Archives for November 2018

The ruling AIADMK government came under opposition flak on Wednesday over the manner in which it closed down the Sterlite Copper smelter plant in Tuticorin as a three-member committee appointed by the National Green Tribunal (NGT) said the closure is unjustified.

In a tweet, DMK President M.K. Stalin said it is a shame for the Tamil Nadu government that the Tarun Aggarwal committee has recommended reopening of the Sterlite Copper smelter plant with certain conditions.

“Knowing that such a thing would happen, I had insisted that the decision to close down the plant should be taken in the cabinet meeting,” Stalin said.

He said the AIADMK government should at least fight the case legally in a proper manner.

PMK founder S. Ramadoss said the committee’s decision was an expected one.

Ramadoss said the smelter plant reopening on New Year 2019 is a certainty and the rulers have cheated the people.

The Tamil Nadu State Secretary of the Communist Party of India (CPI) R. Mutharasan said the state government should shed its supportive stand to the copper smelter plant and take action for permanent closure of the plant.

The NGT had appointed a committee headed by former Chief Justice of the Meghalaya High Court Tarun Aggarwal to probe the closure of the copper smelter plant.

Tamil Nadu had ordered the closure of the Tuticorin plant, around 650 km from Chennai, following protests and the death of 13 persons in police firing on May 22.

The locals alleged the plant caused pollution and affected their health.

In October, the Tamil Nadu government rejected a Central government-sponsored report on the groundwater contamination in Tuticorin, saying it “prejudices” the state government cases in various courts against the Sterlite copper smelter plant of Vedanta Ltd.

The study said Sterlite Copper can’t be said to be the only cause of pollution.

Tamil Nadu Chief Secretary Girija Vaidyanathan, in a letter to the Central government in October, had said the groundwater report appears to support Sterlite and “is absolutely vague and without any support of empirical data”.

“It does not appear to be made on any scientific basis and it is not known how the two scientists who have submitted the report have made such a vague and an unsubstantiated statement in the report,” Vaidyanathan said.

 India on Thursday put into orbit its own Hyper Spectral Imaging Satellite (HysIS) — an earth observation satellite — and 30 other foreign satellites in text-book style.
In the process, India has crossed the milestone of lifting and putting into orbit over 250 foreign satellites. India has till date has put into orbit 269 foreign satellites.

The notable aspect of the rocket mission is the placing of the satellites in two different orbits — one at a higher altitude and the others in a lower altitude.

After the successful launch, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Chairman K. Sivan said: “Once again Indian space scientists showed their excellence. The PSLV injected the HysIS first and later the 30 foreign customers satellites.

“The HysIS is a state-of-the-art satellite. The heart of the satellite, the optical imaging chip was designed and fabricated by ISRO.

Sivan also said that the next launch will be of communication satellite GSAT-11 from French Guiana on December 5 which will followed by GSAT-7A by the Indian rocket Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) from here.

At 9.58 a.m., the four staged/engine PSLV-CA rocket, standing 44.4 metres tall and weighing about 230 tonnes, blasted off from the first launch pad.

With the fierce orange flame at its tail, the rocket slowly gained speed and went up enthralling the people at the rocket port while the rocket’s engine noise like a rolling thunder adding to the thrill.

More thrilling aspect came in when rocket’s fourth stage/engine was cut/switched off in just over 16 minutes after the lift off.

A minute later, the Indian satellite HysIS with a mission life of five years was placed in 636 km polar sun synchronous orbit.

Following that the rocket was brought to a lower altitude of 503 km.

Post HysIS ejection, the rocket’s fourth stage was restarted at 59.65 minutes after the lift off.

The primary goal of HysIS is to study the earth’s surface in visible, near infrared and shortwave infrared regions of the electromagnetic spectrum. It will also be used for strategic purposes.

The co-passengers of HysIS include one micro and 29 nano satellites from eight different countries.

Later, the rocket was switched off and on twice before the final foreign passenger was put into orbit about 112.79 minutes after the rocket’s lift off.

All the foreign satellites were placed in a 504 km orbit.

While 23 satellites are from the US, the rest are from Australia, Canada, Columbia, Finland, Malaysia, the Netherlands and Spain.

These satellites have been commercially contracted for launch through Antrix Corporation Limited, the commercial arm of ISRO.

ISRO had earlier carried out a satellite mission spread over two hours in January.

IANS