India's first defence satellite GSAT-7 launched successfully

India's maiden dedicated defence satellite was launched by an European rocket early today, giving a boost to Navy's modernisation push to improve space-based communications and intelligence gathering over a wide oceanic region including the country's landmass. 

Custom-made for the Navy by the Indian Space Research Organisation, the advanced multi-band, state-of-the-art GSAT-7 was successfully lofted into space by European space consortium Arianespace's Ariane 5 rocket at 2 AM from Kourou spaceport, French Guiana, in South America. 

In an impressive launch, telecast live by Doordarshan, Ariane 5 precisely placed the Rs 185-crore home-built communication spacecraft into the intended Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO) after a flight of 34 minutes 25 seconds duration. 

"As planned, ISRO's Master Control Facility (MCF) at Hassan in Karnataka started acquiring the signals five minutes prior to the separation of GSAT-7 from Ariane-5 launch vehicle. The solar panels of the satellite have been deployed and they are generating power. Initial checks have indicated normal health of the satellite," the Bangalore-headquartered ISRO said. 

Expected to be operational by September-end, the country's first exclusive satellite for military applications, would give a major push to the maritime security. 

According to ISRO, GSAT-7 would provide wide range of service spectrum from low bit rate voice to high bit rate data communication. Its payload is designed to provide communication capabilities to users over a wide oceanic region including the Indian land-mass. 

The 2625-kg satellite, with some new technological elements including the antennae, carries payloads operating in UHF, S, C and Ku bands, helping marine communications with coverage over India landmass as well as surrounding areas, seen as a significant asset from security and surveillance points of view. 

With GSAT-7 which would give it an integrated platform, the Navy would be able to overcome the limitation from line of sight and ionospheric effects, among others, that it currently faced as far as space-based communications were concerned. 

Earlier, satellite communication in ships was through Inmarsat, a major provider of global mobile satellite communications services. 

ISRO said the present orbit of the satellite will be raised to Geostationary Orbit of about 36,000 km altitude through three orbit raising manoeuvres by firing of GSAT-7's Liquid Apogee Motor (LAM). 

Preparations are underway for the first firing, planned in the early hours of tomorrow. The satellite will be placed in the Geostationary Orbit by September four. 

The launch cost for ISRO is around Rs 470 crore, including insurance, as the Indian space agency cannot orbit heavy satellites like GSAT-7 as its home-grown GSLV rocket, with indigenous cryogenic stage, is still at works and needs two successful flights before it is declared operational. 

In addition to GSAT-7, the Ariane 5 orbited another spacecraft EUTELSAT 25B/Es'hail. EUTELSAT 25B/Es'hail 1 -- which rode in the top position of the Ariane 5 payload "stack" -separated first, some 27 minutes after the liftoff at 2 am. 

At approximately 34 minutes into the flight, the lower passenger - GSAT-7 - was deployed, completing the mission. 

Indian Ambassador to France, Arun Singh and Director of Bangalore-based ISRO Satellite Centre, S K Shivakumar, were among those who witnessed the launch. 

Singh said the launch event is also a reflection of strategic partnership between India and France. Shivakumar said GSAT-7 would be operational by next month-end.

Source:Economic Times

Practise swadeshi, save the rupee

The only way to save the rupee and to prevent its free fall is to start practising swadeshi all over again. Yes, you read it correctly. As a nation we are living beyond our means and you can’t continue doing so unless we want India to crash (and not the rupee alone). That is exactly what is happening: the crash of the rupee is a symptom of the problems that ail the economy. Although sarkari economists et al are trying to explain away the problem by changes in the Fed rates in the US and a revival in the US economy this is a very shallow explanation. Just because the Indonesian rupiah, the South African rand and the Brazilian real have been competing with the rupee in depreciating against the US dollar, there is no reason to wish away our problems.

Next time you bite corn produced in Australia, oranges raised in California and apples from god knows where, think deeply whether as a nation we can afford this. Maybe middle class and upper middle class consumers can afford these imported fruits at an individual level, but certainly not as a nation. When India’s foreign exchange earnings are not enough to cover our imports, it is a no-brainer that we cannot. Stopping such imports and also of other edibles like cheese is not going to make any one worse off. The question that we should ask ourselves is: cannot good quality fruits be grown in the country that we have to spend precious foreign exchange to import them?

In the good old days, students used to travel abroad for higher studies after they completed their MA to take admission in PhD and other such programs in top universities. The learning in these top universities would be far superior to what could be had in high institutions in the country. But things have changed in the last two decades: these days you can find  parents sending their children abroad to do their undergraduate degrees. Why? This is possibly because it has become a fad to send children abroad. Parents say that they have the money so they will send their children abroad. While this may be true, the fact of the matter is that as a nation we cannot afford precious foreign exchange to spend on children studying at the undergraduate level and doing basic technical courses. A pertinent question to ask is whether the education infrastructure is so poor that there are no colleges in the country to impart a basic degree. So the issue is why this fad for a foreign education?  

However you would not have seen any economist or politician who waxes eloquent on TV holding forth on the rupee speak anything about all this. Most of their conversation revolves around the tight monetary policy of the RBI and the decline in growth impetus, etc This misses the real issue. The fact of the matter is that the process of liberalization that was kick-started in 1991 is so lopsided that it promoted the culture of consumption without any breaks. True, before liberalization the economy was in shackles and the consumption in the country was artificially restricted. This was by way of import curbs and by the process of licensing. Thus things like washing machines were treated as luxuries although in reality it was a great boon for families especially those with working women. 

Liberalization provided a great opportunity to break the shackles and set up a modern, efficient manufacturing base in India. Well that really did not happen adequately. Had that happened India would have become a major exporter of manufactured goods that would have been enough to take care of India’s import requirements (of which oil imports is a major component). But India continued to be an exporter of raw material. For example till the ban in exports of iron ore, the country was exporting iron ore to China. A country which is focused on its growth (like China is) would have instead tried to manufacture steel from this iron ore which could have been exported instead. This would have resulted in more foreign exchange earnings. But India had no such strategy in place.

Instead of exporting manufactured goods, India has become an importer of raw materials. A good example is coal that is imported into the country for fuelling thermal power stations. This is in spite of the fact that India sits on reserves of billions of tons of coal reserves. India spent $18 billion in coal imports in the last fiscal year 2012-13. This is by no account a small sum.

But while exports did not go up, imports of not only coal and petroleum products (valued at $169.25 billion in the last fiscal year) but other consumer goods also went up.

World class manufacturing facilities did not come up in India due to many reasons. But primarily the culprit is the policy paralysis in the country for many years that resulted in inadequate infrastructural facilities whether it was electricity generation, port facilities or proper roads. Bureaucratic hassles and widespread corruption in granting permissions played a none-too-insignificant role in this process. 

Entrepreneurs finding a bleak scenario soon realized that realty was a booming sector where large profits could be made without much hassles. As a result entrepreneurs of all hues and colors turned to realty. This includes top names in the Indian corporate sector. Even many IT companies started dabbling in real estate. With politicians joining in the game, realty became the name of the game. Thus the high growth evidenced in the country in the period 2000-2009 and especially between the years 2005-2008, is nothing but an indication of the rapid growth in the real estate sector that led to bourgeoning cities (never mind the poor infrastructure). But the increase in the growth of the realty sector is an artificial growth that may add to national income yet doing nothing to increase India’s exports. A huge middle class, which has earned moolah through direct speculation in realty or by working in companies whose profits have soared due to their investments in real estate, started feeling empowered. And this empowerment was reflected through increased consumption. This has led to spiralling imports. It may not be out of place that India’s savings rate has plummeted in the last five years. From 36.9 per cent in fiscal year 2007-08, it tumbled to 30.8 in 2012-13 and is expected to go down to 30 per cent by the end of fiscal year 2013-14.

The rupee may have tumbled in the last two weeks, but the signals were there for anybody to see for the last few months. In the last fiscal year India’s imports of gold soared to $50 billion. This was not due to the proclivity of the Indian consumers to own the yellow metal. Rather it was a signal from the market that the rupee could not be trusted to hold its value. Gold was being imported, because people preferred to hold their savings in the form of the yellow metal than in the form of the Indian rupee in banks or investments.

Whether it is an individual, household or a nation, nobody can live beyond their means. You have to cut the coat according to the cloth that you have. Thus there is no other way for India and as Indians we have to learn to live within our means. The time has come to reduce to zero the imports of inessentials and restrict the imports to the essentials. The control raj came with a lot of ills, but independence also comes with responsibilities. From 1991 to 2013, the pendulum has swung from one extreme to the other. It is time to restore balance in our lives, think in terms of age old concepts like import substitution and check the rampant spread of this consumerist culture. Otherwise doomsday is not far away.

source: Times of India

Cyberspying: Government may ban Gmail for official communication

The government will soon ask all its employees to stop using Google's Gmail for official communication, a move intended to increase security of confidential government information after revelations of widespread cyberspying by the US.

A senior official in the ministry of communications and information technology said the government plans to send a formal notification to nearly 5 lakh employees barring them from email service providers such as Gmail that have their servers in the US, and instead asking them to stick to the official email service provided by India's National Informatics Centre.

"Gmail data of Indian users resides in other countries as the servers are located outside. Currently, we are looking to address this in the government domain, where there are large amounts of critical data," said J Satyanarayana, secretary in the department of electronics and information technology. 

Snowden fallout

The move comes in the wake of revelations by former US National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden that the US government had direct access to large amounts of personal data on the internet such as emails and chat messages from companies like Google, Facebook and Apple through a programme called PRISM. 

Documents leaked by Snowden showed that NSA may have accessed network infrastructure in many countries, causing concerns of potential security threats and data breaches. Even as the new policy is being formulated, there has been no mention yet of how compliance will be ensured.

Several senior government officials in India, including ministers of state for communications & IT Milind Deora and Kruparani Killi, have their Gmail IDs listed in government portals as their official email. 

A Google India spokeswoman said the company has not been informed about the ban, and hence it cannot comment on speculation. "Nothing is documented so far, so for us, it is still speculation," Google said in an email response. 

A senior official in the IT department admitted on condition of anonymity that employees turn to service providers such as Gmail because of the ease of use compared with official email services, as well as the bureaucratic processes that govern creation of new accounts. 

"You can just go and create an account in Gmail easily, whereas for a government account, you have to go through a process because we have to ensure that he is a genuine government user." 

Last week, IT Minister Kapil Sibal said the new policy would require all government officials living abroad to use NIC servers that are directly linked to a server in India while accessing government email services. Sibal said there has been no evidence of the US accessing Internet data from India.

Sunil Abraham, executive director of Bangalore-based research firm Centre for Internet and Society, said he agrees with the government's decision to ban Gmail for official communication and that any official violating this needs to be punished. 

"After Snowden's revelations, we can never be sure to what extent foreign governments are intercepting government emails," he said. Abraham, however, called the government's decision a "late reaction", as the use of Gmail and other free email services by bureaucrats has increased in the past. 

"Use of official government email would also make it easier to achieve greater transparency and anti-corruption initiatives. Ministers, intelligence and law enforcement officials should not be allowed to use alternate email providers under any circumstance."

source:Times of India

Brainstorming Works Best When You're In a Bad Mood

We all like to think we're most creative when we're happy, but research suggests otherwise. Instead, we're likely at our best when we're angry or a little upset. So the next time you need to do some brainstorming, you may want to try it when you're in a bad mood instead of waiting for the sun to come out.

Over at 99U, David Burkus points to a 2012 study published in the Academy of Management Journal that indicated that participants who were asked to keep a diary of their emotions for a week reported that their most productive days started with negative emotions and ended with positive ones. Essentially, even without knowing it in some cases, they channeled their negativity into their work, with great results.

But how do you apply the idea to your own life? He explains:

One possible explanation is focus. Past research suggests that negative emotions help narrow our focus to specific tasks or projects and even persist longer on those projects, especially when it comes to getting rejected. Perhaps the initial negative emotions were actually helping the professionals keep their mind focused on their work longer, digging deeper into the problems they might be facing and generating better solutions.

To test this idea, the same researchers asked a different group of participants to try their hand at a brainstorming task-listing as many ideas as possible. Before brainstorming, however, the participants were randomly assigned to write a biographical essay recounting either a positive or negative event in their life. Just like the creative professionals in the first task, the participants who reflected on a negative event performed better, listing more ideas that were also more varied and original. Even though their essay writing had no relationship to the brainstorming task, the negative emotions they experienced put them in a better mood to focus on the problem and think up solutions.

While we don't suggest you try to whip yourself up into an irrational rage before heading into a project meeting or sitting down to do some development work, the implications are pretty clear. When you're in a bad mood or having a tough time at work, that may be the best opportunity for you to channel that energy into something that's been bugging you for a long time, or to take a step back from the humdrum and do some brainstorming. You may discover that when you're feeling the crappiest is the best time to make real headway.

Use Your Anger to Smash Creative Blocks 

Source:Times of India

India plans oil import from Iran to cut import bill, CAD

The oil ministry has worked out a plan to save $22 billion in the oil import bill from Iran thus helping reduce the current account deficit (CAD), petroleum minister M Veerappa Moily has said. 

"Oil (imports) is one of the components responsible for CAD. The prime minister has told us to save $25 billion in the import bill. As of today, we have pieced together a plan to save $22 billion in import bill," Moily said. 

He said the savings would be around one percent of the GDP. 

Moily was talking to reporters Tuesday at an event to present a cheque for Rs.5 lakh to the widow of Arjuna awardee sportsman late Makhan Singh. 

Senior oil ministry sources told IANS that the plan includes renewing imports from sanctions-hit Iran, which India pays in rupees thereby saving foreign exchange and reducing the CAD. 

Officials calculate that importing, for instance, 10 million tonnes oil from Iran means saving $10 billion in foreign exchange outgo. During the last fiscal, India imported 13.1 million tonnes of oil from Iran, down from 18.11 million tonnes of 2011-12. 

After not buying any oil from Iran in first four months of the current fiscal, imports were resumed this month with state-run Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals getting the first tanker-load. 

In view of the current volatility of the rupee against the dollar, India is discussing with Iraq the possibility of trade in local currencies, which would help insulate India's oil imports from Iraq also.

Source:Times of India

India's first defence satellite all set for launch

India's maritime security will get a fresh impetus as the stage is now set for the launch of an exclusive home-built satellite for the Navy by European space consortium Arianespace from Kourou spaceport in French Guiana on Friday. 

GSAT-7 is India's first dedicated spacecraft for defence applications. 

"It has frequency bands that will help marine communications", an official of Bangalore-headquartered Indian Space Research Organisation, which built the satellite.

"It has coverage over India landmass as well as surrounding seas. It's important from security and surveillance points of view", the official said on condition of anonymity. 

A senior space scientist in the know said: "So far, Navy had limitation from line of sight and ionospheric effects etc. It was thought essential to have an integrated platform for their exclusive use. Earlier, satellite communication in ships was through Inmarsat (a major provider of global mobile satellite communications services). Now, India will have its own set up" 

ISRO shies away from calling it an exclusive satellite for the Navy on record, but privately admits exactly that. 

The Rs 185 crore state-of-the-art satellite carries payloads operating in UHF, S, C and Ku bands. 

GSAT-7 has a lift-off mass of 2625 kg and is based on ISRO's 2500 kg satellite bus with some new technological elements, including the antennae. Its solar arrays generate 2900 W of electrical power. 

A108 Ampere-Hour Lithium-Ion battery enables the satellite to function during the eclipse period. The propulsion subsystem has a 440 Newton Liquid Apogee Motor (LAM) and thrusters. 

GSAT-7 is scheduled to be launched into a Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO) by Ariane-5 VA 215 during the 50-minute launch window starting from 2 am on Friday. 

The launch cost for ISRO is around Rs 470 crore, including insurance. ISRO can't launch heavy satellites like GSAT-7 as its home-grown GSLV rocket, with indigenous cryogenic stage, is still at works and needs two successful flights before it's declared operational.

source:Times of India

Rupee closes in on 69 vs dollar, its biggest day fall in 18 years

The rupee slumped to a record low near 69 to the dollar on Wednesday on growing worries that foreign investors will continue to sell out of a country facing stiff economic challenges and volatile global markets. 

The pummelling in markets sent the rupee reeling 3.7 per cent to an all-time low of 68.85 with the unit closing just a touch off that, at 68.80/81 per dollar, its biggest single-day fall since October 1995. 

It closed on Tuesday at 66.24/25. In absolute terms too, the 256-basis-point fall in the rupee was the biggest ever. 

An assault on the psychologically key 70 level now appears imminent, as intervention from the central bank seen mid-morning only gave the rupee a brief respite. 

In the stock market, state-run Life Insurance Corp, which was spotted buying shares, allowed the domestic benchmark index to erase steep early losses and end the day stronger. 

"If steps are not taken to implement the reforms necessary to tackle the structural issues, the government will be left with the so-called '3D options': debt default, devaluation, deflation," said Angelo Corbetta, head of Asia equity for Pioneer Investments in London. 

"In India, devaluation is happening now and deflation could be about to start. The good news is that the debt default is highly unlikely." 

Foreign investors have sold almost $1 billion of Indian shares in the eight sessions through Tuesday — a worrisome prospect given stocks had been India's one sturdy source of capital inflows in the first half of 2013. 

If more foreign investors throw in the towel, traders fear it will put the country in a vicious cycle in which the hit to confidence in turn slams shares and the currency even harder. 

Policymakers have consistently struggled to come up with steps that can convince markets they can stabilise the rupee and attract funds into the country despite extraordinary measures last month by the central bank to drain liquidity and action to curb gold imports and cut India's huge oil import bill. 

Rising oil prices, Fed fears amplify pressure 

India badly needs foreign capital as it struggles with a record high current account deficit, growing fiscal pressures and an economy growing at the slowest in a decade. 

The failure to address India's economic challenges is becoming an increasing source of tension at a time when fears of a possible US-led military strike against Syria are knocking down Asian markets, with the prospect that the Federal Reserve will soon end its prolonged period of cheap money further raising concerns. 

At the same time, rising domestic bond yields threaten to raise borrowing costs across the already slowing economy, while global prices of oil and gold — the country's two biggest imports — have surged this week. 

"The end game for the current decline would be the day the rupee stops falling, alongside government measures like a substantial diesel price hike," said Samir Arora, a fund manager at Helios Capital in Singapore. 

BNP Paribas on Wednesday slashed its economic growth forecast for India for the fiscal year to March 2014 to 3.7 per cent from its previous 5.2 per cent — the weakest growth since 1991-92 when India buckled under a balance of payments crisis that required a loan from the International Monetary Fund. 

"India's parliament remains toxically dysfunctional with little, if any, business conducted," BNP said. 

"And, with next year's general election looming ever nearer, the government's willingness to instigate a politically unpopular fiscal tightening is close to nil." 

India is due to post April-June gross domestic product data on Friday, with analysts estimating the economy grew at an annual rate of 4.7 per cent, roughly in line with the previous quarter. It will also post July federal fiscal deficit figures. 

Lacking confidence 

The rupee has plunged more than 20 per cent this year, by far the biggest decliner among the Asian currencies tracked by Reuters. 

India's main National Stock Exchange index fell as much as 3.2 per cent, although suspected buying by LIC led the index to recover in the afternoon. 

Foreign investors are paring equity positions, having sold a net $3.6 billion in stocks since the start of June, but still their net purchases so far this year total nearly $12 billion. 

Among the blue chips that fell the most on Wednesday were Axis Bank Ltd and ICICI Bank Ltd, a concern given foreign investors had so far largely held on to their investments in lenders, owning more than 40 per cent of each. 

In bond markets, foreign investors have sold more heavily, with outflows reaching nearly $4.6 billion so far this year. 

Yet the government has so far failed to provide a coherent response, analysts said. Its approval of infrastructure projects on Tuesday was trumped by concerns about the fiscal deficit after India's lower house of parliament this week approved a 1.35 trillion rupees ($19.6 billion) plan to provide cheap gain to the poor. 

In its latest initiative, the government late on Tuesday proposed setting up a task force to look into currency swap agreements, a measure analysts said could bring some relief if carried out in time by reducing market demand for dollars or other major currencies. 

"Let's see what the authorities do, but if the government can come out with some really big currency swap arrangement with some countries, that can be a strong positive," said Uday Bhatt, a forex dealer with UCO Bank in Mumbai.

Source:Times of India