NEWS

New Delhi:External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Thursday embarked on her first visit of the year 2018 to three South East Asian countries - Thailand, Indonesia and Singapore.

The visit is aimed at giving a further boost to bilateral relations to the South East Asian countries within the framework of India's Act East Policy.

On the first leg of this visit, EAM Swaraj will be in Thailand on 4-5 January. While in Thailand, Swaraj is expected to discuss bilateral relations, with a particular focus on political, defence and economic ties and on further enhancing India's engagement with the ASEAN countries.

New Delhi: The Indian Space Research Organisation is working on the design of a Small Satellite Launch Vehicle, which would be a compact launcher exclusively for smaller satellite.

The small launch vehicle is likely to reduce the cost for launching satellites in the competitive space technology market. When Isro launched a record 104 satellites in February last year, except the Cartosat-2, all were small satellites.

"Isro is working on the design of a Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV), that is a compact launcher for small satellites," minister of state in the PMO, Atomic Energy and Space, Jitendra Singh said in a written reply to a questionin LokSabha.

New Delhi: Anguished over its name being dragged into Maharashtra caste violence, the RashtriyaSwayamsevakSangh (RSS) has hit back at its critics, saying the incident was the handiwork of "breaking India brigade", which wants to divide the country on religious and caste lines.

"The 'breaking India brigade' had raised anti-national slogans at JNU in 2016 and is now trying to divide the Hindu society but Sangh will not allow it to succeed," RSS spokesman ManmohanVaidya said at Ujjain on the first day of the saffron fountainhead's coordination meet with BJP. 

New Delhi:Union minister and LokJanshakti Party (LJP) chief Ram Vilas Paswan has affirmed  that new age Dalits know how to protect their "self respect" and they are assertive unlike the earlier generation whiledemanding time-bound probe into the Maharashtra caste clash.

Talking to reporters outside Parliament, Paswan said there is a huge difference between Dalits of earlier generation and the present one. They won't accept harassment or discrimination. "They are strong and know how to protect their self respect," the Dalit leader said while cautioning that there should be no efforts to forcibly suppress them.