ISRO plans NextGen vehicle to reduce launch costs by 50%

PTI NEW DELHI

After an eventful year capped by the mission to moon, ISRO scientists are now developing the next generation launch vehicle to cut by half the cost of putting satellites in orbit. The new year will see a series of tests in the development of the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) Mark III, which is expected to take to the skies in 2010-11.

The new rocket, which can put a four-tonne satellite in orbit, will help Antrix Corporation, ISRO’s commercial arm, to offer cheapest space launches in the niche market. The regular GSLV can put 2.2 tonne satellites in orbit. “The new year will see solid booster testing for the Mark III, followed by the liquid stage after which we will test the cryogenic engine stage,” K Radhakrishnan, director, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre told PTI.

“We are planning to have flight testing during 2010-11,” he said. Mr Radhakrishnan said, ISRO will be able to pack more transponders in one-space flight. “This makes it a cost effective solution and will give us a niche in the world in launching four tonne satellites,” he said.

The GSLV Mark III will also help ISRO put more Indians in space at one go. As per the current plans, the agency plans to send two Indians on a week-long space sojourn in 2015. “The regular GSLV will be used for the human spaceflight. In case we use Mark III, we can send three persons instead of two,” said Mr Radhakrishnan.

With GSLV Mark III, ISRO can think of sending more meaningful probes to Mars and other inter-planetary missions, which it plans to undertake in the future. ISRO has announced that it will launch a mission to Mars in 2013 using the regular GSLV which is capable of carrying a 500-kg payload to the Red planet.

“For the Mars expedition, you can use a PSLV or the regular GSLV or even the Mark III but if you have to have a meaningful mission the instrument has to be large enough to carry out many experiments,” said Mr Radhakrishnan.

He said the agency also plans to build in more reliability into the new rocket to make is usable for undertaking human space mission. According to ISRO chairman G Madhavan Nair, Antrix Corporation made Rs 1,000 crore this year by launching and building satellites for foreign firms and institutions. “We hope to grow at the rate of 20% every year,” Mr Nair said.

A major chunk of it came through the development of W2M communications satellite ISRO built for Eutelsat. The 3.5-tonne satellite was launched by Ariane rocket from Kourou in French Guiana. ISRO crossed key milestones last year with the successful launch of Chandrayaan-I in October and earlier in April, when it put into orbit 10 satellites on a single Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), becoming the first country to achieve the feat. Of the 10 satellites, two — Cartosat-2 and Indian Mini Satellite — were developed indigenously, while eight nano satellites belonged to international customers.

Scientists get one step closer to talking to dolphins

MUMBAI MIRROR BUREAU


British and US scientists have imaged the first high-definition imprints that dolphin sounds make in water, which they liken to the Rosetta Stone for deciphering dolphin language.

“Our ultimate aim is to speak to dolphins with a basic vocabulary of dolphin sounds and to understand their responses. This is uncharted territory, but it looks very promising,” said researcher Jack Kassewitz, of the Florida-based dolphin communication research project SpeakDolphin.com.

Certain dolphin sounds have long been suspected to represent language, but their complexity has made analyses difficult.

The key to the new technique is the CymaScope – an instrument that reveals detailed structures within sounds, allowing their architecture to be studied pictorially.

The mechanism captures actual sound vibrations imprinted in the water around dolphins,
providing intricate visual details of dolphin sounds for the first time.

“There is strong evidence that dolphins are able to ‘see’ with sound, much like humans use ultrasound to see an unborn child in the mother’s womb. The Cyma-Scope provides our first glimpse into what the dolphins might be ‘seeing’ with their sounds,” said Kassewitz.

The resulting “CymaGlyphs” are reproducible patterns that are expected to form the basis of a lexicon of dolphin language, with each pattern representing a dolphin ‘picture word’.

Study leader John Reid, a British acoustics engineer, said that the technique has similarities to deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphs.

“Jean-Francois Champollion and Thomas Young used the Rosetta Stone to discover key elements of the primer that allowed the Egyptian language to be deciphered. The CymaGlyphs can be likened to the hieroglyphs of the Rosetta Stone,” he said.

“Now that dolphin chirps, whistles and click-trains can be easily converted into CymaGlyphs, we have an important tool for deciphering their meaning,” he added.

The scientists plan to build a library of dolphin sounds, verifying that the same sound is always repeated for a particular object. They believe this may eventually lead to the ability to communicate with dolphins.

“During my times with dolphins, there have been several occasions when they seemed to be very determined to communicate with me. We are getting closer to making that possible,” Kassewitz said.

Researchers have made imprints of the sounds dolphins make in water, which they say could act as the Rosetta Stone in deciphering dolphin language.

60 schools to turn malls

Delhi Civic Body To Auction 60 Campuses Even As Student Number Rises

Nitin Sethi & Ruhi Bhasin | TNN

New Delhi: The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) has hit on a unique scheme to bolster its finances: the civic body plans to auction 60 school campuses for construction of malls and hotels even as it struggles to cater to the educational needs of nine lakh children, mainly from economically-weak families, who are enrolled in MCD schools.

A proposal to auction 15 of the identified schools has been forwarded to the MCD commissioner even as the body faces increasing pressure to cater to more students. Swapping schools for poor kids for malls is not only controversial but could well smack of a scam as the MCD had originally planned to sell off nine schools but has now increased this to 60. The MCD’s reasoning is that the schools are lying vacant and unused. But the civic body seems to have forgotten that it is charged with providing an essential service through its neighbourhood schools—often the only option for a vulnerable section of the city population—and not handing over prime plots to developers. The demand for schools, in particular those offering education at reasonable costs, is unlikely to flag off.

Confirming the MCD’s plans, Prithviraj Sahni, chairman of the corporation’s education committee, told TOI, “We have identified 60 schools that have been lying vacant for the last few years. A proposal to auction 15 for commercial purpose has already been forwarded to commissioner K S Mehra.” Experts point out the number of children who do not get access to primary schools remains high, estimated between 3 lakh and 5 lakh, considering the city’s large migrant population.

The civic body’s refusal to consider reviving the schools is surprising, considering that the Delhi government has repeatedly asked the corporation to hand over the campuses to it as state-run schools are overflowing with students and lack space and infrastructure. The MCD runs 65% of primary schools, the others are managed by the NDMC, government or private parties.

While Sahni said the corporation was moving ahead on the plan to auction the schools, the MCD commissioner claimed he was not aware of any such proposal.

IN DEEP WATERS: Swapping 60 schools for malls smacks of a scam as the MCD had originally planned to auction the land of only nine educational campuses

Jan 4 is World Responsible Youth Day

Sharmila Ganesan | TNN

Mumbai: Asking for peace is likely to win you a crown at a beauty pageant. But it’s the act of “giving peace’’ that will really make the difference in these turbulent times. This philosophy, propagated by members of Rotaract, the youth wing of the Rotary Club in Mumbai, will find concrete expression this Sunday in a first-of-its-kind peace tour across the length of the city.

Taking a decision to declare the first Sunday of every year as World Responsible Youth Day—responsibility in youth being almost mythical today—Rotaract District 3140, which covers the Mumbai region, will launch its mission on Jan 4. Four hundred club members atop a truck and in four cars will undertake the day-long peace tour from Marine Drive to Navi Mumbai, halting at Dadar, Andheri, Ghatkopar and Thane before finally reaching Chembur. The tour will be dotted with musical performances and street plays, enacted by the club members of HR and SIES colleges, in an effort to coax their contemporaries into action.

At each halt, the head of the host club will field socially relevant extempore questions from the crowd such as how to file a public interest litigation. “We are even trying to get RTI activists for the rally,’’ says Shrenik Gandhi of the Ghatkopar Rotaract club, adding that the peace tour is one of the biggest district projects of the club so far. The members will be joined by the Rotary, Innerwheel and Interact movements.

This event is the second step the Rotaract movement is undertaking towards this cause after a panel discussion called The Summit that was held on December 14 last year. The preparation for World Responsible Youth Day, says Yaman Banerji of Thane club, began at a panel discussion in November. “We had earlier decided that the theme for 2009 would be ‘Go green’, and had based our material on the same, decrying the use of firecrackers and the like.’’ But 26/11 changed their plan and shifted the focus from the bombs that clog the lungs of kids in Sivakasi to those that left lasting scars on the city in November. “We have collated information from different resources to present an honest account of what happened on 26/11,’’ says Jigar Mehta, another member of the Ghatkopar club. “We want peace,’’ he adds, as an afterthought, hoping that every day will be not just Sunday but also a responsible youth day to boot.
sharmila.ganesan@timesgroup.com

GEARING UP: Members of Rotaract Club of SIES rehearse for the peace tour on Sunday

Turning the tide in tribal land

Every morning she wakes to the sound of drums from a distant santhal village. She walks barefoot to a nearby field. Every morning, she waits till they start streaming in through the green iron gate that separates Bhalopahar from the rest of Bandowan in Purulia on the Bengal-Jharkhand border. The area is infested by Maoists and inhabited by adivasis on the edge of survival.

Jayati Chakraborty gave up a secure job with Tisco in Jamshedpur, a nice apartment and a decent salary “to build something new, create something that would be of use to others. Honestly, I did not know what it could be”.

A trip to Bandowan in 2000 answered the unspoken question. She happened to visit Bhalopahar, an NGO run by another former Tata employee Kamalesh Chakraborty. She was inspired by his developmental work in the area and ecstatic when he agreed she could work with him.

She quit her job, faced down appalled friends and family. "They found it hard to believe that I would be better off working with poor people in a godforsaken village.” And she tried new things — linseed and tomato farming — finally deciding the area needed a school. “We converted a hall into a classroom and started with 66 students in 2001. It seemed the school was waiting to happen,” she says. Students pay Rs 30 a month. But paid pupil or not, no one is turned away

TARGET 2009: Deliver us from poor delivery

Ronojoy Sen | TNN

The grainy images of poorly armed policemen, captured on close circuit TV at Bombay's Victoria Terminus, were a cruel comment on the state of governance in India. The Indian police was trying to match the terrorists’ firepower. In the process, it exposed the Indian state's basic shortcoming — its inability to provide security to its citizens. The right to security means the right to live. This right was violated when heavily armed terrorists walked through the busiest parts of India's commercial capital, wantonly shooting people.

For some time now, India has had the dubious distinction of being one of the world’s terror-struck hotspots. In the past three years alone, more than 800 people have died in terrorist attacks. It may not be possible to put an end to such attacks, but surely, better intelligence inputs and coordination on terrorist groups is doable? A start has been made with plans to set up a federal body — the National Investigation Agency (NIA) — with wide-ranging powers to investigate terrorist crime. But the government has to ensure that the NIA does not become yet another talking shop. It should also consider merging the CBI and NIA as there is likely to be an overlap in responsibilities of both central agencies. Particularly shocking, during the Mumbai carnage, was the lack of police preparedness. Its lathis and antique rifles must immediately be replaced with modern weapons if the police force is to prove a match for terrorists.

The security establishment’s inability to tackle the terrorists was perhaps the starkest example of the failures of the Indian state. But the state has fallen short in other ways too, notably bijli, sadak, paani, which is shorthand these days for governance in India. Our roads are a case in point. They are the backbone of any economy. But India’s highways account for only 2% of India’s vast, 3.3-million-km road network. Only 12% are double-lane highways. At the head of the 2009 agenda must be the completion of 47 projects in the second phase of the North-South-East-West corridor. Of these, first priority should be given to 17 projects, which are more than 75% complete. Work must also begin on the 1,500-km road and rail network linking Delhi to Mumbai. The Japanese government has promised aid for this. It is up to us to meet the 2013 deadline.

Urgency is needed to deal with the shortage of electricity. The government’s target of adding 90,000 MW by 2012, which works out to a little under 20,000 MW a year, might well be a pipe dream because only 7,000 MW was added in 2007. But the government must raise the $600 billion needed over the next 10 years to ramp up power generation. State electricity boards must be reformed if private investors are to enter power projects in a big way. Power theft — 35% of the electricity India generates is stolen— has to be curbed and free power for farmers phased out.

The year ahead can bring real change if we deal with the parlous state of education and health. The UNDP’s Human Development Index (HDI), which provides a composite measure of health, education and income, ranks India 132 among 179 countries. But there is a glimmer of hope. Several surveys have shown that India’s poorest families aspire to sending their children to school and enrolment has risen more than 90% even in rural India. But the quality of education provided is poor and students are unable to acquire even the most basic skills. On any given day, more than 50% of teachers in state-run schools are absent. This can be tackled if local panchayats are given more powers over local schools and there is greater involvement of parent-teacher committees.

Ramachandra Guha has coined the term “phipty-phipty” democracy to describe India. While India remains a rare example of a functional democracy in the developing world, its infrastructural problems drag it down. The answer is not authoritarian leadership, as some suggested after 26/11, but greater accountability. And as the state is strapped for cash, it must look for more public-private partnerships.

An important person joins parent-teacher talk: The child

Karen Ann Cullotta

Streamwood (Illinois): For years attendance was minimal at Tefft Middle School’s annual parent-teacher conferences, but the principal did not chalk up the poor response to apathetic or dysfunctional families.Instead,she blamed what she saw as the outmoded, irrelevant way the conferences were conducted.

Roughly 60% of the 850 students at Tefft, in this working-class suburb some 30 miles northwest of Chicago, are from low-income families. Many are immigrants, unfamiliar or uncomfortable with the tradition of parents perched in pint-size chairs, listening intently as a teacher delivers a 15-minute soliloquy on their child’s academic progress, or lack thereof. “Five years ago, the most important person—the student—was left out of the parent-teacher conference,” Tefft’s principal, Lavonne Smiley, said. “The old conferences were such a negative thing, so we turned it around by removing all the barriers and obstacles,” including allowing students not only to attend but also to lead the gatherings instead of anxiously awaiting their parents’ return home with the teacher’s verdict on their classroom performance.

Recently, 525 parents attended parent-teacher-student conferences, Smiley said, compared with 75 parents in 2003. No appointments were needed, and everyone was welcome at this year’s conferences, spread over two days that school officials called a Celebration of Learning.

Student-led conferences are gaining ground at elementary and middle schools nationwide, said Patti Kinney, an associate director for middle-level services at the National Association of Secondary School Principals in Virginia.

Although researchers have long hailed the benefits of such conferences—anointing students as the main stakeholders in their education, accountable for their performance during the school day and responsible for their academic future—their popularity appears to be increasing in part because of the rapidly shifting demographics at public schools nationwide. The classrooms, after all, are where a community’s changing cultural identity is often first glimpsed.

“I think we’re learning that every school has its own DNA, and there is not a prescription for conferences that works for every school,” Kinney said. “There is such an increasingly diverse population at our nation’s schools, the one-sizefits-all model conference just doesn’t work anymore.” NYT NEWS SERVICE

Student-led conferences are gaining ground at elementary and middle schools around the United State.

IIT-B alumni woo faculty with Rs. 1 crore

Mumbai: On Sunday, the class of 1983 joined its seniors in supporting the IIT-Bombay’s efforts in attracting faculty members. The 1983 raised more than Rs 1.1 crore that will allow the institute to attract talent by paying a premium.

The initiative, Gurudakshina, builds upon the ‘Legacy Project’ launched by the 1982 batch and extends it to a broader activity focused on faculty recruitment and retention.

Already, the class of ’82 has pledged Rs 6 crore to address faculty compensation. Under the ‘Legacy Project’, the institute will be able to offer an annual amount of Rs 1 lakh for three years to every associate professor joining IIT-B.

Girish Gaitonde from the 1983 batch said, “Gurudakshina will also fund a reward and recognition programme for faculty members achieving significant education milestones.’’ TNN

Students can now get scores questionwise

Hemali Chhapia | TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Mumbai: For millions of students, the battle to know details of their performance in board exams or competitive entrance tests has ended. In a landmark judgement that will change how examinations are conducted in the country, the Central Information Commission has ruled that exam-conducting authorities must usher in transparency and provide questionwise marks awarded to candidates under the Right To Information Act.

The ruling will bring cheer to India’s large student population, which has been fighting for access to copies of answer sheets ever since the Right To Information (RTI) Act was passed.

Students score with CIC ruling
Mumbai: The Central Information Commission (CIC) has ruled that exam-conducting authorites provide questionwise marks awarded to candidates under the Right To Information Act.

In March 2006, Treesa Irish of Kerala was the first student to fight tooth and nail to get a peek into her exam answer scripts. She lost the battle when a full bench of the CIC ruled that the data she had requested was of a personal nature, and that its disclosure had no relation to any public interest and would therefore be prohibited under section 8(1)(j) of the RTI Act.

The CIC also held that the relationship between the exam-conducting authority and the examiner was fiduciary in nature, and therefore information must be kept confidential under section 8(1)(e) of the RTI Act.

Irish was hardly alone. Students of several education boards across the country wanted copies of their answer booklets under the RTI Act. All failed in their quest, with Public Information Officers conveniently referring to Irish’s case as the precedent. That is, until Ajeet Kumar Pathak, a class XII student from Bihar, demanded that the CBSE board provide him details of questionwise marks awarded to him in the chemistry paper.

Here too, the CBSE board stated, “The larger public interest does not warrant disclosure of such information.’’ Pathak then filed his first appeal, which was again defeated, with the authority ruling that “no candidates shall have the right to obtain questionwise marks.’’

But in a dramatic twist, the CIC overturned those rulings. Information commissioner Shailesh Gandhi, who ruled on December 22 that questionwise marks awarded must be shared with the candidate, said, “None of the exemption clauses in the RTI Act were applicable in this case.’’ Gandhi said that this ruling was now “in principle’’ applicable to all authorities conducting examinations across the country.

In Maharashtra too, several students have taken the RTI route to get their hands on copies of their answer sheets. Basanti Roy, divisional secretary of SSC board, said that to date there has been no provision in the law to part with answer sheets, and that several students had to be turned down. “But we will wait for orders to flow in from the state government on providing questionwise marks,’’ Roy added.

Currently, the Maharashtra State Board for Secondary and Higher Secondary Examination lets students demand verification, which allows for marks to be re-calculated by opening the answer booklets. Verification also helps ensure that all answers have been marked. However, there is no provision for reassessment, which requires the moderator to read through and reassess the content of the paper.

NCERT joint director G Ravindra said that this ruling was in line with the National Curriculum Framework of 2005, which emphasised transparency in conducting examinations. “NCF 2005 had suggested several exam reforms, including transparency and stress-free exams. However, NCERT is an advisory body, and it was upto boards to implement NCERT recommendations,’’ added Ravindra. Karnataka was the only state in the country that decided to go ahead and hand over answer sheets to students. But the latest CIC ruling will ensure that no state can stonewall students’ requests for information about their performance in an examination.

Educationist and former chairman of the Mumbai board J M Abhayankar said that while the CIC ruling is something to cheer about, boards must be proactive and provide copies of answer booklets. Abhyankar himself had presented a report to the state government on exam reforms in 2002, but it remains on paper. “I had recommended that the Maharashtra board also give copies of answer booklets to students. But the state did not accept the recommendations under some pressures,’’ he said. He added that providing copies of the answer scripts will ensure better evaluation. hemali.chhapia@timesgroup.com