Indian scientists decode mysterious signal pattern coming from deep space
They found a repeating pattern: a few hundred seconds of dim X-ray light, followed by a similar period of bright light. During the brighter phases, they discovered something remarkable — fast X-ray flickers occurring 70 times per second, known as Quasi-periodic Oscillations (QPOs). These flickers vanished during the dimmer phases.The team traced this rapid flickering to the corona, a superheated cloud of plasma surrounding the black hole. During the bright phases, the corona becomes smaller and hotter, generating strong QPOs.In the dim phases, it cools and expands, causing the flickers to disappear.The black hole is part of a binary system, pulling matter from a companion star into a hot spinning disc. As this matter heats up, it emits X-rays — the signals that AstroSat captures.This study, published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, provides scientists with a deeper insight into black hole environments.The findings showcase India's growing capabilities in space-based astronomy and the powerful role of AstroSat as a cosmic observatory.- EndsTrending Reel
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The Hindu
2 hours ago
- The Hindu
As India's retractions surge, NIRF rankings only now begin penalising tainted research
Between 2004 and 2020, five research papers published by Zillur Rahman on various management topics, such as corporate social responsibility, self-service banking technologies, and service delivery options, were retracted. Yet, he served as the dean and professor of management studies at IIT Roorkee till May 2025. As per data from the Retraction Watch – a non‑profit scientific watchdog that reports retractions of academic papers from across the globe – the former dean's papers were retracted for various reasons, such as plagiarism, duplication, and concerns about data. 'When I reported about Mr. Rahman's retractions to IIT Roorkee on their LinkedIn page, they asked me to provide the list of retractions, and I did. Months later, when I followed up, they asked me to reach out via email. I did not pursue the matter further,' said Achal Agarwal, founder of India Research Watchdog, a not-for-profit that flags research misconduct in Indian academia. The Hindu reached out to Mr. Rahman and the IIT Roorkee's management. There has been no response. India is ranked third with the most number of retractions, only behind the U.S. and China, as per data from Post Pub, a platform that helps visualise country-wise statistics of retractions. Post-Pub data shows that India had a retraction rate (number of retractions for every 1,000 papers submitted) of 1.5 in 2012, which increased steeply to 3.5 in 2022. 'The U.S. has a very large science budget, so it's expected to see a higher number of retractions. China is aiming to become the global leader in research, which makes publishing a top priority. In India, the competition is intense, especially among Ph.D. aspirants and Master's students aiming for doctoral programs,' said John (name changed on request), a sleuth who flags frauds on Twitter. The need for legislation Ever since research papers became a parameter in the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF), private universities have been churning out more research papers — albeit with a focus on quality. That's exactly why there are more papers and more retractions from private universities in the past ten years, as per data from Cornell University. The problem is twofold: the lack of stringent laws to curb scientific corruption and protect sleuths, and the negligence of educational institutions that foster impunity among researchers. In India, in the absence of legislation, the onus to prevent fraud is only on the institutions. However, sleuths say that most universities are mum – firing an academician over research fraud just doesn't happen in India, just as in other countries. 'As long as there is no good legislation to actually sue some of these frauds, nothing will happen. The legislation should have the norms to sue the frauds not just for the fake paper, but also for using government funding to create such a paper. It is a waste of public funding,' said John. The U.K. Research Integrity Office (UKRIO), established in 2006, is an independent charitable body that offers expert advice on research integrity and provides templates for misconduct investigations. Denmark's Act on Research Misconduct, enacted in 2017, assigns severe cases related to fabrication, falsification, and plagiarism to the Danish Board on Research Misconduct for investigation. 'In India, there is a need to have an autonomous, empowered body to look into the complaints. Currently, the complaints go to the respective body governing the institute, such as the Department of Science and Technology or the University Grants Commission (UGC). They don't take these complaints seriously,' said Ms. Agarwal. India Research Watch receives around 10 messages every day from whistleblowers across the country. The nuances of cheating Every retracted paper doesn't indicate fraud; sometimes researchers identify unintentional mistakes such as calculation errors, experimental flaws, or inaccurate data analysis, and withdraw the papers themselves. With the rise of sleuths and watchdog organisations, academicians have grown savvier, learning how to cover their tracks and evade detection. 'It is very difficult to catch smart frauds – those who don't blindly use Artificial Intelligence texts and those who don't just copy-paste texts and images,' Mr. John said. 'We check for tortured phrases, image overlaps, image fakery, statistically improbable data, and methodologies in an academic paper to find out its authenticity. However, the smart frauds have evolved – they plug all these gaps to get better with fraud,' Mr. John added. As it has been established that not all universities punish researchers with retractions, the ball seems to be in the court of publishers. Publishers such as Frontiers rely on AI to check the research papers, but a statement from the publisher says there have been cases of fraud even after the deployment of AI. Frontier's Artificial Intelligence Review Assistant (AIRA) was launched in 2018 and now includes over 50 verifications of submitted manuscripts. On July 29, the communications team of Frontier put out a notice that said, 'Frontier's Research Integrity Auditing team has uncovered a network of authors and editors who conducted peer review with undisclosed conflicts of interest and who have engaged in citation manipulation. The unethical actions of this network have been confirmed in 122 articles published in Frontiers, across five journals, and have led to their retraction.' Beyond plagiarism Ever since the colonial era, it has been mandatory for Indian researchers to send their theses to two foreign evaluators — a practice that began when British academics were the default choice. 'Rather than sending the papers to reputed universities in countries such as Germany, Australia, or the U.S., the lower-quality ones are often sent to universities in Malaysia or Thailand,' said Prof. V. Ramachandran of Anna University. He pointed to another nuance that is common in India's academic system — a nexus between guides, students, and examiners. 'The guides propose a list of examiners to the university — a list that students are aware of. These examiners are often acquaintances of the guide or the student,' Mr. Ramachandran explained, suggesting that universities should independently constitute evaluation panels. 'The examiners must be random and unknown to the student or the guide, and they should be from well-established institutions,' he said. In private universities, academicians are often pressured to publish research papers without adequate funding support. 'At institutions such as mine, faculty are expected to begin research with just ₹1–2 lakh — and that's considered a luxury. In many private universities, researchers are made to start with zero funding,' said a professor from a private university in Tamil Nadu, speaking on condition of anonymity. 'Research output is a key metric in the NIRF rankings, and students look at these rankings while choosing colleges. It's all tied to a profit-making model,' the professor said. Besides fraud, another issue plaguing research is the rise in publications in dubious journals. 'High-standard journals follow tough peer review processes, demand original data and sound science, and are mostly read and cited by reputed researchers across the world. On the other hand, low-standard journals have become dumping grounds for unethical research. Since good scientists don't read these journals, the fraud often goes unnoticed — and most of it never even gets retracted,' the professor from VIT added. Beyond elite institutions, the crisis of research quality runs deeper in smaller universities and colleges, particularly those funded by state governments. 'In Tier 2 and Tier 3 institutions — especially state universities — the drop in research quality isn't linear, it's exponential. Many are publishing in predatory venues. This is far more common in State universities, and that's where serious streamlining is needed,' said a senior academic from IISC Bangalore, seeking anonymity. 'Instead of counting papers, we should assess them on the impact of their teaching.' A long way to go Starting this year, the NIRF will begin assigning negative scores to higher educational institutions for research papers that have been retracted in the past three calendar years, along with any citations those papers had accumulated. While experts see this as a welcome step, many believe the journey toward ensuring research integrity in India remains long. 'At BITS Pilani, we are setting up a Research Integrity Office to proactively educate and sensitise our research community,' said Professor V. Ramgopal Rao, Group Vice Chancellor of BITS Pilani. 'With over 500 new Ph.D. students joining us each year, we see it as our responsibility to train both faculty and students on best practices in research, responsible experimentation, and academic ethics.' Professor Rao, who has been consistently vocal on the need to tackle research fraud, has advocated for the creation of oversight mechanisms both at the institutional and national levels. 'The UGC is fundamentally a grants commission. It neither has the mandate nor the necessary structures to investigate or act on cases of research misconduct. Even if the UGC withholds funding, such activities may continue unchecked,' he observed. The Government of India has introduced a bill in Parliament to set up the Higher Education Commission of India (HECI), which will serve as a single regulator replacing bodies like the UGC and AICTE. Commenting on this, Prof. Rao said, 'The proposed HECI will have the authority to impose penalties on institutions and even recommend their closure in extreme cases. However, since education is a concurrent subject under the Constitution, the Centre cannot act unilaterally. Cooperation from State governments is essential, and that makes the road to implementation long and uncertain.' Drawing a comparison with global practices, he added, 'In the U.S. and Europe, research fraud is treated with the seriousness it deserves. Academicians found guilty can lose their jobs. In India, unfortunately, we have seen cases where even vice-chancellors have been implicated in academic misconduct. When leadership itself is compromised, enforcing standards across the system becomes a much bigger challenge.' (Laasya is an Independent Journalist with bylines published in BBC, Thomson Reuters and Mongabay India among a dozen others. One day she is tracking climate finance; the next, she's decoding education reforms, dissecting caste realities or tracing wildlife in forgotten forests.)
United News of India
4 hours ago
- United News of India
Third satellite launch pad project set for March 2029 completion
New Delhi, Aug 6 (UNI) The Third Satellite Launch Pad (TLP) Project, a significant expansion of India's space infrastructure, has made steady progress following the receipt of financial sanction in March 2025, the Government informed Parliament today. It will be fully commissioned by March 2029, it said. Dr. Jitendra Singh, Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Science and Technology and Department of Space in a written reply to Lok Sabha said, 'The preliminary geo-technical investigation and topographical survey of the designated site were completed by May 2025, laying the groundwork for further development. Presently, bids for road construction and electrical works are being evaluated.' The project is structured around four critical milestones: completion of civil engineering works by May 2028, establishment of fluid handling systems and propellant storage facilities by July 2028, installation of launch pad facilities by September 2028, and full commissioning by March 2029, he said. Dr Jitendra Singh shared that the Department of Space has announced plans to engage Indian private sector firms and MSMEs through a transparent tendering process aligned with the government's Make-in-India and Atmanirbhar Bharat initiatives as envisaged by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. UNI AJ SSP
India Today
5 hours ago
- India Today
Isro targets 2029 to ready the third launch pad for India's next-gen rockets
India's space capabilities are set to receive a significant boost with the ongoing development of Isro's Third Satellite Launch Pad (TLP) at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, development is moving smoothly as the government is awaiting bidding on tenders for multiple developmental works in and around the launch project received financial sanction in March 2025, marking a critical step towards expanding the country's launch infrastructure to support next-generation launch Following the sanction, Isro completed geotechnical investigations and topographic surveys of the site by May 2025. Currently, offers for essential road and electrical works are under evaluation, with multiple work packages identified to establish the sophisticated facilities required for the launch development timeline outlines four major milestones: completion of civil works by May 2028, installation of fluid systems and propellant storage by July 2028, establishment of launch pad facilities by September 2028, and commissioning of the facility projected for March to handle heavier payloads, the TLP will support Isro's Next Generation Launch Vehicles (NGLV) and the LVM3 vehicles with semi-cryogenic stages, enhancing India's capacity to launch payloads of up to 30,000 tonnes into low Earth orbit. This is a substantial increase compared to the current capabilities of existing launch the project emphasises collaboration with Indian private industry and Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs). These partnerships, selected through a transparent tendering process, aim to maximise indigenous manufacturing and expertise, reinforcing the Make-in-India and Atmanirbhar Bharat Jitendra Singh, Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Science and Technology, provided these updates, stressing the strategic importance of the TLP for India's ambitious space new launch pad will not only enhance launch frequency and redundancy but is instrumental for upcoming human spaceflight missions and interplanetary exploration efforts, including the Bharatiya Antariksh Station planned for 2035 and a crewed lunar landing by 2040.- EndsMust Watch
