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LVM3, the heaviest payload rocket of the Indian Space Research Organisation, carrying 36 One Web satellites on board, took off from the second launch pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre.
The satellites separated successfully from the rocket and were dispensed in nine phases over an hour and 14 minutes, with signal acquisition on all 36 confirmed. This is the sixth flight of LVM3.
OneWeb’s satellites separated successfully from the rocket and were dispensed in nine phases over a period of 1 hours and 14 minutes, with signal acquisition on all 36 satellites confirmed.
OneWeb is a global communication network powered from space, enabling connectivity for governments, businesses, and communities.
It is implementing a constellation of Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites. India’s Bharti Enterprises serves as a major investor and shareholder in OneWeb.
This is OneWeb’s 18th launch, its third this year, bringing the total of OneWeb’s constellation to 618 satellites. This launch is a major milestone for the company, with the number of satellites now in-orbit enabling global service, the first LEO operator to reach this milestone. OneWeb will soon be ready to roll out its global coverage.
‘Conferring drastic powers upon the executive through Section 144 unacceptable’ (Page no. 2)
(GS Paper 2, Polity and Governance)
Conferring drastic powers upon the executive or the police through Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) is not acceptable in a nation governed by the rule of law, former Chief Justice of India U.U. Lalit said.
The CJI made this comment while speaking at the launch event of a report titled ‘The Use and Misuse of Section 144 CrPC’.
The report, compiled by four lawyers based on Right to Information responses, states that prohibitory orders were issued over 6,100 times in the national capital in 2021.
Calling the report an “eye-opener”, the former CJI said the pattern that emerges from the report “is quite disturbing”.
The report examines nearly 5,400 orders issued for the enforcement of Section 144 in the city.
The remaining nearly 600 orders were not provided to us by police officers citing breach of ‘national.
The former CJI, addressing a gathering of law professionals and students, said, “If someone had told me earlier that Section 144 could be invoked for such mundane affairs, I would have laughed at it.
Stating that the legality of Section 144 has been challenged twice before the Supreme Court, the former CJI said “the current state of affairs demands urgent steps.
The report categorises the prohibitory orders into four broad themes, including establishing CCTV surveillance and regulating businesses.
Making sense of the disqualification of a Lok Sabha MP (Page no. 6)
(GS Paper 2, Polity and Governance)
The conviction, on Thursday, March 23, 2023, of Congress leader and now former Member of Parliament from Wayanad Rahul Gandhi by a Chief Judicial Magistrate’s court in Surat, Gujarat, and the issuance of a notification the next day by the Lok Sabha Secretariat of Mr. Gandhi’s disqualification raise some important constitutional and legal issues.
The legal community is mystified by the harshness of the sentence, which is unprecedented in a defamation case. The issue will anyway be dealt with by the appellate courts. But the issues relating to the disqualification need to be examined carefully.
Section 8 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 (RP Act) specifies the various offences, conviction for which entail the disqualification of a member of the legislature.
Clause (3) of this section says that a person convicted of any offence other than those mentioned in the other two clauses, and sentenced to not less than two years shall be disqualified from the date of conviction.
However, clause (4) has exempted sitting members from instant disqualification for three months to enable them to appeal against the conviction.
This clause was struck down as ultra vires the Constitution by a two judge Bench of the Supreme Court on the ground that Parliament has no power to enact such an exemption for sitting members of the legislature (Lily Thomas vs Union of India, 2013).
The effect of this judgment is that there is an instant disqualification of a sitting legislator as soon as he is convicted.
However, the Court made it clear that in the event of the appellate Court staying the conviction and sentence, the disqualification will be lifted and the membership will be restored to him.
Explainer
Understanding IMF bailouts (Page no. 8)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) last week confirmed a $3 billion bailout plan for Sri Lanka’s struggling economy. IMF officials are also in negotiations with Pakistan for a $1.1 billion bailout plan as the country faces a severe economic crisis marked by a falling currency and price rise.
Countries seek help from the IMF usually when their economies face a major macroeconomic risk, mostly in the form of a currency crisis.
For instance in the case of Sri Lanka and Pakistan, both countries have witnessed domestic prices rise rapidly and the exchange value of their currencies drop steeply against the U.S. dollar.
Such currency crises are generally the result of gross mismanagement of the nation’s currency by its central bank, often under the covert influence of the ruling government.
Central banks may be forced by governments to create fresh money out of thin air to fund populist spending. Such spending eventually results in a rapid rise of the overall money supply, which in turn causes prices to rise across the economy and the exchange value of the currency to drop.
A rapid, unpredictable fall in the value of a currency can destroy confidence in said currency and affect economic activity as people may turn hesitant to accept the currency in exchange for goods and services.
Foreigners may also be unwilling to invest in an economy where the value of its currency gyrates in an unpredictable manner.
In such a scenario, many countries are forced to seek help from the IMF to meet their external debt and other obligations, to purchase essential imports, and also to prop up the exchange value of their currencies.
Meanwhile, a country’s domestic economic policies can also have an adverse impact on its currency’s exchange rate and foreign exchange reserves.
Text & Context
What is biotransformation technology and how can it reduce packaging waste? (Page no. 9)
(GS Paper 3, Environment)
E-commerce giant Amazon generated an estimated 321 million kilograms (709 million pounds) of plastic from packaging waste in 2021 alone.
This is a result of billions of boxes it shipped to its customers globally, according to a December 2022 report by Oceana. The ocean advocacy group notes that this is enough plastic to circle the Earth over 800 times as air pillows.
While Amazon refuted Oceana’s claim, stating that it follows a science-based approach to reduce packaging waste, there is a lot left to be done.
A U.K.-based startup, based at Imperial College in London, claims to have developed a technology that could alter the state of plastics and make them biodegradable.
The company calls the process “biotransformation”. It claims the technology would digest the plastic packaging waste naturally with the help of microbes and biodegrade the waste without leaving behind any microplastics.
Biotransformation technology is a novel approach to ensure plastics that escape refuse streams are processed efficiently and broken down.
The tech was co-developed by the Imperial College in London, U.K., and a Britain-based startup, Polymateria.
Plastics made using this technology are given a pre-programmed time during which the manufactured material looks and feels like conventional plastics without compromising on quality.
Once the product expires and is exposed to the external environment, it self-destructs and biotransforms into bioavailable wax. This wax is then consumed by microorganisms, converting waste into water, CO2, and biomass.
News
Trains to ply on ‘world’s highest rail bridge’ in 2024: Minister (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 3, Infrastructure)
Perched between two hill slopes, at a height similar to an 85-storey tower, the Chenab bridge, which India claims is the world’s highest railway bridge, will have trains plying on it by January-February 2024.
Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw made the announcement during a site visit to monitor the progress of the construction on Sunday. The bridge is at a height of 359 m, making it taller than the Eiffel Tower in Paris.
Traversing a length of 1.3 km, once operational, the Chenab bridge will pave the way for trains to run seamlessly along the Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Rail Link (USBRL) project, and prove to be a crucial link between Kashmir and rest of India.
The plan is to run Vande Bharat trains along the stretch and also Vande Metro trains between Jammu and Srinagar, which will reduce the travelling time between the two towns to 3.5 hours. Currently, the travel time by road on the 248- km Jammu-Srinagar National Highway is about seven hours.
While the construction of the bridge was completed in August 2022, a broad gauge railway track was laid along the bridge later in the year. Mr. Vaishnaw conducted a trolley inspection across the bridge and supervised the construction work on tunnels.
The Minister said the Chenab bridge had been constructed in a highly seismic prone area, and the biggest challenge was to get the concrete foundation design right.
About 28,000 tonnes of steel has been used to construct the arch bridge. Owing to the strong foundation of the bridge, which can absorb the shock, the superstructure of the bridge will be isolated from any potential impact.
In topographies where granite rocks are prevalent, constructing the foundation is easy. However, the presence of dolomite rocks and soft soil make the process tougher.
Another challenge was constructing tunnels along the USBRL project, 37 of them in all. While typically, tunnels are D-shaped, Himalayan tunnels need a horse-shoe shape of curvature, the elliptical shape helping ward off loose soil as the area is prone to frequent landslides.
AUKUS focus is on submarine tech, there is no room for a fourth nation (Page no. 11)
(GS Paper 2, International Relations)
The primary focus of the AUKUS arrangement between Australia, the U.K. and the U.S. is submarine technology development, and within that there is no room for a fourth country, diplomatic sources said on any potential collaboration between the alliance and India.
There is a second pillar for broader technology cooperation where there is room for cooperation with other countries, including India.
AUKUS has one ambition. It’s one story, not two stories… The one angle of AUKUS is the submarine angle and there is a pillar-2 which is other capabilities.
There has been an announcement on submarines and it’s big for everyone. It’s difficult to say that within that construct, there is room for a fourth country.
There is a pillar-2 for cooperation in technologies like electronic warfare, cyberspace and quantum, and under that, there is a room for more partners.
Recently, the three AUKUS partners announced their implementation plan to equip Australia with SSN class nuclear attack submarines.
Under this, Australia will receive at least three second-hand SSNs from the U.S. in the 2030s as an interim measure, and five new SSNs to be designed and developed by the U.K. from the early 2040s to the late 2050s.
In May, Australia will host the Quad leaders’ summit involving India, Australia, Japan and the U.S., where the recent implementation roadmap is expected to come up during discussions.
On the possible conversation between the AUKUS and the Quad, diplomatic sources said the former has no implications for the latter.
AUKUS is not a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) for the Indo-Pacific. Rather, it is focused on technology and is very specific about developing strategically important capabilities to maintain stability. On the other hand, the Quad is a broader collaboration at the political level.
Official sources too stated that cooperation between India and the U.S. on such a sensitive technology as the SSN is unlikely, given the U.S. regulatory frameworks and India’s strategic autonomy.