US develops drone that can stay in sky for 48 hours

WASHINGTON: Scientists in the US claimed to have developed a new "silent drone" that has an increased flight time of about 48 hours, an invention which is expected to further strengthen the country's surveillance.

The Stalker Unmanned Aerial System (UAS), developed by aerospace company Lockheed Martin, has been kept in the air for 48 hours using a radical new laser power system during trials.

This increase in flight time represents an improvement of 2,400 per cent and could eventually keep military spy drones in the sky forever, the developers said.

The small, silent UAS is already used by Special Operations Forces since 2006 to perform intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions.

"We're pleased with the results of this test. Laser power holds real promise in extending the capabilities of Stalker," Tom Koonce, programme manager at Lockheed Martin Skunk Works Stalker said.

"A ground-to-air recharging system like this allows us to provide practically unlimited flight endurance to extend and expand the mission profiles that the Stalker vehicle can fulfill," he added.

The Stalker UAS was modified for the indoor flight test to incorporate the power beaming technology from LaserMotive.

It makes it possible to wirelessly transfer energy over long distances using laser light.

"This test is one of the final steps in bringing laser-powered flight to the field. By enabling in-flight recharging, this system will ultimately extend capabilities, improve endurance and enable new missions for electric aircraft," said Tom Nugent, president of LaserMotive.

"The next step in proving the reality of this technology is to demonstrate it outdoors in an extended flight of the Stalker," he said.

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RIL-BP warn govt of KG-D6 closure if investment not okayed

PTI Jul 17, 2012, 10.37PM IST

NEW DELHI: Reliance Industries and its British partner BP Plc have warned that eastern offshore KG-D6 gas fields will stop producing in 2015 unless the government approves investments needed to keep the nation's largest gas fields alive.
RIL Executive Director PMS Prasad and BP India head Sashi Mukundan met Oil Minister S Jaipal Reddy for nearly three and half hours on Friday to highlight the exigency facing the flagging KG-D6 fields due to his ministry not approving annual budgets and capital spending for three years, sources said.

RIL-BP at the meeting, which was also attended by Oil Secretary GC Chaturvedi, Joint Secretary (Exploration) Giridhar Aramane and Directorate General of Hydrocarbon (DGH) Director General Rajiv Nayan Choubey, said output at KG-D6 will continue to fall in absence of interventions.
KG-D6 output this week has dropped to below 30 million standard cubic metres per day (mmscmd) and is projected to further fall to 20 mmscmd by next year.
Gas output dip, from 61.5 mmscmd achieved in March 2010, has pulled down power generation and industrial production.
Sources said while the oil ministry-controlled block oversight committee is supposed to approve spending before beginning of a fiscal, in case of KG-D6, budgets and work programmes for 2010-11, 2011-12 and 2012-13 have not been approved.
Besides budgets, the Management Committee (MC), which is headed by DGH and includes a senior official of the oil ministry, has not approved revised field development plan for MA oilfield in the same Krishna Godavari basin KG-DWN-98/3 or KG-D6 block in Bay of Bengal.
Also, the MC has refused to recognise at least three gas discoveries in the block, impeding preparation of a field development plan to bring them to production.
While MC is supposed to meet at least once a quarter, RIL-BP's request for convening meeting of the panel has not even been acknowledged on past 6-7 occasions.
Sources said RIL-BP told Reddy that well interventions at the currently producing Dhirubhai-1 & 3 fields and MA oilfield can potentially add 0.8 trillion cubic feet if a capital expenditure of USD 543 million for 2012-13 is approved.
Listing six interventions they had planned in the KG-D6 to arrest output decline, RIL-BP said these were "critical to the maintenance of production at the current levels" but have so far not been approved by the block Management Committee.
RIL-BP, Prasad and Mukundan said, had been conducting petroleum operations and incurring contract costs without an approved work programme and budget since April 1, 2011.
Neither Reddy nor his team however gave any commitments on requests made by RIL-BP.
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may be BP likes it to be closed -LOOKS LIKE

Drug companies using humans as guinea pigs

India’s top court on Monday accused some drug companies of using Indians like “guinea pigs” in illegal clinical trials as it ordered the government to submit a report on the practice.
Rights groups have raised concern that India has become a hotspot for drug trials, with hospital patients sometimes used unwittingly to test new drugs by leading pharmaceutical companies.
Low costs, weak laws and inadequate enforcement and penalties have made India an attractive destination for the tests, the groups say.
“This is most unfortunate that clinical trials take place and people are dying. What action has been taken?” Supreme Court Judges R.M. Lodha and A.S Dave said on Monday in New Delhi.
“There has to be some sense of responsibility. Human beings are treated like guinea pigs.”
The judges also criticised the government for failing to submit a report in time in response to a public interest case filed by a group of doctors and a voluntary organisation, Swasthya Adhikar Manch (Health Rights Group).
The petitioners claim several patients in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh seeking medical help were used in drug tests and this was “unethical and illegal”.
The group said they have compiled and submitted a report of more than 200 cases where patients were subjected to clinical trials to check the efficacy of various drugs without seeking their permission.
In May, a government panel found serious problems with the way approvals for foreign drugs are given and clinical trials are being carried out.
Earlier this year, 12 doctors accused of conducting secret drug trials on children and patients with learning disabilities were let off after they paid fines of less than $100 each.
Faced with mounting criticism, the Indian Council of Medical Research in 2011 had sought proposals from doctors and health activists on new draft guidelines for compensation to be paid to people undertaking drug trials.