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GS Paper: GS3

  • Critical information infrastructure

    The article underscores the threat of cyberattacks on the critical infrastructure and also suggests the steps to be taken to secure these infrastructures.

    Cyberattack on the power grid

    • On October 12 last year, Mumbai plunged into darkness as the electric grid supply to the city failed.
    • Recently, a study by Massachusetts-based Recorded Future,  said that the Mumbai power outage could have been a cyberattack aimed at critical infrastructure.
    • It was carried out by the state-sponsored group Red Echo.
    • As recently as in February, the Centre’s nodal agency National Critical Information Infrastructure Protection Centre (NCIIPC) had reported concerted attempts by Red Echo to hack the critical grid network.
    • CERT-In, is reported to have detected the ShadowPad malware in one of the largest supply chain attacks a month after the Mumbai outage.
    • Many of the suspected IP addresses identified by NCIIPC and CERT-In were the same and most have been blocked in time.
    • The Chinese focus in the past was stealing information and not projecting power, but the situation with India might be different.

    Why critical infrastructures are so vulnerable

    • As many of these critical infrastructures were never designed keeping security in mind and always focused on productivity and reliability, their vulnerability is more evident today.
    • With devices getting more interconnected and dependent on the internet facilitating remote access during a pandemic, the security of cyber-physical systems has, indeed, become a major challenge for utility companies.

    Critical information infrastructure protection

    • For more than a decade, there have been concerns about critical information infrastructure protection (CIIP).
    • In January 2014, the NCIIPC was notified to be the national nodal agency for CIIP and over these years has been working closely with the various agencies.
    • In January 2019, the government also announced a National Mission on Interdisciplinary Cyber-Physical Systems (NM-ICPS), with a budget of Rs 3,660 crore for the next five years, to strengthen the sector.

    Way forward

    • Most ministries and departments need better budget allocations for cybersecurity as well as a more robust infrastructure, processes and audit system.
    • The Industrial Cybersecurity Standards (IEC62443) launched by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), has to be adopted soon.
    • For the power sector, a strong regulation on the lines of the North American Electric Reliability Critical Infrastructure Protection (NERC) policy could serve as a guide.

    Consider the question “Discuss the importance of critical information infrastructure protection (CIIP)? Also mention the steps taken by the government in this regard.” 

    Conclusion

    Clearly, the incident is a wake-up call for better preparedness in terms of a more robust cyber security ecosystem in place. The new cyber security policy awaiting imminent announcement will hopefully cater to that.

  • Enabling the Business of Agriculture (EBA) 2019,

    Enabling the Business of Agriculture (EBA) 2019, published by the World Bank highlights the constraints faced by farmers. The article highlights the key findings of the publication.

    Constraints in carrying out farming activity

    • Debates around the farm laws have brought to light the issue of developing a sound regulatory framework to promote India’s agricultural growth.
    • The fact remains that farmers, mainly smallholders, across India continue to face various constraints.
    • They include constraints in accessing agricultural inputs, markets, finance, human resources, and information, which are critical for increasing farmers’ competitiveness.
    • A recent publication by the World Bank titled Enabling the Business of Agriculture (EBA) 2019 measures the extent to which government regulatory systems in 101 countries worldwide make it easier for their farmers to operate agricultural activities.
    • These indicators measure the strength of a country’s agricultural regulatory environment pertaining to market integration and entrepreneurship in agriculture.
    • Among 101 countries covered, India ranked 49 on the EBA aggregate score.

    Key takeaways from EBA for India

    • India lags behind its close competitors in world agriculture, namely China, Brazil, and Russia.
    • Compared to these three countries, India has the weakest performance on five out of eight indicators.
    • They are registering fertilizer and machinery, securing water, sustaining livestock, and protecting plant health indicators.
    • Registering fertilizer and machinery indicators measure domestic laws and regulations that provide farmers access to fertilizer and agricultural machinery.
    • The regulatory processes that help farmers make appropriate decisions regarding the level of investment in irrigation are measured by securing water indicator.
    • Sustaining livestock indicator captures the quality of regulations affecting farmers’ access to livestock farming inputs.
    • The quality of legislation on phytosanitary standards (SPS) is captured through the protecting plant health indicator.

    Need to develop a suitable regulatory system

    • Governments can play a critical role in this regard by enacting laws and regulations.
    • Such laws and regulations can influence farmers’ access to agricultural inputs, cost of production, agricultural markets and value chains, the competitiveness of farmers, and private investment in the farming sector.
    • The regulatory system that governs irrigation management is essential for reducing the variability of farm output, prices, and incomes, minimising vulnerability to natural shocks, and incentivising the production of riskier and high returns crops.
    • Gaining access to the global agricultural value chain requires a sound regulatory framework on SPS.

    India’s strong areas

    • The comparative score of India on supplying seed, trading food, and accessing finance indicators is high.
    • Supplying seed indicator evaluates laws and regulations that ensure timely release of seed to farmers.
    • The trading food indicator assesses laws and regulations that facilitate exporting of farm products by farmers.
    • The regulatory framework on the use of warehouse receipts is assessed using accessing finance indicator.
    • A robust warehouse receipts system enables the farmers to obtain the credit needed to invest in agriculture.

    Opportunity for India

    • The future of world agriculture and food production is expected to increasingly depend on middle-income countries such as China, India, Brazil, and Indonesia.
    • To make the best use of this great opportunity, India needs to put in place an agricultural regulatory system that would make it easier for its farmers to conduct agricultural activities.

    Consider the question “Farmers, mainly smallholders, across India continue to face various constraints in carrying out farming activities. What are the implications of such constraints? What role government can play in removing these constraints?”

    Conclusion

    The EBA project results reveal that, compared to its close competitors, the strength of India’s agricultural regulatory environment is weak on the whole and with respect to key performance indicators.

  • NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR)

    Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has completed the development of a Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR).

    Note the key features of the Mission. Every statement has a unique information.

    NASA-ISRO SAR

    • NISAR is a joint collaboration for a dual-frequency L and S-band SAR for earth observation.
    • NASA and Bengaluru-headquartered ISRO signed a partnership on September 30, 2014, to collaborate on and launch NISAR.
    • The mission is targeted to launch in early 2022 from ISRO’s Sriharikota spaceport in Andhra Pradesh’s Nellore district, about 100km north of Chennai.
    • It is capable of producing extremely high-resolution images for a joint earth observation satellite mission with NASA.
    • It will be the first satellite mission to use two different radar frequencies (L-band and S-band) to measure changes in our planet’s surface less than a centimetre across.

    Objectives of the NISAR

    • NISAR will observe Earth’s land and ice-covered surfaces globally with 12-day regularity on ascending and descending passes, sampling Earth on average every six days for a baseline three-year mission.
    • It will measure Earth’s changing ecosystems, dynamic surfaces and ice masses, providing information about biomass, natural hazards, sea-level rise and groundwater, and will support a host of other applications.
    • It would also provide data on natural hazards including earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes and landslides.

    What are L and S Bands?

    • L band waves are used for GPS units because they are able to penetrate clouds, fog, rain, storms, and vegetation.
    • The S-band is used by airport surveillance radar for air traffic control, weather radar, surface ship radar, and some communications satellites, especially those used by NASA to communicate with the Space Shuttle and the International Space Station.
    • NISAR uses a sophisticated information-processing technique known as SAR to produce extremely high-resolution images.
    • Radar penetrates clouds and darkness, enabling NISAR to collect data day and night in any weather.

    What is collaboration?

    • NASA is providing the mission’s L-band SAR, a high-rate communication subsystem for science data, GPS receivers, a solid-state recorder and payload data subsystem.
    • ISRO is providing the spacecraft bus, the S-band radar, the launch vehicle and associated launch services for the mission, whose goal is to make global measurements of the causes and consequences of land surface changes using advanced radar imaging.

  • [pib] Glycemic Index in Rice

    The Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare has provided some useful information about some indigenous varieties of rice.

    Try this PYQ from CSP 2018:

    Q.With reference to the Genetically Modified mustard (GM mustard) developed in India, consider the following statements:

    1. GM mustard has the genes of a soil bacterium that give the plant the property of pest-resistance to a wide variety of pests.
    2. GM mustard has the genes that allow the plant cross-pollination and hybridization.
    3. GM mustard has been developed jointly by the IARI and Punjab Agricultural University.

    Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

    (a) 1 and 3 only

    (b) 2 only

    (c) 2 and 3 only

    (d) 1, 2 and 3

    Indigenous varieties of rice

    • Indigenous varieties of rice are being promoted through varieties of programmes.
    • 574 indigenous varieties of rice have been propagated and tested at more than 10,000 farmers’ fields.
    • Nutritional profiling of 300 selected rice varieties has been done for market linkage and better price to the farmers.
    • Farmers are also being trained on conservation, improvement and use of traditional/ indigenous varieties through participatory variety selection.
    • Further, for access to seeds of these indigenous varieties, community seed banks have been established.

    Key varieties

    • Lalat and Improved Lalat (GI value: 54) as Low GI
    • Swarna, Sambha Mahsuri and Shaktiman (GI value <60) as intermediate GI have been identified

    There is no certification for GI (Glycemic Index) in rice in India.

    What is Glycemic Index (GI)?

    • GI is a number from 0 to 100 assigned to food, with pure glucose arbitrarily given the value of 100, which represents the relative rise in the blood glucose level two hours after consuming that food.
    • The GI of a specific food depends primarily on the quantity and type of carbohydrate it contains.
    • But it is also affected by the amount of entrapment of the carbohydrate molecules within the food, the fat and protein content of the food, the number of organic acids (or their salts) in the food, and whether it is cooked and, if so, how it is cooked.
    • A food is considered to have a low GI if it is 55 or less; high GI if 70 or more, and mid-range GI if 56 to 69.

  • [pib] Agriculture Voltage Technology

    An Agri-voltaic system of 105 KW capacity has been developed by ICAR-Central Arid Zone Research Institute, Jodhpur.

    Try this PYQ:

    With reference to technologies for solar power production, consider the following statements:

    1. ‘Photovoltaics’ is a technology that generates electricity by direct conversion of light into electricity, while ‘Solar Thermal’ is a technology that utilizes the Sun’s rays to generate heat which is further used in electricity generation process.
    2. Photovoltaics generate Alternating Current (AC), while Solar Thermal generates Direct Current (DC).
    3. India has manufacturing base for Solar Thermal technology, but not for Photovoltaics.

    Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

    (a) 1 only

    (b) 2 and 3 only

    (c) 1, 2 and 3

    (d) None

    Agriculture Voltage Technology

    • This technology can increase the income of farmers by the generation of electricity and growing cash crops simultaneously on the same piece of land.
    • Under component-I of the KUSUM (Kisan Urja Suraksha Utthan Mahabhiyan) scheme, there is a provision for installation of the agri-voltaic system in farmers’ fields with a capacity ranging from 500 KW to 2 MW.
    • Moreover, the National Solar Energy Federation of India (NSEFI) has also documented 13 operational agri-voltaic systems in the country managed by different solar PV functionaries and public Institutes.

    About KUSUM Scheme

    • The scheme aims to provide extra income to farmers, by giving them an option to sell additional power to the grid through solar power projects set up on their barren lands.
    • It was announced in the Union Budget 2018-19.

    Component of KUSUM Scheme

    The proposed scheme consists of three components:

    Component-A

    • Renewable power plants of capacity 500 KW to 2 MW will be set up by individual farmers/ cooperatives/panchayats /farmer producer organisations (FPO) on their barren or cultivable lands.
    • The power generated will be purchased by the DISCOMs at Feed-in tariffs determined by respective SERC.

    Component-B

    • Installation of 17.50 lakh standalone Solar Powered Agriculture Pumps.
    • Individual farmers will be supported to install standalone solar pumps of capacity up to 7.5 HP. Solar PV capacity in kW equal to the pump capacity in HP is allowed under the scheme.

    Component-C

    • Solarization of 10 Lakh Grid-connected Solar Powered Agriculture Pumps is included in this component,
    • Individual farmers will be supported to solarise pumps of capacity up to 7.5 HP.
    • Solar PV capacity up to two times of pump capacity in kW is allowed under the scheme.
    • The excess available energy will be sold to DISCOM.

  • Privatisation of Banks

    The article highlights the different aspects that need to be considered while contemplating the idea of privatisation of public banks.

    Opposite trends in India and the US

    • While the United States epitomises the private banking model, a nationwide public banking movement is coming into vogue.
    • In contrast, India seems to be quickly warming to the idea of bank privatisation.

    Public or the private?

    • The development view sees government presence in the banking sector as a means to overcome market failures in the early stages of economic development.
    • The government-owned banks can improve welfare by allocating scarce capital to socially productive uses.
    • The stellar success of Indian PSBs in implementing the PMJDY while missing the mark on creating high-quality credit highlights a critical divide between the asset and the liability side of a bank.
    • Banks provide two functions at a fundamental level: Payments and deposit-taking on the liability side and credit creation on the asset side.
    • The payment services function, a hallmark of financial inclusion, is similar to a utility business — banks can provide this service, a public good, at a low cost universally.
    • The lending side, in contrast, is all about the optimal allocation of resources through better credit evaluation and monitoring of borrowers.
    • Private banks are more likely to have the right set of incentives and expertise in doing so.
    • It comes as no surprise that the PSBs in India are better at providing the public good functions, whereas private banks seem better suited for credit allocation.
    • However, the political view argues that vested interests can influence the lending apparatus to achieve political goals.
    • This results in distortion of credit allocation and reduce allocative efficiency in government-owned banking systems.

    Reasons for privatisation of banks

    • Evidences shows that government ownership in the banking sector leads to lower levels of financial development and growth
    • This led to waves of banking sector privatisations that swept emerging markets in the 1990s.
    • Cross-country evidence suggests that bank privatisations improved both bank efficiency and profitability.

    How public banks performed in India

    • Public sector Banks (PSBs) dominate Indian banking, controlling over 60 per cent of banking assets.
    • The private-credit to GDP ratio, a key measure of credit flow, stands at 50 per cent, much lower than international benchmarks — in China it is150 and in South Korea it is 150 per cent.
    • India’s Gross NPA ratio was 8.2 per cent in March 2020, with striking differences across PSBs (10.3 per cent) and private banks (5.5 per cent).
    • The end result is much lower PSB profitability compared to private banks.
    • The rationale for privatisation stems from these considerations.

    Way forward

    • The optimal mix of the banking system across public and private boils down to what you need out of your banking system.
    • When the wedge between social and private benefits is large, as with financial inclusion, there is a strong case for public banks.
    •  At this stage, inefficiency in capital allocation seems to be a bigger issue for the Indian banking sector, whereas, in the US, the debate is centred around the public goods aspects of banking.

    Consider the question “What are the factors India needs to consider as it reverses the course of history by privatising the public banks?”

    Conclusion

    At this stage, inefficiency in capital allocation seems to be a bigger issue for the Indian banking sector, whereas, in the US, the debate is centred around the public goods aspects of banking.

  • What are Quasars?

    An international team of astronomers have discovered the most distant ‘radio-loud’ quasar with the help of the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (ESO’s VLT).

    Ever found this on YouTube? Take time to watch this amazing video. It will literally blow up your mind and curiosity!

     

    TIMELAPSE OF THE FUTURE: A Journey to the End of Time (4K)

     

    This video will make up your perceptions and conceptions of how a galaxy dies after the sun runs out of fuel and what a black hole actually is!

    What are Quasars?

    • A quasar known as a quasi-stellar object is an extremely luminous active galactic nucleus (AGN), in which a supermassive black hole with mass ranging from millions to billions of times the mass of the Sun is surrounded by a gaseous accretion disk.
    • As gas in the disk falls towards the black hole, energy is released in the form of electromagnetic radiation, which can be observed across the electromagnetic spectrum.
    • The power radiated by quasars is enormous; the most powerful quasars have luminosities thousands of times greater than a galaxy such as the Milky Way.
    • Most active galaxies have a supermassive black hole at the centre which sucks in surrounding objects.
    • Quasars are formed by the energy emitted by materials spiralling around a black hole right before being sucked into it.

    What makes this event special?

    • 90 per cent of quasars do not emit strong radio waves, making this newly-discovered one special.
    • It took 13 billion years for the quasar’s light to reach earth.
    • Named P172+18, the quasar emitted wavelengths had a redshift of 6.8.
    • Only three other ‘radio-loud’ sources with a redshift greater than six have been discovered so far and the most distant one had a redshift of 6.18.
    • The higher the redshift of the radio wavelength, the farther away is the source.

    As an object moves away from us, the sound or light waves emitted by the object are stretched out, which makes them have a lower pitch and moves them towards the red end of the electromagnetic spectrum, where light has a longer wavelength. In the case of light waves, this is called redshift.

  • [pib] SATAT Scheme

    Oil and Gas Marketing Companies (OGMCs) are inviting potential entrepreneur to procure Compressed Bio Gas (CBG) under the SATAT scheme.

    Try this MCQ:

    Q.SATAT is an initiative of the Government of India, aims at:

    (a) Promoting Self Help Groups in rural areas

    (b) Providing financial and technical assistance to young start-up entrepreneurs

    (c) Promoting affordable transportation

    (d) Providing affordable and quality education to the citizens for free

    SATAT Scheme

    • SATAT stands for Sustainable Alternative Towards Affordable Transportation.
    • It is an initiative aimed at setting up Compressed Bio-Gas production plants and makes them available in the market for use in automotive fuels by inviting Expression of Interest from potential entrepreneurs.
    • The initiative was launched in October 2018 by the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas in association with the PSUs- Indian Oil Corporation Ltd., Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd. and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd.

    Its implementation

    • CBG plants are proposed to be set up mainly through independent entrepreneurs.
    • CBG produced at these plants will be transported through cascades of cylinders to the fuel station networks of OMCs for marketing as a green transport fuel alternative.
    • The 1,500-strong CNG stations network in the country currently serves about 32 lakh gas-based vehicles.
    • The entrepreneurs would be able to separately market the other by-products from these plants, including bio-manure, carbon-dioxide, etc., to enhance returns on investment.
    • So far 9 CBG plants have been commissioned and started supply of CBG under the scheme.
    • These plants are located in Andhra Pradesh (1No.), Gujarat (3 No.), Haryana (1 No.), Maharashtra (3 No.) and Tamil Nadu (1No.).

    Benefits of the programme

    There are multiple benefits from converting agricultural residue, cattle dung and municipal solid waste into CBG on a commercial scale:

    • Responsible waste management, reduction in carbon emissions and pollution
    • Additional revenue source for farmers
    • Boost to entrepreneurship, rural economy and employment
    • Support to national commitments in achieving climate change goals
    • Reduction in import of natural gas and crude oil
    • Buffer against crude oil/gas price fluctuations

    Back2Basics: Compressed Bio Gas (CBG)

    • Biogas is produced naturally through a process of anaerobic decomposition from waste / bio-mass sources like agriculture residue, cattle dung, sugarcane press mud, municipal solid waste, sewage treatment plant waste, etc.
    • After purification, it is compressed and called CBG, which has a pure methane content of over 95%.
    • CBG is exactly similar to the commercially available natural gas in its composition and energy potential.
    • With calorific value (~52,000 KJ/kg) and other properties similar to CNG, CBG can be used as an alternative, renewable automotive fuel.
    • Given the abundance of biomass in the country, CBG has the potential to replace CNG in automotive, industrial and commercial uses in the coming years.

  • [pib] Exercise Dustlik-II

    The Second Edition of Joint Exercise Dustlik is scheduled from tomorrow.

    Must read:

    [Prelims Spotlight] Various Defence Exercises in News

    Exercise Dustlik-II

    • It is a bilateral defence exercise held between the Indian Army And Uzbekistan Army.
    • It is named after Dustlik, a town in the Jizzakh region of Uzbekistan.
    • The first edition of the exercise, Dustlik-I was held in Uzbekistan, near Tashkent, from November 3-13, 2019.
    • Defence Minister Rajnath Singh had flagged off the exercise along with his Uzbek counterpart, Major General Bakhodir Kurbanov in 2019 for the first time.
    • The joint exercise focused on counter-insurgency and counter-terrorism operations in urban settings.

  • Recovery? Different numbers tell different stories

    India’s growth numbers reveal a different story when seen through the quarter-on-quarter growth lense. The article deals with this issue.

    Weakness of India’s GDP statistics

    • The CSO press release for 4Q20 stated that India grew 0.4 per cent on a year-ago basis.
    • That is, relative to the level of GDP four quarters before.
    • Many heaved a sigh of relief at growth turning positive after two-quarters of negative year-ago: -24.4 per cent in 2Q20 and -7.3 per cent in 3Q20 and declared that growth would accelerate from hereon.
    • Nothing could be further from the truth.
    • To know whether the economy will accelerate or decelerate, one needs to know its current speed.
    • To do that, one needs to compute the quarter-on-quarter growth as almost all large economies do.
    • This is a central weakness of India’s GDP statistics, exemplified by last week’s 4Q20 print.

    Challenges in measuring quarter-on-quarter growth

    • These computations are not easy, because each quarter has its own characteristics or, as economists call it, “seasonality”
    • Seasonality naturally increases or decreases activity in that period.
    • Think of quarters with festivals or with harvests versus those without them.
    • The modern economy is more complicated as its seasonal patterns change when its structure does.
    • To compare two quarters, these changes to seasonality need to be excluded from the data.
    • Statisticians have been working on this issue for more than a century and, over the last two decades.
    • As a result, many official statistical bodies (such as the US Census Bureau) have made deseasonalising methods freely available.

    Understanding the issue through example

    • If the level of 1Q20 GDP is set at 100, then the quarterly growth rates imply that it fell to 75, rising to 91.1 in the following quarter and then to 96.3 last quarter.
    • Now assume that the level of GDP remains constant for the next five quarters, that is, there is no growth in the economy until the end of fiscal year 2021-22.
    • This would mechanically put the full-year growth in 2021-22 at 7.2 per cent simply because of the low average level of GDP in the previous year.
    • If the speed of the economy were to remain at its current pace of 5.7 per cent, then the annual growth in 2021-22 would be an astonishing 28.7 per cent.
    • Any annual growth projection for next year that is less than this necessarily implies a slowdown from the current pace.

    So, what is Indian economy’s current growth rate

    • J.P. Morgan uses one of the above mentioned deseasonalising technique.
    • The derived quarterly path is the following: In 1Q20, India’s economy grew 3.7 per cent over the previous quarter, in 2Q20 the economy contracted 25 per cent and then recovered 21.5 per cent in 3Q20 and ended the last quarter at 5.7 per cent.
    • Put differently, growth slowed to 5.7 per cent last quarter — the latest reading of the economy’s “current” speed.

    Putting in context the projected nominal growth

    • The budget documents suggest that the government’s projected nominal growth for 2021-22 is 14.5 per cent.
    • This implies a real growth rate of around 11 per cent assuming inflation averages 3.5 per cent.
    • The implied average quarterly pace, consistent with an 11 per cent annual growth, is just 1 per cent.
    • The year-on-year quarterly numbers will keep rising giving the false assurance of a strengthening recovery when in reality the level of income would rise only at a grinding pace.

    Reasons behind the deceleration

    • India’s growth drivers had already slowed dramatically prior to the pandemic, the pandemic likely exacerbated them.
    • With listed companies posting strong profit growth in 3Q and 4Q, much of the decline in overall income has fallen on households and MSMEs.
    • This is likely to have not only worsened income inequality, but also severely impaired their balance sheets, making it that much more difficult to access credit in the coming quarters.
    • While industry has recovered to 98 per cent of its pre-pandemic level, the service sector remains substantially below.
    • Thus, much of the continued high unemployment (as reported by private surveys) is in services.
    • This is likely to have disproportionately increased women’s unemployment, thereby widening the gender gap.
    • Last quarter, central government spending rose 12 per cent, but overall public expenditure contracted 1 per cent, implying a sharp contraction at the state level.

    Consider the question “Why quarter-on-quarter growth rates reveal a true picture of India’s growth rate as compared to year-on-year rates? What are the challenges in dealing with the quarter-on-quarter data?”

    Conclusion

    Neither fiscal policy nor monetary policy are designed to reverse these widening economic imbalances. This makes it hard to see India’s growth engines firing on all cylinders, despite the rollout of vaccines and the anticipated surge in US growth.