C All is set for the launch of India’s 40th communication satellite GSAT-31 early on Wednesday by an Ariane 5 rocket belonging to Arianespace, said the European space agency.

In a statement, Arianespace said the launch will be the first of the planned 12 missions in 2019 using its heavy-lift Ariane 5, medium-lift Soyuz and lightweight Vega rockets.

The Ariane 5 rocket will carry two satellites – Saudi Geostationary Satellite 1/Hellas Sat 4 and the GSAT-31.

According to the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), the 2,535-kg GSAT-31 is the 40th communication satellite and would augment the Ku-band transponder capacity in geostationary orbit.

The ISRO said GSAT-31, with a mission life of 15 years, will be used for supporting VSAT networks, television uplinks, digital satellite news gathering, DTH television services, cellular backhaul connectivity and more.

The two Ku-band beacon downlink signals are transmitted by the satellite for ground tracking purpose, it said.

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Nasheman News :Union Minister and Lok Janshakti Party chief Ram Vilas Paswan called the Interim Budget 2019-20 the “second surgical strike” by the NDA government and said the opposition leaders looked “despondent”.

“The first surgical strike occurred on the border. Jawans fought it with bullets. Here, we will fight with ballots. People will decide that the NDA wins 400 seats. Narendra Modiji will be the Prime Minister (again),” he told reporters outside Parliament.

“Has anybody ever thought of such a big step for farmers?” he asked.

Equating the Budget with cricket, Paswan said it was “a sixer” and the opposition would not be able “to find the ball” until the Lok Sabha elections. 

Nasheman News : Finance Minister Piyush Goyal on Friday said the government has provided Rs 1,330 crore for the protection and empowerment of women, an increase of Rs 174 crore from last year.

“An amount of Rs 1,330 crore has been provided for 2019-20,” Goyal said while presenting the Interim Budget it in the Lok Sabha.

“While taking several welfare initiatives for women, the emphasis of the government has been to move from ‘women’s development’ to ‘women-led development’ during the last four and a half years.”

Goyal said that more than 70 per cent of the beneficiaries of Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana were women who were getting affordable and collateral-free loans to start their own businesses.

The Minister also added that maternity leave of 26 weeks have provided financial support to women while empowering them to participate in work.

He noted that the government embarked upon the Ujjawala Yojana to deliver eight crore free LPG connections and six crore connections have already been provided while the remaining will be given by next year.

Nasheman News : The government on Friday announced a budget of Rs 38,572 crore for its National Education Mission which comprises the Centrally sponsored schemes for education under which it allocates funds to the states and union territories.

The budget amount is an increase from last year’s Rs 32,334 crore. 

Most part of this entire amount — Rs 36,472.40 crore — is for school education for students from pre-primary to class 12. 

This amount is meant to be allocated for schemes which include Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan — formed with the merger of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan last year — and teacher training. 

A part of this budget component, that is, Rs 2,100 crore, is meant for higher education, which will go towards the Ministry of Human Resource Development’s Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan or RUSA. 

Nasheman News :Addressing the distress in the agrarian sector, Finance Minister Piyush Goyal on Friday announced a scheme to provide direct income support of Rs 6,000 to farmers with a land holding up to two hectares, which would benefit about 12 crore people.

He also announced expansion of the interest subvention for loans taken under Kisan Credit Card to farmers involved in animal husbandry and fishing. 

Presenting the Interim Budget for 2019-20 in the Lok Sabha, he said the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) will be effective from December 1, 2018. 

“Under this scheme, direct income support of Rs 6,000 every year will be given to farmers who have a land holding of up to two hectares,” he said.

“This income support will be transferred directly into the bank accounts of the farmers in three equal instalments of Rs 2,000 each.” The scheme will be funded 100 per cent by the central government, he added.

Goyal said farm returns have reduced due to the declining prices of agriculture commodities in the international markets and a fall in food inflation in India in the last two years relative to the non-food sector.

“Small and fragmented land holdings on account of repeated division has also contributed in the decline in the income of the farmer families. Hence, there is need to provide structured income support to poor farmer families in the country for procuring inputs such as seeds, fertilisers, equipment, labour and to meet other needs,” he said.

Goyal said the scheme will be effective from December 2018 and the first instalment for the period up to March 31 this year will be disbursed soon. 

The government will incur an annual expenditure of Rs 75,000 crore in 2019-20 while it has allocated Rs 20,000 crore in the revised estimates of the current year.

He also reiterated the government’s “historic” decision to provide Minimum Support Price (MSP) for 22 crops with 50 per cent profit over the input cost in order to double farm income. Agriculture continues to be the main driver of the rural economy, he said.

Saying an increase in farm loans to Rs 11.68 lakh crore in 2018-19, the minister said the allocation for interest subvention on farm loans has been doubled in order to provide farmers with affordable loans.

Moreover, the benefit of two per cent interest subvention will be provided to the farmers pursuing activities of animal husbandry and fishery who avail of a loan through the Kisan Credit Card (KCC), the minister said. 

“Further, in case of timely repayment of loan, they will get three per cent additional interest subvention,” he said.

He also said that the government has decided to provide benefit of three per cent interest subvention for disaster affected farmers for the entire period of reschedulement — from the earlier period of one year– besides interest subvention of 2 per cent.

Goyal said Rs 1.7 lakh crore has been allocated in order to bring food at affordable rates to families belonging to the poor and middle class.

“We ensured that everyone gets food and nobody goes to sleep without food,” he said. 

The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme has been provided Rs 60,000 crore in 2019-20 and more funds will be poured in if required, he said.

Saying the government seeks to break the urban-rural divide in the country, Rs 19,000 crore has been allocated to the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana as against Rs 15,500 crore in the previous budget, Goyal said.

Out of the total 17.84 lakh habitations in the country, 15.80 lakh were provided with pucca roads and the remaining work will be done soon, he said.

Goyal also announced a ‘Rashtriya Kamdhenu Aayog’ to upscale sustainable genetic upgradation of cow resources and to enhance production and productivity of cows. 

“The Aayog will look after effective implementation of laws and welfare schemes for cows. The government will not hesitate in allocating funds for the respect of “Gomata”.

Goyal also announced a separate Department for Fisheries.

Nasheman News : Various schemes to the tune of Rs 150 crore to benefit the diaspora community of the state were announced in the Kerala Budget 2019-20 here on Thursday.

Presenting the budget in the Assembly Finance Minister Thomas Isaac said the biggest allocation of Rs 81 crore was for the various programmes of the Loka Kerala Sabha (LKS) .

He said that starting in the new fiscal, the bodies of Keralites who die in various Middle East countries will be brought free to their homes.

The LKS was formed in 2018 by the Pinarayi Vijayan government when 351 members, including 141 legislators, parliament members from the state and some 130 selected representatives of Kerala-based organisations from within and outside the country, got under one roof to discuss the issues of the Kerala diaspora.

“Rs 25 crore has been set aside for the Santhwanam Scheme wherein the returned diaspora member who earn less than a lakh annually will be given assistance in case of emergencies. 

“Rs 15 crore has been set aside to provide for interest and capital subsidies to be given to those returned diaspora members who begin independent ventures. 

“Rs 5 crore has been set aside to meet the expenses of various diaspora festivals to be held outside India,” said Isaac in his speech.

The Minister announced a ‘Pravasi Dividend Pension Scheme’ that will provide a regular monthly pension of Rs 2,000 to all Non-Resident Keralites (NRK) on a onetime payment of Rs 5 lakh.

The monthly pension payment will begin after five years of joining the scheme and those who wish to avail a higher pension could pay in multiples of Rs five lakhs.

Issac also set aside Rs 15 crore for rehabilitation programmes of returned diaspora and another Rs 9 crore for the NRK Welfare Fund.

According to a study there are 2.1 million migrants from Kerala across the world whose estimated total annual remittances to the state have been found to be Rs 85,092 crore.

Of these close to 90 per cent are in various Middle East countries.

It has also been estimated that there are around one million NRK who have returned to the state.

A data security scandal has hit India’s largest public sector bank after a media report claimed that State Bank of India left a server with banking data (bank balances, recent transactions) of its customers unprotected for two months. SBI has now secured the server. 

According to a report by Techcrunch, the server which is hosted in a regional Mumbai-based data centre, stored two months of data from SBI Quick meant for users to request basic info about their bank accounts via a text message or on a call. 

The report goes on to point how the bank’s server was not password-protected, allowing anyone with the technical know-how to access the data of millions of customers’ information. According to Google Playstore, there have been 10-million-plus installs of the SBI Quick app.

Techcrunch claimed the passwordless database allowed them “to see all of the text messages going to customers in real time, including their phone numbers, bank balances and recent transactions”.

TechCrunch verified the authenticity of the server by asking an India-based security researcher to use SBI Quick and within seconds, his number, as well as the bank’s response, were available on the compromised server. 

The report says the server revealed that the bank sent over three million text messages to its consumers on a single day – Monday – itself. 

SBI Quick offers an easy way to its consumers to get basic information about like their account balance, mini statement, cheque book, and more with the bank. 

India’s largest public sector bank with a $47.5 billion revenue stood 216th in the last Fortune 500 list of the world’s biggest corporations.

Nasheman News :  The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said on Thursday that it has launched a Human Space Flight Centre here.

“Human Space Flight Centre is operational now… The facility is next to ISRO headquarters,” the city-based space agency tweeted.

The Centre is dedicated to developing critical technologies for human space missions.

The facility, unveiled by former ISRO chairman K. Kasturirangan and current chairman K. Sivan, will be headed by S. Unnikrishnan Nair as the Director.

The ISRO aims to send humans to space by December 2021 through its Gaganyaan mission.

A full-scale Gaganyaan crew module model was also unveiled at the Centre, the agency said.

R. Hutton, who was the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) Director, will be heading the Gaganyaan project.

Nasheman News :  Global software major Infosys’ philanthropic arm on Thursday said that it will restore the Panchakalyani lake in Karnataka’s Mandya district.

“The Foundation will restore the lake by cleaning the tank, removing silt and waste deposit, ensuring structural and chemical conservation of Panchakalyani and a nearby tank called Ganeshan Honda, reconnecting the existing canals and building a compound wall,” the city-based Infosys Foundation said in a statement here.

Panchakalyani, about 140 km from here, is said to be one of the largest ancient lakes of Melukote town, which has several water bodies situated on a hill top through which rain water has been harvested for consumption and irrigation for decades.

“The restoration project is important to improve the water quality of the lake and bring back the balance in the natural ecosystem of Melukote,” Foundation Chairperson Sudha Murty said in the statement.

By preserving the lakes of Melukote, a town patronized by the empires of Hoysala, Vijayanagara and the Wodeyars of erstwhile Kingdom of Mysore, the heritage structures and legacy are also protected, Murty said.