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  • Deep Sea Faunal Diversity in India

    India is home to 4,371 species of deep-sea fauna, including 1,032 species under the kingdom Protista and 3,339 species under the kingdom Animalia, a recent publication by the Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) has revealed.

    Highlights of the Survey

    • India is surrounded by the Arabian Sea, the Bay of Bengal, the Andaman Sea, and the Laccadive Sea (Lakshadweep Sea).
    • Of the 4,371 species, a maximum of 2,766 species has been reported from deep-sea areas of the Arabian Sea, followed by 1,964 species from the Bay of Bengal, 1,396 species from the Andaman Sea, and only 253 species from the Laccadive Sea.

    RIMS ship investigator

    • India is one of the countries that made a pioneering exploration in the deep Indian Ocean region in 1874 by commissioning a RIMS (Royal Indian Marine Survey) ship investigator.
    • This conducted enormous studies in seas around India and continued to work till 1926.

    Components of the exploration

    • The deep-sea ecosystem was the most unexplored ecosystem across the world. It included hydrothermal vents, submarine canyons, deep-sea trenches, seamounts, cold seeps, and mud volcanoes.
    • This publication, the first of its kind, provides baseline information on all groups of fauna and biological organisms in the Indian deep seas.
    • Not only will this support our knowledge on conserving and managing deep-sea faunal resources, but it will also pave way for their sustainable utilization.

    Key findings

    (1) Mammals

    • There are 31 species of sea mammals that are found in the deep-sea ecosystem of Indian waters, including the Critically Endangered Irrawaddy Dolphin.
    • Two other species, the Indo-Pacific Finless Porpoise and the Sperm Whale are recorded as ‘Vulnerable’ in the IUCN classification.
    • The list of mammals includes Cuvier’s Beaked Whale and Short-beaked Common Dolphin, which dive as deep as 8,000 meters below the Earth’s surface.

    (2) Marine turtles

    • Out of the seven species of marine turtles found across the world, five species have been recorded from Indian waters.
    • India is known as one of the best and largest breeding grounds for sea turtles, especially for Olive Ridley and Leatherback Turtles, across the world.

  • Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomic Consortia (INSACOG)

    In early March, members of the Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomic Consortia (INSACOG), an advisory group to the Central government, warned of a new and contagious form of the novel coronavirus.

    What is INSACOG?

    • INSACOG is a consortium of 10 labs across the country tasked with scanning COVID-19 samples from swathes of patients and flagging the presence of variants that were known to have spiked transmission internationally.
    • It has also been tasked with checking whether certain combinations of mutations were becoming more widespread in India.
    • Some of these labs had begun scanning for mutations in April 2020 itself, but it was not a pan-India effort.
    • The institutes involved were laboratories of the Department of Biotechnology, the CSIR, the ICMR, and the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare (MoHFW).
    • The National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) under the MoHFW was tasked with coordinating the collection of samples from the States as well correlating disease with the mutations.
    • The work began in January by sequencing samples of people who had a history of travel from the United Kingdom and a proportion of positive samples in the community.

    What are the findings?

    • The “foreign” variants identified were primarily the B.1.1.7 (first identified in the United Kingdom) and the B.1.351 (first found in South Africa) and a small number of P2 variants (from Brazil).
    • However, some labs flagged the growing presence of variants identified in India that were clubbed into a family of inter-related variants called B.1.617, also known as the ‘double mutant’ variant.
    • It was primarily due to two mutations — E484Q and L452R — on the spike protein.
    • The B.1.617 family was marked as an international ‘variant of concern’ after it was linked to a recent spike in cases in the UK.
    • INSACOG labs also found that the B.1.1.7 variant, which is marked by increased infectivity, is distinctly more prevalent in several northern and central Indian States in comparison to southern States.

    Beyond identifying patterns, why is genome sequencing useful?

    • The purpose of genome sequencing is to understand the role of certain mutations in increasing the virus’s infectivity.
    • Some mutations have also been linked to immune escape, or the virus’s ability to evade antibodies, and this has consequences for vaccines.
    • Labs across the world, including many in India, have been studying if the vaccines developed so far are effective against such mutant strains of the virus.
    • They do this by extracting the virus from COVID-19-positive samples and growing enough of it. Then, blood serum from people who are vaccinated, and thereby have antibodies, is drawn.
    • Using different probes, scientists determine how much of the antibodies thus extracted are required to kill a portion of the cultured virus.
    • In general, the antibodies generated after vaccination — and this was true of Covaxin, Covishield, Pfizer and Moderna jabs — were able to neutralize variants.
    • Antibody levels are not the only markers of protection and there is a parallel network of cellular immunity that plays a critical role in how vaccines activate immunity.
    • The current evidence for most COVID-19 vaccines is that they have almost 75% to 90% efficacy in protecting against disease but less so in preventing re-infection and transmission.

    Challenges faced by INSACOG

    • Given that the novel coronavirus is spreading, mutating, and showing geographical variations, the aim of the group was to sequence at least 5% of the samples.
    • For many reasons, this has so far been only around 1%, primarily due to a shortage of funds and insufficient reagents and tools necessary to scale up the process.
    • While some of these issues, the INSACOG, in spite of being peopled by expert scientists, is ultimately an advisory group to the Central government and part of its communication structure.
    • Warnings about emerging variants were not made public with sufficient urgency and the sharing of datasets, even within constituent groups of the INSACOG, was less than ideal.

  • Benefits of environmental fiscal reforms

    The article highlights the advantages of environmental fiscal reforms in India.

    Status of  out-of-pocket spending on health in India

    • As per WHO data, in 2011,  17.33% of the population in India made out-of-pocket payments on health that was more than 10% of their income.
    • The percentage was higher in rural areas compared to urban areas.
    • Globally, 12.67% of the population spent more than 10% of their income (out of their pocket) on health.
    • In Southeast Asia, 16% spent more than 10% of their household income on health.
    • Similarly, 3.9% of the population in India made more than 25% of out-of-pocket payments on health, with 4.34% of it in the rural areas.

    Alternate source of health financing: Eco tax

    • The Economic Survey of India 2019-20 has outlined that an increase in public spending from 1% to 2.5-3% of GDP, can decrease out-of-pocket expenditure from 65% to 30% of overall healthcare expenses.
    • The National Health Policy of 2017 also envisages increase in public spending from 1% to 2.5-3% of GDP.
    • This is where the importance of alternate sources of health financing in India needs to be stressed.
    • Fiscal reforms for managing the environment are important, and India has great potential for revenue generation in this aspect.

    Environmental tax reforms

    • Environmental tax reforms generally involve three complementary activities:
    • 1. Eliminating existing subsidies and taxes that have a harmful impact on the environment;
    • 2. Restructuring existing taxes in an environmentally supportive manner;
    • 3. Initiating new environmental taxes.
    • Taxes can be designed either as revenue neutral or revenue augmenting.
    • Revenue augmenting model: In case of revenue augmenting, the additional revenue can either be targeted towards the provision of environmental public goods or directed towards the overall revenue pool.
    • In developing countries like India, the revenue can be used to a greater extent for the provision of environmental public goods and addressing environmental health issues.

    Eco tax

    • The success of an eco tax (environment tax) in India would depend on its architecture, that is, how well it is planned and designed.
    • It should be credible, transparent and predictable.
    • Ideally, the eco tax rate ought to be equal to the marginal social cost arising from the negative externalities associated with the production, consumption or disposal of goods and services.
    • This would include the adverse impacts on the health of people, climate change, etc.
    • The eco tax rate may, thus, be fixed commensurate to the marginal social cost so evaluated.
    • There is also a need to integrate environmental taxes in the Goods and Service Tax framework.

    In India, eco taxes can target three main areas

    • One, differential taxation on vehicles in the transport sector purely oriented towards fuel efficiency and GPS-based congestion charges.
    • Two, in the energy sector by taxing fuels which feed into energy generation.
    • Three, waste generation and use of natural resources.

    Benefits of implementation of eco taxes

    • The implementation of an environmental tax in India will have three broad benefits: fiscal, environmental and poverty reduction.
    • Finance basic public services: Environmental tax reforms can mobilise revenues to finance basic public services when raising revenue through other sources proves to be difficult or burdensome.
    • Reduce distorting taxes: It can can also help to reduce other distorting taxes such as fiscal dividend.
    • Finance research: Environmental tax reforms help internalise the externalities, and the said revenue can finance research and the development of new technologies.

    Impact

    • Environmental regulations may lead to slow productivity growth and high cost of compliance in private sector.
    • This could result in the possible increase in the prices of goods and services.
    • However, the European experience shows that most of the taxes also generate substantial revenue and there is no evidence on green taxes with sustainable development goals leading to a ‘no growth’ economy.
    • Negligible impact on GDP: Most countries’ experiences suggest negligible impact on the GDP, though such revenues have not necessarily been used for environmental considerations.
    • The negligible impact on the GDP may be a temporary phenomenon.

    Conclusion

    This is the right time for India to adopt environmental fiscal reforms as they will reduce environmental pollution and also generate resources for financing the health sector.

  • Supreme Court says Personal Guarantors liable for Corporate Debt

    The Supreme Court has upheld a government moves to allow lenders to initiate insolvency proceedings against personal guarantors, who are usually promoters of big business houses, along with the stressed corporate entities for whom they gave a guarantee.

    What is the Judgement?

    • The judgment has allowed creditors, usually financial institutions and banks, to move against personal guarantors under the Indian Bankruptcy and Insolvency Code (IBC) was “legal and valid”.
    • The November 15, 2019 notification was challenged before several High Courts initially.
    • The apex court said there was an “intrinsic connection” between personal guarantors and their corporate debtors.

    What is a personal guarantee? How do promoters use this route to get funds?

    • A personal guarantee is most likely to be furnished by a promoter or promoter entity when the banks demand collateral which equals the risk they are taking by lending to the firm, which may not be doing so well.
    • It is different from the collateral that firms give to banks to take loans, as Indian corporate laws say that individuals such as promoters are different from businesses and the two are very separate entities.
    • A personal guarantee, therefore, is an assurance from the promoters or promoter group that if the lender allows them the fund, they will be able to turn around the loss-making unit and repay the said loan on time.

    Impact of the move

    • The apex court ruling will help banks go after those who have offered guarantees to recover dues in case the resolution amount is short of the claims filed by them in the National Company Law Tribunal.
    • Over the years, many companies have repeatedly defaulted in loan repayment and got banks to restructure the debt, often citing systemic issues.
    • But as part of the clean-up initiated five years ago, the IBC was enacted and banks were told to go after those who were not paying their dues.

    About the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016

    • IBC is the bankruptcy law of India that seeks to consolidate the existing framework by creating a single law for insolvency and bankruptcy.
    • It is a one-stop solution for resolving insolvencies which previously was a long process that did not offer an economically viable arrangement.
    • The code aims to protect the interests of small investors and make the process of doing business less cumbersome.

    Key features of the code

    (1) Insolvency Resolution:

    • The Code outlines separate insolvency resolution processes for individuals, companies, and partnership firms. The process may be initiated by either the debtor or the creditors.
    • A maximum time limit, for completion of the insolvency resolution process, has been set for corporates and individuals.

    (2) Insolvency regulator:

    • The Code establishes the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India, to oversee the insolvency proceedings in the country and regulate the entities registered under it.
    • The Board will have 10 members, including representatives from the Ministries of Finance and Law, and the Reserve Bank of India.

    (3) Insolvency professionals:

    • The insolvency process will be managed by licensed professionals.
    • These professionals will also control the assets of the debtor during the insolvency process.

    (4) Bankruptcy and Insolvency Adjudicator:

    The Code proposes two separate tribunals to oversee the process of insolvency resolution, for individuals and companies:

    1. the National Company Law Tribunal for Companies and Limited Liability Partnership firms; and
    2. the Debt Recovery Tribunal for individuals and partnerships

  • Person in news: Sunderlal Bahuguna

    Veteran environmentalist and architect of the Chipko Movement Sundarlal Bahuguna, 94 has succumbed to COVID.

    Answer this PYQ in the comment box:

    Q.In India, the problem of soil erosion is associated with which of the following?

    1. Terrace cultivation
    2. Deforestation
    3. Tropical climate

    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

    Sunderlal Bahuguna

    • Bahuguna was one of the leaders of the Chipko movement, fighting for the preservation of forests in the Himalayas.
    • Chipko means ‘embrace’ or ‘tree huggers’ and this vast movement was a decentralized one with many leaders usually being village women.
    • Often, they would chain themselves to trees so that loggers could not cut down forests.
    • These actions slowed down the destruction, but more importantly, they brought deforestation to the public’s attention.

    His contributions

    • From 1981-1983, Sundarlal Bahuguna led a 5,000-kilometre march across the Himalayas, ending with a meeting with late PM Indira Gandhi, to protect some areas of the Himalayan forests from tree-felling.
    • Sundarlal Bahuguna was also a leader in the movement to oppose the Tehri dam project and in defending India’s rivers.
    • He also worked for women’s rights and the rights of the poor.
    • His methods were Gandhian, making use of peaceful resistance and non-violence.
    • The Chipko Movement received the 1987 Right Livelihood Award, also referred to as the Alternative Nobel Prize.

  • How AIDS fight offers a COVID vaccine patent pathway

    The possibilities of new strain of Covid-19 emerging from any region of the world could derail the global recovery. To prevent that from happening vaccines need to be made available and affordable to all. This article discusses the ways to ensure that.

    Ensuring affordability and availability of Covid vaccines

    • To achieve global herd immunity and prevent new strains of COVID-19 from emerging, vaccines need to be affordable and available in massive quantities throughout the globe.
    • Following three are the ways to ensure vaccine availability and affordability.
    • 1) Voluntary linceses: This can happen through patent owners voluntarily licensing their products to other companies, especially Indian producers who are experienced at mass-producing low-cost medications.
    • 2) Compulsory licenses: This can also be done by temporarily suspending patent rights for COVID vaccines.
    • 3) COVAX option: Some favour ensuring access to COVID-19 vaccines through the COVAX programme.

    Options to ensure vaccine availability and affordability

    1) Voluntary licencing: Lessons from fight against AIDS

    • Due to anti-TRIPS activism from low-income countries and low profits from low-income markets some manufacturers placed licensing agreements to produce AIDS drugs for which they owned patent rights in the UN-affiliated Medicines Patent Pool.
    • Several India-based companies then used these voluntary licences to manufacture these drugs on a massive scale and sold them at prices they determined.
    • This effort brought down the price of key AIDS medications in these countries.
    • The United Nations’ Medicines Patent Pool and the World Health Organization’s COVID-19 Technology Access Pool are important tools in an effort to promote voluntary licensing for COVID products.
    • Sharing patent rights through voluntary licensing would need to involve India’s large pharmaceutical sector.

    Challenges in voluntary licensing

    • So far, no patent holders have joined the WHO’s COVID-19 Technology Access Pool.
    • This is why India and South Africa called on the WTO to temporarily waive patent protections for COVID-19.
    •  Meanwhile, the UN Medicines Patent Pool stands ready to accept voluntary licences for COVID-19.

    2) Compulsory licenses

    • Compulsory licenses override patent rights to allow local production or import of drugs by generic manufacturers in the event of a public health crisis.
    • Since 2003, this right has been enshrined in the Doha Declaration addendum to the WTO’s TRIPS agreement and this is what India and South Africa are lobbying for.
    • The Doha addendum, Section 5c, offers AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis as examples of what qualifies as a health emergency.
    • By this standard, COVID-19 should easily qualify.

    Issues with compulsory licensing

    • Good will: Manufacturers in India say they prefer to work with voluntary licences because there is more good will between companies while compulsory licences often come with a legal battle brought by the patent holder.
    • Time factor: Voluntary licences also enable production to begin more expeditiously as they usually are accompanied by “technology transfer” meaning that the patent holder reveals to the licensee how to manufacture the medication.
    • No need to reverse engineer: Volunatry licensing spares the licensee the lengthy and costly process of figuring out how to reverse engineer the product.

    3) COVAX option and issues

    • COVAX programme was established to purchase vaccine doses and donate them to low-income countries.
    • It does not involve modifying patent rights.
    • Underfunded: COVAX is also currently underfunded.
    • Delay: The Director-General of WHO warned that people in the lowest-income countries might have to wait until 2022 to get vaccinated through this programme.

    Government aid should entail an obligation

    • The billions of dollars in government aid given to companies to help develop COVID-19 treatments should entail an obligation to enable the mass production of affordable vaccines.
    • Patents are not ironclad ownership rights, they are a temporary contract that balances the public interest with the claims of the innovator. 

    Consider the question “What is the importance of ensuring availability and affordability of Covid-19 vaccine throughout the world? What are the options available to ensure that?”

    Conclusion

    This is not just a question of social justice and ensuring life-saving therapies are available to the world’s poor. It is a necessary step to prevent deadlier, more contagious and possibly vaccine-resistant variants of COVID-19 from proliferating in an under-vaccinated world.

  • Explained: Cryptocurrency Market Crash

    The cryptocurrency market saw a big correction with prices of major currencies, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, BNB, and others crashing as much as 30% within 24 hours.  This came in the backdrop of Chinese regulators announcing a crackdown on cryptocurrencies.

    Try this question from our AWE initiative:

    What is a cryptocurrency? What benefits and challenges do cryptocurrencies pose? (250 Words)

    Crackdown on Crypto Market

    • China has barred financial institutions and payment companies from providing any services related to cryptocurrency transactions.
    • This means that banks and online payment channels must not offer clients any service involving cryptocurrencies, such as registration, trading, clearing, and settlement.
    • China had issued such a ban in 2017 as well, but compared with the previous ban, the new rules have expanded the scope of prohibited services, and surmise that “virtual currencies are not supported by any real value”.

    Other reason behind this crash: The Tesla story

    • Tesla recently announced that it wouldn’t favor Bitcoin on ‘environmental’ concerns because Bitcoin mining requires electricity which is mostly generated using fossil fuels.
    • However, this seems to be motivated and raises a few questions like – didn’t the Tesla management already know about Bitcoin mining before diversifying into it?

    What does this fall imply?

    • A crackdown by one of the world’s biggest economy notwithstanding, those in the ecosystem has termed this decline as a short-term correction.
    • A nearly 40% dip in the bitcoin price from its all-time high looks dramatic but is normal in many volatile markets, including crypto, especially after such a large rally.
    • Such corrections are mainly due to short-term traders taking profits.
    • Long-term value investors might call these lower prices a buying opportunity.

    Back2Basics: Cryptocurrencies

    • A cryptocurrency is a digital asset designed to work as a medium of exchange wherein individual coin ownership records are stored in a ledger existing in a form of a computerized database.
    • It uses strong cryptography to secure transaction records, control the creation of additional coins, and verify the transfer of coin ownership.
    • It typically does not exist in physical form (like paper money) and is typically not issued by a central authority.
    • Cryptocurrencies typically use decentralized control as opposed to centralized digital currency and central banking systems.

  • [pib] Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission

    Indian Scientists have developed a theory that helps understand the complicated nature of Sun-Earth interaction’s happening in the magnetosphere

    Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) Mission

    • The Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) Mission is a NASA robotic space mission to study the Earth’s magnetosphere, using four identical spacecraft flying in a tetrahedral formation.
    • The mission is designed to gather information about the microphysics of magnetic reconnection, energetic particle acceleration, and turbulence⁠—processes that occur in many astrophysical plasma.
    • Indian researchers have developed a theory that solves every bit of uncertainty regarding the conflict between the observations from MMS Mission.

    Answer this PYQ in the comment box:

    Q.Consider the following statements:

    1. The Earth’s magnetic field has reversed every few hundred thousand years.
    2. When the Earth was created more than 4000 million years ago, there was 54% oxygen and no carbon dioxide.
    3. When living organisms originated, they modified the early atmosphere of the Earth.

    Which of the statements given above is/ are correct? (CSP 2018)

    (a) 1 only

    (b) 2 and 3 only

    (c) 1 and 3 only

    (d) 1, 2 and 3

    What is the Magnetosphere?

    • The magnetosphere is the region of space surrounding Earth where the dominant magnetic field is the magnetic field of Earth, rather than the magnetic field of interplanetary space.
    • It is formed by the interaction of the solar wind with Earth’s magnetic field.

    Findings of the Indian Researchers

    • The MMS spacecraft observed negative monopolar potential (electric field potentials which can be visualized in the form of single-humped pulse-type structures).
    • The scientific community suddenly recognized its importance, and publications were presented.
    • However, none of the available theories could explain the characteristics of these structures due to the exotic background conditions.
    • Indian theory provides a better understanding of their characteristics and sheds light on the generation of these structures.
    • This has lead to the unraveling of nature’s greatest mystery that causes phenomena -plasma transport and heating of plasma- the fourth state of matter after solid, liquid, and gas.

  • FinMin grants ‘infrastructure’ status for convention centres

    The Finance Ministry has granted ‘Infrastructure’ status for exhibition and convention centres, a move that is expected to ease bank financing for such projects.

    Exhibition-cum-Convention Centre

    • ‘Exhibition-cum-Convention Centre is included in the Harmonized Master List of Infrastructure sub-sectors by insertion of a new item in the category of Social and Commercial Infrastructure.
    • The benefits available as ‘infrastructure’ projects would only be available for projects with a minimum built-up floor area of 1,00,000 square metres of exclusive exhibition space or convention space or both combined.
    • This includes primary facilities such as exhibition centres, convention halls, auditoriums, plenary halls, business centres, meeting halls etc.
    • As of now, the major projects underway in the sector are backed by the government – the International Exhibition-cum-Convention Centres at Dwarka as well as Pragati Maidan in the capital.

    What is the Master List?

    • The Harmonized Master list approved by the cabinet committee on infrastructure has five main sectors and 29 infra subsectors.
    • The five sectors include transport, energy, water sanitation, communication and social and commercial infrastructure.
    • The infra tag allows certain benefits including access to easier borrowings overseas, the ability to raise funds through tax-free bonds, tax concessions, and access to dedicated lenders such as IIFCL, and the debt funds.
    • Last August, the government had added affordable rental housing projects to the list of sectors recognised as infrastructure.

    Benefits of the move

    • The infrastructure tag no longer involves significant tax breaks but would help such projects get easier financing from banks, said experts.
    • India doesn’t have large convention centres or single halls with capacities to hold 7,000 to 10,000 people, unlike countries like Thailand that is a major global MICE-destination.
    • Becoming a MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions) destination can generate significant revenue with several global companies active in India but it will take time to become a preferred destination.

  • Medicine from the Sky Project

    The Telangana government has selected 16 primary healthcare centres (PHCs) spread around Vikarabad area hospital for pilot testing the ambitious ‘Medicine from the sky’, the first-of-its-kind project involving delivery of medicines through multiple drones.

    Medicine from the Sky Project

    • A consortium of seven operators headed by Blue Dart Med-Express had been selected for the project to be launched in the VLOS range of 500 metres initially and will be scaled up gradually to a 9 km range.
    • The selected PHCs are both within the Visual Line of Sight (VLOS) and Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) range.
    • The project would be launched in three waves starting with a pilot followed by mapping the route network for the operation of drones for delivering vaccine/medicine in the desired community health centres and PHCs.
    • The project is being launched following the approval granted by the Civil Aviation Ministry to the request made by the State to grant conditional exemption from the Unmanned Aircraft System Rules 2021.

    Benefits of the project

    • The project is aimed at assessing alternative logistics route in providing safe, accurate and reliable pickup and delivery of health care items like medicines, vaccines, units of blood and other lifesaving equipment from the distribution centre to a specific location and back.
    • The model, once successful, would enable deliveries from district medical stores and blood banks to PHCs, CHCs and further from PHCs/CHCs to central diagnostic laboratories.

    Back2Basics: What is VLOS (Visual Line of Sight)?

    • Visual Line of Sight (‘VLOS’) operations are a type of operation in which the remote pilot maintains continuous, unaided visual contact with the unmanned aircraft. In its simplest term, the aircraft must always be visible to the pilot.
    • This allows the remote pilot to control the flight path of the unmanned aircraft in relation to other aircraft, people, and obstacles for the purpose of avoiding collisions.
    • Extended Visual Line of Sight operations (‘EVLOS’) allows flight Beyond Visual Line of Sight of the Remote Pilot by using ‘trained observers’.
    • Trained observers are used to comply with the separation and collision avoidance responsibilities of the operator.
    • ‘Beyond Visual Line of Sight’ operations is where the flying of a drone is without  a pilot maintaining a visual line of sight on the aircraft at all times.
    • Instead, the pilot operates the UAV using Remote Pilot Station (RPS) / Ground Control Station (GCS) instruments.