Indian Space Research Organisation

Base station on moon is the next dream: ISRO chief

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Indian space mission’s next dream is to set up a base station on the moon so that space vehicles for onward journey to the Mars can be assembled and launched from there, Chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), G. Madhavan Nair, has said.

Addressing students of ISRO’s Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology (IIST) at their annual celebrations here on Friday, Dr. Nair asked them to have this dream in their mind. He asked them to think big, not just retrace the path already trekked by space science and technology, but look to where the future beckoned.

“You are going to be with the ISRO for 30 years and more. Think beyond what we have already done. We want you to think of air-breathing rockets, India having a base station on the moon, India emerging as a space power,” he told them after describing how happy he was to see the IIST really coming of age, to become an institution that would in future drive the Indian space mission.

Earlier, the students gave a video narration of what all they had done in their institution during the course of the last one year (the celebrations were in connection with the second anniversary of the IIST).

Referring to the activities, both curricular and extra-curricular, Dr. Nair said the institution, which now had the former President, Abdul Kalam, as the Chancellor, was in the process of evolving a hitherto untried method of grooming scientists in the country. The students here were in the thick of what was happening in the ISRO and its organisations in the country.

New campus, courses

IIST Director B.N. Suresh said the institution would shift to a new campus at Valiyamala (in Thiruvananthapuram district) by August this year. The IIST had introduced Ph.D. programmes in various disciplines of space science and postgraduate courses were being launched during the course of the year.

Chief Secretary K.J. Mathew, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre Director K. Radhakrishnan and several top scientists from ISRO’s other institutions attended the celebrations.

Green Peace

You've done everything to stop the Dhamra port.  Now it's our turn.

After one year of fighting an uneven battle against India’s most powerful and respected corporation, it’s come down to this…

We haven’t won yet. It’s that painfully simple, but also that painfully complicated.

Because even though the Dhamra port hasn't stopped, and its impacts on the ancient habitat of the Olive Ridley Turtles aren’t going away anytime soon, what you’ve achieved goes out like a shockwave in the halls of online activism.

Nearly 115,000 Tata customers have done everything they could. From writing emails, sending faxes and making long-distance calls, to delivering roses, lighting candles and sponsoring newspaper ads.

Together, we’re doing everything we can. It’s the Tatas that have lost a chance to live up to their claims of placing the planet before profits, a chance to show that their reputation of being environmentally-responsible has some substance, and a chance to honour their promise that if the port were found to be harmful to biodiversity, they’d stop construction, no matter what stage it’s at.

While you’ve done everything within your means to stop the port, it’s now time for us to get on with what Greenpeace does best. Over the next few months, we will continue the hard lobbying, the behind-the-scenes work and, when necessary, the direct confrontations that you’ve provided us the legitimacy and credibility to carry out.

In the weeks to come, my colleague Gene will be talking to you about another critical battle we’re fighting on the climate front. I hope you will extend to him the support and energy that you’ve brought to this campaign.

Until then, watch a video that captures one year of an incredible environmental battle. It’s our tribute to all the supporters, volunteers and cyberactivists who have walked with Greenpeace down this improbable road. View it, share it, and take pride in what you’ve achieved. 

Techie

Facebook goes desi in five languages

The world’s trendiest social networking site went desi on Friday. Facebook has introduced new features that can help members navigate in Hindi, Tamil and other regional Indian languages such as Bengali, Punjabi, Malayalam and Telugu.

Users can change language settings through the ‘settings’ tab or through the language option on their Facebook homepage.

In the increasingly multilingual Web, one can already cut and paste Tamil and Hindi scripts. The latest move helps instructions for browsing in Indian languages, but Facebook is not yet enabled for transliteration, which enables instant conversion of the English script turning into phonetic-based texts in other languages.

Facebook users can only browse through the site in the five regional languages and not message each other or update their status yet. Rival Google’s social networking site Orkut has Indian language transliteration in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam.

Facebook is the second most popular networking site in India after Orkut, according to market research firm comScore.

Orkut recorded 12.8 million visitors of the total 19.3 million on social networking sites in India at the end of 2008 — three times that of Facebook, which recorded 4 million visitors.

IPL

Chennai beat Rajasthan by 7 wickets

KIMBERLEY: Subramaniam Badrinath and Matthew Hayden Saturday took Chennai Super Kings to the top of the Indian Premier League (IPL) table with a seven-wicket victory over title-holders Rajasthan Royals at the De Beers Diamond Oval here.

Super Kings, with 13 points, have now toppled Delhi Daredevils to emerge as the new leaders while Rajasthan Royals are in the third place with 11 points.

Electing to bat, Rajasthan Royals were restricted to 140 for seven by a disciplined Super Kings side. Man of the Match Badrinath (59 not out) and Hayden (48) then stitched a 89-run partnership to steer Super Kings home with 10 balls to spare.

Hayden, who has been in envious form this IPL, produced another impressive 44-ball innings but it was Badrinath who emerged the star of Chennai innings. Badrinath played a whirlpool innings off 41 balls that was studded with nine fours and a six.

Hayden and Badrinath steadied the Super Kings innings after Murli Vijay (10) and Suresh Raina (13) departed with only 37 runs on the board.

Hayden and Badrinath joined forces to rip apart the Rajasthan Royals bowling. Badrinath hit Shane Harwood for 20 runs in one over to put his side on the threshold of their sixth win.

Earlier, Super Kings bowled a tight length backed by a sharp fielding to tie down Rajasthan Royals to a modest total.

Albie Morkel gave Super Kings the breakthrough in the third ball of the match, clipping the bails of in-form batsman Naman Ojha. Graeme Smith (30) and Swapnil Asnodkar (26) then tried to repair the damage, adding 53 runs for the second wicket.

Asnodkar, who so far has been a pale shadow of his performance last year, showed signs of form in his 25-ball knock, which included in three fours and a six, but couldn't carry on for long, being trapped leg before by Muttiah Murlitharan in the ninth over.

Smith became Murlitharan's second victim when he was stumped by a composed Mahendra Singh Dhoni to leave Royals tottering at 75 for three.

Ravindra Jadeja (27) looked to bring things back on track but Dhoni brought back Laksmipathi Balaji to pack off Jadeja in the 15th over. Skipper Shane Warne produced some fireworks towards the end with an unbeaten 21 off 11 balls but that was not enough to produce a winning total.

SCORECARD

Rajasthan Royals

Graeme Smith st Dhoni b Muralitharan 30 (33 balls)

Naman Ojha b Morkel 0 (2)

Swapnil Asnodkar lbw b Muralitharan 26 (25)

Ravindra Jadeja c Raina b Balaji 27 (19)

Yusuf Pathan c Oram b Jakati 7 (11)

Lee Carseldine run out (Balaji) 9 (8)

Abhishek Raut st Dhoni b Jakati 7 (5)

Shane Warne not out 21 (11)

Shane Harwood not out 6 (7)

Extras (lb 5, w 1, nb 1) 7

Total (for seven wickets in 20 overs) 140

Fall of wickets: 1-1 (Ojha, 0.3 overs), 2-54 (Asnodkar, 8.5), 3-75 (Smith, 12.2), 4-92 (Jadeja, 14.1), 5-100 (Pathan, 15.5), 6-104 (Carseldine, 16.4), 7-111 (Raut, 17.2)

Bowling:

Albie Morkel 3-0-24-1

Sudip Tyagi 2-0-12-0

Lakshmipathy Balaji 3-0-13-1

Jacob Oram 1-0-8-0

Muttiah Muralitharan 4-0-22-2

Shadab Jakati 4-0-35-2

Suresh Raina 3-0-21-0

Chennai Super Kings (target: 141 in 20 overs)

Murali Vijay lbw b Trivedi 10 (12)

Matthew Hayden st Ojha b Warne 48 (44)

Suresh Raina c Carseldine b Singh 13 (11)

Subramaniam Badrinath not out 59 (41)

Jacob Oram not out 1 (2)

Extras (lb 2, w 8) 10

Total (for three wickets in 18.2 overs) 141

Fall of wickets: 1-19 (Vijay, 2.6), 2-37 (Raina, 5.6), 3-126 (Hayden, 16.5)

Bowling:

Yusuf Pathan 4-0-28-0

Amit Singh 3-0-25-1

Siddharth Trivedi 3-0-23-1

Shane Harwood 2-0-22-0

Shane Warne 4-0-27-1

Ravindra Jadeja 2.2-0-14-0

Toss: Rajasthan Royals, chose to bat

Points: Chennai Super Kings 2, Rajasthan Royals 0

Man of the Match: Subramaniam Badrinath (Chennai Super Kings)

Umpires: G.A.V. Baxter (New Zealand) and Kumar Dharmasena (Sri Lanka)

Team Standings

		MP	W	L	NR	RR	P
	Chennai	10	6	3	1	+1.22	13
	Delhi	8	6	2	0	+0.21	12
	Rajasthan	10	5	4	1	-0.11	11
	Hyderabad	9	5	4	0	+0.13	10
	Punjab	10	5	5	0	-0.45	10
	Bangalore	9	4	5	0	-0.40	8
	Mumbai	9	3	5	1	+0.39	7
	Kolkata	9	1	7	1	-1.10	3