Indian rocket Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) will put into orbit on Sunday two foreign satellites – NovaSAR and S1-4 – together weighing 889 kg, said a top official.

“The September 16 rocket launch will be a fully commercial launch. The rocket will be carrying only the two foreign satellites,” K. Sivan, Chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), told IANS on Thursday.

He said such commercial launches were not new for ISRO as it has done that several times earlier.

The PSLV rocket will blast off from the first launch pad of Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh.

The two satellites belong to Surrey Satellite Technologies Ltd (SSTL), UK, under commercial arrangement with Antrix Corp Ltd – the commercial arm of ISRO.

According to ISRO, the two earth observation satellites will be launched into a 583 km Sun Synchronous Orbit.

NovaSAR is a S-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar satellite intended for forest mapping, land use and ice cover monitoring, flood and disaster monitoring.

S1-4 is a high resolution Optical Earth Observation Satellite, used for surveying resources, environment monitoring, urban management and for disaster monitoring.

(IANS)

The benchmark S&P BSE Sensex reclaimed the 38,000 mark on Friday afternoon, supported by a recovery in the rupee and positive global markets.

The NSE Nifty50 also surged around 120 points during the afternoon session of trade. So far, sector-wise, consumer durables stocks led the increase in the market.

The Indian rupee on Friday recovered after the recent slump and around 1.10 p.m. the rupee traded around 71.60 per US dollar, against the previous close of 72.19 per dollar.

Globally equity markets traded higher after reports said that the US and China may hold fresh talks on trade tariffs issue.

Further, the Wholesale Price Index for August, released on Friday, eased to 4.53 per cent from 5.09 per cent in July, which firmed up the domestic investor sentiment.

Index-wise, the wider Nifty50 on the National Stock Exchange traded at 11,490.45 points (1.25 p.m.), higher by 120.55 points or 1.06 per cent from its previous close.

The S&P BSE Sensex, which had opened at 37,939.29 points, traded at 38,022.67 points, higher by 304.71 points or 0.81 per cent than the previous close of 37,717.96 points.

So far, it has touched an intra-day high of 38,058.92 points and a low of 37,859.52 points.

The markets remained closed on Thursday on the ocassion of Ganesh Chaturthi.

India is already playing a leading role in lowering global emissions. The country’s efforts in mainstreaming renewable energy and energy efficiency are remarkable. These, and its ambition in the electric mobility space, are admired across the globe, says Mahindra Group Executive Chairman Anand Mahindra.

For him, climate change needs to be addressed and he has called on businesses worldwide to commit to science-based targets (SBTs), which aimed to reduce emissions as underpinned by the historic 2015 Paris Climate Change Agreement, the first-ever legally binding treaty adopted by 197 countries that came in force on November 4, 2016.

“India’s social programmes like Ujala (bio-mass to LPG) and Swachh Bharat are very innovative and effective ways of addressing the issues of both planet and people on a large scale where they can actually create a positive impact,” Mahindra told IANS in an interview here.

He’s hereto co-chair the Global Climate Action Summit (GCAS) that aims to encourage all stakeholders to raise their ambition with many new possibilities emerging out of the discussions.

A firm believer that climate change needs to be addressed, he was categorically clear in saying that no nation can afford to ignore this.

“But as I said earlier, everyone needs to do more. There is a lot that developed countries are doing and we look forward to the steps they take as these actions help the global effort, due to advances in technology that others can learn from and emulate.”

On the status on the adoption of science-based climate targets, Mahindra said nearly three years on from Paris, the race is on to meet the target of holding global temperature rise to under two degrees Celsius, helping avoid the worst effects of climate change by achieving peak greenhouse gas emissions by 2020.

“At this summit, new evidence will be presented to demonstrate that companies around the world, and in some of the highest-emitting industries, are taking action to make the transition to the low-carbon business models of the future.”

Currently, 20 Mahindra Group companies have signed up for the science-based climate targets, with Mahindra Sanyo Special Steels being the first steel company in the world to get its targets approved.

This covers more than 90 per cent of the Group’s emissions and other Group companies are in the process of signing up for these targets, he said.

Mahindra sees business value in adopting these targets that he announced to commit at the World Economic Forum in January this year.

“We have already seen remarkable value in reducing emissions through the EP100 programme which aims to double energy productivity in our main businesses — auto, farm equipment and holiday resorts. Science-based targets are a way of ensuring that ambition is stepped up and action is aligned to the target set by the Paris Agreement.”

“The need for sustainability in business is creating a tectonic shift of mindset, as dramatic as moving from smoke signals to Skype. The scale involved in moving from combustion engines to electric, from conventional to alternative energy, opens up a new world of business possibilities.”

He said the creation of new technologies and leveraging them to create new businesses is a huge opportunity for the future.

This includes retro-fitting homes, buildings, and factories, to make them more energy efficient; and manufacturing literally billions of energy efficient appliances for lighting, heating, cooking, cooling, and washing for every home.

“We are talking about massive scale once consumers change their lifestyle. The potential investment in wind and solar energy alone, over the next two decades, is six trillion dollars.

“Beside the business case for sustainability, we as a company have discovered that everything we have done to reduce greenhouse gas emissions has given us a financial return.”

An optimistic Mahindra said the GCAS would encourage all stakeholders to raise their ambition with many new possibilities emerging out of the discussions.

The commitments made in the lead-up to GCAS have already created momentum and GCAS will help carry this through.

As a platform to address the challenge of climate change, the GCAS to my mind is already a success.

“For me, the work toward GCAS began at Davos when we issued the SBT (science-based targets) challenge to other global corporations. The challenge has gained huge momentum and more than 470 companies have already signed up for these SBTs.

“I am sure that the conversations at GCAS will sustain and even increase the momentum that has been created. We have Indian steel and cement companies that have come forward to sign onto these SBTs. These sectors are known to be hard-to-abate, yet Indian companies have shown vision and ambition in taking this action. These point toward strong signs of success for GCAS already,” he said.

The three-day climate action summit, an initiative by California Governor Jerry Brown, began here on Wednesday amidst the presence of 4,000-plus business leaders, investors, citizens and government representatives from all over the world, coming together with the united resolve to “take ambition to the next level”.

(IANS)

The devastating floods in Kerala and Karnataka will not just cause one-fifth of the coffee production to be wiped out this year but its aftershocks are expected to have a long-term negative impact on farmers.

Ruined plantations would take several years to return to life and a part of those that survived might die due to the rotting of their roots. One estimate places the losses in three districts of Karnataka alone at Rs 700 crore.

There will also be a huge financial bearing on the beleaguered farmers to arrange resources for recovery of the damaged trees and re-establish the dead coffee gardens, Ramesh Rajah, President of the Coffee Exporters Association of India, said.

“According to the Coffee Board, about 1,000 hectares of coffee garden area have been flattened due to the landslides triggered by the heavy rains. Every big tree in (shed-grown) plantations that has fallen has damaged at least 10-20 coffee trees,” Rajah told IANS.

Before the monsoon, the total coffee output for this year was pegged at over 3.5 lakh tonnes. However, the estimates have been brought down to 2.8-3 lakh tonnes post the flash-floods-led disaster in both southern states.

According to the Coffee Board of India, the total production of coffee in 2015-16 was 3.48 lakh tonnes while it was estimated to be 3.12 lakh tonnes in 2016-17.

Rajah said there were fears that some of the coffee trees that survived the floods might “die slowly” due to the root-rotting as they were submerged for a long time.

Karnataka Revenue Minister R.V. Deshpande said the coffee plantations on 2.26 lakh hectares of land were affected, leading to huge losses to the farmers.

“Coffee plantations in Kodagu, Hassan and Chikmagalur have been badly damaged. The Coffee Board is assessing the magnitude of the damage. But the tentative figures show the losses are around Rs 700 crore,” Deshpande told IANS.

According to sources, the central government is working on a special package for the cultivators based on the recommendations of the Commerce Ministry even as the Coffee Board is assessing the overall damage caused.

Karnataka accounts for 70-80 per cent of the country’s total coffee production while Kerala produces over 10 per cent and Tamil Nadu about 5 per cent. Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and the northeastern region, which come under the non-traditional coffee producing areas, account for the rest.

Arabica and Robusta are the two types of coffee grown in India.

B.M. Raju, who grows coffee beans on 60-acres of land in Karnataka’s Kodagu, said the damage in his district ranged from 20 to 80 per cent and farmers would have no option but to reinvest heavily to rejuvenate their gardens.

“The input cost is already high. Labour cost has increased in last few years. But after these floods, coffee cultivators are totally broken. We will have to raise a huge sum for replantation,” said Raju, who is a member of the Coffee Board.

The input cost includes expenses on seedlings, labour, irrigation, fertilisers, pesticides and chemicals.

Rajah said farmers had the “financial inability” to raise funds as they were already in distress.

Even if the cultivators manage to gather resources and carry out replantation, they will have to wait for at least five years for the returns when trees start bearing fruit.

Earlier, farmers would get 75-85 bags (each of 60 kg) of coffee beans per hectare. However, this time it would be just 12-25 bags in Kodagu, Raju said.

According to the Coffee Board, the overall farm productivity was 761 kg per hectare in 2016-17.

Rajah said the quality of coffee beans would not be good this year as their shape may not be round and the texture may be rough.

But K. Basavaraj, who heads the Coffee Board’s Quality Division, maintained that the quality would not be affected as the fruit development would happen after the rains.

“There would not be any impact on the bean quality in general. We have 3-4 months for recovery of plants and development of beans. Quality could be slightly below the normal in certain pockets where serious damage has been reported,” Basavaraj said.

He said plants in the minimal damage areas would recover by the next year but some pockets, especially in Kodagu where entire coffee estates have vanished, would take years to rebuild.

(IANS)