India news: ISRO to boost GPS alternative with new satellite

At least barring any big late-night news we’ll wind down our coverage for the day now.

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Police in Uttarakhand say that all six bodies from a crashed helicopter — five passengers and the pilot — have been recovered from the wreckage.

Bad weather, including rain and poor visibility, hampered the rescue efforts.

The same bad weather is thought likely to have played a role in the crash. Civil aviation official Prateek Jain said they lost contact with the helicopter as it was crossing the Joshimath valley.

The downed chopper was located near Chhai village near an Indan army camp in Chamoli district.

Helicopters are often used in the northern hill state to ferry pilgrims to the high-altitude Char Dham shrines. The pilgrimage season typically runs from April to November.

India took an unassailable 3-0 lead into Friday’s T20 game in Auckland, but hosts New Zealand finally managed to turn the tide.

The Kiwis set an imposing target of 259/7, taking advantage of the Eden Park ground’s short boundaries to score at speed.

Glenn Phillips did the heavy lifting with the bat, smashing 107 off 49 deliveries. He also forged an excellent fifth-wicket partnership with Michael Bracewell, who knocked an explosive 65 with six sixes himself.

India could only respond with 172/9 in 20 overs. A series of crucial catches by New Zealand’s fielders stopped their more dangerous batters in their tracks.

Jacob Duffy took four wickets bowling for the hosts, including opening batsman Sanju Samson falling to just the second delivery of the innings.

Tilak Varma led the scoring for India from the middle order, but he could only rack up 35 runs before being caught behind by wicketkeeper Tim Seifert, just as Samson was before him.

India’s cricketers will play one more T20 against New Zealand on the tour, before a follow-up series of One Day Internationals begins on November 4.

Six people were feared dead ⁠in the Indian Himalayan state of Uttarakhand on Friday following a ‌helicopter ⁠crash suspected to have been caused by bad weather.

The helicopter ​was ‌reportedly carrying five passengers ‌and ​a pilot from Badrinath, a prominent Hindu pilgrimage destination in the ‌mountains, to the city of Dehradun, according to news agency ANI.

Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami said his office ​had received information about a helicopter crashing near a village in the ⁠Joshimath ​area.

Dhami said rescue operations were being carried out by the district ​administration, disaster management ‌teams and army personnel in the region.

Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday renewed his call for supporters of his Congress Party and other opposition groups to demonstrate this weekend at Ramlila Maidan in New Delhi, a large open space usually serving as a venue for religious festivals.

Gandhi and other senior opposition figures are seeking to capitalize on growing public discontent over alleged voter roll irregularities.

Gandhi encouraged people to turn out to protest on Sunday, despite recent clampdowns by police.

“This is not a march for any one political party, it’s a march for the soul of India,” Gandhi said.

“If you feel that India is under attack, you are under attack, your expression, your ideas, your way of thinking is under attack, come and join us.”

Recent protests against alleged electoral fraud in India have seen protesters and police clash, with several protest leaders detained.

The largely youth- and student-led demonstrations have grown into one of the most serious challenges to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist government in years.

But Gandhi said: “Don’t worry about the police … the BJP will not have the guts to try any of their antics.”

The Legislative Council elections results declared on Thursday in the northern Uttar Pradesh state has thrust the Samajwadi Party (SP) back in the limelight against the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ahead of the state elections next year.

SP strengthened its position in Uttar Pradesh’s Legislative Council after winning five of the 11 seats contested.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s BJP retained its overall tally of six seats.

SP president Akhilesh Yadav described the results as a rejection of the BJP’s policies on education, teachers and students.

“None of our candidates has actually lost, they just could not win in the face of the BJP’s manipulation,” Yadav said, according to The Indian Express newspaper, without providing evidence.

Several districts in West Bengal, along with parts of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh, were placed on flood alert on Friday, media reports said.

The flood, triggered by a glacial lake burst at Sintaphu Lake in neighboring Bhutan, swept away infrastructure at the Gasa Tshachu natural hot springs in the Himalayan kingdom.

Indian authorities have stepped up monitoring along the Sankosh River, which flows from Bhutan through West Bengal and into Assam. Communities along the Brahmaputra River in Assam and Arunachal Pradesh have also been alerted over possible flooding.

In Bhutan, no casualties have been reported, state broadcaster BBS said.

According to Bhutanese media reports, two Bailey bridges, built in portable, pre-fabricated sections, may have been washed away, as well as a part of the road leading to Laya village, where the hot springs are located, had also been washed away.

India’s space agency is set to launch a navigation satellite on Friday night to strengthen the country’s indigenous alternative to GPS.

According to Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) the NVS-03 is “intended to augment the NavIC constellation and support continuity of navigation services.”

The NVS-03 satellite, the third in ISRO’s next-generation navigation series, will be carried into orbit by the GSLV-F18 rocket from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota at 11:51 p.m. (1821 GMT) on Friday.

According to ISRO, the satellite features an indigenous atomic clock alongside imported clocks, and adds the L1 signal to the existing L5 and S-band signals. It is designed to provide navigation coverage across India and up to 1,500 kilometers (932 miles) beyond its borders.

NavIC is seen as an alternative to the Global Positioning System (GPS) system owned by the United States government.

It was developed to reduce India’s dependence on foreign navigation systems, however, according to the Hindustan Times newspaper, the program has faced repeated setbacks, including failing atomic clocks and satellite launch and deployment problems.

Last month, India had launched of its EOS-05 Earth observation satelliteits first ever imaging satellite in geosynchronous orbit.

Hello! This is Shakeel from DW’s New Delhi Studio bringing you the top updates from across India.

All eyes will be on the skies today as India prepares to launch a navigation satellite to strengthen its indigenous alternative to GPS, reducing the country’s reliance on the US government-owned system.

Meanwhile, the results of the Legislative Council elections in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh serve as a warning from the Samajwadi Party to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ahead of the 2027 state elections.

Elsewhere, the states of Assam and West Bengal are on flood alert after a glacier burst in Bhutan.

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