SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY AFFAIRS JANUARY 2013

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY AFFAIRS JANUARY 2013

• The 10th BioAsia Summit, BioAsia 2013, Asia's biggest technology and bio-business platform, which commenced on January 28, concluded in Hyderabad on 30 January. The valedictory ceremony was attended by eminent personalities including Union Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Ms. D Purandeswari, FABA President Dr. Khalid Chowdhary, ICRISAT Director General Dr William Dar, Global Business Bureau Director General (Gangwon Provincial Government, South Korea) Mr. WookJae Lee, US India Business Alliance Chairman Mr Sanjay Puri and PHARMEXIL Director General Dr PV Appaji. Ms.D Purandeswari has released the special report by BioAsia- Grant Thorton on the key trends and alliances in the Biologics and Biosimilars markets. The Minister also released BioAsia-ISB's report on Intellectual Property Regime and Lifesciences. BioAsia - Grant Thorton Report covers the recent developments in the Biosimilars opportunities particularly partnerships and regulatory dynamics in key global markets BioAsia-ISB report captures the impact of the changes in Indian Patent Law on strategies and competitiveness of local players.
  
• In pursuit of common aims and to raise awareness of the importance of Cheminformatics to accelerate the discovery of novel therapies for neglected diseases like TB and Malaria, the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), which provides scientific and industrial R&D that maximises the economic, environmental and societal benefits for the people of India on 29 January, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between its Open Source Drug Discovery (OSDD) initiative and the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC), the largest European organization for advancing chemical sciences in its headquarter , New Delhi. The MoU, spanning three years, aims to address the objective of finding novel, faster-acting, and more effective regimens for TB and Malaria by advancing the discipline of Cheminformatics. The collaboration envisions conducting workshops and conferences to build links between experts and leaders in the coming years and will focus on jointly building an online repository of real and virtual molecular structures along with developing free-to -use software tools for drug discovery and development. The partnership also aims at exploring the possibility of advancing OSDD’s e-learning program for students. CSIR is an autonomous society whose President is the Prime Minister of India. CSIR is an ensemble of 37 laboratories in engineering, physical, biological, chemical and information science clusters, funded chiefly by the government of India. CSIR laboratories engage about 5000 scientists and almost 10000 students pursuing higher degrees. CSIR provides scientific and industrial R&D that maximizes the economic, environmental and societal benefits for the people of India. Open Source Drug Discovery (OSDD) is an initiative funded and led by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research. OSDD is a team India consortium with global partnership with a vision to provide affordable healthcare to the developing world to solve the complex problems associated with discovering novel therapies for diseases like Tuberculosis, Malaria and Leishmaniasis. The Royal Society of Chemistry is the largest organisation in Europe for advancing the chemical sciences. Supported by a worldwide network of members and an international publishing business, RSC’s activities span education, conferences, science policy, development of chemical applications and the promotion of chemistry to the public.
  
• The Defense Minister AK Antony handed over a Dornier surveillance aircraft to the Foreign Minister of Seychelles Mr. Jean Paul Adam at a function in New Delhi on 31 January. The maritime surveillance aircraft will be used to guard the extensive coastline of the island nation in the Indian Ocean. The Dornier 228 manufactured by the defense public sector undertaking, the Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL) will also be supported by the HAL team for maintenance on site to enable the new user to get the requisite expertise. The DO-228 is a highly reliable, multi-purpose, fuel efficient, rugged, light weight twin turbo prop aircraft with a retractable tricycle landing gear. Describing the event as yet another milestone in the defense cooperation between India and Seychelles, Antony said HAL-DO-228 aircraft is being extensively utilized by our various users such as the Coast Guard, the Navy, Air Force and civilians for a variety of applications. He said it is a frontline surveillance platform for applications like maritime reconnaissance, intelligence warfare, search and rescue, pollution control and transport. He expressed confidence that the aircraft will prove useful for maritime applications by Seychelles, as it is fitted with the latest state of the art surveillance and communication equipment. The Foreign Minister of Seychelles Mr. Jean Paul Adam thanked New Delhi for the aircraft and said it will revolutionize the coastal surveillance of Seychelles. He said it will not only help Seychelles to fight piracy but would come as a useful platform for security in a broader way.
  
• China Successfully Carried Out Interceptor Missile Test
  China on 27 January 2013 successfully performed the second interceptor missile test. The test was -said to be of the defensive nature without targeting any other country. This is for the second time that China announced testing such a missile. Likewise, the anti-missile interception test was conducted successfully on 11 January 2010 earlier. No detailed information was revealed.
  
• India test-fires ballistic missile from underwater platform
  India on 27January made a major stride towards completing its nuclear triad capability by successfully test firing a nuclear-capable ballistic missile, with a strike range of around 1500 km, from an underwater platform in Bay of Bengal. Completion of the nuclear triad will give India the ability to fire nuclear-tipped missiles from land, air and sea. This is the first missile in the underwater category to have been fully developed by India and can be launched from a submarine. "The medium range K-5 ballistic missile was test fired successfully from an underwater pontoon and all parameters of the test firing were met," Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) chief V K Saraswat told from an undisclosed test area. Officials said more than 10 trials of the missile had been carried out earlier. This was the last development trial of K-5. Only a select few nations including the US, France, Russia and China have this type of missile capability, they said.K-5 is part of the family of underwater missiles being developed by DRDO for the Indian strategic forces' underwater platforms. The missile, which is also known as BO5, has been developed by DRDO's Hyderabad-based Defence Research and Development Laboratory (DRDL).
  
• Iran Announced Sending a Monkey Successfully Into Space
  Iran on 28 January 2013 announced that it had successfully sent into space a monkey. While declaring the sending of a monkey into space, Iran also declared that it was yet another step towards the space flight goal of Tehran. The rocket called Pishgam (meaning Pioneer) reached at a height of 120 km. Though the details about timing or the location were not disclosed, but Iran declared that the monkey had come back to the Earth successfully. Since a long time, Iran wanted to send an astronaut in space as its aerospace programme in 2012. In 2010, Iran declared that it had launched the Explorer rocket into space which carried worms, turtle and mouse. Iran’s effort to launch a monkey into the space had earlier failed in 2011. However, US and the allies worried that the technology from the space programme might be utilised for creation of missiles which could potentially also be armed with the nuclear warheads. Iran, in the meanwhile, denied that it took atomic weapons and also claimed that it was using the nuclear reactors for medical and energy applications. In its joint project with Russia, Iran had announced that it had successfully launched satellites into space back in 2005. Though Iran conceals details of the new space facility that it has planned, but the most important satellite launch complex of Iran is near Semnan.
  
• NASA launched a New Communication Satellite called TDRS
  NASA on 31 January 2013 launched a new communication satellite to stay in touch with its space station astronauts and relay more Hubble telescope images. An unmanned Atlas V rocket blasted into the starry night sky carrying the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS) from Cape Canaveral. This is the 11th TDRS satellite to be launched by NASA. The space agency uses the orbiting network to communicate with astronauts living on the International Space Station. The first TDRS spacecraft flew in 1983.This newest third-generation TDRS carries the letter K designation. Once it begins working, it will become TDRS-11. It will take two weeks for the satellite to reach its intended 22300-mile-high orbit. Testing will last a few months. NASA estimates the satellite costs between 350 and 400 million US Dollars. Another TDRS spacecraft, L in the series, will be launched in 2014.
• Construction of the world’s largest optical telescope by a five-nation consortium including India is expected to start next year with Indian scientists making a significant contribution in developing its key components. The Thirty Metre Telescope (TMT), dubbed as the world’s most advanced ground-based observatory, will be built at the summit of Mauna Kea volcano in Hawaii at a cost of $1.2 billion. The TMT Governing Board ended its two-day meeting in New delhi on 22 January, where it reviewed the status of the project and the contributions to be made by partner nations India, China, Japan, Canada and the US. “The TMT will be 81 times more sensitive than the current telescopes of its kind,” said TMT Governing Board vice-chairman Edward Stone. TMT Project Manager Gary Sanders said 15% of the 492 mirror segments, each 1.44 m in size, will be fabricated in India.
  
• India has decided to go it alone in its second lunar mission, the Chandrayaan-2, which was originally proposed as an Indo-Russian venture. This was disclosed on 21 January by S.V.S. Murty of the Planetary Exploration Group of the Physical Research Laboratory (PRL), an institution under the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) .Dr. Murty was speaking on India’s lunar and Mars missions at the ongoing workshop on exoplanets at the laboratory located in Ahmedabad. According to an agreement signed on November 12, 2007 between ISRO and Roskosmos, the Russian Federal Space Agency, ISRO had the primary responsibility to provide both the orbiter and the rover, while Roskosmos was to design and build the lander for this combined orbiter-rover-lander mission. However, following the failure in December 2011 of Roskosmos’ Phobos-Grunt mission, there was a delay in the construction of the Russian lander. The mission had a lander to return soil sample from the Martian satellite Phobos. This resulted in a complete review of technical aspects connected with the Phobos-Grunt mission, which were also used in the lunar projects such as the lander for Chandrayaan-2. Due to this, as well as financial problems, the Russian agency apparently expressed its inability to provide the lander to meet even the revised time frame of 2015 for the Chandrayaan-2 launch. Dr. Murty stated that the cancellation of the Russian lander also meant that mission profile had to be marginally changed. The design of the indigenous lander and the preliminary configuration study was completed by the Space Applications Centre (SAC), Ahmedabad, he said. Chandrayaan-2 will have five primary payloads on the orbiter, two of which will be improvements on instruments that were onboard Chandrayaan-1.In addition, the rover too will carry two additional instruments. Chandrayaan-2 will be launched by a GSLV powered by an indigenous cryogenic engine.
  
• A new state-of-the art, anti-radiation missile that can target enemy radars and communication facilities is being developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO). At present there is no such missile in India’s arsenal, while some advanced countries, including the US, Israel and Russia, have such a weapon, top DRDO sources told the media. The government recently gave the go-ahead for the project, and the design work has already begun at one of the key DRDO laboratories. Sources added that in any war scenario, radar and communication facilities of the enemy would be the first target.The new air-to-surface 100-km range tactical missile picks up radiation or signals emitted by radars and communication systems, homes on to the target and destroys the network. The missile’s front-end comprises a sensor to pick up various radio frequencies. The missile is expected to be ready in the next three to five years. After a series of developmental trials, it will be integrated with fighter aircraft, including Sukhoi and Light Combat Aircraft.
  
• The Naval offshore patrol vessel (NOPV) INS Saryu was formally commissioned into the Indian Navy on 22 January. The commissioning was done by air marshal P K Roy, commander-in-chief Andaman and Nicobar command, at the Goa Shipyard Limited (GSL) in Vasco. The first in the series of four new class of NOPVs designed and built by the GSL for the Indian Navy, the state-of-the-art ship will be based at Andaman and will be tasked with protecting India's strategic maritime interests and assets in the region. Besides ocean, surveillance and surface warfare operations to prevent infiltration and protect maritime sovereignty the ship will monitor sea lines of communication, defence of offshore oil installations and other assets. The 105m INS Saryu is powered by twin SEMT Pielstick diesel engines and is equipped with the latest navigation, communication and radar equipment. Its weapons systems include a 76mm super rapid gun mount and two 30mm close-in weapon system guns as well as six chaff launchers.
  
• President Pranab Mukherjee inaugurated the 28th Congress of the Asia Pacific Academy of Ophthalmology at Hyderabad on 17 January. Speaking on the occasion, the President said as stated in the Vision 2020 document of WHO, the problem of blindness can only be combated through increased political commitment, professional commitment, provision of high quality eye care, increasing public awareness and support of non-governmental organizations and private sector. Private sector companies and government institutions should join hands to fight blindness and visual impairment. The private sector companies should not consider this a burden but as a way of discharging their social obligations. The President said he is confident that the Congress would find solutions for providing greater medical access to the needy. He also hoped that the technical sessions would provide the necessary platform for knowledge sharing and information dissemination.
  
• India on 27 January, made a major stride towards completing its nuclear triad capability bysuccessfully test firing a nuclear-capable ballistic missile K-5, from an underwater platform in Bay of Bengal. Completion of the nuclear triad will give India the ability to fire nuclear-tipped missiles from land, air and sea. This is the first missile in the underwater category to have been fully developed by India and can be launched from a submarine. The medium range K-5 ballistic missile was test fired successfully from an underwater pontoon and all parameters of the test firing were met," Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) chief V K Saraswat told the press. Officials said more than 10 trials of the missile had been carried out earlier. Only a select few nations including the US, France, Russia and China have this type of missile capability. The development phase of the K-5 missile, which comes in the category of submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM), was over and it was now ready for deployment on various platforms including the around 6,000-tonne indigenous nuclear submarine INS Arihant which is under development.K-5 is part of the family of underwater missiles being developed by DRDO for the Indian strategic forces' underwater platforms. The missile, which is also known as BO5, has been developed by DRDO's Hyderabad-based Defence Research and Development Laboratory (DRDL).This missile will help India to achieve the capability of launching nuclear warheads from underwater facilities. So far, India had the capability of delivering nuclear weapons from land and aerial platforms only.
  
• The 54th All India Congress of Obstetrics and Gynecology began in Mumbai on 17 January. Ghulam Nabi Azad, Union Minister of Health & Family Welfare was the Chief Guest at the inaugural programme. Addressing the function, Mr. Azad said Maternal and Child Health has received utmost priority from the Health Ministry. There has been a significant decline in MMR, IMR and TFR in India. The current MMR as per the latest Sample Registration Survey is 212 per 100,000 live-births and the IMR is 44 per 1,000 live births. However, the current pace of decline needs to be further accelerated to achieve the commitments on the millennium development goals. About 28 million pregnancies occur along with an estimated 56,000 maternal deaths in India every year. It may be mentioned that the All India Congress of Obstetrics and Gynecology (AICOG) is the important annual event on the academic calendar of the Federation of Obstetrics and Gynecological Societies of India (FOGSI) involved with women’s health. Gynecologists and medical experts from India and abroad participate in the academic event. The programme includes pre-congress workshops, continuous medical education sessions, detailed scientific sessions, free paper and poster presentations. FOGSI is the professional organization representing practitioners of obstetrics and gynecology in India. With 219 member societies and over 27,000 individual members spread over the length and breadth of the country, FOGSI is one of the largest membership based organizations of specialized professionals. FOGSI has close links and affiliation with international and regional organizations like FIGO, AOFOG and SAFOG.
  
• The Ministry of Environment & Forest (MoEF) in its endeavor to promote Non Timber Forest based Handicrafts, Herbal/Health/Cosmetic Medicinal & Food items (Forest/Argo/Biodiversity food) is organising 15 Days program: “GREEN HAAT” with primary objective of “Connecting nature with our lives”. The event would be organized in New Delhi from 16th January 2013. It will continue till 31st January 2013. Green Haat is an initiative of Ministry of Environment & Forest (MoEF), Govt. of India to raise awareness on the rich forest and bio diverse heritage of the country among the growing urban population often living far off from the forests. The initiative is to showcase various value added forest based products developed by Rural Artisans, Community Self Help Groups, NGOs, and State Federations and thus provide support to biodiversity conservation and sustainable livelihoods. The first Green Haat was organized on the eve of World Environment Day 2011 where India played as a Global Host.
  
• Union Minister for science & Technology and Earth Sciences S.Jaipal Reddy has inaugurated the “Weather Services of IMD on Mobile” in a glittering function organised to mark the 138th Foundation Day of India Metrological Department (IMD) in New Delhi on 15 January. Mr. Reddy while commending the commend the progress made by the IMD in different fields of atmospheric science said the increased needs of the society for timely, authentic and directly usable information on weather and climate have thrown up new challenges before us. It calls for enhanced efforts in the field of atmospheric observations, analysis and weather forecasting. Appreciating the efforts of the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) in bringing all concerned organisations under the umbrella of Earth System Science Organisation (ESSO) for understanding the complex interactions among key elements of the EARTH SYSTEM the minister said the co-ordinated efforts of the ESSO are now clearly visible in improving observational system and enhancing the weather forecasting capabilities. However, the dedicated services for specialised sectors such as agriculture, aviation, power etc developed by IMD need to be extended to other weather sensitive economic activities. Shailesh Nayak, Secretary, Ministry of Earth Sciences said IMD has taken a new initiative in the development of an application called “Indian-Weather” for smart phones and TABS based on android. This application is freely downloadable through goggle play available on the home screen of android based smart phones and tabs. The occasion also marked the foundation of IMD as on this day of Mr. H. F. Blanford assumed his office as Imperial Meteorological Reporter on 15th January, 1875. The day is being celebrated with a view to highlight the achievements of the Department and to promote awareness about new initiatives taken and also to focus on the future plans for improving the weather and climate services of the Department.
  
• A centre of excellence specialising in reading space weather conditions to help air traffic on polar routes would come up in Kolkata by the middle of this year(2013), the first of its kind in the country. Besides air traffic on polar routes, the centre would help in the functioning of GPS networks and mobile satellites placed in space. Scientists said coronal mass ejections (CME) and solar flares were two kinds of storms originating from the sun that exposed flights to immense amounts of radiation over Polar Regions. Several commercial flights from south Asia, Europe and North America flew over the Polar Regions to cut short time and distance. They said if the weather in the solar system was not good it would impact the functioning of satellites, which in turn would have an adverse effect on the GPS system and mobile networks. The centre, approved by the Union HRD ministry, would come up at the Indian Institute of Science, Education and Research (IISER) campus. The ministry has sanctioned Rs four crore for it.
  
• River Ran on the Mars 3.5 Billion Years Ago: European Space Agency
  The European Space Agency released surprising pictures of the remains of huge river which ran across the Red Planet, Mars at some point of time, on 17 January 2013. The images which were captured by the ESA’s Mars Express showed Reull Vallis, the river-like structure, which is believed to have formed when water ran from the surface of Mars in distant past. The Reull Vallis, cut a steep-sided channel through Promethei Terra Highlands and then ran towards the floor of huge Hellas basin. The structure which surprised the astronomers stretches for around 900 miles or 1500 km across the Martian surface and also shows various tributaries. One of the tributaries was seen cutting the main valley towards the upper side in the north. Experts from ESA opined that these images displayed a resemblance with the morphology which is found in various areas affected by glaciation on Earth. Planetary scientists, in the meanwhile opined that images represented the presence of high water or the glacial levels on Mars, before the water or ice evaporated. ESA described that the sides of Reull Vallis were mainly sharp as well as steep in the images captures by the Mars Express. The parallel longitudinal features covered floor of the channel. The structures like these were believed to be formed due to passage of loose ice or debris during Amazonian period because of the glacial flow along the channel. These structures, it is believed, were formed somewhere around 3.5 billion years ago. The lineated structures like these, which were rich in ice, were also found in the surrounding craters. Such images were useful because they provided the scientists and astronomers a glimpse into the past of the Red Planet.
  
• President of India on 13 January, launched the National Immunization Day, 2013 by administering polio drops to children at Rashtrapati Bhavan. Speaking on the historic occasion, Ghulam Nabi Azad said that he was extremely happy to inform the august gathering, that day is a momentous day for the whole country, as India had completed two years without any case of wild polio virus. On 25th February 2012, the World Health Organization removed India from the list of polio endemic countries, which was a historical achievement since there was a perception among many experts that India would be the last country to eradicate polio. This was more so because, until 2009, India accounted for half of the total polio cases in the world. To mitigate the risk, we need to continue to protect every child up to the age of 5 years with the polio vaccine, till polio is eradicated globally. Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria still continue to be polio endemic countries in the world. Ajad also says, I would like to mention here that to deal with any case of polio importation, we have put in place an Emergency Preparedness and Response Planwhich we are committed to implement in all States across the country. Under this plan, a case of poliovirus anywhere in the country will be treated as a public health emergency. Rapid Response Teams have been formed in all the States and Union Territories, to effectively respond to any case of polio importation. The focus of the Ministry and the partners continues to be on the most vulnerable migrant, mobile populations, youngest children and under-served populations, which remain at the highest risk of contracting the disease. I am happy to inform you that the Nation-wide Immunization campaign for Polio Eradication will start on 20st January 2013, in which more than 170 million children of less than 5 years of age will be given polio drops. More than 23 lakh volunteers will participate in this massive national effort, with more than 1.5 lakh supervisors monitoring the quality and coverage of the Immunization activity.
  
• Indian Coast Guard Ship ‘ICGS-Rajkamal’, the fourth in the series of eight Inshore Patrol Vessels (IPVs) designed and built by Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers, Kolkata, was commissioned at Chennai by the Minister of State for Defence Shri Jitendra Singh on 8 January. The 50 meter indigenous IPV displaces 300 tones and can achieve a maximum speed of 34 knots, with an endurance of 1500 nautical miles at an economical speed of 16 knots. Equipped with state-of-the-art weaponry and advanced communication and navigational equipment, it makes an ideal platform for undertaking multifarious close-coast missions such as surveillance, interdiction, Search and Rescue, and medical evacuation. The special features of the ship include an Integrated Bridge Management System (IBMS), Integrated Machinery Control System (IMCS) and an integrated gun mount with indigenous Fire Control system (FCS). ICGS "Rajkamal", literally meaning "Royal Lotus", will be based at Chennai and will be under the administrative and operational control of the Commander, Coast Guard Region (East).The ship is commanded by Commandant Ravindra Kumar and has a crew of 05 Officers and 30 Enrolled Personnel. The ship will enhance the Indian Coast Guard’s capability to undertake operations to further Maritime Safety and Security and Coastal Security on the Eastern Seaboard. With the commissioning of ICGS Rajkamal, the force level of ICG has gone up to 77 ships and boats and with the planned inductions the force level would be doubling by 2018.
  
• India is expected to start building the world's largest solar telescope on the icy heights of Ladakh to study the sun's atmosphere and understand the formation of sunspots and their decay process. The Rs 300-crore project is expected to come up at either Hanle or Merak, which is very near to the Ladakh's Pangong lake along the Line of Actual Control with China. Currently, the world's largest solar telescope is the McMath-Pierce Solar Telescope with an aperture size of 1.6 metres in Kitt Peak National Observatory at Arizona in the US "Fabrication of the National Large Solar Telescope is expected to begin in late 2013," Siraj Hasan, Principal Investigator for the project, told reporters on the sidelines of the 100th Indian Science Congress in Kolkatta. Bangalore-based Indian Institute of Astrophysics is the nodal agency for the project, which also has participation from Indian Space Research Organisation, Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, IUCAA, IISc and IISER.
  
• Internet Turns 30 Years Old
  The Internet, a revolutionary and cheap communications system that has transformed the lives of billions of people across the world, turned 30 on 1 January 2013. The computer network officially began its technological revolution when it fully substituted previous networking systems on January 1 1983. Known as "flag day", it was the first time the US Department of Defence (DoD)-commissioned ARPANET network fully switched to use of the Internet protocol suite (IPS) communications system. Using data "packet-switching", the new method of linking computers paved the way for the arrival of the World Wide Web. "I don't think that anybody making that switch on the day would have realised the importance of what they were doing," the Daily Telegraph quoted Chris Edwards, an electronics correspondent for Engineering and Technology magazine, as saying. "But without it the Internet and the World Wide Web as we know them could not have happened." Commenting on the historic event's impact on the world, Edwards said: "The Internet means there is nowhere and no one in the world you can't reach easily and cheaply.''
  
• Based on designs by Welsh scientist Donald Davies, the ARPANET network began as a military project in the late 1960s. It was developed at prestigious American universities and research laboratories, such as the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and the Stanford Research Institute. Starting in 1973, work on the powerful and flexible IPS and Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) technology which would change mass communications got under way. The new systems were designed to replace the more vulnerable Network Control Program (NCP) used previously, making sure the network was not exposed to a single point of failure. This meant a single attack could not bring it down, making it safer and more reliable, the report said. By January 1 1983, the substitution of the older system for the new Internet protocol had been completed and the Internet was born. British computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee was then able to use it to host the system of interlinked hypertext documents he invented in 1989, known as the World Wide Web.
  
• India’s Mars exploration mission by Oct
  India’s tryst with Mars will begin in October to explore the red planet’s atmosphere and search for life-sustaining elements, a top space official said on 4 January. “We are trying very hard and by mid-October we are expecting to launch the Mars mission,” said J.N. Goswami, in-charge of the exploration mission. Speaking on the sidelines of the Indian Science Congress in Kolkata, Mr. Goswami said the mission is yet to get an official name. The Rs.470-crore mission will demonstrate India’s capability to launch a spacecraft on a 55 million km journey from earth and look for life-sustaining elements from 500 km over the Martian surface.
  “The mission has a very specific science objective as we want to study the atmosphere of Mars. This mission will explore things which have not been done previously by other countries,” said Mr. Goswami, director of Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad. The Indian space agency plans to use a high-end rocket (PSLV-XL) to launch the 1.4-tonne Martian spacecraft from its Sriharikota spaceport, about 80 km northeast of Chennai, with five instruments to study various aspects of the red planet. The Mars mission will allow India to join the elite club of five top nations comprising the US, Russia, Europe, China and Japan which have launched similar missions. As the fourth planet from the Sun and smallest celestial object in the solar system, Mars is terrestrial with breath-taking valleys, deserts, craters and volcanoes in a thin atmosphere. Named after the Roman god of war, the red planet has many similarities with Earth like the rotation period and seasonal cycles.
  
• Researchers: Siachen Glacier Shrinking Due to Increasing Temperatures
  The researchers claimed that the Siachen Glacier reduced to 5.9 km in its longitudinal extent from the time period of 1989 to 2009. This happened because of increasing temperatures. The researchers additionally also believed that presence of humans on Siachen would affect other neighbouring glaciers such as Milan, Janapa, Miyar and Gangotri which are a source to Chenab, Sutlej and Ganges river. Hindukush, Karakoram and Himalaya actually form the largest mountain chain on this planet. They are also keepers of the third-largest ice reserves only after Polar Regions. The glaciers found in these mountains feed a population of 1.7 billion via seven huge Asian river systems which also include Brahmaputra, Mekong, Yangtze, Ganges and Indus. Siachen is largest mountain glacier of the world, which is 70 km in length and 5-10 km in width. The satellite pictures revealed that the glacier was shrinking. It is even worse that the satellite images displayed increasing numbers as well as sizes of blue lakes in glacier. The main cause of Siachen shrinking is construction of the helipads as well as frequent flights of helicopters which loosen packed snows leading to avalanches. Snow scooters also cause the same. Most of the experts believe the fact that saving these glaciers is actually the scientific challenge which needs attention immediately.