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Distribution: weekly

  • Explained: How to unify defence resources

    • The Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Rawat said his office is working on a tentative timeline for the establishment of joint commands among the three defence services.
    • With the creation of the CDS post on December 31, the government has set the ball rolling for bringing jointness and integration among the services.

    What are joint commands?

    • Simply put, it is a unified command in which the resources of all the services are unified under a single commander looking at a geographical theatre.
    • It means that a single military commander, as per the requirements, will have the resources of the Army, the Navy and the Air Force to manage a security threat.
    • The commander of a joint command will have the freedom to train and equip his command as per the objective and will have logistics of all the services at his beckoning.
    • The three services will retain their independent identities as well.
    • A committee headed by Lieutenant General D B Shekatkar had earlier recommended three new commands: Northern, for China; Western, for the Pakistan border’ and Southern, for maritime security.

    Present commands

    • There are two tri-services commands at the moment.
    • The joint command at the moment, the Andaman and Nicobar Command (ANC), is a theatre command, which is headed by the chiefs of the three services in rotation.
    • It was created in 2001 after a Group of Ministers had given a report on national security following the Kargil War.
    • The Strategic Forces Command was established in 2006 and is a functional tri-services command.

    What is the structure right now?

    • There are 17 commands, divided among the three services. The Army and the Air Force have seven commands each, while the Navy has three commands.
    • The commands under the Army are Northern, Southern, Eastern, Western, Central, Southwestern and the Army Training Command.
    • The Air Force has Eastern, Western, Southern, Southwestern, Central, Maintenance and Training commands, and the Navy is divided into Western, Eastern and Southern commands.
    • These commands report to their respective services and are headed by three-star officers.
    • Though these commands are in the same regions, they are no located together.

    Advantages of  joint commands

    • One of the main advantages is that the leader of unified command has control over more varied resources, compared to the heads of the commands under the services now.
    • For instance, the head of one of the proposed commands, Air Defence Command, will have under him naval and Army resources, too, which can be used as per the threat perception.
    • And the officer commanding the Pakistan or China border will have access to the Air Force’s fighter jets and can use them if needed.
    • However, that not all naval resources will be given to the Air Defence Command, nor will all resources of the Air Force come under another proposed command, Peninsula Command, for the coasts.
    • The Peninsula Command would give the Navy Chief freedom to look at the larger perspective in the entire Indian Ocean Region in which China’s presence is steadily increasing.
    • The other key advantage is that through such integration and jointness the three forces will be able to avoid duplication of resources.
    • The resources available under each service will be available to other services too. The services will get to know one another better, strengthening cohesion in the defence establishment.

    How many such commands are expected to roll out?

    • While the number of commands India needs is still being studied, the CDS has envisaged that there could be between six to nine commands. It is not certain how many land-based theatre commands on the borders will come up.
    • The CDS said it will be studied, and the study group will be given the options for creating two to five theatre commands.
    • One possibility is to have single commands looking at the China and Pakistan borders respectively, as they are the two major threats.
    • The other option is to have a separate command for the border in the J&K region, and another command looking at the rest of the western border.
    • There could be independent commands looking at the border with China which is divided by Nepal.
    • A proposed Logistics Command will bring the logistics of all the service under one person, and the CDS is also looking at a Training and Doctrine Command so that all services work under a common doctrine and have some basic common training.

    Do militaries of other countries have such commands?

    • Several major militaries are divided into integrated theatre commands.
    • China’s People’s Liberation Army has five theatre commands: Eastern, Western, Northern, Southern and Central. Its Western Theatre Command is responsible for India.
    • The US Armed Forces have 11 unified commands, of which seven are geographic and four functional commands. Its geographic commands are Africa, Central, European, Indo-Pacific, Northern, Southern and Space.
    • Cyber, Special Operations, Transportation and Strategic are its functional commands.

  • Delhi’s ‘Happiness Class’

    On the upcoming visit to India, US President Trump will visit a Delhi government school, where they will attend a happiness curriculum class.

    What is Delhi’s ‘happiness curriculum’?

    • The curriculum calls for schools in India to promote development in cognition, language, literacy, numeracy and the arts along with addressing the well-being and happiness of students.
    • It further says that future citizens need to be “mindful, aware, awakened, empathetic, firmly rooted in their identity…” based on the premise that education has a larger purpose, which cannot be in isolation from the “dire needs” of today’s society.
    • For the evaluation, no examinations are conducted, neither will marks be awarded.
    • The assessment under this curriculum is qualitative, focusing on the “process rather than the outcome” and noting that each student’s journey is unique and different.

    Objectives of the curriculum

    The objectives of this curriculum include:

    • developing self-awareness and mindfulness,
    • inculcating skills of critical thinking and inquiry,
    • enabling learners to communicate effectively and
    • helping learners to apply life skills to deal with stressful and conflicting situations around them

    Learning outcomes of this curriculum

    The learning outcomes of this curriculum are spread across four categories:

    • becoming mindful and attentive (developing increased levels of self-awareness, developing active listening, remaining in the present);
    • developing critical thinking and reflection (developing strong abilities to reflect on one’s own thoughts and behaviours, thinking beyond stereotypes and assumptions);
    • developing social-emotional skills (demonstrating empathy, coping with anxiety and stress, developing better communication skills) and
    • developing a confident and pleasant personality (developing a balanced outlook on daily life reflecting self-confidence, becoming responsible and reflecting awareness towards cleanliness, health and hygiene).

    How is the curriculum implemented?

    • The curriculum is designed for students of classes nursery through the eighth standard.
    • Group 1 consists of students in nursery and KG, who have bi-weekly classes (45 minutes each for one session, which is supervised by a teacher) involving mindfulness activities and exercise.
    • Children between classes 1-2 attend classes on weekdays, which involves mindfulness activities and exercises along with taking up reflective questions.
    • The second group comprises students from classes 3-5 and the third group is comprised of students from classes 6-8 who apart from the aforementioned activities, take part in self-expression and reflect on their behavioural changes.

  • Biojet fuel that powered the IAF aircraft

     

    In his monthly Mann ki Baat radio address, PM hailed the use of biofuel in an Indian Air Force transport aircraft.

    What did PM cite?

    • IAF’s An-32 aircraft successfully used a 10% blend of Indian biojet fuel and took off from Leh’s Kushok Bakula Rimpoche Airport on January 31.
    • This was the first time that this mix was used in both engines of an aircraft.
    • Leh is at an altitude of 10,682 ft above mean sea level and is among the world’s highest and most difficult operational airfields.
    • Even during clear weather, operating an aircraft at Leh is a challenge, given the reduced power output of the engines in the rarefied atmosphere, turbulent winds, and proximity of the mountains.

    What is Biojet fuel?

    • Biojet fuel is prepared from “non-edible tree borne oil” and is procured from various tribal areas of India.
    • This fuel is made from Jatropha oil sourced from Chattisgarh Biodiesel Development Authority (CBDA) and then processed at CSIR-IIP, Dehradun.
    • Generally, it is made from vegetable oils, sugars, animal fats and even waste biomass, and can be used in existing aviation jet engines without modification.
    • Jatropha oil is suitable for conversion to jet fuel. This biojet fuel has received wide acceptance from the airline industry.

    Why it matters?

    • Evaluating the performance of biojet fuel under conditions prevalent in Leh was considered extremely important from an operational perspective.
    • The success of the flight validated the capability of the aircraft’s engines to operate smoothly with biojet fuel at the extremities of the operational envelope.
    • The tests were conducted by a team comprising test pilots from the Aircraft and Systems Testing Establishment (ASTE), Bengaluru and pilots from the operational squadrons.
    • The successful test flight also demonstrated the IAF’s capability to absorb newer technology, while sponsoring indigenization.

  • [pib] Bay of Bengal Offshore Sailing Expedition (BBSE)

     

    Indian Naval Sailing Vessels Mhadei and Tarini set sail for the Bay of Bengal Offshore Sailing Expedition from the Indian Naval Ocean Sailing Node at Goa.

    BBSE

    • This would be the maiden major mixed crew sailing expedition of the Indian Navy with crew composition of five naval officers including two women officers in each boat.
    • It would be covering a total distance of 6,100 Nautical miles each and will be at sea for 55 days.
    • The prolonged voyage of nearly three months during this expedition would showcase harnessing of renewal energy namely wind energy to propel the boats.
    • The expedition is also in pursuance of the GOI mission of ‘Nari Shakti’ providing opportunity to women officers at par with men.
    • The sailing vessels as part of the expedition would make replenishment halts at ports of Phuket, Yangon, Chittagong and Colombo.

    About the vessels

    • Mhadei and Tarini inducted in the Indian Navy on 08 February 2009 and 18 February 2017 respectively have been the vessels of choice for the naval expeditions in various sailing expeditions, including three circumnavigations and thus have thousands of miles tucked under their belt.
    • Mhadei has successfully completed two circumnavigations, three Cape to Rio trans-Atlantic races and several other expeditions around various continents.
    • The vessel has covered in excess of 1,36,000 nautical miles.
    • Tarini created history in 2017-18 when six Indian Naval women officers sailed the vessel on maiden circumnavigation voyage titled Navika Sagar Parikrama.
    • She thereafter also participated in mixed crew Kochi to Seychelles sail training expedition during the 10th-anniversary celebration of the IONS.

  • The next mission

    Context

    After the success of the SBM, government is looking for the next mission in the form of Jal Jeevan Mission.

    Investment in Sanitation

    • Investment of over 1 lakh crore: The central and state governments have invested in excess of one lakh crore on sanitation over the past five years.
    • Where the fund was used? A majority of these funds have gone towards-
      • Incentivising the poor and marginalised households to construct and use household toilets.
      • Bringing about behaviour change, and-
      • Building capacities of field functionaries.
    • The success of the mission: Over 10 crore toilets have been built in rural India and nearly 55 crore people have stopped defecating in the open, all in just five years.
      • This has contributed in bringing down global open defecation by more than half.
    • Return on the investment in sanitation: The returns on these investments have been manifold, and their effects on the broader economy, markets and employment have been significant.
      • 400 % return: The UNICEF recently estimated that investments in sanitation in India are yielding a 400 per cent return with each rural household in an open-defecation-free village saving Rs 50,000 on account of avoided medical costs and time savings.
    • Future prospects for the sanitation infrastructure: The Toilet Board Coalition has estimated that the sanitation infrastructure and services market in India will be worth over $60 billion by 2021.
      • Many new jobs, even in the most rural areas of the country, apart from reducing health and environmental costs and generating savings for households.
    • Growth in the sanitation-related business: The business of manufacturing toilet-related hardware accessories have reported huge growth in sales during the SBM period.
      • They project a continued uptrend through retrofitting and upgrades.
      • This has been corroborated by another recent study by UNICEF in which they have estimated that SBM has resulted in creating over 75 lakh full-time equivalent jobs over the past five years, giving the rural economy a major boost.

    A milestone, not a finish-line

    • Sustaining the success: The government is committed to ensuring that this success is sustained.
    • On October 2, 2019, the prime minister said that we must all ensure that people continue to use toilets and that no one is left behind.
    • Allocation of 10,000 crores in the Budget: This has been backed up by the finance minister in the budget for 2020-21.
      • In the budget, she announced about Rs 10,000 crore for rural sanitation to focus on-
      • ODF sustainability.
      • Bio-degradable waste management.
      • Greywater management.
      • Sludge management and-
      • Plastic waste management for all villages by 2024.

    Next Mission- Piped Water Supply

    • Jal Jeevan Mission: The next critical basic service, is piped water supply. On Independence day this year, the prime minister announced the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM).
      • With the goal of ensuring piped water supply for all households of India by 2024 and with a commitment of Rs 3.6 lakh crore of central and state funds for the scheme.
      • The budgetary allocation of 12,000 crores: In the Union budget for 2020-2021, the government has already allocated Rs 11,500 crore for JJM, with an additional Rs 12,000 crore being made available through extra-budgetary resources.
    • Earmarking 50% grants for drinking water and sanitation: In addition, a huge impetus to the rural water supply and sanitation sector is the earmarking of 50 per cent of the Rs 60,750 crore grant for rural local bodies provided under the Fifteenth Finance Commission for drinking water and sanitation.
      • Making local bodies more responsible: This will ensure that the gram panchayats and local communities are responsible for the upkeep of their water and sanitation infrastructure, providing a boost to the sustainability of service delivery to people.
      • Making sanitation and water supply everyone’s business: This approach will ensure that just like sanitation, provision of water supply and its upkeep will also become everyone’s business.

    Conclusion

    It is fairly clear now that investment in sanitation is actually a facilitator for broader economic, health and social gains. The government should ensure the sustainability of SBM and replicate its success in implementing the JJM.

     

  • Habitable-zone Planet Finder (HPF)

     

    At 100 light-years from Earth, a low-mass star was sending signals in a pattern that suggested that an exoplanet was orbiting the star confirmed the Habitable-zone Planet Finder (HPF).

    Habitable-zone Planet Finder

    • NASA’s Kepler mission observed a dip in the host star’s light, suggesting that the planet was crossing in front of the star during its orbit.
    • To confirm, researchers turned to an instrument called Habitable-zone Planet Finder (HPF). It has confirmed that there is indeed an exoplanet.
    • HPF is an astronomical spectrograph, built by Penn State University scientists, and recently installed on the 10m Hobby-Eberly Telescope at McDonald Observatory in Texas.
    • The instrument is designed to detect and characterize planets in the habitable zone — the region around the star where a planet could sustain liquid water on its surface — around nearby low-mass stars.
    • The newly confirmed planet, called G 9-40b, is the first one validated by HPF. It is about twice the size of Earth and orbits its star once every six Earth-days.

    How it works

    • A spectrograph is an instrument that splits light into its component wavelengths.
    • Scientists then measure the properties of light over a specific portion of the spectrum and draw conclusions on what is responsible for the trends they observe.

    Why need HPF?

    • Kepler’s observations alone were not enough to confirm a planet. It was possible that a close stellar companion was responsible for the dip in the star’s light.
    • Precision spectroscopic observations from HPF ruled out this possibility.
    • Shooting a high-power laser into the air, researchers generated a “laser guide star”, and subsequent observations found no evidence of blending of light or other stellar companions.
    • Finally, using HPF, an analysis of a set of radial velocities helped provide estimates for the planet’s mass.

  • Worldwide Educating for the Future Index (WEFFI) 2019

     

     

    India has jumped five ranks in the Worldwide Educating for the Future Index (WEFFI) 2019.

    About WEFFI

    • The report is published by The Economist Intelligence Unit. The report and index were commissioned by the Yidan Prize Foundation.
    • The index ranks countries based on their abilities to equip students with skill-based education.
    • The report analyses the education system from the perspective of skill-based education “in areas such as critical thinking, problem-solving, leadership, collaboration, creativity and entrepreneurship, as well as digital and technical skills.”

    Global scenario

    • Among the world’s largest economies, the US, UK, France and Russia all fell back in the index, while China, India and Indonesia took steps forward.
    • Finland was at the apex of the index, with strengths across each category followed by Sweden.

    India’s performance

    • India ranked 35th on the overall index in 2019 with a total score of 53, based on three categories – policy environment, teaching environment and overall socio-economic environment.
    • India scored 56.3 in policy environment falling from a 61.5 score in 2018.
    • India’s score of 52.2 in the teaching environment category and 50.1 in the socio-economic environment category increased significantly from 32.2 and 33.3 in 2018 respectively.
    • Earlier, India ranked 40th with an overall score of 41.2 across categories in 2018.

    What made India progress?

    • The report attributed India’s growth to the new education policy introduced by the government.
    • India’s Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, in the Union Budget 2020, had highlighted a
    • The New Education Policy announced in this year budget under ‘Aspirational India’ will focus on “greater inflow of finance to attract talented teachers, innovate and build better labs.
    • The policy will focus further on skill-based education.

    Various shortcomings highlighted

    • The 2018 WEFFI report had highlighted the shortcomings in India’s education system emphasizing upon its inability to utilise the opportunity of internationalizing its higher education system.
    • A decentralized education system is another shortcoming of India’s education policy according to the 2019 report.
    • Well-intentioned policy goals relating to future skills development often do not get filtered downward, a hazard in economies such as the US and India that have large, decentralized education systems, the report said.

  • Tilhan Mission

    The government will launch Tilhan Mission to make the country self-reliant in oilseed production.

    Why such mission?

    • India is the fourth largest vegetable oil economy in the world after the USA, China and Brazil.
    • Today, the oilseeds account for 13% of the cropped area in the country.
    • Still, India is the largest importer of palm oil in the world.

    Oilseed production in India

    • Total Oilseeds production in the country during 2019-20 is estimated at 34.19 million tonnes which is higher by 2.67 million tonnes than the production of 31.52 million tonnes during 2018-19.
    • Further, the production of oilseeds during 2019-20 is higher by 4.54 million tonnes than the average oilseeds production.

  • [Burning Issue] Genome India Project

    The Union Govt. has given clearance to an ambitious gene-mapping project, estimated to be worth Rs 238 crore. The project is said to be among the most significant of its kind in the world because of its scale and the diversity it would bring to genetic studies.

     

     

    Genome India Project

    • The Genome India Project has been described by those involved as the “first scratching of the surface of the vast genetic diversity of India”.
    • It involves over 20 scientists from institutions including the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bengaluru and a few IITs.
    • It is inspired by the Human Genome Project (HGP 1990-2003) an international programme that led to the decoding of the entire human genome.

    About Human Genome Project

    • One of the most comprehensive genome mapping projects in the world is the Human Genome Project (HGP), which began in 1990 and reached completion in 2003.
    • The international project, which was coordinated by the National Institutes of Health and the US Department of Energy, was undertaken with the aim of sequencing the human genome and identifying the genes that contain it.
    • The project was able to identify the locations of many human genes and provide information about their structure and organisation.

    What is a Genome?

    • Every organism’s genetic code is contained in its Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid (DNA), the building blocks of life.
    • The discovery that DNA is structured as a “double helix” by James Watson and Francis Crick in 1953, started the quest for understanding how genes dictate life, its traits, and what causes diseases.
    • A genome is all the genetic matter in an organism. It is defined as “an organism’s complete set of DNA, including all of its genes.
    • Each genome contains all of the information needed to build and maintain that organism.
    • In humans, a copy of the entire genome contains more than 3 billion DNA base pairs.
    • Each pair consists of 23 pairs of chromosomes for a total of 46 chromosomes, which means that for 23 pairs of chromosomes in each cell, there are roughly 20,500 genes located on them.

    What does genome-mapping tell us?

    • Some of the genes are lined up in a row on each chromosome, while others are lined up quite close to one another and this arrangement might affect the way they are inherited.
    • For example, if the genes are placed sufficiently close together, there is a probability that they get inherited as a pair.
    • Genome mapping, therefore, essentially means figuring out the location of a specific gene on a particular region of the chromosome and also determining the location of and relative distances between other genes on that chromosome.

    What is the significance of GIP?

    • HGP has a major diversity problem as most genomes (over 95%) mapped under HGP have been sourced from urban middle-class white people.
    • Thus, HGP should not really be seen as representative of the human genome.

    In this context, the GIP aims to vastly add to the available information on the human species and advance the cause, both because of the scale of the Indian population and the diversity here. This diversity can be depicted by:

    Horizontal Diversity: The Indian subcontinent has been the site of huge migrations, where the first migrations were from Africa. Also, there have been periodic migrations by various populations from all around the world, making this a very special case of almost all races and types intermingling genetically.

    Vertical Diversity: There has been endogamy or inter-marriage practised among distinct groups, resulting in some diseases passed on strictly within some groups and some other traits inherited by just some groups. Studying and understanding both diversities would provide the bedrock of personalised healthcare for a very large group of persons on the planet.

    Its applications

    • Significantly, genome mapping enables scientists to gather evidence if a disease transmitted from the parent to the child is linked to one or more genes.
    • Furthermore, mapping also helps in determining the particular chromosome which contains that gene and the location of that gene in the chromosome.
    • Genome maps have been used to find out genes that are responsible for relatively rare, single-gene inherited disorders such as cystic fibrosis and Duchene muscular dystrophy.
    • Genetic maps may also point out scientists to the genes that play a role in more common disorders and diseases such as asthma, cancer and heart disease among others.
    • Researchers from several international institutions mapped the handful of genes whose mutation causes several different kinds of cancers.

    Challenges involved

    Fear of Scientific Racism

    • The question of heredity and racial purity has obsessed civilisations, and more scientific studies of genes and classifying them could reinforce stereotypes and allow for politics and history to acquire a racial twist.
    • The work on cranial volume measurements of the physician Samuel Morton (regarded in America as the father of scientific racism) justified slavery before the US Civil War.
    • In India, a nation divided by identity politics, scientific work in mapping genetic groups may further strengthen the divisions in the society based on the prevalent notion of race.

    Data & Storage

    • After collection of the sample, the anonymity of the data and questions of its possible use and misuse would need to be addressed.
    • India is yet to pass a Data Privacy Bill with adequate safeguards and launching the GIP before the privacy question is settled could give rise to another set of problems.

    Medical Ethics

    • In a project that aims only to create a database of genetic information poses a risk of doctors privately performing gene modification.
    • Selective breeding or Eugenics has always been controversial for long, as recently a Shenzhen-based scientist, created the world’s first gene-edited babies, has been sentenced to three years in prison.

    A word of Caution

    • Mapping the genetic diversity of India would further scientific understanding of evolution both from a biological (intra- and inter-species interaction, species-ecology interactions, etc) and sociological (migration patterns, rituals, etc) point of view.
    • Caution must be exercised that the effort to map India’s genetic diversity doesn’t devolve into the politically-motivated and discriminatory effort to root indogeneity in misguided notions of biological essentialism.

     

    Way Forward

    • The budget for FY21 spoke of expanding genome mapping to agriculture—a greater understanding of the genetic basis for susceptibility to diseases like blights, rusts, etc, would aid genetic engineering efforts to reduce chemical dependence in agriculture.
    • Nor would healthcare be the only field to which the benefits of the project would accrue.
    • To gain fully from the genomics revolution, India needs to collect information about the genetics of its population and train manpower capable of interpreting it.
    • The information that is needed has to come from a large and sustained collection of data — fully sequenced individual genomes along with medical histories for the individuals who volunteer for this effort.
    • Genome India Project provides an opportunity for India to make leap and bounds progress in the fields of biotechnology, agriculture and healthcare.
    • Thus, it should be carried with maximum speed and maximum caution.

     

     

     

    References

    https://www.civilsdaily.com/news/genome-india-project/

    https://www.financialexpress.com/opinion/genome-india-project-a-boon-for-personalised-medicine-that-mustnt-be-misused-for-origin-tracing/1866186/

    https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/editorials/genome-india-project-india-genetic-diversity-6259645/

  • International Mother Language Day

     

    Friday, February 21 was International Mother Language Day.

    International Mother Language Day

    • It has been observed since 1999 to promote “linguistic and cultural diversity and multilingualism”, according to the UN.
    • Of the world’s 6,000 languages, 43% are estimated as endangered, according to the UN.
    • On the other hand, just 10 languages account for as many as 4.8 billion speakers — over 60% of the world population.
    • Globally, English remains the most widely spoken language with 1.13 billion speakers in 2019, followed by Mandarin with 1.17 billion, according to the online database Ethnologue.

    Why February 21?

    • UNESCO declared International Mother Language Day in 1999, to commemorate a 1952 protest against West Pakistan’s imposition of Urdu as the official language of East Pakistan (present-day Bangladesh).
    • According to a report, police opened fire on demonstrating Dhaka University students and “some people were killed”.
    • When thousands thronged the university the next day, police fired again, killing more people.
    • In Bangladesh, since 1953, February 21 is observed as Ekushe Day, after the Bengali word for twenty-one.
    • According to the South Asia Democratic Forum, five among those killed were recognised as “language martyrs — Abul Barkat, Abdul Jabbar, Rafiquddin Ahmad, Abdus Salman and Shafiur Rahman.

    Data on Indian languages

    • Hindi is third with 615 million speakers while Bengali is seventh with 265 million.
    • In India, Hindi is the most spoken language with over 528 million speakers in 2011, as per the Census.
    • Bengali had 97.2 million speakers in 2011, followed by Marathi (83 million), while other languages with over 50 million speakers are Telugu (81 million), Tamil (69 million), Gujarati (55.5 million) and Urdu (50.8 million).
    • Percentage trends from 1991 to 2011 underline the growth of the most widely spoken language, Hindi, which was spoken by 39.29% of the Indian population in 1991, and whose share grew to 43.63% in 2011.
    • For other languages in India’s top 12, the 2011 percentage share has fallen when compared to that in 1991.