1. Devendra Fadnavis is now officially Chief Minister. He took his oath in a packed stadium. His small cabinet is expected to include Pankaja Munde, who was at one time competing with him to lead the new government.
2. The VIPs in the audience include Uddhav Thackeray, the top leader of the Shiv Sena, who had RSVP-ed, but was persuaded to change his mind by a phone call from BJP chief Amit Shah.
3. Mr Thackeray and his party are hoping for a larger invitation -to join the new government in Maharashtra.  So far, the BJP has said only that it hopes continuing negotiations will yield a happy ending.
4. Mr Thackeray was seated five people away from the Prime Minister. They shook hands when Mr Thackeray arrived.   All political A-listers are on a large stage near the one where Mr Fadnavis took his oath.
5. Protocol mandates that the Chief Minister and the Governor be seated separately.
6. A massive LED is being used to screen images that links Maharashtra's history to its contemporary culture.
7. Bollywood art director Nitin Desai, who designed the sets for movies like Jodha Akbar and Devdas, is in charge of the production design for the entire event. He told NDTV that his designs include a depiction of the coronation of Shivaji, the iconic 17th-century warrior-king and Maratha icon.
8. Mr Desai said he has been given a detailed brief by Mr Fadnavis, who wants tourist attractions like the state's famous Ajanta  Ellora caves to be highlighted at the event.
9. 4,000 VIP invitees include actors Amitabh Bachchan, Shahrukh Khan and Aamir khan, industrialists like Ratan Tata and the Ambani brothers, and politicians ranging from Sharad Pawar to former Chief Minister Prithvraj Chavan.
10. Because the swearing-in is a government event, the BJP's symbol, the lotus, cannot be given special focus within the stadium. So the party placed at least 20 gigantic lotuses on boats in the Arabian Sea that will be visible from the city's famous Marine Drive.

1. Devendra Fadnavis, who will take over as Chief Minister, may do a victory lap of the stadium, where India won the World Cup in 2011. Just like the cricket team that included Sachin Tendulkar and MS Dhoni, a brisk round of the stands is being considered for Mr Fadnavis, contingent upon security clearances.
2. Mr Fadnavis, who is 44, will take his oath on a stage that will be shared by the Governor of the state.
3. Another stage will likely steal the show - it will seat Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whose exhaustive campaign powered his party's strongest-ever result in the state. Mr Modi will be flanked by other BJP heavyweights including party president Amit Shah.
4. A massive LED screen will flash images of the Prime Minister; it will also serve up a narrative that links Maharashtra's history to its contemporary culture.
5. Bollywood art director Nitin Desai, who designed the sets for movies like Jodha Akbar and Devdas, is in charge of the production design for the entire event. He told NDTV that his designs include a depiction of the coronation of Shivaji, the iconic 17th-century warrior-king and Maratha icon.
6. Mr Desai said he has been given a detailed brief by Mr Fadnavis, who wants tourist attractions like the state's famous Ajanta Ellora caves to be highlighted at the event.
7. The BJP expects a by-invitation-only audience of 30,000 people.  4,000 VIP invitees include actors Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan and Aamir Khan, industrialists like Ratan Tata and the Ambani brothers, and politicians ranging from Sharad Pawar to the estranged Thackeray cousins, Raj and Uddhav.
8. Because the swearing-in is a government event, the BJP's symbol, the lotus, cannot be given special focus within the stadium. So the party has planned to place at least 20 gigantic lotuses on boats in the Arabian Sea that will be visible from the city's famous Marine Drive.
9. The lotus arrangement is also a tribute, the party said, to a poem written by iconic BJP leader and former prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee about the flower in bloom as the sun's rays wash over it.
10. Sources say more than 2,000 policemen will be on duty at the stadium.

No people were hurt when a rocket taking supplies to the International Space Station exploded just after launching on Tuesday night - but the mosquito eggs did not survive.

Julia Ellis, 13, was across the bay from the launching pad on Wallops Island, Virginia, less than 2 miles away, watching as the rocket lifted off. Amid the 5,000 pounds of cargo was an experiment that she and four classmates at Columbia Middle School in Berkeley Heights, New Jersey, had devised to study whether mosquito larvae can grow in zero gravity.

"Everyone was just so excited and happy," she said. "You could hear everyone cheering."

Then there was a flash, and the rocket fell. "It feels like someone smacked you in the chest," she said. "You hear one small explosion, one really large explosion and then two small explosions."

On Wednesday, investigators started looking through the wreckage of the Antares rocket, built by the Orbital Sciences Corp. of Dulles, Virginia, one of two private companies that NASA relies on to take cargo to the station. Four previous Antares launches, three of which went to the space station, were successful.

During a conference call with financial analysts, David W.

Thompson, Orbital's chairman and chief executive, said the rocket experienced a catastrophic failure about 15 seconds after liftoff, destroying the rocket and its payload. "It appears that the launch complex itself was spared from any major damage," he said.

Garrett E. Pierce, the company's chief financial officer, said the failure would not affect the company's finances this year, because insurance would cover repairs to the launching site and the payments from NASA that might be held back.

Orbital has a $1.9 billion contract from NASA for eight cargo flights, or $237 million each.

NASA officials said the loss would have no immediate effect on the operations of the space station, which has several months of supplies. A Russian cargo rocket successfully launched on Wednesday, as scheduled, and docked at the space station six hours later.

Among the items lost in the Antares explosion were a suite of student experiments arranged by NanoRacks, a small company in Houston that flies commercial payloads to the space station. Also lost were 29 nanosatellites, the largest weighing about 22 pounds, that the company had arranged to be launched from the space station.

Jeffrey Manber, NanoRacks' managing director, spent the day like an airline customer service agent trying to rebook passengers from a canceled flight.

"We're sitting here right now working through the needs of our customers," Manber said. "What are the priorities of the payloads? Who can rebuild? Who's ready to go?"

SpaceX, the other company that NASA has hired to ferry cargo, completed its most recent flight to the station last week, and its next rocket is scheduled to launch in December. Manber said some of the rebuilt student experiments could be on that flight.

Thompson said he expected that the next Antares launch, set for April, would be delayed by several months.

While he said it was too early to speculate on why the Antares crashed, Thompson added: "It will likely not take very long - I think a period measured in days, not weeks - for the investigation team to define the handful of most likely causes of the accident. It may take a little longer than that to zero in on the final root cause."

Certain to be scrutinized are the two engines in the rocket's first stage. They were built in the Soviet Union in the late 1960s and early 1970s to power a giant rocket to go to the moon. After NASA's successful moon landings, the Soviets abandoned their effort, and the engines lay in storage for decades.

Then a U.S. company, Aerojet, bought and refurbished them, and Orbital incorporated them into the Antares design.

One of the engines failed during testing in May, delaying the previous Antares flight. Orbital officials said the company was considering accelerating its plans to replace the old Soviet engines.

Orbital has had two other high-profile NASA failures in recent years.

In 2009, NASA's Orbiting Carbon Observatory on top of Orbital's Taurus XL rocket was lost when the nose cone protecting the satellite failed to separate, and the satellite crashed into the ocean.

Two years later, a similar failure destroyed NASA's Glory satellite, which was to have made climate observations.
 

In southern France, more than 20 billion dollars are being spent on trying to make a first-of-its-kind nuclear reactor, a special steel cauldron where top scientists from countries including India hope to generate clean nuclear energy by fusing atoms, a process similar to what happens on the sun.

This is till date world's largest scientific project ever to be undertaken. The reactor will weigh about 23,000 tons - as much as three Eiffel Towers. Some 80,000 kilometres of special super conducting wires will be used.

The International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) brings together India, China, South Korea, USA, Japan, Russia and the European Union  as scientists see if they can jointly harness the power of the Sun by literally confining it in a steel bottle. The head of ITER, Dr. Osamu Motojima, points out that together these entities "represent half the world's population and account for two-third of the global economic might."

Nuclear plants today generate power by splitting the atoms and in doing so they produce large quantities of radioactive waste that can be dangerous for hundreds of years and has to be handled with extreme care. In contrast, 'fusion energy' generates power by joining two atoms into one; the usual raw material is hydrogen; and the  waste generated will largely be either helium, a benign noble gas, or  water.

That's why fusion energy is sometimes referred to as 'evergreen atomic energy'. According to Dr. Ravi Grover, head of the Indian delegation at ITER, 'fusion is inherently safe, there is no danger of an uncontrolled chain reaction and fears of a nuclear explosion are negligible, producing almost no long lived radioactive waste'.

Within the massive steel frame, gas will be heated to over 150 million degrees and it will be confined to a limited space. Using giant magnets, some atoms will then be forced to fuse together releasing huge amounts of heat which can then be directed to run turbines to generate electricity. In the first instance, it is hoped the fusion reactor will produce ten times more energy than what is used to initiate the reaction estimated to produce the equivalent of 500 MW of power.

For half a century, scientists have dreamt about accomplishing this feat, but it was only in 2006 when progress was made with the formation of the ITER.

Earlier this month, 800 top scientists from more than 35 countries gathered to take stock of fusion energy at the International Conference on Thermonuclear Fusion Energy in the picturesque town of Saint Petersburg, Russia. The mood was generally upbeat but there are worries that cost and time over-runs could spiral out of control in this mammoth exercise. Motojima admits there have been 'delays' and hopes that by next year, his team will be able to give a firm timeline for the completion of the ITER project.

The delay has already spooked the USA which is threatening to pull out of the global project, on being asked by us, Motojima said 'I have the confidence that  the US will never drop out of ITER' since according to him 'the fusion reactor has already passed the point of no-return.' 
 India is providing a tenth of the components for the massive nuclear complex unfolding at Cadarache in France. New Delhi is contributing what would, when completed in 2021, be the world's largest refrigerator. The cryostat acts like a thermos flask but operates at some of the coldest temperatures ever seen in the universe, working at minus 269 degrees Celsius. This is used to keep the special super conducting magnets at the cold temperature at which they need to operate; the entire fusion system would collapse if it can't be kept cold.

India is also expected to contribute about 9,000 cores over the next decade to the project, thus paying for a little under 10% of the total cost.

Ratan K. Sinha, Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, Mumbai says 'participation of India in the ITER project, with its immense scientific talent and industrial competence, has provided an opportunity to India to master cutting edge technologies.

Once the proof is established that mankind can harness the power of the Sun, India could well build its own fusion reactors after 2050 .

The Supreme Court, which is monitoring the attempts to recover untaxed or black money stashed abroad, has ordered the government to share by tomorrow the names of all Indians with foreign bank accounts.

"Why are you providing a protective umbrella to foreign bank account holders?" asked the judges. "We can't leave the issue of bringing back black money to government. It will never happen during our time," they added, stating that they will rely more now on a special committee of retired judges and regulators appointed by the Supreme Court to map the recovery of black money.

Both the previous government headed by Dr Manmohan Singh and the new government have argued in court that tax treaties with other countries prohibit the disclosure of names till charges are framed.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said the government will respect the court order and it will be upto the judges to determine whether to publicly disclose the list that will be furnished tomorrow. "There are 600 odd names in the list - we will give the  list in a sealed cover and I'm sure the court will take appropriate steps to maintain their confidentiality," said Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi.

Yesterday, the government named eight people in the top court who are being prosecuted for allegedly hiding undeclared cash in Swiss and other banks. Critics have accused the government of using tax treaties as a cop-out to shield rich and powerful citizens.

The government today said once it has completed investigations against Indians who hold bank accounts in countries like  Germany and Switzerland, it will provide all information to the Supreme Court.  "You do not do anything. Just pass on the information of account holders to us and we will pass orders for a further probe," said the frustrated court.

The Supreme Court has been monitoring the investigations into black money since 2009, based on a petition filed by noted lawyer Ram Jethmalani.

• We won't change even a word of our order.
• New regime at the Centre can't ask for modification of order when it was passed in an open court and accepted by the government.
• You do not do anything. Just pass information of account holders to us and we will pass order for further probe.
• Why are you providing protective umbrella to foreign bank account holders?
• We can't leave the issue of bringing back black money to government. It will never happen during our time.
• You do not have to take interest in people (having foreign bank accounts), the SIT (Special Investigation Team) will take care of it.

Congress leader Sheila Dikshit has qualified her headline-making comment describing Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a "man with a vision". Today, she told us: "Vision means nothing if there is no change on the ground."

Mr Modi, she said, was a "good communicator but people have elected him for what he can do for them, not to hear him speak."

The former Kerala governor and three-time chief minister of Delhi was quoted by the Indian Express newspaper this morning as saying that when she met PM Modi in July, she saw a confident man with a vision and a new language.
 "I said when I met him I found him a confident man, a man who had a vision. But I said there was no visibility of the vision. There is talk, yes, everyday a vision is being given to the people, but no action is being taken," Ms Dikshit told us.

"I don't think I have said anything wrong. That was my impression of the man and I stand by it. But what he said five months ago, nothing has come on the ground. Have prices come down? Have all those people whose bank accounts were supposed to have been made public? All these are questions which everybody is beginning to ask," said the 76-year-old Congress veteran.

Ms Dikshit is the second Congress leader after Kerala MP Shashi Tharoor to appear appreciative of PM Modi, who took power in May after his party, the BJP, defeated the Congress-led UPA in the national election.

She sought to draw a distinction between her comments and those of Mr Tharoor, who was dropped as Congress spokesperson for what was seen as his "constant and unnecessary adulation" of PM Modi.

"The context is not same at all....yes he looked confident and seemed to have good vision. But all this vision he comes out with practically every day, every week, has yet to reach the people and unless people feel the vision is touching them, I don't think a vision is a vision," Ms Dikshit toldus.

Europe's Airbus and Tata Sons have bid for a multi-billion dollar contract to replace the Indian Air Force's ageing fleet of AVRO cargo planes, as New Delhi looks to boost the role of the local private sector in modernising its armed forces.

Under the bid, estimated by analysts to be worth at least $2 billion or Rs. 12,200 crore, Airbus' Defence and Space unit and Tata's Advanced Systems would replace the 56 AVRO jets with Airbus' C295 transport planes, the European manufacturer said on Tuesday. 
 Airbus would supply the first 16 planes in "fly away" condition from its own assembly line, while the subsequent 40 would be manufactured and assembled by Tata Advanced Systems in India.

They would be the first military planes built by an Indian private company on Indian soil, with current manufacturing dominated by state-run Hindustan Aeronautics.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government have raised the foreign investment limit in defence since coming to power in May, and are moving to clear a backlog of military equipment orders and close the gap on strategic rival China.

The goverment has said it will prioritise companies which have pledged to manufacture within India.

Indian companies such as Tata, Larsen & Toubro and Mahindra Group are spending billions of dollars to build arms, as they look to win a chunk of the $250 billion that analysts estimate India will spend on defence kit over the next decade.

The government first issued a tender for a foreign supplier and Indian private firm to replace the Avro jets in May 2012, but a lack of interest from potential bidders and ministerial infighting led to a series of delays.

India is trying to replace much of its outdated fleet of military planes. The biggest contract is a $15 billion deal with France's Dassault Aviation to buy 126 Rafale fighter jets, which is still to be finalised.

 
As the government today revealed three names in the Supreme Court in connection with untaxed or black money in foreign accounts, opposition parties alleged that the names had been released selectively to protect powerful people.

Former union minister Salman Khurshid of the Congress said, "Whatever names they have given, if they feel it's right then let them go ahead. We have no issues about the government releasing names. But selective naming should not be done."

The names revealed today are Pradip Burman of the Dabur India group, Rajkot-based bullion trader Pankaj Chimanlal Lodhiya and five members of Goa-based mining firm Timblo. In its affidavit to the court, the government said they are being prosecuted for tax evasion as unaccounted for money was found in their foreign accounts.

Arvind Kejriwal, the chief of the Aam Aadmi Party, said he had revealed the same names two years ago but the government was deliberately shielding powerful people on the black money list.

"We want the government to say whether all the names that we disclosed ear;ier are in the list or not. The list of all foreign account holders should be revealed and there should be uniform action against the guilty, " Mr Kejriwal said.

The government told the court this morning that it has no intention of withholding names and they would be revealed in cases where tax evasion was established.

Earlier, the government had drawn criticism for saying the names could not be revealed as tax treaties with other countries didn't allow it unless charges are framed in court. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had then told us that names would be shared with the Supreme Court as and when investigations were completed and "some names will embarrass the Congress."

The Left questioned why no politicians' names had been revealed in court. "Where are the names that will embarrass the Congress party?" asked CPI leader D Raja.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley told us recently that a revelation of names in connection with untaxed or black money in foreign accounts would "embarrass the Congress." While none of those in a first set of names placed by the government before the Supreme Court today are politicians, there is potential embarrassment for not just the Congress, but also ruling party BJP.

Among eight people named in an affidavit filed in the top court today are five members of a family that runs a Goa-based mining company Timblo Pvt Ltd. The Timblos have donated funds to both the Congress and the BJP, more to the latter, NGO Association for Democratic Reforms or ADR said citing public documents.

"An analysis of the donations made by individuals and corporates to the National Parties between FY 2004-05 and 2011-12 shows that Timblo Pvt Ltd, whose Managing Director is Radha Timblo, had donated nine times to BJP amounting to a total of Rs. 1.18 crores and thrice to INC, amounting to a total of Rs. 65 lakhs in seven years," ADR said in a press release, listing details of the donations.

The last of the alleged donations listed were made in 2011-12; state elections were last held in Goa in 2012.

The Timblos, along with Pradip Burman of the Dabur India group and bullion trader Pankaj Chimanlal Lodhiya of Surat are being prosecuted for alleged tax evasion as money was found in their foreign accounts that was unaccounted for, the government has said.

Timblo company's Radha Timblo conceded that "at different times there were some searches, raids" but said she would comment on the affidavit later.

The BJP's endurance test for the Shiv Sena is delivering results. In new shows of courtesy, the Shiv Sena and its top leaders are offering vast praise for the BJP, the Prime Minister and the man likely to be Maharashtra's next chief minister, Devendra Fadnavis.

Sources confirm that on Friday, the BJP, which won the most seats in the state election, will have its ministers take their oath at a ceremony attended by the Prime Minister. The BJP does not have an outright majority, but it has a menu card of options for forming the government.


The BJP has an offer of support from Sharad Pawar's NCP;  it could recast its alliance with the Sena, which placed second in the elections; the BJP has also said it's working on winning over independents to bolster its strength.

Shiv Sena sources claim that their chief Uddhav Thackeray is "talking directly" with PM Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah to forge a deal.

So far, however,  the BJP has refused to put the Shiv Sena out of its misery by indicating whether a merger will be renewed. The Shiv Sena has made it clear that it treats the partnership as unstuck only in Maharashtra. Its law-makers were conspicuously present at a tea party hosted for allies by the PM on Sunday.

In an attempt at make-good, the Sena, in an editorial in its mouthpiece today, credited both the Prime Minister and Mr Shah for winning Maharashtra. Earlier editorials tolled the PM and his party with a marked lack of restraint.

"Fadnavis ji has done great work in Maharashtra," said Sanjay Raut of the Shiv Sena, promising his party's support for "a Chief Minister who will take Maharashtra to new heights."

Tomorrow, senior BJP leader Rajnath Singh is slated to be in Mumbai to attend a session where law-makers are expected to elect Mr Fadnavis as their leader and so the new Chief Minister.

China today warned India against taking any action that may "complicate or exaggerate" the boundary issue after India announced plans to build 54 new border posts in Arunachal Pradesh on October 24.

China's position on the boundary question is consistent and clear, said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying in an e-mail response to the news agency Press Trust of India. China, he said, was committed to finding a solution "through friendly negotiation as soon as possible" and working together to safeguard peace and tranquility.
 But "pending the final settlement of the boundary question, we hope the Indian side could refrain from taking any action that may complicate or exaggerate the question," Mr Hua said.

On October 15, China had objected to India's plans to build a 2000-km road along the border in Arunachal Pradesh. The road from Mago-Thingbu in Tawang to Vijaynagar in Changlang district is meant to match China's infrastructure development.

"Before the border problem is solved, we hope the Indian side will not take any action that could further complicate the relevant issue," Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hong Lei had said.

"We should jointly safeguard the peace and tranquility of the border area and create favourable conditions for the final settlement of the border issue," he had added.

In response, Home Minister Rajnath Singh had said nobody should "threaten or warn India". "India has grown in strength. Both sides should resolve the border issue through dialogue," he had said.

Subsequently, officials from India and China held the Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination held a meeting in New Delhi, during which the two sides discussed a host of issues relating to the management of the boundary and keeping peace along the border.

Last month, India and China agreed to pull back troops ranged against each other in Ladakh, ending their biggest face-off on the border in a year.