INDIA Aims For World Record With 100+ Satellite Launches In One Go.

“We are making a century by launching over 100 satellites at one go,”  said  the, Director of the Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).

 If successful, India will set a world record as the first country to launch the most satellites in one go and leave behind Russia, which launched 39 satellites in a single mission in June 2014.

The space agency had earlier planned a launch of 83 satellites in the last week of January, of which 80 were foreign ones. But with the addition of 20 more foreign satellites, the launch was delayed by a week and will now take place in first week of February.

As India looks to grab a larger slice of the lucrative commercial space market,   this step will be a significant milestone. Launching several satellites at one go reduces cost and India has been trying to position itself as a key player as an effective but low-cost operator.

In June,2016, India set a national record after it successfully launched a rocket carrying 20 satellites, including 13 from the US.

In May, it successfully launched its first mini space shuttle as it joined the global race to make reusable rockets.

It sent an unmanned rocket to orbit Mars in 2013 at a cost of just $73 million, compared with NASA's Maven Mars mission which had a $671 million price tag.

India  is also mulling the idea of missions to Jupiter and Venus, according to PTI.

India jumped up 16 positions on a global index of the world's most competitive economies

In a big jump, India has moved up 16 positions to rank 39th on a global index of the world's most competitive economies. The report  showed that India fared well in goods market efficiency, business sophistication and innovation

India’s competitiveness improved across the board, particularly in goods market efficiency (60), business sophistication (35) and innovation (29). WEF said recent reform efforts by the government have concentrated on improving public institutions (up 16 places), opening the economy to foreign investors and international trade (up 4), and increasing transparency in the financial system (up 15).

India still needs to cover a lot of ground, the WEF said, citing labour market deficiencies, large, public enterprises that reduce economic efficiency, especially in the utilities sector and the financial market. Lack of infrastructure remains a critical bottleneck, the report said.  

Can NSG be far behind? as India enters MTCR.

India became the 35th member of the Missile Technology  Control Regime (MTCR) as the members of the international anti-proliferation grouping agreed to admit India in the regime. The decks were cleared for India’s entry when it joined the Hague Code of Conduct against Ballistic Missile Proliferation.

MTCR is the first step for India’s entry in the four export control bodies, including the NSG (essentially  founded in response to the  Indian nuclear test in May 1974) , the Wassenaar  Arrangement and the Australia Group.   Entry & membership   of  few of  these  groups would end decades of denial of  some technology  &  further   will enable India to become a major supplier/player in the global missile market,   the technology  available in house now.  Over the years, it has developed technology that allows it to make missiles that precisely hit the targets.

While the NSG is focused on stemming the proliferation of nuclear weapons, the Wassenaar Arrangement establishes lists of items for which member countries are to apply export controls. Australia Group formed in 1985 prompted by Iraq’s use of chemical weapons during the Iran-Iraq War.

Only a few days ahead of  the MTCR clincher, India’s bid to enter the much-coveted  Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) was denied by  China, a  member in the group,  by blocking it.  China, has been  playing  the spoilsport  since long  but an entry to MTCR  should  not be long  before India takes its due  & deserve  seat in the NSG  which Is been pending since long.

Tesla Model 3- "Biggest one-week launch of any product ever."

Tesla announced on 8^th April that it has received 325,000 pre orders for its recently unveiled Model 3. If it sells every car that's been reserved, the company says it will earn enough revenue to make this the "biggest one-week launch of any product ever."   

Approx $14 billion in implied future sales for a car that  unlikely  to  delivered  to anybody  until 2018 at the earliest.  While it’s undoubtedly encouraging that hundreds of thousands of consumers are eager to purchase the Model 3, its possible that interest may wane if some deliveries are pushed back until 2020  and that  seems likely if one sees the  history of Tesla.

Musk further  revealed that only 5 percent of Model 3 pre order customers reserved two cars -'the maximum allowed"  and  as per him,   this suggests "low levels of speculation," or buyers looking to flip the car for a profit. The reservations are not transferable, meaning any speculators would need to buy the car outright and then sell it used to a third-party.

After receiving these incredible numbers of pre orders  Tesla now seems to be scaling back on Model 3 expectation. For instance, when Musk first introduced the Model 3, he insinuated that Supercharging would be free. However, a closer inspection of Musk’s remarks revealed that Supercharging capabilities on the Model 3 would come standard, perhaps implying that Model 3 users might have to pay for Supercharging access.

In fact, Tesla even changed the supercharging verbiage on its website following the Model 3’s unveiling. Whereas “Supecharging” was initially listed as one of the Model 3’s features, it has since been changed to “Supercharging Capable.”

Other   instances like, Tesla’s initial Model 3 webpage boasted that the car would sport a “5-star Safety Rating in all categories.” but the updated Model 3 webpage simply states that the car will be “Designed for Safety.”

In another example, the first incarnation of the Model 3 webpage said that the car will feature “Autopilot Safety Features.” Now it simply reads that the Model 3 will come with “Autopilot Hardware”, seemingly implying that users will have to pay extra to get Autopilot safety features turned on.

Source :website and various news articles

Largest U.S. chemical companies to combine in megamerger. Could spark more deals!!

Two American  Chemical giants and possibly among the oldest,  DuPont and Dow Chemical  have agreed to combine in an all-stock merger valued at $130 billion  which  would be the 18th largest deal ever.

 

Dow Chemical Co. and Dupont Co. that are 118 and 213 years old, respectively, announced the blockbuster, tax free  deal that would take two years to complete.  Following the completion of the deal's in 2016, the  merged entity  would eventually    will  break up  into  3 separate, publicly-traded entities focusing on Agricultural products, Material sciences, and Specialty products.

The deal, the fifth-largest corporate merger of 2015, would certainly receive scrutiny from federal regulators, especially regarding the new companies  place in global agricultural production, including seeds, insecticides, and pesticides. Executives from both companies  however said the agrochemicals businesses have little overlap and any asset sales would likely be minor.

By revenue, the material sciences company – which makes products for the packaging, transportation, and infrastructure industries, to name a few – will be the largest. Its combined revenue in 2014 was around $51B on an adjusted basis. It will compete with the likes of corporate titans BASF, Honeywell, and 3M.

The specialty products company, with a combined revenue of $13B in 2014, would sell materials to the electronics and communications industries, among others.

The agriculture company, focusing on seeds and chemicals, would have a combined adjusted revenue of $19B overtaking BASF as the leader in agrochemicals. In the seed industry, DowDupont is pitted against behemoth Monsanto.

Dow shareholders would own 52 percent of the new company after preferred shares are converted, the companies said. The agreement includes a $1.9 billion termination fee under specified circumstances, such as rejection by shareholders.

The biggest impact will certainly be in the agriculture market, where the seeds and crop chemical industries are to undergo rapid consolidation

Prior to the merger, Dupont said in a statement it will slash $700 million in costs, with ten percent of its workforce "impacted" by the move, while Dow is expected to drop $300 million in costs.

As per Dealogic , this   merger would represent the 18th largest corporate deal of all-time. It would trail the 2015 deals made by Allergan and Pfizer, Anheuser-Busch InBev and SABMiller, BG Group and Royal Dutch Shell and Time Warner Cable and Charter Communications.

Dow and Dupont have a combined annual revenue of around $83 billion, with operating profit of about $15 billion.