India's second moon mission Chandrayaan-2 left the earth's orbit early this morning and is moving towards the moon following the successful completion of a crucial manoeuvre by the Indian Space Research Organisation. ISRO said, it has carried out the manoeuvre called 'Trans Lunar Insertion' at 2:21 AM, following which the spacecraft successfully entered the Lunar Transfer Trajectory.

Chandrayaan-2 is expected to reach the moon's orbit on August 20 and land on lunar surface on September 7. After 13 days of Moon-bound orbit phase, the lander 'Vikram' carrying rover 'Pragyan' will separate and after another few days of orbiting will soft land on September 7 in the South Pole region of the Moon, where no country has gone so far. If successful, the mission will make India the fourth country after Russia, the US and China to pull off a soft landing on the Moon.

Following the landing, the rover will roll out from the lander and carry out experiments on the lunar surface for one lunar day, which is equal to 14 earth days. The mission life of the lander is also one lunar day, while the orbiter will continue its mission for a year.

Cab aggregator Ola on Tuesday announced acqui-hiring' Pikup.ai, an artificial intelligence (AI) startup based out of Bengaluru. Acqui-hiring is a term for acquisition plus hiring. As part of the deal, the team at pikup.ai will join Ola, the company said in a statement.

Ola announced earlier this year its intent to set up an advanced technology centre in the San Francisco Bay area in the US, to focus on developing next-generation technologies in mobility like Electric, Connected and Autonomous Vehicles.

"By bringing deep domain expertise to Ola, this acquihire will also deliver innovations that continue to improve safety and transform customer experience," Ola said.

Football player José Luis Brown, who scored Argentina's opening goal in their win against West Germany in the 1986 World Cup final, has died at 62.

The defender, known by his nickname "Tata", dislocated his shoulder in the match but refused to be substituted.

That was the only international goal of his career. Argentina, led by Diego Maradona, won the match 3-2 to secure their second World Cup title.

Brown had been battling Alzheimer's disease, media reports said.

Aishwarya Pissay became the first Indian to claim a world title in motorsports, annexing the FIM World Cup ( Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme) in the women's category after the final round of the championship at Varpalota in Hungary.
 
The 23-year old from Bengaluru also finished second in the FIM Junior category yesterday.

Aishwarya, who won the first round in Dubai and was placed third (Portugal), fifth (Spain) and fourth (Hungary) in the subsequent outings, finished with a tally of 65 points, just four ahead of Portugal's Rita Vieira in the final overall standings for women.

She was placed second in the junior category with 46 points, behind championship winner Tomas de Gavardo (60) of Chile.

DTC today cancelled the Delhi-Lahore bus service as Pakistan has decided to discontinue it in the wake of India revoking Jammu and Kashmir's special status.

A DTC bus was scheduled to leave for Lahore at 6 AM this morning but it did not leave due to Pakistan's decision to suspend the bus service. DTC said in a statement that following Pakistan's decision to suspend the Delhi-Lahore bus service, DTC is not able to send bus from Delhi to Lahore.  

Indian Space Research Organisation chairman Dr K Sivan has said, the organization will tomorrow perform a maneuvers called trans-lunar injection by which Chandrayaan 2 will leave earth and move towards the moon's orbit. He said, the maneuver will be performed early morning at around 3:30 am.

Dr Sivan was speaking in Ahmedabad yesterday on the sidelines of an event to mark the birth centenary celebrations of father of India's space programme Dr Vikram Sarabhai. 

The ISRO Chairmans said, the spacecraft will be reaching the moon's orbit on 20th of this month and it will be landing on the moon's surface on 7th of next month by performing a series of maneuvers.

India’s second lunar mission Chandrayaan-2 was successfully launched on 22nd of last month.

Reliance Jio has announced a long-term strategic partnership with Microsoft. Announced at the Reliance India Limited’s 42nd Annual General Meeting, the aim of the partnership is to accelerate the various aspects required for the digital transformation of the Indian economy and society.

The 10-year partnership will see the two companies working together on a number of solutions comprising connectivity, computing, storage solutions, and other technology services and applications essential for Indian businesses. Microsoft will be working with Jio to give a push to data analytics, AI (Artificial Intelligence), cognitive services, blockchain, Internet of Things, and edge computing among small and medium enterprises to make them ready to compete and grow, at the same time help in the GDP growth in India.

South Korea has decided to remove Japan from a list of nations receiving preferential treatment in trade in what was seen as a retaliatory move to Tokyo’s recent decision to downgrade Seoul’s trade status.

South Korean Trade Minister Sung Yun-mo said on August 12 that the government was removing Japan from the country’s 29-country “white list” because it has failed to uphold international principles while managing its export controls on sensitive materials.

South Korean officials did not specify what they saw as Japan’s problems in export controls. They said they would work to minimize negative impact on South Korean exporters and bilateral trade.

On Monday, Google celebrated the 100th birth anniversary of scientist and innovator Vikram Sarabhai, with a doodle. Dr. Sarabhai is considered as the father of India's space program, and his centenary comes just weeks after India's Chandrayaan-2 mission to the moon.

Born in Ahmedabad in 1919, Dr. Sarabhai earned his doctorate at Cambridge. He founded the Physical Research Laboratory (PRL) in Ahmedabad in November 1947. After Russia's Sputnik launch, he managed to convince the Indian government on the need for India, a developing country, to have its own space program.

Dr. Sarabhai established the Indian National Committee for Space Research in 1962, which was later renamed the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO). He helped set up the Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station in Thiruvananthapuram, with its inaugural flight in November 1963.

In Badminton, Indian junior shuttlers won six medals at the Bulgarian Junior International Championships which concluded in Pazardzhik, Bulgaria today. The medals comprised of three gold, a silver and two bronze.  The gold medals were won by Samiya Imad Faruqui in women's singles, the duo of Edvin Joy and Shruti Mishra in Mixed Doubles and pair of Tanisha Crasto and Aditi Bhatt in women's doubles. Men's doubles combination of Ishan Bhatnagar and Vishnuvardhan settled for the silver medal.

Malvika Bansod and  Meiraba Luwang won a bronze each in other singles events.