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In yet another setback for India’s space agency on its launch missions, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Sunday said the satellites onboard its maiden Small Satellite Launch Vehicle “are no longer usable” after the SSLV-D1 placed them in an elliptical orbit instead of a circular one.

The space agency on its official Twitter handle informed that a committee would analyse and make recommendations into today’s episode and with the implementation of those recommendations. It added that it will come back soon with SSLV-D2.

In its maiden SSLV mission, the launch vehicle carried The Earth Observation Satellite EOS-02 and the co-passenger student satellite AzaadiSAT. SSLV had suffered ‘data loss’ in its terminal stage, after performing “as expected” in all stages. It had earlier after lifted off from the spaceport in Andhra Pradresh’s Sriharikota on Sunday morning.

The National Testing Agency (NTA) announced Sunday that candidates who could not sit for the test between August 4-6 will now be accommodated in fresh slots between August 24-28 for which new admit cards will also be issued in a few days.

On Sunday, the fourth day of CUET-UG second phase which started on August 4, exams took place across 276 centres. The NTA did not announce any cancellations for the second straight day, in a respite from August 4 and 5, when major glitches hit the examination process inconveniencing over 50,000 candidates.

The Indian Army conducted a pan-India exercise to test and validate its entire satellite-based communication network to ensure operational readiness in case of a conflict in the future.

Called ‘Skylight’, the exercise was conducted from 25 to 29 July.

Sources in the defence and security establishment said the exercise involved all kinds of satellite communication, from the Andaman and Nicobar Islands to Ladakh, where India and China have engaged in a military stand-off for the past two years.

Sources also said the exercise not only validated protocols to switch completely to satellite-based communication in case of a conflict but also brought to light key lacunae in the systems, especially in the context of a situation arising with China.

Arpita Mukherjee`s advocate on Friday, while claiming a threat to her life, pleaded before the court to get her Division 1 prisoner category. ED advocate Phiroz Edulzi agreed with the argument of Arpita's lawyer of life threat and further said that she should not be kept with more than four prisoners in general.

Earlier today, former West Bengal minister Partha Chatterjee and his close aide Arpita Mukherjee were produced before the City Sessions Court.

"No one has come out and said that he had asked for bribe, neither in the CBI case nor in ED. Can they show any witness that he has asked for a bribe? Partha Chatterjee is not connected with the crime and the allegations levelled by the CBI are not appropriate," argued Partha's lawyer.

China on Thursday (August 4) launched aggressive and unprecedented military exercises near Taiwan in response to US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to the island that Beijing claims as part of its territory.

As the long-range, live-fire drills began with China's Eastern Theatre Command firing several ballistic missiles, Taiwan said that it was “preparing for war without seeking war”. What is Taiwan's strategy to fight back in case China attempts to occupy it by force?

The “porcupine doctrine”, which was proposed in 2008 by US Naval War College research professor William S Murray, is a strategy of asymmetric warfare focused on fortifying a weak state's defences to exploit the enemy's weaknesses rather than taking on its strengths.