Page 770 - Environment

ISRO bracing up for busy year: Chairman

ISRO Chairman K Sivan today said the space agency was bracing up for a busy year during which it has lined up several missions, including its important 'Chandrayaan-2'. In the next eight months, ISRO has nine missions, Sivan told reporters after the successful launch of the IRNSS-1I navigation satellite at the Sathish Dhawan Space Centre here. Built for a ten-year job in space, IRNSS-1I is expected to be ready for work in about a month after routine orbit manoeuvres and tests. "We have a lot more missions on the anvil. In the next eight months, we are going to have nine missions. We are going to have GSAT, PSLV missions... Towards the end of the year we have the major mission - Chandryaan-2," he said There were plans for the 5.7 tonne GSAT-11 mission, a throughput satellite using Arianne rocket, he said, adding that it would be the heaviest satellite the space agency has made so far. "This apart, there would be GSLK-Mk3-D2, which is going to launch GSAT-29. Then we are going to have a

Elephants kill two

Two persons were trampled to death by elephants in separate incidents in Jhargram district today, forest officials said. Purnima Mahato (50) was trampled to death by an elephant when she was gathering 'Mahua' flowers at Gherageria village surrounded by forests this morning. Tribals prepare a kind of liquor out of 'Mahua' flowers which also attract pachyderms, they said. Another elephant trampled to death a carpenter Nimai Mahato (49) when he was riding a cycle on a road at nearby Bardanga village. Both the animals strayed away from a herd of about 40 elephants and have been attacking people and damaging crops in the area for the past few days. Efforts are on to drive them back to the jungle, they said.

Factbox: China's underground natural gas storage facilities

BEIJING (Reuters) - China, the world's No.3 gas consumer, is speeding up expanding its much-needed underground gas storage (UGS) facilities for the clean-burning fuel to cope with supply crunches in winter months when demand surges to heat homes.

Sonowal lays emphasis on farmers interests in APART

Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal has advocated priority profiling and creation of adequate amenities for the farmers under the Assam Agri-business and Rural Transformation Project (APART). Reviewing APART, an agriculture department project, in a meeting here yesterday, Sonowal asked the implementing agency to take into account the interests and priorities of the farmers. Sonowal also asked the implementing department to create infrastructure for farmers amenities around the production centres, an official release said. APART, a World Bank financed project, has been designed for five lakh beneficiaries in the state with an initial financial outlay of Rs 1700 crore for building agri-market, rural haat and warehouses among other things. Sonowal also said that there should be inter-departmental synergy to make the project successful. Since market oriented production remains one of the essential components of the project, Sonowal emphasised that there should be good ...

NASA's next planet-hunting mission starts next week

NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, or Tess aimed at detecting planets outside our solar system, is set to launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Florida on April 16.

Global palm oil output forecast at 70.5 million tonnes in oil year ended Sept 2018: analyst Mielke

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Global palm oil production is expected at 70.5 million tonnes in the oil year ending in September 2018, analyst Thomas Mielke said at an industry event on Thursday.

New Zealand bans all new offshore oil exploration

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced on Thursday a ban on all new offshore oil exploration, describing her decision as a transition towards a zero-carbon economy.

ISRO not facing funds crunch, says Chairman

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is not facing any funds crunch for its ongoing activities, the agency Chairman said on Thursday.

Turkey plans to set up scientific base in Antarctica in 2019

Turkey will establish its scientific base in Antarctica in 2019, Turkish Industry and Technology Minister Faruk Ozlu said on Wednesday.

Drive to install 4 lakh LED street lights completed in Hyderabad

The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) has completed the exercise of installing almost 4 lakh LED streetlights here in a bid to reduce the carbon emission.The replacement of the traditional streetlights with the LED ones has decreased the level of carbon production and consumption of electricity in the city.As per the Chief Engineer of the project, Suresh Kumar the level of carbon dioxide emissions will considerably come down by nearly 1,29,719 tons."We replaced four lakh streets light with LEDs, we started this process in June 2017 and it is almost completed, this process will save the energy and production demand will be reduced. About 40 Megawatts of Power and per annum about 1,20,000 tonnes of CO2 reduction is estimated with this initiative," he said.

Navigation satellite INRSS-1I put into orbit

The Indian Space Research Organisation's navigation satellite INRSS-1I was today launched by PSLV-C41 from the spaceport here and successfully placed in the designated orbit. PSLV-C41/IRNSS-1I Mission blasted off at 4.04 am from the first launchpad at the Sathish Dhawan Space Centre. It was a normal lift-off, ISRO officials said. The workhorse, PSLV, injected the satellite into orbit 19 minutes after lift-off from the Sathish Dhawan Space Centre here. ISRO Chairman K Sivan described the mission as a success and congratulated the scientists behind it. He said IRNSS-1I was successfully placed in the designated orbit. IRNSS-1I is expected to replace IRNSS-1A, the first of the seven navigation satellites, that was rendered ineffective after its three rubidium atomic clocks failed. The seven satellites are part of the NavIC navigation satellite constellation. The launch is ISRO's second attempt at sending a replacement satellite. The previous mission of a PSLV carrying IRNSS-1H in August ..

ISRO successfully launches 'replacement' navigation satellite

Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Thursday successfully launched the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System-1I or IRNSS-1I from Satish Dhawan Space Centre on Sriharikota Island.The satellite was launched with PSLV-C41 rocket at 0404 hrs.The IRNSS-1I will replace the IRNSS-1A which was rendered ineffective as the onboard atomic clocks had failed.This is the second attempt by ISRO to send a replacement satellite as on August 2017 the launch of IRNSS-1H failed.The satellite is part of the constellation of seven NavIC navigation satellite.The purpose of these IRNSS satellites is to create India's own navigation system which would be in the lines of US' GPS or Global Positioning System.

Indian rocket successfully puts into orbit navigation satellite

India early on Thursday put into orbit navigation satellite IRNSS-1I, a part of Indian satellite navigation system NavIC in copy-book style.

Indian rocket successfully lifts off with navigation satellite

India's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) rocket lifted off successfully with navigation satellite IRNSS-1I from the rocket port here early on Thursday.

Indian rocket lifts off with navigation satellite

India's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) rocket lifted off successfully with navigation satellite IRNSS-1I from the rocket port here early on Thursday.

ISRO launches IRNSS-1I navigation satellite

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) today launched the IRNSS-1I navigation satellite, the eighth such satellite to be a part of a constellation, from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh. PSLV-C41/IRNSS-1I Mission blasted off at 4.04 am from the first launchpad at the Sathish Dhawan Space Centre. It was a normal lift-off, ISRO officials said. IRNSS-1I is expected to replace IRNSS-1A, the first of the seven navigation satellites, that was rendered ineffective after its three rubidium atomic clocks failed. The seven satellites are part of the NavIC navigation satellite constellation. The launch is ISRO's second attempt at sending a replacement satellite. The previous mission of a PSLV carrying IRNSS-1H in August last year failed after the heat shield covering the satellite failed to separate. The IRNSS-1I mission takes place two weeks after the space agency launched GSAT-6A on board GSLV Mk-II. Though the rocket placed GSAT-6A in orbit, the ISRO lost communication with the satellite .

ISRO launches IRNSS-1I navigation satellite

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) today launched the IRNSS-1I navigation satellite, the eighth such satellite to be a part of a constellation, from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh. PSLV-C41/IRNSS-1I Mission blasted off at 4.04 am from the first launchpad at the Sathish Dhawan Space Centre. It was a normal lift-off, ISRO officials said. IRNSS-1I is expected to replace IRNSS-1A, the first of the seven navigation satellites, that was rendered ineffective after its three rubidium atomic clocks failed. The seven satellites are part of the NavIC navigation satellite constellation. The launch is ISRO's second attempt at sending a replacement satellite. The previous mission of a PSLV carrying IRNSS-1H in August last year failed after the heat shield covering the satellite failed to separate. The IRNSS-1I mission takes place two weeks after the space agency launched GSAT-6A on board GSLV Mk-II. Though the rocket placed GSAT-6A in orbit, the ISRO lost communication with the satellite .

Fadnavis reviews progress of Jalyukt Shivar Abhiyan via video conferencing

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Wednesday interacted with state collectors and the chief executive officers of various zilla parishads to review progress of Jalyukt Shivar Abhiyan and other housing projects.Fadnavis interacted via video conferencing and reviewed all water conservation schemes from the secretariat here."In the last two years, nearly 11,247 villages were made water neutral through Jalyukt Shivar. This year 5,031 villages are selected under this scheme and work is in progress. Also another 6,200 villages have been identified for 2018-19," Fadnavis said.Fadnavis also directed his officials to complete all the work selected for this year before June and assured to review more by May."Rs.1, 000 crore will be released tomorrow for completion of works. The work for water conservation has been completed for 76,106 farm ponds out of the total target of 1, 12,311. Also, three districts have achieved more than 100 per cent target and 17 districts have achieved ...

Mayors resolve to aim for complete ban on illegal plastic

Mayors of several cities from the Asia-Pacific region today resolved to strive for a complete ban on illegal disposal of plastic waste in eco-sensitive areas. The Mayors of 37 cities who took part in the meet here also resolved to achieve "effective implementation of 3 R (reduce, reuse and recycle) policies". The meet was part of the Eighth Regional 3R Forum in Asia and Pacific, organised by the Union Ministry of Housing and Affairs, Japan's Environment Ministry and the United Nations Centre for Regional Development (UNCRD). The mayors discussed ways to achieve the goal of "clean land, clean water and clean air", and came out with 11 resolutions for better future with sustainable development, said a press release here. This set of resolutions is titled "Indore 3 R Declaration of Asian Mayors on Achieving Clean Land, Clean Water and Clean Air'. One of the resolutions said the mayors would strive to ban illegal disposal of plastic in eco-sensitive or eco-fragile areas, ...

Jharkhand CM reviews power situation

Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das today said electricity should be made available to 252 villages identified for 'Gaon Swaraj Campaign' between April 14 and May 5, according to an official release today. Reviewing the department of energy at the state secretariat, Das said, "We are committed to provide the basic facility in timely manner to the people of the state. Availability of electricity and uninterrupted transmission is our most important priority." In case of power cut, the nearest repairing persons should be available to repair, he said adding that electricity line connected with drinking water supply system should not fail. Chief Secretary Sudhir Tripathi, Principal Secretary Energy Department Nitin Madan Kulkarni and other officials were present at the meeting.