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Hindu Notes from General Studies-02

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 ‘Corruption no longer among top 3 hurdles to doing business in India’

News

  • The perception among U.K. businesses that corruption is a major barrier in doing business in India has halved, according to the latest edition of the U.K. India Business Council’s Ease of Doing Business report compared with what it was in 2015.

Findings

  • Since the first report was launched, there has been a considerable year-on-year fall in the number of companies that viewed ‘corruption’ as a major barrier from 34% in 2016 to 25% in 2017, halving since 2015, where it stood at 51%.
  • This decline shows a major improvement, indicating that the current government’s efforts to mitigate corruption appear to be delivering tangible and much-desired results.
  • Those identifying ‘corruption’ as a major barrier has declined far more dramatically over the four-year course of this survey among those currently doing business in India [decline of 27% in the last two years] where it is no longer considered a ‘top-three’ barrier compared to those not currently active in India.
  • The report noted that initiatives such as Aadhaar, electronic submission of government documents, acceptance of electronic signatures, and the push to file taxes online, have all reduced face-to-face interactions where corruption is most likely to take place.
  • Taxation issues’ and ‘price points’ overtook ‘corruption’ as major barriers identified by 36% and 29% of respondents, respectively.
  • Those currently doing business in India cite ‘taxation issues’ as a consistent barrier, whilst those looking to enter the Indian market understandably rate ‘identifying a suitable partner’ as their most salient issue after a considerable decline in reports of ‘legal and regulatory impediments’ from 2017 to 2018.
  • The key issue for those outside India is increasingly market demand for their products and services relative to government and bureaucracy-related barriers.
  • While most of the respondents agreed that the government’s ‘e-biz’ initiative towards faster clearances would improve the business environment, there remain significant complaints about around the lack of transparency around business approvals, particularly in the case of statutory approvals for investments.

Global fight on malaria stalled: WHO

News

  • The World Health Organisation said global efforts to fight malaria have hit a plateau as it reported there were more cases of the killer disease in 2017 than the previous year.

Findings

  • The latest WHO report showed that the number of malaria cases climbed to 219 million last year, two million higher than 2016, while international funding has declined.
  • Malaria, which is spread to people through the bites of infected female mosquitoes, occurs in 91 countries but about 90% of the cases and deaths are in sub-Saharan Africa.
  • Foreign funding to some of the most affected countries has declined, in certain instances by more than 20 percent for every individual at risk of contracting the disease.
  • The disease killed 4,35,000 people last year, the majority of them children under five in Africa.
  • WHO said it was embarking on new ways to scale up the battle against one of the world’s deadliest diseases.
  • Most malaria cases reported last year were in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ghana, India, Mali, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Tanzania and Uganda.
  • Five countries accounted for nearly half of the cases: Nigeria (25 percent), DR Congo (11 percent), Mozambique (five percent), and India and Uganda with four percent each.
  • However countries such as Ethiopia, India, Pakistan and Rwanda recorded “substantial” declines in malaria cases.

Army zeroes in on Russian Igla-S missile

News

  • India has picked Russia’s Igla-S missile system as the choice for the Army’s multibillion-dollar contract for man portable air defence systems.

Beyond News

  • The Igla-S bid from Rosoboronexport of Russia has been declared the L1 in the Very Short Range Air Defence (VSHORAD) deal.
  • The declaration of the Russian bid as the lowest, which was reached after a series of delays that saw several trials and retrials, still doesn’t guarantee a certain transaction given some concerns about the possible threat of U.S. sanctions for arms purchases from Russia.
  • First issued in October 2010, the Request for Proposal (RFP) was for over 5,000 missiles, 258 single launchers and 258 multi-launchers estimated to cost ₹6,400 crore.
  • Five contenders responded and eventually three made it to the trials that began in 2012 MBDA of France, Rosoboronexport of Russia and SAAB of Sweden.
  • Since then there had been trials and retrials as there were deviations in the products fielded, and the Army sought to avoid a single-vendor situation arising out of non-compliance of some vendors as that would have resulted in the cancellation of the tender as procedure. Eventually, all three companies were declared compliant after the retrails last year.
  • Of the three contenders, the MBDA bid was found to be the most expensive at about $3.68 billion.
  • As the Cost Negotiation Committee (CNC) couldn’t arrive at a decision, the Defence Ministry had to constitute an empowered committee to scrutinise all aspects of the offer before the L1 was decided.
  • Now the bigger looming concern for this choice is the risk of U.S. sanctions under the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) law that restricts defence purchases from Russia, Iran and North Korea. The U.S. is yet to grant India a CAATSA waiver for the $5.43 billion S-400 air defence deal signed with Russia.
  • The Igla-S, if finally purchased, would replace the older Igla system, which is more than a couple of decades older in technology and in urgent need of replacement. As per the RFP, the system should have a maximum range of 6 km, be capable of reaching a target at an altitude of 3 km and have all-weather capability.

India steps up agro-diplomacy with China

News

  • As the trade war with the United States continues to bite with only a slim chance that the world’s two biggest economies can go past a possible truce China appears to be opening up to non-U.S. imports.

Beyond News

  • Smelling an unexpected opportunity to export more to the Middle Kingdom, India is quietly squeezing in the door.
  • The focus so far has been on pushing agri-products into the Chinese market. Sensing that China would look first at its food security by diversifying imports in view of the trade war, New Delhi has stepped up its agro-diplomacy with Beijing.
  • Over the past two months, Indian food and beverage producers have been conducting seminars and road shows in the Chinese capital.
  • Though Indian soya bean exports are apparently a priority, especially after the China imposed a 25% levy on U.S. imports, success in the huge Chinese soya bean market is yet to materialise, though some progress may have registered during talks.
  • However, other agri-products may have stolen a march over soya beans in finding a niche in the Chinese market.
  • India’s efforts to export sugar to China, which began in earnest in June, also appear to have paid dividends.
  • China has also opened up imports of non-Basmati rice from India in June on the sidelines of the Qingdao summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO).
  • Despite signs of incremental progress, India’s $63-billion trade imbalance with China is alarming.
  • Earlier this year, India had raised the red flag about its adverse trade balance during China’s trade policy review at the WTO, specifically citing hindrances that Indian exporters of rice, meat, pharmaceuticals and IT products were encountering to access the Chinese market.

India-specific Rafale add-ons after delivery of all 36 fighters

Rafale deal

News

  • The enhanced capabilities of the Rafale fighter aircraft sought by India will be incorporated after all the 36 jets are delivered, according to sources in the Defense 

Beyond News

  • There are 13 India Specific Enhancement (ISE) capabilities sought by the Indian Air Force (IAF) and they would be incorporated in batches after April 2022.
  • After the 36th jet is delivered, the first 35 aircraft would be modified in India by Dassault Aviation at the rate of seven aircraft a month so that all 36 aircraft would be of the same capability by September 2022.
  • The first Rafale for India made its maiden flight in France and is designated RB 008. It will, however, be the last to be delivered to the IAF in April 2022, 67 months after the signing of the Inter-Governmental Agreement (IGA).
  • An IAF document states that the 13 ISE capabilities are “not present in the Rafale aircraft being operated by other countries. These capabilities pertain to radar enhancements, which will provide the force with better long range capability. One of the specific capability being acquired is the ‘helmet mounted display’ through which IAF pilots will be able to counter many threats simultaneously.
  • Another very significant capability enhancement sought is the ability to start and operate from high altitude airfields, the document states. The enhancement includes an advanced infra red search-and-track sensor and a very potent electronic jammer pod. “The remaining ISE capability pertain to avionics,” the document stated.
  • In September 2016, India and France signed a €7.87 billion IGA for 36 Rafales in fly-away condition following the surprise announcement by Prime Minister citing “critical operational necessity” of the IAF.
  • As per the IGA, deliveries begin 36 months from the signing of contract and will be completed in 67 months. The government has consistently maintained that the deal for 36 jets was done to ensure quick delivery of fighter aircraft to the IAF, which is facing a drop in squadron strength.

Hindu Notes from General Studies-03

Make elephant corridors eco-sensitive zones, says NGT

News

  • The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has asked the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) to consider declaring all elephant corridors in the country as eco-sensitive zones.

Beyond News

  • The observations came while the green panel was hearing a plea moved by Assam resident, that highlighted the increasing number of unnatural elephant deaths taking place in the state.
  • It is the case of the applicants that it is the complete lack of legal protection to elephant corridors and elephant reserves that has led to a large number of deaths in areas beyond the protected areas and for which the applicants have sought intervention from the tribunal.
  • Owing to the increased denudation and loss of their forest habitats, elephants have come increasingly into conflicts with humans and faced deliberate retaliatory killings and accidents at railway crossings, high tension power lines, power fences and trenches.

Massive ‘ghost’ galaxy spotted

News

  • A massive but extremely faint galaxy has been discovered hiding near the Milky Way by scientists trawling through data from the European Space Agency’s Gaia satellite.

Findings

  • Despite its size, the galaxy has very few stars, challenging conventional theories of galaxy formation.
  • The galaxy, named Antlia 2 (or Ant 2), has avoided detection until now thanks to its extremely low density as well as a perfectly chosen hiding place, behind the Milky Way’s bright central disc.
  • Ant 2 is known as a dwarf galaxy. As structures emerged in the early universe, dwarfs were the first galaxies to form, and so most of their stars are now old, relatively low in terms of their mass, and poor in metals.
  • It is as big as the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), a bright satellite galaxy that is a third the size of the Milky Way itself, researchers said.
  • Ant 2 is also unusual because of how little light it gives out: compared to the LMC, Ant 2 is 10,000 times fainter, meaning that it has about one 10,000th the number of stars, they said.
  • Current theories of galaxy formation cannot fully explain how a galaxy so large has so few stars.
  • Previous research has suggested that some dwarfs could be inflated by vigorous star formation, causing the galaxy to ‘puff up’, but the new research shows that this process would have to be remarkably efficient to explain Ant 2.

Digging deeper into Mars

News

  • NASA’s InSight Mars Lander will reach the Red Planet. Launched on May 5, Mars Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) lander marks NASA’s first Mars landing since the curiosity rover in 2012.

Beyond News

  • The landing will kick off a two-year mission in which InSight will study Mars’ deep interior, which could eventually answer questions about the creation of Mars. InSight isn’t alone on this mission. Two suitcase-size spacecraft, called MarCO, are cube satellites following InSight on its journey. They are the first cube satellites to fly into deep space.
  • The InSight Mars lander has two science objectives – to understand the formation and evolution of Mars by investigating the interior of the planet and to record seismic activity and meteorite impact rate on Mars.
  • Previous missions to Mars studied the surface history by examining features such as canyons, volcanoes, rocks and soil, but no probe has so far attempted to investigate the planet’s earliest evolution.
  • InSight will not only teach us about Mars and its evolution, but also enhance our understanding of formation of other rocky celestial bodies such as Earth and the Moon, and thousands of planets around other stars.
  • Mars and Earth differ in size, temperature and atmospheric composition, but their geological features such as craters, volcanoes and canyons are similar. Hence, it is believed that the interior of Mars may be similar to that of Earth. Studying Mars will broaden our understanding of Earth and the solar system, as a whole.
  • The current mission calls for the duo to fly by Mars as InSight arrives for its entry, descent and landing (EDL) sequence. Wall-E and Eva will attempt to beam EDL data from the lander back to the controllers on Earth. The mission of MarCOs may likely end within a few weeks of the Mars flyby, as by that time they are expected to run out of fuel.

NASA releases image of Jupiter’s moon Io

News

  • NASA has unveiled a stunning image of Jupiter’s moon Io rising off the gas giant’s horizon, captured by the Juno spacecraft.

Beyond News

  • Slightly larger than Earth’s moon, Io is the most volcanically active world in the solar system. The colour-enhanced image was taken as the spacecraft performed its 16th close flyby of Jupiter.
  • At the time, Juno was about 18,400 kilometers from the planet’s cloud tops, at approximately 32 degrees south latitude.
  • NASA’s Juno spacecraft was launched on August 5, 2011 and arrived at Jupiter on July 2016.
  • Juno’s principal goal is to understand the origin and evolution of Jupiter. Underneath its dense cloud cover, Jupiter safeguards secrets to the fundamental processes and conditions that governed our solar system during its formation.
  • As the solar system’s primary example of a giant planet, Jupiter can also provide critical knowledge for understanding the planetary systems being discovered around other stars.
  • With its suite of science instruments, Juno will investigate the existence of a solid planetary core, map Jupiter’s intense magnetic field, measure the amount of water and ammonia in the deep atmosphere, and observe the planet’s auroras.

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