What ails the Navigation Indian Constellation
Its purpose is to provide ‘reliable position, navigation and timing services over India and neighbourhood’
•The clocks on the first satellite, IRNSS-1A had failed in June 2016, affecting the accuracy of the “GPS”. ISRO is trying to rectify this problem.
What is NavIC?
•Navigation Indian Constellation (NavIC) is an independent Indian satellite-based positioning system for critical national applications. The purpose is to provide “reliable position, navigation and timing services over India and its neighbourhood.” NavIC consists of a constellation of seven satellites and was named so by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
•Three of the satellites are in a geostationary orbit and four in a geosynchronous one. This means they will be visible at all times in the Indian region.
•All the seven satellites of NavIC, namely, IRNSS-1A, 1B, 1C, ID,1E, 1F and 1G were successfully launched on July 2, 2013, April 4, 2014, October. 16, 2014, March 28, 2015, January. 20, 2016, March 10, 2016 and April 28, 2016 respectively.
What’s the problem?
•Because navigation requires the most accurate clocks, the Rs. 1,420-crore NavIC relies on rubidium clocks.
•Each of the seven satellites has three of them on-board. However, this January, the ISRO confirmed that the clocks on the first satellite, IRNSS-1A had failed in June 2016. According to ISRO, the applications of IRNSS are: terrestrial, aerial and marine navigation, vehicle tracking and fleet management, terrestrial navigation for hikers and travellers, disaster management, integration with mobile phones, mapping and geodetic data capture and visual and voice navigation for drivers.
•Though six of the satellites are working fine, the one faulty one means the “GPS” isn’t working as accurately as it ought to be.
How’s it being fixed?
•ISRO Chairman A.S. Kiran Kumar told the Hindu that without its clocks, the IRNSS-1A “will give a coarse value. It will not be used for computation. Messages from it will still be used.”
•ISRO was trying to revive the clocks on 1A and readying one of the two back-up navigation satellites to replace it in space in the second half of this year. Rubidium clocks were the previous standard in accurate clocks and most organisations, that need precise time estimates, need cesium clocks. It is learnt that future clocks on such satellites, each with a lifespan of 10 years, will host such clocks.
Govt. finally goes ahead to test microcephaly-Zika link
Delhi infant with the condition tests negative, the first case for which blood work up was done
•Although it detected 260 cases of microcephaly in India since February 2016, during an investigation to study the link between the condition and the Zika virus, the Health Ministry did not test the babies for the virus citing shortage of laboratory capacity.
•On Tuesday, a three month old Delhi baby detected with ‘severe microcephaly’ tested negative for Zika, making it the first case where the Ministry ran blood work for Zika since the 2015-16 global outbreak
•Microcephaly is a rare congenital defect where a baby’s head is much smaller than what is normal for its age and sex.
•The requisite tests to investigate cause-and-effect between the virus and microcephaly, however, could not be carried out due to lack of laboratory strength, Ministry officials said. Surveillance was set up at 55 centres in the country after the WHO declared Zika a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) in February 2016.
•“We could not check any of the cases for link with Zika because the programme had not evolved to that point. We will start checking microcephaly cases for Zika links from now,” said Dr. Ajay Khera, Deputy Commissioner for Child Health, health ministry.
•Severe microcephaly can occur because a baby’s brain has not developed during pregnancy or because it was damaged during pregnancy. Based on available evidence, the WHO has said the most likely explanation is that Zika virus infection during pregnancy causes microcephaly. The Health Ministry started tracking cases of microcephaly in India in February 2016, after the World health Organization (WHO) requested countries to track and report cases.
•Aetiology testing (investigation to establish the cause of the condition) of these babies was not done because laboratories were not available, said Dr. Soumya Swaminathan, Director General of Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). “We don’t have baseline data for microcephaly. The government has only recently started collecting data on congenital birth defects. When we found cases of microcephaly, we could not test them for causes as labs were not available,” she added.
•“The Indian government set up 55 sentinel sites across India. Over the year, we found sporadic cases, but without clustering,” said Dr. P.Ravindran, Director, Emergency Medical Relief (EMR), Health Ministry.
Call for data reporting
•In 2016, a base line estimate of microcephaly-affected births in India was determined after a systematic review and meta-analysis of several studies. The pooled birth prevalence of microcephaly was shown as 2.30 per 10,000 births among 97,155 births. This study, however, was rejected by WHO and the Centre.
•Researchers want microcephaly data in the public domain, to aid public health intervention. Prof. Anita Kar Director of the School of Health Sciences, University of Pune, said, “If the government has been collecting this data, the national health portal would be the ideal place to store it so that the publiccan get information.”
Gorkha movement gathers steam
Smaller parties back demand for State
•The fresh movement for a separate State of Gorkhaland in the Darjeeling hills gathered steam on Tuesday with smaller parties backing the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) demand.
•At a meeting called by the GJM at the Darjeeling Gymkhana Club, representatives of the Gorkha Rashtriya Nirman Manch, Bharatiya Gorkha Parisangh, the Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF), the Communist Party of Revolutionary Marxists(CPRM) and the BJP were present. It was decided to collectively carry forward the struggle for Gorkhaland.
•In an embarrassment for the Trinamool Congress, the GNLF, with whom it had forged an alliance in the recent municipal polls, came out in full support of Gorkhaland.
•“The GNLF wholeheartedly supports the demand for Gorkhaland,” GNLF spokesperson Neeraj Zimba Tamang said, adding the alliance with the Trinamool Congress was only an “electoral understanding.” Mr. Tamang said the demand for Gorkhaland was raised by GNLF founder Subhash Ghising and the party would stand by whoever raises the issue.
•GJM general secretary Roshan Giri demanded a written clarification from the West Bengal government on the three language policy, which intends to make Bengali compulsory. He said the movement would be peaceful.
Open to amending cattle rules: Vardhan
‘We are going through representations’
•Union Science and Environment Minister Harsh Vardhan has said he will consider amending the Environment Ministry’s notification disallowing the sale of cattle in animal markets for slaughter.
•“If at all there is a need to change some language, we will consider that,” he toldThe Hindu on the phone.
•“Right now, we are going through representations by farmers, traders, animal activists and the leather industry.” He, however, didn’t confirm whether a formal process had been initiated.
May 23 notification
•The May 23 notification had said those who wished to sell cattle — bulls, cows, buffaloes, steers, heifers and camels — may do so only after they formally stated that the animals had not been “brought to the market for sale for slaughter.”
•Buyers at animal markets would have to verify they were agriculturalists and declare not to sell the animal/s for six months from the date of purchase.
•Asked whether buffaloes or male heads of cattle could be exempted from the provisions of slaughter, Dr. Vardhan said he had not “gone into the nitty-gritty” but there was not yet a dedicated committee looking at reviewing the restrictions.
•“The Secretary [Environment Ministry] is going through representations… there have been some communication gaps and we are clear that there is no intention to interfere with food habits or business,” he added.
•Sale of cattle at animal markets have been hit, with farmers and market managers saying that the notification was the latest in a series of steps — from demonetisation, States tightening cow slaughter laws and vigilantism by gau rakshaks — that had stoked uncertainty in farmers.
India ratifies ILO pacts on child labour
•India on Tuesday ratified two core conventions of International Labour Organisation on child labour — a global commitment to end the worst form of child labour and to ensure minimum basic education to children.
•“It is a historic moment for India as we are going to take another giant step to affirm our commitment for a child labour-free India by ratifying the two core conventions of ILO Conventions,“ said Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya.
SEBI sets trading rules for commodity options
To allow only one commodity at each exchange initially
•The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has allowed commodity exchanges to introduce options trading while ensuring that such contracts are introduced only on such commodities that currently register high volume in the futures segment.
•Further, on a pilot basis, each exchange will be allowed to start such options trading only on one commodity initially.
•The regulatory framework comes nearly two months after the SEBI board approved the launch of commodity options — an instrument that was being demanded ever since SEBI took over the regulation of the commodity markets in 2015.
•In a circular issued on Tuesday, the regulator said that options can be launched only on such underlying futures contracts that are among the top five contracts in terms of total trading turnover value of previous twelve months.
Daily turnover
•Further, the average daily turnover of underlying futures contracts qualifying for options has been pegged at Rs. 200 crore for agricultural & agri-processed commodities and Rs. 1,000 crore for other commodities in the previous twelve months.
•Given the eligibility criteria, Multi Commodity Exchange of India (MCX) — the largest in terms of market share — will be able to choose from commodities like crude, gold, silver, zinc and copper to launch options contracts.
•Meanwhile, the top traded commodities on NCDEX include soybean, soya oil along with its derivatives.
Robust, efficient
•The introduction of options will boost overall market participation and also complement the existing futures and make the commodities market more robust and efficient,” said a statement issued by NCDEX.
•The combination of futures & options can give market participants the benefit of price discovery of futures and simpler risk management of options, according to the statement.
New labour survey to generate quarterly and annual data
Will displace earlier system of collecting such information every five years
•The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation has started a Periodic Labour Force Survey, which will provide quarterly labour and employment data for urban India and annual data for rural India.
•Introduced in April 2017, this survey will supersede the earlier system where such data was available only every five years, said D.V. Sadananda Gowda, the Minister for Statistics and Programme Implementation.
•The Statistics Ministry is also preparing to revise the base year of national accounts to 2017-18 from 2011-12, following the completion of the household consumer expenditure survey and the labour force survey at the end of 2018.
•“My ministry has launched the Periodic Labour Force Survey from April 2017,” Mr. Gowda announced at a press conference in Delhi. “We have tried this for the first time in India and it would supply data not only about the formal sector, but also about the informal sector.”
•“The data will be collected from large and small enterprises and so we will be able to measure informal sector activity as well. The first release of data will be in December 2018, after we have collected a year’s worth of data,” said Chief Statistician of India, TCA Anant.
CAPI method
•The Periodic Labour Force Survey will also incorporate a Computer Assisted Personal Interviewing (CAPI) method, with field operators using tablets to enter the data. This would generate more accurate and timely information, Mr. Gowda said.
•“The preparatory work for the huge exercise of revising the base year of National Accounts statistics to 2017-18 has already been started,” Mr. Gowda added.
•“The base year can be changed once the results of the employment survey and household consumer expenditure survey come out,” Mr. Anant said. “Those are critical inputs in the base revision.”
Fact sheet
•The Ministry of Statistics is also developing a fact sheet on the Indian economy, incorporating inputs from all important ministries on 100 indicators. It is also considering an Annual Survey of Services, along the lines of the Annual Survey of Industries already being carried out, Mr. Gowda said.
Detecting possibilities
The LIGO-India project will lead to the emergence of new research areas
•U.S.-based Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO)’s detectors have picked up signals of yet another merger of two black holes that are three billion light years away and have masses equal to 31 and 19 times the mass of the sun.
•With this discovery emerges not only a pattern among black holes but also possibilities of gravitational wave astronomy, detection of new heavenly bodies and gaining a better understanding of that most elusive of theories — Einstein’s general theory of relativity, and the fundamental force of gravitation.
Contribution of Indians
•Indians have made a significant contribution to this, with nearly 67 Indians from 13 institutions across the country taking part in the theory and experiment: CMI, Chennai; ICTS-TIFR, Bengaluru; IUCAA, Pune; and IISER Kolkata, to name just a few.
•The jubilation over their participation is, however, tempered by the fact that the two existing detectors are not sufficient to locate exactly where in the sky the signals are coming from. With the Italy-based VIRGO detector set to join operations soon, this issue will be addressed. However, there will still remain some blind spots which can be overcome if the LIGO-India project enters the fray, as planned, in 2024.
•Amidst such anticipation, it is necessary to take stock of the challenges ahead in building up this fourth player in the gravitational wave-detection game. There will be many firsts for India. Its experimental requirements will spearhead the evolution of many new research areas. Work on some of them has already begun in many centres: like the study of squeezed light in IIT-Delhi and IIT-Madras; mirror surface physics, in Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, Kolkata, and TIFR, Hyderabad; and fibre-based laser technology in IIT-Madras.
Multiple constituents
•On the theoretical side, too, there are major developments in store. The challenge will be to nurture these and take them towards implementation. Second, unlike experiments that are built up from a small core team, LIGO-India will start off as a complex organism, the many constituents of which will evolve simultaneously in different parts of the country. Assembling the parts to form a mature scientific enterprise, a first for India, will be an enormous challenge. Lastly, the Department of Atomic Energy, which is the main funding body for all big scientific investments in India, will also, in an unprecedented manner, take up the responsibility of building up the experiment.
•The detected black hole mergers may seem simple compared with the dynamics of this massive coming together of so many theoreticians and experimentalists. However, what holds promise is that the level of the challenge is well-matched by the experience, the number and the ability of the scientists involved.
The best of times, the worst of times
Without government support, farmers pay the price for a bumper crop they labour so hard to produce
•The ongoing farmers’ agitation has taken on a shockingly violent form. Discussion has revolved around an apparent paradox: why are farmers rioting after a bumper crop? But any student of economics knows that prices fall after bumper harvests, which is good for consumers but terrible for farmers. This is why the government needs to step in to buy from farmers at a minimum support price, while subsidising consumers so that they get affordable food. This is what we have done over the last fifty years after setting up the Food Corporation of India (FCI) in 1965.
•If this system has been in place for so long, why are we still lurching from crisis to crisis? For long, we have said that the solution is to get people off farming. While there is no doubt we need to create more jobs in manufacturing, we must not forget that even in the year 2050, according to the latest projections, there will still be 800 million people living in rural India. And just one look at the state of Indian cities makes it clear that endlessly moving people from villages to cities could actually deepen the urban imbroglio. So solutions have to be found for agriculture — and fast.
Use and abuse of soil, water
•The problem with Indian agriculture is that we are still stuck with the so-called Green Revolution of the 1970s. I use the prefix “so-called” for a specific reason. Yes, there was a dramatic rise in food production. And India no longer needs to beg for food in the world market. But this was primarily a rice and wheat revolution. It completely neglected two-thirds of Indian agriculture and crops grown and eaten by the poorest people of our country — pulses and millets. There is also nothing “green” about this revolution because, over the years, it has caused a deep crisis of sustainability, economic and ecological. Large-scale use of chemical fertilisers and pesticides has had an extremely adverse impact on our soil and water. Deep drilling by tubewells to grow these water-intensive crops has happened without any reference whatsoever to India’s unique hydrogeology, where nearly two-thirds of our land is underlain by hard rock formations which have very low rates of natural recharge.
•This has meant that there is now a serious water crisis, with both water tables and water quality falling rapidly. We have arsenic, fluoride, mercury, even uranium in our drinking water, creating serious health issues. What is worse, to get the same increase in production, farmers have had to apply more and more fertilisers and pesticides over time. This dramatically raises costs of cultivation, without a proportionate increase in production. More than 3,00,000 farmers have committed suicide over the last two decades, which has absolutely no precedent in Indian history.
Sustainable agriculture
•So what can we do to address these twin tragedies of suicides and violence by farmers? First, we need to transition to a more ecologically resilient agriculture. This becomes even more urgent in the context of climate change. Large-scale evidence now exists that non-chemical agriculture has become a profitable alternative. As farmers reduce their dependence on synthetic fertilisers and pesticides, they slowly emerge from the ecological vicious cycle and are also able to dramatically reduce their costs of cultivation, without compromising on production. The biggest votary of non-chemical farming is the Prime Minister himself. He has also launched the Soil Health Card Scheme, which potentially enables farmers to more carefully manage input regimes. The government must announce a comprehensive package to give a green direction to the nature of subsidies in the sector.
•Second, we must radically reform the management of both surface and groundwater to ensure that the water in our irrigation commands reaches the farmers for whom it is meant and groundwater is managed sustainably in a way that ensures that no one is deprived of their right to water for life. There is positive movement in both these directions within government except for some hesitation in going ahead with a new model groundwater Bill drafted by the Ministry of Water Resources. This landmark Bill seeks to replace archaic British Common Law from the 19th century, which has provided legal legitimacy to the over-extraction of groundwater that underpins the current agrarian crisis. The new law needs urgent adoption and advocacy with the States by the Government of India.
On diversification
•Third, we require continued diversification to other forms of livelihood, such as livestock and fisheries, among the fastest-growing segments of the rural economy, which could be hurt by recent policy changes. We must also shift focus away from water-intensive rice and wheat. This means radical changes in the way we grow these crops (seed, water and input regimes) but also much greater encouragement to millets and pulses, which are nutritionally far superior alternatives in a country beset with the diabetes epidemic. The key change required here is aggressive and extensive procurement of these crops by the government. FCI procurement focusses only on rice and wheat although this year we saw some initial steps in the direction of procurement of pulses. This is a welcome move but needs to go much further. The best way would be to include millets and pulses in the massive anganwadi and mid-day meal programmes.
•Fourth, investments in agro-processing infrastructure are urgently required that would enable farmers to move up the value chain. We cannot continue to have them dumping their vegetables and milk on the road. They should be processed before they are sold and farmers must get their due share in the value chain.
•Fifth, we need to ensure access to credit and crop insurance, especially to our 85% small and marginal farmers. This is why I am strongly opposed to farm loan waivers as they destroy the integrity of the banking system and potentially undermine the extraordinary anti-poverty initiative led by Self-Help Groups (SHGs) of women across the country. So many of these extremely poor women, with more than 97% loan recovery ratios, have helped the banking system survive in remote rural India. All this great work of providing an alternative to the usurious moneylender-traders is threatened by loan waivers.
•Finally, we need strong Farmer Producer Organisations, to overcome massive handicaps faced by isolated farmers and enable them to really benefit from market participation.
Demonetisation crunch
•While many cumulative factors have taken a toll on farmers over decades, more proximate factors explain the outbreak of extreme violence. Speaking to farmers and traders, it appears that demonetisation squeezed so much liquidity out of the system that traders did not have requisite cash to buy the farmers’ produce. Farmers also feel that persisting with imports, even after clear signs of a bumper harvest, further depressed prices. Having lived in remote rural Madhya Pradesh for the last three decades, I do not recall a crash in prices as dramatic as this year’s, that too in the peak of summer. In Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Karnataka, prices of tuar, gram, soybean, grapes, potatoes, onions, tomatoes, milk, garlic, cumin, coriander and fenugreek are at historical lows. And when this happens in crops with high costs of cultivation and inadequate government support, the impact is catastrophic, leading to what the Reserve Bank of India has called “fire sales”. Which has also created apprehensions about kharif sowing. No wonder the farmers are upset.
•Violence shows no way forward. But this is a juncture agrarian policy reform in India cannot afford to ignore. Only a comprehensive policy response can ensure that farmers’ distress becomes a thing of the past.
•Mihir Shah, a member of the erstwhile Planning Commission, has lived in remote rural Madhya Pradesh for the last three decades, working on issues of water and livelihood security
Waiting for reconciliation in Myanmar
Aung San Suu Kyi makes some progress in addressing long-standing federal issues
•The second 21st century Panglong peace conference, which ended after six days of deliberations (May 24-29), was marked by some drama in and outside the conference hall. The degree of progress achieved towards national reconciliation should be measured by scratching below the surface.
•The 20th century Panglong peace agreement was masterminded by Aung San — the architect of modern Burma. By ensuring the cooperation of key ethnic minorities, he won Myanmar’s independence. But at the age of 32 he was assassinated, leaving the challenge of nation-building to his successors. They all failed. Now, his daughter, Aung San Suu Kyi — de facto leader of Myanmar — pilots the project to weld together 135 ethnic races into a democratic and federal state. Will the daughter complete the task left unfinished 70 years back?
•Ms. Suu Kyi called the conference outcome “a significant step”. Our assessment indicates that some progress has indeed been made. What follows the conference may be as important as what happened last week.
Players and issues
•Two basic issues need to be appreciated here: role players and substance of dialogue. The peace process has been managed by a national tripartite committee comprising the government (including the military), political parties and eight Ethnic Armed Organisations (EAOs) which had signed the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA) in October 2015. Ms. Suu Kyi’s government has been anxious to make the process inclusive by bringing other ethnic groups within its fold.
•From this perspective, limited success was achieved. The United Nationalities Federal Council (UNFC), a coalition of seven EAOs, insisting on amending the NCA before their participation, boycotted the conference. However, the Panghsang Alliance composed of another seven EAOs, including the principal armed rebels such as the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) and the United Wa State Army (UWSA), took part in the inaugural ceremony and then held discussions on the sidelines with the government, especially Ms. Suu Kyi. This group remains opposed to the NCA, but it has real clout as it controls nearly 80% of armed rebels in the country. They joined the process indirectly, thanks to the proactive diplomacy of China.
•The main achievement of the first Panglong conference, held in August-September 2016, was that it took place. But the second conference went into substantive issues. Participants, including the military, agreed to secure a federal state. This was a significant gain because in the past the military regarded federalism as taboo. Probably sensing its flexibility, a few ethnic representatives pushed for the inclusion of the right to secession, a demand that was turned down by the government. It is viewed as “a red line” by the military.
•Agreement emerged that states and regions could have their own constitutions provided they were in conformity with the federal constitution. Forty-one principles relating to five sectors — politics, security, society, economy, and management of natural resources — were discussed; broad agreement was reached on 37 principles. Two noteworthy features of the conference may be highlighted here. First, while EAOs suffer from internal divisions and the bulk of them are still outside the process, the government and the military are working in coordination. Yet, the two have different long-term objectives: Ms. Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) wants genuine democracy and considerable autonomy for states and regions, whereas the military is conservative on both facets. She demonstrated her political skills by seeking to bridge the divide between the military and the extremist elements in EAOs.
The China factor
•Second, China’s decisive role came out in the open. Days before the conference, Ms. Suu Kyi visited Beijing to participate in the Belt and Road Forum. At a bilateral meeting, Chinese President Xi Jinping assured her that China would continue to provide Myanmar with assistance in its internal peace process. Meeting her separately, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang discussed infrastructure projects, according to Xinhua, suggesting their “proper handling” in order “to guide cooperation expectation and boost confidence”.
•In the build-up to the peace conference, Sun Guoxiang, China’s special envoy on Asian affairs, camped in Naypyitaw, meeting key figures and paving the way for arrival of representatives of seven EAOs from Kunming on a Chinese plane. Ms. Suu Kyi’s top aide U Zaw Htay told an interviewer that the success of the peace process did not “necessarily” depend on China, but China “does play an important role”.
•The coming weeks will be revealing. If fighting does not break out between the military and insurgents again; if a formula is crafted enabling all EAOs to join the peace process; and if the dialogue resumes soon, hopes will be strengthened. Probably the deadline is 2020. Aung San’s spirit and the people of Myanmar are waiting.
