Ø The Standing
Committee on Urban Development has rapped
the Union Ministry of Housing and Poverty Alleviation for allowing foreign
direct investment (FDI) through the automatic route in the construction and
development sector without studying its impact on the urban poor. In its latest
report tabled in Parliament on Thursday, the committee said that though the
construction and development sector secured cumulative investments of Rs.
10,74,92 crore from April 2000 to February 2014, which is 11 per cent of the
net FDI flow of equity, it was “dismayed” to learn that no survey was undertaken
by the Ministry to assess the impact of allowing FDI in the sector. Pointing
out that a majority of urban housing needs were in the economically weaker
section and the lower income group segment, the committee said there was an
“urgent need” to conduct such a survey so that the real impact of allowing FDI
in the housing sector with reference to the urban poor could be assessed.
GSLV mark 3 |
Ø The first experimental flight of the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) Mark III registered success as it lifted off from the
second launch pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota on the dot
at 9.30 a.m., taking India much closer to realising the dream of manned space
flight. The mission control centre erupted in smiles and claps and the
scientists hugged each other, as the GSLV Mark III moved a step closer to its
first development flight with the functional C25 cryogenic stage. Also known as LVM3/CARE,
the suborbital experimental mission was intended to test the vehicle’s
performance during the critical atmospheric phase of its flight and this
carried a passive (non-functional) cryogenic upper stage. The vehicle, exactly
five-and-a-half minutes after take-off, carried its payload — the 3,775-kg
crew-module atmospheric re-entry experiment (CARE) — to the intended height of
126 km. Two massive S-200
solid strap-on boosters, each carrying 207 tonnes of solid
propellants, ignited at lift-off and separated 153.5 seconds later. The L110 liquid stage ignited
120 seconds after lift-off. This new launch vehicle performed very well and was
a great success. We had an unmanned crew module to understand re-entry
characteristics. That went off successfully and the crew module splashed as
expected in the Bay of Bengal.
Ø The United Nations has sent a team of
international experts to Bangladesh to help clean up the world’s largest
mangrove forest, more than a week after it was hit by a huge oil spill.
Thousands of litres of oil have spilt into the protected Sundarbans mangrove
area, home to rare Irrawaddy and Ganges dolphins, after a tanker collided with
another vessel. A team from the United Nations
Disaster Assessment and Coordination (UNDAC) has arrived in the capital Dhaka to support Bangladesh’s “cleanup
efforts of the oil spill in the Sundarbans”, a statement from the U.N. said.
Ø Pakistan is preparing to execute 55 inmates on
death row after the country ended the moratorium on death penalty in
terror-related cases following the horrific attack on a school in Peshawar that
killed 148 people, mostly children. Meanwhile, Pakistan’s Interior Ministry forwarded
120 mercy appeals to the Premier for consideration. Pakistan is feared to lose
a concessionary trade deal with the EU after resuming hangings.
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