CHINESE ROCKET LONG MARCH 5 (Science)

China's biggest rocket, the Long March 5, returned to flight for the first time since a 2017 failure Friday (Dec. 27) in a dazzling nighttime launch for the Chinese space program.

The Long March 5 Y3 rocket lifted off at 8:45 p.m. Beijing Time carrying the experimental Shijian 20 communications satellite into a geosynchronous orbit. The satellite, which weighs a reported 8 metric tons, is China's heaviest and most advanced satellite to date, according to state media reports.

The successful launch is the first Long March 5 since a first-stage booster failure in 2017 destroyed the Shijian 18 satellite. The failure prompted redesigns in the rocket's first-stage engines, which led to a two-year gap between missions. The first Long March 5 rocket lifted off in 2016.

The Long March 5 is an essential booster for China's space ambitions. The heavy-lift booster will be the one to launch China's space station modules into orbit, as well as a Mars lander in 2020 and the Chang'e 5 moon sample-return mission.

China is also expected to use a version of the Long March 5, called the Long March 5B, to launch a new crewed spacecraft — the successor to its current Shenzhou crew capsule.

The rocket stands 184 feet (56 meters) tall and weighs nearly 2 million lbs. (867,000 kilograms) at liftoff. It is capable of carrying payloads of up to 55,000 lbs. (25,000 kilograms) into low Earth orbit. It can haul up 31,000 lbs. (14,000 kg) to a higher geostationary transfer orbit.

The Shijian 20 satellite (its name means "Practice") is designed to be a high-throughput communications satellite "capable of delivering 1 Tbps [1 terabute per second] bandwidth for ultrafast speeds,".

PRONAB SEN COMMITTEE ON ECONOMIC STATISTICS (Economy)

The statistics ministry has constituted a 28 member Standing Committee on Statistics (SCES) chaired by former Chief Statistician Pronab Sen to improve quality of data amid criticism of the government over political interference.

“The first meeting of the SCES is scheduled on January 6, 2020. The agenda would be very broad based. We will come to know about that only in the first meeting next month,” Sen told PTI, confirming that an SECS has been constituted.

Earlier in March this year, expressing concerns over “political interference” in influencing statistical data in , as many as 108 economists and social scientists had called for restoration of “institutional independence” and integrity to the statistical organisations.

Earlier in November this year, the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MOSPI) had decided not to release the Consumer Expenditure Survey results of 2017-18 citing data quality issues.

The MOSPI had also mentioned that an expert panel has recommended that 2017-18 would not be an appropriate fiscal to be used as a base year for new GDP series.

On the consumer expenditure survey, the ministry had earlier said that it was separately examining the feasibility of conducting the next Consumer Expenditure Survey in 2020-2021 and 2021-22 after incorporating all data quality refinements.

GENERAL ASSEMBLY APPROVES $3 BILLION UN BUDGET FOR 2020 (Internaational)

This budget is an increase of approximately $8 million on what was initially requested by Secretary-General António Guterres.

It also marks the first time since 1973 that the UN is adopting an annual budget instead of a two-year one.

The General Assembly’s Fifth Committee, which covers administrative and budgetary matters, had discussed and approved the budget earlier in the day. The Assembly then moved further to consider and adopt it, based on the committee’s reports.

In congratulating the committee for the successful conclusion of its work, General Assembly President Tijjani Muhammad-Bande stated that the budget adoption and other major decisions by the committee would be critical to the good functioning of the UN.

He said: "The proposed programme budget for 2020, which provides necessary resources to the UN Secretariat to implement its various tasks, also prepares us well for entry into the Decade of Action for SDG implementation."

All UN Member States are expected during the coming year to step up efforts towards the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which are designed to bring about a better world for all people while also protecting the natural environment.

The 17 goals include ending poverty and hunger, achieving gender equality and taking urgent action to combat the effects of climate change.

AADHAR CROSSES 125 CRORE MARK (Economics)

The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) announced a new milestone achieved by the project – crossing of the 125 crore mark. This means that over 1.25 billion residents of India have the 12-digit unique identity.

The achievement comes along with the rapidly increasing use of Aadhaar as the primary identity document by the Aadhaar holders. This is evident from the fact that Aadhaar-based authentication services have been used close to 37,000 crore times since inception. At present UIDAI receives about 3 crore authentication requests every day.

Also, residents are more inclined on keeping their details in Aadhaar updated. UIDAI recorded close to 331 crore successful Aadhaar updates (biometric and demographic) till date. At present UIDAI receives about 3-4 lakh Aadhaar updates request every day.

PRAKASH TANDAN COMMITTEE REPORT IMPLEMENTED ON RAIL (Economy)

Unification of eight existing services of Indian Railways for Indian Railway Management Service (IRMS) will be done at all levels i.e. from Junior Scale to HAG+. However, modalities for unification and assignment of inter se seniority will be decided by Alternative Mechanism. For this, Ministry of Railways and DOPT will together to work out the necessary formula before it is taken up by Alternative Mechanism. It will be ensured that no one will be at a disadvantage.

27 posts of GMs have been upgraded to apex grade. It will be ensured that eligible officers of all the erstwhile services get apex grade post of GM. In the cabinet note approved, it has been mentioned that officers of IRMS (constituted by 8 services) only will be eligible to become the Functional Members and Chairman/CEO of Railway Board. The number of Independent members will be decided by the Government. They will be non- Executive Members and will attend the Board meetings. They will not be involved in day-to-day functioning of Railways. Their experience of market and field will help in strategic planning of Indian Railways.

Efforts will be made to complete the unification at the earliest. Officers will continue doing the work which they were doing at present. Domain knowledge will be taken into consideration while deciding a posting. Future recruits to IRMS will be made through UPSC(Civil Services) in consultation with UPSC and DOPT.

The reforms as suggested by various committees from time to time including Prakash Tandon Committee (1994) have been largely adopted. The decision for unification was taken based on the sentiments and suggestions of all levels of officers during “Parivartan Sangosthi” held on 07th & 08th December, 2019 at New Delhi. These were also suggested by all groups constituted under GMs during Parivartan Sangosthi. The suggestions were unanimously agreed to by the Railway Board.

JHARKHAND – BECOMES 11 TH CM OF

Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) working president Hemant Soren was sworn-in as the 11th of Jharkhand here on Sunday.

Along with Hemant Soren, Congress Legislature Party Leader Alamgir Alam, state Congress president and RJD MLA Satyanand Bhokta were also sworn in as state cabinet ministers at Sunday's event.

It may be noted that in recent Jharkhand Assembly Election Results declared on 23 rd December 2019, JMM bagged 30 seats followed by the Congress at 16 and RJD won just one seat. The JVM led by has got 3 seats and AJSU just 2. BJP could get only 25.

The outgoing CM was defeated from Jamshedpur East party stalwart by Saryu Rai who was denied BJP ticket from Jamshedpur West seat.