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With the rapidly declining water table threatening to push many regions into drought, the Union government launched a mobile application – Jaldoot – jointly developed by the Union Ministry of Rural Development and the Panchayati Raj Ministry to monitor the underground water levels across the country.
The application was launched by Minister of State for Rural Development Faggan Singh Kulaste in the presence of Ministers SadhviNiranjanJyoti and KapilMoreshwarPatil.
The app will be used to capture the water level of selected two-three wells in every village. The water levels in these open wells will be measured twice a year, from May 1 to May 31 during the pre-monsoon time, and from October 1 to October 31 for post-monsoon levels.
To ensure transparency, the officers assigned to measure have been told to upload the geotagged photographs through the app each time the measurement is done.
The mobile app, will work both in online and offline mode to ensure that lack of internet connectivity does not come in the way of the exercise.
The regular data to be input by the ‘Jaldoots’ would be integrated with the database of the National Water Informatics Centre, which can be utilised for analysis and help in conservation efforts.
The State governments and gram panchayats should involve themselves towards systematically collecting groundwater level data and assimilation of the same in the central digital database for analysis.
We believe that data generated by this exercise will help us in better planning and give us the right assessment of the problem at hand.
Phalke award for Asha Parekh (Page no. 1)
(Miscellaneous)
The DadasahebPhalke Award for the year 2020 would be conferred on veteran Bollywood actor Asha Parekh, the Information and Broadcasting Ministry said on Tuesday.
The award will be presented at the 68 th National Film Award ceremony, to be presided over by President DroupadiMurmu, on September 30.
Announcing the decision, Union Minister Anurag Thakur said “I am honoured to announce that the DadasahebPhalke selection jury has decided to recognise and award Ms. Asha Parekh for her exemplary lifetime contribution to the Indian cinema.”
An accomplished Indian classical dancer, Ms. Parekh has also been a director and producer. Starting her career as a child actor, she made her debut as the lead actress in ‘Dil Deke Dekho’ and went on to act in more than 95 movies.
She has acted in celebrated films like ‘Kati Patang’, ‘TeesriManzil’, ‘Love in Tokyo’, ‘AyaSaawanJhoomKe’, ‘Aan Milo Sajna’, and ‘MeraGaonMeraDesh’.
Ms. Parekh, who also served as the head of the Central Board for Film Certification (CBFC) from 1998 to 2001, was awarded the Padma Shri in 1992.
The decision to confer the 52 nd DadasahebPhalke award on her was taken by a jury of five members – Asha Bhosle, HemaMalini, Poonam Dhillon, T.S. Nagabharana, and Udit Narayan.
Editorial
Permanent membership of the UNSC is another story (Page no. 8)
(GS Paper 2, International Relations)
There is a buzz in India about the prospects of the country becoming a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council. India’s External Affairs Minister has been actively canvassing for the country’s candidature, meeting his counterparts from several countries.
He has repeated the call, made often in the past, for a text-based negotiation on what has been euphemistically referred to as the reform of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), i.e., negotiation on a written document outlining the proposed reform instead of just holding forth verbally.
The five permanent members of the UNSC — China, France, the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom and the United States — constitute what is the last, most exclusive club in international relations.
All other clubs have been breached. Until a quarter century ago, the nuclear weapon club had five members, the same five as the P-5. India, Pakistan, North Korea and Israel have since joined the club.
The P-5 could do nothing to stop the latter countries from forcing themselves into membership of the nuclear club. But the permanent membership of the Security Council is another story.
The inescapable fact is that none of the P-5 wants the UNSC’s ranks to be increased. One or the other of them might make some noise about supporting one or more of the aspirants.
Each is confident that someone among them will torpedo the enlargement of the club. Declarations of support for India’s candidature need to be taken with a fistful of salt.
When delegations of 50 countries were drafting the Charter of the future United Nations at Dumbarton Oaks near Washington DC in 1944-45, the article regarding the Security Council, particularly the right of veto, was the subject of maximum debate and controversy. Many countries opposed it.
The British representative made it clear: either you have a United Nations with veto or there will be no United Nations. The other participating nations had to lump it. The chief Indian delegate said that it was better to have an imperfect United Nations than not to have one.
There is considerable unhappiness among membership at large in the UN about the right of veto. The debate about veto is most often raked up when the western members of the P-5 club are not able to have their way.
It is true that Russia, in its incarnations as the Soviet Union and the Russian Federation, has cast more vetoes (estimated to be 120 times, ‘or or close to half of all vetoes’) than the three western members of the club.
But the western members have used their privileged position any number of times to protect Israel when the Palestinian question was being discussed.
They also used veto to prevent sanctions being imposed on the apartheid regime of South Africa. There are no saints there.
India needs to be circumspect about veto. We ought to remember that the Russians have bailed India out on many occasions on the question of Kashmir.
Most importantly, Russia helped India by vetoing unfavourable resolutions during the war of Bangladesh liberation in 1971.
Energising India-Nepal ties, the hydropower way (Page no. 8)
(GS Paper 2, International Relations)
On August 18, 2022, the Investment Board Nepal signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with India’s National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC) Limited to develop the West Seti and Seti River (SR6) projects — a total of 1,200 MW.
Interestingly, nearly four years have passed since China’s withdrawal from the project before Nepal decided to grant the project to India.
Considering that hydro-power cooperation is a pillar in India-Nepal relations, there is a need to reflect on these questions: what does the decision offer to India and Nepal? What are the shared concerns and common interests? What are the options and alternatives?
Historically, the 750MW West Seti Hydroelectric Project was thought of in the early 1980s as a 37 MW run-of-the-river scheme.
Nepal issued the developing licence to France’s Sogreah, which prepared a pre-feasibility study in 1987 proposing the scheme without building a dam.
With the project failing to see the light of the day, Australia’s Snowy Mountains Engineering Corporation (SMEC) acquired a majority stake in the early 1990s.
Between 1997-2011, attempts to make progress were affected due to investment and environmental concerns. Consequently, the China National Machinery and Equipment Import and Export Corporation stepped in in 2009, with SMEC holding a majority stake. However, China National Machinery and Equipment Import and Export Corporation withdrew citing a poor investment environment.
In 2011 Nepal revoked the licence of the West Seti Hydropower Company Limited in which SMEC had a majority stake, and handed it over to China.
In anMoU in 2012, China’s Three Gorges International Corporation was assigned to develop the project, but it withdrew in 2018, citing issues of resettlement and rehabilitation.
Subsequently, Nepal tried to develop the project by mobilising internal resources. However, increased costs resulted in further delays. Meanwhile, the project was remodelled as the West Seti and Seti River (SR6) joint storage project (1,200 MW).
The decision to involve India is a sign that Nepal is reposing its faith in India to complete the project. If completed, it is expected to provide India the much-needed leverage in future hydropower cooperation.
The NHPC has initiated a preliminary engagement of the site with an investment of over ₹18,000 crore. It has also signed anMoU with the Power Trading Corporation Limited, India for sale of power.
India is already involved in the Mahakali Treaty (6,480 MW), the Upper Karnali Project (900 MW) and the ArunThree projects (900 MW) in western and eastern Nepal, respectively.
Opinion
The lack of quality engineering education (Page no. 9)
(GS Paper 2, Education)
The Union Ministry of Education released the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) rankings of 2022 in July. An analysis of the top 200 institutes of technology and engineering colleges presents a disquieting picture.
The best institute in the category scored 90.04%. But the 50th best scored only 50.11%; the 100th best institute scored a mere 40.14%; and the one ranked 200th scored as little as 33.7%.
One can imagine the situation of the remaining 1,049 institutions that applied but got no rank. And how terrible must be the situation in the approximately 4,500 institutions which did not even apply for the ranking?
These top-ranking institutions accommodate about 30,000 students as against the 11 lakh-12 lakh who register for the JEE Main exam. The odds to get a seat in one of the top 100 institutions are as low as 2.73%. Only 0.9% make it to one of the top 10 institutions.
Meanwhile, during the peak of the placement season, we keep seeing news about engineering graduates bagging job offers worth lakhs of rupees. Liberally embellished with encomiums like ‘hard work pays’ and ‘institutions matter’, these stories both entice prospective students and justify increasing fees.
They rarely clarify that the reported packages are the rupee equivalent of U.S. salaries in dollars with no regard for the cost of living or for purchasing power parity.
Those who get such placements know well that by U.S. standards, these salaries could only be regarded as decent.
They also know that their take-home salaries are only a fraction of what is mentioned in the headlines. A major proportion may comprise a sign-on bonus, a relocation allowance, restricted stock units (RSUs), and employee stock options plans (ESOPs).
RSUs alone could constitute around 30% of the annual package but are typically paid over four years, with only 5% and 15% paid in the first and the second year, respectively.
What appeared to be ₹30 lakh would turn out to be only ₹1.5 lakh in the first year. Sign-on bonus is rarely paid upfront; instead, it is usually disbursed over about 24 months.
The base salary component is only a fraction of the total package.
Placement headlines also rarely reveal that such offers are rare, limited to only a minuscule number of graduates, and are generally confined to international placements, mostly in the Information Technology sector. Of the about 30,000 students graduating from premier technology institutions, not more than 100 bag such offers.
But who bothers about such details? Most parents dream of ₹1 crore plus placements for their children, unmindful of the immense stress that they put their young ones through.
This triggers a mindless rat race to get students into institutions of national importance. Students chase quality institutions, which, to them, are those that offer an assured placement, preferably with a dream package.
Explainer
The NASA spacecraft-asteroid collision (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 3, Science & Technology)
The DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) spacecraft collided with the space rock Dimorphos (just 160 metres wide). NASA has confirmed that the collision of the auto-rickshaw sized 600 kilogram weighing DART, on the football stadium-sized Dimorphos, about five billion kilogram in mass (orbiting around the 780 metres wide primary asteroid Didymos), has deflected the trajectory of the pair of space rocks.
This kinetic impact technique, which appears as the climax of Hollywood sci-fi movies like Deep Impact and Armageddon, is also known as the ‘kick’ method.
It could one day save humanity from a potential cataclysmic collision by safely deflecting a killer asteroid on its course towards earth. It could also fuel space mining technologies and unleash the space economy in decades to come.
Around a construction site, bits and pieces of leftover bricks, unused steel rods, and emptied paint canisters are usually strewn.
Likewise, leftover materials from the formation of the sun, earth and planets, through the accretion and agglomeration of giant gas and rocks, are scattered as comets, asteroids and meteoroids in the solar system.
Some of these cross their path and collide with earth from time to time, resulting in a spectacular meteor shower. Most rocks are so small that they burn up completely in the atmosphere due to frictional heating.
If they are large enough, the charred piece falls through as a meteorite. The falling piece from a meteoroid 140 metres wide or more will be capable of completely wiping out a city like Chennai. The impact would be devastating if it was one or more kilometres wide.
Neither the plot nor NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office, made famous by the blockbuster Netflix movie Don’t Look Up is imaginary.
About 66 million years ago, an asteroid about 10-15 kms struck earth. The tsunami, volcanic eruptions and thick dust clouds ensuing from the blow decimated dinosaurs and nearly 75% of all species.
What happened in the past can occur in the future. The chances of a giant asteroid striking earth are small; however, if it did occur, the devastation would be cataclysmic, wiping out the entire human civilisation.
While dinosaurs were mute spectators, humans can prepare themselves to face the imminent threat. NASA tracks and keeps a close watch on the nearly 26,115 asteroids whose orbits are dangerously close to earth.
NASA, to put it simply, undertook the ‘kick’ technique. Compared to the massive Dimorphos, DART is a tiny Goliath. Yet crashing at a breakneck speed of 23,760 kilometres per hour, the momentum is adequate to slash the angular momentum of Dimorphos, making it speed up and move closer to Didymos.
All of these reduce the orbital period and the time taken for the moonlet to go around the primary asteroid. The pair’s trajectory is thus deflected as the net result of these dynamics.
Text and Context
Theory of the Malthusian trap (Page no. 11)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
The Malthusian trap or Malthusian check refers to the theory that as the human population grows there is increasing pressure on earth’s resources, which in turn acts as a check on the further rise in population.
It is named after English economist Thomas Malthus who elaborated on the concept in his 1798 book An Essay on the Principle of Population, which quite famously inspired Charles Darwin.
In his book, Malthus argued that while rise in food production in a country can lead to improved living standards for the general population, the benefit is likely to be temporary.
This is because, Malthus argued, increasing availability of food would encourage people to have more kids since they could afford to feed them now, thus leading to a rise in the total population and a drop in per capita income levels.
Malthus, in other words, believed that there was an inverse relationship between human population and living standards with rising population leading to lower living standards.
Malthus’ idea has often been cited by modern environmentalists and other social scientists who believe that rising human population puts unsustainable pressure on earth’s resources.
The per capita income of countries remained fairly low and largely stable for many centuries until the modern age. In the pre-modern age, whenever there was a rise in food production due to whatever reason, this caused per capita income to rise for a while as long as population levels remained stable.
However, the population of the country increased quite quickly which ensured that per capita income returned to its historical trend.
Whenever food production dropped on the other hand, there was famine which caused the death of a large number of people.
The drop in human population continued until the country’s per capita income rose to subsistence levels. Either way, resource constraints kept a check on human population.
The industrial revolution that happened in the 18th and 19th centuries is seen as a landmark event that broke the historical relationship between human population and living standards.
It witnessed the rising use of man-made technology, which made sure that human beings could produce more output in the form of goods and services for each unit of the earth’s resource that they exploited. In other words, human productivity rose massively as a result of the rise of technology.
Critics of the Malthusian trap believe that the industrial revolution decisively refuted Malthus as human population levels and living standards have risen in tandem ever since the event.
In other words, according to critics, there may be no strict inverse correlation between population growth and the living standards of people.
News
Carl Gustaf M4 may be produced in India, says Sweden’s SAAB (Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 3, Defence)
Swedish defence major SAAB announced plans to manufacture its Carl-Gustaf M4 weapon system in India. The manufacturing would be done by a new fully SAAB-owned subsidiary, Saab FFV India Pvt. Ltd.
This is the first time we will be setting up a manufacturing facility for this outside Sweden, in an interaction with the media. “We will transfer the technology to India. The first product will roll out in 2024.
However, they are yet to receive the government approval for the new venture, Mr. Johansson said, while declining to give details on the volume of investment and the production capacities planned. The location of the new facility is yet to be decided and they will have competition for it, he added.
The Indian Army has already ordered the M4 version, he said in response to a question. Mr. Johansson said the company would first meet requirements of the Indian armed forces, and later look at exporting the sub systems to Sweden from where they would go into the global supply chain.
The new facility wouldl be partnering with Indian sub-suppliers which will fulfil the ‘Make in India’ requirements and will also generate jobs, he stated.
The Army has been using the iconic Carl-Gustaf since 1976 and currently operates the Mk2 and Mk3 versions. The Carl Gustof has ammunition with varying ranges with a maximum of 1,500 m. The anti-tank ammunition has a range of 500 m.
The manufacturing set-up is planned to include the M4 weapon system, key technologies such as carbon fibre winding for M3 and M4, brand new Fire Control Device launched this year and the M3 barrel assembly.
Stating that the trigger for the decision was that they needed more production capacities, over time all components of the Mk4 would be manufactured in India.
Responding to questions on meeting Indian export licence requirements for export to third countries, Mr. Johansson said they would comply with the laws, while adding that for exports to third countries, Sweden would be responsible for the end-user certificate.
The older versions of the Carl Gustaf and older ammunition are manufactured in India by the Ordnance Factory Board and now by the newly carved out Defence Public Sector Undertakings (DPSU). Company officials said the DPSUs would continue to manufacture them.
The company could also use the ordnance factory supply chain for the new manufacturing set-up, Mr. Johansson said, adding that it was being discussed.
Jobs grew in final quarter of last fiscal, manufacturing is largest contributor: survey (Page no. 14)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
Manufacturing continues to be the largest institutional employer in the country, employing about 38.5% of the workers, according to the fourth round (January-March 2022) of the Quarterly Employment Survey (QES), which is a part of the All India Quarterly Establishment based Employment Survey (AQEES).
The survey, which was released by Union Labour Minister, estimated that around 3.18 crore workers were employed in about 5.31 lakh establishments between January and March.
It claimed an increase of about four lakh workers compared with the third round of QES, which was done for the last three months of 2021.
Education, manufacturing, trade and financial services together accounted for 84% of the total estimated units.
“Manufacturing sector accounts for the largest percentage (38.5%) of the total number of workers, followed by education sector with 21.7%, IT/BPO sector with 12% and Health sector 10.6%,” the survey said.
Almost 80% of the establishments engaged 10 to 99 workers. About 12% of the establishments reported fewer than 10 workers. Only 1.4% of the establishments surveyed reported at least 500 workers. Such large establishments were mostly in the IT/ BPO sector and in the health sector.
The participation of women workers witnessed a marginal increase from 31.6% in the third quarter to 31.8% in the fourth quarter report.
However, women workers constituted about 52% of the workforce in the health sector, while the corresponding percentages in education, financial services and IT/ BPO sectors stood at 44%, 41% and 36%, respectively.
It is noteworthy that in financial services, women far outnumber males among self-employed persons.
The survey said 86.4% of the workers were regular employees, and 8.7% were contractual employees followed by casual employees (2.3%) and self-employed (2%). The share of fixed term employees in the establishments was found to be the least (0.7%) over all.
Releasing the report, Mr. Yadav said employment was showing an increasing trend and estimated employment rose from 3.14 crore in the third quarter (September-December 2021) to 3.18 crore in the fourth quarter (January-March 2022).
It is important to mention here that the total employment in these nine selected sectors taken collectively was reported as 2.37 crore in the sixth economic census (2013-14).
The Labour Bureau had taken up AQEES to provide quarterly estimates about employment and related variables of establishments in both organised and unorganised segments of nine sectors — manufacturing, construction, trade, transport, education, health, accommodation and restaurant, IT / BPO and financial services.
The AQEES had two components such as the “Quarterly Employment Survey (QES) and the Area Frame Establishment Survey (AFES) and simultaneously the Bureau was also studying about migrant and domestic workers too.
Business
Moody’s sees Quad lifting India’s trade, investment flows (Page no. 16)
(GS Paper 2, International Groupings)
India’s membership of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue would give it an opportunity to benefit from greater trade and investment flows as economic ties are expected to deepen among members seeking to reduce their dependence on China, but the country’s protectionist stance and ‘weak’ business climate could constrain these gains, Moodys’ Investors Service said on Tuesday.
India is poised to become a growing destination market for goods from the other Quad countries, including commodities, machinery and chemicals,” the rating agency said in a note on geopolitical risks stemming from the Quad alliance.
The U.S. and Japan will continue to be major sources of foreign direct investment (FDI) to India in services, telecommunications and software, while Australia’s presence will grow as a result of a free-trade agreement with India.
Trade and investment gains would accrue to India, Moody’s observed, adding that regulatory and infrastructure constraints, however, remained.
The magnitude of the trade flow shifts would also depend on improvements in India’s business climate and the level of investment attractiveness, which ‘remains weak’ compared with that of other Asia Pacific economies and other Quad members – Japan, U.S. and Australia.
“India also stands out as a relatively protectionist market for goods and capital, reflected in its high weighted average import tariff,” Moody’s pointed out.
Still, as economies diversified production of critical products and technologies, the Quad would continue to drive some long-term supply-chain shifts toward Southeast Asia and India, Moody’s estimated.
These shifts may include greater Australian exports of commodities including copper, energy and agricultural goods to these economies.
Financial services companies in the U.S., Japan and Australia will benefit from the shifts, which will also support India’s industrial and capital market development.
India stood to benefit from Quad-related supply chain shifts by increasing trade with member economies and diversifying its sources of imports from China, the rating firm said.
For India, the costs of pivoting from China toward Quad members as priority markets for trade growth will be relatively low, given that only a small share of its exports currently go to China.
As reflected in its reluctance to join the RCEP trade agreement, India is keen to reduce its dependence on imports from China while expanding its market access to Australia, Japan and the U.S.