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Feb 11, 2022

UKRAINE CRISIS AND US–RUSSIA FACE-OFF AT UN SECURITY COUNCIL On 31 January 2022, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) witnessed a fiery session that echoed the Cold War era.
  • The two permanent members of the Security Council, the United States (US) and Russia engaged in a bitter diplomatic brawl over the Ukraine crisis.
  • The US accused Russia of threatening peace and subverting global security by amassing more than 1,00,000 troops on Ukraine’s borders.
  • Russia strongly opposed a UNSC discussion on the issue stating that “positioning troops within its territory is a domestic matter, not a threat to international peace and security”.
 Causes of Ukraine crisis?
  • For the US and the European Union, Ukraine is a crucial buffer between Russia and the West.
  • The unique geography of the Black Sea region confers strategic and geopolitical advantages to Russia.
  • Firstly, it is an important crossroads and strategic intersection for the entire region.
  • Access to the Black Sea is vital for all littoral and neighbouring states, and greatly enhances the projection of power into several adjacent regions.
  • Secondly, the region is an important transit corridor for goods and energy.
  • The Black Sea is bordered by Bulgaria, Georgia, Romania, Russia, Turkey and Ukraine. All these countries are NATO countries.
  • Euromaidan (European Square) was a wave of demonstrations and civil unrest in Ukraine, which began in November 2013 with public protests in Maidan Nezalezhnosti ("Independence Square") in Kyiv, Ukraine.
  • The protests were sparked by the Ukrainian government's decision to suspend the signing of an association agreement with the European Union, instead choosing closer ties to Russia and the Eurasian Economic Union.
  • The Donbass region (the Donetsk and Luhansk regions) of eastern Ukraine has been facing a pro-Russian separatist movement since 2014.
  • Russia seized Crimea from Ukraine in what was the first time a European country annexed territory from another country since World War-2.
  • The annexation of Crimea from Ukraine followed a Russian military intervention in Crimea that took place in the aftermath of the 2014 Ukrainian revolution and was part of wider unrest across southern and eastern Ukraine.
  • Ukraine has urged the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to speed up his country’s membership in the alliance.
India’s Position
  • For India, the Ukraine crisis is a challenging foreign policy issue. Moscow and Washington are New Delhi's key strategic partners, and abandoning one is not sensible.
  • Though ties between Washington and New Delhi have grown significantly in recent years, New Delhi still maintains a special and privileged friendship with Moscow. Therefore, at the UNSC, India's response to the Ukraine crisis was cautious and that explicitly demonstrated New Delhi's strategic autonomy.
  • At the UNSC, India's response to the Ukraine crisis was two-fold. First, India abstained from a procedural vote on whether to discuss the situation in the Council.
  • It was a continuation of India's neutral stance on the issue. For instance, in 2014, India abstained from a General Assembly resolution endorsed by Ukraine, the US and the EU, which sought to condemn Russia's annexation of Crimea.
  • During the UNSC discussion, India urged all parties to engage through diplomatic channels and fully implement the Minsk Package. The Indian statement also expressed concerns over more than 20,000 Indian nationals living in Ukraine and noted that New Delhi's utmost priority is their well-being.
Road Ahead:
  • The unfolding game of chicken between Russia and the United States (US) and EU over Ukraine is classic geopolitics, reminiscent of Cold War negotiation patterns and lingering political and security stakes from that period.
  • The "contact groups" strategy would be far more fruitful, both in the immediate crisis context and in the mid-term. The EU and Russia should bring together representatives of the major political groupings in Ukraine and mediate talks to map out a road to greater devolution, something the recent congress of eastern regions called for. To get to any kind of agreement will require a lot of leverage from the mediators, but the process itself seems to offer the best way to a political rather than coercive resolution of the crisis.
Minsk Agreements: Minsk I:
  • Ukraine and the Russian-backed separatists agreed a 12-point ceasefire deal in the capital of Belarus in September 2014.
  • Its provisions included prisoner exchanges, deliveries of humanitarian aid and the withdrawal of heavy weapons.
  • The agreement quickly broke down, with violations by both sides.
Minsk II:
  • In 2015, an open conflict was averted after the ‘Minsk II’ peace agreement was signed, under the mediation of France and Germany.
  • It was designed to end the fighting in the rebel regions and hand over the border to Ukraine’s national troops.
  • It was signed by Representatives of Russia, Ukraine, the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the leaders of two pro-Russian separatist regions.
  • OSCE is the world's largest security-oriented intergovernmental organisation. Its mandate includes issues such as arms control, promotion of human rights, freedom of the press, and fair elections.
Black sea:
  • It is bordered by Ukraine to the north, Russia to the northeast, Georgia to the east, Turkey to the south, and Bulgaria and Romania to the west.
  • The Black Sea occupies a large basin strategically situated at the south-eastern extremity of Europe but connected to the Atlantic Ocean by the Bosporus, the Sea of Marmara, the Dardanelles, the Aegean Sea, and the Mediterranean Sea.
  • The ancient Precambrian rocks of the southern tip of the structural block known as the Russian (or East European) Platform, dating from at least 540 million years ago, appear in the northwest.
  • The rivers drain into the black sea are Danube, Dnieper, Dniester, and Don.
    MUSLIMS BARRED FROM FRIDAY PRAYER SITES IN INDIA’S GURGAON
  • Rights and duties are conceptually linked to one another. There are no rights without duties.
  • If a person has the right to something, it necessarily implies that someone else has a corresponding duty to ensure that it is not violated.
For example:
  • Freedom of speech: If an individual has a right to free speech, then it is the duty of the state to prevent its infringement.
  • The idea is regardless of groups, regardless of numbers or social power, while in one exercise his freedom the other have a duty that is not to infringe it (vice versa).
Mutual respect for the rights and duties of one another:
  • Everyone should understand that the number of rights one exercises is always trailed by as many duties.
  • If one has rights which impose duties on others, then others also have rights that enforce duties on him.
  • Any individual who demands a right and expects others to allow or facilitate its exercise must also expect that she is equally duty-bound to reciprocate.
 Simultaneous performance:
  • It is abundantly clear that rights entail duties, so rights cannot be exercised without the simultaneous performance of duties.
Duties against rights
  • Rights continue to entail duties, but in deeply hierarchical, inegalitarian societies, only a few people have rights, while the many have duties to ensure the proper exercise of the rights of these few.
  • Patriarchal family system: Father alone has the right to take decisions. This puts all other members under a duty to abide by his decision.
Caste-ridden societies:
  • A hierarchical caste system distributes rights and duties unequally.
  • Few have the most important rights and this right has to be served without hindrance.
  • Example: Any infringement on the rights of the upper caste, especially the Brahmin, brings heavy penalties to the violator, sometimes even death.
Religious codes endangering the gender:
  • In many Islamic societies, rights and duties are gender-specific, and unequal. It is the right of men to have their testimony in the court weigh twice as much as that of women who are duty-bound to comply.
Method of government:
  • In absolute monarchies: The King has unrestricted rights and all others have corresponding duties.
  • In democratic administration: Duties increase as we go down the ladder of political hierarchy(i.e.) those at the bottom have the maximum number of duties owing to maximum number of people, ranked higher to them.
Duties outweigh the rights in inegalitarian societies:
  • In hierarchical, inegalitarian societies, where power is unevenly distributed, duties are often seen in opposition to rights.
  • The egalitarian nature of rights and duties has its root in social and political power:
  • Those in power have rights; those without it have duties.
  • A transformation from a hierarchical to an egalitarian order does not produce a power-free order. Instead, at least in principle, such change generates a democratic distribution of power.
Need egalitarian policies to bring egalitarian social order:
  • Equality of power ensures a system of equal rights and duties. Indeed, in egalitarian policies, more power means more duties.
  • The powerless have rights, the powerful have duties.
  • For example: Duty of the state to ensure that there is no poverty, disease or unemployment.
  • In this context, any move to shift focuses from rights to duties, to complain of undue emphasis on rights breeds the suspicion that democracy is being undermined and hierarchy reintroduced through the backdoor.
Duties beyond rights: Duty of inner conscience and not of any rule
Surgeon A Surgeon B
A surgeon performs an operation. He does his job efficiently and believes that once done, he is under no obligation to be present in the hospital or talk to the family of the patient. Now, consider another surgeon who after performing the operation feels to interact with the patient, placate the anxieties of his family and brings warmth to his interaction. The act flows from duties that are integral to his character, to his personal virtues, to his commitment to warm social relationships, and does not flow from any right of the patient.
  Road Ahead:
  • We need a virtue-based, solidarity-infused duties in order to build a tolerant society, or to remain vigilant against potential wrongs of our elected rulers.
  • These duties are not antagonistic to rights; they are moral, non-justiciable.
  • To preserve composite culture, not destroy natural environment, develop scientific temper, safeguard public property, protect India’s sovereignty and integrity. None of them are legally enforceable but they impose an obligation on all citizens, especially on those who occupy public office, to go beyond the call of rights-based duties.
    ROPEWAY FOR CONNECTIVITY; BUILDING PARVATMALA FOR HILLY AREAS Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, while presenting Union Budget for 2022-23 announced that the National Ropeways Development Programme, Parvatmala, will be taken up on the Public-private partnership (PPP) model.
  • The government has decided to build ropeways for hilly areas as an alternate and efficient means of connectivity.
Idea behind Ropeways Infrastructure
  • Cost-Effective Alternative: Ropeways are an economical means of transportation since they are built in a straight route over mountainous terrain, resulting in lower land acquisition expenses.
  • Faster & Better: Ropeways offer an advantage over roadway projects since they can be erected in a straight line, even over mountainous terrain, because they are an aerial means of transportation.
  • Sustainable Alternative: Ropeways can pave the way towards low dust emissions which is good for the environment. Material containers can be built to prevent environmental contamination.
  • Last mile connectivity: Ropeways are preferably better for last-mile connectivity ease. The projects using 3S (a type of cable car system) or related technologies can transport 6000-8000 passengers in the last mile.
Parvatmala scheme
  • Parvatmala initiative is an ecologically sustainable alternative in place of conventional roads in difficult hilly areas.
  • Besides promoting tourism, the objective is to improve connectivity and convenience for commuters.
  • This scheme is also suitable for the implementation in congested urban areas where a traditional mass transit system would be impractical.
  • According to the Finance Minister, contracts for eight 60-kilometre ropeway projects will be given in 2022-23.
  • Currently, the scheme is being implemented in Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Manipur, Jammu and Kashmir, and other North-Eastern states.
Nodal agency
  • Until now, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MORTH) has been in charge of developing highways and regulating the country’s road transport sector.
  • However, the Government of India (Allocation of Business) Rules 1961 were revised in February 2021, allowing the Ministry to oversee the development of ropeways and alternative mobility solutions.
Advantages of ropeway connectivity
  • Ideal for challenging, severe, difficult or sensitive terrain, especially the hilly areas.
  • The system easily navigates around obstacles such as rivers, buildings, ravines, and roadways.
  • Ropes that are led over towers take up little space on the ground and pose no threat to people or animals.
  • This mode of transportation will provide mobility to people living in remote places, allowing them easy access and transport to other areas.
    • Villagers and farmers in such places will be able to sell their produce in other areas, allowing them to increase their revenue.
  • Ropeway with several cars pushed by a single power plant and drive mechanism for economic reasons.
    • This saves money on both construction and upkeep.
    • The employment of a single operator for a complete ropeway reduces labour costs even more.
Disadvantages of ropeway connectivity
  • The GST charges on ropeways are 18%, higher than that on the aviation mode, which is at 12%.
  • The volume of regulations, licenses, permits, and the chain of bureaucracy needs to be checked for a ropeway project to get functional quickly.
  • The ease of doing business needs to increase in this industry.
Road Ahead:
  • In conclusion, ropeways have the potential to become a sophisticated and advanced mode of transportation in India. It is a prudent step of the Government to include it under the ambit of the Highway Ministry as it will widen the scope of infrastructural developments in the country. It will also create a level playing field for Indian company's vis a vis their foreign counterparts - and even help our domestic players to reach a global scale.
Additional information MoU with Uttarakhand:
  • MORTH initiated a study carried out by M/s Mckinsey & Co. for Ropeway development in the country.
  • The study suggested that MORTH may take National Ropeway Development Programme named “Parvatmala”, similar to the “Bharatmala” programme.
  • An MoU has been signed with Uttarakhand Tourism Development Board (UTDB), for the development of Ropeways in the State. Initially, seven projects have been identified in Uttarakhand.
  • Currently, DPR for Kedarnath and Hemkund Sahib Ropeway is in progress, for which NIT has been invited.
    STREET CHILDREN: THE NEGLECTED PATHOLOGY According to the UNICEF India report 2020, interrupted learning impacted 286 million children, with increase in the school dropout rates due to the closure of schools during the pandemic. Who are street children?
  • Street children as defined by United Nations (UN) are children working/living on the street, whose families are on the street or children who’ve run away from their families and are living on the streets.
  • Away from the basic needs and opportunities, they are deprived of family care, protection, and face abuse, neglect, and death.
Statistics related to street children:
  • The UNICEF in the year 2000, estimated 18 million street children in India, which is the highest in the world.
  • The lockdown and its extension significantly impacted nearly 40 million children belonging to the poor and underprivileged families such as children of migrants, children working on farms and fields in rural areas, and street children.
  • According to a report, 356 million children, i.e., 17.5 percent children, live in extreme poverty, which means existing on less than US $1.90 a day.
  • According to the National Human Rights Commission, around 40,000 children are abducted every single year and over 25 percent of them remain untraced.
Factors associated with the creation of street children:
  • Economic crisis and extreme poverty, abandonment, and dysfunctional families are common push factors of creating more street children.
  • Unemployment, poverty, violence at home, family disintegration, lack of shelter, rural-urban migration, displacement due to floods, drought or any other calamity as well as social exclusion within societies with high inequalities.
    • Unstable and violent circumstances within the family can weaken the family connections with the children, interrupt their access to adequate schooling, weaken their educational and scholastic performance, affect their friendships and other relationships, and weaken their connections with the school and the community they live in.
  • Families usually struggle to cope with overcrowded housing situations, leading to increased health risks and poor access to basic services.
  • Other causes that lead to the streets include diseases like HIV/AIDS and leprosy, harmful practices such as early and forced marriages, and social phenomenon like wars and internal displacement.
How to bring them to mainstream society?
  • Regulation and prohibition on child beggary, roadside hawkers, and begging rackets and scams need to be discussed amongst the policymakers to come up with solutions and execute them at the district level.
  • It is important to set up child guidance clinics including psychiatrists, psychologists, therapists to guide and counsel the children who are alienated from their families and society.
  • It is also imperative to have an elaborate survey and to develop a data management system by a unified body to measure the absolute prevalence of street children in the country in each state, identifying the hotspots and the causes associated with it.
  • This data system should be incorporated with GIS mapping to identify areas of concern and keep an eye on social misconduct and help in decision-making and implementation of plans and programmes.
    • Absence of any reliable data source and data availability with no thorough surveys. Data availability and survey by public institutions which will help to eliminate this menace.
  • The development of shelter homes, identification of the homeless people, and incorporation into the national development by encouraging utilisation of health and nutrition programmes.
Road Ahead:
  • A sanctioned budget and schemes for empowering rescued street children, especially girls, need to be instated. Job training and skill development will provide them with this financial freedom. Sensitisation and awareness regarding the impacts of drug abuse amongst young and adolescent age groups is important.
  • District planning committee as well as Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRI) and local self-governments can play important roles in the implementation process to prevent such negative deviance in the society that has a strong hold on the socio-cultural connect of the community.
  • Violence against Children need special mention from the authorities in the country which have failed to provide equal opportunity to all children as well as recognition to the problem of street children in India.
    HARNESSING DIGITAL FINANCIAL INCLUSION UNDER THE G20 DIGITAL ECONOMY AGENDA 2023 As the G20 president in 2022, the Indonesian G20 Presidency has upgraded the Digital Economy Task Force to a Digital Economy Working Group and identified ‘digital financial inclusion’ and ‘payment system in the digital era’ as the key priorities under the G20’s finance track for 2022. Digital financial inclusion:
  • Digital financial inclusion involves the deployment of the cost-saving digital means to reach currently financially excluded and underserved populations with a range of formal financial services suited to their needs that are responsibly delivered at a cost affordable to customers and sustainable for providers.
  • Government-to-person payments, such as conditional cash transfers, that can enable digital stored-value accounts may provide a path for the financially excluded into the financial system.
  • Typically, lower costs of digital transactional platforms allow customers to transact locally in irregular, tiny amounts, helping them to manage their characteristically uneven income and expenses.
  • Additional financial services tailored to customers' needs are made possible by the payment, transfer, and value storage services embedded in the digital transaction platform itself, and the data generated within it.
  • Reduced risks of loss, theft, and other financial crimes posed by cash-based transactions.
  • Reduced costs associated with transacting in cash and using informal providers.
Challenges associated with digital financial inclusion?
  • Digital technology risks can occur across digital financial services and markets value chain including—operational, credit, liquidity, consumer, anti-money laundering, and financing of terrorism (AML/CFT).
  • Most merchants and their customers perceived cash as more convenient than digital channels due to unreliable electricity, slow internet, and difficulties while using point-of-sale terminals.
  • Novelty risks for customers due to their lack of familiarity with the products, services, and providers and their resulting vulnerability to exploitation and abuse.
  • Agent-related risks due to the new providers offering services are not subject to the consumer protection provisions that apply to banks and other traditional financial institutions.
  • Digital technology-related risks can cause disrupted service and loss of data, including payment instructions (for example, due to dropped messages), as well as the risk of a privacy or security breach resulting from digital transmittal and storage of data.
How to ensure digital financial inclusion?
  • A common GPFI’s HLP 1-approach focuses on leveraging Government-to-Person (G2P) payments and introducing a legal, digital identity to encourage financial inclusion.
  • By providing greater investment in infrastructure and transaction accounts, the G2P payments have the potential to drive financial inclusion.
  • The large-scale recurrent payments in the form of social benefits, wages, and pensions can deepen the national retail payment systems.
  • India’s Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) and AADHAAR (digital identity) is representative of how public digital platforms can be utilised to enable government response to the disruption of livelihoods and economies through digital financial inclusion during COVID-19.
  • Under the Digital Economy Working Group, India can promote the collaboration between G20 member countries’ policymakers, central banks, and regulatory authorities to ensure G2P payments, especially to the vulnerable populations such as the elderly, women, youth, and economically disadvantaged.
  • Digitalisation can facilitate a faster and easier remittance process—increasing the recurrent payments and volume of funds. Remittances can also reinforce the linkage between investment, savings, and insurance.
Road Ahead:
  • Access to affordable financial services can help spur economic growth, reduce inequality, and improve individuals’ resilience to financial risks.
  • It is directly linked to smoother consumption, increased investment in education and health, and greater inclusion in financial markets around the world.
  • Digitalisation can be a key enabler of financial inclusion and play a crucial role towards an inclusive recovery from the pandemic.
  • An open and inclusive payments system can increase the digital payment volumes and enhance the economic participation of those who lack any access to formal financial services.
  • It is important for the G20 countries to coordinate their efforts towards providing an inclusive, enabling and fair digital economy by urging the members to support the promotion of a digital approach to financial inclusion.
  • An open and inclusive payments system can increase the digital payment volumes and enhance the economic participation of those who lack any access to formal financial services.
    NO NEED TO PHYSICALLY PORT THE RATION CARD FROM ONE STATE/UT TO ANOTHER UNDER ONE NATION ONE RATION CARD (ONORC) PLAN Recently, the Union Minister of State for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution has informed that under the technology driven One Nation One Ration Card (ONORC) plan, as such there is no need to physically port the ration card from one State/UT to another. One Nation One Ration Card?
  • One Nation One ration card (ONORC) will help in providing grains, rice and wheat flour at subsidised rates for the economically weaker section of the nation.
  • The ONORC scheme was rolled out by the finance minister on 16 May during the last phase of the Prime Minister’s Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan which included stimulus funds of Rs.20 lakh crore.
  • This ration card has been launched in all states and Union Territories in the country and 20 states have already agreed to implement this scheme in their state.
Purpose of the One Nation One Ration Card
  • In the country, around 80 crore beneficiaries are entitled to receive subsidised food and grain under the National Food Security Act 2013.
  • However, for the 80 crore beneficiaries, only 23 crore ration cards have been issued in all the states and Union Territories of the country.
  • Previously, with the ration card, a beneficiary could only purchase subsidised food and grain from the PDS (Public Distribution System) which was assigned to them in their locality.
Benefits of the One Nation One Ration Card
  • The major benefit of the One Nation One Ration Card is that the people who are eligible to receive subsidised food grain can do so from any FPS shop in any city.
  • With many of the people migrating to different cities and the previous inability to purchase food grain in any other city, the One Ration card can help the livelihood of migrant workers all over the country.
  • Under the ONORC, all the beneficiaries from one state can get their share of rations in other states where the ration card was originally issued.
  • Any recipient can use their ration cards at any PDS shop across the country.
  • ONORC is aimed at providing universal access to PDS food grains for migrant workers.
  • ONORC will also give the beneficiaries the opportunity to choose their own dealer.
  • With many cases of misallocation, the beneficiary can switch to another FPS shop instantly, if there is any case of foul play.
  • This scheme will be beneficial for women and other groups, since social identity and other contextual factors will provide them with a strong backdrop in accessing PDS.
  • The ONORC will also help achieve the target set under SDG 2: Ending hunger by 2030.
  • It also aims to address the poor state of hunger in India, where India has been ranked 102 out of 117 countries in the Global Hunger Index.
    SCIENTISTS SET NEW RECORD IN CREATING ENERGY FROM NUCLEAR FUSION Scientists in the United Kingdom said they have achieved a new milestone in producing nuclear fusion energy, or imitating the way energy is produced in the Sun.
  • Energy by nuclear fusion is one of mankind’s long-standing quests as it promises to be low carbon, safer than how nuclear energy is now produced and, with an efficiency that can technically exceed a 100%.
  • A team at the Joint European Torus (JET) facility near Oxford in central England generated 59 megajoules of sustained energy during an experiment in December, more than doubling a 1997 record.
  • The UK Atomic Energy Authority has said that a kg of fusion fuel contains about 10 million times as much energy as a kg of coal, oil or gas.
  • The energy was produced in a machine called a tokamak, a doughnut-shaped apparatus, and the JET site is the largest operational one of its kind in the world.
  • Deuterium and tritium, which are isotopes of hydrogen, are heated to temperatures 10 times hotter than the center of the sun to create plasma.
  • The record and scientific data from these crucial experiments are a major boost for ITER, the larger and more advanced version of the JET.
  • ITER is a fusion research mega-project supported by seven members – China, the European Union, India, Japan, South Korea, Russia and the USA – based in the south of France, to further demonstrate the scientific and technological feasibility of fusion energy.
What is Nuclear Fusion?
  • Nuclear fusion occurs when atomic nuclei collide at extremely high temperatures, forming a new, heavier nucleus and releasing energy in the process.
  • The most efficient fusion reaction for producing power for potential human use is between deuterium (D) and tritium (T), which yields a helium nucleus and energy.
  • Fusion reactions can be self-sustaining because the energy released by fusing atoms supplies the energy necessary to fuse additionally available atoms, triggering a chain reaction.
  • A nuclear reaction that combines low-mass, colliding nuclei into moderate-mass elements and liberates a great deal of energy in the process.
What is ITER?
  • In southern France, 35 nations are collaborating to build the world's largest tokamak, a magnetic fusion device that has been designed to prove the feasibility of fusion as a large-scale and carbon-free source of energy based on the same principle that powers our Sun and stars.
  • The experimental campaign that will be carried out at ITER is crucial to advancing fusion science and preparing the way for the fusion power plants of tomorrow.
  • ITER will be the first fusion device to produce net energy. ITER will be the first fusion device to maintain fusion for long periods of time.
  • ITER will be the first fusion device to test the integrated technologies, materials, and physics regimes necessary for the commercial production of fusion-based electricity.
  • Thousands of engineers and scientists have contributed to the design of ITER since the idea for an international joint experiment in fusion was first launched in 1985.
  • The ITER Members—China, the European Union, India, Japan, Korea, Russia and the United States—are now engaged in a 35-year collaboration to build and operate the ITER experimental device, and together bring fusion to the point where a demonstration fusion reactor can be designed.
  SUCCESSFUL LAUNCH OF PSLV-C52 WITH EOS-04 SATELLITE The launch of Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, PSLV-C52 is scheduled on February 14, 2022 from the First Launch Pad of Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota.
  • PSLV-C52 is designed to orbit an earth observation satellite (EOS-04), weighing 1710 kg into a sun synchronous polar orbit of 529 km. EOS-04
  • PSLV-C52 mission will also carry two small satellites as co-passengers which includes one student satellite (INSPIREsat-1) from Indian Institute of Space Science & Technology (IIST) in association with Laboratory of Atmospheric & Space Physics at University of Colorado, Boulder and a technology demonstrator satellite (INS-2TD) from ISRO, which is a precursor to India-Bhutan Joint Satellite (INS-2B).
  • EOS-04 is a Radar Imaging Satellite designed to provide high quality images under all weather conditions for applications such as Agriculture, Forestry & Plantations, Soil Moisture & Hydrology and Flood mapping.
What is INSPIREsat-1?
  • It is developed under the International Satellite Program in Research and Education (INSPIRE).
  • It is a collaborative effort by the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) at the University of Colorado Boulder in the U.S., the National Central University, Taiwan, and the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, apart from the IIST.
    REVIVING THE ‘KERALA MODEL’ OF DEVELOPMENT For years the darling of development experts, non-governmental organisations and social activists, the ‘Kerala Model’ seemed to show that impressive levels of human development indicators — in health, education and quality of life, comparable even to some rich countries — could be achieved without a correspondingly high level of income.
  • The focus in the new debates on Kerala seems increasingly on its failures: low employment, low levels of food intake and low incomes, accompanied by high levels of alcoholism and the nation’s worst suicide rate.
  • Reflecting the State’s social outcomes, Kerala has India’s highest literacy rate despite ranking only the ninth-highest in per capita income among 28 States.
  • Kerala’s Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) contracted over 2019-20 and 2021-22, and unemployment, at 9%, is much higher than the 6% national average.
  • Kerala can develop as a knowledge economy, improve the quality of higher education and vocational training to meet the requirements of a modern workforce, and build on successes in tourism and hospitality services.
  • The focus should be on the quantity as well as quality of health and education, and on ensuring that interventions reach all segments of the population.
  • Basic education should continue to be a priority, but it is higher education that presents a pivotal opportunity on the global stage for Kerala.
  • Kerala was India’s first digital State with the highest share of households with personal computers and Internet connections, mobile phone penetration, and digital literacy.
  • Another strength that needs to be sustained involves institutions, building on the State’s grassroots organisation, participatory governance, and a free press.
  • The Public Affairs Index 2020 ranked Kerala as the best-governed large State in 2019 on the basis of 50 indicators reflecting equity, growth and sustainability.
  • Decentralized governance, a strong grass-roots-level network of Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHA), volunteer groups, and Kudumbashree members helped in pandemic management.
  • The ecological disaster across the Western Ghats needs to be confronted and investments made to repair forests, river systems, water bodies, and flood plains.
  • The State needs a bold programme of forest restoration in keeping with the commitments on forest protection from over 130 nations at COP26.
  • A reinvigorated Kerala model will do well to recognise the symbiotic links among social outcomes, environmental management, and participatory governance, and take actions that cut across these areas.
    IT’S TIME TO TAKE A RELOOK AT PRIVATIZATION India’s fiscal deficit (for the Centre) in FY22 is expected to be 6.8% of the GDP, or in layman’s terms about 15.06 lakh crore.
  • There is consensus that privatisation is a panacea. Policymakers often cite the private sector’s ability to grow faster. This may not always be true.
  • The studies indicate that the gap in growth (and service) between public sector undertakings (PSUs) with autonomy and private firms is not significant.
  • The Disinvestment Commission, under the Ministry of Industries, was set up in 1996 to provide input on which firms to privatise in over a five-10-year period.
  • Beyond the institutional set-up, privatisation as a policy has also singularly failed to raise significant funds – actual receipts from disinvestment have always fallen significantly short of targets.
  • There is also the challenge of valuation, for example, about 65% of about 300 national highway projects have been recording significant toll collection growth; any valuations of such assets will need to ensure they capture potential growth in toll revenue, as NHAI’s highway expansion bears fruit and the economy recovers.
  • PSUs have been significant generators of employment in the past, with multiplier effects – there were about 348 CPSUs in existence in 2018, with a total investment of 16.4 trillion and about 10.3 lakh employees in Central Public Sector Enterprises (in 2019).
  • In India, about 70% of all profits generated in the corporate sector in FY20 were with just 20 firms (in comparison, the situation in FY93 was about 15%).
  • The time has come to take a look at privatisation. Simply pursuing this path, while utilizing such proceeds for loan write-offs or populist giveaways in the election cycle will not do. A hunt for immediate revenue should not overshadow the long-term interest of the ordinary Indian.


POSTED ON 11-02-2022 BY ADMIN
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