Communication satellite GSAT-8 launched successfully

BANGALORE: India's latest communication satellite GSAT-8 was today successfully launched by Arianespace from Kourou in French Guiana to give a boost to direct-to-home services in the country.

GSAT-8 was injected into space by European launcher Arianespace's Ariane 5 rocket which lifted-off at 02.08 am (IST), with Japan's ST-2 spacecraft as co-passenger.

French Guiana is a region of France on the North-East coast of South America.

Weighing 3,100 kg at lift-off, GSAT-8 is one of the heaviest and high-powered satellites built by the Bangalore-headquartered Indian Space Research Organisation.

An ISRO team, which witnessed the launch, expressed delight over the successful mission.

"I am extremely happy to announce that ISRO's Master Control Facility at Hassan near Bangalore has confirmed the reception of signals from GSAT-8 and taken charge of the command and control of GSAT-8 immediately after its injection into the geo-stationary transfer orbit," ISRO Chairman K Radhakrishnan said.

"...This (the launch) is another great moment for us...," he said.

Radhakrishnan said the user community in India was looking forward for the operationalisation of the 24 high-power Ku band transponders into the Indian National Satellite system.

ISRO officials said the launch was doubly gratifying as the space agency had lost two satellites last year in two unsuccessful GSLV missions launched from the home soil. ISRO was desperately looking to augment transponder capacity, which is in great demand.

Built by Japan's Mitsubishi Electric Company, ST-2 would be operated by the ST-2 Satellite Ventures joint company of Singapore Telecommunications Ltd (SingTel) and Taiwan's Chunghwa Telecom Company Ltd.

GSAT-8 carried 24 transponders to augment India's Ku-band relay capabilities - primarily for direct-to-home TV broadcast services - with a coverage zone including the entire Indian subcontinent.

Additionally, GSAT-8 carried the two-channel GAGAN system for aircraft navigation assistance over Indian airspace and adjoining areas.

toi

Mamata's mix-n-match team

KOLKATA: Chief minister Mamata Banerjee's cabinet promises to be a unique mix of carrer politicians and first-timers, where experts and former bureaucrats will have a crucial role to play.

Along with political veterans like Subrata Mukherjee, there are three former IPS officers of DGP and ADG level ^ Rachpal Singh, H A Safwi and Upen Biswas ^ along with Manish Gupta, who retired as chief secretary. Former Ficci secretary-general Amit Mitra, the new finance minister, was among the first two to get their portfolios. Then there is theatre personality Bratya Basu. Together, they bring a wealth of administrative and creative experience.

It's rare to find so many `outsiders' in any cabinet, rarer still for so many of them to be given the most important portfolios. Mamata has bigger plans of involving experts from various fields as advisors. Some of them may even be made ministers if her plan for a Vidhan Parishad comes true. Former IPS officer Sultan Singh, for example, has not been made a minister but Mamata could use his experience in the several committees she proposes to set up to sort out critical issues.

Mamata has already put Mitra to work. "I have asked him to find out if there are sufficient funds to pay salary," the chief minister said on Friday.

The inclusion of former top cops like Rachpal Singh, Upen Biswas and H A Safwi is a masterstroke as they know the administration like the back of their hands. They will prove invaluable in the administrative reforms that Mamata is so passionate about.

toi

Mamata Banerjee's 18-year-long journey to Writers' Building

KOLKATA: It was the same corridor down which she was dragged by the hair and shoved out. Eighteen years later, when Mamata Banerjee walked into the chamber that said 'Chief Minister' on Friday, heels clicked, hands snapped up in salute or joined in awed obeisance, while outside, thousands cheered.

Trailed by a sea of supporters shouting "Didi, Didi", Mamata walked the 1km to Writers' Buidling from Raj Bhavan, where she took oath as the first non-Left chief minister in 34 years and West Bengal's first woman CM.

Bureaucrats and police brass escorted Mamata up the same flight of stairs she was dragged down in 1993. In the corridor, she suddenly broke her brisk stride and turned towards a balcony where she stood and waved to the delirious crowd. A bodyguard swiftly crouched before her, hanging on to the low guard rails to protect her from the mad scramble of photojournalists. With a final wave, Mamata walked off purposefully to the CM's chamber. It was 4.44pm.

On the way to Raj Bhawan, she waded through a sea of fans. "This is your day. It is you who are going to Raj Bhavan today. I am just representing a wish. For the next seven days I will not see anybody. I will work day and night, even on weekends, to sort out certain issues. After that I will start seeing you again, once a week. My doors will be open for you," she promised. Within hours, she announced her government's first major decision ^ returning 400 acres of land to farmers in Singur, where her campaign had prevented Tatas from setting up a Nano plant.

As she strode in to take oath, facing her, in the front row, were her glum political foes ^ ex-CM Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, Left Front chairman Biman Bose and ex-finance minister Asim Dasgupta. Bhattacharjee and Mamata have always avoided each other. This time, they made an exception and exchanged polite namaskars.

A part of Delhi's power list was also there. Union home minister P Chidambaram walked in a few minutes after Bhattacharjee. He greeted Amit Mitra, the new finance minister, and the two had a quick conversation. Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee and defence minister A K Antony also attended the event.

Raj Bhavan had never seen such glitter. Among the filmstars there were Prosenjit, Ranjit Mallik and daughter Koel, Rituparno Ghosh, Supriya Debi, writer Mahasveta Devi, painter Suvaprasanna. Top industrialists like Yogi Deweshwar and Harsh Neotia also attended.

Exactly four hours earlier, Mamata had set off from her humble house on Harish Chatterjee Street on a journey to change Bengal's history. By then thousands of supporters lined the route she would take to Raj Bhavan, holding puja thalis and blowing conch shells. Many came bare-feet, as if they were going to worship a deity.

Near her house, there was a Puja-like atmosphere. When she emerged wearing a crisp off-white saree with a blue zari border, a chant of Didi... Didi went up. Her black Santro revved to take her to Raj Bhavan, but Mamata walked into the crowd, catching the Special Security Unit guards by surprise. She touched as many hands as she could, smiled, and folded her hands. Someone passed her a microphone.

Neighbours showered flowers as she got into the Santro, ignoring a bulletproof car. Five of her brothers and their families followed. Mother Gayatri Devi could not make it because she was ill.

At exactly 12.50pm, Mamata walked into Raj Bhavan. She greeted Governor M K Narayanan warmly and took up the sheet of paper she was to read out from. A deafening applause signalled the beginning of her reign.

toi

Kalmadi was mastermind of TSR scam: CBI

NEW DELHI: The CBI squarely named arrested Commonwealth Games chief organizer Suresh Kalmadi as the "mastermind" in fixing and inflating costs of a timing, scoring and results contract awarded to a Swiss firm that caused a loss of Rs 95 crore.

In the first chargesheet it filed in a Games-related case on Friday, CBI countered Kalmadi's claim that the controversial contract awarded to a Swiss firm was cleared by an executive board and the sports ministry, maintaining the Pune MP was "the supreme authority in the Organising Committee having overriding powers".

Agency sources said they were tracing an elaborate conspiracy that began at the Commonwealth Youth Games organized by Kalmadi at his parliamentary constituency of Pune where event organizer Wizcraft was asked to facilitate an appearance by Bollywood actor Shilpa Shetty.

A partner in the plan was a firm Gem International – now named as a conspirator along with Swiss Timing Omega and Kalmadi and his Organizing Committee associates. Gem forked out Rs 72 lakh for the event and Rs 18 lakh was allegedly paid to Shetty. Later, after it won the timing, scoring and results contract, Swiss Timing allegedly paid Rs 23 crore to Gem, seen to be an exercise in routing the money.

The agency said the buck stopped with Kalmadi as prime accused as he oversaw forgeries and tender conditions were tweaked to benefit Swiss Timing at his behest by his aides Lalit Bhanot and V K Verma, who were arrested in February.

Along with Kalmadi, Bhanot and Verma, the 60-page chargesheet on the Rs 141 crore contract names former OC treasurer M Jaychandran and five others. Two companies -- Swiss Timing Omega and AKR Constructions -- have been indicted.

The agency is likely to next file a chargesheet in the Queen Baton's Relay case involving allegedly illegal payments to British firm AM Cars and AM Films. Jaychandran was arrested in the case and is on bail with two other former OC officials. Kalmadi is likely to be main accused in this case as well.

The two private entities – Swiss Timing and AKR Constructions – have been chargesheeted for routing payments and conspiring with OC officials with the final sub-contractor carrying out the work awarded for a fraction of the deal.

The CBI court of judge Talwant Singh is due to take cognizance of the chargesheet on Monday. The agency has been helped by two former OC officials, one of whom V K Gautam was believed to be close to Kalmadi. He along with Sujit Panigraphi are among the main prosecution witnesses. The other important testimony is that of Rahul Bhatnagar, a senior official in the sports ministry.

Kalmadi and his associates decided to award the contract to Swiss Timing before a tender was floated and the terms were changed after its issuance to specifically ensure the firm won the deal. A much lower Rs 62 crore bid by Spanish firm MSL was rejected. Swiss Timing's bid was accepted despite a 2:2 split in the evaluation committee, investigation has revealed.

"They (the officials) had a pre-planned design to give contract to Swiss Timing, much before Expression of Interest and Request for Proposal (RPF) was issued and they had done forgeries, manipulations and machinations to give award to Switzerland based company."

Since it could not find direct evidence of money trail, the agency cited circumstantial and documentary evidence in a bid to nail him for cheating, forgery and other charges. It said that he had himself "manipulated the eligibility criteria for the TSR contract to favour Swiss Timing."

The agency based its chargesheet on the statement of around 70 witnesses and several documents including a forged contract and expression of interest and a hand-written note recovered from Kalmadi's house stating the TSR contract would go to Swiss Timing.

OC officials to be chargesheeted include Surjit Lal, A S V Prasad and three private persons – promoters of Faridabad-based Gem International A K Madan and Purushottam Arya and MD of Hyderabad based AKR Constructions A Krishna Reddy. CBI has charged all of them for cheating, forgery, and criminal conspiracy, use of forged documents and prevention of corruption act.

Reddy, Madan and Arya are on the run and CBI is looking for them armed with non-bailable warrants.

The two firms Swiss Timing and Gem conspired with OC officials. "They then conspired with A K Reddy of AKR Constructions and raised highly inflated and bogus invoices for Rs 11 crore for temporary cabling work for justifying the huge payment received from Swiss Timing," said the chargesheet.

toi

Kanimozhi's new address is Tihar Jail No. 6

NEW DELHI: Dressed in an orange salwar suit, Kanimozhi stepped into Tihar Jail around 4.30pm on Friday after a Delhi court ordered her arrest "forthwith". Hours ago, outside the court she had told reporters: "I was expecting it."

Kanimozhi, former Tamil Nadu chief minister M Karunanidhi's daughter, was driven into the prison complex in a police van with other woman inmates returning from court.

For the next few nights, she will sleep on a concrete platform in a 10x15 foot cell of Tihar's female ward 8 jail number 6. She will be allowed a layer of blankets to use as cushion. First-time offenders are detained in this ward. For company, Kanimozhi will have a small TV set and some newspapers. Her neighbours: Alleged spy Madhuri Gupta and infamous pimp Sonu Punjaban.

A woman constable escorted the DMK MP to prison. But her sullenness disappeared the moment she got off the prison van as personnel from the Tamil Nadu Special Police surrounded her. "They chatted in Tamil for about 15 minutes and she smiled with them and asked them about their job," a jail source said.

Some DMK MPs, including T R Baalu, and her husband G Aravinthan came to meet her in the jail later. The DMK leader's cell has a small toilet, a fan, a TV set and light. Similar facilities have been given to other 2G accused including former telecom minister A Raja. Like the former telecom minister, she will be given south Indian food. Her clothes and bedding came from home. Asked to take off her jewellery, Kanimozhi was a picture of resignation as she complied. "As per jail rules, she was immediately made to undergo a medical examination after which she was taken to her cell. She was shown her cell after which she showered.

Kanimozhi used a toilet that only had a curtain. "The bathrooms are inside the cell and there is no wall. We string up curtains when the inmate has to go to the bathroom. This is regular," he said. Her dinner was chapatti, rice, subzi and dal. She ate inside her cell and the food was the same as given to other inmates. Kanimozhi, the prison official said, expressed concern over mosquitoes and asked if she would be provided a mosquito repellant. Kanimozhi also struck up a conversation with other woman prisoners, especially those from Tamil Nadu. But officials made it clear she won't be allowed to interact with any of the 2G accused lodged in jails 1, 3 and 4.

Kalaignar TV MD Sharad Kumar was sent to jail number 4 where former Commonwealth Games chief organizer Suresh Kalmadi is also lodged. He was lodged in ward number 15 and also given bedsheets, a mattress, a TV, books and attached bathroom. "Medical tests were also conducted on him and he ate dinner but did not take a shower.

toi

2G scam probe: Kanimozhi denied bail, arrested

New Delhi: A special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court on Friday denied bail pleas of DMK MP Kanimozhi and Kalaignar TV chief Sharad Kumar, named as co-conspirators in the 2G spectrum scam.

The court directed the CBI to take her and Kalaignar TV Managing Director Sharath Kumar into judicial custody. The Rajya Sabha MP will be taken to Tihar jail.

The CBI had named Kanimozhi, daughter of DMK chief M. Karunanidhi, and Sharad Kumar as co-conspirators in its April 25 supplementary charge sheet after it traced an illegal money trail of Rs.214 crore in the scam.

She is accused of conspiring and accepting bribes to rig 2007/08 grants of lucrative telecoms licences.