Devendra Fadnavis takes oath as Maharashtra's 27th CM; PM Modi, Uddhav ... - Zee News

Mumbai: Devendra Fadnavis was on Friday sworn-in as Chief Minister of the first BJP government in Maharashtra at a grand ceremony where Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray made a last-minute appearance, raising the possibility of a rapprochement between the saffron parties.

44-year-old Fadnavis, a third time MLA and the second Brahmin to occupy the top post in the state, was administered the oath of office and secrecy by Governor C Vidyasagar Rao at the Wankhede Stadium in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP President Amit Shah, several Union ministers and veterans LK Advani and MM Joshi among others.

Chief Ministers of BJP-ruled states including Vasundhara Raje (Rajasthan), Anandiben Patel (Gujarat), Manohar Parrikar (Goa), Raman Singh (Chhattisgarh) and Manohar Lal Khattar (Haryana) and those governed by allies including Chandrababu Naidu (Andhra Pradesh) and Parkash Singh Badal (Punjab) also attended the event.

Top industrialists along with other eminent personalities, including from Bollywood, and Fadnavis' banker wife Amruta, were present at the packed venue when seven Cabinet Ministers and two Ministers of State also took oath.

Former ally Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray, whose party had decided to boycott the event citing "constant humiliation" by BJP ahead of government formation, attended the event along with his wife after a last-minute call by BJP President Amit Shah.

Thackeray's presence indicated a possible rapprochement between the two estranged Hindutva parties which fell apart just ahead of the Assembly polls following failure of seat sharing talks.

All eyes were on Modi and Uddhav, who shook hands and exchanged pleasantries.

With 121 BJP MLAs in a House of 288, Fadnavis is heading a minority government that has been asked to prove majority in two weeks. Sharad Pawar's NCP with 41 MLAs has already declared unconditional outside support to the new government.

Cabinet Ministers who were sworn in are Eknath Khadse,

Sudhir Mungantiwar, Vinod Tawde, Pankaja Munde -- all members of the BJP's state Core Committee--, Prakash Mehta, Chandrakant Patil and Vishnu Savara. The Ministers of State are Dilip Kamble and Vidya Thakur.

Union Ministers Nitin Gadkari, M Venkaiah Naidu, Ravishanker Prasad, Prakash Javadekar and Radhamohan Singh were present on the occasion.

Fadnavis is only the second Brahmin Chief Minister after Shiv Sena's Manohar Joshi in the state dominated by Maratha politicians.

Groomed in RSS tradition and handpicked by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Fadnavis has become the 27th Chief Minister of Maharashtra and the 18th person to hold the post. He is the fourth politician from Vidarbha region to become CM.

He helmed the BJP in the state when it posted emphatic victories in Lok Sabha and state Assembly polls.

Uddhav Thackeray, who sat beside Union Minister Venkaiah Naidu, remained silent and broody through the proceedings, but was seen smiling, shaking hands and exchanging pleasantries with Modi after the ceremony got over.

"Uddhavji attended the swearing-in of Devendra Fadnavis after BJP president Amit Shah called him up to extend invitation," Sena MP Vinayak Raut said.

"Amit Shah also assured Uddhavji of a positive decision on participation of Shiv Sena in the new government and we are hopeful there will be a positive outcome when talks are held," he said.

It was, however, not yet clear when talks between the two parties will resume to arrive at a mutually acceptable power-sharing arrangement.

Governor Rao has given Fadnavis 15 days from the day of being sworn in to prove his majority in the Assembly.

BJP's strength in the House has come down to 121 after the death of its MLA Govind Rathod, but it has claimed support of all seven independents and some from smaller parties.

NCP has said it will abstain from voting during the floor test if Sena were to sit in the opposition. This will help the Fadnavis government to sail through.

However, taking 63-member Sena on board is still the best option available to Fadnavis to reach the magic figure of 145.

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After a dismal show in the LS election, Akhilesh Yadav trying to revive ... - Economic Times

Jaya Bachchan put it this way: "I know it is difficult being the son of a big man. No matter how hard you try you only get 99%." Her remark, which could apply equally to son Abhishek Bachchan, was meant for Akhilesh Yadav. The Uttar Pradesh chief minister's political acumen and administrative style are constantly compared with that of his father--three-time chief minister and former Union defence minister, Mulayam Singh Yadav.

For a good part of the two and half years that he has been in the post, 41-year-old Akhilesh Yadav has been continually attacked for poor governance and deteriorating law and order. Hemmed in by powerful uncles, not to speak of his father, Yadav has been criticized for an unsteady grip on government with multiple power centres controlling the administration.

But in the last few months, particularly after the Lok Sabha debacle, a more assertive and confident chief minister has emerged, taking control both of the government and the party organization while managing to silence critics and assert his moral authority over party veterans. This was evident at the HCL IT City event on October 15, where Jaya Bachchan made the remark on sons with larger-than-life fathers.

The demeanour of cabinet minister Azam Khan at the event was instructive. Khan has had an uneasy relation with Yadav but he correctly sensed the mood of the crowd, particularly the youth cadres of the Samajwadi Party. The veteran lavished praise on the chief minister for getting the IT City project off the ground. He also made glowing references to his "youthful energy" and "vision".

Yadav began his revamp soon after the BJP swept the state in the general election earlier this year, confining SP to just five of 80 seats. Various reasons were ascribed to this drubbing--minority appeasement, Azam Khan's controversial speeches during the campaign, counter polarization among Hindus. Add to this volatile mix the communal flare-up in Muzaffarnagar and the cocktail was toxic for SP.

Given the result, little was expected to change in September bye-elections to 12 assembly seats and one Lok Sabha seat in the state. But that didn't stop Yadav from taking direct charge of the campaign, handpicking candidates and canvassing on the development plank. He also shut Azam Khan out of the canvassing. Polling took place amid heightened communal polarisation, with the BJP campaigning on 'love jihad' and terrorism to target Muslims and consolidate the Hindu vote.

When it came, the result confounded experts--the Samajwadi Party won nine of the 12 assembly seats and the Lok Sabha seat of Mainpuri, boosting its confidence and cementing Yadav's authority over it.

"When he was made chief minister he was equal to the party veterans. But over the last few months he has consolidated his position and become more assertive. He is now first among the equals," said Sudhir Panwar, Lucknow University professor. Not only did SP win from constituencies that had witnessed communal riots but also from Rohaniya, an assembly segment that's part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Varanasi parliamentary constituency.

Before his resurgence, Yadav's seeming passive nature was held against him. But he didn't see this as a disadvantage as he said in an interview to ET in January: "My politeness is not my weakness. It is a virtue. I am not ignorant and know exactly what is happening around me. It is just that we are taught to respect our elders. But if things go far I will crack the whip."

That's exactly what he seems to be doing--cracking the whip, especially over inaction as part of his development push.

Stern warnings have gone out to senior bureaucrats, many of whom have been transferred for being too lackadaisical. ET was witness to the dressing down of a senior IAS officer in June on the sidelines of an investor summit. The official was soon shifted to an insignificant post. To be sure, the chief minister has been focused on outcomes even prior to this. A party member gave a first-hand account of Yadav reprimanding "a very senior minister from eastern UP considered among the party's think tank.

Within days, in a minor reshuffle of the cabinet, the minister was sidelined to an insignificant portfolio." That Yadav meant business was most apparent in the abrupt removal of Jawed Usmani as state chief secretary at the end of May, just after the general election, primarily over the lack of focus on fast tracking development projects and big-ticket investments.

Usmani had been considered close to his father and had served in the chief minister's office 2003-7 during the tenure of Yadav senior, who had sought him out specifically to serve as chief secretary in his son's government. Be he was seen as too much of a stickler for the rule book and over-cautious.

Yadav has much ground to recover when it comes to law and order, which was regarded as being much better when Mayawati was chief minister. All Samajwadi Party governments have been attacked for being unable to keep a lid on this, perhaps because the police find it difficult to rein in the more unruly elements affiliated to the organisation's leadership.

The junior Yadav was regarded as being different in this respect when he put his foot down against the induction of those with a criminal past such as DP Yadav before the 2012 assembly polls. The government has been unable to check communal riots and violence against women. Some progress has been made--favouritism seems to be on the wane, all important posts aren't being given to Yadavs. Another positive is the Women Powerline, a helpline for women run by the state police.

The Yadav government may have been unlucky, getting flak that it may not have fully deserved. For instance, the alleged rape and murder of two girls who were found hanged from a tree in a Badaun village made global headlines in May with the accused being Yadav youths. Now it appears that the allegations may have been false, although no final report has been filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation. In another instance, the victim of alleged gang rape and forcible conversion in Meerut has made a U-turn and blamed her family members for making false allegations and sensationalizing the issue.

Yadav blames the media for inflaming public opinion without establishing facts and then refusing to acknowledge mistakes. "The media rakes up certain issues without any basis. The opposition is glad to lap up these issues to defame the government. Look at what happened in the Badaun case.

Now the media will not talk about the twist in the case and how they erred in their reportage," Yadav told ET. The government is serious about deliverables and wooing large investments.

"Developmental work, agriculture and industrialization are the only way forward to give better livelihood to people. My eyes are focused on this," he said.

He's looking forward to the next state election in 2017, when projects such as the Lucknow Metro, IT City, various power plants and the Lucknow to Agra expressway will be complete or almost finished. "Hum kaam zyaada kartey hai, par prachar kam ho pata hai. (We do a lot of work but we don't talk about it.) I plan to change this also," he said. For that, he can do no better than take a leaf out of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's book.

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Devendra Fadnavis takes oath as Maharashtra's 27th CM; PM Modi, Uddhav ... - Zee News

Mumbai: Devendra Fadnavis was on Friday sworn-in as Chief Minister of the first BJP government in Maharashtra at a grand ceremony where Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray made a last-minute appearance, raising the possibility of a rapprochement between the saffron parties.

44-year-old Fadnavis, a third time MLA and the second Brahmin to occupy the top post in the state, was administered the oath of office and secrecy by Governor C Vidyasagar Rao at the Wankhede Stadium in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP President Amit Shah, several Union ministers and veterans LK Advani and MM Joshi among others.

Chief Ministers of BJP-ruled states including Vasundhara Raje (Rajasthan), Anandiben Patel (Gujarat), Manohar Parrikar (Goa), Raman Singh (Chhattisgarh) and Manohar Lal Khattar (Haryana) and those governed by allies including Chandrababu Naidu (Andhra Pradesh) and Parkash Singh Badal (Punjab) also attended the event.

Top industrialists along with other eminent personalities, including from Bollywood, and Fadnavis' banker wife Amruta, were present at the packed venue when seven Cabinet Ministers and two Ministers of State also took oath.

Former ally Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray, whose party had decided to boycott the event citing "constant humiliation" by BJP ahead of government formation, attended the event along with his wife after a last-minute call by BJP President Amit Shah.

Thackeray's presence indicated a possible rapprochement between the two estranged Hindutva parties which fell apart just ahead of the Assembly polls following failure of seat sharing talks.

All eyes were on Modi and Uddhav, who shook hands and exchanged pleasantries.

With 121 BJP MLAs in a House of 288, Fadnavis is heading a minority government that has been asked to prove majority in two weeks. Sharad Pawar's NCP with 41 MLAs has already declared unconditional outside support to the new government.

Cabinet Ministers who were sworn in are Eknath Khadse,

Sudhir Mungantiwar, Vinod Tawde, Pankaja Munde -- all members of the BJP's state Core Committee--, Prakash Mehta, Chandrakant Patil and Vishnu Savara. The Ministers of State are Dilip Kamble and Vidya Thakur.

Union Ministers Nitin Gadkari, M Venkaiah Naidu, Ravishanker Prasad, Prakash Javadekar and Radhamohan Singh were present on the occasion.

Fadnavis is only the second Brahmin Chief Minister after Shiv Sena's Manohar Joshi in the state dominated by Maratha politicians.

Groomed in RSS tradition and handpicked by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Fadnavis has become the 27th Chief Minister of Maharashtra and the 18th person to hold the post. He is the fourth politician from Vidarbha region to become CM.

He helmed the BJP in the state when it posted emphatic victories in Lok Sabha and state Assembly polls.

Uddhav Thackeray, who sat beside Union Minister Venkaiah Naidu, remained silent and broody through the proceedings, but was seen smiling, shaking hands and exchanging pleasantries with Modi after the ceremony got over.

"Uddhavji attended the swearing-in of Devendra Fadnavis after BJP president Amit Shah called him up to extend invitation," Sena MP Vinayak Raut said.

"Amit Shah also assured Uddhavji of a positive decision on participation of Shiv Sena in the new government and we are hopeful there will be a positive outcome when talks are held," he said.

It was, however, not yet clear when talks between the two parties will resume to arrive at a mutually acceptable power-sharing arrangement.

Governor Rao has given Fadnavis 15 days from the day of being sworn in to prove his majority in the Assembly.

BJP's strength in the House has come down to 121 after the death of its MLA Govind Rathod, but it has claimed support of all seven independents and some from smaller parties.

NCP has said it will abstain from voting during the floor test if Sena were to sit in the opposition. This will help the Fadnavis government to sail through.

However, taking 63-member Sena on board is still the best option available to Fadnavis to reach the magic figure of 145.

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After a dismal show in the LS election, Akhilesh Yadav trying to revive ... - Economic Times

Jaya Bachchan put it this way: "I know it is difficult being the son of a big man. No matter how hard you try you only get 99%." Her remark, which could apply equally to son Abhishek Bachchan, was meant for Akhilesh Yadav. The Uttar Pradesh chief minister's political acumen and administrative style are constantly compared with that of his father--three-time chief minister and former Union defence minister, Mulayam Singh Yadav.

For a good part of the two and half years that he has been in the post, 41-year-old Akhilesh Yadav has been continually attacked for poor governance and deteriorating law and order. Hemmed in by powerful uncles, not to speak of his father, Yadav has been criticized for an unsteady grip on government with multiple power centres controlling the administration.

But in the last few months, particularly after the Lok Sabha debacle, a more assertive and confident chief minister has emerged, taking control both of the government and the party organization while managing to silence critics and assert his moral authority over party veterans. This was evident at the HCL IT City event on October 15, where Jaya Bachchan made the remark on sons with larger-than-life fathers.

The demeanour of cabinet minister Azam Khan at the event was instructive. Khan has had an uneasy relation with Yadav but he correctly sensed the mood of the crowd, particularly the youth cadres of the Samajwadi Party. The veteran lavished praise on the chief minister for getting the IT City project off the ground. He also made glowing references to his "youthful energy" and "vision".

Yadav began his revamp soon after the BJP swept the state in the general election earlier this year, confining SP to just five of 80 seats. Various reasons were ascribed to this drubbing--minority appeasement, Azam Khan's controversial speeches during the campaign, counter polarization among Hindus. Add to this volatile mix the communal flare-up in Muzaffarnagar and the cocktail was toxic for SP.

Given the result, little was expected to change in September bye-elections to 12 assembly seats and one Lok Sabha seat in the state. But that didn't stop Yadav from taking direct charge of the campaign, handpicking candidates and canvassing on the development plank. He also shut Azam Khan out of the canvassing. Polling took place amid heightened communal polarisation, with the BJP campaigning on 'love jihad' and terrorism to target Muslims and consolidate the Hindu vote.

When it came, the result confounded experts--the Samajwadi Party won nine of the 12 assembly seats and the Lok Sabha seat of Mainpuri, boosting its confidence and cementing Yadav's authority over it.

"When he was made chief minister he was equal to the party veterans. But over the last few months he has consolidated his position and become more assertive. He is now first among the equals," said Sudhir Panwar, Lucknow University professor. Not only did SP win from constituencies that had witnessed communal riots but also from Rohaniya, an assembly segment that's part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Varanasi parliamentary constituency.

Before his resurgence, Yadav's seeming passive nature was held against him. But he didn't see this as a disadvantage as he said in an interview to ET in January: "My politeness is not my weakness. It is a virtue. I am not ignorant and know exactly what is happening around me. It is just that we are taught to respect our elders. But if things go far I will crack the whip."

That's exactly what he seems to be doing--cracking the whip, especially over inaction as part of his development push.

Stern warnings have gone out to senior bureaucrats, many of whom have been transferred for being too lackadaisical. ET was witness to the dressing down of a senior IAS officer in June on the sidelines of an investor summit. The official was soon shifted to an insignificant post. To be sure, the chief minister has been focused on outcomes even prior to this. A party member gave a first-hand account of Yadav reprimanding "a very senior minister from eastern UP considered among the party's think tank.

Within days, in a minor reshuffle of the cabinet, the minister was sidelined to an insignificant portfolio." That Yadav meant business was most apparent in the abrupt removal of Jawed Usmani as state chief secretary at the end of May, just after the general election, primarily over the lack of focus on fast tracking development projects and big-ticket investments.

Usmani had been considered close to his father and had served in the chief minister's office 2003-7 during the tenure of Yadav senior, who had sought him out specifically to serve as chief secretary in his son's government. Be he was seen as too much of a stickler for the rule book and over-cautious.

Yadav has much ground to recover when it comes to law and order, which was regarded as being much better when Mayawati was chief minister. All Samajwadi Party governments have been attacked for being unable to keep a lid on this, perhaps because the police find it difficult to rein in the more unruly elements affiliated to the organisation's leadership.

The junior Yadav was regarded as being different in this respect when he put his foot down against the induction of those with a criminal past such as DP Yadav before the 2012 assembly polls. The government has been unable to check communal riots and violence against women. Some progress has been made--favouritism seems to be on the wane, all important posts aren't being given to Yadavs. Another positive is the Women Powerline, a helpline for women run by the state police.

The Yadav government may have been unlucky, getting flak that it may not have fully deserved. For instance, the alleged rape and murder of two girls who were found hanged from a tree in a Badaun village made global headlines in May with the accused being Yadav youths. Now it appears that the allegations may have been false, although no final report has been filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation. In another instance, the victim of alleged gang rape and forcible conversion in Meerut has made a U-turn and blamed her family members for making false allegations and sensationalizing the issue.

Yadav blames the media for inflaming public opinion without establishing facts and then refusing to acknowledge mistakes. "The media rakes up certain issues without any basis. The opposition is glad to lap up these issues to defame the government. Look at what happened in the Badaun case.

Now the media will not talk about the twist in the case and how they erred in their reportage," Yadav told ET. The government is serious about deliverables and wooing large investments.

"Developmental work, agriculture and industrialization are the only way forward to give better livelihood to people. My eyes are focused on this," he said.

He's looking forward to the next state election in 2017, when projects such as the Lucknow Metro, IT City, various power plants and the Lucknow to Agra expressway will be complete or almost finished. "Hum kaam zyaada kartey hai, par prachar kam ho pata hai. (We do a lot of work but we don't talk about it.) I plan to change this also," he said. For that, he can do no better than take a leaf out of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's book.

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Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo Crashes in New Setback for Commercial ... - New York Times

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Devendra Fadnavis takes oath as Maharashtra's 27th CM; PM Modi, Uddhav ... - Zee News

Mumbai: Devendra Fadnavis was on Friday sworn-in as Chief Minister of the first BJP government in Maharashtra at a grand ceremony where Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray made a last-minute appearance, raising the possibility of a rapprochement between the saffron parties.

44-year-old Fadnavis, a third time MLA and the second Brahmin to occupy the top post in the state, was administered the oath of office and secrecy by Governor C Vidyasagar Rao at the Wankhede Stadium in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP President Amit Shah, several Union ministers and veterans LK Advani and MM Joshi among others.

Chief Ministers of BJP-ruled states including Vasundhara Raje (Rajasthan), Anandiben Patel (Gujarat), Manohar Parrikar (Goa), Raman Singh (Chhattisgarh) and Manohar Lal Khattar (Haryana) and those governed by allies including Chandrababu Naidu (Andhra Pradesh) and Parkash Singh Badal (Punjab) also attended the event.

Top industrialists along with other eminent personalities, including from Bollywood, and Fadnavis' banker wife Amruta, were present at the packed venue when seven Cabinet Ministers and two Ministers of State also took oath.

Former ally Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray, whose party had decided to boycott the event citing "constant humiliation" by BJP ahead of government formation, attended the event along with his wife after a last-minute call by BJP President Amit Shah.

Thackeray's presence indicated a possible rapprochement between the two estranged Hindutva parties which fell apart just ahead of the Assembly polls following failure of seat sharing talks.

All eyes were on Modi and Uddhav, who shook hands and exchanged pleasantries.

With 121 BJP MLAs in a House of 288, Fadnavis is heading a minority government that has been asked to prove majority in two weeks. Sharad Pawar's NCP with 41 MLAs has already declared unconditional outside support to the new government.

Cabinet Ministers who were sworn in are Eknath Khadse,

Sudhir Mungantiwar, Vinod Tawde, Pankaja Munde -- all members of the BJP's state Core Committee--, Prakash Mehta, Chandrakant Patil and Vishnu Savara. The Ministers of State are Dilip Kamble and Vidya Thakur.

Union Ministers Nitin Gadkari, M Venkaiah Naidu, Ravishanker Prasad, Prakash Javadekar and Radhamohan Singh were present on the occasion.

Fadnavis is only the second Brahmin Chief Minister after Shiv Sena's Manohar Joshi in the state dominated by Maratha politicians.

Groomed in RSS tradition and handpicked by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Fadnavis has become the 27th Chief Minister of Maharashtra and the 18th person to hold the post. He is the fourth politician from Vidarbha region to become CM.

He helmed the BJP in the state when it posted emphatic victories in Lok Sabha and state Assembly polls.

Uddhav Thackeray, who sat beside Union Minister Venkaiah Naidu, remained silent and broody through the proceedings, but was seen smiling, shaking hands and exchanging pleasantries with Modi after the ceremony got over.

"Uddhavji attended the swearing-in of Devendra Fadnavis after BJP president Amit Shah called him up to extend invitation," Sena MP Vinayak Raut said.

"Amit Shah also assured Uddhavji of a positive decision on participation of Shiv Sena in the new government and we are hopeful there will be a positive outcome when talks are held," he said.

It was, however, not yet clear when talks between the two parties will resume to arrive at a mutually acceptable power-sharing arrangement.

Governor Rao has given Fadnavis 15 days from the day of being sworn in to prove his majority in the Assembly.

BJP's strength in the House has come down to 121 after the death of its MLA Govind Rathod, but it has claimed support of all seven independents and some from smaller parties.

NCP has said it will abstain from voting during the floor test if Sena were to sit in the opposition. This will help the Fadnavis government to sail through.

However, taking 63-member Sena on board is still the best option available to Fadnavis to reach the magic figure of 145.

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After a dismal show in the LS election, Akhilesh Yadav trying to revive ... - Economic Times

Jaya Bachchan put it this way: "I know it is difficult being the son of a big man. No matter how hard you try you only get 99%." Her remark, which could apply equally to son Abhishek Bachchan, was meant for Akhilesh Yadav. The Uttar Pradesh chief minister's political acumen and administrative style are constantly compared with that of his father--three-time chief minister and former Union defence minister, Mulayam Singh Yadav.

For a good part of the two and half years that he has been in the post, 41-year-old Akhilesh Yadav has been continually attacked for poor governance and deteriorating law and order. Hemmed in by powerful uncles, not to speak of his father, Yadav has been criticized for an unsteady grip on government with multiple power centres controlling the administration.

But in the last few months, particularly after the Lok Sabha debacle, a more assertive and confident chief minister has emerged, taking control both of the government and the party organization while managing to silence critics and assert his moral authority over party veterans. This was evident at the HCL IT City event on October 15, where Jaya Bachchan made the remark on sons with larger-than-life fathers.

The demeanour of cabinet minister Azam Khan at the event was instructive. Khan has had an uneasy relation with Yadav but he correctly sensed the mood of the crowd, particularly the youth cadres of the Samajwadi Party. The veteran lavished praise on the chief minister for getting the IT City project off the ground. He also made glowing references to his "youthful energy" and "vision".

Yadav began his revamp soon after the BJP swept the state in the general election earlier this year, confining SP to just five of 80 seats. Various reasons were ascribed to this drubbing--minority appeasement, Azam Khan's controversial speeches during the campaign, counter polarization among Hindus. Add to this volatile mix the communal flare-up in Muzaffarnagar and the cocktail was toxic for SP.

Given the result, little was expected to change in September bye-elections to 12 assembly seats and one Lok Sabha seat in the state. But that didn't stop Yadav from taking direct charge of the campaign, handpicking candidates and canvassing on the development plank. He also shut Azam Khan out of the canvassing. Polling took place amid heightened communal polarisation, with the BJP campaigning on 'love jihad' and terrorism to target Muslims and consolidate the Hindu vote.

When it came, the result confounded experts--the Samajwadi Party won nine of the 12 assembly seats and the Lok Sabha seat of Mainpuri, boosting its confidence and cementing Yadav's authority over it.

"When he was made chief minister he was equal to the party veterans. But over the last few months he has consolidated his position and become more assertive. He is now first among the equals," said Sudhir Panwar, Lucknow University professor. Not only did SP win from constituencies that had witnessed communal riots but also from Rohaniya, an assembly segment that's part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Varanasi parliamentary constituency.

Before his resurgence, Yadav's seeming passive nature was held against him. But he didn't see this as a disadvantage as he said in an interview to ET in January: "My politeness is not my weakness. It is a virtue. I am not ignorant and know exactly what is happening around me. It is just that we are taught to respect our elders. But if things go far I will crack the whip."

That's exactly what he seems to be doing--cracking the whip, especially over inaction as part of his development push.

Stern warnings have gone out to senior bureaucrats, many of whom have been transferred for being too lackadaisical. ET was witness to the dressing down of a senior IAS officer in June on the sidelines of an investor summit. The official was soon shifted to an insignificant post. To be sure, the chief minister has been focused on outcomes even prior to this. A party member gave a first-hand account of Yadav reprimanding "a very senior minister from eastern UP considered among the party's think tank.

Within days, in a minor reshuffle of the cabinet, the minister was sidelined to an insignificant portfolio." That Yadav meant business was most apparent in the abrupt removal of Jawed Usmani as state chief secretary at the end of May, just after the general election, primarily over the lack of focus on fast tracking development projects and big-ticket investments.

Usmani had been considered close to his father and had served in the chief minister's office 2003-7 during the tenure of Yadav senior, who had sought him out specifically to serve as chief secretary in his son's government. Be he was seen as too much of a stickler for the rule book and over-cautious.

Yadav has much ground to recover when it comes to law and order, which was regarded as being much better when Mayawati was chief minister. All Samajwadi Party governments have been attacked for being unable to keep a lid on this, perhaps because the police find it difficult to rein in the more unruly elements affiliated to the organisation's leadership.

The junior Yadav was regarded as being different in this respect when he put his foot down against the induction of those with a criminal past such as DP Yadav before the 2012 assembly polls. The government has been unable to check communal riots and violence against women. Some progress has been made--favouritism seems to be on the wane, all important posts aren't being given to Yadavs. Another positive is the Women Powerline, a helpline for women run by the state police.

The Yadav government may have been unlucky, getting flak that it may not have fully deserved. For instance, the alleged rape and murder of two girls who were found hanged from a tree in a Badaun village made global headlines in May with the accused being Yadav youths. Now it appears that the allegations may have been false, although no final report has been filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation. In another instance, the victim of alleged gang rape and forcible conversion in Meerut has made a U-turn and blamed her family members for making false allegations and sensationalizing the issue.

Yadav blames the media for inflaming public opinion without establishing facts and then refusing to acknowledge mistakes. "The media rakes up certain issues without any basis. The opposition is glad to lap up these issues to defame the government. Look at what happened in the Badaun case.

Now the media will not talk about the twist in the case and how they erred in their reportage," Yadav told ET. The government is serious about deliverables and wooing large investments.

"Developmental work, agriculture and industrialization are the only way forward to give better livelihood to people. My eyes are focused on this," he said.

He's looking forward to the next state election in 2017, when projects such as the Lucknow Metro, IT City, various power plants and the Lucknow to Agra expressway will be complete or almost finished. "Hum kaam zyaada kartey hai, par prachar kam ho pata hai. (We do a lot of work but we don't talk about it.) I plan to change this also," he said. For that, he can do no better than take a leaf out of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's book.

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Virgin Galactic spaceship test flight ends in fatal crash, one pilot killed - Times of India

MOJAVE, California: A suborbital passenger spaceship being developed by Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic company crashed during a test flight on Friday near the Mojave Air and Space Port in California, killing one pilot and seriously injuring the other, officials said.

The crash of the vehicle, undergoing its first powered test flight since January over the Mojave Desert, 95 miles (150km) north of Los Angeles, came days after another private space company, Orbital Sciences Corp, lost a rocket in an explosion moments after liftoff in Virginia.

The back-to-back accidents dealt a considerable blow to the fledgling commercial space launch industry, which has been taking on more work traditionally done by the US government while expanding for-profit space markets, including tourism.

Television footage of the Virgin Galactic crash site showed wreckage of the spacecraft lying in two large pieces on the ground, and the company said the spacecraft was destroyed. Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood said a debris field was spread over more than a mile.

One spaceship pilot was killed in the crash and his body was found in the wreckage, while the second pilot, who ejected and parachuted to the ground, survived with serious injuries, Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood said. The survivor was found more than a mile from the main wreckage site, he said.

Both crew members were test pilots for Scaled Composites, the Northrop Gruman Corp subsidiary that designed and built the spacecraft for Virgin and lost three other employees in a July 2007 ground test accident during development of the ship's propulsion system.

Friday's crash occurred shortly after the craft, dubbed SpaceShipTwo, separated from the jet airplane that carried it aloft for its high-altitude launch, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

Scaled Composites President Kevin Mickey told a news conference the ill-fated flight was the first using a new rocket fuel formula the company switched to in May. He said that formula "had been proven and tested on the ground" before Friday's test launch.

Stuart Witt, chief executive of the space port, said officials were not ready to "speculate on the cause" of the crash.

(The Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo rocket separates from the carrier aircraft prior to it exploding in the air during a test flight on Friday. AP photo)

The National Transportation Safety Board said it was sending one of its "go-teams" to investigate the accident.

Branson said via Twitter that he was on his way to Mojave following the crash. "Thoughts with all @virgingalactic & Scaled," he tweeted.

Thoughts with all @virgingalactic & Scaled, thanks for all your messages of support. I'm flying to Mojave immediately to be with the team.

— Richard Branson (@richardbranson) October 31, 2014

George Whitesides, chief executive of Virgin Galactic, said he expected Branson to arrive by Saturday morning.

"Space is hard, and today was a tough day. We are going to be supporting the investigation as we figure out what happened today, and we're going to get through it," he told a news conference at the space port.

He added: "We believe we owe it to the folks who were flying these vehicles as well as the folks who have been working so hard on them, to understand this and to move forward, which is what we'll do."

Paying customers must wait

More than 800 people have paid or put down deposits to eventually fly aboard the spaceship, which is hauled to an altitude of about 45,000 feet (13.7kms) and released by Virgin's White Knight Two carrier jet airplane. According to plans, the spaceship then fires its rocket motor to catapult it to about 62 miles (100km) above Earth, giving passengers a view of the planet set against the blackness of space and a few minutes of weightlessness.

(Wreckage from Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo is shown in this still image captured from KNBC video footage from Mojave California.)

The vehicle is based on a prototype, SpaceShipOne, which 10 years ago won the $10 million Ansari X Prize for becoming the first privately developed manned spacecraft to fly in space.

"During the test, the vehicle suffered a serious anomaly resulting in the loss of SpaceShipTwo," Virgin said in a statement just after the crash, adding: "We will work closely with relevant authorities to determine the cause of this accident and provide updates ASAP."

Witt said the first sign of a malfunction came 90 seconds to two minutes after the carrier jet released the spacecraft, which occurred at 10:10am local time.

"There's usually a certain cadence, and you see things occurring, and the thing makes a contrail and the like. Because of the very light cirrus clouds, I was eyes on, but I didn't see any anomaly. In fact it was when I wasn't hearing anything that I became concerned. And I looked over at my colleague, and then there was a radio call, something about a chute."

The crash was the second accident this week involving a commercial US space company. On Tuesday, an Antares rocket built and launched by Orbital Sciences exploded 15 seconds after liftoff from Wallops Island, Virginia, destroying a cargo ship bound for the International Space Station.

Friday's crash marked a major setback for Virgin Galactic, a US offshoot of billionaire Branson's London-based Virgin Group. The company was aiming to make the world's first commercial suborbital space flights with SpaceShipTwo, a six-passenger, two-pilot spacecraft.

(Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo flies over the Mojave desert in California, on April 29, 2013 shortly before successfully completing a test flight that broke the sound barrier. Reuters photo)

The launch was to have been the first in a series of test flights leading up to Virgin Galactic's maiden flight beyond Earth's atmosphere.

Virgin ultimately was planning to add four more suborbital spacecraft to its fleet, along with a second White Knight carrier jet. Plans call for the fleet to fly out of a new commercial space port in Las Cruces, New Mexico, once the company completes all test flights and is certified for passenger service to begin.

Virgin Galactic's Whitesides told a Toronto space conference earlier this month that a second spacecraft was already under construction and about 60 percent complete.

Other companies developing passenger suborbital spacecraft include privately owned XCOR Aerospace, which is building a two-person space plane called Lynx, and Blue Origin, a startup space company owned by Amazon.com Inc founder Jeff Bezos.

Virgin Galactic also plans to use its White Knight Two carrier jets to launch small satellites and payloads into orbit.

http://ift.tt/1p3Cz7G Galactic spaceship test flight,Virgin Galactic spaceship,Richard Branson

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After a dismal show in the LS election, Akhilesh Yadav trying to revive ... - Economic Times

Jaya Bachchan put it this way: "I know it is difficult being the son of a big man. No matter how hard you try you only get 99%." Her remark, which could apply equally to son Abhishek Bachchan, was meant for Akhilesh Yadav. The Uttar Pradesh chief minister's political acumen and administrative style are constantly compared with that of his father--three-time chief minister and former Union defence minister, Mulayam Singh Yadav.

For a good part of the two and half years that he has been in the post, 41-year-old Akhilesh Yadav has been continually attacked for poor governance and deteriorating law and order. Hemmed in by powerful uncles, not to speak of his father, Yadav has been criticized for an unsteady grip on government with multiple power centres controlling the administration.

But in the last few months, particularly after the Lok Sabha debacle, a more assertive and confident chief minister has emerged, taking control both of the government and the party organization while managing to silence critics and assert his moral authority over party veterans. This was evident at the HCL IT City event on October 15, where Jaya Bachchan made the remark on sons with larger-than-life fathers.

The demeanour of cabinet minister Azam Khan at the event was instructive. Khan has had an uneasy relation with Yadav but he correctly sensed the mood of the crowd, particularly the youth cadres of the Samajwadi Party. The veteran lavished praise on the chief minister for getting the IT City project off the ground. He also made glowing references to his "youthful energy" and "vision".

Yadav began his revamp soon after the BJP swept the state in the general election earlier this year, confining SP to just five of 80 seats. Various reasons were ascribed to this drubbing--minority appeasement, Azam Khan's controversial speeches during the campaign, counter polarization among Hindus. Add to this volatile mix the communal flare-up in Muzaffarnagar and the cocktail was toxic for SP.

Given the result, little was expected to change in September bye-elections to 12 assembly seats and one Lok Sabha seat in the state. But that didn't stop Yadav from taking direct charge of the campaign, handpicking candidates and canvassing on the development plank. He also shut Azam Khan out of the canvassing. Polling took place amid heightened communal polarisation, with the BJP campaigning on 'love jihad' and terrorism to target Muslims and consolidate the Hindu vote.

When it came, the result confounded experts--the Samajwadi Party won nine of the 12 assembly seats and the Lok Sabha seat of Mainpuri, boosting its confidence and cementing Yadav's authority over it.

"When he was made chief minister he was equal to the party veterans. But over the last few months he has consolidated his position and become more assertive. He is now first among the equals," said Sudhir Panwar, Lucknow University professor. Not only did SP win from constituencies that had witnessed communal riots but also from Rohaniya, an assembly segment that's part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Varanasi parliamentary constituency.

Before his resurgence, Yadav's seeming passive nature was held against him. But he didn't see this as a disadvantage as he said in an interview to ET in January: "My politeness is not my weakness. It is a virtue. I am not ignorant and know exactly what is happening around me. It is just that we are taught to respect our elders. But if things go far I will crack the whip."

That's exactly what he seems to be doing--cracking the whip, especially over inaction as part of his development push.

Stern warnings have gone out to senior bureaucrats, many of whom have been transferred for being too lackadaisical. ET was witness to the dressing down of a senior IAS officer in June on the sidelines of an investor summit. The official was soon shifted to an insignificant post. To be sure, the chief minister has been focused on outcomes even prior to this. A party member gave a first-hand account of Yadav reprimanding "a very senior minister from eastern UP considered among the party's think tank.

Within days, in a minor reshuffle of the cabinet, the minister was sidelined to an insignificant portfolio." That Yadav meant business was most apparent in the abrupt removal of Jawed Usmani as state chief secretary at the end of May, just after the general election, primarily over the lack of focus on fast tracking development projects and big-ticket investments.

Usmani had been considered close to his father and had served in the chief minister's office 2003-7 during the tenure of Yadav senior, who had sought him out specifically to serve as chief secretary in his son's government. Be he was seen as too much of a stickler for the rule book and over-cautious.

Yadav has much ground to recover when it comes to law and order, which was regarded as being much better when Mayawati was chief minister. All Samajwadi Party governments have been attacked for being unable to keep a lid on this, perhaps because the police find it difficult to rein in the more unruly elements affiliated to the organisation's leadership.

The junior Yadav was regarded as being different in this respect when he put his foot down against the induction of those with a criminal past such as DP Yadav before the 2012 assembly polls. The government has been unable to check communal riots and violence against women. Some progress has been made--favouritism seems to be on the wane, all important posts aren't being given to Yadavs. Another positive is the Women Powerline, a helpline for women run by the state police.

The Yadav government may have been unlucky, getting flak that it may not have fully deserved. For instance, the alleged rape and murder of two girls who were found hanged from a tree in a Badaun village made global headlines in May with the accused being Yadav youths. Now it appears that the allegations may have been false, although no final report has been filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation. In another instance, the victim of alleged gang rape and forcible conversion in Meerut has made a U-turn and blamed her family members for making false allegations and sensationalizing the issue.

Yadav blames the media for inflaming public opinion without establishing facts and then refusing to acknowledge mistakes. "The media rakes up certain issues without any basis. The opposition is glad to lap up these issues to defame the government. Look at what happened in the Badaun case.

Now the media will not talk about the twist in the case and how they erred in their reportage," Yadav told ET. The government is serious about deliverables and wooing large investments.

"Developmental work, agriculture and industrialization are the only way forward to give better livelihood to people. My eyes are focused on this," he said.

He's looking forward to the next state election in 2017, when projects such as the Lucknow Metro, IT City, various power plants and the Lucknow to Agra expressway will be complete or almost finished. "Hum kaam zyaada kartey hai, par prachar kam ho pata hai. (We do a lot of work but we don't talk about it.) I plan to change this also," he said. For that, he can do no better than take a leaf out of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's book.

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Virgin Galactic spaceship test flight ends in fatal crash, one pilot killed - Times of India

MOJAVE, California: A suborbital passenger spaceship being developed by Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic company crashed during a test flight on Friday near the Mojave Air and Space Port in California, killing one pilot and seriously injuring the other, officials said.

The crash of the vehicle, undergoing its first powered test flight since January over the Mojave Desert, 95 miles (150km) north of Los Angeles, came days after another private space company, Orbital Sciences Corp, lost a rocket in an explosion moments after liftoff in Virginia.

The back-to-back accidents dealt a considerable blow to the fledgling commercial space launch industry, which has been taking on more work traditionally done by the US government while expanding for-profit space markets, including tourism.

Television footage of the Virgin Galactic crash site showed wreckage of the spacecraft lying in two large pieces on the ground, and the company said the spacecraft was destroyed. Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood said a debris field was spread over more than a mile.

One spaceship pilot was killed in the crash and his body was found in the wreckage, while the second pilot, who ejected and parachuted to the ground, survived with serious injuries, Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood said. The survivor was found more than a mile from the main wreckage site, he said.

Both crew members were test pilots for Scaled Composites, the Northrop Gruman Corp subsidiary that designed and built the spacecraft for Virgin and lost three other employees in a July 2007 ground test accident during development of the ship's propulsion system.

Friday's crash occurred shortly after the craft, dubbed SpaceShipTwo, separated from the jet airplane that carried it aloft for its high-altitude launch, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

Scaled Composites President Kevin Mickey told a news conference the ill-fated flight was the first using a new rocket fuel formula the company switched to in May. He said that formula "had been proven and tested on the ground" before Friday's test launch.

Stuart Witt, chief executive of the space port, said officials were not ready to "speculate on the cause" of the crash.

(The Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo rocket separates from the carrier aircraft prior to it exploding in the air during a test flight on Friday. AP photo)

The National Transportation Safety Board said it was sending one of its "go-teams" to investigate the accident.

Branson said via Twitter that he was on his way to Mojave following the crash. "Thoughts with all @virgingalactic & Scaled," he tweeted.

Thoughts with all @virgingalactic & Scaled, thanks for all your messages of support. I'm flying to Mojave immediately to be with the team.

— Richard Branson (@richardbranson) October 31, 2014

George Whitesides, chief executive of Virgin Galactic, said he expected Branson to arrive by Saturday morning.

"Space is hard, and today was a tough day. We are going to be supporting the investigation as we figure out what happened today, and we're going to get through it," he told a news conference at the space port.

He added: "We believe we owe it to the folks who were flying these vehicles as well as the folks who have been working so hard on them, to understand this and to move forward, which is what we'll do."

Paying customers must wait

More than 800 people have paid or put down deposits to eventually fly aboard the spaceship, which is hauled to an altitude of about 45,000 feet (13.7kms) and released by Virgin's White Knight Two carrier jet airplane. According to plans, the spaceship then fires its rocket motor to catapult it to about 62 miles (100km) above Earth, giving passengers a view of the planet set against the blackness of space and a few minutes of weightlessness.

(Wreckage from Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo is shown in this still image captured from KNBC video footage from Mojave California.)

The vehicle is based on a prototype, SpaceShipOne, which 10 years ago won the $10 million Ansari X Prize for becoming the first privately developed manned spacecraft to fly in space.

"During the test, the vehicle suffered a serious anomaly resulting in the loss of SpaceShipTwo," Virgin said in a statement just after the crash, adding: "We will work closely with relevant authorities to determine the cause of this accident and provide updates ASAP."

Witt said the first sign of a malfunction came 90 seconds to two minutes after the carrier jet released the spacecraft, which occurred at 10:10am local time.

"There's usually a certain cadence, and you see things occurring, and the thing makes a contrail and the like. Because of the very light cirrus clouds, I was eyes on, but I didn't see any anomaly. In fact it was when I wasn't hearing anything that I became concerned. And I looked over at my colleague, and then there was a radio call, something about a chute."

The crash was the second accident this week involving a commercial US space company. On Tuesday, an Antares rocket built and launched by Orbital Sciences exploded 15 seconds after liftoff from Wallops Island, Virginia, destroying a cargo ship bound for the International Space Station.

Friday's crash marked a major setback for Virgin Galactic, a US offshoot of billionaire Branson's London-based Virgin Group. The company was aiming to make the world's first commercial suborbital space flights with SpaceShipTwo, a six-passenger, two-pilot spacecraft.

(Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo flies over the Mojave desert in California, on April 29, 2013 shortly before successfully completing a test flight that broke the sound barrier. Reuters photo)

The launch was to have been the first in a series of test flights leading up to Virgin Galactic's maiden flight beyond Earth's atmosphere.

Virgin ultimately was planning to add four more suborbital spacecraft to its fleet, along with a second White Knight carrier jet. Plans call for the fleet to fly out of a new commercial space port in Las Cruces, New Mexico, once the company completes all test flights and is certified for passenger service to begin.

Virgin Galactic's Whitesides told a Toronto space conference earlier this month that a second spacecraft was already under construction and about 60 percent complete.

Other companies developing passenger suborbital spacecraft include privately owned XCOR Aerospace, which is building a two-person space plane called Lynx, and Blue Origin, a startup space company owned by Amazon.com Inc founder Jeff Bezos.

Virgin Galactic also plans to use its White Knight Two carrier jets to launch small satellites and payloads into orbit.

http://ift.tt/1p3Cz7G Galactic spaceship test flight,Virgin Galactic spaceship,Richard Branson

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After a dismal show in the LS election, Akhilesh Yadav trying to revive ... - Economic Times

Jaya Bachchan put it this way: "I know it is difficult being the son of a big man. No matter how hard you try you only get 99%." Her remark, which could apply equally to son Abhishek Bachchan, was meant for Akhilesh Yadav. The Uttar Pradesh chief minister's political acumen and administrative style are constantly compared with that of his father--three-time chief minister and former Union defence minister, Mulayam Singh Yadav.

For a good part of the two and half years that he has been in the post, 41-year-old Akhilesh Yadav has been continually attacked for poor governance and deteriorating law and order. Hemmed in by powerful uncles, not to speak of his father, Yadav has been criticized for an unsteady grip on government with multiple power centres controlling the administration.

But in the last few months, particularly after the Lok Sabha debacle, a more assertive and confident chief minister has emerged, taking control both of the government and the party organization while managing to silence critics and assert his moral authority over party veterans. This was evident at the HCL IT City event on October 15, where Jaya Bachchan made the remark on sons with larger-than-life fathers.

The demeanour of cabinet minister Azam Khan at the event was instructive. Khan has had an uneasy relation with Yadav but he correctly sensed the mood of the crowd, particularly the youth cadres of the Samajwadi Party. The veteran lavished praise on the chief minister for getting the IT City project off the ground. He also made glowing references to his "youthful energy" and "vision".

Yadav began his revamp soon after the BJP swept the state in the general election earlier this year, confining SP to just five of 80 seats. Various reasons were ascribed to this drubbing--minority appeasement, Azam Khan's controversial speeches during the campaign, counter polarization among Hindus. Add to this volatile mix the communal flare-up in Muzaffarnagar and the cocktail was toxic for SP.

Given the result, little was expected to change in September bye-elections to 12 assembly seats and one Lok Sabha seat in the state. But that didn't stop Yadav from taking direct charge of the campaign, handpicking candidates and canvassing on the development plank. He also shut Azam Khan out of the canvassing. Polling took place amid heightened communal polarisation, with the BJP campaigning on 'love jihad' and terrorism to target Muslims and consolidate the Hindu vote.

When it came, the result confounded experts--the Samajwadi Party won nine of the 12 assembly seats and the Lok Sabha seat of Mainpuri, boosting its confidence and cementing Yadav's authority over it.

"When he was made chief minister he was equal to the party veterans. But over the last few months he has consolidated his position and become more assertive. He is now first among the equals," said Sudhir Panwar, Lucknow University professor. Not only did SP win from constituencies that had witnessed communal riots but also from Rohaniya, an assembly segment that's part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Varanasi parliamentary constituency.

Before his resurgence, Yadav's seeming passive nature was held against him. But he didn't see this as a disadvantage as he said in an interview to ET in January: "My politeness is not my weakness. It is a virtue. I am not ignorant and know exactly what is happening around me. It is just that we are taught to respect our elders. But if things go far I will crack the whip."

That's exactly what he seems to be doing--cracking the whip, especially over inaction as part of his development push.

Stern warnings have gone out to senior bureaucrats, many of whom have been transferred for being too lackadaisical. ET was witness to the dressing down of a senior IAS officer in June on the sidelines of an investor summit. The official was soon shifted to an insignificant post. To be sure, the chief minister has been focused on outcomes even prior to this. A party member gave a first-hand account of Yadav reprimanding "a very senior minister from eastern UP considered among the party's think tank.

Within days, in a minor reshuffle of the cabinet, the minister was sidelined to an insignificant portfolio." That Yadav meant business was most apparent in the abrupt removal of Jawed Usmani as state chief secretary at the end of May, just after the general election, primarily over the lack of focus on fast tracking development projects and big-ticket investments.

Usmani had been considered close to his father and had served in the chief minister's office 2003-7 during the tenure of Yadav senior, who had sought him out specifically to serve as chief secretary in his son's government. Be he was seen as too much of a stickler for the rule book and over-cautious.

Yadav has much ground to recover when it comes to law and order, which was regarded as being much better when Mayawati was chief minister. All Samajwadi Party governments have been attacked for being unable to keep a lid on this, perhaps because the police find it difficult to rein in the more unruly elements affiliated to the organisation's leadership.

The junior Yadav was regarded as being different in this respect when he put his foot down against the induction of those with a criminal past such as DP Yadav before the 2012 assembly polls. The government has been unable to check communal riots and violence against women. Some progress has been made--favouritism seems to be on the wane, all important posts aren't being given to Yadavs. Another positive is the Women Powerline, a helpline for women run by the state police.

The Yadav government may have been unlucky, getting flak that it may not have fully deserved. For instance, the alleged rape and murder of two girls who were found hanged from a tree in a Badaun village made global headlines in May with the accused being Yadav youths. Now it appears that the allegations may have been false, although no final report has been filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation. In another instance, the victim of alleged gang rape and forcible conversion in Meerut has made a U-turn and blamed her family members for making false allegations and sensationalizing the issue.

Yadav blames the media for inflaming public opinion without establishing facts and then refusing to acknowledge mistakes. "The media rakes up certain issues without any basis. The opposition is glad to lap up these issues to defame the government. Look at what happened in the Badaun case.

Now the media will not talk about the twist in the case and how they erred in their reportage," Yadav told ET. The government is serious about deliverables and wooing large investments.

"Developmental work, agriculture and industrialization are the only way forward to give better livelihood to people. My eyes are focused on this," he said.

He's looking forward to the next state election in 2017, when projects such as the Lucknow Metro, IT City, various power plants and the Lucknow to Agra expressway will be complete or almost finished. "Hum kaam zyaada kartey hai, par prachar kam ho pata hai. (We do a lot of work but we don't talk about it.) I plan to change this also," he said. For that, he can do no better than take a leaf out of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's book.

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Virgin Galactic spaceship test flight ends in fatal crash, one pilot killed - Times of India

MOJAVE, California: A suborbital passenger spaceship being developed by Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic company crashed during a test flight on Friday near the Mojave Air and Space Port in California, killing one pilot and seriously injuring the other, officials said.

The crash of the vehicle, undergoing its first powered test flight since January over the Mojave Desert, 95 miles (150km) north of Los Angeles, came days after another private space company, Orbital Sciences Corp, lost a rocket in an explosion moments after liftoff in Virginia.

The back-to-back accidents dealt a considerable blow to the fledgling commercial space launch industry, which has been taking on more work traditionally done by the US government while expanding for-profit space markets, including tourism.

Television footage of the Virgin Galactic crash site showed wreckage of the spacecraft lying in two large pieces on the ground, and the company said the spacecraft was destroyed. Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood said a debris field was spread over more than a mile.

One spaceship pilot was killed in the crash and his body was found in the wreckage, while the second pilot, who ejected and parachuted to the ground, survived with serious injuries, Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood said. The survivor was found more than a mile from the main wreckage site, he said.

Both crew members were test pilots for Scaled Composites, the Northrop Gruman Corp subsidiary that designed and built the spacecraft for Virgin and lost three other employees in a July 2007 ground test accident during development of the ship's propulsion system.

Friday's crash occurred shortly after the craft, dubbed SpaceShipTwo, separated from the jet airplane that carried it aloft for its high-altitude launch, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

Scaled Composites President Kevin Mickey told a news conference the ill-fated flight was the first using a new rocket fuel formula the company switched to in May. He said that formula "had been proven and tested on the ground" before Friday's test launch.

Stuart Witt, chief executive of the space port, said officials were not ready to "speculate on the cause" of the crash.

(The Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo rocket separates from the carrier aircraft prior to it exploding in the air during a test flight on Friday. AP photo)

The National Transportation Safety Board said it was sending one of its "go-teams" to investigate the accident.

Branson said via Twitter that he was on his way to Mojave following the crash. "Thoughts with all @virgingalactic & Scaled," he tweeted.

Thoughts with all @virgingalactic & Scaled, thanks for all your messages of support. I'm flying to Mojave immediately to be with the team.

— Richard Branson (@richardbranson) October 31, 2014

George Whitesides, chief executive of Virgin Galactic, said he expected Branson to arrive by Saturday morning.

"Space is hard, and today was a tough day. We are going to be supporting the investigation as we figure out what happened today, and we're going to get through it," he told a news conference at the space port.

He added: "We believe we owe it to the folks who were flying these vehicles as well as the folks who have been working so hard on them, to understand this and to move forward, which is what we'll do."

Paying customers must wait

More than 800 people have paid or put down deposits to eventually fly aboard the spaceship, which is hauled to an altitude of about 45,000 feet (13.7kms) and released by Virgin's White Knight Two carrier jet airplane. According to plans, the spaceship then fires its rocket motor to catapult it to about 62 miles (100km) above Earth, giving passengers a view of the planet set against the blackness of space and a few minutes of weightlessness.

(Wreckage from Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo is shown in this still image captured from KNBC video footage from Mojave California.)

The vehicle is based on a prototype, SpaceShipOne, which 10 years ago won the $10 million Ansari X Prize for becoming the first privately developed manned spacecraft to fly in space.

"During the test, the vehicle suffered a serious anomaly resulting in the loss of SpaceShipTwo," Virgin said in a statement just after the crash, adding: "We will work closely with relevant authorities to determine the cause of this accident and provide updates ASAP."

Witt said the first sign of a malfunction came 90 seconds to two minutes after the carrier jet released the spacecraft, which occurred at 10:10am local time.

"There's usually a certain cadence, and you see things occurring, and the thing makes a contrail and the like. Because of the very light cirrus clouds, I was eyes on, but I didn't see any anomaly. In fact it was when I wasn't hearing anything that I became concerned. And I looked over at my colleague, and then there was a radio call, something about a chute."

The crash was the second accident this week involving a commercial US space company. On Tuesday, an Antares rocket built and launched by Orbital Sciences exploded 15 seconds after liftoff from Wallops Island, Virginia, destroying a cargo ship bound for the International Space Station.

Friday's crash marked a major setback for Virgin Galactic, a US offshoot of billionaire Branson's London-based Virgin Group. The company was aiming to make the world's first commercial suborbital space flights with SpaceShipTwo, a six-passenger, two-pilot spacecraft.

(Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo flies over the Mojave desert in California, on April 29, 2013 shortly before successfully completing a test flight that broke the sound barrier. Reuters photo)

The launch was to have been the first in a series of test flights leading up to Virgin Galactic's maiden flight beyond Earth's atmosphere.

Virgin ultimately was planning to add four more suborbital spacecraft to its fleet, along with a second White Knight carrier jet. Plans call for the fleet to fly out of a new commercial space port in Las Cruces, New Mexico, once the company completes all test flights and is certified for passenger service to begin.

Virgin Galactic's Whitesides told a Toronto space conference earlier this month that a second spacecraft was already under construction and about 60 percent complete.

Other companies developing passenger suborbital spacecraft include privately owned XCOR Aerospace, which is building a two-person space plane called Lynx, and Blue Origin, a startup space company owned by Amazon.com Inc founder Jeff Bezos.

Virgin Galactic also plans to use its White Knight Two carrier jets to launch small satellites and payloads into orbit.

http://ift.tt/1p3Cz7G Galactic spaceship test flight,Virgin Galactic spaceship,Richard Branson

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Test flight of Virgin Galactic spaceship ends in fatal crash in California - Reuters

(Reuters) - A passenger spaceship being developed by Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic company crashed during a test flight on Friday near the Mojave Air and Space Port in California, killing one pilot and seriously injuring the other, officials said.

The crash of the suborbital vehicle, undergoing its first powered test flight since January over the Mojave Desert, 95 miles (150 km) north of Los Angeles, came days after another private space company, Orbital Sciences Corp, lost a rocket in an explosion moments after liftoff in Virginia.

The back-to-back accidents dealt a blow to the fledgling commercial space launch industry, which has been taking on more work traditionally done by the U.S. government while expanding for-profit space markets, including tourism.

Television footage of the Virgin Galactic crash site showed wreckage of the spacecraft lying in two large pieces on the ground, and the company said the spacecraft was destroyed. Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood said a debris field was spread over more than a mile.

One pilot was killed in the crash and his body was found in the wreckage, while the second pilot, who ejected and parachuted to the ground, survived with serious injuries, Youngblood said. The survivor was found more than a mile from the main wreckage, he said.

Both crew members were test pilots for Scaled Composites, the Northrop Grumman Corp subsidiary that designed and built the spacecraft for Virgin and lost three other employees in a July 2007 ground test accident.

Friday's crash occurred shortly after the craft, dubbed SpaceShipTwo, separated from the jet airplane that carried it aloft for its high-altitude launch, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

Scaled Composites President Kevin Mickey told a news conference the ill-fated flight was the first using a new rocket fuel formula the company switched to in May. He said that formula "had been proven and tested on the ground" before Friday's test launch.

Stuart Witt, chief executive of the space port, recounted observing what appeared to be the plume from the initial firing of the spacecraft's rocket as it was released from the mothership, an indication that engine ignition had been achieved. But he said officials were not ready to speculate on the cause of the accident.

The National Transportation Safety Board said it was sending one of its "go-teams" to investigate.

Branson said via Twitter that he was on his way to Mojave following the crash. "Thoughts with all @virgingalactic & Scaled," he tweeted. George Whitesides, chief executive of Virgin Galactic, said he expected Branson to arrive on Saturday.

"Space is hard, and today was a tough day. We are going to be supporting the investigation as we figure out what happened today, and we’re going to get through it," he told a news conference at the space port.

PAYING CUSTOMERS MUST WAIT

More than 800 people have paid or put down deposits to eventually fly aboard the spaceship, which is hauled to an altitude of about 45,000 feet (13.7 kms) and released by Virgin's White Knight Two carrier jet airplane.

Cost of a ride on the ship now goes for $250,000 and among those who have signed up are celebrities including singer Lady Gaga and actors Angelina Jolie and Ashton Kutcher.

According to plans, the spaceship then fires its rocket motor to catapult it to about 62 miles (100 km) above Earth, giving passengers a view of the planet set against the blackness of space and a few minutes of weightlessness.

The vehicle is based on a prototype, SpaceShipOne, which 10 years ago won the $10 million Ansari X Prize for becoming the first privately developed manned spacecraft to fly in space.

"During the test, the vehicle suffered a serious anomaly resulting in the loss of SpaceShipTwo," Virgin said in a statement just after the crash.

Witt said the first sign of a malfunction came 90 seconds to two minutes after the carrier jet released the spacecraft, which occurred at 10:10 a.m. local time.

"There's usually a certain cadence, and you see things occurring, and the thing makes a contrail and the like. Because of the very light cirrus clouds, I was eyes on, but I didn't see any anomaly. In fact it was when I wasn't hearing anything that I became concerned. And I looked over at my colleague, and then there was a radio call, something about a chute."

The crash was the second accident this week involving a commercial U.S. space company. On Tuesday, an Antares rocket built and launched by Orbital Sciences exploded after liftoff from Wallops Island, Virginia, destroying a cargo ship bound for the International Space Station.

Friday's crash marked a major setback for Virgin Galactic, a U.S. offshoot of billionaire Branson's London-based Virgin Group. The company was aiming to make the world's first commercial suborbital space flights with SpaceShipTwo, a six-passenger, two-pilot spacecraft.

The launch, which was controlled from the Mojave Air and Space Port, was to have been the first in a series of test flights leading up to Virgin Galactic's maiden flight beyond Earth's atmosphere.

Virgin ultimately was planning to add four more suborbital spacecraft to its fleet, along with a second White Knight carrier jet. Plans call for the fleet to fly out of a new space port in Las Cruces, New Mexico, once the company completes all test flights and is certified for passenger service to begin.

Virgin Galactic's Whitesides told a Toronto space conference earlier this month that a second spacecraft was already under construction and about 60 percent complete.

Other companies developing passenger suborbital spacecraft include privately owned XCOR Aerospace, which is building a two-person space plane called Lynx, and Blue Origin, a startup space company owned by Amazon.com Inc founder Jeff Bezos.

(Reporting Dan Whitcomb in Los Angeles; Additional reporting by Irene Klotz from Cape Canaveral, Florida; Writing and additional reporting in Los Angeles by Steve Gorman; Editing by James Dalgleish and Ken Wills)

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Azam's wife, Chandrashekhar son among SP RS nominees - Times of India

Lucknow: Senior minister Azam Khan's wife Tazeen Fatima was a surprising inclusion to the Samajwadi Party's list of nominees for the upper house. Among the remaining five, there are four former Lok Sabha MPs who lost this time and national general secretary Ram Gopal Yadav, whose RS terms expires this month. By evening, however, Fatima said that SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav should select a more competent person than her.

The parliamentary board of the party met on Friday to decide the names after which Ram Gopal released the list to the media, setting wild speculations about the candidates to the rest. Apart from Ram Gopal and Fatima, other candidates are Ravi Prakash Verma (Kheri), Neeraj Shekhar (Ballia), Javed Ali Khan (Sambhal) and Chandrapal Singh (Jhansi). Given SP's strength in assembly all are certain to win.

In a small twist in the tale later, Fatima, while profusely thanking the SP chief for his 'generosity', said that she would be happy if "someone more deserving" was nominated to the Rajya Sabha in her place. Though both Fatima and Azam Khan remained unavailable for comment, Khan's office said Fatima, a former professor of political science at Badaun University, had written to SP chief Yadav saying she was grateful for the faith he had placed in her.

She said: "Mere sthan par yadi koi haqdar chhoot raha hai to use mauka dene ki kripa karein. Mujhe tatha mere pariwar ko netaji ka nirnay saharsh qabool hoga." (If there is a more deserving candidate who has been overlooked in my favour, (s)he may be nominated in my place. However, Netaji's final decision is this regard will be acceptable to my family and me.)

Political observers saw Fatima's announcement as an effort by the Rampur family to distance itself from accusation of furthering dynastic politics. By taking the high moral ground against her nomination and appearing to turn down the offer, Fatima sent out the message that she was opposed to dynastic politics. However, by leaving the final decision in Mulayam's hand, she's also left enough elbow room for her eventual, and nearly certain entry, into the house of elders. Earlier also she turned down an offer to be chairperson of the UP Higher Education Service Commission.

Apart from Fatima's candidature, the SP leadership also decided to send only party loyalists to the upper house. Neeraj Shekhar, the son of former prime minister Chandra Shekhar, who is also Ballia MLA was nominated for the RS. The party also nominated Javed Ali Khan, who contested the Lok Sabha poll from Sambhal and Ravi Prakash Verma, the three-time MP from Kheri who has been losing the seat for the past two times. The other nominee was Chandrapal Yadav, who won from Jhansi in 2004 but lost the seat Pradeep Aditya Jain in 2009 and Uma Bharati in 2014.

SP to contest 50

seats in Jharkhand

The Samajwadi Party parliamentary board decided on Friday to contest a maximum of 50 assembly seats in the upcoming Jharkhand assembly elections. The party also decided against entering into a pre-poll alliance with the Janata Dal (United) to contest the assembly polls. A total of 81 assembly seats in Jharkhand go to polls in November. Senior leaders in the party hinted, however, that relations with the JD(U) remain cordial and that a post-poll alliance cannot be ruled out.

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Test flight of Virgin Galactic spaceship ends in fatal crash in California - Reuters

(Reuters) - A passenger spaceship being developed by Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic company crashed during a test flight on Friday near the Mojave Air and Space Port in California, killing one pilot and seriously injuring the other, officials said.

The crash of the suborbital vehicle, undergoing its first powered test flight since January over the Mojave Desert, 95 miles (150 km) north of Los Angeles, came days after another private space company, Orbital Sciences Corp, lost a rocket in an explosion moments after liftoff in Virginia.

The back-to-back accidents dealt a considerable blow to the fledgling commercial space launch industry, which has been taking on more work traditionally done by the U.S. government while expanding for-profit space markets, including tourism.

Television footage of the Virgin Galactic crash site showed wreckage of the spacecraft lying in two large pieces on the ground, and the company said the spacecraft was destroyed. Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood said a debris field was spread over more than a mile.

One spaceship pilot was killed in the crash and his body was found in the wreckage, while the second pilot, who ejected and parachuted to the ground, survived with serious injuries, Youngblood said. The survivor was found more than a mile from the wreckage of the fuselage, he said.

Both crew members were test pilots for Scaled Composites, the Northrop Gruman Corp subsidiary that designed and built the spacecraft for Virgin and lost three other employees in a July 2007 ground test accident during development of the ship's propulsion system.

Friday's crash occurred shortly after the craft, dubbed SpaceShipTwo, separated from the jet airplane that carried it aloft for its high-altitude launch, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

Scaled Composites President Kevin Mickey told a news conference the ill-fated flight was the first using a new rocket fuel formula the company switched to in May. He said that formula "had been proven and tested on the ground" before Friday's test launch.

Stuart Witt, chief executive of the space port, recounted observing what appeared to be the plume from the initial firing of the spacecraft's rocket as it was released from the mothership, an indication that engine ignition had been achieved. But he said officials were not ready to "speculate on the cause" of what went wrong afterward.

The National Transportation Safety Board said it was sending one of its "go-teams" to investigate the accident.

Branson said via Twitter that he was on his way to Mojave following the crash. "Thoughts with all @virgingalactic & Scaled," he tweeted.

George Whitesides, chief executive of Virgin Galactic, said he expected Branson to arrive by Saturday morning.

"Space is hard, and today was a tough day. We are going to be supporting the investigation as we figure out what happened today, and we’re going to get through it," he told a news conference at the space port.

He added: "We believe we owe it to the folks who were flying these vehicles as well as the folks who have been working so hard on them, to understand this and to move forward, which is what we’ll do."

PAYING CUSTOMERS MUST WAIT

More than 800 people have paid or put down deposits to eventually fly aboard the spaceship, which is hauled to an altitude of about 45,000 feet (13.7 kms) and released by Virgin's White Knight Two carrier jet airplane. According to plans, the spaceship then fires its rocket motor to catapult it to about 62 miles (100 km) above Earth, giving passengers a view of the planet set against the blackness of space and a few minutes of weightlessness.

The vehicle is based on a prototype, SpaceShipOne, which 10 years ago won the $10 million Ansari X Prize for becoming the first privately developed manned spacecraft to fly in space.

"During the test, the vehicle suffered a serious anomaly resulting in the loss of SpaceShipTwo," Virgin said in a statement just after the crash, adding: "We will work closely with relevant authorities to determine the cause of this accident and provide updates ASAP."

Witt said the first sign of a malfunction came 90 seconds to two minutes after the carrier jet released the spacecraft, which occurred at 10:10 a.m. local time.

"There's usually a certain cadence, and you see things occurring, and the thing makes a contrail and the like. Because of the very light cirrus clouds, I was eyes on, but I didn't see any anomaly. In fact it was when I wasn't hearing anything that I became concerned. And I looked over at my colleague, and then there was a radio call, something about a chute."

The crash was the second accident this week involving a commercial U.S. space company. On Tuesday, an Antares rocket built and launched by Orbital Sciences exploded 15 seconds after liftoff from Wallops Island, Virginia, destroying a cargo ship bound for the International Space Station.

Friday's crash marked a major setback for Virgin Galactic, a U.S. offshoot of billionaire Branson's London-based Virgin Group. The company was aiming to make the world's first commercial suborbital space flights with SpaceShipTwo, a six-passenger, two-pilot spacecraft.

The launch was to have been the first in a series of test flights leading up to Virgin Galactic's maiden flight beyond Earth's atmosphere.

Virgin ultimately was planning to add four more suborbital spacecraft to its fleet, along with a second White Knight carrier jet. Plans call for the fleet to fly out of a new commercial space port in Las Cruces, New Mexico, once the company completes all test flights and is certified for passenger service to begin.

Virgin Galactic's Whitesides told a Toronto space conference earlier this month that a second spacecraft was already under construction and about 60 percent complete.

Other companies developing passenger suborbital spacecraft include privately owned XCOR Aerospace, which is building a two-person space plane called Lynx, and Blue Origin, a startup space company owned by Amazon.com Inc founder Jeff Bezos.

Virgin Galactic also plans to use its White Knight Two carrier jets to launch small satellites and payloads into orbit.

(Reporting Dan Whitcomb in Los Angeles; Additional reporting by Irene Klotz from Cape Canaveral, Florida; Writing and additional reporting in Los Angeles by Steve Gorman; Editing by James Dalgleish and Ken Wills)

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