INTERNATIONAL: ARTS & CULTURE: India to Organise World Hindi Conference in Fiji, Feb 15-17

India is set to organise World Hindi Conference between February 15-17 in Fiji.

A 270-member delegation from India will visit Fiji for the event.

Representatives from 50 countries will participate in the event and representatives from South and Northeast India will be presenting papers at the conference.

“Hindi has made limited progress in the United Nations. U.N. press releases are now available in Hindi. We are trying to get Hindi its rightful place at the U.N.” said Saurabh Kumar, Secretary (East), MEA.

source/content: thehindu.com (headline edited)

NATIONAL: SPACE / SATELLITES &TECHNOLOGY: ISRO Successfully Launches SSLV’s 2nd Developmental Flight with 3 Satellites from Sriharikota

The new rocket launch from Sriharikota has put three satellites into a 450 km-circular orbit during its 15-minute flight .

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) successfully launched its second developmental flight of a Small Satellite Launch Vehicle — SSLV-D2 — and placed three satellites in its precise orbit on February 10 morning.

The three satellites are ISRO’s Earth Observation Satellite – EOS 07, U.S.-based firm Antaris’ Janus-1 and Chennai-based space start-up SpaceKidz’s AzaadiSAT-2. 

SSLV-D2 lifted off from the first launch pad at Satish Dhawan Space Centre-SHAR, Sriharikota at 9:18 a.m. This is the first satellite launch in 2023.

“The SSLV-D2-EOS-07 mission is successfully accomplished,” ISRO mentioned on its Twitter handle, a few minutes after the vehicle took off. ISRO in a statement said: “The vehicle injected satellites into close to 450 km circular orbit at an inclination of 37.2 degrees. The tracking network took control of EOS-07 satellite. Deployment of the solar panels and the generation of power is confirmed.”

ISRO Chairman S. Somanath said, “In its second attempt SSLV-D2 has placed the EOS-07 satellite in its intended orbit very accurately. Two more satellites -Janus-1 and AzaadiSAT-2 were also placed in the required orbit.”

The Chairman further said: “SSLV had its maiden flight SSLV-D1 and we had a narrow miss of placing the satellite in the orbit because of a shortfall in velocity. I’m happy to report that we have analysed the problems faced in SSLV D1 – identified the corrective actions and implemented it. We went through lot of studies to ensure that the vehicle will become success this time,” he added. 

“And I’m happy this has been executed in reality. The orbit achieved by the vehicle today is exceedingly good,” Mr. Somanath said.

Noting that this journey began in 2018, S.S. Vinod, Mission Director of SSLV, said, “We had the maiden flight in August 2022 and we could not place the satellite in the intended orbit. Post that detailed analysis with a number of teams was carried out and we were able to pinpoint the problem in the system . We overcame that.”

He added, “And in a period of five months we have come back. And we will be coming back soon with the next launch of SSLV.”

It may be recalled that the first developmental flight of SSLV lifted off from Satish Dhawan Space Centre on August 7, 2022, and ended up to be a partial failure, as the rocket failed to inject its satellite payload in their intended orbits.

According to ISRO, the spacecraft was injected into a highly elliptical unstable orbit due to a shortfall in velocity, leading to their decay and deorbiting immediately, in spite of the normal performance of all solid propulsion stages. 

Subsequent detailed analysis of the flight events and observations ranging from the countdown, lift-off, propulsion performance, stage separations and satellite injection revealed that there was a vibration disturbance for a short duration on the Equipment Bay (EB) deck during the second stage (SS2) separation. This affected the Inertial Navigation System (INS), resulting in declaring the sensors faulty by the logic in Fault Detection and Isolation (FDI) software.

About SSLV-D2

EOS-07 is a 156.3 kg satellite designed, developed and realized by ISRO. The mission objective of EOS-07 is to design and develop payload instruments compatible with microsatellite bus and new technologies, which are required for future operational satellites. Moreover, it will also design and develop a microsatellite accommodating new technology payloads in a quick turn-around time. 

New experiments include mm-Wave Humidity Sounder and Spectrum Monitoring Payload. Weighing around 10.2 kg, Janus-1 is a technology demonstrator, smart satellite mission based on the Antaris software platform. An 8.7 kg satellite AzaadiSAT-2 is a combined effort of about 750 girl students across India guided by Space Kidz India, Chennai.

According to details provided by ISRO, SSLV caters to the launch of up to 500 kg satellites to Low Earth Orbits on a “launch-on-demand” basis. It provides low-cost access to space, offers low turn-around time and flexibility in accommodating multiple satellites, and demands minimal launch infrastructure. It is configured with three solid propulsion stages and a velocity terminal module. It is a 34 m tall, 2 m diameter vehicle having a lift-off mass of 120 tonnes.

source/content: thehindu.com (headline edited)

GLOBAL : RECORDS: India Rated Among Top 5 Accreditation Systems in the World: Report

According to the index, India was ranked 21st in terms of metrology and ninth in standardisation.

India has been placed at the fifth position out of 184 countries in terms of its accreditation system, according to the recently released Global Quality Infrastructure Index (GQII) 2021.

The GQII ranks 184 economies on the basis of their quality infrastructure (QI).

India’s overall QI system ranking continues to be tenth.

According to the index, India was ranked 21st in terms of metrology and ninth in standardisation.

The report was released in December 2022.

“We are proud that India is rated among the top five accrediting systems in the world…We anticipate that India will pave the way for more collaborations aimed at creating resilient systems of high-quality infrastructure,” the Quality Council of India (QCI) said in a tweet.

The report said geographically, the top 25 are mainly located in Europe, North America, and Asia-Pacific, with some exceptions, such as India (10th), Brazil (13th), Australia (14th), and Turkey (16th).

While QCI is the national body for accreditation, Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) is the main body for formulation of standards and the Council Of Scientific And Industrial Research – National Physical Laboratory (CSIR–NPL) for the metrology system.

“India’s accreditation system is the youngest among the three QI pillars in India, and we have jumped to global fifth within a year in these rankings,” said Jaxay Shah, Chairperson, QCI.

QI is the technical backbone for international trade, with metrology, standardisation, accreditation and conformity assessment services providing reliability and trust between trading partners.

The GQII measures the relative development of countries’ QI.

Accreditation helps establish the competence and credibility of conformity assessment bodies which perform testing, certification and inspection.

The national accreditation system as per international standards in India is established by the QCI.

The system is operated through the constituent boards of QCI, primarily the National Accreditation Board for Certification Bodies, which provides accreditation to the certification, inspection, and validation/ verification bodies, and the National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories, which provides accreditation to the testing, calibration and medical laboratories.

The GQII rankings are published and presented post-facto for each year based on the data collected till the end of that year.

The 2021 rankings are based on data till end of December 2021, collected and analysed through 2022.

It is an initiative on metrology, standardisation, accreditation and related services, supported by Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB) and the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), Germany.

source/content: telegraphindia.com (headline edited)

NATIONAL: TECHNOLOGY & INNOVATION: India’s First new Mobility- Focussed Cluster – the ‘Telangana Mobility Valley’ (TMV) announced by Telangana

KTR said that the Hyderabad E-Mobility Week would be held regularly to foster collaboration by bringing together the thought leaders.

Telangana today announced India’s first new mobility-focused cluster, Telangana Mobility Valley (TMV), at the first edition of Mobility Next Hyderabad Summit – part of the Hyderabad E-Mobility Week, to further accelerate the growth of sustainable mobility in India.

Sharing the details of the TMV, KT Rama Rao, Minister for IT E&C, MA&UD and Industries & Commerce, in his inaugural address, said, “Telangana Mobility Valley will create best-in-class infrastructure making Telangana the most competitive destination for both manufacturing and E R&D in India.”

“TMV aims to attract investments of around Rs 50,000 crore and generate more than 4 lakh jobs in the next 5 years. For this, the State is developing 4 Mega clusters in and around Hyderabad- EV Manufacturing cluster in Zaheerabad, an EV Manufacturing cluster in Seetharampur, Energy storage system (ESS) cluster in Divitipally and Innovation cluster at Yenkathala.

Each of the clusters will be equipped with state-of-the-art infrastructure to reduce the cost of operations for their tenant,” the Minister added.

Rama Rao said, “Further, investments aggregating Rs 3,000+ Cr are in advanced stages and will be announced in the next 2 weeks. These investments will further strengthen Electric 3-wheeler, Electric 2-wheeler and charging equipment manufacturing ecosystem in Telangana.”

“TMV aims to facilitate companies across all segments of sustainable mobility including Electric 2Wheelers/ 3 wheelers/ 4 wheelers, Advanced Cell Chemistry and Hydrogen fuel cells, Tier 1 and Tier 2 Component manufacturers and Auto Engineering R&D companies among others,” the Minister added.

Rama Rao said that the Hyderabad E-Mobility Week would be held regularly to foster collaboration by bringing together the thought leaders, experts, and global automotive ecosystem players to chart a course for sustainable mobility.

As part of the event, the State also announced three Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) — ATS-TUV Rheinland MoU with Telangana Government; Bosch Global Software Technologies MoU with BITS Hyderabad, and Telangana Academy for Skill and Knowledge’s (TASK) MoU with Shell.

Delivering the keynote address, Hizmy Hassen, Chief Digital Officer, Apollo Tyres Ltd, said, “The E-Mobility Week along with other investments by the Government of Telangana is another show of great public sector commitment.

The broader automotive industry should take advantage of these incentives and excellent infrastructure to accelerate sustainability in mobility. The industry needs to come together along with policymakers towards the common goal of making it more sustainable for decades to come.”

Talking about the future of sustainable mobility, Christian Cahn von Seelen, Executive Director, Sales, Marketing & Digital, Volkswagen Group India, said, “Sustainable mobility is achievable through the right cooperation between all stakeholders, including the supportive government policies in India.

The G20 presidency of India offers a huge opportunity and there is a strong drive from various industries to address the challenges of climate change. With hard work and dedication, we can remain optimistic and see the realization of sustainable mobility in the future.”

Jayesh Ranjan, Principal Secretary, Information Technology, Electronics & Communications, and Industries & Commerce Departments, Govt. of Telangana gave the vote of thanks.

The summit saw participation from government, academia, and industry including Kamal Bali, President and MD, Volvo Group India, Nikolaus Lang, Sr. Partner & MD, Global Leader- Global Advantage Practice, BCG, Prabhjeet Singh, President, Uber India & South Asia, Shrikant Sinha, CEO, Telangana Academy for Skill and Knowledge – TASK, Suman Mishra, CEO, Mahindra Last Mile Mobility Division, Dirk Adamczyk, SVP, Engineering Solutions ZF Friedrichshafen AG, Mamatha Chamarthi, SVP Business & Product Management, Stellantis, and Dr. Amaresh Chakrabarti, Chair, Centre for Product Design & Manufacturing, Indian Institute of Science, among others.

For more information and to register for Mobility Next Hyderabad 2023, please visit the event’s website at www.evhyderabad.in/mobility-next.

source/content: siasat.com (headline edited)

NATIONAL: DEFENCE / AVIATION: PM Modi Unveils India’s Biggest Helicopter Manufacturing Facility at HAL, Tumakuru

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday inaugurated the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited’s helicopter factory — the country’s largest chopper manufacturing facility — in Tumakuru district of Karnataka.

Bengaluru-headquartered HAL plans to produce more than 1,000 helicopters in the range of 3-15 tonne with a total business of more than Rs 4 lakh crore over a period of 20 years at this facility in Gubbi taluk, officials said.

The factory, spread across 615 acres for which the Prime Minister laid the foundation stone in 2016, would initially manufacture Light Utility Helicopters (LUH)).

It will enable India to meet its entire requirement of helicopters without import and giving much-needed fillip to the Prime Minister’s vision of ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’ in helicopter design, development, and manufacture, they said.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai and senior officials of Ministry of Defence were among those present on the occasion.

“It is a dedicated new greenfield helicopter factory which will enhance India’s capacity and ecosystem to build helicopters,” Singh said.


Assembly polls in Karnataka are due by May.

PM Modi unveiled the LUH, which has been flight tested. The LUH is an indigenously designed and developed three-tonne class, single-engine multipurpose utility helicopter. Initially, the factory will produce around 30 helicopters per year and can be enhanced to 60 and then 90 every year in a phased manner, according to the Defence Ministry.

The factory will be augmented to produce other helicopters such as Light Combat Helicopters (LCHs) and Indian Multirole Helicopters (IMRHs). It will also be used for maintenance, repair and overhaul of LCH, LUH, Civil Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH) and IMRH in the future.

Potential exports of civil LUH will also be catered to from this factory, which is being equipped with state-of-the-art Industry 4.0 standard tools and techniques for its operations, officials said.

The proximity of the factory, with the existing HAL facilities in Bengaluru, will boost the aerospace manufacturing ecosystem in the region and support skill and infrastructure development such as schools, colleges and residential areas, it was noted.

The factory is fully operational after the establishment of facilities like heli-runway, flight hangar, final assembly hangar, structure assembly hangar, air traffic control and various supporting service facilities, officials said.

source/content: english.varthabharati.in (headline edited)

GLOBAL RECORDS: ARTS & CULTURE / MUSIC: Music Composer Ricky Kej Wins 3rd Grammy Award for ‘Divine Tides’, Dedicates Honour to India

Music composer Ricky Kej, based out of Bengaluru, has won his third Grammy Award for the album ‘Divine Tides’ and dedicated the honour to his home country, India.

The US-born musician shared the award with Stewart Copeland, the drummer of the iconic British rock band The Police, who collaborated with Kej on the album.

At the 65th Annual Grammy Awards, the duo earned the gramophone trophy in the best immersive audio album winner category. They had won a Grammy in the best new age album category for the same album last year.

“Congrats Best Immersive Audio Album winner – ‘Divine Tides’ Eric Schilling, immersive mix engineer; @copelandmusic, @rickykej & Herbert Waltl, immersive producers (Stewart Copeland & Ricky Kej) #GRAMMYs,” announced the Recording Academy, the organisation behind Grammy Awards, on its official Twitter page on Sunday night.

Kej said he was “grateful” for the recognition.

“Just won my 3rd Grammy Award. Extremely grateful, am speechless! I dedicate this Award to India. @copelandmusic. Herbert Waltl Eric Schilling Vanil Veigas Lonnie Park,” the composer captioned a series of pictures on his Twitter page.

Other nominees in the category were: Christina Aguilera (‘Aguilera’), The Chainsmokers (‘Memories… Do Not Open’), Jane Ira Bloom (‘Picturing The Invisible- Focus 1’), and Nidarosdomens Jentekor & Trondeheimsolistene (‘Tuvahyun – Beatitudes for a Wounded World’).

‘Divine Tides’ is a nine-song album that aims to deliver the message that “each individual life plays a crucial role in maintaining the balance that serves all equally”.

Kej took home his first Grammy in the best new age album category for ‘Winds of Samsara’ back in 2015.

As part of his work with The Police, Copeland has won five Grammys. With Kej as collaborator, this is his second award.

source/content: english.varthabharati.in (headline edited)

NATIONAL: HEALTH & MEDICAL SERVICES / VACCINES: INDIA’S FIRST INTRANASAL COVID-19 VACCINE – 3 Lakh Doses of Intranasal Covid Vaccine ‘iNCOVACC’ sent to Hospitals: Bharat Biotech’s Krishna Ella

iNCOVACC, the world’s first intranasal COVID-19 vaccine, was launched on January 26.

Bharat Biotech dispatched three lakh doses of its intranasal COVID-19 vaccine to some hospitals two days ago, the company’s executive chairman Krishna Ella said on Sunday.

Mr. Ella was speaking on the sidelines of an event here at which a bilateral agreement was signed between the University of Wisconsin (UW)-Madison Global Health Institute (GHI) and the Ella Foundation for the establishment of the first-ever UW-Madison One Health Centre in Bengaluru.

iNCOVACC, the world’s first intranasal COVID-19 vaccine, was launched on January 26. The vaccine is now available on CoWIN and priced at ₹800 for private markets and ₹325 for the government of India and State governments.

“We dispatched three lakh doses of the world’s first intranasal COVID-19 vaccine to some hospitals two days ago,” Mr. Ella said.

On whether Bharat Biotech is looking at exporting the vaccine, he said some countries and international agencies are approaching the company for the intra-nasal vaccine.

iNCOVACC is also the world’s first intranasal COVID-19 vaccine to receive approval for the primary 2-dose schedule, and as a heterologous booster dose for adults.

Mr. Ella said the UW-Madison One Health Centre in Bengaluru is expected to be operational by the end of 2023.

It will advance the development and production of new vaccines for India. Furthermore, the partnership will enable collaboration across disciplines and geographic boundaries, provide Indian students and researchers access to UW expertise and training, and build research capacity in India, he said.

“Both Ella Foundation and UW-Madison GHI share a common vision to advance innovation in science, research, and knowledge sharing. Establishing the UW-Madison Global One Health Centre holds great significance as it will advance global health through research, education, and community engagement by facilitating student, faculty exchanges, research and education,” he added.

UW-Madison GHI director Jorge Osorio said, “We are energised by the opportunity to partner with the Ella Foundation to bring UW knowledge and expertise to expand innovative and impactful health initiatives outside Wisconsin to India.”

The India One Health Centre joins a global network that includes Africa and Latin America and will open new opportunities for research, education, and provide actionable outcomes to benefit humans, animals, and ecosystems that advance equitable and sustainable health across India and the world.

source/content: thehindu.com (headline edited)

NATIONAL: TRAVEL & TOURISM: India to Showcase Success in ‘Rural and Archaeological Tourism’ at G-20 meeting

Rural tourism and archaeological tourism will be the topics for two side events at the first tourism ministerial meeting of the G-20 from February 7 to 9.

The Ladpura Khas village of Madhya Pradesh , Khonoma village of Nagaland and heritage sites like Dholavira will be showcased as success stories of rural and archaeological tourism by India during the first tourism working group meeting of the G-20 nations to be held at the Rann of Kutch.

Rural tourism and archaeological tourism will be the topics for two side events at the first tourism ministerial meeting of the G-20 from February 7 to 9 where India will highlight the most successful and innovative initiatives of these from various parts of India, Tourism Secretary Arvind Singh said on Friday.

The Ladpura Khas village of Madhya Pradesh was nominated as the Best Rural Tourism Village by the UNWTO. In this village, the State government developed homestays in villages under the Responsible Tourism Mission of the State.

Success stories will be presented of Kevadiya, Gujarat and some sensitive areas of Jammu and Kashmir like Poonch where OYO Hotels and tribal homestays have been developed.

India will also present the innovative model of community based Astrotourism that involves rural homestays and community spaces that are completely run by villagers and provides travellers an integrated experience of stargazing along with cultural immersion in the Himalayas, while Nagaland’s Khonoma Village will present the model of Ecotourism Management Board that develops Rural Tourism Products and promotes responsible travel.

The success of developing many rural tourism products in and around Rann of Kutch will also be presented.

“The idea is to present rural tourism as a means of community empowerment and poverty alleviation,” Mr. Singh said.

India will also showcase its success in archaeological tourism  and discuss shared cultural heritage with the G-20 delegates. The delegates will be taken to Dholavira which is the southern centre of the Harappan civilisation.

Officials said that the guests would be presented with gifts made under the One District One Product programme to showcase Indian heritage and culture.

The first tourism working group meeting in the Kutch would also work on a Goa Roadmap and Action Plan for Tourism as a vehicle for achieving Sustainable Development Goals. Goa would be the venue for the G-20 ministerial meeting of tourism in June this year.

The meeting will provide a vision, roadmap and guidance for accelerated growth of tourism sector beyond pandemic based on the five key building blocks of Sustainability, Digitalisation, Skills, MSMEs and Destination management towards achieving SDGs, the Secretary said.

source/content: thehindu.com (headline edited)