📰 HC bans homework for Class I & II students
Schools across Boards to follow ruling
•The Madras High Court on Tuesday directed the Centre to instruct the State governments and Union Territories to make sure that no school in the country, irrespective of the educational board it was affiliated to, prescribed homework for students in Classes I & II, in accordance with the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) recommendations.
Fewer subjects
•In his order, Justice N. Kirubakaran also said no school should force upon children any subject other than language and mathematics in Classes I and II.
•Further, the only additional subject for Classes III-V should be environmental science, he said. Schools that flout the court’s directions on homework and number of subjects should be disaffiliated, he said.
•The judge directed the Centre to make sure that every State government and Union Territory constitutes flying squads to conduct inspections in schools to monitor compliance with the directions. He, however, said schools should be first apprised of the orders by issuing necessary circulars.
•“Neither children are weightlifters nor school bags load containers,” Justice Kirubakaran said before directing the Centre to formulate a policy forthwith on the lines of the Children School Bags (Limitation on Weight) Bill, 2006. He wanted the States to formulate such policies and reduce the books carried by children.
📰 Bengal’s Chau mask acquires GI fame
Five rural crafts from the State secure Geographical Indication protection
•The Chau mask of Purulia, the wooden mask of Kushmandi, the Patachitra, the Dokras of Bengal, and Madhurkathi (a kind of mat) have been presented with the Geographical Indication (GI) tag by the Geographical Indication Registry and Intellectual Property India.
•A GI tag connects the quality and authenticity of a given product to a particular geographical origin, thereby ensuring that no one other than the authorised user can use the popular product’s name.
•Chinnaraja G. Naidu, Deputy Registrar of Geographical Indications, told The Hindu that GI tags for these five rural crafts would not only help the artisans create their own brand but would also provide legal protection to artisans practising the crafts against attempts to duplicate them in other regions.
Bengal scores
•According to Mr. Naidu, during 2017-18, his office awarded GI tags to 25 products, of which nine were from West Bengal.
•GI tags are given on the basis of the Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and Protection) Act, 1999. The first product to be included in the list was Darjeeling Tea. “What is unique about these is that they are made by marginalised communities that, until a few years ago, found it hard to sustain themselves by producing these crafts,” said Niloy Basu, general manager of Banglanatak.com, a social enterprise working with artisans. “The GI status for five rural products will have a direct impact on the occupation of 5,000-6,000 families in the State,” he added. While 500 families were involved in the making of large and colourful Chau masks used in the Chau dance, also known as Chhau, in Baghmundi block of Purulia, around 200 families in Kushmandi make the wooden masks used for the Mukha dance.
•In Paschim Medinipur, a few hundred families in Pingla village make the beautifully painted scrolls called Patachitra, and 3,000 families in two districts were into making Madurkathi.
📰 Centre’s offer of talks not clear, say J&K separatists
‘Government must clarify what it wants to talk about and speak in one voice’
•In their first formal response to the Centre’s dialogue offer, separatist leaders said on Tuesday that they were ready to join the talks if New Delhi offered more clarity.
•“Talks should keep in view the concerns of the stakeholders, especially the most affected party, and should be result-oriented. Any effort that the Government of India (GoI) takes in this direction will find takers in Kashmir and Pakistan. Let the GoI provide clarity on what it wants to talk about and speak in one language... we are ready to join the process,” said a joint statement issued by Syed Ali Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Yasin Malik.
•The trio met at the residence of Mr. Geelani.
“Ambiguous”
•Describing the offer as “unclear and ambiguous so far,” the separatists said, “[Union Home Minister] Mr. Rajnath Singh says there should be dialogue with both Kashmir and Pakistan, but both ‘Kashmir and Kashmiri are ours.’ [External Affairs Minister] Ms. Sushma Swaraj puts a rider and says ‘no talks with Pakistan unless terror stops.’ [Prime Minister] Mr. Modi says development is the solution. All this ambiguity leaves little room for us to consider the dialogue seriously.”
•The Hurriyat leader termed dialogue the best process for political redressal.
•“J&K is a divided territory. This dispute has three stakeholders — India, Pakistan and the people of this land. Absence of any one stakeholder in the process will not yield any solution,” they said.
•Militant outfits, Lashkar-e-Taiba and Hizbul Mujahideen, have rejected the dialogue offer and the ceasefire.
Specify contours: CPI(M)
•CPI(M) leader MLA M.Y. Tarigami also asked the Centre to specify the contours of the dialogue.
•“There is a perception that a chain of broken promises, repeated interruptions and palpable lack of honesty in the past were the reason for the failure of the earlier initiatives. The Centre has created a window of opportunity and should not once again be vague and hazy,” said Mr. Tarigami. “The dialogue should be structured, sustained and sincere. It should go beyond the beaten track.”
•The ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) said the present situation could emerge as “a win-win deal.” “The leadership of the State has a chance to translate the ideas of dialogue and reconciliation into a living reality,” said PDP general secretary Mansoor Hussain Soharwardhy.
📰 A maritime stretch: Modi in Southeast Asia
A more concerted and intensive engagement will serve both India and Indonesia well
•Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Southeast Asia this week has the potential to spark a new period of maritime cooperation between India and Indonesia. An uptick in India-Indonesia relations will be a welcome development for both President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) and Mr. Modi, who through their respective ‘Global Maritime Fulcrum’ and ‘Act East’ policies have envisaged sharper maritime collaboration in the region.
China, the common concern
•The visit comes against the backdrop of an offer from the Indonesian government to grant India access to its Sabang port for the development of the port and an economic zone. Located at the mouth of the strategically important Strait of Malacca, Sabang is only 100 nautical miles from the southern tip of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. India and Indonesia share multiple common concerns, one of which is China’s growing maritime footprint in the eastern Indian Ocean. Sabang, with its naval base, naval air station, and maintenance and repair facilities, has the potential to serve as the focal point of a budding strategic partnership between the two countries.
•Both countries value the key sea lines of communication (SLOCs) that connect the Indian Ocean to the Pacific, and therefore the foundation of any strategic partnership will rest on how they both seek to manage the region’s strategically important chokepoints. The strategically important Straits of Malacca, Lombok and Sunda fall under the Indian Navy’s primary area of interest, and access to Indonesian naval bases such as Sabang will significantly enhance the Indian Navy’s ability to maintain a forward presence and monitor movements in the Straits of Malacca.
•Indonesia too has started recognising the benefits of a closer strategic partnership with India. Like many other members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, Jakarta remains apprehensive of Chinese intentions in the wider maritime theatre. The territorial dispute between China and Indonesia in the Natuna Sea is an issue that is close to Mr. Jokowi, and a strategic alignment with India will help Jakarta balance some of the security concerns emanating from Beijing’s aggressive stance in the South China Sea.
•The comprehensive defence cooperation agreement that is expected to be signed between the countries can possibly be a multifaceted logistical agreement — on the lines of the deal which India signed with France earlier in the year. Mutual logistical support and reciprocal berthing rights will facilitate a more intimate maritime security partnership. This will allow India to gain access to naval bases in Lampung on the Sunda Strait, and Denpasar and Banyuwangi on the Lombok Strait, augmenting the Indian Navy’s operational breadth in the eastern Indian Ocean.
Areas of engagement
•Indonesia, on its end, will also seek to negotiate the delimitation of the exclusive economic zone shared by the two nations in the Andaman Sea. Additional facets of this partnership can involve information sharing on white shipping, and enabling India to partner Indonesia in tracking commercial cargo ships at choke points such as Malacca which are getting increasingly congested.
•In the past, cooperation between India and Indonesia has been limited to anti-piracy patrols, search and rescue exercises and joint hydrographic exploration. It is important for the two countries to move to a more concerted and intensive engagement. India should leverage this opportunity and seek its inclusion in the Malacca Strait Patrols programme. India’s inclusion in the programme would augment India’s existing maritime domain awareness in the region, while the eyes-in-the-sky component will allow India to jointly patrol the region with its maritime surveillance aircraft. Chinese presence in these SLOCs is well known, and India’s ability to monitor Chinese naval movements in the locale will be a great boost to the Indian Navy’s security missions. Moreover, access to the Jayapura naval base in West Papua will expand the Indian Navy’s operating capacity in the Western Pacific, and complement Indian access to French naval bases in French Polynesia and New Caledonia in the Southern Pacific.
•A strategic confluence between New Delhi and Jakarta needs an economic direction. The development of the port and economic zone in Sabang can serve as blueprint for a connectivity partnership between the two nations, and more importantly, provide an alternative to China’s Belt and Road Initiative. The proposed cruise tourism circuit between the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Sabang would further enhance such economic linkages. Additionally, a partnership that includes collaboration in defence industries and maritime training and education can ensure a dynamic maritime collaboration.
•At a time when countries are realigning themselves to accommodate the growing consensus around an Indo-Pacific strategic framework, India and Indonesia, as members of the Indian Ocean Rim Association, need to complement each other’s vision of a regional order.
An opportunity
•Mr. Modi is due to deliver the keynote at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore after his Jakarta visit, and he needs to use this opportunity to make public the strategic framework of his ‘Act East’ policy. India needs to supplement efforts in Jakarta and leverage its existing strategic relations with Singapore and other like-minded regional states if it is to cement its position as a ‘net security provider’ in the Indian Ocean. A closer logistical partnership with countries such as Singapore, Australia and Indonesia can be the starting point of an extensive strategic linkage that will help establish India as a regional provider of maritime security.
•The time has come for India to realise the potential of a strategic alignment with the archipelagic state that is geo-politically positioned at the centre of the Indo-Pacific, and an upgrade in maritime relations is the logical way forward.
📰 Nepal hurt, Sushma says sorry
Kathmandu criticises Minister for saying it was Indians who attended a Modi event in Janakpur
•Nepal on Tuesday said a comment made by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on a public meeting attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on its territory was “unfortunate”.
•The official statement came a day after the Minister, at her annual press conference, commented about Mr. Modi’s recent event at Janakpur in Nepal, which gave the impression that the Nepal citizens at the meeting were part of the Indian diaspora with extraterritorial allegiance to the Indian leader.
•“The reference made about the public participation at the civic felicitation programme held in honour of the Prime Minister of India in Janakpur on 11 May 2018 was unfortunate. It has come to the notice of the Government of Nepal that she has publicly admitted her mistake and apologised for the same,” said a statement from the spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Nepal.
PM’s outreach
•In the course of the press conference, Ms. Swaraj pointed out that Prime Minister Modi had led a campaign of outreach to Indian citizens living abroad.
•Comparing Mr. Modi with his predecessors, the Minister said, “Narendra Modi is the first Prime Minister of India who has reached out to lakhs of Indians from Madison Square Garden of America to Janakpur.”
•Mr. Modi had addressed a large public gathering in Janakpur during his May 11 visit to Nepal. The statement gave the impression that India was not sincere about Nepal’s sovereignty.
•However, Ms. Swaraj apologised for the mix-up and said, “This was a mistake on my part. I sincerely apologise for this.”
•Responding to Ms. Swaraj, the spokesperson said, “Social cohesion and harmony characterise the Nepali way of life that is reflective of national unity among people living in all regions, which should be respected by all.”
‘It is regrettable’
•Soon after the press conference in Delhi, Nepali Congress leader and former Minister Gagan Thapa took on Ms. Swaraj and said, “It is regrettable that India’s External Affairs Minister described Janakpur’s population that Narendra Modi greeted as Indians. One wonders what the confusion was or if this was casual undermining of Nepal’s sovereignty. He got support from veteran politician and interlocutor for Nepal, D.P. Tripathi, who said, “PM Modi addressed a rally for Nepali citizens. But terming them as Indian nationals is wrong.”
•Janakpur is in the plains of Nepal and is considered the birthplace of Sita. It is also part of the Mithila region that stretches till Bihar. Nepal had blamed India for protests in the region that Kathmandu described as an attack on its sovereignty.
📰 India, U.K. to talk amid rows
Agenda includes controversial subjects of extradition and immigration
•Two days after External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj divulged contents of a conversation between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his British counterpart, Theresa May, over the extradition of fugitive businessman Vijay Mallya, Indian officials are willing to push the case to deport Mr. Mallya with British officials at the Home Affairs dialogue in Delhi on Wednesday.
•The dialogue has already run into several controversies.
•On Monday, Ms. Swaraj said Mr. Modi had snubbed Ms. May during their meeting in London in April when she had raised concerns over the poor condition of Indian jails, saying they were the “same jails that Mahatma Gandhi, Pandit Nehru and other leaders” had been kept in during British rule.
•Asked about the conversation, British and Indian officials said the Mallya case is now entirely within the purview of British courts.
•“There is little Ms. May, or the British Home Office can do in the case, and the Crown Prosecution Service has been commended for putting together what is considered to be a strong case for Mr. Mallya’s extradition,” an official, who asked not to be named, told The Hindu. The next hearing in the Mallya case is expected on July 11, after which the court may issue a decision date.
More requests
•During the talks, India is also expected to enquire about progress in other extradition requests, including the cases of IPL owner Lalit Modi and diamond merchant Nirav Modi, now believed to have taken refuge in the U.K., as well as Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (MLAT) cases, where India awaits responses to queries on Khalistani groups including the Babbar Khalsa operating in the U.K.
•The other contentious issue likely to occupy centre-stage at the talks is the subject of return of undocumented Indian immigrants in the U.K.
•The original agreement, which was inked as an MoU by Minister of State Kiren Rijiju in London in January, had to be shelved at the last minute on the eve of Prime Minister Modi’s visit in April, after the Cabinet decided to review its terms.
•According to officials, the agreement’s stipulation that undocumented immigrants would be returned in a “70-day” timeline was “unrealistic and unachievable”, and India preferred not to sign the agreement after the May-Modi meeting, causing some confusion at the time, as it was the key agreement expected to be completed.
•“The agreement paves the way for a quicker and more efficient process for documenting and returning Indian nationals who are in the U.K. illegally. We look forward to further discussions with the government of India on this MoU and hope that it will be ratified and implemented soon,” said a British Home Office statement on Tuesday.
•Officials in London and New Delhi said that India is yet to give its objections to the agreement in writing.
•The Home Affairs dialogue, which was first held in May 2017, has also run into trouble this year because of all the changes within the British Home Office in recent weeks, including key officials in charge of dealing with issues with India.
•In April, Home Secretary Amber Rudd was sacked after it emerged that she had misled a parliamentary committee over the deportation of Caribbean immigrants.
•Permanent Undersecretary Patsy Wilkinson, who will lead the British delegation to Delhi on Wednesday, will leave her post in June.
📰 NGT issues notices on plea to halt road through Corbett
Will damage the ecosystem and biodiversity: petitioner
•A plea seeking a stay on the construction of a link road linking Kotdwar to Ramnagar through the Corbett Tiger Reserve has led the National Green Tribunal to seek responses from the Uttarakhand government and the Centre.
•A Bench headed by NGT acting chairperson Jawad Rahim on Tuesday issued show-cause notices to the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change, National Tiger Conservation Authority, National Board for Wildlife, NBBC (India) Limited and State government. The authorities have been asked to file their replies within two weeks.
•The orders came while the green panel was hearing a plea filed by advocate Gaurav Bansal which alleged that the construction of the link road would damage the ecosystem and biodiversity of the tiger reserve.
•The plea alleged that the construction of the road was in violation of previous Supreme Court orders that prohibited the construction of any road through the Corbett Tiger Reserve.
•“The National Parks, sanctuaries and conversation reserves are extremely important for conservation of biodiversity and for ensuring the survival of floral and faunal components, not only for present but also for future… the decision of Uttarakhand to construct the road shall not only damage the ecosystem, biodiversity, wildlife and environment of the Corbett Tiger Reserve but shall also violate (previous orders),” read the plea.
📰 Data in a post-truth age
Trust in official statistics is vital for democracy — the new policy must avoid centralisation
•David Spiegelhalter, president of Royal Statistical Society in the U.K., gave a most unusual presidential address in 2017. Instead of talking about esoteric statistical techniques, he talked about declining trust in numbers in a post-truth society bombarded by fake news and alternative facts. He recommended to the statistical community that the best way of inspiring trust was to be trustworthy by demonstrating competence, reliability and honesty.
•India has been fortunate in inheriting a statistical system from stalwarts like P.C. Mahalanobis and C.R. Rao that has historically demonstrated all three. However, with the growing demand for statistics and increasingly challenging data collection environment, the move by Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MOSPI) towards developing a National Policy on Official Statistics is most welcome.
•There is much to like in this policy. It notes increasing data needs, lays down the groundwork for ethical data collection, highlights the importance of data quality and addresses the need for documentation and durable data storage. However, it also remains rooted within the confines of governmental administrative structures and does not directly address the criteria identified by Mr. Spiegelhalter. In the Indian context, each of these presents great challenge.
Competence
•Sample surveys, the bedrock of Indian statistical systems, must make explicit choices about who to ask various questions as well as what to ask and how to ask. In a statistical system developed by renowned statisticians and econometricians, it is not surprising that much attention has been directed towards identifying the universe of respondents and sample selection. However, this is only a small part of the challenge. Given the increasing need for statistics in diverse areas, it is important that scholars from many different disciplines be involved.
•The National Sample Survey (NSS) collects data on occupations and industries of workers. In 2009, it suddenly switched from older codes designed in 1968 to new series of codes developed in 2004. This change makes it difficult to differentiate between farmers and farm managers and shopkeepers and sales managers via occupational codes alone. This leaves out such a large portion of the Indian workforce that it is mind-boggling. Why? We decided to adopt international standards developed for industrial societies where self-employed farmers and shopkeepers have been swallowed up by large corporations. I suspect that if a sociologist interested in occupations was involved in overseeing this change, it might not have passed the scrutiny.
Reliability
•How surveys are designed and questions are developed has evolved into a science that transcends the skill set usually employed by our statistical systems. The Reserve Bank of India has adopted an inflation-targeting approach that relies on data on inflation expectations of individuals. In a country where ASER (Annual Status of Education Report) surveys repeatedly document extremely low mathematical skills, how reliable are the data when individuals are asked to compare their expectations of inflation rates over the coming year with that in the future? We have little understanding of reliability and validity of these data, and yet they form the bedrock of our policy. Experiments designed by cognitive anthropologists, educational assessment experts and survey design specialists are needed to arrive at the correct questions. And even then, we will need some way of estimating uncertainty surrounding these results.
Honesty
•The draft policy as well as many other reports have paid great attention to the fact that data collection is increasingly being done by contractual employees and for-profit organisations. Supervising them and ensuring their honesty remains challenging. While improved technology for monitoring fieldwork such as random segment audio recording of interviews and real-time checks for detecting frauds and errors may help increase honesty, there is no substitute for empathy and experience. Whenever I talk about interviewer errors and fraud, I recall doing a health-related interview in a mosquito-infested locality. I was bravely suffering through mosquito bites until my respondent told me her husband was recovering from malaria and I simply wanted to flee her home. We expect interviewers to work under challenging circumstances and often send them out to collect data with little training and support. A nimble survey management structure that understands the difficulties of on-the-ground data collectors and responds appropriately to find ways of ensuring quality and honesty must form the cornerstone of good data collection.
•The draft policy on official statistics engages with these challenges only tangentially. Instead, it chooses to follow the report of the C. Rangarajan-led National Statistical Commission (NSC) submitted in 2001 and focusses largely on coordination within different ministries at the Centre and between State governments and the Centre. A tendency to centralise authority and decision-making within well-defined structures such as the NSC forms the core of the policy statement. It also recommends that a registered society under the oversight of MOSPI be set up with ₹2,000 crore endowment that will be tasked with all government data collection and statistical analyses.
•Instead of creating a statistical data ecosystem that harnesses the energy of diverse institutions and disciplines in which innovative thinking on data collection and analysis could be undertaken, this tendency towards centralisation may well isolate official statistical systems. This is quite a departure from India’s illustrious history. Mahalanobis was instrumental in setting up both the Indian Statistical Institute (ISI) and what was to become the National Sample Survey Organisation. Most of the early innovations implemented in the NSS emerged from work by academics at the ISI. However, as former member of the NSS Governing Council, T.J. Rao, notes, the collaboration between academics and the NSS has weakened substantially in recent years. The proposed move would lead to even further alienation of official statistical systems from the academic and research infrastructure of the nation.
Harness diverse energies
•If we are to revitalise India’s statistical infrastructure, it is vitally important to harness diverse energies from academic and research institutions such as the ISI, the Indian Agricultural Statistics Research Institute, National Council of Applied Economic Research, the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, the International Institute for Population Sciences, the Delhi School of Economics, the Madras Institute of Development Studies and the National Institute of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj. Smaller, technology-savvy private sector organisations may also make important contributions in technology-driven data collection. Around the world, in diverse countries such as China, South Africa, Brazil, the U.K. and the U.S., statistical ecosystems consist of universities, research institutions and government agencies working synergistically. The proposed policy on official statistics is timely and thoughtful but it is also isolationist. Creative thinking about building synergies with diverse communities such as academic and research institutions would strengthen it and reduce the burden on the NSC, leaving it free to devote greater attention to developing quality control parameters and to play an oversight and coordination role.
•The phrase ‘figures don’t lie, but liars figure’ seems to sum up the motif of a post-statistics society. A report in The Guardian in 2017 noted declining trust in official statistics around the world and argued that it damages democracy by jeopardising public knowledge and public argument. The draft National Policy on Official Statistics offers a great start for fostering trust in statistics but enhancing its inclusiveness will go a long way towards encouraging competence, reliability and honesty in public statistics.
📰 Policy on biofuels: Green push?
The new biofuels policy is high on ambition, but success will depend on the details
•At a time when rising oil prices are putting increasing pressure on the economy, even small steps to encourage the use of biofuels are welcome. The Cabinet this month approved a National Policy on Biofuels, which encourages the generation and use of biofuels such as ethanol. It primarily tries to address supply-side issues that have discouraged the production of biofuels within the country. For one, it allows for a wider variety of raw materials to be used as inputs to produce ethanol that is blended with petrol. Until now, only ethanol produced from sugarcane was approved for this purpose. Under the new policy, feedstock for biofuels includes sugar beet, corn, damaged foodgrain, potatoes, even municipal solid waste. This will likely reduce the cost of producing biofuels and improve affordability for consumers, particularly during times when oil prices reach discomforting levels. In India, industrial-scale availability of ethanol so far has been only from sugar factories, which were free to divert it to other users such as alcohol producers, who would pay more. The oil companies have been floating tenders for ethanol supply, but availability lags behind their needs, because the price is often not attractive enough for the sugar industry. The Centre hopes the new policy will also benefit farmers, who will be able to sell various types of agricultural waste to industry at remunerative prices. But given the technology available, a large chunk of the biofuel will have to come from the sugar sector for now. Therefore, pricing is the key. The government estimates that ethanol supply of around 150 crore litres in 2017-18 could save foreign exchange worth over ₹4,000 crore. The production of biofuels from agricultural waste, it is hoped, will also help curb atmospheric pollution by giving farmers an incentive not to burn it, as is happening in large parts of northern India.
•But policy should not get ahead of technological and financial feasibility — and options should be realistically laid out for farmers. There is also a need for caution in using surplus foodgrain to produce ethanol. And while removing the shackles on raw material supply can have definite benefits, it cannot make a significant difference to biofuel production as long as the supply-chain infrastructure that is required to deliver biofuels to the final consumer remains inadequate. To address this issue, the new policy envisages investment to the tune of ₹5,000 crore in building bio-refineries and offering other incentives over the next few years. The government should also take steps to remove policy barriers that have discouraged private investment in building supply chains. Until that happens, India’s huge biofuel potential will continue to remain largely untapped.
📰 In 2016, 5/20 norm was replaced with 0/20
Now airlines can fly abroad with no domestic experience
•The 5/20 norm was brought in 2004 by the then Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel to allow Indian private carriers to fly overseas. The rule entailed that an airline based in India will need to have at least five years of experience of flying within the country and 20 aircraft on its fleet before it qualifies to fly overseas.
•Ten years later, the government allowed foreign carriers to buy up to 49% in an Indian airline paving the way for Etihad to buy 24% stake in Jet Airways and AirAsia to set up an airline in India in partnership with Tata.
•Soon after, the new entrants, who were keen to fly overseas, started lobbying for the 5/20 norm to be relaxed, but the legacy carriers firmly opposed the move fearing competition.
•It was in 2016, when the Cabinet approved the National Civil Aviation Policy that the 5/20 norm was replaced with 0/20 allowing airlines to launch international operations with no domestic experience but at least 20 aircraft (or 20% of its entire fleet size whichever is higher) for domestic operations, in a move that was expected to benefit both AirAsia India and Vistara, which is a joint venture between Tata and Singapore Airlines. While Vistara has announced that it will be launching international operations in the second half of 2018 after it recently inducted its 20th aircraft, AirAsia has only 18 planes on its fleet and intends to launch flights on international routes in early 2019.
📰 Centre plans connectivity push on China border
To counter Chinese radio channels in Arunachal villages
•The ‘invasion’ of Chinese radio channels has made the Centre plan installation of optical fibre cables (OFC) in areas bordering China.
•The OFC push is expected to arm civilians and defence personnel with cellular and radio connectivity strong enough to counter the Chinese waves, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in Arunachal Pradesh’s capital, Itanagar, on Tuesday.
•Ms. Sitharaman said she experienced poor communication network during her recent visit to Kibithoo, the last border village in Arunachal Pradesh’s Anjaw district.
•“I came to know people in the area access Chinese radio frequency but not All India Radio,” she said.
•“We will soon start work on extension of OFC in the remote border areas. The Union Cabinet discussed the issue 10 days ago and sanctioned additional funds,” Ms. Sitharaman, in the frontier State to highlight the achievements of the four-year-old Narendra Modi government, said.
•The Defence Minister also said the government was trying to recruit more women in the armed forces from border areas. “I am considering permanent commission to women in the defence forces, but the issue is caught in a legal battle,” she said.
•Women in the forces who did not get permanent commission had approached the court some time ago.
•Ms. Sitharaman, however, declined to comment on reports about mining activities by China near the border with Arunachal Pradesh.
•“I do not have the details and cannot say anything at this point of time,” she said.
📰 Bacteria-coated broccoli sent to space
These “beneficial” microbes may help plants grow better in extreme low-gravity environments
•Scientists have sent broccoli seeds coated with a healthy dose of good bacteria to space in a quest to find a viable way for astronauts at the International Space Station (ISS) to grow their own vegetables — and possibly one day on the Moon or Mars.
•Six broccoli seeds were aboard the Orbital ATK Cygnus spacecraft that launched this week from Wallops Island, Virginia, as part of a space station cargo resupply mission. Three of the seeds are travelling to space as it is, while the other three were coated with two different species of bacteria, developed at the University of Washington, that can live inside crop plants and improve their growth. These “beneficial” microbes, also called endophytes, may also help plants grow better in extreme low-gravity environments, and where nutrients or water could be lacking.
•The goal of the experiment, conducted by students at Valley Christian High School in San Jose in California, is to learn how to grow vegetables in the challenging, microgravity conditions of the space station — and eventually on the Moon and Mars — as human space exploration expands.
Farming in space
•Developed by a team of 11 students, the initial ground experiments proved successful, as the broccoli grew faster and significantly larger than the control study. “It would be ideal if we could grow crops for astronauts at the space station or who are lunar-or Mars-based without needing to ship potting mix or fertiliser,” said Sharon Doty, a professor at University of Washington.
•“We would like to be able to get plants to grow in what is available with a minimum input,” Ms. Doty said.
•Previous research has found that plants can better tolerate drought and other environmental stressors with the help of natural microbes that provide nutrients to their plant partners.
📰 Great Barrier Reef facing its toughest test ever
It never faced an onslaught of warming quite as severe as today
•Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, under severe stress in a warmer, more acidic ocean, has returned from near-extinction five times in the past 30,000 years, researchers said on Monday.
•And while this suggests the reef may be more resilient than once thought, it has likely never faced an onslaught quite as severe as today, they added. “I have grave concerns about the ability of the reef in its current form to survive the pace of change caused by the many current stresses and those projected into the near future,” said Jody Webster of the University of Sydney, who co-authored a paper in the journal Nature Geoscience.
•In the past, the reef shifted along the sea floor to deal with changes in its environment — either seaward or landward depending on whether the level of the ocean was rising or falling, the team found.
•Based on fossil data from cores drilled into the ocean floor at 16 sites, they determined the Great Barrier Reef was able to migrate between 20 cm and 1.5 metres per year. This rate may not be enough to withstand the current barrage of environmental challenges.
•The reef “probably has not faced changes in SST (sea surface temperature) and acidification at such a rate,” Mr. Webster said. Rates of change “are likely much faster now — and in future projections.”
•Over 10 years, they studied how it had responded to changes caused by continental ice sheets expanding and waning over 30 millennia.
•Mr. Webster said the GBR “will probably die again in the next few thousand years anyway if it follows its past geological pattern” as the earth is believed to be due for another ice age. “But whether human-induced climate change will hasten that death remains to be seen.”
