With the successful launch of 104 satellites from a single rocket on February 15, 2017 at 9:28 AM IST, ISRO has managed to once again prove to the world that no matter what goals are set for it, ISRO manages to blow them all to smithereens.
By effectively managing the launch of 104 satellites in one go, and by one rocket, ISRO has beaten every other space agencies record by a large margin. For comparison, now the second place for most satellites in one go goes to the Russian Space Agency. The Russian Space Agency in 2014 launched 37 satellites, with NASA trailing behind at third with 29 satellites in one go. Also, India beat its own record by more than 5 times the initial one of 20 satellites that it sent in space in June 2015.
The payload was made up of 104 satellites out of which only three were India’s own, and rest came from India’s international customers with 96 of the satellites belonging to the US, and one each from UAE, Switzerland, Netherlands, Kazakhstan, and Israel. The total weight of the payload was about 1,378 kg and hence to make the launch a success, PSLV’s XL variant was used. It is currently India’s most powerful rocket and has a proven success record in the Chandrayaan mission and in the Mars Orbiter Mission(MOM).
After reaching the orbit, the first satellite to be launched by PSLV was Cartosat-2 Series satellite weighing 714 kg, after which it reached the Polar Sun Synchronous Orbit where it launched the rest of the Indian’s satellites, INS-1A and INS-1B(weighing a total of 30 kg). The rest of the foreign satellites, totalling 101 in number, and weighing about 664 kg, were launched in pairs afterwards!
The mission’s primary payload, Cartosat-2 series satellite with a life span of five years, was launched to provide remote sensing services. The primary objective of the satellite is similar to the four previous satellites in Cartosat-2 series and is going to provide us information on the distribution of water, road network monitoring, coastal land usage and regulation as well as on land use maps creation etc, by using images from the satellite.
The two nano satellites INS-1A and INS-1B also have their specific payloads with the INS-1A carrying Surface Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Function Radiometer and the INS-1B carrying Earth Exosphere Lyman Alpha Analyser as payloads.
After the launch, Prime Minister Modi, as well as President were among the people who tweeted to congratulate ISRO on their majestic feat. ISRO’s chairman A S Kiran Kumar also deemed the launch to be successful while congratulating the team for their attempts to deliver in spite of challenges.
This launch adds another feather to the cap of ISRO and also showcases the work done by Antrix Corporation Ltd. (Antrix), which is the commercial wing of ISRO. With the need for high-end communication systems growing per day, organisations around the world want a piece of their own in the space to ensure business. Antrix is the point of interaction for all these organisations and countries who want to launch their satellites. Backed by ISRO’s impeccable record so far, with cost effective space programmes, Antrix has been doing a great job in its own niche of finding customers and creating a greater share of the launch market for ISRO to handle. And with the current record, the road to ISRO’s future looks clear!
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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.
Globally, around 80% of wastewater flows back into the ecosystem without being treated or reused, according to the United Nations.
This can pose a significant environmental and health threat.
In the absence of cost-effective, sustainable, disruptive water management solutions, about 70% of sewage is discharged untreated into India’s water bodies.
A staggering 21% of diseases are caused by contaminated water in India, according to the World Bank, and one in five children die before their fifth birthday because of poor sanitation and hygiene conditions, according to Startup India.
As we confront these public health challenges emerging out of environmental concerns, expanding the scope of public health/environmental engineering science becomes pivotal.
For India to achieve its sustainable development goals of clean water and sanitation and to address the growing demands for water consumption and preservation of both surface water bodies and groundwater resources, it is essential to find and implement innovative ways of treating wastewater.
It is in this context why the specialised cadre of public health engineers, also known as sanitation engineers or environmental engineers, is best suited to provide the growing urban and rural water supply and to manage solid waste and wastewater.
Traditionally, engineering and public health have been understood as different fields.
Currently in India, civil engineering incorporates a course or two on environmental engineering for students to learn about wastewater management as a part of their pre-service and in-service training.
Most often, civil engineers do not have adequate skills to address public health problems. And public health professionals do not have adequate engineering skills.
India aims to supply 55 litres of water per person per day by 2024 under its Jal Jeevan Mission to install functional household tap connections.
The goal of reaching every rural household with functional tap water can be achieved in a sustainable and resilient manner only if the cadre of public health engineers is expanded and strengthened.
In India, public health engineering is executed by the Public Works Department or by health officials.
This differs from international trends. To manage a wastewater treatment plant in Europe, for example, a candidate must specialise in wastewater engineering.
Furthermore, public health engineering should be developed as an interdisciplinary field. Engineers can significantly contribute to public health in defining what is possible, identifying limitations, and shaping workable solutions with a problem-solving approach.
Similarly, public health professionals can contribute to engineering through well-researched understanding of health issues, measured risks and how course correction can be initiated.
Once both meet, a public health engineer can identify a health risk, work on developing concrete solutions such as new health and safety practices or specialised equipment, in order to correct the safety concern..
There is no doubt that the majority of diseases are water-related, transmitted through consumption of contaminated water, vectors breeding in stagnated water, or lack of adequate quantity of good quality water for proper personal hygiene.
Diseases cannot be contained unless we provide good quality and adequate quantity of water. Most of the world’s diseases can be prevented by considering this.
Training our young minds towards creating sustainable water management systems would be the first step.
Currently, institutions like the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (IIT-M) are considering initiating public health engineering as a separate discipline.
To leverage this opportunity even further, India needs to scale up in the same direction.