. Lakhs of students appear for SSC exams every year and enter government services in Group C and D categories. The apex court also said it would not vacate the stay on the declaration of result of SSC combined graduate level (CGL) and combined higher secondary level (CHSL) exams held in 2017. The question papers of the exams were allegedly leaked, leading to protests from job seekers for several days. Amid the protests, the SSC had recommended a CBI probe into the allegations of paper leak.

New platform for Indian, Chinese IT firms

An initiative to bring Indian IT companies and Chinese enterprises closer on an AI-enabled platform called SIDCOP was launched by the commerce ministry on January 10. The Sino-Indian Digital Collaboration Plaza (SIDCOP) is a partnership between the National Association of Software & Services Companies and the municipal governments of Guiyang and Dalian in China. According to the ministry, domestic IT enterprises are renowned for their expertise in business transformation and operational optimisation. “SIDCOP offers this opportunity for Chinese enterprises in order to assist them in operational optimisation and adopting industry best practices in business solutions,” it said.

National Clean Air Programme unveiled

Union Environment Minister Harsh Vardhan launched the much-awaited National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) on January 10 to improve air quality by 20 to 30 per cent in the next five years with 2017 as the base year. He said besides reducing air pollution concentration, pollution monitoring networks will be enhanced and activities will be put in place to improve awareness. “Collaborative and participatory approach involving relevant Central ministries, state governments, local bodies and other stakeholders with focus on all sources of pollution forms the crux of the programme. Though the plan will be collaborative and participatory in nature, it will not be legally binding on states,” he said.

RBI defers capital buffer norms by a year

The RBI on January 10 deferred the implementation of the last tranche of Capital Conservation Buffer (CCB) by a year, a move that would leave an estimated Rs 37,000 crore capital in the hands of banks. This would help banks increase lending by over Rs 3.5 lakh crore by leveraging 10 times of the capital. “It has been decided to defer the implementation of the last tranche of 0.625 per cent of CCB from March 31, 2019 to March 31, 2020,” the RBI said. Minimum capital conservation ratios of 2.5 per cent would be applicable from March 31, 2020. Currently, the CCB of banks stands at 1.875 per cent of the core capital. The CCB is the capital buffer that banks have to accumulate in normal times to be used for offsetting losses during periods of stress.

WEF recognition for Tata Steel plant

The World Economic Forum said Tata Steel’s plant at IJmuiden in the Netherlands has been inducted into its prestigious community, a distinction awarded to manufacturing facilities that are seen as leaders in technologies of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Assessing more than 1,000 factories in 2018, the WEF recognised Tata Steel’s plant and six others as ‘Manufacturing Lighthouses’ - state-of-the-art production facilities that successfully adopt and integrate cutting-edge tech and drive financial and operational impact. This makes Tata Steel part of a network of just 16 key factories to create the world’s leading learning platforms for production. The ‘Lighthouse’ companies are committed to open their doors and share their knowledge with others.

IITans develop low-cost air pollution sensor

Scientists at IIT-Kanpur said they have developed an air pollution sensor that they claim costs much less than similar instruments worldwide. The sensor will measure the level of harmful gases, including ozone and nitrogen oxides, said professor S.N. Tirpathi. He said usually a sensor of this calibre costs around Rs 1-2 crore in the international market, but scientists at IIT-Kanpur have made it in just Rs 50,000. Testing of the sensor will be done in June and if it passes the test, then the sensors will be installed in 150 cities. He said the success was gained in developing a reliable and cheaper monitoring sensor under a India-US project. The Union government's Department of Science and Technology has contributed Rs 6 crore for the project, he said.

Space missions may shrink spinal muscles

Astronauts who spend several months on the International Space Station are likely to have significant reductions in the size and density of spinal muscles after returning to Earth, according to a study. Some changes in muscle composition are still present up to four years after long-duration spaceflight, said researchers from MIT. As NASA plans for future missions to Mars and beyond, these results can be used to guide future countermeasures to mitigate declines in trunk muscle morphology and associated functional deficits, they said. Previous studies had found reduced paraspinal muscle mass after prolonged time in space, suggesting that muscle atrophy may occur without the resistance provided by gravity.

Twitter to boost political ad transparency

In a bid to bring transparency in political ads ahead of the general election, Twitter said it will provide a new dashboard showing such expenditures by political parties on its platform. The company is also engaging with various stakeholders, including the Election Commission, to verify candidates as well as train parties and election officials on using Twitter and teach them how to report suspicious, abusive and rule-violating activity. Twitter said the intent of bringing its Ads Transparency Centre to India is to provide information around who the advertiser is, the content that is being promoted, how much is being spent on the ad and whether the ad is running nationwide or in a particular area.

2018 was the warmest year for oceans

The oceans are warming faster than previously estimated, setting a new temperature record in 2018 in a trend that is damaging marine life, researchers said. New measurements, aided by an international network of 3,900 floats deployed in the oceans since 2000, showed more warming since 1971 than calculated by the latest UN assessment of climate change in 2013, they said. “Observational records of ocean heat content show that ocean warming is accelerating,” they saidl. Data due for publication next week will show “2018 was the warmest year on record for the global ocean, surpassing 2017,” said lead author Lijing Cheng of the Institute of Atmospheric Physics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Newsmakers

A CBI court on January 11 held Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh and three others guilty of murdering journalist Ram Chander Chhatrapati in 2002.

Mary Kom’s unprecedented sixth world title has propelled her to the No. 1 spot in the AIBA world rankings. The 36-year-old reigns supreme in the 48kg category with 1,700 points.

Former Delhi CM Sheila Dikshit, 80, has been appointed the Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee president, days after Ajay Maken resigned citing ill-health.