Pak's first female astronaut congratulates ISRO on Chandrayaan-2; says 'giant leap' for South Asia
Karachi: Amidst the Indo-Pak war of words over Kashmir, Pakistan's first female astronaut Namira Salim has congratulated India and ISRO for its Chandrayaan-2 mission, saying the attempt to make a landing on the Moon was itself a "giant leap" for South Asia and as well as for the entire global space industry.
The Indian Space Research Organisation's (ISRO) plan to soft-land the Chandrayaan-2's Vikram module on the lunar surface did not go as per script in the early hours of Saturday, with the lander losing communication with ground stations during its final 2.1-km descent.
Considered as the "most complex" stage of the country's second expedition to the Moon, the lander was on a powered decent for a soft landing when it lost contact.
"I congratulate India and ISRO on its historical attempt to make a successful soft landing of the Vikram lander at the South Pole of the Moon. The Chandrayaan-2 lunar mission is indeed a giant leap for South Asia which not only makes the region but the entire global space industry proud," Salim said in a statement to Karachi-based magazine Scientia.
Salim is the first Pakistani to go to space aboard the Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic. She said the regional developments in the space sector in South Asia are remarkable.
"Regional developments in the Space sector in South Asia are remarkable and no matter which nation leads-in space, all political boundaries dissolve and in space-what unites us, overrides, what divides us on Earth," she said.
Her comments came amid the ongoing war of words between India and Pakistan ever since India withdrew Jammu and Kashmir's special status and bifurcated it into two union territories on August 5.
What was once the club of a select few elite space nations, is now open to all nations at the dawn of our NewSpace age. India is the first country to attempt a historic landing on the South Pole of the Moon and would have been the fourth nation to touch down on the lunar surface after space agencies of the USSR, the USA and China to have operated a rover on the Moon, according to the magazine.
While ISRO failed in making the Vikram module a soft landing on the moon, ISRO chairman K Sivan on Sunday said, "Yes, we have located the lander on the lunar surface. It must have been a hard-landing".
Salim, who is based in Monaco and Dubai, is the founder and executive chairperson of Space Trust, a non-profit initiative.
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Rupee falls 5 paise to 90.22 against US dollar in early trade
Mumbai (PTI): The rupee weakened by 5 paise to 90.22 against the US dollar in early trade on Tuesday, amid a strengthening American currency, higher crude oil prices and incessant outflow of foreign funds.
An unprecedented geopolitical concern and global trade uncertainties have accelerated the dollar demand worldwide, adding strength to the greenback and putting pressure on the Indian currency, analysts said.
At the interbank foreign exchange, the rupee opened at 90.24 and gained slightly to trade at 90.22 against the greenback in early deals, registering a loss of 5 paise from its previous closing level.
On Monday, the rupee ended 1 paisa higher at 90.17 against the US dollar.
Meanwhile, the dollar index, which measures the strength of the greenback against a basket of six currencies, was trading 0.11 per cent higher at 98.73.
Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, was trading 0.28 per cent higher at USD 64.05 per barrel in futures trade.
Foreign institutional investors offloaded equities worth Rs 3,638.40 crore on Monday, according to exchange data.
On the domestic equity market front, the 30-share benchmark index Sensex rose 125.96 points or 0.15 per cent to 84,004.13, while the Nifty advanced 47.25 points or 0.18 per cent to 25,837.50.
Analysts attributed the buying trend in equities to the positive cues triggered by strong domestic macroeconomic numbers.
According to government data released on Monday, India's retail inflation rose to a three-month high of 1.33 per cent in December, mainly due to higher prices of food items, but remained below the Reserve Bank of India's lower tolerance level.
Also, the latest data from the Income Tax Department showed the government's net direct tax collection grew about 8.82 per cent to over Rs 18.38 lakh crore in the current fiscal till January 11 due to slower refunds and better corporate tax mop-up.
Net corporate tax collection grew 12.4 per cent to over Rs 8.63 lakh crore, and taxes from non-corporates, including individuals, rose 6.39 per cent to about Rs 9.30 lakh crore.
