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Business

Former Tata Sons chairman Cyrus Mistry dies in car accident

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Billionaire business tycoon Cyrus Mistry, who was a scion of the Shapoorji Pallonji Group and a former Chairman of Tata Sons, and his close family friend died in a road accident in the Palghar district of Maharashtra on Sunday.

Besides Mistry, the other victim was Jahangir Pandole, whose family were among the founders of Duke’s brand of beverages.

Mistry and Pandole died on the spot, according to eyewitnesses.

The other occupants of the car were Jahangir’s brother Darius Pandole, the MD and CEO of JM Financial Asset Management Ltd and his wife Anahita Pandole, a gynaecologist at the Breach Candy Hospital and a fertility expert.

The accident took place around 3.30 PM when they were travelling in a Mercedes car and hit a divider along the Surya river stretch on Mumbai-Ahmedabad Highway – around 100 kms away from Mumbai.

Read | Cyrus Mistry, a tycoon who did not see eye-to-eye with Tatas

“Four people were inside the car, out of them two people died on the spot and two were shifted to a hospital,” said Palghar Superintendent of Police Balasaheb Patil. “The inquest panchnama has been done,” he said, adding that he would be able to comment only after the postmortem report.

The Palghar police has registered an accidental death report and investigations are underway.

Reports said that it was a case of over-speeding, however, an official version from police is awaited.

Asked about the cause, he said: “Our team of experts and people from the RTO are working…only after that we would be able to comment on anything or elaborate on the reasons.” 

Anahita Pandole was on the wheels when the accident took place and the victims were at the rear seats. The air-bags too had popped up but the crash was devastating.

The bodies of Mistry and Pandole have been taken to the sub-district hospital in Kasa, while the Pandole couple have been shifted to the Rainbow Hospital in Vapi in Gujarat, where they are undergoing treatment.

The mortal remains would be taken to the Sir JJ Hospital in Mumbai for postmortem, after which it would be handed over to the families.

The Mistrys and Pandoles are family friends.

The Pandole brothers lost their father Dinshaw Pandole, last week.

They had been to Udvada in Valsad district over the weekend where they visited the Iranshah Atash Behram fire temple for post-funeral rites. The incident took place during the return journey.

The Maharashtra government has ordered a probe into the incident and sought a detailed report from the Palghar police.

Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who holds the Home portfolio, spoke to Director General of Police Rajnish Seth and asked for a detailed probe. “It was an unfortunate accident in Palghar, I spoke to the DGP and instructed for detailed investigations,” he said.

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Science

Chandrayaan-2 makes first observation of global distribution of Argon-40 in lunar exosphere | India News

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BENGALURU: Isro on Tuesday said that the mass spectrometer onboard the Chandrayaan-2 orbiter, Chandra’s Atmospheric Composition Explorer-2 (CHACE-2), has made the first-of-its-kind observations of the global distribution of Argon-40 (a noble gas) in the lunar exosphere.
“These observations provide insight on dynamics of the lunar exospheric species, as well as on the radiogenic activities in the first few tens of metres below the lunar surface,” Isro said.
Pointing out that noble gases serve as important tracers to understand the processes of surface-exosphere interaction, Isro said Argon-40 (Ar-40) is such an important tracer atom to study the dynamics of the lunar exospheric species.
“Ar-40 originates from the radioactive disintegration of Potassium-40 (K-40) present below the lunar surface. Once formed, it diffuses through the inter-granular space and makes its way up to the lunar exosphere through seepages and faults,” Isro added.
The uniqueness of this result from Chandrayaan-2 lies in the fact that although Apollo-17 and LADEE missions have detected the presence of Ar-40 in the lunar exosphere, the measurements were confined to the near-equatorial region of Moon, Isro said, adding that the new findings have been published in the the journal ‘Geophysical Research Letters’.
“As there is a steep latitudinal temperature gradient of the lunar surface, it was, so far, a gap area to study the global dynamics of the lunar exospheric species, which is a temperature-driven process. In this context, the observations by CHACE-2 on Ar-40 up to the mid-latitude regions (−60º to +60º) play a significant role to bridge the gap in the knowledge,” Isro said.
The CHACE-2 observations reveal an increase in the number density of Ar-40 near the sunrise terminator, a decrease through the dayside, a secondary peak near sunset terminator and a night-side minima — a typical behaviour of a condensable gas.
“…The CHACE-2 observations provide the diurnal and spatial variation of Ar-40 covering the equatorial and mid latitude regions of Moon,” Isro added.
Also, for the mid-latitude regions, CHACE-2 observations showed for the first time that the variation in the number density of Ar-40 with respect to solar longitudes are similar to that of low latitude regions, despite the differences in temperature and topography.
“The CHACE-2 observations reveal that the Ar-40 distribution has significant spatial heterogeneity. There are localised enhancements (termed as Argon bulge) over several regions including the KREEP (potassium (K), rare-earth elements, and phosphorus (P)) and South Pole Aitken terrain,” Isro said.
The observations of Argon bulge are indicative of unknown or additional loss processes, Moonquakes or regions with lower activation energies, which call for a better understanding of the surface-exosphere interactions and source distributions of Ar-40, Isro added.
The CHACE-2 was a sequel to the CHACE experiment on the Moon Impact Probe (MIP) of Chandrayaan-1 mission and also draws heritage from the Mars Exospheric Neutral Composition Analyser (MENCA) experiment aboard the Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM).



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Health

takahashi: The doctor who tamed chickenpox: Google doodle celebrates Dr Takahashi’s 94th birth anniversary | India News

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NEW DELHI: Every year, millions of children across the world are saved from the contagious chickenpox — which was once considered deadly —thanks to Japanese virologist Dr Michiaki Takahashi who developed the first vaccine against the viral disease. Today, Google is celebrating his 94th birth anniversary with its doodle, illustrated by Tokyo-based guest artist Tatsuro Kiuchi.
Takahashi’s vaccine has proven to be an effective measure to prevent severe cases of the viral disease and its transmission, even as the world is today battling another viral pandemic today.
Dr Takahashi was born on February 17, 1928, in Osaka, Japan. After earning his medical degree from Osaka University in 1954, he joined Research Institute for Microbial Disease under the varsity and completed Graduate Course of Medical Science in 1959, majoring in poxvirus virology.
In 1963, Dr Takahashi accepted a research fellowship at Baylor College in the United States, having studied measles and polio viruses. But he turned his expertise toward combating the highly transmissible chickenpox after his eldest son, Teruyuki, developed a serious bout of the disease.
Dr Takahashi returned to Japan in 1965 and began developing a vaccine against the disease by culturing live but weakened chickenpox viruses in animals and humans. A vaccine was ready for clinical trials after just five years. Finally, the first vaccine, targeting the varicella virus that causes chickenpox, was developed in 1974. It was proven to be extremely effective following subsequent rigorous research with immunosuppressed patients.
The only varicella vaccine, approved by the World Health Organization in 1984, was then rolled out by the Research Foundation for Microbial Diseases in Japan in 1986. The Japanese ministry of health and welfare also approved it for usage across the world. Soon, the lifesaving vaccine was adopted by over 80 countries.
Dr Takahashi went on to become the director of Osaka University’s Microbial Disease Study Group in 1994 and held the position until his retirement. After retirement, he was given the title of professor emeritus.
He died on December 16, 2013, of heart failure at the age of 85.



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Health

Indian scientists claim to have designed vaccine against all variants of Covid-19

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Indian scientists claim to have designed a universal vaccine that can be effective against all variants of the coronavirus, which triggered the once-in-a-century pandemic two years back.

With new variants of the SARS-COV-2 virus triggering fresh waves of the highly infectious disease, scientists at the Kazi Nazrul University, Asansol and Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Bhubaneshwar have designed a peptide vaccine which they claim could protect against any future variants of the coronavirus.

Their research has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Molecular Liquids that is devoted to fundamental aspects of structure, interactions and dynamic processes in simple, molecular and complex liquids.

Read more: Dr Reddy’s submits proposal to DCGI to test Sputnik Light as Covid booster dose

“In this study, we employed immunoinformatic approaches to design AbhiSCoVac – a multi-epitope multi-target chimeric peptide that would be able to generate protective immunity against all six virulent members of the family hCoV-229E, hCoV-HKU1, hCoV-OC43, SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV as well as SARS-CoV-2,” the researchers said.

“The designed vaccine was found to be highly stable, antigenic and immunogenic,” the researchers Abhigyan Choudhury and Suprabhat Mukherjee from Kazi Nazrul University and Parth Sarthi Sen Gupta, Saroj Kumar Panda, and Malay Kumar Rana from IISER, Bhubaneshwar said.

Choudhary said the team of researchers developed the vaccine using computational methods and the next stage would involve the production of the vaccine which would be followed by testing.

“This vaccine is one of a kind. No other vaccine in the world has been designed to cope with all the Coronaviridae family viruses at a single time,” he told PTI.

He said the researchers had first identified various conserved regions in the spike protein of the six different viruses that undergo very few mutations and thus change a little in the course of pandemic.

Also, these regions of the protein identified are highly immunogenic which means they can produce high levels of immune memory in the body that is required to protect against the viruses, he said.

“Unlike other vaccines, these identified were selected after they have shown high binding strengths with a protein called TLR4 – the same protein responsible for detecting SARS-COV-2 viruses in the body and initiating the immune responses,” Choudhary said.

“We also simulated injection of the vaccine into virtual patients and have found that this vaccine is highly capable of protecting the recipient from the viruses,” he said. 

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Science

Scientists discover ‘inflated hot-Jupiter’ around a sub-giant star | India News

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BENGALURU: The Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) says that the exoplanet search and study group at the Physical Research Laboratory (PRL), Ahmedabad, has discovered a new exoplanet orbiting too close to an evolved or ageing star with a mass of 1.5 times that of the Sun and located 725 light-years away.
The discovery was led by Prof Abhijit Chakraborty and included his students, team members, and international collaborators from Europe and the US. This discovery work has been published in the refereed journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, titled “Discovery of an inflated hot Jupiter around a slightly evolved star TOI-1789”.
“This discovery was made using PRL Advanced Radial-velocity Abu-sky Search (PARAS) optical fibre-fed spectrograph, the first of its kind in India, on the 1.2-metre Telescope of PRL at its Mt. Abu Observatory. Using PARAS, which has the capability to measure the mass of an exoplanet, the exoplanet’s mass is found to be 70% and size about 1.4 times that of Jupiter,” Isro said.

While these measurements were carried out between December 2020 and March 2021, further follow-up measurements were obtained from TCES spectrograph from Germany in April 2021, and also independent photometric observations from the PRL’s 43-cm telescope at Mt. Abu.
“The star is known as HD 82139 as per the Henry Draper catalogue and TOI 1789 as per the TESS catalogue. Hence, the planet is known as TOI 1789b or HD 82139b as per the IAU (International Astronomical Union) nomenclature,” the researchers said.
This newly discovered star-planet system is very unique — the planet orbits the host star in just 3.2 days, thus placing it very-very close to the star at a distance of 0.05 AU (roughly one-tenth the distance between Sun and Mercury).
“There are less than 10 such close-in systems known among the zoo of exoplanets known so far. Because of the close proximity of the planet to its host star, it is extremely heated with a surface temperature reaching up to 2000 K, and hence an inflated radius, making it one of the lowest density planets known (density of 0.31 gram per cc),” an Isro statement read.
Such close-in exoplanets around stars (with distance less than 0.1 AU) with masses between 0.25 to a few Jupiter masses are called “Hot-Jupiters”, the researchers said.
“The detection of such a system enhances our understanding of various mechanisms responsible for inflation in hot Jupiters and the formation and evolution of planetary systems around evolving and ageing stars,” they added.
The research findings have been authored by Akanksha Khandelwal, Abhijit Chakraborty, Rishikesh Sharma, Ashirbad Nayak, Dishendra and Neelam JSSV Prasad from PRL; Priyanka Chaturvedi, Eike W Guenther, Artie P Hatzes, Massimiliano Esposito and Sireesha Chamarthi, from TLS Tautenburg, Germany; Carina M Persson and Malcolm Fridlund from the Department of Space, Earth and Environment, Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden and Steve B Howell from NASA Ames Research Centre.
This is the second exoplanet discovered by PRL scientists using PARAS at 1.2 m Mt. Abu telescope; the first exoplanet K2-236b, a sub-Saturn size at 600 light-years away, was discovered in 2018.



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Science

Chandrayaan 2: Isro prevents Chandrayaan-2 collision with Nasa’s LRO | India News

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Nearly a month after the actual manoeuvre, the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) has disclosed that Chandrayaan-2 orbiter had to perform a collision avoidance manoeuvre (CAM) to avoid colliding with NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), in October.
“A very close conjunction between the Chandrayaan-2 Orbiter and the LRO was expected to occur on October 20 near the Lunar North pole. Over a span of one week prior to the conjunction, analyses by both Isro and JPL/NASA consistently showed that the radial separation between the spacecraft would be less than 100 m and the closest approach distance would be only about 3 km at the aforementioned time of closest approach,” an Isro statement reads.

It added that both the agencies deemed that the situation warranted a CAM to mitigate the close approach risk, and it was mutually agreed that Isro’s orbiter would undergo the same.
“The manoeuvre was scheduled on October 18, 2021. It was designed to ensure a sufficiently large radial separation at the next closest conjunction between the spacecraft. The CAM was executed nominally at 8.22pm (IST). After orbit determination with post-manoeuvre tracking data, it was reconfirmed that there would be no further close conjunctions with LRO in the near future with the achieved orbit,” Isro said.
Chandrayaan-2 and LRO orbit Moon in a nearly polar orbit and hence, both the spacecraft come close to each other over the Lunar poles.
“…It is common for satellites in Earth Orbit to undergo CAMs to mitigate collision risk due to space objects including space debris and operational spacecraft. Isro monitors such critical close approaches and execute CAMs for its operational satellites whenever risk is assessed to be critical. However, this is the first time such a critically close conjunction was experienced for a space exploration mission of Isro,” the space agency said.
It added that the event highlights the importance of continual assessment of close approach situations for lunar and martian missions, and the fact that effective mitigation of close approach risk involves close coordination and synergy among different space agencies.



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Science

Members object to tweaks, JPC data bill report stalled | India News

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NEW DELHI: The joint parliamentary committee on Personal Data Protection Bill was unable to adopt its draft report on Friday as panel chair P P Chaudhary sought to insert last-minute amendments that did away with the clauses on social media platforms on grounds that they were covered under the new IT rules.
The move ran into vehement protests by opposition members, including BJD’s Bhartruhari Mahtab and Amar Patnaik, Congress’ Manish Tewari, Jairam Ramesh and Gaurav Gogoi, and even BJP’s Satya Pal Singh, who said there is an urgent need for a law on the subject.
Key objections raised by MPs pertained to a bid to “dilute” the penalty clause that fixes 2% and 4% of global incomes of platforms like Facebook and Twitter, if they are found in violation of privacy laws. The last-minute amendments, sources said, sought to bring this down to a standard sum of Rs 10-15 crore, which led to heated exchanges between some members who alleged that the government was attempting to dilute the penalty clause following pressure from the Big Tech. They said the social media firms pressured the government to tone down the applicable penalties.
The JPC has seen discussion on whether social media can be merely termed as a platform or aggregator or is in fact a “publisher” with the same responsibilities as a publication. Chaudhary did argue that the IT guidelines were not formulated when the panel had taken up the matter but MPs felt there is a need for a specific law and the data bill presents an excellent opportunity given that there was unanimity in the panel over the need for Big Tech to be more accountable.
After considerable discussion during which Chaudhary said the penalty clause was not very practical, it was decided that a fresh draft of the committee’s report will be circulated by November 18 and the committee will meet again on November 22 to consider the bill afresh.
Sources said MPs also demanded that the issue of the IT rules covering accountability of social media platforms should be specifically written into the JPC’s report if this was the argument Chaudhary wanted the committee to consider.
Deliberations also saw members oppose the contentious clause 35 of the draft data protection bill, which grants blanket exemption to the government and its agencies from complying with any and all provisions of the PDP bill. Members argued that government should only be exempted under a “just, fair, reasonable and proportionate procedure”, and that exemption should only be exercised in “exceptional” cases.



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World

taliban: Secret portions of US-Taliban deal in Doha worries India | India News

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NEW DELHI: India is coming to terms with the fact that notwithstanding Pakistan’s role in supporting the Taliban and ensuring a strategic failure for the US in Afghanistan, the US could be re-engaging Pakistan — perhaps shorn of illusions — once again, after a gap.
Foreign minister S. Jaishankar pointed to the “tactical compromises” the US might be making in Af-Pak — both vis a vis the Taliban and Pakistan. Acknowledging for the first time, mildly reproachfully, that India had been kept in the dark about the details of the US-Taliban deal, Jaishankar told an event in Washington, “I think to some degree, we’ll all be justified in having levels of concern. And to some degree, the jury is still out.”
Jaishankar’s reference was to the classified portions of the US-Taliban peace agreement in Doha, two annexures of which were not shared — not only with India but will the US’ partners as well. According to sources, these secret portions included military actions that the US committed to in Afghanistan. There is deep disquiet in India about the details of the secret portions of the agreement that could have an impact on India.
“When I say levels of concern, there were commitments which were made by the Taliban at Doha…The US knows that best, we were not taken into confidence on various aspects of that.” The upshot of this was that US actions threw Afghan civil society and the Ashraf Ghani government under the bus, as the Taliban swept into Kabul in mid-August. “We have been victims of cross-border terrorism from that region and…that has shaped in many ways our view of some of the neighbours of Afghanistan. How much the US shares that view and where is it that the US makes its tactical compromises, that is for the Americans to figure out.”
India faces a challenging diplomatic-security situation post the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan. This relates not only to the legitimacy of the Taliban government in Afghanistan, it also relates to Pakistan’s relative positioning vis a vis Afghanistan, China and now, the US, that could have a bearing on India’s security space.
This week, US deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman will visit India followed by Pakistan, a script that hasn’t been followed in the recent past. She follows a similar path struck by CIA chief Bill Burns who was here a few days ago. For the present, US officials have indicated this would involve evacuations, but sections in the Indian establishment feel that given US’ intelligence vulnerabilities in Af-Pak, the US-Pak engagement may grow. However, there is a growing clamour in Washington to call Pakistan out for its role, with a new Bill introduced in the US Congress that directly mentions Pakistan and calls for an “assessment of support by state and non-state actors, including the government of Pakistan, for the Taliban between 2001 and 2020.”
Top security sources in the Indian government are convinced the Afghanistan situation will get considerably worse — certainly for Afghan civil society. These are already signs of abuse of women, removing them from employment and education, suffering of minorities etc. This is directly related to how the Taliban took control of Afghanistan.
This is already playing out badly in the internal politics of the Democrats in Washington. First, a realisation that the main reason the Afghan government folded as it did was that there was virtually no space for it in the Doha deal. Officials said one escape clause for the US could have been reneging on the deal if the Taliban-Afghan talks failed. They did, largely because the Taliban was not interested. But the Biden administration stayed in the deal, which, an increasing number of security experts now describe as a “weak” deal.
A second point of concern in India is the number of weapons left behind by the departing US troops for the Taliban to use. Given their parlous control and an economic crisis, India is worried that these weapons could find their way to armed criminals and terror groups, potentially causing havoc.
However, unlike the last time, the India-US relationship has evolved to a place that now sees both countries at least exchanging notes on Afghanistan, though there are many areas where India does not agree with the US. Those concerns, sources said, have been made clear to the Biden administration as well.
The UN’s credentials committee is expected to meet in November to take a call on giving the UN seat to the Taliban. The Taliban have already named their spokesperson, Suhail Shaheen to the job. The other check to wholesale acceptance of the Taliban has been the UNSC resolution 2593, which sets down conditions for Taliban’s acceptability and committed the international community to it. Even if the UN decides to grant the UN seat to the Taliban, there will be other hurdles, particularly their international travel. India chairs the Taliban sanctions committee in the UNSC — since many members of the Taliban government are under UN sanctions, these would have to be lifted before they can travel.



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World

India acknowledges: Taliban hold positions of power, authority

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IN ITS first clear and official reference to the Taliban as a state actor, India acknowledged in a joint statement with Australia Sunday that the group holds “positions of power and authority across Afghanistan”.

This reference is a step forward for the diplomatic establishment, but falls short of officially recognising the Taliban administration as the government of Afghanistan. Sources told The Indian Express that Sunday’s formulation was arrived at after “much debate and deliberation” over the last week after the Taliban announced its Cabinet.

On Saturday, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar had described the Taliban as the “dispensation” in Kabul during his remarks after the 2+2 talks with Australia involving Foreign and Defence ministers.

Sunday’s joint statement said: “(The) Ministers also expressed deep concern about the situation in Afghanistan. Ministers called for the Taliban to guarantee safe passage for foreign nationals and Afghans wanting to leave the country.”

It said: “They reiterated calls on those in positions of power and authority across Afghanistan to adhere to counterterrorism commitments and human rights, in accordance with UNSCR 2593.”

The UN Security Council Resolution 2593 — issued on August 30 under India’s month-long presidency — emphasised that Afghanistan must not allow its soil to be used for terrorism-linked activities.

In another unusual move by India, the joint statement outlined reports of violations of human rights. “They (the Ministers) noted reports of a rapid roll-back on women and girls’ rights and access to services and public spaces, as well as targeted violence against women’s rights defenders. In this regard, the Ministers reiterated their call for protection of rights of women and children and their full participation in public life,” it said.

The statement sought “a broad-based and inclusive government” for “long term peace and stability in Afghanistan”.

Flagging concerns on terrorism, it said that both sides “agreed to remain alert to the broader repercussions of the developments in Afghanistan for the ongoing terrorist threats around the world, and in our region”.

Apart from Jaishankar and Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne, the 2+2 talks involved Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and his counterpart Peter Dutton.

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World

Vijay Rupani quitting as CM of Gujarat part of BJP’s image ‘makeover’ | India News

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NEW DELHI: BJP continues with its strategy of image “makeover” with surprise decisions as Vijay Rupani, who resigned as Gujarat chief minister on Saturday, being the fourth CM to quit office after BS Yeddyurappa (Karnataka) and Trivendra Singh Rawat (Uttarakhand) resigned in the past few months.
Sarbanand Sonowal, under whom the party had contested the Assam assembly elections, resigned even after an impressive victory to pave the way for the succession of Himanta Biswa Sarma, the incumbent CM of the state.

There have been varied reasons for the replacement of the four CMs but the exit of Rupani had been doing the rounds in the past few months mainly after the second Covid wave hit the state hard and questions were raised about the government’s handling of the crisis. Sources said it was speculated that an understanding had been reached late last year that Rupani will be replaced as party will go into state polls in December 2022, under the new chief minister.
The exact timeline was not known and it seems likely that the replacement would most likely be from the Patidar community, a decisive vote bank, that has had a few grouses with the state BJP leadership. Senior party leaders including general secretary (organisation) B L Santhosh, union minister and state in charge Bhupendra Yadav, health minister Mansukh Mandaviya and minister of fisheries Vijay Rupala are in the state capital where a smooth transition is likely amid possibility of a Patidar leader replacing Rupani.

Party sources maintained that the change of leadership is being considered under supervision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
In Uttarakhand, Trivendra Singh Rawat had to resign after the central leadership was getting feedback about “lacklustre” performance of his government and also some controversial decisions like proposed take-over of temple managements by the state government. A section of RSS and groups of seers were said to be unhappy and had threatened to launch agitation against the government.
The central leadership had failed to contain dissensions in its Karnataka unit over Yeddyurappa, who had to quit finally after which Basavaraj Bommai took over as the CM.



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