Missing Dornier Aircraft's beacon signals picked up by Naval survey ship

June 13, 2015

New Delhi: A naval survey ship has picked up signals from Indian Coast Guard's Dornier aircraft, which went missing with three crew members on board on Monday night along the Tamil Nadu coast, announced the Ministry of Defence on Saturday.

Intense and sustained efforts to search and locate the missing Coast Guard aircraft have been continuing round the clock by ships of the Indian Coast Guard and the Indian Navy in areas of probability for the last 110 hours.

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Ministry of Defence spokesperson Sitanshu Kar, on microblogging website Twitter, posted a few photographs of a multi-coloured sheen of oil in concentric circles, which indicated oozing of oil. The sample of oil has been sent to the laboratory for analysis.

"INS Sandhayak has picked up signals from the missing aircraft. The signals were picked up from the aircraft which has Sonar Locating Beacon and it can transmit signals up to 30 days," Inspector General SP Sharma, Commander, Coast Guard (East), Chennai, told a news agency.

"Further tests are being done to get a more precise location of the missing aircraft," Sharma said, but did not elaborate.

'Sandhayak' began operations in the Karaikkal-Cuddalore coastline on the intervening night of June 11-12.

Twelve Coast Guard and Naval ships along with patrol boats of the Coastal Security group are involved in the search.

The transmission is around the position where the Air Traffic Control (ATC) radar had lost contact of the aircraft.

Submarine INS Sindhudhvaj is likely to arrive in the area late in the evening for further augmentation of sub-surface search.

The National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT) has diverted its research vessel 'Sagar Nidhi' and is likely to arrive in the area for augmenting underwater search by tomorrow.

The missing Dornier had on board Deputy Commandant Vidyasagar piloting the aircraft, his co-pilot and Deputy Commandant Subash Suresh and navigator/observer M.K. Soni -- all in their 30s.

The missing aircraft was deployed for surveillance along the Tamil Nadu coast and over Palk Bay.

It took off from Chennai airport at around 6 pm on Monday (June 8) for a surveillance sortie but did not return.

An official statement issued on Tuesday (June 9) said the last contact with the aircraft was made at 9 pm on Monday.

The last known location of the aircraft, as per Trichy radar, was off Karaikal in Puducherry, where it was tracked till 9.23 pm, 95 nautical miles south of Chennai.

"The aircraft was the latest induction in the Coast Guard inventory in 2014 and was being flown by a highly experienced crew," an official statement said.

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Agencies
March 12,2020

Mumbai, Mar 12: In what appears to be the worst trading session in the Indian stock markets, the benchmark BSE Sensex crashed over 2900 points to end below the 33,000-mark.

The Sensex crashed 2,919.26 points to end at 32,778.14. So far it has touched an intra-day low of 32,530.05 points.

The Nifty50 on the National Stock Exchange also lost nearly 850 points so far. It plunged 868.25 points to 9,590.15.

The plunge was in line with the global markets as all Asian indices also traded in the red after the World Health Organization (WHO) declared coronavirus a global pandemic following which the Dow Jones Industrial Average also slumped significantly on Wednesday.

The bear run in both the global and domestic markets has continued off late on concerns of the coronavirus outbreak severely impacting the global economy. It has also raised calls for government intervention and support.

Central banks in several countries, including the US Federal Reserve have announced emergency rate cuts to boost sentiments. However, the concerns have only deepened in the past few days as the number of COVID-19 cases across the world has increased.

Further, following the rout in the global markets oil prices also fell on Thursday with the Brent crude trading around $34 per barrel.

The Indian rupee also felt the pressure and touched a 17-month low of 74.34 per dollar in its initial trade.

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News Network
June 17,2020

New Delhi, Jun 17: Petrol and diesel prices were increased in metros on Wednesday, marking the eleventh straight day of increase since state-owned oil companies returned to the normal practice of daily reviews following a 12-week pause. With effect from 6 am, the price of petrol was increased by 55 paise per litre, and diesel by 69 paise per litre in Delhi, compared to the previous day. While the price of petrol was revised to Rs 77.28 per litre in the national capital from Rs 76.73 per litre the previous day, the diesel rate was increased to Rs 75.79 per litre from Rs 75.19 per litre, according to notifications from state-run Indian Oil Corporation, the country's largest fuel retailer. In the 11-day period, the price of petrol has been increased by a cumulative Rs 6.02 per litre, and diesel by Rs 6.49 per litre.

International crude oil prices retreated on Wednesday, weighed down by an increase in US crude inventories and worries about a potential second wave of the coronavirus pandemic. Brent crude futures - the global benchmark for crude oil - were last seen trading 1.0 per cent lower at $40.56 per barrel.

State-run oil marketing companies revise the prices of petrol and diesel from time to time, besides aviation turbine fuel (ATF) - or jet fuel - and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). However, since March 16, the oil companies had kept petrol and diesel prices on hold, possibly due to the volatility in global oil markets.

Fuel retailing in the country is dominated by state refiners - Indian Oil Corporation, Bharat Petroleum Corporation and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation. The three own about 90 per cent of the retail fuel outlets in the country.

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Agencies
July 30,2020

New Delhi, Jul 30: Even as COVID-19 cases continue to surge in various parts of India, more than 1 million people have recovered and discharged till now, informed Rajesh Bhushan, Secretary, Ministry of Health, here on Thursday.

"More than 1 million people have recovered from COVID-19 in the country. This landmark recovery has been achieved because of the selfless work and dedication of our doctors, nurses and frontline workers," Bhushan said at a press conference.

Giving the number of cured persons, Bhushan said, "More than 1,020,000 patients have recovered. They have been discharged. It is a great achievement."

He said, "The recovery rate has shown positive trends. It was 7.85 per cent in April and today it is 64.4 per cent, which is another heartening news which tells us that whatever battle is put by the Union government in collaboration with state governments is showing results."

"Sixteen states of the country have a recovery rate that is more than the national average. Of these, Delhi has a recovery rate of 88 per cent, Ladakh 80 per cent, Haryana 78 per cent, Assam 76 per cent, Telangana 74 per cent, Tamil Nadu & Gujarat 73 per cent, Rajasthan 70 per cent, Madhya Pradesh 69 per cent and Goa 68 per cent," Bhushan said.

He said effective clinical management lead to a decrease in case fatality rate. In June it was 3.33 per cent and now 2.21 per cent.

Bhushan said the case fatality rate in India today is 2.21 per cent and it's among the lowest in the world. Twenty-four states and Union Territories have lesser fatality rate than that of the country.

Herd immunity in a country of the size and population of India can not be a strategic option. It can only be achieved through immunisation.

"Over 18,190,000 tests have been conducted in the country including RT-PCR and rapid antigen tests. There has been a week-on-week increase in average tests per day. India is conducting 324 test per 10 lakhs population per day," Bhushan said.

He added, three vaccine candidates, are in phase 3 clinical trial. These three are in the US, UK and China. In India, two indigenously developed vaccine candidates are in phase I and II of clinical trials. 

Trial of the first vaccine involves 1,150 subjects at eight sites, second on 1,000 subjects at five sites.

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