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  • Laser Communications Relay Demonstration (LCRD)

    NASA has launched its new Laser Communications Relay Demonstration (LCRD) — the agency’s first-ever laser communications system.

    What is LCRD?

    • LCRD involves laser communications – also called optical communications which uses infrared light to send information.
    • LCRD is launched in a geosynchronous orbit, over 35,000km above Earth.
    • LCRD has two optical terminals – one to receive data from a user spacecraft, and the other to transmit data to ground stations.
    • The modems will translate the digital data into laser signals. This will then be transmitted via encoded beams of light.

    Benefits offered by LCRD

    • Currently, most NASA spacecraft use radio frequency communications to send data.
    • Optical communications will help increase the bandwidth 10 to 100 times more than radio frequency systems.
    • The LCRD will help the agency test optical communication in space.

    Laser vs Radio

    • Laser communications and radio waves use different wavelengths of light. It uses infrared light and has a shorter wavelength than radio waves.
    • This will help the transmission of more data in a short time.
    • Using infrared lasers, LCRD will send data to Earth at 1.2 gigabits-per-second (Gbps).
    • It would take roughly nine weeks to transmit a completed map of Mars back to Earth with current radio frequency systems. With lasers, we can accelerate that to about nine days, says NASA.

    Other advantages

    Optical communications systems are smaller in size, weight, and require less power compared with radio instruments.

    • A smaller size means more room for science instruments.
    • Less weight means a less expensive launch.
    • Less power means less drain on the spacecraft’s batteries.

     

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  • Why India will be scrutinised at Summit for Democracy

    Context

    On December 9 and 10, US President Joe Biden will host a virtual “summit for democracy”, which will bring together leaders of 100 countries, civil society and private sector representatives.

    Challenges to India’s democratic image

    • India categorised as partly free: The US-based Freedom House’s “Freedoms of the World” index categorises India as only “partly free”; the Swedish V-Dem calls India an “electoral autocracy”.
    • Others lump India with Hungary, Turkey and the Philippines, where authoritarian leaders rule the roost.
    • Factors affecting India’s image: Rights violations in Kashmir, suspension of internet services in Kashmir, the conflation of political dissent with the colonial-era crime of sedition, the use of anti-terrorism laws to silence critics, the failure of the state to ensure freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution, the anti-Muslim amendments to citizenship laws have all but shredded India’s democratic image.

    Agenda of the summit

    • The agenda of the summit holds contemporary resonance in India.
    • Three broad themes: According to the State Department, the summit will convene around three broad themes — defending democracy against authoritarianism, addressing and fighting corruption, and promoting respect for human rights.
    • Leaders will be “encouraged” to announce “specific actions and commitments” to meaningful domestic reforms and international initiatives that advance the summit’s goals.

    Why India’s contribution to the agenda will be scrutinized closely

    • Cultural relativisms: One theme that emerges from these observations is that of cultural relativism — the “Indianness of India’s democracy”— “as India becomes ever more democratic, democracy will become ever more Indian in its sensibilities and texture”.
    • Role of civil society: A second theme is the role of civil society.
    • It has been accused of “defaming” or bringing harm to India, as espoused most recently in statements by the National Security Adviser, who also called them “the new frontier of a fourth-generation war”.
    • Ensuring democratic rights: Another noticeable theme is around the responsibility for ensuring democratic rights.

    Challenges for India

    • India has to reconcile the paradox inherent in submitting to international gaze at a global assembly where it is apparently required to make commitments adhering to “western” standards of democracy while claiming there is an Indian model.
    • In March this year, External Affairs Minister Jaishankar dismissed global standards and international metrics of democracy as rubbish.
    • For perspective, this is what China says too.
    • When President Biden brought up Beijing’s human rights record, President Xi Jinping told him there was no “uniform model” of democracy, and that dismissing other “forms of democracy different from one’s own is itself undemocratic.
    • The summit may intensify these differences, particularly because the host has no shining credentials either.
    •  If democracy-building was never the US goal in Afghanistan, as Biden declared, why make the unfreezing of Afghan assets overseas conditional to the Taliban turning democratic and inclusive overnight?

    Conclusion

    India’s expected participation in the summit will come against a rather bleak backdrop of relativism, misinformation, confusion, obfuscation and polarisation on issues of democracy, civil society and rights.

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  • What the NFHS data reveals about inequality in India

    Context

    The release of the NFHS data (and the Niti Aayog’s study on developing a multi-dimensional index of poverty — MPI) has led to a considerable amount of discussion, and justifiably so.

    Understanding the progress and development: MPI

    • The MPI is an Oxford-based initiative that develops an exclusive broadly non-monetary living standard index of poverty.
    • MPI indices are the third in the series of global studies on poverty.
    • Global studies on poverty: Global studies started with the World Bank’s income/consumption-based measure of absolute poverty.
    • The UN expanded the monetary index adding health and education indicators via the Human Development Index (HDI).

    Evolution of poverty over time

    • Like with the other poverty indices (World Bank and HDI), most information and useful policy analysis comes via a study of the inter-temporal evolution of poverty. 
    • Regional inequality: Ajit Ranade acknowledges that regional inequality has existed for some time, but he argues that poverty incidence across Indian states even as per the MPI is astoundingly unequal.
    • T N Ninan talks about the simultaneous existence of Africa’s Sahel region and the Philippines in India.
    • He finds that the two Indias are not getting any closer.
    • Indeed, India’s development trajectory has not been uniform, but the regional imbalance of development cannot be viewed at a fixed point in time.

    Analysing the NHFS data

    • A detailed examination of the summary statistics reported in the NFHS data (large and small states of India for the two years 2015-16 and 2019-21), reveals the opposite result.
    • Convergence: The analysis reveals remarkable convergence in living standards, a convergence possibly unparalleled in Indian history and in the space of just five years.
    • NFHS reports the averages for all states, and for 131 variables, for two years 2015-16 and 2020-21.
    • Seventeen of these 131 welfare indicators are used to construct indices under four classifications.
    • Improvement in lives of girls/women: The first classification concerns itself with the improvement in the lives of girls/women (five indicators, for example, sex ratio, fertility, female education).
    • Housing conditions: The second bucket consists of housing conditions (three indicators, for example, improved sanitation, clean fuel).
    • Children’s welfare: The third list consists of children’s welfare (four indicators such as adequate diet, stunting)
    • Women’s welfare: The fourth classification includes women’s empowerment (five indicators, for example, owning a house, less spousal violence).
    • Given that Niti Aayog’s report primarily relies on the NFHS-4, these findings can be used as the baseline scenario to evaluate the delta — that is, the per cent change in indicators between NFHS-4 and NFHS-5.
    • The table reports the results for several states.

    • Seventeen indicators imply a maximum possible score of 1,700.
    • Kerala performs the best with an aggregate index of 1,300 in NFHS-5 — a very small 1.5 per cent increase from its 2015-16 value.
    • In contrast, Bihar increases its index by 56 per cent.
    • Punjab does better than Tamil Nadu and today has a higher index – 1,240 versus 1,178 in 2020-21.
    • UP (along with Rajasthan and MP) performs the best — a 60 plus per cent increase in the welfare index, more than five times the increase in the rich states.

    Major findings from the NHFS data

    • Convergence: Higher improvement by less developed states is evidence in support of catch-up, which suggests that regional imbalances are reducing, and in some indicators, rapidly so.
    • States such as UP, Bihar and Jharkhand are fast approaching similar standards for select indicators as some of the “developed” states.
    • Result of targeted intervention: This acceleration in catch up is no coincidence, but rather an outcome of an approach that involves targeted interventions to improve developmental outcomes.
    • The approach was not just limited to sanitation, proper fuel or electricity — interventions that are targeted to an individual household — but also to the holistic development of an entire region.

    Consider the question “What does NHFS-5 data reveal about the inequality in India?”

    Conclusion

    India has been, and was, not one but several Indias. What is remarkable about its recent history is the rapid process of uneven change — where progress is considerably higher for the poorer states — the convergent, and inclusive pattern of development. That is the real story behind the NFHS-4 and NFHS-5 numbers.

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  • Species in news: Physella Acuta

    A tiny snail with a striking, pellucid golden-yellow shell found in the Edappally canal in Kochi has been flagged as an invasive species that could play havoc with native ecosystems.

    Snail Physella Acuta

    • First described by J.P.R. Draparnaud in 1805, Physella acuta is considered native to North America but is now found in all continents except Antarctica.
    • The snail was first reported in India in the early 1990s.
    • It is believed to have reached Kerala through the aquarium trade, a major vector for invasive species.
    • In Kerala, the snail had made its home in a highly polluted reach plagued by high sedimentation, untreated sewage, commercial effluents, construction wastes and a thick growth of invasive aquatic weeds.

    Threats posed

    • This snail plays host to worms that can cause food-borne diseases and skin itches in humans.
    • Moreover, its rapid growth rate, air-breathing capability, and tolerance to pollution make it a potential competitor to native fauna.

     

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  • Challenges facing cooperative sector in India

    Context

    The article delved into the past of the cooperative movement and give some suggestions to resolve the issues facing cooperatives in India.

    Background of cooperatives

    • Friedrich Raiffeisen, who along with compatriot Schulze-Delitzsch in Germany, and Luzzatti of Italy, pioneered cooperatives in Europe.
    • Cooperatives in India: The Governor of the Madras Presidency, Lord Wenlock, was the first to seriously attempt replicating European cooperatives in India.
    • Principles: Raiffeisen based them on the principles of self-help, self-governance, and self-responsibility.
    • Nicholson wrote that the ‘future of rural credit lies with those who being of the people, live among the people, and yet by their intelligence, prescience and energy, are above the people’.
    •  Plunkett, in his foreword to Eleanor Hough’s The Cooperative Movement in India (1932), commented that what India had was not a movement, but a policy.
    • It was ‘created by ‘resolutions of the Central Government’ unlike Europe.
    • Increasing government control: John Matthai wrote in 1925 that the challenge was to loosen government grip on cooperation over the years.
    • But, government control has only increased, violating a core cooperative principle of political neutrality.
    • This reflects a collective failure of the political class.

    Challenges facing cooperatives

    • After Independence, cooperative institutions became an instrument of planning and state action.
    • Not surprisingly, successful Indian cooperatives such as the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd (GCMMF)/Amul, Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative Limited (IFFCO) and Krishak Bharati Cooperative Limited (KRIBHCO), are outside government control.
    • Globally, seven of the top 10 cooperatives by asset size are from the financial sector.
    • The Indian financial sector is nowhere in the picture going by asset size.
    •  Cooperatives have also become avenues for regulatory arbitrage, circumventing lending and anti-money laundering regulations.
    •  The committees which examined cooperative banking suffered from the top-down quality that Plunkett and others frowned upon.
    • Recent initiatives such as an umbrella organisation for urban cooperatives and a new Ministry of Cooperation at the Centre threaten to further this approach in the absence of safeguards.

    Suggestions

    • First, the powers of the RCS need to be scaled back.
    •  In almost all States, the RCS has become an instrument of inspection and domination, one which imposes uniform by-laws, and amends them when individual societies do not fall in line.
    •  There is a need to transfer work from the RCS to cooperative federations — as in Singapore.
    • Second, the rural-urban dichotomy in the regulatory treatment of cooperatives is specious and outdated.
    • Such differences are immaterial when regulation is to be based on the cooperative nature of organisations.
    • Third, the regulation and the supervision of cooperative banks should move to a new body from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for urban banks and the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) for rural banks.
    • Fourth, lessons from the Netherlands, where cooperative banks owe their success to a segmented market, are pertinent.
    • In India, adopting a multi-agency approach, especially after bank nationalisation, has affected the efficiency of both commercial and cooperative banks.
    • Commercial bank-cooperative sector linkages at various levels could alternatively provide better synergies.

    Conclusion

    The cooperative sector in India faces challenges on various fronts. There is a need for implementing the changes suggested above to play an important role expected from it in the economy.

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  • Arms Race towards Hypersonic Weapons

    China recently tested a nuclear-capable hypersonic missile while Russia announced that it had successfully test-launched a Tsirkon hypersonic cruise missile in early October.

    What are Hypersonic Weapons?

    • The speed of sound is Mach 1, and speeds upto Mach 5 are supersonic and speeds above Mach 5 are hypersonic.
    • They are manoeuvrable weapons that can fly at speeds in excess of Mach 5, five times the speed of sound.
    • A number of other countries – including Australia, India, France, Germany, and Japan—are developing hypersonic weapons technology.

    Features of HSWs

    • Trajectory: Ballistic Missiles are long-range missile that leaves the earth’s atmosphere before re-entry, pursuing a parabolic trajectory towards its target
    • Maneuverability: HSW travel within the atmosphere and can manoeuvre midway which combined with their high speeds make their detection and interception extremely difficult.
    • Stealth: Radars and air defences cannot intercept them till they are very close. They can penetrate most missile defences and further compress the timelines for response by a nation under attack.

    Types of Hypersonic Weapons

    There are two classes of hypersonic weapons:

    1. Hypersonic glide vehicles (HGV): They are launched from a rocket before gliding to a target.
    2. Hypersonic cruise missiles (HCM): They are powered by high-speed, air-breathing engines, or scramjets, after acquiring their target.

    Where does the US stand?

    • The US has active hypersonic development programs.
    • It is said to be lagging behind China and Russia because most US hypersonic weapons are not being designed for use with a nuclear warhead.
    • It is in process of developing prototypes to assist in the evaluation of potential weapon system concepts and mission sets.

    Hypersonic program in India

    • HSTDV program: India is developing an indigenous, dual-capable hypersonic cruise missile as part of its Hypersonic Technology Demonstrator Vehicle (HSTDV) program.
    • Capacity: India operates approximately 12 hypersonic wind tunnels and is capable of testing speeds of up to Mach 13.
    • In-operation: The DRDO has successfully tested a Mach 6 scramjet in June 2019 and September 2020 using the demonstrated scramjet engine technology.

    DRDO has validated many associated crucial technologies such as:

    1. Aerodynamic configuration for hypersonic maneuvers
    2. Use of scramjet propulsion for ignition and sustained combustion at the hypersonic flow
    3. Thermo-structural characterization of high-temperature materials
    4. Separation mechanism at hypersonic velocities has been validated

    Conclusion

    • There are rising tensions between the US, China and Russia worsening the geopolitical situation worldwide.
    • The focus for hypersonic weapons is only set to accelerate more countries to invest significant resources in their design and development.

    Back2Basics:

     

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  • When can an individual get Statutory Bail?

    The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has approached the Supreme Court against a Bombay High Court order granting bail to an advocate and activist.

    What is the case?

    • In its bail order, the court has asked the NIA Court to decide the conditions for her release.
    • The activist was given ‘default bail’.
    • The case highlights the nuances involved in a court determining the circumstances in which statutory bail is granted or denied, even though it is generally considered “an indefeasible right”.

    What is default bail?

    • This is enshrined in Section 167(2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure.
    • Also known as statutory bail, this is a Right to Bail that accrues when the police fail to complete investigation within a specified period in respect of a person in judicial custody.
    • When it is not possible for the police to complete an investigation in 24 hours, the police produce the suspect in court and seek orders for either police or judicial custody.

    When is the Bail granted?

    • For most offences, the police have 60 days to complete the investigation and file a final report before the court.
    • However, where the offence attracts death sentence or life imprisonment, or a jail term of not less than 10 years, the period available is 90 days.
    • In other words, a magistrate cannot authorise a person’s judicial remand beyond the 60-or 90-day limit.
    • At the end of this period, if the investigation is not complete, the court shall release the person “if he is prepared to and does furnish bail”.

    How does the provision vary for special laws?

    The extension of time is not automatic but requires a judicial order.

    • Ordinary law (IPC/CrPC): The 60- or 90-day limit is only for ordinary penal law.
    • Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act: In NDPS Act, the period is 180 days. However, in cases involving substances in commercial quantity, the period may be extended up to one year.
    • Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act: In UAPA, the default limit is 90 days only. The court may grant an extension of another 90 days, if it is satisfied that the progress made in the investigation and giving reasons to keep the accused in further custody.

    What are the laid-down principles on this aspect?

    • A matter of Right: Default or statutory bail is an indefeasible right’, regardless of the nature of the crime liberty under Article 21 of the Constitution.
    • Stipulated period calculation: The stipulated period within which the charge sheet has to be filed begins from the day the accused is remanded for the first time. It includes days undergone in both police and judicial custody, but not days spent in house-arrest.
    • Voluntary: There is no automatic bail.

    Try this similar PYQ from CSP 2021:

    Q. With reference to India, consider the following statements:

    1. When a prisoner makes a sufficient case, parole cannot be out denied to such prisoner because it becomes a matter of his/her right.
    2. State Governments have their own Prisoners Release on Parole Rules.

    Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

    (a) 1 only

    (b) 2 only

    (c) Both 1 and 2

    (d) Neither 1 nor 2

     

    [wpdiscuz-feedback id=”r8o9gfqh8r” question=”Please leave a feedback on this” opened=”1″]Post your answers here.[/wpdiscuz-feedback]

     

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  • Dhawan-1: India’s first privately developed Cryogenic Rocket

    Skyroot Aerospace successfully tested Dhawan-1 last month. It became the country’s first privately developed fully cryogenic rocket engine.

    Dhawan-1

    • The indigenous engine was developed using 3D printing with a superalloy.
    • It runs on two high-performance rocket propellants — liquid natural gas (LNG) and liquid oxygen (LoX).
    • This was after successfully designing and developing the solid propulsion rocket engine, the first private firm in the country to do so.

    Other projects by Skyroot

    • Skyroot is working simultaneously on different stages of both solid propulsion and liquid propulsion engines.
    • It is named after eminent scientists, like Kalam (Abdul Kalam) series for the former and Dhawan (Satish Dhawan).
    • The launch vehicles are named after Vikram Sarabhai.

     

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  • Tribes in news: Konyak

    An angry mob allegedly vandalized an Assam Rifles camp and the office of the Konyak Union in Nagaland’s Mon district.

    Konyak Tribe

    • With a population of roughly 3 lakh, the area inhabited by the Konyaks extends into Arunachal Pradesh, with a sizeable population in Myanmar as well.
    • They are known to be one of the fiercest warrior tribes in Nagaland.
    • The Konyaks were the last to give up the practice of head-hunting – severing heads of enemies after attacking rival tribes – as late as the 1980s.

    Significance in Naga Peace Process

    • Mon is the only district in Nagaland where the separatist group has not been able to set up base camps, largely due to resistance from the Konyaks.
    • The Konyaks therefore, are imperative for a smooth resolution of the peace talks, as well as the post-talk peace process in the state.

    Also read:

    Naga Peace Accord

     

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  • [pib] Project RE-HAB

    Buoyed by the success of its innovative Project RE-HAB (Reducing Elephant-Human Attacks using Bees) in Karnataka, Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) has now replicated the project in Assam.

    Project RE-HAB

    • Project RE-HAB is a sub-mission of KVIC’s National Honey Mission.
    • Under the project, “Bee-fences” are created by setting up bee boxes in the passageways of elephants to block their entrance to human territories.
    • The boxes are connected with a string so that when elephants attempt to pass through, a tug or pull causes the bees to swarm the elephant herds and dissuade them from progressing further.
    • It is a cost-effective way of reducing human-wild conflicts without causing any harm to the animals.

    How does it work?

    • It is scientifically recorded that elephants are annoyed by the honey bees.
    • Elephants also fear that the bee swarms can bite the sensitive inner side of the trunk and eyes.
    • The collective buzz of the bees is annoying to elephants that force them to return.

     

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