The Price of Tata Nano

City	BS II	BS III	CX BS II	CX BS III	LX BS III
Chennai	-	132,056	-	157,055/160,055	180,248
Mumbai	-	134,249	-	160,322/163,457	185,375
Delhi		123,361		148,361/151,361	172,360
Kolkatta		130,784		155,782/158,783	180,447

 The prices are in Indian Repues(Rs.)

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India gets spy satellite from Israe

India gets spy satellite from Israel to secure its borders. India has bought a spy satellite from Israel. The satellite is almost of the same sort that Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) put in the orbit last year.

But last year it was for Israel that ISRO had put the satellite in the orbit. This year India has bought a satellite for its own use.

The best part is that whether the weather is cloudy, rains or storm or for that matter night, the satellite will be able to work effectively round the clock without any hiccup.

Last year when Indian scientists launched Israel’s Techsar satellite, it was beginning of a new era of co-operation between the two nations.

It was very significant. The importance of the satellite launch was magnified by the fact that this launch was earlier stalled owning to intense objections by Arab states which viewed the satellite to be a direct threat to their defence integrity. 

Such was the pressure on the Indian government to not support the Israeli space aspirations, that according to a senior Indian intelligence official, the launch was "dismantled" completely to prevent even a future launch if the government changed its mind.

But despite threats and objections, India had launched the satellite.

Now India is launching a similar rocket for its own use. The 300 kilogram (650 pound) RISAT 2 will be launched by India's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle rocket in the next few weeks, the report said.

ISRO is becoming an increasingly important space organization for countries across the world. 

Last year ISRO launched 10 satellites simultaneously. It was a big feat for any space organization in the world. In its thirteenth flight conducted from Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) SHAR, Sriharikota, on April 28, 2008, ISRO’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, PSLV-C9, successfully launched the 690 kg Indian remote sensing satellite CARTOSAT-2A, the 83 kg Indian Mini Satellite (IMS-1) and eight nanosatellites for international customers into a 637 km polar Sun Synchronous Orbit (SSO). PSLV-C9 in its ‘core alone’ configuration launched ten satellites with a total weight of about 820 kg. ?

The important flight events included the separation of the first stage, ignition of the second stage, separation of the heatshield at about 125 km altitude after the vehicle had cleared the dense atmosphere, second stage separation, third stage ignition, third stage separation, fourth stage ignition and fourth stage cut-off.

The 690 kg main payload, CARTOSAT-2A, was the first satellite to be injected into orbit at 885 seconds after lift-off at an altitude of 637 km. About 45 seconds later, Indian Mini Satellite (IMS-1) was separated after which all the nano satellites were separated in sequence. The initial signals indicate normal health of the satellites.

Indian Mini Satellite (IMS-1), flown as an auxiliary payload on board PSLV-C9, is developed by ISRO for remote sensing applications. Weighing 83 Kg at lift-off, IMS-1 incorporates many new technologies and has miniaturised subsystems. IMS-1 carries two remote sensing payloads - A Multi-spectral camera (Mx Payload) and a Hyper-spectral camera (HySI Payload), operating in the visible and near infrared regions of the electromagnetic spectrum. The spatial resolution of Mx camera is 37 metre with a swath of 151 km while that of HySI is about 506 metre with a swath of about 130 km. The data from this mission will be made available to interested space agencies and student community from developing countries to provide necessary impetus to capacity building in using satellite data. The versatile IMS-1 has been specifically developed to carry different payloads in future without significant changes in it and has a design life time of two years.

Eight Nanosatellites from abroad are carried as auxiliary payloads besides IMS-1 as well as CARTOSAT-2A. The total weight of these Nanosatellite payloads is about 50 Kg. Six of the eight Nanosatellites are clustered together with the collective name NLS-4. The other two nanosatellites are NLS-5 AND RUBIN-8. NLS-4, developed by University of Toronto, Canada consists of six nano-satellites developed by various universities. Two of them - CUTE 1.7 and SEEDS - are built in Japan, while the other four - CAN-X2, AAUSAT-II, COMPASS-1 and DELPHI-C3 are built in Canada, Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands respectively. NLS-5 is also built by University of Toronto and RUBIN-8 is built by Cosmos International, Germany. The eight nanosatellite payloads of PSLV-C9 are built to develop nano technologies for use in satellites as well as for the development of technologies for satellite applications.

In its twelve consecutively successful flights so far, PSLV has repeatedly proved itself as a reliable and versatile workhorse launch vehicle. It has demonstrated multiple satellite launch capability having launched a total of sixteen satellites for international customers besides thirteen Indian payloads which are for remote sensing, amateur radio communications and Space capsule Recovery Experiment (SRE-1). PSLV was used to launch ISRO’s exclusive meteorological satellite, KALPANA-1, into a Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO) in September 2002 and thus proved its versatility. The same vehicle will be used to launch Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft, India’s first mission to Moon during this year. 

In the meantime the vehicle integration has already begun at the spaceport at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh for Israeli satellite launch. The launch campaign is gathering speed. The vehicle, PSLV-C12, will also deploy a mini-satellite called Anusat, built by Anna University, Chennai.

RISAT is a radar-imaging satellite used for remote-sensing. It can take pictures of the earth 24 hours of the day, through rain and cloud. The satellite has already reached Sriharikota from Israel.

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US and India brothers in arms.

According to government sources, the United States has asked India to pull back troops along the Indo-Pakistan border as a gesture of goodwill.

India in turn has told America that the country hasn't moved more troops along the border, and that it was the neighbouring country, Pakistan, that deployed more troops along the Line of Control (LoC), and that America should ask Pakistan to pull back its troops.

Earlier, defence sources said that Pakistan had deployed several army brigades along Indo-Pak border in Jehlum-Chenab and Chenab-Ravi corridors sparking concern in the Indian armed forces.

The forces had been withdrawn from Pakistan's troubled north-western tribal belt where they were battling Taliban to put pressure on the US, which had been pressing Islamabad to act against terrorists operating from its soil, and diverted to the border with India, they said.

Pakistan had deployed several brigades (each comprising 4,000 to 6,000 personnel), including 33 brigade, 27 brigade, 7 brigade, 28 brigade, 331 brigade, two battalions (with 1,000 personnel each) of 37 Punjab and 39 Punjab Rawalkote in Hajira, Mandol, Hajipeer, Uri, Bhimber, Nikial, Kotli, Sailkote, Zafarwal, Neelam valley and other areas, sources said.

"The deployment had been a surprising move. It is an area of concern for us," they said adding that the Pakistani side has already cleaned the bunkers along the borderline.

The sources said "several brigades involved in the war against Taliban in north-western tribal belt had been withdrawn and deployed along Jehlum-Chenab corridor in the past one week."

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US approves sale of anti-sub P8I planes to India

Washington has approved the sale to India of eight Boeing anti-submarine aircraft, a 2.1 billion dollar transaction which would be the largest ever sale of US arms to India, the State Department said Tuesday.

"The Department of State has notified Congress of the potential sale of eight P8i long-range maritime reconnaissance, anti-submarine warfare aircraft to the government of India," State Department spokesman Robert Wood told reporters.

"The US government is prepared to license the export of these items, having taken into account political, military, economic, human rights and arms control considerations," he said.

The sale is in keeping with India's drive to modernize its military. The Indian military plans to hand out contracts worth 50 billion US dollars by 2018.

India, which has tense relations with fellow nuclear-armed neighbor Pakistan, currently is mostly outfitted with military equipment from the former Soviet Union.

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