The Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Development of North-Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, DrJitendra Singh along with Chairman, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Dr K Sivan addressed a press conference here today on upcoming space missions of ISRO, with a specific focus on Chandrayaan 2.

In his opening remarks, Dr. Jitendra Singh lauded the commitment and hard work of scientific community and highlighted the benefits of usage of space technology in improving the lives of common people. He said that Chandrayaan-I was instrumental in identifying water on the moon. Dr Singh said that under the direction of Prime Minister Modi, applications of space technology in areas such as infrastructure, disaster management and security have eased lives of common people and improved the delivery of Government’s welfare programmes. India has emerged as a world leader in space technology application today, he added.

On the forthcoming Gaganyaan Mission, Dr Singh said that by the 75th anniversary of Independence in 2022, India would be launching its first human space flight. He added that the Government has sanctioned Rs 10,000 crores for this Mission, which is being guided by the Gaganyaan National Advisory Council that has eminent scientists and persons as members.

Giving a presentation on the forthcoming Missions of ISRO, Dr Sivan gave details of Chandrayaan-2, Gaganyaan, Aditya L1 and a Mission to Venus.

Dr. Sivan said that the objectives of Chandrayaan-2 are:

1. To map the variations in lunar surface composition extensively in order to trace back the origin and evolution of the moon.
2. Focused studies on the extent of water molecule distribution on the surface, below the surface and in the tenuous lunar exosphere to address the origin of water on moon

The mission is planned to fly on a Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mark III (GSLV Mk III) with an approximate lift-off mass of 3,877 kg (8,547 lb) from Satish Dhawan Space Centre on Sriharikota Island. The launch is scheduled for 15 July 2019. He said that the controlled landing of rover on the lunar surface is the most challenging task.The mission will include 8 orbiter payloads, 3 Vikram Lander payloads and 2 Pragyaan Rover Payloads. Chandrayaan-2 represents a national effort with 500 industries and 15 institutions combining to achieve the desired objectives.

On Gaganyaan, Dr Sivan informed that ISRO has signed an MoU with Indian Air Force for selection and training of the crew. ISRO is also actively engaged in building capacity for India’s sustained human space flight programs, with the first manned flight scheduled in or before 2022. This will be the Gaganyaan mission, in which selected astronauts will spend 3-7 days in the Lower Earth Orbit (LEO) of 120-400 km.

The ISRO Chairman spoke about the solar mission Aditya L1, scheduled for launch in 2020. This would aim to study Sun’s Corona and its impact on climatic changes.

A mission to Venus has been planned for a tentative launch in 2023, with the objective to study the atmosphere and surface topography of Venus.

Dr Sivan said that ISRO is also planning to have its own Space station in the long term.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — In 2018, researchers at MIT and the auto manufacturer BMW were testing ways in which humans and robots might work in close proximity to assemble car parts. In a replica of a factory floor setting, the team rigged up a robot on rails, designed to deliver parts between work stations. Meanwhile, human workers crossed its path every so often to work at nearby stations. 

The robot was programmed to stop momentarily if a person passed by. But the researchers noticed that the robot would often freeze in place, overly cautious, long before a person had crossed its path. If this took place in a real manufacturing setting, such unnecessary pauses could accumulate into significant inefficiencies.

The team traced the problem to a limitation in the robot’s trajectory alignment algorithms used by the robot’s motion predicting software. While they could reasonably predict where a person was headed, due to the poor time alignment the algorithms couldn’t anticipate how long that person spent at any point along their predicted path — and in this case, how long it would take for a person to stop, then double back and cross the robot’s path again.

Now, members of that same MIT team have come up with a solution: an algorithm that accurately aligns partial trajectories in real-time, allowing motion predictors to accurately anticipate the timing of a person’s motion. When they applied the new algorithm to the BMW factory floor experiments, they found that, instead of freezing in place, the robot simply rolled on and was safely out of the way by the time the person walked by again.

“This algorithm builds in components that help a robot understand and monitor stops and overlaps in movement, which are a core part of human motion,” says Julie Shah, associate professor of aeronautics and astronautics at MIT. “This technique is one of the many way we’re working on robots better understanding people.”

Shah and her colleagues, including project lead and graduate student Przemyslaw “Pem” Lasota, will present their results this month at the Robotics: Science and Systems conference in Germany.

Clustered up

To enable robots to predict human movements, researchers typically borrow algorithms from music and speech processing. These algorithms are designed to align two complete time series, or sets of related data, such as an audio track of a musical performance and a scrolling video of that piece’s musical notation.

Researchers have used similar alignment algorithms to sync up real-time and previously recorded measurements of human motion, to predict where a person will be, say, five seconds from now. But unlike music or speech, human motion can be messy and highly variable. Even for repetitive movements, such as reaching across a table to screw in a bolt, one person may move slightly differently each time.

Existing algorithms typically take in streaming motion data, in the form of dots representing the position of a person over time, and compare the trajectory of those dots to a library of common trajectories for the given scenario. An algorithm maps a trajectory in terms of the relative distance between dots.

But Lasota says algorithms that predict trajectories based on distance alone can get easily confused in certain common situations, such as temporary stops, in which a person pauses before continuing on their path. While paused, dots representing the person’s position can bunch up in the same spot.

“When you look at  the data, you have a whole bunch of points clustered together when a person is stopped,” Lasota says. “If you’re only looking at the distance between points as your alignment metric, that can be confusing, because they’re all close together, and you don’t have a good idea of which point you have to align to.”

The same goes with overlapping trajectories — instances when a person moves back and forth along a similar path. Lasota says that while a person’s current position may line up with a dot on a reference trajectory, existing algorithms can’t differentiate between whether that position is part of a trajectory heading away, or coming back along the same path.

“You may have points close together in terms of distance, but in terms of time, a person’s position may actually be far from a reference point,” Lasota says.

It’s all in the timing

As a solution, Lasota and Shah devised a “partial trajectory” algorithm that aligns segments of a person’s trajectory in real-time with a library of previously collected reference trajectories. Importantly, the new algorithm aligns trajectories in both distance and timing, and in so doing, is able to accurately anticipate stops and overlaps in a person’s path.

“Say you’ve executed this much of a motion,” Lasota explains. “Old techniques will say, ‘this is the closest point on this representative trajectory for that motion.’ But since you only completed this much of it in a short amount of time, the timing part of the algorithm will say, ‘based on the timing, it’s unlikely that you’re already on your way back, because you just started your motion.’”

The team tested the algorithm on two human motion datasets: one in which a person intermittently crossed a robot’s path in a factory setting (these data were obtained from the team’s experiments with BMW), and another in which the group previously recorded hand movements of participants reaching across a table to install a bolt that a robot would then secure by brushing sealant on the bolt.

For both datasets, the team’s algorithm was able to make better estimates of a person’s progress through a trajectory, compared with two commonly used partial trajectory alignment algorithms. Furthermore, the team found that when they integrated the alignment algorithm with their motion predictors, the robot could more accurately anticipate the timing of a person’s motion. In the factory floor scenario, for example, they found the robot was less prone to freezing in place, and instead smoothly resumed its task shortly after a person crossed its path.

While the algorithm was evaluated in the context of motion prediction, it can also be used as a preprocessing step for other techniques in the field of human-robot interaction, such as action recognition and gesture detection. Shah says the algorithm will be a key tool in enabling robots to recognize and respond to patterns of human movements and behaviors. Ultimately, this can help humans and robots work together in structured environments, such as factory settings and even, in some cases, the home.

“This technique could apply to any environment where humans exhibit typical patterns of behavior,” Shah says. “The key is that the [robotic] system can observe patterns that occur over and over, so that it can learn something about human behavior. This is all in the vein of work of the robot better understand aspects of human motion, to be able to collaborate with us better.”

This research was funded, in part, by a NASA Space Technology Research Fellowship and the National Science Foundation.

Top model Karan Oberoi popularly known as KO, is one of the most influential fitness icons in the fitness modelling world. He started his career as a graphic designer, and has reached the top of Modelling world and has been maintaining his body for almost a decade now. KO work profile includes working with some A-list fitness brands in the country like Reebok, British Nutrition, Viva Fitness to name a few and has also been graced on the cover of famous fitness magazines in India. At some point, everyone wanted a physique like his. But can we achieve it? Yes of course, but it doesn’t come easy. One has to put full efforts into fitness and make it an essential aspect of ones life. A little hard work and discipline lifestyle is all you need to achieve a body like KO. Let’s take a look at this Young popular model Karan Oberoi (KO)’s diet and workout routine: 

Diet tips by Karan Oberoi aka KO 

According to top model Karan Oberoi, nutrition plays an essential role in the development of body. Exercise only contributes 30 percent of your fitness while the rest is just diet. 

He also states, breakfast is a important meal of the day and should never be skipped, one should eat egg whites in breakfast as they contain essential amino acids that no other food has. According to KO, you don’t really need to cut much carbs for aesthetic body. One should drink a lot of water to decrease water retention in the body, eat balance diet but majorly 70 percent of protein rich foods like lean meat that is chicken and fish. One should also include a lot of fruits and green vegetables in their diet as they contributes in skin nourishment. 

In supplements you can always rely upon good whey proteins in powder form (imported brands) pre-workout drinks, BCAA, glutamine and creatine. 

Workout plan by Karan Oberoi (KO) 

Karan Oberoi (KO) workout is usually 2 body parts a day that is usually 3 days a week and 3 days running intense, preferably 5 am in the morning. According to KO, cardio plays a very important role if you want to have lean and muscular physique. Each workout in the gym should have 12 to 15 reps and each body part should have 5 variations of the exercise. 

As KO himself doesn’t involve in any of the vices, he also expects everyone to stay way from smoking, drinking and any sort of drugs as far as possible because fitness comes from the inside. If the roots are strong, tree is definitely going to blossom some day or another. 

Karan Oberoi (KO) workout schedule 

Monday- chest and triceps 

Chest- flat bench press, incline dumbbell press, decline pull over, cable cross over 

Triceps- close grip bench press, cable pushdown, parallel bar dips.

Tuesday- intense running with 45 min abs 

Abs- exercise ball reverse crunch, hanging leg raise, plank. 

Wednesday- Back and biceps.

Back- pull ups, cable seated row, one arm dumbbell row.

Biceps- barbell curl, dumbbell alternate bicep curl and concentrated curls.

Thursday- Intense running and on spot jumping with change in abs exercises.

Friday- Shoulder and legs

Shoulder- barbell shoulder press, dumbbell lateral raise, front raise

Legs- barbell front squat, seated leg curl, calf press, leg extension. 

Saturday- Running and change in cardio vascular exercises. 

Sunday- Rest Day.

Karan Oberoi (KO) was also been voted as Top fitness model by Hindustan Times Brunch magazine last year and is also a holder of Mr. Best physique award at Mr India International modelling contest.

Nivedita Chandel is one of the most talented actresses. She made her acting debut with the film Love Ke Funday in 2016. Along with doing films, the gorgeous actress has also featured in several singles and albums and TV commercials.

The actress earlier featured in several hits like Yaara, Pyaar Ho Na Jaaye and Case Bari. Nivedita Chandel will soon be featuring in a new Hindi Sufi love song called ‘Dilla Ther Jaa’. The track is crooned by the talented and popular singer Toshi Sabri. 

The first poster look of the song Dilla Ther Jaa is out. The poster features Nivedita and Toshi. The actress looks breathtaking and has got us very excited for the song. The video of this song will be out on June 18, 2019.

Dilla Ther Jaa is Nivedita Chandel’s second appearance in a song in 2019. In February this year, she impressed everyone with her performance in the song Tu Na Chad Dayi Yaara. The song crossed 2 million views on YouTube.

Coming to singer Toshi, he has crooned some mesmerising songs like Maahi from Raaz, Tujhko Main from 1920 London, Emotional Fool from Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania and many others.

Acto Suved Lohia has been a part of quite interesting films like Aryan: Unbreakable and Jai Ho. In Jai Ho, he shared the screen space alongside Salman Khan. The actor had an interesting journey as an actor.

Currently, Suved is one of the top and successful entrepreneurs in the country. The journey wasn’t a cakewalk for him. He worked hard to reach at the position he is in his professional life right now.

In 2017, Suved Lohia was the director of DAILLY BREAD & BUTTER HOSPITALITY PRIVATE LIMITED.

He has worked at such great positions with many different companies. Now, Suved has achieved great heights in his career as he is a partner and owner of Manu Restaurants and Clubs. 

With his hardwork and determination, Suved has truly set inspiring example to those who dream big.

New estimates from the World Health Organization (WHO) highlight need for increased, sustained investment in the development of mental health services in areas affected by conflict. 

One in five people (22%) living in an area affected by conflict has depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, bipolar disorder or schizophrenia, and about 9% of conflict-affected populations have a moderate to severe mental health condition, according to an analysis of 129 studies published in The Lancet. The figures are substantially higher than the global estimate for these mental health conditions in the general population, which stands at one in 14 people.

Depression and anxiety appeared to increase with age in conflict settings, and depression was more common among women than men. 

The findings suggest that past studies underestimated the burden of mental health conditions in conflict-affected areas – with higher rates of severe mental health conditions (5% at any one time in the new study compared to 3-4% over a 12-month-period in the 2005 estimates), and also of mild to moderate mental health conditions (17% at any one time in the new estimates compared to 15-20% over a 12-month period in previous estimates). 

Overall, the mean prevalence was highest for mild mental health conditions (13%), for moderate the prevalence was 4%, and for severe conditions the prevalence was 5%.

The revised estimates use research from 129 studies and data from 39 countries published between 1980 and August 2017, including 45 new studies published between 2013 and August 2017. Settings that have experienced conflict in the last 10 years were included. There was limited data for bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, so estimates for these conditions were based on global estimates and do not take into account any increased risk of these conditions in conflict settings. Cases were categorised as mild, moderate or severe. Natural disasters and public health emergencies, such as Ebola, were not included. 

“I am confident that our study provides the most accurate estimates available today of the prevalence of mental health conditions in areas of conflict,” said lead author of the study Fiona Charlson of the University of Queensland, Australia and the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, USA. “Estimates from previous studies have been inconsistent, with some finding inconceivably low or high rates. In this study we used more stringent inclusion and exclusion criteria for the literature search, and advanced search strategies and statistical methods.” 

Currently, there are major conflict-induced humanitarian crises in a number of countries, including Afghanistan, Iraq, Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan, Syria, and Yemen. In 2016, the number of armed conflicts reached an all-time high, with 53 ongoing conflicts in 37 countries and 12% of the world’s population living in an active conflict zone. Nearly 69 million people worldwide have been forcibly displaced by violence and conflict, the highest number since World War II. 

“The new estimates, together with already available practical tools for helping people with mental health conditions in emergencies, add yet more weight to the argument for immediate and sustained investment, so that mental and psychosocial support is made available to all people in need living through conflict and its aftermath,” said study author Dr Mark van Ommeren, of the Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse at the World Health Organization. 

Dr van Ommeren concludes: “In conflict situations and other humanitarian emergencies, WHO provides support in many ways: firstly, by supporting coordination and by assessing the mental health needs of populations affected, secondly by determining what existing support is available on the ground and what more is needed; and thirdly by helping provide the capacity for support when it isn’t sufficient, either through training or bringing in additional resources. Despite their tragic consequences, when the political will exists, emergencies can be catalysts for building quality, sustainable mental health services that continue to help people in the long-term.” 

The authors note some limitations due to the complexity of data collection in conflict settings, which means that there is variation in the data used, and so there is uncertainty in the estimates. In addition, cultural variation in diagnosis and changes in diagnostic criteria might have affected prevalence estimates. 

Past research has suggested that psychosis is more common in populations affected by conflict. However, the new estimates for bipolar disorder and schizophrenia are based on global averages, not specifically conflict settings, so these may underestimate the issue. 

This study was funded by WHO, Queensland Department of Health, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. It was conducted by researchers from University of Queensland, Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, WHO, and Harvard University.

Dilip Singh Rana aka The Great Khali of India who has played a major role in World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) may have said goodbye to the WWE but his name is still discussed with respect.

In the WWE, Khali’s name has once again been discussed in the discussion. This time in the Khali discussions have come to a disciple who is going to step in the WWE soon.

The name of this disciple of Khali is Sagar Nama. Sagar, identified by the name of Ben Jacks, has been selected in the WWE. Sagar has already started training in USA & Japan.

Earlier, Sagar has also participated in Continental Wrestling Entertainment (CWE) organized by Khali in India. Sagar learned from the wrestling bet of his master Dilip Singh Rana (The Great Khali).

The 21-year-old Sagar has been taking professional wrestling training in Continental Wrestling Entertainment in Jalandhar for the past two years. Sagar has played more than 50 matches so far, out of which more than 30 have won.

It would be interesting to see that even if he can follow the footsteps of his Guru The Great Khali.

He got injured during training twice, he tore his *shoulder cuff rotator* and also had an injury in his thigh. He used to face a lot of pain due to his injury and had made his mind about giving up and leaving this field forever.

But, His American Coach Ethan HD inspired him, Sagar recalls his words and says “There is no wrestling without pain”

He started his training again, under Coach Ethan HD inspiring guidance. 

Sagar says”Pain has become a part of me now”

He also shared that he eats over 20 eggs, half kg Chicken, almonds, protein shake, brown bread, milk, rice, and fruits. This is his diet per day, the diet also has to be changed according to the season change.

New Delhi : Union Minister of Commerce & Industry and Railways and Steel Minister discussed the challenges being faced by the steel sector and the import-export trends with steel producers in New Delhi today.

Both the Ministers assured the steel industry that Ministries of Commerce & Industry and Steel will make all efforts to ensure that engineering goods exports double in the next 5 years and reach USD 200 billion by 2030.

This will not only boost India’s exports but will also generate jobs in the manufacturing sector especially the MSME sector.

Although India is the second largest manufacturers of steel but India is also a net importer of steel. Representatives of the steel industry and the Engineering Export Councils discussed in detail with Commerce and Steel Ministers the protectionist measures being imposed by other countries and the under-utilised capacity in steel manufacturing in India.

Piyush Goyal and Dharmendra Pradhan discussed at length the measures that both Commerce and Industry and Steel Ministry may take, both tariff and non-tariff, to reduce unnecessary imports and boost exports.

The MSME sector steel manufacturers urged steel producers to supply raw material at concessional prices so that the MSME sector can compete in international markets.

The meeting was attended by Piyush Goyal, Dharmendra Pradhan, Faggansingh Kulaste, MoS Steel, Secretary Steel, Binoy Kumar, Secretary Commerce, Anup Wadhawan, DGFT, Alok Vardhan Chaturvedi, senior officers of Department of Commerce and Steel Ministry, Chairman SAIL, all members of EEPCs, Indian Steel Association, steel makers and manufacturers and other associations of the steel sector.

The evolution of mankind into a superior species has been due to its supreme control over machines. For doing repetitive jobs without having human errors, machines are perfect. They deliver pre-defined outcomes with 100% efficiency. Algo trading in financial markets is essentially 

machine trading in almost the purest sense.

However, the pitch for Algo/HFT (High Frequency Trade) trading in India has been queered, thanks to unrelated issues. What started out as perhaps a corporate governance issue at a stock exchange due to purported misuse of co-location facilities by brokers, has quickly snowballed into a controversy, where technologies that deliver faster results seem to be at the receiving end. In the recent past, there have been a lot of media reports in respect of the Algorithmic / HFT debate and on the need for some tighter regulation. Regulating a technology may not be the best answer!

The issue appeared in the limelight when reportedly a Singapore based whistle blower complained to market regulator SEBI in January, 2015 regarding the ‘misuse’ of co-location facilities at a leading exchange by some brokers. While the regulator will ultimately take its views on the alleged transgressions, this episode has brought to the fore the burning issue whether the technology at collocation is being misused by some HFT trading firms, and indirectly putting pressure on SEBI to “do something”.

Two very different issues viz. corporate governance lapses and advent of a game-changing technology are being unfairly clubbed together, despite not a shred of evidence to conclusively prove that technology is indeed the villain. If anything, the ‘fat finger’ has caused more market disruptions. 

In essence the complaints have alleged two things. One, that there was favorable access granted to some firms and this happened by oversight in system design or by intentional collusion by certain people in the exchange. Second, some firms were allowed to install high speed links across exchanges using unlicensed vendors, by-passing an internal policy of the exchange. Clearly, these are essentially corporate governance matters.  

Algo/HFT trading is not an unfair advantage. Merely using a machine does not hand anybody any great advantage. Using a car, when people walk on roads or use a cycle to commute, would by that logic be illegal. The technology for accessing the exchanges ranges from manual order entry through exchange terminals and Order Management Systems (CTCL), Direct Market Access for sophisticated clients (DMA), Internet trading for retail investors and colocation facilities (colo) for proprietary traders and brokers offering lower latency access to clients. Faster and cheaper trades is the mantra and technology is driving this paradigm shift.

Algos are used for efficient trade execution. Some types of algos employ trading strategies that are more reliant on speed of execution and can be referred to as high frequency trading (HFT) algos. HFT algos are commonly used for market making. Floor brokers/jobbers offered manual market making in the past. However, technology evolution has largely automated this function and enabled market making in a wider set of the 35000 contracts and securities in India.

Algos do not make any unauthorized use of the market and are operated from the colocation facilities as well as broker and client/investor offices. Algos from non-colo locations largely use CTCL and DMA technology access. Market participants use this diversity of algos and technology access to trade as per their specific needs and the economics of their business models. 

The other perspective to understand is whether the collocation provides unfair access to certain participants. Time is essentially money in the stock trading business. Even when electronic trading started prior to availability of colo facilities, participants outside Mumbai were at significant disadvantage as compared to those located within Mumbai – due to the distance their orders had to travel electronically. Collocation access has now leveled the playing field.

With algos becoming the dominant tool for execution of investment ideas, traders’ success is now tied to adopting algo technologies that are now increasingly available at lower costs as the number of vendors increase. Brokers too are emerging that offer algo-ready platforms, reducing the need for traders to themselves invest heavily in technology. 

Globally, collocation is a common feature across all mature markets and the market share of algo /HFT is more than half of the volume. The automation in algos enables programs to offer bid/offers in a large number of products concurrently, increasing market efficiency. Despite all the hullabaloos, no major market has curtailed algorithmic trading as they recognize that the system wide ramification of such a move is disastrous.   

Painting algo/HFT trading in bad light is the easiest recourse any authority can take, but that would be unfair.

The two separate issues of corporate governance and technology use need to be treated independently.  The use of a technology can be broadened but organization-level misuse is not connected to a particular technology. However, this is what is precisely happening with algo/HFT trading.

While it is irrefutable that when a new technology is adapted in an industry there can always be a few hiccups, but stifling the technology keeps the playing field uneven for a longer period of time.

Bhavya Munjal a 22 years old prominent dietitian, nutritionist and owner of the company BFitWorld from Delhi, India has been changing the dynamics of the health and well-being game from the past 10 years and ever since his sole initiative has been to learn and grow in the same field. 

Bhavya’s Diet consulting proficiency spans most nutrition sub-specialities like paediatrics, adolescent, adult and sports. He is dedicated to forging and maintaining a beautiful bond with food. Be it a special diet for running your next marathon, modifying your lifestyle for certain medical condition, or simply staying in shape, Bhavya hold your hand from the beginning to the finish line.

Bhavya in the recent years has gained a vast amount of expose for himself and his company BFitWorld, by consulting clients against supplement but natural nutrition usage. Bhavya Munjal strongly believes in the fact that most people don’t need to take vitamin supplements and are able to get all the vitamins and minerals they need by eating a healthy, balanced diet. He believes, by taking supplements people are harming their own body as many supplements contain active ingredients that have strong biological effects in the body. This could make them unsafe in some situations and hurt or complicate people’s health and according to him supplementing your diet without a proper consultation can cause weight gain and more harm to the health

He has worked with clients from all walks of life, from mothers, families, businessmen, sportsmen to artists and celebrities. Bhavya believe that healthy foods and eating habits are determined by choice, not compulsion. He also believe that taste should not be sacrificed to make way for health, in order to guarantee clients great results he take into account clients full medical history, their personal preferences along with their health goal and plans their diet and modifies their lifestyle.