23 JUNE 2016

Ø  After alleging “Hindu exodus” from Kairana and Kandhla, BJP MP from Shamli, Hukum Singh, said on Tuesday that given the “deteriorating” law and order situation he will come up with a similar list for Shamli city soon.

Ø  Expanding its horizons, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Wednesday launched 20 satellites through a single rocket, surpassing its 2008 record of launching 10 satellites in a single mission. Besides the primary Cartosat-2 Series satellite, the PSLV C-34 rocket launched two satellites from Indian universities and 17 foreign satellites, including one for a Google company. After the 48-hour countdown, the PSLV rocket lifted off from the second launch pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre here at 9.25 a.m. and, some 16 minutes later, placed the Cartosat-2 Series satellite about 505 km above the Earth’s orbit. In the next 10 minutes, the remaining 19 satellites were placed in the orbits. ISRO chairman A.S. Kiran Kumar announced the success of the launch. Sathyabamasat, the satellite of Sathyabama University in Chennai, the Swayam satellite of the College of Engineering in Pune, LAPAN-A3 (Indonesia), BIROS (Germany), M3MSat (Canada), SkySat Gen2-1 (USA) of Terra Bela (Google company), GHGSat-D (Canada) and 12 Dove Satellites (USA) were the other satellites that were launched. The 725.5-kg Cartosat-2 series satellite would be for Earth observation and its imagery would be useful for cartographic applications, urban and rural applications, coastal land use and regulation, and utility management like road networking, ISRO said. In 2008, ISRO launched 10 satellites in a single rocket. On April 28, 2008, its PSLV-C9 rocket launched a Remote Sensing satellite CARTOSAT-2A along with Indian Mini Satellite (IMS-1) and eight nano satellites. In 2014, Russian Dnepr rocket launched a record 37 satellites in a single mission.

Ø  For better enforcement of air safety standards, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) will soon be empowered to penalise airlines and airports for various offences and non-compliance of air regulations. The Civil Aviation Ministry will soon send a proposal to amend the Aircraft Act, 1937, to the Law Ministry, to empower the DGCA to impose fines for violations under the Act. The violations include operating aircraft without the specified minimum crew, flying without a valid pilot licence or medical fitness, not maintaining records, fraudulent entry in logbooks and not maintaining airports. The DGCA may be empowered to fill vacancies on deputation or promote its employees without getting the consent of the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC). The Union Civil Aviation Ministry is expected to take up the proposal with the Department of Personnel and Training soon, officials said. He said that to begin with, the head of the DGCA should be a political appointee with proven knowledge of aviation and should be given at least a three-year term, instead of appointing an IAS officer for a short tenure of six to 12 months.

Ø  An ambitious road project planned along the McMahon Line in Arunachal Pradesh has hit the Indian Army hurdle. The Army is opposed to constructing any road close to the disputed border with China, said a senior Home Ministry official. The proposed 1,500-km India-China frontier highway will run parallel along the China border. The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, which was initially approached for the project, had declined to work on it citing that it was financially not viable. The project is said to cost anywhere between Rs. 30,000 and Rs. 40,000 crore. The Home Ministry is now looking to rope in an international contractor to complete the project. At a meeting last week, the Director-General of Military Operations (DGMO) had opposed the project, and said that the alignment of the roads proposed was not conducive from security point of view. The DGMO also opposed the demand of opening advance landing grounds for civilian use. The State government has been demanding that all the eight advance landing grounds should be thrown open for civilian aircraft to boost connectivity in the region. An official said that last week a senior Indian Air Force officer inaugurated the advance landing ground at Mechuka without the consent of the State government. The proposed highway will pass through Tawang, East Kameng, Upper Subansiri, West Siang, Upper Siang, Dibang Valley, Desali, Chaglagam, Kibito, Dong, Hawai and Vijaynagar on the Arunachal Pradesh border. The government has already relaxed environmental clearances for border area projects. Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju said, “I will be calling a meeting of all stakeholders soon to resolve the issue. The area needs connectivity.”

Ø  A long-drawn process lies ahead for India to complete its entry into the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) which will begin its annual summit on June 23-24 at Tashkent, confirmed the MEA on Wednesday, maintaining that India seeks “fairly flexible multilateralism” in its “extended neighbourhood.” At this upcoming summit, the process of India’s accession to the SCO will start with a signature on the ‘base document’ which is called the ‘Memorandum of Obligations’,” said Sujata Mehta, Secretary (West). A diplomatic source has confirmed that India will attend the summit as an “Acceding Member” but will speak from the category of “Observers.” “There is a schedule laid down for us to sign up to the other documents that are required that India needs to accede to and that will happen as the year goes by,” Ms. Mehta said, explaining that India would have to sign at least 30 sets of documents.

Ø  India has sent a letter of request (LoR) to the U.S. seeking to purchase patrol drones for protection of its maritime assets in the Indian Ocean, sources said. The LoR sent by New Delhi last week comes less than a fortnight after India was inducted into Missile Technology Control Regime and recognised by the U.S. as a “major defence partner” after the meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Barack Obama earlier this month. This is part of the government’s effort to fast-track its goal to secure the country’s maritime assets, particularly in the Indian Ocean and detect any untoward intrusion like Mumbai terrorist attack. The letter seeks purchase of state-of-the-art multi-mission maritime patrol Predator Guardian Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) from General Atomics, sources said. It provides high-altitude wide area view and has long endurance maritime ISR (Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance) capability.

Ø  LIC Chairman S. K. Roy, appointed by the previous UPA government, has resigned nearly two years ahead of completion of his five-year term. Mr. Roy, who has been with LIC since 1981, took charge as chairman in June 2013.

Ø  The Cabinet approved an extension in the deadline for implementing the Ujjwal Discom Assurance Yojana (UDAY) by a year to March 31, 2017. The UDAY scheme is aimed at bringing ailing power distribution companies (discoms) to a state of operational efficiency, with state governments taking over up to 75 per cent of their respective discoms’ debt and issuing sovereign bonds to pay back the lenders. The Cabinet decision extends this provision from the earlier deadline of March 31, 2016. “The time limit has now been extended by one year from the earlier stipulated date of March 31, 2016,” according to a government statement. “This decision would allow states, which could not participate in UDAY earlier to join the scheme.” So far, 19 States have given in-principle approval to join the scheme, out of which 10 states—Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Punjab, Bihar, Haryana, Gujarat, Uttarakhand and Jammu & Kashmir—have signed MoUs with the Centre.

Ø  The Cabinet approved the setting up of a Rs. 10,000 crore fund to support start-ups in becoming full fledged business entities. The fund is expected to generate employment for 18 lakh persons. The approval will pave the way for setting up “Fund of Funds for Startups” at the Small Industries Development Bank of India for contributions to various Alternative Investment Funds registered with the Securities and Exchange Board of India, according to an official statement. This is in line with the Start-up India Action Plan of the government unveiled this year . The Rs. 10,000 crore-corpus will be built up over the 14th and 15th Finance Commission cycles subject to progress of the scheme and availability of funds, it said. Already Rs. 500 crore has been provided.