Names Of 4 Gaganyaan Mission Astronauts Announced

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, Feb 27: India is expanding its space in the global order and this can be seen in its space programme too, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said today as he revealed the names of four astronauts part of the country's human space flight mission Gaganyaan.

The Prime Minister today gave astronaut wings to the four selected for the space flight during an event at Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre in Thiruvananthapuram. The four astronaut-designates selected for the Gaganyaan mission are Group Captain Prasanth Balakrishnan Nair, Group Captain Ajit Krishnan, Group Captain Angad Pratap and Wing Commander Shubhanshu Shukla.

India is expanding its space in the global order and this can be seen in its space programme too, said Narendra Modi.

The human space flight mission aims to launch a three-member crew into a Low Earth Orbit and bring them back after three days. The astronauts chosen for the mission have been trained in technical knowledge as well as physical witness to ensure they stay well during the mission.

Microsoft dethrones Apple to become world's most valuable company

SAN FRANCISCO, Jan 11: Microsoft claimed the top spot as the world's most valuable company, edging past Apple, whose shares faced a sluggish start in 2024 due to mounting worries about demand.

Microsoft's shares, fuelled by its early lead in generative artificial intelligence, rose by 1.6 per cent, resulting in a market valuation of $2.875 trillion. Meanwhile, Apple experienced a 0.9 per cent decline, bringing its market capitalisation to $2.871 trillion—the first instance since 2021 that Apple's valuation dipped below that of Microsoft.

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Apple's stock has seen a 3.3 per cent slide in January, in contrast to Microsoft's 1.8 per cent increase.

The decline in Apple's stock value stems from a series of downgrades, raising concerns about sustained weakness in iPhone sales, particularly in key markets like China.

Furthermore, regulatory scrutiny of the arrangement that designates Google as the default search engine on iOS poses a threat to Apple's services business, which has been a positive aspect in recent quarters.

Apple, with a market capitalisation reaching its peak at $3.081 trillion on December 14, concluded the previous year with a 48 per cent gain, lagging behind Microsoft's 57 per cent surge.

Microsoft, having aggressively introduced genAI-powered tools in 2023 through its collaboration with OpenAI, briefly outpaced Apple as the most valuable company several times since 2018, notably in 2021 during concerns about iPhone maker's stock due to COVID-driven supply chain shortages.

"It was inevitable that Microsoft would overtake Apple since Microsoft is growing faster and has more to benefit from the generative AI revolution," said D.A. Davidson analyst Gil Luria.

In related news, Microsoft's $13 billion investment in OpenAI faces a potential investigation by European Union watchdogs, triggered by upheavals at OpenAI revealing deep connections between the two companies.

The European Commission is evaluating whether Microsoft's involvement warrants scrutiny under the bloc's merger rules, potentially leading to a formal investigation and unwinding if it's found to impede fair competition. This move follows a similar step by the UK's Competition and Markets Authority as part of a broader examination of artificial intelligence.

India’s solar mission reaches sun’s orbit

NEW DELHI, Jan 6: India’s solar observation mission has entered the sun’s orbit after a four-month journey, the latest success for the space exploration ambitions of the world’s most populous country.

The Aditya-L1 mission was lnched in September and is carrying an array of instruments to measure and observe the sun’s outermost layers.

India’s science and technology minister, Jitendra Singh, said on social media that the probe had reached its final orbit “to discover the mysteries of sun-Earth connection”.

The US and the European Space Agency have sent numerous probes to the centre of the solar system, beginning with Nasa’s Pioneer programme in the 1960s. Japan and China have also launched their own solar observatory missions into Earth’s orbit.

But the latest mission by the Indian Space Research Organisation is the first by any country in Asia to be placed in orbit around the sun.

India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, hailed it as another landmark in the country’s space programme. “It is a testament to the relentless dedication of our scientists,” he said on social media. “We will continue to pursue new frontiers of science for the benefit of humanity.”

Aditya, named after a Hindu sun deity, has travelled 932,000 miles (1.5m km) from Earth – still only 1% of the distance between Earth and the sun. It is now at a point where the gravitational forces of both celestial bodies cancel out, allowing it to remain in a stable halo orbit around the sun.

The orbiter, which reportedly cost $48m (£38m), will study coronal mass ejections, a periodic phenomenon in which huge discharges of plasma and magnetic energy are released from the sun’s atmosphere. These bursts are so powerful they can reach the Earth and disrupt the operations of satellites.

The mission also aims to shed light on the dynamics of several other solar phenomena by imaging and measuring particles in the sun’s upper atmosphere.

India has a comparatively low-budget space programme, but one that has grown in size and momentum since it first sent a probe to orbit the moon in 2008. In August last year, India became the first country to land an uncrewed craft near the largely unexplored lunar south pole, and the fourth country to land on the moon.

India became the first Asian country to put a craft into orbit around Mars in 2014 and it is expected to launch a three-day crewed mission into Earth’s orbit later this year.

India is also planning a joint mission with Japan to send another probe to the moon by 2025 and an orbital mission to Venus within the next two years.

ISRO Launches XPoSAT To Unravel Universe's Big Mystery

NEW DELHI, Jan 1: On New Year's Day, India started a new mission to solve what is among the oldest mysteries of the universe - black holes. At 9.10 am, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) launched the XPoSAT or X-ray Polarimeter Sat

At 9.32 am, ISRO announced that the lift-off of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) was normal and XPoSAT was launched successfully. "PSLV-C58 vehicle placed the satellite precisely into the intended orbit of 650 km with 6-degree inclination. The POEM-3 is being scripted," ISRO posted in X. Soon after, ISRO chief S Somanath announced the successful launch. POEM refers to PSLV Orbital Experimental Module.

Astrophysicist Dipankar Bhattacharya told NDTV that today's launch was a "textbook launch". "The expected orbit has been achieved. Now all the expected science is hopefully going to work as planned," he said.

The XPoSAT mission launch also marked the 60th flight of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV). The 260-tonne rocket carries an advanced astronomy observatory meant to study black holes and neutron stars. With this, India has become the second country after the US to have such a specialised 'observatory' of this kind to study black holes.

Using X-ray photons and their polarisation, XPoSAT will help study the radiation from near black holes and neutron stars. It carries two payloads -- POLIX (Polarimeter Instrument in X-rays) and XSPECT (X-ray Spectroscopy and Timing).

The satellite will measure polarisation of X-rays in the energy band 8-30keV emanating from about 50 potential cosmic sources through Thomson Scattering by POLIX payload.

It will carry out long term spectral and temporal studies of cosmic X-ray sources. It will also carry out polarisation and spectroscopic measurements of X-ray emissions from cosmic sources through POLIX and XSPECT payloads.

When stars run out of fuel and 'die', they collapse under their own gravity and leave behind black holes or neutron stars. Black holes have the highest gravitational force in the universe, and neutron stars have the highest densities. Gathering more information on this, the mission will help unravel mysteries of ultra-extreme environments in space.

The XPoSat satellite cost around ₹ 250 crore (approximately $30 million). The NASA IXPE -- which is on a similar mission since 2021 -- cost $188 million. The Indian satellite is expected to last more than five years, compared to the two-year life span of the NASA IXPE.

Former ISRO chairman G Madhavan Nair has said the PSLV rocket system has evolved as the most reliable and cost-effective one in the global scenario. "When we look back in history, we started this journey in 1993 and since then, most of the missions have been successfully completed," he said.

2023 was a great year for ISRO and the country. The success of the Chandrayaan mission put India into the elite space club, with the distinction of being the only country to achieve a soft landing near the South Pole of the moon. As 2024 begins, ISRO has its eyes focused on the Gaganyaan launch, India's first human spaceflight programme.

India to launch AI Mission to help startups with compute power: Modi

NEW DELHI, Dec 12: India will launch an AI Mission that would work to bring compute power in the hands of startups and innovators in the country so that they can tackle problems in areas like healthcare, agriculture and education, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced on December 12.

"We will launch an AI mission to get AI compute power which will help startups and innovators. With this mission, agriculture, healthcare and education sectors will be promoted," he said at the Global Partnership for AI Summit in Delhi.

This comes months after the government adopted a report by an expert panel which recommended that the Indian government create computing infrastructure of 24,500 graphics processing units (GPU) at 17 centres to enable innovation in the emerging tech area in the country by startups and academia.

Under the proposal, about 14,500 GPUs have been recommended for training of AI models and high performance storage, while the rest 10,000 is for AI inferencing.

However, Modi did not specify the amount of compute power to be commissioned under the mission.

Modi inaugurated the GPAI summit today, and international delegates are expected to engage in several sessions revolving around AI. As part of the event, the government is working on a multi-country, consensus-based declaration on AI, specifically on ways to mitigate risks and foster innovation.

Bringing attention to the harmful side of artificial intelligence and terming it as being capable of "destroying the 21st century", Modi today called on countries to work together during the GPAI Summit on a global framework that will provide guardrails around AI and make it more responsible.

"AI has the potential to destroy the 21st century," he claimed.

Modi said that if AI tools fall in the hands of terrorists or cyber attackers then it could create havoc.

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