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Primary and Secondary Education – RTE, Education Policy, SEQI, RMSA, Committee Reports, etc.

Delhi’s ‘Happiness Class’

States | Governance | Mains Paper 2: Health & Education
On the upcoming visit to India, US President Trump will visit a Delhi government school, where they will attend a happiness curriculum class.

What is Delhi’s ‘happiness curriculum’?
- The curriculum calls for schools in India to promote development in cognition, language, literacy, numeracy and the arts along with addressing the well-being and happiness of students.
- It further says that future citizens need to be “mindful, aware, awakened, empathetic, firmly rooted in their identity…” based on the premise that education has a larger purpose, which cannot be in isolation from the “dire needs” of today’s society.
- For the evaluation, no examinations are conducted, neither will marks be awarded.
- The assessment under this curriculum is qualitative, focusing on the “process rather than the outcome” and noting that each student’s journey is unique and different.
Objectives of the curriculum

The objectives of this curriculum include:
- developing self-awareness and mindfulness,
- inculcating skills of critical thinking and inquiry,
- enabling learners to communicate effectively and
- helping learners to apply life skills to deal with stressful and conflicting situations around them
Learning outcomes of this curriculum

The learning outcomes of this curriculum are spread across four categories:
- becoming mindful and attentive (developing increased levels of self-awareness, developing active listening, remaining in the present);
- developing critical thinking and reflection (developing strong abilities to reflect on one’s own thoughts and behaviours, thinking beyond stereotypes and assumptions);
- developing social-emotional skills (demonstrating empathy, coping with anxiety and stress, developing better communication skills) and
- developing a confident and pleasant personality (developing a balanced outlook on daily life reflecting self-confidence, becoming responsible and reflecting awareness towards cleanliness, health and hygiene).
How is the curriculum implemented?
- The curriculum is designed for students of classes nursery through the eighth standard.
- Group 1 consists of students in nursery and KG, who have bi-weekly classes (45 minutes each for one session, which is supervised by a teacher) involving mindfulness activities and exercise.
- Children between classes 1-2 attend classes on weekdays, which involves mindfulness activities and exercises along with taking up reflective questions.
- The second group comprises students from classes 3-5 and the third group is comprised of students from classes 6-8 who apart from the aforementioned activities, take part in self-expression and reflect on their behavioural changes.
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Water Management – Institutional Reforms, Conservation Efforts, etc.

Jalyukta Shivar Abhiyan

Schemes States | Enviro & Biodiversity | Mains Paper 3: Conservation, Environmental Pollution & Degradation, Eia
Jalyukta Shivar, the flagship water conservation project launched by the earlier government has been officially scrapped by the present Maha government.

What is Jalyukta Shivar?
- Launched in December 2014 after Maharashtra experienced consecutive droughts, the project aimed at rolling out measures that could potentially mitigate water scarcity in the most drought-prone villages in a systematic manner.
- Nearly 52 per cent of the state’s geographical area is prone to drought, either naturally or due to poor rainfall.
- This includes Marathwada and adjoining areas of Madhya Maharashtra and large parts of Vidarbha.
- The project targeted strengthening and streamlining existing water resources like canals, bunds and ponds by arresting maximum run-off rainwater during monsoon.
- Tasks to widen and deepen natural water streams and connect them to nearby water storage facilities like earthen or concrete check-dams were proposed.
- In the first phase, planned during 2015 – 2019, Jalyukta Shivar envisaged making 5,000 villages drought-free, every year.
- During its proposed tenure, the government eyed at making 25,000 drought-prone villages water-sufficient.
Was Jalyukta Shivar beneficial?
- While the exact number of villages that were declared drought-free remains unknown, the programme attempted to bring water stress down in a majority of the most water-scarce villages in the state.
- In January last year, then CM had announced that the scheme had transformed 16,000 drought-prone villages of Maharashtra.
What is the future of water conservation in the state?
- Geologists and hydrologists, who worked on implementing the project, shared similar views and hailed Jalyukta Shivar.
- This was mainly due to the interventions undertaken in the existing water reserves, planned de-silting activities, among many others.
- However, experts agreed that the scheme was not appropriately implemented.
- Now with Jalyukta Shivar no longer in existence, focused efforts of the past five years, in most likelihood, will go down the drain unless a similar scheme is introduced.
- With rainfall variations getting more pronounced, in addition to depleting groundwater reserves, the state will need concrete interventions to tackle future water requirements.
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Biofuel Policy

Biojet fuel that powered the IAF aircraft

| Enviro & Biodiversity | Mains Paper 3:
In his monthly Mann ki Baat radio address, PM hailed the use of biofuel in an Indian Air Force transport aircraft.

What did PM cite?
- IAF’s An-32 aircraft successfully used a 10% blend of Indian biojet fuel and took off from Leh’s Kushok Bakula Rimpoche Airport on January 31.
- This was the first time that this mix was used in both engines of an aircraft.
- Leh is at an altitude of 10,682 ft above mean sea level and is among the world’s highest and most difficult operational airfields.
- Even during clear weather, operating an aircraft at Leh is a challenge, given the reduced power output of the engines in the rarefied atmosphere, turbulent winds, and proximity of the mountains.
What is Biojet fuel?
- Biojet fuel is prepared from “non-edible tree borne oil” and is procured from various tribal areas of India.
- This fuel is made from Jatropha oil sourced from Chattisgarh Biodiesel Development Authority (CBDA) and then processed at CSIR-IIP, Dehradun.
- Generally, it is made from vegetable oils, sugars, animal fats and even waste biomass, and can be used in existing aviation jet engines without modification.
- Jatropha oil is suitable for conversion to jet fuel. This biojet fuel has received wide acceptance from the airline industry.
Why it matters?
- Evaluating the performance of biojet fuel under conditions prevalent in Leh was considered extremely important from an operational perspective.
- The success of the flight validated the capability of the aircraft’s engines to operate smoothly with biojet fuel at the extremities of the operational envelope.
- The tests were conducted by a team comprising test pilots from the Aircraft and Systems Testing Establishment (ASTE), Bengaluru and pilots from the operational squadrons.
- The successful test flight also demonstrated the IAF’s capability to absorb newer technology, while sponsoring indigenization.
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Child Rights – POSCO, Child Labour Laws, NAPC, etc.

Future for the World’s Children Report 2020

IOCR | Enviro & Biodiversity | Mains Paper 3: Conservation, Environmental Pollution & Degradation, Eia
The Future for the World’s Children Report 2020 was recently released.

About the report
- The report was released by a commission of over 40 child and adolescent health experts from around the world after assessing 180 countries.
- It was commissioned by the World Health Organization (WHO), UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and The Lancet medical journal.
What is Flourishing Index?
- Flourishing is the geometric mean of Surviving and Thriving.
- For Surviving, the authors selected maternal survival, survival in children younger than 5 years old, suicide, access to maternal and child health services, basic hygiene and sanitation, and lack of extreme poverty.
- For Thriving, the domains were educational achievement, growth and nutrition, reproductive freedom, and protection from violence.
Threats to Children
- The report highlights the distinct threat posed to children from harmful marketing.
- Evidence suggests that children in some countries see as many as 30,000 advertisements on television alone in a single year, while youth exposure to vaping (e-cigarettes) advertisements increased by more than 250% in the U.S. over two years, reaching more than 24 million young people.
- Studies in Australia, Canada, Mexico, New Zealand and the U.S. — among many others — have shown that self-regulation has not hampered commercial ability to advertise to children.
- Children’s exposure to commercial marketing of junk food and sugary beverages is associated with the purchase of unhealthy foods and overweight and obesity, linking predatory marketing to the alarming rise in childhood obesity.
- The number of obese children and adolescents increased from 11 million in 1975 to 124 million in 2016 — an 11-fold increase, with dire individual and societal costs, the report said.
What is Sustainability Index?
- Under the Sustainability Index, the authors noted that promoting today’s national conditions for children to survive and thrive must not come at the cost of eroding future global conditions for children’s ability to flourish.
- It ranks countries on excess carbon emissions compared with the 2030 target.
- This provides a convenient and available proxy for a country’s contribution to sustainability in future.
Highlights of the SI
- The report noted that under realistic assumptions about possible trajectories towards sustainable greenhouse gas emissions, models predict that global carbon emissions need to be reduced from 39·7 gigatonnes to 22·8 gigatonnes per year by 2030 to maintain even a 66% chance of keeping global warming below 1·5degrees C.
- No country in the world is currently providing the conditions we need to support every child to grow up and have a healthy future alarmed the report.
India’s performance

India ranked 77th on a sustainability index that takes into account per capita carbon emissions and ability of children in a nation to live healthy lives and secures 131st spot on a flourishing ranking that measures the best chance at survival and well-being for children.

Performance of nations in SI
- Norway leads the table for survival, health, education and nutrition rates – followed by South Korea and the Netherlands.
- The central African Republic, Chad and Somalia come at the bottom.
- However, when taking into account per capita CO2 emissions, these top countries trail behind, with Norway 156th, the Republic of Korea 166th and the Netherlands 160th.
- Each of the three emits 210 per cent more CO2 per capita than their 2030 target, the data shows, while the U.S., Australia, and Saudi Arabia are among the 10 worst emitters.
- The lowest emitters are Burundi, Chad and Somalia.
- According to the report, the only countries on track to beat CO2 emission per capita targets by 2030, while also performing fairly — within the top 70 — on child flourishing measures are Albania, Armenia, Grenada, Jordan, Moldova, Sri Lanka, Tunisia, Uruguay and Vietnam.
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Indian Navy Updates

[pib] Bay of Bengal Offshore Sailing Expedition (BBSE)

PIB | Security Issues | Mains Paper 3: Various Security Forces, Agencies & Their Mandates
Indian Naval Sailing Vessels Mhadei and Tarini set sail for the Bay of Bengal Offshore Sailing Expedition from the Indian Naval Ocean Sailing Node at Goa.

BBSE
- This would be the maiden major mixed crew sailing expedition of the Indian Navy with crew composition of five naval officers including two women officers in each boat.
- It would be covering a total distance of 6,100 Nautical miles each and will be at sea for 55 days.
- The prolonged voyage of nearly three months during this expedition would showcase harnessing of renewal energy namely wind energy to propel the boats.
- The expedition is also in pursuance of the GOI mission of ‘Nari Shakti’ providing opportunity to women officers at par with men.
- The sailing vessels as part of the expedition would make replenishment halts at ports of Phuket, Yangon, Chittagong and Colombo.
About the vessels
- Mhadei and Tarini inducted in the Indian Navy on 08 February 2009 and 18 February 2017 respectively have been the vessels of choice for the naval expeditions in various sailing expeditions, including three circumnavigations and thus have thousands of miles tucked under their belt.
- Mhadei has successfully completed two circumnavigations, three Cape to Rio trans-Atlantic races and several other expeditions around various continents.
- The vessel has covered in excess of 1,36,000 nautical miles.
- Tarini created history in 2017-18 when six Indian Naval women officers sailed the vessel on maiden circumnavigation voyage titled Navika Sagar Parikrama.
- She thereafter also participated in mixed crew Kochi to Seychelles sail training expedition during the 10th-anniversary celebration of the IONS.
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Global Geological And Climatic Events

Why do we have Leap Years?

Prelims Only | Enviro & Biodiversity | Mains Paper 1: Geographical Features & Their Location
The year 2020 is a ‘leap year’, meaning the month of February will have 29 days instead of 28, and the total number of days will be 366 instead of 365. This was also the case in 2016, and 2024 will again be a leap year.

Leap Years
- A calendar is meant to correspond to the Earth’s seasons.
- For this, the number of days in a calendar needs to match the time required by the Earth to orbit the Sun.
- The time required by the Earth to complete its orbit around the Sun is approximately 365.242 days. But years are usually only 365 days.
- To adjust for the extra 0.242 days in the orbital period, which becomes almost one full day in four years, the calendar adds an extra day once every four years.
- This approximates the time to 365.25 days, which is close to the actual 365.242 days.
But is that not inaccurate?
- Yes, it is. And further adjustments are made to the Gregorian calendar, the calendar we follow today.
- The Gregorian calendar was introduced in 1582. Before that, the calendar followed was the Julian calendar, introduced in 45 BC.
- The calendars were different in their treatment of leap years.
- The Julian calendar had leap days every four years, but since it still did not accurately conform to the Earth’s precise orbit time, it kept falling behind with respect to natural seasons over the centuries.
- By the 16th century, the Julian calendar had fallen out of tune with the natural seasons by almost 10 days.
- To correct this discrepancy, Pope Gregory XIII in 1582 decreed that the day of October 4 that year would be followed directly by October 15 – thus covering up the error.
- The Pope also modified the leap year system in the Julian calendar. That new system came to be known as the Gregorian calendar.
What is the new system?
- In the Gregorian calendar, a century year (a year ending with 00) is not a leap year, even though it is a multiple of 4. Thus, the year 2100 will not be a leap year.
- But even this does not provide total accuracy. To ensure that, some century years remain leap years. In the Gregorian calendar, leap years include those century years which are exactly divisible by 400.
- Thus, 2000 remained a leap year even though it ended with 00.
- The Gregorian calendar reduces the margin of error under the Julian calendar, thus keeping days more in tune with seasons.
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Foreign Policy Watch: India-United States

An agenda for Modi-Trump

| International Relations | Mains Paper 2: Bilateral, Regional and Global Groupings and agreements involving India,Effect Of Policies & Politics Of World On India’S Interests
Context

With the withdrawal of the US from Afghanistan and other regions, India must think about its new role in the region.

The US plans for Afghanistan and the Gulf-cause of concerns for India
- Why it matters? Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be eager to get a first-hand briefing from the US President on his plans for the Af-Pak region and the Gulf.
  - These two regions are vital to India’s economic, political and military security.
- End of an important era in northwestern frontier: The impending withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan and the downsizing of the American security role in the Gulf region mark the end of an important era in India’s northwestern frontiers — both land and maritime.
- Can India overcome the past reluctance? The question is whether Modi and Trump can overcome the past reluctance in both capitals to collaborate in the regions west of India.
  - Suitable for both the countries: There is a good fit between-
  - America’s downward adjustment in the region under Trump, and-
  - India’s ambition to play a larger role in the Gulf and the Indian Ocean.
Broad understandingIndo-Pacific and extending it to the West
- Development in the last three years: Over the last three years of the Trump presidency, Delhi and Washington had developed a broad understanding of how to secure the Indo-Pacific that the US had defined.
- Need to extend the same to Western Indian Ocean: Officials in Delhi frequently complained that these common perspectives did not extend to the Western Indian Ocean.
- In recent weeks, though, senior US officials have said the Indo-Pacific region extends to the east coast of Africa.
  - Question of strategic cooperation: Extending Indo-Pacific is not a question of defining geography but finding ways to secure common ground through strategic cooperation.
Elevation of South West Asia to the top of America’s security concerns
- Filling the vacuum created by the British Empire: As the sun set over the British empire in the east after a century and a half, the US stepped in to fill the breach.
  - What began as a cautious entry into the Indian Ocean became a full-blown military power projection at the end of the 1970s.
- Other events that played an important role? The dramatic rise in oil prices, the Islamic Revolution in Iran and its threat to export it to the Arab World, and the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, saw the elevation of South West Asia to the top of America’s security concerns.
- Events after Gulf War: The First Gulf War during 1990-91 saw the US intervene to restore the sovereignty of Kuwait that was swallowed by Iraq’s Saddam Hussein.
  - 9/11 attacks: The terror attacks on September 11, 2001, invited a ferocious response from the US that ousted the Taliban from power in Afghanistan.
The Iraq and Afghanistan war-Endless wars
- Costly failures: Notwithstanding the initial successes in both Afghanistan and Iraq, there is a growing consensus in the US that these occupations have been costly failures.
  - Trump has been among the first political leaders in the US to call these wars initiated by a Republican predecessor in the White House as “stupid”.
  - The promise of ending the endless wars: During his presidential campaign in 2016 and since Trump has promised to end the “endless wars” in the Greater Middle East and bring the boys back home.
  - It is an idea that has found considerable resonance among Democrats.
- Focusing on great power competition instead of small wars: While the security establishment is not willing to give up, US is now focusing more on the great power competition with Russia and China than the small wars that had preoccupied it over the last three decades.
- The Oil factor: The steep decline in US energy dependence on the Gulf, too, has reduced the salience of the region in Washington.
Three consequence of the change in the US policy
- Cutting down the military commitments
  - The Middle East and Africa: Trump has been cutting down military commitments in the Middle East and Africa.
  - His officials are about to sign an agreement with the Taliban that provides for American withdrawal from Afghanistan.
  - Maritime front: On the maritime front, Trump has called on all major powers, especially those importing oil from the Gulf, to contribute to the security of shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.
- How it matters for India?
  - Challenges of limiting the consequences: The challenge for Indian policymakers has been to limit the consequences of what seems a definitive turn in US policy.
  - Chance to extend the own role: It should also be about seizing the possibilities for expanding India’s own role in the western marches of the Subcontinent.
- To expand its role Delhi needs to make a few important shifts in its own thinking.
  - One, it must overcome the still powerful belief in sections of the Indian establishment that the US-Pakistan relationship is unchanging.
  - The US tilt toward India and away from Pakistan: Over the last two decades, there has been a tilt in US policies away from Pakistan and towards India.
  - For instance, the US pressures on Pakistan to vacate the Kargil heights, an exclusive nuclear exemption to India and efforts to rein in Pakistan’s cross-border terrorism during the Obama years.
  - Support in Trump period: Trump went further to acknowledge that Pakistan is part of the problem in Afghanistan and turned up the heat on Pakistan’s support for terrorism.
  - He has supported India’s efforts at the UNSC to bring Masood Azhar to book in the face of Chinese resistance.
  - Helped India isolate Pakistan at the Financial Action Task Force.
  - Prevented the UNSC from discussing Kashmir.
  - But India must also recognise: That there will be a measure of cooperation between the US and Pakistan.
  - Delhi’s focus should, instead, be on expanding its own security cooperation with the US in the troubled lands to the west of India.
- India needs to prepare for a larger security role in Afghanistan
  - Question of being at the next-door: Trump has been asking a simple question: If India is next door to Afghanistan, should it not be doing more for Afghan security?
  - Need to explore the options: The NDA government has stepped up security assistance to Kabul. As Afghanistan enters a turbulent phase, regional and other powers are bound to fill the vacuum left by the US.
  - There are many options– between doing nothing and sending the Indian army into Afghanistan- that Delhi and Washington could discuss.
- Need to increase Naval activity
  - Increased role as regional security provider: Delhi has already stepped up its naval activity within the Gulf and beyond as part of its emergence as a regional security provider.
  - Cooperation with others: Effectiveness of India’s role will rise manifold if it acts in concert with the US and other partners.
  - Modi and Trump could begin by laying the political foundation for such cooperation.
Conclusion

At the beginning of Trump’s term, sceptics dismissed the prospects for India-US security cooperation in the eastern Indian Ocean and the Pacific, but progress has been steady. That cooperation can and must be extended now to the Western Indian Ocean.
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Swachh Bharat Mission

The next mission

op-ed snap | Governance | Mains Paper 2: Government Scheme/Policies
Context

After the success of the SBM, government is looking for the next mission in the form of Jal Jeevan Mission.

Investment in Sanitation
- Investment of over 1 lakh crore: The central and state governments have invested in excess of one lakh crore on sanitation over the past five years.
- Where the fund was used? A majority of these funds have gone towards-
  - Incentivising the poor and marginalised households to construct and use household toilets.
  - Bringing about behaviour change, and-
  - Building capacities of field functionaries.
- The success of the mission: Over 10 crore toilets have been built in rural India and nearly 55 crore people have stopped defecating in the open, all in just five years.
  - This has contributed in bringing down global open defecation by more than half.
- Return on the investment in sanitation: The returns on these investments have been manifold, and their effects on the broader economy, markets and employment have been significant.
  - 400 % return: The UNICEF recently estimated that investments in sanitation in India are yielding a 400 per cent return with each rural household in an open-defecation-free village saving Rs 50,000 on account of avoided medical costs and time savings.
- Future prospects for the sanitation infrastructure: The Toilet Board Coalition has estimated that the sanitation infrastructure and services market in India will be worth over $60 billion by 2021.
  - Many new jobs, even in the most rural areas of the country, apart from reducing health and environmental costs and generating savings for households.
- Growth in the sanitation-related business: The business of manufacturing toilet-related hardware accessories have reported huge growth in sales during the SBM period.
  - They project a continued uptrend through retrofitting and upgrades.
  - This has been corroborated by another recent study by UNICEF in which they have estimated that SBM has resulted in creating over 75 lakh full-time equivalent jobs over the past five years, giving the rural economy a major boost.
A milestone, not a finish-line
- Sustaining the success: The government is committed to ensuring that this success is sustained.
- On October 2, 2019, the prime minister said that we must all ensure that people continue to use toilets and that no one is left behind.
- Allocation of 10,000 crores in the Budget: This has been backed up by the finance minister in the budget for 2020-21.
  - In the budget, she announced about Rs 10,000 crore for rural sanitation to focus on-
  - ODF sustainability.
  - Bio-degradable waste management.
  - Greywater management.
  - Sludge management and-
  - Plastic waste management for all villages by 2024.
Next Mission- Piped Water Supply
- Jal Jeevan Mission: The next critical basic service, is piped water supply. On Independence day this year, the prime minister announced the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM).
  - With the goal of ensuring piped water supply for all households of India by 2024 and with a commitment of Rs 3.6 lakh crore of central and state funds for the scheme.
  - The budgetary allocation of 12,000 crores: In the Union budget for 2020-2021, the government has already allocated Rs 11,500 crore for JJM, with an additional Rs 12,000 crore being made available through extra-budgetary resources.
- Earmarking 50% grants for drinking water and sanitation: In addition, a huge impetus to the rural water supply and sanitation sector is the earmarking of 50 per cent of the Rs 60,750 crore grant for rural local bodies provided under the Fifteenth Finance Commission for drinking water and sanitation.
  - Making local bodies more responsible: This will ensure that the gram panchayats and local communities are responsible for the upkeep of their water and sanitation infrastructure, providing a boost to the sustainability of service delivery to people.
  - Making sanitation and water supply everyone’s business: This approach will ensure that just like sanitation, provision of water supply and its upkeep will also become everyone’s business.
Conclusion

It is fairly clear now that investment in sanitation is actually a facilitator for broader economic, health and social gains. The government should ensure the sustainability of SBM and replicate its success in implementing the JJM.
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Foreign Policy Watch: India-United States

Forging a new India-U.S. modus vivendi

op-ed snap | International Relations | Mains Paper 2: Bilateral, Regional and Global Groupings and agreements involving India,Effect Of Policies & Politics Of World On India’S Interests
Context

It is clearer than perhaps ever before in recent times, that New Delhi needs the continued support of the U.S. government on almost everything substantial that matters to India in its quest to be a power of substance in the international system.

Preparing for Trump 2.0
- The world may have to deal with Mr Trump for four more years after the end of his present term this year.
- Where India can benefit from constructive ties with the US?
  - A fairer trade regime.
  - Accessing cutting-edge technology.
  - The fight against terrorism.
  - Stabilising our region.
  - New Delhi stands to benefit from constructive ties on all issues, given a more sensitive United States.
- India must, therefore, seek greater understanding and engagement should there be a Trump 2.0.
- Understanding the asymmetrical partnership: Asymmetrical partnerships, as we know from history, are rarely easy.
  - Partnership with the superpowers: Partnerships with superpowers are even more difficult; in international politics, as in life, even the best of unequal relationships results in a loss of some dignity and autonomy.
Why the partnership with the US matters for India?
- The growing influence of China in Indo-Pacific: Without the United States, the region could become willy-nilly part of a new Chinese tributary system.
  - Chance of more organic rule-based order: With a fully engaged United States, the region has at least the chance of creating a more organic rules-based order.
- Past consequences for India: the history of “estrangement” with the United States, during the Cold War, has had consequences for vital national interests that continue to cast their shadow on the present.
  - Jammu and Kashmir (J&K).
  - Nuclear non-proliferation.
  - Festering of the Pakistan “problem”.
  - The Chinese humiliation of 1962, are just a few examples.
- Change in the perception over the US: But much of course has changed today.
- Anti–Americanism is outdate: Anti-Americanism, once the conventional wisdom of the Indian elite, seems outdated.
  - Close alignment with the US: New Delhi has, over the decades, gone on to align itself more closely with Washington.
  - Opinion in favour of the stronger ties: More important, both within India and in the U.S., the consensus across the mainstream of political opinion favours stronger relations between the two countries.
Pro-US tilt of the Indian Foreign policy
- A survey suggests support for Trump: According to the latest Pew Surveys of Global Opinion, support for Mr Trump in India is high enough to suggest a great deal of public affection for the American President.
  - That itself is a marker of the way India and Indians now see the world.
- Reason for the change in geo-strategic change: The reason for the change in New Delhi’s geostrategic outlook can be summarised quickly.
  - If the 1971 Friendship Treaty with the Soviet Union was a response to the continuing U.S. tilt towards Pakistan and the beginnings of a Washington-Beijing entente.
  - China factor: At present, it is the prospect of a potentially hegemonic China in the Indo-Pacific region is helping to cement the relationship.
  - Beijing has managed to alienate nearly all its neighbours and allies, except North Korea and Pakistan.
- Gains made in bilateral ties in the last 3 years:
  - COMCASA– A foundational military agreement that allows for the sharing of encrypted communications and equipment.
  - Export control law relaxation: A change in U.S. export control laws that places India in a privileged category of NATO and non-NATO U.S. allies;
  - 2+2 dialogue: New ‘2+2’ foreign and defence ministers dialogue.
  - Oil export to India: An exponential increase in U.S. oil exports to India.
  - Tri-lateral military exercise: The inauguration of the first India-U.S. tri-service military exercise and expansion of existing military exercises.
  - The signing of Industrial Security Annex: The signing of an Industrial Security Annex that will allow for greater collaboration among the two countries’ private defence industries.
  - Inclusion of India in a U.S. security Initiative: The inclusion of India and South Asia in a U.S. Maritime Security Initiative.
Preparing for the President from Democratic Party
- There is, of course, a chance that we may have a Democratic President next year.
- Bipartisan support in the US: In those circumstances, we can only hope that the bipartisan consensus on engaging India will prevail.
  - To be sure, however, a new President will seek to put his/her own imprimatur on the relationship.
  - Democrats and the Human Right issue: The Democrats will clearly be more proactive on human rights and on issues of inclusion and diversity, which would make a greater demand on India and test its capacity and creativity.
- Indian diaspora: India, of course, continue engaging with its strongest source of support in the United States: the Indian diaspora.
  - Fortunately, there is a near consensus on the need to strengthen this constituency.
Conclusion

In any case, there is little doubt that whoever is the next occupant of the White House, a retreat from multilateralism (especially on trade-related issues) and concern about China will continue to be the two main pillars of contemporary American foreign policy. If for only those reasons, Mr Trump’s reason has undeniable significance.
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International Space Agencies – Missions and Discoveries

Habitable-zone Planet Finder (HPF)

| Science Tech | Mains Paper 3: Awareness in various sc and tech fields
At 100 light-years from Earth, a low-mass star was sending signals in a pattern that suggested that an exoplanet was orbiting the star confirmed the Habitable-zone Planet Finder (HPF).

Habitable-zone Planet Finder
- NASA’s Kepler mission observed a dip in the host star’s light, suggesting that the planet was crossing in front of the star during its orbit.
- To confirm, researchers turned to an instrument called Habitable-zone Planet Finder (HPF). It has confirmed that there is indeed an exoplanet.
- HPF is an astronomical spectrograph, built by Penn State University scientists, and recently installed on the 10m Hobby-Eberly Telescope at McDonald Observatory in Texas.
- The instrument is designed to detect and characterize planets in the habitable zone — the region around the star where a planet could sustain liquid water on its surface — around nearby low-mass stars.
- The newly confirmed planet, called G 9-40b, is the first one validated by HPF. It is about twice the size of Earth and orbits its star once every six Earth-days.
How it works
- A spectrograph is an instrument that splits light into its component wavelengths.
- Scientists then measure the properties of light over a specific portion of the spectrum and draw conclusions on what is responsible for the trends they observe.
Why need HPF?
- Kepler’s observations alone were not enough to confirm a planet. It was possible that a close stellar companion was responsible for the dip in the star’s light.
- Precision spectroscopic observations from HPF ruled out this possibility.
- Shooting a high-power laser into the air, researchers generated a “laser guide star”, and subsequent observations found no evidence of blending of light or other stellar companions.
- Finally, using HPF, an analysis of a set of radial velocities helped provide estimates for the planet’s mass.
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