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Amid a deepening political crisis in Jharkhand and a 10-day-long stalemate and suspense, Chief Minister Hemant Soren-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government is all set to seek a trust vote in the State Assembly.
With hours left to the decision, the UPA and its Opposition have been spurred into action. While the UPA MLAs, who were camped out in a resort in Raipur in Congress-ruled Chhattisgarh, reached Ranchi, BJP convened its legislators for a meeting the same day to chalk out its strategy for the House.
It is said that all UPA MLAs will be put up in a place in Ranchi till the trust vote.A state of confusion is prevailing in Jharkhand. Our delegation met the Governor and he assured us to clear the air in a day or two but nothing has happened till now.
Mr. Soren’s disqualification as a member of the House will not stand in the court and it will be dismissed in hours.On September 1, a few UPA leaders submitted a memorandum to Governor Ramesh Bais, seeking clarification over reports of disqualification of Mr. Soren as a member of the House, in connection with an ‘office of profit’ case.
The Governor, said UPA leaders, had assured them that the prevailing air of political uncertainty will be cleared in two days’ time and left for Delhi.
It was an alleged decision of the Election Commission of India (ECI), sent to Mr. Bais on August 25, that triggered the political row currently playing out in the State.
The ECI’s move was reportedly prompted by a petition to the Governor by State BJP leaders, seeking Mr. Soren’s disqualification. However, Mr. Bais is yet to make the EC decision public.
Amid lingering fear of poaching by BJP, over 31 UPA MLAs were shifted to a luxurious resort in Raipur on August 31. The Jharkhand MuktiMorcha (JMM) leaders said that BJP might have maytaken a serious attempt to “poach MLAs from UPA in a bid to topple the democratically elected Soren government in a manner similar to Maharashtra”.
Mr. Alam had returned from Raipur to attend a Cabinet meeting on September 2 in which the decision was taken to seek trust vote in Assembly.
Some UPA legislators, on the way to Ranchi from Raipur, said they have received a letter from Assembly Secretariat that Mr. Soren has expressed willingness to move a motion of confidence in House to prove his government’s majority.
In the 81-member House, the JMM-led UPA enjoys an absolute majority with JMM having 30 legislators, Congress having 18 (three of them, though, were recently caught with huge cash stash in West Bengal and sent to jail), Rashtriya Janata Dal, Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) and Nationalist Congress Party having one each.
The Opposition BJP has 26 MLAs, while its ally All Jharkhand Students Union (AJSU) has two; two other legislators support them.
States
A golden memory of Rajamahendravaram (Page no. 6)
(GS Paper 1, History)
Built by Eastern Chalukya king Raja RajaNerendra on the banks of the Godavari river, the city of Rajamahendravaram still contains a memory of him.
This past August, Rajamahendravaram also celebrated the completion of one thousand years of the coronation of Raja Raja Narendra, who ruled the city in 1022. His regime came to an end in 1061.
Seven gold coins that date back to the Eastern Chalukya dynasty, including the regime of Raja Raja Narendra, are a proud possession of the city.
We have seven gold coins belonging to the period of the Eastern Chalukyas. A few of them date back to Raja Raja Narendra’s regime, given the evidence of inscriptions traced during archaeological excavations in Rajamahendravaram in the 1980s.
The seven gold coins are now preserved at the RallabandiSubba Rao Archaeological Museum here.Of the seven gold coins, only one is big in size compared to the others.
The big coin contains the image of ‘ varaha ’ (boar), an official symbol of the Eastern Chalukyas. The big coin also contains some text in early Telugu script. It is believed to be minted marking ‘some donation’ by the Eastern Chalukyas.He admitted there was no evidence of the location of the coins.
Renowned historian RallabandiSubba Rao had collected the Eastern Chalukya coins and inscriptions from the Godavari region under the banner of the Andhra Historical Research Journal Society.
In the 1960s, Mr. Subba Rao handed over his private museum and collections of artefacts to the State government. Later, the museum was named after him.
Apart from gold coins, the museum is also home to several artefacts, including a Nandi idol that dates back to the time of the Eastern Chalukyas.The public can have a glimpse of the gold coins at the RSR Museum in the city.
Editorial
India and Australia, from divergence to convergence (Page no. 8)
(GS Paper 2, International Relations)
In August 1950, one of Australia’s most celebrated jurists, Sir Owen Dixon (who sought to mediate a settlement on Kashmir) wrote to his daughter, Anne, in Melbourne that Delhi was “a place I hope and trust that I shall never again see”.
More than 70 years later, as distinguished thought leaders from India and Australia meet in New Delhi (September 6) for the fifth round of the most important bilateral Track 1.5 dialogue, it is widely recognised that Canberra’s relationship with New Delhi is among the most important and critical for the future of the Indo-Pacific.
The leaders at the dialogue will reflect on the past, but recommend more concrete steps to foster the relationship and ways to create a more habitable and sustainable planet.
When we started this dialogue we recognised that for most of the 20th century, India and Australia rarely had a meaningful conversation.
The long shadow of the Cold War, India’s autarkic economic policies, the White Australia policy, and Canberra’s decision not to transfer uranium to India and other factors had kept the two countries apart for several decades.
We used to celebrate each other’s problems rather than our successes. But that era of mutual schadenfreude is well and truly over.
Today, few countries in the Indo-Pacific region have more in common in both values and interests than India and Australia.
Apart from being two English-speaking, multicultural, federal democracies that believe in and respect the rule of law, both have a strategic interest in ensuring a balance in the Indo-Pacific and in ensuring that the region is not dominated by any one hegemonic power.
In addition, Indians are today the largest source of skilled migrants in Australia and the economic relationship, already robust, could potentially be transformed if the promise of the new Australia-India Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement (ECTA) is realised.
A dialogue is a conversation between equals who have agreed to work as partners. No one just preaches, no one just listens.
Thought leaders have come here, some from long distances, to have a robust conversation about our relationship and ways in which we can carry it forward. We are here also to lead and provide markers for the future of the relationship between our two great countries.
Coercion as conversion (Page no. 8)
(GS Paper 1, Society)
In a significant and welcome move, another layer of discrimination against the LGBTQIA+ community is being removed with the National Medical Commission (NMC) declaring conversion therapy a “professional misconduct” and empowering State Medical Councils to take disciplinary action if the guideline is breached.
Members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, asexual or of any other orientation are often subjected to conversion or ‘reparative’ therapy, particularly when they are young, to change their sexual orientation or gender identity by force.
The therapy can mean anything from psychiatric treatment, use of psychosomatic drugs, electroshock therapy, exorcism and violence. This can lead to trauma, manifesting in depression, anxiety, drug use, and even suicide.
The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry contends that the interventions offered in conversion therapy are provided under the “false premise that homosexuality and gender diverse identities are pathological”.
The “absence of pathology” means there is no need for conversion or any other like intervention. To drive this point home, it is clear that an all-out effort will be required. In his landmark June 2021 judgment, Justice N. AnandVenkatesh of the Madras High Court had said pending adequate legislation, he was issuing guidelines for the police, social welfare ministries of the State and Centre, and the medical council for the protection of the community. The court sought updates from stakeholders every few months.
The NMC’s August 25 letter to State Medical Councils states that the Madras High Court had directed it to issue an official notification listing conversion therapy as a wrong, under the Indian Medical Council (Professional Conduct, Etiquette and Ethics) Regulations, 2002.
If the Supreme Court’s decriminalising of homosexuality in 2018 by striking down Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code was a first step, the NMC’s notice is also a small move towards inclusivity.
To make the LGBTQAI+ community feel safer, however, a lot more will have to be done. Taking the cue from countries such as Canada, which has banned conversion therapy, there should be clarity on what action will be taken against quacks, psychiatrists and doctors accused of offering reparative treatment and the punishment they will face.
The groundwork has to be laid in education. Medical textbooks prescribed in 2018 still consider lesbianism a “perversion”, an act of “mental degenerates”.
The change has to take place at a societal level, and complemented by laws better tuned to the needs of a diverse community than the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019, has sought to do.
To that effect, Indian institutions and society have a long road ahead. First, they will have to acknowledge the “variability of human beings” and accord equal respect to every one, whatever the sexual orientation or gender identity.
OPED
A lot is at stake for India ¬Bangladesh ties (Page no. 9)
(GS Paper 2, International Relations)
In August, while addressing devotees gathered to celebrate Janmashtami, Bangladesh Foreign Minister Abdul Momen requested the Indian government to ensure that Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina stays in power when Bangladesh goes to the polls next year.
He claimed that both India and Bangladesh would gain political stability by ensuring this. These out-of-the-norm comments from the senior cabinet member created a stir on both sides of the border.
Senior leaders of the ruling Awami League distanced themselves from these remarks, while India maintained silence. Mr. Momen’s comments came before Ms. Hasina’s visit to India from September 5 to 8, 2022.
Following the conclusion of the seventh round of the India-Bangladesh Joint Consultative Commission in June, the two neighbours have expanded their partnership to include Artificial Intelligence, Fintech, cybersecurity, startups, and connectivity.
Trade will be a focal point during Ms. Hasina’s visit as the two countries gear up to sign a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA). The two Prime Ministers are also expected to inaugurate a joint venture power plant soon.
CEPA comes at a time when Bangladesh is set to lose the duty-free and quota-free market-access facility to India after 2026 when it graduates to a developing country.
Bangladesh is India’s sixth largest trade partner with bilateral trade rising from $2.4 billion in 2009 to $10.8 billion in 2020-21. Bangladesh imports critical industrial raw material from India on which its exports are reliant.
According to a World Bank working paper, Bangladesh’s exports could rise 182% under a free trade agreement. This could become 300% if combined with trade facilitation measures and reduced transaction costs. Bangladesh also could improve several manufacturing industries by leveraging Indian expertise in service sectors.
India and Bangladesh have implemented several projects to boost eastern India-Bangladesh connectivity. India’s connectivity projects with ASEAN and Bangladesh will open up the region to economic growth.
Bangladesh has expressed its interest in joining the India-Myanmar-Thailand highway project. India-Bangladesh bilateral waterway trade will get boosted as India can now use the Mongla and Chittagong ports.
India is rallying Bangladesh to divert its exports through Indian ports in place of Malaysian or Singaporean ports. Enhancing connectivity through India’s Northeast and Bangladesh is important for bilateral cooperation. Currently, three express trains and international bus services operate between Indian and Bangladesh.
Changing the age of consent (Page no. 9)
(GS Paper 2, Polity and Governance)
In August 2, in Rama @ Bande Rama v. State of Karnataka, the Karnataka High Court quashed criminal proceedings of rape and kidnapping under the Indian Penal Code, and penetrative and aggravated penetrative sexual assault under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012, which had been initiated based on a complaint of a 17-year-old girl’s father against her 20-year-old partner.
The girl stated in court that the acts were consensual and she had married the accused after she had turned 18. The marriage was registered and a child was born to the couple.
The High Court observed that “if the court would shut its doors to the couple who are married and bringing up the child, the entire proceedings would result in miscarriage of justice.”
With the enactment of POCSO, a number of young couples in consensual and non-exploitative relationships have found themselves embroiled in the criminal justice system.
Since consent of a “child” is immaterial, consensual sexual intercourse with or among adolescents is treated on a par with rape. While boys/young men are charged with sexual offences, the girls are treated as victims and institutionalised in children’s homes when they refuse to return to their parents or their parents refuse to accept them.
Faced with criminal prosecution and incarceration, the only relief available to the couple is to urge the High Court to quash the case by using its inherent power under Section 482 of the Criminal Procedure Code, “to prevent abuse of the process of any Court or otherwise to secure the ends of justice.
Several other High Courts too have recognised the normalcy of these relationships, the futility of prosecuting romantic cases owing to the consensual nature of the relationships and marriage between the parties, as well as the harmful impact of continued prosecution on both parties.
While quashing a similar case in Vijaylakshmi v. State Rep (2021), the Madras High Court observed that, “[p]unishing an adolescent boy who enters into a relationship with a minor girl by treating him as an offender, was never the objective of the POCSO Act.”
In Raj Kumar v. State of Himachal Pradesh (2021), the Himachal Pradesh High Court allowed a petition filed by the minor girl’s father for quashing the trial against his son-in-law.
It observed: “If criminal proceedings are allowed to continue, the same will adversely affect the married life of his daughter...” In SkhemborlangSuting v. State of Meghalaya (2021), a couple got entangled under the POCSO Act when the husband took his wife, who was 17, to a hospital for a check-up after she became pregnant.
The Meghalaya High Court quashed the case observing that an application of the Act would “result in the breakdown of a happy family relationship and the possible consequence of the wife having to take care of a baby with no support...”
Text & Context
Deploying 5G in a world built on 4G technology (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Technology)
Since the dawn of mobile communication in the early 1980s, companies and consumers have been adapting to new ways of sending and receiving information.
The first-generation technology of this era let people make and receive phones calls through their mobile handheld devices while the second and third generations added text and multi-media messaging, as well as email services to cell phones.
The emergence of 4G in the early part of the past decade changed the mobile-telephone landscape. This paradigmatic shift let users stream and download videos at speeds three times greater than 3G.
The Long Term Evolution (LTE) standard-based generation had two important characteristics that set it apart from its predecessors.
With 4G-capable cell phones, people could make calls over the Internet instead of via telephone networks. This generation’s evolution to 4G+ (LTE advanced), which offered download speeds of 200 to 300 Mbps, made it easier for people to connect and talk over the Internet.
Secondly, 4G’s multiplexing capability, technically known as orthogonal frequency division multiplex (OFDM), provided a level of efficiency in achieving high data transfer rates while allowing multiple users to share a common channel.
The OFDM modulation scheme divides a channel into several subcarriers. These subcarriers are spaced orthogonally so they don’t interfere with one another despite the lack of guard bands between them.
“OFDM is a very good choice for a mobile TV air interface. It offers good spectral efficiency, immunity to multi-path, good mobile performance, and it works well in single-frequency networks such as those planned for mobile TV,” according to a research paper titled ‘Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing and its Applications’.
It is this aspect of 4G that lets people use social media, download music in an app, and live-stream videos on mobile devices.
Since 4G’s inception in the early 2010s, the number of smartphone users have grown significantly. According to data intelligence firm Statista, the total number of smartphone users in the world has nearly doubled in the last seven years to 6.6 billion in 2022, from 3.7 billion in 2016. This number is estimated to rise by another billion by 2027.
Not just users, the number of mobile devices in use have also skyrocketed. The total number of phones and tablets in use is expected to be over 18.2 billion, according to technology market research firm Radicati. When one adds another few billion wearables and Internet of Things (IoT) devices to this mix, the result is a massive data hungry world of gadgets. As the number of connected devices rises, so does our dependence on them to do daily tasks.
The number of devices and things connected to the internet is not confined to the consumer world. Enterprises are also moving to digital channels and optimising the way tasks get done with the help of Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), predictive maintenance, and other environmental condition monitoring sensors.
For these devices to work in sync with several other applications a far superior networking and connectivity is needed and the decade-old LTE-based generation is ill-prepared to handle workloads and real-time data processing of this magnitude.
Explainer
The International Monetary Fund’s staff level agreement with Sri Lanka (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 2, International Relations)
The IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva on September 4 said she is pleased the Washington-based lender and the Sri Lankan government have reached a staff-level agreement to provide about $2.9 billion to help the bankrupt country, terming the deal as an “important step forward.”
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Thursday announced that it will provide Sri Lanka a loan of about $2.9 billion over a four-year period to help the island nation overcome the unprecedented economic turmoil.
The bailout package is expected to boost the country’s credit ratings and the confidence of international creditors and investors.
Very pleased that IMF staff and Sri Lankan government officials have reached a staff-level agreement to support the country’s economic policies with a 48-month Extended Fund Facility of about USD 2.9 billion.
The new Extended Fund Facility (EFF) arrangement will support Sri Lanka's programme to restore macroeconomic stability and debt sustainability, while safeguarding financial stability, reducing corruption vulnerabilities and unlocking the country's growth potential.
The agreement is subject to the approval by IMF management and the Executive Board in the period ahead, contingent on the implementation by the authorities of prior actions, and on receiving financing assurances from Sri Lanka's official creditors and making a good faith effort to reach a collaborative agreement with private creditors.
Debt relief from Sri Lanka's creditors and additional financing from multilateral partners will be required to help ensure debt sustainability and close financing gaps, amid concerns that China would not go along with Western creditors on debt restructuring on an equal footing.
All Sri Lankan creditors, including China, have to agree to restructure their existing loans to the island nation before the IMF starts disbursing the $2.9 billion loan.
The IMF has also called for action to raise fiscal revenue by implementing tax reforms, introducing cost recovery-based pricing for fuel and electricity, raising social spending to help the poor and the vulnerable in the ongoing economic crisis, restoring flexible exchange rate, a capitalised banking system and a stronger anti-corruption legal framework.
Meanwhile, Sri Lanka’s Central Bank Governor NandalalWeerasinghe warned on Saturday that if the IMF reforms, which are implemented, are reversed, the country could go back to square one in three years, news portal newsfirst.lk reported.
News
‘Dark sky reserve’ to come up in Ladakh (Page no. 14)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Technology)
In a first-of-its-kind initiative, the Department of Science & Technology (DST) has announced the setting up of India’s first Dark Sky Reserve in Hanle, Ladakh in the next three months.
Hanle, which is about 4,500 metres above sea level, hosts telescopes and is regarded as one of the world’s most optimal sites for astronomical observations.
However, ensuring that the site remains well-suited for astronomy implies keeping the night-sky pristine, or ensuring minimal interference to the telescopes from artificial light sources such as electric lights and vehicular lights from the ground.
A Dark Sky Reserve is a designation given to a place that has policies in place to ensure that a tract of land or region has minimal artificial light interference.
The International Dark Sky Association is a U.S.-based non-profit that designates places as International Dark Sky Places, Parks, Sanctuaries and Reserves, depending on the criteria they meet. Several such reserves exists around the world but none so far in India.
In June, a three-way Memorandum of Understanding was signed among the Union Territory administration, Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council (LAHDC), Leh, and the Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA), Bengaluru, which uses and maintains the telescopes, for launching the Dark Space Reserve.
Science Minister Jitendra Singh, on Saturday, following a meeting with R.K. Mathur, Lieutanant Governor, Ladakh, said that the site “…will have activities to help in boosting local tourism and economy through interventions of science and technology.”
Dr.AnnapurniSubramaniam, Director, Indian Institute of Astrophysics, said that to promote astro-tourism, villages around Hanle will be encouraged to promote homestays equipped with telescopes that visitors can use to view the night sky. Villagers and residents will also be trained to help visitors with astronomical observations.
“There would be some restrictions during the evening and night to vehicles and headlights. There will be delineators on roads like you do outside observatories. People can come, park, observe the sky and stay in homestays,” she told The Hindu.
In the days ahead, a visitor centre would also be set up to inform people not only about astronomy but also the wildlife and plant life in the adjoining Changthang Wildlife Sanctuary.
The Indian Astronomical Observatory, the high-altitude station of IIA, is situated to the north of Western Himalayas, at an altitude of 4,500 metres above mean sea level.
Located atop Mt. Saraswati in the Nilamkhul Plain in the Hanle Valley of Changthang, it is a dry, cold desert with sparse human population and has the Hanle monastery as its nearest neighbour.
The cloudless skies and low atmospheric water vapour make it one of the best sites in the world for optical, infrared, sub-millimetre, and millimetre wavelengths.
The Himalayan Chandra Telescope (HCT), High Energy Gamma Ray telescope (HAGAR), the Major Atmospheric Cherenkov Experiment Telescope (MACE) and GROWTH-India are prominent telescopes located at the Hanle observatory.
ISRO tests system to recover spent rocket stages (Page no. 14)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Technology)
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has successfully tested a technology that could aid cost-effective recovery of spent rocket stages and safely land payloads on other planets.
The Inflatable Aerodynamic Decelerator (IAD) was designed, developed and successfully test-flown by ISRO's Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) on a Rohini-300 (RH300 Mk II) sounding rocket from the Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station (TERLS) here on Saturday.
This demonstration opens a gateway for cost-effective spent stage recovery and this technology can also be used in ISRO's future missions to Venus and Mars.
Describing the IAD as a ''game changer'' with multiple applications for future missions, the VSSC added that this was first time that an IAD had been designed specifically for spent-stage recovery.
As its name suggests, the IAD serves to decelerate an object plunging down through the atmosphere.For Saturday's demonstration, the IAD, made of Kevlar fabric coated with Polychloroprene, was packed into the payload bay of the rocket.
After the nose-cone of the rocket separated, the IAD inflated, balloon-like, at a height of 84 km using compressed nitrogen stored in a gas bottle.
The IAD systematically reduced the velocity of the payload through aerodynamic drag, the VSSC said. Once the IAD fell into the sea, it deflated by firing a deflation pyro valve.
The pneumatic system used for inflating the IAD was developed by the Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre (LPSC), Valiyamala.
Eight other elements developed by VSSC and LPSC, including a micro video imaging system and a modified nosecone separation system, were also successfully tested on this mission. They will find a place on future ISRO missions.
Standing 6.3 metres tall, the Rohini RH300 Mk II sounding rocket had a lift-off mass of 552 kg. Senior ISRO officials including VSSC director S. Unnikrishnan Nair and LPSC director V. Narayanan also were present at the launch.
Scientists remain sceptical about how nano urea benefits crops (Page no. 14)
(GS Paper 3, Agriculture)
Nano urea, a fertilizer patented and sold by the Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative Ltd. (IFFCO), has been approved by the government for commercial use because of its potential to substantially reduce the import bill, but several experts have questioned the science underlying its efficacy.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while inaugurating a nano urea production plant at Kalol in Gujarat. A small bottle (500 ml) of nano urea is equivalent to one 50-kg bag of granular urea currently used by farmers.
IFFCO’s nano urea contains nitrogen, an element critical for plant development, in the form of granules that are a hundred thousand times finer than a sheet of paper. At this nano scale, which is about a billionth of a metre, materials behave differently than in the visible realm.
Ramesh Raliya, 34, who is credited as the inventor of nano urea and is now a consultant with IFFCO, told The Hindu that his process used “organic polymers” that kept the nano particles of nitrogen stable and in a form that could be sprayed on plants.
Chemically packaged urea is 46% nitrogen, which means a 45-kg sack contains about 20 kg of nitrogen.Contrastingly, nano urea sold in 500-ml bottles has only 4% nitrogen (or around 20 g). How this can compensate for the kilograms of nitrogen normally required puzzles scientists.
Plants need nitrogen to make protein and they source almost all of it from soil bacteria which live in a plant’s roots and have the ability to break down atmospheric nitrogen, or that from chemicals such as urea into a form usable by plants.
To produce one tonne of wheat grain, a plant needs 25 kg of nitrogen. For rice, it is 20 kg of nitrogen, and for maize, it is 30 kg of nitrogen.
Not all the urea cast on the soil, or sprayed on leaves in the case of nano urea, can be utilised by the plant. If 60% of the available nitrogen was used, it would yield 496 kg of wheat grain.
Even if 100% of 20 g of nano urea, which is what is effectively available, is utilised by the plant, it will yield only 368 g of grain, said N.K. Tomar.
“Therefore, total attempt is futile and causing sheer wastage of money. This claim of IFFCO is unfounded and will be disastrous for farmers,” he notes in a letter to the NITI Aayog as well as the National Academy for Agricultural Sciences. Dr.Tomar told The Hindu that they had not yet responded to his letter.
Dr.Tomar’s views are seconded by I.P. Abrol, former Deputy Director-General, Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR).