Egyptian Minister seeks to expand ties with India
Egypt’s Foreign Minister Nabil Fahmy, who has chosen India as the destination of his first visit to Asia, had broad ranging discussions with his Indian counterpart Salman Khurshid here on Wednesday.
The two sides agreed to take forward issues of cooperation during the upcoming visit by Secretary East in the Ministry of External Affairs to Egypt before this month-end.
As the regime in Egypt prepares for a referendum in January on a new pattern of government, India is looking to take forward discussions held during ousted President Mohamed Morsy’s visit especially in the areas of defence, long term oil supply arrangements, joint ventures in refining and fertilizers and greater cooperation in science and technology.
The focus of the two-hour-long deliberations was to sustain the momentum in bilateral relations and to expand the interactions to wider areas of regional and international issues of interest, said sources in the Ministry of External Affairs.
The two Ministers also discussed specific issues related to enhancing economic cooperation, including need to ease work permit regulations for professionals. Currently, the bilateral trade was $5.4 billion. India is the third largest destination of Egyptian exports ($2.6 billion) and Egypt is the 11th largest destination of Indian exports ($2.9 billion).
Mr. Khurshid informed his Egyptian counterpart of India’s approval to establishing a Centre of Excellence in Information Technology at Al Azhar University in Cairo. The centre, which will be set up as project under the India-Africa Forum Summit, is planned for completion in a year after the confirmation of infrastructure by the host institution. Once completed, it will be able to train 500 students annually.
The two Ministers also reviewed the entire expanse of bilateral relations, the possibilities of more regular structured discussions on regional and international issues as well as security matters. They exchanged views on the Middle East Peace Process and the situation in Syria. The Egyptian Minister also outlined the developments in his country and the road map ahead. He also called on the Vice President and met the National Security Adviser.
In a first for an Indian spacecraft, Mars orbiter now in interplanetary space
India’s spacecraft to Mars is now coasting in the interplanetary space.
In its epic voyage towards the Red Planet, it broke out of the Sphere of Influence (SOI) of the Earth at 1.14 a.m. on Wednesday, traversing beyond 9.25 lakh km. Chandrayaan-1 had travelled up to four lakh km.
Sun-centric orbit
The Mars orbiter crossed the SOI, 72 hours after it was cannoned out of its Earth-bound orbit on Sunday. It is now in a proper Sun-centric orbit.
Deviprasad Karnik, spokesperson of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), said: “The spacecraft is well and truly on its way to Mars. This is the first time that an Indian spacecraft has crossed this distance of 9.25 lakh km. It is in interplanetary space now.” It was coasting, coming under the influence of the Sun and other planets. “The Earth is no longer pulling it.”
The spacecraft will now coast around the Sun for about 300 days. This helio-centric flight will total 68-crore km before it has its rendezvous with Mars on September 24, 2014.
Around 00.49 hours on Sunday (December 1), ISRO fired the spacecraft’s propulsion system for 23 minutes. As the operation ended, the craft was catapulted out of its Earth-bound orbit towards the Sun-centric phase.
In the interplanetary space, ISRO will correct the spacecraft’s trajectory three or four times before firing the propulsion system again on September 24, 2014, to insert the craft into the Martian orbit with a periapsis of 376 km and an apoapsis of 80,000 km.
If the insertion is successful, ISRO will turn on the five scientific instruments onboard.
It is now in Sun-centric orbit
WTO: deal ‘out of reach’ on Day 2
India can’t accept due restraint provision in its current form, says Anand Sharma
As was expected, on Day 2 of the Ninth World Trade Organisation Ministerial in Bali, a deal seemed out of reach, with India favouring failure of the summit over a compromise.
Addressing the Plenary, Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma not only stated that India could not accept the due restraint provision in its current form but also that “we consider it premature to lend support to an inconclusive trade facilitation agreement.”
U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) Michael Froman said that at this moment, success at Bali could not be taken for granted.
EU Trade Commissioner Karel DeGucht warned that “the storm clouds of failure are right above us.”
India’s outright rejection of both contentious clauses of the proposed “Bali Package,” said official sources, is expected to open up room for further negotiations with the U.S.-led rich countries that are pushing for the trade facilitation proposal and along with the host Indonesia and WTO Director-General Roberto Azevêdo, are keen on a package.
FACT unit to be independent entity
FACT Engineering and Design Organisation (FEDO), an engineering consultancy part of Fertilizers and Chemicals Travancore, will be an independent profit centre from January 1.
Chairman and Managing Director of FACT Jaiveer Srivastav told reporters here on Wednesday that FEDO would soon open its offices in Delhi, Mumbai and select centres abroad to cash in on the boom in business seen by the organisation in recent years.
Mr. Srivastava said that turning FEDO, established in 1965, into an independent unit meant that it would have more freedom to make decisions in keeping with market requirements.
FEDO is learnt to have received about Rs.15 crore in consultancy fees during the last financial year and the market conditions are good for it to foray more resolutely into the market, said a senior FACT official, who pointed out that the unit had recently completed consultancy work for Indian Oil Corporation’s Rs.3,000-crore Paradip project.
One of the areas in which FEDO will now concentrate is raising its manpower.
The entity has about 60 engineers under its command currently, the manpower strength having considerably been reduced over the years from the level of 400.
FEDO’s core areas include, among others, fertilizers, petrochemicals, refining, pharmaceuticals, pesticides, hydro-metallurgy and organic and inorganic acids, said information posted on FEDO website.
Nabard pushing for low-cost drinking water in State
Aims to set up 600 water purifying plants in the country by 2014
Clean drinking water will be made available to rural areas through the water purification plants under Nabard’s Umbrella Programme for Natural Resource Management programme.– FILE PHOTO: G. KARTHIKEYAN
National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard), along with the government of Karnataka, will promote water purifying plants throughout the State to provide clean drinking water in rural areas at more affordable rates, said G. R. Chintala, Chief General Manager (CGM), Regional Office of Karnataka, Nabard.
Speaking on Wednesday at Bankers Institute of Rural Development (BIRD), Nabard, in the city, he said the bank wanted to set up 600 plants by 2014. At present, there are 200 such plants in the country, including in Dharwad and Chitradurga. The plants have been set up in Maharashtra earlier.
He said that a plant costing Rs. 9.78 lakh purifies 2,000 litres of water per hour while another type of plant costing Rs. 11.78 lakh purifies 4,000 litres of water per hour.
Community benefit
The plants would be set up under Nabard’s Umbrella Programme for Natural Resource Management (UPNRM). After setting up the plant, its maintenance would be handed over to the local community.
Water purified in the plant is sold at Rs. 4 for 20 litres. At present, Nabard is not packaging the purified water. While sourcing water for the plant is not a problem in the State, maintenance is important. “People can sell the purified water (once the plant is handed over to them) if they want,” he said.
The water-purifying plants, based on reverse osmosis, were introduced as people in rural areas lose three working days a month due to stomach problems caused by contaminated water. He said, “This project must be taken ahead in the entire State.”
Mr. Chintala said the President of Germany will visit a Nabard-guided organic coir cluster project developed under the UPNRM programme at the end of this year. The project combines the protection of natural resources and community development.
Yield optimisation
He said much more awareness was required of System of Rice Intensification (SRI) cultivation and Nabard would help promote the process. It is showcasing the SRI project in Kundapur, where productivity has increased from 15 quintals to 30 quintals per acre of rice. Yields have increased in Bellary through the method, which decreases the cost of cultivation, uses less labour, provides dry fodder and is variety-neutral.
Karnataka would require two million tonnes of godown space to store agricultural products by 2017. While storage space availability is “not bad” for present needs, agricultural productivity is increasing and better quality storage will be required, Mr. Chintala said.
The State, though doing well in agriculture this year, was “underperforming compared to potential”, he said. “People are not going into improvement practices to the level expected,” he said.
Water from the purifying plant costs Rs. 4 for 20 litres
Nabard wants to set up 600 water purifying units by 2014
GoM clears Telangana bill; Cabinet meeting today
No clarity on composition of proposed state
The Group of Ministers (GoM) on Wednesday night cleared the draft bill for the creation of a state of Telangana by bifurcating Andhra Pradesh.
It will now come up for discussion at a meeting of the Union Cabinet scheduled on Thursday evening.
However, there was no clarity on whether the proposed state would consist of 10 districts of the region or would also include two from neighbouring area — Anantapur and Kurnool — of the Rayalaseema region.
A senior Union Minister, who did not wish to be named, told The Hindu in response to a query on the contentious Rayala-Telangana idea that “all options are on table and Union Cabinet will take a final call.”
The GoM is learnt to have discussed the pros and cons of the proposal to add two more districts to Telangana. It decided to leave the issue to the Union Cabinet, highly placed sources said.
“The GoM set up by the Cabinet on October 3 held its final meeting on Wednesday. The GoM’s report and recommendations will be discussed in Union Cabinet meeting on Thursday,” Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde told journalists outside North Block.
Emerging after an hour-long meeting of the high-power ministerial panel, Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Veerappa Moily said the draft bill and report of the GoM would be submitted to the Prime Minister on Thursday.
The idea of Rayala-Telangana has become a bone of contention with the principal opposition party, the BJP, asserting that it would not support the proposal. The Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS), which has been leading the agitation for the creation of Telangana, is also vehemently opposed to the idea and has given a call for bandh in Andhra Pradesh on Thursday.
Microplastic pollution endangering marine life
Study finds lugworm to be low on energy
Microplastic particles, measuring less than 5mm in size, have been accumulating in the oceans since the 1960s and are now the most abundant form of solid-waste pollution on Earth.
Two U.K.–based studies published in the journal Current Biology looked at whether these near–invisible, microscopic plastics that sink into mud and sand in high concentrations are causing harm to species at the base of the food chain that ingest this sediment during feeding, and play a key ecological role as a source of food for other animals.
Using the lugworm as an indicator species, the first study, from the University of Exeter, found that worms feeding in highly contaminated ocean sediment ate less and had lower energy levels. The second study, from Plymouth University, has established for the first time that ingesting microplastics can transfer pollutants and additives to worms, reducing health and biodiversity.
Ingestion of microplastics by species at the base of the food web is a cause for concern as little has been known about its effects until now. Many other organisms that have a similar feeding behaviour, such as starfish, sea cucumbers and fiddler crabs, may be similarly affected.
Lugworms are common invertebrates found widely found across the north Atlantic, living in burrows in the sand of beaches. They eat sand particles, digesting any micro–organisms and nutrients and passing the sand as waste through their tail, leaving a distinctive trail or “cast” on the beach. The worm can make up about 30 per cent of the biomass of an average sandy beach, making it an important source of food for wading birds and flatfish.
The “earthworms of the sea”, lugworms provide another important ecosystem service by turning over large volumes of sand, replenishing organic material and oxygenating the upper layers to keep the sediment healthy for other animals and microorganisms.
Microplastics can be made from polyethylene, polyethylene terephthalate, PVC or polystyrene. They are too small to be captured through existing treatment process, and wash straight into the ocean. They fall into three categories: the raw material called “nurdles” that are melted down to make larger plastic items or used as exfoliating beads in cosmetic products, or larger pieces of plastic that have degraded and broken down into smaller particles over time. Microplastics are also found as fibres and have been traced back to synthetic textiles like polyester that are used to make clothes, which can release up to 1,900 tiny fibres per garment every time they are washed.
Microplastics carry a complex mix of chemicals which have the potential to harm the worms, the research showed. Many plastics contain chemical additives, such as plasticisers, dyes, and antimicrobials, which can leach out into sediments and seawater. Microplastics also concentrate water–borne chemicals on their surfaces, such as pesticides and detergents.
There has been much campaigning around the impact of larger marine plastic pollution, with widely documented instances of fish and bird entanglement, ingestion and suffocation. But particles of this microscopic size are available to a much broader range of marine organisms, who ingest and retain these tiny plastic particles and act as prey for larger species.
The first study, by Stephanie Wright from University of Exeter, put worms into laboratory tanks of varying levels of plastics contamination for up to one month, measuring their growth, physiology, survival and ability to gain weight.
Reduced feeding also means the sediment is being reworked less, the research found. The condition of the sediment could fall, leading to a decline in the communities which live in it. A separate report, from Dr Mark Anthony Browne on work performed at Plymouth University, showed microplastics can transfer harmful chemicals to lugworms. Due to its role as a prey species, lugworms could pass these chemicals up the food chain to top predators such as fish. – © Guardian Newspapers Limited, 2013
Instances of fish and bird entanglement
Lugworms can pass chemicals up the food chain
Food security issue at WTO creates room for fresh talks
As was expected, on Day 2 of the Ninth World Trade Organisation Ministerial in Bali, a deal seemed out of reach, with India favouring failure of the summit over a compromise.
Addressing the Plenary, Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma not only stated that India could not accept the due restraint provision in its current form but also that “we consider it premature to lend support to an inconclusive trade facilitation agreement.”
U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) Michael Froman said at the Plenary that at this moment, success at Bali could not be taken for granted.
EU Trade Commissioner Karel DeGucht warned that “the storm clouds of failure are right above us.”
India’s outright rejection of both the contentious clauses of the proposed “Bali Package,” said official sources, was expected to open up room for further negotiations with the rich countries that are pushing for the trade facilitation proposal and along with the host Indonesia and WTO Director-General Roberto Azevêdo, are keen on a package. A failure in at Bali will be a debilitating blow to the WTO as a multilateral negotiating forum, said the USTR in his Plenary address.
Agni V’s next trial will be canister-based
In a crucial technological accomplishment, a simulated canister-based launch of a dummy missile weighing 50 tonnes was successfully carried out by scientists of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) recently.
With the success of the “Missile Ejection Test” (MET), DRDO missile technologists are gearing up to conduct the first canister-based test-firing of 5,000-plus km range nuclear weapons-capable Inter Continental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) Agni-V in March-April, 2014.
“We were able to launch canister launch system for the first time”, a top DRDO scientist told The Hindu. All parameters were achieved and the hardware and software applications for the simulated launch were tested. They included the launcher, canister interfacing with other elements. An important aspect was to keep the sealing intact between the missile and gas generator when the latter provided the thrust and ejected the system at high temperatures.
Missile exit velocity, inter-locking of instruments, sensors functioning and the subsequent sequencing of events were some of the crucial objectives that were met successfully. As the missile got ejected from the canister, sensors gave the signal to the computer to commence commands for subsequent events such as igniting the missile’s first stage.
Another top missile technologist, who is closely involved with Agni-V mission, described the MET success as a “very important milestone and a prelude to the main launch.” It laid the foundation and provided core competence to the DRDO for the canister launch system.
India joined an elite club of nations that possess the ICBM launch capability when the maiden test-firing of Agni-V was successfully conducted on April 19, 2012.
Soon after the resounding success of the second Agni V mission on September 15 this year, Avinash Chander, DRDO Director General and Scientific Advisor to the Defence Minister, and Director General (Missiles and Strategic Systems) V.G. Sekaran had announced that the next trial would be canister based.
