CURRENT AFFAIRS Newspaper Analysis and Summary – 18th October 2014 NATIONAL Flight trial of Nirbhay successful – The Hindu Boosting India’s plan to enhance strategic deterrence capability, the first long-range sub- sonic cruise missile, Nirbhay (fearless), was test-fired for a range of over 1,000 km from the Integrated Test Range here on Friday. The success came in the second flight trial as the first had to be terminated midway in March last year after it deviated from the pre-designated trajectory. The tree-top, low-altitude flying missile, which can evade radars, was fired from a canister- based mobile launcher from Launch Complex-3 here at 10.05 a.m. After it took off vertically like a rocket, the first-stage rocket booster got jettisoned within seconds at an altitude of 100 metres and the wings got deployed as the missile tilted horizontally. Around the same time, the turboprop engine kicked in and provided thrust to the missile which began cruising like an aircraft at a speed of Mach 0.7. Cruising at an altitude of 4.8 km, Nirbhay then performed a series of manoeuvres and navigated along 15 waypoints using a state-of-the-art inertial navigation system during its flight of one hour and 10 minutes. As the missile, carrying a dummy payload of 350 kg, dived near the impact point in the Bay of Bengal with a great degree of accuracy after performing three loops, the Block House at the test range reverberated with thunderous applause and elated shouts. Scientific Adviser to Defence Minister and Defence Research and Development Organisation’s Director-General Avinash Chander and other top scientists congratulated one another. The fire-and-forget missile developed by the DRDO’s Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE), Bangalore, can carry both nuclear and conventional warheads to a distance of over 1,000 km. Research Centre Imarat, another key DRDO laboratory, provided the avionics, while the Defence Research and Development Laboratory (DRDL) helped with the propulsion. Nirbhay has the capability to pick out its target from multiple structures. Describing it as an equivalent to the Tomahawk cruise missile of the U.S., DRDO scientists said it would bridge the critical gap for a long-range sub-sonic cruise missile. Dr. Chander told presspersons that it was a “great moment” and that the missile performed better than expected (although the scientists planned for a range of 900 km, the missile continued its cruise till the fuel was over and covered a distance of more than 1,000 km). www.indiancivils.com An Online IAS Academy Page 1 CURRENT AFFAIRS Dr. K. Tamilmani, Director-General (Aeronautical Systems), DRDO, said this would be the basis for improved cruise missiles. The technology evolved could be adapted for higher ranges. Scheme to check blindness under review – The Hindu With 30,000 fresh cases of blindness being reported in the country every year, Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare Harsh Vardhan has announced a review of the National Programme for Control of Blindness (NPCB). A Centrally-funded scheme, the NPCB was launched in 1976 to reduce the prevalence of blindness. “However, the rate has not shown appreciable difference even after 28 years,” the Minister noted in Bangalore on Thursday. The Rapid Survey on Avoidable Blindness conducted during 2006-07 showed a reduction in the prevalence of avoidable blindness from 1.1 per cent in 2000 to one per cent in 2006. The NPCB has now targeted to bring down the prevalence of blindness to 0.3 per cent by 2020 from the present level of one per cent. While he is pushing for the full utilisation of funds earmarked for the NPCB for the 12th Plan period (2012-17) with the State governments, the Minister is also seeking the help of non-government organisations to promote eye donation. “There are many lapses on the part of both donors’ families and eye banks in implementing the wishes of a donor. Often the bereaved family members forget to call the eye banks. At other times, the collectors fail to turn up on time,” he said at a function. Appreciating the concept of ‘vision ambassadors’ — volunteers who act as link between donors and eye banks — being followed in Bangalore, the Minister said it should be replicated. India has the largest burden of global blindness — about 3.5 million with 30,000 new cases being added each year. Arvind Subramanian seen to be a reformist at heart – The Hindu Chief Economic Adviser Arvind Subramanian’s free-market convictions dominate his academic work and do not conform to the nationalist and protectionist streak among the leadership of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the ideological mentor of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party. But his academic views are unlikely to dictate his policy prescriptions, top government sources told The Hindu . “Academic studies guide policy formulations, but policies are not dictated by it. The final policy decisions will always be made by the political executive with inputs and advice from the CEA,” one source said. www.indiancivils.com An Online IAS Academy Page 2 CURRENT AFFAIRS The senior government functionary explained that Dr. Subramanian’s appointment indicated a trend of internationally acclaimed experts of Indian origin offering to work in India. “Dr. Subramanian’s track record is extraordinary,” he pointed out. Raghuram Rajan, former CEA and now Reserve Bank Governor, also left his position of Chief Economist at the International Monetary Fund to work in the Indian government. Both were colleagues at the IMF. Dr. Subramanian is a reformist at heart and stands for open, liberal but transparently regulated markets, economist Rajiv Kumar told The Hindu . He will bring to the job emphasis on de-bottlenecking of the supply side and since he favours free trade he will most likely push for increasing India’s exports and for the domestic sector to be less clogged with regulation. Though few CEAs have traditionally majorly influenced policy-making, Dr. Subramanian has the advantage of being more than a pure academician having worked in the IMF and World Bank systems due to which “he is likely to be a more successful CEA in the midst of the government system and not at the margins of it, marginalised by the bureaucracy,” said Dr. Kumar. Though how much this influence will be will depend on his rapport with the Finance Minister and the Prime Minister. Dr. Subramanian’s approach is thus in sync with the core of the Modi government’s stated intentions of liberalisation and transparent regulation. CEAs typically define their roles within the government framework which is constrained among other imperatives by political compulsions and Dr. Subramanian is not likely to be different. He has shown pragmatism in his critiques of the Modi government’s decisions. For instance, he wrote about the delay in implementing the increase in natural gas prices that is likely to benefit private contractors such as Reliance in the KG Basin: “An increase in natural gas prices is essential. But controversy on the pricing formula, as well as the Kejriwal critique of cronyism to which this government is sensitive, probably justifies additional reflection and time before action is implemented.” Budgetary accounting Certain other decisions he rejected completely. For instance, he wrote that the Modi government’s maiden budget should have come clean on budgetary accounting, even if this meant accepting the higher deficit number rather than retaining the UPA government’s fiscal arithmetic that included artificially reduced or deferred expenditures by up to 0.3 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product. Some of the budget numbers he found ‘implausible.’ “Tax revenues are projected to grow by nearly 20 per cent. That defies credibility given that nominal GDP growth is unlikely to exceed 13 to 14 per cent (9 percent for inflation plus 5 per cent for real GDP growth),” he wrote, cautioning that transparency and credible www.indiancivils.com An Online IAS Academy Page 3 CURRENT AFFAIRS numbers evoke confidence and unreliable numbers will eventually elicit cynicism and since good governance was supposed to distinguish this government from its predecessor the budget should at least have started reducing the aggregate fiscal deficit by 0.3 to 0.5 percentage points. Similarly, he differed with the Modi government’s refusal to ratify the World Trade Organization’s proposed Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA) unless it makes ‘satisfactory’ progress on the food security proposal crucial to protecting India’s minimum support prices for its farmers. “… supporting agriculture is valid, but no, the tactic at the WTO negotiations may be less so ... Food subsidies and even income support to poor farmers should gradually be replaced by cash transfers but since this takes ages, India should try to change WTO obligations itself,” he wrote, adding that India should withdraw its opposition to the TFA, reformulate its position on agriculture, proceed to persuade its partners of the merits and fairness of its new position, and revisit this issue at the WTO in the near future. Dr. Subramanian had also warned that if the Bali deal collapses, the blow to an already weak WTO would be significant and India would bear much of the blame. Since it didn’t pay heed to this advice, the government has landed the WTO deal in the situation he had cautioned against. He highlighted the problems in hiking sugar subsidies and import duties on sugar. “Aimed at appeasing the sugar lobby in Maharashtra but also in Uttar Pradesh, this measure is problematic… Apart from its many problems, it leads to water-intensive and water-wasting resource allocation, which is bad for the medium term given India’s plunging water tables.