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imports of populated printed circuit boards (PCBs) used for mobile phones, to push the Make in India campaign. The duty is aimed at providing ‘adequate protection to National domestic industry,’ the government had said, so that local manufacturers of PCBs get an incentive of sorts. Hand- set prices were expected to rise by over 1% owing to the Real estate Act will come into force today duty. The much-awaited Real Estate Regulatory Act, which Calling for a ‘low or no duty regime’ for key inputs of elec- promises to protect the rights of homebuyers and bring in tronic products, the Aayog has said that the 2% customs transparency to the sector, comes into force on Monday. duty on PCBs would provide modest protection to do- Though only 13 States and Union Territories have noti- mestic manufacturers, but hurt the mobile phone manu- fied the rules so far, the Centre believes that within the facturers. next two months, others too will follow suit. ‘Tariff handicap’ “All Sections of the Act will come into force from May 1 “At this stage, it is best for us to let mobile phone manu- and become operational. The clock now begins to tick facturing flourish and not be handicapped by tariffs on for registration of ongoing and new housing projects with its components. As this happens and we begin to export regulatory authorities within three months,” said a senior mobile phones in large volumes, the way to the manufac- official of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Al- ture of other components will be automatically paved,” leviation, who did not wish to be named. the Aayog has noted in its recommendations on the elec- Real estate developers shall get all the ongoing projects tronics sector. that have not received completion certificate and the new “We should return to zero duty on PCBs. We must build projects registered with regulatory authorities by July- industries that are globally competitive and do not need end. This enables the buyers to enforce their rights and to operate behind a wall of protection,” it stressed. seek redress, a Ministry spokesperson said. A senior official in the electronics and IT ministry- ex Project necessities pressed surprise at the Aayog’s suggestion and said Under these regulations, developers are required to dis- that though some mobile phone producers had initially play sanctioned plans and layout plans of at least 3X2 expressed apprehensions about the levy of the duty on feet size at all marketing offices, other offices where PCBs, they recognise that the idea is to incentivise do- properties are sold, all branch offices and head office of mestic production of PCBs. the promoters in addition to the site of project. “The duty is being levied at a nominal rate and is just a As per the new act, 70% of the funds would have to be signal in favour of local manufacturing,” the official said. deposited in a separate bank account in case of new pro- Though India has the potential to become a large elec- jects and 70% of unused funds in case of ongoing pro- tronics manufacturer and exporter due to its large labour jects. Projects with plot size of minimum 500 sq.m or at force, a growing domestic market and proximity to other least eight apartments shall be registered. Both develop- economies on the electronics value chain, the sector ac- ers and buyers will pay penalty for delays. The liability is counted for just 3% of India’s merchandise exports in on developers for structural defects for five years. 2015, the Centre’s think tank has pointed out. “The world market in electronics products is $2 trillion NITI Aayog for abolishing 2% duty on compared with only $65 billion in the domestic market. Therefore, an aggressive export strategy is essential to mobile phone circuits credibly prepare ourselves for the fourth Industrial Revo- Mobile phones could become cheaper if the government lution,” the Aayog noted. accepts a proposal by the NITI Aayog to drop the 2% im- port duty imposed on a critical component for handsets in the Union Budget for 2017-18. India to unveil new IIP series The Aayog, in its draft aspirantforum.comthree-year action plan, has said India will unveil a new series of Index of Industrial Pro- the duty will hurt mobile phone makers in the country and duction with a base year 2011-12 on May 9 with an aim to the government must ensure that industries are not built map economic activities more accurately. The new series behind ‘a wall of protection.’ for Index of Industrial Production (IIP), which captures in-

Vol. 33 May 2017 33 May Vol. The Budget had imposed a 2% special additional duty on dustrial activities on monthly basis, will be launched by

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Chief Statistician and MOSPI Secretary T. C. A. Anant, However, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation is not an official said. in favour of the proposal due to safety reasons, according A high-level panel had firmed up the methodology for the to a Ministry official. IIP with new base year of 2011-12. Currently, the IIP is “We are persuading them to allow single-engine aircraft calculated on base year of 2004-05. under the scheme,” the official said. The change in baseline for the IIP is expected to bring in more accuracy in mapping the level of economic activity Braj Bihari Kumar new ICSSR chief and calculating other numbers like national accounts. The Union government has appointed Braj Bihari Ku- mar as Chairman of the Indian Council of Social Science Govt. mulls changes to UDAN scheme to Research (ICSSR), which is dedicated to social science attract more players research in India. He replaces eminent academic S.K. The Centre may introduce changes to its regional con- Thorat, who was appointed by the UPA government. nectivity scheme or UDAN to attract more players in the Mr. Kumar, 76, is the founding member of Astha Bharati, second round of bidding. a non-profit organisation dedicated to promoting the “In- “In a recent meeting, we have received numerous sug- dia’s unity and integrity.” It publishes journals Dialogue gestions from stakeholders and we might bring some and Chintan Srijan . He was chosen by a selection com- changes to UDAN ahead of the second round of bidding mittee comprising National Research Professor Ashok so that more airlines show interest,” said a senior Civil Modak, Panjab University emeritus professor Jitendra Aviation Ministry official. Mohan and historian Satish Mittal. Allowing single-engine aircraft to fly under the scheme, Vice-Chancellors have been appointed for Nagaland increasing route exclusivity for airlines and higher sub- Central University and Aligarh Muslim University (AMU). sidy for helicopters among others are some of the pro- Tariq Mansoor, principal of AMU’s Jawaharlal Nehru posals which may be considered. Medical College, will replace Lt. General (retired) Ja- Airlines had asked the Civil Aviation Ministry to increase meeruddin Shah as Vice-Chancellor of AMU. the exclusive flying rights on UDAN routes from three to Pardesi Lal, Pro-Vice-Chancellor of Nagaland University, five years. will become the Vice-Chancellor. “However, we do not favour increasing the exclusive rights to five years since we feel airlines get enough Naidu receives ‘Transformative Chief safeguards by operating exclusively on a route for three Administer’ award years,” said another Ministry official. Justifying exclusive Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu flying rights, Civil Aviation Secretary R.N. Choubey had received ‘Transformative Chief Administer’ award be- said last year that since routes become profitable after a stowed on him by the US-India Business Council (USIBC). certain point of time and airlines are taking risk to operate The USIBC representatives said most programmes on regional routes, they should be “given some time to launched by the Chandrababu Naidu government in get fruits of the profit.” Andhra Pradesh were role models which was why the Board of Directors of the Council voted to give this award to Mr. Naidu. They said they were looking forward to bringing the U.S. companies to set up industries in Andhra Pradesh. Responding to their gesture, Mr. Naidu said he was very happy, mainly because this award would bring recogni- tion to the State. Investors in the U.S. would now know aspirantforum.comthat A.P. was the best bet for ease of doing business. Earlier, Mr. Naidu made a presentation on ‘Sunrise Andhra Pradesh’s Transformational Journey towards a Single-engine planes Happy State’. The airlines had also asked the Ministry to allow them Innovative ideas Vol. 33 May 2017 33 May Vol. to operate single-engine aircraft on routes under UDAN. “The future of India is secure as this government will

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continue even after elections,” he said, adding: “Even in yet to enforce a long standing order that requires food Andhra Pradesh, there is no doubt. As long as you do companies to ensure no more than 5% of the daily calo- good work, people will support you. My aim is to grow rie requirement of their products derives from fats. at a rate of 15% because by doing that I can increase Supreme Court plans to go paperless the per capita income in five years. To ensure inclusive Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated a significant growth, I am making liberal use of technology. We have step being taken by the Supreme Court: one that will adopted innovative ideas.” take it from a being a paper court to becoming a digi- tal court. The Integrated Case Management Information Tax processed foods: FSSAI panel System (ICMIS) will allow a litigant to digitally file a case A committee of medical experts and nutritionists has rec- and watch its progress on a real-time basis. ommended a tax on “highly-processed” foods and sug- The system will help litigants access data and retrieve ar-sweetened beverages. The body, tasked by the Food information online. It will be a step towards a paperless Standards and Safety Authority of India (FSSAI), which Supreme Court. is a Union Health Ministry body, has also advocated a Chief Justice of India J.S. Khehar said he proposed to ban on advertisements promoting foods high in FSS (fat, integrate the system with all the 24 High Courts and the salt, sugar) during TV shows and channels aimed at chil- subordinate courts. It would help usher in transparency, dren. “In fact, we should progress towards a total ban, as reduce manipulation and help the litigant track the pro- being done in a few other countries like Chile. Celebrity gress of a case on a real- time basis. endorsements of such foods need to be discouraged,” No break says the report on the FSSAI website. The Chief Justice said he had urged High Court judges WHO guidelines to work for a few days during the summer break. The 11-member committee has compiled existing sci- The Supreme Court has lined up two Constitution Bench- entific literature on the consumption of fats, sodium and es for hearing the triple talaq issue and the issue whether sugar in foods, across socio-economic groups in the right to privacy of users would be violated by the contract country, and endorsed that the proportions of these food entered into between WhatsApp and Facebook in 2016. constituents not exceed guidelines by the World Health Besides, a vacation bench would be hearing urgent mat- Organisation (WHO) and the Indian Council of Medical ters through the entire duration of the summer vacation Research (ICMR). till the first week of July. A salient finding was that Low Income Groups (LIG) re- Over 61,000 cases are pending in the apex court, while portedly consumed more fried snacks and sweets than the 24 High Courts have 38.70 lakh pending cases, gov- High Income Groups (HIG) and, the highest consump- ernment data shows. tion of bakery items was in slums, said a study on urban Addressing the gathering, Mr. Modi said the decision of populations cited in the report. the Supreme Court and the High Courts to sit during the Detailed labels must summer break would help the poor get justice. “I thank The panel also recommended that all packaged food car- them for this,” he said. ry detailed labels specifying the energy value in kcal (kilo Green cause too calories); the amounts of protein, carbohydrates and fat; The Prime Minister said a paperless approach would be and the amount of any other nutrient for which a nutrition a boon to both litigants and the environment. Millions of or health claim is made. If relevant, the label should also litres of water and thousands of trees can be saved. Ten specify the amount or type of fatty acids or the amount of litres of water was used to make one A4 size paper, he cholesterol, saturated fatty acids, monounsaturated fatty said. acids and polyunsaturated fatty acids in gram (g) and Referring to the demonetisation of Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000 cholesterol in milligram (mg), the panel said. While many notes, he said it was time people moved on to digital companies provide a breakdown on the nutritional con- transactions so that the money saved could be used to aspirantforum.combuild homes for the poor and new schools. stituents, they are not systematically enforced. “Taxation is not within the remit of FSSAI,” Pawan Agar- wal, CEO, FSSAI, told The Hindu, “but several of these Sanjay Mitra to be next Defence Secretary recommendations are being put in place.” The FSSAI is The Centre named Sanjay Mitra, Secretary Ministry of Vol. 33 May 2017 33 May Vol.

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Transport and Highways as the next Defence Secretary. It will also cover TfL’s experience in ticketing, providing He will take over once the incumbent G. Mohan Kumar information, financing and infrastructure maintenance retires on May 24. work, as well as promotion of the use of public transport, In a series of appointments approved, the Appointments delegation members said. Other areas of cooperation in Committee of the Cabinet appointed Mr. Mitra as Officer the future were likely to include innovation around buses, on Special Duty in the Ministry of Defence. including electric buses, and the use of water transport in Mr. Mitra belongs to the 1982 batch of West Bengal cad- urban centres. re. While sometimes a source of disgruntlement for Lon- Other appointments don’s residents, the city’s transport system is considered The other appointments approved by the ACC include one of the best equipped in the world, deploying a wide Rakesh Srivastava, Member Secretary of National Com- range of options from the Underground train network to mission for Backward Classes as Secretary, Ministry of an extensive bus network, the Dockland Light Railway, Women and Child Development while its present secre- trams, ferries and even a cable car. During the visit, Mr. tary Leena Nair has been appointed as secretary, Minis- Gadkari was given a presentation on strategy and policy try of Tribal Affairs. reforms around the bus system, as well as other forms of transport. ‘NPA norms to force decision-making’ Mr. Gadkari has been on a three-day visit to London, The Centre’s recent move amending the Banking Reg- which has included the launch of the National Highways ulation Act to give more powers to the RBI to resolve Authority of India (NHAI)’s first masala bond (a bond is- stressed assets will force lenders to take a decision, said sued outside India in the Indian rupee) on the London Shikha Sharma, MD & CEO, Axis Bank. Stock Exchange, through which they hope to raise up to Last week, the government amended Section 35A of the the Reserve Bank of India-mandated limit of Rs. 5,000 Act empowering the RBI to tell banks when to take a hair- crore to help fund investment in key transport infrastruc- cut or to proceed with insolvency. ture. “There are layers of process [in resolution]. What the or- Eagerness to work dinance is doing is that it is cutting that layer off,” Ms. Speaking at an event at the High Commission earlier this Sharma said. week, Mr. Gadkari highlighted his eagerness to work on “It is forcing a decision mechanism because it is saying urban transport solutions alongside wider infrastructure that if 60% agree, rest has to fall in line,” she told report- development, including building on the rapid construction ers here. of roads in India, which has hit a rate of 23 km a day but Following the amendment, the RBI had issued a notifica- is targeted to rise further. tion lowering the threshold for approval of a resolution Mr. Gadkari, who said he was involved in a serious road proposal at the Joint Lenders’ Forum — a body of bank- accident years ago, also highlighted his eagerness to ers that decides on a loan recast — to 60% of the lenders work on issues around road safety, including for pedes- by value, from 75%, and to 50%, from 60%, of the lend- trians and cyclists, which he said featured in the discus- ers by numbers. sions in London. Around 1.5 lakh people die in road ac- cidents each year in India, which also hopes to learn from Britain’s strict and transparent system for issuing drivers’ India to learn from London transport licenses. Mr. Gadkarti said they would be key to the im- India is set to draw on the lessons from the strong public provement of safety on India’s roads. transport system in place in London — where over 1.3 billion journeys take place every year — under an MoU between Transport for London (TfL) and India’s Minis- India to skip B&R Forum try of Road Transport and Highways . The agreement, India will be absent from China’s Belt and Road Initiative aspirantforum.com(B&RI) Forum. The External Affairs Ministry explained reached during the visit by Minister for Road Transport and Highways, and Shipping, Nitin Gadkari, will involve that while the government supported connectivity pro- sharing expertise on the mobility and efficiency of India’s jects, they “must be pursued in a manner that respects transportation systems, as well as around logistical is- sovereignty and territorial integrity”. India has objected Vol. 33 May 2017 33 May Vol. sues such as planning and delivery. to the $46-billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor part

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of the B&RI, as it includes projects in Pakistan-occupied CPEC, entry to the Nuclear Suppliers Group and UN des- Kashmir (PoK). ignation for JeM chief Masood Azhar, and even suggest- “The international community is well aware of India’s po- ing that China could consider changing the name of the sition. No country can accept a project that ignores its corridor through Pakistan. However, subsequently, the core concerns on sovereignty and territorial integrity,” the reference in the Ambassador’s speech was deleted on- Ministry spokesperson said night, just hours ahead of line after Pakistan protested. the Forum’s inauguration. All neighbours of India, except Bhutan, will have senior- NTRO now under Intelligence Act level participation at the forum. UN Secretary-General The National Technical Research Organisation (NTRO), Antonio Guterres, International Monetary Fund chief which reports to the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) and Christine Lagarde and World Bank President Kim Yong the National Security Advisor (NSA), will now have the will be present as China unveils plans for infrastructure same “norms of conduct” as the Intelligence Bureau (IB) projects estimated at $500 billion across Asia and Eu- and the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW). rope. The Home Ministry issued a notification on May 15 listing Debt trap NTRO under The Intelligence Organisations (Restriction In a dig at China’s high-interest project loans in the region, of Rights) Act, 1985, a demand being made by the or- which India believes will lead to a “debt trap” in countries ganisation for over a decade now. such as Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, the spokesperson The Act prevents employees of a notified agency from added that the B&RI must pursue “principles of financial forming unions/associations, puts restrictions on the em- responsibility to avoid projects that would create unsus- ployee’s freedom of speech, bars any communication tainable debt burden for communities; balanced ecologi- with the press, or publishing a book or other document cal and environmental protection and preservation stand- without the permission of the head of the intelligence or- ards; transparent assessment of project costs”. ganisation. According to experts, India’s absence from the forum will Both IB and R&AW have on earlier occasions opposed be seen as a major snub to China, that is pitching it as the inclusion of any other organisation in the list of moni- a “prestige event” to which it has confirmed 110 official toring agencies under the Act. delegations and 29 heads of state and government. In 2012, the Home Ministry under the UPA government “Attendance doesn’t mean endorsement,” said expert had declined to grant phone surveillance powers to Ravi Bhoothalingam at the Institute for China Studies, NTRO based on the argument that it was not notified un- “But absence is a rebuff. Sending a representative at an der the Act. appropriate level is what both the U.S. and Japan have Slice of the pie chosen as their response,” he added. The NTRO was created after the 1999 Kargil conflict as a Both the U.S. and Japan are not signatories to the Belt dedicated technical intelligence agency. It has been fight- and Road initiative, but will be represented by senior ing tooth and nail to get included in the list as it has the advisers to President Donald Trump and Prime Minister right to lawfully intercept and monitor communications Shinzo Abe respectively. externally. Many security agencies like the National In- Market demands vestigation Agency (NIA), the Directorate of Revenue In- Hailing the decision by India not to participate unless Chi- telligence (DRI), and the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) na took its territorial concerns over PoK seriously, former among others have been asking the Home Ministry to Foreign Secretary Kanwal Sibal said India didn’t need to include them under the Intelligence Organisations Act. worry about losing out. “In the schedule to the Intelligence Organisations (Re- “China needs the Indian market more than India needs striction of Rights) Act, 1985 after serial number 3 and Chinese investment. The Chinese should stop preening the entries relating thereto, the following shall be inserted about their economic success which is real but not take it namely-The National Technical Research Organisation,” to mean that the world willaspirantforum.com fall at their feet,” Mr. Sibal said. the notification issued by the Home Ministry said. The Chinese government had doubled efforts to con- Interception powers vince India to join. In a speech last week, the Chinese An NTRO official told The Hindu that the amendment had Ambassador to India Luo Zhaohui suggested a four-step nothing to do with enhanced interception powers but to Vol. 33 May 2017 33 May Vol. initiative to repair ties damaged over differences on the “bring certain norms of conduct applicable to other intel-

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ligence agencies.” The official said the Act does not allow tate to a religious community what personal law practices them to intercept phones internally. and norms to follow. NTRO hires many people from the private sector and the He quoted judicial precedents to contend that community Act means they will have the same safety net and restric- follows practices that it finds relevant for itself and not tions available to other spy agencies. what an outsider tells it. “The Official Secrets Act is already applicable to NTRO Mr. Giri also argued that unless there are statutory in- employees. We have restrictions about getting involved roads into personal laws, the courts cannot test or strike in political activities in the country among other things. them down. He contended that triple talaq is ‘pristine’ per- We only make external intrusions,” said the NTRO offi- sonal law and Section 2 of the Shariat Act of 1937 does cial. not “subsume, abrogate or modify, but only perpetuates” Another official said, “We are also working for the coun- what is written in the scriptures and religious interpret- try. No one seems to recognise that. The notification will able texts. bring that respect and sanctity to our work.” Swiss vote against use of n-power If triple talaq is sin, why retain it: SC Swiss voters are supporting a referendum to withdraw Noting that only practices fundamental to religion are pro- the country from nuclear power in favour of renewable tected under the Constitution, the Supreme Court asked energy. Muslim bodies how instant talaq can be both an essen- A projection from Sunday’s referendum shows a major- tial part of religion as well as ‘sinful.’ ity of cantons (States) voted for the plan. Under Switzer- “If you yourself say this [instant triple talaq] is the worst land’s direct democracy system, initiatives need a major- form of divorce and sinful, how does it then become es- ity of both cantons and votes to pass. sential to religion,” Justice Rohinton Nariman asked sen- The projection for SRF public television showed 58% of ior advocate V. Giri, representing the Jamiat Ulema-e- voters in favour and 42% against the proposal. The gov- Hind. ernment wants to ban the construction of new nuclear Article 25 power plants and decommission the country’s five ex- Mr. Giri insisted that triple talaq is a part of religion and “if isting ones at the end of their technically safe operating it is part of religion, it is protected by Article 25 [freedom lives. of religion] of the Constitution.” “Article 25 protects a practice only if it is essential to India must become a growth engine: PM religion, otherwise it does not,” Chief Justice of India The two most crucial factors for the Union government’s J.S. Khehar responded, presiding over the Constitution performance over the past three years have been bank- Bench. ing reforms and Aadhaar, which has already yielded sav- ‘A big claim’ ings of $4 billion in cooking gas subsidies, Prime Minister Justice Nariman said, “Talaq may be essential, but it is a Narendra Modi said here. big step to claim that this [instant triple talaq] is essential Mr. Modi expressed satisfaction over the improvement in to religion.” “all macro-economic indicators” under his watch, but said Earlier in the day, Justice Kurian Joseph asked senior he remained focussed on the many challenges that lay advocate Kapil Sibal, for the All India Muslim Personal ahead to fulfill his aim of making India a global growth Law Board (AIMPLB), whether there could be an option engine and an example of climate-friendly development. included in the nikah nama for the bride to refuse to be “There are two crucial factors which have helped us,” subjected to triple talaq. said Mr. Modi in his inaugural address at the annual Justice Kurian said if nikah nama is viewed as a contract, meeting of the African Development Bank. “The first set the Qazis could very well add this clause to protect the of changes is in the banking system … Our universal bio- women of the community.aspirantforum.commetric identification system called Aadhaar has been the ‘Not the court’s job’ second crucial element. It prevents claiming of benefits Also arguing for the Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind, senior advo- by those who are not eligible,” Mr. Modi said. cate Raju Ramachandran said the judiciary cannot take The Jan Dhan Yojana helped India achieve universal on the mantle and wisdom of religious schools and dic- Vol. 33 May 2017 33 May Vol. banking and banks “normally associated with helping

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businesses and the rich” have been enlisted for helping routes, then it will be an unserved route falling under the the development of the poor, the Prime Minister said. regional connectivity scheme (RCS),” Civil Aviation Sec- “We have strengthened our state-owned banks by freeing retary R.N. Choubey said, while announcing proposals them from political decisions and appointing professional that may be incorporated in its UDAN scheme ahead of chief executives on merit through a transparent selection the second round of bidding that may take place in July. process,” he said at a venue just a stone’s throw from his Stakeholders’ comments previous office as Gujarat Chief Minister. The Centre has invited stakeholders’ comments on its “The fiscal deficit, balance of payments deficit, and infla- proposal and will finalise the RCS by June 30. tion are down. The GDP growth rate, foreign exchange For instance, airlines operating on Lucknow-Varanasi reserves and public capital investment are up. At the route may be eligible for concessions under the UDAN same time, we have made big strides in development,” scheme as there are no flights on the route at present Mr. Modi said. although there are flights operating out of these airports ‘Focused on challenges’ to other destinations. Thanking the Bank’s president Akinwumi Adesina for de- However, to be eligible, airlines need to participate in the scribing India’s recent steps as “as textbook chapters for bidding process. At present, only airports that are either other developing nations” and calling the country “a de- categorised as unserved or underserved fall under the velopment beacon”, Mr. Modi said, “However, I must say Scheme. that I remain focussed on the many challenges ahead The Civil Aviation Ministry has further proposed decreas- … Our aim is that India must be an engine of growth as ing the exclusivity on flight operations under the RCS well as an example in climate friendly development in the from three years to one year. However, the subsidy to years to come.” airlines will continue for three years. At present, no other While laying out the common challenges faced by India airline, except the one which has won the bid, is allowed and Africa, Mr. Modi indicated that his government’s pri- to operate on routes awarded under the Scheme. orities were “uplifting our farmers and the poor, empower- The Government may also allow flights between airports ing women, ensuring our rural communities have access less than 150 kilometres of distance from each other, for to finance, and building infrastructure”. instance, Bengaluru-Mysuru route, to be eligible to fall “We have to do these within financial constraints. We under the UDAN scheme. have to maintain macro-economic stability so that infla- tion is controlled and our balance of payments is stable. It’s curtains for ITDC-run Janpath hotel There is much for us to gain by sharing our experiences The Union Cabinet approved the closure of the ITDC’s on all these fronts,” he said adding that India learnt a lot The Janpath Hotel here and the property will now be from the mobile banking experience of countries such as used for setting up government offices. Kenya in its push for a less-cash economy following the The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, chaired by demonetisation of high-value currency notes. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, gave ‘in-principle’ approv- “Here in India, I have launched an initiative to double al for the transfer of property of the hotel to the Ministry of farmers’ incomes by 2022. It will require concerted steps, Urban Development. ranging from improved seeds and optimal inputs, to re- “Hotel Janpath is located in a prime central location of duced crop losses and better marketing infrastructure,” the city. The property can be considered for construction Prime Minister Modi said. of government offices and similar purposes which would save government funds spent in hiring of government of- Centre may expand UDAN’s wingspan fices,” an official statement said. The Centre has proposed widening the scope of its The decision to close down the hotel was taken by the UDAN scheme for regional connectivity by making more government within a month of deciding to exit three ITDC flight operations eligibleaspirantforum.com for a host of concessions, includ- hotels at Bhopal, Guwahati and Bharatpur. ing viability gap funding. The Committee of Secretaries, under the Cabinet Secre- All routes which do not have flight services at present tary, will take a decision on details of implementation of may become part of the Scheme. the project and land use. “If there is no flight between two destinations even though “The building of Hotel Janpath has to undergo major re- Vol. 33 May 2017 33 May Vol. both the airports have flight operations on separate habilitation work since the building structure of Hotel Jan-

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path has been found to be unserviceable, in distressed marks as per the difficulty level of questions. However, condition and deficit in the context of seismic require- last month, the CBSE and 32 other boards decided to ments, according to the inspection report of IIT Roorkee,” abolish the practice. Some of the State boards have al- the statement said. ready declared Class XII marks. The government has initiated the process of disinvest- Although the High Court appreciated the move as it at- ment of hotels/properties of the India Tourism Develop- tempted to bring in uniformity in the evaluation system, it ment Corporation as it feels that running and managing said the decision should have been taken prospectively. hotels on professional lines is not the work of the Govern- The next date of hearing of the PIL petition is scheduled ment or its entities. for July 20. Disinvestment policy As part of the disinvestment policy, it has been decided to lease/sub-lease the hotels/properties jointly with the New bridge will spur a revolution: Modi states concerned or return the properties to them, after Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the country’s fair valuation. longest bridge over the Lohit River in Assam on the third States would then have the option to upgrade and oper- anniversary of his government and said the NDA dispen- ate the Motels by involving the private sector or to utilise sation was working to make the northeast a trade hub for the properties as per their requirements. Southeast Asia. In the first stage, it was decided to disinvest three hotels Dedicating to the nation the 9.15 km-long bridge, named -- Hotel Lake View Ashok in Bhopal, Hotel Brahmaputra after Dadasaheb Phalke awardee and legendary lyricist- Ashok in Guwahati and Hotel Bharatpur Ashok. singer Bhupen Hazarika who hailed from Sadiya, he said it will serve as the foundation for a new economic revolu- tion and help India in its efforts to become a superpower. CBSE results will be declared on time, Speaking on the Act East Policy, the Prime Minister said promises Javadekar he wanted the northeast region to be well-connected Union Human Resource Development Minister Prakash for economic activity. “For this, we are laying stress on Javadekar said the Central Board of Secondary Educa- development of infrastructure and making the northeast tion (CBSE) results for Class X and XII would be declared a tourism centre. Lakhs of tourists would also come to on time. Kamakhya temple and improve the economy,” he said. “The CBSE will soon announce the date. There is no “Stress is now being laid on what was never done ear- need to worry about the court order. Justice will be done lier... Electricity, roads, rail infrastructure and optical fibre to all,” Mr. Javadekar told the media. network in the northeast will connect every corner of the Grace marks region with the country,” Mr. Modi said. The Minister’s assurance came amid confusion after the “The bridge will not only save money, reduce travel time Delhi High Court directed the CBSE not to implement this but comes as a foundation for the beginning of a new year its decision on scraping the grace marks policy. economic revolution. That is why the whole nation has its The court issued the order while hearing a public inter- eyes on this bridge.” est litigation petition which sought that the policy be not “The reduction of distance by 165 km and cutting travel scrapped this year as it would otherwise impact the pros- time by seven to eight hours will open new doors for eco- pects of Class 12 students who have already applied for nomic development... The bridge will bring development institutions abroad. to Assam and Arunachal Pradesh.” The CBSE issued the notification, abolishing the prac- “For fulfilling India’s dream of becoming a top economi- tice, after the examinations were over last month. cally developed nation, a superpower, the northeast re- However, the Delhi High Court directed the Board to eval- gion is the place to begin with,” Mr. Modi said. uate the Class X and XII examinees this year as per the “If development is to be made permanent, then infra- grace marks policy. aspirantforum.comstructure is the first requirement. It is on the two tracks of While it was not clear if the order would be challenged in physical infrastructure and social infrastructure that com- the Supreme Court, it is learnt that the Board, to which plete development is achieved,” he said. more than 18,500 schools are affiliated, is consulting the The Prime Minister said the government has been striv- Ministry to determine the further course of action. ing for long-lasting development by creating permanent Vol. 33 May 2017 33 May Vol. Practice abolished infrastructure for fulfilling the nation’s dreams. Under the moderation policy, students were given grace Ex-MLA who began it all Visit Aspirantforum.com for guidance and study material for IAS Exam. aspirantforum.com Hindu and PIB Crux Vol. 33 News and Events of May 2017

He recalled the role played by the former MLA Jagadish to examining triple talaq and not polygamy and nikah ha- Bhuyan in the construction of the bridge as it was he who lala. wrote to then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on May This has been an issue of concern for over 65 years for 29, 2003. Muslim women, who comprise approximately 8% of the “The government changed in the middle and your dreams population as per the 2011 census. “Muslim women want got paused. If work had continued then you would have to have a life equal to that of another woman, say Chris- had the bridge 10 years ago. In the last three years ef- tian or Hindu wives,” the government argued in court. forts started to complete Vajpayee’s work,” Mr. Modi said. The Centre claimed that instant talaq is not fundamen- The bridge built at a cost of Rs. 2,056 crore is 3.55 km tal to Islam. It promised to bring in a new divorce law longer than the Bandra-Worli sea link. The length of the for Muslim men in case the court strikes down the three bridge, including viaducts, is 9.15 km with a 7.3 km ap- forms of talaq. proach road from the Dhola side and 12.5 km from Sadia The government argued that Muslim marriage and di- side. vorce is codified under Section 2 of the Shariat Act of With importance accorded to quick movement of military 1937 and came within the ambit of ‘law’ under Article 13 troops and artillery, the bridge has been designed to al- of the Constitution. Hence, they should abide by the prin- low movement of tanks, official sources said. ciples of dignity and non-discrimination. The All India Muslim Personal Law Board countered that The lowdown on triple talaq triple talaq is a matter of faith like the Hindu belief that There are three forms of talaq (divorce): Ahsan, Hasan Ayodhya is Ram’s birthplace. The courts and the govern- and Talaq-e-Biddat (triple or instant talaq). Ahsan and ment should leave reform to the community, it said, quot- Hasan are revocable. Biddat — pronouncing divorces in ing the Bombay High Court’s unchallenged decision in one go by the husband — is irrevocable. the Narasu Appa Mali case that personal law should not Biddat is considered ‘sinful,’ but permissible in Islamic be tinkered with. Where Muslim men will go for divorce if law. An anecdote in this context is about two men meet- you (the court) strike down talaq and Parliament refuses ing in Medinah. The first man asks whether the second to pass a new law, the AIMPLB asked. has divorced his wife, to which the latter replies that he Justice Kurian Joseph, a judge on the Constitution has done so a thousand times. The man was produced Bench, ignited a spark by suggesting an alternative that before Caliph Umar, who whipped him. After the lashing, a Muslim bride, at the time of the wedding, be allowed to Umar told the man “triple talaq will suffice you.” lay down a condition in the nikahnama that she would not The All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) be subjected to instant talaq in case the marriage hits a holds that for the Hanafis, who make up more than 90% rough patch. Sunnis in India, triple talaq is a matter of faith followed for Days after the court reserved the case for judgment, the 1,400 years. AIMPLB filed an affidavit saying that it would issue a On October 16, 2015, the Supreme Court questioned public advisory to qazis to advise bridegrooms against whether Muslim personal law practices of marriage and instant talaq and also add a condition in the nikahnama divorce reduce women to mere chattels. In a rare move, it to exclude instant talaq. The AIMPLB even threatened registered a suo motu public interest litigation (PIL) peti- social boycott of Muslim men who resort to instant talaq. tion titled ‘In Re: Muslim Women’s Quest for Equality’ to The hearings also saw the court toy with the idea of mak- examine whether arbitrary divorce, polygamy and nikah ing the Muslim Dissolution of Marriage Act of 1939 — ap- halala (where a Muslim divorcee marries a man and di- plicable only to Muslim women — gender neutral. vorces him to get re-married to her former husband) vio- Another possibility is that the court may interpret the pro- late women’s dignity. nouncement of instant talaq as a single pronouncement The court ruled missing the opportunity to address the of talaq. question of gender inequality in both the Shah Bano and Danial Latifi cases. aspirantforum.comIn the Shah Bano case, the court Strategic ties with foreign OEMs merely goaded the government to frame the Uniform In a few weeks, the Union government will sound out five Civil Code. In the Latifi case, it upheld the right of Mus- or six private sector majors to execute mega defence lim women to maintenance till re-marriage. Many Muslim deals in four key areas — submarines, single-engine

Vol. 33 May 2017 33 May Vol. women and organisations backed the court’s initiative. fighter aircraft, helicopters and armoured vehicles. However, a Constitution Bench decided to confine itself With the Union Cabinet taking note of the strategic part- Visit Aspirantforum.com for guidance and study material for IAS Exam. aspirantforum.com Hindu and PIB Crux Vol. 33 News and Events of May 2017

nership model last week, the Defence Ministry is awaiting Ltd., Tata Motors and Reliance Defence and Engineer- its formal notification. ing Ltd. are leading the race. From the public sector, only “The Cabinet has taken note of it. It will now formally Mazagon Docks Ltd. will compete as it is currently build- come to the Ministry and then get notified as a separate ing the French Scorpene submarines. chapter under the Defence Procurement Procedure. The process should roll out immediately after that,” a senior Modi, Merkel nudge FTA, sign agreements defence official told The Hindu. The Prime Minister, who spent several hours evening Each of the four segments has programmes under way. speaking to Chancellor Merkel at the official retreat of “A lot of work has already been done on all these plat- Schloss Meserberg outside Berlin, was accorded a cer- forms. Short-listing the original equipment manufacturers emonial guard of honour at the German Chancery in Ber- (OEM) should not be difficult,” the official said and ex- lin morning. pressed confidence that the first contract should be con- After an hour of talks in the Inter-Governmental consul- cluded in a year to a year-and-a-half. tations, where he was accompanied by MoS (External Private sector majors will be selected as the strategic Affairs) M.J. Akbar, Energy minister Piyush Goyal, Com- partner for each segment and they will tie up with the merce Minister Nirmala Seetharaman, and Science, foreign OEMs. “We had suggested a mechanism for im- Technology and Environment Minister Harsh Vardhan, plementing the policy. We need a composite structure in the two sides announced agreements on cyber policy, the Ministry to roll out the policy quickly unlike the present railway safety, and the training of Indian Skill Develop- system,” the official said. The mechanism is essential, of- ment Officers and Cluster Managers. ficials said, as there are various stakeholders involved Mr. Modi said Germany has prime place in skilling India’s in the procurement process such as the acquisition wing youth, adding that the two countries are “made for each and services. other”. The present defence procurement policy, which is han- “We are a country of 1.2 billion, with 800 million youth. dled by the acquisition wing, is cumbersome. Germany has the right expertise in engineering, manu- Incorporating DPSUs facturing, and is excellent in innovations,” he said. Mr. While the SP policy is for the private sector, the gov- Modi however, sidestepped questions on India’s “pro- ernment has stated that it look at the feasibility of how tectionist” economic policy and on whether India would defence public sector undertakings (DPSU) can be in- maintain its Paris accord commitments if U.S. President volved in the process and what their contribution would Donald Trump pulled out of the climate change agree- be. “There was a lot of resistance from the DPSUs and ment. “The question is hypothetical at present,” the MEA the Department of Defence Production to be involved in spokesperson said. the policy,” a source added. The source said that all DPSUs had full order books and were working at full capacities, and added that probably UAE ready for air traffic pact at some stage in future, there could be collaborations be- The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is in favour of India’s tween them and the selected SPs. proposal for a unified bilateral air traffic pact provided the The deals in the four segments are six submarines under Gulf nation gets access to more Indian airports. Project-75I expected to cost around Rs. 50,000 crore, “We understand that India wants to rationalise the air deal for 100-plus single-engine fighter aircraft estimated service agreements with the UAE, and have one unified at Rs. 60,000 crore, the Future Infantry Combat Vehicle pact instead… We have suggested to Indian officials that programme estimated at around Rs. 50,000 crore and we are happy to talk about a unified agreement, with the utility helicopters for the Navy estimated at Rs. 12,000 hope they will speak of giving the UAE airlines access to crore. more airports,” UAE Ambassador to India Dr. Ahmed Al There are broadly six or seven companies viewing to be- Banna told The Hindu . come strategic partnersaspirantforum.com which will be selected by a two- He said officials on both sides would soon hold a meeting stage evaluation process. Minimum criteria have already to discuss the proposal to sign a single bilateral air traffic been drawn up in Stage I and those shortlisted will be will agreement. evaluated in detail under Stage II. “If they are worried that Delhi and Mumbai are busy and

Vol. 33 May 2017 33 May Vol. Larsen & Tourbo, Mahindra, Tata Advanced Systems there are no extra slots, then we would be happy to speak

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about Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Kochi or Banga- ising gambling and betting — conducted clandestinely lore and Chennai,” Dr. Banna said. across the country and the cause of ruin for many fami- India has signed separate agreements with emirates of lies. the UAE which is a unique arrangement as bilateral air Views would be compiled for a report to be handed over traffic rights are generally signed between two countries. to the government. The question came up after the Su- It has an agreement each with Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Ras al- preme Court asked the commission to study the possibil- Khaimah and Sharjah. ity of legalising betting in the backdrop of the IPL betting Global practice scandal. Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha told The The questions Hindu in an interview recently that India is contemplat- The various questions the commission wants to gener- ing a single air traffic pact with UAE to align with global ate opinion on include whether legalising betting and practice. gambling will help in curbing illegal activities; will licens- “It becomes a question of how it is done globally and ing gambling and betting help the government earn sub- what is the standard methodology that is in place for ne- stantial revenue and generate employment; is legalising gotiating (air traffic rights) and that’s really what we are betting and gambling morally correct in the Indian circum- examining right now. How do other countries consider stances; what can be a possible model by which people their negotiation with the UAE and let’s make sure we are engaging in such activities can be safeguarded against consistent with global protocols,” Mr. Sinha said, explain- bankruptcy; if legalised, should foreign betting and gam- ing the rationale behind India’s shift in strategy. bling companies be allowed to have a foothold in the Smaller airports country. Dr. Banna said UAE airlines were willing to fly to smaller Grey area airports in India too such as Indore and Visakhapatnam. The law on gambling is a grey area and a topic of debate “We hope that it will be considered by India,” he said. for years. Mr. Sinha, on the other hand, said the air traffic pact with Gambling is covered under an archaic law, the Public the Gulf had to be “apples to apples” in terms of airports Gambling Act of 1867. The Constitution has enabled the and landing slots. States to enact their own gambling legislation. However, As per the global practice, countries sign air service there is no uniformity in the various State laws and most agreement bilaterally which decides the equal number of of these laws pertain to physical gambling and not online flights or seats per week that can fly into each other’s or virtual gambling, which is seen to be a route to crime, country depending upon their own requirements. Then, corruption and money laundering. the government distributes the allocated seats to the re- Section 67 of the Information Technology Act of 2000 spective airlines. vaguely prohibits online transmission and publication of Airlines from India and UAE are entitled to fly around 1.34 material which “corrupt” persons. lakh seats a week from both sides at present. Airlines Parallel economy from India and Dubai have exhausted their bilateral en- “Families are rendered bankrupt and many people are titlement. behind bars... Online gambling and betting is another The air traffic agreement between India and the UAE has area which has become very difficult to curb. It is under- been a bone of contention for both the countries in the stood that a lot of money is involved in illegal gambling recent past. business, creating almost a parallel economy, converting While Dubai has been constantly demanding more enti- legally earned money into black money that is drained tlements, India has refrained from renewing its present to gambling operators in other countries online,” Justice bilateral agreement due to lack of viable slots available Chauhan wrote in the signed public appeal. for Indian carriers in Dubai. The Commission noted that both gambling and betting are closely associated. The Commission has found that Law panel in moralaspirantforum.com quandary the strict rules against betting and gambling are hardly a The Law Commission sought views from the public and deterrent against clandestine activities. stakeholders on whether or not gambling and betting are The legality of various activities which involve betting like “morally correct in the Indian circumstances”. horse races and card games have come up before the Vol. 33 May 2017 33 May Vol. Primarily, it wants public inputs on the question of legal- Supreme Court. In K.R. Lakshmanan vs State of Tamil

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Nadu case, the court concluded that horse racing was a game of skill rather than chance. In State of Andhra Pradesh vs K. Satyanarayana & Ors, the court held that rummy is a game of skill and not entirely based on chance.

aspirantforum.com Vol. 33 May 2017 33 May Vol.

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structure Developers Ltd. is the sponsor, IDBI Trustee- ship Services Ltd. is the trustee, IRB Infrastructure Pvt. Economy Ltd. is the investment manager and the project manager is Modern Road Makers Pvt. Ltd. What is each party’s role? What you need to know about Infrastructure Sponsors are the firms which set up the InvITs. Invest- Investment Trusts ment managers manage assets and investments of In- The initial public offering (IPO) for IRB InvIT, India’s first vITs and undertake activities of the InvIT. The project infrastructure investment trust fund will open for subscrip- manager is responsible for executing the projects. The tion on May 3 and close on May 5. Sponsored by road trustee oversees the role of InvIT, investment managers developer IRB Infrastructure Developers Ltd., the trust and project manager and ensures that all rules are com- aims to raise up to Rs. 4,035 crore. Reliance Infrastruc- plied with. ture, Sterlite Power Grid Ventures and other infrastruc- For which class of investors are InvITs suit- ture firms are also gearing up to unveil InvITs. able? What are InvITs? As per present regulations, InvIT investments are not InvITs are similar to mutual funds. While mutual funds open for small and retail investors. The minimum applica- provide an opportunity to invest in equity stocks, an In- tion size for InvIT units is Rs. 10 lakh. The main investors vIT allows one to invest in infrastructure projects such as could be foreign institutional investors, insurance and road and power. pension funds and domestic institutional investors (like How do InvITs work? mutual funds, banks) and also super-rich individuals. InvITs raise funds from a large number of investors and What do InvITs mean to investors? directly invest in infrastructure projects or through a spe- According to SEBI rules, at least 90% of funds collect- cial purpose vehicle. Two types of InvITs have been al- ed, after paying for expenses, taxes and repayment of lowed: one, which invests in completed and revenue external debt, should be passed on to investors every generation infrastructure projects; the other, which has six months. IRB InvIT is expected to pay about 12% as the flexibility to invest in completed or under-construction returns to investors. Dividend income received by unit projects. InvITs which invest in completed projects take holders is tax exempt. Short-term capital gain on sale of the route of public offer of its units, while those investing units is taxed at 15%, while long-term capital gains are in under construction projects take the route of private tax exempt. Interest distributed to unit holders is taxed. placement of units. Both forms are required to be listed What are the potential investment risks? on stock exchanges. InvITs are listed on and are subjected to the vagaries of How do InvITs help the developer? the stock exchanges, resulting in negative or lower re- InvITs allow developers of infrastructure assets to mon- turns than expected. An economic downturn or project etise their assets by pooling multiple projects under a sin- delays may hit infrastructure projects and result in lower gle entity (trust structure). For instance, IRB InvIT consti- returns. As in mutual funds, investors in InvITs have no tutes six special purpose vehicles consisting of toll-road control over investments and exits being made by the assets aggregating to 3,645 lane kilometres of highways trust. located across the states of Maharashtra, Gujarat, Ra- jasthan, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. Infrastructure pro- jects suffer from lack of availability of long-term capital Govt. plans steel plants with private players and have depended on bank finance which typically has on PSU land a short tenure. InvITs are designed to attract low-cost, The government plans to set up new steel plants on sur- long term capital and the underlying focus is to reduce plus land available with PSUs by forging partnerships the funding pressure on the banking system as well as with the private sector to help more than double steel generating fresh equity aspirantforum.comcapital for infrastructure projects. production capacity to 300 million tonnes by 2030. What is the structure of InvITs? The Cabinet approved the New Steel Policy that aims InvITs are registered as trusts with SEBI and there are to achieve 300 million tonnes of capacity by 2030 with an four parties — trustee, sponsors, investment manager additional investment of Rs. 10 lakh crore. At present, the

Vol. 33 May 2017 33 May Vol. and project manager. In the case of IRB InvIT, IRB Infra- steel production capacity is 126 million tonnes. Stating that the land acquisition is an issue under the Visit Aspirantforum.com for guidance and study material for IAS Exam. aspirantforum.com Hindu and PIB Crux Vol. 33 News and Events of May 2017

new law, Steel Minister Chaudhary Birender Singh said orient various stakeholders for effective NPA resolution. the government plans to utilise the surplus land of steel The country and its banking system need to move quickly PSUs to set up new plants through joint ventures with and decisively to take benefits of these enabling provi- private firms. “If we have to create steel-making capacity sions,” she added. of 300 million tonnes, we cannot wait for [a] long time,” According to bankers, the final decision will be taken by a he said. bank within the RBI’s guideline framework. However, the He favoured vertical development for making the best process will make it explicit that such a decision has the use of the land. central banks and the government’s backing. Bankers SAIL joint venture are hesitant to take a decision on haircuts while restruc- The proposed joint venture between state-owned SAIL turing loans or going for one-time settlement for fear that and ArcelorMittal to set up a Rs. 5,000 crore auto-grade such a decision could prompt investigation by agencies. steel plant may be finalised this month, the minister said. The government has amended the Banking Regulation “May is the last month to click or not to click. We may Act, Section 35 A, to tackle the bad loan problem that is clinch this deal,” the Minister told reporters here when choking bank credit. While the laws have been amended asked about the joint venture. to give RBI more power, the idea of forming a ‘bad’ bank has taken a back seat, it appears. The main reason is Banks to act within set time frame the huge amount of capital required, to the tune of Rs. Following the executive order by the government to em- 30,000, which the government needs to infuse as initial power the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for the resolution capital to a ‘bad’ bank. of stressed assets, the central bank is expected to an- “Bringing Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on board by tak- nounce detailed guidelines for banks. ing their buy-in for the overall resolution decision-making This may include time-bound resolution to such assets. process does pave the way for a more collaborated and RBI will give banks specific time-frames within which they concentrated effort,” Udit Kariwala, Senior Analyst, India have to either decide the borrower is bankrupt or restruc- Ratings. ture the debt while taking a haircut, bankers said. “However, a larger question to be asked pertains to the In a statement, following the government announcement, independence of banks in making commercial lending RBI reiterated that lenders must scrupulously adhere decisions; making the regulator a part of this process to the timelines prescribed in the Joint Lenders’ Forum does pose questions on the effectiveness of bank man- framework for finalising and implementing the corrective agements as a custodian of depositors hard earned mon- action plan. ey,” he said. “To facilitate timely decision making, it has been decided that, henceforth, the decisions agreed upon by a mini- Make the most of Voluntary Provident Fund mum of 60% of creditors by value and 50% of creditors Interest rates across most debt instruments have fallen by number in the JLF would be considered as the basis sharply over the last year or so. Still, there are a few in- for deciding the CAP, and will be binding on all lenders, vestments in the category that continue to give very at- subject to the exit (by substitution) option available in the tractive returns. The Employee Provident Fund (EPF) Framework,” RBI said. and, its add-on, the Voluntary Provident Fund (VPF) have The banking regulator said non-adherence to the instruc- seen minimal cut in rates, and are among the best debt tions and timelines specified under the framework will at- options in the market now. The EPF and the VPF are also tract monetary penalties. highly tax-efficient and safe. “Amendments to the Banking Regulations Act, coming on As a salaried employee, you would anyway be investing the heels of the enactment of the Insolvency and Bank- in the EPF — 12 per cent of your basic and dearness ruptcy Code and amendments to the SARFAESI and allowance is deducted monthly towards your EPF contri- Debt Recovery Tribunalaspirantforum.com Acts, indicate the Government’s bution, and your employer matches the contribution with firm commitment to find a satisfactory solution to the NPA a similar amount. You cannot increase your EPF con- resolution problem,” Arundhati Bhattacharya, Chairman, tribution, but you have the choice of contributing more SBI said on the government’s ordinance to resolve NPAs. voluntarily by investing in the VPF. You can invest up to “Empowering the RBI with an explicit mandate should re-

Vol. 33 May 2017 33 May Vol. 100 per cent of your basic and dearness allowance in the

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VPF. The VPF earns the same rate as the EPF and ac- and pure-debt investments could widen in the long term. cumulates in your EPF account. Simple process Also, most rules pertaining to the EPF — including lock- Investing in the VPF is quite simple. You only have to ins, withdrawal, loans and taxation — also apply to the inform your employer about the quantum you want to VPF. There is a crucial difference, though. While the em- contribute to the VPF. The amount will get deducted from ployer matches your EPF contribution, there is no such your monthly pay and accumulate into the EPF corpus. matching contribution in the VPF — the latter is your vol- Some employers allow employees to enrol for VPF and untary investment. make changes to the amount contributed on a monthly Best-in-class returns basis. Others allow this once or a few times in a year. The key attraction of the EPF and, by extension, the VPF, Don’t go overboard is the high rate they enjoy. Last month, the employee Sure, it’s a great debt investment. But don’t go overboard provident fund organisation (EPFO) fixed the rate on EPF with your VPF allocation. Contribution to VPF reduces balances for 2016-2017 at 8.65 per cent. Despite a cut your monthly take-home pay to that extent. from 8.8 per cent applicable for 2015-2016, the return on There is no point investing heavily in debt only to borrow the EPF and the VPF still remains best-in-class. later to meet expenses. Next, your investment portfolio Last year, the Public Provident Fund (PPF) and National should have a good mix of debt, equity and other invest- Savings Certificate (NSC) offered 8-8.1 per cent, while ments. bank fixed deposits slashed rates to 7-7.5 per cent. Even Equity investments such as well-managed mutual funds the highest-yield schemes offered by the post office — have the potential to deliver much superior returns than Sukanya Samriddhi Scheme and Senior Citizens Sav- the best debt instruments over the long run, though they ings Schemes — gave 8.5-8.6 per cent; lower than the could be riskier in the short term. rate fixed for EPF and VPF. The other major advantages of the EPF and VPF are safety and tax-efficiency. Time for a digital Indian Rupee They are as safe as they get, being guaranteed by the With a vision to place India on the digital India landscape, government. Besides, the investments qualify for tax de- the country is beginning to understand transformative duction under Section 80C, the interest earned is exempt agenda like demonetisation by the government. Digital from tax, and so is the maturity amount — that is, these transactions have soared with Net banking, credit cards, investments come under the exempt-exempt-exempt digital wallets, payment gateways, Aadhaar pay, PPI, (EEE) category. UPI, payments bank and BHIM since demonetisation. This pegs up the effective returns sharply, compared with These are radical initiatives that used technology to en- taxable options such as bank fixed deposits. sure wider acceptance. But such formats come with their While the investment in VPF is covered under Section own limitations and security concerns. In India, where 80C (up to the overall limit of Rs. 1.5 lakh a year), you more than 95% transactions are cash-driven, the rural can invest more than this limit, but will not get the initial and semi-urban populations have not had complete in- tax break. The interest earned and the corpus though will clusion in this financial methodology. Hence, it is impera- continue to be exempt from tax. The ability to invest over tive to introduce digital fiat currency as part of the remon- Rs. 1.5 lakh gives the VPF an added edge over the PPF etisation of the economy for monetary sovereignty and where the investment is restricted to this limit. policy effectiveness. The rates on EPF and VPF change every year and are The digital fiat currency, which we have proposed to the fixed by the EPFO. The rate for the current year (2017- government, works in the same way as do notes and 18) will be known only towards the end of the year after coins. By virtue of its digital nature, it has the potential to the EPFO recommendation and confirmation by the Fi- be the most financially inclusive instrument. nance Ministry. Any person in India can hold it, transfer it and use it to Can the rates moderate from the present level? Yes, but settle debts, be it a farmer living in Gahmar village in U.P. going by past experience, they are likely to be better than or a salaried individual in Mumbai, with or without a bank other comparable debt optionsaspirantforum.com such as the PPF. account. Currently, the PPF offers 7.9 per cent a year (for the April Anonymous users to June 2016 quarter) and the rate is subject to change The validity of paper notes and coins is independent of every quarter. the holder. The two persons transacting do not need to Also, with the EPFO gradually increasing exposure to eq- Vol. 33 May 2017 33 May Vol. know each other’s names nor an ID because the trust is uity investments, the returns gap between the EPF/VPF

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built into the payment instrument. The transaction is final cases where lenders reached an agreement, the official as soon as cash changes hands. There is no need for said. subsequent settlement between banks. As much as 70% of non-performing assets in the banking It is our proposal that the Government Issue a digital fiat system stem from accounts where multiple banks have currency, titled digital India Rupee, which would bear the lent to a borrower, as a consortium or individually, said same characteristics as does the cash Rupee. It would Anjuly Chhib Duggal, secretary in the department of fi- be legal tender and accepted throughout India. It would nancial services under the finance ministry. All such bad be backed by the Government. The amount of digital In- loan cases above Rs. 100 crore are to be taken up by a dia Rupee in circulation would be controlled as are notes joint lenders’ forum (JLF) as per norms. and coins today in circulation. It would be used by and New JLF norms exchanged between any digital payment schemes and As per the new norms for JLFs notified by the RBI, just would have full interoperability. It would have two addi- 60% of lenders by value of the loan have to reach a con- tional advantages over paper notes and coins. It would sensus on the course of action to be adopted for an NPA transcend time and space, i.e. it could be transacted re- compared with a 75% consensus requirement earlier. motely between two parties. And, it would be counterfeit- The rest of the lenders are required to follow suit in such proof! First, the advanced technology would prevent any cases. fraud. Also, any counterfeit with a single rupee could be “If 60% of the bankers come to the conclusion that due detected immediately without hurting circulation. process has been followed, and now it is time to take ac- The digital currency would bring more innovation, com- tion, the decision on the haircut is implicit in that decision. petition, better consumer protection, more consumer RBI is coming into the process but the commercial deci- choices, more open access and better regulatory trans- sion is still taken by the banks,” Ms. Duggal said. parency. It would create a ‘firewall’ between banking and Stressing that an ‘overemphasis on the haircuts’ banks digital payment systems, protecting bank accounts and might take in the process can create a scare for profes- information on digital systems. sionals who these decisions, Ms. Duggal said “it takes a Since digital India Rupee would be a centrally-issued certain amount of courage to do it and the only protection sovereign currency, it would possess immense trust, se- is you did it transparently, recording the decisions to ex- curity and control. It would also bring transparency on plain ten years down the line.” black money, tax evasion and other illicit activities under The oversight committees for JLFs, which the RBI has the legal framework. Also, with the negligible logistics been enabled to constitute, could look into the processes costs and benefits of riding on existing infrastructure, the adopted by lenders to arrive at a corrective action plan for cost of digital India Rupee would be marginal. specific NPA cases. But their recommendations would be India’s cash-to-GDP ratio is 12.04%. The transition from advisory, she said. physical notes and coins to a digital currency could dras- “If the committee says the process is not followed, then tically bring this down at par with the rest of the world. bankers should go back and look at it in their own inter- Other countries have explored this for their national digi- est, (but) it’s an advisory. This entire system is to supple- tal vision. Even Sweden, that sees low cash usage, is ment the bankers in the process.” debating issuance of a digital currency and is eyeing a “If so many people have together taken a decision, it is decision on its ‘ekrona’ in the next two years. very difficult for anyone to game the system. The num- bers offer protection… and opening up this process to ‘Decision on NPAs still lies with banks’ the OC and the RBI… that is where the comfort comes,” Banks would still be responsible for taking commercial Ms. Duggal said. decisions on non-performing assets weighing down their “What happened was that even though loans had been balance-sheets, including possible haircuts, but scrutiny resolved through JLF and a corrective action plan worked from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and advisories from out, it could not be effectively resolved,” she said, citing aspirantforum.comdelays in paperwork by individual banks. oversight committees on the processes they adopt should comfort bankers, a top Finance Ministry official said. “There has been a delay in coming back – if a decision The Centre felt the need to empower the RBI to direct has been taken to restructure a loan or sell an asset to an banks to take more effective action for unwinding bad asset reconstruction company, it applies for a particular Vol. 33 May 2017 33 May Vol. loan accounts as NPA resolution efforts failed even in point of time. If the timeline passes, the decision has to

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be renegotiated all over again,” she said. increase in registration fees, approval delays and low ap- proval rates for registrations mandatory for sale of all new Centre to raise with U.S. non-tariff barriers drugs in the U.S. India is planning to take up with the Trump administration Also, ayurveda and traditional Indian medicines are hit by the “barriers” imposed by the U.S., which are hurting Indi- the U.S. requirement of clinical trials while the practice of an goods exports to that country in sectors including ag- traditional Indian medicine systems such as Siddha and riculture, pharmaceuticals and other industrial products. Unani are not allowed by the U.S. Federal Government. The U.S. “non-tariff/Sanitary & Phyto-Sanitary (SPS) bar- On market access barriers for Indian rice, the ministry riers” include those imposed under laws concerning bio- said until the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency reg- terrorism, child-labour, national security, ‘Buy America’ isters, approves and fixes a tolerance level for certain norms preferring U.S.-made items and American suppli- pesticide residues, Indian Basmati Rice exports will be ers in U.S. Government purchases, registration fee hikes hurt owing to import alerts due to the presence of such (in sectors such as pharma), food safety as well as ani- pesticide residues. mal and plant health regulations, according to the Indian The Ministry has also opposed the U.S. requirement of Commerce Ministry. irradiation treatment and inspection of mangoes prior India will raise this issue soon after the new U.S. Trade to shipping from India. The Ministry said this is a time- Representative (USTR) takes charge, official sources consuming and costly certification process hurting the said. They said this issue would also be on the agenda of competitiveness of Indian mangoes in the U.S. market. the next India-U.S. Trade Policy Forum (TPF) — the main Indian grapes, litchis, pomegranates, honey, marine and bilateral platform for discussing and resolving trade and meat products are also impacted by various U.S. “NTBs”. investment issues. The date for the next TPF meeting will Besides, the U.S. has imposed countervailing duties on be fixed after the new USTR assumes office. Indian exports, including those by steel and paper indus- Child labour tries. According to the Indian Commerce Ministry, the U.S. De- partment of Labor (DOL) has “arbitrarily” listed 23 items Gear up for supply chain disruption after produced in India on the ‘List of Goods Produced by Child GST implementation Labour or Forced Labour’ — which is in effect a ban on In the run-up to the implementation of the Goods and their import. Service Tax (GST), distributors and wholesalers in var- The Ministry said Indian industry is worried as the reports ious sectors could be tempted to de-stock, in a bid to that the DOL relies upon are “not always accurate.” avoid losses on the tax credit front. Since product-wise The Ministry has also referred to the U.S. Government GST rates will be finalized at the end of June, concerns measures envisaged within an initiative to counter poten- over potential losses arising from mismatch between tax tial terrorist threats to the international maritime container payout and tax refund once GST is in place, has led to trade system. traders reducing stock-in-trade. This included X-ray scanning of containers exported to Media reports state that de-stocking has already begun U.S., a measure, the ministry said would cause additional in the pharmaceutical sector, where some stockists have costs for Indian exporters across sectors. In addition, the started maintaining low stock levels and some others Ministry has cited a law (the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 have begun returning a big chunk of their stocks to com- of the U.S.) allowing American manufacturers to petition panies. for curbing imports from third nations on national security Secondly, the GST Council has guided for lower tax on grounds without providing proof from industry. items of mass consumption such as spices, tea and mus- This is a major Non-Tariff Barrier (NTB) of the U.S. affect- tard oil. This means certain items of this category may at- ing Indian exports across sectors as the law — allowing tract lower taxes in the GST regime than currently levied invocation of ‘national securityaspirantforum.com exceptions’ without having on them, thus presenting a case for holding lower stock to apply any detailed criteria — in effect restricts foreign levels of such goods. competition, the Ministry added. Pharma exports Apart from these factors, transition difficulties in getting Indian pharmaceutical exports to the U.S. are hit by the

Vol. 33 May 2017 33 May Vol. excise set-off on inventory have the potential to create

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disturbances in the supply chain. So, one should brace term, according to the IMF’s May 2017 Regional Eco- for de-stocking as the deadline inches closer, caution tax nomic Outlook for Asia and the Pacific.| experts. Cash-based sectors Though intermittent and temporary in nature, there will be “Specifically, the impact on the informal economy and disruption for sure. It is expected to begin from the busi- cash-based sectors, which are relatively large and have ness to business (B2B) segment and trickle down to the been affected the most by the cash crunch, is likely to be business to consumer segment (B2C). understated because these sectors are either not cov- “According to us, SMEs and MSMES will feel more heat ered in the official statistics or are proxied by the formal because many of these small and medium-sized players sector activity indicators,” it said. have banking arrangements that mandate them to main- However, these were likely to be short-term impacts and tain a certain quantum of stock as security. They may be demonetisation was likely to have medium and long-term caught between meeting loan pre-requisites and claiming gains, especially in terms of fiscal gains, increases in input credit tax. So, there could be an initial disruption in bank liquidity, and the push towards cashless transac- the B2B segment on launch,” said Preeti Khurana, chief tions and digitisation, the IMF noted. editor, ClearTax.com. An analysis by IMF’s staff suggested that compared with A recent Edelweiss Securities Ltd channel check indicat- the October 2016 forecasts, cash shortages were like- ed inventory de-stocking ahead of GST roll-out in most ly to have slowed India’s GDP growth in financial year B2C sectors like building materials, agrochemicals, auto 2016-17 by about 4/5ths of a percentage point and would ancillaries, electrical equipment and FMCG. drag down output by about half a percentage point in fis- “Few cement dealers highlighted that closer to July 1, cal 2017-18. they will keep minimal inventory. Dedicated/sole dealers “The recent growth momentum in the largest economies of large companies will not see any impact as they do in the region remains particularly strong, reflecting policy not maintain any inventory. Tyre companies are trying stimulus in China and Japan, which in turn is benefiting to push sales via offers and discounts. Cash sales have other economies in Asia,” the IMF observed in the report. been impacted by government’s cash limit rule of Rs2 “More broadly across the region, forward-looking indica- lakh. The June quarter will be a slow-growth quarter for tors such as the Purchasing Managers’ Index suggest agro chemical companies,” the Edelweiss report said. continued strength in activity into early 2017.” After interacting with dealers and distributors across ‘NPA ordinance may have limited impact’ sectors, the brokerage firm found that lack of planning The effect of the ordinance empowering the Reserve among the community, difficulty in understanding tax Bank of India to deal more effectively with non-perform- laws and problems relating to e-filing have led to near- ing assets will be limited as operational problems of the term uncertainty. stressed sectors remain, Moody’s Investors Service said This disruption on the ground is bound to spill over to in a report. balance sheets. A dent on margins cannot be ruled out “The government’s recent ordinance provides RBI with especially for those sectors where the first quarter is a greater legal authority to intervene in non-performing seasonally weak one. Some impact on earnings is an- loans (NPL) resolution,” according to the report. “RBI ticipated for consumer companies in the first quarter of can now direct banks to initiate insolvency proceedings FY18, although it is too early to quantify it. with respect to specific borrowers who are in default, and can appoint advisory committees to advise banks on the Data may understate cash crunch impact: resolution of stressed assets.” These measures were aimed at encouraging banks to be IMF more proactive in NPL resolution as well as improve co- The International Monetary Fund’s latest regional outlook ordination among banks. The RBI could now direct banks has projected a slowdown in India due to the lingering to undertake a plan of action for specific assets if it felt effects of a cash crunchaspirantforum.com caused by demonetisation even that banks were not taking a prudent approach, it added. as economic growth is expected to remain robust in the ‘Credit positive’ Asia and Pacific region compared with the levels forecast “These moves are credit positive for Indian banks,” in October 2016. Moody’s said.

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Centre to address the NPL issue. A new series of Index of Industrial Production (IIP) and “The reason for the limited success of the various regula- Wholesale Price Index (WPI) will be released in a bid to tory measures so far is that they do not address related bring greater accuracy and improved synchronisation structural factors.” among such data sets, in turn leading to better policies. The current market value of the stressed assets were The new IIP and WPI series will be released by the Chief far lower and the banks will have to take a significant hit Statistician of India and Secretary, Ministry of Statistics & when they write-down the value of these assets to market Programme Implementation, T.C.A.Anant, and the Sec- value, according to the report. retary, Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, Ramesh Abhishek, according to an official statement. Smallcaps, midcaps propel market rally The base year for the IIP and the WPI will be 2011-12 Even as the Sensex and Nifty have hogged the limelight and not the current 2004-05. The Consumer Price Index as they scale new peaks, the broader indices have out- and the GDP and gross value addition also have 2011-12 performed as investors eye more lucrative returns in the as the base year. universe beyond blue-chip stocks. The common base year is expected to reduce discrepan- A look at the broader indices — some of which include cies and making it easier to draw comparisons. The new as many as 500 companies from the midcap and small- series of IIP will include technology items such as smart- cap space — shows that the gains in some cases have phones, tablets, LED television and tablets. been twice as much when compared with the 30-com- According to the report of the ‘Working group for develop- pany Sensex. ment of methodology for compilation of the all India IIP,’ The Sensex and the 50-share Nifty have gained 13.6% the new item basket for IIP will include “809 products, and 15.1% respectively in 2017. In the same period, the re-grouped into 521 item groups,” 55 products from the BSE Smallcap index has climbed almost 30%, while mining sector and treating electricity as a single product. the BSE Midcap index has surged 24.3%. BSE Midcap members like Edelweiss Financial Services, Vijaya Bank, GST to herald a new era in federalism: RBI IIFL Holdings, Rashtriya Chemicals & Fertilizers, Godrej The Goods and Services Tax (GST), which is likely to be Properties, DCM Shriram, V-Guard Industries, Motilal introduced from July 2017, is set to usher in a new era of Oswal Financial Services, Jaypee Infratech and Dalmia cooperative federalism, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Bharat have all gained about 75%-100%. observed in its report on State finances. “Investors can still invest in the midcap and smallcap “GST is likely to set a new course for cooperative federal- space while choosing the stocks carefully,” said Amarjeet ism in India by strengthening Centre-State partnership,” Maurya, assistant VP (Research - Midcap), Angel Brok- the RBI said its report. ing. “One should invest based on parameters like profita- The successful implementation of GST would help boost bility and earnings growth. Even if there is a correction in revenue through easier tax administration, supported by the broader markets, companies with stable fundamental user-friendly IT systems, it said. factors will not correct as much,” he said. Tax collection costs In comparison, the best gains in the Sensex pack have “GST is expected to reduce administrative costs for col- been about 30% with blue-chips like Asian Paints, L&T, lection of tax revenue and improve revenue efficiency. Reliance Industries and Maruti Suzuki all gaining about Moreover, uniformity in tax rates and procedures across 25%-30%. the country will economise on compliance cost,” it said. ‘Different times’ The RBI also noted that the 25 States, whose data was “The rally is different this time as during some of the available, had suffered fiscal slippage in 2016-17, though earlier cycles, the economy was red-hot with high credit they had budgeted for an improvement in the period. growth, strong IIP numbers along with large infra pro- “Relaxations in market borrowings provided by the Four- jects,” said Manish Gunwani,aspirantforum.com deputy CIO - equity, ICICI teenth Finance Commission have allowed many of the Prudential AMC. “This time though, there is a lot of unu- States to mobilise additional resources,” it said. tilised capacity and the earnings recovery cycle has not However, the overall fiscal position was found to be sus- started yet,” he added. tainable in the long run, according to the RBI.

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ratio is budgeted to moderate to 2.6% in 2017-18.” A larger issue is that incorporating GST will require SMEs to overhaul and computerise their systems, since even dealing with the Harmonized System of Nomenclature GST: What still needs to be done (HSN) codes for individual products will require a com- The Goods and Services Tax Council will meet on May puter. The codes are up to 10 digits in length. The first 18-19 to finalise various rules involved with implementing four define the category and the subsequent digits spec- the new tax regime in the country, including on issues like ify the exact product. input tax credit, valuation norms, composition and transi- For example, Lay’s chips and Kurkure could have the tion provisions, among others. What remains to be down same first four digits, but subsequent digits would be dif- between now and the final rollout? Here’s a lowdown. ferent. Such an overhaul of systems and the implementa- What has been done so far? tion of a new ERP system take time. Industry players are The GST Council has met 13 times to finalise the minu- complaining that with the rules only being decided upon tiae of the five laws that will help bring the new tax re- on May 18-19, they will be able to finalise their software gime to reality. Four of these laws have been cleared by only by the first week of June, leaving barely any time for the Union Cabinet and passed by Parliament. The fifth, testing. the State GST law, needs to be passed by the legislative When can we expect tax rates to be made assemblies of each state and union territory with legisla- public? ture. The Council still has to finalise the rules and rates of The tax rates are not likely to be made public in the next individual products and services. meeting of the GST Council. Experts working on ERP Where is clarity needed? systems say there is no great urgency on this count, According to experts, the draft rules that will be finalised because the numbers can simply be plugged into the during the upcoming Council meeting do not as yet ad- software as and when they are known without having to dress key operational issues that directly affect vendors, change the code itself. The rules are more critical in that distributors, and service providers. These issues include respect. the place of supply rules for service companies. Clarity Also, revealing rates too early may lead to hoarding of on this will determine whether a service has been pro- goods that are likely to be more expensive under GST vided on an inter-state or intra-state basis, which in turn due to higher tax incidence. will determine whether the Integrated GST tax will apply. Knowing the tax rates of individual items could greatly Another major issue is the treatment of cases where the help firms in their procurement decisions for the July- billing address is different from the shipping address. September quarter. Since most companies have so far configured their ERP programs to incorporate GST as a destination-based tax, there is no clarity as yet in the rules as to what happens Goyal rebuffs RBI on UDAY if the destination of the goods or service is different from Power Minister Piyush Goyal rebuffed the Reserve Bank where the bill is to be made. of India’s (RBI) recent report showing that the Ujjwal Dis- For example, if a company places an advertisement in com Awas Yojana (UDAY) scheme was harming state fi- the Mumbai edition of a Delhi-based newspaper, it can nances, and said that the debt was already with the state be billed in Mumbai only if the paper can show that it has governments since they owned the stressed electricity an establishment in Mumbai and can print invoices there. distribution companies (discoms). Else, it will be billed to Delhi. Industry associations have “I wish RBI would re-examine its logic in saying that state sought for greater clarity on such issues from the gov- finances will be hurt,” Mr. Goyal told reporters. “I have ernment. Another issue is the e-waybill, required for the said this before, that the UDAY scheme shifts the debt transport of goods across the country. from discoms already owned by the state governments to The e-waybill has to be accepted by the seller, transport- the state governments directly. In essence, it has shifted er, and recipient for theaspirantforum.com transaction to be closed as far the debt from the subsidiary to the holding company.” the GST Network is concerned. Tax experts say that the An RBI report released on May 12 said the finances of reconciliation of waybills is a big problem now, with the several Indian states were deteriorating after they took recipient usually failing to accept the waybill, leaving the over the discoms’ debt under UDAY. It said the states also had to provide for additional provisions under UDAY

Vol. 33 May 2017 33 May Vol. transaction incomplete. The e-waybill system will require a big change in behaviour for it to work, they say. to provide working capital for the discoms. Visit Aspirantforum.com for guidance and study material for IAS Exam. aspirantforum.com Hindu and PIB Crux Vol. 33 News and Events of May 2017

Low tariffs could be a dampener for tourism, especially in cases of On the historically low Rs. 2.44 solar tariff arrived at in business travel in a State where the recipient does not an auction in Rajasthan last week, he cautioned that not have registration,” Sachin Menon, national head, Indirect all tariffs would be as low. “We won’t hold Rs. 2.44 as Tax, KPMG in India, said. gospel since there were particular reasons, such as the high radiation levels and the fact that the bid was backed The lowdown on the Real Estate Regulation by the Solar Energy Corporation of India, for it,” he said. “But it is a sign of the good work we are doing in bringing Act solar tariffs down.” The Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act or RERA is a law that seeks to regulate and standardise the real estate sector, where the need for uniform guidelines GST Council finalises rates for services and transparency has been felt for long. The Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council finalised After its passage in Parliament in March 2016, it received tax rates for all services, except lottery, under the new the presidential nod on March 25, 2016. The RERA came indirect tax regime to be rolled out from July 1. Those into force on May 1, 2017, a year after the government services already exempted from tax, such as healthcare notified it. and education, will continue to enjoy the concession. The Act will bring on a common platform buyers, sellers The tax rate on non-AC restaurants will be 12%. It will be and intermediaries engaged in the sector. It covers com- 18% on AC restaurants and those with a liquor licence. mercial and residential real estate properties, bought or Restaurants in 5-star hotels will attract a 28% tax, the sold with the construction covering at least 500 sq m or same as that applicable to these hotels itself. A tax of eight apartments. 18% will be levied for financial services and mobile ser- Most important, it brings the entire real estate sector with- vices. While hotels and lodges with tariff below Rs. 1,000 in a regulatory environment, defining the liabilities and have been exempted, those with room tariff of Rs. 1,000- liberties of a developer and providing an effective griev- Rs. 2,500 will attract 12%, those charging Rs. 2,500-Rs. ance redress mechanism to the buyer. 5,000 will come under the 18% tax bracket, and those Under this, property developers will have to register their charging any rate above that will be taxed at 28%. projects. Agents too will have to register themselves with Services categorised the regulatory authority. “Even in the services sector, depending on the nature It was necessary to bring the real estate sector under a of service… there are various categorisations that have regulatory framework as it had got a bad name due to the been made,” Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said at the lapses of a few. Moreover, the house-buyer did not really end of the two-day meeting of the GST Council. have any effective forum to address his complaints, on “There were a set of services that were exempted at construction, quality, and delays in delivery or frauds. present… These exemptions will continue. Besides the To address these issues, the Centre began moves to exempted category, which include healthcare and educa- make this unregulated sector conform to certain guide- tion, all other services have been fitted into four different lines in an equitable manner. rates of 5%, 12%, the standard rate of 18%, and luxury Developers will now have to provide project details, time- rate of 28%,” he said. lines and the layout plan (which under the current dispen- “Having multiple rate slabs on services comes as a sur- sation is rarely shared with the home-buyer). They will prise to the industry, particularly the introduction of the need to deposit 70% of the money raised from buyers in 28% slab, which was not envisaged earlier,” Pratik Jain, an escrow account. partner and leader-indirect tax, PwC said. There is provision for revoking registration and imposition “The proposed tax structure on services is much more of penalties. A big relief that RERA will bring is in respect complex than we have at present. For hotels, restaurants of advertisements of projects. The promotional material and transportation, a distinction has been made on the will have to carry details of the projects registration as basis of room tariff, turnoveraspirantforum.com of business and so on,” Mr. also the website of the regulator. Jain pointed out. The Act has been described by the Centre as an attempt “This is not in line with international practice, where a uni- at cleaning up the real estate sector, ushering in transpar- form rate is applied on a particular service irrespective of ency, accountability and fair-play among stakeholders. Vol. 33 May 2017 33 May Vol. value or status of the business,” he said. Until recently, investment in a house, often with one’s “Levying GST at the demerit rate of 28% for 5-star hotels Visit Aspirantforum.com for guidance and study material for IAS Exam. aspirantforum.com Hindu and PIB Crux Vol. 33 News and Events of May 2017

life’s savings, came around post retirement. It was al- (ARC) has so far been very low due to two main reasons: most always a leap of faith, more so if the developer hap- banks have been reluctant to sell NPA at a price reflect- pened to be a non-governmental player. That scenario ing their realisable economic value; and, banks received has changed substantially over the last few decades with only 15% of the NPA sales consideration in cash, while a younger age profile of a house-buyer. Not only that, the rest was given by way of security receipts (SR) which the young is more discerning, more demanding and has meant that the seller bank continued to be exposed to the money at his disposal. It is no longer an issue of a roof- risk of short recovery of the loan from the borrower. over-his-head or a matter of roti, kapda aur makan (food, The Strategic Debt Restructuring scheme (SDR), un- clothing and shelter). veiled in June, 2015, involved banks taking over com- This law will empower the consumer while boosting the panies by converting debt into equity, replacing the pro- credibility of developers. It is widely felt that the Act will moters and thereafter selling their equity holdings to new shift housing demand at least in the immediate term to- investors. However, as of December, 2016, only two such wards the organised players, better-equipped as they are cases of sale had materialised. to fulfil various stipulations. Most such players have wel- The Scheme for Sustainable Structuring of Stressed As- comed the Act, saying that it will bridge the trust deficit. sets (S4A) was introduced in June, 2016, whereby the Essentially, the Act marks the first step in regulating a outstanding bank loan is required to be bifurcated into sector. Until now, consumers were protected by a State’s sustainable and unsustainable portions, enabling the consumer protection measures, where getting justice was borrower company to be revived and making it possible a long and arduous process. This law is more focussed. for the sustainable portion to be repaid. But it must be noted that the RERA is a model Act and S4A a non-starter each State will need to notify its own Act separately as This is also a non-starter, with only three cases cleared land is a concurrent subject. Many States are yet to do so far. While there is excitement and expectations sur- so. Till then in most States, promoters will be regulated rounding the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016, it by the Promoters Registration Act, which mandates reg- is well-nigh impossible that resolution of even the large- istration by promoters. However, there is little scope of sized NPAs can be brought about within a reasonable consumer protection here. Every State will have to no- period of time under the mechanism contained in this tify the Act, set up a regulator and launch an awareness statute. The judicial authority for this purpose — the Na- campaign to empower the consumer. Indications are that tional Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) — currently clears many States would want to frame their own Act and rules 6,620 cases a year and it has a backlog of 24,900 cases. therein. This would be a time-consuming affair, putting Further, both resolution and bankruptcy will cause sig- the entire matter in a limbo. nificant loss to banks. But the boards and senior man- Furthermore, in States where the Act has been put in agement of PSU banks have all the incentive to prefer a place, developers need to begin logging in their project much higher loss through resolution or bankruptcy vis- (old and existing) by July 1. The Appellate Tribunal for the a-vis a commercially driven write-off decision. The insol- developers to appeal against any regulatory order also vency route would lead to a “fire sale” of assets in a grow- needs to be in place by then. ing economy — a paradox of sorts. This is a sad reality that lies at the core of resolving the NPA problem. Rainbow turns out to be a mirage A para-banking solution? A solution for the NPA problem for PSU banks has proved Like all grand ideas, the proposition to set up a Public elusive so far. The authorities have been in denial mode Sector Asset Rehabilitation Agency (PARA) a la what for long and the problem’s depth and extent have been China did in the past catches attention. revealed only recently. The details are sketchy, untenable, and even confusing, The efforts of RBI have not borne fruit: The 5/25 scheme though. By way of illustration, if PARA were to operate which permitted extension of loan amortization period professionally and not on political principles, it will be re- up to 25 years with interestaspirantforum.com reset every 5 years did not quired to buy NPAs at prices that will involve deep writ- work as the higher interest burden due to tenor extension edowns by banks. required additional borrowing which worsened the initial How is it conceivable that PSU banks that are reluctant to problem. agree on debt workout involving writeoffs will be enthusi- astic in doing so while selling NPAs to PARA?

Vol. 33 May 2017 33 May Vol. The sale of NPAs to Asset Reconstruction Companies

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More importantly, if the PSU banks are to cleanse their against? balance sheet within a year of PARA coming into exist- There is every possibility that debt resolution will hence- ence, their aggregate credit loss of around Rs. 4 trillion forth follow a political process. will have to be funded upfront. Who will do this? The same logic applies to oversight authorities/commit- The accompanying table illustrates the debt of top ten tees. It goes against the very grain of corporate govern- stressed corporate groups aggregating Rs. 7.5 trillion, ance because the boards of banks will have to heed their which needs to be written down to spur their revival. It is ‘advice’. And, who in India does not know that a king’s beyond the ability of the government to do this even over ‘advise’ is actually an ‘order’? three years. All in all, the amendment is unlikely to make any signifi- The idea that a slice of RBI’s capital can be used for fund- cant dent on the NPA situation, except at the margin per- ing PARA (or loss of PSU banks?) is almost irresponsible. haps. If RBI parts with a portion of its holding of government No magic solution securities, the resultant loss will have to be absorbed ei- There is no magic solution. Nor is there any possibility of ther by its current income or through a drawdown of its finding a solution within the extant political-bureaucratic usable equity (equity that can be freely used to meet any paradigm that seeks to keep the PSU banks within a kind of loss) which, in RBI’s case, is almost identical with ‘command and control’ framework. its internal reserves. A genuinely fresh ‘out-of-the-box’ approach is needed. The RBI took a policy decision in 1997 to achieve and We propose a framework with six elements: maintain a ratio of internal reserves to assets at 12% One, U.S. style stress tests should be introduced to de- to ensure adequate risk capital for its balance sheet. termine the capital shortage in respect of each PSU bank; The ratio increased steadily thereafter, exceeding 12% two, the government should devise and declare a policy in 2009-10 and remaining close to 12% in the following for capital infusion based on objective performance crite- year. It fell subsequently and now it is at 7.5%. Need- ria; three, mergers and acquisitions of PSU banks by the less to say, the last three years have witnessed a sharp private sector and foreign banks to be allowed, as there drop in the usable equity of RBI. By all indications, RBI is are too many PSU banks; four, banks should give priority under-capitalised right now. to those loan restructuring where institutional investors Asking RBI to deplete its usable equity further will wors- are willing to provide equity for business turnaround. en its financial position, thereby undermining its ability to Such restructuring can be an eclectic combination of all pursue policies independently. the schemes launched so far, the guiding principle being Amendment to BR Act loss-sharing: the promoters should shed their equity in From an operational perspective, the amendment has favour of banks at realistic valuation to the extent the lat- two new elements: (i) Direct power for the government ter are reducing debt. (to be exercised through RBI) asking banks to initiate The incentives of all concerned in a debt resolution aimed insolvency proceedings against specific delinquent bor- at a business turnaround, namely the promoter, the bank rowers. (ii) RBI to constitute oversight authorities/com- and the new investor will be aligned through a combina- mittees for providing ‘advice’ to banks in taking decisions tion of debt writedown, reduction in promoter’s stake and on debt resolution. infusion of fresh equity at realistic valuation; five, boards Seemingly, both the elements are intended to take care of banks should have full freedom to decide on restruc- of the unwillingness or lethargy of PSU banks in dealing turing; and six, vigilance action to be taken if, and only if, with corporate stressed assets. there is clear evidence of malfeasance as distinct from- What is interesting here is that the initiative/approval of post facto detection of decision error. the ‘state’ is sought to be introduced where the boards of ( Sivaprakasam Sivakumar is MD, Argonaut Global Capi- PSU banks should be able to take decisions themselves tal LLC, U.S., and Himadri Bhattacharya is Senior Advi- based on commercial considerations alone. sor, RisKontroller Global ) This bears the hallmarkaspirantforum.com of a ‘rent-seeking’ economy. An unintended consequence here will be that PSU banks Govt may withdraw purchase tax on gold will henceforth be reluctant to initiate any insolvency pro- The government is likely to withdraw purchase tax on ceedings on their own. gold introduced by the then Finance Minister K.M. Mani As for the government, will there be clear and transparent

Vol. 33 May 2017 33 May Vol. in 2014 as it cannot be collected under the existing cir- guidelines as regards which of the defaulters to proceed cumstances. The State will forego Rs. 2,000 crore as a Visit Aspirantforum.com for guidance and study material for IAS Exam. aspirantforum.com Hindu and PIB Crux Vol. 33 News and Events of May 2017

result of this. be disposed of and officials had been appointed to speed Replying to the discussion on the Finance Bill for 2017- this process up. 18, which was piloted in the Assembly on Monday, Fi- nance Minister Thomas Isaac said the government was RBI outlines action plan for resolving stressed favourably disposed towards withdrawing the tax. He proposed to move an official amendment when the loans Finance Bill is discussed at the subject committee con- The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has outlined a broad sidering the all-round demand of legislators for its with- plan to resolve stressed assets at lenders in the wake drawal. of the amendment of the Banking Regulation Act earlier The gold purchase tax has gone through some admin- this month. istratively difficult times since its introduction in 2014. The RBI, which has sought information from lenders on The UDF government could not collect the tax worth Rs. the current status of large stressed assets and is work- 2,000 crore as a result of all-round resentment. ing on norms for expediting the process of taking cases The proposal attracted adverse remarks of the Account- through insolvency and bankruptcy, said it would consti- ant General in his audit report. tute a panel “comprised majorly of its independent board Dr. Isaac also maintained that he would not do anything members” to advise it in this matter. “The Reserve Bank about it till Mr. Mani admitted in the house that the pro- is working on a framework to facilitate an objective and posal was inadvertent. consistent decision making process with regard to cases Kerala ready for GST that may be determined for reference for resolution under The Minister said Kerala was ready for implementing the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 (IBC),” it said Goods and Service Tax. The State had developed its in a statement. own GSTN software, completed training of officials, and The RBI is also exploring the possibility of credit rating computerised the tax department. This made tax evasion assignments determined by it, in order to avoid conflict difficult since all purchases for own use over Rs. 50,000 of interest. would have to be billed under the IGST rules, with the “RBI envisages an important role for the credit rating benefit accruing to the State. agencies in the scheme of things and, with a view to The revenue neutral rates might not work out in favour of preventing rating-shopping or any conflict of interest, is the State, but the anti-profiteering clause in the GST Act exploring the feasibility of rating assignments being de- would ensure that corporate bodies did not book profits. termined by the Reserve Bank itself and paid for from a Tax on lotteries fund to be created out of contribution from the banks and Dr. Isaac said Kerala had demanded 28% tax on lotteries the Reserve Bank.” under GST in order to keep profiteering private players Oversight committee out. The two-member Oversight Committee (OC) would also The lottery lobby had been campaigning for lower rates, be reconstituted and put “under the aegis” of the RBI. but the State argued for higher tax regime in order to The OC would be enlarged to include more members so deny space to the private players. that it could set up benches to deal with the volume of The government would strengthen the check-posts in cases. The central bankwould soon name additions to order to prevent tax evasion. Similarly, the main inter- the OC, who would join the existing members. linking roads would be put under surveillance to detect smuggling. RCEP: India upset over slow progress on With software that would facilitate real time checks, it would be possible to get instant information whether a services talks goods carrier had paid tax at source, he said. India, which is in talks for the proposed mega-regional Amnesty scheme Free Trade Agreement (FTA) along with 16 other Asia Dr. Isaac said the government was working on an amnes- Pacific nations, has expressed disappointment over the aspirantforum.cominadequate progress in talks on services trade liberalisa- ty scheme to recover tax arrears that had got ensnared in court cases, appeals, and audits over tax assessments in tion especially for facilitating easier movement of profes- view of the shift to GST regime. sionals for short-term work in these countries. There were a large number of appeal cases that need to Slowdown, job losses Vol. 33 May 2017 33 May Vol. Following economic slowdown and the consequent job

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losses, most countries in the grouping have turned pro- TRAI had recommended a fine of Rs. 1,050 crore each tectionist when it comes talks on norms to ease tempo- for Bharti and Vodafone, and of Rs. 950 crore for Idea for rary movement of skilled workers, official sources said, violating their agreement and denial of interconnection adding that India fears that the issue is getting mixed up to Reliance Jio. DoT had sought clarifications on several with immigration. points, including the provision of law under which the The negotiations for the FTA, officially known as the Re- amount was recommended. gional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), “Non-compliance of terms and conditions of the licence started in November 2012. It includes the 10 ASEAN under the TRAI Act, 1997 warrants recommendations for member States and six nations that have existing FTAs the revocation of the licence. Clearly, penalty to a TSP with ASEAN — India, China, Australia, New Zealand, Ja- amounts much less in severity than revocation of its li- pan and South Korea. cence. It is well-established that a penal action which is These nations have a combined GDP of about $24 trillion lower than the stipulated action is intra-vires.” and a population of around 3.6 billion. “Progress in negotiations on services is not keeping pace GST rollout deadline will not be extended, with the kind of progress seen in goods negotiations,” said Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, who led says top official the Indian delegation to the third RCEP Inter-sessional The government is not considering extending the rollout Ministerial Meeting on 21-22 May 2017 in Hanoi, in which date for the Goods and Services Tax (GST) past July 1, trade ministers of 15 other RCEP countries participated. and the GST Network is almost ready for that deadline, Official sources said the talks are likely to stretch into the GST Network CEO Prakash Kumar said. first half of 2018 as several aspects of goods, services Mr. Kumar also added that the GST Network, the com- and investment have not yet been negotiated. So far, pany behind the IT backbone of the new tax regime, had four ministerial meetings, three inter-sessional ministerial received registrations from 60.5 lakh out of the 83 lakh meetings and 18 rounds of the Trade Negotiating Com- tax payers eligible to be on the network. mittee (TNC) at the technical level have been held. The “The date for GST is firmed up, and there should not nineteenth round of TNC meeting is scheduled in Hy- be any confusion anywhere about that,” Mr. Kumar said derabad from July 18-28. while speaking at a GST Readiness Session. “There is In return for eliminating or reducing tariffs on goods, India no chance of it being extended past July 1. Out of a scale wants RCEP member countries to work toward liberalisa- of 10, I would say our readiness right now is 8-9,” he said. tion across all modes of services, including movement of “The registration aspect of the portal was ready in No- professionals. vember,” he added. “We started it in a phased manner India, a leading services supplier with a large pool of and 60.5 lakh have been registered out of 83 lakh. If you skilled workers, is keen that the FTA ensures easier tem- don’t enrol, then the details of the authorised signatory porary movement of such professionals as well as an will not be added to the Network, which means those ‘RCEP Travel Card’ for business people. companies will not be able to do any transactions on the portal.” Regarding concerns that the GST Network — of which TRAI defends decision to impose penalty on the government owns 49% and private companies own 3 firms 51% — would face the moral hazard of sensitive private Incumbent operators were “intentionally denying and de- data being used for private purposes, Mr. Kumar said that laying” providing adequate points of interconnection to the structure of the board would prevent this. the new entrant Reliance Jio, TRAI said, defending its “The 49% government holding is divided along the lines recommendation to impose a penalty on Bharti Airtel, of 24.5% Centre and 24.5% states and UTs,” he said. Idea and Vodafone. “The 51% is divided between five companies. TRAI said it was withinaspirantforum.com its powers to impose a penalty “The 24.5% of the states and the Centre have three board for violation of licence norms. TRAI, in a reply to over a members each, and the 51% private companies have dozen queries raised by the Department of Telecommu- three board members. And nothing can happen without nications (DoT), said that “…millions of consumers were the decision of the directors,” Mr. Kumar said. suffering due to blatant and wilful violation of the licence He also added that the IT infrastructure of the network Vol. 33 May 2017 33 May Vol. terms and TRAI’s regulations by” the top three telecos. for the unified tax regime was capable of handling even

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the peak traffic witnessed during the last couple of days ees contributed less toward their social security schemes before the filing deadline. compared to EPF schemes which were applicable to pri- vate sector workers only. For instance, under the New PF contribution may be cut to fatten your Pension System and Contributory Provident Fund, equal contribution of 10% of income is made by employers and wallet employees. Employees may expect a better take home salary in the near future as the Labour Ministry has proposed decreas- ing the mandatory rate of contribution toward provident fund savings from 12% to 10% of the income. Central trade unions, however, are set to strongly oppose the proposal which will be discussed in the Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO)’s central board of trustees (CBT) meeting, chaired by Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya, to be held in Pune. “The social security contribution rate affects the institu- tional environment and labour market efficiency. It has an impact on the carry home pay of the employees,” Union opposition the meeting’s agenda papers said. “Lowering the rate of The RSS-affiliated Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS), contribution may facilitate widening the coverage of all which has not participated in nationwide strikes organ- employees, as a lower social security contribution rate ised by central trade unions in the last two years, is reduces the incentive for evasion. Even employees may threatening to go on a strike this time. wilfully become a party to evasion if the social security “The government is benefiting the corporate business- contribution is very high.” men by hurting the interests of millions of workers. We Compulsory saving will go for a nationwide strike if the government doesn’t At present, 24% of a formal sector worker’s salary is de- roll back its proposal,” said BMS National Vice President ducted — with 12% counted as employer’s share and M. Jagadiswara Rao, who is also a member of EPFO’s 12% as employee’s contribution — toward Employees’ CBT. Provident Fund savings. This is compulsory for employ- “(Prime Minister Narendra) Modi government’s fourth ees earning Rs. 15,000 a month. year begins with further intensifying the attacks on the The EPFO’s central board of trustees will consider a pro- rights of the working people of the country. While the posal to lower “the rate of contribution to be paid by the government claims that the rights of the workers will be employer and an equal contribution by employees from safeguarded, this move on reducing EPF contribution the present 12% to 10% by the issue of an appropriate of employers exposes the pro-corporate policies of the order by the Central Government.” government and its only concern for ‘ease of doing busi- The Employees’ Provident Fund and Miscellaneous Pro- ness’,” said Centre of Indian Trade Unions general sec- visions Act 1952 empower the Centre to lower the contri- retary Tapan Sen. bution rate toward EPFO schemes and the Government intends to issue a notification to effect the change. The move comes following a directive from the Labour Twitter handle set up for GST Ministry to EPFO on April 28. “…There have been de- As GST implementation date nears, the Revenue Depart- mands from various quarters on many occasions to re- ment started a new twitter handle to answer industry view the present rate of EPF contribution and place it on queries related to the new indirect tax regime. Traders par with other social security schemes such as National and industry can ask questions on the twitter handle ‘@ Pension System (NPS),” the Labour Ministry’s letter said. askGST_GoI’ and officials from Central Board of Excise aspirantforum.comand Customs will answer them. The EPFO said that employees who intended to make higher savings could still do so by availing the option of “All taxpayers and other stakeholders are welcome to di- voluntary provident fund contribution allowed under the rect their queries related to GST...,” the Finance Ministry present law. said. Vol. 33 May 2017 33 May Vol. The Labour Ministry also said that government employ-

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Centre’s spending improves after budget date tweeted. This should put to rest concern in the industry, as the 18% rate was likely to have had a significant im- advanced pact on solar energy tariffs. The advancement of the Budget date to February 1 had a positive effect on the pattern of government expenditure, which increased “substantially” in April and May com- SEBI targets participatory note norms pared to previous years, according to a Finance Ministry The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) plans official. to further tighten norms for issuance of offshore deriva- The Budget for the financial year 2017-18 was presented tive instruments (ODIs) and participatory notes (PNs) as on February 1 instead of at the end of the month in order part of its overall effort to reduce the exposure investors to facilitate a timely disbursal of funds for various sectors. take via such instruments in the Indian equity market. Pre-monsoon spending In a consultation paper released on Monday, the capital “The advancement of the Budget date to February 1 has market regulator has proposed levying a regulatory fee already seen the disbursement of planned expenditure of $1,000 on every foreign portfolio investor (FPI) that is- increasing in the months of April and May, instead of hav- sues ODIs or PNs. SEBI-registered FPIs will have to pay ing to wait till the monsoon got over, as was happening this fee once every three years for each of their ODI sub- earlier,” a senior official in the Ministry of Finance told scribers. “It is proposed that beginning April 1, 2017, for a The Hindu . period of every three years, regulatory fees of $1,000 be “The exact increase is still being calculated, but it is levied on each ODI issuing FPI for each and every ODI definitely substantial and we will make the report public subscriber coming through such FPI,” states the SEBI soon. It should have increased by about 10-15% of what paper. was happening last year.” According to the government, the February 28 date for the presentation of the Budget meant that the actual disbursal of funds got delayed till the very end of the monsoon. “The Budget would be passed on the February 28 and the Finance Bill would only be passed by mid-April or May following the completion of the vote on account, the funds for various projects would be disbursed only by the beginning of the monsoon,” the official said, echoing an argument made several times before by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. Multiple issuers ‘Effective disbursal’ “We understand from the monthly ODI data reported by “Then the monsoon would start and the projects would the ODI issuers that quite a few ODI subscribers invest have to wait. So effective disbursal was only after that,” through multiple issuers. It will discourage the ODI sub- the official said. scribers from taking ODI route and encourage them to The Finance Act 2016, for example, was passed by the directly take registration as an FPI,” it added. lower house or Lok Sabha only on May 5, 2016, while the Typically, the ODI or PN route is used by foreign entities Finance Act 2015 was passed even later in the respec- who want to take an exposure to Indian equity but without tive year, on May 14. The Finance Act 2014 was passed getting registered with SEBI. So, SEBI-registered FPIs on July 10 of that year. buy shares on behalf of such entities and then transfer the securities to the actual beneficiaries. The regulator has also proposed to prohibit ODIs from GST on all solar components at 5%: Revenue being issued against derivatives for speculative purpos- Secretary es. Currently, ODIs are issued against derivatives along The Goods and Serviceaspirantforum.com Tax (GST) rate on inputs for with equity and debt. solar components have been cut to 5% from the 18% SEBI has given time until December 31, 2020, to wind up set by the GST Council in its May 18 meeting, according ODIs issued against derivatives, which are not for hedg- to Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia. “All solar equip- ing purpose. It will be incumbent on ODI issuing FPI to

Vol. 33 May 2017 33 May Vol. ments and its parts would attract 5% GST only,” Mr. Adhia ensure that ODI is issued against those derivatives which are purely for hedging purpose and not for naked specu- Visit Aspirantforum.com for guidance and study material for IAS Exam. aspirantforum.com Hindu and PIB Crux Vol. 33 News and Events of May 2017

lation, said the SEBI paper. Incidentally, this is not the first time that the regulator is attempting to tighten the norms related to ODIs or PNs. In June last year, SEBI issued instructions on Know Your Customer (KYC) norms for ODI subscribers, transferability of ODIs, reporting of suspicious transactions and periodic review of systems. The regulator has given the public time until June 12 to submit comments on its latest proposals.

EPF contributions to remain at 12%: Minister The Central government will not bring back its proposal to decrease rate of deduction from salary towards provident fund (PF) savings from 12% to 10% as even employers were against such a move, Labour and Employment Minister Bandaru Dattatreya said. “I am happy to inform that employers have come forward to say that they will contribute 12% and not 10% (of income towards worker’s EPF account). It’s a healthy sign. Both employers and employees have opposed the proposal and now we will continue with our old notification,” Mr. Dattatreya said. Trust meeting The Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO)’s Central Board of Trustees (CBT), chaired by Mr. Dattatreya, had discussed a proposal to decrease the rate of contribution towards provident fund savings . However, the employers, employees and State government officials had opposed the proposed move, EPFO Central Provident Fund Commissioner V.P. Joy said. At present, 24% of a formal sector worker’s salary is deducted with 12% counted as employer’s share and 12% as employee’s contribution.

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U.S., Germany slam India for NGO funding International norms NGOs must abide by India’s laws, Attorney-General ASEAN wants stronger ties with China Mukul Rohatgi told the UN’s Human Rights Council at Steering clear of blaming China for the maritime disputes Geneva, as the government faced a tough “peer review” in the South China Sea, the 10-member Association of by other countries at the Council. The Council members South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) has focused on a re- recommended a revision in India’s Foreign Contribution gional trade pact and shoring up economies of some of Regulatory Act (FCRA), a repeal of the Armed Forces the lesser developed countries in the grouping. Special Powers Act, decriminalisation of homosexuality A Chairman’s statement issued at the end of the Manila and the inclusion of marital rape in Indian laws on sexual summit took note of the improving cooperation between violence. ASEAN and China. It welcomed the progress to complete “Supported by a rights-oriented constitutional framework, a framework of the code of conduct in the South China secular polity, independent judiciary, free and vibrant me- Sea by mid-2017. dia, vocal civil society, and a range of national and State- The code is a non-binding document that urges self-re- level commissions that monitor compliance with human straint and resolution of disputes through direct negotia- rights, India continues with its endeavours towards ob- tions servance of human rights,” the Attorney-General replied, On the sidelines of the summit, the Philippine Trade and adding that the FCRA is a legitimate law that NGOs wish- Industry Secretary, Ramon Lopez, explained that Presi- ing to operate in India must follow. dent Rodrigo Duterte, who chaired the meeting, had “de- The attack on the FCRA act came from nearly a dozen veloped friendship” with China on his trip to Beijing in Oc- countries, mostly from Europe. The charge was led by tober. This had “opened many doors to the Philippines”. the U.S. and Germany, who called the Act and the gov- “We still have differences over the South China Sea. The ernment’s actions “arbitrary”. wisdom is to put this issue aside and talk about business “India must defend the right to freedom of association, and strengthening economic ties,” he said. which includes the ability of civil society organisations to “It’s not about getting a donation and fighting back in the access foreign funding, and protect human rights defend- future.” ers effectively against harassment and intimidation,” the The document welcomed the operationalisation of the German Ambassador to the UN mission in Geneva said, Guidelines for Hotline Communications among senior of- while the U.S. envoy decried the “complete lack of trans- ficials of the ministries of foreign affairs of ASEAN coun- parency” in the implementation of the FCRA. tries and China in response to maritime emergencies. Australia, Ireland, Norway, South Korea, Denmark and The leaders focused on the Regional Comprehensive the Czech Republic were among other countries calling Economic Partnership (RCEP) negotiations, pointing for a review of the FCRA that has led to the licences of out that the giant free trade pact will boost global trade. about 14,000 of NGOs being cancelled because of al- The RCEP is a proposed free trade agreement between leged violations. ASEAN and six other states — Australia, China, India, Attack on minorities Japan, South Korea and New Zealand. The document The government also faced criticism on violence against highlighted a commitment to assist Cambodia, Laos, My- religious minorities from a number of countries. Paki- anmar and Vietnam to enable them to bolster regional stan’s statement was the sharpest, accusing India of fail- integration. ing to protect minorities “especially Muslims” from “mob The grouping reaffirmed its aspiration to play a bigger violence” and “attacks by extremist groups affiliated to role in the global economy and reiterated their full sup- the government.” port for the denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula, Attacks on Africans in India appeared as a new subject and for concerned partiesaspirantforum.com to explore all avenues for dia- of concern at the HRC proceedings, and the government logue. The ASEAN comprises Brunei, Cambodia, Indo- said it accepted responsibility and had sought to pros- nesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singa- ecute all those responsible for the brutal beating of stu- pore, Thailand and Vietnam. dents at a mall in Noida in March 2017.

Vol. 33 May 2017 33 May Vol. On criticism over the Armed Forces Special Powers Act,

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that gives forces immunity from prosecution, India said pate in the forum, India’s decision, so far, not to announce the Act applies “only to disturbed areas.” an official delegation for the occasion, has become con- spicuous. “As far as Indian participation is concerned, Higher coal tax may benefit economy: IMF there are Indian scholars coming to China for relevant An annual Rs. 150 per ton increase in tax on coal from activities,” said Geng Shuang, Chinese Foreign Ministry 2017 to 2030 could prevent over 2.7 lakh deaths from spokesperson, in response to a question. air pollution, raise GDP by 1% by 2030, reduce carbon 100-day trade plan dioxide emissions by 12% and generate net economic White House adviser Matt Pottinger will lead the U.S. del- benefits of about 1% of GDP, according to IMF. egation to the forum. Mr. Geng said the U.S. National Se- “The main domestic environmental cost of burning coal curity Council’s senior director for East Asia would also is outdoor air pollution, which exacerbates mortality rates be part of the delegation. The decision coincided with the for various (e.g., cardiovascular and pulmonary) diseas- 100-day trade plan hammered out by China and the U.S. es,” said the working paper released by the International following talks last month between President Xi Jinping Monetary Fund (IMF) and his U.S. counterpart, Donald Trump. “Outdoor air pollution from fossil and non-fossil sources Reuters reported that by July 16, the 100th day after the prematurely killed an estimated 0.53 people per 1,000 of leaders’ meeting, China will issue guidelines that would the population in 2010 in India, or about 6.5 lakh in total.” allow U.S.-owned card payment services “to begin the “Fossil fuel taxes can provide a significant source of eas- licensing process” in a sector where China’s UnionPay ily-collected revenue, which is especially valuable when system has had a near monopoly. revenues from broader taxes on labour, capital, and con- China will also allow U.S. imports of beef no later than sumption are insufficient due to a large concentration July 16. Besides, foreign-owned companies will be al- of economic activity occurring in the informal sector,” it lowed to provide credit rating services in China. added. The paper also says that, in the event of political According to a U.S. announcement, the two sides had reasons not permitting any increase in coal tax, the gov- also agreed to discuss extending the initial 100-day pe- ernment should implement subsidies or other incentives riod into a one-year plan. “We will continue to move for- to encourage the shift away from coal generation. ward,” Chinese vice Finance Minister Zhu Guangyao told a Beijing media briefing. In an interview with the Economist newspaper, Mr. Trump U.S., Japan to attend China’s Silk Road praised his ties with Mr. Xi. “I think I like him a lot. I think summit he likes me a lot... I mean, he’s a great guy.” China’s bid to internationalise its Belt and Road connec- tivity initiative received a shot in the arm with the U.S. U.N. rejects Pak. charge of attack deciding to send a high level delegation to an upcoming international forum in the Chinese capital. on observers France and South Korea have also decided to send del- The United Nations has dismissed the Pakistan Army’s egates to the Belt and Road Forum, which begins. Japan claim that its military observers came under attack from is being represented by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s sen- Indian troops near the Line of Control, saying there was ior adviser and Secretary General of the Liberal Demo- “no evidence” of them being targeted. cratic Party, Toshihiro Nikai. Vietnamese President Tran U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres’ spokesperson Dai Quang is already in the Chinese capital for parleys Stephane Dujarric said there was no evidence that an with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, ahead of the UNMOGIP (United Nations Military Observer Group in conclave. India and Pakistan) vehicle was targeted by the Indian Leaders from 29 countries and regions as well as UN Army along the LoC near the Khanjar sector. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, International Mone- “I can say to you that this afternoon, in the Bhimber Dis- aspirantforum.comtrict in Pakistan-administered-Kashmir, UNMOGIP mili- tary Fund chief Christine Lagarde and World Bank Presi- dent Kim Yong will also attend the event. tary observers accompanied by Pakistani Army escorts As more influential countries and representatives of top heard gunshots in their vicinity,” she said. multilateral organisations declare their intent to partici- There is no evidence that the UNMOGIP military observ- Vol. 33 May 2017 33 May Vol. ers were targeted by the gunfire. No U.N. military observ-

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er was injured,” Ms. Dujarric told reporters. In a statement, the Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR), the media wing of the Pakistan Armed Forces, had said that a vehicle carrying two officers of the U.N. military observer group came under attack by Indian troops during a visit to the LoC. The Pakistan Army had claimed the vehicle was carrying UNMOGIP officers Major Emmanual of the Philippines and Major Mirko of Croatia.

aspirantforum.com Vol. 33 May 2017 33 May Vol.

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India’ backed by the Indian Commerce and Industry Min- istry (leading the ‘Make in India programme’) and Tourism Ministry (spearheading the ‘Incredible India’ initiative). India and India-US trade in goods and services had risen to around $115 billion in 2016 from $109 billion in 2015, according to U.S. government data, and the aim is to raise this to The World $500 billion soon. The U.S. Presidential Executive Order on ‘Buy American India, U.S. to hold talks to strengthen trade and Hire American’ on April 18 had said the H-1B visa ties (temporary work visa for non-immigrants) programme will India and the U.S. are slated to hold trade talks in May soon be ‘reformed’ to ensure that the visas are awarded to identify opportunities in sectors such as infrastructure, to the most skilled or highest-paid petition beneficiaries, a digital technologies and smart cities even as commercial move that may hit the Indian technology sector. ties have soured by the recent visa and intellectual prop- This indication of visa curbs came close on the heels of erty (IP) issues. the U.S. government on March 3 “temporarily suspend- Government and industry representatives from both the ing premium processing for all H-1B petitions, including nations will hold talks during the ‘Annual West Coast cap-exempt petitions, for up to six months.” Summit’ in Menlo Park, California on May 8. The discus- Also, much to India’s chagrin, the 2017 “Special 301” Re- sions apart from food processing and supply chain lo- port on trade and intellectual property (IP) issues released gistics will focus on financial services, virtual currencies, by the U.S. government in April had said, “India remains clean energy, healthcare and manufacturing from a tech- on the ‘Priority Watch List’ this year for lack of sufficient nology partnership perspective. measurable improvements to its IP framework…” Notwithstanding these hurdles, there will be several high- level India-U.S. interactions in May. As per the industry body U.S.-India Business Council (USIBC), its members will on May 3 interact with the Indi- an Road Transport and Highways and Shipping Minister Nitin Gadkari on opportunities for U.S.-India supply chain and infrastructure collaboration. During that discussion on the sidelines of the ‘India Inte- grated Transport & Logistics Summit 2017’ (learnt to be a ‘precursor to the formation of the Indian government’s dedicated working group on logistics’), the USIBC will un- The ‘Annual West Coast Summit’ — to be attended veil a task force on supply chain standards. among others by Food Processing Industries Minister Food retail Harsimrat Kaur Badal, senior representatives from the This will be followed by meetings on May 5, 8 and 10 Indian government, and Andhra Pradesh chief minister with Ms. Badal on the “emerging reform landscape in the Chandrababu Naidu — will also have discussions on food processing industry and food retail” as well as on the U.S.-India technology partnerships in ‘Internet of Things’ ‘World Food Forum in India’ that Ms. Badal’s ministry is (IoT), smart city planning, India’s move towards a cash- slated to host in New Delhi in November 2017, according less economy and the future of technology relationship to the USIBC. as well as investment opportunities in food retail and food On May 9, there will be talks on legal and policy issues processing. relating to the use of digital technologies like the IoT and During the mega trade expo called ‘Glorious India’ in New cloud computing. Jersey on May 27-28, theaspirantforum.com focus of the talks will shift to garments, gems and jewellery, travel & tourism and real Turkey supports India’s UNSC bid estate. Jamia Millia Islamia conferred the Degree of Doctor of ‘Glorious India’ Letters (Honoris Causa) to Turkish President Recep About 400 companies from India will take part in ‘Glorious

Vol. 33 May 2017 33 May Vol. Tayyip Erdogan who is on a two-day visit to India.

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The university said that it was conferring the degree to President Erdogan for “his contribution to strengthen in- ternational cooperation, peace and diplomacy as well as India’s stance on forum irks China for his extraordinary humanitarian aid to millions of refu- India risks being “isolated” if it decides not to attend the gees.” Chinese Belt and Road Forum on May 14-15, a senior ‘Glad to accept honour’ Chinese official said, adding that time was running out Mr. Erdogan said he was delighted to accept the honor- for “adequate arrangements” to be made for India’s par- ary degree from a university which had played a signifi- ticipation. cant role not only in India’s freedom movement but also in Pointing to the fact that both Japan and the United the way it supported the Khilafat movement in the 1920s States, that are not participating in the 60-nation Belt and and stood by the Turkish people and its founders. Road infrastructure initiative, are sending delegations to Citing the commonness and familiarity between the Indi- the forum, the official said the Indian government had yet an and Turkish cultures, he said that “culture and educa- to confirm whether any officials including those from the tion” were potential areas which could take the relation- Indian embassy in Beijing might participate in the event. ship between both countries to the next level. “Our relations with India are much better than our rela- In his address, he supported a permanent United Nations tions with Japan, and even so Japan are sending an offi- Security Council seat for India and called for reforms in cial and India has not said whether it will,” the official told the UNSC. “India, with a population of 1.3 billion is not a a select group of journalists. part of the UNSC. Over 1.7 billion people live in the Is- ‘Absence will be felt’ lamic world but they too are not a part of the UNSC. This The official denied that China was trying to put pressure is not a healthy sign,” President Erdogan said. on India to attend by making public statements on the is- Criticising the current structure of the Council as arbitrary, sue. “But we know that bilaterally, India’s absence at the he said that it was set up to address the crisis emanat- forum will be felt deeply, when 28 leaders are attending ing from the Second World War but now that situation and more than 100 countries are sending official delega- had changed drastically. It therefore required thorough tions… All India’s neighbours will attend… There is a risk restructuring to address the current geo-political reality of India will seem isolated by not attending the event.” the world. “Only five permanent members of the Council The official said “mainstream” and trade ties between In- are deciding the fate of the entire world which is not fair”, dia and China remained strong, but admitted that issues he added. like India’s NSG membership and push for the U.N. to designate Masood Azhar as a terrorist, both of which are blocked by China, as well as the Dalai Lama’s recent visit India, U.K. to cooperate on deportation to Arunachal Pradesh had put a strain on their political India and the United Kingdom will cooperate with each relationship. other to ensure the smooth return of Indians overstaying “India expects China to understand its concerns on these there, said the Union Home Ministry. issues. We expect India to tell Dalai Lama to behave Both sides reached the agreement at the first Home Af- like a guest, like a religious leader, and stop him and the fairs dialogue between the two countries, during which government in exile from doing politics against the Chi- issues of mutual cooperation in investigations, including nese government,” the official said, referring to the visit those against “Khalistani activists”, and requests for ex- as painful. tradition and deportation were discussed. They agreed “The Dalai Lama episode is like a sting for bilateral rela- to formalise arrangements for cooperation on anti-terror tions. Even after the bite, the pain remains.” operations and cyber offences. The official also pointed out that despite the strain in ties, The Indian side was led by Union Home Secretary Ra- India and China will see several high-level meetings this jiv Mehrishi and the U.K. delegation was led by Patsy year. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Xi Jin- Wilkinson, Second Permanent Secretary, Home Office, ping will meet at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation said Home Ministry Adviseraspirantforum.com Ashok Prasad. summit in Kazakhstan in June. Asked if the issue of Vijay Mallya’s extradition was taken up, Mr. Prasad said no specific cases were discussed during the meeting. “Anyhow, that particular case is now We have doubts on China’s OBOR project: Vol. 33 May 2017 33 May Vol. sub judice and, therefore, cannot be discussed,” he said. Jaitley

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India has “serious reservations” about China’s One Belt, cooperation, restarting talks on a free trade agreement One Road (OBOR) plan given that there are issues of (FTA), an early resolution to the border issue and aligning “sovereignty” at stake, Union Finance Minister Arun Jait- the B&R with India’s “Act East policy.” ley said. Territorial dispute “The idea is always there for the future that the expansion “China has no intention to get involved in the sovereignty of connectivity takes place between countries,” Mr. Jait- and territorial disputes between India and Pakistan,” Mr. ley said at a roundtable on the role of trade in Asia’s eco- Luo told the audience of mostly retired armed service of- nomic outlook, when asked for his views on the OBOR ficers. initiative. “The CPEC is for promoting economic cooperation and “But the particular suggestion that you have made, I have connectivity. It has no connections to or impact on sov- no hesitation in saying we have some serious reserva- ereignty issues. Even we can think about renaming the tions about it, because of sovereignty issues.” CPEC,” Mr. Luo said, referring to India’s public opposition China-hosted meeting to the inclusion of projects that lie in PoK’s area of Gilgit- China is set to host ‘The Belt and Road Forum for Inter- Baltistan. national Cooperation’ in Beijing starting May 14 and has Contacted by The Hindu , the MEA did not respond to the been trying to bring India on board. One section of OBOR ambassador’s comments. India has thus far refused to passes through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. confirm or regret its attendance at China’s Belt and Road Pakistan sees the plan as a welcome step to boost re- Forum to be held in Beijing on May 14-15. According to gional connectivity which is essential to promoting intra- the Chinese government more than 100 countries will regional trade, Finance Minister Mohammad Ishaq Dar participate, and all SAARC countries minus India have said at the event, part of the Asian Development Bank’s already signed on to the 60-nation infrastructure initiative 50th annual meeting here. “Connectivity is very important first proposed in 2013. No official Indian participation has and the One Belt, One Road is a very good initiative...,” been indicated so far. Mr. Dar said. Separately, the Finance Minister said trade as a lynchpin India slaps anti-dumping duty on 47 steel of economic growth was here to stay. Protectionist tendencies would also fail to deter the nat- products ural flow of goods and services across borders asthe India has imposed anti-dumping duty on 47 steel prod- global economy, especially companies in different parts ucts from half-a-dozen nations, including China, Japan, of the world, stood to lose too much from barriers to free Korea, Russia and Indonesia, to protect domestic indus- trade, he observed. “Notwithstanding the fact that a par- try from cheap imports. An official notification issued said ticular trade deal may move forward or not, RCEP could the anti-dumping duty would be in effect for five years move forward, probably will, but trade is going to move beginning August 8, 2016. The duties are in the range of forward.” $478-$561 per tonne.

China offers to rename OBOR to allay India’s ‘New Silk Road can spur China-India-Pak. fears partnership’ China is prepared to consider renaming the China- The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which China hopes Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) if it would end In- would become the flagship for a new wave of globalisa- dia’s reservations over its One Belt One Road (Or Belt tion, can help establish a triangular partnership among and Road Initiative) passing through Pakistan-occupied Beijing, New Delhi and Islamabad, says a leading Chi- Kashmir (PoK), the Chinese Ambassador to India said nese researcher. here, insisting that the OBOR has no connection to “sov- Hu Shisheng, Director of the Institute of South and South- ereignty disputes.” aspirantforum.comeast Asian and Oceanian Studies at the China Institutes The offer was made by Luo Zhaohui during a closed- of Contemporary International Relations, stressed that door interaction at the United Services Institution, a mili- their common opposition to the growing anti-globalisation tary think-tank in Delhi. sentiment imparts fresh strategic cement to China-India Mr. Luo outlined a 4-point solution to “manage differenc- ties on the global stage. Vol. 33 May 2017 33 May Vol. es” between India and China, including a new treaty on “Amid increasing anti-globalisation sentiment, protection-

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ism and extreme nationalism have been prevailing over Weak links free trade. As two major powers in the east, China and “The China Pakistan Economic Corridor is expected to India are justified and obligated to actively fill the void shore up weak links of regional integration between Chi- in global governance caused by the withdrawal of some na, India and their neighbouring regions, especially Cen- Western countries, including the U.S., and provide more tral, West and South Asia.” public products and resources for the region’s develop- Consequently, the “Belt and Road will lay a solid founda- ment,” he observed. tion for China and India to merge their respective sub- Open world economy regional cooperation strategies in the future.” Mr. Hu’s advocacy for globalisation dovetails with re- Mr. Hu pointed out that the BRI is not a security-oriented marks by Chinese President Xi Jinping, who told re- undertaking, driven by a zero-sum mentality of the past. porters on Monday, at the end of the two-day Belt and “For China, India and Pakistan, the initiative will foster Road Forum, that the BRI would promote an open world friendship and cooperation in a wide variety of develop- economy, rebalance globalisation and work toward trade mental realms. Such a programme stands in stark con- liberalisation. trast with the security centred practices that other coun- In an article in the China-Indian Dialogue magazine, tries, especially major powers, usually take towards India which appeared ahead of the Belt and Road Forum, Mr. and Pakistan.” Hu points out that infrastructure projects separately taken up by China and India can now be inter-connected under India welcome to join BRI: China the BRI umbrella. He stressed that just as the China-de- China said it’s “doors will always remain open” for In- veloped ports of Hambantota and Colombo in Sri Lanka, dia’s participation in the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), Kyaukpyu in Myanmar, as well as Gwadar in Pakistan are despite New Delhi’s decision not to participate in a two- bringing about “tremendous changes”, India’s port con- day brainstorming forum held in Beijing to advance the struction projects including Chabahar in Iran, Chittagong transnational connectivity project. in Bangladesh and Sittwe in Myanmar are also catalys- Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying ing modernisation. “Construction of the Pan-Asia Rail- said in her daily press briefing: “China has welcomed the way Network linking China and Southeast Asia is gaining participation of India in the Belt and Road project. Our steam, and India is increasing promotion of its ‘Look East’ answer is clear. Doors will always remain open. We will policy”, the researcher observed. always welcome the participation from the Indian side.” Mr. Hu underscored that despite the Indian government’s However, Ms. Hua took exception to the statement made persisting scepticism of the BRI and opposition to the by the spokesperson of India’s Ministry of External Af- construction of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, fairs, seeking a “meaningful dialogue” with Beijing on “breakthroughs are still likely to come considering that the BRI. “Over the past four years since the project was the Modi government’s sub-regional cooperation plan initiated, we have been holding the principle of extensive aligns with the Initiative”. consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits,” she Regional development observed. Covering a broad geographic swathe from the Arabian “I do not know what the spokesperson [of the MEA was] Sea to Southeast Asia, Mr. Hu highlighted that China-Pa- trying to say. What kind of dialogue is a meaningful dia- kistan corridor, as well as the India-led Bangladesh, Bhu- logue? What kind of a positive attitude the spokesman tan, India, Nepal initiative and BIMSTEC (Bay of Ben- wants China to have?” In New Delhi, Gopal Baglay had gal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic said: “Guided by our principled position in the matter, we Cooperation) “are progressing smoothly,” breaking new have been urging China to engage in a meaningful dia- ground for regional development. logue on its connectivity initiative, One Belt, One Road, In a specific reference to the corridor project, the Chinese which was later renamed as Belt and Road Initiative. We researcher said it bridgedaspirantforum.com the infrastructure gap that Pa- are awaiting a positive response from the Chinese side.” kistan, left out of India-initiated connectivity initiatives in ‘Forum a success’ the region, had experienced in the past. He highlighted In her rebuttal, Ms. Hua highlighted the wide representa- that on account of its geographic location, the project, tion by the “international community”, which included top once completed, will go a long way in bridging infrastruc- leaders of 29 countries, as a marker for the legitimacy Vol. 33 May 2017 33 May Vol. ture in South Asia, Central and West Asia.

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of the two-day forum. “I think our ideas and actions are Minister has assured Parliament that the government will there for all to see. You can see the response of the inter- do everything possible to ensure justice to Mr. Jadhav,” national community towards this forum.” Ministry spokesperson Gopal Baglay. Ms. Hua said the forum was a success. “It was a suc- Responding to comments by the Attorney General of Pa- cessful, productive and fruitful event,” which was in line kistan, Mr. Baglay said the ICJ’s verdict remains binding. with trends of the time and in tune with the common inter- “Hope the concerned authorities of Pakistan have heard est of people, she observed. that the order is legally binding,” he said. Referring specifically to New Delhi’s objection that the The MEA received support from the Opposition with China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) infringed In- Anand Sharma of the Congress accusing Pakistan of dia’s sovereignty as it passed through Pakistan-occupied breaking the Vienna Convention. Kashmir, Ms. Hua said: “The CPEC is not about the con- “The order of the ICJ must be respected by the state of flict with various sides and will not affect China’s position Pakistan. Pakistan’s arguments before the ICJ and its re- on the Kashmir issue.” fusal to accept the jurisdiction of the ICJ betrays a mindset Indian interests of disrespect to the Vienna Convention which Pakistan Meanwhile, Chinese media reported that India’s interests has brazenly violated. Kulbhushan Yadav was unfairly would be better served if it sheds a zero sum mentality denied access to consular officials or to legal assistance. and takes the cue from Sino-US relations, to develop “all- The international community must bring pressure on the round” ties with China. Pakistan government and its Army. The United Nations “If India sees itself as a big power, it should get accus- must take serious note,” said Mr. Sharma. tomed to the many divergences with China, and try to ‘India vindicated’ manage these divergences with China. Big country diplo- The verdict was described as a “significant achievement” macy is mostly all-round. It is almost impossible that two by former RAW official Rana Banerjee who said the ICJ’s big countries can reach agreements on all things. This position vindicates the arguments of the Ministry. can be proved by the many differences between China “The final arguments are yet to be heard but nevertheless and the U.S. But China and the U.S. have maintained it is a vindication that the MEA’s initial assessment of the smooth bilateral relations, from which New Delhi can case was right,” said Mr. Banerjee. learn,” stated an article in Global Times. India aims to boost trade ties with African Clear and unambiguous verdict, says India nations India claimed a major victory after the International India has extended credit totaling $7.6 billion to African Court of Justice in The Hague asked Pakistan not to ex- nations and aims to use the upcoming annual meeting of ecute former Indian Navy official Kulbhushan Jadhav, be- the African Development Bank in Gujarat this month to fore the final decision of the court. strengthen its trade ties with the continent. The External Affairs Ministry asserted that the verdict As on March 31, 2017, India has extended 152 lines of was binding and Islamabad needs to respect it. credit to 44 African nations amounting to $7.6 billion, Eco- External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj took to the so- nomic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das said. The meet- cial media to welcome the observations of the ICJ and ing will take place on May 22-26 in Gandhinagar, Gujarat. praised the legal team led by eminent lawyer Harish Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who will inaugurate the Salve. meeting, had in the India-Africa Summit committed a $10 “The ICJ order has come as a great relief to the family billion line of credit to African nations. of Kulbhushan Jadhav and people of India,” Ms. Swaraj The African Development Bank (AfDB) has 81 member said on her official Twitter handle which was retweeted by countries, 57 of which are from Africa. India is among the Prime Minister Narendra Modi. other 24 non-regional members. The External Affairs Ministryaspirantforum.com also noted that the ICJ’s ver- Indian companies have invested $72 billion in African dict has been “unanimous”, “clear” and “unambiguous”. nations as of 2014-15, Mr. Das added, saying that this Essential first step made up 20% of the total investment in those countries. “It is a matter of great relief that the ICJ has asked Paki- stan not to execute Mr. Jadhav. The provisional relief is Vol. 33 May 2017 33 May Vol. an essential first step in this case. The External Affairs Bid to boost India, Africa trade ties

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Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will discuss potential areas The meeting was a maiden attempt since the NSG’s in- of boosting cooperation between India and Africa here ception in 1975 to formally take up non-NPT states’ par- on Monday. Mr. Jaitley will open the India-Africa Coop- ticipation “in an open and transparent manner”. eration session being held in conjunction with the annual However, the statement reiterated China’s insistence on meeting of the African Development Bank (AfDB). linking NSG membership to the NPT — a formulation that The sessions will cover areas such as trade and invest- rules out India’s membership. ment, agriculture, renewable energy and manufacturing ‘Non-discriminatory’ among others. Total trade between India and Africa in- “China maintains that any formula [for membership] creased almost fivefold between 2005-06 and 2015-16, worked out should be non-discriminatory and applicable and stood at $52 billion in March 2016-17. to all non-NPT states; without prejudice to the core values This is the first time that the African Development Bank of the NSG and the effectiveness, authority and integrity is holding its annual meeting outside of the African con- of the international non-proliferation regime with the NPT tinent. as its cornerstone; and without contradicting the custom- ary international law in the field of non-proliferation.” No room for India yet in NSG: China In defining a two-step approach for arriving at a consen- China said it would oppose India’s unilateral entry into sus, the Chinese side has said the first step for member- the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), pending the consen- ship was defining a “formula” which would be followed by sus on membership of nuclear weapon states which had a second step, which would be “country-specific”. not signed the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT). Indian stance To a question, China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson India has underscored that NPT membership is not es- Hua Chunying said, “China’s position on the non-NPT sential for joining the NSG, as was illustrated in the case members’ participation in the NSG has not changed.” with France, which became a member of the NSG with- The 48-nation NSG is expected to hold its plenary in June out signing the NPT. in Bern, Switzerland, where the topic of New Delhi’s entry Highly placed sources said that at the discussions with is expected to be discussed. the Chinese, India insisted that the NSG was not a non- New Delhi had formally applied for NSG membership in proliferation group but an “export control” mechanism. May last year, but China has consistently blocked India’s Therefore, India’s NSG bid should be de-linked from the bid, pointing to the need for devolving universally applica- criterion of NPT membership. ble membership criteria for all countries which have not signed the NPT, but had become nuclear weapon states. India’s Africa tack is ‘different’, says Jaitley Pakistan’s status Finance and Defence Minister Arun Jaitley took an indi- Pakistan, China’s close ally, is the other declared nuclear rect swipe at China’s approach towards investments in weapon state which has not signed the NPT. resource-rich Africa and said that India, now one of the The NSG controls the global exports of nuclear technol- most important investors in the continent, doesn’t believe ogy and material to ensure that atomic energy is used in imposing conditions on African nations. only for peaceful purposes. Stressing that India’s sustained engagement with Africa, “We support the NSG group following the mandate of the that received fresh impetus under the Union government, 2016 plenary session and following building consensus is already making an impact on the continent, Mr. Jaitley as well as the inter-governmental process that is open said emerging economies like India were not only proving and transparent to deal with the relevant issues in a two- to be a critical source of foreign direct investment (FDI) step approach,” Ms. Hua said. for African nations but also a vital export market. In a statement last year following the November 11 meet- “Our partnership model is different... Being an emerg- ing of the NSG in Vienna,aspirantforum.com the Chinese Foreign Ministry ing economy ourselves, we understand that a prescrip- said the meeting in the Austrian capital was held to dis- tive model of partnership does not work,”said Mr. Jaitley. cuss the “technical, legal and political aspects of non- “Therefore, the cornerstone of our co-operation is volun- NPT states’ participation in the NSG”, in accordance with tary partnership... demand-driven and devoid of any con- the mandate adopted in June during the grouping’s meet- ditionalties,” Mr. Jaitley said. Vol. 33 May 2017 33 May Vol. ing held in Seoul. “We do not impose and leave it to our partners to decide

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what is best for them. We believe this is the most effec- tive way of building partnerships,” the Finance Minister Asian ministers push for China-led free trade said at a session on India-Africa co-operation hosted by CII here in the run-up to the African Development Bank’s pact (AFDB) annual meeting. Asian trade ministers met to hammer out the terms of a As per the bank’s economic outloook report for 2016, In- massive China-led pact that has taken centre stage as dia’s share in announced Greenfield projects increased Washington pulls away from regional free trade deals in from 3.3% between 2003 and 2008 to 6.1% between favour of bilateral agreements. 2009 to 2015. The 16-nation Regional Comprehensive Economic Part- “During the same time, China’s share fell from 4.9% to nership (RCEP) is poised to become the largest free 3.2%. India is amongst the most important emerging in- trade agreement in the world, covering about half of its vestors in Africa. In terms of greenfield projects, India population. was the fourth largest investor with 45 projects in 2015, It notably excludes the United States, which had been after the U.S., U.K. and the U.A.E.,” Mr. Jaitley said. leading the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) until U.S. With exports to the U.S. and Europe flagging in recent President Donald Trump abruptly abandoned it in Janu- years, BRICS nations and emerging economies have be- ary after calling it a “job killer”. come more important for Africa, he said. No protectionism “In 2009, only 24% of Africa’s exports went to emerg- At a meeting in Hanoi on Monday, the 19th time RCEP ing countries. In 2014, the BRICS, including India and negotiators have met, the rhetoric in favour of free trade other emerging economies accounted for half of the Af- stood in stark contrast to Mr. Trump’s “America First” rica’s total exports to the world,” the Minister said, calling campaign speeches. for a wide-ranging partnership with Africa as some of its “In the context that protectionism is emerging in a num- strengths such as a large young workforce are similar to ber of major economies in the world, we believe that the India. conclusion of the RCEP Agreement negotiations will con- ‘Job creation’ vey a clear and consistent message of the opening-up “We need to create jobs to take advantage of this demo- and economic integration-enhancing policy of the coun- graphic dividend. The AFDB’s ‘High-5’ agenda is not very tries in the region,” said Vietnam’s Trade Minister Tran different from our own policy priorities,” Mr. Jaitley said. Tuan Anh, who was chairing the meeting. The Minister was referring to five priorities identified for Apart from Beijing, the planned RCEP pact would group Africa’s development – Light up and power Africa, Feed the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Africa, Industrialise Africa, integrate it and improve the Nations plus India, Japan, South Korea, Australia and quality of lives in the continent. New Zealand. “India is a bright spot on the world economy and Africa The deal has gained attention since the U.S. pullout from is not far behind. In 2015, Africa was the second fast- the TPP, which was billed as the world’s biggest trade est growing region in the world after East Asia. If we can pact when it was signed in February 2016. translate the aspirations of one third of humanity into re- Beijing is now keen to use U.S. rejection of TPP to build ality, it could no doubt do wonders and shape the future enthusiasm for its own deal and increase influence in of the world,” the Finance Minister said. the region. RCEP is a more modest deal that prescribes AFDB senior vice president Charles Boamah earlier more limited regulatory standards. pointed out that though foreign direct investment into Af- rica had risen from $10 billion in 2000 to $65 billion in India in talks with Latam nations to boost 2016, the region still faced several challenges. “We account for just 2% of the world’s merchandise ex- trade, investment ports and spend $35 billion each year on food imports. India has intensified dialogue with Latin American coun- [As much as] 650 million people have no access to elec- tries to boost trade and investment. In meetings held last aspirantforum.comweek, India and Ecuador considered initiating the pro- tricity,” Mr. Boamah said, adding that an independent study by the United Nations Development Programme cess of negotiations for a preferential trade agreement. had projected that the continent would be able to meet Separately, India and Colombia agreed to strengthen co- 90% of its sustainable development goals when it was operation in various sectors, including telcom, infrastruc- Vol. 33 May 2017 33 May Vol. able to implement the ‘High 5s’ agenda. ture, IT and pharmaceuticals.

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India gives $500 mn aid to Mauritius India announced a $500 million line of credit to Mauritius as the two countries decided to firm up cooperation in the field of maritime security in the Indian Ocean region. The two sides signed a maritime security agreement after extensive talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Mauritian counterpart Pravind Jugnauth. In a statement, Mr. Modi said he and Mr. Jugnauth agreed that effective management of conventional and non- conventional threats in the Indian Ocean is essential to pursue economic opportunities and provide security to the people of both the countries. “We have to keep up our vigil against piracy that impacts trade and tourism, trafficking of drugs and humans, illegal fishing, and other forms of illegal exploitation of marine resources,” the Prime Minister said. The bilateral maritime accord will strengthen cooperation and capacities, he said, noting that the two sides also agreed to strengthen their wide-ranging cooperation in hydrography for a secure and peaceful maritime domain. On his part, Mr. Jugnauth said the two countries need to ensure that the sea lanes of communications are safe and secure and regular patrolling is conducted to combat illegal activities such as piracy, illegal fishing in the territorial waters and drug trafficking. A decision to extend the operational life of Coast Guard ship Guardian that was given by India to Mauritius under a grant assistance programme was also taken. During his visit to Mauritius in March 2015, Mr. Modi had commissioned offshore patrol vessel (OPV) Barracuda, built and financed by India, into the Mauritian Coast Guard. Holding that Mauritius has “strong” defence and security ties with India, the visiting prime minister said the acquisition of such OPVs and fast interceptor boats from India has enhanced the operational capacities of its police and coast guard. Besides the maritime pact, three other agreements were also signed after talks between the two leaders. They were for setting up of a civil services college in Mauritius, one on cooperation in ocean research and the US dollar Credit Line Agreement between the SBM Mauritius Infrastructure Development Company and Export-Import Bank of India. Line of credit Mr. Modi said the agreement on the line of credit to Mauritius was a good example of the strong and continuing com- mitment to the development of that country. The two sides also decided to ramp up cooperation in a number of areas including trade and investment. “India is proud to participate actively in the ongoing development activities in Mauritius,” Mr. Modi said.

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“The technical committee of the NTCA has given its ap- proval for the augmentation of the tiger population in Buxa,” State Chief Wildlife Warden Pradeep Vyas said. Science, “Six tigers, two male and four female, would be relocated to BTR from neighbouring Assam,” he said. Asked about the time frame for their relocation, he said: “It may be done within this year.” Tech. and The big cats, to be airlifted, would be put in an enclosure for seven days for acclimatisation and after that those tigers would be released in the reserve. Environment Sighting of tiger was not reported for long in Buxa even as forest department claimed the presence of at least three tigers in BTR, which is located in Alipurduar sub- Model for viable time machine developed division of Jalpaiguri district. An American scientist has developed a mathematical The forest department had taken up tiger augmentation model for a viable time machine — an advance that could plan in Buxa-Jaldapara for which detailed project report bring stuff of popular science-fiction closer to reality. was prepared in consultation with Wildlife Institute of In- Using math and physics, Ben Tippett, from University of dia and Global Tiger Forum. British Columbia in Canada, has created a formula that On whether relocation of tiger is feasible at Buxa where describes a method for time travel. “People think of time there was human disturbance, he said: “The technical travel as something as fiction. And we tend to think it’s committee of NTCA, which is its highest body, has given not possible because we don’t actually do it. But, math- its approval for the plan”. ematically, it is possible,” said Mr. Tippett. Mr. Vyas said: “Habitat improvement work is being done Ever since H.G. Wells published his book Time Machine and steps are being initiated to improve the prey base in 1885, people have been curious about time travel — and grassland to make the situation conducive for tiger and scientists have worked to solve or disprove the theo- relocation.” ry. “My model of a time machine uses the curved space- On the existence of human settlements in BTR, he said: time to bend time into a circle for the passengers, not in “If those people want to be relocated, we are ready to a straight line. That circle takes us back in time,” he said. shift them and give them the package they are entitled to While it is possible to describe this type of time travel for the purpose.” using a mathematical equation, Mr. Tippett doubts that Mr. Vyas said that special protection camps were being anyone will ever build a workign machine. set up to keep a vigil and monitor the situation in BTR. Exotic matter Many tiger experts have, however, raised questions “H.G. Wells left people with the thought that an explorer about the relocation of tigers at Buxa saying that it would would need a ‘machine or special box’ to actually accom- not yield any fruitful result unless villages were shifted plish time travel,” Mr. Tippett said. from the core areas of the tiger reserve. “While is it mathematically feasible, it is not yet possible “The relocation of wild tigers should only be considered to build a space-time machine because we need materi- when the factors, such as poaching and anthropogenic als — which we call exotic matter — to bend space-time pressure, that have caused the low population and local in these impossible ways, but they have yet to be discov- extirpation of the species have been addressed,” wildlife ered.” conservationist Belinda Wright told PTI. “The tiger reserve has suffered from shortage of frontline Six tigers to be relocated to Buxa Tiger staff, lack of protection, large-scale illegal grazing, forest fires, constant anthropogenic pressure, widespread tree Reserve felling, dolomite mining (largely across the border in Bhu- Six tigers would be relocatedaspirantforum.com to the Buxa Tiger Reserve tan but which affects the landscape),” Ms. Belinda, who (BTR) in north Bengal from neighbouring Assam as part is also executive director of Wildlife Protection Society of of a plan for augmentation of the tiger population in the India, said. reserve which was approved by the National Tiger Con-

Vol. 33 May 2017 33 May Vol. servation Authority (NTCA).

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Curious case of dip, rise in Indian seas This influenced the rate at which heat was absorbed and Global warming may be inching the oceans higher every flushed out from within the system. According to their cal- year but researchers studying the seas around India re- culations, heat was moving out slower during after 2004 port a paradox. From 1993 to 2003 — the first decade than during the 1990s. when satellites started to consistently track the rise and Wind flows fall of ocean heights and global temperatures soared — “This inter-decadal trend is an extremely important factor,” the north Indian Ocean (NIO) sea levels fell. The NIO said Shailesh Nayak, a co-author and former secretary of consists of the Arabian Sea, the Bay of Bengal and part the Central earth sciences department, “and underlines of the Indian Ocean up till the 5°S latitude. After 2004, why we need to plan coastal management better.” sea levels began an unprecedented, accelerated spike Mr. Ravichandran said wind flows, which welled warm till 2014. water on the Indian Ocean surface, changed directions This rise and fall was even as global temperatures stead- every decade and probably influenced sea level patterns. ily climbed and registered their largest two-decadal jump “It could be that coming decades — in spite of rapid, ris- in more than a century. ing temperatures — will see a fall in sea levels but that’s Previous studies that had measured ocean heights still hypothetical,” he added. based on traditional tide gauges found that the NIO — like the rest of the world’s seas — continued to rise be- GSAT-9 heralds cost-saving technology tween 1993 and 2004. While Intergovernmental Panel on This week’s space mission, GSAT-9 or the South Asia Climate Change reports have concluded that while una- Satellite, will carry a new feature that will eventually make bated greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere advanced Indian spacecraft far lighter. It will even lower would cause oceans to rise every year, there would be the cost of launches tangibly in the near future. years during which some seas could register a fall. Sci- The 2,195-kg GSAT-9, due to take off on a GSLV rocket entists associated with the study said that such a “dec- on May 5, carries an electric propulsion or EP system. adal swing” in the North Indian Ocean was unique and The hardware is a first on an Indian spacecraft. never observed in either the Pacific or Atlantic oceans. “We were trying to understand why the North Indian Ocean was warming twice as fast as the other oceans af- ter 2004,” lead author M. Ravichandran, Director, Nation- al Centre for Antarctic and Ocean Research (NCAOR), told The Hindu . Melting ice sheets The NIO went down about 0.3 mm a year and from 2004 gained about 6 mm annually. This was twice the global, annual average of about 3 mm. When temperature and sea level trends in the NIO were mathematically separat- M.Annadurai, Director of the ISRO Satellite Centre, Ben- ed out from the other oceans, the fall was even more dra- galuru, explained its immediate and potential benefits: matic: nearly 3 mm per year and the Arabian Sea cooling the satellite will be flying with around 80 kg of chemical off rapidly at 4 mm per year. Mr. Ravichandran and his fuel - or just about 25% of what it would have otherwise colleagues relied on satellite observations and a global carried. network of floats, which log temperature and salinity, to Managing it for more than a decade in orbit will become arrive at their findings. Their work appears in the latest cost efficient. edition of the peer-reviewed Climate Dynamics. In the long run, with the crucial weight factor coming Sea levels primarily rise due to water expanding from at- down later even for sophisticated satellites, Indian Space mospheric heat and, moreaspirantforum.com water being added from, for Research Organisation can launch them on its upcoming instance, melting ice sheets and glaciers. In this case, heavy rockets instead of sending them to space on costly said Mr. Ravichandran, 70% of the NIO’s warming could foreign boosters. Shortly, its own vehicle GSLV MkIII is be explained by expansion. due for its full test flight. Unlike the Pacific and Atlantic, the NIO was hemmed Dr. Annadurai told The Hindu that GSAT-9’s EPS would Vol. 33 May 2017 33 May Vol. in all sides, except for an outlet on the southern side. be used to keep its functions going when it reaches its

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final slot - which is roughly about two weeks after launch The system “is operational and has the ability to inter- - and throughout its lifetime. cept North Korean missiles” and defend South Korea, said Col. Robert Manning III, a spokesman with the U.S. SpaceX makes first U.S. military launch military in Seoul. His statement was echoed by South Ko- SpaceX blasted off a secretive U.S. government satellite, rean Defence Ministry representative Moon Sang-gyun, known only as NROL-76, marking the first military launch who said the battery “has acquired an initial capability to for the California-based aerospace company headed by deal with North Korea’s nuclear and missile threat.” billionaire tycoon Elon Musk. The announcement came as a controversy continued to The payload for the National Reconnaissance Office, rage over the cost of THAAD.NYT which makes and operates spy satellites for the United States, soared into the sky atop a Falcon 9 rocket at 1115 Large Hadron Collider restarts for 2017 run GMT. The world’s largest and most powerful particle smasher About 10 minutes after launch, the scorched first stage Large Hadron Collider (LHC) has restarted circulating of the rocket came back to Earth and landed upright at beams of protons for the first time this year, following a Cape Canaveral, marking the fourth successful solid 17-week-long extended technical stop, CERN said. ground landing for SpaceX. “And we have touchdown,” Over the past month, after the completion of the mainte- a SpaceX commentator said on a live webcast as cheers nance work that began in December last year, each of the broke out at mission control. “The first stage has land- machines in the accelerator chain have been switched on ed back at Landing Zone 1. Another good day for us at and checked until last week when the LHC, the final ma- SpaceX. A beautiful sight to see.” chine in the chain, could be restarted. Live video of the launch showed the first and second “It is like an orchestra, everything has to be timed and stages of the rocket separating about two and a half min- working very nicely together,” said Rende Steerenberg, utes into the flight. who leads the operations group at the LHC. Fiery entry burn “Once each of the parts is working properly, that is when The larger portion of the rocket, known as the first stage, the beam goes in, in phases from one machine to the made a gentle arc and powered its nitrogen thrusters to next all the way up to the LHC,” said Mr. Steerenberg. guide it back to Earth. After a fiery entry burn, the rock- Each year, the machines shut down over the winter break et set itself down steadily in the center of the 300-foot to enable technicians and engineers to perform essential (91-meter) circular landing zone. repairs and upgrades, but this year the stop was sched- Mr. Musk is leading an effort in the rocket industry to re- uled to run longer, allowing more complex work to take use costly parts. place. SpaceX has already made multiple successful landings Replacement of magnet — some on land and others on floating ocean platforms, Work this year included the replacement of a super- known as drone ships. conducting magnet in the LHC, the installation of a new beam dump in the Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS) and U.S. anti-missile system goes live a massive cable removal campaign. Among other things, A U.S. missile-defence system deployed to counter grow- these upgrades will allow the collider to reach a higher in- ing threats from North Korea has gone into operation in tegrated luminosity — the higher the luminosity, the more South Korea, officials said . data the experiments can gather to allow them to observe The installation of the Terminal High Altitude Area De- rare processes. fence (THAAD) battery has roiled the South Korean Last year, the machine was able to run with stable beams presidential campaign, partly over questions of who will — beams from which the researchers can collect data pay for it, and drawn objections from China, which said — for around 49% of the time, compared to just 35% the the deployment underminedaspirantforum.com its own missile defence ca- previous year. The challenge the team faces this year is pabilities. The United States and South Korea began in- to maintain this or increase it further. The team will also stalling the radar and other key components of the sys- be using the 2017 run to test new optics settings — which tem, known as THAAD, last week at an abandoned golf provide the potential for even higher luminosity and more collisions.

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BrahMos missile achieves rare feat house to support plant and crop production for nutrition, The Army carried out a successful test of the advanced air revitalisation, water recycling and waste recycling. BrahMos Block III Land Attack Cruise Missile (LACM) in While astronauts have successfully grown plants and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands . This is the second vegetables aboard the International Space Station (ISS), consecutive test of the missile in two days. NASA wants to develop long-term methods that could The test in an operational configuration was carried by the help sustain pioneers working in deep space. Army’s South Western Command-based 1 strike corps. “The new approach uses plants to scrub carbon dioxide, Testing BrahMos in the Andaman and Nicobar islands is while providing food and oxygen,” said Ray Wheeler, a symbolic statement, as it brings the strategic Malacca lead scientist at the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida. straits under its range. Precise capabilities of BrahMos Mr. Wheeler noted that astronauts exhale carbon dioxide, missile for quick sea access and denial in the event of a which is then introduced into the greenhouse, and the conflict, and its testing in the Andaman Sea is a reflection plants then generate oxygen through photosynthesis. of the changing dynamics in the Indian Ocean. The water cycle begins with water that is brought along “This is the fifth consecutive time when the Block-III ver- or found at the lunar or Martian landing site. Water is oxy- sion of BrahMos LACM has been successfully launched genated, given nutrient salts, and it continuously flows and hit the land-based target in “top-attack” mode, an in- across the root zone of the plants and returned to the credible feat not achieved by any other weapon system storage system. of its genre,” the Army said. Tests on prototype BrahMos is a product of joint collaboration between India Tests involving the Prototype Lunar Greenhouse at the and Russia and is capable of being launched from land, University of Arizona in the U.S. have included determin- sea, sub-sea and air against surface and sea-based tar- ing what plants, seeds or other materials should be taken gets. along to make the system work. The range of the supersonic missile was initially capped NASA scientists and engineers are developing systems at 290 km as per the obligations of the Missile Technol- to harness resources such as water that should be avail- ogy Control Regime (MTCR). able in certain areas of the lunar or Martian surface to Since India’s entry into the club, the range has been ex- support missions lasting for months or years. tended to 450 km and the plan is to increase it to 600km. “We are mimicking what the plants would have if they These tests were carried out in full operational land-to- were on Earth and make use of these processes for life land configurations from Mobile Autonomous Launchers support,” said Gene Giacomelli, Professor at the Univer- (MAL) at full-range. sity of Arizona. Copybook launch “Meeting all flight parameters in a copybook manner while 4,000-year-old garden found outside Egypt conducting high level and complex manoeuvres, the mul- ti-role missile successfully hit the land-based target with tomb Archaeologists have discovered the remains of a nearly desired precision, in both the trials demonstrating its ac- 4,000 year old model garden outside a tomb in the an- curacy of less than one metre,” the statement added. cient Egyptian capital of Thebes, the Antiquities Ministry The steep dive capability makes it an ideal precision said. strike weapon to neutralise targets in a clutter. The find was made by a Spanish team in the Draa Abul The Army which began inducting BrahMos in 2007, cur- Nagaa necropolis across the Nile from the modern-day rently has three missile regiments and is in the process city of Luxor, the ministry said. of adding more. The three metre by two metre garden consists of equally divided square plots, each about 30 centimetres (a foot) NASA’s inflatable greenhouse could feed across. It was found in an open courtyard outside a Mid- astronauts on Marsaspirantforum.comdle Kingdom (2050 to 1800 BC) tomb. NASA scientists have designed an inflatable greenhouse The garden “probably had a symbolic meaning and must that astronauts could one day use to grow fresh food and have played a role in the funerary rites,” the ministry cited produce oxygen on Mars or Moon. the head of the Spanish team, Jose Galan, as saying. Vol. 33 May 2017 33 May Vol. The prototype involves an inflatable, deployable green- “The like has never been found in ancient Thebes.”

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The Ministry’s head of ancient Egyptian antiquities, Scientists from the University of Oxford have developed Mahmoud Afifi, said the tiny square plots seem to have a synthetic, soft tissue retina that closely mimics the nat- each contained different species of plants and flowers. ural retinal process. “In the middle there are two elevated spots for a small The researchers believe that their efforts could lead to tree or bush,” the ministry cited him as saying. the development of less invasive products that closely “At one of the corners, the root and the trunk of a 4,000 resemble human body tissues, helping to treat degenera- year old small tree have been preserved to a height of 30 tive eye conditions such as retinitis pigmentosa. The con- centimetres. dition changes how the retina responds to light, causing Fruit offerings people to slowly lose vision. “Next to it, a bowl was found containing dates and other Until now, artificial retinal research has used mostly rigid, fruits, which could have been presented as an offering.” hard materials. In ancient Egypt, the dead were traditionally surrounded “The human eye is incredibly sensitive, which is why for- by objects they enjoyed in life, so they could continue to eign bodies like metal retinal implants can be so dam- enjoy them in the afterlife. The team also discovered a aging, leading to inflammation and/or scarring. But a small mud-brick temple attached to the tomb containing biological synthetic implant is soft and water-based, so three stone slabs, one of which contained a dedication to much more friendly to the eye environment,” said lead the Egyptian gods Montu, Ptah, Sokar and Osiris. researcher Vanessa Restrepo-Schild from Oxford Uni- The Draa Abul Naga necropolis is located near the famed versity. Valley of the Kings, where many of the pharaohs, includ- Just as photography depends on camera pixels reacting ing Tutankhamun, were buried. to light, vision relies on the retina performing the same It is where a separate team of archaeologists found sev- function. eral 3,500 year old mummies and more than 1,000 funer- The retina sits at the back of the human eye, and con- ary statues in a discovery announced by the ministry last tains protein cells that convert light into electrical signals month. that travel through the nervous system, triggering a re- sponse from the brain, ultimately building a picture of the Chenab to get tallest rail bridge scene being viewed. Around two years from now, the Chenab River in Jammu The synthetic, double-layered retina replica consists of and Kashmir will be spanned by the world’s highest rail- soft water droplets (hydrogels) and biological cell mem- way bridge that is expected to be 35 meters taller than brane proteins. Paris’ Eiffel Tower. Designed like a camera, the cells act as pixels, detecting The massive arch-shaped structure, being constructed at and reacting to light to create a grey scale image. a cost of around Rs. 1,100 crore, will use over 24,000 “The synthetic material can generate electrical signals, tonnes of steel and will rise 359 m above the river bed. which stimulate the neurons at the back of our eye just Designed to withstand wind speeds of up to 260 km per like the original retina,” Ms. Restrepo-Schild said. The hour, the 1.315-km- long “engineering marvel” will con- study was published in the journal Scientific Reports. nect Bakkal (Katra) and Kauri (Srinagar). The bridge forms a crucial link in the 111-km stretch be- NASA missions on solar system tween Katra and Banihal, which is part of the Udhampur- A new mission to Saturn’s moons Titan or Enceladus to Srinagar-Baramulla rail link project. find signs of life beyond Earth cannot be ruled outas Blast-proof structure NASA says it is reviewing 12 proposals for future un- The bridge will be made of 63-mm thick special blast- manned solar system mission to be launched in the mid- proof steel as the region is prone to frequent terror at- 2020s. tacks. Its concrete pillars will be designed to withstand The proposed missions of discovery — submitted under explosions. aspirantforum.comNASA’s New Frontiers programme —will undergo scien- Slated to be completed by 2019, it is expected to become tific and technical review over the next seven months, the a tourist attraction. US space agency said in a statement . Selection of one or more concepts for Phase A study will be announced in November. At the conclusion of Phase A concept studies,

Vol. 33 May 2017 33 May Vol. Researchers develop synthetic soft retina

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it is planned that one New Frontiers investigation will be tablish this. They first ascertained that regardless of the selected to continue into subsequent mission phases. mode of action of antibiotics, the drugs uniformly induce Investigations for this announcement of opportunity were reactive oxygen species formation inside E. coli bacte- limited to six mission themes — comet surface sample ria. Then to test if increased levels of hydrogen sulphide return; lunar South Pole-Aitken basin sample return; gas inside bacteria counter reactive oxygen species pro- ocean worlds (Titan and/or Enceladus); Saturn probe; duced upon treatment with antibiotics, a small molecule Trojan tour and rendezvous; and Venus in situ explorer that produces hydrogen sulphide in a controlled man- “New Frontiers is about answering the biggest questions ner inside the bacteria was used. “Hydrogen sulphide in our solar system today, building on previous missions released by the molecule was able to counter reactive to continue to push the frontiers of exploration,” said oxygen species and reduce the ability of antibiotics to kill Thomas Zurbuchen, Associate Administrator for NASA’s bacteria,” says Dr. Singh. Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The small molecule was synthesised by a team led by “We’re looking forward to reviewing these exciting inves- Prof. Harinath Chakrapani from the Department of Chem- tigations and moving forward with our next bold mission istry, IISER, Pune; he is one of the corresponding authors of discovery,” Zurbuchen said. of the paper. “We designed the small molecule keeping in The New Frontiers Programme conducts principal inves- mind that synthesis should be easy, efficiency in produc- tigator (PI)-led space science investigations under a de- ing hydrogen sulphide should be high and the molecule velopment cost cap of approximately $1 billion. should release hydrogen sulphide only inside bacteria This would be the fourth mission in the New Frontiers and not mammalian cells,” says Vinayak S. Khodade portfolio. Its predecessors are the New Horizons mission from the Department of Chemistry, IISER, Pune and one to Pluto, the Juno mission to Jupiter, and OSIRIS-Rex. of the authors of the paper who contributed equally like the first author. The researchers were able to selectively increase hydrogen sulphide levels inside a wide variety Reversing drug resistance made possible of bacteria. Indian researchers have unravelled the mechanism by To reconfirm hydrogen sulphide’s role in countering reac- which hydrogen sulphide (H2S) gas produced by bacte- tive oxygen species, the team took multidrug-resistant, ria protects them from antibiotics and plays a key role in pathogenic strains of E. coli from patients suffering from helping bacteria develop drug resistance. And by block- urinary tract infection and measured the hydrogen sul- ing/disabling the enzyme that triggers the biosynthesis of phide levels in these strains. “We found the drug-resistant hydrogen sulphide in bacteria, the researchers from Ben- strains were naturally producing more hydrogen sulphide galuru’s Indian Institute of Science (IISc) and Indian Insti- compared with drug-sensitive E. coli, ” says Prashant tute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Pune, Shukla from the Department of Microbiology and Cell Bi- have been able to reverse antibiotic resistance in E. coli ology at IISc and the first author of the paper. So the team bacteria; E. colibacteria were isolated from patients suf- used a chemical compound that inhibits an enzyme re- fering from urinary tract infection. The results were pub- sponsible for hydrogen sulphide production. “There was lished in the journal Chemical Science. nearly 50% reduction in drug-resistance when hydrogen Antibiotics kill by increasing the levels of reactive oxygen sulphide production was blocked,” Dr. Singh says. species (oxidative stress) inside bacterial cells. So any “Bacteria that are genetically resistant to antibiotics actu- mechanism that detoxifies or counters reactive oxygen ally become sensitive to antibiotics when hydrogen sul- species generated by antibiotics will reduce the efficacy phide synthesis is inhibited,” says Prof. Chakrapani. The of antibiotics. “Hydrogen sulphide does this to nullify the multidrug-resistant E. coli regained its ability to survive effect of antibiotics,” says Dr. Amit Singh from the Depart- antibiotics when hydrogen sulphide was once again sup- ment of Microbiology and Cell Biology at IISc and one of plied by introducing the small molecule synthesised by the corresponding authors of the paper. “When bacteria Prof. Chakrapani. face reactive oxygen speciesaspirantforum.com a protective mechanism in “As a result of our study, we have a found new mech- the bacteria kicks in and more hydrogen sulphide is pro- anism to develop a new class of drug candidates that duced.” Hydrogen sulphide successfully counters reac- specifically target multidrug-resistant bacteria,” says tive oxygen species and reduces the efficacy of antibiot- Prof. Chakrapani. The researchers already have a few ics. inhibitors that seem capable of blocking hydrogen sul- Vol. 33 May 2017 33 May Vol. The researchers carried out simple experiments to es- phide production. But efforts are on to develop a library of

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inhibitors to increase the chances of success. the two extracts the researchers were able to get different How H2S acts colour temperature (tunability). The researchers identified that E. coli has two modes of “When we mix the two extracts and irradiate it with UV respiration involving two different enzymes. The hydro- radiation at 380 nm, we observed energy transfer (FRET gen sulphide gas produced shuts down E. coli’s aerobic mechanism) taking place from polyphenols to curcumin respiration by targeting the main enzyme (cytochrome bo to anthocyanins, which helps to get perfect white light oxidase (CyoA)) responsible for it. E. coli then switches emission,” says Dr. Singh. For FRET mechanism to take over to an alternative mode of respiration by relying on a place there must be spectral overlap between the donor different enzyme — cytochrome bd oxidase (Cydb). Be- and acceptor. sides enabling respiration, the Cydb enzyme detoxifies Energy transfer the reactive oxygen species produced by antibiotics and In this case, there is a perfect overlap of emission of blunts the action of antibiotics. polyphenols with absorption by curcumin so the energy “So we found that hydrogen sulphide activates the Cydb from polyphenols is transferred to curcumin. Since there enzyme, which, in turn, is responsible for increasing re- is also a perfect overlap of emission of curcumin with ab- sistance towards antibiotics,” says Dr. Singh. “If we have sorption by anthocyanin, the energy of curcumin is trans- a drug-like molecule(s) that blocks hydrogen sulphide ferred to anthocyanin. production and inhibits Cydb enzyme activity then the As a result of this energy transfer from one dye to the combination will be highly lethal against multidrug-resist- other, when the extract is irradiated with UV light at 380 ant bacteria.” nm (blue region of the wavelength), the polyphenols emit This combination can also be used along with antibiotics in the blue region of the wavelength and transfers its to effectively treat difficult-to-cure bacterial infections. energy to curcumin. The excited curcumin emits in the The link between hydrogen sulphide and Cydb enzyme in green region of the wavelength and transfers its energy the emergence of drug resistance is another key finding to anthocyanin, which emits light in the red region of the of the study. wavelength. “Because of the energy transfer, even if you excite in the IIT-M makes white light from pomegranate, blue wavelength we were able to get appropriate inten- sity distribution across the visual wavelength,” says Prof. turmeric extracts Mishra, who is the corresponding author of the paper. Dr. Vikram Singh, former research scholar in the Depart- Without turmeric ment of Chemistry, IIT Madras won the BIRAC Gandhian Taking the work further, the duo produced carbon na- Young Technological Innovation (GYTI) Award 2017 for noparticles using pomegranate and to their surprise it his work on producing white light emission using natural was producing fairly green emission. So instead of using extracts. turmeric to get green wavelength, the researchers used Dr. Singh and Prof. Ashok Mishra from the Department carbon nanoparticles made from pomegranate extract. of Chemistry, IIT Madras used a mixture of two natural “We could get white emission, though it is not as white as extracts — red pomegranate and turmeric — to produce when we use turmeric. It’s slightly bluish but well within white light emission. The researchers used a simple and the white zone,” says Prof. Mishra. “It is an attractive to environment-friendly procedure to extract dyes from use a single plant source to create white light emission.” pomegranate and turmeric. The principle by which the pomegranate extract and car- While polyphenols and anthocyanins present in red bon nanoparticles made from the extract is the same as pomegranate emit at blue and orange-red regions of the in the case when pomegranate and turmeric extracts wavelength respectively, curcumin from turmeric emit at were used. The results were published in the Journal of the green region of the wavelength. White light emission Materials Chemistry C. is produced when red, blue and green mix together. This Though this natural mixture of dyes can be used in a wide is probably the first timeaspirantforum.com white light emission has been variety of applications such as tunable laser, LEDs, white generated using low-cost, edible natural dyes. The re- light display, much work needs to be done in terms of sults were published in the journal Scientific Reports. photostability and chemical stability before it becomes “We had to mix the two extracts in a particular ratio to ready for translation. Biosystems have an inherent ten- get white light,” says Dr. Singh, the first author of the pa- dency to breakdown and so this has to be addressed. Vol. 33 May 2017 33 May Vol. per; he is currently at Lucknow’s CSIR-Central Drug Re- search Institute (CDRI). By changing the concentration of Visit Aspirantforum.com for guidance and study material for IAS Exam. aspirantforum.com Hindu and PIB Crux Vol. 33 News and Events of May 2017

New insights into fertility in mice project. The project will cover as many as 1,173 critical Scientists have discovered a tiny group of cells that is areas of Ranthambhore (283 areas), Sariska Tiger Re- critical to repairing damage to the testes in mice, an ad- serve (420), Mukundra Hills Tiger Reserve (417), Jawai- vance that may help develop new ways to preserve fertil- bhag Leopard Conservation Reserve (20) and Jhalana ity in humans. Blocking the cells prevents repair to tissue Nature Park (33). involved in producing healthy sperm, the research has found. The findings published in the Journal of Experi- Antarctic ice sheet remains stable: study mental Medicine shed light on mechanisms of cell repair Central parts of Antarctica’s ice sheet have been stable and could help scientists develop ways to preserve fertil- for millions of years, even when conditions were consid- ity, which may benefit boys receiving cancer therapy. erably warmer than present, new research suggests. Damage to the testes in mice can be repaired by internal The study of mountains in West Antarctica may help sci- cell mechanisms, although the process is not fully under- entists improve their predictions of how the region might stood. respond to continuing climate change. The findings could The team found that unlike their healthy litter-mates, show how ice loss might contribute to sea level rise. mice without Miwi2-expressing cells were not able to re- Although the discovery demonstrates the long-term sta- pair injury, highlighting their critical role in regeneration. bility of some parts of Antarctica’s ice sheet, scientists In addition, the research showed that Miwi2-expressing remain concerned that ice at its coastline is vulnerable to cells behave like stem cells. rising temperatures. Researchers from the Universities of Edinburgh and Surveillance system to keep eye on wildlife Northumbria in the U.K. studied rocks on slopes of the Ellsworth Mountains, whose peaks protrude through parks the ice sheet. By mapping and analysing surface rocks, Drones and thermal cameras will be part of an advanced researchers calculated that the mountains have been surveillance mechanism that will be put in place to check shaped by an ice sheet over a million-year period, begin- poaching and other anti-wildlife activities in prominent ning in a climate some 20 degrees Celsius warmer than reserves of Rajasthan, including Sariska and Rantham- at present. bore. Technology-enabled surveillance and anti-poaching sys- tem will also be in place at Mukandara Hills Tiger Re- Where energy is waiting to be tapped serve (Kota and nearby region), Jawaibagh (Pali) Leop- Viewed against the backdrop of the energy history of the ard Conservation Reserve and Jhanana Nature Park country, the main-streaming of wind and solar has been (Jaipur). rather sudden. Just three years ago, few would have Critical areas thought of them as meaningful sources of energy. Today, Few wildlife reserves in Madhya Pradesh, Assam and Ut- they account for 7% of the country’s electricity produc- tarakhand already have a similar system, but the desert tion — small still, but firmly set to grow, by at least ten state of Rajasthan claims to be the first to introduce this percentage points in the next five years. on a large scale. Coal, on the other hand, while still being the dominant “The Wildlife Surveillance and Anti-Poaching System player, is on the back foot. Apart from being a source of (WS and APS) is aimed at effective monitoring and sur- pollution and global warming, it is also a water guzzler veillance of wildlife animals at selected locations and we – in ten years, India’s coal-fired power plants will need plan to complete the project of advanced monitoring by 12,000 million litres each day, thrice as much as Mum- December this year,” Akhil Arora, Principal Secretary of bai consumes daily now. With these issues, there is little Planning, IT and Communication Department, said. reason to believe in the fuel’s resurgence as a dominant Besides improving the forest department’s monitoring force. capabilities, the project would help the authorities in con- There is a lot more juice left in wind and solar than has servation of tiger and otheraspirantforum.com wildlife animals, identification been squeezed out today. Newer materials such as per- of poaching or other wildlife crime prone areas, checking ovskites that can replace silicon are showing up, giving infiltration and illegal activities and in effective decision solar panels more bang for the buck; the cost of offshore making. wind is falling dramatically so as to open up literally new The department of IT has invited tenders for the hi-tech areas — the seas. Vol. 33 May 2017 33 May Vol.

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But solar is a daytime source, wind is seasonal, and both an array of turbines along the mouth. Water comes in are on-off energy generators. Even with the advances in when the tide flows and goes out when it ebbs — it turns storage technology, these two sources cannot replace the turbines both times. coal completely. It is unlikely that they have enough pow- Another U.K. company, AIM-listed Atlantis Resources, er to replace coal. If they can’t, what can? places ‘underwater windmills’ on the sea bed — the tur- The search for clean energy has not stopped with wind bines are turned by the flow of currents. The company and solar. A phalanx of sources is waiting to be tapped claims to have 1,000 MW of projects underway, including into. Some—like Helium 3 from the moon—are on the its marquee 400 MW MeyGen project in Scotland and an- very edge of science. But there are others that are not other 150 MW one in Indonesia. Atlantis Resources is no so far away. Swing the searchlight around, you see three stranger to India — Gujarat State Power Corporation has that are more promising that the rest. an agreement with it to build a 250 MW tidal energy pro- Hydrogen ject. Tidal energy is not distant — companies like Alstom The gas’ time is truly beginning now, even if only for the and GE have announced manufacture of the turbines. reason that goes hand-in-hand with renewables. Electric- The bobbing movement of the waters is another source ity from wind and solar can be used to produce hydrogen, of energy. Of the many companies that have tried to tap which can be stored. Also, hydrogen can be a good grid it, Wave Star Energy, (whose principal shareholders are stabiliser — it can be used to fill gaps in the flow of power the Clausen brothers, the owners of the Danish company from wind and solar. “In a few years, hydrogen will com- Danfoss) seems closest to commercialisation. The tech- pete with batteries,” says Dr. R.K. Malhotra, President, nology is basically to let buoys to move up and down, Hydrogen Association of India told The Hindu . compressing air or pumping water which could then turn Japan is ahead in hydrogen use, but more for automotive the turbines. applications, with around 90 hydrogen filling stations to Cold fusion serve fuel cell powered cars made by Toyota. Once dismissed as snake oil solution, energy from fu- “It is a lot easier to use in stationary engines for power sion of sub-atomic particles at near room temperatures generation than in combustion engines,” said Dr. Mal- has received a pep ever since an Italian engineer called hotra. Andrea Rossi came up in 2011 with a device that he But fuel cells are a lot more efficient, easier and cleaner claimed produces more energy than it consumes. His ‘E- way than burning it in combustion engines. Fuel cells are Cat’ has since been at the heart of a huge technical and devices that split the hydrogen atoms into protons and commercial controversy and the subject of a courtroom electrons and get the electrons to flow through a circuit battle with an American company called Industrial Heat. — flow of electrons is electricity. Smaller fuel cells can be The book ‘An Impossible Invention’ by Mats Lewan, is on used in vehicles and in applications such as powering tel- the E-Cat. ecom towers — a Bengaluru-based company called In- Observers are divided into people who admire Mr. Rossi telligent Energy is selling such products. Larger fuel cells, and those who think he is a fraud. But his E-Cat, which is or stacks of them, can used for electricity for the grid. a small box with a pinch of nickel, hydrogen and lithium, Hydrogen is not far off. French company, Alstom, has just has rejuvenated the cold fusion talk. come up with a fuel cell-powered passenger train, Cora- While Mr. Rossi has kept the workings of his machine dia iLint. The rise of hydrogen is impeded only by the cost secret, a group of scientists were able to replicate it in a of the gas, but experts such as Dr. Malhotra expect the now-famous experiment carried out in 2014 in Lugano, cost to decline when demand, and production, increases. Switzerland, and found it working, though they said they Ocean energy did not know how. Later, a respected Russian scientist, There are three subsets of this 24x7 energy source — Alexander Parkhimov, repeated the experiment and re- waves (including up-down bob of the water surface), ported success. tides and underwater currents.aspirantforum.com A few commercial scale Alongside, a few companies in the U.S. have long been projects have come up, but there are dozens of pilots. labouring over different forms of cold fusion. There are many tricks to steal energy from the oceans. Leading among them are Brillouin Energy and Brilliant For instance, the Swansea Bay project, U.K., is to build Light Power. Their method is to tinker with atoms to re- a U-shaped wall — or, breakwater — on the coast where lease energy. Brillouin’s is to fuse two hydrogen atoms Vol. 33 May 2017 33 May Vol. there is a tide, with the mouth open to the sea and place into a helium atom, while Brilliant works on nudging the

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electron in the hydrogen atom closer to the proton — curring expenses over this period. both process release energy. Looking at the trend, the tariff bids for solar power have Cold fusion, as low energy nuclear reaction is commonly been falling faster over time. The recent bid conducted called, is not yet established science, but there is too by National Thermal Power Corp. Ltd (NTPC) for its 250- much happening for it to be unreal. Recently, the Anthro- MW Kadapa Solar Park in Andhra Pradesh reached an pocene Institute brought out a list of 100 entities, half of all-time low of Rs3.15/kWh (kilowatt hour) without any them commercial R&D that have raised $250 million. price escalation option for the entire period of the project, In India, Dr. Mahadeva Srinivasan, a former BARC scien- beating the previous low of Rs3.30/kWh over 25 years tist, has made it his life mission to get Indian nuclear es- for the Rewa ultra mega solar park in Madhya Pradesh. tablishment interested in ‘low energy nuclear reactions’, International peer-reviewed studies suggest another to no avail. However, Dr. Srinivasan said he believed that series of winners’ curses in the making. J.J.C. Barros LENR is a source of very cheap; clean energy and India and others in 2016 estimated that the levelized cost of should seize it. electricity for solar is around Rs9/kWh (converted from Commercial hydrogen, ocean energy and LENR could be euro to rupee using average exchange rate for 2015-16) a decade away, but they are all happening technologies while that for coal is approximately Rs4.8/kWh. An ex- that have the potential to replace coal. Extremely cheap, pert elicitation survey on solar technologies conducted by clean power is no longer unthinkable. Valentina Bosetti and others in 2012, in which 16 leading experts from the academic world, the private sector and India’s solar mission can cause new debt international institutions took part, predicted that by in- creasing research and development funding by 50%, the problems cost of solar would come down to Rs4.45/kWh by 2030. The recent decision of the Supreme Court not to allow From these studies, it is difficult to justify why the solar a revision of the tariff charged by Tata Power Co. Ltd bid prices in India are so low. and Adani Power Ltd for their 4,000MW (megawatt) and India’s solar programme is heavily dependent on import- 4,620MW Mundra ultra-mega power projects (UMPPs) ed solar cells and modules, mainly from China. In 2015- based on Indonesian coal raises serious concerns about 16, India had imported $2,34 billion worth of cells out of the viability of these projects. In both cases, a decision which 83.61% were from China. China uses predatory by the Indonesian government to link the price of coal pricing and dumps cheap thin film solar cells to capture exported from the country to a benchmark based on in- the Indian market in the absence of any anti-dumping ternational prices of coal has toppled carefully laid plans. duty imposed by India. In 2006, it was decided to build UMPPs to take care of Unfortunately, India lacks a robust manufacturing base for India’s crippling power woes. The allocation process was solar components and systems. It also does not have any through a reverse tariff competitive bidding process, and infrastructure for raw material production. The increased the bid tariff was as low as Rs1.19 and Rs2.26 for do- reliance on thin film technologies has augmented the de- mestic and imported coal-based UMPPs. But all these pendence on specific elements like “rare earth” metals in years later, only a few of them have been commissioned. which China has a near monopoly. Under such circum- One of the reasons for the failure of UMPPs was that stances, Indian solar project developers may find their when the bids were submitted, coal prices were very low. projects unviable in the event of currency fluctuations or Subsequently, prices went up, making the projects unvia- changes in China’s policy on solar cell and module ex- ble. The astonishing fact is that contrary to both common ports. Project developers should also keep in mind the sense and international best practice, power purchase effects of declining output. In a recent study, Mike Bergin agreements (PPAs) with tenures of 25 years were written of Duke University along with others has found that dust without a provision for a revision of terms. and particulate matter might reduce the energy yield of The experience of thermal plants is seemingly being re- solar power systems in north India by 17-25%. peated in the case of solaraspirantforum.com power. The government has For both coal and solar power projects, the auction for- an ambitious programme for adding 60GW (gigawatt) of mat used for reverse bidding is that of a sealed bid first medium- and large-scale grid-connected power plants price auction. In other words, bidders specify the aver- out of a total capacity addition of 100GW by 2022. The age tariff they would like to charge over the 25 years of PPAs, like UMPPs, are for fixed terms (25 years) without the project lifetime, and the L1 (lowest bidder), L2, and Vol. 33 May 2017 33 May Vol. any escalation clause, even though there are many re-

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L3 bidders are identified. Strictly speaking, the winner is the dead of winter chosen on the basis of the technical qualifications as well The mountain rises glistening from an encasement of as the financial bid. However, in most cases, the L1 bid- glaciers in the far reaches of the Karakoram. Pyramid- der wins. shaped, an austere link to eternity, K2 yields only to Ever- The theory of auctions suggests that the use of a sealed est in height and is deadlier. Its walls are vertiginous no bid auction format can lead to a winner’s curse in indus- matter the approach. tries characterized by high uncertainty, or projects with Only the most experienced climbers attempt ascents, very high time durations. Winning bidders can end up re- and for every four who crawl to its peak, one dies. gretting their aggressive bids. The solution is to go for a And then there is winter. Fourteen of the earth’s moun- dynamic auction format where bidders can start from a tains exceed 8,000 metres, and climbers have reached maximum tariff and go downwards, after observing the the peak of 13 in winter. K2 is the forbidding exception. pattern of bidding by others. This allows market informa- K2, also known as Mount Godwin-Austen or Chhogori, is tion to become public, and reduces uncertainty for bid- located on the China-Pakistan border. ders. Ten Polish climbers hope to make history by reaching the The other way of reducing uncertainty is to adopt a summit next winter. This is the way of the Polish climb- counter-cyclical policy of tendering projects. The global ers, who for reasons of history and culture have earned commodities boom of the 2000s led to a bull market for reputations as the greatest climbers of the Himalayas in power projects. Companies raised debt capital, mainly winter. from public sector banks at concessional terms, and These men will hike through knee-deep snow to a base external commercial entities, on risky terms, to finance camp at 18,645 feet. Atop K2’s near-vertical slopes, gla- power sector projects that were being tendered out by cial icefalls dislodge car-size hunks of ice. Winds at the the government. This is an important cause of the current summit reach hurricane strength. non-performing assets crisis. Janusz Golab is a long-limbed lion of a climber with curly Instead of riding the global commodities boom by encour- hair that goes here and there like an ethereal nimbus. He aging public sector banks to lend to private companies, is 49, still in his prime for a great climber, and he will be and giving project clearances, the government should be one of those charged with making it to the summit of K2 a restraining influence in such circumstances. Better gov- next winter. ernance of public sector banks is urgently needed. The challenge is the key In the absence of such measures, despite our best inten- He has climbed in Antarctica, Greenland and the Hima- tions, the experience of thermal power will only be re- layas. “Winter is the best season.” He shrugs. “It’s more peated in our solar mission. challenging. It’s obvious it’s the best.” The blue-eyed Krzysztof Wielicki, who at 67 is among ‘No El Nino threat to monsoon’ the most accomplished Himalayan climbers alive, will The threat to the Indian monsoon from an El Nino may lead the K2 expedition. He has climbed three Himalayan have receded. However, it is not yet clear if this would peaks in winter, including Everest. result in improved rainfall, says the India Meteorological By the time the Poles reached Asia in great numbers, Department’s latest assessment. The odds of the mete- climbers from other nations had scaled all the 8,000-me- orological anomaly, known to dry up the monsoon, have tre peaks. The Poles decided to climb those peaks in win- dipped and so called “neutral conditions” are likely to pre- ter or by risky new routes. vail, according to D.S. Pai, Chief Forecaster, IMD Pune. The audacity of their ascents was legendary. Their ranks Another sea anomaly, the Indian ocean dipole that refers produced the first woman to summit K2 and the first man to oscillating temperatures in that ocean, was likely to be to scale three giant peaks in winter. positive. That climber and a partner scaled K2 in summer along a “It is already becoming positive,” Mr Pai said. A positive route so dangerous, even suicidal — it passed beneath dipole buffered against aspirantforum.coman El Nino’s effects but didn’t on unstable ridges of ice — no one else has attempted it. To its own improve chances of rains. IMD Director General, this day, it is known as the Polish Line. K.J. Ramesh said the latest assessment was in line with The grand climbers perished at a frightful rate. They were international models. trapped by swirling tempests; died of altitude sickness; slipped and catapulted into the abyss. Vol. 33 May 2017 33 May Vol. Scaling the world’s most lethal mountain in There is no field of athletic achievement where death Visit Aspirantforum.com for guidance and study material for IAS Exam. aspirantforum.com Hindu and PIB Crux Vol. 33 News and Events of May 2017

rides so insistently on your shoulder. fore a transplant, a patient is first given doses of radia- Mr. Wielicki noted an axiom of climbing: A young climber tion, sometimes in combination with drugs, to kill off any is the most endangered, as he does not know enough to existing stem cells in the patient’s bone marrow. worry. To that, he adds another: An older climber should This pre-treatment is meant to improve success of the not draw too much comfort from mastery of technique. transplant by clearing up space in the marrow, allowing That can prove a frail shield against the merciless ran- donor cells to survive and grow without competition from domness of the Himalayas. the patient’s own cells. Singular focus Removing side-effects On the mountain, climbers escape into concentration as However, this treatment often comes with harmful side pure as a monk’s repose. Life becomes detail: Click into effects. To address these issues, researchers developed the rope and unclick; secure boot crampons and dig for a bone-like implant that gives donor cells their own space footholds. There is a whack of the ice pick and another to live and grow without competition, eliminating the need one, and one after that. to wipe out the host’s pre-existing cells. The Poles mastered the dominant expedition style a half- century ago. Govt. regulator gives nod for GM mustard It requires a willingness to subsume ego in the collective. The Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC), If a team numbers 10 climbers, six will take the role of India’s apex regulator for genetically modified seeds, worker bees, laying pitons and ropes and tents at camps cleared GM mustard for environmental release and use higher on the mountain. in farmer fields. Kacper Tekieli has a tangle of dark curls and a mischie- However, the approval is contingent on a final nod from vous smile, and is a philosophy major with a love of Environment Minister Anil Dave. Should the Minister’s mountain literature. consent be obtained, GM mustard would be the first At 32, he has built a considerable mountaineering repu- transgenic food crop to be allowed for commercial culti- tation, although he cannot afford to give up working as a vation in Indian fields and would be a gateway for several barista in the old quarter of Krakow. He watched a friend genetically-modified food crops in India. slip to his death last year in the Himalayas; he’s not sure he needs K2. Mr. Tekieli talks of the singular focus needed to summit a Himalayan peak in the maw of winter. The universe nar- rows to a meter or two. “There’s something mystical. It’s not about the mountain, which is inert. It’s you. It’s what you discover about yourself in all those hours of concen- tration.”

Artificial tissues can provide bone marrow Scientists, led by an Indian-origin researcher, have de- Thursday’s decision is not the first time GEAC has veloped artificial bone tissues that could provide new cleared a transgenic food crop for release. Bt Brinjal was bone marrow for patients needing transplants and make cleared by the Committee in 2010 but was blocked by the procedure much safer. then Environment Minister, Jairam Ramesh, who cited, Researchers led by Professor Shyni Varghese from the among other things, a paucity of safety tests. “We have University of California, San Diego in the U.S. developed cleared it [GM mustard] for four years subject to certain bone tissues with functional bone marrow that can be field conditions,” GEAC Chairperson Amita Prasad told filled with donor cells and implanted under the skin of The Hindu. Other than bio-safety concerns, transgenic mice. technology was necessary for India to be scientifically The donor cells survivedaspirantforum.com for at least six months and sup- relevant as well as have better seeds to address threats plied the mice with new blood cells. “We have made an from climate change, she argued. accessory bone that can separately accommodate donor cells. This way, we can keep the host cells and bypass NASA plans deep-space gateway Vol. 33 May 2017 33 May Vol. irradiation,” Ms. Varghese said. Bone marrow transplants NASA is planning a year-long manned mission to orbit are used to treat patients with bone marrow disease. Be- Visit Aspirantforum.com for guidance and study material for IAS Exam. aspirantforum.com Hindu and PIB Crux Vol. 33 News and Events of May 2017

the moon in 2027 as a part of its preparations to send how far a woman should go to become a mother as 31 humans to Mars in the 2030s. more women have lined up for the procedure. The U.S. space agency is building a “deep-space gate- A uterus transplant is an extremely complex procedure way” around the moon to test for operations and technol- that will enable women with absent or diseased uteruses ogy required for the journey to the red planet. to carry a pregnancy to termafter a donor uterus is trans- Eventually, the lunar presence would also serve as a planted into them. While there is no debate that womb launching point for the spacecraft that will carry humans transplant will be a medical leap for Indian doctors, the to Mars, said Greg Williams, deputy associate adminis- question remains about the viability of the procedure. trator for policy and plans at NASA’s Human Exploration Congenital absence and Operations Mission Directorate. One in every 4,000 women in India is born without a Mr. Williams provided a detailed look at the first two phas- uterus. There are about 4 lakh women with congenital es of NASA’s current plan at the Humans to Mars Summit absence of uterus all over the world. “Experiencing preg- held in Washington DC. nancy and motherhood for those who are born without The year-long lunar mission will be preceded by at least a uterus is a dream come true. While we have received five missions — four of them crewed — which -will de permission to perform the procedure as a research pro- liver hardware such as a crew habitat, Mr. Williams said. ject in two patients, we have 31 couples enrolled for a The last piece of delivered hardware would be the Deep uterus transplant. They are of the opinion that when a Space Transport vehicle that would later be used to carry technology is available, why not use it,” says Kamini a crew to Mars, he added. Rao, medical director of Milann-The Fertility Centre, the “If we could conduct a year-long crewed mission on this Bengaluru-based facility that has received permission Deep Space Transport in cislunar space, we believe we to perform uterus transplants from the Indian Council of will know enough that we could then send this thing, Medical Research (ICMR). crewed, on a 1,000-day mission to the Mars system and Agra-based gynaecologist and former president of the back,” Mr. Williams was quoted as saying by space.com Federation of Obstetric and Gynaecological Societies of The lunar stages of the plan to get humans to Mars rely India (FOGSI) Dr. Narendra Malhotra feels that the uter- heavily on NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket to us transplants, if successful, will be a victory for science. send the necessary payloads and crew to cislunar space “It will go down in medical history by proving Indian doc- — the region between the earth and the moon. tors are capable of pulling it off. But if you ask me whether the surgeries are practical, the answer is no,” said Dr. Lava waves on Jupiter’s moon Malhotra. Scientists have detected two massive waves sweeping At first, a donor undergoes a surgery for the removal of across the largest lava lake on Jupiter’s moon Io — the her uterus. Unlike other hysterectomies, blood vessels most volcanically active body in our solar system. and vascular pedicels around the uterus have to be care- Taking advantage of a rare orbital alignment between fully preserved and then re-attached to the recipient. two of Jupiter’s moons, Io and Europa, researchers at After the transplant, the recipient is put on immunosup- University of California (UC) Berkeley have obtained an pressants so that her body does not reject the donor’s exceptionally detailed map of the largest lava lake on Io. organ. She waits at least for a year before attempting a On March 8 in 2015, Europa passed in front of Io, gradu- pregnancy as an In Vitro Fertility (IVF) procedure. ally blocking out light from the volcanic moon. ‘Is that viable?’ Infrared data showed that the surface temperature of Io’s The woman’s eggs are extracted much before the trans- massive molten lake steadily increased from one end to plant and the embryos formed with her husband’s sperms the other, suggesting that the lava had overturned in two are frozen. If the IVF cycles are successful, the woman waves that each swept from west to east at about a kilo- conceives. However, the delivery is carried out through metre per day. a C-section and the transplanted uterus is removed after aspirantforum.comthe delivery so that she does not have been on immuno- suppressant continuously. India’s first uterus transplants soon “The success rate of an IVF cycle is merely 40%. The Two medical centres in Pune and Bengaluru are gearing woman also faces a high risk of miscarriage and the ba- up to perform the country’s first uterus transplants. The bies have to be delivered pre-term. Now, does that look Vol. 33 May 2017 33 May Vol. medical breakthrough has triggered a strong debate over viable?” questions Dr. Malhotra.

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The very first uterine transplant in the world was carried the latest Windows security updates applied are at risk of out in 2002 in Saudi Arabia and the second one in Tur- infection.” Once the ransomware encrypts data files on key in 2011. Both were cadaveric transplants wherein the the affected computer, it asks users to pay the ransom in uterus was taken from a brain dead patient. However, bitcoins. While the initial payment demanded is of $300, both the transplants failed due to rejection of the organ. the ransom note indicates that the payment amount will In 2014, Dr. Mats Brannstrom carried out the first suc- be doubled after three days. If payment is not made after cessful live donor uterus transplant in Sweden and till seven days, the encrypted files will be deleted. date, he alone holds the record for carrying out success- ful uterus transplants. “With such high risks and limited Smart Card IT Solutions to invest Rs. 200 cr. results to show, I do not see any practical implementation of this procedure,” says Mumbai-based infertility expert to expand Dr. Hrishikesh Pai, adding that other organ transplants Smart Card IT Solutions, a leading maker of debit, credit are life-saving procedures but a uterus transplant is sim- and smart cards, has announced plans to invest Rs. 200 ply a “surgical feat”. crore during this year to double manufacturing capacity Head of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology and to set up card ‘personalisation bureaus’ at multiple in Vikram Hospital, N. Venkatesh, says only time would locations as Government fuels a move toward digitisa- determine the success of such procedures in an emerg- tion. ing economy like ours. The company currently manufacturers 1.2 million smart “The prospect of uterus transplantation sounds more cards daily at its manufacturing units in Pune. exciting than promising [against the backdrop of options “We foresee that the use of smart cards will grow in many- like adoption and surrogacy], the practicality and cost- fold,” Deven Mehta, Chairman and Managing Director, effectiveness of such procedures needs to be studied,” Smart Card IT Solutions said. “To cater to that, we will says Dr. Venkatesh, who is also former president of the be investing Rs. 200 crore this year. The investment will Bangalore Society of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. increase our existing manufacturing capacity by 100%. The two surgeries in Pune are scheduled for May 18 and And we have also decided to set up four personalisation 19. bureaus at different locations in India, which will require investment.” He said the company would fund the expansion through India largely safe from cyberattack internal accruals and fresh equity infusion by the promot- Referring to the malware that entered the police cyber ers. networks in Andhra Pradesh, Mr Rai said, “Since this has So far the company has invested Rs. 250 crore in setting happened here on the weekend, we are expecting a bet- up manufacturing facilities in India. ter impact assessment .” ‘Digital India’ “Microsoft had released a patch against this flaw in Following the Digital India drive, the company is eyeing March but many system administrators failed to patch all orders from the Government which has announced its in- computers and the ones which were unpatched became tention to issue 30 million Kisan Credit Cards for farmers. vulnerable to this attack,” Pradipto Chakrabarty, Regional The Government has also announced to issue smart Director, CompTIA India told The Hindu . Aadhar cards with chips to an estimated 18 crore senior Mr. Chakrabarty added that the police system in Andhra citizens India. Pradesh was impacted which may be “because they were Of its current capacity of 1.2 million cards per day, using an older version of Microsoft operating system and 800,000 cards are sim cards which go telecom opera- poor patch maintenance”. tors, 350,000 cards are banking cards and about 100,000 Kaspersky also added that their visibility “may be limited cards are Government ID cards which include driving li- and incomplete and the range of targets and victims is censes, registration certificates, vehicle registration cer- likely much, much higher”.aspirantforum.comtificate and health cards. Tarun Kaura, Director, Product Management – Asia Pa- The company’s planned ‘personalization bureaus’ will cific Japan for Symantec said, “WannaCry has the ability help in supplying cards as per the individual requirement to spread itself within corporate networks, without user of clients in a more secured environment. Cards will be interaction, by exploiting a known vulnerability in Micro-

Vol. 33 May 2017 33 May Vol. manufactured elsewhere, but will undergo personalisa- soft Windows.” He added, “Computers which do not have tion including insertion of chips inside the cards at these Visit Aspirantforum.com for guidance and study material for IAS Exam. aspirantforum.com Hindu and PIB Crux Vol. 33 News and Events of May 2017

bureaus. sea level, in the Himalayas. Apart from catering to the requirement of the domestic Geologists have found high levels of sulphur from die- market, the company plans to become a global supplier sel emissions along the Manali-Leh highway that snakes of smart cards as well. It is setting up an office in Dubai. through the northwestern Himalayas. “We want to enter into the markets of Africa, Sri Lanka Soil samples from four sites along the 480 km highway and Saudi Arabia. But the cards will made be in India,” were tested for 10 heavy metals and sulphur among oth- Mr. Mehta said. er chemicals. While the good news is that heavy metal contamination was found to be low, the soil had signifi- NASA not taking humans on first flight of cantly high levels of sulphur (490–2033 ppm), which the scientists attribute to diesel exhaust from heavy traffic on new rocket this mountainous road. NASA has dropped the idea of putting astronauts aboard Indian diesel contains some of the highest concentrations the first integrated flight of the Space Launch System of sulphur in the world and an estimated 70% of automo- rocket and Orion spacecraft - Exploration Mission-1 (EM- biles running on Indian roads use diesel, “and the Hima- 1). laya are no exception,” says the paper published in the This is the first in a broad series of exploration missions latest issue of science journal Archives of Environmental that plans to take humans to deep space, and eventually Contamination and Toxicology.Approximately 50,000 ve- to Mars. hicles run on this highway every year, most of which use NASA’s original plan was to launch the test flight with- diesel. While the majority of these vehicles transport fuel out crew, but in February, reportedly at the request of and supplies to Indian army outposts, an increasing pro- the Donald Trump administration, NASA began an effort portion ferries tourists, the paper says. looking at the feasibility of putting crew aboard EM-1. “The remote Himalaya of northwestern India is not pris- “After weighing the data and assessing all implications, tine,” and diesel-run vehicles “have started to have a the agency will continue pursuing the original plan for the measurable impact” on soils along the highway, it adds. first launch, as a rigorous flight test of the integrated sys- The authors caution that the accumulation of sulphur can tems without crew,” NASA said in a statement . cause soil acidification, “that would render the already However, engineers will apply insights gained from the small amounts of arable lands in the area unproductive.” effort to the first flight test and the integrated systems to Excessive sulphur can, besides, be toxic to humans and strengthen the long-term push to extend human pres- animals. ence deeper into the solar system. “We measured incredibly high amounts of sulfur close to NASA determined it is technically capable of launching the highway. Some of those values are the highest ever crew on EM-1, but after evaluating cost, risk and tech- reported in the literature and were likely connected to nical factors in a project of this magnitude, it would be truck traffic,” said co-author Brooke Crowley, an assis- difficult to accommodate changes needed to add crew at tant professor of geology and anthropology, University of this point in mission planning. Cincinnati. “At first glance, it’s easy to consider the region The effort confirmed that the baseline plan to fly EM-1 to be a pretty pristine place. But there are environmental without crew is still the best approach to enable humans impacts from humans.” to move sustainably beyond a low-Earth orbit. With the likely increase of exhaust and sulphur in this re- “We appreciate the opportunity to evaluate the possibility gion in the future, the paper recommends periodic moni- of this crewed flight,” NASA acting Administrator Robert toring of contaminant accumulation and human health Lightfoot said. along the Manali-Leh Highway and similarly remote ar- “The bipartisan support of Congress and the President eas around the world. for our efforts to send astronauts deeper into the solar “There is no doubt that increasing economic develop- system than we have ever gone before is valued and ment will put more stress on environments all over the does not go unnoticed.aspirantforum.com Presidential support for space world, remote or not,” said lead author, Rajarshi Das- has been strong,” Lightfoot added. gupta, graduate student at the Department of Geology, University of Cincinnati. Traffic pollution reaches the Himalayas India’s notorious traffic pollution is no longer an urban Vol. 33 May 2017 33 May Vol. IIT Bombay gives a leg-up to thermal malaise; its impact is now being felt 4,000 meters above

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imaging technology commercial use of the genetically modified mustard and Night-vision devices like goggles or telescopes are a key have vowed to move court, if need be. part of modern military and security operations. Whether On May 11, the Genetic Engineering Appraisal Commit- you’ve seen them in movies or television shows or read tee (GEAC) cleared the commercial cultivation of GM about them in novels, the concept has been around for mustard. Now, the Union Ministry for Environment has to a number of years. What is less known, perhaps, is that take the final decision. while the Indian Army relies heavily on these devices for “The GEAC’s recommendation is shocking. It has failed a range of operations, they have never been produced to act as per its mandate: to protect citizens from the indigenously? risks posed by genetically modified organisms (GMOs). A team of scientists from IIT-Bombay has now made a We will move court if approval is given by the Ministry,” key breakthrough in developing India’s first infrared sen- Umendra Dutt, member of the Coalition for a GM-Free sors for thermal imaging. The research started in 2010, India, told The Hindu . with funding from the Defence Research and Develop- ‘Women will be hit hard’ ment Organisation. The details of the work have been Mr. Dutt said GM mustard is a herbicide-tolerant crop. published in the prominent journal Current Science in Such crops would increase the use of chemicals and of April 2017. which cultivation would affect a large number of farmers, Multiple applications farm workers and consumers. The technology, the scientists say, can be used for a “Furthermore, allowing the cultivation of GM mustard range of applications such as night vision, surveillance would amount to a direct attack on women involved in and — going beyond military and security operations — the mustard crop ‘weeding.’ Our conservative estimates even in the detection of cancers. show that even 25% adoption of GM mustard in India “The successful development and demonstration of in- would lead to the loss of over 4 crore employment days,” digenous infrared sensors to image human objects is a he said. GM mustard cultivation would not require ‘weed- major milestone for the Indian scientific community,” says ing.’ Subhananda Chakrabarti, of IIT-B’s department of electri- “In its election manifesto, the BJP promised that it would cal engineering, where the infrastructure for creating the not allow GM food crops without a long-term scientific sensor was developed. evaluation. Hence, the Ministry of Environment should In an air-conditioned room in the department, Prof. reject the GEAC’s recommendation,” said Mr. Dutt, add- Chakrabarti and his team are able to use the sensor to ing that the episodes of herbicide drifts destroying crops capture startlingly clear images of human subjects, even in neighboring fields and leading to farmer-to-farmer liti- when the room is in complete darkness. The sensor cap- gations in U.S. courts is well documented. “One can im- tures the thermal signature emanated by a subject and agine the disaster that lies in store in India with its small is accurate to the point of picking up minor temperature landholdings, on this front,” he said. differences: put your hand on a cold surface for two sec- Food and agricultural policy analyst Devinder Sharma onds for instance, and that spot on your palm registers called a ‘scientific sham’ the assertion that the GM mus- darker on the camera. tard variety DMH-11 — for which the Ministry’s approval is “This will make the indigenous thermal imaging or night pending — will boost production and help India cut edible vision technology affordable and cheaper and will serve oil import costs. The country suffered from no mustard as a perfect example of Made In India.” shortage, he said, and if the government wanted to cut This project could, perhaps, be the first significant de- edible oil import costs, it should increase import tariffs. velopment in the push for indigenous military equipment “Let’s have a public dialogue on GM mustard before the production. According to Prof. Chakrabarti, the DRDO final decision as was done for Bt cotton. spends about Rs. 1,000 crore per year on importing night- vision devices for Indian soldiers and has been searching New blue crayon seeks a name for an indigenous solutionaspirantforum.com for over two decades. The first new shade of blue in over 200 years — an in- tense, vibrant shade discovered by an Indian-origin sci- Nod for GM mustard is a ‘scientific sham’ entist and his team — will now be turned into a crayon. Environmentalists and food experts have termed a “sci- The U.S. Company that has made the crayon has invited Vol. 33 May 2017 33 May Vol. entific sham” the GM crop regulator’s clearance for the the public to help name the new colour with a contest (on

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its website) that runs till June 2. 7 and XP operating systems were infected by the virus The pigment named ‘YInMn blue’ was discovered by ac- and were immediately isolated from the network. cident in 2009 when researchers from Oregon State Uni- While Mr. Prasad denied any knowledge of banking sys- versity (OSU) in the U.S. were experimenting with new tems being affected, an official said a few ATMs in remote materials that could be used in electronics applications. areas had been shut to upgrade their operating software. “This was a serendipitous discovery, a happy accident. The banking sector has been upgrading software on a But in fact, many breakthrough discoveries in science war footing since the attack came to light. Though most happen when one is not looking for it,” said Mas Subra- of the core financial systems are behind strong defences, manian, professor at OSU, who led the team that made the front-end software are exposed and are now being the discovery. secured. “Blue is associated with open spaces, freedom, intuition, There were reports of Nissan’s Chennai plant being af- imagination, expansiveness, inspiration and sensitivity,” fected. However, the car-maker in an emailed statement said Mr. Subramanian. “Blue also represents meanings said, “Like many organisations around the world some of depth, trust, loyalty, sincerity, wisdom, confidence, sta- Nissan entities were targeted by the Ransomware attack. bility, faith, heaven and intelligence,” he said. Our teams have been responding accordingly and there The shade is the first new blue pigment to be created was no major impact on our business. Normal production since the French chemist Louis Jacques Thenard discov- operations are underway at our RNAIPL plant in Chen- ered cobalt blue in 1802. nai.” “We strive to keep our colour palette innovative and on IT majors Infosys and Wipro told The Hindu that they trend, which is why we’re excited to introduce a new blue have not been affected as their systems are robust and crayon inspired by the YInMn pigment,” said Smith Hol- they constantly monitor threats. land, CEO and president of Crayola, the company that is introducing the new colour in its pack of 24 pieces. A biosensor to control drug levels Yellow retires In a first, Stanford scientists have developed a new bio- The new colour replaces the dandelion yellow that earlier sensor that continuously monitors and delivers life-saving featured in the pack. drugs in the body in real time, ensuring that the patient While experimenting with new materials, OSU research- receives the correct dosage. ers had mixed manganese oxide — which is black — with As with coffee or alcohol, the way each person processes other chemicals and heated them in a furnace to nearly medication is unique. One person’s perfect dose may be 1,100 degrees Celsius. One of their samples turned out another person’s deadly overdose, researchers said. to be a vivid blue. With such variability, it can be hard to prescribe exactly YInMn refers to the elements yttrium, indium and man- the right amount of critical drugs, such as chemotherapy ganese, which along with oxygen comprise the vibrant or insulin. pigment, researchers said. YInMn blue features a unique A team of researchers, led by electrical engineer H. Tom structure that allows the manganese ions to absorb red Soh and post-doctoral fellow Peter Mage at Stanford Uni- and green wavelengths of light while only reflecting blue. versity in the United States, developed the drug delivery The vibrant blue is so durable, and its compounds are tool that could make it easier for people to receive the so stable — even in oil and water — that the colour does correct dose of life-saving drugs. not fade. These characteristics, as well as its non-toxicity, In a study published in the journal Nature Biomedical En- make the new pigment versatile for a variety of commer- gineering , the researchers showed that the technology cial products. Used in paints, they can help keep build- could continuously regulate the level of a chemotherapy ings cool by reflecting infrared light. drug in living animals. “This is the first time anyone has been able to continu- India escapes damage from malware attack ously control the drug levels in the body in real time,” Mr. In Kerala, staff in far-flungaspirantforum.com village offices in Wayanad, Soh said. Pathanamthitta, Kollam and Thrissur districts told the “This is a novel concept with big implications because we police that they opened their internet-linked workstations believe we can adapt our technology to control the levels after the weekend to find them infected. of a wide range of drugs,” he said.

Vol. 33 May 2017 33 May Vol. At the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams, 20 workstations Three basic components assigned for normal office work and running on Windows The new technology has three basic components: a real- Visit Aspirantforum.com for guidance and study material for IAS Exam. aspirantforum.com Hindu and PIB Crux Vol. 33 News and Events of May 2017

time biosensor meant to continuously monitor drug levels ducted a study to understand and develop light-sensitive in the person’s bloodstream, a control system to calculate molecules that could efficiently guide T cells towards tu- the right dose and a programmable pump that delivers mours. just enough medicine to maintain a desired dose. Virus used The sensor contains molecules called aptamers that are They discovered that a molecule called channelrhodop- specially designed to bind a drug of interest. When the sin, active in algae and is light sensitive, could be intro- drug is present in the bloodstream, the aptamer changes duced to the immune system via a virus and activated to shape, which an electric sensor detects. control the T cell response to cancer. They also tested an That information, captured every few seconds, is routed LED chip in mice, which could eventually be implanted in through software that controls the pump to deliver addi- humans. tional drugs as needed. Researchers call this a closed- The team evaluated their methods in mice with melano- loop system, one that monitors and adjusts continuously. ma on the ears. The group tested the technology by administering the The animals wore a tiny battery pack that sent a wireless chemotherapy drug doxorubicin in animals. signal to the LED chip — allowing researchers to remote- Despite physiological and metabolic differences among ly shine light on the tumour and surrounding areas, giving individual animals, they were able to keep a constant T cells a boost for their cancer-killing function. dosage among all the animals in the study group, some- thing not possible with current drug delivery methods. Virus scare spurs banks into action The researchers also tested for acute drug-drug interac- Banks and financial institutions in the country went on a tions, deliberately introducing a second drug that is known war footing to upgrade their software systems, particu- to cause wide swings in chemotherapy drug levels. larly their anti-virus packages, in the wake of the ransom- They found that their system could stabilise drug levels ware virus, WannaCry, which affected computers in 150 to moderate what might otherwise be a dangerous spike countries across the globe. or dip. However, financial systems have not been impacted so ‘Big implications’ far, bankers said. If the technology works as well in people as in their ani- “Generally, as compared to many other sectors, the se- mal studies, it could have big implications, Mr. Soh said. curity in the financial sector is higher,” said Mrutyunjay For example, the system could detect and control the lev- Mahapatra, deputy managing director and chief informa- els of glucose and insulin in diabetics, he said. tion officer, State Bank of India (SBI), in an interaction That could allow researchers to create an electronic sys- with The Hindu . “We have not seen any financial sector tem to replicate the function of the dysfunctional pancre- companies or banks getting impacted anywhere in the as for patients with type 1 diabetes. world,” he said. The team plans to miniaturise the system so that it can be Bankers said vulnerable systems, through which the mal- implanted or worn by a patient. ware generally comes in, is a closed loop. The core bank- ing system (CBS), for example, is a closed loop. This New weapon to combat cancer: light means that the manner in which it connects to the front Scientists have discovered a simple and practical way end, the network and the end-point servers are all in the to kill cancer cells by using light to steer immune cells to banks’ control. attack the tumours. “However, we cannot take things easy,” said Mr. Mahapa- Researchers at the University Rochester Medical Centre tra. describe their method as similar to “sending light on a spy He said wherever the end-points are exposed to the mission to track down cancer cells.” Web, such as mobile and Internet banking, SBI has been Immunotherapy is different from radiation or chemothera- ‘extra cautious’. py. Instead of directly killing cancer cells, immunotherapy Additional alerts tells the immune systemaspirantforum.com to act in certain ways by stimu- “Also, we place additional alerts at our firewalls, which lating T cells to attack the disease. are essentially barriers between the outside world and But the problem is that immunotherapy can cause the our servers.Wherever Windows machines are there, we immune system to overreact or under-react, said Minsoo are working with Microsoft to deploy patches in a cen-

Vol. 33 May 2017 33 May Vol. Kim, a professor at the university. Her laboratory con- tralised manner,” he said. SBI is updating its anti-virus

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systems and other related software systems. “We are also updating anti-malware definitions. We have Earth-like planet may have water a system from where we can centrally update the defi- An ‘Earth-like’ planet orbiting our closest neighbouring nitions of anti-malware. So, increased surveillance, de- star, Proxima Centauri, about 4.2 light years away may ployment of patches (software updates) and watching the have water and the potential to support alien life, a new firewalls —these are our three strategies.” study has found. However, there is no impact on automated teller ma- The planet Proxima B was discovered in August last year, chines, SBI said. “ATM [network] is a [highly] closed loop and is thought to be of similar size to Earth, creating the [system] and one mitigating factor is that, generally, the possibility that it could have an ‘Earth-like’ atmosphere. malwares are large files while ATMs are connected with Scientists from the University of Exeter in the U.K. have a very small bandwidth. The Indian banking sector is embarked on their first, tentative steps to explore the po- largely un-impacted; nothing has been reported so far,” tential climate of the exoplanet. Mr. Mahapatra added. Early studies have suggested that the planet is in the habitable zone of its star Proxima Centauri — the re- New software can edit human voice like text gion where, given an Earth-like atmosphere and suitable Scientists have developed new software that allows peo- structure, it would receive the right amount of light to sus- ple to edit audio recording of a human voice with the ease tain liquid water on its surface. of changing words on a computer screen. The technology developed by researchers at Princeton Yellow-eyed penguins could be wiped out in University in the U.S. may do for audio recordings what word processing software did for the written word. 25 years The software, named VoCo, provides an easy means to New Zealand’s iconic Yellow-eyed penguins may go ex- add or replace a word in a recording of a human voice. tinct within the next 25 years due to rising ocean temper- New words are then automatically synthesised in the atures and climate change, unless urgent conservation speaker’s voice. actions are undertaken, a new study has warned. The system, which uses a sophisticated algorithm to rec- Researchers from the University of Otaga in New Zea- reate a particular voice, could one day make editing pod- land predict that the breeding success of the penguins casts and narration in videos much easier. will continue to decline to extinction by 2060, largely due The technology could provide a launching point for creat- to rising ocean temperatures. ing personalised robotic voices. “VoCo provides a peek The study highlights where conservation efforts could be at a very practical technology for editing audio tracks, but most effective in building penguins’ resilience against cli- it is also a harbinger for future technologies that will al- mate change, researchers said. low the human voice to be synthesised and automated in The predictions do not include additional adult die-off remarkable ways,” said Adam Finkelstein, a professor of events such as the one seen in 2013 in which more than computer science at Princeton. 60 penguins died. VoCo’s user interface looks similar to other audio editing Progressively worse software, with visualisation of the waveform of the audio “Any further losses of Yellow-eyed penguins will bring track and a set of cut, copy and paste tools. forward the date of their local extinction,” said Thomas Faster process Mattern from the university. Unlike other programmes, VoCo allows the user to re- If the recent poor breeding years are included in the sim- place or insert words that do not exist in the track simply ulation of the future penguin population, things get pro- by typing them in. VoCo then synthesises the new word gressively worse, researchers said. by stitching together snippets of audio from elsewhere “When including adult survival rates from 2015 into the the narration. aspirantforum.commodels, the mean projection predicts Yellow-eyed pen- “Currently, if you want to add a word, it is possible only guins to be locally extinct in the next 25 years,” said Ste- through a painstaking trial and error process of searching fan Meyer from the university. for small audio snippets,” said Finkelstein. Increasing sea surface temperatures in part explain the The finding was published in the journal Transactions on negative trend in penguin numbers, according to the re- Vol. 33 May 2017 33 May Vol. Graphics . searchers.

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cal capacities,” an official statement said. Rain may have shaped Mars surface Rapid advances by India Heavy rain on Mars may have reshaped the Red planet’s “The design and development of this project is a testa- impact craters and carved out river-like channels on its ment to the rapid advances achieved by India’s nuclear surface billions of years ago, a new study has found. scientific community and industry. It underscores the Changes in the Martian atmosphere made it rain harder mastery our nuclear scientists have attained over all as- and harder, which had a similar effect on the planet’s sur- pects of indigenous PHWR technology,” it added. face as seen on Earth, scientists said. The fourth plan- India generated 37,674 million units of nuclear energy in et from the Sun, Mars has geological features like the 2016-17, according to the Nuclear Power Corporation of Earth and the Moon, such as craters and valleys, many India, at a capacity factor of 80%. The two major pro- of which were formed through rainfall. Although there is a jects under construction at the moment are located in growing body of evidence that there was once water on Rajasthan and Gujarat, of 1,400 MWe each. Both plants, Mars, it does not rain there today. comprising two units of 700 MWe each, are under review. Evidence of run-off “The 10 reactors will be part of India’s latest design of 700 In the new study, Robert Craddock and Ralph Lorenz MWe PHWR fleet with state-of-the-art technology meet- from Johns Hopkins University in the U.S. show that ing the highest standards of safety,” it added. there was rainfall in the past — and that it was heavy The Cabinet also approved a coal linkage policy, called enough to change the planet’s surface. the Scheme for Harnessing and Allocating Koyala Trans- Valley networks on Mars show evidence for surface run- parently in India (Shakti), that will award fuel supply off driven by rainfall. agreements to coal plants already holding letters of as- The study was published in the journal Icarus. surance (LoAs). Thermal plants holding LoAs will be eli- gible to sign fuel supply pacts under the new policy after ensuring that all the conditions are met. Cabinet gives nod for 10 indigenous nuclear reactors Vizag rail station billed the cleanest The Union Cabinet cleared the proposal to construct The Visakhapatnam railway station is the cleanest, fol- 10 indigenous pressurized heavy water nuclear reactors lowed by Secunderabad, among the 75 busiest stations with a total capacity of 7,000 MWe. in the country. Briefing the media on the Cabinet decisions, Power Min- As per a survey report released by Railway Minister ister Piyush Goyal said each of the reactors would have Suresh Prabhu here , the Jammu railway station oc- a capacity of 700 MWe. “We already have 6,780 MWe of cupied the third spot, while the New Delhi station was operational nuclear power plants and about 6,700 MWe ranked 39. of plants under implementation, which will be set up by The survey was carried out by the Quality Council of In- 2021-22.” dia. The Darbhanga railway station in Bihar was the dirti- The decision comes against the backdrop of recent trou- est among the busiest stations. bles for India’s international collaborations in nuclear Clean toilets at platforms, clean tracks and dustbins at projects. While the U.S. deal, involving Toshiba Westing- stations were some of the criteria. This was the third sur- house for six reactors in Andhra Pradesh, is floundering vey on cleanliness done by the railways to keep a tab on after Westinghouse filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, the rail premises as part of its ‘Swachh Rail’ campaign. deal with French company Areva for reactors in Jaitapur “We want all stations to be clean. There are many sta- remain mired in negotiations over costing. tions which have improved their cleanliness ranking from No timeline last time,” Mr. Prabhu said. While the Minister said these 10 plants would create Rs. The Anand Vihar station was ranked 5th, while Nizamud- 70,000 crore worth of business for domestic manufactur- din and Old Delhi stations got the 23th and 24th positions. ers and generate aboutaspirantforum.com 33,400 jobs, he did not provide The railway station in Varanasi, the Lok Sabha constitu- a timeline for their completion, saying the government ency of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, was ranked 14th. would update the details when they are clear. The survey was carried out for 407 stations, out of which “The approval also shows our strong belief in the capabil- 75 are in the A-1 category or busiest stations and 332 are Vol. 33 May 2017 33 May Vol. ity of India’s scientific community to build our technologi- in the A category.

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The Beas station was the cleanest, followed by Kham- The 20-odd uterine transplant operations round the world mam, in the A category. Ahmedanagar station was ranked have often been frustrated by organ rejection (in which 3rd. the patient’s immune system attacks the organ; an infec- While the Darbhanga railway station was at the 75th po- tion of the organ; or problems with the organ’s blood sup- sition in the A—1 category, Jogbani was the dirtiest in the ply.) A category. Note of concern The railways has about 8,000 stations which are classi- Some experts have expressed concern about the op- fied into seven categories —— A1, A, B, C, D, E and F erations, terming them an invasive surgical procedure based on their annual passenger revenue. fraught with risks manifested in adverse side effects of the anti-rejection drugs, including cancer and increased India’s first uterine transplant begins risk of opportunistic infection. A team of 12 doctors at the city’s Galaxy Care Laparosco- py Institute (GCLI) began the highly complex and delicate Dense tree cover affects restoration time procedure of India’s first uterine transplant on a woman The situation has been made worse by the relatively from Solapur district. denser non-native tree cover in these zones, which af- However, the operation, in which the uterus was retrieved fects operations whenever there is rain and gusts of from the donor and transplanted into the recipient around wind. “The number of trees uprooted in the south zone 9 a.m., stretched well beyond its projected eight-hour is much more compared to other areas. This affects res- duration. The surgeons are retrieving the uterus using a toration work as these trees have to be cleared, permis- laparoscopic technique. None of the doctors, including sions have to be obtained for switching off the line and Dr. Shailesh Puntambekar, Medical Director, GCLI, who restoring it,” an official said. is heading the surgery, was available for comment on the operation at the time of going to press. GSLV: too late for changing times The GCLI administration informed the media late in the The GSLV space vehicle’s quiet but laudable success evening that results would be known. earlier this month could be a small solace that has come The woman suffers from congenital absence of uterus too late for the Indian Space Research Organisation. since birth and is to be fitted with her mother’s womb to The late bloomer may even be a short-lived intermediate enable her to conceive normally. rocket instead of being ISRO’s primary satellite vehicle Earlier, Dr. Puntambekar said the recipient would remain as it was planned, as a few ISRO old-timers and industry in the ICU for a week and for a fortnight in the general watchers privately suggest. care following the surgery. Adds to reliability More tests Its fine feat of putting the South Asia Satellite perfectly “During this period, the transplanted uterus will be stud- to space on May 5 no doubt adds to the GSLV’s reliabil- ied,” he said. The immediate success of the surgery ity. But ISRO actually needed this achievement at least could be assessed after sonography studies which would a good decade ago, when it was still building and us- determine whether the transplanted uterus was getting ing 2,000-2,500-kg communication spacecraft for its own regular blood flow and functioning normally. use. The hospital, which has been granted a licence by the The GSLV was conceived in the early 1990s to launch State Directorate of Health Services to carry out the Indian communication satellites of 2,000-kg class to an uterus transplant, is scheduled to conduct another womb initial and later adjusted distance from Earth, called the transplant on a 24-year-old woman from Baroda who ‘GTO’ (geosynchronous transfer orbit). This rocket took suffers from Asherman’s Syndrome (scar tissue in the about 25 years and 11 flights to be fully realised. GSLV uterus) and who will receive her mother’s womb. F-09 of May 5 was the fourth to click in a row. Still in its nascent, experimentalaspirantforum.com stage, only a handful of The GSLV is caught in a glaring mismatch: it cannot lift these operations have met with success in other coun- India’s bigger satellites; and the size that it can lift is out tries, primarily in Sweden. of fashion and does not make economic sense. The operations are meant to help women who want to As to why the GSLV could not rise sooner to the occa- conceive but cannot because they were born without a

Vol. 33 May 2017 33 May Vol. sion, the external geopolitical reasons beyond the agen- uterus, suffered damage to it or had to have it removed. cy are well known now. Visit Aspirantforum.com for guidance and study material for IAS Exam. aspirantforum.com Hindu and PIB Crux Vol. 33 News and Events of May 2017

While ISRO was perfecting the GSLV and falling be- A team of Indian researchers has been able to achieve hind schedule with the rocket’s crucial cryogenic stage, 100-fold reduction in TB bacterial load in lungs of mice it progressed on the spacecraft side and upgraded the after 60 days of treatment using bergenin — a phyto- communication satellites to 3,000-plus kg in 2005. This chemical isolated from tender leaves of sakhua or shala was done to pack more punch (or transponders) per tree (Shorea robusta). Unlike the regularly used antibiotic spacecraft. It would be roughly 24 regular transponders drugs that target the TB bacteria, the bergenin compound for 2,000 kg; 36 transponders for 3,000 kg and 48 tran- modulates the immune system to kill the bacteria found sponders in a four-tonner. inside the macrophages (a type of white blood cells). The Replying to a query from The Hindu , Gagan Agrawal, results were published in the journal Frontiers in Cellular analyst with the U.S.-based space industry consulting and Infection Microbiology. firm Northern Sky Research, said: “The communica- “Our studies show that the bergenin compound can be tions satellite market is consistently looking at payload used to clear the bacteria, and when used in combina- sizes greater than four tonnes and the question remains tion with other TB drugs can produce good results,” says whether the GSLV or [the bigger] MKIII can cater to the Gobardhan Das from the Special Centre for Molecular market [yet.] ” Medicine at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), a corre- Not many customers sponding author of the paper. “Since the compound does ISRO’s smaller PSLV rocket has made a niche in the not target the bacteria directly but modulates the immune world market for light lifts. For the GSLV, there may not system to kill the bacteria, it can be used in patients with be many commercial customers requiring its service. drug-resistant TB too.” The researchers undertook several studies to understand Australian scientists create world’s thinnest the mode of action of the compound. The compound was unable to directly kill TB bacteria when treated with the hologram compound. However, in the case of in vitro studies, the Scientists have created the world’s thinnest hologram compound was able to kill the bacteria found inside in- that can be seen without 3D goggles and may be inte- fected cells. In mice infected with TB and treated with the grated into everyday electronics such as smart phones, compound, there was significant reduction in the bacte- computers and TVs. rial load in the lungs. Unlike in the case of in vitro studies, Interactive 3D holograms are a staple of science fiction in mice the compound was found to activate not only the but the challenge for scientists trying to turn them into macrophages but also other cell types (T cells) that led to reality is developing holograms that are thin enough to effective killing of the bacteria. A significant reduction in work with modern electronics. the number of granulomatic lesions was seen in animals Now, researchers led by RMIT University in Australia treated with the compound. Also, the bacterial load was have designed a nano-hologram that is simple to make, 100-fold lower in mice treated with the compound com- can be seen without 3D goggles and is 1,000 times thin- pared with controls (animals that were not treated with ner than a human hair. bergenin). “These findings strongly suggest that the im- “Conventional computer-generated holograms are too mune response enhanced by the compound is able to big for electronic devices but our ultrathin hologram over- increase the capacity to clear the TB bacteria,” Prof. Das comes those size barriers,” said Min Gu, Professor at says. RMIT. The nano-hologram is fabricated using a simple The levels of nitric oxide and a cytokine (TNF-alpha) laser writing system, which makes the design suitable for were found to be enhanced. “We found the bergenin large-scale use and mass manufacture. compound was selectively enhancing the frequency of Integrating holography into everyday electronics would interferon-gamma and interleukin-17-producing T cells make screen size irrelevant — a pop-up 3D hologram in the TB infected animals,” says Dhiraj K. Singh from can display a wealth of data that does not neatly fit on a ICGEB and a co-author of the paper. Interferon-gamma phone or watch. The RMITaspirantforum.com team worked with the Beijing promotes bacteria-killing nitric oxide inside macrophages Institute of Technology in China on the project. thus promoting the generation of protective immune re- sponses against TB bacteria. Indian researchers use a novel route to kill Previous studies have shown that T helper 1 (Th1) cells Vol. 33 May 2017 33 May Vol. TB bacteria play a key role in protecting the host against TB bacteria,

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while Th2 cells oppose the protection offered by Th1 cells. there is a defective alignment of the axes of the cells. “There is a dynamic balance between the Th1 and Th2,” Among the different types of defect, there is one where says Ved P. Dwivedi from ICGEB and the first author of the tilt of the axes varies gradually — radiating out from the paper. “While TB bacteria prevents Th1 response and a point, like a comet. The cell destined to die lies close facilitates Th2 response, the bergenin compound pro- to the head of the comet-shaped defect and is eventu- motes the expression of Th1 and Th17 responses.” ally pushed out of the layer of cells and apoptosis takes Beats conventional drugs place. The compound has been shown to heal wounds faster Physics reasons than conventional drugs. Dr. Debprasad Chattopadhyay, “The study tells you that it is not just biochemistry but Director of the ICMR-National Institute of Traditional physics, or precisely, mechanics that can affect cell extru- Medicine (ICMR-NITM) in Belgaum, Karanataka, and the sions [the pushing out of cells from the layer they inhabit]. other corresponding author of the paper, had isolated the That means you may be able to think about situations compound. He had seen tribals using the leaves of shala where applying forces might make cells behave in a par- tree for wound-healing. ticular way,” says Sumesh Thampi from the Department “Our study, in a limited way, tries to correct the misinfor- of Chemical Engineering, IIT Madras, an author of the mation regarding Ayurveda. The stage is now set to test paper. many more Ayurvedic and plant-derived natural products Collaborative study for their potency against pathogenic diseases,” says Dr. While the theory and simulations were developed by Anand Ranganathan from the Special Centre for Molecu- members from Oxford, the experiments were carried out lar Medicine at JNU and one of the authors of the paper. by groups from Singapore and the measurement of the Prof. Das with the help of ICMR-NITM plans to carry out force on the cells was done using techniques developed further tests in larger animals. If used in combination with by a group from Paris. “It is hard to pinpoint the beginning other TB drugs the compound can shorten the duration of of the work, it arose through discussions…and then we treatment and prevent the emergence of drug-resistance, designed new simulations and experiments to test our the authors write. ideas,” Julia Yeomans of The Rudolf Peierls Centre for Theoretical Physics, Oxford, and a Principal Investigator The mechanics of programmed cell death of the project told The Hindu in an email. Traction force microscopy was used to measure and com- unravelled pute the pressure on individual cells in the monolayer. A recent study has found a new triggering mechanism “We developed an original way to compute the stresses for programmed cell death (apoptosis). Unlike earlier inside cell colonies using statistical methods (Bayes- known trigger mechanisms that involve chemicals being ian inference). The computation of such stresses has released by the cell destined for death, this is a physical been done by only a few labs for cells migrating on sub- mechanism. The study has found that a particular type strates...” says Benoit Ladoux of CNRS and University of imperfection in the alignment of the cells appears to Paris Diderot (France) and Mechanobiology Institute, be correlated with the position of the cell destined to die. Singapore, a Principal Investigator of the project. The results of the collaborative study were published in Now that the link between mechanics and cell extrusion Nature. has been established, it is for future experiments to de- The group has studied this correlation experimentally us- termine how external pressure can be used to control, for ing five different kinds of epithelial tissue. Epithelial cells instance, the development of tumours and prevent them are those that line the outside and inside of our organs. from spreading uncontrollably. These cells play a protective role and cells often undergo some kind of damage and need to be removed. This hap- pens through a process of programmed cell death known Moon orbiting solar system’s third largest as apoptosis. The cell destinedaspirantforum.com for apoptosis is pushed dwarf planet found out of the layer it inhabits in the epithelial tissue and then Scientists have discovered a new moon orbiting the third dies. largest dwarf planet, that resides in the frigid outskirts in Cells in the epithelial layer usually are arranged neatly our solar system. With this discovery, it appears that most

Vol. 33 May 2017 33 May Vol. and regularly, like bricks on a wall, where the axes of the of the known dwarf planets in the Kuiper Belt larger than bricks are all aligned parallel to each other. But at times 965 kilometres across have companions. These bodies Visit Aspirantforum.com for guidance and study material for IAS Exam. aspirantforum.com Hindu and PIB Crux Vol. 33 News and Events of May 2017

can provide some insight into how moons formed in the David Rabinowitz as part of a survey to search for distant young solar system. solar system bodies using the Samuel Oschin Telescope The combined power of three space observatories, in- at the Palomar Observatory in the US. cluding NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, has helped uncover the moon orbiting the dwarf planet 2007 OR10 Mango tree extract could prevent heart in the Kuiper Belt, a realm of icy debris left over from our solar system’s formation, which is believed to have hap- injury pened about 4.6 billion years ago. A group of doctors from All India Institute of Medical Sci- Collisions and moons ences (AIIMS), New Delhi, has shown the protective ef- “The discovery of satellites around all of the known large fects of mangiferin (a compound present in the bark of all dwarf planets, except for Sedna, means that at the time mango trees) on reperfusion injury in diabetic rats. Rep- these bodies formed, billions of years ago, collisions erfusion injury happens in heart tissues when blood sup- must have been more frequent, and that’s a constraint on ply returns after a heart attack. The study was published the formation models,” said Csaba Kiss of the Konkoly in the journal Scientific Reports. Observatory in Hungary.“If there were frequent collisions, Mangiferin, found in the bark, leaves and fruit of mango then it was quite easy to form these satellites,” said Dr. trees, is known to possess several beneficial properties Kiss, lead author of the study published in The Astrophys- — antioxidant, antitumour, anticancer, antidiabetic and ical Journal Letters. The objects most likely slammed into antibacterial properties. each other more often because they inhabited a crowded For the study, the researchers used three groups of rats region. in which diabetes was induced. While no heart injury was The team uncovered the moon in archival images of 2007 induced in the control group, the second group of rats OR10 taken by the Hubble Telescope. had a heart injury induced after 28 days but not treated Observations taken of the dwarf planet by NASA’s Ke- with mangiferin. The third group was given mangiferin for pler Space Telescope first tipped off the astronomers of 28 days and then heart injury was induced. All the rats the possibility of a moon circling it. Kepler revealed that were sacrificed and the heart was surgically removed 2007 OR10 has a slow rotation period of 45 hours. “Typi- and studied for various parameters. cal rotation periods for Kuiper Belt Objects are under 24 All the diabetic rats treated with mangiferin showed im- hours,” Dr. Kiss said. proved blood-pumping ability, restored antioxidants, re- “We looked in the Hubble archive because the slower ro- duced swelling and death of cells. The architecture of the tation period could have been caused by the gravitational myocardium was maintained despite the injury and the tug of a moon. The initial investigator missed the moon heart muscle fibre remained intact. in the Hubble images because it is very faint,” he said. Glucose present in the blood of patients with diabetes The astronomers spotted the moon in two separate Hub- leads to the formation of certain proteins (advanced gly- ble observations spaced a year apart. The images show cation end products or AGE), which causes various com- that the moon is gravitationally bound to 2007 OR10 be- plications of diabetes. Mangiferin favourably reduced this cause it moves with the dwarf planet, as seen against protein, thus preventing stress, swelling and cell death a background of stars. The astronomers calculated the after the heart injury. The study on the heart tissue re- diameters of both objects based on observations in far- vealed how mangiferin reduced cell death — it increased infrared light by the Herschel Space Observatory, which the expression of proteins which act against cell death measured the thermal emission of the distant worlds. and decreased the proteins causing cell death. Mangif- Exclusive club erin also decreased the level of inflammatory and stress The dwarf planet is about 1,528 kilometres across, and proteins. the moon is estimated to be 240 kilometres to 400 kilome- “This is our third module of study. We have already stud- tres in diameter. 2007 OR10, like Pluto, follows an eccen- ied effects of mangiferin on isoproterenol and ischemia- aspirantforum.comreperfusion induced myocardial injury in rats. Now we tric orbit, but it is currently three times further than Pluto is from the sun. 2007 OR10 is a member of an exclusive have found that mangiferin can prevent myocardial injury club of nine dwarf planets. Of those bodies, only Pluto in diabetic rats,” says Dr. Salma Malik, who is a research and Eris are larger than 2007 OR10. It was discovered in associate at the Department of Pharmacology, AIIMS Vol. 33 May 2017 33 May Vol. 2007 by astronomers Meg Schwamb, Mike Brown, and and a co-author of the paper. However, the conclusion

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of this study needs to be further validated to establish medium-sized businesses, developers and researchers its clinical usefulness in patients of myocardial ischemia around the globe. with coexisting diabetes. Immersive experience Google also provides its cloud platform to Improbable, a Google woos start-ups to heat up its cloud London-based start-up co-founded by Indian-origin en- Google is wooing some of the world’s hottest start-ups to trepreneur Herman Narula. sell its cloud computing technology. It is dedicated to building technology to enable powerful These include ventures that send satellites into the space virtual worlds and simulation designed to help solve pre- to study the changing earth, firms that convert traditional viously stubborn problems. In gaming and entertainment, manufacturing plants into smart factories and start-ups this enables the creation of richer and more immersive that are simulating entire cities. virtual worlds. For instance, top studios are building their Google is offering cloud technology that combines a products on Improbable’s distributed operating system, large amount of storage and computing. It then sells it to SpatialOS. These include top video games like Worlds customers who may want to enhance or set up new data Adrift, Rebel Horizons and Chronicles of Elyria. centres. Improbable has now taken a huge leap of simulating en- Planet Labs, Inc, a start-up which is on a mission to tire cities that could impact everything ranging from city image the entire Earth every day, and make the global planning to healthcare. change visible, said that it has switched to Google Cloud At the Google Cloud conference, Mr. Narula said that Im- to host its imagery and do data processing. probable has built a complete simulation of an entire Brit- “There are a handful of companies that can offer stor- ish City, in conjunction with a public sector partner. This age and processing, we are really impressed by Google includes its telco and transport network, power grid, sew- Cloud’s core technology,” said Will Marshall, co-founder age systems, housing demographics and even the way and chief executive of Planet Labs, at Google Cloud Next in which people move around and interact with the city. conference held recently in San Francisco. “This is the largest simulation of its kind, ever created,” Natural disasters said Mr. Narula, chief executive at Improbable. The com- Founded in 2010 by ex-NASA scientists, Planet Labs pany intends to foster a community where developers operates the largest constellation of Earth-imaging sat- can share code, and build and create new services and ellites. These satellites are collecting a new data set businesses. with real-world applications such as tracking natural re- Mr. Narula said the age of closed systems and trying, sources, quantifying agricultural yields and assisting first in effect, to get developers into committing to a closed responders after natural disasters. To image the whole ecosystem were over. “We can’t succeed unless you suc- of the Earth every day means preparing for 7 to 10 tera- ceed and I think Google recognises that,” he said. bytes of data daily. Google Cloud now hosts this grow- Smart factories ing photography repository and the data processing for Manufacturing is one of the most important sectors of the Planet Labs. U.S. economy. The gross output of U.S. manufacturing “We have the capacity to image every point on the earth industries was $6.2 trillion in 2015, about 36% of U.S. every single day and the sea changes that happen. We gross domestic product. see every port, every city, every farm and every forest,” But these industries have less access to the new techno- said Mr. Marshall. logical advancements in the information technology sec- In February, with help from the Indian Space Research tor, according to Oden Technologies, a leading industrial Organisation’s (ISRO), the California-based firm suc- Internet of Things venture. cessfully launched 88 Dove satellites to orbit. The New York-based firm is betting big on changing This is the largest satellite constellation ever to reach this and it runs its entire platform on the Google cloud orbit. These satellites rodeaspirantforum.com aboard ISRO’s workhorse — platform. Using a combination of IoT — a technology the polar satellite launch vehicle (PSLV rocket) from the where devices communicate with each other intelligently Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota. — wireless connectivity, and big data, Oden is helping Planet Labs has now introduced a tool called ‘Planet Ex- manufacturers enhance production efficiency.

Vol. 33 May 2017 33 May Vol. plorer Beta’ that provides data to individuals, small and “We probably wouldn’t be comfortable scaling up to thou- sands and thousands of factories, tens and thousands of

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machines, all streaming data, if we didn’t know we had He added that such was the depth of the indigenous the infrastructure of Google to allow us to do that,” said community’s knowledge that they could predict the early Willem Sundblad, founder and chief executive of Oden arrival of monsoons from the blooming of the cobra lily’s Technologies. ‘translucens’. Prized for their beauty around the world, For example, Google’s cloud platform provides the base cobra lilies are at even greater risk of extinction from the for obtaining and storing data collated by Oden’s wireless commercial trade in exotic plants. Of the handful cobra devices. It captures and stores about 10 million metrics lily species found in the Nilgiris, only two are endemic, on each manufacturing line per day. This includes highly said Mr. Chhabra, who has called for the protection of granular details, such as melt profile of the materials and the patch of land where the Arisaema translucens were measure of power moving to the machines. found. Likely to have been quite common once, cobra Environmental insights like temperature and humidity are lilies have vanished in the past decades along with the also obtained. This way, manufacturers can find if there disappearance of the shola tree patches in which they are weather-related consequences on their manufactur- were found. The rediscovery of the plant highlights the ing efficiency. importance of preserving whatever is left of shola tree In March, Mountain View, California-based Google also patches, even inside plantations and tea fields. acquired Kaggle, a community platform for data scien- Dr. Prabhu Kumar, a senior scientist from Kerala and tists. The Kaggle community has used machine learning one of the co-authors of the paper, said that based on its to grade high school essays, diagnose heart failure and tiny population and distribution, the Arisaematranslucens increase the discovery significance of the Higgs-Boson, could be considered ‘critically endangered’, and con- an elementary particle in the Standard Model of particle curred that measures must be put in place immediately physics. for their long-term survival. Making Google Cloud technology available to its commu- nity will allow it to offer access to powerful infrastructure Computer ‘Go’es ahead of Chinese champion and the capability to store and query large data sets. “We are going to enable our community to do far more in ancient board game powerful things,” said Anthony Goldbloom, chief execu- A computer defeated China’s top player of the ancient tive of Kaggle. board game Go, earning praise that it might have finally surpassed human abilities in one of the last games ma- chines have yet to dominate. After 84 years, cobra lily blooms agai Google’s AlphaGo won the first of three planned games n this week against Ke Jie, a 19-year-old prodigy, in this The incredibly rare Arisaema translucens , more com- town west of Shanghai. The computer will also face other monly remembered as the cobra lily, was recently redis- top-ranked Chinese players during the five-day event. cover-ed in the western Nilgiris after 84 years by nature ‘Closest margin’ enthusiasts K.M. Prabhu Kumar and Tarun Chhabra. AlphaGo beat Ke by a half-point, “the closest margin pos- Featuring a distinctive translucent spathe, it was last col- sible,” according to Demis Hassabis, founder of Deep- lected by E. Barnes in 1932 and described by C.E.C Fis- Mind, the Google-owned company in London that devel- cher in 1933. Barely a few hundred cobra lily plants are oped AlphaGo. left in the wild and they can be found only in a small area AlphaGo has improved markedly since it defeated South measuring less than 10 square kilometres in the Nilgiris. Korea’s top competitor last year and is a “completely dif- News of the discove-ry was published in May 2017 in ferent player,” Ke told reporters. Phytotaxa , a journal on botanical taxonomy. “For the first time, AlphaGo was quite human-like,” Ke “The Toda tribals of the Nilgiris, who know the planet well, said. have an embroidery motif known as the ‘podwarshk’, “In the past it had some weaknesses. But now I feel its which resembles it,” Mr.aspirantforum.com Chhabra, author ofThe Toda understanding of go and the judgement of the game is Landscape , told The Hindu . “If I am not mistaken, this is beyond our ability.” probably the only member of the Arisaema family to have Players take turns putting white or black stones on a grid a translucent spathe, and they are very beautiful.” with 361 intersections, trying to capture territory and each

Vol. 33 May 2017 33 May Vol. Risk of extinction other’s pieces by surrounding them. Competitors play un-

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til both agree there are no more places to put stones or Construction of compound wall and flooring is expected one quits. to be completed in two weeks, after which the plant will The game, which originated in China more than 25 cen- be operated. Currently, trial run is in progress at the plant. turies ago, has avoided mastery by computers even as they surpassed humans in most other games. They con- quered chess in 1997 when IBM Corp.’s Deep Blue sys- ‘Incinerator turning village into graveyard’ tem defeated champion Garry Kasparov. With the high-level of pollution caused by a private incin- More challenging erator that had reportedly claimed several lives in villages Go, known as weiqi in China and baduk in Korea, is con- around A. Mukkulam, the village could get the dubious sidered more challenging because the near-infinite num- distinction of the “graveyard” of Tamil Nadu, said former ber of possible positions requires intuition and flexibility. State Minister Thangam Thennarasu. Players had expected it to be at least another decade be- Addressing a massive all-party protest meeting organ- fore computers could beat the best humans due to go’s ised here , the Tiruchuli MLA, belonging to the DMK, said complexity and reliance on intuition, but AlphaGo sur- that Chennai was known as the ‘Detroit of the South’, prised them in 2015 by beating a European champion. Thanjavur as the ‘Rice bowl of Tamil Nadu’. Last year, it defeated South Korea’s Lee Sedol. But at a time when the people of several villages around A. Mukkulam were protesting against the incinerator where biomedical waste, including human organs, were Bio-methanation plant to generate 400 units being burnt, the district administration had allowed a of power every day second unit of dumping dyeing unit waste on the same The Corporation’s first bio-methanation plant, construct- premises. ed at a cost of Rs. 90 lakh at Veeranam is expected to “It looks like the increased pollution is going to spread generate 400 units of electricity every day and serve the diseases among the people of more villages, and A. Muk- needs of three corporation buildings in the area. kulam would be called the ‘graveyard of Tamil Nadu’ in Work is in progress to construct three plants to covert the the future,” he said. biodegradable waste into electricity at Veeranam, Sura- After the revolutionary protest by the youth demanding mangalam and at Erumapalayam. Under the Integrated jallikattu and the protest in Neduvasal against hydro- Urban Development Mission (IUDM) 2013-14, the plant carbon extraction, the villagers, especially women who was established at a cost of Rs. 90 lakh with the State gathered in large numbers, had created a revolution by government’s contribution of Rs. 81 lakh and corpora- uniting all parties for the common cause. tion’s contribution of Rs. 9 lakh. The plant has the capac- “If the State Government that had earlier promised to ity to process five tonnes of waste per day. close down the polluting unit of Ramky Energy and Envi- Of the 320 tonnes municipal solid waste generated eve- ronment Limited, the protest would snowball with national ryday in the city, more than 60 tonnes of biodegradable leaders converging for a massive protest in Virudhunagar solid waste, including vegetables, banana trees and oth- district,” Mr. Thennarasu said. ers, were disposed at Chettichavadi. Vegetable waste The MLA said that people should create awareness of generated at VOC market is over 50 tonnes everyday the ill-effects of the “deadly plant” among other villagers and hence, it is the main source of raw material for the so that they would realise the lurking danger, he added. plant. By processing the waste, methane-rich biogas will Leaders of various political parties, including former MLA be generated that will be used for tube lights and other Ramasamy (CPI), Arjunan (CPI-M), C. Raja (Congress), electrical items at the Animal Birth Control (ABC) centre, Balagangadaran (AIADMK Puratchi Thalaivi Amma), Mu- for operating lights and motors in the nearby water tanks rugan (VCK) and Pounraj (Puthiya Tamilagam), took part and public toilet in the area respectively. in the protest. Engineers said 1,250 tube lights, each 40 watts, can be operated for eight hoursaspirantforum.com every day using the power gen- Reclamation of degrading land crucial, says erated from the plant after considering transmission and distribution loss. Since, existing lights are converted into ISRO chairman LED lights, the power from the plant could be used for Chairman of Indian Space Research Organisation

Vol. 33 May 2017 33 May Vol. more buildings, they added. (ISRO) A.S. Kiran Kumar has said that the future of In- dian agriculture depends on the reclamation of the 147

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million hectares of land that was degrading owing to vari- history of revealing even the existence of the solar wind. ous factors. Solar wind consists of plasma of electrons and protons He was delivering the convocation address at the 30th flowing away from the sun at hypersonic speeds. Its ex- annual convocation of the University of Agricultural Sci- istence was first inferred indirectly in the 1950s byob- ences (UAS), Dharwad in which 36 candidates from un- serving the shapes of comet tails. Only later was its exist- dergraduate, postgraduate and research fields received ence confirmed by the Mariner 2 spacecraft. 82 gold medals and cash certificates and over 1,000 stu- Comets, on the other hand, are icy wanderers that travel dents received various degrees. far into space and make an appearance periodically in Referring to the success by ISRO in launching satellites, the skies when they pass close to the Sun. Their shape Mr. Kiran Kumar said that satellites will provide accurate is characteristic — a small rounded match-head-like halo information on weather thus helping the farming commu- followed by a long tail — and dictated by its interaction nity to develop their activities further. with the solar wind. The halo and the tail consist of mate- He said that there was huge scope for progress in the rial that has sublimated from its icy nucleus and has been field of agriculture and technology adaptation would fur- dragged out by the solar wind. ther boost the growth. Additional Secretary of Union Ag- Four-fluid model riculture, Co-operation and Farmers Welfare Department The material of the comet and the particles in the solar and an alumnus of UAS Dharwad, Ashok Dalwai, who wind do not actually collide, they interact via the electro- was honoured with an honorary doctoral degree, said magnetic field surrounding these charged electrons, pro- with the intervention of technology in agriculture, there tons and ions. Jan Deca and collaborators modelled the was a plethora of opportunities for young farm graduates. system as four-fluid plasma, with the four components “Hydroponics is a new technology which will help farmers being the electrons and protons spewed out by the Sun, in facing harsh weather conditions. UAS has set up a lab- and the electrons and ions in the comet’s halo. oratory on hydroponics and students should make use of They were able to reproduce several features observed such facilities to increase the food productivity,” he said. by the Rosetta Mission, which followed and studied the As both the Chancellor and the Pro-Chancellor were ab- comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko for over two years sent, UAS Vice-Chancellor D.P. Biradar presided over in its orbit. the convocation, administered oath to the students and The electrons and protons belonging to the solar wind later handed over the degrees. react differently to comet’s magnetic field. The electrons, Of the 1,000 candidate’s conferred degrees at the con- being lighter are deflected easily and flow along the outer vocation, 802 received it in person and 198 in absentia. contours while the protons penetrate deeper and interact Forty four candidates received doctoral degrees, while with the inner regions of the comet. Thus solar-wind pro- 265 candidates received post-graduate degrees. tons are neutralised by the inner electrons of the comet, With 13 gold medals, Jemi Joseph of College of Agricul- and the solar-wind electrons flowing down the outer con- tural Sciences, Dharwad emerged the golden girl. Fatima tours neutralise the positive water ions of the comet. This Jehla P. bagged five gold medals in B.Sc Home Science. causes a charge transfer and momentum transfer lead- Ms. Joseph, a native of Ernakulam in Kerala, said that ing to the changes in the shape of the water-ion tail. she will focus on research and development in her at- The study can help scientists to understand the nature tempt to find solutions to the agrarian problems in Kerala. of the solar wind and also the structure and behaviour of comets. In comet 67P, a phenomenon which was labelled Comet simulation reveals the effect of the “singing comet” oscillations was observed. This is related to a fan-like filamentous structure in the lower portion of breath of the Sun the tail. The researchers speculate that further probing In our exploration of the space and the Sun, an important their simulation and model may be able to explain this aspect is to understand how emanated gases behave feature. when they are close to aspirantforum.comthe sun. To study this, a simula- tion of a comet interacting with solar wind has been made by researchers. The work, published in Physical Review Indian researchers develop 3D bioprinted Letters, reveals how the electrons and ions in the comet’s cartilage body interact with the electrons and protons in the solar Millions of people around the world suffer from degenera- Vol. 33 May 2017 33 May Vol. wind. This is interesting as comet observations have a tive joint diseases such as arthritis. Despite attempting

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for the last 30 years, scientists across the world have not growth factors. The optimisation of the silk-gelatin bioink been able to produce in the lab cartilage-like tissues that was done in such a manner that it activated two important are functionally and structurally similar to cartilages seen signalling pathways that are responsible for minimising in human knees and have load-bearing capacity. For the or inhibiting the conversion of the cartilage into bone-like first time, Indian researchers have been able to achieve tissue. a measure of success in developing cartilages that are “All earlier work never evaluated for the production of molecularly similar to the ones seen in human knees. articular or permanent cartilage, while we assessed and While scientists attempting to tissue-engineer cartilage found that our strategy leads to the production of perma- have focussed on growing cells on porous scaffolds, in a nent cartilage in the lab,” says Prof. Amitabha Bandyo- paradigm shift, a team led by Prof. Sourabh Ghosh from padhyay of Department of Biological Sciences and Bio- the Department of Textile Technology at the Indian Insti- engineering, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur, tute of Technology (IIT) Delhi has been successful in 3D and a corresponding author. bioprinting of cartilage using a bioink. Stem-cell like nature The bioink has high concentration of bone-marrow de- The team was able to achieve this by combining the tis- rived cartilage stem cells, silk proteins and a few factors. sue engineering and 3D bioprinting expertise at IIT Delhi The chemical composition of the bioink supports cell with developmental biology expertise at IIT Kanpur. Prof. growth and long-term survival of the cells. The cartilage Bandyopadhyay’s laboratory developed a well character- developed in the lab has remained physically stable for ised, novel cell line from bone-marrow stem cells. The cell up to six weeks. The results of the study were published line retained its stem cell-like nature even after months of in the journal Bioprinting. culturing under laboratory conditions. “This is the first study from India where any 3D bioprinted “As a next step, we would implant this 3D bioprinted car- tissue has been developed in a lab,” says Shikha Chawla tilage into the knee joints of animals to see if it remains from the Department of Textile Technology at IIT Delhi stable in the knee joint and is able to integrate with the and the first author of the paper. surrounding cartilage tissue,” says Prof. Ghosh. This “The silk protein has different amino acids that closely study also opens up platforms to use 3D bioprinted carti- resemble the amino acids present in human tissues. Just lage on in vitro model system for assessing drug delivery like cells are surrounded by proteins inside our body, the and pharmaceutical studies. cells in the engineered cartilage are also surrounded by bioink that has a similar composition,” says Prof. Ghosh, A new combination of drugs for combating who is one of the corresponding authors of the paper. Transient cartilage hepatitis C While the cartilage found in the knee is an articular car- Drugs that prevent entry of the Hepatitis C virus (HCV) tilage that is typically sponge-like and has a huge load- into the host cells are equally effective as other drugs, bearing capacity, the ones produced in the lab so far are finds a new study from the Indian Institute of Science of a different kind — transient cartilage. Unlike articular (IISc), Bengaluru, published recently in the Proceed- cartilage, transient cartilage becomes bone cells and, ings of the National Academy of Sciences. These drugs, therefore, brittle within a short time. As a result, the engi- called entry inhibitors, when combined with drugs that neered cartilage loses its capacity to bear huge load that prevent the multiplication of the virus inside the host cell, is typically encountered in the knee. or direct-acting antivirals, can be a potent combination for But the 3D bioprinting approach adopted by the team al- treating the infection.The Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infects lows the high concentration of bone-marrow derived car- the liver and spreads mainly through infected needles. tilage stem cells present in the bioink to gradually convert Estimates suggest up to 1% of the Indian population may to chondrocyte-like cells (specialised cells which produce be infected with HCV. A large number of afflicted people and maintain the extracellular matrix of cartilage). develop chronic infection, and sometimes even liver can- “We have succeeded in aspirantforum.comstopping this conversion of chon- cer. drocyte-like cells or stem cells into bone cells so that they A study published in early 2017 by Japanese researchers remain as stable articular cartilage,” says Prof. Ghosh. reported that a combination of three direct-acting antivi- This was done by optimising the bioink composition, rals was most powerful in treating the infection in the lab

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als. both inhibition of the virus and reducing the risk of drug They tested these drugs in the lab in cell culture systems resistance,” said Dr. Guruprasad Medigeshi, an associ- called HCV replicons, which have all the properties of the ate professor at the Translational Health Science and virus but do not have an outer structure. “A consequence Technology Institute (THSTI), who was not involved in of this was that they could test all the drugs that blocked the study. The original observations were extended by various steps in the replication process, but not drugs that mathematical modelling, which is turn was validated ex- could block the entry of the virus inside the cell,” said Dr. perimentally. It is, according to him, “a classic example of Narendra Dixit, professor in the Department of Chemical multidisciplinary research.” Engineering at IISc and a lead author of the new study. He and his student Pranesh Padmanabhan asked if the ISRO set to launch heaviest rocket rankings determined by the Japanese study are really the An indigenous rocket as heavy as 200 full-grown Asian best or if including the entry inhibitor drugs can actually elephants could well take “Indians into space from Indian change the optimum drug combinations. soil”. Standing tall on the rocket port at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh is the country’s latest rocket — the Geosynchro- nous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mark III (GSLV Mk- III) — the heaviest rocket ever made by India that is capable of carrying the heaviest satellites. “We are pushing ourselves to the limits to ensure that this new, fully self-reliant Indian rocket succeeds in its maid- en launch,” Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chairman A.S. Kiran Kumar said. If all goes well with the maiden launch of the GSLV-Mk III Mathematical analysis (earlier named Launch Vehicle Mark-3) and subsequent The IISc team mathematically analysed previously pub- flights, this rocket could be India’s vehicle of choice to lished data for entry inhibitors showing how infected cells launch “Indians into space, from Indian soil using Indian are affected when exposed to different doses of drugs rockets” he said. for a certain time. They showed that they could rank the The heavy lift rocket is capable of placing up to 8 tonne different entry inhibitor drugs on a scale, similar to that in a low Earth orbit, enough to carry India’s crew module. used for HIV drugs, instantly showing which drug was ISRO has already prepared plans of hoisting a two to more potent. three human crew into space as soon as the government Based on this ranking, they found the potency of the en- gives it a sanction of about $4 billion. try inhibitors spanned the range seen for direct acting an- If the human venture materialises, India would become tivirals, with some drugs being almost as powerful as the only the fourth country after Russia, the U.S. and China best direct-acting drugs. to have a human space flight programme. “Entry inhibitors are a big deal because these are also mimics of the antibodies that our body produces. That is one of the ways in which our immune system works,” ‘See-through’ frog is at risk of extinction said Prof. Dixit. Another advantage is that they reduce A newly identified frog species — with transparent skin the emergence of drug resistant mutations, a big disad- through which its beating heart is visible — is under vantage of direct-acting antivirals. threat of extinction. Considering this finding, the Japanese group who per- The frog ( Hyalinobatrachium yaku ), discovered in the formed the original drug-combination study added entry Amazonian lowlands of Ecuador, has unique physical inhibitors to their cocktail of drugs. They reported that and behavioural traits. a three-drug combinationaspirantforum.com that included an entry inhibi- The dark green spots on its back and its reproductive tor was equally powerful as the previous best three-drug behaviour mark it out as different from known frogs. combination. “Males guard the eggs, which are attached below a tree’s “Direct acting antivirals in combination with entry inhibi- leaves, until they hatch and fall on the water stream

Vol. 33 May 2017 33 May Vol. tors may further strengthen the armoury against HCV by below,” said Juan Guayasamin of the Universidad San

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Francisco de Quito in Ecuador. The reduced complexity and time within surgery provides “Not all glass frogs have hearts that are visible through an even greater advantage. the chest. In some, the heart itself is white, so you don’t It will allow the implant to be used in more cases and by see the red blood,” said Paul Hamilton, of Biodiversity more surgeons in more countries than current solutions. Group. The current surgical procedures used for repairing perfo- Habitat loss rated eardrums involves making grafts from the patient’s Glass frogs need pristine streams to breed in, research- own tissues and using specialised and delicate micro- ers said. “If the stream dries up, or becomes polluted, surgery techniques and applying them to the eardrum to the frogs can’t survive, and other more resilient creatures close the hole. may be next,” Mr. Hamilton said. Inexpensive method “We don’t yet know enough about the new species to The patient is quite often required to undergo multiple establish whether it is would be officially deemed as surgeries due to limitations of the current methods. threatened,” he explained. “We do know, however, that The new process is expected to be less expensive, less its habitat is rapidly disappearing. Oil production has ex- invasive and promising quicker healing of the ear drum. panded greatly in this species’ range and road building is rampant,” he added. Tissue-matched transplants offer hope to New ear implants made of silk can restore thalassemics Transplantation of a special kind of stem cells found in hearing the bone marrow has been the only curative option for In a first, scientists have used silkworms to create a tiny patients with thalassemia major (genetic inability to pro- silk implant that can enable a person’s damaged eardrum duce normal, adult haemoglobin leading to severe anae- to heal and help restore their hearing. mia). Since only 30-35% of such patients have a suitable Chronic Middle Ear Disease and the ensuing perforated tissue-matched donor in the family, a majority of them eardrums—commonly known as “burst eardrums”—im- rely on regular blood transfusions . pact millions around the world, causing hearing loss and A study at Chennai’s Apollo Speciality Cancer Hospital complications, including infections, which take the lives now gives hope to children who have no related donors. of nearly 30,000 people every year. Of the 25 thalassemia major patients, who underwent The infection can be difficult to contain resulting in dam- stem cell transplantation (from December 2012 to No- age to the eardrum and mastoid bone with hearing loss vember 2016) from tissue-matched unrelated donors, and pain occurring within the ear. none rejected the donated cells. Scientists are now closer to restoring hearing to patients The median age of the patients was five years (between with painful damaged eardrums by combining science one to 14.5 years). The results of the study were pub- and silkworms to create a tiny device known as Clear- lished in Pediatric Hematology Oncology Journal. Drum which is similar in appearance and size to a contact Even when there is perfect tissue match between a donor lens. and recipient, there is a 5-10% risk of rejection of the do- The technique is the result of exhaustive design, manu- nated stem cells by the patient’s immune system. Thalas- facturing, testing and analysis, researchers said. semia patients undergo several blood transfusions and The team, led by Marcus Atlas from Ear Science Institute antibodies from several donors remain in the patient’s Australia, has created a tiny bio-compatible silk implant body and are responsible for rejection. on which the patient’s own cells grow and flourish result- While 60% of the children suffered from acute graft versus ing in a healed eardrum. host disease (a complication that arises when the trans- Better than original planted tissue is genetically different from the host’s) only Tested over numerous years, the implant shows the abil- two patients died due to this; none suffered from chronic, ity to perform even betteraspirantforum.com than a person’s original ear- extensive graft versus host disease. drum. “The two patients who died did not have a perfect tis- Atlas said that the bio-compatibility, strength and trans- sue match,” says Dr. Revathy Raj, Senior Consultant at parency of the implant provide an advantage for the pa- Apollo Speciality Cancer Hospital and one of the authors Vol. 33 May 2017 33 May Vol. tient that has never been seen before. of the paper.

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The probability of surviving nearly three years after stem cell transplantation was 95%. The study found that as long as high tissue compatibility between a donor and the recipient is maintained, stem cells from unrelated donors can be used for curing thalassemia major. Survival rate “Our study found that children who underwent tissue matched unrelated stem cell transplantation had the same sur- vival rate as children with a family-matched donor,” says Dr. Raj. “Stem cell transplantations from perfectly tissue matched, unrelated donors are done in multiple centers in the coun- try. Results from tissue matched, unrelated donor transplantations are steadily improving and becoming comparable to tissue matched related donors,” says Dr. Vikram Mathews, Professor and Head at the Department of Haematology, CMC Vellore. Talking about the caveats, Dr. Mathews says: “These results have to be kept with the risk profile of the patients in mind. Good results can be anticipated in the case of young and good-risk patients and should not be generalised to all patients.”

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has also begun. But the project has come up against a major stumbling Misc. News block as Mr. Collado’s team has yet to get the green light to access the French caves — 18 months after sending their first letter to the culture ministry. and Events “We’re on standby,” he concludes impatiently. A Spanish quest to unlock ancient secrets It’s dark and surprisingly warm in a cave in western Spain Bezbaruah named Tea Board chairman that hides our most intimate connection to the prehistoric P. K. Bezbaruah will take over as the chairman of the past — hand silhouettes painted tens of thousands of Tea Board of India, filling up a post lying vacant since years ago. M.G.V.K. Bhanu left three years ago. Archaeologist Hipolito Collado and his team had not His appointment would mark the first such instance of an entered the Maltravieso Cave in the city of Caceres for industry representative being appointed to the top-post of close to a year to avoid damaging the 57 faded hands the regulatory body. He is presently the chairman of the that adorn the walls, precious remnants of a far-flung Tea Research Association piece of history we know little about. “I will act as a bridge between all the stakeholders” Mr. Why did our ancestors or distant relatives paint hands Bezbaruah told The Hindu from Assam. Alumni of IIM in caves? Was it merely to make their mark, or part of a Calcutta and the Wharton School of Business, he joined ritual to commune with spirits? his family’s tea business after a stint with the Bank of Do they tell us anything about the role of women during America. “There has to be a positive correlation between the Paleolithic era that ended some 10,000 years ago? price and quality. The role between the estates and the And why are some fingers missing? STG should be that of a partnership rather than adver- In a bid to unlock some of these mysteries, Mr. Collado, sarial,” he said. He also flagged the development of the head of archaeology for the government of the Extrema- small tea grower sectors as an important focus area. dura region where Caceres is located, has set out to cat- alogue all of Europe’s prehistoric painted hands. Crouch- ing under low hanging rocks or abseiling down crags, he ‘Land acquisition is the biggest problem here’ and other archaeologists have been going from cave to ‘Japanese firms must take up projects directly with cave, taking scans and high-resolution photos of all the States’ hands they encounter. The atmosphere for India-Japan business ties is continu- They then post them in detailed, 3D format in a free-to- ously improving, Japanese Ambassador to India Kenji use online database, as part of an EU-funded project Hiramatsusaid, although he does agree that it is invest- called Handpas. ment, not trade, that is increasing at present . Awaiting a breakthrough PM Abe will be visiting India later this year as The idea is for researchers anywhere in the world to be part of our annual high-level exchanges. What able to examine them all in one place without having to will be the focus of bilateral ties this year? visit every cave or gain access to those closed for con- The important thing is to diligently follow up on what we servation, in the hope of producing a breakthrough. have already agreed. Japan’s continuous focus is on “It’s about making inaccessible art accessible,” says Mr. doubling investments as our PMs agreed a few years Collado, as he checks sensors for any change in CO2 ago, and we have pledged about 3.5 trillion Japanese levels, temperature or humidity since he last visited the Yen in public and private financing coming to India, so meandering, cramped cave. we have to take every possible measure to ensure our According to Mr. Collado, a Spaniard who is also head of targets will be achieved. the International Federationaspirantforum.com of Rock Art Organizations, In 2014, the Centre announced a special desk to stream- painted hands have been found in 36 caves in Europe — line the way for Japanese investment. Has that worked? all in France, Spain and Italy. Also, despite the levels of investment, there is a sense Some also contain animal drawings and fossils but his that the pace of Japanese decisions on investment is slow…

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rapidly growing Indian market, and we have excellent Japan is now a declining population, and ageing popula- engineers and workforce and hi-tech and finance pos- tion. We would like to attract a well-qualified workforce sibilities. The Japan desk is a one-stop kind of place that from overseas, like Indian IT professionals, and we wel- connects investors to their counterparts. So the business come them. environment here is improving. You may think that Japa- nese companies sometimes take time in reaching a deci- ISRO gets Indira Gandhi Prize for 2014 sion, are cautious. The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) was This is not just for the Indian market, but globally, there is presented with the Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disar- this kind of tendency. But if they promise, they keep their mament and Development for the year 2014. The prize promise. I hope Indian business leaders understand this, was presented to ISRO Chairman A.S. Kiran Kumar by but I do agree that we should take some risks and have former Prime Minister and Indira Gandhi Memorial Trust speedier decision-making. (IGMT) trustee Dr. Manmohan Singh. What about projects themselves? Is land ac- The ISRO was selected for the prize in 2014 by a jury quisition the biggest issue on this side? headed by Vice-President Hamid Ansari. It consists of a I think the situation is improving, but when we try to im- trophy made of banded Haematite Jasper, with a portrait plement large projects we do find that land acquisition is of the late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in Jaipur minia- the biggest problem. So we recommend that Japanese ture paintings, a cash award of Rs. 1 crore and a citation, companies should look at “investment township” projects the IGMT said in a statement. directly with state governments who can then facilitate the land acquisition, for SEZs. For huge infrastructure projects like Railway projects too, it is for the state governments to ensure that land acquisi- tion goes ahead smoothly. Specifically on the Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor, Ja- pan decided to focus on individual projects rather than fund the corridor as a whole due to land acquisition is- sues along the way. Has that slowed down the DMIC? Yes. On the DMIC we had expected the projects to be implemented more rapidly. Some of the investors are in- terested in township projects facilitated by the govern- The citation read: “The International Jury… awarded the ment, some in the dedicated freight corridor project. We prize in recognition of its path-breaking achievements, encountered difficulties in acquiring land, but after a lot culminating in the Mars Orbiter Mission and its contribu- of discussion we could come up with some solutions. In tions in strengthening international cooperation...” the last 1-2 years, the DMIC project is getting energised. You sound optimistic, but if I may speak about trade fig- ures, which have declined since a peak of $18.5 billion in Japan plans war museum in a Manipur 2012 to about $15 billion today. If things are getting bet- hillock ter, why is trade declining? Japan plans to build a war museum in a hillock at Maiba Firstly, investment figures are clearly increasing, and they Lokpa in Bishnupur district of Manipur where a Japa- help to make in India and with employment in India as nese camp was located during the Second World War, well as in transferring technology. I think there are many the country’s Ambassador to India, Kenji Hiramatsu, said products, spare parts that are now increasingly being here. made in India, which is why trade is declining. Neverthe- Mr. Hiramatsu said about 70,000 Japanese soldiers died less the increase in investments from Japan is dramatic from March to June in 1944 during battles in Imphal and and Japan is the biggestaspirantforum.com investor in the manufacturing Kohima. He said the mortal remains of those soldiers sector. In service and retail sectors, the investment is ex- would be located for the last rites, seeking the coopera- panding. tion of the people in the region. Will there be more opportunities for Indian IT The Ambassador said that 25 persons from Nagaland Vol. 33 May 2017 33 May Vol. professionals in Japan? and Manipur would be invited to visit Japan.

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A seminar would also be organised in November to help seem viewing Fatih Akin’sAus Dem Nichts ( In the Fade students interested in pursuing studies in Japan. ) in Cannes. After a metaphorical, magic realist turn on Welcoming the museum plans, Manipur Chief Minister N. the refugee experience in Kornel Mundruczo’s Jupiter’s Biren Singh promised assistance to the Japanese gov- Moon,Akin’s In The Fade offers a straightforward, dra- ernment for implementing the project. matic, conflict-driven take on the immigrant life,- some thing Akin has been constantly engaging with in his films. World’s largest aircraft completes test flight The vision broadens here in that the film is not so much The world’s largest aircraft has successfully completed a about the immigrant Turk Nuri Sekerci as it is about Katja test flight, bringing the massive helium-filled airship one Sekerci, the German he marries. step closer to commercial use. It starts out strong — riding splendidly on Diane Kruger’s The hybrid aircraft dubbed the Airlander 10 combines Katja — about what it means to lose your family to mind- technology from airplanes, helicopters and airships. It is less violence, when the only thing left to hope for is that designed to fly at altitudes of 6,100 metres for up to five they didn’t suffer too much in death. days when manned. With a length of 92 metres, it is the The film is about the victims of violence themselves being largest aircraft currently flying, Live Science reported. in the eye of suspicion because they happen to be immi- grants with a past record. It’s as much about dealing with personal grief as it is about the political injustices that Sukhoi fighter goes missing in Tezpur come in its wake. It’s also about the dangerous rise of re- A Sukhoi Su-30MKI fighter jet with two pilots on a routine actionary forces the world over, in this case Neo-Nazism. training mission from the Tezpur airbase in Assam went However, bit by bit, Akin loses the plot, the narrative gets missing . steadily superficial and simplistic — the broad brush with The Indian Air Force is conducting a search-and-rescue which he paints the good Germans versus the bad ones, operation to locate the pilots and the aircraft. for instance. The control station lost radar and radio contact with the India calling jet around 11.10 a.m., an IAF source said. At the Cannes Marche du Cinema (Film Market), there Its last reported position was 60 km north-west of Tezpur. was a prominent poster from India’s Ministry of Informa- The jet, which was on a training mission as part of a two- tion and Broadcasting calling filmmakers from across the aircraft formation, was declared overdue and the search- world to come shoot in Incredible India. The Ministry’s and-rescue operation launched, the official said. aim this year has been to promote the ‘Film in India’ initia- The IAF has sought help from the civil administration and tive of the Film Facilitation Office (FFO). the military. Seven of the Su-30MKIs, the most modern The aim of FFO is to ease and simplify filming in India. fighters with the IAF, have crashed since their induction Some of these initiatives include the initiation of a Film in 1997. The last accident was in March. Visa and a single window clearance facility for requisite India has entered into a contract with Russia for 272 of permissions and for providing information on locations, these jets, of which over 240 have been inducted. talent and facilities available in India for production and post-production. Another priority has been to attract films and filmmakers to the International Film Festival ofIn- Taiwan becomes 1st in Asia to recognize dia (IFFI) and the Film Bazaar in Goa. Buzz has it that same-sex marriage Canada could be the partner country for IFFI this year. In a first for Asia, Taiwan’s Constitutional Court ruled in The National Film Development Corporation of India has favour of same-sex marriage, punctuating a years-long tied up with Marco Muller, artistic director of Pingyao In- campaign by advocates for gay rights in one of the conti- ternational Film Festival, to introduce these initiatives to nent’s most liberal democracies. The ruling was greeted international filmmakers. with rapturous applauseaspirantforum.com outside the legislature near the On the sidelines, FICCI set up base for one-to-one meet- court in the capital’s centre. ings between buyers and sellers in conjunction with the SEPC (Services Export Promotion Council) with focus on film, entertainment and audio-visual media as a signifi- Refugee story: the personal is political cant services export sector.

Vol. 33 May 2017 33 May Vol. Desperate times beget desperate politics. So it would

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IBM Cloud eyes ‘small business’ IBM India has announced plans to focus on small and medium enterprises to drive growth in its Cloud business. “We already have large customers. But now we see very small customers getting into Cloud,” said Vikas Arora, country manager, Cloud Business, IBM India & South Asia. “We are seeing that there is a whole new spectrum of customer’s available right at the lower end of the pyramid.” “In the Cloud journey, we are increasingly becoming very relevant to small businesses, which are getting their first taste of IT in the form of Cloud. This is our focus area for now,” Mr. Arora said in an interview on the sidelines of the India Cloud Forum in Mumbai. Traditionally, the company has a stronghold in the BFSI, manufacturing, retail, telecom and healthcare sectors, but now small enterprises are offering large business opportunities. “Now, there is a different kind of customer coming on board. The spectrum is growing and is becoming much wider,” he said. The new customers are from the education, fintech start-ups, diagnostic labs and logistics sectors, to name a few.

Security firm TOPSGRUP forays into home services TOPSGRUP, a leading security services provider with more than 1,30,000 employees, has diversified into ‘on de- mand’ home services segment to provide ‘reliable and trustworthy’ home service providers in key cities across India, and to compete with firms like Urbanclap and Zimmber. The company will provide ‘verified and properly screened’ plumbers, carpenters, electricians, cleaners, tutors, fitness trainers and babysitters for households. The company has unveiled an app called CHEEP which will connect consum- ers with the required home service professionals. To begin with, the service will be made available in seven locations in Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru regions. It will be scaled up to 20 cities by mid-August. The company has invested Rs. 15 crore in this venture and more than 15,000 home service providers have already come on board, said Diwan Rahul Nanda, chairman, TOPSGRUP and founder of CHEEP. ‘Verified’ services “In modern times finding trusted, qualified and verified domestic services is a major challenge. With CHEEP we are bridging the gap between consumers and service providers who have all been verified and trusted,” Mr. Nanda said. “We have ensured ultimate security with thorough background checks of all the professionals. Our security back- ground has helped,” he said. “Our vision is to take CHEEP all over the world. We have immediate plans to make the app available in Abu Dhabi, Dhaka, Dubai, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore this year and take it to Europe, Canada and Australia in 2018,” he added. “The idea behind the app is to provide genuine and safe services at your fingertips,” said Rasshi Nanda, vice presi- dent marketing & co-founder, CHEEP. “We enable our users to scan through individual profiles of listed service pro- viders, take a look at their work history and reviews, speak directly with the service professionals and book the task once they are happy with their choice.”

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