Author Archives: Srinivas Chakravarty

Mars Colony with Child Slaves? No Way, Says NASA Denying Ex-CIA Man’s Allegations

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NASA has always been accused of wrong doing in space or hiding aliens or UFOs spotted in the sky and the US space agency has kept silent or denied very often any such conspiracy theories and the lastest one was Anonymous video and in less than a week another conspiracy theory has hit the agency.

In a bizarre revelation on Jones’ TV show , Robert David Steele, an erstwhile CIA officer proposed that kids have been secretly shipped to Mars in the last two decades to live and work as slaves. However, his contention had no evidence but enough of an allegation that forced NASA to deny it.

In his allegations, Steele said: “We actually believe that there is a colony on Mars that is populated by children who were kidnapped and sent into space on a 20-year ride. So that once they get to Mars they have no alternative but to be slaves on the Mars colony.”

Jones pointed out that 90 percent of NASA’s missions are secret and hence the allegations get credence. Soon, a NASA official gave a curt statement to the Daily Beast, which had published the allegation:

“There are no humans on Mars. There are active rovers on Mars. There was a rumor going around last week that there weren’t. There are,” said Guy Webster, a spokesperson for Mars exploration at NASA told the site. “But there are no humans,” he added categorically.

 

The “discovery” or allegation was made after showing an image on Mars that showed tracks, which looked like man-made.

Zika Virus Surveillance in India Widened Now: Centre

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Following the first zika virus positive test report from Ahemedabad and two more in surveillance tests, the government said it has announced immediate measures to tackle the cases and test equipment across the country.

The sample was from a 34-year-old female patient admitted to hospital with complaints of fever following delivery of a healthy baby who had no travel history to any Zika affected country. Two more cases have been confirmed positive for Zika virus disease from the samples collected during January and February 2017. The other two cases include a 22-year-old pregnant woman in her 37th week of pregnancy and a 64-year-old male with 8 days history of fever.

Though World Health Organization had declared last November that Zika disease infection no longer constituted a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC), the state government and the Centre have initiated country-wide Zika laboratory based surveillance in India that has so far tested 36,613 human samples and 16,571 mosquito samples for the presence of Zika virus, though no more positive cases have been reported.

National Guidelines and Action Plan on Zika virus, prepared and shared with the States whille an Inter – Ministerial Task Force has been set up under Chairmanship of Secretary (Health) with Secretary (Bio – Technology), Secretary (Department of Health Research) as members, said a statement.

The Joint Monitoring Group, a Technical group under DGHS, tasked to monitor emerging and re-emerging diseases is regularly reviewing the situation on Zika virus disease, it said.

All the International Airports / Ports have displayed signage providing information for travelers on Zika virus disease and to report if they are returning from any of the affected countries and suffering from febrile illness.

Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP) is tracking for clustering of acute febrile illness in the community and sensitized its State and District Rapid Response Teams, while the National Institute of Virology, Pune, and NCDC, Delhi, 25 laboratories have been strengthened by Indian Council of Medical Research for laboratory diagnosis.

Currently, three entomological laboratories are conducting Zika virus testing on mosquito samples and six more lab staff have been trained for vector surveillance for Zika virus.

The Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram (RBSK) is monitoring microcephaly from 55 sentinel sites though no increase in number of cases / clustering of microcephaly has been reported from these centers, said the government. Meanwhle, a 24×7 control room (011-23061469) is functioning from Directorate General of Health Services.

International Asteroid Day Today: More Than 16000 In Nearby Galaxy

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NASA will mark the worldwide observance of International Asteroid Day at 9 a.m. PDT (noon EDT) on Friday, June 30, 2017 with a special television program featuring the agency’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office and other projects working to find and study near-Earth objects (NEOs). There are more than 16,000 asteroids in the vicinity, according to NASA.

The program will air on NASA Television and the program will show how NASA researchers find, track and characterize NEOs — asteroids and comets that come within the vicinity of Earth’s orbit and could pose an impact hazard to Earth. NASA is also working to get the planet prepared to respond to a potential impact threat.

The program will include segments on NASA’s NEO projects from multiple locations, including the agency’s Headquarters in Washington and Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. Viewers may submit questions during the program using #AskNASA.

The broadcast will be part of a 24-hour Asteroid Day program from Broadcasting Center Europe, beginning at 6 p.m. PDT (9 p.m. June 29 EDT, 1 a.m. June 30 GMT) and streaming online at:

https://asteroidday.org/live

“At NASA, every day is an asteroid day, but we value the international collaboration for a designated day to call attention to the importance of detecting and tracking hazardous asteroids,” said Planetary Defense Officer Lindley Johnson at NASA Headquarters.

Just two days ago an asteroid flew by Earth on Wednesday at a distance of about 1.1 million miles (1.8 million km), or about 4.6 times the distance from Earth to the moon. Though it was a safer distance from Earth, the encounter is the closest ever any celestial object will have come to Earth in the past 400 years and in the next 500 years, said NASA.

However, the closest flyby of the asteroid has raised concerns among the space scientists about the possibility of a threat from a stray asteroid hitting the Earth and leading to extinction of one-third of the population on the planet, leaving behind huge dent on Earth’s atmosphere and topography.

Ironic but the world is observing the International Asteroid Day on Friday and the closest flyby will set in motion debate over future of mankind on the Earth.

On this day, June 30, 1908, an object measuring 40-meters exploded over Tunguska, Siberia, flattening about 80 million trees over 2,000 sparsely populated square km, that may measure bigger than London. The day is marked as International Asteroid Day.

Though in its 4.5-billion-year history, Earth has been repeatedly pummeled by space rocks which could have annihilated many species and caused huge eruption of ocean waters, scientists are concerned over estimating the possibility and its impact.

“Sooner or later we will get … a minor or major impact,” said Rolf Densing, who heads the European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) in Darmstadt, Germany. “The risk that Earth will get hit in a devastating event one day is very high.”

Among the possible ways of intercepting an approaching asteroid could incldue nuking it or using lasers to vaporize it, while some researchers have proposed a space “tractor” to drag it off course or bumping it into a new direction.

While the smallest objects enter Earth’s atmosphere but get burnt up as shooting stars, medium sized 10-km sized rocks could play havoc on Earth as similar one was believed to have made the dinosaurs extinct.

The largest occur once every 100 million years, researchers said and if it ever happens, it could mean the end of human civilization, they warn.

New Algorithm Can Read Your Mind, Shows Study Using Brain Imaging Technology

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Now brain imaging technology can read what’s going on in your mind by using machine learning algorithm developed by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University, Pennsylvania. The new algorithm can ‘read minds’ and identify complex thoughts with 87 per cent accuracy, they claim.

Since the brain’s building blocks for complex thoughts are formed by various sub-systems and not language-based, by measuring the activation in each brain system, the new technology can decipher what kind of thoughts are being contemplated and relay them to the monitors.

“We have finally developed a way to see thoughts of such complexity in the fMRI signal. The discovery of this correspondence between thoughts and brain activation patterns tells us what the thoughts are built of,” says Prof. Marcel Just of Carnegie Mellon University, Pennsylvania, where it was developed.

Based on their study, they could predict the features of the left-out sentence, with 87 per cent accuracy, even among those who were never exposed to its activation before.

“Our method overcomes the unfortunate property of fMRI to smear together the signals emanating from brain events that occur close together in time, like the reading of two successive words in a sentence,” Just said. “This advance makes it possible for the first time to decode thoughts containing several concepts.”

The study has been published in the journal Human Brain Mapping.

NASA Denies Anonymous Video on Alien Life Discovery Announcement

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US space agency NASA has denied global hackers group Anonymous claim that it is going make announcement on the discovery of alien life, said a spokesman.

Last week, the hacking group Anonymous posted a video on YouTube that said NASA is about to announce the discovery of life in our galaxy but NASA scientist beyond Earth.

“Contrary to some reports, there’s no pending announcement from NASA regarding extraterrestrial life,” said NASA science chief Thomas Zurbuchen in a tweet.

“Are we alone in the universe? While we do not know yet, we have missions moving forward that may help answer that fundamental question,” Zurbuchen said.

In fact, Anonymous has put out its video based on Zurbuchen’s testimony to the House of Representatives’ Committee on Science and Space in April this year. However, NASA has always maintained that there is no discovery of alien life and Anonymous video (see below) has surprised many.

Anonymous on their website said, “NASA says aliens are coming!” and  uploaded the above video citing alien-friendly comments made by NASA astronauts and space scientists.

Anonymous quoted Zurbuchen’s rendering before a Congressional hearing in April titled “Advances in the Search for Life” that said: “NASA`s recent advances, such as the discovery of hydrogen in Saturn`s moon Enceladus and the Hubble team’s promising results from the oceans of Jupiter`s moon Europa, are promising signs that we’re closer than ever to discovering evidence of alien life.”

“Taking into account all of the different activities and missions that are specifically searching for evidence of alien life, we are on the verge of making one of the most profound, unprecedented, discoveries in history,” Zurbuchen said. Perhaps the second part of the quote has made Anonymous see NASA forthcoming with an announcement.

 

 

 

Google Job Search Engine Takes Off in US, India Next?

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The new Google for Jobs feature has been rolled out in US and India would soon be the next though both markets are entirely different in nature. It said 46% of US employers face talent shortage. In India, the situation is different as India has shortage of jobs in equal number.

Google, which has a long history of using technology to connect people on Google+ and Gmail chat, had announced the new feature at its I/O Conference early this year. Google for Jobs, an initiative for the job matching industry, includes the Cloud Jobs API, announced last year, which provides access to Google’s machine learning capabilities to power smarter job search and recommendations within career sites, jobs boards, and other job matching sites and apps.

“Today, we’re taking the next step in the Google for Jobs initiative by putting the convenience and power of Search into the hands of job seekers. With this new experience, we aim to connect Americans to job opportunities across the U.S., so no matter who you are or what kind of job you’re looking for, you can find job postings that match your needs,” said Google in its blog.

 

Search strings include “jobs near me,” “teaching jobs,” or similar job-seeking queries. Plus other criteria, like commute time, job specialties or the hours they can work also find room in this feature.

“We’ll continue to add additional filters and information in the future. Looking for jobs is a personal and complex journey, and one that we’re trying to support in this new search experience,” assured Google for Jobs.

 Though the new feature may emerge as a competitor to job search portals like Monster or Naukri, Google said it is keen to rope them into the new initiative and holding negotiations with LinkedIn, Monster, WayUp, DirectEmployers, CareerBuilder, Glassdoor and Facebook.

“To ensure even more jobs are listed over time, we’re publishing open documentation for all jobs providers, from third-party platforms or direct employers, big or small, detailing how to make their job openings discoverable in this new feature,” said Google in its post.

It remains to be seen how Google for Jobs works in US but in India it is sure to win many admirers and followers as the job scene is becoming adverse in the country due to economic slowdown.

NASA Kepler Team Releases Catalogue of Exoplanets, 10 Similar to Earth

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NASA has released catalogue of 4,034 planets of which 2,335 are exoplanets and ten planets found similar to earth in size and habitability. These 10 planets orbit with their star’s habitable zone, which is the range of distance from a star where liquid water could pool on the surface of a rocky planet.

Available on the NASA Exoplanet Archive, the catalogue has 4,034 planets of which, 2,335 have been verified as exoplanets, with 50 near-Earth size habitable zone candidates detected by Kepler, of whom more than 30 have been verified and 10 of them have been found earth-like. The findings were presented at a news conference on Monday at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley.

“The Kepler data set is unique, as it is the only one containing a population of these near Earth-analogs – planets with roughly the same size and orbit as Earth,” said Mario Perez, Kepler program scientist in the Astrophysics Division of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. “Understanding their frequency in the galaxy will help inform the design of future NASA missions to directly image another Earth.”

This is the eighth release of the Kepler candidate catalog, that will enable scientists to determine what planetary populations – from rocky bodies the size of Earth, to gas giants the size of Jupiter – make up the galaxy’s planetary demographics.

It seems that nature commonly makes rocky planets up to about 75 percent bigger than Earth. For reasons scientists don’t yet understand, about half of those planets take on a small amount of hydrogen and helium that dramatically swells their size, allowing them to “jump the gap” and join the population closer to Neptune’s size.

The Kepler spacecraft continues to make observations in new patches of sky in its extended mission, searching for planets and studying a variety of interesting astronomical objects, from distant star clusters to objects such as the TRAPPIST-1 system of seven Earth-size planets, closer to home.

Launched in 2009, Kepler has identified more than 5,000 planet candidates. Of these, more than 2,500 have been verified as bona-fide planets, including a dozen that are less than twice the size of Earth and reside in the habitable zone of their host star. The habitable zone is the range of distance from a star where liquid water could pool on the surface of a rocky planet.

 

AYUSH Ministry Clarifies on Sex During Pregnancy in Booklets

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With the Indian media going gaga over the brochure on “Mother and Child Care”, published by the Central Council for Research in Yoga and Naturopathy (CCRYN), the AYUSH ministry has given clarification that the advice to have ‘no sex’ was not true.

Some news reports have drawn an assertion that the booklet puts forward the “prescription” that “pregnant women in India” should “say no to sex after conception”. “This is far from the truth. In fact, the words “no sex” do not feature at all in the booklet,” the AYUSH ministry pointed out in a statement.

Some reports have appeared in the print and electronic media since June 13, 2017 concerning the publication of CCRYN, an autonomous body under the Ministry of AYUSH but these reports are seen to be inaccurate, and some are even seen to misrepresent facts, that forced the Ministry of AYUSH to issue clarification:

It said the booklet puts together relevant and useful information culled out from many years of clinical practice in the fields of Yoga and Naturopathy, keepin in view the health benefits of Yoga and Naturopathy to expecting mothers and new mothers in a simple format.

This publication, which has been in distribution through the units of the erstwhile Department of AYUSH and CCRYN since 2013, and not a recent publication, clarified the statement.

Many new mothers and families have appreciated that information relevant to the different phases of pregnancy has been made available in a simple format in the booklet. The information provided includes diet plans based on clinical experience, simple naturopathy treatments and tips for remaining stress-free during pregnancy.

It also suggests on page 14 of the booklet to avoid certain types of food like tea, coffee, white flour products, fried and oily items and non-veg during pregnancy, which have received selective attention. The suggestion that non-vegetarian food may be avoided (as Yoga & Naturopathy doesn’t advocate non-vegetarian food in its practice) has been singled out for high-lighting in some reports, omitting the mention of white flour products, fried and oily items etc have also been there, said the statement.

The Ministry of AYUSH has urged the media to view the efforts of CCRYN to take the preventive health benefits of Yoga to all sections of the population (including expecting mothers) in the right perspective.

UK and US Share Similar Mindset? How?

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UK and US share a similar mindset when it comes to horizontal drilling for shale energy, say Cardiff University researchers and colleagues. Though an entire ocean separates the UK from the US, when the issue of fracking arises, the great divide — philosophically speaking — narrows considerably.

Concerns about short-term and long-term impacts of horizontal drilling for shale energy are prevalent in both countries. According to a new study by Cardiff University researchers and colleagues, key issues include the risk of water contamination as well as preferences for renewable energy sources over fossil fuels to meet national energy needs.

“This — and other research we have conducted — shows that the public in both countries clearly want a move toward a cleaner, more sustainable energy system in the future,” said corresponding author Nick Pidgeon, a professor of environmental psychology at Cardiff University. “The results confirm that shale development is not compatible with that vision.”

Shale gas and oil production in the US has increased rapidly in the past decade, and the UK government is interested in potential development. Understanding public views is a crucial first step in creating more informed energy debates and promoting better decision-making.

The researchers held a series of carefully formatted, daylong deliberation workshops with diverse members of the public in four cities: London, Cardiff, Los Angeles and Santa Barbara. These in-depth discussions enabled the investigators to look beyond existing evidence on public views about hydraulic fracturing based primarily in already impacted areas.

“The results showed that shale development was widely seen as a short-term fix leading to an unwanted dependency on finite fossil fuels at the expense of renewables development,” said co-author Merryn Thomas, a research associate at Cardiff University. “Participants in both countries noted that the majority of proposed benefits, such as specialized jobs of limited duration, would be relatively short-term, while the risks, such as environmental degradation, would almost certainly be longer.”

The study found that those surveyed viewed potential impacts as inequitably distributed, arguing that the economic and employment benefits attributed to shale development were not unique and would apply equally to significant investment and scaling-up of renewable technologies.

Different concerns in the two countries reflected different models of governance of extractive industries. In the US, some participants wanted more standardized federal guidelines and long-term accountability. Conversely, in the UK, where regulation is predominantly at the national level, there were calls for more local control. Regardless of location, participants expressed deep-seated distrust of government and institutions.

In California, past and current experiences with the regional oil industry minimized concern for some about future shale development. However, for others, personal experiences of water shortages and earthquakes amplified this sense of risk. In the UK, where onshore oil and gas extraction is less common, participants drew on tangential experiences of coal and heavy industries when making sense of what shale development might mean for them in the future.

“This study found surprisingly high levels of environmental and societal concern about hydraulic fracturing in areas with no direct experience with the technology,” said co-author Barbara Harthorn, director of the CNS and a professor in the Department of Anthropology at UCSB. “This method provides strong evidence that diverse members of the public are able to weigh in thoughtfully and critically about local and collective energy system decisions and their impacts.”

The main funding for this research was provided by the National Science Foundation with supplemental support from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program.

Drawing on more than a decade of research developed by Cardiff University and University of California Santa Barbara Center for Nanotechnology in Society (UCSB-CNS) in the US, this is the first qualitative, interdisciplinary, cross-national study of UK and US public perceptions of shale extraction. The results appear in the journal Nature Energy.

India ‘Reactivates’ Its Association Status with IEA

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India has reactivated its association status with the world energy body International Energy Association and said both will work in the areas of mutual interests, including capacity building to meet supply side disruptions.

Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan met Dr Fatih Birol, Executive Director of IEA on Thursday jointly with Minister of State for Power, Coal & New and Renewable Energy and Mines Piyush Goyal. Dr Birol is visiting India to jointly announce the Activation of ‘Association Status’ of India with IEA.

During the meeting, Pradhan welcomed the elevation of India’s relationship with IEA from Partnership Status (2013) to Association Status and vowed to work towards balancing the global Energy Dynamics reflecting today’s global realities.

India and IEA have an MoU since 2011 under which both are working on capacity building to respond to an oil emergency situation. With the Association Status in place, both India and IEA will work in the areas of mutual interests pertaining to Oil and Gas sector, including capacity building to meet supply side disruptions.

IEA is a Paris based autonomous organisation established in 1974 to ensure reliable, affordable and clean energy for its 29 member countries by coordinating collective response to major disruptions in oil supply through release of oil stocks into the global markets.

ISRO Earned $4.5 Million, 76.5 Million Euros in Last 2 Years

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Indian Space Research Organisation’s commercial arm Antrix Corporation Limited (Antrix) has earned a foreign exchange of 76.5 Million Euros and $4.5 Million from foreign countries through launching of their satellites on-board PSLV.

Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Space Jitendra Singh in written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha on Wednesday, March 15, 2017, informed the House that the spare capacity available onboard PSLV, after meeting the national requirements, is provided for commercial launch services.

He said ISRO will continue to make available the spare capacity available on its launch vehicles for commercial launch services through Anrix.

Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) on February 15, 2017, successfully launched 104 satellites, in a single launch, onboard India’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle “PSLV-C37’ on February 15, 2017 from Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC), Sriharikota.

These satellites include- (i) India’s Cartosat-2 Series Satellite (weighting 714kg) as primary payload, (ii) two Indian Nano-Satellites viz. INS-IA&IB(together weighing 18.1 kg) and (iii) 101 foreign nano-satellites together weighing 645.9 kg) from six counties as co-passengers.

This was the 38th successful PSLV mission in a row, which has once again demonstrated the versatility and reliability of the PSLV vehicle. While PSLV has already established itself as a preferred launch vehicle, in its class, in the global satellite market.

“This mission is expected to further strengthen the commercial footprint of PSLV in the global market for launch services, especially for smaller satellites,” said the minister.

Shocked at ISRO Feat of Lofting 104 Satellites, Says Trump Nominee to Head CIA

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US President Donald Trump’s nominee for National Intelligence, Dan Coats, told the Senate Hearing Committee that he was “shocked” to learn India’s space agency successfully launched more than 100 satellites in one go, saying that the US cannot afford to be laggard.

“I was shocked the other day to read that India, on one rocket launch, deposited more than 100 satellites in space,” said Coats during his confirmation hearing for the position of Director of National Intelligence on Tuesday.

“They may be small in size with different functions but one rocket can send up, I think it was 104 platforms,” said Mr Coats, who will be supervising even the CIA.

In fact, out of 104, 96 satellites were for the US companies and most of them were launched for Planet Labs Inc, a San Francisco-based Earth-imaging company.

The successful launch of 104 has relegated even the US which had created a record in 2014 launching 37 satellites in a single go. All 104 satellites were lofted off by India’s PSLV rocket in a precisely timed method and all the 104 were put in their respective orbits in a span of 18 minutes, each travelling at 27,000 kmph.

WHO Applauds India on National Regulatory Authority 100% Compliance

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World Health Organization has applauded India’s National Regulatory Authority which was declared “functional’ with a maturity level of 4, the highest level as per currently evolved definitions in respect of 5 functions, and maturity level 3 in respect of 4 functions.

While, maturity level 4 indicates good results and sustained improvement trends, maturity level 3 reflects systematic process based approach, early stage of systematic improvements, data availability regarding conformance to objectives and existence of improvement trends, said health minister J.P. Nadda, who has appreciated the ministry for the effort.

“The successful outcome of the WHO conducted assessment of the National Regulatory Authority (NRA) of India is a big boost to the Government’s efforts towards quality healthcare, for which the Government is committed to,” he said.

The Minister informed that WHO has termed the 100% compliance in the WHO assessment (benchmarking) of the Indian vaccine regulatory system as another ‘landmark achievement’. The previous WHO assessment (benchmarking) of the Indian vaccine regulatory system was conducted in 2012 during which institutional development plan (IDP) and the road map for strengthening the NRA were developed.

Pointing out to the introduction of newer vaccines in the country’s full immunisation basket through the nationwide introduction of pentavalent vaccine, and the phased roll-out of Rotavirus vaccine and Measles Rubella vaccine, Mr. Nadda stated that the Ministry is confident that India shall meet all its global commitments in the healthcare sector as a result of these focussed endeavours.

In addition, Mission Indradhanush has strengthened the full immunisation drive of the Government, the Health Minister stated.

WHO Gives Maximum Marks to India’s Vaccination System

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WHO, in its assessment of the status of the Indian vaccine regulatory system against WHO NRA Global Benchmarking Tool (GBT) for benchmarking found  Indian NRA as ‘functional’ with a maturity level of 4 or the highest level in respect of 5 functions, and maturity level 3 in respect of 4 functions.

While, maturity level 4 indicates good results and sustained improvement trends, maturity level 3 reflects systematic process based approach, early stage of systematic improvements, data availability regarding conformance to objectives and existence of improvement trends.

The assessment has been carried out by a WHO team comprising lead experts in different areas from WHO Headquarters Geneva, WHO India Country Office, experts drawn from the regulators of USA, Italy, Germany, Netherlands, Indonesia, Thailand and Egypt. The assessment has been done in respect of nine different functionalities and

India, as a large vaccine producing country, is currently supplying several vaccines to the UN agencies (UNICEF, WHO and PAHO). A fully functional NRA is a pre-requisite for WHO prequalification of vaccines. One of the requirements to become eligible and retain prequalification status is to have the National Regulatory Authority (NRA) assessed as functional against the WHO published NRA indicators.

WHO Prequalification Programme, as such, facilitates access to vaccines that meet the unified standards of quality, safety and efficacy as well as programme needs. The vaccine manufacturers can only apply for WHO vaccine prequalification if the NRA meets the standards of the WHO NRA published indicators i.e. WHO Global benchmarking Tool on functional regulatory system for vaccines.

The Global Benchmarking Tool (GBT) so developed has 63 indicators and 288 sub-indicators, out of which 150 are critical . The result reflects the growing maturity of the Indian NRA emanating from a concerted effort by the Government in consultation WHO to build capacity and capability of the National Regulatory Authority over last several years.

PSLV-C37 Launches 104 Satellites in One Flight, Sets New Record

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In its 39th flight PSLV-C37, ISRO’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle successfully launched the 714 kg Cartosat-2 Series Satellite and 103 other satellites on Wednesday morning, February 15, 2017, at 9:28 am from Satish Dhawan Space Centre SHAR, Sriharikota.

This is the 38th consecutively successful mission of PSLV, which weighed 1,378 kg, that lifted off from the First Launch Pad.

Within 16 minutes 48 seconds, the satellites achieved a polar Sun Synchronous Orbit of 506 km inclined at an angle of 97.46 degree to the equator and in the succeeding 12 minutes, all the 104 satellites successfully separated from the PSLV.

In a predetermined sequence Cartosat-2 followed by INS-1 and INS-2 separated, making the total number of Indian satellites launched by PSLV to 46.

The two arrays of Cartosat-2 series satellite were deployed and ISRO’s Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC) at Bangalore took over the control of it. Next, the satellite will be brought to its final operational configuration following which it will begin to provide remote sensing services using its panchromatic (black and white) and multispectral (colour) cameras.

The imagery from the Cartosat-2 series satellite will be useful for cartographic applications, urban and rural applications, coastal land use and regulation, utility management like road network monitoring, water distribution, creation of land use maps, Land Information System (LIS) and Geographical Information System (GIS) applications.

The data sets will be useful for urban planning of 500 cities under the Amrut Planning Scheme. The government initiative of 100 smart city programme in which these data sets could be used for master plan preparation.

Of the 103 co-passenger satellites carried by PSLV-C37, two – ISRO Nano Satellite-1 (INS-1) weighing 8.4 kg and INS-2 weighing 9.7 kg – are technology demonstration satellites from India.

The remaining 101 co-passenger satellites carried were international customer satellites from USA (96), The Netherlands (1), Switzerland (1), Israel (1), Kazakhstan (1) and UAE (1).

The complex mission involved many technical challenges like realising the launch of a large number of satellites during a single mission within the time frame sought by the customers from abroad. With today’s successful launch, the total number of foreign satellites on PSLV has reached 180.

China, India Behind 50% of Global Deaths Due to Air Pollution: Study

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China and India together contributed for more than half of the total global deaths due to air pollution in 2015, said a study by the U.S.-based Health Effects Institute (HEI).

The report showed that air pollution caused more than 4.2 million deaths in 2015, making it the fifth highest cause of death. But just two countries – India and China alone reported 2.2 million deaths, or half of the global deaths.

The institute on its website – www.stateofglobalair.org – said 92% of the world’s population lives in areas which are filled with polluted or unhealthy air. In turn, air pollution causes cancer, stroke and heart disease, as well as chronic respiratory problems such as asthma.

However, China is trying to bring down the deaths but India has a long time to go, it said. In January, a ministry spokesman told domestic media, “It is currently too early to draw conclusions about the extent of the impact of smog on health, especially its long-term impact on the body.”

The report said most of the world’s population lives in areas where air quality is unhealthy and an estimated 92% of people live in areas where fine particulate matter concentrations (small dust or soot in the air) exceed the World Health Organization’s Air Quality Guideline of 10 µg/m3.

Air pollution is a complex mixture of particles and gases and the composition varies from place to place, depending on what sources are present, including power plants, heavy industry, traffic, weather conditions, and how they mix in the atmosphere, said the organisation in it study.

Challakere in Karnataka: No Secret City But Hub of Nuclear Power, Says Report

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Challakere in Karnataka is not only a hub for buses travelling to and fro Bangalaore and Bellary but also a hub for the Defence ministry, purported to be the nuclear city of future to generate the country’s nuclear power for submarines and weapons.

Last year, the US magazine Foreign Policy, quoting a former PMO official, said it may trigger competition from neighbouring nuclear powers China and Pakistan. Not China but Pakistan has recently complained that the hub is a “secret nuclear city.”

India has denied the allegations and stood to its ground it is a safer bet to hold on to its nuclear weapons unlike Pakistan, which was involved in smuggling nuclear secrets to North Korea and other threshold countries, violating all the norms of being a nuclear power.

The not-so-secret nuclear underground factory was set up in 2012 when the Congress government was in power at the Centre and the BJP was in power in the state of Karnataka, 203-km northeast of Bangalore on 4,290 acres of land in Challakere for scientific and nuclear use, said reports.

In its 14-page report. Foreign Policy claimed that the Challakere project will be the “subcontinent’s largest military-run complex of nuclear centrifuges, atomic-research laboratories, weapons and aircraft-testing facilities” when it is scheduled to be completed this year. It was expected to produce fuel for nuclear reactors and the navy’s fleet of new submarines, said the article.

“But another, more controversial ambition, according to retired Indian government officials and independent experts in London and Washington, is to give India an extra stockpile of enriched uranium fuel that could be used in new hydrogen bombs,” the report said.

As of 2015, India had 110 nuclear war heads compared to 120 in Pakistan and 260 in China, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). It quoted former White House official Gary Samore who said, “I believe that India intends to build thermonuclear weapons as part of its strategic deterrent against China.”

Other reports said the test center in the cordoned area may have a 3-mile long runway for a new generation of drones and long distance unmanned vehicles. The report also said Mysore district nearby is known for plutonium resources. The Center for Public Integrity has undertaken a field report on environmental fall out of the so-called secret city recently.

‘Secret Nuclear city’ is Pakistan’s Imagination: India

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India has refuted Pakistan’s allegations about a secret nuclear city with weapons calling it an imagination of Islamabad, which is a “diversionary tactic” to cover its own failure to stop state-sponsored terrorism that has come under global radar now.

Reacting to Pakistan’s Foreign Office spokesman Nafees Zakaria’s reamrks on Thursday saying, “India is building a secret nuclear city,” and it has potential to threaten the strategic balance of power in the region.

On Friday, Indian external affairs spokesperson Vikas Swarup said, “These are completely baseless allegations. The so-called secret city appears to be a figment of the Pakistan imagination. India has always been in compliance with all its international obligations.”

He said it was a very strange statement coming from a country that does not have a separation plan for nucelar weapons and has a strong record of nuclear “proliferation which is well known to the world.”

On the contrary, India has very different credentials. He said these remarks are clearly “a diversionary tactic by Pakistan which aims to deflect attention from the real issue at hand – the continued state-sponsored terrorism by Pakistan and its harbouring of internationally designated terrorists.”

Earlier, zakaria in a press conference alleged saying, “It (India) has been building Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles and an Anti-Ballistic Missile System. It has a stockpile of fissile material for producing nuclear weapons outside the IAEA safeguards… It is also building a secret nuclear city in south India which, according to Foreign Policy investigative report, is to produce thermonuclear weapons.”

However, he did not name the city nor give any details. To another question, Zakaria said the Donald Trump administration’s travel ban on seven Muslim-majority countries, would not be extended to Pakistan and that the White House had assured Islamabad about it. He responded positvely on questions about Prime Minister’s Adviser on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz’s visit to Washington soon.

Indian American Student Finds Simpler Solution to World Water Problem

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Chaitnya Karamchedu has discovered a cheaper way to desalination, revolutionizing the approach to address water crisis. (Photo courtesy: jesuitcrusader.org)

Indian American student Chaitanya Karamchedu’s project has potential to revolutionize the method to purify salt water into safe drinkable fresh water and no wonder, many firms are vying for its commercial use.

Chaitanya from Portland, Oregon in the US, is a senior student at Jesuit High Schoo, has hit upon the idea more scientifically. “Sea water is not fully saturated with salt,” he explained. While the research hitherto focused on 10% of water that’s bonded to the salt in the sea, Chaitanya addressed the problem experimenting on 90% of the water that is free from salt bond.

Using a highly absorbent polymer, Chaitanya was able to discover a cheaper method effective way to remove salt from ocean water and turn it into fresh water.

Using superabsorbent hydrophilic polymers, with no external energy, under room temperature and pressure Chaitanya was able to produce drinkable water which stands WHO standards for potable water.

Based on saponified starch-grafted-polyacrylamide’s hydrophilic properties, he was able to create a hydrogel to separate freshwater from seawater, then separated hydrogel from the brine, dewatered the gel resulting in aqueous sulfuric acid and then recovered fresh water from the aqueous solution.

The use of hydrophilic polymers to desalinate water required no thermal or electrical energy and the extracted water was comparable to fresh water with an average conductivity of 306.32 µS/cm, comparable to the conductivity of 200 µS/cm for the reference distilled water used. It involved no cost for pre-treatment and post-treatment and it is amenable for small scale use.

Chaitanya Karamchedu has already won a $10,000 award from the US Agency for International Global Development at Intel’s International Science Fair and MIT’s TechCon Conference provided him research. He was also named one of 300 Regeneron Science Talent Search Semifinalists.

TeamIndus Among 5 Finalists for Google XPRIZE to Land Rover on Moon

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XPRIZE and Google have announced that five finalists including India’s TeamIndus will be launching their verified moon vehicles to vie for $30 million lunar prize in the competition to land an unmanned spacecraft on the surface of the Moon.

The duo have also announced that a $1 million Diversity Prize will be split among 16 Google Lunar XPRIZE teams, to recognize each of their unique approaches and initiatives over the years.

Chanda Gonzales-Mowrer, senior director, Google Lunar XPRIZE said, “Each of these teams has pushed the boundaries to demonstrate that you don’t have to be a government superpower to send a mission to the Moon, while inspiring audiences to pursue the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.”

The five finalists in the final phase of the competition:

TeamIndus from India has entered into a commercial launch contract with ISRO to send its spacecraft aboard its PSLV. TeamIndus’ spacecraft is designed to nestle inside the nosecone of the PSLV and will launch from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, said the statement.

HAKUTO from Japan has already signed for a rideshare with TeamIndus to carry its four-wheeled rover to the Moon. Hakuto seeks to explore holes that are thought to be caves into underlying lava tubes, which could lead to identifying long-term habitats to shield humans from the Moon’s hostile environment.

SpaceIL from Israel has secured a position on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and their vehicle will be designed to make an educational impact and to create an “Apollo Effect” for the next generation.

Moon Express from the US also signed a multi-mission launch contract with Rocket Lab USA for three lunar missions by 2020, to open up the Moon’s vast resources for humanity and establish new avenues for commercial space activities.

Synergy Moon, an international team, signed with InterOrbital Systems to launch its vehicle to moon aboard the rocket NEPTUNE 8. Synergy Moon consists of individuals from 15 countries, with a mission to make manned orbital travel, personal satellite launches and Solar System exploration cost effective for all.

Recognising their efforts, XPRIZE made an update that the launch be initiated by the December 31, 2017 deadline, instead of completed.

The $30M Google Lunar XPRIZE is meant for a privately funded team which should successfully place a robot on the Moon’s surface that explores at least 500 meters and transmits high-definition video and images back to Earth.