All eyes will be on Sriharikota in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh on 18 April. The reason: that‘s the day the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) will once again be taking a shot at becoming a player in the global satellite launch sweepstakes. A previous attempt in March was aborted moments before takeoff.
Isro‘s indigeneously developed three-stage, 49-metre high Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV), will take its place on the launchpad with its payload of a 1.54 tonne experimental space craft GSAT-1. And should the weather gods frown on that day, Isro will have till 25 April to try again.

The launch will be between 3:47 PM and 7:41 PM on 18 April while the countdown will begin on 16 April 57 hours before the flight, according to Isro officials.

The inaugural flight of the GSLV on 28 March had to be aborted just before take-off apparently because one of the four strap-on booster rockets failed to achieve the required level of thrust, during takeoff. Isro explained that the booster rocket failed due to a "defective plumbing in the oxidiser flow of the engine. " It added that the fire which spread over one of the strap-on boosters was due to the "burning of foam insulation pads" and was incidental.

Rangoli, a musical programme on film songs airing on Doordarshan, will be donning a new look after the Dheeraj Kumar promoted Creative Eye struck a deal with the national broadcaster to produce and market the programme.

To begin airing from Sunday 15 April, the programme will be telecast in Hindi and Tamil on DD1. "As of now we are making only 26 episodes," says project coordinator Aroop Bhattacharya.

Elaborating on how the programme was different from earlier episodes, Bhattacharya says: "Earlier Rangoli was anchored by one person. This show will be hosted by two film actors.

"Mayuri Kango and Inder Kumar will be hosting each episode which will be thematically constructed around states of mind such as Intezaar (wait), Khayaal (thought)," Bhattacharya says.

"It too early to talk about the advertising response," Bhattacharya says, while declining to disclose who were the advertisers on board. However, the programme has got sufficient ad response, he asserts.