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GS Paper: GS3

  • What is Pegasus Spyware Controversy?

    A New York Times report has claimed that the Indian government had bought the Pegasus Spyware in 2017.

    What is Pegasus?

    • Pegasus is a spyware developed by NSO Group, an Israeli surveillance firm that helps spies hack into phones.
    • In 2019, when WhatsApp sued the firm in a U.S. court, the matter came to light.
    • In July 2021, Amnesty International, along with 13 media outlets across the globe released a report on how the spyware was used to snoop hundreds of individuals, including Indians.
    • While the NSO claims its spyware is sold only to governments, none of the nations have come forward to accept the claims.

    Why is Pegasus so lethal?

    • What makes Pegasus really dangerous is that it spares no aspect of a person’s identity.
    • It makes older techniques of spying seem relatively harmless.
    • It can intercept every call and SMS, read every email and monitor each messaging app.
    • Pegasus can also control the phone’s camera and microphone and has access to the device’s location data.
    • The app advertises that it can carry out “file retrieval”, which means it could access any document that a target might have stored on their phone.

    Dysfunctions created by Pegasus

    • Privacy breach: The very existence of a surveillance system, whether under a provision of law or without it, impacts the right to privacy under Article 21 and the exercise of free speech under Article 19.
    • Curbing Dissent: It reflects a disturbing trend with regard to the use of hacking software against dissidents and adversaries. In 2019 also, Pegasus software was used to hack into HR & Dalit activists.
    • Individual safety: In the absence of privacy, the safety of journalists, especially those whose work criticizes the government, and the personal safety of their sources is jeopardised.
    • Self-Censorship: Consistent fear over espionage may grapple individuals. This may impact their ability to express, receive and discuss such ideas.
    • State-sponsored mass surveillance: The spyware coupled with AI can manipulate digital content in users’ smartphones. This in turn can polarize their opinion by the distant controllers.
    • National security: The potential misuse or proliferation has the same, if not more, ramifications as advanced nuclear technology falling into the wrong hands.

    Snooping in India:  A Legality check

    For Pegasus-like spyware to be used lawfully, the government would have to invoke both the IT Act and the Telegraph Act. Communication surveillance in India takes place primarily under two laws:

    1. Telegraph Act, 1885: It deals with interception of calls.
    2. Information Technology Act, 2000: It was enacted to deal with surveillance of all electronic communication, following the Supreme Court’s intervention in 1996.

    Cyber security safeguards in India

    • National Cyber Security Policy: The policy was developed in 2013 to build secure and resilient cyberspace for India’s citizens and businesses.
    • Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In): The CERT-In is responsible for incident responses including analysis, forecasts, and alerts on cybersecurity issues and breaches.
    • Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C): The Central Government has rolled out a scheme for the establishment of the I4C to handle issues related to cybercrime in the country in a comprehensive and coordinated manner.
    • Budapest Convention: There also exists Budapest Convention on Cybercrime. However, India is not a signatory to this convention.

    Issues over government involvement

    • It is worth asking why the government would need to hack phones and install spyware when existing laws already offer impunity for surveillance.
    • In the absence of parliamentary or judicial oversight, electronic surveillance gives the executive the power to influence both the subject of surveillance and all classes of individuals, resulting in a chilling effect on free speech.

    Way forward

    • The security of a device becomes one of the fundamental bedrock of maintaining user trust as society becomes more and more digitized.
    • Constituting an independent high-level inquiry with credible members and experts that can restore confidence and conduct its proceedings transparently.
    • The need for judicial oversight over surveillance systems in general, and judicial investigation into the Pegasus hacking, in particular, is very essential.

    Conclusion

    • We must recognize that national security starts with securing the smartphones of every single Indian by embracing technologies such as encryption rather than deploying spyware.
    • This is a core part of our fundamental right to privacy.
    • This intrusion by spyware is not merely an infringement of the rights of the citizens of the country but also a worrying development for India’s national security apparatus.

     

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  • What is Reverse Repo Normalization?

    In a recent report, the State Bank of India, which is the largest public sector bank in the country, has stated that the stage is set for a reverse repo normalization.

    What is Monetary Policy Normalisation?

    The RBI keeps tweaking the total amount of money in the economy to ensure smooth functioning by two types of policies:

    (I) Loose Monetary Policy

    When the RBI wants to boost economic activity it adopts a so-called “loose monetary policy”.

    There are two parts to such a policy:

    1. RBI injects more money (liquidity) into the economy: It does so by buying government bonds from the market. As the RBI buys these bonds, it pays back money to the bondholders, thus injecting more money into the economy.
    2. RBI also lowers the interest rate: it charges banks when it lends money to them; this rate is called the repo rate. Lower interest rates and more liquidity, together, are expected to boost both consumption and production in the economy.

    (II) Tight Monetary Policy

    • It involves the RBI raising interest rates and sucking liquidity out of the economy by selling bonds (and taking money out of the system).
    • When any central bank finds that a loose monetary policy has started becoming counterproductive in reducing inflation, the central bank “normalizes the policy” by tightening the monetary policy stance.

    What is Reverse Repo?

    • An interest rate that the RBI pays to the commercial banks when they park their excess “liquidity” (money) with the RBI.
    • The reverse repo, thus, is the exact opposite of the repo rate.
    • Under normal a circumstance, that is when the economy is growing at a healthy pace, the repo rate becomes the benchmark interest rate in the economy.
    • That’s because it is the lowest rate of interest at which funds can be borrowed.
    • As such, the repo rate forms the floor interest rate for all other interest rates in the economy — be it the rate you pay for a car loan or a home loan or the interest you earn on your fixed deposit, etc.

    How does Reverse Repo fit into policy normalization?

    • Imagine a scenario where the RBI pumps more and more liquidity into the market but there are no takers of fresh loans.
    • This is because the banks are unwilling to lend or because there is no genuine demand for new loans in the economy.
    • In such a scenario, the action shifts from repo rate to reverse repo rate because banks are no longer interested in borrowing money from the RBI.
    • Rather they are more interested in parking their excess liquidity with the RBI. And that is how the reverse repo becomes the actual benchmark interest rate in the economy.

    What does reverse repo normalization mean?

    • Simply put, it means the reverse repo rates will go up.
    • Over the past few months, in the face of rising inflation, several central banks across the world have either increased interest rates or signaled that they would do so soon.
    • In India, too, it is expected that the RBI will raise the repo rate.
    • But before that, it is expected that the RBI will raise the reverse repo rate and reduce the gap between the two rates.
    • In the immediate aftermath of Covid, RBI had increased this gap.

    Implications of such policy

    • Incentivize commercial banks to park excess funds with RBI, thus sucking some liquidity out of the system.
    • The next step would be raising the repo rate.
    • This process of normalization, which is aimed at curbing inflation, will not only reduce excess liquidity but also result in higher interest rates across the board in the Indian economy.
    • This will help reduce the demand for money among consumers (since it would make more sense to just keep the money in the bank) and make it costlier for businesses to borrow fresh loans.

    Try this PYQ from CSP 2020:

    Q.If the RBI decides to adopt an expansionist monetary policy, which of the following it would NOT do?

    1. Cut and optimize the statutory liquidity ratio
    2. Increase the Marginal Standing Facility Rate
    3. Cut the Bank Rate and Repo Rate

    Select the correct answer using the code given below:

    (a) 1 and 2 only

    (b) 2 only

    (c) 1 and 3 only

    (d) 1, 2 and 3

     

    [wpdiscuz-feedback id=”sr109h9q0i” question=”Please leave a feedback on this” opened=”1″]Post your answers here:[/wpdiscuz-feedback]

     

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  • Species in news: Septemeranthus

    A new genus of a parasitic flowering plant has recently been discovered from the Nicobar group of islands.

    Septemeranthus

    • The genus Septemeranthus grows on the plant species Horsfieldia glabra (Blume) Warb.
    • The parasitic flowering plants have a modified root structure spread on the stem of the tree and are anchored inside the bark of the host tree.
    • It has a distinct vegetative morphology, inflorescence architecture and floral characters.
    • The leaves of the plant are heart-shaped with a very long tip and the ovary,fruit and seeds are ‘urceolate’ (earthen pot-shaped).
    • Birds consume viscous seeds of this new genus and seeds have potential of pseudo viviparous germination that deposit on the leaves and branches of their same plant which is already attached to host plants.

    Key features

    • They need a host tree or shrub in order to thrive and exhibit a worldwide distribution in tropical as well as temperate habitats.
    • They are important in forest ecology, pathology and medicine.
    • They play an important role as they provide food for frugivorous birds.

    Try this PYQ from CSP 2019:

    Q.Recently, there was a growing awareness in our country about the importance of Himalayan nettle (Girardinia diversifolia) because it is found to be a sustainable source of

    (a) anti-malarial drug

    (b) bio-diesel

    (c) pulp for paper industry

    (d) textile fibre

     

     

    [wpdiscuz-feedback id=”8znatcwsr5″ question=”Please leave a feedback on this” opened=”1″]Post your answers here.[/wpdiscuz-feedback]

     

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  • How budget can generate higher growth, jobs

    Context

    Although the impact of Omicron is less on the economy, the loss of GDP in the last two years is high. Also note that the pre-Covid year FY20 had a low base with 4 per cent growth of GDP. Therefore, the need to focus on higher growth in the forthcoming budget and in the medium term, that is, beyond India@75, is obvious.

    Challenges in creating quantity and quality of jobs in the economy

    • Unemployment rate is high in both rural and urban areas;
    • Decline in work participation rates, particularly for women;
    • Recovery in employment is still below the levels of the pre-Covid period.
    • 85 per cent of the workforce is still in informal sector.
    • Lack of skill: Less than 5 per cent of India’s workforce has formal skill training.
    • Need for structural change: Manufacturing and services need structural change.
    • Focus on MSME sector is needed for higher employment.

    Policies needed to achieve higher economic growth and jobs

    1] Capital expenditure and infrastructure

    • The government outlined an infrastructure project pipeline worth more than Rs 102 lakh crore and asset monetisation pipeline of Rs 6 lakh crore to be implemented in the medium term.
    • Continuing focus on infrastructure and capex by the government is important as it is a key driver for the “future of India”.

    2] Focus on export growth

    • It is well known that rise in exports is one of the main engines of growth and also important for employment creation.
    • Export growth in India has increased and is expected to reach $400 billion by the end of FY22.
    • One worrying aspect of India’s export performance is the failure in expanding the share of labour intensive products in the export basket.
    • Protectionist trade policy: However, one problem in recent years is that India’s trade policy has become more protectionist by increasing import tariffs.
    • Join RCEP: India should also join the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) for integrating our industries with the value chains in Asia.

    3] Manufacturing and service sector growth

    • The share of manufacturing in GDP and employment has hardly increased over time.
    • Production Linked Incentive (PLI) schemes can improve performance.
    • However, more efforts are required to improve the manufacturing sector.
    •  Similarly, there are a lot of opportunities for India in the service sector.
    • Brand and customer centricity are important here.
    • India can also think of more business in the service sector.
    • Growing startups including unicorns in manufacturing and services is part of this effort.

    4] Banking reforms

    • Banking reforms are important as bank credit growth is a key indicator of economic growth.
    • Low credit-to-gdp ration in India: Credit to GDP ratio in India is only around 55 per cent compared to 100 per cent and 150 per cent in many other countries.
    • Credit should flow to all categories of economic agents like firms, households etc.
    •  The bad bank, a key initiative of the last budget, is yet to take shape.
    • The role of fintech companies in the financial sector has increased significantly.
    • They may not be able to replace banks although they are competing on payments.
    • The banks also have to focus now on ESG (environment, social and governance) while giving credit.
    • Big technology and digital push is also needed for banks.

    5] Deal with K-shaped recovery

    • The K-shaped recovery of the economy is still continuing.
    • The policies have to focus on giving a push to the MSME sector, increasing investment in agriculture and rural infrastructure, a social sector push including bridging divides in health and education, social protection measures like foodgrain distribution, cash transfers, MGNREGA in rural areas, urban employment guarantee schemes etc.
    • This will also create demand for the economy.

    Conclusion

    In the near term, fiscal policy has to play an important role in achieving the objectives of growth and jobs by expanding fiscal space while the fiscal deficit can be stabilised in the medium term. Increase in private investment may take some more time.

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  • What is Pollution-Under-Control (PUC) Certificate?

    Delhi govt will soon make PUC certificate mandatory for fuel at filling stations.

    What is PUC Certificate?

    • The PUC certificate is a document that any person driving a motor vehicle can be asked to produce by a police officer in uniform authorized by the state government.
    • These issue certificates if a vehicle is found complying with the prescribed emission norms.
    • Since the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Act, 2019 came into force, PUC certificate has been made mandatory.
    • A PUC certificate contains information such as the vehicle’s license plate number, PUC test reading, date on which the PUC test was conducted and the expiry date.

    How is a pollution control check carried out?

    • The computerized model for pollution check was developed by the Society of Indian Automobile manufacturers.
    • A gas analyzer is connected to a computer, to which a camera and a printer are attached.
    • The gas analyzer records the emission value and sends it to the computer directly, while the camera captures the license plate of the vehicle.
    • Subsequently, a certificate may be issued if the emission values are within the limits.

    Fines for non-compliance

    • The test costs between Rs 60 and Rs 100.
    • The validity of the test is one year for BS IV vehicles and three months for others.
    • The fine for PUC violations has now gone up to Rs 10,000; it used to be Rs 1,000 for the first offence and Rs 2,000 for subsequent violations before the amendments came into force.

     

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  • NeoCov Coronavirus found in Bats

    NeoCov coronavirus found in bats may pose threat to humans in the future, scientists caution.

    Coronavirus: A quick backgrounder

    • Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses that are known to infect animals and humans.
    • They are largely categorized into four genera — alpha, beta, gamma, and delta.
    • Broadly speaking, alpha and beta coronaviruses commonly infect mammals such as bats and humans, while Gamma and Delta mainly infect birds.

    Infecting humans: Through ‘Zoonotic Spillover’

    • While animals, including bats, are generally considered as the reservoirs of coronaviruses, rarely spillover events could occur.
    • It is possible for viruses that infect animals to jump to humans, a process which is known as zoonotic spillover.
    • Many major infectious diseases, including COVID-19, is widely thought to be a result of spillover.

    COVID-19 Pandemic

    • SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic, belongs to the genus of beta coronavirus.
    • It is in fact the 7th type of coronavirus known to infect and cause severe disease in humans.

    How does it affect humans?

    • How a coronavirus latches onto special receptors on host cells depends on a key part of the virus known as its receptor-binding domain.
    • The differences in the receptor-binding domain of coronaviruses are therefore what determine the type of host receptor the virus will use and thus the host that it will be able to infect.
    • There are currently 4 well-characterized receptors for coronaviruses, including ACE2, which is used by SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2, and DPP4 used by MERS-CoV.

    What is NeoCoV?

    • NeoCoV is a bat coronavirus that was first identified in 2011.
    • It was identified in a species of bats known as Neoromicia, which is where the name NeoCoV was derived from.
    • Commonly known as aloe bats, this species is distributed in the Afro-Malagasy region.
    • NeoCoV shares an 85% similarity to MERS-CoV in the genome sequence, making it the closest known relative of MERS-CoV.

    Does NeoCoV infect humans and cause high mortality?

    • It is important to note that inherently, NeoCoV cannot interact with human receptors, implying that in its current form the virus cannot infect humans.
    • NeoCoV does not infect humans yet and has thus not caused any deaths.

    What does the preprint say and why is it important?

    • The study reports that despite their similarity, MERS-CoV and NeoCoV use different receptors to infect cells.
    • The bat coronavirus NeoCoV was found to use bat ACE2 receptors for efficiently entering cells.
    • The interaction between NeoCoV and bat ACE2 receptors is different from what is seen in other coronaviruses that utilize ACE2.
    • However, specific mutations artificially created in the receptor-binding domain of NeoCoV can enhance its efficiency to interact with human ACE2 receptors.
    • These mutations have not yet been seen in NeoCov isolates from natural settings.

    Conclusion

    • SARS-CoV-2 is not the first coronavirus to infect humans and cause large disease outbreaks, nor is it likely to be the last.
    • The study highlights that through further adaptation, coronaviruses like NeoCoV or other related viruses could potentially gain the ability to infect humans.

    Way forward

    • To prevent future outbreaks, it will thus be important to monitor this family of viruses for potential zoonosis while continuing research efforts on understanding the complex receptor usage of different coronaviruses.
    • Genomic surveillance of human and animal viruses is, therefore, the key to understanding the spectrum of viruses, and possibly provides early warning to potential spillover events.

     

    Try this question from CSP 2021:

    Q. The term ACE2′ is talked about in the context of:

    (a) genes introduced in the genetically modified plants

    (b) development of India’s own satellite navigation system

    (c) radio collars for wildlife tracking

    (d) spread of viral diseases

     

    [wpdiscuz-feedback id=”urgxa7d1zh” question=”Please leave a feedback on this” opened=”1″]Post your answers here.[/wpdiscuz-feedback]

     

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  • India’s economy and the challenge of informality

    Context

    Despite efforts by the government, formalisation of economy still eludes us.

    Prevalence of informality in India

    • Despite witnessing rapid economic growth over the last two decades, 90% of workers in India have remained informally employed, producing about half of GDP. 
    • Combining the International Labour Organization’s widely agreed upon template of definitions with India’s official definition (of formal jobs as those providing at least one social security benefit — such as EPF), the share of formal workers in India stood at 9.7% (47.5 million).
    • The prevalence of informal employment is also widespread in the non-agriculture sector.
    • About half of informal workers are engaged in non-agriculture sectors which spread across urban and rural areas.
    • Industries thriving without paying taxes are only the tip of the informal sector’s iceberg.
    • What remains hidden are the large swathes of low productivity informal establishments working as household and self-employment units which represent “petty production”.
    • To conflate the two distinct segments of the informal sector would be a serious conceptual error.

    Fiscal perspective of formalisation

    • Efforts to encourage formalisation: Currency demonetisation, introduction of the Goods and Services Tax (GST), digitalisation of financial transactions and enrolment of informal sector workers on numerous government Internet portals are all meant to encourage the formalisation of the economy.
    • The formal sector is more productive than the informal sector, and formal workers have access to social security benefits.
    • The above-mentioned efforts are based on the “fiscal perspective” of formalisation.
    • This perspective appears to draw from a strand of thought advanced by some international financial institutions such as the International Monetary Fund, which foregrounds the persistence of the informal sector to excessive state regulation of enterprises and labour which drives genuine economic activity outside the regulatory ambit.
    • Hence, it is believed that simplifying registration processes, easing rules for business conduct, and lowering the standards of protection of formal sector workers will bring informal enterprises and their workers into the fold of formality.

    Issues with fiscal perspective

    •  Early on, in an attempt to promote employment, India protected small enterprises engaged in labour intensive manufacturing by providing them with fiscal concessions and regulating large-scale industry by licensing.
    • Such measures led to many labour-intensive industries getting diffused into the informal/unorganised sectors.
    • Further, they led to the formation of dense output and labour market inter-linkages between the informal and formal sectors via sub-contracting and outsourcing arrangements (quite like in labour abundant Asian economies).
    • While such policy initiatives may have encouraged employment, bringing the enterprises which benefited from the policy into the tax net has been a challenge.
    • Political and economic reasons operating at the regional/local level in a competitive electoral democracy are responsible for this phenomenon, too.

    Role of underdevelopment

    • Global evidence suggests that the view that legal and regulatory hurdles alone are mainly responsible for holding back formalisation does not hold much water.
    • A well-regarded study, ‘Informality and Development’ argues that the persistence of informality is, in fact, a sign of underdevelopment.
    • The finding suggests that informality decreases with economic growth, albeit slowly.
    •  A similar association is also evident across major States in India, based on official PLFS data.
    • Hence, the persistence of a high share of informal employment in total employment seems nothing but a lack of adequate growth or continuation of underdevelopment.

    Impact of pandemic

    • Research by the State Bank of India recently reported the economy formalised rapidly during the pandemic year of 2020-21, with the informal sector’s GDP share shrinking to less than 20%, from about 50% a few years ago — close to the figure for developed countries.
    • These findings of a sharp contraction of the informal sector during the pandemic year (2020-21) do not represent a sustained structural transformation.
    • They are a temporary (and unfortunate) outcome of the pandemic and severe lockdowns imposed in 2020 and 2021.

    Way forward

    • Policy efforts directed at bringing the informal sector into the fold of formality fail to appreciate that the bulk of the informal units and their workers are essentially petty producers eking their subsistence out of minimal resources.
    •  The economy will get formalised when informal enterprises become more productive through greater capital investment and increased education and skills are imparted to its workers.

    Consider the question “What are the reasons for persistent informality in India? Suggest the way to ensure the smooth transition to the formality.”

    Conclusion

    Policy efforts to formalise the economy will have limited results as the bulk of informal units are petty producers.

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  • Bank Frauds in India

    1. Poor banking governance: Most frauds show that banks did not observe due diligence, both before and after disbursing loans. Poor level of checks and balances in the banking system is one of the reason.
    2. Poor monitoring: Lack of technology and fraud monitoring agencies to detect frauds makes the problem more complex. There is an absence of an effective mechanism to monitor the credit flow. Flawed risk-mitigation design, which creates an excessive focus on credit or market risks, but focuses less on operational risks also leading to more breaches.
    3. Technological backwardness: Excessive dependence on manual supervision, at both external and internal levels makes it impossible to manually control and supervise the sheer volume of transactions.
    4. Immoral behaviour: The disintegrating moral fibre of Indian businessmen, bankers and other white-collar professionals, nepotism in internal committees of banks, unnecessary political interventions lead to increased frauds.
    5. Political interference: The political pulls and pressures on investigating agencies, and long-drawn processes of legal system act less as a deterrent.

     

  • What is Anti-Dumping Duty?

    India has initiated an anti-dumping probe against imports of a certain type of tiles, used for covering the floors in residential and commercial buildings, from China, Taiwan and Vietnam following a complaint by domestic players.

    Why in news?

    • Countries start anti-dumping probes to determine whether their domestic industries have been hurt because of a surge in cheap imports.
    • The dumping has caused material injury to the domestic players. If established, the Directorate General of Trade Remedies (DGTR) would recommend an anti-dumping duty on these imports.
    • As a countermeasure, they India would impose these duties under the multilateral regime of the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

    What is Dumping?

    • Dumping is a process wherein a company exports a product at a price that is significantly lower than the price it normally charges in its home (or its domestic) market.
    • This is an unfair trade practice which can have a distortive effect on international trade.
    • Anti dumping is a measure to rectify the situation arising out of the dumping of goods and its trade distortive effect.

    What is Anti-Dumping Duty?

    • An anti-dumping duty is a protectionist tariff that a domestic government imposes on foreign imports that it believes are priced below fair market value.
    • In order to protect their respective economy, many countries impose duties on products they believe are being dumped in their national market.
    • In fact, anti-dumping is an instrument for ensuring fair trade and is not a measure of protection per se for the domestic industry.
    • Such ‘dumped’ products have the potential to undercut local businesses and the local economy.
    • Anti-dumping duties provide relief to the domestic industry against the injury caused by dumping.

    Mechanism in India

    • The Department of Commerce recommends the anti-dumping duty, provisional or final.
    • The Department of Revenue in Finance Ministry acts upon the recommendation within three months and imposes such duties.

    WTO and Anti-Dumping Duties

    • The WTO operates a set of international trade rules, including the international regulation of anti-dumping measures.
    • It does NOT intervene in the activities of companies engaged in dumping.
    • Instead, it focuses on how governments can—or cannot—react to the practice of dumping.
    • In general, the WTO agreement permits governments to act against dumping if it causes or threatens material injury to an established domestic industry.

    Issues with such duties

    • Anti-dumping duties have the potential to distort the market.
    • In a free market, governments cannot normally determine what constitutes a fair market price for any good or service.

    Back2Basics:

    Countervailing duty (CVD)

    • Countervailing duty (CVD) is a specific form of duty that the government imposes in order to protect domestic producers by countering the negative impact of import subsidies.
    • CVD is thus an import tax by the importing country on imported products.
    • To make their products cheaper and boost their demand in other countries, foreign governments sometimes provide subsidies to their producers.
    • To avoid flooding of the market in the importing country with these goods, the government of the importing country imposes a countervailing duty, charging a specific amount on import of such goods.

    How does it work?

    • The duty nullifies and eliminates the price advantage (low price) enjoyed by an imported product when it is given subsidies or exempted from domestic taxes in the country where they are manufactured.
    • It raises the price of the imported product, bringing it closer to its true market price.
    • In this way, the government is able to provide a level playing field for domestic products.

     CVD and India

    • The World Trade Organization (WTO) permits the imposition of countervailing duty by its member countries.
    • In India, the CVD is imposed as an additional duty besides customs on imported products when such products are given tax concession in the country of their origin.

    Who imposes countervailing measures in India?

    • The countervailing measures in India are administered by the Directorate General of Anti-dumping and Allied Duties (DGAD), in the commerce and industry ministry’s department of commerce.

     

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  • Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV)

    The new chairman of the ISRO Dr S Somanath has indicated inauguration of indigenous new launch rockets, called the Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV).

    What is SSLV?

    • The SSLV is a small-lift launch vehicle being developed by the ISRO with payload capacity to deliver:
    1. 600 kg to Low Earth Orbit (500 km) or
    2. 300 kg to Sun-synchronous Orbit (500 km)
    • It would help launching small satellites, with the capability to support multiple orbital drop-offs.
    • In future a dedicated launch pad in Sriharikota called Small Satellite Launch Complex (SSLC) will be set up.
    • A new spaceport, under development, near Kulasekharapatnam in Tamil Nadu will handle SSLV launches when complete.
    • After entering the operational phase, the vehicle’s production and launch operations will be done by a consortium of Indian firms along with NewSpace India Limited (NSIL).

    Vehicle details

    (A) Dimensions

    • Height: 34 meters
    • Diameter: 2 meters
    • Mass: 120 tonnes

    (B) Propulsion

    • It will be a four stage launching vehicle.
    • The first three stages will use Hydroxyl-terminated polybutadiene (HTPB) based solid propellant, with a fourth terminal stage being a Velocity-Trimming Module (VTM).

    SSLV vs. PSLV: A comparison

    • The SSLV was developed with the aim of launching small satellites commercially at drastically reduced price and higher launch rate as compared to Polar SLV (PSLV).
    • The projected high launch rate relies on largely autonomous launch operation and on overall simple logistics.
    • To compare, a PSLV launch involves 600 officials while SSLV launch operations would be managed by a small team of about six people.
    • The launch readiness period of the SSLV is expected to be less than a week instead of months.
    • The SSLV can carry satellites weighing up to 500 kg to a low earth orbit while the tried and tested PSLV can launch satellites weighing in the range of 1000 kg.
    • The entire job will be done in a very short time and the cost will be only around Rs 30 crore for SSLV.

    Significance of SSLV

    • SSLV is perfectly suited for launching multiple microsatellites at a time and supports multiple orbital drop-offs.
    • The development and manufacture of the SSLV are expected to create greater synergy between the space sector and private Indian industries – a key aim of the space ministry.

    Back2Basics: