GS PAPER: III

INSAT-3DS

Why in the news?

• The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will soon launch the INSAT-3DS from Sriharikota .

About the satellite

• This new facility, weighing 2,274kgs and funded by the Ministry of Earth Sciences,.
• It will enable the development of newer satellite products that can be deployed while tracking cyclones, monsoon systems, thunderstorms and other natural disasters.
• INSAT-3DS shall further the observations of atmosphere, land and oceans.
• The INSAT-3DS is a continuation to the Third Generation Meteorological Satellite series from the geostationary orbit.
• Presently, meteorologists make extensive use of data generated by satellites like the INSAT-3D and INSAT-3DR (launched in September, 2016, still operational).
• Since 2003, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) has been using INSAT data for its operational meteorology purposes.
• The advent of satellite-based products brought significant improvements in the forecast accuracy, monitoring of atmosphere and ocean parameters and overall enhanced the meteorological services leading to reduction in loss to property, life and livelihood.

Payloads of the satellite

• INSAT-3DS comprises four payloads  — an Imager, a Sounder, a Data Relay Transponder and a Satellite aided Search and Rescue Transponder.
• The multi-spectral imager will generate images of the Earth across six wavelength bands aiding visualisation of colour-dependent atmospheric parameters like water vapour (humidity).
• The sounder will contribute in generating vertical profiles of the atmosphere and provide information like temperature and humidity.

GS PAPER – II

BAPS temple in UAE

Why in the news?

• During his two-day visit to UAE, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the BAPS Swaminarayan temple in Abu Dhabi, the first Hindu temple in the Gulf nation.
• The inauguration of the 108-ft high temple marks a significant moment for the Hindu community in UAE, as well as for the two countries’ bilateral ties.

What is BAPS?

• The temple has been built by the Bochasanwasi Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha (BAPS), a denomination of the Swaminarayan Sampradaya, a Vaishnav sect of Hinduism.
• BAPS has a network of around 1,550 temples across the world, including the Akshardham temples in New Delhi and Gandhinagar, and Swaminarayan temples in London, Houston, Chicago, Atlanta, Toronto, Los Angeles, and Nairobi.
• It also runs 3,850 centres and 17,000 weekly assemblies globally.

Features of the temple

• The Abu Dhabi temple is a traditional stone Hindu temple with seven shikhars. Built in the traditional Nagar style, the temple’s front panel depicts universal values, stories of harmony from different cultures, Hindu spiritual leaders and avatars.
• Spread over 27 acres, the temple complex is on 13.5 acres, with a parking area of 13.5 acres that can accommodate around 1,400 cars and 50 buses. The 13.5 acres of land was gifted by Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the President of the UAE in 2019.
• The height of the temple is 108 ft, length 262 ft and width 180 ft. While the external facade uses pink sandstone from Rajasthan, the interior uses Italian marbles. A total of 20,000 tonnes of stones and marble was shipped in 700 containers for the temple. More than Rs 700 crore was spent on the temple’s construction.
• The temple has two central domes, Dome of Harmony and Dome of Peace, emphasising human coexistence through the carvings of earth, water, fire, air, and plants.
• A Wall of Harmony, one of the largest 3D-printed walls in the UAE, features a video showcasing key milestones of the temple’s construction. The word ‘harmony’ has been written in 30 different ancient and modern languages.
• The seven shikhars (spires) are representative of the seven Emirates of the UAE.
• Other amenities include an assembly hall with a capacity of 3,000 people, a community centre, exhibitions, classrooms, and a majlis venue.

key architectural features

• The temple was judged the Best Mechanical Project of the Year 2019 at the MEP Middle East Awards, and the Best Interior Design Concept of the Year 2020.
• Among the key architectural features are 96 bells and gaumukhs installed around the path leading to the temple. These 96 bells are a tribute to Pramukh Swami Maharaj’s 96 years of life. Nano tiles have been used, which will be comfortable for visitors to walk on even in the hot weather.
• On the top left of the temple is a stone carving of the scene of Pramukh Swami Maharaj envisioning the temple in Abu Dhabi in 1997.
• No ferrous material (which is more vulnerable to corrosion) has been used in the temple.
• While many different types of pillars can be seen in the temple, such as circular and hexagonal, there is a special pillar, called the ‘Pillar of pillars’, which has around 1,400 small pillars carved into it.
• Buildings surrounding the temple are modern and monolithic, with their colour resembling sand dunes.
• Deities from all four corners of India have been featured in the temple. These include Lord Ram, Sita, Lakshman and Hanuman, Lord Shiv, Parvati, Ganpati, Kartikeya, Lord Jagannath, Lord Radha-Krishna, Akshar-Purushottam Maharaj (Bhagwan Swaminarayan and Gunatitanand Swami), Tirupati Balaji and Padmavati and Lord Ayappa.
• The temple also has some special features, like a ‘holy river’ surrounding it, for which waters from Ganga and Yamuna have been brought in. The river Saraswati has been depicted in the form of white light. A Varanasi-like ghat has been created where the ‘Ganga’ passes.
• Apart from 15 value tales from Indian civilisation, stories from the Maya civilisation, Aztec civilisation, Egyptian civilisation, Arabic civilisation, European civilisation, Chinese civilisation and African civilisation have been depicted.

GS PAPER – II

Navy’s MILAN event: Geopolitical scenario

Why in news?

• As many as 51 countries, 11 heads of maritime agencies, and warships and an aircraft from 15 countries will participate in the Indian Navy’s mega multi-national exercise MILAN scheduled this month.

About the exercise

• Milan 2024 is a major endeavour by the Indian Navy to get together friendly foreign countries from across the globe to partner with us for a maritime activity.
• This year in 2024, Milan is in Visakhapatnam and 51 countries are participating in the event. The 15 countries are sending ships and one aircraft is also joining for the exercise
• The 51 countries include new participants such as Canada, Spain, Germany, Italy, Iraq and Yemen in the exercise, which comes in the backdrop of a new set of security challenges in the Gulf of Aden, including a series of drone and missile attacks on merchant ships in the recent months.
• exercises at sea from February 24-27 in which we will have Indian naval ships and aircraft as well as ships from friendly foreign countries participating in ‘Milan
•  Highlights of the harbour phase – February 19 to 23 – include international city parade, international maritime seminar, maritime tech expo, MILAN village, subject matter expert exchange and table top exercise.
• During the sea phase, the participating navies will conduct advanced air defence, anti-submarine and anti-surface warfare drills. Gunnery shoots on aerial and surface targets, manoeuvres and underway replenishment would also be conducted.

About the countries participating:

• Navies from the US, Japan, Australia, France, Bangladesh, Brazil, South Korea, Vietnam, Indonesia and Malaysia are set to be among the participating nations.
•   Canada, Germany, Iraq, Italy, Spain and Yemen, besides others, are among the countrieswill be part of the exercise for the first time.

Vice admiral Views

• There are 51 countries participating (in it) and among these 51 countries, each country has its own relationship with China. I want to make it clear that there is no message here against China.”
• message is that our challenges at sea, these we can face, if we work together. And, so we want to give this platform to the countries so that they come, discuss how to participate and the challenges, and do sea exercise.
• relation any of these 51 countries have with a second or third country is not intended to be brought up at this event.
• The tagline of the exercise is ‘Camaraderie Cohesion Collaboration’.
• The particular focus area will remain the international maritime seminar in which various invited people will contribute their thoughts on various subjects.

GS PAPER – II

WTO norms on farm subsidies

Why in news?

• The “Delhi Chalo” march organised by farmers aims to emphasise their key demands, particularly the enactment of legislation to guarantee a Minimum Support Price (MSP) for agricultural produce.
• The participating farmers predominantly hail from the states of Punjab, Haryana, and western Uttar Pradesh, highlighting the widespread concern and solidarity within the agricultural community regarding MSP and other related issues.
• The farmer’s unions assert that the Centre has failed to fulfil its promise of providing a legal guarantee for MSP, as agreed upon at the conclusion of the massive protests in 2021

Inter-ministerial summit:

• Come February 26, more than 1,000 delegations will gather in Abu Dhabi for the World Trade Organisation’s biennial trade ministerial conference.
• The 13th ministerial conference (MC 13) of the trade body will decide whether there is any future for the much-fragmented multilateral trading system.
• It will also indicate whether the demands of the developing countries in agriculture will ever be met.
• But the deadlock over the politically charged issue between the developed and developing countries is unlikely to see a resolution.

Views on Indian farm subsidy:

• While India’s per farmer subsidy is abysmally low compared to what countries such as the US offer, the WTO rules do not consider subsidies on a per-farmer basis, thereby being heavily loaded against developing countries.
• The Cairns Group – comprising Australia, Brazil and Canada among others members — have claimed that India’s public stockholding (PSH) programme is highly subsidised and the farm support that India gives is “distorting” global food prices and “hurting” food security of other countries.

What is the WTO concern:

• India’s progress in this regard disappointed other countries, as they believed India was resorting to unfair trade practices. The Indian government was buying crops from farmers at low prices and then exporting them to global markets at reduced rates.
• Developed countries complained that India had violated several rules, claiming that India had provided subsidies equivalent to 60-70% of the total value multiple times.
• The WTO allows governments to provide subsidies to farmers but imposes limits:
  • • 5% for developed countries
• 10% for developing countries

GS PAPER – II

EVM failure rate

Why in news?

• A set of documents obtained by an RTI activist revealed that in the run-up to the 2019 Lok Sabha polls there were concerns within the Election Commission over the relatively high rate of Electronic Voting Machines‘ parts failing during the first-level check.

How EVM check is done?

• A first-level check (FLC) is the initial technical examination of the EVM’s Ballot Unit (BU) and Control Unit (CU) as well as the Voter-Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT).
• This process is conducted by engineers in the six months leading up to the Lok Sabha polls at the district level under the supervision of a District Election Officer (DEO).
• If any EVM part malfunctions during the FLC, it is returned to the manufacturers, Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) or Electronics Corporation of India Limited, for repair.
• A status report of the first-level check received on November 1, 2018, from the assistant CEO of Uttarakhand showed a rejection rate of 38% for control units.
• On December 21, 2018, the Delhi CEO’s office wrote to the EC, flagging a high rate of VVPAT failure during the FLC conducted in the south, north-west, and east districts, and sought an additional number of units for replacement.
• Similarly, the office of the Andaman CEO approached the EC in the first week of March 2019 with a similar request for additional VVPATs, stating that more than half of the VVPATs being used for training and awareness had malfunctioned.
• After every election, an analysis of non-functional EVMs and VVPATs is carried out as an integral part for enhancing the performance of EVMs and VVPATs to reduce replacement rates during actual polls.
• Post General Election-2019, the Technical Expert Committee (TEC) carried out an exhaustive analysis along with BEL and ECIL. Analysis was delayed due to COVID-19 period.
• In analysis, it was concluded that some corrective actions are required to be taken to reduce the replacement rate of M3 VVPATs and to ensure voter is not put to any inconvenience,” the EC has stated in one of the questions.

Status in current report:

• Documents obtained by Venkatesh Nayak, the director of Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, show that reports of a relatively high rate of breakdown (commonly referred to as “rejection” in EC’s correspondence and notations) of VVPATs and CUs continued to trickle in from the states throughout the FLC process, and even persisted when candidates’ names and their symbols were being fed into the machines closer to the polling dates.
• In fact, officers from several state Chief Electoral Officers’ (CEOs) office, including those of Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Karnataka, and Kerala, approached the EC requesting it of more machines because of the high failure rate.
• Though the EC has not officially declared any cut-off range to define a certain rejection rate as either high or acceptable, according to sources, a rejection rate of up to 5% for BUs, CUs, and VVPATs is considered acceptable. Some states were, however, reporting rates as high as 30% during the FLC.

What malfunction means?

• Malfunction or breakdown of EVMs doesn’t imply they are open to rigging or tampering. Like any machine, EVMs too can malfunction.
• However, frequent instances of breakdown can lead to interruptions in voting, slowing down the process and potentially affecting voter turnout.
• The Karnataka CEO approached the EC much closer to the Lok Sabha polls on April 11, 2019, reporting that 12% of the VVPATs had failed even after they had cleared the first-level technical check.
• The Kerala CEO’s office also sought more control units for Kannur district, where 14% of the CUs had malfunctioned.