India news: Space agency to boost GPS alternative with new satellite

Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday renewed his call for supporters of his Congress Party and other opposition groups to demonstrate this weekend at Ramlila Maidan in New Delhi, a large open space usually serving as a venue for religious festivals.

Gandhi and other senior opposition figures are seeking to capitalize on growing public discontent over alleged voter roll irregularities.

Gandhi encouraged people to turn out to protest on Sunday, despite recent clampdowns by police.

"This is not a march for any one political party, it's a march for the soul of India," Gandhi said.

"If you feel that India is under attack, you are under attack, your expression, your ideas, your way of thinking is under attack, come and join us."

Recent protests against alleged electoral fraud in India have seen protesters and police clash, with several protest leaders detained.

The largely youth- and student-led demonstrations have grown into one of the most serious challenges to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist government in years.

But Gandhi said: "Don't worry about the police ... the BJP will not have the guts to try any of their antics."

The Legislative Council elections results declared on Thursday in the northern Uttar Pradesh state has thrust the Samajwadi Party (SP) back in the limelight against the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ahead of the state elections next year.

SP strengthened its position in Uttar Pradesh's Legislative Council after winning five of the 11 seats contested.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's BJP retained its overall tally of six seats.

SP president Akhilesh Yadav described the results as a rejection of the BJP's policies on education, teachers and students.

"None of our candidates has actually lost, they just could not win in the face of the BJP’s manipulation," Yadav said, according to The Indian Express newspaper, without providing evidence.

Several districts in West Bengal, along with parts of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh, were placed on flood alert on Friday, media reports said.

The flood, triggered by a glacial lake burst at Sintaphu Lake in neighboring Bhutan, swept away infrastructure at the Gasa Tshachu natural hot springs in the Himalayan kingdom.

Indian authorities have stepped up monitoring along the Sankosh River, which flows from Bhutan through West Bengal and into Assam. Communities along the Brahmaputra River in Assam and Arunachal Pradesh have also been alerted over possible flooding.

In Bhutan, no casualties have been reported, state broadcaster BBS said.

According to Bhutanese media reports, two Bailey bridges, built in portable, pre-fabricated sections, may have been washed away, as well as a part of the road leading to Laya village, where the hot springs are located, had also been washed away.

India's space agency is set to launch a navigation satellite on Friday night to strengthen the country's indigenous alternative to GPS.

According to Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) the NVS-03 is "intended to augment the NavIC constellation and support continuity of navigation services."

The NVS-03 satellite, the third in ISRO's next-generation navigation series, will be carried into orbit by the GSLV-F18 rocket from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota at 11:51 p.m. (1821 GMT) on Friday.

According to ISRO, the satellite features an indigenous atomic clock alongside imported clocks, and adds the L1 signal to the existing L5 and S-band signals. It is designed to provide navigation coverage across India and up to 1,500 kilometers (932 miles) beyond its borders.

NavIC is seen as an alternative to the Global Positioning System (GPS) system owned by the United States government.

It was developed to reduce India's dependence on foreign navigation systems, however, according to the Hindustan Times newspaper, the program has faced repeated setbacks, including failing atomic clocks and satellite launch and deployment problems.

Last month, India had launched of its EOS-05 Earth observation satellite, its first ever imaging satellite in geosynchronous orbit.