India test fires indigenously-developed 5000-km-range Agni-5 missile .

India on Monday successfully test fired its indigenously developed nuclear-capable ballistic missile Agni-V off the Odisha coast. The surface-to-surface missile has a strike range of 5,000 km. The missile was launched at 1.30 pm from the Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Abdul Kalam Island in Bhadrak district. The missile developed by the Strategic Forces Command and the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) is the most advanced in terms of navigation and guidance, warhead and engine. This was the seventh trial of the state-of-the-art Agni-V ballistic missile. It was last tested on June 3, 2018. Agni-V is a three-stage missile, 17 metres tall, two metres wide and capable of carrying 1.5 tonne of nuclear warheads. Unlike other missiles of the series, Agni-5 is the most-advanced in terms of navigation and guidance, warhead and engine. “The missile was launched with the help of a mobile launcher from launch pad-4 of the Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Dr Abdul Kalam Island in the Bay of Bengal on Monday afternoon,” a defence source told news agency PTI. It was a user associated trial and strategic force command conducted by DRDO scientists. The missile has been designed to hit the designated target point accurately, guided by the on-board computer with the support of a Ring Laser Gyro-based Inertial Navigation System, the Micro Inertial Navigation System, fully-digital control system and advanced compact avionics, as per DRDO officials. The first two flights of Agni-5 in 2012 and 2013 were in open configuration. The third, fourth and fifth launches were from canister integrated with a mobile launcher, in its deliverable configuration to enable launch of the missile with a very short preparation time as compared to an open launch. The sixth trial was in June during which the missile was fired from a mobile launcher. Several new technologies were successfully tested during the sixth trial. The Agni-5 also has advantages of higher reliability, longer shelf life, less maintenance and enhanced mobility, according to sources. India has in its armoury the Agni series – Agni-1 with 700 km range, Agni-2 with a 2,000-km range, Agni-3 and Agni-4 with 2,500 km to more than 3,500-km range.

Reliance JioTV App Beats Airtel TV and Vodafone Play Apps by Streaming 621 Live TV Channels.

Reliance Jio offers a slew of apps to its subscribers free of cost which includes the likes of JioMusic, JioMoney and JioTV. Out of these many apps, the JioTV application has been favourite of many users since it avails many live channels and video on demand content easily to the users. Now, the JioTV application has got another feather on its cap as now the application boasts of airing 621 live TV channels. Also, the number of channels which JioTV is providing on the application is more than what any Direct to Home (DTH) service is providing. This move has also brought the Reliance JioTV app ahead of other OTT applications like Vodafone Play and Airtel TV since none of these apps offers as many channels as Reliance JioTV.

Reliance JioTV Crosses 100 Million Downloads Right now, the 621 new channels on Reliance Jio’s app include the most number of news and entertainment channels, which include 193 news channels and 122 entertainment channels respectively. Additionally, there are 50 devotional channels and 49 educational channels on the app. Further, there are 35 infotainment, 27 kids, ten lifestyle and eight business news channels found on the app. The app is also not limited in language, as it ships channels in many languages like Hindi, English, Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada, Gujarati, Marathi, Punjabi, Assamese, Odia, Bhojpuri, Urdu, Bengali, French. There are also 46 English HD channels and 32 Hindi HD channels on the Reliance JioTV app. Right now, the Reliance JioTV app is available on Google Play Store for download, and it grants free access to Reliance Jio subscribers. To relay channels on its application, Reliance Jio has also partnered up with content distributors like Star India, Sony Pictures Networks India and Sun TV Network. All channels from these distributors are available on JioTV. Right now Reliance JioTV boasts of 100million+ download on Google Play Store. Airtel TV App Offering 375+ Channels On the same lines, Airtel also offers Airtel TV app which offers 375+ channels but still lags behind Reliance’s JioTV app. The app features 10,000+ movies and popular TV shows, and the company has also partnered up with distributors like Eros Now, SonyLIV, HOOQ, Hotstar, Amazon, AltBalaji with the shows from all these providers amply available on the app. This app from Airtel boasts of 50 million+ downloads on Google Play store. Vodafone Play App Offering 5000 Movies for Subscribers Vodafone India is also not far behind in the race of best live TV application. The telco had previously announced that it would be offering free video streaming to Vodafone subscribers on the Vodafone Play app. This came as Vodafone’s part of the strategy to compete with Reliance Jio. Vodafone also put a heavy emphasis on regional content along with this rollout, thus shipping 5000 Bhojpuri, Telugu, Kannada, Tamil, Marathi and Hindi dubbed Hollywood movies. The Vodafone Play app also allows subscribers to stream 300 live TV shows. Vodafone has also partnered up with content providers like Yupp TV, ALT Balaji, HOOQ for this offering. Vodafone Play also has over 300 Live TV channels.

Bharti Airtel Planning to Introduce 4G VoLTE Enabled Affordable Smartphone to Boost ARPU.

According to a new report spotted online, Sunil Bharti Mittal led telco, Bharti Airtel might be on to new plans to convert its already existing 2G subscriber base into 4G subscribers with the help of a new 4G smartphone. This move is similar and in line to what Reliance Jio did in its bid to increase the number of subscribers. To recall, Reliance Jio had launched a very affordably priced JioPhone, a feature phone with 4G connectivity which appealed to a lot of buyers out there. However, Airtel will be taking a different path and won’t introduce a feature phone but instead will be introducing an affordably priced smartphone. Also, to recall, this would not be the first time that Airtel introduces a cheaply priced smartphone. Last year, the private telecom operator had partnered up with Karbonn to launch the A40 smartphone priced at Rs 1,399 which is as affordable as the JioPhone. Bharti Airtel 4G Smartphone Price According to a Financial Express report, a senior Bharti Airtel officer informed that the company is in talks with many manufacturers to come up with a 4G VoLTE compatible handset. However, there is going to be a substantial difference between the way of Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel, since unlike Reliance Jio which offers subsidies to its manufacturers, Airtel won’t be doing the same. Instead, the telecom operator will be offering cashbacks to lower the price of its 4G enabled smartphone. As per the new report, we can expect the smartphone to be priced around the Rs 2,000 to Rs 2,500 price tag. However, combined with the cashback which Airtel will offer with its smartphone, the handset’s effective price is expected to remain in the sub Rs 2,000 range, making it similar in pricing to the last year’s device. More information is not available at the time of writing. However, it is pretty clear that this new smartphone by Airtel will cover pretty essential functions and will not ship any fancy hardware or design. To have a hint about how Airtel’s cashback scheme would work, it is better to take a look at the cashback scheme of the previous Airtel device. Last time around, Airtel had priced its phone at Rs 2,899 and to redeem the cashback, the buyer had to make recharges of Rs 169 for 36 months. A cashback worth Rs 500 was guaranteed to the buyers after 18 months, and another of Rs 1,000 was guaranteed after successful recharges for 36 months, thus totalling the cashback benefits to Rs 1,500. Airtel’s Aim Behind Introducing New 4G Smartphone As of late, Bharti Airtel’s sole focus has been about improving its average revenue per user (ARPU), a key industry parameter among the telecom operator. On the other hand, Reliance Jio is the only telecom operator in the country to boast of a massive 4G VoLTE network at its disposal. Bogged down by the intense tariff war which was kickstarted by the Mukesh Ambani led telco two years ago, Airtel had to climb its way back into the competition. Soon after the tariff war, the wave of consolidation left only three major players in the field, Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea. As per the trend spotted by the operator, and the number of smartphone users growing from 2% to 4%, there is no confusion that the telco wants to capitalise on the opportunity. As per the company statement, it wishes to transition its 100 million 2G subscriber base to 4G thus bumping up its ARPU by Rs 30-40 a month. Also, in a similar move, the telecom operator introduced a minimum recharge of Rs 35 for all of its low-end 2G subscribers. Right now, Airtel has approximately 25-30% of its network on the VoLTE bands; the operator plans to take the number up to 50% by next year.

Heaviest ISRO Satellite GSAT-11 Successfully Launched From French Guiana

India’s heaviest satellite GSAT-11, that will help boost broadband services in the country, was successfully launched by an Arianespace rocket from the French Guiana in the early hours of today.Blasting off from the Ariane Launch Complex in Kourou, a French territory located along the northeastern coast of South America at 02:07 am (IST), the Ariane-5 vehicle injected the GSAT-11 into the orbit in a flawless flight lasting about 33 minutes. The launch was broadcast live on Doordarshan.”…..the heaviest, largest and most powerful satellite ever built by India is successfully launched by Ariane-5 today,” Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Chairman K Sivan said soon after the launch. Stating that GSAT-11 is going to be the “richest space asset” for India, he said “the satellite has 38 spot beams as well as eight sub beams, which would cover the entire country, including the remote places … it is going to provide something like 16 GBPS data link services to the country.” GSAT-11 is the third in a series of four satellites aimed at achieving the government’s ambitious target to provide high data connectivity of 100 GBPS in the country under the Digital India Mission, Mr Sivan added. Weighing about 5,854 kg, GSAT-11 is the “heaviest” satellite built by the ISRO. GSAT-11 is a next generation “high throughput” communication satellite configured around ISRO’s I-6K Bus, and its designed lifetime is more than 15 years. The satellite will be initially placed in the Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit and later, raised to the Geostationary Orbit by firing the on-board Liquid Apogee Motor. The GSAT-11 is the fore-runner in a series of advanced communications satellites with multi-spot beam antenna coverage over Indian mainland and islands, the ISRO said. The satellite will play a vital role in providing broadband services across the country and also be a platform to demonstrate new generation applications, it said. GSAT-11 was initially planned for launch on May 25 but was rescheduled with the ISRO citing the need for additional technical checks and recalling it. According to the space agency, GSAT-11 would provide high data connectivity to users across India, broadband connectivity to gram panchayats under the BharathNet project and support high data rate applications for enterprise network and consumer broadband applications. The Ariane-5 vehicle (Flight VA246) also carried GEO-KOMPSAT-2A for the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI), along with GSAT-11. The 3,507.20 kg GEO-KOMPSAT-2A is designed to conduct meteorological and space weather monitoring missions. Since the launch of India’s APPLE experimental satellite on Ariane Flight L03 in 1981, it has orbited 22 satellites under contracts with the Indian space agency, Arianespace said, adding that two more satellites, GSAT-31 and GSAT-30, were in the order book. idrw.org .Read more at India No 1 Defence News Website http://idrw.org/heaviest-isro-satellite-gsat-11-successfully-launched-from-french-guiana/ .

रजनीकांत-अक्षय की 'Robot 2.0' का बॉक्स ऑफिस पर भूचाल, दूसरे दिन कमाए इतने करोड़

रजनीकांत (Rajinikanth) की फिल्म '2.0 (2 Point 0)' का बॉक्स ऑफिस (Box Office) पर कामयाबी का सफर जारी है. रजनीकांत (Rajinikanth) और अक्षय कुमार (Akshay Kumar) की '2.0 (Enthiran 2.0)' के हिंदी वर्जन ने पहले दिन बॉक्स ऑफिस (Box Office Collection Day 1) पर 20.25 करोड़ रु. का कारोबार किया था जबकि फिल्म के सभी भाषाओं के संस्करणों की ग्रॉस कमाई लगभग 100 करोड़ रु. बताई जा रही है. इस तरह रजनीकांत (Rajinikanth) की फिल्म ने पहले दिन इस करिश्माई आंकड़े को छुआ. '2.0' के दूसरे दिन के बॉक्स ऑफिस कलेक्शन (Box Office Collection Day 2) भी आने शुरू हो गए हैं. रजनीकांत (Rajinikanth) का करिश्मा बरकरारा है और '2.0' के डायरेक्टर शंकर (Shankar) ने जिस तरह से टेक्नोलॉजी का छौंक लगाया है, वह दर्शकों को पसंद भी आ रहा है.