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Vikram-S: India’s first private sector rocket
India’s first privately developed rocket, Vikram-S, is set for launch between November 12 and 16.

Vikram-S
- Vikram-S is India’s first privately developed rocket and is all set to be launched as part of the Prarambh space mission.
- It is a single-stage sub-orbital launch vehicle which would carry three customer payloads and help test and validate the majority of the technologies in the Vikram series of space launch vehicles.
- It was developed by the Hyderabad-based Skyroot Aerospace.
- The Prarambh mission is aimed at carrying three payloads into space, including a 2.5-kilogram payload that has been developed by students from several countries.
- Skyroot’s launch vehicles are named ‘Vikram’ as a tribute to the founder of the Indian space program and renowned scientist Vikram Sarabhai.
Significance of the mission
- With this mission, Skyroot is set to become the first private space company in India to launch a rocket into space.
- It is heralding a new era for the space sector which was opened up in 2020 to facilitate private sector participation.
- The Prarambh mission was extensively supported from ISRO and IN-SPACe (Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre).
Back2Basics: IN-SPACE
- The establishment of IN-SPACe was announced in June 2020.
- It is an autonomous and single window nodal agency in the Department of Space for the promotion, encouragement and regulation of space activities of both government and private entities.
- It also facilitates the usage of ISRO facilities by private entities.
- It comprises technical experts for space activities along with safety expert, academic experts and legal and strategic experts from other departments.
- It also comprises members from PMO and MEA of Government of India.
Roles and Responsibilities
- Space activities including building of launch vehicles and satellites and providing space based services as per the definition of space activities.
- Sharing of space infrastructure and premises under the control of ISRO with due considerations to on-going activities.
- Establishment of temporary facilities within premises under ISRO control based on safety norms and feasibility assessment
How is it different from ANTRIX?
- Antrix Corporation Limited (ACL), Bengaluru is a wholly-owned Government of India Company under the administrative control of the Department of Space.
- It is as a marketing arm of ISRO for promotion and commercial exploitation of space products, technical consultancy services and transfer of technologies developed by ISRO.
- Antrix is engaged in providing Space products and services to international customers worldwide.
What about New Space India Limited (NSIL)?
- It functions under the administrative control of the Department of Space (DOS).
- It aims to commercially exploit the research and development work of ISRO Centres and constituent units of DOS.
- The NSIL would enable Indian Industries to scale up high-technology manufacturing and production base for meeting the growing needs of the Indian space program.
- It would further spur the growth of Indian Industries in the space sector.
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November 9, 2022
Declining Consumer Demand and Reluctant Investors
Context
- In September, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman was anguished that industry was holding back from investing in manufacturing despite a significant cut in corporate tax rates in 2019.
Analyzing the corporate Investment since the pandemic
- Less investment is not the result of losses: The slowdown in corporate investment did not happen because companies were making losses.
- More profit but less investments by corporates: In fact, private companies, boosted by considerable tax cuts, made windfall profits. A State Bank of India analysis shows that tax cuts contributed 19% to the top line of companies during the pandemic. But this did not result in increased investments.
- Dividends to shareholders: Before the pandemic, instead of investing in themselves, companies chose to reward shareholders with higher dividends.
- Investment in equity and debt instead of Infrastructure: During the pandemic, they did not use the profits for paying out dividends; they retained a big chunk of the profits. However, instead of investing in buildings, plants and machinery, they invested in equity shares and debt instruments.
- Corporate cited the slowdown in demand as reason for less investment: So, both before and after the outbreak, they shied away from capital investments. The hesitancy to invest can be explained by a slowdown in the demand side of the economy.
- Corporates didn’t invest in long term returns sectors: Consumer demand started to decline the year before the pandemic and worsened after the COVID19 outbreak. This forced companies to use the increased profits to decrease their debts, pay dividends and invest in financial instruments instead of increasing productivity by making capital investments.
What is The current consumer’s demand situation?
- Average Consumer sentiment index: Private companies invest when they are able to estimate profits, and that comes from demand. The Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy’s (CMIE) consumer sentiment index is still below pre-pandemic levels but is far higher than what was seen 12-18 months ago.
- Buoyant Aggregate demand: RBI’s Monetary policy report dated September 30 says, Data for Q2 (ended Sept) indicate that aggregate demand remained buoyant, supported by the ongoing recovery in private consumption and investment demand. It shows that seasonally adjusted capacity utilization rose to 74.3% in Q1 the highest in the last three years.
- High household savings: Along with household savings intentions remaining high, might hold the key to the investment cycle kicking in.
Statistic on demand and investment
- New investment projects: The new investment projects announced as a % of GDP, since FY18, the share has remained below the 5% mark, compared to over 9% between FY05 and FY22.
- Collection of corporate tax decreased: Corporate tax and income tax collected in India as a % of GDP after the cut in 2019, the share of corporate tax declined dramatically, while the share of income tax gradually increased.
- Double burden on tax payers: The shift in tax burden from the corporates to the people came at a time of job losses and reduced income levels. This pushed more people into poverty.
- Corporate profit increased after tax cut: Profit after tax earned by non-financial private companies in ₹ trillion after the tax cut, the profits of these companies rose to ₹4-5 trillion in the last two financial years from ₹1-2 trillion in many of the previous periods.
- Increase and decrease in dividend to shareholders: Dividends paid by non-financial private companies as a share of profits earned after tax, Payouts to shareholders surged in FY20, the year before the pandemic, but reduced in the following years.
- Profit retention increased: Retained profits as a % of profit after tax surged to 63% in FY22 the highest in a decade (limited companies were analyzed in FY22, so data are provisional).
- Profits are invested in equities: In FY21, the debt-to-equity ratio came down to 0.86 the lowest in at least three decades. In FY22 (provisional data), it came down further to 0.71.
- Year on year decline in capital investment: Year on year change in the investments of non-financial private companies in fixed assets such as buildings, plants, machinery, transport and infrastructure have declined in recent years. But the year on year change in investments in financial instruments such as equity, debt and mutual funds have surged.
Conclusion
- Corporates are holding their pockets in hope of demand rise in future. However, this affects the post-pandemic recovery of economy. IMF and RBI was right to revise their growth forecast this year. Unequal recovery of economy have certainly affected the income levels of middle class. Government has taken a lot of step on supply side (corporate side and banking reform) but no intervention in revival of demand.
Mains Question

Q. Analyze the corporate investment pattern before and after the pandemic? What are the reasons for decline in corporate investment in fixed assets in economy since the pandemic?

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November 8, 2022
Species in news: Snow Leopard
The first-ever recording of the snow leopard from the Baltal-Zojila region has renewed the hope for the elusive predator in the higher altitudes of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.

Why in news?
- Not much is known about the number of snow leopards in J&K and Ladakh.
- The Snow Leopard Population Assessment of India (SPAI) has been concluded so far in Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand.
- The estimated population of the great cat is 50 and 100 in these two States respectively.
Snow Leopard
- Snow leopards live in the mountainous regions of Central and Southern Asia.
- In India, their geographical range encompasses a large part of the western Himalayas, including the UTs of J&K and Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh in the eastern Himalayas.
- Project Snow Leopard was launched in 2009 for strengthening wildlife conservation in the Himalayan high altitudes.
- It aims at promoting a knowledge-based and adaptive conservation framework that fully involves the local communities, who share the snow leopard’s range, in conservation efforts.
Conservation status
- In the IUCN- Red List, the snow leopard is listed as Vulnerable.
- In addition, the snow leopard, like all big cats, is also listed in Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species (CITES).
- In India, the snow leopard is listed under Schedule I of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, giving it the highest protection status under the country’s laws.
Conservation Efforts by India
- The Government of India has identified the snow leopard as a flagship species for the high altitude Himalayas.
- India is also party to the Global Snow Leopard and Ecosystem Protection (GSLEP) Programme since 2013.
- HimalSanrakshak: It is a community volunteer programme, to protect snow leopards, launched in October 2020.
- In 2019, First National Protocol was also launched on Snow Leopard Population Assessment which has been very useful for monitoring populations.
- SECURE Himalaya: Global Environment Facility (GEF)-United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) funded the project on conservation of high altitude biodiversity and reducing the dependency of local communities on the natural ecosystem.
- Project Snow Leopard (PSL): It was launched in 2009 to promote an inclusive and participatory approach to conserve snow leopards and their habitat.
- Snow Leopard is on the list of 21 critically endangered species for the recovery programme of the Ministry of Environment Forest & Climate Change.
- Snow Leopard conservation breeding programme is undertaken at Padmaja Naidu Himalayan Zoological Park, Darjeeling, West Bengal.
Global Snow Leopard and Ecosystem Protection (GSLEP) Programme
- The GSLEP is a high-level inter-governmental alliance of all the 12 snow leopard range countries.
- The snow leopard countries namely, India, Nepal, Bhutan, China, Mongolia, Russia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.
- It majorly focuses on the need for awareness and understanding of the value of Snow Leopard for the ecosystem.
Living Himalaya Network Initiative
- Living Himalayas Initiative (LHI) is established as one of WWF’s global initiatives to bring about transformational conservation impact across the three Eastern Himalayan countries of Bhutan, India (North-East) and Nepal.
- Objectives of LHI include adapting to climate change, connecting to habitat and saving iconic species.
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November 8, 2022
Price regulation of UPI
Context
- The recent discussion paper by the RBI on charges in payment systems has triggered widespread public debate, especially on the zero-charge framework for UPI transactions.
Know the basics- What is UPI?
- UPI is an instant real-time payment system developed by National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) facilitating inter-bank transactions.
- The interface is regulated by the Reserve Bank of India and works by instantly transferring funds between two bank accounts on a mobile platform.
Why RBI wants to intervene?
- Two important reasons:
1. Goals of financial inclusion: Viewing digital payments as a public good and
2. Addressing market failures: Such as the presence of dominant firms or externalities that may arise due to the two-sided nature of this market.
- For both objectives, regulators might want to cap or set to zero the MDR or merchant discount rate (paid by merchants to their payments service provider) or the interchange fee (paid by the acquiring bank to the issuing bank), or both.
What is the present scenario of Pricing UPI?
- Subsidies on operational cost: In the case of UPI, the government subsidizes the operational costs of facilitating UPI transactions, which is reportedly inadequate. In January 2022, the Payments Council of India reported that the industry expected a loss of Rs 5,500 crore.
- Subsidies are inadequate: Even with a public good motive, in the absence of evidence, one cannot assume this to be the best allocation of limited government resources. As per the Indian Digital Payments Report (second quarter of 2022), the average ticket size of P2M transactions (person to merchant) on UPI is Rs 820. RBI’s estimated cost of Rs 2 for processing a Rs 800 transaction, is 0.25 per cent of the transaction value, much lower than the MDR cap set at 0.9 per cent for debit cards and an MDR of 2 per cent being pro- posed for RuPay credit cards on UPI.
- Presently MDR is Zero: A floor MDR of 0.25 per cent is, therefore, not unreasonable. Arguably, these are substitutable services competing for the same pool of merchants. Policymakers must also bear in mind behavioural challenges in moving from zero MDR to a positive MDR. Anchored at a zero MDR since January 2020, merchants, especially ones with thin margins, may hesitate to accept an increase in MDR, even if they benefit on net terms.
How RBI can regulate price?
- Understanding what to regulate: In order to understand how and what to regulate, we borrow from the rationale followed for other two-sided markets that exhibit cross-platform externalities. consumers benefit more if the size of the merchant network accepting a payment instrument (for example, debit cards) is larger and, at the same time, merchants benefit more if many consumers use debit cards.
- Recovering the cost from merchants: Card networks like Visa and Mastercard compete for banks, usually not too many, to issue their cards. Since the acquiring bank must pay the interchange fee, they recover these costs from merchants.
- Regulating the interchange fee: In most jurisdictions, the interchange fee is regulated to prevent banks from charging exploitative rates and the MDR is left to be commercially determined. This is also done for administrative ease, since banks are fewer, while monitoring bank-merchant contracts can be onerous.
- Charging the MDR: In the UPI parallel, involving payment service providers of payers and payees, the remitter and beneficiary banks as well as NPCI, RBI could either regulate the inter change fee between payment service providers or the merchant discount rate charged by them.
- Deciding between MDR and interchange fee: The market for merchant acquisition is usually more competitive and can be left unregulated, and if necessary, the interchange fee between the two payment service providers can be regulated. If both markets are sufficiently competitive, regulation could mean establishing a floor/ cap charge. The decision what to regulate is, therefore, crucial.
- Example of telecom industry: A related example is available in the telecom industry where facilities provision is regulated through the interconnection fee, while retail prices for the relatively competitive telecom services segment are left to the market. For externalities of the two-sided market to be internalized, the choice of instrument must be carefully evaluated.
- Determining the actual price: The next step is to determine the price level, which is a lot trickier. Drawing from economic theory, the optimal level would depend on whether the regulator cares only about consumer welfare (as op- posed to total welfare), and whether the issuing and acquiring banks make positive margins on each transaction.
How digital payment is charged around the world and India’s requirement?
- Example of PIX of Brazil: Pix, a two-year-old interoperable digital payments system in Brazil, provides a good comparison of how price setting might be considered in the UPI context. Pix does not regulate MDR, payment service providers have the freedom to set MDR, though in practice most banks currently don’t charge an MDR, largely to onboard more merchants on their platforms.
- MDR appears less attractive: The indicated cost is R$ 0.01 for each 10 transfers, or 16 paise in Indian rupees for every s10 transactions. This is substantially lower than the costs estimated for India and is also perhaps the reason why payment service providers are not immediately inclined to recover costs through MDR.
- Not hampering the innovation and investment: In general, benefits of regulatory intervention should outweigh the costs of intervening. The costs of intervening not only include the administrative costs, but also potential costs arising from setting the wrong interchange fee or cap, as well as any costs arising from the impact of the intervention on future investment and innovation in the market.
Do you know what is Merchant Discount Rate?
- Merchant Discount Rate (alternatively referred to as the Transaction Discount Rate or TDR) is the sum total of all the charges and taxes that a digital payment entails.
- Simply put, it is a charge to a merchant by a bank for accepting payment from their customers in credit and debit cards every time a card gets swiped in their stores.
- Similarly, MDR also includes the processing charges that a payments aggregator has to pay to online or mobile wallets or indeed to banks for their service.
Conclusion
- Policymakers must collect more data on costs of transfer, user preferences, both merchants and consumers, as well as undertake a thorough analysis of substitutability and competition in the digital payments sector, to put our best foot forward in helping achieve the potential of UPI in India.
Mains Question

Q. Explain the reasons for success of UPI in India? Analyze the Role of UPI in financial inclusion in India?

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November 7, 2022
Unscientific Highway Infrastructure: A Cause of Accidents
Context
- In a March 2019 circular, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) raised the subject of premature issuance of completion certificates for national highway works. NHAI had noticed that, in certain cases, completion certificates had been issued even before the completion of works ‘up to the standards and specifications’ prescribed by the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways.
Status of National highways and deaths
- 35 percent of all road deaths: NHAI is the principal organization responsible for construction of National Highways in India. National highways constitute a mere 2 percent of the country’s road network, but account for close to 35 percent of all road deaths.
- Record 37 kms per day: The ministry has been taking credit for the pace at which national highways are being constructed. In the fiscal year 2021, it reached a record 37 kms per day. This has come down to 19.44 km per day in the first six months of the financial year 2022.
What was the circular issued by NHAI?
- Issuance of completion certificate: The circular forbade the issuance of such certificates, especially if non-completion resulted in ‘material inconveniences to users’ or affected their safety.
- Likely cause of fatalities: Items such as road shoulders, road signs, markings, dressing of slopes, and road furniture were explicitly mentioned. circular was not taken with due seriousness by some authorized engineers. This negligence could have contributed to road crashes, probably resulting in fatalities.
- Dereliction of duty by NHAI’s officials: The NHAI has now warned the delinquents that such behavior would be treated as a serious dereliction of duty and disciplinary action would be taken against officers issuing such certificates to incomplete road works. Additionally, the officers would be held personally liable in case of serious accidents that occur on such unfinished infrastructure.
- Safety is better than pace of construction: The Minister for Road Transport & Highways stressed that it is necessary to build safer roads even if this decelerated the pace of construction.
Case study of NHAI’s road construction?
- Death of Cyrus Mistry: Unfortunately, self-introspection by the NHAI in regard to safety failures and the large number of deaths on national highways was not in evidence in the aftermath of the death of Cyrus Mistry on the Ahmedabad-Mumbai national highway in September 2022.
- Crash was result of poor infrastructure: In this instance, a seven-member forensic investigation team found that the car crash was the result of an infrastructure issue. The car in which Mistry was travelling happened to tragically hit a bridge that was faultily designed.
- Invisible dividers: The bridge parapet was found to be protruding into the shoulder lane. Furthermore, the road with three lanes unexpectedly narrowed to a road with two lanes with a dangerous L-shaped concrete divider that had no proper paint on it.
- Inadequate safety signs: Road signages were grossly inadequate, making that road stretch a ‘black spot’. This epithet is used for a road section where accidents are a frequent occurrence.
- Expressways are constructed for more speed: The accident also raised issues of the excessive speed of the car that crashed. It was said that the car was travelling at a speed in excess of 100 km per hour. However, the minister himself has been in favour of higher speeds on Indian expressways and national highways. He proposed a speed limit of 140 kmph on expressways and at least 100 kmph on four-lane national highways. This, he stated, was advocated on account of considerable improvements in the quality of India’s highways that permit vehicles to go faster than in the past.
- Speed limit safety needs to be revise: The minister was also critical of some judicial rulings that disallowed hiking speeds on national highways. However, in the light of certain facts repeatedly surfacing in regard to safety issues of national highways, it does appear that greater caution in regard to increasing speed needs to be taken.
Critical analysis of NHAI’s road construction and maintenance
- Rains and potholes: While the government claims that they are of international standard, a recent report highlighted the plight of road travelers on national highways post India’s monsoons. The rains have left the country’s arterial network in poor shape as they have become riddled with potholes.
- Higher toll but poor roads: The cited report mentioned the Gurgaon-Jaipur stretch of NH-8, which, despite a hike in toll rates, remains incomplete and terribly potholed. The reason for this sorry state of affairs was revealed in a reply by the government to a parliamentary standing committee.
- Insufficient maintenance: The budgetary provision for maintenance of national highways was a mere 40 percent of their own estimated standards. Clearly, maintenance of national highways was being discounted in favour of more kilometres of road construction. The shortfall of 60 percent of maintenance money was terribly high and resulted in the resources being thinly spread, making adequate maintenance intervention highly unlikely.
- Inadequate budgetary allocation: The parliamentary committee pointed out in its report titled ‘Issues related to road sector’ that the shortfall in sufficient budgetary allocation was echoed in the poor quality of national highways often witnessed across the country. The committee emphasized that the maintenance of national highways was vitally significant in regard to safety and good average traffic speeds and ought to be given high priority. The issue had been repeatedly flagged by the committee.
- NITI Aayog’s acknowledgement of poor infrastructure: Similarly, NITI Aayog, in its report titled ‘Strategy for New India @75’, advised that the government should earmark 10 percent of its annual budget for maintenance of roads and highways and move towards the developed country norm of marking 40 percent of the budget for road upkeep. It is evident that if national highways are not in shape, the economy of the country and the states takes a hit.
Conclusion
- It is absolutely necessary for citizens to follow road safety norms but government cannot look away from its responsibility. Scientific road construction even at the cost of slow construction rate is non-negotiable for sake of accident prevention. Safety of citizens is prior to any world record.
November 5, 2022
Make-II Route of Defence Procurement
The Army has approved sanction orders for the development of niche technology by the Indian industry under the Make-II route of defence procurement.

What are Make-Category Projects?
- The provision of ‘Make’ category of capital acquisition in Defence Procurement Procedure (DPP) is a vital pillar for realising the vision behind the ‘Make in India’ initiative.
- It aims to foster indigenous capabilities through design & development of required defence equipment/product/systems or upgrades/ sub-systems/components /parts by both public and private sector in a faster time frame.
‘Make’ Procedure has following two sub-categories:
1. Make-I (Government Funded): Projects under ‘Make-I’ sub-category will involve Government funding of 90%, released in a phased manner and based on the progress of the scheme, as per terms agreed between MoD and the vendor.
2. Make-II (Industry Funded): Projects under ‘Make-II’ category will involve prototype development of equipment/ system/ platform or their upgrades or their sub-systems/ sub-assembly/assemblies/ components. They aim primarily for import substitution/innovative solutions, for which no Government funding will be provided for prototype development purposes.
Tap to read more about- Self Reliance in Defence

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November 5, 2022
Poverty Estimate using National Family Health Survey
Context
- The recent release of the National family health survey (NFHS) data for 2019-21 allows for a detailed analysis of the progress in the reduction of absolute poverty and related determinants like nutrition.
Poverty estimation in India
- Planning Commission Expert Group (1962): It formulated the separate poverty lines for rural and urban areas at ₹20 and ₹25 per capita per year respectively.
- VM Dandekar and N Rath (1971): They made the first systematic assessment, based on National Sample Survey (NSS) data. They suggested providing 2250 calories per day in both rural and urban areas.
- YK Alagh Committee (1979): It constructed a poverty line for rural and urban areas on the basis of nutritional requirements and related consumption expenditure.
- Lakdawala Committee (1993): It suggested that consumption expenditure should be calculated based on calorie consumption as earlier. State specific poverty lines should be constructed. It asked for discontinuation of scaling of poverty estimates based on National Accounts Statistics.
- Tendulkar Committee (2009): The current official measures of poverty are based on the Tendulkar poverty line, fixed at daily expenditure of ₹27.2 in rural areas and ₹33.3 in urban areas is criticized by many for being too low.
How poverty is estimated under NFHS?
- Multidimensional poverty index: The NFHS surveys are part of a multinational attempt to provide estimates of a multidimensional poverty index. Its computation rests on estimates of poverty according to 10 different indicators:
1. Nutrition
2. Child mortality
3. Years of schooling
4. School attendance
5. Cooking fuel
6. Sanitation
7. Drinking water
8. Electricity
9. Housing
10. Assets
- The deprivation index: the deprivation index for each indicator is the per cent poor (deprived) according to that indicator. The aggregation of the 10 indicators into one index involves legitimate issues of weighting, but individual components do not suffer from this drawback.
What are the findings of NFHS?
- Multidimensional poverty declined: at a compounded annual average rate of 4.8 per cent per year in 2005-2011 and more than double that pace at 10.3 per cent a year during 2011-2021.
- Declining child mortality: There are some issues with the 2011 child-mortality data, but for each of the 10 components of the MPI index, the rate of decline in 2011-2021 is considerably faster than in 2005-2011.
- Average decline in overall indicators: The average equally weighted decline for nine indicators was 1.9 per cent per annum in 2005-2011 and a rate of 16.6 per cent per annum, more than eight times higher in 2011-2021.
- Consumption inequality decline: Every single household survey or analysis has shown that consumption inequality declined during 2011-2021. This is consistent with the above finding of highly inclusive growth during 2011-2021.
What are the efforts behind inclusive growth and reduced poverty?
- A major factor behind the inclusive nature of growth during 2011-2021 is the focus of government policies on each of the individual indicator’s indicative of a dignified standard of living. A direct impact of this dedicated fiscal push is that slow-moving variables such as housing, access to cooking fuel, sanitation, etc, have witnessed a remarkable increase.
- Swachh Bharat Mission: The government’s Swachh Bharat mission in 2014-2021 constructed over 110 million toilets even if some were without easy access to water, many were.
- Saubhagya Yojana: Similarly, close to one-third of Indians were deprived of electricity till as recently as 2014. It was only after a dedicated push (Saubhagya Yojana) that India managed to electrify every village, and eventually households. Electricity deprivation declined by a 28.2 per cent rate post-2014; between 2005 and 2011, the rate of decline was close to zero.
- Jan Dhan Yojana: Another example is the Jan Dhan Yojana which made financial inclusion a reality in India, especially for women.
- Ujjwala Yojana: On access to modern cooking fuel (through the Ujjwala Yojana), deprivation was nearly halved from 26 per cent to 14 per cent in just five years. The previous halving (2005/6 to 2015/16) took 10 years.
- Awas Yojana: The affordable housing scheme (Awas Yojana) has meant that less than 14 per cent are now deprived, compared to thrice that number in 2011/12.
- Jal Jeevan Mission: More recently, government has embarked on an ambitious project of ensuring universal access to piped water under the Jal Jeevan Mission. Rural piped water coverage was a little less than 17 per cent in 2019, but is now well above 54 per cent and expected to at least be near, if not meet, the 100 per cent target by 2024.
Conclusion
- Extreme poverty in India is surely on decline but pandemic have pushed people again back to the poverty. Pandemic have put the break on inclusive growth of people. Government must realize these and plan accordingly.
Mains Question

Q. Analyze the data of NFHS for poverty estimation in India? How government policies have helped to reduce the extreme poverty in India?

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November 4, 2022
Gold-Mushroom Nanoparticle to ease Drug Delivery
Cordy gold nanoparticles (Cor-AuNPs), the outcome of a collaborative experiment by scientists from four Indian institutions, has earned an international patent from Germany.

What is Cordy gold nanoparticles ?
- Cordy gold nanoparticles (Cor-AuNPs) are derived from the synthesis of the extracts of Cordyceps militaris and gold salts.
- They could make drug delivery in the human body faster and surer.
- Cordyceps militaris is a high-value parasitic fungus, lab-grown at the Department of Biotechnology’s Technology Incubation Centre (TIC) in Bodoland University.
- Gold salts are ionic chemical compounds of gold generally used in medicine.
Benefits offered by this nanoparticle
- Penetration in the cells is more when the drug particles are smaller.
- Cordyceps militaris adds bioactive components to the synthesis of gold nanoparticles for better penetration.
- It can be delivered as ointments, tablets, capsules, and in other forms.
Back2Basics: Gold Nanoparticles for Medicines
- Gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) are small gold particles with a diameter of 1 to 100 nm which, once dispersed in water, are also known as colloidal gold.
- Functionalized gold nanoparticles with controlled geometrical and optical properties are the subject of intensive studies and biomedical applications.
- They find applications in genomics, biosensorics, immunoassays, clinical chemistry, laser phototherapy of cancer cells and tumors, the targeted delivery of drugs etc.
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November 4, 2022
2022 AP7: the Planet Killer Asteroid
A team of astronomers have spotted a massive near-Earth asteroid called 2022 AP7 believed to be the largest planet killer-sized asteroid to be spotted in nearly a decade.

2022 AP7 Asteroid
- An asteroid is a relatively small chunk of rocky minerals that orbits the Sun, often described as a minor planet.
- 2022 AP7 is among the three asteroids hiding in the glare of the Sun.
- It is 1.5-kilometre-wide and has an orbit that may someday put it on a collision course with our planet.
- At present, researchers have little information about the asteroid, including further details on its possible trajectory and its composition.
- It was found using the Dark Energy Camera at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile.
What about the other two?
- The two — 2021 LJ4 and 2021 PH27 — have orbits that are safely constrained inside the limits of Earth’s orbit.
- At less than a kilometer in diameter, 2021 LJ4 is the smallest in size.
- The asteroid, 2021 PH27, is the closest known asteroid to the Sun.
- Due to this, its surface gets hot enough to melt lead.
Is there an immediate threat to Earth?
- At present, the asteroid only crosses the Earth’s orbit while it is on the opposite side of the Sun i.e., when the Sun comes between the Earth and the asteroid.
- This will continue for several centuries as it takes the asteroid about five years to orbit the sun.
- If impacted, Earth’s atmosphere would be inundated with dust and pollutants for years, preventing sunlight from entering.
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November 4, 2022
World Network of biosphere reserves: A backbone of biodiversity conservation
Context
- November 3 will be the first ‘The International Day for Biosphere Reserves’, to be celebrated beginning 2022. The World Network of Biosphere Reserves (WNBR) was formed in 1971, as a backbone for biodiversity conservation, ecosystem restoration, and living in harmony with nature.
What is biosphere reserve?
- Protected area: A biosphere reserve is an area of land or water that is protected by law in order to support the conservation of ecosystems, as well as the sustainability of mankind’s impact on the environment.
- Serves as a Platform to study: They are places that provide local solutions to global challenges. Biosphere reserves include terrestrial, marine and coastal ecosystems. Each site promotes solutions reconciling the conservation of biodiversity with its sustainable use.
- Learning places for sustainable development: Biosphere reserves are ‘learning places for sustainable development’. They are sites for testing interdisciplinary approaches to understanding and managing changes and interactions between social and ecological systems, including conflict prevention and management of biodiversity.
- Biodiversity conservation programs are carried out: To carry out the complementary activities of biodiversity conservation and sustainable use of natural resources, biosphere reserves are traditionally organized into 3 interrelated zones, known as: the core area, the buffer zone, and a transition zone or ‘area of cooperation.
- The core purpose: The purpose of the formation of the biosphere reserve is to conserve in situ all forms of life, along with its support system, in its totality, so that it could serve as a referral system for monitoring and evaluating changes in natural ecosystems. Each reserve aims to help scientists and the environmental community figure out how to protect the world’s plant and animal species while dealing with a growing population and its resource needs.
What is the process of recognition as Biosphere reserve?
- All biosphere reserves are internationally recognized sites on land, at the coast, or in the oceans.
- Governments alone decide which areas to nominate. Before approval by UNESCO, the sites are externally examined.
- If approved, they will be managed based on a plan, reinforced by credibility checks while remaining under the sovereignty of their national government.
Current status of Biosphere reserves
- Worldwide: There are 738 biosphere reserves in 134 countries, including 22 transboundary sites.
- In India:
- Presently, there are 18 notified biosphere reserves in India. Ten out of the eighteen biosphere reserves are a part of the World Network of Biosphere Reserves, based on the UNESCO Man and the Biosphere (MAB) Programme list.
- In India, the first biosphere reserve was designated by UNESCO in 2000, namely, the blue mountains of the Nilgiris stretching over Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala.
You must know- UNESCO Man and the Biosphere (MAB) Programme
- The MAB programme is an intergovernmental scientific programme.
- It aims to establish a scientific basis for enhancing the relationship between people and their environments.
- It combines the natural and social sciences with a view to improving human livelihoods and safeguarding natural and managed ecosystems.
- It promotes innovative approaches to economic development that are socially and culturally appropriate and environmentally sustainable.
What is World Network of Biosphere Reserves (WNBR)?
- Dynamic network of cooperation: The WNBR, an amazing network of sites of excellence, is a unique tool for cooperation through sharing knowledge, exchanging experiences, building capacity and promoting best practices.
- Fosters harmonious integration of people and nature: Its members are always ready to support each other. It fosters the harmonious integration of people and nature for sustainable development through participatory dialogue; knowledge sharing; poverty reduction and human well-being improvements; respect for cultural values and society’s ability to cope with change – thus contributing to the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
- A tool to develop sustainable approach: The Network is one of the main international tools to develop and implement sustainable development approaches in a wide array of contexts
- The principle of Living with harmony: The best concept for ‘Living in Harmony with Nature’ that exists in the United Nations system, is the WNBR, making these places more important today than ever before, where humans are thriving and relearning how to live with nature.
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November 3, 2022