Government announces enhanced support under Merchandise Exports from India Scheme (MEIS) of the Foreign Trade Policy 

In the backdrop of the continued challenging global environment being faced by Indian exporters, Department of Commerce has extended support to certain new products and enhanced the rate of incentives for certain other specified products under the Merchandise Exports from India Scheme (MEIS).  This has been implemented through DGFT public Notice No 32 dated 22.09.2016.

The following are the major highlights of the support:-

Addition of new products –

1. 2901 additional products falling under different product categories have been        added.  These include items in the following areas:

2. Many items of traditional medicines like Ashwagandha herbs and its extracts, other herbs, extracts of different items.
3. Certain marine products, sea feed items.
4. Onion dried, processed cereal products and other value added items of plastics, lather articles, suitcases etc
5. Industrial products under different categories, including engineering goods, fabrics, garments, chemicals, ceramics, glass products, leather goods, newspapers, periodicals, silk items, made ups, wool products, tubes, pipes etc.  

Increase in MEIS rates –

Rates of 575 product items falling under 11 products categories have been increased.  These product include products of iron and steel, handicrafts, moulded and extruded goods, rubber, ceramic, glass, auto tyres and tubes, industrial machinery engineering items, IC Engines, machine tools / parts, items of wood, paper, stationary, footwear, auto seats, steel furniture, prefabs, items under the category of butter, ghee and cheese, dried egg albumin and rubber products
With this the total number of items covered under the scheme has been increased from 5012 to 7103. The total support extended by Government of India under the scheme has been enhanced from the present Rs 22,000 crore to Rs 23,500 crore per annum.

National SC/ST Hub to be launched on 8th October 2016 in Ludhiana 

Presently, less than 0.5 per cent of total procurement of goods and services of CPSEs is made from enterprises owned by SC/ST. National SC/ST Hub under the Ministry of MSME will be launched soon. This will promote the SC/ST entrepreneurs. In this regard, a National High Power Committee meeting headed by Shri Kalraj Mishra, Union Minister for MSME was held, to review the progress of the National SC/ST Hub.
The Hub will provide mentoring and hand holding support to SC/ST entrepreneurs involving ex-bankers, industrialists, industry associations and other bodies for mentoring on the lines of similar scheme in NITI Aayog, besides policy advocacy with states for public procurement and development schemes.
It will also facilitate credit linkages for SC/ST entrepreneurs SC/ST entrepreneurs. The objective of the scheme is to promote "enterprise culture" amongst the SC/ST population.
It would also enable Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs) to fulfill the target, which the Government has kept for procurement by them. The Public Procurement Policy 2012 stipulates that 4 per cent of procurement shall be done by Ministries, Departments and CPSEs from the enterprises owned by SC/ST. 

GSLV Successfully Launches India’s Weather Satellite INSAT-3DR

In its tenth flight (GSLV-F05) conducted , India's Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle, equipped with the indigenous Cryogenic Upper Stage (CUS), successfully launched the country's weather satellite INSAT-3DR, into a Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO). The achieved orbit is very close to the intended one. The launch took place from the Second Launch Pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre SHAR (SDSC SHAR), Sriharikota, the spaceport of India. This was the first operational flight of GSLV equipped with CUS and the fourth to carry the indigenous CUS. GSLV flight was the third consecutive success achieved by GSLV carrying indigenous CUS and the 2211 kg INSAT-3DR is the heaviest satellite to be launched from the Indian soil.

In its oval shaped GTO, the INSAT-3DR satellite is now orbiting the Earth with a perigee (nearest point to Earth) of 169.76 km and an apogee (farthest point to Earth) of 36,080.5 km with an orbital inclination of 20.62 deg with respect to the equator.

After a 29 hour 40 minutes countdown, the 415 tonne, 49 m tall GSLV-F05 carrying INSAT-3DR, lifted off at the rescheduled time of 16:50 Hrs IST. The 40 minute delay in the launch was due to an anomaly observed in the functioning of a pressure release valve in the liquid Oxygen filling ground segment which was resolved later.

At 4.8 seconds before the countdown reached zero, the four liquid propellant strap-on stages of GSLV-F05, each carrying 42 tonne of liquid propellants, were ignited. At count zero and after confirming the normal performance of all the four strap-on motors, the 139 tonne solid propellant first stage core motor was ignited and GSLV lifted off. The major phases of the flight included the core motor burn-out, strap on burn-out, ignition of the second stage, separation of the core motor together with strap-ons, payload fairing separation, second stage separation, CUS ignition and its timely shut down after satisfactory performance. About seventeen minutes after lift-off, INSAT-3DR was successfully placed in GTO.

Soon after its injection into GTO, the solar array of INSAT-3DR was automatically deployed and the Master Control Facility (MCF) at Hassan in Karnataka took control of the satellite.

Like its predecessor INSAT-3D which is providing service from orbit since 2013, INSAT-3DR is an advanced meteorological (weather observation) satellite built by India to provide a variety inputs essential for accurate weather forecasting. For this, it is equipped with three payloads (instruments), namely, a Multispectral Imager, Sounder and weather Data Relay Transponder. INSAT-3DR also carries a satellite aided Search and Rescue Transponder that picks up and relays alert signals originating from distress beacons of maritime, aviation and land based users.

In the coming days, INSAT-3DR's orbit will be raised from its present GTO to the final circular Geostationary Orbit (GSO) by firing the satellite's Liquid Apogee Motor (LAM) in stages. The satellite will be commissioned into service after the completion of orbit raising operations and the satellite’s positioning in its designated orbital slot of 74 degree East longitude in the GSO and in-orbit testing of its payloads.