S Somanath’s family celebrates his elevation as Isro chief at their residence at Ambalamukku in Thiruvananthapuram | EXPRESS BENGALURU  THURSDAY  JANUARY 13, 2022  `9.00  PAGES 22  LATE CITY EDITION EMINENT ROCKET SCIENTIST SOMANATH IS NEW ISRO CHIEF Dr S Somanath, who is at present director of Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, will take over from incumbent K Sivan on Friday COMBINED TENURE OF THREE YEARS PLAYED KEY ROLE IN CHANDRAYAAN-2 Somanath’s appointment as Space Secretary and Space Commission chairman is for a combined tenure of three years including extension. The post of ISRO chairman, Space Secretary and Space Commission chief is usually held by one person. Somanath did his B Tech in Mech Engg from TKM engg college Kollam and masters in aerospace engg from IISc Bangalore ■ ■ Among his achievements are the successful flight of an electric propulsion system in GSAT-9 and the development and qualification of CE20 cryogenic engine and the C25 stage Somanath was also instrumental in developing the GSLV Mk-III rocket, which was chosen to fly the Chandrayaan-2 mission 10th SOMANATH WILL BE THE 10TH CHAIRMAN OF THE PREMIER SPACE ORGANISATION CHENNAI ■ MADURAI ■ VIJAYAWADA ■ BENGALURU ■ KOCHI ■ HYDERABAD ■ VISAKHAPATNAM ■ COIMBATORE ■ KOZHIKODE ■ THIRUVANANTHAPURAM ■ BELAGAVI ■ BHUBANESWAR ■ SHIVAMOGGA ■ MANGALURU ■ TIRUPATI ■ TIRUCHY ■ TIRUNELVELI ■ SAMBALPUR ■ HUBBALLI ■ DHARMAPURI ■ KOTTAYAM ■ KANNUR ■ VILLUPURAM ■ KOLLAM ■ TADEPALLIGUDEM ■ NAGAPATTINAM ■ THRISSUR ■ KALABURAGI AFTER HC RAP, GOVT BANS MEKEDATU YATRA Will abide by court order, march on till Friday’s hearing: Siddu E X P R E SS N E WS S E R V I C E @ Bengaluru AFTER the Karnataka High Court pulled up the state government for not initiating any action to stop the Mekedatu Padayatra, which is being taken out by Congress, the state government on Wednesday evening banned the rally with immediate effect. Congress leaders, however, maintained that they will go ahead with t h e P a d ay a t r a o n Thursday the fifth day , of the rally that was flagged from Ramanagara on Sunday . The order prohibited the movement of people and vehicles for the purpose of the padayatra both within and outside Ramanagara district, and warned that legal action will be taken if it is violated. The government is expected to file its response to the court on Thursday . On Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai’s directions, Chief Secretary P Ravikumar held a high-level meeting with senior officials on Wednesday evening and the ban order was issued immediately after. Under Section 24(a)(b)(l) of the Disaster Management Act, 2005, the state government prohibited with immediate effect all inter-district (within Kar nataka) and intra-district (within Ramanagara) movement of vehicles and persons for participating in “Namma Neeru Namma Hakku” padayatra or whichever name it is called with similar purpose from Mekedatu to Bengaluru. The GO will be in force till further orders and should be implemented strictly by all deputy commissioners, superintendents of police and police P4 commissioners. When it comes to water and land, in Karnataka, we have always worked together. The State Government is committed to implement the Mekedatu reservoir project by taking the confidence of opposition party and others. Covid third wave has hit the state, especially Bengaluru. Our first priority should be health at this stage. I seek your cooperation and help us in preventing the cases. Do not violate Covid norms — Basavaraj Bommai, Chief Minister Cops to stop rally at Bidadi, Ramanagara? E X P R E SS N E WS S E R V I C E @ Bengaluru FOLLOWING the state government issuing orders prohibiting Mekedatu padayatra, a high-level meeting of top police officials, which was held in Ramanagara late on Wednesday night, decided to stop Congress from continuing the yatra from Ramanagara to Bengaluru. It is learnt that the police are planning to stop the padayatra either at Ramanagara when it resumes on Thursday morning or near Bidadi when it ends in the evening, depending on the situation. It is also said that the police are planning to stop leaders, like KPCC president DK Shivakumar, Leader of the Opposition Siddaramaiah and others, who have returned to Bengaluru, from entering Ramanagara. P4 As poll season heats up, another UP minister quits N A M I TA B A J PA I @ Lucknow IN what is being seen as a realignment of political forces in poll-bound Uttar Pradesh, a second BJP minister quit the Yogi government in as many days, while the party poached a couple of lawmakers from the Congress and the Samajwadi Party as also a former MLA from Akhilesh Yadav’s party . A day after UP minister Swami Prasad Maurya created a EXPRESS READ IT majors clock rise in Q3 net profit BENGALURU: Three of the country’s largest IT firms reported strong Q3 results on Wednesday. TCS reported a 12.2% rise in consolidated net profit to Rs 9,769 crore for the December quarter. Bengaluruheadquartered Infosys logged an 11.8% rise in consolidated net profit to Rs 5,809 crore for the quarter, while Wipro posted a consolidated net profit of Rs 2,969 crore. P13 NATIONWIDE JAN 11 JAN 12 Fresh cases Recoveries Deaths 1,68,063 1,94,720 69,959 60,405 277 442 KARNATAKA JAN 11 JAN 12 Fresh cases Recoveries Deaths 14,473 1,356 5 21,390 1,541 10 JAB-O-METER TAKE YOUR SHOT January 11 76,68,282 doses January 12 66,77,685 doses TOTAL DOSES 1,54,50,27,669 flutter by putting in his papers, his colleague Dara Singh Chauhan followed suit on Wednesday Speculation about his exit . had started doing the rounds after Maurya left on Tuesday. Both are serial party-hoppers. Chauhan was holding the en- vironment and forest portfolio in the Yogi cabinet. He had last defected from the BSP to the BJP in 2015 and was soon appointed chairman of the state backward commission. A sitting MLA from Madhuban in Mau district of eastern SERIAL PARTY-HOPPER DOES IT AGAIN Dara Singh Chauhan represented the BSP in Rajya Sabha in 1996; SP in RS from 2000-2006; BSP again in Lok Sabha from 2009-2014; lost 2014 LS polls on BSP ticket before defecting to the BJP a year later UP, Chauhan is a prominent leader from the Most Backward Classes. In his resignation letter to Governor Anandiben Patel, Chauhan accused the BJP government of ignoring Dalits and backwards and tampering with their reservation rights. While Chauhan had yet to reveal his destination, Akhilesh tweeted his photograph with Chauhan, welcoming him to the SP fold and calling him an P10 apostle of social justice. B’LURU SCHOOLS TO Retail inflation STAY SHUT TILL JAN 31 at six-month high of 5.6 pc E X P R E SS N E WS S E R V I C E @ Bengaluru SCHOOLS in Bengaluru have been ordered to remain shut till January 31, Primary and Secondary Education Minister BC Nagesh announced on Wednesday Highlighting the need to speed up . vaccinations, he advised deputy commissioners of other districts not to close schools as children have already been negatively impacted by online classes. Nagesh held a meeting with top officials of the urban and district education department, where he mentioned that though Covid infections are rising, there is little cause for concern as cases are mild and the rate of hospitalisation is low. But Classes 1-9 in Bengaluru Urban and Rural should be shut till January 31 due to an increase in cases, he added. P3 21K fresh cases in state Karnataka on Wednesday logged a huge spurt in fresh Covid cases, at 21,390 positives, with Bengaluru Urban seeing 15,617 cases. P3 Discharge policy revised The Centre has revised the Covid discharge policy. Accordingly, the case severity is categorised as mild and moderate. P9 E X P R E SS N E WS S E R V I C E @ New Delhi DEALING a twin blow to expectations of a healthier economy in the post-Covid era, latest data showed retail inflation is shooting up while industrial activity is losing steam. According to figures released by the National Statistical Office on Wednesday retail infla, tion flared up again in December 2021 to 5.6%, on higher food, clothing and footwear prices. This is the highest monthly retail inflation recorded in the past six months and is within kissing distance from the RBI’s P13 upper limit of 6%.