In its aim towards human spaceflight, Indian space agency ISRO on Thursday carried out the first in a series of tests to qualify a crew escape system.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) in a statement said the crew escape system is a critical technology for human spaceflight.

“The crew escape system is an emergency escape measure designed to quickly pull the crew module along with the astronauts to a safe distance from the launch vehicle in the event of a launch abort.

“The first test (Pad Abort Test) demonstrated the safe recovery of the crew module in case of any exigency at the launch pad,” ISRO said.

According to the ISRO, the five-hour countdown was smooth. The crew escape system along with the simulated crew module with a mass of 12.6 tonne, lifted off at 7 a.m. at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh.

The test was over in 259 seconds, during which the crew escape system along with crew module soared skyward, then arced out over the Bay of Bengal and floated back to Earth under its parachutes about 2.9 km from Sriharikota.

The crew module reached an altitude of nearly 2.7 km under the power of its seven specifically designed quick acting solid motors to take away the crew module to a safe distance without exceeding the safe g-levels.

Nearly 300 sensors recorded various mission performance parameters during the test flight.

Three recovery boats are being exercised to retrieve the module as part of the recovery protocol.

A majority of Indian and foreign investors consider that high oil prices have emerged as a significant risk to the country’s economy, Moody’s Investors Service said on Wednesday.

The US rating agency’s report is based on a survey of 175 respondents, including from over 100 financial institutions at the annual India Credit Conference in Mumbai and Singapore held in June.

Investors were asked questions on issues like top risks facing the Indian economy, fiscal deficit, the recapitalizsation package for public sector banks and credit conditions for Indian corporates among others.

“Most of the respondents highlighted high oil prices as the top risk while 30.3 per cent of those in Singapore picked rising interest rates as the next top risk and 23.1 per cent of those in Mumbai picked domestic political risks as the second top risk,” Moody’s Vice President Joy Rankothge said in the report.

Most respondents said they believed India would not meet the central government’s fiscal deficit target of 3.3 per cent of GDP for the current fiscal.

While only 23.3 per cent of the investors in Singapore and 13.6 per cent in Mumbai felt that the fiscal targets would be achieved, 84.7 per cent in Mumbai and 76.7 per cent in Singapore expected some fiscal slippage.

On the government’s bank recapitalisation plan, 85.7 per cent in Singapore and 93.6 per cent in Mumbai thought that it was insufficient to resolve the non-performing assets (NPA), or banks’ bad loans, challenges.

In this connection, while 59.6 per cent of the attendees in Mumbai thought that banks will be unable to raise capital from the markets, 32.1 per cent in Singapore felt the same way.

Respondents in both locations said funding conditions will be one of the top factors driving the outlook for non-financial corporates – 38 per cent in Mumbai and 34.6 per cent in Singapore.

According to the report, 28 per cent of respondents in Mumbai selected the resumption of capital investment as the second key factor affecting credit outlook while only 11.5 per cent felt this way in Singapore.

In contrast, 26.9 per cent of the Singapore attendees selected government policy and reforms as the second most important factor affecting the credit outlook, compared with 22 per cent in Mumbai.

The ‘big 500’ companies in India contribute the lion’s share of more than 90 percent of the total Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) spends in India, and just 20 top corporations account for over 45 percent, a new survey revealed on Wednesday.

In terms of the geographical beneficiaries, Maharashtra received the biggest chunk of the total CSR fund spent in the country, followed by Rajasthan, Karnataka and Gujarat and together they account for around one-third of the total funds.

However, the northeastern states of Nagaland, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Tripura, and the Union Territories have received the lowest CSR funding so far.

The survey on the CSR activities was conducted by CSRBOX and NGOBOX, which revealed that by March 2019, CSR spending will cross Rs 50,000 crore mark.

Similarly, the CSR compliance is also expected to improve and fall in the range of 97-98 percent by net year 2019-2020, according to the survey, said CSRBOX-NGOBOX CEO Bhomik Shah.

“The research examined the CSR spending trend since the applicability of mandatory CSR with the Companies Act, 2103, for companies falling under certain criteria of annual profits or turnover or net worth. According to Ministry of Corporate Affairs, India has between 13,000-15,000 such companies,” Shah said.

The survey looked into the prescribed CSR and actual CSR trends in the past four years and projected the number for the current fiscal’s CSR spend by the ‘Big 500’ companies.

The research said that the ‘Big 500’ will spend over Rs 11,000 crore on social initiatives this year to comply with the CSR rules, Shah added.

The survey predicts that education will be the most favoured area of CSR activity in coming years, followed by skills development, which could be pumped in with Rs 15,000 crore CSR funds between 2014-2019.

Besides, healthcare, water and sanitation initiatives also received substantial CSR attention due to the ‘Swachh Bharat Mission’ and would receive Rs 14,000 crore by March 2019.

After analyzing CSR portfolios of companies in past four years, Shah said that an upward trend has been noticed for CSR compliance though the funding size for various initiatives is falling, suggesting that companies want to diversify their CSR activities.

“If the new recommendations by Sub-Legal Committee on CSR, constituted by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs in April 2018 are accepted by the government, then companies will not be allowed to carry forward the unspent CSR fund. This will boost the CSR compliance substantially,” Shah pointed out.

He explained that in the past, corporates used to write out cheques for government-instituted funds when they lacked expertise on development issues, but the scenario is reversing now with the government taking their support to show impact on ground through CSR interventions and boost official programmes — the real intention of making CSR mandatory.

“Mandatory CSR has made a lot of change in India’s development landscape. It has gradually formalised the corporate philanthropy with emphasis on impacts on the ground. With an average Rs 12,000 crore funding annually, there is a lot that can be done in education, healthcare and rural development areas,” said Shah.

Oil prices edged up on Tuesday on rising concerns about an oil shortage amid supply disruptions in Libya.

The West Texas Intermediate for August delivery increased $0.20 to settle at $74.14 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while Brent crude for September delivery was up $0.46 dollar to close at $77.76 a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange, Xinhua reported.

Libya declared force majeure on exports from its two critical ports which together handle about 850,000 bpd of oil shipments, according to Reuters. Oil producers declare force majeure when forces beyond their control disrupt oil supplies.

A weaker US dollar also made the dollar-priced commodity more attractive for holders of other currencies.
The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, decreased 0.25 per cent to 94.636 in late trading.

The longest total lunar eclipse of the 21st century would occur on July 27, with the celestial spectacle visible in its entirety from all parts of India.

The eclipse will last for 1 hour and 43 mi

nutes, giving viewers a wonderful opportunity to experience the happening, according to Debiprosad Duari, Director, Research & Academic, M.P. Birla Planetarium, Kolkata.

It will be preceded and followed by partial eclipses lasting more than one hour.

The eclipse will be visible in parts of South America, much of Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia. For viewers in India, the eclipse, both partial and the total, will be visible in its entirety from all parts of the country.

The partial eclipse of the moon will start around 11.54 p.m. Indian Standard Time, with the total eclipse begining at 1 a.m. on July 28.

“The greatest eclipse, when moon will look the darkest, will be at around 01:52 a.m. and the totality will continue at 02:43 a.m. after this period the moon will remain partially eclipsed till 03:49 a.m. of July 28,” Duari said in a media release.

Earlier this year, there was a total lunar eclipse on January 31.

For a total lunar eclipse of a long duration to occur, the moon has to pass through the central part of the Earth’s shadow.

The previous total lunar eclipse on January 31, lasted 1 hour and 16 minutes when the moon passed to the south of shadow’s centre; and the next total lunar eclipse on January 21, 2019 will be only for 1 hour and 2 minutes because it’ll pass to the north of the shadow’s centre.

Late at night on July 27, the full moon will be near its apogee, the farthest point from Earth in its orbit around Earth, and it will be the smallest full moon of the year.

“This smaller and slower-moving full moon takes more time to cross the Earth’s shadow than does a full moon that’s closer to Earth and moving faster in orbit. That’s why a full moon at or near lunar apogee adds to the duration of a total lunar eclipse,” Duari said

The full moon will plunge deeply into the Earth’s shadow on the night of July 27-28. The distance of the Moon from Earth just before the eclipse will be around 406,223 km.

Depending on atmospheric conditions, this could be an especially dark total lunar Eclipse. The longest possible total lunar eclipse is 1 hour and 47 minutes. In this case, the centre of the lunar disk aligned almost perfectly with the centre of the Earth’s shadow.

During a total lunar eclipse, the moon’s disk can take on a dramatically colourful appearance from bright orange to blood red and more rarely dark brown to very dark gray depending upon the part of the Eartha¿s shadow it will be passing through.

Lunar eclipses are completely safe to view with the naked eye.

“No special filters are required to protect your eyes like those used for solar eclipses. One does not need a telescope to watch the eclipse, although a good pair of binoculars will enhance the experience,” Duarisaid.

An eclipse of the moon takes place only at full moon. Whenever the sun, earth and moon come in a perfect straight line, as the sun’s rays falls on the earth, its shadow falls onto a patch of space, and only when, moon enters that patch of shadow can we see a lunar eclipse.

The shadow is actually composed of two cone-shaped parts, one nested inside the other. The outer shadow or penumbra is a zone where the earth’s shadow is partial and blocks some, but not all of the sun’s rays.

In contrast, the inner shadow or umbra is a region where the earth blocks all direct sunlight from reaching the moon. When only part of the moon passes through the umbra, a partial lunar eclipse is seen. If the entire Moon passes through the umbral shadow, then a total eclipse of the moon occurs.

Claiming a default of Re 1 in repayment of a loan, a co-operative bank here has allegedly refused to return 138 grams of gold jewels pledged for the loan, prompting the customer to move the Madras High Court for relief.
In a petition, C Kumar, a member of the Pallavaram branch of Kancheepuram Central Cooperative Bank, submitted that he had been running from pillar to post for the past five years to get back the jewels worth around Rs 3.50 lakh and sought a direction to the bank to return them.

When the plea came up for hearing on Friday, Justice T Raja recorded the petitioner’s counsel submissions Sathyan and directed the government advocate to get instructions from the authorities within two weeks.

The petitioner said he had taken a loan of Rs 1.23 lakh from the bank by pledging 131 grams of gold jewellery on April 6, 2010.

In between, he took two fresh loans totalling Rs 1.65 lakh by pledging a total of 138 grams of gold.

On March 28,2011, he closed the first loan by settling the amount along with interest and redeemed the 131 grams of jewels.

He repaid the two other loans also shortly thereafter, but the bank refused to return the jewels saying there was a balance of Re 1 in each of the loans.

Petitioners counsel M Sathyan said even after repeated requests by the petitioner, the bank refused to release the jewellery or accept payment of pending Re 1 for each account.

The petitioner submitted that he nurtured a doubt with regard to the safety of his jewels.

Skoda Auto India on Monday said that its parent Volkswagen Group will invest 1 billion euros in the company’s expansion plan for the Indian market.

The programme — India 2.0 — will be executed between 2019 and 2021.

It includes creation of an engineering and design centre, new products, increase in production and further localization of components.

Telangana is keen to collaborate with United Arab Emirates (UAE) in blockchain technologies, state IT Minister K. T. Rama Rao said on Friday.

He was talking to Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Sheikh Abdullah Bin Zayed Al Nahyan who visited T-Hub, India’s largest startup incubator and appreciated the innovations being done here.

Rama Rao, who escorted the UAE delegation, said Telangana, like UAE, was focussed on blockchain and had a strong ambition to become the national leader in this domain.

Stressing that the state was keen to collaborate with UAE whose focus and priorities on blockchain were well recognized and respected, he said the state wanted to find best use cases to apply blockchain solutions in various domains of governance. He told the visiting delegation that the state will be hosting a major international blockchain Congress in Hyderabad in the first week of August.

Rao explained about opportunities of collaborating through the T-Hub with priority programmes of UAE and Telangana.

He proposed to create a market access program for UAE-based startups with a product or a solution relevant for the Indian market. He said Tech startups in the education space could be identified who can come up with innovative solutions for improving learning outcomes of the diverse range of students in UAE schools.

Rama Rao also offered to jointly explore opportunities for finding innovative solutions for common priorities in the areas of renewables, water, and other natural resources.

The UAE Minister extended an invitation to Rama Rao to visit and explore business opportunities in UAE to which the latter responded positively.

Rama Rao said that Telangana government continues to look for potential investments from UAE-based companies.

Outlining the Telangana government’s industrial policy, he said that Telangana has the most progressive industrial development and investment policy in the country, and currently rated number one in the ease of doing business.

“We have already received investment proposals from three leading UAE-based companies, and we are sure that we can become an ideal destination for any UAE investors who wish to set up their manufacturing units in India,” he added.

India will be at the centre of the “sunshine” countries of the International Solar Alliance (ISA) promoted jointly by it and France, Commerce Minister Suresh Prabhu said on Friday.

Addressing the Renewable Energy Dialogue here, he also said that India has set a target of achieving 40 per cent of total electricity generation from non-fossil fuel sources by 2030.

“India is running one of the largest and most ambitious renewable energy capacity expansion programmes in the world. When achieved, this will place India at the centre of ‘Sunshine Countries’,” he said.

The ISA is currently promoting the development of solar power in over 120 countries.

The Minister also said the government’s target of installing 20 gigawatt (GW) of solar power by 2022 was achieved four years of ahead of schedule in January through setting up solar parks.

“India has set a fresh target of achieving 100 gigawatt of solar power by 2022,” he added.

GST Council Member and Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Modi on Friday outright ruled out bringing petroleum products under the ambit of Goods and Services Tax (GST) in near future, citing loss of revenue both to central and state governments.

He added there was no consensus in the GST Council on the issue yet and if such a decision was effected in a hurry, both the Central and the state governments would incur huge revenue losses.

Modi, the Bihar Finance Minister, added that even if petroleum products are brought under GST, there is no guarantee that they would attract a tax rate within 28 per cent and states may levy additional taxes for want of more revenue.

His statement comes days after NITI Aayog Vice Chairman Rajiv Kumar told IANS in an interview that petrol and diesel can’t be brought under GST any time soon since the total state and Central taxes on petrol put together are around 90 per cent right now.

He had said that no state will be willing to take a cut so huge and opening a new slab under GST would be an enormous exercise.

However, Modi said the Council could positively consider bringing in natural gas and aviation turbine fuel within the purview of GST.

Addressing a National Conclave on “GST – Growing Stronger Together” here, he said the GST slab of 28 per cent for certain products could be brought down only once the revenues stabilize at about Rs one lakh crore per month, a statement said.

The average monthly collection under GST stood at Rs 89,885 crore during 2017-18.

“Similarly, a three slab GST could also be possible at any rate between 12 per cent and 18 per cent once the monthly revenue collections move towards stability which will take time,” he added.