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A fortnight before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine completes a year, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval met Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow and they agreed to continue work towards implementing the India-Russia strategic partnership.
The Indian embassy in Moscowsaid, “NSA Ajit Doval called on HE President Putin. Wide-ranging discussion on bilateral and regional issues. Agreed to continue work towards implementing the India-Russia strategic partnership.”
This is the NSA’s second visit to Russia since the Ukraine war began — he was there in August last year.The Kremlin said President Putin met with heads of delegations taking part in the multilateral consultations on Afghanistan.
Doval had attended the fifth multilateral meeting of Secretaries of Security Councils/NSAs on Afghanistan which was hosted by Russia.
Putin told the visiting NSAs: “I know that this meeting has become a tradition and is devoted to a very important issue — the situation in Afghanistan.
Obviously, there is a lot of potential for conflict in the world today. There are many conflicts here, not far from Russia, including on the Ukrainian track.”
Gaganyaan mission: ISRO, Navy start trials for crew module recovery (Page no. 5)
(GS Paper 3, Space)
In preparation for its first human spaceflight (Gaganyaan), Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), along with the Navy, started training for crew module recovery when it splashes down in the sea after re-entering the atmosphere.
A large number of trials will be carried out – first in a closed pool and then in the open sea – to finalise the standard operating procedure for the recovery of the crew members as soon as possible.
The trials commenced Tuesday at the water survival test facility of the Navy in Kochi.The Kochi facility can simulate different sea state conditions, environmental conditions, and day or night conditions.
During the trials, the flight crew will experience realistic training for escape from a ditched craft under varied simulated conditions and crash scenarios.
The space agency said these trials would provide valuable inputs for utilising the recovery accessories. Feedback will also be taken from the recovery teams and trainers to improve the recovery options, design any accessory needed, and finalise a training plan, the space agency said in a statement.
The current trials are being conducted using a crew module recovery model that simulates the mass, centre of gravity, outer dimensions, and the external state of the actual crew module at touchdown.
Ideas Page
Green hydrogen challenge (Page no. 13)
(GS Paper 3, Environment)
On India’s 75th Independence Day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the National Hydrogen Mission to make the country a production and export hub of green hydrogen.
This mission was approved by the Union Cabinet on January 4, 2023 with an initial outlay of Rs 19,744 crore ($2.3 billion) over the next five years, aimed at producing 5 MMT (million metric tonne) per annum with an associated renewable energy capacity addition of about 125 GW (giga watt) by 2030.
While the green hydrogen dream seems appealing, critical challenges must be examined to help design appropriate pathways to realise this vision.
Hydrogen is produced through water electrolysis, something most of us would have learnt in our science textbooks in school. When the electricity used in the water electrolysis is produced from renewables, it is termed as green hydrogen.
Sustainability experts have ascribed an entire colour spectrum to hydrogen — green, blue, grey, black, and brown depending on their ability to totally avoid or capture the greenhouse gases produced in the process of making hydrogen.
However, our focus is on green hydrogen as it has the potential to maximise decarbonisation of the energy sector and the use of energy in end-use sectors such as transport, buildings and industry.
While the stated benefits of the National Mission are galore — savings to the tune of $12.5 billion from fuel imports, averting 50 MMTs of annual emissions of Carbon dioxide, fresh investments to the tune of $100 billion, and 6,00,000 green jobs, there are several challenges too.
The challenges to produce and use green hydrogen can be classified into 4Es — electrolyser, energy source, end use and endogenous resources. We will delve into each one of them in this article.
Explained
Second flight of ISRO’s mini vehicle with hope, promise on board (Page no. 16)
(GS Paper 3, Space)
In its second development flight on Friday (February 10) morning, the Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV-D2) was launched successfully from the first launch pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre SHAR, Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh.
It will place the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) earth observation satellite EOS-07 and two co-passenger satellites — Janus-1 and AzaadiSat2 — developed by start-ups, in a 450-km circular orbit around the Earth.
The mission of ISRO’s smallest vehicle — scheduled for 9.18 am — lasted around 15 minutes. It was ISRO’s first launch of 2023.
The new vehicle was developed to capture the emerging small and micro satellite commercial market, with launches offered on demand.
The rocket can be assembled by a small team in only a few days, compared to the six months and around 600 people it takes for ISRO’s workhorse PSLV.
“Our plan is to make it available in a week’s time — the assembly can be done in two days, [followed by] two days of testing, and the next two days we are doing the rehearsal and launch.
The launch vehicle uses three solid stages followed by a liquid-fuel-based Velocity Trimming Module (VTM) to place satellites in orbit.
The vehicle’s first development flight that took place last August after repeated delays due to the pandemic, failed to place the satellites in precise orbit.
Nord Stream (Page no. 16)
(GS Paper 2, International Relations)
A veteran American investigative journalist has claimed that the September 2022 bombing of the undersea Nord Stream gas pipelines was carried out by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in a covert operation at the direction of the White House. President Joe Biden’s administration has denied the allegations and called the report “utterly false and complete fiction”.
Seymour Hersh, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who has previously worked with The New York Times and The New Yorker magazine, published the findings of his investigation on Substack.
The report claimed that US Navy divers, operating under cover of a mid-summer 2022 NATO exercise, planted remotely triggered bombs to destroy three of the four Nord Stream pipelines.
Last September, a series of leaks were reported in the Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 pipelines, multi-billion dollar projects to carry natural gas from Russia to Germany through the Baltic Sea.
After an examination, both Sweden and Denmark, in whose jurisdiction the leaks happened, said the leaks took place because someone deliberately bombed the pipelines. However, they did not reveal who was responsible for the attack.
Ever since it became operational in 2011, Nord Stream, the first of the two pipelines, had been one of the major sources of energy supplies for not just Germany but also other countries in Europe. Once the Russia-Ukraine war broke out, it became the centre of tensions as Russia sought to use the pipeline to negotiate its interests by restricting supplies.
Centre blocks 200 bettings, lending platforms: What is Section 69(A) of IT Act (Page no. 16)
(GS Paper 2, Government Policies and Interventions)
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) recently issued orders to block 138 online betting platforms and 94 money lending apps on an “urgent” and “emergency” basis under Section 69(A) of the Information Technology Act, 2000.
The decision was based on a recommendation of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), which had received inputs from central intelligence agencies that some of the sites and apps were allegedly linked to China and contained “material prejudicial to the sovereignty and integrity of India”.
Over the past three years, several police complaints have been received of extortion and harassment from people who borrowed small amounts through such money-lending apps, often at exorbitantly high interest rates.
In December 2020, DNM Santosh Kumar, a native of Visakhapatnam, died by suicide allegedly after facing harassment by lending apps. Similarly, the Cyber Police Station of Pune received 699 complaints of loan app crimes in 2020.
The number increased to 928 in 2021. As many as 3,151 complaints were filed against the loan app operatives till August 2022.
Following this, the MHA started investigating Chinese loan-lending apps and found out that while only 94 are available on e-stores, others are operating through third-party links or websites.
Section 69 of the IT Act allows the government to issue content-blocking orders to online intermediaries such as Internet Service Providers (ISPs), telecom service providers, web hosting services, search engines, online marketplaces, etc.
However, the Section requires the information or content being blocked to be deemed a threat to India’s national security, sovereignty, or public order.
Economy
Govt says data on AarogyaSetu deleted; what next for the app? (Page no. 17)
(GS Paper 2, Health)
Contact tracing data of citizens that were collected through the AarogyaSetu app has been deleted and the feature disabled, Minister of State for Electronics and IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar has told Parliament.
The app was launched as a contact tracing platform by the Centre during the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. It has faced at least two lawsuits over the government’s insistence that it be mandatory for visiting key institutions like airports.
Since the easing of the pandemic restrictions, it has morphed into a larger health app of sorts, through its integration with the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission.
Congress MP Amar Singh sought details of the current legislation or protocol governing the data collected by AarogyaSetu, and a list of the government or private agencies, organisations, institutes and individuals with access to that data.
The National Executive Committee constituted under the Disaster Management Act, 2005, issued an order dated 29.3.2020 constituting, among others, an empowered group on technology and data management to identify problem areas and provide effective solutionsand take all necessary steps for effective and time-bound implementation of these plans in relation to Covid-19 pandemic.
As per a decision of the empowered group, its chairperson issued an order dated 11.5.2020, notifying the AarogyaSetu Data Access and Knowledge Sharing Protocol, 2020, to ensure secure collection of data by the AarogyaSetu mobile application, protection of personal data of individuals and the efficient use and sharing of personal or non-personal data for mitigation and redressal of the Covid-19 pandemic.