Podcasts about indian space research organisation isro

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has completed a second satellite docking demonstration as part of the Space Docking Experiment (SpaDeX) mission. India plans to partner with NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) on seven experiments for the Axiom 4 mission. SpaceX launches the Bandwagon 3 mission carrying payloads for South Korea, Tomorrow Companies and Atmos Space Cargo, and more. Remember to leave us a 5-star rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Be sure to follow T-Minus on LinkedIn and Instagram. T-Minus Guest Our guest today is Dan Barstow from Earthmusictheater.org Check out the Earth Harmony Sonata for Earth Day Selected Reading SPADEX Mission: Successful demonstration of Second Docking and Power Transfer ISRO-NASA-European Space Agency Partnership For Experiments On Axiom-4 Bandwagon 3 EntX and ispace Awarded Australian Government Grant to Progress Cutting-Edge Lunar Night Survival Technology NASA's Lucy Spacecraft Images Asteroid Donaldjohanson Lockheed Martin Reports First Quarter 2025 Financial Results Iridium Announces First Quarter 2025 Results The honeymoon is over for space investors Earth Harmony Sonata for Earth Day Celebrating Earth as Only NASA Can T-Minus Crew Survey We want to hear from you! Please complete our 4 question survey. It'll help us get better and deliver you the most mission-critical space intel every day. Want to hear your company in the show? You too can reach the most influential leaders and operators in the industry. Here's our media kit. Contact us at space@n2k.com to request more info. Want to join us for an interview? Please send your pitch to space-editor@n2k.com and include your name, affiliation, and topic proposal. T-Minus is a production of N2K Networks, your source for strategic workforce intelligence. © N2K Networks, Inc. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is the Catchup on 3 Things by The Indian Express and I'm Flora Swain.Today is the 29th of January and here are the headlines.Following a stampede-like incident at the Maha Kumbh Mela in Prayagraj, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath expressed concern over the tragedy, offering condolences and ensuring the injured are receiving treatment. Opposition parties criticized the government for mismanagement and the prioritization of VIPs over common devotees. Despite these tensions, Adityanath assured the public that the situation is under control, urging pilgrims to remain cautious as the mela continues.The Haryana government has decided to file a case against AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal for his claims that the BJP government is poisoning Delhi's water supply. The statement has sparked panic across both states, prompting Haryana officials to take legal action. Kejriwal faces further backlash as Haryana's Chief Minister demands an apology or faces a defamation suit, intensifying political tensions between AAP and the BJP in both Haryana and Delhi.The Indian government has launched the National Critical Minerals Mission (NCMM), a Rs 16,300 crore initiative to reduce the country's dependency on foreign mineral imports. The mission focuses on domestic exploration, mining, and processing of essential minerals to support technological growth and industrial needs. Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw emphasized the importance of securing India's mineral future as the nation seeks to strengthen its economic infrastructure and ensure sustainability in key industries.The Joint Committee of Parliament has adopted its report on the Waqf (Amendment) Bill, despite criticism from Opposition MPs about the rushed process and lack of sufficient review time. The bill, which proposes changes to the management of Waqf properties, has sparked disagreement within the committee. Opposition leaders have raised concerns about the short notice to review the 655-page report, accusing the government of undermining parliamentary procedures in the final stages of the bill's consideration.The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) achieved a major milestone by completing its 100th satellite launch, placing the NVS-02 navigational satellite in orbit. This success underlines India's growing space capabilities, with ISRO having launched 548 satellites, including a significant number of foreign satellites. The milestone highlights India's increasing role in global space exploration and its commitment to advancing its navigation systems, further cementing ISRO's reputation as a leader in space technology.This was the Catch Up on 3 Things by the Indian Express.

Welcome to Top of the Morning by Mint, your weekday newscast that brings you five major stories from the world of business. It's Tuesday, January 28, 2025. This is Nelson John, let's get started. Guillain-Barré Syndrome (GBS) is stirring concerns in Maharashtra, with over 100 cases reported and a suspected death. This rare autoimmune disorder attacks the nervous system, sometimes leading to paralysis and severe respiratory issues. It's not contagious but typically follows infections or surgeries. Immediate hospitalization is often necessary for those severely affected. While there's no foolproof prevention due to its unclear causes, maintaining good hygiene and a healthy lifestyle helps mitigate risks. In India, GBS has been noted before, especially as a post-COVID complication, highlighting its potential severity. To tackle the current outbreak, the Central government has sent a specialist team to assist Maharashtra. The state is ramping up efforts to educate the public on maintaining hygiene and seeking prompt medical care for symptoms like muscle weakness. This proactive response aims to control the spread and provide necessary care to those affected. Priyanka Sharma explains what the GBS is, what are its symptoms and how to prevent it, in today's Primer.  Infosys is contesting allegations from Cognizant that it stole trade secrets, arguing that the information Cognizant claims as proprietary is publicly accessible and widely known. The dispute, currently unfolding in a U.S. court, has forced Cognizant to clarify what specific trade secrets Infosys allegedly misappropriated. Infosys, in a motion filed this January, challenged Cognizant to specify its claims, highlighting that many workers in the healthcare and IT sectors are familiar with the software at issue. The conflict began when Cognizant accused Infosys of using confidential information related to its QNXT and Facets software products—acquired through its 2014 takeover of TriZetto—to enhance Infosys's own software solutions. Infosys has responded robustly, seeking to compel Cognizant to detail the supposed trade secrets and arguing that Cognizant's claims are overly broad and not legally tenable. Jas Bardia reports on the ongoing conflict.  Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's approach to the annual budget speeches since 2022 has evolved to focus more on a futuristic vision rather than literary embellishments. Unlike her predecessors, Sitharaman has opted out of quoting poets like Rabindra Nath Tagore and Shakespeare, shifting instead to a clear and direct style that reflects the developmental goals of the NDA government. This year, as she prepares for her eighth budget presentation on February 1, expectations are high for a speech that underscores India's aspirations to become the world's third-largest economy while addressing immediate challenges like inflation and unemployment. Gireesh Chandra Prasad writes about how, over the years, Sitharaman has refrained from quoting historical figures in her budget speeches and how it is likely to be the case this year as well.  Young adults across Indian metros are increasingly shaping their spending habits to enhance their social media presence, often at significant financial cost. Mint's Shadma Shaikh spoke to 20 people in the 22 to 33 age group, all of whom acknowledged that their spending habits were largely aimed at raising their social media game. In cities like Mumbai, Delhi, and Bengaluru, it's becoming clear that a lot of young folks are tweaking their spending habits to boost their social media profiles. Take, for instance, a tech marketer from Bengaluru who splurged ₹19,000 on a Bryan Adams concert just for social media, even though he's not much of a traveler or a big music buff. It's all about crafting that perfect online image—even if it means racking up some debt. This trend isn't just about personal choices; it's shaping major business strategies too. A hefty slice of marketing budgets now fuels influencer campaigns that promise hefty growth, thanks to their ability to make anything from a beach vacation to the latest gadget seem essential. What's worrying is how this is playing out financially for the younger crowd. Financial advisors are seeing a shift: more young people are swiping their credit cards not for emergencies or investments but for that next big social media splash. From music festivals to designer gadgets, the urge to splurge is often amplified by clever marketing and the fear of missing out. The Indian government has announced plans to synchronize all clocks across the nation to the Indian Standard Time (IST), using locally developed atomic clocks for millisecond to nanosecond precision. This initiative, named 'One Nation, One Time,' aims to enhance the uniformity and accuracy of timekeeping, which is crucial for various sectors such as navigation, telecommunications, power grids, and banking. Historically, many of India's timekeeping systems have depended on U.S.-based Network Time Protocol servers. However, under the new rules drafted by the Department of Consumer Affairs in collaboration with the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), all software will need to be synchronized with India's own atomic clocks.

This is the Catchup on 3 Things by The Indian Express and I'm Flora Swain.Today is the 16th of January and here are the headlines.The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) successfully docked its SpaDeX satellites on Thursday, after bringing them within 3 meters of each other. Following the docking, ISRO confirmed the satellites were functioning as a single unit. The space agency mentioned that undocking and power transfer checks would follow in the coming days. The docking process had previously been delayed twice, on January 7 and 9, due to technical issues. The satellites were launched on December 30.Saif Ali Khan, after undergoing surgery for stab wounds sustained in a home attack, is now in stable condition, according to doctors at Lilavati Hospital. The attack occurred early Thursday when an intruder stabbed Khan multiple times, including a serious wound near his spine. Police believe the attacker may be linked to a domestic worker who allowed him entry. The intruder was briefly locked in a room but managed to escape. Theft is suspected as the motive.Nearly 50,000 international students failed to show up at Canadian colleges and universities in March-April 2024, with Indian students making up a significant portion. Of the 20,000 “no-shows,” 5.4% were from India, representing a sizeable portion of the country's study permit holders. This data, compiled under the International Student Compliance Regime, highlights the non-compliance of 6.9% of international students, prompting educational institutions to report on enrolment twice a year to ensure adherence to study permits.Hindenburg Research, the US-based short seller whose allegations caused significant financial turmoil, including for India's Adani Group, has announced its closure. The decision to disband the firm came shortly after US Congressman Lance Gooden wrote to Attorney General Merrick Garland, asking for clarification on the US Department of Justice's case against Adani. The letter highlighted concerns over the investigation's focus on a foreign company while Hindenburg's own role in global financial disruptions has been scrutinized.A ceasefire agreement between Hamas and Israeli negotiators is set to end the 15-month Gaza conflict, with the deal taking effect on January 19. The agreement, brokered by US President Joe Biden, includes swapping hostages for imprisoned Palestinians in Israel. Biden, who played a pivotal role in the negotiations, views this achievement as a significant foreign policy legacy. While he is credited with ending the bloodiest phase of the Israel-Gaza conflict, he shares this accomplishment with his successor, Donald Trump.This was the Catch Up on 3 Things by the Indian Express.

This is the Catchup on 3 Things by The Indian Express and I'm Flora Swain.Today is the 8th of January and here are today's headlines.AAP Leaders Protest Near PM's Residence, Demand Media Tour of HouseAAP leaders Saurabh Bharadwaj and Sanjay Singh staged a protest near the Prime Minister's official residence at 7 Lok Kalyan Marg, Delhi, but were blocked by security forces. Bharadwaj criticized the BJP-controlled police, questioning why the public is prevented from viewing the PM's residence. The leaders also questioned the barricading at the 6 Flagstaff bungalow and demanded that the media be allowed a tour amid allegations of extravagant modifications made during former CM Arvind Kejriwal's tenure.Priyanka Gandhi Calls Ramesh Bidhuri's Remarks 'Ridiculous'Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra dismissed former BJP MP Ramesh Bidhuri's controversial remark about her cheeks as “ridiculous,” emphasizing that important issues should dominate the Delhi assembly polls. Responding to the jibe, Priyanka mocked BJP candidate from Kalkaji, Ramesh Bidhuri, by questioning his own appearance. She stated that such irrelevant matters should not be discussed and stressed the need to focus on serious political issues instead of personal attacks ahead of the upcoming elections.Dr. V. Narayanan Appointed New ISRO ChairmanDr. V. Narayanan has been appointed as the new chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), succeeding S. Somanath. Narayanan, known for his pivotal role in advancing India's cryogenic technology, was instrumental in diagnosing and recommending solutions to the Chandrayaan-2 failure, contributing to Chandrayaan-3's successful landing. Having spent much of his career at the Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre (LPSC) in Thiruvananthapuram, Narayanan will now lead ISRO into its next phase of space exploration.EU Rejects Trump's Claims Over Greenland, Defends SovereigntyFrench Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot responded to President-elect Donald Trump's comments about acquiring Greenland, stating that the European Union would not tolerate any nation threatening its sovereign borders. Barrot expressed doubt that the U.S. would attempt to take control of Greenland, an autonomous territory of Denmark. He reinforced the EU's position, declaring it would defend its sovereignty, and highlighted Europe's strength and unity in maintaining its territorial integrity against external threats.Magnitude 5.5 Earthquake Strikes China's Qinghai ProvinceA magnitude 5.5 earthquake hit China's Qinghai province on Wednesday, with its epicenter located near the source of the Yellow River. This follows a series of seismic events in the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, including a deadly 6.8 magnitude earthquake in Tibet and a smaller 3.1 magnitude tremor in Sichuan. The earthquake struck Madoi county in Golog prefecture at a depth of 14 km (8.7 miles), according to the China Earthquake Networks Center (CENC), causing concern over the region's seismic instability.This was the Catch Up on 3 Things by the Indian Express.

China's Chang'e 6 mission capsule containing 2 kilograms of lunar far side soil samples has returned to Earth. The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has successfully conducted the third Reusable Launch Vehicle Landing Experiment. Airbus predicts a €900 million hit in the first half 2024 in its Space Division, and more. Remember to leave us a 5-star rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Miss an episode? Sign-up for our weekly intelligence roundup, Signals and Space, and you'll never miss a beat. And be sure to follow T-Minus on LinkedIn and Instagram. T-Minus Guest Our guest today is Ryan Westerdahl, CEO and Founder of Turion Space.  You can learn more about AWS Aerospace and Satellite on their website.  Selected Reading China has just returned the first-ever samples from the far side of the moon Hat-trick for Pushpak: India's Reusable Launch Vehicle aces third landing Engine maker's Boeing dilemma helped to stall Airbus's output plans- Reuters Firefly Aerospace Adds Alpha Launch Capability on Wallops Island, Virginia Maritime Launch Services Receives Infrastructure Reimbursement Program Approval from the Province of Nova Scotia for the Construction of a $30M Satellite Processing Facility at Spaceport Nova Scotia The Egyptian Space Agency Announces 2024 Launch Plans Sidus Space and NamaSys Bahrain Sign MOU to Establish “Sidus Arabia” JV Headquartered in Saudi Arabia to Develop a State-of-the-Art 3D Printing Satellite Manufacturing Facility | Business Wire Malaysian Space Agency (MYSA) partners with SpaceIn for Ground Station and IoT Development ispace-U.S. to use Swedish Space Corporation's Lunar Ground Station Network for its M3 Lunar Mission NASA Sets Launch Coverage for NOAA Weather Satellite  Pooping on the Moon Is a Messy Business- WIRED AST SpaceMobile Announces Executive Leadership Team for Next Phase of Accelerated Growth | Business Wire ReOrbit selects Mynaric's CONDOR Mk3 for Space-to-Space and Space-to-Ground Laser Communications Demonstration Texas man with less than $1 in account offers $200M to bail out space company: SEC T-Minus Crew Survey We want to hear from you! Please complete our 4 question survey. It'll help us get better and deliver you the most mission-critical space intel every day. Want to hear your company in the show? You too can reach the most influential leaders and operators in the industry. Here's our media kit. Contact us at space@n2k.com to request more info. Want to join us for an interview? Please send your pitch to space-editor@n2k.com and include your name, affiliation, and topic proposal. T-Minus is a production of N2K Networks, your source for strategic workforce intelligence. © N2K Networks, Inc. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In 2023, India made history by successfully landing on the other side of the moon with its Chandrayaan-3 mission. This achievement marked a huge milestone for the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and showcased India's growing capabilities in space exploration. The mission aimed to study the moon's geology and search for water ice, which could be crucial for future lunar missions. Scientists and the public alike were thrilled with the wealth of data and stunning images sent back. This accomplishment has ignited even more excitement and ambition for India's future space endeavors! Credit: CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... Clementine lunar orbiter: Tim Evanson - https://flic.kr/p/c3jWJS, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... D-Shape moon rock: Rama, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center NASA/GSFC NASA/Johnson Space Center NASA Charles Conrad Jr NASA's Artemis I Moon Mission Animation is created by Bright Side. #brightside ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Music from TheSoul Sound: https://thesoul-sound.com/ Listen to Bright Side on: Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/0hUkPxD... Apple Podcast - https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id... ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Our Social Media: Facebook -   / brightside   Instagram -   / brightside.official   Tik Tok - https://www.tiktok.com/@brightside.of... Snapchat -   / 1866144599336960   Stock materials (photos, footages and other): https://www.depositphotos.com https://www.shutterstock.com https://www.eastnews.ru ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- For more videos and articles visit: http://www.brightside.me Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has successfully conducted the Pushpak Reusable Landing Vehicle LEX 02 experiment flight at the Aeronautical Test Range in Chitradurga. The US Department of Defense and the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) are working with three companies to provide logistics services enabling low-cost, responsive access to geostationary and other orbits beyond low Earth orbit. SpaceX's Falcon 9 launched the Dragon capsule resupply mission heading to the International Space Station (ISS), and more. Remember to leave us a 5-star rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Miss an episode? Sign-up for our weekly intelligence roundup, Signals and Space, and you'll never miss a beat. And be sure to follow T-Minus on LinkedIn and Instagram. T-Minus Guest Our guest is Rebecca Boyle, science journalist and author of “Our Moon: How Earth's Celestial Companion Transformed the Planet, Guided Evolution, and Made Us Who We Are”.  You can connect with Rebecca on LinkedIn and learn more about her book here. Selected Reading ISRO successfully conducts second Pushpak RLV landing experiment | India News - The Indian Express Intuitive Machines improves cash position to best since IPO after historic moon mission Companies Selected for DIU Orbital Logistics Vehicle Project NASA Science, Hardware Aboard SpaceX's 30th Resupply Launch to Station Mars Sample Return Dominates House Hearing on NASA Science – SpacePolicyOnline.com NASA Sees Progress on Blue Origin's Orbital Reef Life Support System Mission X Update #2: Fly, Fix, Fly Astralintu and D-Orbit Sign MOU to Bring Space Cloud Services and Its Benefits to Latin America NASA, Health and Human Services Highlight Cancer Moonshot Progress Space tourists and crew suffer high radiation risks – regulation is needed to protect them ESA - New missions selected for the fourth edition of the Fly Your Satellite! programme T-Minus Crew Survey We want to hear from you! Please complete our 4 question survey. It'll help us get better and deliver you the most mission-critical space intel every day. Want to hear your company in the show? You too can reach the most influential leaders and operators in the industry. Here's our media kit. Contact us at space@n2k.com to request more info. Want to join us for an interview? Please send your pitch to space-editor@n2k.com and include your name, affiliation, and topic proposal. T-Minus is a production of N2K Networks, your source for strategic workforce intelligence. © N2K Networks, Inc. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko sets a world record for total time spent in space, logging more than 878 days in orbit. China's Geespace conducted its second successful satellite launch over the weekend, sending eleven satellites into low Earth orbit. The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is planning to send a robot called Vyommitra to space ahead of its first human spaceflight, and more. Remember to leave us a 5-star rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Miss an episode? Sign-up for our weekly intelligence roundup, Signals and Space, and you'll never miss a beat. And be sure to follow T-Minus on LinkedIn and Instagram. T-Minus Guest Our guest today is Richard McCammon, Founder and CEO of C6 Launch Systems. You can connect with Richard on LinkedIn and learn more about C6 Launch on their website. Selected Reading Russian cosmonaut sets record for most time in space - more than 878 days- Reuters China's Geespace Launches Eleven Low-orbit Satellites to Build Geely Future Mobility Constellation  Isro's woman robot astronaut ‘Vyommitra' to fly into space in third quarter of this year: Minister Jitendra Singh | India News Secretive moon startup led by ex-Blue Origin leaders raises new tranche of funding UK's first space degree apprenticeship launched- BAE Systems New Strategic Collaboration between University of Leicester and National Nuclear Laboratory links academia and industry Dark side of the Earth Egyptian Space Agency receives initial signals from the experimental satellite Nexsat-1 Asteroid the size of eight Taylor Swifts to pass Earth Tuesday - NASA We Need Cybersecurity in Space to Protect Satellites- Scientific American The Explorers Club Names 2024 Ec50 Class India's space ambition takes a quantum leap Satellites losing billions in value, Orbit Fab CEO says Frustrated by the constraints of Earth, a team of California scientists took tumor research to space—and may have discovered a 'kill switch' for cancer   T-Minus Crew Survey We want to hear from you! Please complete our 4 question survey. It'll help us get better and deliver you the most mission-critical space intel every day. Want to hear your company in the show? You too can reach the most influential leaders and operators in the industry. Here's our media kit. Contact us at space@n2k.com to request more info. Want to join us for an interview? Please send your pitch to space-editor@n2k.com and include your name, affiliation, and topic proposal. T-Minus is a production of N2K Networks, your source for strategic workforce intelligence. © N2K Networks, Inc. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this SSPI-WISE Presents podcast, guest host Divya-Kala Bhavani, General Manager for PR, Communications & Marketing at Dhruva Space and co-chair of the SSPI-WISE Elevating Women Working Group interviews Pramoda Hegde, former Mission Director of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). They discuss Pramoda's journey from a small coastal village in India to Mission Director at the ISRO and how she continues in retirement to tour different villages across India to speak with young engineering hopefuls about the space industry. A note for non-Indian listeners of this podcast: the convention "Pramoda Ma'am" is an expression of respect for a female elder that is common in India. Divya-Kala Bhavani oversees the Public Relations, Communications & Marketing activities at Dhruva Space, a full-stack Space engineering company and the first private Space-Technology company in India. Divya-Kala has previously worked as a journalist and National Technology Features Editor at The Hindu, one of India's largest and oldest English daily newspapers. Divya-Kala holds a Master's degree in Media & Communications Governance from London School of Economics, and a Bachelor's (Hons) in Journalism from London College of Communication, University of the Arts London. Divya-Kala is an active member of HAPS Alliance and of Space and Satellite Professionals International and SSPI-WISE, where she is the Co-Chair of the Elevating Women Working Group. Dhruva Space has been recognized twice by the Government of India, having been awarded the National Startup Award for its efforts in Satellite and Space Technology, and having been awarded the Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya Telecom Excellence Award 2022 for the company's work in the field of Satellite Communications. On 24 June 2022, Dhruva Space became one of the first private companies to receive authorization from IN-SPACe. The company has since completed three Space missions within 12 months; including the history-making Thybolt Mission, which saw the launch of India's first two private satellites, Thybolt-1 and Thybolt-2, authorized by IN-SPACe, to be successfully deployed into orbit. In January 2024, Dhruva Space also successfully validated its P-30 Nanosatellite platform, which kicks off the company's LEAP initiative of hosted payload solutions for the global market. Pramoda Hegde is a former Mission Director at the Indian Space Research Organisation. Her career at ISRO spanned 32 years, during which she played pivotal roles in some of India's historic Space missions. In 2011, Pramoda was designated as Mission Director for the GSAT-12 mission; this was the first time a woman was designated as Mission Director for a GEO Mission in ISRO's history; additionally, this was also the first time all three key positions of a mission were handled by women. Pramoda also took on the roles of Project Manager, Operations Director, and Deputy Project Director for many other Geostationary satellite missions: INSAT-4A and INSAT-4B, GSAT-9 GSAT-12, GSAT-18, and GSAT-31. After retiring from ISRO, Pramoda frequently delivers lectures at various research institutes across India, and is also known for her 'From Village to Space' storytelling sessions where she recounts her journey of growing up in Muroor, a small farming village in India, and eventually joining ISRO.

Episode Summary: In this episode of the Space Policy Pioneers Podcast, Andy Williams, Director of Science in Space, sits down with Tanushri Joshi, Senior Legal and Business Development Manager at HEX20, an Australian smallsat firm. At the time of recording, Tanushri has just finished a post at an Indian rocket company - Skyroot Aerospace. Tanushri shares her career journey in the emerging field of space policy in India, reveals the challenges and opportunities of working in a technical industry as a non-technical person, and discusses India's rapid growth in the space sector. The conversation also covers the influence of policy on the space sector, touches on the changing dynamics and collaborative nature of the industry, and offers advice for aspiring space policy enthusiasts. Tune in for an inspiring inside look into the world of space policy. Bio: Tanushri is a lawyer from India currently employed as Senior Legal and Business Development Manager at HEX20, an innovative smallsat company providing customized products and services for the CubeSat and SmallSat markets globally. She previously worked as a Legal and Business Development Associate for Skyroot Aerospace–a private newspace launch vehicle company in India. Prior to Skyroot, she completed several trainee legal positions in law firms in India, covering a range of IP and private law subjects. She completed her Bachelors from ILS Law College, Pune and is a Gold Medalist in Law from Pune University (2021). She is a member of the International Institute of Space Law (IISL) Working Group on Light Pollution of the Night Sky From a Space Law Perspective and continues to work on various research papers related to space law and policy. https://www.linkedin.com/in/tanushrijoshi/ Disclaimer: All guests are talking in their personal capacity and are not representing any official position of their former or current employing organization. Links and Resources: Skyroot Aerospace: https://skyroot.in/ HEX20: https://hex20.com.au/ Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO): https://www.isro.gov.in/ ISRO Mars Orbiter Mission (Mangalyaan): https://www.isro.gov.in/MarsOrbiterMissionSpacecraft.html Chandrayaan-3 Lunar Mission: https://www.isro.gov.in/Chandrayaan3_Details.html Aditya-L1 Mission: https://www.isro.gov.in/Aditya_L1.html Indian Space Policy 2023: https://www.isro.gov.in/IndiaSpacePolicy.html ILS Law College, Pune, India: https://ilslaw.edu/ COSPAR: https://cosparhq.cnes.fr/ Manfred Lachs Space Law Moot Court Competition: https://www.esa.int/About_Us/ECSL_-_European_Centre_for_Space_Law/Manfred_Lachs_Space_Law_Moot_Court_Competition Space Generation Advisory Council (SGAC). https://spacegeneration.org/ International Institute of Space Law (IISL): https://iisl.space/ International Astronautical Congress (IAC): https://www.iafastro.org/events/iac/ Tanushri's paper at IAC: https://swfound.org/media/207715/tanushri_iac-23-e7-1-12-x77008.pdf Secure World Foundation: https://swfound.org/

In the summer of 2023, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) successfully launched a lunar-exploration mission, making India the fourth country to land on the moon. Now that India has joined China and the United States in the ranks of major space-faring countries, there is huge potential for outer space cooperation between the three nations. How will the United States, China, and India work together on shared challenges, such as space debris and traffic management? Significant obstacles to healthy cooperation remain because of geopolitical tensions here on planet Earth. In an interview filmed on November 3, 2023, Namrata Goswami joins the National Committee to discuss the future of U.S.-China-India space cooperation and competition. About the speaker: https://www.ncuscr.org/video/india-china-united-states-space/ Follow Namrata Goswami on X: @namygoswami Subscribe to the National Committee on YouTube for video of this interview. Follow us on Twitter (@ncuscr) and Instagram (@ncuscr).  

India's space agency has carried out the first in a series of tests flights ahead of its planned mission to take astronauts into space in 2025. The Gaganyaan spacecraft was launched at 10:00 local time (04:30GMT) on Saturday from Sriharikota. This was the day's second attempt - the first was put on hold five seconds before the scheduled launch time. The test was conducted to demonstrate whether the crew could safely escape the rocket in case it malfunctioned. "I am very happy to announce the successful accomplishment of the TV-D1 (Test Vehicle Demonstration 1) mission," S Somanath, chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro), said after the launch as his colleagues cheered and applauded.

*) President Erdogan to visit Russia 'soon', raising hopes over the grain deal Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will visit Russia's coastal city of Sochi "soon", raising hopes of revival of the Black Sea grain deal. Currently, Türkiye is continuing its efforts to revive the grain deal, and says that there is no alternative to the initiative, seen as crucial to ensuring global food security. Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan is also expected to visit Russia soon to hold face-to-face talks for resumption of the deal. *) Judge rejects Trump plea for delay, sets March 2024 trial in poll case US District Judge Tanya Chutkan has set a March 4, 2024, trial date for Donald Trump in the federal case in Washington, where the former president is charged with trying to overturn the results of the 2020 election. Trump's attorneys had requested to push back the trial by years, claiming that it is necessary to account for the huge volume of evidence they say they are reviewing and to prepare for what they contend is a novel and unprecedented prosecution. However, the judge rejected their request saying, “The public has a right to a prompt and efficient resolution of this matter”. *) Germany reports over 250 anti-Muslim crimes in first half of this year German police have recorded 258 anti-Muslim crimes in the first half of 2023, according to figures by the parliament. According to the information provided by the ministry, the cases include hate crimes, threatening letters, verbal and physical assaults, vandalism or property damage. More than a dozen mosques were attacked between January and June, and dozens of Muslims were physically assaulted or verbally harassed on the street or in public places. Seventeen people were injured in these attacks. Most of the crimes were committed in the eastern German states, the traditional stronghold of far-right parties, according to the figures. But scores of these hate crimes were also registered in the capital Berlin, and the western cities of Cologne, Frankfurt and Munich. *) Sudan army chief promises 'decisive victory', rejects talks with 'traitors' Sudan's army chief General Abdel Fattah al Burhan has quashed hopes of a negotiated settlement to the protracted conflict, terming his rival general a “traitor” and vowing to crush the paramilitary RSF. Burhan's speech came one day after the head of the RSF expressed openness to talks and a long-term ceasefire. An estimated 4,000 people have died and millions have been driven from their homes since the conflict between the army and the RSF began in April. Burhan has embarked on a tour of bases in army-controlled regions and is expected to travel to Saudi Arabia and Egypt, prompting some to speculate that a deal was imminent. *) From the Moon to the Sun: India announces next space mission India's space agency says it will launch a satellite to survey the Sun, just days after becoming the first nation to land a craft near the Moon's largely unexplored south pole. "The launch of Aditya-L1, the first space-based Indian observatory to study the Sun, is scheduled for September 2," the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said on Monday on X.

India's Chandrayaan-3 has become the first spacecraft to land near the south pole of the Moon. Also on the programme: Pakistani police have arrested the owner and operator of the cable car which was stranded high above a riverbed on Tuesday; and we hear from the Egyptian activist Ahmed Douma in his first international interview after ten years in jail. (Image: Scientists of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) celebrate after the successful landing of the Chandrayaan-3 mission on the Moon. Credit: Getty)

NEW DELHI — A pivotal stage in India's quest to explore the Moon has been reached with the preparation of the Lander Module (LM), including the lander "Vikram" and rover "Pragyan," for its descent to the Lunar south pole. The historic soft landing is planned for August 23, marking a significant advancement in India's ambitious space program. The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) announced that the Lander Module has successfully separated from the Propulsion Module (PM). This marks the initiation of a series of complex maneuvers that will bring the lander and its companion rover closer to the Moon's surface. The Lander Module is scheduled to descend to a slightly lower orbit, following a planned deboosting process set to take place around 1600 Hrs. IST tomorrow. This deboosting, or slowing down, is an essential step to position the module in its specific orbit to approach the Moon. Lander Module Separation

Cyberpolitik: AI and Crime Prevention: Is it a force multiplier?— Satya SahuCrime prevention is based on the idea that crime can be reduced or eliminated by modifying the factors that influence its occurrence or consequences. We can classify “prevention” into three main types: primary, secondary, and tertiary. Primary prevention addresses the root causes of crime or deters potential offenders before they commit a crime. Secondary prevention aims to intervene with at-risk groups or individuals to prevent them from becoming involved in crime. Finally, tertiary prevention efforts seek to rehabilitate or punish offenders to prevent them from reoffending. (This, however, is beyond the scope of today's discussion.)Flipping the coin, we notice that policing is based on the idea that law enforcement and public order can be maintained by enforcing the law and responding to crimes or incidents. Policing also lends itself to being classified into two main types: reactive and proactive. Reactive policing responds to reported crimes or incidents after they occur. Proactive policing anticipates or prevents crimes or incidents before they occur. On the face of it, AI can help us prevent and fight crime by enhancing both types of crime prevention and policing.AI can digest and analyse petabytes of data from disparate sources, such as social media, CCTV footage, sensors used in our Smart Cities™, and boring old digitised government records, to identify patterns, trends, and anomalies that can indicate potential criminal activity. For example, the police in Vancouver use predictive models to identify areas where robberies are expected to occur and then post officers to deter potential thieves or other criminals. Similarly, the police in Los Angeles use a system called PredPol that generates maps of hotspots where crimes are likely to happen based on past data. These systems can help the police allocate their resources more efficiently and effectively and reduce crime rates and response times.When it comes to collecting and processing evidence, such as fingerprints, DNA, facial recognition, voice recognition, and digital forensics etc., we can look at the UK Home Office's VALCRI, which uses AI to analyse large volumes of data from different sources, such as crime reports, witness statements, CCTV footage, and social media posts, to generate hypotheses and leads for investigators. For example, the police in India used ML-backed facial recognition technology to reunite thousands of missing children with their families. Moreover, AI can help the police in presenting evidence and arguments in court, such as using natural language processing to generate concise summaries or transcripts of testimonies or documents.It could augment efforts to monitor and evaluate police performance and conduct, such as using dashcams, bodycams, or drones to record their interactions with the public and/or suspects. For example, the police in New Orleans developed a program called EPIC that uses AI to analyse video footage from bodycams to identify instances of misconduct or excessive force by officers. It can also help the police in engaging with the public and building trust and confidence, such as using chatbots or social media platforms to communicate with citizens and provide critical information services, hopefully unlike the chatbot from my bank's beleaguered website.However, all this has enormous implications for the jurisprudential underpinnings of crime prevention and policing. One such significance arises when AI itself can change the nature and scope of crime and criminality. AI can enable new forms of crime that exploit its capabilities and vulnerabilities, such as cyberattacks, biometric spoofing, deepfakes, autonomous weapons, or social engineering. Unlike their current-crime counterparts, leveraging AI allows these future crimes to be more sophisticated, scalable and anonymous than conventional ones. Therefore, the legal and ethical frameworks that govern our efforts to control such crimes must, therefore, must evolve to address these new crimes. It is a foregone conclusion that without involving AI at the forefront of these efforts, it will be impossible to counter AI-enabled crimes themselves. Hence the concomitant need to update the legal and ethical norms guiding society's conceptions of policing and crime prevention.Yet another implication is that AI also transforms the roles and responsibilities of police officers and other actors involved in crime prevention or response. As the examples show, AI can augment or automate some of the tasks that police officers perform, such as data collection, analysis, or evidence processing. AI can also assist or replace some of the decisions that police officers make, such as risk assessment, resource allocation, or intervention selection. To ensure that the concerns of effectiveness and responsibility surrounding Mx. Robo-Cop are adequately balanced, clear and consistent standards and regulations for police and state actors must be established side-by-side with the development and deployment of such systems. This is not to say that we need to disavow the use of AI in the field of policing and crime prevention. The potential and limitations of AI and the skills and knowledge to use it effectively and responsibly make it so versatile and terrifying. However, it is still a tool to be wielded by the legitimate wielder of the state's punitive power: the police.The use of AI in identifying young people who are vulnerable to gang exploitation or violence and mounting efforts to prevent them from becoming involved in crime is already a burning question in the UK. This recognises that leveraging AI to provide better targeted and tailored state support and services to at-risk groups or individuals, is valuable. On the face of it, any enhancements to their state's performance, efficiency, and accountability in this regard will be applauded. But given what we know about the pitfalls surrounding AI, the opposite also holds: violating the privacy, dignity, or rights of individuals or communities will reduce the trust and legitimacy that is essential for state actors and the police to be able to police under the social contract.Referring back to my previous post here, we know that AI can create or exacerbate the digital divide or systemic social inequalities among different groups or individuals. The conversation about the use of AI in a field where the slightest deviation from the limited scope of policing is undesirable must discuss the processes involved as well as the outcomes exacted upon the population being policed. This indicates the need to ensure that AI is used in a way that respects and protects the interests and values of individuals or communities. AI is a powerful tool that can help us understand the causes of, prevent, and reduce crime. Still, it is not a substitute for human judgment or responsibility. It is not merely a technology but also a socio-cultural phenomenon to be embraced with a healthy mixture of curiosity and caution. (I use the term ‘AI' to include machine learning, Neural Language Processing, etc., here for brevity.)Matsyanyaaya: Why a local Indian rickshaw app should worry Big Tech— Shailesh ChitnisDigital platforms, such as Google and Facebook for advertising and Amazon for e-commerce, derive their power by bringing sellers and buyers together in one place. Over time, "network effects" ensure that these platforms achieve monopoly power in the market. Regulators have tried different methods to limit the reach of these platforms. The European Union prefers a rule-based approach to reining in these companies, while the United States M+A policy is focused on preventing market concentration.Neither has worked particularly well. Namma Yatri, a small ride-hailing app in Bangalore, may point in another direction. Since its launch last November, the app lists almost a third of the city's 150,000-odd rickshaw drivers on its network and routes 40% of all rickshaw rides. It is now a viable competitor to Ola and Uber, the dominant apps.Namma Yatri is unique in that it is entirely funded and run by the community. The app is based on the open-source platform Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC), which is a non-profit supported by the Indian government. A private company, Juspay Technologies create the app, and there is no commission fee.ONDC's concept is to create a common platform where buyers and sellers can easily transact. This is essentially a technological solution that deconstructs a marketplace (see figure below). By abstracting the platform from supply and demand, ONDC seeks to remove some of the barriers of large digital platforms.ONDC's approach is not unique. Last week, Bluesky, a new social media platform backed by Twitter's founder Jack Dorsey, started inviting users to its Twitter-like platform. What makes it different is that the social network is built on a decentralized system. This would allow, in theory, users from multiple social networks, each with its own systems of curation and moderation to interact.A technology-driven solution that unbundles a marketplace into different pieces may spur more competition. And given India's success with pushing large-scale digital infrastructure projects, entrenched platforms should pay attention.Though it's early days for these platforms, there are a few questions, particularly around their business model.- Can a community-supported model work for India when our open-source culture isn't that well-developed?- If private companies are developing and maintaining applications on the platform, what are the monetization models?But perhaps, the most important question is about government intervention. With ONDC, if the government actively participates in defining the protocol and in advocating its use, does that influence innovation and natural market evolution?Antariksh Matters: Challenges for the Indian private space sector— Pranav R SatyanathThe approval of the new space policy by the Union Cabinet ushers in a new era for the space sector in India. The long-awaited reform, reflected in an 11-page document, details the activities that the commercial space sector can undertake and delineates the roles of three key government agencies: Indian National Space Promotion & Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe), Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), and the Department of Space (DoS). We have covered the merits and shortcomings of the policy in a Takshashila blog. The enthusiasm for the growth of the private space sector is indeed merited, as private entities were largely denied these opportunities in the past. However, there also exists a host of challenges that the Indian private space sector will face in the future. Some of these challenges are rooted in the historical evolution of the space sector in India, while others are created by the structure of market competition in the space sector. To understand the challenges, we must first briefly analyse how the private space sector has evolved to its present state in India.Evolution of India's private space sectorPrivate sector participation in India's space sector has historically been sparse. This was because space activities were the state's monopoly for several decades, and ISRO had achieved several feats, such as developing indigenous launch vehicles with limited resources. Indeed, since space was a high-risk and relatively low-reward sector, private entities stayed away from undertaking entire space projects and instead played the role of contractors and subcontractors for manufacturing satellite and launch vehicle components.Given ISRO's monopoly over space activities, a regulatory mechanism to oversee national space activities was seen as unnecessary, even after commercial space activities became a viable undertaking for the private sector. ISRO became the de-facto regulator for the private sector as it was the only route through which the private sector could participate in space activities. The absence of a set regulatory framework, therefore, disincentivised major private sector participation.This affected the evolution of the private sector in three ways. First, due to the large capital required to establish  manufacturing facilities for the space sector, the task of taking the role of suppliers fell on the traditional heavy industries who had large resources at their disposal. Second, since the industries largely followed ISRO's guidelines on design and manufacturing, they had very little incentives to innovate on their own. Finally, an ancillary support industry or the space sector did not flourish as ISRO imported or manufactured key components in-horse. Put together, these factors would go on to place several structural constraints on India's private space sector.     The challenges for India's private space sectorWith clarity on the regulatory framework, the private space sector is free to pursue activities in both the Upstream sector (which includes satellite manufacturing and launch services) and the Downstream sector (Ground Segment and satellite services). However, the industry must overcome several hurdles before achieving a high degree of competitiveness. This essay focuses on two challenges that are discussed less frequently.Support from the governmentThe miniaturisation of satellites has given rise to a new market for satellite service providers, which has, in turn, spurred the demand for launch vehicles. Despite the boom in demand, the private space sector continues to rely on significant government funding to stay in business. For the NewSpace industry, support from the government comes in the form of purchasing services or directly funding the research and development of new technologies. Consider the example of the launch industry in the United States. Traditionally the National Aeronautic and Space Administration (NASA) and the U.S. Air Force (USAF) purchased services from the established space and missile industry through a cost-plus arrangement. The rise of the private space launch market introduced a new fixed-cost model, where NASA and USAF paid for launches on a need basis. Furthermore, NASA has taken significant steps to involve the private industry in human spaceflight, as the national space agency has shaped itself to undertake high-risk exploration missions. The military sector has also taken major steps to integrate the private industry into the procurement ecosystem, making the government a major source of funding for the private space sector.Such a model of government funding does not exist in India. According to the new space policy, NewSpace India Limited (NSIL), an entity under the DoS, will take responsibility for operating launch vehicles developed by ISRO. Further, ISRO has also stated that it will develop a new reusable launch vehicle to replace the PSLV. There is no indication that either the DOS or the armed forces will fund private launch providers for launch services or develop new launchers.Due to the long absence of a commercial space policy, India's private space industry is in its nascent stages. As the industry matures, it will face stiff competition from well-established international players. In this regard, the Union government must be cognizant of the fact that international competitors have some level of backing from foreign governments, which skews their advantage in the international market. Access to key technologiesThe second major challenge to Indian companies arises from the lack of a robust supply ecosystem in India. As mentioned earlier, the evolution of India's space sector led to a condition where a supporting industry for the space sector had limited incentives to flourish into its full potential. Decades later, a new generation of space entrepreneurs began to rely on foreign suppliers for key components and technologies as they could not find equivalent suppliers domestically. The lack of a domestic space ecosystem has led several space entrepreneurs to shift their establishments to foreign countries, where access to technology, talent and support systems was easier.Indeed, the NewSpace ecosystem will eventually gain competence as the domestic industry begins to mature and the demand for domestically-manufactured sensors, optics, testing equipment and software increases. During the transition period, however, space startups will continue to rely on foreign suppliers. The process of procuring foreign components is often a roadblock due to the export control regime on dual-use technologies.Charging forwardWhile the new policy achieves high marks in several key areas, the transformation of India's space sector is far from complete. To achieve the vision of augmenting India's capabilities through the commercial space sector, India needs a  National Space Strategy which charts a clear path forward for both civilian and military activities. Such a strategy must lay down the objectives for India's space programme and seamlessly incorporate the interests of the commercial space sector into the national strategy.Our Reading Menu[Book] Traffic: Genius, Rivalry, and Delusion in the Billion-Dollar Race to Go Viral by Ben Smith[Report] Mapping Biosafety Level-3 Laboratories by Publications by Caroline Schuerger, Sara Abdulla and Anna Puglisi[Op-ed] CPC's tryst with private regulatory interventionism by Anushka Saxena[Podcast] Indian Space Policy - 2023 with Aditya Ramanathan and Narayan Prasad This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit hightechir.substack.com

Cyberpolitik: The Gell-mann “AI”mnesiac Effect— Satya SahuHere are two screenshots of a hastily written prompt to which ChatGPT dutifully responded almost immediately.As I read the responses to my prompts, I was painfully aware of the fact that the second passage could very plausibly be attached alongside a doctored image of a scientist holding up a processor die and forwarded countless times on Whatsapp by thousands of my fellow citizens, all overjoyed at the prospect of India finally having become a semiconductor nation. These persuasively written passages contain no usual hallmarks of a shoddy copypasta-like questionable grammar and syntactical errors. The issue evident to anybody familiar with the global semiconductor value chain is that unless the reader of these passages also knows that efforts to produce an indigenous x86 processor are non-existent, they would not be able to discern the falsehood.While AI can generate realistic and useful content for entertainment, education, research, and communication, it can also produce and disseminate misinformation, propaganda, and fake news. Misinformation is false or inaccurate information that is deliberately or unintentionally spread to influence people's beliefs, attitudes, or behaviours. Misinformation can have serious negative impacts on individuals and society, such as eroding trust, polarizing opinions, undermining democracy, and endangering public health and safety.One of the challenges of combating misinformation is that people are often vulnerable to cognitive biases that impair their ability to evaluate the credibility and accuracy of information. One such bias is the Gell-Mann Amnesia effect, coined by Michael Crichton and named after the Nobel Prize-winning physicist Murray Gell-Mann. The Gell-Mann Amnesia effect describes the phenomenon of an expert believing news articles on topics outside of their field of expertise even after acknowledging that articles written in the same publication that are within the expert's field of expertise are error-ridden and full of misunderstanding. For example, a physicist may read an article on physics in a newspaper and find it full of errors and misconceptions but then turn the page and read an article on politics or economics and accept it as factual and reliable.The Gell-Mann Amnesia effect illustrates how people tend to forget or ignore their prior knowledge and experience when they encounter new information that is presented by a seemingly authoritative source. This effect can be exploited by AI-generated misinformation, which can mimic the style and tone of reputable media outlets and create convincing content that appeals to people's emotions, biases, and expectations. AI-generated misinformation can also leverage social media platforms and networks to amplify its reach and influence by exploiting algorithms that favour sensationalism, novelty, and popularity over quality, accuracy, and relevance.Another challenge in combating misinformation is that large language models (LLMs), the main technology behind AI-generated content, are biased and incomplete. LLMs are trained on massive amounts of text data collected from the internet, which reflect the biases and gaps present in society and culture. LLMs learn to reproduce and amplify these biases and gaps in their outputs, which can lead to harmful and misleading content. One type of bias that LLMs can perpetuate is second-order bias, which is the bias that arises from the way data is organized, categorized, and represented. Second-order bias can affect how LLMs understand and generate information, such as classifying entities, assigning attributes, inferring relationships, and constructing narratives. These can also affect how LLMs interact with users, such as how they respond to queries, provide feedback, and adapt to preferences.Second-order bias can make misinformation more problematic at scale because it can affect not only the content but also the context and purpose of information. For example, it can influence how LLMs frame and filter information to suit different audiences and agendas, as well as manipulate and persuade users to accept or reject information based on their emotions, biases, and expectations. It can also influence how LLMs conceal or reveal their sources and intentions to users.All of this is to say that the effort associated with generating false WhatsApp forwards like the example above (but far less benign!) for hundreds of thousands of people at a time is now rendered minuscule. Obviously, the public needs to develop critical thinking and media literacy skills to discern truth from falsehoods on a rapid-fire basis, but the consensus amongst researchers is that there is no silver bullet to this problem.One can only hope that the human cost of developing AI-fuelled output that is difficult to distinguish from human creative output makes us pause and take stock of the situation. It may, however, be too late.Matsyanyaaya: Cooperating to Communicate— Bharath ReddyThe telecommunications network of a country qualifies as critical infrastructure. With the increasing adoption of 5G and the Internet of Things (IoT), almost everything we do will rely on this infrastructure. The recently signed India and US initiative on Critical and Emerging Technology (iCET) recognises next-generation telecommunications as one of the collaboration domains. Within this domain, iCET identifies the following two areas for collaboration:* “Launching a public-private dialogue on telecommunications and regulations.”* “Advancing cooperation on research and development in 5G and 6G, facilitating deployment and adoption of Open RAN in India, and fostering global economies of scale within the sector.”These welcome developments aim to address shared challenges for both India and US.The telecom equipment industry has high entry barriers and is dominated by a handful of vendors. The top four vendors - Ericsson, Nokia, Huawei and ZTE - share around 85% of the Radio Access Network (RAN) market share. Sanctions and bans imposed against Huawei and ZTE further limit vendor choice. The lack of competition in the market could lead to a decline in innovation, an increase in prices and the risk of disrupted supply chains.Several applications necessary for our daily life, such as communications, autonomous vehicles, and smart cities, require a secure and reliable telecommunication infrastructure. The choice of vendors is critical. It's no wonder many states have implemented sanctions against Huawei, recognising it as a potential threat to national security. The telecommunications giant has close ties to the Chinese state. Given the geopolitical climate, relying on an adversary to maintain and upgradation of critical infrastructure is not an option. The companies with the largest RAN market share are full-stack vendors that offer tightly integrated solutions. Open RAN promises to reduce entry barriers by disaggregating the RAN ecosystem. This allows smaller vendors to enter the market by building interoperable and modular components. However, this comes with the risk of complexities in system integration. The responsibility of a reliable and secure system will shift from a single vendor to system integrators and regulators. Given this market dynamic, system integrators and regulators need to develop the skills and capacity to integrate and validate the robustness of such systems.Chinese companies dominate in 5G/6G standard development organisations such as the 3GPP. The disaggregation caused by adopting Open RAN should enable more innovation and broader participation in standards development. Open RAN adoption is progressing slowly, but it can play a more significant role in 6G. Cooperation between India and US in research and development in 5G, 6G and Open RAN will stand both countries in good stead. It will help build resilient supply chains and technical competence in these critical technologies. Antariksh Matters: A vehicle worth reusing— Pranav R SatyanathOn April 2nd, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) conducted an autonomous landing test of the Reusable Launch Vehicle — a spacecraft that looks a lot like an uncrewed spaceplane. The test was indeed unique as the RLV was carried to an altitude of 4.5 km by a helicopter, after which the RLV made an autonomous landing using on-board computers and navigation receivers. The existence of the vehicle is no secret. The RLV Test Demonstrator has been in development since 2012. In 2016, ISRO mounted the test vehicle on a sounding rocket and carried out the first hypersonic flight experiment. Since then, the RLV has undergone several experiments to test the flight and landing characteristics of the vehicle. Since the vehicle's inception, ISRO has envisioned the RLV to be a test bed for a launch vehicle that could become fully operational by 2030. Of course, the RLV is more akin to the space shuttle than the reusable rockets used by SpaceX or Blue Origin. The space shuttle, for its part, was far more expensive than what the National Aeronautics and Space Administration first calculated. So the question remains: will the RLV suffer the same fate? The answer? No. This is because the ISRO's space plane design is likely to be far smaller and more nimble than the Space Shuttle (the latter was designed to carry both heavy cargo and astronauts). Concepts for space planes have existed since the 1960s, most prominent of which was the Boeing X-20 Dyna-SOAR, which never made it past early testing. The RLV could follow the X-20 style lineage, which inspired space planes like the European Space Agency's HERMES spacecraft and the DreamChaser mini space shuttle by the private company, Sierra Space. India's space shuttle, therefore, could eventually develop into a spacecraft that will be mounted on top of the LVM-III rocket and carry astronauts into space.Those who watch space activities closely will also recognise that the RLV looks rather similar to the Boeing X-37B spaceplane, whose purpose of exitance seems to be shrouded in secrecy. Indeed, as I have written in a previous edition of Technopolitik, the X-37B is far less sinister than it appears. While the spacecraft is used for military purposes, its capabilities are limited to reconnaissance and small satellite deployment. It would not come as a surprise if the RLV is repurposed for military utility. After all, ISRO's tweets mention that the test was developed along wide the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and the Indian Air Force. Having a spaceplane similar to the X-37B will give India's military space operators the ability to perform rendezvous and proximity operations, including the capability to deploy micro satellite for inspections. Our Reading Menu[Book] Algorithmic Modernity: Mechanizing Thought and Action, 1500-2000, edited by Morgan G. Ames and Massimo Mazzotti. [Article] Engines of power: Electricity, AI, and general-purpose, military transformations by Jeffrey Ding and Allan Dafoe.[Op-ed] The TikTok Debate Should Start With Reciprocity; Everything Else Is Secondary by David Moschella. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit hightechir.substack.com

Harshan and Jacob talk about SpaceTech Innovation Network (SpIN), an initiative of Social Alpha supported by Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is India's first lab-to-market platform for SpaceTech entrepreneurs and start-ups. The SpIN platform offers a focused support ecosystem that will ensure access to long-term patient capital, pooled testing, and validation infrastructure, building strong sustainable business models that will lead to new market creation for SpaceTech entrepreneurship in India.White paper on Indian supplier landscape: “Driving innovation in the Indian space sector using digital technologies”Discover how Dassault Systèmes can help New Space companies achieve fast, sustainable innovation: The New Frontier of Satellite Technology 3D Perspective on New Space, new horizons Support the NewSpace India podcast by becoming a Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/newspaceindiaWant to keep in touch with the NewSpace India community? Do join us on Discordhttps://discord.gg/WRJ8Yagb8TUniverse by Sappheiros https://soundcloud.com/sappheirosmusicCreative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported — CC BY 3.0 ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

A happy new year to all our readers! To kickstart this year's edition of Technopolitik, we have assembled a list of predictions for 2023 across tech sectors, ranging from online regulation, biotech and outer space. Maybe we can take stock of these predictions and see how much of it we got wrong (or right) at the end of this year!Beginning from this edition, we also introduce a new section to our newsletter called Biopolitik, while will cover all the fascinating tidbits about the biotechnology industry and its intersection with policy and politics.Be sure to check out our Reading Menu. This edition lists some of the best books that the authors have read from last year. With that, we wish you a great year ahead!Cyberpolitik #1: Regulatory tech battles in India— Shailesh ChitnisBig tech is vulnerable. For the first time in big-tech history, technology platforms are confronting slowing growth and bottom-line pressures. Aggressive expansion during the pandemic years has given way to cost-cutting during a cooling economy.Amazon recently announced plans to cut 18,000 workers, mostly in the retail, recruiting and devices businesses. Meta, the parent of Facebook and Instagram, has cut more than 11,000 workers, or about 13% of its staff. It's a similar story across other platforms — Salesforce, Snap, Twitter — no one seems immune.Against this backdrop, regulators are getting more active in reigning in what they see as an overreach by these platforms. In the past, Indian regulators had given technology platforms a free hand. But increasingly, the Indian government has signalled its intention to shape the country's technology landscape.In a series of rulings in October, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) fined Google almost Rs. 2,300 crores for abusing dominance with its Android operating system and the Play Store. The government is also getting into specifics of technology implementation with new rules around standardising chargers (USB-C) and upholding consumers' right-to-repair for devices.In 2023, expect more activity. The gatekeeping role of Apple and Google, which they exercise through their app stores, will be challenged. But since commissions from these stores are a significant revenue source for both these companies, any moves to change this structure will be a long legal battle. With the government's active role in market design, expect more public battles between incumbent tech and the government. Adding to the tech vs regulators battle, India will also be gearing up for general elections in 2024. As the elections draw closer, we can expect the conversations and controversies on the role of social media platforms in disseminating information to be pitched even further.Indeed, 2022 was a busy year for technology policy-making with the semiconductor manufacturing policy and a revised draft of the much-awaited digital data protection bill. But this year, the government has promised to introduce a complete overhaul of the IT Act, which governs much of the digital ecosystem. The IT Act was passed in 2000 and needs to be set up for all the complexity of the internet today - from intermediaries and platforms to AI and data privacy. We also expect the bill's first draft to cover a wide range of online platforms, including social media sites, e-commerce entities and ad-tech platforms.This act can have far-reaching consequences for businesses and civil society since all problems are now technology problems in some form.Biopolitik: Pandemics and regulatory politics— Saurabh TodiThe World Health Organisation (WHO) in 2023 is expected to accelerate negotiations on a draft international pandemic treaty governing prevention, preparedness, and response to future pandemics. The World Health Assembly (WHA) in December 2021 launched the process of negotiating a historical global accord. It established an International Negotiating Body (INB) to formulate a 'WHO convention, agreement or another international instrument' to aid a united global response to any infectious disease crises in the future. Countries felt the need for a new treaty due to various challenges made conspicuous by the experience of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. These include equitable distribution of vaccines and health services among and within countries, knowledge and data sharing, and strengthening countries' capabilities to respond to health emergencies. Although there has been a broad consensus on the ways of working and broad policies that will guide this process, there are also significant disagreements between member states.A central sticking point is the legal nature of this treaty. While the majority of the WHO member states favour a legally-binding instrument, there are differences in how to approach this issue. For example, the WHA has agreed to adopt the global instrument under Article 19 of the WHO constitution, which enables the assembly to draw up binding agreements on a wide range of issues under its mandate. But some countries want the treaty to fall under Article 21, which limits the number of topics that can have binding agreements. Furthermore, some prefer "non-legally binding recommendations" in the draft.In December 2022, at the third meeting of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body (INB), a Conceptual Zero Draft (CZD) of the instrument was released, which has been developed by the Bureau of the INB following widespread consultation. During the meeting, the task fell on INB to develop a "zero draft" in order to start negotiations at the fourth INB meeting scheduled for February 2023. The WHO has committed itself to a timeline where INB will deliver a progress report to the 76th World Health Assembly in 2023 and; submit an outcome document for consideration by the 77th World Health Assembly in 2024.Interestingly, India has maintained a studied silence over its position on this proposed treaty. As an advocate of the interests of the global south, it must ensure the security of the interests of the developing countries during these negotiations. Given the difference of opinion among countries on these issues, it would be interesting to see how the global community reaches a consensus on this crucial initiative.Antariksh Matters: A Space Policy at Last?— Aditya RamanathanAgainst my better judgement, I am going to make predictions that may be largely wrong. First, the easy part: sometime in 2023, the Indian government will release a Space Policy. While the release of this policy has been long-promised, it is more likely than not to be finally made public this year. Now, the more difficult part: predicting some of the broad contours of the policy. I'll start with some brief background. In 2017, the government released a draft Space Activities Bill for comments. The bill was an important step in laying down a legal framework under which space companies can operate. However, the feedback wasn't good. The bill had vague definitions and granted excessive discretionary authority to government officials. As an example of vagueness, the bill only covered Indians or private entities registered in India, leaving foreign collaborators in a regulatory dead zone.Similarly, it defined ‘space activity' so broadly that even a start-up doing preliminary research and development might find itself coping with a barrage of licensing requirements. The draft bill also offers little clarity on liability. India is a signatory to the 1972 Liability Convention, which makes states liable for damage caused by space activities. The bill simply states that the government will decide the amount of money for which a private entity is liable - the sort of provision that is virtually guaranteed to scare off investors. A lot has changed since 2017. The government has pledged to revise the 2017 draft bill based on comments received. It has also created the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe) to act as a nodal agency for private space companies. The next steps are to release a Space Policy followed by the heavily modified Space Activities Bill. So here are my three predictions for the Space Policy:One, the policy will be genuinely oriented towards encouraging private sector space activity and will identify it as a key priority for India. There's enough evidence that the government takes this seriously. The private space economy is (rightly or wrongly) seen as an important component of the “Atmanirbhar Bharat” vision of a self-reliant India. The space economy is also seen as a key catalyst for high-technology industries. The Indian Prime Minister's push for the creation of the industry body Indian Space Association (ISpA) is indication enough that this support extends to the apex of the political leadership. Two, despite this commitment to private industry, the verbiage of the space policy will still place the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) at the centre of India's space aspirations. Indeed, it is quite likely that the policy will consider the primary role of India's private sector to be a supporting ecosystem for ISRO rather than a dynamic entity in its own right. This is a somewhat shakier prediction to make, and it is, more than anything else, a hunch based on statements made by ISRO officials and an awareness of the influence ISRO and the Department of Space wield. Three, the policy will likely offer a potential solution to the issue of liability. I suspect the proposal it will come up with is the creation of a space liability fund that can act as a sort of insurance pool. Typically, such funds will be built by space companies pledging a portion of their profits, but the details would probably only become clear in the Space Activities Bill. So that's my largely optimistic prediction for 2023. Whatever the actual outcomes, we'll dissect them in detail for you in this newsletter.Cyberpolitik #2: In Service of the Digital Public Infrastructure— Bharath ReddyAs we enter 2023, we will see increased deployment of different facets of digital public infrastructure (DPI). As we have seen with UPI, this can lead to financial inclusion and empowerment of citizens, but it comes at the cost of centralising platforms in the hands of the government.Different facets of DPI, such as the Account Aggregator framework, Open Credit Enablement Network, UHI for health, and enhancements to Aadhaar and Digilocker, are expected to be deployed and adopted widely. These improvements will likely lead to the seamless delivery of services and unlock easy access to citizens' data across different silos. In addition to this, as Rahul Matthan writes, DPI will also serve as a techno-legal framework for data governance. Across the world, governing how data is collected and used has proved to be a challenge. Regulations have yet to be successful. Companies have been able to circumvent the law, and the capacity required for enforcement is also relatively high. Moreover, since DPI can be encoded into the public infrastructure, they might offer a better solution for compliance. Requests for data, consent and provision of minimal purpose-specific data can be built into the infrastructure, making compliance easier to enforce.However, these advantages come at the cost of concentrating power over the platforms in the hands of the state. The state has access to large amounts of citizens' personal data and is responsible for safeguarding it. It also has regulatory control and gatekeeping privileges for these critical platforms. Concerns over regulatory access are critical given that we expect the Digital Personal Data Protection Bill (DPDPB) and Telecom Bill to be tabled in Parliament this year. The broad exemptions granted to government entities and the lack of independence of the proposed Data Protection Board in the draft DPDPB, 2022, are a cause for concern. The draft Telecom Bill 2022 has expansive definitions and allows for greater state surveillance. Since both bills have received comments already, we can expect them to be passed this year. The checks and balances they will enforce will play a crucial role.Our Reading Menu[Book] Chip War: The Fight for the World's Most Critical Technology by Chris Miller.[Book] 10% Human: How Your Body's Microbes Hold the Key to Health and Happiness by Allana Collen.[Book] Human-Build World: How to Think about Technology and Culture by Thomas P. Hughes.[Book] The End of Ownership: Personal Property in the Digital Economy by Aaron Perzanowski and Jason Schultz. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit hightechir.substack.com

First, Indian Express' Harish Damodaran joins us to talk about the government seeking Parliament's approval for fresh expenditure for subsidies on food, fertiliser and fuel for the financial year of 2022-2023. Second, Indian Express' Manoj CG explains a new private member bill introduced in the Parliament which seeks the formation of a high-level committee headed by the Prime Minister and consisting of the Leader of the Opposition and the Chief Justice of India to select the Chief Election Commissioner and the Election Commissioners.And in the end, Indian Express' Anonna Dutt tells us about the Navigation with Indian Constellation (NavIC) which is an independent stand-alone navigation satellite system developed by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). Host: Rahel Philipose Script and Producer: Utsa Sarmin Editing and Mixing: Suresh Pawar

Antariksh Matters #1: Small Launchers and Small Windows of Opportunity— Pranav R SatyanathThe small satellite launch vehicle market has a new player - Firefly Aerospace. The US-based private company on Saturday (October 1st 2022) conducted the first successful launch of its rocket Firefly Alpha. The company attempted a launch in September 2021, which failed to get to orbit. Today, Firefly is one of only four private NewSpace companies in the world which provide dedicated small-satellite launch service. The other three being Rocket Lab, Virgin Orbit and Astra (the last of the three companies is an interesting case).Firefly's Alpha launch vehicle can carry a payload of just over 1 ton to low-Earth orbit (LEO) and 750 kilograms to Sun Synchronous Orbit (SSO). This puts Alpha  in the same category as the Polar  Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), which is the workhorse of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).  The Alpha launch vehicle is powered by four liquid-fuelled turbopump engines that use RP-1 (highly refined kerosene) and liquid oxygen (LOx). The second stage is powered by a single liquid-fuelled RP-1/LOx engine optimised for vacuum.The company is one of the few success stories in the highly competitive launch market, and success did not come easy. Firefly was founded as Firefly Space Systems in 2014,but the company went bankrupt and liquidated in 2017 and its assets were purchased by Ukrainian venture capitalist (also a tech entrepreneur) Max Polyakov and his company, Noosphere Ventures. Unfortunately, Polykov could only stand at a distance and watch Firefly's success as he was forced to sell his shares after Russia's invasion of Ukraine. A tough time for small launch companiesNot all companies witness success by the likes of Firefly. In December 2019, Vector Launch filed for bankruptcy before it could attempt a full orbital launch of its Vector-R rocket. The company has undergone restructuring and is preparing to begin suborbital flight tests. Another US-based company, Astra, has been attempting to launch its rocket into orbit since 2020, with very little success, leaving the company to abandon its Rocket 3.3 and move to a new design called Rocket 4 instead. Oher companies in the USIndia's own attempt to launch the Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV) failed to place its payloads in orbit after a malfunction in its sensors. The SSLV is operated by ISRO's newly- established commercial arm called NewSpace India Limited (NSIL). SSLV, unlike other launch vehicles, uses solid fuel in the first three stages. The final stage is a liquid-fuelled velocity trimming module. SSLV is India's attempt to enter the small satellite launch market, offering a launch-on-demand service to carry upto 500 kg to LEO or 300 kg to sun synchronous orbit.Several other launch companies around the world are preparing to tap into the growing small satellite market. Yet, it is unclear how many of these companies will survive in the coming years. More importantly, it is unclear whether these private entities have overestimated the market for small satellites, as a drop in demand puts at risk the sustainability of these companies.Small launch vehicles for IndiaIndian private launch companies are not far behind the world competitors. Two companies in particular, Agnikul and Skyroot, have risen to the occasion in their attempt to fulfil India's satellite launch demands. As an aspiring space power, India can not compete in the global space market by making an average of five launches a year. It requires dozens of launches (along with many many more satellites) to stay competitive on both commercial and national security grounds. India's forthcoming new space policy (long overdue and still nowhere in sight) must make it conducive for private launch providers to operate and thrive. ISRO, meanwhile, must focus its efforts on improving the reliability of its GSLV series of heavy-lift rockets and allow privateers to cater to the small satellite market needs.Siliconpolitik: India's Semiconductor Policies v2.0— Pranay KotasthaneEarlier this week, the Union Cabinet approved modifications to three of the four schemes introduced in December 2021 for developing a domestic semiconductor ecosystem. Several news websites have claimed that with the government “sweetening the deal”, investments in this sector will be more forthcoming. I agree, but not without some fundamental reservations. Here's why.Semiconductor FabsTo attract chip manufacturing companies, the original programme promised up to 50% upfront financial support for leading-edge nodes (28 nanometres and below). The promised fiscal support for trailing-edge nodes employing older technologies dropped commensurately, going down to 30% for a fab that produces chips at the 45-65 nanometre nodes. (The node size is a rough measure for the size of a building block in a chip. The smaller that number, the more building blocks that can be packed in the same area resulting in higher performance).Under the new scheme, the government promises upfront fiscal support of 50% for all node sizes. The change reflects two realities. First, trailing-edge fabs are crucial for India. The demand for older node sizes will not disappear anytime soon. Future applications such as 5G radios and electric vehicles will continue to require manufacturing at these nodes. Most current defence applications also require trailing-edge chips.Second, many countries are wooing the leading-edge node foundries with much larger incentive packages. Companies such as TSMC are being courted by all major powers, and it's unlikely they will pick India for the most-advanced nodes. India's chances are better for securing older technologies.Display FabsMost display panel manufacturers are located in East Asia — companies from China, Taiwan, South Korea, and Japan dominate this industry. The scheme was designed with the explicit aim of import substitution. The original scheme promised up to 50% upfront financial support subject to a cap of ₹12,000 crores. As part of the changes, this upper cap has been struck off.To me, this scheme didn't make sense even when it was announced. I have four reasons for the scepticism.* Even during the high peak of supply chain disruptions during COVID-19, there was no shortage of display panels, indicating that there are no constraints to increasing production, as is the case for chips. (The only shortage related to displays was for the driver chip, not the panels by themselves).* Apart from China and Taiwan, South Korea and Japan have leadership in specific segments of displays. So we aren't dependent on one vulnerable source, as in the case of chips.* Import dependence on China won't go away. Even if these fabs manufacture displays in India, the input materials will have to be imported from elsewhere. So the bottlenecks will shift but don't disappear.* The industry is moving to newer technologies apart from LCDs and AMOLEDs. Samsung is focusing on Quantum-dot displays instead of LCDs. The scheme might be able to get old-tech here, but for newer technologies, imports might continue.Thus, to spend ₹12000 crores for a product in the pursuit of a failed notion of import substitution doesn't justify the opportunity costs. Moreover, removing the upper cap after Vedanta-Foxconn got into this game raises concerns about rent-seeking — the tendency of businesses to distort policies to serve their own interests.Assembly, Test, Packaging Units, and Specialised Low-volume FabsFor assembly, test and packaging firms, & compound fabs, the promised financial support has increased substantially, from 30% to 50%. More importantly, the original scheme allowed disbursal once a facility had begun production. Under the modified scheme, the financial support will be upfront. Prepaid, not postpaid.These changes again warrant scrutiny. Is it another case of rent-seeking?At the margin, I am okay with the changes in this segment. India has a potential advantage because of the need for a large, mid-level trained workforce for this segment of the supply chain, in comparison to conventional semiconductor fabs.Semiconductor DesignSurprisingly, there were no modifications in the one area where India does have a comparative advantage - semiconductor design and design services. The capital requirement for this segment is at least two orders of magnitude lower than the first three segments. And yet, the response to the scheme for encouraging design firms seems less than lukewarm. We propose two changes in the policy for that segment in an article for Hindustan Times earlier this month:* To receive deployment-linked incentives under the current scheme, a design firm has to be registered in India with a 50% local stake. That clause could be watered down. Companies should qualify as long as the workforce is majorly Indian and the development happens here.* Reducing tariff and non-tariff barriers are also crucial for India's semiconductor design companies to increase operations in India.On both these counts, the status quo prevails.To summarise, the modifications reflect the government's seriousness in attracting investment in this sector. Through these changes, the government is acknowledging that India must start its chip manufacturing journey at the lower end and climb its way up. Getting good at this game takes a couple of decades. At the same time, a thin line separates responsive government policies from regulatory capture by businesses. All industrial policies run this risk, and we need to be vigilant.Antariksh Matters #2: Planetary Defence and National Defence— Aditya RamanathanOn September 26, NASA concluded what it called “the world's first planetary defense technology demonstration” in a spectacular collision. Ten months after it was first launched, NASA's 570 kilogram Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft smashed into the asteroid Dimorphos. The collision occurred 11 million kilometres from Earth. Dimporphos is technically a 160 metre-long ‘asteroid moonlet' - called so because it orbits a larger asteroid named Didymos. While neither rock is headed towards Earth, the DART mission sought to establish the ability to deflect an asteroid from its trajectory.   The DART spacecraft was launched in November 2021 from a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Johns Hopkins Advanced Propulsion Laboratory (JHUAPL) managed the mission. The apparent success of DART is likely to prompt more ‘planetary defence' missions. According to the latest decadal survey published by the US-based National Academies, NASA's annual budget for planetary defence is more than $160 million. NASA has tracked about 27,000 near Earth objects (NEOs) using this funding. Yet this is barely enough to track naturally occurring threats from space. In particular, NEOs that are between 30-140 metres in size and typically collide with the Earth once every century, can be hard to detect. One such celestial body was responsible for the 1908 Tunguska event. Ambitious Proposals, Enduring SuspicionsWhile the DART mission was a kinetic collision, such interventions may not suffice for every contingency. While no civilisation-killing NEOs are likely to be headed Earth's way anytime soon, smaller NEOs that can still result in catastrophes may be detected too late for deflection. Also, kinetic collisions may risk creating fragments large enough to survive reentry and cause damage on Earth. The most common proposal for dealing with such contingencies is using explosive nuclear devices. One scientific study from 2021 concluded that such devices were likely to be useful in destroying major NEOs headed towards Earth. While it may be prudent to seriously examine the options available, NASA's planetary defence project is not without political implications. Any spacefaring capability that can destroy through kinetic collision, or worse yet, nuclear explosives, has obvious military implications. This is especially so because, as we have argued, space warfare is still primitive in character, depending on dual-use capabilities rather than specialised weapons or platforms. While the military applications of DART-like missions are unclear and fantastical at the moment, states are not known to take chances on such matters. For reasons of both survival and prestige, America's rivals may initiate their own planetary defence programmes in the near future. Our Reading Menu[Book] A History of Near-Earth Objects Research by Erik M. Conway, Donald K. Yeomans, and Meg Rosenburg[Report] Forecasting th A History of Near-Earth Objects Researche future impact of emerging technologies on international stability and human security by Marina Favaro, Neil Renic and Ulrich Kühn[Research Article] One if by Land, and Two if by Sea: Cross-Domain Contests and the Escalation of International Crises by J Andrés Gannon This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit hightechir.substack.com

The Global Positioning System or GPS has become entrenched in our daily life. Whether we want to maneuver traffic, or find a restaurant, it has made our life easier. But did you ever wonder who owns the GPS or who runs it? Originally Navstar GPS, the Global Positioning System is a satellite-based radionavigation system owned by the US government. And the United States Space Force operates it. India has found its homegrown alternative to the GPS in the form of NavIC. The government is taking rapid steps to enhance its adoption.  What is NavIC? NavIC stands for Navigation with Indian Constellation. It is an independent navigation satellite system developed by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). NavIC consists of eight satellites and covers the entire India. Additionally, it covers up to 1,500 km from its boundaries. When was NavIC started? NavIC was originally approved in 2006 with a $174 million budget. It was expected to be completed by late 2011. But it only became operational in 2018.   How is NavIC used? Currently, NavIC is being used to track public vehicles in India. It is also used to send emergency warning alerts to fishermen venturing into the sea where there is no terrestrial network connectivity. Also, it is being used for tracking and providing information in case of natural disasters. Off late, the Centre is pushing smartphone companies to adopt NavIC in India. NavIC vs GPS and others GPS provides global coverage but NavIC is currently limited to India and the adjacent areas. Three more navigational systems offer global coverage like the GPS. These are Galileo from the European Union, Russia-owned GLONASS and China's Beidou. Japan's QZSS provides navigational coverage of Asia-Pacific with a special focus on Japan. Why is the government vouching for NavIC? The government is aiming to remove foreign dependence on India's navigational requirements. It is more important in the case of strategic sectors. The centre believes that relying on GPS and others like it may not be wise for India as they are operated by defence agencies of their respective countries. 

Recently Indian author, Geetanjali Shree's book Tomb Of Sand, won the Rest Of The World version of the Booker Prize.In literary circles—as indeed with other circles—awards and prizes always set off ripples of envy and carping. The cynical argument is that prizes are geared to triggering interest in markets—in this case, I presume, to sell more books. I haven't done a deep dive into this but it makes for great coffee shop mulch.So, whether by honest practice or by greasy marketing, a Booker win means much to the industry and in the case of Tomb Of Sand I dare say, it will trigger the gold rush of translations.So are translations the next big thing?My guest today, Kalyan Raman is no translation newbie. He has translated the works of some of the best known writers from Tamil into English. I have known him for many years. He is a scientist with a literary side. He worked in the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) as a satellite communications engineer.His first substantive published translation of a book was one of short stories by the famous late Tamil modernist author, Ashokamitran.I remember meeting Kalyan in Koshy's Cafe in Bangalore the day that book was released. I walked over to a bookstore nearby and bought it. And I was introduced to the wonderful world of translated texts.Translations are not something to be discussed blithely. There is so much that translators must know before they can translate. They must know the language, the history of the author, indeed the mind of the author, the subject. And then the translation itself must stay faithful to the rhythm, cadence and comportment of the text.And importantly, stay faithful to the author. The translator must not conclude that the author's prose could use a little improvement.I've held Kalyan in very high estimation all these years and I am fortunate to have him here as my guest today. Today we ask him all about translations.ABOUT KALYAN RAMANA graduate of IIT Madras and IIM Kolkata, N Kalyan Raman worked in telecommunications for over three decades. His career as a translator of contemporary Tamil fiction and poetry began in the early 90s. He has published fifteen works of Tamil fiction in translation, including those by major authors like Ashokamitran, Poomani, Perumal Murugan, Devibharathi, Salma and Vaasanthi. His translation of Tamil poetry has been published widely in important journals and anthologies in India and abroad. Breaking Free, his translation of a Tamil novel by Vaasanthi, was published in June this year by HarperCollins India. His translation of Perumal Murugan's Poonachi: The Story of a Black Goat was shortlisted for the inaugural JCB Prize in 2018. Its US edition, The Story of a Goat was nominated for the National Book Foundation Award 2020 for Translated Literature. In 2018, he was given the prestigious Pudumaipithan Memorial Award for his contribution to the cause of Tamil literature through his translations. He lives and works in Chennai.Buy Breaking Free here: https://amzn.to/3yx288EWHAT'S THAT WORD?!Co-host Pranati "Pea" Madhav joins Ramjee Chandran in the segment "What's That Word?", where they discuss the business of translations and the phrase "champing at the bit".WANT TO BE ON THE SHOW?Reach us by mail: theliterarycity@explocity.com or simply, tlc@explocity.com.Or here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/theliterarycity.Or here:  https://www.instagram.com/explocityblr/.

Antariksh Matters #1: India’s Space Policy under IN-SPACe— Pranav R SatyanathOn 10 June, 2022, Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the headquarters of the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe) in Ahmedabad, Gujarat. The setting up of IN-SPACe promises to usher in a new era for India’s commercial space sector, as the organisation is geared to function as a one-stop institution for regulating space activities and providing entities in the private sector access to facilities run by the Department of Space (DOS) and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). The creation of IN-SPACe was announced in June 2020 within the pages of the Draft National Space Transport Policy published in June 2020, in light of the growing importance of commercial entities for driving innovation in the space sector. IN-SPACe is structured as an independent body within the DOS, and as of this writing, IN-SPACe has authorised two private companies to launch their payloads onboard the PSLV-C53. The structure of INSPACe’s regulatory mechanism is shown below.Before IN-SPACeTo fully appreciate the significance of a regulatory body like IN-SPACe and identify its shortcomings, we must first see the regulatory arrangement present in India before the coming of this new autonomous body. The image below shows the structure of India’s space enterprise run by the DOS. Under this arrangement, it is clear that the DOS did not have any straightforward mechanism to interact with private space companies or regulate their activities. Since ISRO operated all of India’s launch facilities and a large number of research laboratories, it became a single point of contact for private companies, and therefore, a de facto  space activities regulator.   The Structure of India’s space ecosystem prior to IN-SPACe Source: ISROAs the private space industry in India began to grow, the difficulty of gaining access to gaining critical facilities and services made it all too evident that India desperately needed a new space policy. Further, the international regulatory environment on space sustainability also began to take shape under the Long-term Sustainability (LTS) Guidelines of the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (UNCOPUOS). India desperately needed a coherent domestic space policy to keep up with the international standards of regulating private entities and ensuring the safety and security of India’s own space assets. Within this context, the necessity of a new regulatory body for space activities was born. The Current Structure of India’s space ecosystem Source: ISROIN-SPACe now and in the futureThe existing structure of IN-SPACe promises a smooth process for private entities to:Be granted permission to operate.Be given access to facilities operated under DOS.Be granted permission to run their own facilities.IN-SPACe also promises to share technologies and remote sensing data with private companies through a new remote sensing policy. The substance of these promises can only be analysed once the IN-SPACe begins operating in full-swing.Some of the unintended consequences of IN-SPACe may be that it might act more as a gatekeeper than an enabler. Such risks can be avoided by maintaining the autonomy of IN-SPACe and reducing the role of other stakeholders in the decision-making process. Second, the DOS must eventually ensure that ISRO becomes a scientific research institution and cedes control of its legacy space launch vehicles to New Space India Limited, which must function as a fully private launch entity that competes with other domestic players.Cyberpolitik: India Needs a Fortified Computing Ecosystem— Arjun GargeyasThe advent of the Information Age and the digital economy has brought the concept of computational capacity into the limelight. Advanced computing mechanisms such as high-performance, quantum, and cloud have taken over the field of computing. Nation-states (and even private companies) are embroiled in a high-stakes race to increase indigenous computing power for several strategic purposes. Harnessing this pivotal technological resource remains a priority for a rising technological society like India. With the country’s data generation at an all-time high, there is a need for improving the computational capabilities of the state by utilising emerging advanced computing technologies. The announcement of the National Supercomputing Mission (NSM), in 2015 by the government of India, was the first step taken by the state in the field of High-Performance Computing technologies. A jointly funded programme between the Department of Science and Technology (DST) and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), a total outlay of Rs 4500 crore has been allocated for the mission over a period of 7 years (2016-2023). The main objectives of the mission were to spearhead research in the development of supercomputers and build a National Supercomputing Grid across the country. The implementation of the mission was divided into three phases. The first involved assembling supercomputers in India (till the end of 2018) and the second was meant for designing these high-performance computing solutions in the country (completed by September 2021). The final phase, which has officially commenced, involves the indigenous design and manufacturing of supercomputers in the country. Till the end of February 2022, there have been 10 supercomputers installed at various host institutions under the mission. However, considering the distribution of the top 500 most powerful supercomputers in the world, India accounts for just 0.6% of the total. While the national mission has kick started work in the field, there is a long way to go before India can develop its own interconnected structure of supercomputers.The other major advanced computing technology dominating the market is quantum computing. While India has a dedicated supercomputer programme in the form of NSM, there has been no dedicated government policy towards the field of quantum computing specifically. However, the domestic private sector has gotten involved in the development of quantum computing hardware, software, and algorithms. The government has relied on partnership deals with major private firms to advance the quantum computing landscape in the country. In 2021, the government of India announced tie-ups with technology giants, Amazon Web Services and IBM India to improve access to a quantum computing development environment for the industrial and the scientific community. This led to the establishment of the Quantum Computing Applications Laboratory to build small-scale quantum computers. The establishment of the Greater Karnavati Quantum Computing Technology Park (GKQCTP), by the government of Gujarat and a research firm, Ingoress looks to house the country’s first-ever quantum computer.Recent progress by the state in the computing domain has showcased the government’s intent to view computational capacity as a strategic tool to possess. However, the headway has been slow and adequate measures have to be taken to ensure India does not fall behind the pack. A holistic strategy is needed to facilitate the advancement in the computing field.First, the ability to build advanced computing devices and facilities rests on a wide range of components and raw materials. It would be impossible for any state, let alone India, to indigenously manufacture the whole system from scratch. This is where the reliance on high-tech imports kicks in. Trade barriers such as export control mechanisms and import restrictions that still exist can hamper access to the building blocks of these systems. For example, advanced processors for supercomputers and cryogenic cooling systems for quantum computers are a necessity. But with existing export controls, indigenously developing them will take time for India. Cutting down on import tariffs, especially in the electronics sector, along with embracing multilateral trade agreements like the Information Technology Agreement (ITA 2015) must be the government’s priority. Moving towards a liberalised trade policy that embraces tech imports can help the country accelerate its computing programmes.Second, there needs to be a more holistic vision for developing a nationwide computing grid. China’s recently announced National Computing Network can serve as a blueprint for India to scale up its computing infrastructure. The Chinese plan talks about a geographical approach to building data centres and computing clusters across the mainland. The concept of ‘Data from east, Computing in the west’ has been proposed, which involves the setting up of computing architecture in the less developed western regions of the country to handle the data stored in centres already established in the tech-aligned eastern region. A computing grid in India can follow a similar pattern with computing clusters scattered across the country. Till now, the government has focused on academic and scientific research institutions as hosts for large-scale computing systems. Dispersing these facilities across other locations can enhance and coordinate regional development also. Creating a better network can improve the functioning and efficiency of an advanced computing grid as well as handle large-scale data processing with ease.Third, looking at the need to increase computing power from a military and strategic perspective can improve the computing technology being used currently. In an age of information warfare and cybersecurity threats, increased computational capacity is a necessity and a risk mitigation tool. Advanced computing facilities at strategic environments like naval bases, air command control centres and border outposts can help in the faster analysis and real-time data processing that contains critical military intelligence. India must focus on its computing strategy keeping in mind the defence and national security angle. Countries like the US and China are looking at advanced computing systems to simulate military operations and gain key advantages. India needs to leverage its computing capabilities effectively for defence and cannot afford to remain complacent in this domain.(An edited version of this article came out in the Hindustan Times on 10th June 2022))Antariksh Matters #2: The UK Wants to be a Big Spacefarer— Aditya RamanathanOn 23 June, the UK’s minister for science, announced four sets of proposed plans that he said were intended to encourage sustainable use of space. The minister, George Freeman, unveiled the UK’s Plan for Space Sustainability during a talk at the latest edition of the Summit for Space Sustainability, which is hosted by the US-based Secure World Foundation and the UK government.The first of Freeman’s proposed plans is to strive “to lead in the global regulatory standards for orbital activities”. The second is to pursue international cooperation in the sustainable use of space. The third is to create what Freeman called “simple, accurate metrics” to gauge space sustainability. The fourth is to create a debris removal programme. The UK’s Outsize Ambitions in Space The UK has been a particularly active participant in international debates around space governance, sustainability and security. Last year, it released a national space strategy and in February of 2022, it published a defence space strategy. It was an early signatory of the US-led Artemis Accords that seeks to lay out ground rules for lunar exploration and commercial use. The UK was also a key driver behind the setting up of an Open-Ended Working Group (OEWG) on space threats, which completed its first meeting in May. Commercial concerns are at the heart of the UK’s activism. Freeman’s own remarks at the Space Sustainability Summit made clear the UK’s ambitions: “As it was with shipping in the 17th century and cars in the 20th, the key will be regulation which enforces good industry standards and reduces the cost of insurance and finance for a satellite launch which can show it is compliant. With London as a global capital of insurance and venture financing, we have an opportunity to use our historic role in space science to now harness responsible finance for sustainable space.” While Freeman’s comments implicitly evoked the legacy of the UK’s historic maritime power, they are in line with the goals of the national space strategy, which set out five goals:“Grow and level up our space economyPromote the values of Global BritainLead pioneering scientific discovery and inspire the nationProtect and defend our national interests in and through spaceUse space to deliver for UK citizens and the world”The UK’s own space industry is small but growing. According to a report commissioned by the UK government, space-related companies and organisations generated income of £16.5 billion in 2019-2020, a third of which came from exports. Space applications constituted the biggest share of this income, at £12.2 billion, followed by space manufacturing which accounted for £2.27 billion. The UK evidently hopes to see this industry grow much larger, but there will be some challenges ahead. While the UK will benefit from its special relationship with the US and traditional ties with Europe, it will face commercial competition from both geopolitical friends and foes. Its ambitions to set regulatory and legal standards are also likely to be contested by China and Russia. And even small-sized rivals like Luxembourg could market themselves as more attractive destinations for the registration of space companies. Notwithstanding these challenges, the UK’s activism also offers a model for other states like India. Freeman is yet to provide details of the proposals he outlined, but there’s no reason India cannot develop proposals of its own, outline a national space strategy, or actively participate in ongoing talks on space security.Our Reading Menu[Opinion] How India Can Take a Leaf Out of China’s Playbook on Battery Swapping to Form a Robust EV Ecosystem by Rohan Pai.[Report] Boost-Phase Missile Defense: Interrogating the Assumptions by Ian Williams, Masao Dahlgren, Thomas G. Roberts and Tom Karako.[Research Article] Echo Chambers, Rabbit Holes, and Algorithmic Bias: How YouTube Recommends Content to Real Users by Megan A. Brown, James Bisbee, Angela Lai et. al. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit hightechir.substack.com

Chandra spent more than 20 years working at the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). His work at ISRO covered all parts of the programme - satellite, rockets as well as the applications of space technology especially remote sensing. He was also involved with activities related to international co-operation and has represented and led Indian delegations to the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space.His research interests include technology and competitive advantage, national technology priorities and national technology policy, studies on innovation, telecommunications in the Indian context, national innovation systems, modelling complex systems and national security issues. His recent work includes a study of sensitive installations using open source satellite imagery. He has also been involved with other members of the group on a micro-level comparative case study of Chinese capabilities in one domain of technology related to the development of turbo-fan aircraft engine technology.This is a project by Spaceport SARABHAI (S2) to capture anecdotes of people who have contributed to the development of India's space program. S2 is India's 1st dedicated Space think tank that aspires to be global, collaborative, and inclusive. More about S2 - http://www.spaceportsarabhai.org/White paper on Indian supplier landscape: “Driving innovation in the Indian space sector using digital technologies”Discover how Dassault Systèmes can help New Space companies achieve fast, sustainable innovation: The New Frontier of Satellite Technology 3D Perspective on New Space, new horizons Support the NewSpace India podcast by becoming a Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/newspaceindiaWant to keep in touch with the NewSpace India community? Do join us on Discordhttps://discord.gg/WRJ8Yagb8TUniverse by Sappheiros https://soundcloud.com/sappheirosmusicCreative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported — CC BY 3.0★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Dr. V.S. Hegde, born in 1952, has a Post Graduate Degree in Applied Geology and Doctorate Degree in Environmental Science. He has been with Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) since 1975, contributing in the areas of Aerial Remote Sensing, Earth Observation, Remote Sensing & Satellite Communication Applications, Disaster Mitigation, Societal Applications, International Cooperation and Space Commerce.Previously, Hegde has held many key positions in ISRO, such as Scientific Secretary, ISRO; Director, Earth Observations System; Member-Secretary of Planning Committee on National Natural Resources Management System (NNRMS); Programme Director, Disaster Management Support; Programme Coordinator, Village Resource Centres; Project Director, Integrated Mission for Sustainable Development. During 1989-1991, he was Founder-Director of Karnataka State Remote Sensing Centre, a vital organ of NNRMS. He was also Chairman-cum-Managing Director of Antrix Corporation Limited (Antrix). Hegde's important contributions to the programmes and activities of ISRO, also of much relevance to national development, include: exploration of groundwater to provide drinking water in villages; landslide hazard zonation in the Himalayas; developing locale-specific integrated action plans at watershed level for management of land and water resources; and environment impact assessment for setting up polluting industries & developmental projects. He has played pivotal roles in implementing the space-based programme for disaster management; and conceptualising & realising the network of Village Resource Centres to take the benefits of space technology to the doorsteps of common man. His contributions in evolving the Remote Sensing Data Policy-2011; and the long-term strategy & plan for Indian Earth Observations System and its utilisation have been significant. He has played an equally pro-active and productive role in building ISRO's international relations and programme management as Scientific Secretary.This is a project by Spaceport SARABHAI (S2) to capture anecdotes of people who have contributed to the development of India's space program. S2 is India's 1st dedicated Space think tank that aspires to be global, collaborative, and inclusive. More about S2 - http://www.spaceportsarabhai.org/White paper on Indian supplier landscape: “Driving innovation in the Indian space sector using digital technologies”Discover how Dassault Systèmes can help New Space companies achieve fast, sustainable innovation: The New Frontier of Satellite Technology 3D Perspective on New Space, new horizons Support the NewSpace India podcast by becoming a Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/newspaceindiaWant to keep in touch with the NewSpace India community? Do join us on Discordhttps://discord.gg/WRJ8Yagb8TUniverse by Sappheiros https://soundcloud.com/sappheirosmusicCreative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported — CC BY 3.0★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

The Airports Authority of India successfully conducted a light trial using the GAGAN satellite navigation system for the landing of an ATR72 aircraft belonging to IndiGo at the Kishangarh Airport in Rajasthan last week.  GAGAN is a system jointly developed by the Airports Authority of India and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) in collaboration with US defence contractor Raytheon at an estimated cost of Rs 774 crores. It provides a very accurate and high-level of satellite signals for precision air navigation over the entire Indian airspace, with the capability of expanding to nearby regions. It is capable of providing navigation services for departure, en-route and landing operations to equipped planes. The DGCA had issued a mandate, directing that all aircraft registered in India after July 1st 2021 to be fitted with GAGAN equipment.  Simply speaking, GAGAN is a Satellite Based Augmentation System or SBAS, which is a regional network of ground stations and satellites that provide GPS signal corrections, giving a better position accuracy.  GPS is the most prevalent Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) and is owned by the US government. GAGAN is the fourth such SBAS system that has been operationalised after the US' WAAS, European Union's EGNOS an d Japan's MSAS and it is interoperable with the other three.  The GAGAN system consists of 15 earth-based reference stations, two master control centres, three land uplink stations and three geostationary satellites. The reference stations gather GPS satellite data and the master control centres collect data from reference stations and create GPS correction messages.  Through this, errors caused by ionospheric disturbances, satellite orbit errors and inaccurate clocks are corrected. And through the uplink stations, the corrected messages are sent to the geostationary satellites which then broadcast them to the aircraft.   India is the first country in the Asia Pacific Region to trial indigenous SBAS for landing.  According to SV Satish, former executive director (Air Traffic Management), AAI, GAGAN opens a gateway for all airports to have low visibility approaches. It will bring down diversions, save fuel and boost efficiency. He says, GAGAN can serve smaller airports effectively, and older aircraft have to be upgraded with GAGAN receivers.  GAGAN will help airports which are currently devoid of precision approach capability equipment and have higher visibility requirements. It will reduce flight delays, save fuel, and improve flight safety. Now, aircraft will be able to land at airports not equipped with expensive Instrument Landing Systems, which include many small regional airports.  At present, IndiGo, SpiceJet, Air India, Go First and AirAsia India have aircraft that are capable of carrying out these satellite-based procedures. As GAGAN's footprint expands from Africa to Australia, India is in a position to offer its service to neighbouring countries.  Though primarily meant for aviation, GAGAN's capabilities can be utilised in many other user segments such as intelligent transportation, maritime, highways, railways, surveying and the telecom industry. GAGAN Message Service (GMS) can relay alerts to deep-sea fishermen, farmers, and disaster affected people at the time of natural calamities.  Watch video

On The Space Show for Wednesday, 2 March 2022: Space Show News: The Space Show takes a dig at Prime Minister Scott Morrison by giving him a lesson on the history of Australians in space Ukrainian singer Alena Vinnitskaya performs “Stargazer (Astrologer)” Suraj Bijjahalli (RMIT University): Augmenting global navigation systems Belinda Nicholson (University of Southern Queensland): Stars as proxies for studying the Sun's early history Planet Earth - Episode 31: A feature from the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on its Earth observation spacecraft

From 15 October to 15 December 2019, two of NiAT's very own staff went to Bangalore, India, to take part in the UNNATI Batch 2 course. They were Siti Nuraazzah PDHA Aziz, Deputy CEO, and Wong Teck Sion, Head of Technical and Operations. It was endorsed by the Ministry of Transport and Info-Communications. The UNNATI course is a capacity building programme offered by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) to other United Nations member states, as part of their UNISpace initiative in the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) agenda.A total of 30 professionals from 16 countries completed the course. Of the 30 participants, 11 were from their nation's space and science agencies, 8 were air force officers, 5 were university lecturers, 4 were from satellite communications companies, and 2 were from civil aviation authorities. The diversity in the participants presented a unique opportunity to learn from each other as each country was at a different stage in their space initiatives and spearheaded by different organisations. Learn about their experiences here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyzEIDnFkwwWhite paper on Indian supplier landscape: “Driving innovation in the Indian space sector using digital technologies”Discover how Dassault Systèmes can help New Space companies achieve fast, sustainable innovation: The New Frontier of Satellite Technology 3D Perspective on New Space, new horizons Support the NewSpace India podcast by becoming a Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/newspaceindiaWant to keep in touch with the NewSpace India community? Do join us on Discordhttps://discord.gg/WRJ8Yagb8TFor comments/suggestions, write to curator@newspaceindia.com ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Do you who is called the Missile Man of India? It is India's former President, Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam, commonly called, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam. He was an Indian aerospace scientist who served as the 11th president of India from 2002 to 2007. He was born on 15th October 1931 in Tamil Nadu. His family belonged to a very humble economic background. Through outt his life, Abdul Kalam have always been a bright hardworking student. He graduated in Physics in 1954 and then pursued aerospace engineering from MIT. Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam became an aerospace scientist when he joined the Aeronautical Development Establishment of the Defence Research and Development Organisation, after becoming a member of the Defence Research & Development Service. He started his career by designing a small hovercraft. Kalam joined the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) in 1969 as the project director of India's first Satellite Launch Vehicle (SLV-III), which successfully launched the Rohini satellite into near-earth orbit in July 1980. He was a key figure in India's civilian space programme as well as military missile development. As a result of his contributions to the development of ballistic missile and vehicle technology, he was known as India's Missile Man. In 1998, he also had a key organisational, technical, and political role in India's Pokhran-II nuclear testing, the first since the country's first nuclear test in 1974. He was a recipient of several prestigious awards, including the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian honour. Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/chimesradio See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) intends to offload most of its space- related activities to industry and enhance focus on advanced research, as the government opens up the sector to get private players onboard. India is all set to become the hub for the small satellite launch market, which is estimated to be valued at around $38 billion by 2027. The journey will be driven largely by the private sector, especially start-ups which are developing low cost ingenious and quality solutions, which are as good as space powers. Is India emerging as the global hub for small satellites launch? How are start-ups going to drive the growth? Listen to the podcast to know the reasons behind India becoming a hotspot for global small satellite launches  

In this episode Mikko takes a deep dive into Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO.) You will learn about its history, launch vehicles and most notable missions to date. (more…)

Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam (/ˈæbdəlkəˈlɑːm/ (listen); 15 October 1931 – 27 July 2015) was an Indian aerospace scientist and politician who served as the 11th President of India from 2002 to 2007. He was born and raised in Rameswaram, Tamil Nadu and studied physics and aerospace engineering. He spent the next four decades as a scientist and science administrator, mainly at the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and was intimately involved in India's civilian space programme and military missile development efforts.[1] He thus came to be known as the Missile Man of India for his work on the development of ballistic missile and launch vehicle technology.[2][3][4] He also played a pivotal organisational, technical, and political role in India's Pokhran-II nuclear tests in 1998, the first since the original nuclear test by India in 1974.[5] Kalam was elected as the 11th President of India in 2002 with the support of both the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and the then-opposition Indian National Congress. Widely referred to as the "People's President",[6] he returned to his civilian life of education, writing and public service after a single term. He was a recipient of several prestigious awards, including the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian honour.

The Takshashila Institution has proposed a Space Policy proposal looks at decoupling the policy, regulatory, and service delivery roles of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) to create a level playing field for new entrants. Utkash talks about SRAI and other major aspects of the Takshashila Policy Proposal.

In this episode we talk about Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). We discuss about the Origins and the upcoming projects of ISRO. FOLLOW US ON INSTAGRAM AND TWITTER : @wemakesounds34

Welcome to episode 26! It covers the week of March 30 - April 3, 2020.This week’s theme is: *Real Role Models.* Our curator is Sue Stockdale.More on this podcast:Each week on this podcast, we’ll share the information that's within the newsletter put out by EarBuds Podcast Collective. EBPC is a listening movement. We send a weekly email with a theme and 5 podcast episodes on that theme, and each week is curated by a different person. Anyone can curate a list -- just reach out!We partner with Inside Podcasting to bring you the week’s top podcast news stories. Written by Skye Pillsbury, Inside Podcasting is a thrice weekly email newsletter that covers the podcast world.Here’s why Sue chose this theme:We can all achieve amazing things in our lives, yet we often limit ourselves. By listening to real-life stories of others, it connects us to new possibilities and to think “maybe I could?" MONDAY: Kalki Presents: My Indian Life - Rocket Woman - 24 minutes In this episode we hear from rocket scientist BP Dakshayani, from the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), who programmed a satellite on its mission to the Mars, about what inspired her to learn about science. TUESDAY: Scottish Business Network - Sue Stockdale: Bringing 'Superhuman' Performance to Business - 33 minutes In this episode Sue Stockdale explains how going on an expedition to the North Pole became a tipping point in her life, and how she uses that experience to inspire others. WEDNESDAY: Breaking Bread - A Conversation with Ping Coombes - 27 minutes In this episode Ping Coombes, winner of MasterChef talks about her life and how she has inspired people through her love of Malaysian food. THURSDAY: Access to Inspiration - Loshni Manikam: Improving Wellbeing in New Zealand's Dairy Industry - 12 minutes In this episode, New Zealand coach Loshni Manikam explains how she helps women in the dairy industry to thrive and realise more of their potential. FRIDAY: Desert Island Discs - Mary Portas - 35 minutes In this episode UK's foremost authority on retail and brand communication, Mary Portas explains how she overcame significant challenges in her childhood and go on to achieve career success.All of these episode recommendations are available on Podchaser, Castbox, and wherever else you get your podcasts! For the Podchaser playlist, just search “Real Role Models” in the search bar at podchaser.com. Want to sponsor one of our upcoming episodes or newsletters? Email us at earbudspodcastcollective@gmail.com. Here’s Sue’s Self Promo:Learn from people who you may think are ‘unalike’ you. Whilst they may be from different countries, backgrounds, generations, cultures etc. they are also human beings who have energy, passion and enthusiasm. That way we can broaden our perspectives and appreciate difference, rather than fearing it.Here's Sue’s CROWDSOURCING QUESTION:How do we use the current coronavirus situation to have more meaningful virtual conversations with others? In this episode, we introduce you to Matt Swedo, our theme music composer. He shares a bit about himself and how he got involved with EarBuds.Use this hashtag to discuss this theme online with us: #RoleModelsThis episode was written and produced by Arielle Nissenblatt, who also hosts the show. Special thanks to Daniel Tureck who mixes and masters Feedback with EarBuds. Abby Klionsky edits our newsletter, which can be found at earbudspodcastcollective.org. Thank you to Matthew Swedo for composing our music. Find him and ask him all about your music needs. He’s at @matthewswedo on Instagram and www.matthewswedomusic.com online. Shoutout to Arielle’s roommates, Lauren and Melissa, (and now co-workers) who are working from home now. They introduce themselves at the beginning of this episode!Follow us on social media:Twitter: @earbudspodcolInstagram: @earbudspodcastcollectiveFacebook: EarBuds Podcast CollectiveIf you like this podcast, please subscribe and tell a friend about the beauty of podcasts!More information at earbudspodcastcollective.org

Takshashila's policy proposal, 'The New Space Policy 2020' proposes a clear governance structure that paves the way for the growth of the nascent private space sector in India. The proposal seeks to decouple the policy, regulatory and service delivery roles of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). Utkarsh Narain joins Pranay Kotasthane and Pranav RS to discuss why the new structure is needed, and what it should look like.Read the full proposal here:- https://takshashila.org.in/takshashila-policy-proposal-the-new-space-policy-2020/

India is one of the pioneers of satellite remote sensing with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) developing some of the best remote sensing satellites in the world. In this episode of the NewSpace India podcast, Arup Dasgupta speaks about his experiences in executing some of ISRO's remote sensing missions and provides a perspective on the current challenges that holds back the full utilisation of remote sensing applications in India.

Florida one of most ‘alien-active' states Link: https://www.heraldtribune.com/news/20191108/florida-one-of-most-rsquoalien-activersquo-states A center that tracks suspected UFO sightings reports that Florida has more than any other state except for California and Northwest Florida has had its fair share of sightings. A center that tracks suspected UFO sightings reports that Florida has more than any other state except for California and Northwest Florida has had its fair share of sightings. According to the latest data from the National UFO Reporting Center, Florida has had 6,693 reports in the center's history. California has nearly twice that many with close to 14,000. Related: US Navy says it's tracking UFOs — really The other top 10 “alien-active” states are Washington with just over 6,000, Texas with about 5,000, New York at 4,700, Arizona at 4,100, Pennsylvania at just under 4,000, Illinois with about 3,700, Ohio at 3,665 and Michigan with just over 3,000. Gulf Breeze: Six people were hanging out on the back porch of a friend's house June 9, 2019 when they pulled up apps on their phones to look at the stars and try to find Jupiter. Just before 10 p.m. they spotted a light in the sky that was almost as bright as the north star. It has no blinking lights but had a blue blur behind it. It was viewed by six adults, all over the age of 35, all of whom were sober, according to the report. “It traveled the night sky in a straight line for around a minute ... it stayed a constant speed, then phased out ... totally disappeared, no explosion, no giant flash. It was there and then it wasn't.” Fort Walton Beach: On April 9, 2019 at about 9 p.m., an individual who went for a walk near the Santa Rosa Mall reported seeing a “defined slim triangle with six round dimly orange glowing lights” moving slowly and quietly just above the tree line. “I spent the next hour in the park staring up at the sky, in shock, when I finally got home and tried to go about my normal business, I discovered the internet was down in my neighborhood.” India Has a New Planetary Target in Mind: Venus Link: https://www.space.com/india-considering-venus-orbiter-mission.html India has launched just three planetary-science spacecraft, but the country is already eyeing a new destination: Venus. Scientists and engineers at the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) have sent plans for a Venus orbiter to the Indian national government and are hoping they'll get approval to go ahead with the mission. The spacecraft could launch in just a few years and would carry more than a dozen instruments. "The major objective is to map the Venusian surface and subsurface," Nigar Shaji, an ISRO scientist, told a group of Venus experts during a meeting held this week in Colorado. According to Shaji, the Venus orbiter that ISRO is designing would be able to create such a dataset for Venus in about a year. In addition to mapping the surface itself, looking a bit deeper into the planet should help scientists identify volcanic hotspots scattered across Venus. Show Stuff The Dark Horde, LLC – http://www.thedarkhorde.com Twitter @DarkHorde TeePublic Store - Get your UBR goodies today! http://tee.pub/lic/2GQuXxn79dg UBR Truth Seekers Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/216706068856746 UFO Buster Radio: https://www.facebook.com/UFOBusterRadio YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCggl8-aPBDo7wXJQ43TiluA To contact Manny: manny@ufobusterradio.com, or on Twitter @ufobusterradio Call the show anytime at (972) 290-1329 and leave us a message with your point of view, UFO sighting, and ghostly experiences or join the discussion on www.ufobusterradio.com For Skype Users: bosscrawler

Florida one of most ‘alien-active' states Link: https://www.heraldtribune.com/news/20191108/florida-one-of-most-rsquoalien-activersquo-states A center that tracks suspected UFO sightings reports that Florida has more than any other state except for California and Northwest Florida has had its fair share of sightings. A center that tracks suspected UFO sightings reports that Florida has more than any other state except for California and Northwest Florida has had its fair share of sightings. According to the latest data from the National UFO Reporting Center, Florida has had 6,693 reports in the center's history. California has nearly twice that many with close to 14,000. Related: US Navy says it's tracking UFOs — really The other top 10 “alien-active” states are Washington with just over 6,000, Texas with about 5,000, New York at 4,700, Arizona at 4,100, Pennsylvania at just under 4,000, Illinois with about 3,700, Ohio at 3,665 and Michigan with just over 3,000. Gulf Breeze: Six people were hanging out on the back porch of a friend's house June 9, 2019 when they pulled up apps on their phones to look at the stars and try to find Jupiter. Just before 10 p.m. they spotted a light in the sky that was almost as bright as the north star. It has no blinking lights but had a blue blur behind it. It was viewed by six adults, all over the age of 35, all of whom were sober, according to the report. “It traveled the night sky in a straight line for around a minute ... it stayed a constant speed, then phased out ... totally disappeared, no explosion, no giant flash. It was there and then it wasn't.” Fort Walton Beach: On April 9, 2019 at about 9 p.m., an individual who went for a walk near the Santa Rosa Mall reported seeing a “defined slim triangle with six round dimly orange glowing lights” moving slowly and quietly just above the tree line. “I spent the next hour in the park staring up at the sky, in shock, when I finally got home and tried to go about my normal business, I discovered the internet was down in my neighborhood.” India Has a New Planetary Target in Mind: Venus Link: https://www.space.com/india-considering-venus-orbiter-mission.html India has launched just three planetary-science spacecraft, but the country is already eyeing a new destination: Venus. Scientists and engineers at the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) have sent plans for a Venus orbiter to the Indian national government and are hoping they'll get approval to go ahead with the mission. The spacecraft could launch in just a few years and would carry more than a dozen instruments. "The major objective is to map the Venusian surface and subsurface," Nigar Shaji, an ISRO scientist, told a group of Venus experts during a meeting held this week in Colorado. According to Shaji, the Venus orbiter that ISRO is designing would be able to create such a dataset for Venus in about a year. In addition to mapping the surface itself, looking a bit deeper into the planet should help scientists identify volcanic hotspots scattered across Venus. Show Stuff The Dark Horde, LLC – http://www.thedarkhorde.com Twitter @DarkHorde TeePublic Store - Get your UBR goodies today! http://tee.pub/lic/2GQuXxn79dg UBR Truth Seekers Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/216706068856746 UFO Buster Radio: https://www.facebook.com/UFOBusterRadio YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCggl8-aPBDo7wXJQ43TiluA To contact Manny: manny@ufobusterradio.com, or on Twitter @ufobusterradio Call the show anytime at (972) 290-1329 and leave us a message with your point of view, UFO sighting, and ghostly experiences or join the discussion on www.ufobusterradio.com For Skype Users: bosscrawler

In this episode, we talk about Antrix, the commercial arm of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and the need for evolving a landscape for inclusive growth for commercialising space activities in India.

Skyroot Aerospace, a Hyderabad-based startup backed by CureFit founders Mukesh Bansal and Ankit Nagori, is developing a rocket which can be assembled and launched in a day that will be used to hurl small satellites into space, eyeing a slice of the global market for tiny satellite launches that is expected to grow over the next decade. Skyroot, founded by former Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) scientists Pawan Kumar Chandana, Naga Bharath Daka and Vasudevan Gnanagandhi, expects to demonstrate its first rocket by 2021, which it says could potentially reduce launch costs by a third.

After trading flat for most part of the session, benchmark indices witnessed sharp decline in the fag-end of the trade on Thursday as investors turned cautious ahead of European Central Bank's (ECB) policy meeting later in the day. It is widely expected that the ECB will deliver stimulus to arrest a slowing global economy. That apart, investors also await key macro data such as IIP (index of industrial production) numbers for July and retail inflation (CPI) print for August due later in the day.  The S&P BSE Sensex shed 167 points or 0.45 per cent to settle at 37,104.28, with ICICI Bank (up 2 per cent) being the top gainer and YES Bank (down 5 per cent) the biggest loser.  On NSE, the Nifty50 index slipped below the crucial 11,000 level to close at 10,981, down 55 points or 0.50 per cent. Out of 50 constituents, 15 advanced while 35 declined.  Volatility index India VIX dropped over 3 per cent to end at 14.88 levels.  In the broader market, the S&P BSE MidCap index lost 25 points, or 0.18 per cent, to close at 13,610.09 levels, and the S&P BSE SmallCap index rose 16 points, or 0.12 per cent, to 12,908 levels. Among the sectoral indices on NSE, auto stocks bled the most, followed by FMCG, realty and IT stocks. The Nifty Auto index ended at 7,288.90, down 135 points or 1.81 per cent. BUZZING STOCKS Walchandnagar Industries (WIL), the heavy engineering products company, hit an upper circuit limit of 20 per cent at Rs 72.15 apiece on the BSE after the company secured an order worth Rs 77.20 crore plus escalation from the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). Zee Media ended 8 per cent higher after its chief financial officer (CFO) resigned with effect from close of business on September 13, 2019.

Starting from 1974, Chandrashekar spent more than 20 years working at the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and covered all parts of the programme - satellite, rockets as well as the applications of space technology especially remote sensing. He was also involved with activities related to international co-operation and has represented and led Indian delegations to the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space. In this episode, he shares insights from his time at ISRO.

It's been 50 years since the human race first set foot on the Moon. And as the United States celebrates the historic Apollo 11 mission, India is hoping to achieve another space feat. The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is attempting to soft-land a rover on the south pole of the Moon – something no other country has done before. The global commercial space industry is worth more than $300bn. India has developed a reputation for being a reliable launch pad for small satellites, but what more can India do to earn larger space revenues? And as India’s space sector slowly opens up to commercialisation, where do private space start-ups come in? Can India have its own version of SpaceX? We ask a young scientist who has developed satellites launched by both NASA and ISRO, a leading space entrepreneur with ventures in three different continents, and a researcher who specialises in India’s space programme whether India is on the right path to become a global space superpower.

It's been 50 years since the human race first set foot on the Moon. And as the United States celebrates the historic Apollo 11 mission, India is hoping to achieve another space feat. The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is attempting to soft-land a rover on the south pole of the Moon – something no other country has done before. The global commercial space industry is worth more than $300bn. India has developed a reputation for being a reliable launch pad for small satellites, but what more can India do to earn larger space revenues? And as India’s space sector slowly opens up to commercialisation, where do private space start-ups come in? Can India have its own version of SpaceX? We ask a young scientist who has developed satellites launched by both NASA and ISRO, a leading space entrepreneur with ventures in three different continents, and a researcher who specialises in India’s space programme whether India is on the right path to become a global space superpower. Presenter: Devina Gupta Contributors: Rifath Shaarook, student scientist, chief technology officer, Space Kidz India; Dr Susmita Mohanty, entrepreneur and CEO, Earth2Orbit; Dr. Rajeswari Pillai Rajagopalan, head of nuclear & space policy, Observer Research Foundation (ORF) Image: The Indian Space Research Organisation's (ISRO) Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C44) launches off onboard India's Defence Research and Development Organisation's (DRDO) imaging satellite Microsat R, along with student satellite Kalamsat, at Satish Dhawan Space centre in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh state, on January 24, 2019 (Credit: Arun Sankar/AFP/Getty Images)

From India to Mars, how a leap of faith became a journey into space. Kalki meets rocket scientist BP Dakshayani, from the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), who programmed a satellite on its mission to the red planet. #MyIndianLife

This week, Jack and Newton talk infrastructure, Outer Space Treaty, and why everyone dislikes Ted Cruz. They also touch on fires in space, India's space program, and shooting down ICBMs.   Links: Latest from Washington Infrastructure Week: President Trump Announces Air Traffic Control Reform Initiative Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) Traffic Management (UTM) Cruz out of step with industry, lawyers A hearing on the American Space Commerce Free Enterprise Act of 2017 will follow the budget hearing in the House SS&T subcommittee. Text of the draft bill can be found here Results of the briefing   Space News Highlight of the Week NASA’s Newest Astronaut Candidates   International News COPUOS met in Vienna last week (if this is for our guest, this should probably be a highlight) Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) launched their biggest rocket yet China replaced its space agency administrator...quietly   Latest in Tech NASA is going to set a fire in space US shows they can shoot down ICBMs   Coming Soon to Space NASA Hosts Briefing on Latest Results of Exoplanet-Hunting Mission We’ll be at AwesomeCon (for the Planetary Society)!     Follow Ad Astra on Twitter at @AdAstra_Podcast, on Facebook, and subscribe to the mailing list for future updates and events!

Help support the show! - www.patreon.com/dailyinternet   #10 - Schwarzenegger rips gerrymandering: Congress 'couldn't beat herpes in the polls'   #9 - A small city in Iowa is devoting 1,000 acres of land to America's vanishing bees   #8 - Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) sucessfully created a world record in the space arena by sending 104 satellites in a single rocket.   #7 - Disney's CEO Says There Are Too Many Commercials on TV   #6 - 'Morning Joe' host says show will no longer book Conway   #5 - Comcast, AT&T Are Paying Minority Groups To Support Killing Net Neutrality   #4 - Russia tells White House it will not return Crimea to Ukraine   #3 - Trump reveled in leaks that hurt Hillary Clinton. He now calls administration disclosures ‘un-American'.     #2 - Canada to implement financial literacy teaching as early as Grade 10 in Ontario schools.   #1 - Trump Campaign Aides Had Repeated Contacts With Russian Intelligence       Thanks Show contact E-mail: feedback.ireadit@gmail.com Twitter: @ireaditcast Facebook: iReadit Phone: (508)-738-2278   Michael Schwahn: @schwahnmichael Nathan Wood: @bimmenstein "Music" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Abu-Jamal, former death row inmate, will speak at Goddard College commencement. Julia Pierson steps down as the director of the USSS. Is space colonization practical for humanity in the near future? “NASA and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will investigate ways to collaborate on future missions to Mars, officials said Tuesday (Sept. 30). The […]