📰 A flight path with obstacles
India’s drone use policy makes the possibility of a red tape-free flight very slim
•At Agroscope, the ‘Swiss centre of excellence for agricultural research’, in Nyon, Switzerland, agriculture scientists fly a drone to study nitrogen level in leaves, not for a farm as a whole, but for each individual plant. The drone takes a large number of images, which when fed into a computer model with data on soil condition, weather, time of the year and other information helps analyse which plants are deficient in nitrogen, enabling farmers to add corrective fertilizer only where necessary. Sensefly, a Swiss drone manufacturer, has customers around the world whose use of drones has resulted in higher yield (more than 10% in observed case studies) and significantly lower usage of fertilizers and herbicides.
•For a country with a population of over eight million, Switzerland has an enormous number of people interested in flying drones and developing drone-based applications. Simon Johnson, the Vice-President of the Drone Industry Association Switzerland, envisions the use of drones in public transport in the not too distant future, as well as setting up drone hubs — mini airports, where drones carrying people and cargo can congregate.
Policy contradictions
•While the rest of the world has been soaring ahead in making the futuristic promise of unmanned flying vehicles a more immediate reality, India has largely been dragging its feet. Up until the end of August, flying a drone was mostly illegal here. With the publication of the drone regulations in late August, the Ministry of Civil Aviation has attempted to give some structure to the development of drone infrastructure in India. While announcing the publication of these guidelines, Civil Aviation Minister Suresh Prabhu made two points, the contradictions of which also highlight India’s lack of clarity on what it should do with drones. For one, he estimated the potential of the “drone market” in India to be $1 trillion. And in the next breath he said India’s security environment necessitated extra precautions.
•It is with such a heavy eye on the precautions that the regulations have been drafted, that flying a drone is a task wrapped tightly in immense paperwork. The abbreviations themselves are more than a page long. India’s regulations separate drones into five categories — nano, micro, small, medium and large. There is very little regulation for flying a nano up to 50 metres height, except for not flying near airports, military sites or in segregated airspace.
•The paranoia kicks in from the micro category, starting with the application for a unique identification number (UIN) for each drone, with a long list of documentation including security clearances from the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) in several cases. Once the UIN is obtained, operators get to move to the next step — of having to apply for an Unmanned Aircraft Operator Permit (UAOP), implying more forms, more annexures and more submissions. Even to fly a micro drone below 200 ft, users have to intimate the local police station 24 hours prior. (One application requires that it be submitted with seven copies.)
•Manufacturers of drones as well as technologists and researchers making applications using drones have to test fly these frequently, often several times a day. The structure of these regulations makes the possibility of a red tape-free flight very slim.
•With so many government authorities involved in allowing permission and keeping an eye, it is inevitable that operators could be slapped easily with real and perceived violations. In an effort to make things slightly easy, the regulation provides a a list of identified areas for testing and demonstration. Flying drones in these areas comes with less paperwork. However, the locations provided are so far from technology and development hubs that it is unclear how practical these will be. In Karnataka, for example, the identified areas are Chitradurga, Coorg and Ganimangala village (which does not even appear on Google maps), all of which are around 200 km from Bengaluru entailing nearly four hours of travel one way.
Untapped potential
•The security and privacy risks of allowing drones to fly in an unregulated manner are high. It may be recalled that in August, a drone was used in an attack on Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro during a public meeting. However, if India is to reach even the fraction of the $1 trillion potential that Mr. Prabhu sees, it needs to figure out a more balanced manner of regulation. The current rules are a start, but only in the sense that they free all drones from their previous illegality. The real impact of drones will be in the many applications they will be put to. Agriculture is just one such. They are likely to be the disaster prevention systems, rescue operation leaders, and even public transport providers in the not too distant future. Missing out on working on these applications early enough will likely have serious repercussions to India’s future competitiveness in the field.
•China’s drone economy — manufacturing and development — will be worth $9 billion in 2020, while the U.S’s commercial drone market is expected to be $2.05 billion by 2023 (Global Market Insights). For India to compete against these giants, it already has a lot of catching up to do. Filing a series of applications in multiple copies and waiting for various government departments to respond is not the best way to get started.
📰 The new deals — on U.S.-Mexico-Canada pact
As the U.S., Canada and Mexico strike a trade pact, the world must watch carefully
•After more than a year of intense negotiation, the U.S., Canada and Mexico managed to arrive at a revised trade agreement on Sunday to replace the quarter-century-old North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Even though the deal does not do anything new to promote the cause of free trade among the North American nations, it achieves the objective of averting any significant damage to the international trade system. Sadly, this is the best anyone could possibly hope for in the midst of the global trade war that began this year. When it comes to the finer details, the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) makes several changes to NAFTA, which U.S. President Donald Trump had promised to scrap. The most prominent changes are the tweaks to production quotas applied to Canada’s dairy industry, which were intended to help protect it by restricting supply. Under the new deal, Canada will have to allow American dairy producers to compete against locals, a move that will favour Canadian consumers. The U.S. agreed to retain Chapter 19 and Chapter 20 dispute-settlement mechanisms as a compromise. This will help Canada and Mexico deal with protectionist duties imposed by the U.S., often under the influence of domestic business lobbies, against their exports.
•Not all the amendments, however, are congenial to the prospects of free trade. Many are simply hard compromises that Canada and Mexico may have made just to defuse trade tensions with the U.S. And not unlike other free trade deals entered into by governments, the present one attempts to micromanage trade in a way that benefits specific interest groups at the cost of the overall economy. The new labour regulations and rules of origin will add to the cost of production of goods such as cars, thus making them uncompetitive in the global market. The USMCA mandates a minimum wage that is above the market wage on labour employed in Mexico, yet another move that will make North America a tough place to do business. Foreign investors may now have fewer protections from unfriendly local laws as the accord does away with resolutions through multilateral dispute panels for certain sectors. But it is its potential to end up as a double-edged sword for the U.S.’s major trading partners that Indian policymakers may find instructive. Announcing the USMCA, Mr. Trump signalled he would now extend his ‘all or nothing’ approach to resetting trade ties with the European Union, China, Japan and India. Terming India “the tariff king”, he said it had sought to start negotiations immediately, a move he reckoned as a bow to the power of tariffs that a protectionist U.S. could wield. In dealing with an emboldened Trump administration, India’s trade negotiators will now have their task cut out if they want to protect exporters’ access to one of the country’s largest markets for its services and merchandise.
📰 Toilet-for-all: WHO calls for more investment
‘Countries need to make policy shifts and invest more’
•The world will not reach the goal of universal sanitation coverage – where every person in the world has access to toilets – by 2030 unless countries make comprehensive policy shifts and invest more funds, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned on Tuesday as it launched the first global guidelines on sanitation and health.
•In a release, the Organisation said that by adopting WHO’s new guidelines, countries can significantly reduce the diarrhoeal deaths due to unsafe water, sanitation and hygiene. For every US $1 invested in sanitation, WHO estimates a nearly six-fold return as measured by lower health costs, increased productivity and fewer premature deaths.
•Worldwide, 2.3 billion people lack basic sanitation (with almost half forced to defecate in the open). They are among the 4.5 billion without access to safely managed sanitation services – in other words a toilet connected to a sewer or pit or septic tank that treats human waste.
•“Without proper access, millions of people the world over are deprived of the dignity, safety and convenience of a decent toilet,” said Dr. Soumya Swaminathan, deputy director-general for Programmes, WHO.
•“Sanitation is a fundamental foundation of human health and development and underpins the core mission of WHO and ministries of health worldwide. WHO’s Sanitation and Health Guidelines are essential to securing health and wellbeing for everyone, everywhere,’’ she added.
Cause and effect
•WHO developed the new guidelines on sanitation and health because current sanitation programmes are not achieving anticipated health gains and there is a lack of authoritative health-based guidance on sanitation.
•“Billions of people live without access to even the most basic sanitation services,” said Dr. Maria Neira, director, Department of Public Health, Environmental and Social Determinants of Health, WHO.
•“Poor sanitation is a major factor in transmission of neglected tropical diseases,” she added.
📰 88 million-year-old isle and crater to be geoparks
Geological Survey chooses heritage locations in Maharashtra and Karnataka for UNESCO site status
•In a first, an ancient circular lake created by a meteorite strike in Maharashtra and a hexagonal mosaic of basaltic rocks in an island off Udupi are poised to become global geoparks, under a Geological Survey of India (GSI) plan.
•Lonar Lake in Maharashtra and St. Mary’s Island and Malpe beach in coastal Karnataka are the GSI’s candidates for UNESCO Global Geopark Network status.
•The road to recognition, however, is long. An aspiring Global Geopark must have a dedicated website, a corporate identity, comprehensive management plan, protection plans, finance, and partnerships for it to be accepted. In mid-August, GSI moved ahead with the plan, setting a follow-up time frame of 100 days.
•The Geopark tag is akin to that of a ‘World Heritage Site’ for historical monuments that can bring India’s famed geological features to the global stage.
•“These are spectacular to look at even for the general public who may not understand that they are also geologically important. Lonar lake is the only known meteorite crater in basaltic rock and is world famous, while St. Mary’s island is a unique phenomenon that has been preserved well,” says Asit Saha, Director, Geodata, at the GSI Headquarters in Kolkata.
•St. Mary’s Island, declared a national geo-heritage site in 1975, is estimated to be an 88-million-year-old formation that goes back to a time when Greater India broke away from Madagascar.
Relatively young
•Lonar crater became a geo-heritage site in 1979. It is relatively young geologically, at just 50,000 years old. A meteorite estimated to weigh two-million-tonnes slammed into the Earth, creating a 1.83-km diameter crater where the lake formed. It is distinguished by a near-perfect, circular ejecta blanket, which refers to earth thrown up during the collision, around it.
📰 Venkaiah Naidu calls on nations to unite against terror
Vice-President inaugurated the World Peace Monument, the largest dome in the world
•Vice-President M. Venkaiah Naidu on Tuesday inaugurated the world’s largest dome at the Maharashtra Institute of Technology (MIT)’s World Peace University (MIT-WPU) campus at Loni Kalbhor on the occasion of the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.
•Institute authorities have said the structure, called the ‘World Peace Monument’ dome, took nearly 13 years to build. At 160 ft in diameter and 263 ft tall, it is larger in area than the dome at St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City (which is 136 ft. in diameter and 448 ft. in height).
•Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Naidu said, “Terrorism, violence, discrimination and poverty are among the most daunting challenges facing us today. No religion in the world advocates terrorism. All nations across the globe must unite to combat the scourge of terrorism.”
‘Remarkable architecture’
•Remarking on the MIT-WPU dome, he said, “This enormous structure is an architectural wonder. Constructing a 160 ft diameter structure with only 24 columns as the foundation is a remarkable feat. I am delighted to inaugurate one of the largest domes in the world and appreciate the efforts of MIT for this structure.”
•The dome is built atop the MIT World Peace Library and the World Peace Prayer Hall, which are named after the 13th century poet-saint and philosopher Dnyaneshwar — a pivotal figure of the Bhakti movement in Maharashtra.
Massive proportions
•Each of the 24 massive columns in the ‘World Peace Monument’ dome stand 63 feet tall. The prayer hall can accommodate about 3,500 people and is embellished with more than 50 statues of saints, philosophers, scientists and statesmen from India and the world.
•Each of the statues, created by the noted artist, Ram V. Sutar, is four metres in tall and weighs up to two tonnes.
•“It is indeed a historic moment and an honour to be part of this ceremony on a day when we are entering the 150th birth anniversary year of Mahatma Gandhi. It was Gandhiji who gave us the biggest weapon of world peace and that was non-violence,” said Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, speaking on the occasion.
•Observing that the hall and library had been aptly named after Saint Dnyaneshwar, Mr. Fadnavis said the poet-saint had always preached that people were not evil and advocated eradicating evil ideas instead.
•The dome, said to be built without the design expertise of a professional architect, is the brainchild of Dr. Vishwanath Karad, founder-president of the MIT World Peace University. The rationale behind it is to symbolize the unity of the Indian identity through its religions, ideologies and literature, Dr. Karad said.
•The MIT-WPU has organised a four-day world parliament of science, religion and philosophy at this campus, which begins on Tuesday.
📰 India dispatches relief material to tsunami-hit Indonesia
Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a telephonic conversation with Indonesian President Joko Widodo on Monday and offered all possible assistance.
•After India’s offer of assistance to tsunami-hit Indonesia, Indian Air Force (IAF) and Navy launched Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) efforts on Tuesday to deliver relief material to the South East Asian country.
•Indian Navy has diverted three ships INS Tir, Sujata and Shardul on deployment to Singapore to Palu in Indonesia. IAF has deployed one C-130J and one C-17 transport aircraft to ferry medical teams and relief material.
•Besides HADR bricks or material normally carried by all ships, these ships also have on board 30,000 L of bottled drinking water, 1500 L of packaged juices, 500 L milk, 700 kg of biscuits and 20 tents. The ships were dispatched at first light on Tuesday morning, a Navy officer said.
•A massive 7.5 magnitude earthquake struck the Indonesian province of Sulawesi on Friday triggering a tsunami leaving at least 1,234 dead. On Monday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a telephonic conversation with Indonesian President Joko Widodo and offered all possible assistance.
•The IAF C-130J aircraft is carrying a field hospital from Agra while the C-17 aircraft is carrying National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) load, mainly consisting tents, generators and medicines.
•The C-130 carrying 37 medical personnel has taken off from Hindon Air Force station to Chennai. From Chennai the aircraft will fly to Kualanamu international airport and from there move to Palu.
•“The medical teams have been instructed to be self-contained for 10 days. Accordingly they are carrying their rations, generators, fuel oil lubricant, tentage. In addition, light medical equipment including an X-ray machine and medicines are being carried,” one IAF officer said.
•The C-17 was loaded at Palam with relief material received from NDMA, including 15.66 tonne of tentage and generators and 16 tonne of medicines. The aircraft is headed to Makkasar in Indonesia.
