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GS Paper: GS3

  • India is amongst the world’s largest arms importers

    India is amongst the world’s largest arms importers, accounting for 11 per cent of global imports, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

    India’s arm imports

    • India’s overall imports decreased by 21% between 2012-16 and 2017-21 but that it was still the world’s biggest importer of military hardware.
    • Russia, France and the US are India’s biggest suppliers of arms, accounting for 46%, 27% and 12% of the country’s imports in the last five years.
    • India’s share of global arms imports stood at 11% during 2017-21 compared to 14% in the previous five-year period.

    Dependence on Russia is declining

    • Russia’s arms exports to India fell 47% between 2012-16 and 2017-21 even though the deliveries of several platforms including air defence systems and warships are pending.
    • Russia was the largest supplier of major weapons and systems to India during the two comparative five-year periods.

    Significance of the report

    • The report has come at a time when India’s dependence on Russian military hardware, ranging from fighter jets to rifles and submarines to shoulder-fired missiles has come into sharp focus.
    • Though India has been procuring US military hardware in growing numbers about 60% of the weapons inventory of the three services continues to be of Russian-origin.
    • It is still unclear how the new sanctions against Russia could play out and the problems they could create for the armed forces in the short and long term.
    • The possible impact of Russia’s unprecedented economic isolation on India’s military preparedness and the serviceability of weapons and equipment is threatened.

    Is it a matter of relief?

    • India has major plans for arms imports because of perceived threats from China and Pakistan, and due to significant delays in indigenous production.
    • The drop in India’s arms imports is, therefore, probably a temporary result of its slow and complex procurement process as well as its shift in suppliers.

     

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  • What are Man-Portable Air-Defence Systems (MANPADS)?

    The United States has approved a $200-million arms package for Ukraine, which would include US made Stinger Missiles, which are a type of shoulder-fired Man-Portable Air-Defence Systems (MANPADS).

    What are MANPADS?

    • Man-Portable Air-Defence Systems are short-range, lightweight and portable surface-to-air missiles that can be fired by individuals or small groups to destroy aircraft or helicopters.
    • They help shield troops from aerial attacks and are most effective in targeting low-flying aircrafts.
    • MANPATs or Man-Portable Anti-Tank Systems work in a similar manner but are used to destroy or incapacitate military tanks.

    Uniqueness of MANPADS

    • MANPADS can be shoulder-fired, launched from atop a ground-vehicle, fired from a tripod or stand, and from a helicopter or boat.
    • They weigh anywhere between 10 to 20 kilograms and not being longer than 1.8 metres.
    • They are fairly lightweight as compared to other elaborate weapon systems, making them easy to operate by individual soldiers.
    • Operating MANPADS requires substantially less training.
    • MANPADS have a maximum range of 8 kilometres and can engage targets at altitudes of 4.5 km.

    Stealth features

    • They have passive or ‘fire and forget’ guidance systems, meaning that the operator is not required to guide the missile to its target, enabling them to run and relocate immediately after firing.
    • The missile stays locked-on to the targeted object, not requiring active guidance from the soldier.
    • The missiles are fitted with infrared (IR) seekers that identify and target the airborne vehicle through heat radiation being emitted by the latter.

     

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  • Retail Inflation climbs to 6.07%

    India’s retail inflation inched up to an eight-month high of 6.07% in February from 6.01% in January, with rural India experiencing a sharper price rise at 6.38%.

    What is Retail Inflation?

    • When we generally talk about retail inflation, it often refers to the rate of inflation based on the consumer price index (CPI).
    • The CPI tracks the change in retail prices of goods and services which households purchase for their daily consumption.
    • The CPI monitors retail prices at a certain level for a particular commodity; price movement of goods and services at rural, urban and all-India levels.
    • The change in the price index over a period of time is referred to as CPI-based inflation, or retail inflation.

    What is Consumer Price Index (CPI)?

    • It is an index measuring retail inflation in the economy by collecting the change in prices of most common goods and services used by consumers.
    • In India, there are four consumer price index numbers, which are calculated, and these are as follows:
      1. CPI for Industrial Workers (IW)
      2. CPI for Agricultural Labourers (AL)
      3. CPI for Rural Labourers (RL) and
      4. CPI for Urban Non-Manual Employees (UNME).
    • While the Ministry of Statistics and Program Implementation collects CPI (UNME) data and compiles it, the remaining three are collected by the Labour Bureau in the Ministry of Labour.
    • The base year for CPI is 2012.
    • To calculate CPI, multiply 100 to the fraction of the cost price of the current period and the base period.

    Significance of CPI

    • Generally, CPI is used as a macroeconomic indicator of inflation, as a tool by the central bank and government for inflation targeting and for inspecting price stability, and as deflator in the national accounts.
    • CPI also helps understand the real value of salaries, wages, and pensions, the purchasing power of the nation’s currency, and regulating rates.
    • CPI, one of the most important statistics to ascertain economic health, is generally based on the weighted average of the prices of commodities.
    • It basically gives an idea of the cost of the standard of living.

     

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  • What is Blockchain Gaming?

    Many Indian gaming companies have expressed their interest in introducing elements of Blockchain technology into their games in the near future.

    What is Blockchain?

    • Blockchain is a decentralised database that stores information.
    • It relies on technology that allows for the storage of identical copies of this information on multiple computers in a network.

    What are blockchain games?

    • To revisit our definition of blockchain games: they are online video games that are developed by integrating blockchain technology into them.
    • It can be diversified into the following components-

    (1) Non-fungible tokens

    • NFTs represent in-game virtual assets that can be owned by players, such as maps, armour or land.
    • These NFTs act as asset tags, identifying ownership of the in-game assets, and are stored on the blockchain.
    • Being on the blockchain allows the player to have a secure record of ownership of the in-game assets and also gives the assets the ability to outlive the game itself.
    • Based on the manner in which the games are designed, it also allows for the in-game assets to be transferred from one game to another.
    • It also creates transparency, since ownership records can independently be verified by any third party as well.
    • In doing so, it makes in-game assets marketable and creates a decentralized market, where they can be bought and sold by people.

    (2) Cryptocurrency

    • Cryptocurrency, such as tokens based on the Ethereum blockchain, may be used for the purchase of in-game assets.
    • These in-game purchases usually enable gamers to buy items like extra lives, coins and so on directly from the game.

    (3) Gaming coins

    • Gaming coins, such as Axie Infinity (ACS) and Enjin Coin (ENJ), are in-game cryptocurrency which may be acquired and then used for the purchase of in-game assets.
    • These gaming coins may be purchased from crypto exchanges (and eventually be traded on these crypto exchanges as well) or, in certain cases, be acquired as winnings in games that have adopted the ‘play-to-earn’ model.
    • In such games, gamers are rewarded for dedicating their time and skill to play the game with gaming coins and in-game assets.

    Need to regulate such games

    • By making in-game assets available for purchase, developers and publishers stand to earn revenue from the sale of such assets.
    • They may also embed certain rules when implementing the code for in-game assets such that a fee is paid to them every time a certain action is taken,
    • It also involves transfers of assets from one player to another.
    • It needs to be ensured that if it is permissible to offer such games in the Indian Territory and also offers protection in the form of intellectual property rights.
    • Other concerns, such as privacy and cyber security, along with how financial regulations would apply to blockchain games, would also need to be addressed.

    Regulatory aspects in India

    Most of the gaming laws were brought into effect prior to the internet era and, therefore, only contemplate regulation of gaming activities taking place in physical premises.

    (A) Legality Check

    • Since blockchain is merely the underlying technology, there is no express regulation in India.
    • It would, however, be relevant to explore the legality of the games from the lens of existing Indian gaming regulation.
    • Most Indian states regulate gaming on the basis of a distinction in law between ‘games of skill’ and ‘games of chance’.
    • Staking money or property on the outcome of a ‘game of chance’ is prohibited and subjects the guilty parties to criminal sanctions.
    • However, placing any stakes on the outcome of a ‘game of skill’ is not illegal per se and may be permissible.
    • As per two seminal judgments of the Supreme Court on this aspect, the Supreme Court recognized that no game is purely a ‘game of skill’ and almost all games have an element of chance.

    (B) Dominant Element Test

    • As such, a ‘dominant element’ test is to be utilized to determine whether chance or skill is the dominating element in determining the result of the game.
    • This ‘dominant element’ may be determined by examining whether factors such as superior knowledge, training, experience, expertise or attention of a player have a material impact on the outcome of the game.
    • While the outcomes of any ‘games of skill’ are affected by these factors, outcomes of ‘games of chance’ are premised on luck and are largely independent of the skills of the players involved.

    (C) Gaming house regulations

    • The Delhi District Court has, in the past, held that a gaming portal would be covered within the definition of a ‘common gaming house’.
    • This would be subjected to conditions where the gaming developers were to take commission / earn revenue from the game offered.
    • This is because such portals merely seek to replace the brick and mortar common gaming houses that Indian law currently envisages and has outlawed.

    Where does blockchain gaming lie within this framework?

    • There is currently a lacuna in gaming law and there are lingering question marks on its interpretation and applicability to online gaming.
    • As the law currently stands, each blockchain game must first pass muster as a ‘game of skill’, as against a ‘game of chance’, to legally be made available in most Indian states.
    • In the past, the Supreme Court has rejected the notion of video games being ‘games of skill’.

    Possible protections available to blockchain games

    (a) Patents:

    • For a blockchain game or any of its elements to be patented in India if it meets the requirements of novelty, involving an inventive step, and industrial application.
    • In terms of Section 3(k) of the Patent Act, 1970, computer programs are per se not inventions and hence, cannot be patented.
    • However, judicial pronouncements in the past have clarified that if an invention has a technical contribution or a technical effect and is not merely a computer program per se, then it would be patentable.

    (b) Trademarks:

    • A trademark is used as an identifying mark to determine the source of a particular good or service, and is obtained to protect the goodwill and reputation of the brand.
    • Any distinguishing mark in a blockchain game or NFT that would allow consumers to identify the source of that particular game or NFT may be trademarked.

    (c) Copyrights:

    • In India, artistic work, musical work, cinematographic films, dramatic works, sound recordings and computer software are capable being of being protected under copyright law.
    • Although there is no specific provision in the Copyright Act that deals with video games, copyright protection of video games may be sought under the category of ‘multimedia products’.
    • Similar to the position with trademarks, the process of obtaining a copyright for a blockchain game would be the same as any other online video game.

    Future roadmap

    • The Finance Ministry had announced in late-2021 that The Cryptocurrency and Regulation of Official Digital Currency Bill, 2021 would seek to prohibit all private cryptocurrencies.
    • If the legislature does indeed successfully, then, to the extent that existing blockchain games rely on cryptocurrencies, they would be considered illegal in India.
    • Independent of this, the Budget announced that the income from the transfer of any ‘virtual digital assets’ (which include cryptocurrency and non-fungible tokens) would be subject to income tax at the rate of 30%.
    • Policy pronouncements of this nature would need to be carefully considered by publishers of blockchain games while designing their pricing models.

     

     

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  • Functioning of the ISS after US sanctions

    Western sanctions against Russia could cause the International Space Station (ISS) to crash, the head of Russian space agency Roscosmos has warned.

    What is the ISS?

    • The ISS was launched in 1998 as part of joint efforts by the U.S., Russia, Japan, Canada and Europe.
    • The idea of a space station originated in the 1984 State of the Union address by former U.S. President Ronald Reagan.
    • The space station was assembled over many years, and it operates in low-earth orbit.
    • Since its inception, it has served as a laboratory suspended in space and has aided multiple scientific and technological developments.
    • The ISS was originally built to operate for 15 years.

    Why was ISS launched?

    • A space station permits quantum leaps in research in science, communications, and in metals and lifesaving medicines which could be manufactured only in space.
    • ISS has consistently maintained human presence for the past 21 years, providing astronauts with sophisticated technologies for scientific research.

    What is Russia’s role in maintaining the ISS?

    • The ISS is built with the co-operation of scientists from five international space agencies — NASA of the U.S., Roscosmos of Russia, JAXA of Japan, Canadian Space Agency and the European Space Agency.
    • Each agency has a role to play and a share in the upkeep of the ISS.
    • Both in terms of expense and effort, it is not a feat that a single country can support.
    • Russia’s part in the collaboration is the module responsible for making course corrections to the orbit of the ISS.
    • They also ferry astronauts to the ISS from the Earth and back.
    • Until SpaceX’s dragon spacecraft came into the picture the Russian spacecrafts were the only way of reaching the ISS and returning.

    Why does the orbit of the ISS need to be corrected?

    • Due to its enormous weight and the ensuing drag, the ISS tends to sink from its orbit at a height of about 250 miles above the Earth.
    • It has to be pushed up to its original line of motion every now and then.
    • This is rather routine, even for smaller satellites.
    • Approximately once a month this effort has to be made.
    • The other reason for altering the path of the ISS is to avoid its collision with space debris, which can damage the station.

    What is the extent of effort and expense involved in this?

    • Manoeuvring the ISS is expensive.
    • In a year, 7-8 tonnes of fuel may need to be spent, with each manoeuvre costing nearly a tonne of fuel.
    • If a manoeuvre is put off for later, the ISS may sink a little more and the delayed operation would cost more as a larger correction needs to be made.

    Risks of crashing

    • The orbit of the ISS does not fly over the Russian territory mostly.
    • Places that are closer to the equator run a greater risk of it falling in their domain.
    • The orbit is at about 50 degrees and so most probably, the ISS will fall in that level.
    • But this is only a probability, as it can move or disintegrate.
    • But in case of this eventuality, people in the ISS will be brought back, modules can be detached thereby making it much smaller which will ensure that it disintegrates before touching the earth.

     

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  • What is Vibrant Village Programme?

    The Union government plans to open the villages along the Chinese border for tourists under the Vibrant Village programme announced in the Union Budget 2022-23.

    Vibrant Village Programme

    • The program aims to improve infrastructure in villages along India’s border with China.
    • Infrastructure will be improved in states like Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, and Arunachal Pradesh.
    • Under the programme, residential and tourist centres will be constructed.
    • It will also provide for improvement in road connectivity and development of decentralized renewable energy sources.
    • Apart from that, direct access of Doordarshan and education related channels will be provided. Support will be provided for livelihood.

    Key focus areas

    • It focuses livelihood generation, road connectivity, housing, rural infrastructure, renewable energy, television and broadband connections.
    • This objective will be met by strengthening infrastructure across villages located near the Line of Actual Control (LAC).

    Why need such scheme?

    • The programme is a counter to China’s model villages but the name has been carefully chosen so as to not cause any consternation in the neighbouring country.
    • China has established new villages along the LAC in the past few years particularly across the Arunachal Pradesh border.
    • While China has been settling new residents in border areas, villages on the Indian side of the frontier have seen unprecedented out-migration.

     

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  • Issues with high gold demand

    Context

    Gold’s appeal as a safe haven is only rising: as tensions escalate in Ukraine, its price is approaching records.

    Factors explaining demand for gold in India

    • India is the world’s second-largest market for the yellow metal, behind China, though it produces almost none at home.
    • This is partly driven by tradition.
    • Brides are given jewellery as part of their dowry and it is deemed auspicious to buy bullion around certain religious festivals.
    • It is a handy store of undeclared wealth, too, often stashed in wardrobes or under the mattress.
    • But the pandemic has also affirmed an investment advice passed on over generations: park savings in gold as a rainy-day fund.

    Concerns with such a high demand

    • Vast gold imports can destabilise the economy.
    • During the 2013 “taper tantrum”, when India’s foreign-exchange reserves were lower than they are now, a rush of gold imports helped push the current-account deficit to 4.8% of GDP and fuelled worries of a currency crisis.
    • Savings stashed away as idle gold could be put to more productive use elsewhere. 
    • Indian households hold 22,500 tonnes of the physical metal—five times the stock in America’s bullion depository .

    Policy measures by the government

    • Import duties hover around 10%, even after cuts in last year’s budget aimed at keeping smuggling in check.
    • The central bank has ramped up issuance of sovereign gold bonds, which are denominated in grams of gold.
    • Of the 86 tonnes’ worth issued since 2015, about 60% were sold after the pandemic began.
    • And the gold monetisation scheme, which allows households to hand gold over to a bank and earn interest, was revamped last year to reduce limits on the size of deposits.
    • Lockdowns inadvertently helped the state’s agenda.
    • Mobile payments platforms like PhonePe and Google Pay reported rising appetite for digital gold, which is sold online and stored by the seller.
    • Money also rushed into gold exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
    • Their assets hit 184bn rupees ($2.5bn) in December, a 30% rise in a year.

    Conclusion

    Still, only a sliver of the population, mostly well-off urban types and millennials, invest in complex financial products. A large part of India’s demand for physical gold comes from rural areas, where it seems in no danger of losing its lustre.

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  • Why India must cancel its nuclear expansion plans

    Context

    A fire broke out near the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in Ukraine (Europe’s largest) during the course of a military battle. Had the fire affected the cooling system, the plant’s power supply, or its spent fuel pool, a major disaster could have occurred.

    Issues with India’s nuclear expansion plans

    • On December 15, 2021, the Indian government informed Parliament that it plans to build “10 indigenous reactors… in fleet mode” and had granted “in principle approval” for 28 additional reactors, including 24 to be imported from France, the U.S. and Russia.
    • Capital intensive: Nuclear power plants are capital intensive and recent nuclear builds have suffered major cost overruns.
    • Decreasing cost of renewable: In contrast, renewable energy technologies have become cheaper.
    • The Wall Street company, Lazard, estimated that the cost of electricity from solar photovoltaics and wind turbines in the U.S. declined by 90% and 72%, respectively, between 2009-21.
    • Recent low bids are of ₹2.14 per unit for solar power, and ₹2.34 for solar-wind hybrid projects; even in projects coupled with storage, bids are around ₹4.30 per unit.
    • Global trend suggests declining use of nuclear energy: In 1996, 17.5% of the world’s electricity came from nuclear power plants; by 2020, this figure had declined to just around 10%.
    • Safety concerns: In a densely populated country such as India, land is at a premium and emergency health care is far from uniformly available.
    • Local citizens understand that a nuclear disaster might leave large swathes of land uninhabitable — as in Chernobyl — or require a prohibitively expensive clean-up — as in Fukushima, where the final costs may eventually exceed $600 billion.
    • Indemnity clause: Concerns about safety have been accentuated by the insistence of multinational nuclear suppliers that they be indemnified of liability for the consequence of any accident in India.
    • India’s liability law already largely protects them.
    • But the industry objects to the small window of opportunity available for the Indian government to hold them to account.
    • Climate concerns: Climate change will increase the risk of nuclear reactor accidents.
    • Recently, a wildfire approached the Hanul nuclear power plant in South Korea and President Moon Jae-in ordered “all-out efforts” to avoid an accident at the reactors there.
    • In 2020, a windstorm caused the Duane Arnold nuclear plant in the U.S. to cease operations.
    • The frequency of such extreme weather events is likely to increase in the future.

    Consider the question “What are the concerns with the nuclear energy expansion plans of India? Suggest the way forward.”

    Conclusion

    Given the inherent vulnerabilities of nuclear reactors and their high costs, it would be best for the Government to unambiguously cancel its plans for a nuclear expansion.

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    Back2Basics: What is EPR (nuclear reactor)

    • The EPR is a third generation pressurised water reactor design.
    • It has been designed and developed mainly by Framatome (part of Areva between 2001 and 2017) and Électricité de France (EDF) in France, and Siemens in Germany.
    • In Europe this reactor design was called European Pressurised Reactor, and the internationalised name was Evolutionary Power Reactor, but it is now simply named EPR.

  • Indian missile misfires into Pakistan

    India has acknowledged a malfunction led to accidental firing of a missile, which Pakistan says landed in its territory.

    Conducting Missile Tests: NOTAM and NAVAREA Warnings

    • Under the pre-notification of flight testing of ballistic missiles agreement signed in 2005, a country must provide the other an advance notification on flight test it intends to take for any land or sea launched, surface-to-surface ballistic missile.
    • Before the test, the country must issue Notice to Air Missions (NOTAM) or Navigational Warning (NAVAREA) to alert aviation pilots and seafarers, respectively.
    • Also, the testing country must ensure that the launch site is not within 40 km, and the planned impact area is not within 75 km of either the International Boundary (IB) or the Line of Control (LoC).
    • The planned trajectory should not cross the IB or the LoC and must maintain a horizontal distance of at least 40 km from the border.

    Pre-notifications to the neighbours

    • The testing country must notify the other nation “no less than three days in advance of the commencement of a five day launch window within which it intends to undertake flight tests.
    • The pre-notification has to be conveyed through the respective Foreign Offices and the High Commissions, as per the format annexed to this Agreement.

    What is the recent case of misfire?

    • Neither country has spelt this out; Pakistan has only called it a “supersonic” missile.
    • Some experts have speculated that it was a test of one of India’s top missiles, BrahMos, jointly developed with Russia.
    • Their assessment is based on information that it travelled 200 km, manoeuvred mid-air and travelled at 2.5 times to 3 times the speed of sound at an altitude of 40,000 feet.
    Note:  BrahMos has a top speed of Mach 3, a range of around 290 km, and a cruising altitude of 15 km (around 50,000 feet). It can be fired from anywhere, is nuclear-capable, and can carry warheads of 200-300 kg.

     

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  • Taking stock of the Indian economy

    Context

    This article takes the stock of the Indian economy using the EFGHIJ framework.

    Export

    • The $400-billion target of goods exports in FY22 appears achievable:
    • This is a structural break from ~$300-330 billion per year over the last decade.
    • Note that in calendar year 2021, India exported almost $400 billion worth of goods.
    • This export growth comes at a time when global shipping and freight markets have been in a tizzy over the last few months as Covid-related supply chain disruptions across commodities and final products reverberated across the globe.

    Fiscal growth

    • India has significant fiscal headroom in FY23 with a 6.4% fiscal deficit pencilled in.
    • The revenue buoyancy, assumed at less than 1, is conservative as is the overall assumption on nominal growth at 11%.
    • In as volatile a world as this, the conservatism in forecasting should come to India’s advantage.
    • India saw healthy direct and indirect tax receipts in FY22: the GST collections have consistently remained above the `1 trillion-a-month mark for many months now.
    • Two aspects need a close watch:
    • (a) as the prices of various commodities rise, there can be calls for softening the blow on the final consumer via tax cuts or direct support, and
    • (b) the disinvestment programme of the government which could face a market where investor appetite is uncertain.

    Growth challenges and opportunities for India

    • India’s GDP growth in FY23 is projected to be 7.6-8.5%, making it one of the fastest-growing economies.
    • With the newly changed circumstances, it is possible that this tight range and the absolute number may require revision.
    • It is, however, too early to say in which direction and by what amounts.
    • Opportunities for India: Global dislocations of supply chain or the creation of new supply sources could create divergent challenges and opportunities for India.
    • The post Covid rebound in high frequency indicators (air and rail passengers, toll collections, UPI payments, etc.) suggests that the internal consumption economy is currently back on track.
    • It is important to note that India continues to be the fastest-growing nation of its size in the world.

    Health

    • India has now completed almost 1.8 billion doses.
    • The Omicron wave, thankfully both due to the inherent nature of the virus and the large vaccination drive, did not cause significant economic upheaval.
    •  It may be time to think of Covid as endemic and plan accordingly.

    Inflation

    • The inflation in 2021 was based on a sudden bout of fiscal-support-driven spending meeting with tight supply chain bottlenecks.
    • It was expected that as spending normalises and supply chains open, prices will stabilise.
    • However, the sharp uptick in the prices of crude, coal, commodities, and chips has created a more sustained scare for inflation.
    • Many measures may be taken across the world to curb the impact for the common man: from opening of oil reserves, to cutting of taxes, to direct support, etc—all of which could impact the fiscal.

    Capital

    • Denoted by K by economists, expect to see a lot of ebb-and-flow here as investors react to evolving, volatile trends.
    • Higher public investment in the last two years has supported economic recovery: India has planned for a record `10 lakh crore plus public capex.
    • Net FDI has been strong at $25.3 billion up to December in FY2022.
    • While FPIs have withdrawn $9.5 billion in FY22, DIIs and retail investors have supported the markets.

    Conclusion

    With two waves of COVID-19 largely behind us, many macroeconomic factors have changed dramatically, especially in the last fortnight.

    Source:

    https://www.financialexpress.com/opinion/efghijk-taking-stock-of-the-indian-economy/2457255/

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