China will not feel ‘jealous’ of India’s Mars mission success but will have ‘myriad reasons’ to feel delighted at the feat, state media here said today.

“Apparently, China will not feel jealous of Mangalyaan entering Mars orbit. Chinese people understand that they boast much more advanced technological, economic and social development than India does,” state-run Global Times said in its editorial titled ‘India’s Mars success boosts space research’.

“The Indian public fully expressed their elation at having surpassed China in Mars exploration. China’s first Mars exploratory probe, Yinghuo-1, went missing one year after its launch in 2011,” the editorial said.

Watched by Prime Minister Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) scientists broke into wild cheers and congratulated each other after the 1,350 kg Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) spacecraft ‘Mangalyaan’ was manoeuvred into its designated place.

“There is rhetoric on India’s Internet that the success of Mangalyaan is pouring salt into China’s wounds, which, however, is too serious and strong a characterisation,” the article said.

“Actually, Chinese people have myriad reasons to feel delighted at the success of the Mangalyaan probe alongside Indian people,” it said.

Soon after Mangalyaan’s successful entry into Martian space, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying hailed the achievement as Asia’s pride.

“This is pride of India and Pride of Asia and also is the landmark progress in humankind’s exploration of outer space. So we congratulate India on that,” Hua said.

Almost all the Chinese media featured Mangalyaan’s success prominently with photos of celebrations in India.

“The total cost of the Indian mission has been put at Rs 4.5 billion rupees ($74 million) cheaper than the cost of making a Hollywood movie,” state-run Xinhua news agency said in its report.

The Global Times, known for its nationalistic posture, however, took a dig at India’s Martian achievement saying that “If a country that is relatively backward in scientific research is able to send a probe to Mars, it is highly possible that Yinghuo-2 may succeed in the future.

India’s maiden mission to Mars, the Mangalyaan, has arrived in orbit after a 300-day marathon covering over 670 million kilometres (420 million miles). Science writer Pallava Bagla traced its journey as it neared the Red Planet.

On the morning of 24 September, the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) slowed down the spacecraft sufficiently so it could be caught in the orbit of Mars.

“India will become the first Asian country to have achieved this and if it happens in the maiden attempt itself, India could become the first country in the world to have reached distant Mars on its own steam in the first attempt,” said Isro chairman K Radhakrishnan as it approached.

Both Russia and the US failed in their maiden attempts. The first Chinese mission to Mars, called Yinghuo-1, failed in 2011 alongside the Russian Phobos-Grunt mission with which it was launched. Earlier in 1998, the Japanese mission to Mars ran out of fuel and was lost.

Undoubtedly, India – a late starter – is way ahead of its Asian rivals in trying to get to the Red Planet.

“We are really not racing with anyone, but with ourselves to reach the next level of excellence,” said Mr Radhakrishnan.

‘Pink of health’

India’s Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) – an indigenously made unmanned robotic mission weighing 1,350kg (2,976lb) – was launched from the rocket port at Sriharikota on the coast of the Bay of Bengal on a balmy afternoon on 5 November last year.

Since then, the mission “has been in the pink of health”, says Isro, and has been cruising at breakneck speed to reach close to Mars, half-way around the Sun.

The death toll in Assam in the current flood rose to 30 on Wednesday with 14 bodies recovered from worst-affected Goalpara and Kamrup (rural) districts even as relief and rescue work continued round-the-clock.

Six bodies were recovered from Bolbola and Krishnai areas of Goalpara taking the total death toll so far to 14 in the district, where army, NDRF and SDRF are conducting rescue operation, a senior district administration official said.

Another eight bodies were recovered from neighbouring Kamrup(Rural) district, where the toll rose to 10. Four others are still missing, Deputy Commissioner J Balaji said.

Goalpara district administration sources said 94 relief camps have been set up by the district administration and more than 90,000 people have taken shelter in them. 

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Wednesday called up Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi to take stock of the flood situation in the state. Gogoi apprised him about the slew of steps initiated by the state government to rescue the marooned people in the flood-hit areas. He also asked the home minister to raise the ex-gratia amount to the next of kin of those who died and sustained injuries and enhanced central assistance for damaged houses and crop land.

Assam Agriculture Minister Nilamoni Sen Deka and Forest Minister Rakibul Hussain have been deputed by Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi to review the prevailing situation in the district and coordinate the relief and rescue operations, an official spokesman said.

The ministers have announced that the state government would provide ex-gratia payment of Rs 3.5 lakh to the next of kin of those who lost their lives in the current floods. 

In Kamrup (rural) rescue operations were on and the situation was improving gradually with no rains since Tuesday. Balaji said road communication between Nagarberra and Hekra was affected as a concrete bridge was washed away on Tuesday.

Traffic along NH 37 has resumed but they were moving very slowly as several parts of it are still submerged, he added.

Situation in Guwahati, which falls in Kamrup (metro) district, was improving slowly though the severely affected areas of Anil Nagar, Nabin Nagar, Tarun Nagar, Rajgarh besides Zoo Road in the heart of the city are still under water, a spokesman of the district administration said.

Flood water from neighbouring Meghalaya inundated Betkuchi, Bashishta Chariali, Katahbari and Gorchuk localities of Guwahati along NH 37, the spokesman said.

All government and private educational institutions in and around the city remained closed for the third consecutive day on Wednesday.

In Kamrup (metro), five people have died so far while in Dhubri district a child was killed by landslide at Hatisinghmari on September 22. 

A population of nearly four lakh have been affected in 12 districts by the current wave of flood which has inundated 415 villages and nearly 9,000 hectares of crop area, a Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA) release said. 

The affected districts are Goalpara, Kamrup Metro, Kamrup Rural, Dhemaji, Barpeta, Udalguri, Bongaigaon, Kokrajhar, Nalbari, Morigaon, Sonitpur, Darrang and Lakhimpur.

Alliance Air would resume flights to five north-eastern cities, including Guwahati, with immediate effect, as the North-Eastern Council (NEC) has decided to fund the viability gap for these operations.

A memorandum of understanding to this effect was today signed in the presence of Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju and DoNER Minister Gen V K Singh, under which the Air India subsidiary would provide air services to Shillong, Tezpur, Lilabari, Silchar and Guwahati with turbo-prop ATR-42 aircraft till March 2016.

Alliance Air chief Anil Mehta, who signed the agreement with the Ministry, told PTI that services have already been launched on some routes and all the five stations would be connected with immediate effect.

Under the viability gap funding (VGF) arrangement, NEC would assist Alliance Air in obtaining concessions on jet fuel, landing, Route Navigation Facility charges and other costs. VGF is essentially to meet the gap between the actual cost of operations and the revenue earned from the flights.

The cost of operations would be reviewed every three months based on the proposed cost and VGF amount would be determined accordingly, an Air India spokesperson said.

The airline has been operating flights to the North-East since January 2003 under the VGF system. Till the end of 2012, it was operating 65 flights each week in the region.

From January 2013, due to outstanding VGF, the airline restructured its ATR operations in the North-East and discontinued these services on certain routes.

However, it continued operations between Kolkata-Silchar, Kolkata-Guwahati and Silchar-Imphal with ATR aircraft. In July 2013, it also restored five times weekly flights on the Kolkata-Shillong route.

Besides the ATR flights, Air India has been operating flights in the North-East with its Airbus family aircraft between Kolkata and Silchar, Dimapur, Dibrugarh, Aizawl, Imphal, Agartala and Guwahati, besides the Delhi-Guwahati route.

Scottish National Party gets 11,000 new membership requests in the 75 hours following the referendum

Scottish pro-independence parties reported a surge in membership over the weekend as campaigners vowed to continue to fight after a split with the United Kingdom was rejected in a referendum.

The Scottish National Party said its servers were struggling to cope with 11,000 new membership requests in the 75 hours following the referendum on Thursday, when it had 25,600 members.

The SNP’s leader Alex Salmond announced he would step down as Scottish First Minister after 55% of voters rejected independence, and British Prime Minister David Cameron said the question had been settled for a lifetime.

However, supporters of independence vowed to continue the campaign on social media, many including the figure “45” in their profile pictures to represent the percentage that voted for the split.

“As a former Labour councillor of 15 years I have today joined the SNP,” wrote pro-independence aviation consultant John Baillie on Twitter, who was previously the Labour Party leader on South Ayrshire Council.

“On Friday I mainly felt angry, yesterday I just felt sad, today I joined the SNP. Never give up on what you believe in,” wrote @Kels450 yesterday.

The pro-independence Scottish Green Party said its membership had increased by 2,000 since Thursday.
The referendum campaign had seen a huge rise in engagement in politics, and voter turnout of 84.5% and over 90% in some areas broke previous records in Britain.

New Delhi:Narendra Modi “spoke like a Prime Minister” when he said that Indian Muslims would live and die for the country, but he should check the Sangh Parivar from promoting communal polarization to back his message of national unity, the CPI said on Monday.

It is good that he (Modi) spoke like a Prime Minister. But his words should translate into action as the Sangh Parivar have been raising issues of religious divide and so-called ‘love jihad’ to create tension.

“There is a big campaign unleashed by the RSS-BJP. The Prime Minister should restrain these forces,” CPI General Secretary S Sudhakar Reddy told a press conference in New Delhi. He claimed that even BJP President Amit Shah has made certain statements in the past to “provoke tensions” while the Sangh Parivar have been “intensifying their offensive for communal polarisation through hate campaigns”.

“The Indian Right has become brazen and aggressive (enough) to use the state apparatus to push through its agenda. The change in rhetoric and demagogy does not hide the sinister designs of the BJP-led rule,” charged the senior CPI leader.

On Modi’s upcoming visit to the US, Reddy said the government should tread “carefully” during negotiations and “not fall into the American trap” of furthering the strategic partnership under which Washington may try to sell India old nuclear reactors which have not been in use for two decades.

“In the name of helping India’s power sector, the US will try to push India into accepting such reactors. We don’t know yet as to what is on the agenda for the defence sector. Our experience with the US has not been good,” he said.

CPI National Secretary D Raja said the US has been pressuring India to dilute the provisions of the nuclear liability law, which would benefit American companies to the detriment of Indian interests.

PTI

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