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Bringing a new era in technology, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will on October 1, 2022 launch the 5G telecom services that seeks to provide seamless coverage, high data rate, low latency and highly reliable communications system.
On the occasion, the three major telecom operators of the country will demonstrate one use case each in front of the Prime Minister to show the potential of 5G technology in India.
Reliance Jio will connect a teacher from a school in Mumbai with students in three different locations in Maharashtra, Gujarat and Odisha.
This will demonstrate how 5G will facilitate education by bringing teachers closer to students, obliviating the physical distance between them.
It will demonstrate the power of Augmented Reality (AR) on screen and how that is being used to teach children across the country, remotely, without the need of an AR device.
In the Airtel demo, a girl from Uttar Pradesh will witness a lively and immersive education experience to learn about the solar system with the help of Virtual reality and Augmented reality.
The girl will share her experience of learning with the Prime Minister by appearing on the dais through a hologram.
The Vodafone Idea test case will demonstrate the safety of workers in an under-construction tunnel of Delhi Metro through the creation of a Digital Twin of the tunnel on the dais.
The digital twin will help give safety alerts to workers in real-time from a remote location. Mr. Modi will take a live demo from the dais to monitor the work in real-time through utilising VR and Artificial Intelligence.
The various use cases that will be demonstrated in front of PM in the exhibition include precision drone-based farming; High-Security Routers & AI based Cyber Threat Detection platforms; Automated Guided Vehicles; Ambupod - Smart Ambulance; Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality /Mix Reality in Education and Skill Development; Sewage Monitoring System; Smart-Agri Programme; Health diagnostics, among others.5G technology will offer a wide range of benefits to the common people. It will help in providing seamless coverage, high data rate, low latency, and highly reliable communications.
Also, it will increase energy efficiency, spectrum efficiency and network efficiency. 5G technology will help in connecting billions of Internet of Things devices, will allow higher quality video services with mobility at high speed, and delivery of critical services such as telesurgery and autonomous cars among others.
5G will help in real-time monitoring of disasters, precision agriculture, and minimising the role of humans in dangerous industrial operations such as in deep mines, offshore activities etc.
Unlike existing mobile communication networks, 5G networks will allow tailoring of requirements for each of these different use cases within the same network.
News
Army expects to boost firepower with induction of artillery guns (Page no. 9)
(GS Paper 3, Defence)
In the next five years, the Army’s Regiment of Artillery will see major force accretion with the induction of several guns, including indigenous ones.
It includes the Dhanush, Sharang, M777 Ultra Light Howitzer (ULH), additional K9-Vajra howitzers and the Advanced Towed Artillery Gun System (ATAGS).
Operationalisation of the seventh regiment of the M777 is under way, and the induction of all 145 guns, contracted from BAE Systems, should be completed in the next few years, a defence source said.
Similarly, with their deployment and performance in high-altitude regions, the Army is now going in for 100 more K9-Vajra-tracked self-propelled howitzers.
One regiment of the indigenous Dhanush artillery systems, developed based on the Bofors guns, has been inducted and operationalised in a high-altitude area along the northern borders after extensive validation. By March 2023, the Army should receive 18 guns to form the second Dhanush regiment.
On the Sharang guns, the 130mm artillery guns up-gunned to 155mm, 45 calibre guns, three regiments have been operationalised so far with the fourth regiment in process. The order for up-gunning 300 guns is being executed by three difference DPSUs.
Three Sharang regiments are expected to be delivered per year and 15 artillery regiments are to be equipped with Sharang. So, it should be done in five years,” the source explained. The Army received the first Sharang gun in February 2020.
On this note, the source stressed the need to upscale the capacities and capabilities of the domestic industry and the need to evolve a “conglomerate or consortium culture”.
On the ATAGS system which has completed validation trials in May, officials said they are fast-tracking the remaining process for quicker induction.
Following this, Electromagnetic Interference/Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMI/EMC) trials were completed, followed by maintainability trials by the Corps of Electronics and Mechanical Engineers.
Over 6,000 trees illegally cut for tiger safari project in Corbett Reserve, says FSI report (Page no. 9)
(GS Paper 3, Environment)
The much-awaited tiger safari project of the Uttarakhand government is under scanner after a Forest Survey of India (FSI) report stated that over 6,000 trees were illegally cut in the Corbett Tiger Reserve (CTR) against the permission for 163 for the Pakhru Tiger Safari.
The State Forest Department, however, denied the FSI’s claims, and said that there were some technical issues which needed to be resolved before finally accepting the report.
The FSI was asked by the Uttarakhand Forest Department to access the status of illegal felling in and around the Pakhru Tiger Safari.
They were asked to estimate the number of trees felled in the illegally cleared area based on expertise and technology available with the organisation.
The Forest Survey Institute was also tasked to scan the area in and around the Pakhru Tiger Safari for illegal felling and to analyse any area within the Kalagarh Tiger Reserve, which was seen to be exhibiting forest cover change.
After compiling the report in around nine months in Pakhru block, Kalushaheed block, Nalkhatta Block and Kalagarh block, the FSI has come up with an observation that the area cleared under the CTR is estimated as 16.21 hectares.
The trees estimated on the cleared area are 6,093 in number with the lower bound of 5,765 and the upper bound of 6,421 with 95% confidence interval and 2.72% standard error,” said a senior official from the department.
FSI found that 6,421 trees were illegally cut. After a preliminary examination of this report, there are several technical issues which needs to be resolved before this report to be accepted. There are several serious and important questions on the tabulation of the number of trees allegedly felled and the sampling technique used to arrive at this number.
He confirmed that the department had the permission to cut 163 trees in the safari area, and in the primary investigation, it was found that 97 extra trees were illegally cut.
The matter of thousands of trees being felled illegally was highlighted by Gaurav Bansal, an environment-activist and lawyer based in Delhi.
India abstains on UNSC resolution condemning Russia’s ‘referenda’ (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
India was among four countries that abstained on a draft resolution at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) condemning the so-called referenda organised by Russia across four regions of Ukraine.
Russian President Vladimir Putin “annexed” four regions inside Ukraine’s internationally recognised borders — Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Luhansk and Donetsk — based on the results of Russian-organised referenda in these regions.
The UNSC resolution, sponsored by the United States and Albania, failed to pass the 15-member Council, despite winning 10 supporting votes, after Russia used a veto to block it.
A similar resolution is likely to be introduced in the U.N. General Assembly — where Russia does not have a veto — in the near future.
The resolution condemns the referenda, calls on the international community not to recognise any alterations to Ukraine’s territory and calls for Russia to withdraw its forces from Ukraine.
The other abstaining countries voting were China, Brazil and Gabon. India abstained on the resolution “keeping in view the totality of the evolving situation.
India was “deeply disturbed” by the recent events in Ukraine, Ms. Kamboj said, as she explained India’s abstention vote and called for an immediate cessation of violence. “We’ve always advocated that no solution can ever be arrived at the cost of human lives.
The U.S., one of the sponsors of the resolution, had earlier in the week said it would seek action against Russia at the General Assembly, if Russia vetoed the resolution in the Council.
He accused Washington of double standards over Taiwan, making a reference to its readiness to use force to protect Taiwan.
Ukraine, represented by its UNPR, Sergiy Kyslytsya, called the Security Council a “broken” pillar of the United Nations. He devoted a large part of his remarks to questioning the legitimacy of Russia as the Soviet Union’s successor state on the Security Council.
Allowing Russia to avail itself of the right of the Soviet Union to veto decisions of the Security Council effectively prevents this body from exercising its primary responsibility under the UN Charter: maintenance of international peace and security.
Countries recognise the implications for their own borders and economies when the principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity was set aside, she said, adding that now was not the time to “stand on the sidelines”.
Indore bags cleanest city award for sixth year, M.P. ranks first among States (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 2, Governance)
Indore has been adjudged the cleanest city of India for the sixth year in a row, while Madhya Pradesh is the cleanest State in the country.
Surat is the second cleanest city and Navi Mumbai ranks a close third in the category of cities with a population more than a lakh.
In the population category of less than one lakh, Panchgani and Karad from Maharashtra bagged the first and third positions respectively, while Patan from Chhattisgarh bagged the second position.
Tirupati received the best city award in Safai Mitra Suraksha category, while Haridwar in Uttarakhand received the award for the best Ganga town in more than one lakh population cities. Shivamogga in Karnataka received the fast mover city award.
The State awards saw Madhya Pradesh emerge as the Cleanest State in the category of “more than 100 Urban Local Bodies”, relegating Chhattisgarh, the cleanest State of the previous three years, to second place. Maharashtra emerged as third cleanest State.
Similarly, Tripura got the cleanest state award in the “less than 100 urban local bodies category”, dislodging Jharkhand, which had won in the last two consecutive years. Jharkhand and Uttarakhand received the second and third spots respectively.
The awards were given away by President Droupadi Murmu as part of the Azadi@75 Swachh Survekshan 2022 hosted as part of the Swachh Bharat Mission. She also released the Swachh Survekshan 2022 dashboard.
Science
Does scrapping of awards signal misplaced priorities? (Page no. 13)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Tech)
Each year, September 26 is celebrated by the Indian Scientific Community as the birthday of Prof. Shanti Swaroop Bhatnagar, a stalwart of Indian science in the 1940s and 1950s and the founding head of CSIR.
This is also a day when the government announces the yearly Bhatnagar Awards aimed at honouring the most outstanding researchers (under the age of 45) working in India. But this year was an exception. There was no announcement of award winners.
Instead, the government released a copy of minutes of a high-level meeting held the previous week. The minutes reveal that the government has resolved to scrap most of the existing awards, including those instituted through private endowment, and introduce a ‘select few high-stature’ awards instead.
The decision raises more questions than it answers. It remains unclear what the rationale was for the sudden scrapping of most awards.
One reason could be that the government is of the impression that the current awards are handed out in an unfair manner.
While bias and prejudice cannot be ruled out, there is a strong notion that winning an award becomes easier when the potential awardee is a favourite of one or more members of the selection committee.
But these supposedly bad choices have been only a few and most of the time, the current system of selection has undoubtedly rewarded excellence.
Since the minutes have not listed out the reasons, speculations about the government’s motive are rife. It was thought that this cull is part of the overall austerity measure, in light of the economic downturn.
But that seems unlikely as the total annual budget of all these cancelled awards is so small that it is less than rounding error in the Union Budget.
Secondly, this order also shuts down all awards instituted through private endowments, for which the government was not spending anything.
Strangely, the order does not clarify what would happen to the said endowment if it is not used for giving those respective awards. Another oddity about this order is that all the ministries have been told to stop all ‘non-core-domain’ awards.
It is no secret that only a small fraction of the Indian scientific community align themselves with the questionable scientific agenda of the current government.
Centralising all the awards is seen as one way of giving the government a greater control over the selection committees and reward scientists who are seen favourably by the government.
This will help in raising the profile of such scientists, paving the way for their eventual elevation to the leadership positions in different research institutes and universities.
Medicinal fungi may be suitable for identifying novel drugs (Page no. 13)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Tech)
An analytical study of medicinal fungi carried out by researchers from the Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Chennai (IMSc), shows that some chemicals they secrete may find use as novel drugs.
They used a database, MeFSAT (Medicinal Fungi Secondary Metabolites And Therapeutics), which compiles information on 184 medicinal fungi, including mushrooms.
Secondary metabolites are chemical compounds that fungi produce when they are stressed. They enhance the fungus’ ability to survive. The work has been published in the preprint server BioRXiv .
Cordycepin, a secondary metabolite produced by Cordyceps species of fungus, is known to have anti-tumour properties. Not only cordycepin, in general, several secondary metabolites are known to be beneficial for humans in terms of both therapy and health,” says R.P. Vivek Ananth, a PhD student from IMSc, who has contributed to this research.
In their analysis, the researchers, guided by Areejit Samal from IMSc, found that the secondary metabolites were structurally distant from existing drugs.
Also, their ‘scaffolding’ was different from known drugs. About 94% of the chemical scaffolds identified in secondary metabolites of medicinal fungi were not present in approved drugs. As for the complete chemical structure, the secondary metabolites were quite dissimilar to the approved drugs.
This alone cannot tell that there are metabolites in fungi that can be used as drugs. However, the secondary metabolites of medicinal fungi have molecular properties, which are important for drug likeness, similar to approved drugs.
This makes the secondary metabolites of the medicinal fungi suitable for identifying novel drugs with hitherto unknown chemical scaffolds.
Medicinal fungi belongs to two taxonomic divisions namely, basidiomycota and ascomycota . Mushrooms belong to the basidiomycota division.
An example is Agaricus bisporus , the button mushroom, which can be consumed. Fungi belonging to the ascomycota division are generally not mushrooms.
How can India reduce its impact on global warming (Page no. 13)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Tech)
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has pointed out that since the industrial revolution, which started around 1800, human activities have released large amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2) due to fuel burning and other ‘greenhouse gases’ such as methane, nitrous oxide, and compounds of sulphur, phosphorous, ozone into the atmosphere, changing the earth’s climate.
Atmospheric carbon dioxide levels have increased by over 40%, from 280 ppm in the 18th century to 414 ppm in 2020, and greenhouse gases level by over these 200 years.
India had 170 million people in 1800, which has risen to 1.4 billion people today. And industrial revolution started only after India’s Independence 75 years ago. While it has helped in reduction of poverty, it has also led to rise in atmospheric carbon dioxide and greenhouse gases.
The Food and Agriculture Organisation(FAO) site points out that we have a rural population that constitutes 70% of the country, and their main occupation is agriculture.
This gives us a total foodgrain production of 275 million tonne. India is the second largest producer of rice, wheat, sugarcane, cotton and groundnuts. It, thus, becomes important that India reduce its carbon footprint, more in its farming sector.
Farmers have come up with some admirable methods, with the help of agricultural professionals, by using solar panels in their fields, so that they can avoid diesel for groundwater pumps.
Sibi Arasu, an independent journalist from Bengaluru, writes, “Climate-friendly agriculture offers new income sources and is more sustainable” in the journal Carbon Management that India’s carbon emissions could drop by 45-62 million tonnes annually. The government and professional groups have helped rural farmers put in solar panels to save money and gain greater income.
Indian farmers not only grow rice and wheat but produce other foodgrains as well. They grew about 121.5 million tonnes of rice and 109 million tonnes of wheat during the year 2020-2021.
They also produce other foodgrains such as millets ( bajra ), cassava and more. They grow about 12 million tonnes of millets annually. Likewise, the amount of maize produced per year is about 28.6 million tonnes.
It may also be added that millets have more proteins (7.3 m per 100 g), fat (1.7 g per 100 g) and fibre content (4.22g per 100g) than rice (protein content 2.7 g per 100 g; fat content 0.3 g per 100 g; and fibre content 0.4 g per 100 g).
It is, thus, healthier for us to add more millets in our diet, besides rice and wheat. And wheat is superior to rice as it has more proteins (13.2 g per 100 g), fat (2.5 g per 100 g), and fibre (10.7 g per 100 g).
FAQ
Did the spare ban spare PFI’s political Wing? (Page no. 14)
(GS Paper 2, Governance)
A definitive crackdown on the Popular Front of India (PFI) and eight of its affiliates by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) along with the police last week was capped by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) declaring them as ‘unlawful associations’ under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and outlawing them for five years.
The Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI), widely thought to be the political wing of the PFI, escaped the ban, with its national president M.K. Faizy ascribing the action against the PFI to ‘an undeclared Emergency’ prevailing in the country.
There’s no official word on what worked in favour of the SDPI, a political party that was formed in June, 2009, “for the advancement and uniform development of all citizenry including Muslims, Dalits, Backward Classes and Adivasis” and registered with the Election Commission of India (ECI) a year later.
However, it is being surmised that the fact of it being a political dispensation with people’s representatives in close to a dozen States and the lack of any tangible evidence of its involvement in ‘planned unlawful’ activities saved it.
While some top leaders of the SDPI also figured in the senior leadership of the banned PFI, the party was quick to distance itself from the latter, claiming to be an ‘independent’ entity featuring cadres, members and leaders from all communities and faiths.
The MHA, if it so willed, could’ve acted against the SDPI as well, as the UAPA provides for overriding powers to act against any entity found to be involved in acts prejudicial to India’s interests.
But that wasn’t done probably because there would not have been anything suggesting planned illegal activities on the part of the political party,” was how Gopal Krishna Pillai, former Union Home Secretary, explained the MHA’s action.
The ECI is largely powerless to deregister active political parties, leave alone recommending a ban on them.
Over the last two decades, the ECI has gone to the Government of India several times over with a bouquet of proposals which include amendments to Section 29A of the Representation of the People Act of 1951, but there has been no progress in this regard.
According to Supreme Court lawyer Kaleeswaram Raj, even the limited power of the ECI to deregister a party is not provided by statute, as the Representation of the People Act only empowers the ECI to register a party.
How has the SC expanded abortion law? (Page no. 14)
(GS Paper 2, Judiciary)
On September 29, the Supreme Court ruled that single and unmarried women with pregnancies between 20 and 24 weeks are entitled to access the same safe and legal abortion care as married women.
Interpreting the Rules framed under the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act, 1971, a Bench led by Justice D.Y. Chandrachud said “the rights of reproductive autonomy, dignity and privacy give an unmarried woman the right of choice as to whether or not to bear a child on a similar footing as that of a married woman.”
In another judicial recognition of marital rape, which is not recognised as an offence under the Indian Penal Code, the Court also said sexual assault by a man on his wife can take the form of rape.
Under the current legal framework, and as the Court too noted, the MTP Act lays out exceptions to the provisions criminalising abortion in Sections 312-318 of the Indian Penal Code.
The Court was hearing a case of a 25-year-old unmarried woman, whose plea to terminate a pregnancy before the completion of 24 weeks was rejected by the Delhi High Court pointing out that the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Rules, 2003, did not extend to unmarried women in a relationship.
Taking a “purposive” view of a “beneficial legislation” like the MTP Act, the Court declared that unmarried women be included within the ambit of Rule 3B of the MTP Rules. The MTP (Amendment) Act, 2021, had introduced a key change in Section 3 by extending the upper limit for termination of pregnancy from 20 to 24 weeks.
Specifically, Explanation II replaced this point — anguish caused by a pregnancy resulting from a failure of any device or method used by any “married woman or her husband” in the unamended Act — to “any woman or her partner”, thus bringing pregnancies which happen outside the institution of marriage within the “protective umbrella of the law”.
The Bench said “constitutional values, such as the right to reproductive autonomy, the right to live a dignified life, the right to equality, and the right to privacy” led it to reinterpret the contours of the MTP Act and the MTP Rules.
In the context of abortion, the right to dignity entails recognising the competence and authority of every woman to take reproductive decisions, including the decision to terminate the pregnancy.
Business
RBI’s monetary policy has sent a positive message: FM (Page no. 16)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
India’s inflation is at a manageable level and the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI’s) latest monetary policy, which included a 50 basis points increase in interest rates, had sent a “very positive message in the market.
More than 70% of the foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) who had left the Indian stock markets in the months running up to July, had returned over the last two months, the Minister said, asserting that India was now entering an era of robust economic activity.
Till July, you had a lot of FPIs flowing outside of India, going away from India. And people thought, ‘Oh, that’s an indication the economy is going to be in distress’.
As much or even more have started coming back from August and till September, more than 70% of all of whom went out, have equally come back.
Asserting that it was going to be a period ‘unlike any other times’ for the economy and businesses, with investments in manufacturing as well as the services sectors, Ms. Sitharaman said a lot of funds would flow into India and several mergers and acquisitions could be expected.
This is going to be an era of entrepreneurship for building Indian economy, for a lot of flow of funds that is going to come into India.
The government is actively engaged with sovereign funds, the big funders who can come and invest in India,” she said, pointing to the interest shown by global investors in schemes like production-linked incentives.
Mergers and acquisitions are also going to happen because it’s an economy which is seen as the sweet spot world over, because we have achieved a certain growth and are standing out as the fastest growing economy in the world. And therefore, you’re going to have a lot of investor interest.
We need a lot of good professionals who are going to help the economy understand how liquidation, how insolvency, bankruptcy, all of them can be handled, where required, in a very efficient and timely manner.