India has one of the largest constellations of remote sensing satellites with 17 satellites in operation. These satellites provide huge data at various spatial, spectral and temporal resolutions at national and global levels and have been utilized in various diverse application areas – agriculture and soils; bio resource and environment; cartographic mapping; geology and mineral resources; ocean and meteorology; urban and rural development; water resources; natural resource census; disaster management and climate change.
Following are the current operational Indian Earth Observation Satellites:
RESOURCESAT-2A, 1 and 2
RESOURCESAT-2A launched on December 7, 2016 for earth resource monitoring. It is a follow on mission of previously launched RESOURCESAT satellites (RESOURCESAT-1 and RESOURCESAT-2) and has similar sensors – LISS-IV (5.8m resolution), LISS-III (23.5m resolution) and AWiFS (56m resolution).
CARTOSAT-2 Satellite Series
Photo Courtesy – ISRO – First Day Multispectral Image (1.6m resolution) from CARTOSAT-2 series satellite launched on Feb 15, 2017
Photo Courtesy – ISRO – First Day Panchromatic Image (0.6m resolution) from CARTOSAT-2 series satellite launched on 15 Feb 2017
CARTOSAT-1 Recently launched on February 15, 2017 by Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), is similar to earlier four CARTOSAT-2 series satellites (CARTOSAT-2, 2A, 2B, and CARTOSAT-2 series). It is providing high resolution data in panchromatic and as well as in multispectral bands. It is useful for cartographic applications, utility management like road network monitoring, water distribution, creation of land use maps, change detection, etc.
Launched (May, 2005) for cartographic mapping applications, it provides stereo images for digital elevation models, ortho image products and other products at 2.5 m resolution.
RISAT-1 and RISAT-2
Photo Courtesy – ISRO
Radar Satellite (RISAT-1 and 2) are the microwave remote sensing satellite imaging of surface features during both day and night under all weather conditions. Their application includes agriculture monitoring and natural disasters management.
SCATSAT-1
Photo Courtesy – ISRO
SCATSAT-1 was launched in September 2016 as a continuity mission for Oceansat-2 Scatterometer. It provides the wind vector data products for weather forecasting, cyclone detection and tracking services.
OCEANSAT-2
Photo Courtesy – ISRO
Oceansat-2 launched on September 2009 provides continuity to operational services of Oceansat-1 with enhanced oceanographic studies.
Megha Tropiques
It was launched in October 2011 under an Indo-French Joint Satellite Mission for studying the water cycle and energy exchanges in the tropics. It provides data on condensed water in clouds, water vapour in the atmosphere, precipitation, and evaporation.
SARAL
SARAL/AiltKa wind speed around coastal regions of India Photo Courtesy : Meteorological & Oceanographic Satellite Data Archival Centre, Space Applications Centre, ISRO
Satellite with ARGOS and ALTIKA (SARAL) was launched in February 2013 for oceanographic studies like OCEANSAT. It basically carries out altimetric measurements to study ocean circulation and sea surface elevation.
INSAT-3DR, INSAT-3D, INSAT-3A and KALPANA-1
INSAT – 3DR Temperature Image
Photo Courtesy : Meteorological & Oceanographic Satellite Data Archival Centre, Space
These are geo-stationary satellites. INSAT-3DR similar to INSAT-3D, launched in September 2016 is an advanced meteorological satellite with an imaging system and an atmospheric sounder. It provides better imaging in nighttime of low clouds and fog and better estimation of sea surface temperature.
INSAT-3D is designed for generating vertical profile of the atmosphere in terms of temperature and humidity for weather forecasting and disaster warning.
INSAT–3A is designed as multipurpose satellite i.e to provide telecommunications, television broadcasting, meteorological and search and rescue services.
KALPANA-1 formerly known as METSAT (renamed as Kalpana – 1 on Indian born American Astronaut Dr. Kalpana Chawla) is the first dedicated meteorological satellites built by ISRO.
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Petrol in India is cheaper than in countries like Hong Kong, Germany and the UK but costlier than in China, Brazil, Japan, the US, Russia, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, a Bank of Baroda Economics Research report showed.
Rising fuel prices in India have led to considerable debate on which government, state or central, should be lowering their taxes to keep prices under control.
The rise in fuel prices is mainly due to the global price of crude oil (raw material for making petrol and diesel) going up. Further, a stronger dollar has added to the cost of crude oil.
Amongst comparable countries (per capita wise), prices in India are higher than those in Vietnam, Kenya, Ukraine, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Venezuela. Countries that are major oil producers have much lower prices.
In the report, the Philippines has a comparable petrol price but has a per capita income higher than India by over 50 per cent.
Countries which have a lower per capita income like Kenya, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, and Venezuela have much lower prices of petrol and hence are impacted less than India.
“Therefore there is still a strong case for the government to consider lowering the taxes on fuel to protect the interest of the people,” the report argued.
India is the world’s third-biggest oil consuming and importing nation. It imports 85 per cent of its oil needs and so prices retail fuel at import parity rates.
With the global surge in energy prices, the cost of producing petrol, diesel and other petroleum products also went up for oil companies in India.
They raised petrol and diesel prices by Rs 10 a litre in just over a fortnight beginning March 22 but hit a pause button soon after as the move faced criticism and the opposition parties asked the government to cut taxes instead.
India imports most of its oil from a group of countries called the ‘OPEC +’ (i.e, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Russia, etc), which produces 40% of the world’s crude oil.
As they have the power to dictate fuel supply and prices, their decision of limiting the global supply reduces supply in India, thus raising prices
The government charges about 167% tax (excise) on petrol and 129% on diesel as compared to US (20%), UK (62%), Italy and Germany (65%).
The abominable excise duty is 2/3rd of the cost, and the base price, dealer commission and freight form the rest.
Here is an approximate break-up (in Rs):
a)Base Price | 39 |
b)Freight | 0.34 |
c) Price Charged to Dealers = (a+b) | 39.34 |
d) Excise Duty | 40.17 |
e) Dealer Commission | 4.68 |
f) VAT | 25.35 |
g) Retail Selling Price | 109.54 |
Looked closely, much of the cost of petrol and diesel is due to higher tax rate by govt, specifically excise duty.
So the question is why government is not reducing the prices ?
India, being a developing country, it does require gigantic amount of funding for its infrastructure projects as well as welfare schemes.
However, we as a society is yet to be tax-compliant. Many people evade the direct tax and that’s the reason why govt’s hands are tied. Govt. needs the money to fund various programs and at the same time it is not generating enough revenue from direct taxes.
That’s the reason why, govt is bumping up its revenue through higher indirect taxes such as GST or excise duty as in the case of petrol and diesel.
Direct taxes are progressive as it taxes according to an individuals’ income however indirect tax such as excise duty or GST are regressive in the sense that the poorest of the poor and richest of the rich have to pay the same amount.
Does not matter, if you are an auto-driver or owner of a Mercedes, end of the day both pay the same price for petrol/diesel-that’s why it is regressive in nature.
But unlike direct tax where tax evasion is rampant, indirect tax can not be evaded due to their very nature and as long as huge no of Indians keep evading direct taxes, indirect tax such as excise duty will be difficult for the govt to reduce, because it may reduce the revenue and hamper may programs of the govt.