Author: Explains

Why in news?

NITI Aayog is helping the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas draft a Cabinet note on methanol.

Cabinet note on methanol

1. It covers all aspects and issues that may pose an impediment for the implementation of methanol policy.
2. Ministry of Petroleum and Natural gas, Fertiliser, and Coal among others are working together to create the methanol policy.
3. The facilitator would be the NITI Aayog.
4. International collaborations have also been considered for the policy formulation.
5. The objective is to get help during the interim period until coal to methanol production in India reaches the level that meets the demand in the country. Until then, there is a need to import a certain quantity of methanol.

The significance of methanol for India

• Methanol is a cost-effective, non-polluting and versatile fuel. Petrol, diesel or Liquefied Natural Gas can be fully or partially replaced by Methanol. Thus reducing India’s dependence on energy imports.
• Ethanol is largely made from plant-based sources like sugarcane and vegetable oil. But India can’t afford this due to land constraints. But methanol can be derived from a variety of renewable, non-renewable and hugely available feedstock. These include agricultural biomass, urban solid waste, coal, and natural gas. CO2 in the air can also be considerably reduced with methanol.
• Methanol production is highly possible in India due to the 125 billion tonnes of proven coal reserves, 500 million tonnes annual generation of biomass and considerable quantities of stranded natural gas.
• Methanol can significantly contribute to saving cost as it is locally generated and relatively cheaper. Indian Railways is considering turning its entire fleet of 6,000 diesel engines to methanol-operated locomotives. This could reduce the energy bill of railways by half.
• Furthermore, the vehicular pollution can also be reduced by 40% if about 20% of crude oil imports are substituted by methanol.
• Hence, methanol can serve both energy and environmental objectives.

Challenges

• Methanol is almost non-polluting fuel. But during the process of making methanol from coal, a large amount of CO2 is emitted.
• This will need to be either captured and stored or utilized to co-generate power in methanol plants. But the technology for this purpose requires further refinement and scaling up.
• Only up to 15% of methanol doping can be accepted by today’s internal combustion engines and that too with some modifications. For higher levels of blending, changes in the engine design are required.

Way forward

However, the overall gains from the use of methanol outweigh its drawbacks. It could definitely add a new dimension to the country’s energy security. Hence methanol policy would be a welcome step

Practice question

1. Discuss the significance and the concerns regarding methanol production in India.

Why in news?

Recently SC condemned the recent spate of lynchings as horrendous acts of mobocracy and told Parliament to make lynching a separate offence.

What is Mob Lynching?

• Lynching is a premeditated extrajudicial killing by a group. It is most often used to characterize informal public executions by a mob in order to punish an alleged transgressor, or to intimidate a group.
• It is an extreme form of informal group social control such as charivari,skimmington, riding the rail, and tarring and feathering, and often conducted with the display of a public spectacle for maximum intimidation.
• It is to be considered an act of terrorism and punishable by law.

Statistics

• The data website India Spend has compiled instances of cow-linked violence from 2010 to 2017. It found that during this period, 28 people were killed in 63 such incidents.
• An overwhelming 97% of these attacks took place after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government came to power in May 2014.
• About 86% of those killed were Muslims. In 21% of the cases, the police filed cases against the victims/survivors.
• Cow-related lynchings rose sharply in 2017. This marks a 75% increase over 2016, which had been the worst year for mob lynchings since 2010.

Why anti-lynching law is necessary?

1. Fills the void: It fills a void in our criminal jurisprudence.
2. At present there is no law that criminalises mob killings: The Indian Penal Code has provisions for unlawful assembly, rioting, and murder but nothing that takes cognisance of a group of people coming together to kill (a lynch mob).
3. Rise in Lynching incidents: As the India spend data shows that their has been rise in lynching incidents in recent years.

Reason for the rise in lynchings

1. Impunity

• Major reason for the recent rise in lynchings is impunity.
• The lynch mobs that murdered several people were confident of getting away with it. So far, the state has done little to shake that confidence.
• The problem is not mob lynching per se but the mob lynching of minorities, for that is where impunity kicks in.
• In the case of cow-linked lynchings, a lot depends on whether the incumbent in power considers it compatible with its political interests to crack down on such attacks.

2. Fake news

• Another factor which gave rise to lynchings is the spread of fake news through social media platform.

3. Modernity

• With modernity, there is growth of individualism and an erosion of associational life
• Associations encourage us to appreciate others culture and moderate our aggressive instincts.

4.Unemployment

• High Unemployment rates leave millions of youth unengaged.

Effect of lynching

State

• It is against the values upheld in constitution of India.
• Every individual have certain fundamental rights any violence would be curtailment of this right.
• No regard to law and order in society.
• This may lead to growth of feeling of sub-nationalism.
• Radical and extremists organisations such as ISIS etc could take leverage of atmosphere created by such incidents

Society

• This impact solidarity of society and idea of Unity in diversity
• This create an atmosphere of majority v/s minority
• It could aggravate caste, class and communal hatred.
• This may increase the extent of domestic conflict and subsequent militarization.
• Such acts shows loss of tolerance in the society and people are being swayed by emotions,prejudices etc.

Economy

• Lynching destroys the social fabric of the country, which indirectly effects the economy of the country.This impacts both foreign and domestic investment thereby adversely affecting sovereign ratings. Many International agencies warned India against mob lynching incidents.
• It directly hampers internal migration which in turn affects economy.
• Large resources deployed to tackle such menaces induces extra burden on state-exchequer.
• These incidents would led to selective distribution of investment which may impact regional balance.

SC View on lynching:

• SC condemned the recent spate of lynchings as horrendous acts of mobocracy and told Parliament to make lynching a separate offence.
• It said the primary obligation of the government is to protect all individuals irrespective of race, caste, class or religion.
• It observed that Crime knows no religion and neither the perpetrator nor the victim can be viewed through the lens of race, caste, class or religion.
• It directed several preventive, remedial and punitive measures to deal with lynching and mob violence.
• It ordered the Centre and the States to implement the measures and file compliance reports within the next four weeks.
• It ordered the Centre and the States to take immediate steps to stop the dissemination of fake news or stories on social media, which tends to whip up a mob frenzy.
• The court ordered the State governments to have a special task force to procure intelligence on people likely to spread hate speeches, provocative statements and fake news in each district.
• The court directed that the police shall register an FIR under Section 153A (promoting enmity) of the IPC against the suspects.
• If found guilty, a person faces up to five years of imprisonment.
• The trial shall be held in a fast-track court on a day-to-day basis and completed in six months.
• Maximum sentence should be granted to the guilty to make an example of them and serve as a deterrent.

Will the anti-lynching law be enough?

1. Its success depends on its implementation:

• The effectiveness of the new law, if passed by Parliament, will depend on its implementation.
• Going by past cases, the perpetrators of such crimes have so far escaped the hand of the law not because legal provisions were not in place, but for the lack of fair investigation, ineffective and delayed prosecution, threats to victims, policemen who looked the other way, and political support given to the accused

2. Already there are enough Provisions to deal with lynching:

• There are enough provisions in the Indian Penal Code — for example, Sections 302 (murder), 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) and 307 (attempt to murder), 34 (Acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) — to tackle such incidents.
• These need to be implemented strongly and effectively. In September 2017, the Supreme Court had asked states to take strong measures, including appointing nodal officers at district level, to curb such instances of violence in the name of cow protection, but nothing much has happened to date.

3.Amend existing laws:

• First of all, we don’t have something which defines hate crimes in a detailed manner. The only section which we can bring into the picture here is Section 153 A.
• The Parliament can consider making the necessary amendments within the Penal Code instead of drafting a separate law for it.

Conclusion/way forward

• States should be far more vigilant and proactive in flagging rumours using social media and other platforms. Some states are doing it, others need to emulate these examples.
• For example, Telangana police officer, Rema Rajeshwari (Superintendent of Police, Jogulamba Gadwal district), has trained a team of 500 police officers to tackle the fake news menace.
• These officers go to villages to spread awareness about social issues. Police personnel have also been added to local WhatsApp groups in villages to spot rumours that could lead to violence.
• The more proactive the administration is in this regard, the stronger a deterrent it will be.
• There is also a need for special court for the trial of mob violence

Context

India and the U.S. signed COMCASA agreement on the side lines of the inaugural 2+2 dialogue.

India & US towards a strategic partnership

The defense relationship between the United States and India, on a steady upward trajectory this decade, crossed an important milestone last week. During the first-ever “two-plus-two” meeting of the two countries’ top defense and diplomatic officials, India and the United States concluded a third so-called foundational agreement to facilitate closer defense cooperation.

What is ‘2+2 dialogue’?

• A ‘two plus two dialogue’ is a term — adopted in foreign parleys — used for installation of a dialogue mechanism between two countries’ defence and external affairs ministries.
• To put it simply, ‘two plus two dialogue’ is an expression used to indicate that two appointed ministers from each country, the ministers of defence and external affairs in this case, will meet up to discuss the two countries’ strategic and security interests.
• The goal is to establish a diplomatic, yet fruitful, conversation between the two countries’ respective heads of defence and external affairs.

What is the COMCASA?

• The Communications Compatibility and Security Agreement (COMCASA) is one of the four foundational agreements that a country needs to sign to become a major defence partner of the United States. The agreement comes into effect immediately and has a lifespan of 10 years.

  • The other three agreements are General Security of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA), the Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement (LEMoA) and the Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement (BECA).

  • COMCASA provides the legal framework for the US to part with its sensitive communication equipment and codes to enable transfer of real time operational information. This equipment is largely used for ground-to-air communication to enable best battle situation awareness.

  • It ensures that the militaries of the US and India can boost their “interoperability” as well as share operational intelligence in real-time in the years ahead.

  • For instance, if a US warship or aircraft detects a Chinese submarine in the Indian Ocean, it can convey to India through warships or aircraft equipped with COMCASA-protected equipment in real-time.

  • COMCASA allows the US to transfer high-tech avionics, encrypted communication and electronic systems as well as ensure secrecy of its C4ISR (command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance) systems

• Previously, India and U.S. signed the “Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement (LEMOA)”, for mutual logistic assistance between their militaries.

Logistical Exchange Memorandum of Agreement (LEMOA) formerly known as the Logistic Support Agreement (LSA)

• LEMOA is an agreement for the exchange of logistics support and supplies that are generally required during combined exercises, port calls and cooperative efforts in unforeseen exigencies like in an HADR situation.
• The agreement is not expected to serve as a mutual defence treaty.

Negotiations on the third agreement, “Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement for Geo-spatial Cooperation (BECA)”, have not yet begun.

Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement (BECA)

• It provides for sharing and data gathering of geospatial information.
• It is expected to provide access to unclassified geospatial data that improves navigation planning for exercises and geospatial training for coproducing geospatial products; this is an area where India has limited technical/technological expertise.

What are the reasons for the US’s keenness to sign the agreement?

• India-US trade (in goods) as a percentage of the US total, inched from 1.5 per cent in 2010 to 1.9 per cent in 2017 with Washington having an unfavourable trade balance of more than 30 per cent of the total value of trade.
• With a weak indigenous military-industrial base, India’s appetite for imported defence equipment is virtually insatiable. It has made India the largest importer of defence equipment with 12 per cent of the world share (2013-17).
• To take advantage of India’s defence market, the US pushed for the agreement and it was not due to any new vector in the US strategic calculus. And without the agreement, which secures the integrity of US manufactured defence equipment, it cannot sell platforms with the capability that India desires.
• U.S. officials state that India’s armed forces are currently dependent on less secure, commercially available communication systems for surveillance.
• These platforms are, therefore a hindrance in real time data sharing with friendly militaries, and seamless interoperability during joint missions.
• Hence, COMCASA will facilitate the Indian military to use of high-end secured communication equipment from the U.S.

Significance of COMCASA

• The signing of COMCASA will enable India to access advanced technologies from the US and enhance India’s defence preparedness.

• The pact guarantees India access to critical US defence technologies and communication network to help the militaries of the two countries in their interoperability.

• Outside of interoperability, COMCASA will also open up the possibility of Indian military units gaining access to a secure Common Tactical Picture, which would allow, for instance, Indian Navy and Air Force surveillance aircraft and fighters to receive data from U.S. and friendly counterparts during exercises or operations.
• Additionally, given India’s access to previously restricted U.S. defense technology exports following its 2016 designation as a Major Defense Partner, COMCASA will open up the possibility of India importing U.S. systems unencumbered by possible limitations on guidance, communication, and sensor technologies.
• COMCASA will allow India to procure transfer specialised equipment for encrypted communications for US origin military platforms like the C-17, C-130 and P-8Is
• COMCASA will effectively mean that India shares the real-time American intelligence on military deployments by China and Pakistan
• COMCASA becomes particularly important as India is set to buy the combat version of Sea Guardian drones from the United States. The US would not have provided India with the weapon systems on the drone without COMCASA
• However, the signing of agreement does not mean that India would have to necessarily buy American military equipment
• Before signing the agreement, India made sure that it gets full access to equipment. There is no commitment on acquisition and there will be no disruption as well.
• As a consequence of COMCASA, India will get access to Combined Enterprise Regional Information Exchange System, or CENTRIXS, which is the secure communication system network of the US.
• Navy ships with CENTRIXS on board can communicate securely with the U.S. Navy when needed and can benefit from the wider situational picture of the region as they have a large number of ships and aircraft deployed. This will reduce the stress on the assets and allow prioritising the deployments more efficiently.
• CENTRIXS consists of a collection of coalition wide area networks (WAN) known as enclaves” and is a “great enabler, allowing ship-to-ship operational dialogue between the two nations in text and web-based formats.

Safeguards

• It is believed that there are persistent concerns that this would allow U.S. Navy access to India’s own secure communication network and also that the information shared with the U.S. will be accessible by Pakistan.
• Officials brushed aside these fears as specific measures have been incorporated in the agreement to “have full access to the relevant equipment and there will be no disruptions”.
• Data acquired through such systems cannot be disclosed or transferred to any person or entity without India’s consent.
• Experts point out that the equipment administered under communications safety pacts does not provide access to onboard systems and databases in ways that compromise classified information.
• It is an enabling instrument and does not commit India to acquiring U.S. platforms.

ISSUES/ CRITICISM:

• The agreement will not be a gateway to US technology either. On the other hand, it can kill the fledgling Indian defence industry.
• The  Foreign Military Sales (FMS) route, which the US often prefers, discourages technology transfer and even offsets. In any case, the US does not part with its technology easily.
• Therefore, unless we aggressively negotiate each import from the US to strengthen our defence base, the 2+2 dialogue will aggregate to minus one.
• Concerns have also been raised as to how signing COMCASA will “enhance Russia’s fears of compromising its high-value platforms, such as the leased Akula-class nuclear-powered attack submarine and the Su-30MKI combat aircraft” and that it will cause trouble with Russia.

India as defence partner of the United States 

How Defence Cooperation has been evolved over a period of time:

• Two parallel tracks of dialogue began in the 1990s. The strategic dialogue covering nuclear issues shifted gears following the nuclear tests of 1998 and imposition of sanctions by the U.S.
• The over a dozen rounds of talks between both the countries during 1998-2000 marked the most intense dialogue between the two countries. It helped change perceptions leading to the gradual lifting of sanctions.
• The next phase was the Next Steps in Strategic Partnership steered by the then National Security Advisers, Brajesh Mishra and Condoleezza Rice.
• The momentum received a new impulse, eventually leading to the conclusion of the India-U.S. bilateral civil nuclear cooperation agreement in 2008.
• The defence dialogue began in 1995 with the setting up of the Defence Policy Group at the level of the Defence Secretary and his Pentagon counterpart and three Steering Groups to develop exchanges between the Services.
• A decade later, this was formalised and enlarged into the India-U.S. Defence Framework Agreementwhich was renewed for 10 years in 2015.
• Today, the U.S. is the country with which India undertakes the largest number of military exercises which have gradually evolved in scale and complexity.
• During the Cold War, more than three-fourths of India’s defence equipment was of Soviet origin. This gradually began to change, and in recent years, the U.S. and Israel emerged as major suppliers.

Engaging with Indian Air Force, Indian Navy and the Indian Army:

• The Indian Air Force went in for C-130J Hercules and the C-17 Globemaster aircraft, along with Apache attack helicopters and Chinook heavy-lift helicopters.
• The Indian Navy acquired a troop carrier ship and the P-8I long-range maritime reconnaissance aircraft. An agreement for 24 multi-role helicopters for the Indian Navy is expected soon.
• The Indian Army went in for the M-777 howitzers and artillery radars. From a total of less than $400 million of defence acquisitions during 1947-2005, the U.S. has signed defence contracts of over $15 billion since.
• During the Obama administration, the US understood that a defence supply relationship needed to be backed by technology sharing and joint development and came up with the Defence Technology and Trade Initiative (DTII).
• To get around export control licensing and other bureaucratic hurdles, an India Rapid Reaction Cell in the Pentagon was set up. In 2016, India was designated as a ‘Major Defence Partner’ country.
• Another step forward in the middle of this year was the inclusion of India in the Strategic Trade Authorisation-1 (STA-1) category, putting it on a par with allies in terms of technology access.
• The U.S. proposed its standard logistics support agreement text in 2003 which was finally concluded in 2016, after it was made into an India-specific text.
• It facilitates logistics supplies during port visits and joint exercises and does not contain any obligations for joint activity or any basing arrangements.
• The India-specific Communications Compatibility and Security Agreement (COMCASA), is likely to be signed.
• With the possibility of acquiring armed Sea Guardian drones, COMCASA was necessary to ensure optimal use.

Conclusion:

It is important to recognize that Comcasa is an operational imperative for the Indian Armed Forces. Not only is the pact an useful enabler of operations interoperability with the US military, it is a legal instrument that facilitates the optimal exploitation of high-end communication equipment acquired from the US. India sceptics must know that there are no good remedies for imagined fears.

Background

• The time difference between the westernmost part of India and the easternmost point is approximately two hours, the effect of which is that the sun rises and sets much earlier than it does in the rest of the country.
• Most Indians are not particularly worried about Indian Standard Time (IST), except for those who live in the Northeast where the sun rises around 4 a.m. in summer and gets dark well before 4 p.m. in winter.

TIME IS MAINTAINED BY THIS METHOD

• If lines of longitude are drawn precisely a degree apart, they will divide the Earth into 360 zones/ imaginary lines called longitudes or meridians running vertically between the poles.
• Because the Earth spins 360° in 24 hours, a longitudinal distance of 15° represents a time separation of 1 hour, and 1° represents 4 minutes.

NOTES

• The geographic “zero line” runs through Greenwich, London. 
  It identifies GMT, now known as Universal Coordinated Time (UTC), which is maintained by the Bureau of Weights and Measures (BIPM) in France.
• Indian Standard Time, maintained by CSIR-NPL, is based on a line of longitude that runs through Mirzapur in UP (Centre for measuring time by the Indian government).
• At 82°33’E, the line is 82.5° east of Greenwich, or 5.5 hours (5 hours 30 minutes) ahead of UCT. While India follows one IST, the United States follows several time zones across its breadth.

Context: A new report advocating 2 time zones in India

• A proposal for two time zones has come from India’s national timekeeper itself.
• Scientists at the Council of Scientific & Industrial Research’s National Physical Laboratory (CSIR-NPL) have now argued that IST should be done away with at the Chicken’s Neck.
• There is a request to change the temporal modalities of the Indian nation-state from its official time-keeper.

Why there is a necessity of two time zones:

• Over the years, various citizens and political leaders have debated whether India should have two separate time zones.
• The demand is based on the huge difference in daylight times between the country’s longitudinal extremes, and the costs associated with following the same time zone.
• Those arguing against the idea, on the other hand, cite impracticability particularly the risk of railway accidents, given the need to reset times at every crossing from one time zone into another.
• Legislators, activists, industrialists and ordinary citizens from the Northeast have often complained about the effect of IST on their lives, and pursued the issue of having a separate time zone with the Central government, without much success.
• In the Northeast, the sun rises as early as four in the morning and in winter it sets by four in the evening. By the time government offices or educational institutions open, many daylight hours are already lost.
• In winter this problem gets even more accentuated and the ecological costs are a disaster with much more electricity having to be consumed.

 THE ISSUE OF DAYLIGHT

• There is also the practice in several countries, of “Daylight Saving Time” (DST), wherein the time in summer is advanced (or the clocks put forward) by one hour and retracted during winter.
• This enables people to enjoy sunlight longer in summer and avoid the inconveniences of late sunrises and early sunsets during winter.
• The time difference between the westernmost part of India and the easternmost point is approximately two hours, the effect of which is that the sun rises and sets much earlier than it does in the rest of the country.
• Most Indians are not particularly worried about Indian Standard Time (IST), except for those who live in the Northeast where the sun rises around 4 a.m. in summer and gets dark well before 4 p.m. in winter.

Problems of DST:

• If we were to introduce DST in India, the inconvenience of time adjustment during summer and winter months would involve the whole country, happening twice a year, with marginal benefits.
• The possibilities of rail accidents would still be high. Even in the U.S. and Canada, road accidents increase discernibly in the days immediately following the change.
• Daylight saving time, this small time shift can significantly raise the risk of health-related issues.
• A 2016 study found that the overall rate for stroke was 8% higher in the two days after daylight saving time. Cancer victims were 25% more likely to have a stroke during that time, and people older than 65 were 20% more likely to have a stroke.

Possible Impact of change in time zones:

• Northeast India would move an hour ahead, increasing the region’s productive, daylight hours and the country’s potential energy savings could amount to a whopping 20 million kWh a year.
• Offices could open sooner after sunrise, and perhaps workers could even savour the last dregs of dusk as they trudge towards home or their desired form of recreation.
• Biomedical research has consistently pointed to the physical and psychological benefits of aligning circadian (sleep) rhythms to the sun’s rising and setting.

Problems of different time zones in India:

India has a huge population; if the country were divided into two time zones, there would be chaos at the border between the two zones. It would mean resetting clocks with each crossing of the time zone.

There is scope for more dangerous kinds of confusion.

• Railway signals are not fully automated and many routes have single tracks.
• Trains may meet with major accidents owing to human errors. Just one such accident would wipe out any benefits resulting from different time zones in the country.

Partitioning the already divided country further into time zones may also have undesirable political consequences. Moreover, our research shows that energy saving from creating two time zones is not particularly large.

While there is merit in the argument, the potentially adverse consequences of introducing a new time zone within the country are many.

For Instance, Not forgetting the fact that a country like Russia has as many as nine time zones across the contiguous territory, having to cope with the zones and to be forced to reset the watch each time you need to cross a domestic line could be complicated.

With a time difference of one hour in the mornings and in the evenings, there would be nearly 25% less overlap between office timings in the two zones. This could be important for banks, offices, industries and multinational companies which need to be constantly interconnected.

This will be further detrimental to productivity and to the interests of the eastern region.

There is already a sense of alienation between the relatively prosperous and industrialised western zone and the less developed eastern zone. The people in the Northeast sense a distance from the mainland and a separateness in clock time may accentuate it.

Having a separate time zone for the eastern region will provide no energy or other benefits to the rest of the country.

Moreover, India will continue to be in off-set time zones, five and a half hours in the west and six and a half in the eastern region ahead of.

Hurdles in implementation:

• A long-standing argument against doing away with IST has been it would confuse the railway infrastructure.
• In a country with so many diversities to amalgamate into a proverbial unity, asking the people of the Northeast to wake up an hour earlier might lead to yet another point of difference.

Alternative to the present proposal:

• One proposal is to introduce neither time zones nor DST but to advance IST by half an hour to being six hours ahead of GMT, once and permanently.
• Such a suggestion has been made before, but until now no one has computed the energy savings that would accrue as a result using a correct model and dependable data.
• This proposal of advancing IST by half an hour avoids the problems apprehended in the other two proposals (of time zones and DST) but provides maximum energy saving during evening hours when the utilities fail to supply continuous power

Conclusion:

• It is now time to initiate a process of consultation to consider all sides of the question afresh.
• What might be seriously examined is a proposal of some researchers, including those from the National Institute of Advanced Studies in Bangalore and Scientists at the Council of Scientific & Industrial Research’s National Physical Laboratory (CSIR-NPL), to set the IST forward by half an hour so that it is six hours ahead of Universal Coordinated Time.
• This will mean advancing the point of reckoning at 82.5 degree East to 90 degrees East, which will fall at a longitude along the West Bengal-Assam border.
• That should go some way in meeting Assam’s demand, and help avoid potential grievances from northwestern India about corresponding inconveniences that an advancing by one full hour could entail for it in terms of late sunrise time.