30th OCTOBER 2014

Technically, 2018 appears to be the next best time to go for a second Indian Mars trip. An opportunity to go to Mars from Earth comes up every 26 months; the next date, 2016, is believed to be too soon for ISRO and not conducive. The Indian Mars Orbiter Mission of 2013-14 should have a successor, but “it is not an active thought nor is it in the realm of any planning yet,” says S.K. Shivakumar, Director of the ISRO Satellite Centre.

A team of researchers from India and Sri Lanka has discovered seven new species of Golden-backed frogs in the Western Ghats-Sri Lanka global biodiversity hot spot, throwing new light on the highly-distinct and diverse fauna in the two countries.

Champion for girls’ rights Malala Yousafzai, the youngest Nobel Peace Prize laureate in history, won the World’s Children’s Prize on , after a global vote involving millions of children.

Japanese and Indian officials on Wednesday discussed development plans for Varanasi, as part of the sister city agreement between Kyoto and Varanasi signed during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent visit to Japan. Kenichi Ogasawara, Vice Mayor of Kyoto, is in the capital to attend the eighth meeting of the India-Japan Joint Working Group on Urban Development. He met Urban Development Secretary Shankar Aggarwal and is scheduled to visit Varanasi on Thursday. During the meeting, Mr. Agarwal suggested that Kyoto could consider extending cooperation for Varanasi’s development through effective waste management systems.

A new, lighter version of the supersonic cruise missile BrahMos called BrahMos-M (Mini) weighing around 1.5 tonnes is being planned for use by the Navy and the Air Force. “BrahMos Aerospace is currently getting the user requirements to finalise the configuration,” said Sudhir Mishra, CEO and MD of BrahMos Corporation (BA).

India ranked 142 among the 189 countries surveyed for the latest World Bank’s “Ease of Doing Business” report released on Wednesday, a drop by two places from the last year’s ranking, as Singapore topped the list.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has revealed a new drug to stem the global spread of multi-drug resistant (MDR) tuberculosis, but has cautioned that its use must follow a set of guidelines issued by it.

The governments of India and Russia have agreed that BrahMos missile will be exported to a list of mutually agreeable countries for defensive purposes. There is also a negative list to which exports are barred.

GSAT-6, the advanced communication satellite that got ISRO’s arm Antrix Corporation embroiled in a controversy with erstwhile partner Devas Multimedia P Ltd in 2011, is slated for a March 2015 launch. The S-band GSAT-6 satellite with five special transponders for multimedia services is “all done”, integrated and should start thermovacuum tests in late November, according to ISRO Satellite Centre’s Director, S.K.Shivakumar, whose centre readies all Indian spacecraft in Bangalore.

LUSAKA: Zambia's President Michael Sata — nicknamed "King Cobra" for his sharp tongue and manner — has died, officials said on Wednesday, making his vice-president Gary Scott Africa's first white head of state in decades.

Harinder Pal Sandhu and Dipika Pallikal emerged winners in the fourth and final leg of the JSW-PSA men’s Challenger and the JSW-WSA women’s event respectively at the ISA courts, here on Wednesday.