Russian Navy will soon get hypersonic n-weapons, says Putin
Paper:
Mains: General Studies- II: Governance, Constitution, Polity, Social Justice and International relations.
Why in news:
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that the Russian Navy would be armed with hypersonic nuclear strike weapons and underwater nuclear drones.
Key Details:
- The weapons include:
- The Poseidon underwater nuclear drone, designed to be carried by submarines.
- The Tsirkon (Zircon) hypersonic cruise missile, which can be deployed on surface ships.
- The combination of speed, manoeuvrability and altitude of hypersonic missiles, capable of travelling at more than five times the speed of sound, makes them difficult to track and intercept.
- Testing of “Belgorod”, the first submarine capable of transporting the Poseidon drones, has also begun.
Concerns:
Putin has said Moscow does not want an arms race, but in 2019, threatened to set hypersonic missiles on ships and submarines that go beyond US territorial waters if Washington moved to deploy intermediate-range nuclear weapons in Europe.
Analysing NIRF 2020
Paper:
Mains: General Studies- II: Governance, Constitution, Polity, Social Justice and International relations.
Why in News:
Analysis of National Institutional Ranking Framework.
Key Details:
- With India witnessing an unprecedented increase in the number of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) and the volume of students entering them, the quality of education is bound to be impacted.
- Various statutory bodies such as UGC, AICTE, and MCI have made periodic prescriptions to improve the quality of education.
- Apart from the mandatory accreditations, in 2016, the Government of India instituted the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF).
National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF):
- Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) launched the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) in 2015. NIRF has laid down a methodology for ranking institutions across India.
- In addition to excellence in teaching, learning and the research culture, the framework also includes parameters such as inclusiveness and diversity.
- Ranking of institutions of Higher Education will be an annual exercise as decided by the MHRD.
Parameters covered:
- Teaching Learning and Resources– the core activities of any place of learning are considered. Emphasis is laid on measuring the number and quality of faculty, lab resources, library and other such facilities needed for the development of the students. These parameters are further classified into the following sub-parameters:
- Student Strength including Doctoral Students
- Faculty-student ratio with emphasis on permanent faculty (FSR)
- Combined metric for Faculty with PhD (or equivalent) and Experience (FQE)
- Total Budget and Its Utilization (CBTU)
- Research, consulting and collaborative performance– These parameters measure the research culture in the organization as seen through generation of IPR, international databases and interface with industry and fellow professionals.
- Graduation outcomes– It is the test of the level of effectiveness of the core teaching-learning activity in the institution. It measures the rate of students graduating and their success in finding appropriate placement in the industry, government inclusive of the rate of students taking up higher studies.
- Outreach & Inclusivity –A special emphasis is laid on the representation of women and socially challenged persons in student and faculty populations. It is also considered as a parameter in the outreach activities of the institution. Example:
- Percent Students from other states/countries (Region Diversity RD)
- Region Diversity
- Percentage of Women
- Economically and Socially Challenged Students (ESCS)
- Facilities for Physically Challenged Students (PCS)
- Perception– significant importance is given to the perception of the institutes by its stakeholders. This will be ascertained through Stakeholder Surveys.
Importance of NIRF Rankings:
- It would enable parents, students, teachers, educational institutions and other stakeholders to rank institutions on the basis of a set of objective parameters and a transparent process.
- The NIRF will facilitate a level playing field in ranking for institutions.
- Institutions which have been working in languages other than English and excelled relatively in the recent past will be identified and will be benefitted.
- A national ranking system, and one that is as exhaustive as this one will propel institutions into higher world rankings.
National Institutional Ranking Framework:
- It is an annual report card on the performance of the HEIs.
- It assesses parameters such as teaching and learning, student and faculty strength, use of financial resources, research papers and patents, and graduation outcomes.
- Keeping in mind the social responsibility aspect of education in a developing country, there is a unique provision to judge institutions on inclusivity and outreach measures, including gender, geographical and socioeconomic diversity and the welcoming of differently-abled students.
- All parameters are normalised to keep them size- and age-independent so as to ensure that larger and older institutions do not get any undue advantage.
- While 90% of the parameters in NIRF are completely objective and fact-based, only 10% is based on the subjective parameter of perception by academic peers and employers.
Imported vaccines may be fast-tracked
Paper:
Mains: General Studies-III: Technology, Economic Development, Bio diversity, Environment, Security and Disaster Management
Why in News:
According to a guidance document from the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Indian companies looking to import or test potential COVID-19 vaccines that have been developed internationally, could get some elbow room, in the number of India-specific tests and trials they would need to conduct.
Key Details:
- However, the Secretary of DBT has said that regulatory approvals would be accelerated but no important stages would be skipped. This would include different stages of vaccine tests being conducted in parallel.
- The application for the clinical trial will be approved subject to ‘No objection certificate’ from RCGM after examination of data of pre-clinical studies.
- The RCGM is the Review Committee on Genetic Manipulation.
- It is a DBT body that approves trial procedures on biological products that involve genetic manipulation. These can include modified vaccine candidates or DNA.
- Normally, a vaccine that has been licensed in another country, would still need to repeat all human safety tests in India.
200 proposals from China wait for security clearance by MHA
Paper:
Mains: General Studies-III: Technology, Economic Development, Bio diversity, Environment, Security and Disaster Management
Why in News:
About 200 investment proposals from China are awaiting security clearance from the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).
Background:
- In April 2020, new rules making prior government approval mandatory for foreign direct investments (FDI) from countries which share a land border with India were notified by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT).
- Investors from countries that are not covered by revised FDI policy are only required to inform the Reserve Bank of India after the completion of a transaction. They do not have to seek prior clearance from the administrative ministry.
- The amendment was aimed at preventing “opportunistic takeovers” of Indian companies amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Recently, the Centre amended the General Financial Rules, 2017.
- The amendment was to enable the imposition of restrictions on bidders from countries which share a land border with India in relation to public procurement for reasons of national security and other factors directly or indirectly related to the country’s defence.
Chinese investment In India:
- China’s footprint in the Indian business space has been expanding rapidly, especially since 2014.
- The Chinese investment in India in 2014 stood at $1.6 billion. This involved mostly investment from Chinese state-owned players in the infrastructure space in India.
- By 2017, the total investment had increased five-fold to at least $8 billion accompanied by a marked shift from a state-driven to market-driven approach.
- The report, titled “Following the Money: China Inc’s Growing Stake in India-China Relations” estimates that the total current and planned Chinese investment in India has crossed $26 billion in March 2020.
- The major Chinese investments in India span a range of sectors with a significant share in the start-up space. A 2017 survey of Chinese enterprises in India by the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China’s Mumbai branch found that 42% were in the manufacturing sector, 25% in infrastructure and others in telecom, petrochemicals, software and IT.
Issue:
- Earlier, these proposals did not require MHA’s nod as FDI is allowed in non-critical sectors through the automatic route.
- For investments in critical sectors such as defence, media, telecommunication, satellites, private security agencies, civil aviation and mining and any investments from Pakistan and Bangladesh, security clearance from MHA was required.
Concerns:
- With the delays in approval and the proposals remaining in the pipeline for months, it is possible that many might withdraw due to the delay or stringent conditions put in place.
- Foreign investment in India has proved to be a game-changer in many sectors like automobiles, pharmaceuticals, aviation, real estate, and fintech, providing employment, transmitting technology, and adding value to the economy.
- Sectors like automobiles, construction, real estate, other service sectors, that are already stressed due to decelerating demand, tepid lending, and India’s inherent weakness in capital formation could further face severe consequences.
- This could also result in fewer potential buyers, depressing the value of Indian firms that need immediate capital infusions.
‘Ramesh’s criticism of EIA notification unfounded’
Paper:
Mains: General Studies-III: Technology, Economic Development, Bio diversity, Environment, Security and Disaster Management
Why in News:
Union Environment Minister has dismissed the criticism of the proposed Environment Impact Assessment Notification, 2020, by Jairam Ramesh, former Environment Minister and Chairman, Parliamentary Standing Committee on Environment, as unfounded and based on misrepresentation.
Key Details:
- When implemented, the MoEF’s draft will replace the 2006 EIA notificationfor future projects.
- SANDRP argues that the draft notification dilutes the EIA process and renders the environmental clearance (EC) process “non-transparent, undemocratic, unjust and unaccountable”.
- SANDRP claims that the draft EIA notification encourages environmental violations in the case of large-scale hydropower and irrigation projects.
- The SANDRP, through its field studies, has routinely witnessed irregularities like poor quality of work, dishonest EIAs coupled with misinformation about the project, and inadequate or no impact assessment.
Concerns:
- The threshold limits having been lowered,a large number of projects will not need an EIA or a public consultation for their appraisal.
- While hydro-electric projects lesser than 75 MW but higher than 25 MW fall in category ‘B1’, hydro-electric projects lesser than 25MW and irrigation projects that have a culturable command area between 2,000 and 10,000 hectares would fall into B2 category and will not need an EIA or a public consultation for their appraisal.
- The MoEF’s draft ensures no monitoring of these projects which might also lead to lesser compliance with respect to environmental guidelines.
Undemocratic process:
- The draft notification dilutes the provision of public consultationas compared to the 2006 EIA notification.
- With the relaxing of the threshold limits for classification, a significant number of projects would now be pushed under category ‘B2’ projects, which are completely exempted from the EIA and public consultation process.
- The lack of public consultation would limit the avenue for public views into the whole process.
Environmental concerns:
- In the 2006 EIA notification, category ‘B’ project was treated as category ‘A’ project if the project fulfilled the ‘general conditions’, which meant if they were located (in whole or in part) within 10 km from the boundaries of protected areas, critically polluted areas, eco-sensitive zones, or inter-State and international boundaries.
- As per the new notification, ‘B1’ projects fulfilling the general condition will be appraised by the expert appraisal committee, but they will no more be treated as category ‘A’ projects. This would imply that such projects will undergo a less rigorous appraisal.
- With this new provision, projects could now be proposed in close proximity to the boundary of protected and eco-sensitive zonesendangering the ecosystem of the region.
- The draft notification states that projects concerning national defence and securityor “involving other strategic considerations as determined by the Central government” would not be treated as category ‘A’ and no information relating to such projects shall be placed in the public domain.
- This provision would allow the government to hide information from people which goes against the very stated intention of making the EC process more transparent.