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GS Paper: GS3

  • [op-ed snap] The hype over hypersonics

    Context

    Russia announced that its new hypersonic glide vehicle (HGV), Avangard, had been made operational.

    What HGV is and where the US and China stand

    • What is HGV and what is it capable of?
      • Speed over 5 Mach: A hypersonic delivery system is essentially a ballistic or cruise missile that can fly for long distances and at speeds higher than 5 Mach at lower altitudes.
      • Invulnerable to interception: This allows it to evade interception from current Ballistic Missile Defence (BMD).
      • High manoeuvrability: It can also execute a high degree of manoeuvres.
      • Avangard-Developed by Russia: Russia claims that this HGV can fly at over 20 times the speed of sound.
      • Invulnerable to interception: and is capable of such manoeuvring as to be invulnerable to interception by any existing and prospective missile defence means of the potential adversary.
    • China and the U.S. are also close on the heels: The U.S. has moved from the research to the development stage.
      • Where China stands: China demonstrated the DF-17, a medium-range missile with the HGV, at the military parade in October 2019.
    • What were the reasons for the development: The U.S. walked out of anti-ballistic missile treaty in 2002, prompted by the U.S. exit from the treaty and fear of the U.S. anti-ballistic missile defence system.

    How would hypersonics complicate the security concerns?

    • First complication-Increase in the possibility of miscalculation: These missiles are being added to the military capabilities of countries that possess nuclear weapons.
      • For these nations, the concern is always an attack on nuclear assets to degrade retaliation
      • Destination ambiguities: Another layer of complication is added by the fact that these missiles bring in warhead and destination ambiguities.
      • Increasing tendency to assume worst: In both cases, when an adversary’s early warning detects such missiles headed in its direction, but cannot be sure whether they are conventional or nuclear-armed, nor ascertain the target they are headed towards, the tendency would be to assume the worst.
      • For an adversary that faces a country with a BMD but itself has a small nuclear arsenal, it would fear that even conventionally armed hypersonic missiles could destroy a portion of its nuclear assets.
      • The tendency to shift to trigger-ready postures: The tendency could then be to shift to more trigger-ready postures such as launch on warning or launch under attack to ostensibly enhance deterrence.
      • Risk of miscalculation: But such shifts would also bring risks of misperception and miscalculation in moments of crisis.
    • Second complication-Offence defence spiral: According to reports, the U.S. has begun finding ways of either strengthening its BMD or looking for countermeasures to defeat hypersonics, besides having an arsenal of its own of the same kind.
      • Possibility of arms race: The stage appears set for an arms race instability given that the three major players in this game have the financial wherewithal and technological capability to play along.
      • This looks particularly imminent in the absence of any strategic dialogue or arms control.
    • Third complication-Possibility of the arms race into outer space: A third implication would be to take offence-defence developments into outer space.
      • Sensors are already placed into space: Counter-measures to hypersonics have been envisaged through the placement of sensors and interceptors in outer space.
      • While none of this is going to be weaponisation of outer space would, nevertheless, be a distinct possibility once hypersonic inductions become the norm.

    Conclusion

    The induction of this technology would likely prove to be a transitory advantage eventually leading nations into a strategic trap. India needs to make a cool-headed assessment of its own deterrence requirements and choose its pathways wisely.

  • Biorock technique for Coral Restoration

    The Zoological Survey of India (ZSI), with help from Gujarat’s forest department, is attempting for the first time a process to restore coral reefs using biorock or mineral accretion technology.

    What is Biorock Technique?

    • Biorock is the name given to the substance formed by electro accumulation of minerals dissolved in seawater on steel structures that are lowered onto the sea bed and are connected to a power source, in this case solar panels that float on the surface.
    • The technology works by passing a small amount of electrical current through electrodes in the water.
    • When a positively charged anode and negatively charged cathode are placed on the sea floor, with an electric current flowing between them, calcium ions combine with carbonate ions and adhere to the structure (cathode).
    • This results in calcium carbonate formation. Coral larvae adhere to the CaCO3 and grow quickly.
    • Fragments of broken corals are also tied to the biorock structure, where they are able to grow at least four to six times faster than their actual growth as they need not spend their energy in building their own calcium carbonate skeletons.

    Significance of the move

    • The technology helps corals, including the highly sensitive branching corals, to counter the threats posed by global warming.
    • In 2015, the same group of ZSI scientists had successfully restored branching coral species (staghorn corals) belonging to the family Acroporidae (Acropora formosa, Acropora humilis, Montipora digitata) that had gone extinct about 10,000 years ago to the Gulf of Kachchh.

    Back2Basics

    Coral Bleaching

    • The stunning colours in corals come from a marine algae called zooxanthellae, which live inside their tissues.
    • This algae provides the corals with an easy food supply thanks to photosynthesis, which gives the corals energy, allowing them to grow and reproduce.
    • When corals get stressed, from things such as heat or pollution, they react by expelling this algae, leaving a ghostly, transparent skeleton behind.
    • This is known as ‘coral bleaching’. Some corals can feed themselves, but without the zooxanthellae most corals starve.

  • Global Talent Competitiveness Index (GTCI) 2020

    What is the news: The Global Talent Competitiveness Index (GTCI) was recently published.

    Performance Analysis

    • India has climbed eight places to 72nd rank in the GTCI which was topped by Switzerland, the US and Singapore.
    • Sweden (4th), Denmark (5th), the Netherlands (6th), Finland (7th), Luxembourg (8th), Norway (9th) and Australia (10th) complete the top 10 league table.
    • In the BRICS grouping, China was ranked 42nd, Russia (48th), South Africa (70th) and Brazil at 80th position.
    • This year’s GTCI report explores how the development of AI is not only changing the nature of work but also forcing a re-evaluation of workplace practices, corporate structures and innovation ecosystems.

    About the GTCI report

    • It was started in 2013 and is an annual benchmarking report that measures the ability of countries to compete for talent, their ability to grow, attract and retain talent.
    • Theme for 2020 was ‘Global Talent in the Age of Artificial Intelligence’. It explores how the development of artificial intelligence (AI) is not only changing the nature of work but also forcing a re-evaluation of workplace practices, corporate structures and innovation ecosystems.
    • Inequality: The report noted that the gap between high income, talent-rich nations and the rest of the world is widening. More than half of the population in the developing world lack basic digital skills.
    • About GTCI Report: It is launched by INSEAD, a partner and sponsor of the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Davos, Switzerland recently.
    • INSEAD is one of the world’s leading and largest graduate business schools with locations all over the world and alliances with top institutions.
    • The report, which measures countries based on six pillars:
    1. enable
    2. attract
    3. grow
    4. retain talent
    5. vocation and technical skills
    6. global knowledge skills

  • [op-ed of the day] Food for Expediency

    Context

    A substantial rise in consumer food price inflation to 14.12% in December 2019, the highest ever in the past six years, has driven the retail price inflation in this country.

    Discrepancies in the fiscal deficit

    • Policy dilemma for the RBI: Though the CPI was at 14.12% in December but with the core inflation rate still not overshooting the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) medium-term target of 4(+/- 2)%.
      • Speculations hover as to whether the RBI monetary policy committee will go for another rate cut in the coming month.
      • This is a policy dilemma for the central bank
      • Why is the dilemma? The dilemma is because the moot issues regarding the government’s key economic estimates, such as the fiscal deficit, largely remain unresolved.
    • Discrepancies flagged by the CAG: The CAG has stated that the current figures on deficit have been kept at a 1.5% to 2% low by not including the government’s off-budget borrowings from public accounts, such as the National Small Savings Fund (NSSF).
      • According to media reports, such off-budget expenditure of the current government stands at â‚č1.5 lakh crore in 2019–20.
      • The major portion of off budged expenditure on food subsidy: About three-fourths of the incremental off-budget expenditure is on account of under-recoveries in food subsidies of the Food Corporation of India (FCI).
    • Low allocation but high expenditure on food subsidy: For instance, the 2019–20 Union Budget had provisioned food subsidy atâ‚č1.84 lakh crore.
      • While the overdue of the FCI is already atâ‚č1.86 lakh crore.
      • For these burgeoning overdue, FCI’s ­off-budget borrowings from the NSSF have been on the rise.

    Excessive stock by the government and rising inflation

    • Issue of supply management: The issues of agricultural supply management are relegated to the background by the standard causality argument of “crop damages” caused by excessive rains and that the inflation will ease out once the new harvest comes in.
      • This argument can hold some water for horticulture crops like onions that saw an almost 200% rise in price in November and December.
      • Unable to explain inflation in wheat and other cereals: This argument may not find traction in explaining the price inflation of wheat and other cereals.
    • holding the excessive cereal stock: With the government currently stocking much higher quantities of cereals at the FCI than the buffer norms.
      • 45.8 million tonnes of wheat as against the buffer norm of 27.5 million tonnes and nearly double the amount of rice vis-Ă -vis the buffer norm of 13.5 million tonnes.
      • India is now a cereal surplus economy.
      • Why then the inflation in cereal prices? Is this artificially created by the government through its irrational stocking practice?
      • Some fundamental concerns are triggered at this juncture.
    • Concerns with excess stocks
      • First-Higher stock means higher subsidy bill-With the economic costs of the FCI being 12 times or more than the allocation cost of the grains through the public distribution system-higher stocks would imply higher subsidy bills.
      • Second–No benefit of the stock: In tandem with the first, ad hoc releasing of the stocks will not bring about any major changes in the situation.
      • Third–Hiding fiscal deficit from the public: In this context, off-budget borrowing can serve various politically expedient purposes.
      • It has enabled the government to showcase a consistently low share (below 1%) of subsidies in national income.
      • Thereby diverted the public attention from two critical facts: the FCI’s tipping financials and the country’s (grossly) underestimated fiscal deficit.

    Conclusion

    The government must recall that the “illusion” of this acceptable limit of inflation potentially rests upon the savings of the common consumers, which is being unduly misemployed by the government.

     

  • [op-ed snap] Frame rules to govern how devices identify us

    Context

    Facial recognition technology is set to become an integral part of the law enforcement toolkit, but we should regulate this technology before it pervades our public spaces.

    What are the issues with the use of facial recognition?

    • Enormous possibilities for law enforcement agencies:
      • Detectives have been using facial recognition to solve crimes for almost as long as the camera has been in existence.
      • Use of AI for facial recognition: It is but a logical extension of the modern crime solver’s toolkit to use artificial intelligence (AI) on the most identifiable physical feature of people, their face.
      • Screening faces within hours: An image captured at the scene of a crime can now be screened against photographs of entire populations for a match within a matter of hours.
    • Uneasiness with being watched: The idea of being watched by devices linked to vast databases far out of sight makes liberal societies uneasy.
    • Invasion of privacy:  The intrusion that is causing alarm, however, has nothing to do with the technology itself, and everything to do with the all-pervasive surveillance it enables.

    Should there be no rules governing it?

    • Issue of accuracy: How accurately faces are identified by machines is a major point of concern. Deployed in law enforcement, false matches could possibly result in a miscarriage of justice.
      • Judicial scrutiny: Even a low rate of error could mean evidence faces judicial rejection. It is in the judiciary’s interest, all the same, to let technology aid police-work.
    • Racial bias: First up for addressal is the criticism that facial recognition is still not smart enough to read emotions or work equally well for all racial groups.
      • With iterative use, it will improve.
    • Mala fide use: Since such tools can be put to mala fide use as-rogue drones equipped with the technology, for example, should never be in a position to carry out an assassination.
      • Nor should an unauthorized agent be able to spy on or stalk anyone.
      • Caution in the developed countries:  Apart from California, the European Union has also decided to exercise some caution before exposing people to it.
    • Privacy as fundamental rights in India: India, which has recently accepted privacy as a fundamental right, would do well to tilt the Western way on this.

    Conclusion

    • We need regulations that restrict the use of facial recognition to the minimum required to serve justice and ease commercial operations. For the latter, customer consent should be mandatory.
    • There will be some overlaps. Its use at an aerobridge to board an aircraft, for example, could serve the interests of both state security and the airline, but data-sharing could risk leakage.

     

     

  • Forex Reserves of India

    India’s foreign exchange reserves rose by $943 million to touch a lifetime high of $462.16 billion according to the latest data from the RBI.

    Forex reserves of India

    • They are holdings of cash, bank deposits, bonds, and other financial assets denominated in currencies other than Indian rupee.
    • The reserves are managed by the Reserve Bank of India for the Indian government and the main component is foreign currency assets.
    • They act as the first line of defense for India in case of economic slowdown, but acquisition of reserves has its own costs.
    • They facilitate external trade and payment and promote orderly development and maintenance of foreign exchange market in India.
    • They act as a cushion against rupee volatility once global interest rates start rising.

    Composition of Forex

    • Reserve Bank of India Act and the Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 set the legal provisions for governing the foreign exchange reserves.
    • RBI accumulates foreign currency reserves by purchasing from authorized dealers in open market operations.
    • The Forex reserves of India consist of below four categories:
    1. Foreign Currency Assets
    2. Gold
    3. Special Drawing Rights (SDRs)
    4. Reserve Tranche Position

    What is Reserve tranche?

    • Reserve tranche is a portion of the required quota of currency each member country must provide to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that can be utilized for its own purposes.

    What are Special Drawing Rights?

    • The SDR is an international reserve asset, created by the IMF in 1969 to supplement its member countries’ official reserves
    • The SDR is neither a currency nor a claim on the IMF.
    • Initially SDR was defined as equivalent to 0.888671 grams of fine gold, which at the time, was also equivalent to one U.S. dollar.
    • After the collapse of the Bretton Woods system, the SDR was redefined as a basket of currencies.
    • This basket Includes five currencies—the U.S. dollar, the euro, the Chinese renminbi, the Japanese yen, and the British pound sterling.

  • Threat of Invasive Alien Species in Shola Forests of the Nilgiris

     

    Shola Forests

    • The Shola forests of South India derive their name from the Tamil word solai, which means a ‘tropical rain forest’.
    • Classified as ‘Southern Montane Wet Temperate Forest’ the Sholas are found in the upper reaches of the Nilgiris, Anamalais, Palni hills, Kalakadu, Mundanthurai and Kanyakumari in the states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
    • These forests are found sheltered in valleys with sufficient moisture and proper drainage, at an altitude of more than 1,500 metres.

    Vegetation

    • The upper reaches are covered with grasslands, known as Shola grasslands.
    • The vegetation that grows in Shola forests is evergreen. The trees are stunted and have many branches. Their rounded and dense canopies appear in different colours.
    • Generally, the leaves are small in size and leathery. Red-coloured young leaves turning into different colours on maturity is a prominent characteristic of the Shola forests.
    • Epiphytes like lichens, ferns and bryophytes usually grow on the trees.
    • The occurrence of Himalayan plants like rhododendron in these Shola forests is a mystery.

    Significance of Sholas

    • Sholas thus act as ‘overhead water tanks’. They play a major role in conserving water supply of the Nilgiris’ streams.
    • The trees are slow-growing varieties which produce timber of little or no value and probably take at least a century to mature.
    • The rolling grasslands found on top of the Western Ghats, enhance the beauty of the region. Usually, Shola forests and grasslands are found in a ratio of 1:5.
    • The rain received from the Southwest and Northeast monsoons is harvested by the Shola forest-grassland ecosystem, leading to the formation of the Bhavani river that finally drains into the Cauvery.
    • Thus, the Shola forest-grassland ecosystem of the Nilgiris, also supports the prosperity of Cauvery delta farmers.
    • As tree species of the montane, evergreen forests are flammable, regeneration of any Shola tree species is completely prevented except for Rhododendron nilagiricum, the only Shola tree that can tolerate fire.

    Threats to Sholas

    • Unfortunately, the Sholas have begun to gradually shrink due to the introduction of alien plant species and annual fire occurrences.
    • Alien species like Sticky Snakeroot, Gorse and Scotch Broom introduced during British rule, have encroached upon the grasslands.
    • During 1840, tree species such as Acacia and Eucalyptus were introduced from Australia.
    • Afterwards, between 1886 and 1891, Pine and Cypress were introduced, again from Australia. As the alien species grew, the forests and grasslands gradually became degraded and shrank.
    • In addition, unscientific agricultural practices like growing tea on the slopes, cattle grazing and fuel wood collection have become serious causes for degradation.
    • Unregulated tourism has created concrete jungles, traffic congestion and caused the generation of garbage.

    Wrath of Eucalyptus

    • During 1849, the extent of Shola forests was 8,600 hectares (ha), grasslands 29,875 ha and agriculture was 10,875 ha.
    • No wattle or eucalyptus was planted in the area at that time.
    • The comparison of the results of the 1849 and 1992 studies shows that cultivation of tea, wattle and eucalyptus has reduced the Shola forest-grassland ecosystem to a great extent.

    Protective measures

    • After realizing the seriousness of the situation, the government banned the planting of wattle and eucalyptus completely in 1987.
    • Ecological restoration and biodiversity conservation were given importance.
    • Under the Hill Area Development Programme since the mid-1980s, seedlings have been planted in degraded patches and protected with chain-link fences to restore the forests.
    • Special Shola forest protection committees were formed involving teachers, nature lovers, ecologists, environmentalists, students and villagers in the Nilgiris.
    • They were motivated to remove plastic garbage from the nearby forests, protect Shola trees, remove alien species and learn about the importance of the Sholas.
    • Presently, the Tamil Nadu forest department is now focusing on eradicating wattle, providing fencing and planting shola seedlings in degraded shola forests.

  • NavIC navigation system

     

    Qualcomm Technologies has released chipsets, supporting India’s own GPS system ‘Navigation with Indian Constellation’ (NavIC).

    New androids to be equipped with NavIC

    • The Qualcomm chipsets now supports up to 7 satellite constellations at the same time, including the use of all of NavIC’s operating satellites.
    • These enhancements will enable select mobile, automotive and IoT platforms to better serve key industries and technology ecosystems in the region.
    • It will help improve user experience for location-based applications especially in dense urban environments where geolocation accuracy tends to degrade, said the company earlier.

    About NavIC

    • The name NavIC was given by Prime Minister Narendra Modi after successful launch of the seventh navigation satellite, in April, 2016.
    • To date, ISRO has built a total of nine satellites in the IRNSS series, of which eight are currently in orbit.
    • The constellation is designed to provide accurate position information service to users in India as well as the region extending up to 1,500 km from its boundary, which is its primary service area.
    • It is designed to provide two types of services – Standard Positioning Service (SPS), which is provided to all users and Restricted Service (RS), which is an encrypted service provided only to the authorised users.
    • The system is expected to provide a position accuracy of better than 20 m in the primary service area.

    For more readings about NAVIC, navigate to the page:

    https://www.civilsdaily.com/news/navic-navigation-in-indian-constellation/

  • Species in news: Natrialba Swarupiae

    • Scientists at the National Centre for Microbial Resource — National Centre for Cell Science (NCMR-NCCS) in Pune have reported a new archaeon (a kind of microorganism), which they discovered in Sambhar Salt Lake in Rajasthan.
    • The new archaeon has been named Natrialba swarupiae, after Dr Renu Swarup, secretary, Department of Biotechnology, for her initiative in supporting microbial diversity studies in the country.

    Archaea

    • Archaea (singular archaeon) are a primitive group of microorganisms that thrive in extreme habitats such as hot springs, cold deserts and hypersaline lakes.
    • These slow-growing organisms are also present in the human gut, and have a potential relationship with human health.
    • They are known for producing antimicrobial molecules, and for anti-oxidant activity with applications in eco-friendly waste-water treatment.
    • Archaea are extremely difficult to culture due to challenges in providing natural conditions in a laboratory setting.
    • As archaea are relatively poorly studied, very little is known about how archaea behave in the human body.
    • The organism has potential gene clusters that helps maintain the metabolism of the archaea to survive in extreme harsh conditions.

    Search and discovery

    • Sambhar Lake has been poorly studied for microbial ecology studies.
    • With a salt production of 0.2 million tonnes per annum, it is also a hypersaline ecosystem which provides an opportunity for microbial ecologists to understand organisms that thrive in such concentrations.

  • [op-ed of the day] Lady Gaganaut

    Context

    The first gaganaut-Vyomamitra- to head for space in an Indian craft will not be human, but humanoid.

    What Vyomamitra would do on spaceflight?

    • Test the technological environment: Vyomamitra unveiled by ISRO will fly two missions to test the technological environment which human gaganauts will inhabit on India’s first demonstration of human spaceflight in 2022.
      • She will test the systems and instruments that they would use.
      • Vyomamitra cannot test the cabin ecosystem,  as she would not be able to breathe the air.
      • Other functions: Vyomamitra is perfectly capable of issuing commands, activating switches and, obviously, communicating with earth.
    • Give company to human travellers: Her prototype has already chatted with people at the Isro event where she was introduced to the public, and future iterations will be able to give company to human travellers at the loneliest frontier.

    A shift from sending animals to humanoids

    • Performing roles previously performed by animals: Vyomamitra will be executing the pioneering role which has traditionally been given to animals – testing systems for survivability.
      • Fruit flies and monkeys were the first beings to lift off, riding V2 rockets with devices monitoring their vital signs.
    • Why using humanoid is more useful: Using a humanoid robot is more useful because it can be used to replicate the behavioural and operational responses of a human.
      • Indeed, robots need not remain pioneers testing survivability, or assistants to the human crew, but are expected to crew missions that are too prolonged or too dangerous for a human pilot.

    Opportunities and the future of AI-powered humanoid

    • Russian robot in space: As India prepared for human flight, in August 2019, the Russian space agency Roscosmos sent up the anthropomorphic robot Skybot F-850 to dock with the International Space Station.
      • The mission has been halted because of technical issues.
      • Goals beyond survivability testing: If the nation which pioneered human spaceflight with Yuri Gagarin’s mission in 1961 is sending humanoid robots into space, survivability testing is not the only legitimate goal of missions powered by artificial intelligence and robotics.
    • Opportunity to develop new technologies: Humanoid in space also provide opportunities to test and develop these technologies under circumstances that do not prevail on earth.
      • The inputs, goals and skills learned are different and while AI on earth specifically focuses on creating systems which do not think like humans,
    • Human-like AI system need of industry: The space industry would value systems that are human-like, to stand in for crew.

    Conclusion

    Vyomamitra represents the very first iteration of AI in space, and later generations could prove to be as essential for spaceflight as cryogenic engines.