Page 145 - Environment
Mission Shakti: Is Modi going to space? We will complain to EC, says Mamata
West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had violated the Model Code of Conduct with his announcement on India acquiring anti-satellite weapon capabilities.Terming the announcement as limitless drama, the chief minister said since Modi is not going to space there was no need for him to take credit. She also said the Trinamool Congress will approach the Election Commission to complain against the poll code violation.Addressing the media here, she said, "What was the need for Modi during the time of election to violate the model code of conduct and take the credit? Does he work there? Is he going to space?"Sharpening her attack she opined that the press conference regarding Mission Shakti should have been done by the DRDO, not the Prime Minister who has not addressed the media ever in his tenure."Scientists should have announced it, it is their credit. Modi ji has never met the press otherwise in his tenure. We will go to the ...
After A-SAT, Pakistan condemns militarisation of space
As India successfully test fired its anti-satellite missile A-SAT, Pakistan on Wednesday said militarisation of space should be avoided.
Hope India will safeguard peace in outer space: China
China on Wednesday said it hoped that India's successful testing of an anti-satellite missile will help maintain peace in the outer space.
Part of missile washed ashore; suspected to be that of Brahmos
A part of a missile, suspected to be that of Brahmos, was found washed ashore at Pudukudiyiruppu in Ramanathapuram district Wednesday. The 'Q' Branch Police, who rushed to the spot on being informed by locals, said the 12 foot part weighed 800 kg and had the logo of Brahmos on it. They suspect it might have fallen into the sea from the skies during tests and got washed ashore by waves.
Tiger killed after being trapped in poachers' snare in UP
A male tiger, estimated to be around four years old, died after being trapped in a snare laid by poachers in the Maheshpur range forest area under the South Kheri forest division on Wednesday, officials said. "The forest area where the male tiger was caught in snare is close to village Shivpuri. PCCF (wildlife) Sunil Pandey and Additional PCCF K Pravin Rao were expected to visit the spot," Field Director Ramesh Kumar Pandey said. He added that an inquiry to investigate the circumstances leading to the tiger's death would be carried out and action would be taken against the culprits.
Anti-satellite missile test : Pantnaik congratulates
Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik Wednesday congratulated the scientists of Indian Space Research Organisation and Defence Research and Development Organisation for the successful demonstration of anti-satellite missile test and said it will bolster the country's security in space. The scientific feat will significantly bolster the countrys security in space, he said. "Congratulate scientists of #ISRO and DRDO on successfully demonstrating ability of anti-satellite weapon A-SAT, as part of #MissionShakti," Patnaik said in a twitter post. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had during the day announced that India had demonstrated anti-satellite missile capability by shooting down a live satellite. Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan congratulated the scientists for the success of Mission Shakti and said the achievement made the country an elite space power. "India becomes an elite space power. Congratulations to our scientists and engineers for their indigenous ...
Russia rules China-backed Baikal bottling plant 'illegal'
A Russian court on Wednesday ruled that a widely-condemned China-backed project to bottle water from Lake Baikal illegally received the go-ahead from authorities. The plant currently under construction to bottle the waters of the world's largest lake has proved highly controversial, exacerbated by popular fears of a Chinese "land-grab" in Siberia. A judge at a district court in the Siberian city of Irkutsk ruled that the official permit for the plant's construction was "illegal", TASS state news agency reported from the courtroom. Judge Natalya Isakova said that the permission was issued on the basis of a positive environmental impact report, which she also ruled was "illegal." The ruling came after a petition against the plant on Change.org gathered more than a million signatures. The water "will be shipped to China," the petition said, warning that the facility would block local access to the lake and "inflict irreparable damage" to the UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Russian ...
Indonesia foils illegal Facebook sale of komodo dragons
Indonesian authorities said Wednesday they had seized five komodo dragons and dozens of other animals being sold on Facebook, as the country battles to clamp down on the illegal wildlife trade. The vast Southeast Asian archipelago nation's dense tropical rainforests boast some of the highest levels of biodiversity in the world and it has for years been a key source and transit point for animal trafficking. Five smugglers, identified only by their initials, were arrested in Semarang and Surabaya on Java island for allegedly trafficking the komodos -- the world's biggest lizard -- along with bearcats, cockatoos and cassowary birds. "The suspect VS sold the komodos online through Facebook," East Java police spokesman Frans Barung Mangera said in a statement. The dragons, which can only be found in their natural habitat on a cluster of islands in eastern Indonesia, were sold for between 15 and 20 million rupiah (USD1,000- USD1,400), Mangera said. In a separate case, three other people ...
Gandhi lauds DRDO, wishes Modi 'happy theatre day'
Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday congratulated DRDO scientists for India demonstrating anti-satellite capabilities but took potshots at Prime Minister Narendra Modi for what they said making a pitch of it in the poll season, and wished him "happy World Theatre Day".
Walmart Foundation supports IDEI to raise income of 10,000 smallholder farmers
Ten thousand smallholder farmers in Andhra Pradesh are set to benefit from the introduction of sustainable irrigation products and practices under a program offered by International Development Enterprises - India (IDEI) and supported with funding from the Walmart Foundation.Providing a grant of USD 750,000, the Walmart Foundation will help IDEI take its integrating smallholder farmers into market systems program to ten districts in the state. The program aims to introduce sustainable irrigation products and practices and create a complementary support ecosystem that will boost farm yields, reduce negative environmental impacts, and increase market access and smallholder farmer income.The program is expected to generate an additional USD 7.4 million in annual farming income in the state at the end of the project period, with individual gains of USD 400 per smallholder farmer household per year. Substantial water savings in agriculture are also anticipated, amounting to 33.4 million m3
DRDO scientists term 'Mission Shakti' as a demonstration of India's space power, political will
Space scientists on Wednesday joined hands in hailing the success of 'Mission Shakti' and termed the historic feat as the demonstration of India's space power and political will."We have mastered anti-satellite capability. We have today shown that we can hit satellites at long ranges with a few centimetres accuracy," DRDO chairman G Satheesh Reddy told ANI."Mission Shakti not only demonstrates the country's space power but also speaks volume about our political will," said former Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) scientist Ravi Kumar Gupta.Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday announced that anti-satellite (A-SAT) weapon has successfully destroyed a decommissioned Indian satellite on a low earth orbit (LEO), joining a group of three countries--US, Russia and China."This is a great moment for us. India has become one of the four nations which have the capability of destroying an active satellite in the space and that too in a matter of minutes," Gupta told ...
Belarusian president fires governor for keeping cows in poor conditions
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has fired three officials including a governor for keeping cows in poor conditions at a local farm. Video aired by state television showed Lukashenko, an avid farmer himself, scolding the farm managers and the governor on a visit to the farm in the northern Mogilev region on Tuesday. Lukashenko, who gave a sack of potatoes to Russian President Vladimir Putin last year, compared the conditions at the farm to those at a Nazi death camp. The cows were shown walking in the manure with mud caked on their bodies. The Belarusian president said that the cows were "barely alive" and the officials were "sick" for not noticing that.
A-SAT testing not directed to any country, doesn't violate international law: India
India on Wednesday said that its anti-satellite (A-SAT) weapon that successfully destroyed a decommissioned Indian satellite on a Low Earth Orbit (LEO), is not directed against any country and its space capabilities do not threaten anyone."Test is not directed against any country. India's space capabilities does not threaten any country nor are they directed against anyone. At the same time, the government is committed to ensuring country's national security interests and is alert to threats from emerging technologies," the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said while giving out details of the test."The capability achieved through the Anti-Satellite missile test provides credible deterrence against threats to our growing space-based assets from long-range missiles, and proliferation in the types and numbers of missiles," it added.Giving out details of the A-SAT test, the MEA said: "On March 27, 2019, India conducted Mission Shakti, an anti-satellite missile test, from the Dr. A P J ..
Can China keep its climate promises?
China can easily meet its Paris climate pledge to peak its greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, but sourcing 20 per cent of its energy needs from renewables and nuclear power by that date may be considerably harder, researchers said Tuesday. Tripling the share of non-fossil fuels will require a major overhaul of China's recalcitrant power sector and the full deployment of a fledgling emissions trading system, they said in the journal Nature Communications. There is a lot at stake. If the world's top carbon polluter fails to achieve these and other voluntary targets, the 2015 treaty's cornerstone goal of capping global warming at "well below" two degrees Celsius may remain out of reach. On current trajectories, the planet is set to warm twice that much by century's end. China has also pledged to expand carbon-absorbing forests by 4,500 square kilometres before 2030, compared to 2005 levels. "China is on track to achieve its climate commitments," lead author Kelly Sims, director of The ...
We have mastered anti-satellite capability, can hit them at long ranges: DRDO chief
Commenting on India's feat of successfully testing an A-SAT (Anti-satellite) missile, Chairman of Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) Dr G. Satheesh Reddy said that with today's feat India has demonstrated its capabilities to hit threatening satellites positioned at a long range."We have mastered anti-satellite capability and we have today shown that we can hit satellites at long ranges with a few centimeters accuracy," DRDO chairman G. Satheesh Reddy told ANI.According to government sources, the satellite which was hit on Wednesday morning during the test was a microsatellite launched by the ISRO on January 24 this year and was decommissioned at present.Following the achievement, Prime Minister Narendra Modi called up the entire team of DRDO scientists who worked on the A-SAT programme and congratulated them for their hard work.In a major defence achievement, India had successfully tested an anti-satellite missile by shooting down its own decommissioned satellite ...
MERC approves 700 MW PPA of Tata Power for five years
The Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission (MERC) has allowed distribution business of Tata Power to have a power purchase arrangement (PPA) with its generation arm for 700 MW to be supplied from its Trombay thermal and hydro plants for five years.The PPA will be effective from April 1 and will ensure cheaper power to Mumbai consumers, the company said on Wednesday.After due diligence for ensuring the reliability of supply and cost competitiveness for consumers in Mumbai, the commission in its order on Tuesday approved the arrangement.'Tata Power has been serving the city of Mumbai for over a century and continues to be committed to supplying the most reliable and competitive power meeting the needs of their consumers," said company's Managing Director and CEO Praveer Sinha.Earlier in January, the commission approved the PPA of Tata Power with Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport (BEST) for 677 MW. The process of power tie-up was undertaken by the distribution business
Once a major attraction, Amethi park now abandoned (Photo feature) (IANS Exclusive)
Thirty-seven years after it was inaugurated by then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, a children's park here in Amethi lies virtually abandoned.
India destroys live satellite in space, announces PM Modi
India's anti-satellite weapon A-SAT successfully destroyed a live satellite on a low earth orbit, joining a group of three countries - the US, Russia and China - with such capability, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced on Wednesday."India has entered its name as an elite space power. It is the fourth country to achieve this feat after the US, Russia and China. The 'Mission Shakti' operation was a difficult target to achieve, which was completed successfully within three minutes of the launch," he said in an address to the nation."Today's A-SAT missile has given new strength to security and vision of the country. We want to assure the world that our new capability is not against any country but is the defensive initiative of a fast-moving India. India has always been against the arm race in space and this operation hasn't changed that. This does not violate any international treaty or law," he said.The Prime Minister said India has enough satellites that are contributing in various
India acquires anti-satellite capability: Modi
India has attained anti-satellite capability, becoming the fourth such country after the US, China and Russia, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced on Wednesday.
US scientists to climb Everest, collect data on climate
A team of American scientists flew to the Mount Everest region Wednesday to study how pollution has impacted the Himalayan mountains and glaciers that are melting due to global warming. The team led by John All of Western Washington University plans to spend the next two months in the region collecting samples and study the ice, snow and vegetation. In May, the team members will try to climb the 8,850-meter (29,035-foot) high Everest, the world's highest mountain, and its sister peak Mount Lhotse. The team plan to bring the samples and data and study with local university and government agencies in Nepal. They'll compare the current data to data the professor collected on a 2009 visit. They plan to study the color and mineral content of the snow and ice on higher elevation of the mountains while collecting plans and other vegetation on the foothills. "We are looking at how climate change has effected vegetation, we are looking at how climate change has effected the snow and water ...
