South Asia

Addressing the people assembled at the Mission Control Centre at the rocket port here after the successful rocket mission, S. Mohana Kumar, the Mission Director, Chandrayaan-3 said it was a 73-day penance for the ISRO family.

The penance has been finally rewarded with the injection of Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft in the precise orbit.

Kumar said the LVM3 rocket has undergone continuous improvement as it will be used for India's human space mission called Gaganyaan.

According to S. Unnikrishnan, Director, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, this is the seventh successful mission of LVM3 rocket. Several changes have been made in the rocket to make it the ideal vehicle for the Gaganyaan mission.

On his part the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft Director is Dr P. Veeramuthuvel, the journey to the moon has begun and several critical manoeuvres have been lined up in the coming days.

At about 2.35 p.m. on Friday, the rocket LVM3 broke free from the second launch pad and ascended towards the skies.

About 16 minutes later the rocket slung its only passenger -- Chandrayaan-3 -- in the intended orbit.

From there ISRO officials will take the spacecraft towards the moon and try to land it on the lunar soil sometime late next month.

(Venkatachari Jagannathan can be reached atv.jagannathan@ians.in)

--IANS

vj/dpb

Customs Commissioner, Lucknow, Aarti Saxena, told reporters that six department officials posted in the border area have been attached to headquarters.

According to reports, after being seized on July 7, the consignment, worth roughly Rs 4.8 lakhs, was handed over to customs officials for its destruction.

As per rules , the perishable items that are seized should be destroyed within 24 hours.

However, it is alleged that the tomatoes were released by the Customs officials only to be intercepted by police once again.

Later, Customs officials at the Lucknow headquarters were informed about this.

An SSB official said that as per standard practice, the goods that are not manufactured or prepared in Nepal are not allowed in India.

“We used to catch Chinese apples a lot in the past,” he said.

The official added that in case of perishable items, a duty must be paid and a certified copy of it must be produced for entry of such items into India.

“We can make a seizure of items like jewellery, foreign currency, electronic items, if purchased without paying duty,” said Nichlaul SHO Anand Kumar Gupta, while adding that cigarettes and liquor are seized under the NDPS Act. Traders and residents living in border areas frequent the other side for purchase of items of daily needs.

However, district authorities limit the quantity of the commercial goods to a maximum worth of Rs 25,000.

Tomatoes are being sold at Rs 160 per kg in Uttar Pradesh, while they cost around Rs 100 to Rs 110 Nepali rupees which is Rs 62-69 in India.

--IANS

amita/ksk

Addressing a function to launch a book written by Kiran Deep Sandhu on Sardar Pritam Singh on Monday, Prachanda, as the Prime Minister is popularly known, said that Pritampal once went to India to lobby for him to make him the premier.

After leaving India many years ago, Pritam’s familyis now settled in Kathmandu and has good connections with political leaders of Nepal, including Prachanda.

Pritam’s daughter wrote the book 'Roads to the Valley: The Legacy of Sardar Pritam Singh in Nepal'.

While commending on the role played by Pritam Singh on enhancing Nepal-India relations, Prachanda said that the latter had lobbied in Delhi and Kathmandu to make him the Prime Minister some eight years ago.

"Pritamji, a good friend of mine, traveled to New Delhi several times and held rounds to talks with party leaders in order to make me the prime minister," Prachanda said, adding that he also played a special and historic role in enhancing Nepal-India relations, especially people-to-people ties.

“He (Singh) once made several efforts and hard work to make me the Prime Minister. He went to New Delhi several times (to make me Prime Minister) and continuously held several rounds of talks with political leaders in Kathmandu for that purpose,” he added.

The remarks were immediately slammed by the opposition, CPN-UML criticizing that it is Parliament that makes the Prime Minister, not India.

In view of the statement, the UML on Wednesday and Thursday obstructed Parliament proceedings.

A meeting of the ruling parties however concluded that Prachanda made the remarks in good faith and highlighted the contribution made by Pritam so he does not need to resign as demanded by the opposition parties.

KP Sharma Oli, the UML chairman, said Prachanda should resign for his statement and not issue a clarification.

"He has undermined the role of the sovereign parliament and the people's verdicts," said Oli.

Speaking in the lower house, UML lawmaker Raghuji Pant said: “The Prime Minister should resign on moral grounds. We don’t need a Prime Minister appointed by Delhi.”

"Why should the Prime Minister resign?" asked Rajendra Pandey of CPN (Unified Socialist). He said the role being played by the UML is against the spirit of Parliament.

A House of Representatives meeting has been postponed until Friday, following the disruption by opposition parties

Not only the opposition, the ruling parties have also expressed their dissatisfaction at his statement.

“The Prime Minister’s remarks are worthy of criticism. His remarks are wrong,” Bishwa Prakash Sharma told journalists on Wednesday.

--IANS

ag/ksk

In a blogpost on Wednesday, Meta said that it is planning to make Threads compatible with ActivityPub, which would make Threads interoperable with other apps that also support the protocol, such as Mastodon and WordPress -- allowing new types of connections that are simply not possible on most social apps today.

"Our plan is to work with ActivityPub to provide you the option to stop using Threads and transfer your content to another service. Our vision is that people using compatible apps will be able to follow and interact with people on Threads without having a Threads account, and vice versa," Meta said.

Rochko described the possibility of using the same protocol that powers Mastodon and other decentralised services as "a clear victory for our cause".

"The fact that large platforms are adopting ActivityPub is not only validation of the movement towards decentralised social media, but a path forward for people locked into these platforms to switch to better providers. Which in turn, puts pressure on such platforms to provide better, less exploitative services," Rochko said in a blogpost.

Threads is now available for download on Android and iOS in 100 countries, and has crossed two million sign-ups in just two hours after it was launched.

--IANS

shs/prw

"Spoke to His Holiness @DalaiLama and conveyed heartfelt greetings to him on his 88th birthday. Wishing him a long and healthy life," the Prime Minister tweeted.

The Dalai Lama, who resides in Dharamsala, Himachal Pradesh, sent out a video message on the occasion of his birthday.

"Although I am just one human being in the short term, I aspire to contribute to the world peace in thought, word and deed. While in the long term I pray that everyone may reach Buddhahood, the trumpet state of Omnisense, by ascending the paths and grounds (of Bothisattvas), I rejoice that all our different religious traditions make prayers for the benefit of all," he said.

The Dalai Lama was born on July 6, 1935, to a farming family in a small hamlet in Taktser in Amdo province in northeastern Tibet.

Earlier named Lhamo Dhondup, he was recognised as the reincarnation of the 13th Dalai Lama, Thubten Gyatso, in 1937 when he was two-years-old.

In 1959, the occupying Chinese troops suppressed the Tibetan national uprising in Lhasa and forced the Dalai Lama and over 80,000 Tibetans into exile in India and neighbouring countries.

--IANS

ans/ksk

The central bank said it took this decision at the monetary board meeting conducted on Wednesday, reports Xinhua news agency.

The board arrived at this decision following a careful analysis of the current and expected developments, including the faster-than-envisaged disinflation process and benign inflation expectations in the domestic economy, with the aim of enabling the economy to reach its potential and stabilizing inflation at mid-single-digit levels in the medium term, while easing pressures in the financial markets, the statement said.

The board expects that with this reduction of policy interest rates by 200 basis points, and the reduction of policy interest rates by 250 basis points in early June 2023, along with the significant reduction of risk premia on government securities witnessed recently, the market interest rates, particularly lending rates, will adjust downwards adequately and swiftly, said the central bank.

Therefore, the banking and financial sector is urged to pass on the benefits of this significant easing of monetary policy by the central bank to individuals and businesses, thereby supporting economic activity to rebound in the period.

Sri Lanka increased its interest rates significantly in 2022 to deal with rising inflation.

--IANS

ksk

“Faisal Wani and Zeeshan Mushtaq were spotted by ground party in inhospitable glacier where the helicopter had no landing field and a low hover operation was resorted to,” a defence official said.

He said that the entire operation from request to IAF to successfully evacuating the persons into IAF hospital was over in little over an hour including to and fro travel.

Air Force Station Srinagar was in charge of the entire operation from where the helicopter was launched and operation was controlled.

--IANS

zi/dan

Compared to those who lived in areas with average temperature of less than 10 degrees Celsius, the odds of severe vision impairment were 14 per cent higher for those who lived in areas with average temperature from 10-12 degrees Celsius, 24 per cent higher for those between 12 and 15.55 degrees Celsius and 44 per cent higher for those in counties with average temperature at 15.5 degrees Celsius or above.

"This link between vision impairment and average county temperature is very worrying if future research determines that the association is causal," said first author Professor Esme Fuller-Thomson, from University of Toronto.

"With climate change, we are expecting a rise in global temperatures. It will be important to monitor if the prevalence of vision impairment among older adults increases in the future," she added.

Further, the study, published in the journal Ophthalmic Epidemiology, found that the relationship between average temperature and severe vision impairment was strong regardless of age, sex, income, and education of participants. The association between higher county temperature and serious vision impairment was stronger for individuals aged 65 to 79 compared to those 80 or older, males compared to females. The observed link between average temperature and severe vision impairment may be strong, but the mechanism behind this relationship remains a mystery.

"We know that vision problems are a major cause of disabilities and functional limitations," said another co-author ZhiDi Deng, a pharmacy graduate from the University of Toronto.

"Serious vision impairment, for example, can increase the risk of falls, fractures, and negatively impact older adults' quality of life. Taking care of vision impairments and their consequences also cost the US economy tens of billions each year. So, this link between temperature and vision impairment was quite concerning," Deng said.

The team analysed 1.7 million community-dwelling and institutionalised older adults and compared their vision health with average temperature data obtained from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

--IANS

rvt/svn

Calling the failure of the negotiations to again make headway a “wasted opportunity”, India’s Permanent Representative Ruchira Kamboj said on Thursday that the process “could well go on for yet another 75 years without any progress whatsoever in the direction of genuine reform” unless there were changes in the procedure.

She said that the Intergovernmental Negotiations (IGN), as the process is called, could not progress unless the Assembly rules of procedure and a single negotiating text were adopted for it.

As it has done every session since the IGN began in 2009, the Assembly voted by consensus to roll over the negotiations to its next session which starts in September.

The main barrier to progress is the opposition from a small group of countries headed by Italy and which includes Pakistan to the adoption of a negotiating text on which to base the discussions for reform.

“This state of affairs is clearly in the interest of those who seek a status quo, to keep this process frozen in repetitive cycles,” Kamboj said.

India will “persist with our efforts to move from repetitive speeches to text-based negotiations”, she said while cautioning that “looking beyond the IGN looks increasingly to us as the only viable pathway to a future UN Security Council that would better reflect the world of today”.

The Permanent Representative of St Vincent and Grenadines, Inga Rhonda King, speaking on behalf of the L.69 group, gave a similar warning and said: “If we continue to fail to produce tangible results that can move us closer to the widest possible political acceptance on the issue of Security Council reform, then we risk the possibility of the international community finding another forum within which it can arrive at an alternative solution.”

The L.69 is a group of over 30 developing nations from across the world working to reform the Council.

King added: “Failure to make progress on Security Council reform continues to pose a real threat to our credibility and legitimacy and indirectly perpetuates the Security Council's inability to transform situations on the ground in a manner that maintains international peace and security."

General Assembly President Csaba Korosi pointed to small progress made in the IGN process by making it transparent and improving the record-keeping and said that they are “they are practical steps in the right direction, and quite useful ones", although they are not breakthroughs.

“For the first time in the history of these negotiations, the first segments of the IGN meetings are now webcast,” he said, and a website has been set up to maintain records.

It is up to member countries “to show political will for the reform you want to see... True political commitments are key to rebuilding trust and reviving the spirit of cooperation in the UN and beyond”, he added.

(Arul Louis can be contacted at arul.l@ians.in <aru.l@ians.in> and followed at @arulouis)

--IANS

al/ksk

Mathew, a former Stafford City Council member, won the race defeating incumbent Mayor Cecil Willis by 16 votes in a run-off race this month, crediting his victory to his faith in god, the Fort Bend Star reported.

He was administered the oath of office by Missouri City Mayor Robin Elackatt, also an Indian-American, at a special event attended by his family members and top officials.

Indian-American Fort Bend County Judge, K.P. George, who was present on the occasion, tweeted: "Congratulations to Stafford Mayor-elect Ken Mathew! It was an absolute pleasure to attend his swearing-in ceremony this evening. Wishing him all the best as he embarks on this important role."

Texas representatives, Ron Reynolds and Suleman Lulani, and former Missouri City Mayor Owen Allen also graced the occasion.

Back home, Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, also congratulated Mathew in a tweet.

"Congratulations to Ken Mathew from Kerala for becoming the elected Mayor of Stafford, US. He is the first Indian to be elected to the post, in 67 years' history of Stafford," Chandrasekhar wrote.

Mathew served on Stafford Council since first being elected in 2006, and served on the city's Planning and Zoning Commission for several years before then.

He immigrated to the US in the 1970s after earning a degree from the University of Bombay, the Star reported.

An MBA, Mathew worked as an accountant and financial executive for several corporations, including Toshiba in the Houston area. He has lived in Stafford since 1982.

--IANS

mi/khz