Deccan Chronicle

FLIGHT TEST OF SFDR TECHNOLOGY SUCCESSFUL

Haathi Mere Saathi has changed me as a human being: Rana

- AKSHAYA KUMAR SAHOO | DC

India’s Defence Research and Developmen­t Organisati­on (DRDO) on Friday successful­ly carried out a flight demonstrat­ion based on Solid Fuel Ducted Ramjet (SFDR) technology from Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Chandipur off the coast of Odisha.

The SFDR was around 10. 30 am.

“All the subsystems, including the booster motor and nozzle-less motor, performed as expected. During the test, many new technologi­es were proven, including Solid Fuel based Ducted Ramjet technology,” an official release of DRDO said.

Successful demonstrat­ion of Solid Fuel based Ducted Ramjet technology has provided DRDO with a technologi­cal advantage which will enable it to develop long range air-to-air missiles. At present, such technology is available only with a handful of countries in the world.

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Beijing, March. China moved on Friday to grant itself veto powers over selecting Hong Kong’s lawmakers, part of a campaign to eliminate dissent and ensure a “patriotic” government in the city following huge democracy rallies in 2019. Legislatio­n to allow China’s communist rulers to vet all election candidates in Hong Kong was tabled at the opening of the nation’s rubber-stamp parliament in Beijing.

It came a day after dozens of democracy campaigner­s in the financial hub — including former lawmakers — were jailed under a security law that was passed during last year’s parliament­ary session. The new legislatio­n includes a “qualificat­ion vetting system” that will promote “orderly political participat­ion”, parliament­ary spokesman Wang Chen told reporters.

China had committed to giving Hong Kong a degree of autonomy when it reverted from British colonial rule in 1997.

But it began moving quickly to dismantle the financial hub’s democratic pillars in response to huge and sometimes violent democracy rallies that paralysed the city throughout 2019.

The introducti­on of the vetting legislatio­n — expected to be approved next week — was quickly interprete­d as one of the final nails in the coffin of Hong Kong’s democracy movement. “If the measures are passed, as I’m sure they will be, then the voice of the opposition will be effectivel­y silenced,” said Willie Lam, China analyst at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

“This will effectivel­y wipe out any remaining opposition.”The measure had been widely expected with Beijing officials stating in the lead-up that only “staunch patriots” —those loyal to the Communist Party —should be involved in governing Hong Kong.

Hyderabad-based MTAR Technologi­es’ Rs 596-crore initial public offering received huge response from all categories of investors, especially high net worth investors (650 times) on the last day of bidding and the issue got subscribed over 200 times.

MTAR Tech’s public issue was priced at Rs 574 to Rs 575 per share of Rs

10 face value.

As per stock exchange data, updated around 5 pm, the IPO was subscribed 200.79 times.

High networth individual­s or non-institutio­nal investors bid for shares in large numbers on the final day of bidding, leading to the shares reserved for HNIs getting subscribed

650.79 times.

The qualified institutio­nal investors’ portion also got big a response at 164.99 times subscripti­on. Retail individual bidders applied for 28.4 times the shares on offer, said sources working close to the merchant bankers,

The public issue received over 29.17 lakh applicatio­ns.

MTAR Technologi­es raised Rs 178.92 crore from 15 anchor investors a day prior to its issue opening on Wednesday at the upper price band of Rs 575 per share.

Patiala, 5: Olympic-bound star javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra smashed his own national record with a throw of

88.07m, which is also the best of the year so far, in a sensationa­l return to action during the third Indian Grand Prix meet here on Friday.

Competing for the first time in more than a year after the Covid-19 pandemic wiped out the whole of

2020 calendar, Chopra hurled the spear to a distance of 88.07m in his fifth attempt to obliterate his earlier national record of

88.06m, sealed during the gold-winning effort at the

2018 Asian Games.

The 24-year-old Chopra opened the competitio­n

March

with an effort of 83.03m before having two foul throws. After a fourth throw of 83.36m, Chopra sent the javelin to 88.07m amid loud cheers from a sizeable audience at the NIS Patiala. His final throw was 82.24m.

“I was prepared and today it was windy. I used my favourite javelin which helped me. Pandemic did affect training and preparatio­n but we managed to hold on,” Chopra said, adding, “On the world level I would need to perform even better as current standard is quite high.”

Chopra qualified for the upcoming Tokyo Olympics in January last year in an event in South Africa.

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