Chandrayaan finds water on Moon's surface,

Moon mission Chandrayaan-1
NEW DELHI: India’s maiden Moon mission Chandrayaan-1 has found water on the lunar surfacebefore the project was aborted.

Credit for this much-awaited discovery goes to NASAs Moon Minerology Mapper (M3), one of the payloads on board Chandrayaan. The Rs 386-crore craft was launched on October 22 last year and terminated on August 30 following a communication failure. One of the mission’s main goals was to sniff for water.

NASA will hold a press conference to brief about the new scientific findings later in the day.

Earlier, neither ISRO nor NASA spoke about the discovery. A spokesman for Brown University had also declined comment, saying there was an embargo. "It will be a major announcement of a major discovery and is something great for Chandrayaan. It will mark a major leap for India’s space programme," he had said.

An Isro official at Sriharikota has also confirmed that a major announcement was expected on Thursday. "I too have heard something to that effect. Nothing more," he said.

The announcement could now trigger another round of Moon missions, and start serious hunt for life in outer space. India has not ruled out the possibility of a manned lunar flight
TOI

Mobile No Portability in metros, A circle by Dec 31

STAFF WRITER 15:36 HRS IST

New Delhi, Sep 23 (PTI) Mobile Number Portability will be implemented from December 31 in metros and category A service areas, and by 20th March, 2010, in rest of the country, telecom regulator TRAI said today.

The MNP facility will enable subscribers to retain their cell phone numbers even after changing service providers.

The government earlier this month had said implementation of MNP would be delayed by three months as regulations were still being made.

Issuing Telecommunication Mobile Number Portability Regulations, 2009, TRAI said the MNP facility shall be available only within a given licensed service area.

A subscriber holding a mobile number is eligible to make a porting request only after 90 days of the date of activation of his mobile connection.

If a number is already ported once, the number can again be ported only after 90 days from the date of the previous porting.

World Bank approves USD 4.3-billion loan to India

STAFF WRITER 15:49 HRS IST
Washington, Sep 23 (PTI) The World Bank will provide USD 4.3-billion loan for 4 Indian projects, including USD 2 billion for recapitalisation of state-owned banks.

The assistance would "bolster infrastructure investments, enable public sector banks to expand credit and strengthen power transmission networks to meet the growing demand," said a World Bank release.

The four loans, approved by the World Bank's executive board yesterday, include USD 2 billion loan to enhance banks' capital, USD 1.2 billion loan to infrastructure financing company IIFCL, USD 1 billion to help address power deficiency, and USD 150 million to improve water supply in Andhra Pradesh.

Officials of the multilateral lending agency said the development policy loans have no conditions attached and would be disbursed in a single tranche after January 1, 2010, unless the Indian government prefers in installments.

Oceansat-2, 6 nanosats successfully placed in orbit

Vijay Karthik

Sriharikota (AP), Sept 23 (PTI) ISRO today placed in orbit seven satellites including Oceansat-2 within a span of 20 minutes, its first successful mission after the abrupt end of the ambitious Chandrayaan-I project.

At the end of the 51-hour countdown, the 44.4 meter tall four-stage PSLV-C14 blasted off from the first launch pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre here with ignition of the core first stage and put the satellites in orbit one after another.

Scientists cheered as ISRO's workhorse, PSLV soared majestically into clear skies at 11.51 AM from the spaceport in the East Coast in Andhra Pradesh, about 100 km north of Chennai,with the launch watched by Vice President Hamid Ansari

Oceansat-2, the country's 16th remote sensing satellite, will identify potential fishing zones, sea state forecasting and coastal zone studies, besides providing inputs on weather forecasting and climate studies.