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  • DAVINCI+ and VERITAS missions for exploration of Venus

    NASA has selected two missions to the planet Venus, Earth’s nearest neighbor. The missions are called DAVINCI+ and VERITAS.

    DAVINCI+ and VERITAS

    (1) DAVINCI+

    • DAVINCI+ is short for ‘Deep Atmosphere Venus Investigation of Noble gases, Chemistry, and Imaging’ and is the first US-led mission to the planet’s atmosphere since 1978.
    • It will try to understand Venus’ composition to see how the planet formed and evolved.
    • This mission also consists of a decent sphere that will pass through the planet’s thick atmosphere and make observations and take measurements of noble gases and other elements.
    • Significantly, this mission will also try to return the first high-resolution photographs of a geological feature that is unique to Venus.
    • This feature, which is called “tesserae” may be comparable to Earth’s continents.
    • The presence of tesseraes may suggest that Venus has tectonic plates like Earth.

    (2) VERITAS

    • The second mission called VERITAS is short for ‘Venus Emissivity, Radio Science, InSAR, Topography, and Spectroscopy’.
    • It will map the planet’s surface to determine its geologic history and understand the reasons why it developed so differently from Earth.
    • VERITAS will orbit Venus with a radar that will help to create a 3D reconstruction of its topography which might be able to tell scientists if processes such as plate tectonics and volcanism are still active there.
    • This mission will also map the emissions from Venus’s surface that may help in determining the type of rocks that exist on Venus–a piece of information that is not exactly known yet.
    • It will also determine if active volcanoes are releasing water vapor into the atmosphere.

    Why study Venus?

    • The results from DAVINCI+ are expected to reshape the understanding of terrestrial planet formation in the solar system and beyond.
    • Taken together, both missions are expected to tell scientists more about the planet’s thick cloud cover and the volcanoes on its surface.
    • Further, scientists speculate about the existence of life on Venus in its distant past and the possibility that life may exist in the top layers of its clouds where temperatures are less extreme.

    Have humans visited Venus?

    • Because of the planet’s harsh environment, no humans have visited it and even the spacecraft that have been sent to the planet have not survived for a very long time.
    • Venus’ high surface temperatures overheat electronics in spacecraft in a short time, so it seems unlikely that a person could survive for long on the Venusian surface.
    • So far, spacecraft from several nations have visited the planet.
    • The first such spacecraft was the Soviet Union’s Venera series (the spacecraft, however, could not survive for long because of the planet’s harsh conditions).
    • It was followed by NASA’s Magellan Mission that studied Venus from 1990-1994. As of now, Japan’s Akatsuki mission is studying the planet from Orbit.

    Back2Basics: Venus

    • For those on Earth, Venus is the second-brightest object in the sky after the moon.
    • It appears bright because of its thick cloud cover that reflects and scatters light.
    • Surface temperatures on Venus can go up to 471 degrees Celsius, which is hot enough to melt lead, NASA notes. Surface temperatures on Venus can go up to 471 degrees Celsius, which is hot enough to melt lead, NASA notes.

    Some unknown facts

    • While Venus, which is the second closest planet to the Sun, is called the Earth’s twin because of their similar sizes, the two planets have significant differences between them.
    • For one, the planet’s thick atmosphere traps heat and is the reason that it is the hottest planet in the solar system, despite coming after Mercury, the closest planet to the Sun.
    • Further, Venus moves forward on its orbit around the Sun but spins backwards around its axis slowly.
    • This means on Venus the Sun rises in the west and sets in the East.
    • One day on Venus is equivalent to 243 Earth days because of its backward spinning, opposite to that of the Earth’s and most other planets.
    • Venus also does not have a moon and no rings.

  • OneWeb constellation for Internet from the Skies

    Following the successful launch of 36 satellites, OneWeb’s Low Earth Orbit (LEO) constellation reached 218 in-orbit satellites.

    What is OneWeb?

    • OneWeb is a global communications company that aims to deliver broadband satellite Internet around the world through its fleet of LEO satellites.
    • OneWeb satellites are built at a OneWeb and Airbus joint venture facility in Florida that can produce up to two satellites a day.
    • The launch roll-out of the satellites is facilitated by French company Arianespace using Russian-made Soyuz rockets.
    • The company has announced plans to enter the Indian market by 2022.

    About its constellation

    • The company has one more launch to complete before it obtains the capacity to enable its ‘Five to 50’ service of offering internet connectivity to all regions north of 50 degrees latitude.
    • The Five to 50 service is expected to be switched on by June 2021 with global services powered by 648 satellites available in 2022.

    What are LEO satellites?

    • LEO satellites have been orbiting the planet since the 1990s, providing companies and individuals with various communication services.
    • They are positioned around 500km-2000km from earth, compared to stationary orbit satellites which are approximately 36,000km away.
    • Latency, or the time needed for data to be sent and received, is contingent on proximity.
    • As LEO satellites orbit closer to the earth, they are able to provide stronger signals and faster speeds than traditional fixed-satellite systems.
    • Additionally, because signals travel faster through space than through fiber-optic cables, they also have the potential to rival if not exceed existing ground-based networks.
    • However, LEO satellites travel at a speed of 27,000 kph and complete a full circuit of the planet in 90-120 minutes.
    • As a result, individual satellites can only make direct contact with a land transmitter for a short period of time thus requiring massive LEO satellite fleets and consequently, a significant capital investment.

    Criticisms of LEO satellites

    • During the days of the Sputnik and Apollo missions, governments dominated and regulated space-based activities.
    • There are logistical challenges with launching thousands of satellites into space as well.
    • Satellites can sometimes be seen in the night skies which creates difficulties for astronomers as the satellites reflect sunlight to earth, leaving streaks across images.
    • Satellites traveling at a lower orbit can also interrupt the frequency of those orbiting above them, an accusation that has been leveled against Starlink satellites already.
    • Another worry is that there are already almost 1 million objects larger than 1cm in diameter in orbit, a byproduct of decades of space activities.
    • Those objects, colloquially referred to as ‘space junk,’ have the potential to damage spacecraft or collide with other satellites.

  • China’s EAST Tokamak Device

    China’s Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST), which mimics the energy generation process of the sun, set a new record.

    What is China’s ‘artificial sun’ EAST?

    • The Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) reactor is an advanced nuclear fusion experimental research device.
    • The purpose of the artificial sun is to replicate the process of nuclear fusion, which is the same reaction that powers the sun.
    • The EAST is one of three major domestic tokamaks that are presently being operated across the country.
    • Apart from the EAST, China is currently operating the HL-2A reactor as well as J-TEXT.
    • Since it first became operational in 2006, the EAST has set several records for the duration of confinement of exceedingly hot plasma.
    • The EAST project is part of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) facility, which will become the world’s largest nuclear fusion reactor when it becomes operational in 2035.
    • The project includes the contributions of several countries, including India, South Korea, Japan, Russia and the United States.

    How does the ‘artificial sun’ EAST work?

    • The EAST Tokamak device is designed to replicate the nuclear fusion process carried out by the sun and stars.
    • Nuclear fusion is a process through which high levels of energy are produced without generating large quantities of waste.
    • Previously, energy was produced through nuclear fission — a process in which the nucleus of a heavy atom was split into two or more nuclei of lighter atoms.

    Fission vs. Fusion

    • While fission is an easier process to carry out, it generates far more nuclear waste.
    • Unlike fission, fusion also does not emit greenhouse gases and is considered a safer process with a lower risk of accidents.
    • Once mastered, nuclear fusion could potentially provide unlimited clean energy and very low costs.

    But what is Fusion?

    • For nuclear fusion to occur, tremendous heat and pressure are applied on hydrogen atoms so that they fuse together. `
    • The nuclei of deuterium and tritium — both found in hydrogen — are made to fuse together to create a helium nucleus, a neutron along with a whole lot of energy.
    • Fuel is heated to temperatures of over 150 million degrees C so that it forms a hot plasma “soup” of subatomic particles.
    • With the help of a strong magnetic field, the plasma is kept away from the walls of the reactor to ensure it does not cool down and lose its potential to generate large amounts of energy.
    • The plasma is confined for long durations for fusion to take place.

    What is the latest record and why does it matter?

    • The EAST reactor set a new record on Friday when it achieved a plasma temperature of 216 million degrees Fahrenheit and also managed to run for 20 seconds at 288 million degrees Fahrenheit.
    • To put this in perspective, the sun’s core only reaches about 15 million degrees Celsius, which means the reactor was able to touch temperatures that are 10 times hotter than that.
    • The next goal for the scientists behind the experimental reactor is to maintain the high temperature for a long period of time. Previously, the EAST had reached a record temperature of 100 million degrees Celsius in 2018.

    China is not the only

    • But China is not the only country that has achieved high plasma temperatures.
    • In 2020, South Korea’s KSTAR reactor set a new record by maintaining a plasma temperature of over 100 million degrees Celsius for 20 seconds.

  • Prices, profits and the pandemic: What RBI could do

    The article discusses the challenges in managing the inflationary pressure while ensuring the low interest rates and sufficient liquidity in the covid battered economy.

    Growing inflationary pressure

    • As the second wave eases, producers could pass on more cost increases to consumers, pushing up inflation.
    • Inflationary pressures are on the rise, globally and domestically.
    • Real rates in India have moved into the negative terrain and some measures of inflation expectations have begun to rise gently.
    •  WPI inflation was subdued last year during the first wave of the pandemic due to falling global commodity prices.
    • This year is different, as inflationary pressures have surfaced in the WPI.
    • And within WPI inflation, input prices are rising much faster than WPI output prices.
    • Producers do not seem to be passing on much of the rise in raw material costs to output prices, perhaps worried that already uncertain demand could weaken further.
    • After states roll back local lockdowns, the demand for goods and services will gradually picks up, producers may feel more confident about passing on raw material cost increases to output prices, pushing core inflation higher, particularly in the second half of FY22.

    RBI’s role: Dealing with impossible trinity?

    • Last year, RBI was faced with conflicting objectives on inflation, bond yields and the rupee, also known as the impossible trinity.
    • It bought dollars to prevent the rupee from strengthening too much and purchased government bonds to keep bond yields from spiralling out of control.
    • But this created excess rupee liquidity in the banking system, which over time can stoke inflation and other financial imbalances.
    • These conflicting objectives are also likely to linger this year, and RBI will have to juggle them carefully.
    • As the year progresses, space could open up for RBI to gradually shift the focus to inflation control.
    • With the current account moving into deficit, the balance of payments surplus is likely to fall, so RBI may not have to purchase as many dollars as last year.
    • The will result in decrease in domestic liquidity and ultimately an important part of the normalization of monetary policy and inflation control.
    • RBI would still need to buy government bonds to support the administration’s borrowing programme.
    •  However, a large carry-over of cash balances could act as a buffer—they totalled ₹2.5 trillion at the end of FY21, almost double the recent average.
    • This could help fund some of the unbudgeted rise in the fiscal deficit.

    Way forward on controlling inflation

    • If the need to buy dollars is lower than last year, RBI could gradually shift the focus to controlling inflation.
    • Starting in 4Q 2021, when the proportion of the population vaccinated will hopefully reach critical mass, RBI need to start reducing the level of surplus liquidity, raise the reverse repo rate, and change its monetary stance to neutral.
    • The aim should be to gradually push up short-end rates towards 4%, so that real rates don’t remain hugely negative for too long.
    • An increase in the benchmark repo rate— currently 4%— can wait, perhaps until there are surer signs that the private investment cycle is rising.

    Conclusion

    Dealing with the three elements of impossible trinity this time is not as difficult for the RBI as it was last year, it needs to shift focus to inflation control at the opportune moment.

    Back2Basics: Real interest rate

    • A real interest rate is an interest rate that has been adjusted to remove the effects of inflation to reflect the real cost of funds to the borrower and the real yield to the lender or to an investor.
    • The real interest rate of an investment is calculated as the difference between the nominal interest rate and the inflation rate.

    Real Interest Rate = Nominal Interest Rate – Inflation (Expected or Actual)

    The impossible trinity

    • A theory that states that, in the long-run, a central bank that hopes to conduct independent monetary policy must choose between maintaining a fixed foreign exchange rate and allowing the free movement of capital.
    • For instance, a central bank that chooses to increase the total money supply by adopting loose monetary policy cannot hope to maintain the foreign exchange value of its currency unless it resorts to restricting the sale of domestic currency in the currency market.
    • The idea is derived from the academic works of Canadian economist Robert Mundell and British economist Marcus Fleming.

  • Global minimum tax may help India but can cause international disagreements

    The article deals with the issue of global minimum tax proposal floated by the US, challenges it faces and its implications for India.

    The US proposal for global minimum tax

    • In its recent proposal, the U.S. sought to impose a global minimum tax on foreign income earned by U.S. corporations.
    • The proposal is intended to disincentivise American companies from inverting their structures due to the increase in the U.S. corporate tax rate.
    • The U.S. is now discussing a floor of 15% for the minimum tax rate.
    • The proposal is similar to Pillar Two, except for the rate of the effective minimum tax.

    Similarity with Pillar Two Proposal

    • The Pillar Two proposal was the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) plan to plug the remaining Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) issues
    • It provide jurisdictions the right to “tax back” where other jurisdictions have either not exercised their primary taxing right or have exercised it at low levels of effective taxation.
    • For instance, if an Indian-headquartered multinational corporation (MNC) has an entity in Singapore or the Netherlands through which global operations are run, and its income from global operations is not taxed at an effective rate of 10% or 15%, then it can be taxed in India.
    • India has been part of the Pillar Two discussions and has not objected in principle to the proposal.

    How Global Minimum Tax would benefit India?

    • The proposal, along with the increased tax bill for U.S. companies, may benefit the Indian revenue department.
    • The State of Tax Justice report of 2020 notes that India loses over $10 billion in tax revenue due to the use of offshore structures, particularly through investments made by Indian residents through Mauritius, Singapore and the Netherlands.
    • This is supported by the overseas direct investment (ODI) data from 2000 to 2021 published by the Reserve Bank of India.
    • Start-ups and large Indian conglomerates commonly use offshore structures for conducting global operations.
    • Revenue from such operations is often retained offshore and not repatriated to India.
    • Tax advantages incentivise such structures, due to which taxes on such income are not paid in India.
    • Once these proposals are implemented, Indian companies would have to pay additional taxes on their offshore structures to the extent that the effective rate of tax is lower than the global minimum tax rate.

    Challenges

    • Lack of consensus: Several countries have taken a different approach to the rate of global minimum tax.
    • While France and Germany have expressed support, the EU has raised concerns regarding the high rate proposed by the United States.
    • Tax sovereignty issue: Countries have stated that the proposal infringes upon their tax sovereignty and that the fight against unfair tax competition should not become a fight against competitive tax systems.

    Consider the question “What are the factors that led to the demand of global minimum corporate tax? What will be its implications for India?” 

    Conclusion

    As economies struggle amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the necessity of encouraging trade and economic activity should be prioritised over disagreements on tax allocations. A tax-related trade war or entrenchment of unilateral levies may further harm both global and national economies.

  • What explains the surge in FDI inflows?

    The article analyses the factors contributing to the claim of 10% rise in total Foreign Direct Investment in 2020-21 and its impact on economy.

    Making sense of increased FDI

    • Total foreign direct investment (FDI) inflow in 2020-21 is $81.7 billion, up 10% over the previous year, reported a recent Ministry of Commerce and Industry press release.
    •  The short press release highlighted industry and State-specific foreign investment figures without detailed statistical information.
    • The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) bulletin, which was released a week earlier, has the details.

    What explains increased gross inflows

    • The gross inflow consists of (i) direct investment to India and (ii) repatriation/disinvestment.
    • The disaggregation shows that direct investment to India has declined by 2.4%.
    • Hence, an increase of 47% in “repatriation/disinvestment” entirely accounts for the rise in the gross inflows.
    • In other words, there is a wide gap between gross FDI inflow and direct investment to India.
    • Similarly, measured on a net basis (that is, “direct investment to India” net of “FDI by India” or, outward FDI from India), direct investment to India has barely risen (0.8%) in 2020-21 over the last year.
    • What then accounts for the impressive headline number of 10% rise in gross inflow?
    • It is almost entirely on account of “Net Portfolio Investment”, shooting up from $1.4 billion in 2019-20 to $36.8 billion in the next year.
    • That is a whopping 2,526% rise.
    • Further, within the net portfolio investment, foreign institutional investment (FIIs) has boomed by an astounding 6,800% to $38 billion in 2020-21, from a mere half a billion dollars in the previous year.
    • This explains the surge in gross FDI inflows which is entirely on account of net foreign portfolio investment.

    How FDI is different from FII

    • FDI inflow, in theory, is supposed to bring in additional capital to augment potential output (taking managerial control/stake).
    • In contrast, foreign portfolio investment, as the name suggests, is short-term investment in domestic capital (equity and debt) markets to realise better financial returns.
    • But the conceptual distinctions have blurred in official reporting, showing an outsized role of FDI and its growth in India.

    How FPI distorted equity markets?

    • The deluge of FII inflow did little to augment the economy’s potential output.
    • It added a lot of froth to the stock prices.
    • When GDP has contracted by 7.3%  in 2020-21 on account of the pandemic and the economic lockdown, the BSE Sensex nearly doubled from about 26,000 points on March 23, 2020 to over 50,000 on March 31, 2021.
    • BSE’s price-earnings (P-E) multiple — defined as share price relative to earnings per share — is among the world’s highest, close behind S&P 500 in the U.S.

    FDI inflow’s contribution to domestic output

    • As Figure below shows, between 2013-14 and 2019-20, the ratio of net FDI to GDP has remained just over 1% (left-hand scale), with no discernible rising trend in it.
    • The proportion of net FDI to gross fixed capital formation (fixed investment) is range-bound between 4% and 6%.
    • These stagnant trends are evident when the economy’s fixed investment rate — gross fixed capital formation to GDP ratio — has plummeted from 31.3% in 2013-14 to 26.9% in 2019-20 (right-hand scale).
    • Thus, FDI inflow’s contribution to domestic output and investment remains modest.

    Conclusion

    The flood of FIIs has boosted stock prices and financial returns. These inflows did little to augment fixed investment and output growth.

  • Growth of farm sector during COVID-19 Pandemic

    2020-21 saw the Indian economy register its worst-ever contraction since Independence and also the first since 1979-80. There has been recording economic contraction, however, the farm sector actually grew by 3.6%.

    Growth in Farm Sector

    There are two main reasons why agriculture didn’t suffer the fate of the rest of the economy last year.

    (1) Better monsoon and yields

    • 2019 and 2020, by contrast, were above-normal monsoon years, with the country receiving an area-weighted rainfall.
    • It led to the filling of reservoirs and recharging of groundwater tables and aquifers, unlike after the deficient monsoons of 2014 and 2015 and the near-deficient one of 2018.
    • Not surprisingly, 2019-20 and 2020-21 produced back-to-back bumper harvests.

    (2) Ease during lockdowns

    • The second reason had to do with agriculture being exempted from the nationwide lockdown that followed the first wave of Covid-19.
    • Lockdown restrictions only spared PDS ration shops and other stores selling food, groceries, fruits & vegetables, milk, meat and fish, animal fodder, seeds and pesticides.
    • But within days, an addendum was issued, extending the lifting of curbs to fertilizer outlets, all field operations by farmers and farmworkers, intra- and inter-state movement of agricultural machinery, sale of produce in wholesale mandis and procurement.

    Inherent resilience of India’s farm sector

    • Simply put, farmers made sure they did not waste a good monsoon, finding ways to even mobilize harvesting and planting labor during peak lockdown.
    • The inherent resilience and adaptability of rural economic actors — meant that the farm sector was relatively insulated from lockdown-imposed supply-side

    What were the issues faced?

    • The problems agriculture encountered due to the lockdown had more to do with the demand
    • The closure of hotels, restaurants, roadside eateries, sweetmeat shops, hostels, and canteens — and no wedding receptions and other public functions — resulted in a collapse of out-of-home consumption.
    • This was demand destruction not from rising prices — “movement along the demand curve”.
    • Instead, it was from forced consumption reduction, translating into lower demand for farm produce even at the same price — “a leftward shift in the demand curve”.

    Various successes

    (1) Success of MSP procurement

    • MSP procurement was effective largely in crops and regions where the institutions undertaking such operations — be it the Food Corporation of India, NAFED, Cotton Corporation of India or even cooperative dairies.
    • These all were active and could stem price declines during the period of demand destruction.
    • Such intervention wasn’t possible in non-mainstream produce (vegetables, fruits, poultry, fish, flowers, spices, etc) and regions (maize in Bihar), where the corresponding institutional mechanisms were non-existent.
    • The demand situation improved, though, with the gradual lifting of lockdown restrictions and also the recovery in global agri-commodity prices.

    (2) MGNREGA

    • While agriculture grew amid an unprecedented economic contraction, 2020-21 was also notable for the record person-days of employment generated under MGNREGA.
    • This flagship employment scheme was yet another source of liquidity infusion and, again, a pre-existing program that the government could deploy to support rural incomes during a crisis.
    • Rural consumption, in turn, provided some cushion to the economy and preventing a bad situation from turning much worse.

    Prospects for this Year

    The one obvious difference between now and last year is Covid-19 cases. Covid’s impact on agriculture per se would depend on the spread, intensity, and duration of the infection.

    • Rural areas were mostly unaffected by the pandemic’s first wave.
    • Farm-related activities could, then, go on relatively unhindered, which government policy, whether to do with lockdown or public procurement, also facilitated.
    • That situation has changed with the second wave and rising share of rural districts in total cases, even without factoring in the higher probability of underreporting in these places.

    What next?

    • While fear of the virus may induce precautionary behavior and economic growth, it is unlikely to affect normal agricultural operations.
    • And if last years’ experience is any guide, the adaptability of farmers and myriad rural economic agents should not be underestimated.

    (1) The first factor to be considered is the monsoon. The good news this time is that there is no El Niño.

    • There are increasing chances of a La Niña — El Niño’s counterpart that is associated with above-normal rains and lower temperatures in India — for the autumn and winter months.
    • El Nino is the abnormal warming of the tropical central and eastern Pacific Ocean surface waters, resulting in increased evaporation and cloud-formation activity around South America and away from Asia.

    (2) Uncertainty is prices

    • Global prices — be it of wheat, maize, soybean, palm oil, sugar, skimmed milk powder or cotton — have scaled multi-year highs in the recent period, helping India’s agri-commodity exports.
    • But export demand alone cannot sustain prices, especially in a scenario where job and income losses, accelerated post the pandemic that has severely dented domestic purchasing power.
    • Diesel prices alone have gone up by over a third in the last year; so have that of most non-urea fertilizers.

    Way forward

    • The real challenge for Indian agriculture and farmers will be on the demand side.
    • That is specifically going to come from declining real incomes and particularly affecting demand for milk, pulses, egg, meat, fruits, vegetables and other protein/micronutrient-rich foods.
    • While rising rural wages and overall incomes is what propelled the demand for these foods in the past — in turn, contributing to dietary and cropping diversification — the ongoing slide presents a frightening proposition.

  • Lawsuit against 5G and the debate around

    A notable actor has filed a lawsuit in the Bombay High Court against the 5G telecom technology up-gradation, trial runs for which have started in India now.

    What is 5G technology?

    • 5G or fifth generation is the latest upgrade in the long-term evolution (LTE) mobile broadband networks.
    • It mainly works in 3 bands, namely low, mid and high-frequency spectrum — all of which have their own uses as well as limitations.

    Issues with the rollout

    • However, 5G and its rollout in many countries have been hampered due to fears over health concerns even some conspiracy theories as well, which have tried to link it with the coronavirus among other things.
    • The recent lawsuit is asking questions around the overall impact of 5G and low intensity radiofrequency (RF) electronic magnetic field (EMF) radiation on human health, and its environmental impact as well.
    • These concerns, while not yet proven, have been raised by various scientists before too.

    Arguments raised in the lawsuit

    • It has stated that the ‘radiation’ it will emit will be “extremely harmful and injurious to the health and safety of the people”.
    • While using wireless devices one is in a constant dilemma about “RF radiation from wire-free gadgets and network cell towers”.
    • There is sufficient reason to believe that the radiation is extremely harmful and injurious to the health and safety of the people.
    • It wants the concerned department to certify that 5G technology is safe for humans and also animals and birds.

    Why is 5G essential?

    • 5G promises to revolutionize mobile broadband and is a big generational leap over the existing 4G technology.
    • This new technology will be capable of not just ensuring fast internet on our phones, but also help power IoT (Internet of Things) networks to run connected cars and homes smarter.
    • It will also support the streaming of rich media.

    Rollout status in India

    • 5G has not yet been rolled out in India though some companies have been given a trial spectrum to test 5G technology in the country.
    • Once this is over, it is expected that networks will go live with the 5G bands by the end of this year.
    • The 5G rollout is expected to gather pace in the country by 2022.

    Fear around the impact of 5G radiation on human health

    • The claim is that the more powerful 5G waves will emit more radiation and cause harm to humans as well as other living beings.
    • Also, 5G will require more towers in order to ensure better connectivity, and since it will power more than just our smartphones, it will increase human exposure to such radiation in general.
    • This is an extension of the idea that cellular towers, which emit low-level RF-EMF radiation, are in general damaging our bodies.
    • But radiation from cellphone towers, mobile phones, WiFi routers is typically called non-ionizing radiation like radio waves, microwaves, and optical radiation.
    • RF fields have been classified by WHO’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) as possibly carcinogenic to humans (Group 2B).

    Layman understandings over such radiations

    • There’s no doubt that radiation at very high levels, also referred to as ionizing radiation, heats up our tissue and can eventually lead to cancer.
    • This applies to medical devices such as a CT-scan machine or X-ray machine, which emit high-level ionizing radiation.
    • That’s exactly why doctors don’t recommend that you go get a CT scan for every health issue because it does increase unnecessary exposure to radiation.
    • But there are increasing concerns that our smartphones, other WiFi-ready devices such as laptops, and mobile phone towers which also emit low-level RF radiation are damaging our bodies given the constant exposure.

    What WHO has to say?

    • On its page on 5G, the World Health Organization (WHO) says “no adverse health effect has been causally linked with exposure to wireless technologies.”
    • But it also states that “only a few studies have been carried out at the frequencies to be used by 5G.”
    • Given the growing concerns, the WHO is conducting “a health risk assessment from exposure to radio frequencies, covering the entire radiofrequency range, including 5G.”
    • This study will be published by 2022.

  • Species in news: Litoria Mira

    A species of frog lives in the rainforests of New Guinea that appears to be made from chocolate — just like the magical sweets popular in the wizarding world of J K Rowling’s Harry Potter.

    Litoria mira

    • The cocoa-colored frogs have turned out to be a new species — and an addition to our knowledge of the animal kingdom.
    • It has a well-known relative — the common green tree frog of Australia called Litoria cerulean.
    • Litoria Mira can be distinguished from all other Litoria by its unique combination of moderately large size, webbing on hand, relatively short and robust limbs, and a small violet patch of skin on the edge of its eyes.

  • Explained: India’s GDP fall, in perspective

    India’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) contracted by 7.3% in 2020-21.

    Tap to read more about:

    National Income Determination, GDP, GNP, NDP, NNP, Personal Income

    GDP contraction

    There are two ways to view this contraction:

    1. One is to look at this as an outlier — after all, India, like most other countries, is facing a once-in-a-century pandemic — and wish it away.
    2. The other way would be to look at this contraction in the context of what has been happening to the Indian economy since the regime change.

    Impact of the new regime

    Let’s look at the most important ones.

    (1) Gross Domestic Product

    • Contrary to perception advanced by the Union government, the GDP growth rate has been a point of growing weakness for the last 5 of these 7 years.
    • The GDP growth rate steadily fell from over 8% in FY17 to about 4% in FY20, just before Covid-19 hit the country.
    • The economy was already struggling with massive bad loans which were further deteriorated by demonetization and the GST regime.

    (2) GDP per capita

    • Often, it helps to look at GDP per capita, which is total GDP divided by the total population, to better understand how well-placed an average person is in an economy.
    • At a level of Rs 99,700, India’s GDP per capita is now what it used to be in 2016-17 — the year when the slide started.
    • As a result, India has been losing out to other countries. A case in point is how even Bangladesh has overtaken India in per-capita-GDP terms.

    (3) Unemployment rate

    • This is the metric on which India has possibly performed the worst.
    • First came the news that India’s unemployment rate, even according to the government’s own surveys, was at a 45-year high in 2017-18 — the year after demonetization and GST.
    • Then in 2019 came the news that between 2012 and 2018, the total number of employed people fell by 9 million — the first such instance of total employment declining in independent India’s history.
    • As against the norm of an unemployment rate of 2%-3%, India started routinely witnessing unemployment rates close to 6%-7% in the years leading up to Covid-19.
    • The pandemic, of course, made matters considerably worse.
    • What makes India’s unemployment even more worrisome is the fact that this is happening even when the labor force participation rate — which maps the proportion of people who even look for a job — has been falling.

    (4) Inflation rate

    • After staying close to the $110-a-barrel mark throughout 2011 to 2014, oil prices (India basket) fell rapidly to just $85 in 2015 and further to below (or around) $50 in 2017 and 2018.
    • On the one hand, the sudden and sharp fall in oil prices allowed the government to completely tame the high retail inflation in the country, while on the other, it allowed the government to collect additional taxes on fuel.
    • But since the last quarter of 2019, India has been facing persistently high retail inflation.
    • Even the demand destruction due to lockdowns induced by Covid-19 in 2020 could not extinguish the inflationary surge.

    (5) Fiscal deficit

    • The fiscal deficit is essentially a marker of the health of government finances and tracks the amount of money that a government has to borrow from the market to meet its expenses.
    • Typically, there are two downsides of excessive borrowing:
    1. One, government borrowings reduce the investible funds available for the private businesses to borrow (this is called “crowding out the private sector”); this also drives up the price (that is, the interest rate) for such loans.
    2. Two, additional borrowings increase the overall debt that the government has to repay. Higher debt levels imply a higher proportion of government taxes going to pay back past loans. For the same reason, higher levels of debt also imply a higher level of taxes.

    On paper, India’s fiscal deficit levels were just a tad more than the norms set, but, in reality, even before Covid-19, it was an open secret that the fiscal deficit was far more than what the government publicly stated.

    (6) Rupee vs dollar

    • The exchange rate of the domestic currency with the US dollar is a robust metric to capture the relative strength of the economy.
    • A US dollar was worth Rs 59 when the government took charge in 2014.
    • Seven years later, it is closer to Rs 73. The relative weakness of the rupee reflects the reduced purchasing power of the Indian currency.

    What’s the outlook on growth?

    • The biggest engine for growth in India is the expenditure by common people in their private capacity.
    • This “demand” for goods accounts for 55% of all GDP.
    • The private consumption expenditure has fallen to levels last seen in 2016-17.