ELECTIONS// The Bharatiya Janata Party, under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has won two important state elections in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh. Results of the elections were announced last month. With these wins, 19 of India’s 29 states will be controlled by the BJP and its partners. Results of the Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh elections will have a huge impact on the run-up to the 2019 national polls for both the BJP and the Congress. Winning the election in Gujarat was very important for Prime Minister Modi. After all, it was the state that he had led as Chief Minister before taking charge in Delhi. Losing in his home state was not an option. However, the election was a close fight, with the BJP’s main competitor-the Congress political party-teaming up with other rivals of the BJP.
The BJP's 99 seats in Gujarat are 16 less than it had won last time, while the Congress has won 80, 19 more than in 2012.
The BJP has won 44 of Himachal Pradesh’s 68 seats and the Congress has won 21. It was also the first election that the Congress fought under its new leader Rahul Gandhi. So the state elections became a test of his leadership. Although the Congress lost in both states, it still managed to get more votes in this election in the important state of Gujarat compared to the last state elections held in 2012. Then, it managed to get 61 of its representatives elected. This time it won 80 seats in the Gujarat assembly. So, it certainly seems that the Congress is doing a few things right. The tough fight for Gujarat could be a sign of what lies ahead in the 2019 general elections to select the next central government at Delhi.
TELECOM//Billionaire industrialist Mukesh Ambani played the perfect Santa this Christmas season bailing out his younger brother Anil Ambani, who is in debt and out of luck. On Thursday, the senior Ambani’s Reliance Jio signed a definitive agreement to acquire the whole shebang of Reliance Communications (RCom): spectrum, mobile towers and optical fibre network, for an unknown sum.
The timing of the deal stands out not only for its economic rationale, but also for striking an emotional chord, with the announcement coming on the 85th birth anniversary of late Dhirubhai Ambani, founder of Reliance Industries.
The deal includes a cash payment and transfer of deferred spectrum instalment, but is subject to requisite approvals from the government, regulatory authorities, lenders, release of all encumbrances on assets and other conditions precedent. “The consideration is payable at completion and is subject to adjustments as specified in the agreement,” Reliance Jio said in a statement.
RCom is reeling under a debt pile of Rs 45,000 crore and the proposed deal is expected to trim debt by Rs 25,000 crore. If it comes through, it will spell the exit of Anil Ambani from the telecom sector, which he entered last decade. It has already decided to shut its 2G wireless business and merge its 4G services with its enterprise unit. But RCom will not cease to exist and will continue running other businesses comprising enterprise, GCX, data centre and 4G sharing business and will have an enterprise value of Rs 15,000 crore. “These assets are strategic in nature and are expected to contribute significantly to the large-scale roll-out of wireless and Fiber-to-Home and Enterprise services by RJIL,” Jio said, adding that it acquired all assets without any previous liabilities attached to them. Jio emerged as the successful bidder in the two-stage bidding process and the acquisition process is being supervised by an independent group of distinguished industry experts. “An asset monetisation process for RCOM assets was mandated by the lenders of RCOM, who appointed SBI Capital Markets Limited to run the process,” the statement said.
There was intense market speculation on the Jio-RCom deal, which saw RCom’s scrip soaring 40 per cent in a single day on Tuesday
CRICKET// Australian Donald Bradman is often thought of the greatest cricketer ever. Another Australian, their captain Steve Smith, is now being compared to Bradman for his incredible performances in recent matches.
• In the recent Ashes series against England, Smith scored 426 runs with a batting average of 142.
His career batting average is 62.32 from 59 tests which places him second only to Bradman who had an incredible batting average of 99.94
Smith is only the fifth Australian captain, one of them being Bradman, to have scored two Ashes double hundreds
From the time he started hitting centuries, Smith has struck a 100 every 3.9 innings compared 2.75 innings for Bradman Clearly 28 year old Smith is at the top of the game, and given that he has years of playing left, he may equal or surpass some of Bradman’s records.
BADMINTON// Indian badminton star PV Sindhu lost in the finals of the Dubai World Superseries to Japanese player Akane Yamaguchi last Sunday, thus settling for the silver medal. It was a close and tough contest that the Indian lost 21-15, 12-21 and 19-21.
It has been quite a year for PV Sindhu. She made it to the finals of many badminton tournaments in 2017, but also lost several of them. She was the losing finalist at the World Championships final (lost to Carolina Marin), Indian National Final (lost to Saina Nehwal) and now at the Dubai World Supeseries final. She won three finals-Syed Modi International Badminton Championships, India Open and the Korea Open. She is currently ranked No 3 in the world.
CRICKET// The Indian cricket team won the third One Day International played against Sri Lanka at Visakhapatnam, thereby winning the series 2-1. This is the eight straight ODI series win for the Indian team.
The ODI series didn’t begin well with the Indians losing the first match at Dharmshala. However, they won the second match at Mohali, with the Visakhapatnam game becoming the decider. In the last game, the Indians stayed in control throughout with bowlers Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahals restricting the Sri Lankan score to just 215. A century from Shikhar Dhawan and 65 runs from Shreyas Iyer saw the Indians home.
The win against Sri Lanka is the eight straight series win for India. They have now equaled Australia’s record of 8 consecutive series wins. The only team with more wins in a row is the West Indies.
Rohit Sharma scored his third ODI double century (215 runs) at the second ODI in Mohali, making him the only cricketer to have struck so many double tons. In fact while Sharma has three double tons, all other players combined have four. Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Chris Gayle and Martin Guptill have hit one double-century each.
Rohit Sharma’s efforts have pushed him up to the No 5 spot in the International Cricket Council (ICC) ODI player rankings. The No 1 ODI batsman is also Indian-Virat Kohli. Kohli is also the top T20 batsman and the #2 test cricket batsman.
SPACE// Is there life in space outside planet Earth? This question has challenged scientists for a long time and the United States government thought the question was important enough to spend 22 million US dollars on a secret programme that studied reports of Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs).
The programme was run between 2007 and 2012. Although no reports have been published on what it found, it appears that people who ran the programme investigated UFO sightings. This included aircraft that seemed to move at very high speed with no visible signs of propulsion (the force that moves an object forward), or that hovered (hung in air) with no apparent means of lift. US newspapers also reported that officials also studied videos of encounters between unknown objects and American military aircraft-including one of a whitish oval object, about the size of a regular plane, that was chased by two fighter jets off US west coast in 2004. While it remains unclear what these objects were, and it is not known if the US government was able to confirm if they were UFOs, the news about the secret programme has revived attention and interest in the search for life (and aliens) in outer space.
TRAGEDY// Fourteen people lost their lives and 21 others were badly injured in a major fire that broke out in a building in Mumbai’s Kamala Mills Compound. The blaze, reported around 12.30 a.m. from a rooftop restaurant on December 29 in The Kamla Trade House, quickly spread to another pub and a restaurant in the vicinity. With over 36 restaurants, many shopping destinations and corporate offices packed in congested space, the compound is a highly vulnerable towards such tragedies. More than 12 fire tenders were rushed to fight the blaze which was brought under control around 6.30 a.m. Police have booked Hratesh Sanghvi, Jigar Sanghvi and Abhijeet Manka of C Grade Hospitality, which manages the pub, along with others, under various charges including cuplable homicide not amounting to murder.
SPACE// India is all set to send up a moon lander in 2018, making it only the fourth country in the world to do so. The craft will be launched by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) which has named the project Chandrayaan II.
In 2008, ISRO had sent up India’s first moon mission-Chandrayaan I. Chandrayaan II will be an advanced version of the first mission. But while during the 2008 mission, the space craft only orbited (circled) the moon, this time Chandrayaan II includes a moon lander and a rover. The rover will be able to move on the lunar surface and conduct experiments.
Dr Jitendra Singh, Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space has indicated that the Chandrayaan-2 mission will take place in 2018, mostly in the first quarter of the year. India will be the first country in the last four years to attempt a moon landing. The last nation to successfully land a craft on the moon was China in 2013. Chandrayaan II is expected to be launched in early 2018. Dr Singh said that India has emerged as one of the frontline nations in the field of space technology, and that this was a vindication of the dream of the founders of the Indian space program, including Vikram Sarabhai and Satish Dhawan.
According to the plans by ISRO, the Chandrayaan-2 mission will have a lunar orbiter, a soft lander as well as a semi autonomous rover. To support the increased payload, ISRO is planning to use the GSLV MKII as against its "workhorse" rocket, PSLV used for the maiden Moon mission. The lander, rover and orbiter will perform mineralogical and elemental studies of the lunar surface.
CALAMITY// A severe cyclonic storm named Ockhi hit the southern states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala last month, damaging homes, and taking the lives of fishermen who had ventured into the sea. A massive search and rescue was launched by the Indian Navy, Coast Guard and the Indian Air Force to rescue those lost at sea. Over 350 fishermen have been rescued from sea so far but many others continue to remain missing. Those who were saved have come back with frightening tales of powerful winds and waves taller than a building. Many were found hanging on to their capsized boats when they were finally rescued.
Ockhi is not the most powerful cyclone to hit southern India. In fact it was labeled a ‘very severe cyclonic storm’, which is the third strongest category. However unlike a lot of other cyclones in the region that develop in the Bay of Bengal or Arabian Sea, Cyclone Ockhi developed near the south-western coast of Sri Lanka before travelling towards the southern tip of India. As a result it moved very quickly, leaving little time for storm warnings. The Indian Meteorological Department issued a cyclone warning on Wednesday, November 29. But, by the time warnings went out, it was already too late for fishermen who had set sail. In the rescue operations carried out by the Indian Navy, Indian Coast Guard and the Indian Air Force, 821 fishermen were rescued. Other agencies, including merchant vessels and trawlers, rescued 24 people.
Among the fishermen saved, 453 were from Tamil Nadu, 362 from Kerala and 30 from Lakshadweep and Minicoy islands
A total of 661 fishermen continue to remain missing in the aftermath of cyclone Ockhi, as per the figures available with the Union Government, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman informed Parliament on Wednesday.
In a written reply in the Lok Sabha, the minister said 400 fishermen were missing from Tamil Nadu and 261 from Kerala in the cyclone that struck the coastal districts of Kerala and Tamil Nadu on November 30.
WEIGHTLIFTING// Indian weightlifter Saikhom Mirabai Chanu won India its first gold in 22 years at the weightlifting World Championships held in California, United States last month. Chanu won a gold medal in the women’s 48 kg category.
Chanu defeated the favourite Thunya Sukcharoen of Thailand to win gold. India’s last World Championships winner was Karnam Malleswari in 1994 and 1995.
Chanu hails from the state of Manipur in north-east India. The victory at the World Championships must have tasted all the sweeter to the girl from Manipur who had a terrible run at the Rio Olypics last year, failing to finish in her event. She previously won a silver medal at the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games. Her next goal? “My ultimate target is to win gold at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and I know that I am going to achieve that”, says Chanu.
CALAMITY// Mount Agung on the Indonesian island of Bali looked all set to erupt last month, causing people living around the mountain to flee the area. As the ash cloud grew, airlines cancelled flights to Bali, and thousands of tourists who were visiting Bali were stranded. Last month, the volcano began gushing ash, causing panic on the island. Around 55,000 people living near the mountain were moved to shelters and the airport shut down for three days. All people living within 10 kilometres of the volcano were told to leave the area. Mount Agung last erupted in 1963 and the disaster killed 1100 people. Mount Agung which is 3,000m high, lies in eastern Bali. The volcano lies within the ‘Pacific ring of fire’, an area around the edge of the Pacific Ocean on both Asian and American sides. This area is prone to regular volcanos and earthquakes.
You’ll soon be able to buy a microwave that will chill your beer in minutes. The Frigondas is a fast freezer, a defroster, and a microwave — and it can fit on your countertop. Frigondas, a SpanishKorean company, developed a microwave that can also “blast chill” foods. In other words, it can rapidly freeze fresh foods to preserve their texture, and chill drinks in minutes. It is a new countertop appliance that looks just like a microwave, and even heats food just like a microwave. But if you press a button on the control panel, the Frigondas can cool drinks and flash-freeze fresh food in seconds. The patented kitchen appliance combines a traditional microwave and a blast chiller, a device that’s popular in restaurant kitchens. Professional chefs love blast chillers because they cool food so quickly that water doesn’t evaporate in the process, so food tests fresher when it’s defrosted.
An oven that cooks by ‘listening’ to your food—and it’s amazing. Forget all the other so-called smart ovens—the Miele Dialog may just be how we cook in the future. In addition to traditional baking and convection, the Dialog adds another cooking method: Radio frequency. Much like an ordinary microwave oven, the Dialog uses radio waves to heat up food. But it also monitors how much energy the food absorbs, and responds by adjusting the waves’ frequency, amplitude and phase. Essentially, it both talks and listens to your food— hence the name. As a result, it cooks evenly and quickly.
The technology was first brought into the kitchen by Goji, an Israeli company that partnered with Miele to create the Dialog oven.