1)Project Loon:- Balloon-Powered Internet For Everyone
- What is Project Loon? :-
- Many of us think of the Internet as a global community. But two-thirds of the world’s population does not yet have Internet access. Project Loon is a network of balloons traveling on the edge of space, designed to connect people in rural and remote areas, help fill coverage gaps, and bring people back online after disasters
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The technology
Project Loon balloons float in the stratosphere, twice as high as airplanes and the weather. In the stratosphere, there are many layers of wind, and each layer of wind varies in direction and speed. Loon balloons go where they’re needed by rising or descending into a layer of wind blowing in the desired direction of travel. By partnering with Telecommunications companies to share cellular spectrum we’ve enabled people to connect to the balloon network directly from their phones and other LTE-enabled devices. The signal is then passed across the balloon network and back down to the global Internet on Earth.Project Loon began in June 2013 with an experimental pilot in New Zealand, where a small group of Project Loon pioneers tested Loon technology. The results of the pilot test, as well as subsequent tests in New Zealand, California’s Central Valley and in Northeast Brazil, are being used to improve the technology in preparation for the next stages of the project.
What is the importance of Loon from India’s Point of View :-
From Indian perspective project of this magnitude is important, the reasons are simple:-
For “Digital India” initiative it gives immense opportunities that can be realized in a very short span of time.The alternative to this is physical /broadband connectivity that needs physical infrastructure. Physical infrastructure takes time to build and includes high maintenance cost.It is easy to float a thousand balloons than to build lakhs of kms of digital infrastructure.The only challenge is the the demand of sophisticated engineering of higher order needed for Project Loon.
It is also poses serious questions of it’s geopolitical implication .Google is dominant in the internet arena and the invasion of “Right to Privacy” is a serious concern.This balloon can act as the eye on the sky owned by a particular private organization. And, in the age of “Data” , project of this magnitude should be understood and analyzed properly , else in the garb of science we might loose our edge on National security and our National interest might be subjugated.Hence for a project of this nature , while one can happily embrace science , one must be cautious about it’s future implications , and then there is the larger question of cyber terrorism – which has potential to bring a country to it’s knees .
We know that blocking river water , putting economic sanctions or withdrawing diplomatic support has been the way of exercising geopolitical power , however , in the age of data – it will be of no wonder , if internet blackout is used as tool of geopolitics and this project and implication , thus needs a holistic understanding from various arena – policy maker, cyber expert, scientist, physicist, climate engineers etc.
2)BIS elects Raghuram Rajan as its vice-chairman:-
Raghuram Rajan has been elected vice-chairman of the Bank of International Settlement (BIS). Mr. Rajan will have a three-year term as vice-chairman of the BIS.
BIS:-
The mission of the BIS is to serve central banks in their pursuit of monetary and financial stability, to foster international cooperation in those areas and to act as a bank for central banks.(For e.g.- The way RBI in India looks after monetary policy and liquidity , in the same way , in a globalized and interconnected economy, which has few reserve currency and most payments are made in dollar , it is necessary to have an institution such as BIS , which looks after global liquidity and stability of global monetary policy.
The BIS has 60 member central banks, representing countries from around the world that together make up about 95% of world GDP
This bank was created as part of ” Treaty of Versailles“*
*Treaty of Versailles:-
The Treaty of Versailles was one of the peace treaties at the end of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers.The condition of this treaty was too harsh upon the German (huge monetary penalty was imposed on German to pay to other countries , for being an aggressor ) and many historians claim that the seeds of World War II and rise of Hitler were sown with the imposition of this treaty.
To read about Reserve Currency :- Click Here
3)India Signs MoUs with six countries in the International Civil Aviation Negotiations :-
Note – Largely news of this nature is mostly fodder material for other recruitment exams and not for UPSC. However , the burden of UPSC aspirant is to know everything , if not in detail , at least in principle.As many aspirants rely upon us, we can’t discredit news like this , even though we believe it may not be as useful. We request you to go through the literature at least once. One never knows how it might help. If it does not help in prelims, it might help in adding points to your Mains answer, as in this case for Indian Aviation sector .
- ICAN (International Civil Aviation Negotiations),2015 was held in Antalya, Turkey from 19th to 23rdOctober,2015. The Conference was attended by 106 countries out of ICAO membership of 191 countries
- The Indian delegation representing Ministry of Civil Aviation participated in the Conference and negotiated with the delegations from 11 countries. During these negotiations,“Memorandum of Understanding (MoU)” was signed with six countries namely Finland, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Sweden, Norway &Denmark, Oman and Ethiopia and “Agreed Minutes”with Serbia, Greece, European Commission and “Record of Discussions” with Brunei Darussalam and Qatar.
4)Environment Minister Launches New Website on Climate Change :-
- Union Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change has launched a new website – www.justclimateaction.org
- The website is launched in the run up to upcoming “Paris Conference”.
The in-depth analysis of “India-Climate Change- INDC and Paris Conference” has already been covered by us :- Click Here
5)Agriculture Revival:-
- Y S P Thorat (Former NABARD head) and R Gopalakrishnan has suggested few reforms that may help in Agriculture sector:-
- Reforms proposed:-
- Holistic Plan to be based on 5 Pillars:- Technology, Risk, Institutions, Policy and Skills (TRIPS)
- Krishi Aayog should be created on the lines of NITI Aayog
- Key features should be promoting innovative research, funding projects and capacity building, focus on products or solutions for specific agricultural problems, thrust on networking and meaningful collaborations, between the public and private institutions, outcome-oriented, coupled with measurable milestones, leveraging the state’s extension machinery to promote modern technologies and streamlining of current responsibilities
- Rules and regulations governing the exchange of plant parts and tissues, and export of research material, including seeds, need to be clear.
- Strengthening agriculture financing and risk institutions
- Crop Insurance:-The new crop insurance scheme should be based on a financially sustainable model. It should gain farmers’ trust through science-based, fast and affordable crop insurance. For this to be effective, farmers’ land records should be digitised through handheld GPS, leveraging technologies like drones, radar-based sensing and low earth orbits to monitor and assess crop damage in real-time, plus crop modelling for each block on the basis of weather parameters. The insurance product should cover market risks for all crops.
- National Agriculture Policy, with a focus on productivity-linked growth. It should propagate a new approach to all areas – fertiliser, pesticides, marketing, mechanisation, extension services, foodgrain management and so forth
- A national agriculture market would be there, guaranteeing unfettered access to an integrated, regulated and transparent pan-India market. All wholesale markets would be linked through national commodity exchanges, via electronic platforms
- There is an urgent need to actively promote farmer-producer organisations or FPOs and start a concept of Agriculture Technical Training Institutions on the lines of Industrial training Institutes (it is) to train rural youth in modern practices and in entrepreneurship.
- Use IT for agriculture, wider dissemination of crop insurance, rapid financial inclusion can go a long way in risk mitigation.
- Reforms proposed:-
Mind Map:-
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Steve Ovett, the famous British middle-distance athlete, won the 800-metres gold medal at the Moscow Olympics of 1980. Just a few days later, he was about to win a 5,000-metres race at London’s Crystal Palace. Known for his burst of acceleration on the home stretch, he had supreme confidence in his ability to out-sprint rivals. With the final 100 metres remaining,
[wptelegram-join-channel link=”https://t.me/s/upsctree” text=”Join @upsctree on Telegram”]Ovett waved to the crowd and raised a hand in triumph. But he had celebrated a bit too early. At the finishing line, Ireland’s John Treacy edged past Ovett. For those few moments, Ovett had lost his sense of reality and ignored the possibility of a negative event.
This analogy works well for the India story and our policy failures , including during the ongoing covid pandemic. While we have never been as well prepared or had significant successes in terms of growth stability as Ovett did in his illustrious running career, we tend to celebrate too early. Indeed, we have done so many times before.
It is as if we’re convinced that India is destined for greater heights, come what may, and so we never run through the finish line. Do we and our policymakers suffer from a collective optimism bias, which, as the Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman once wrote, “may well be the most significant of the cognitive biases”? The optimism bias arises from mistaken beliefs which form expectations that are better than the reality. It makes us underestimate chances of a negative outcome and ignore warnings repeatedly.
The Indian economy had a dream run for five years from 2003-04 to 2007-08, with an average annual growth rate of around 9%. Many believed that India was on its way to clocking consistent double-digit growth and comparisons with China were rife. It was conveniently overlooked that this output expansion had come mainly came from a few sectors: automobiles, telecom and business services.
Indians were made to believe that we could sprint without high-quality education, healthcare, infrastructure or banking sectors, which form the backbone of any stable economy. The plan was to build them as we went along, but then in the euphoria of short-term success, it got lost.
India’s exports of goods grew from $20 billion in 1990-91 to over $310 billion in 2019-20. Looking at these absolute figures it would seem as if India has arrived on the world stage. However, India’s share of global trade has moved up only marginally. Even now, the country accounts for less than 2% of the world’s goods exports.
More importantly, hidden behind this performance was the role played by one sector that should have never made it to India’s list of exports—refined petroleum. The share of refined petroleum exports in India’s goods exports increased from 1.4% in 1996-97 to over 18% in 2011-12.
An import-intensive sector with low labour intensity, exports of refined petroleum zoomed because of the then policy regime of a retail price ceiling on petroleum products in the domestic market. While we have done well in the export of services, our share is still less than 4% of world exports.
India seemed to emerge from the 2008 global financial crisis relatively unscathed. But, a temporary demand push had played a role in the revival—the incomes of many households, both rural and urban, had shot up. Fiscal stimulus to the rural economy and implementation of the Sixth Pay Commission scales had led to the salaries of around 20% of organized-sector employees jumping up. We celebrated, but once again, neither did we resolve the crisis brewing elsewhere in India’s banking sector, nor did we improve our capacity for healthcare or quality education.
Employment saw little economy-wide growth in our boom years. Manufacturing jobs, if anything, shrank. But we continued to celebrate. Youth flocked to low-productivity service-sector jobs, such as those in hotels and restaurants, security and other services. The dependence on such jobs on one hand and high-skilled services on the other was bound to make Indian society more unequal.
And then, there is agriculture, an elephant in the room. If and when farm-sector reforms get implemented, celebrations would once again be premature. The vast majority of India’s farmers have small plots of land, and though these farms are at least as productive as larger ones, net absolute incomes from small plots can only be meagre.
A further rise in farm productivity and consequent increase in supply, if not matched by a demand rise, especially with access to export markets, would result in downward pressure on market prices for farm produce and a further decline in the net incomes of small farmers.
We should learn from what John Treacy did right. He didn’t give up, and pushed for the finish line like it was his only chance at winning. Treacy had years of long-distance practice. The same goes for our economy. A long grind is required to build up its base before we can win and celebrate. And Ovett did not blame anyone for his loss. We play the blame game. Everyone else, right from China and the US to ‘greedy corporates’, seems to be responsible for our failures.
We have lowered absolute poverty levels and had technology-based successes like Aadhaar and digital access to public services. But there are no short cuts to good quality and adequate healthcare and education services. We must remain optimistic but stay firmly away from the optimism bias.
In the end, it is not about how we start, but how we finish. The disastrous second wave of covid and our inability to manage it is a ghastly reminder of this fact.