Milestones of Mission Chandrayaan-2; India’s Second lunar probe:
Relevance: mains: G.S paper III: Science and technology
Chandrayaan-2 is India’s second lunar probe, and its first attempt to make a soft landing on the Moon. It has an Orbiter, which will go around the Moon for a year in an orbit of 100 km from the surface, and a Lander and a Rover that will land on the Moon. Once there, the Rover will separate from the Lander, and will move around on the lunar surface. Both the Lander and the Rover are expected to be active for one month.
The Orbiter, Lander and Rover are each fitted with several instruments to carry out experiments. While Chandrayaan-2 is expected to yield a wealth of new information about the Moon, apart from demonstrating ISRO’s new capabilities, here are a few things that are likely to be discussed the most in the coming days.
How is Chandrayaan-2 different from Chandrayaan-1?
Chandrayaan-2 is ISRO’s first attempt to land on any extraterrestrial surface. One of the instruments on Chandrayaan-1, the Moon Impact Probe or MIP, had been made to land on the Moon, but that was a crash-landing, and the cube-shaped instrument, with the Indian Tricolour on all sides, was destroyed after hitting the lunar surface. The Lander and Rover on Chandrayaan-2, on the other hand, are meant to make a soft landing, and to work on the Moon.
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) was forced by circumstances to develop its own Lander and Rover for Chandrayaan-2. Originally scheduled to launch in 2011, Chandrayaan-2 was supposed to carry a Russian-made lander and rover, since ISRO did not then have the technology to develop these. The type of lander and rover that Russia was building for Chandrayaan-2, however, developed problems on another mission, forcing it to make design corrections. But then, the proposed new design would not have been compatible with Chandrayaan-2. Russia eventually pulled out, and ISRO began to develop its own Lander and Rover, a task that delayed the Mission by a few years.
How has the landing been scheduled?
The Lander and Rover were scheduled to descend on September 6, more than 50 days after the launch early Monday (July 15). The launch, however, got delayed due to technical issues. Most of the other lander missions have taken considerably less time to reach the Moon. The human missions, in fact, all landed within three to four days. Chandrayaan-1 had taken 12 days to enter the Moon’s orbit. The time taken to reach the Moon is dictated by many factors, such as the strength of the rocket carrying the spacecraft, the nature of experiments to be carried out, and the position of the Moon in its orbit.
Chandrayaan-2’s launch vehicle, GSLV-Mk-III, is the most powerful rocket ISRO has built — however, it is still not powerful enough to reach the Moon’s orbit in one shot. Therefore, the spacecraft will go around the Earth several times, successively raising its orbital height, before transferring itself into the lunar orbit. Once there, it will orbit the Moon for several days before ejecting the Lander and the Rover. The date, September 6, was chosen because the landing site will remain well illuminated by sunlight over the next one month while the Lander and Rover work and collect data. Also, there is no lunar eclipse during this period.
How is a soft landing achieved?
In terms of technology, landing is the most complicated part of the Mission. Travelling at nearly 6,000 km per hour at the time of their ejection from the Orbiter, the Lander and Rover would have to slow down to roughly about 3 km/hr. This 15-minute exercise will mark the “most terrifying moments” for the mission, as ISRO chairman K Sivan put it. The Moon does not have an atmosphere to provide drag, so the use of parachute-like technologies to slow down the Lander cannot be used. Instead, thrusters will be fired in the opposite direction to slow it down. All this while, the Lander will also be imaging the lunar surface to look for a safe site to land.
What new information will the Mission look for?
South Pole: Chandrayaan-2 is attempting to go where no spacecraft has gone before — to the south pole of the Moon. There have been 28 landings on the Moon so far, including six human landings. All these landings have taken place in the equatorial region. Studies have, however, indicated that the unexplored polar regions could hold much greater scientific potential.
The polar regions of the Moon are understood to be filled with small and large craters, ranging from a few cm to several thousands of km. These craters make it extremely hazardous for a spacecraft to land. This region is also extremely cold, with temperatures in the range of –200°C. Unlike the Earth, the Moon does not have a tilt around its axis. It is almost erect, because of which some areas in the polar region never receive sunlight. Anything here is frozen for eternity. Scientists believe that rocks found in these craters could have fossil records that can reveal information about the early Solar System.
Chandrayaan-2 will carry out extensive three-dimensional mapping of the topography of the region, and will also determine its elemental composition and seismic activity.
Quest for Water: Two instruments on board Chandrayaan-1 provided irrefutable evidence of water on the Moon, something that had been elusive for more than four decades. Chandrayaan-2 will take the search further, trying to assess the abundance and distribution of water on the surface. The large craters in the south polar region are believed to hold large amounts of ice — in millions or billions of tonnes, by one estimate.
Equally important would be the attempt to determine the origins of water on the Moon — whether it has been produced on the Moon, or has been delivered from an outside source. This would also offer a clue on how reliable the water resources could be.
Studies show that the water detected on the Moon could have been formed in a few different ways. It is known that the lunar surface is full of oxides of multiple elements. These oxides could react with hydrogen ions in the solar wind to make hydroxyl molecules, which could combine with hydrogen to make water.
The water could also come from external sources. Comets and asteroids that contain water vapour are known to have collided with the Moon in the past, and could have transferred traces of this water to the Moon, which could have got trapped inside the extremely cold regions.
It is the discovery of water on the Moon by Chandrayaan-1, and by a NASA mission a year later, that has rekindled interest in the Moon, and given rise to hopes that it could finally be used to set up a permanent scientific mission, and also as a possible launchpad for going deeper into space. Finding adequate water, and being able to extract it economically, is crucial to this dream.
(Source: Indian Express)
- Poverty Index: How Jharkhand reduced its poor the fastest:
Relevance: mains: G.S: paper I & II: poor, poverty and hunger
LAST WEEK, the UN Development Programme and the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative released the global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) report for 2019, which found that Jharkhand has made the fastest improvement among Indian states in reducing poverty (The Indian Express, July 13). Across India, the number of people living in multidimensional poverty has gone down from 690.55 million in 2005-06 to 369.55 million in 2015-16 — a reduction of 271 million people in a decade.
Jharkhand reduced the incidence of multidimensional poverty from 74.9 per cent to 46.5 per cent between 2005-06 and 2015-16. The accompanying graph shows how its index, second only to Bihar’s in 2005-06, has shown the steepest decline among the poorest states. Jharkhand, however, remains one of the poorest states in the country. Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, and Madhya Pradesh together accounted for 196 million MPI poor people — more than half of all multidimensionally poor in India.
The global MPI factors in a person’s deprivations across 10 indicators in health, education, and standard of living — nutrition, child mortality, years of schooling, school attendance; access to cooking fuel, sanitation, drinking water; electricity and housing; and assets. For India, the MPI has reduced from 0.283 to 0.123 in a decade. Of 10 selected countries, India and Cambodia reduced their MPI values the fastest. While the proportion of the population living in multidimensional poverty in India has halved from 55.1 per cent to 27.9 per cent in a decade, the intensity of deprivation has fallen less sharply, from 51.1 per cent to 43.9 per cent, the report said.
(Source: Indian Express)
- Draft Model Tenancy Act: what government proposes for house owners, tenants.
Relevance: mains: G.S paper II: Government policies
Last week, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MHUA) released the draft Model Tenancy Act, 2019, which aims to regulate rental housing by a market-oriented approach. Its objective and features:
Why an Act
Pointing to the Census 2011 count of 1.1 crore houses lying vacant, an MHUA statement said the Model Act would bring these into the rental market, and would promote the growth of the rental housing segment: “The existing rent control laws are restricting the growth of rental housing and discourage owners from renting out their vacant houses due to fear of repossession. One of the potential measures to unlock the vacant house is to bringing transparency and accountability in the existing system of renting of premises and to balance the interests of both the property owner and tenant in a judicious manner.”
Broad outlook
The Model Act lays down the obligations of tenants and landlords, and provides for an adjudication mechanism for disputes. It is intended to be an Act “to balance the interests of owner and tenant by establishing adjudicating mechanism for speedy dispute redressal and to establish Rent Court and Rent Tribunal to hear appeals and for matters connected” to rental housing. Its stated aim is to promote the creation of a rental housing stock for various income segments including migrants, formal and informal sector workers, students, and working professionals, mainly through private participation. The Act mandates that no person will let or take any rental premises without an agreement in writing, in both urban and rural areas. Within two months of executing such an agreement, the land owner and tenant are required to intimate the Rent Authority, who will issue a unique identification number to both parties. Agreements can be submitted through a dedicated digital platform.
What changes, what does not
The Model Act, if adopted and enforced by the states, will lead to a better regulated private rental housing market for the middle and higher income segments. What it is not likely to do, however, is ensure a robust rental housing stock that caters to all groups, including large numbers of people in the cities who are forced to live in informal settlements; nor is it likely to increase the social rental housing supply.
In 2015, before the Housing for All by 2022 Mission (Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Urban) was launched, it was decided that 20 per cent of the two crore houses that were to be created should be exclusively for rent. The decision was based on a 2013 report by a Union government Task Force for Rental Housing, which held that affordable rental housing “addresses the issues of the underprivileged and inclusive growth, in an even more direct manner than affordable ownership housing”. The Expenditure Finance Committee even cleared an outlay of Rs 6,000 crore for a rental component in PMAY-U; the Centre would bear 75 per cent of the expenses incurred to create rental housing stock, while the rest would be borne by states, urban local bodies, or through NGOs or CSR activities of the private sector.
However, when it was rolled out in late 2015, the mission promoted only ownership housing — with no mention of rental stock. In subsequent years, the MHUA worked on a draft National Urban Rental Housing Policy, but this did not have the monetary backing of a PMAY mission. The draft provided for incentives like exemptions from stamp duty, registration charge, and property tax, and had provisions for homeless shelters, social rental housing for the urban poor, need-based rental housing for migrant labour, single women and men, and student hostels and paying guest accommodation for the working class.
Tenant and landlord rights
The Model Act lays down various rules, including that the security deposit to be paid by the tenant should not exceed two months’ rent for residential property, and should be a minimum of one month’s rent for non-residential property. It lists the kinds of repairs each party would be responsible for, with the proviso that money for repairs can be deducted from the security deposit or rent, as applicable, if a party refuses to carry out their share of the work. The Rent Court can allow repossession of the property by the landlord if the tenant misuses the premises, after being served a notice by the landowner. Misuse of the premises, as defined, includes public nuisance, damage, or its use for “immoral or illegal purposes”. If the tenant refuses to vacate, the landlord can claim double the monthly rent for two months, and four times the monthly rent thereafter.
Model Act, existing Acts
While announcing the Model Act in her Budget statement, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman termed the existing rent control laws as archaic. The Model Act states that all state rent control Acts stand repealed, a reform that has been a condition set for many World Bank-funded projects in India. However, since land and urban development are state subjects, the central Model Act is not binding on the states unless they draft their legislation based on it. MHUA officials said states and Union Territories will choose to repeal or amend their existing Acts. The MHUA also clarified that the Model Act would be applicable “prospectively and will not affect the existing tenancies”.
Repeal of rent control Acts has been a politically sensitive issue in the cities, especially in South Mumbai, where old properties in prime locations have been occupied for decades by residential and commercial tenants at negligible rents. The Model Act has been in the making since 2015, but has been held up on this point. The new Act will be applicable only to fresh tenancies. The draft has been circulated to all states, and they are expected to give their suggestions by July 26.
- In the coming five years, a host of geopolitical and economic issues need to be reconciled:
Relevance: mains: G.S paper II: India and its international relations
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has maintained a frenetic pace, renewing contacts with world leaders ever since the results of general election 2019. He was the cynosure of all eyes at the G-20 meeting in June, in Osaka. At the BRICs informal meeting, also in Osaka, he called for the strengthening of the World Trade Organisation and for a global conference on terrorism. He discussed counter-terrorism and climate change issues at separate meetings with China’s President Xi Jinping and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin. He participated in the Japan-India-U.S. trilateral grouping, arguing for a “rules based order” in the Indo-Pacific region. He met with U.S. President Donald Trump, to discuss the future of India-U.S. relations.
A vastly altered situation
This may convey an impression that everything bodes well for India in the external realm. What is often overlooked is that while we were fortunate in the past to be able to take advantage of a rare combination of favourable conditions, this situation no longer exists. The 2019 election verdict was a definitive victory for Mr. Modi, but it hardly carries an assurance that India can pursue the same policies as before. While it has become commonplace for most Indians to affirm that India has arrived, there are a host of issues that exist which need to be reconciled before we can achieve what we aspire for.
The past cannot be a guide to the future. In the past, we did manage a shift from non-alignment to multi-alignment, could improve our relations with the United States without jeopardising our long-term relationship with Russia, and paper over our prickly relations with China without conceding too much ground; all the while maintaining our strategic independence. This is too much to hope for at the present time.
The global situation that made all this possible has altered. Rivalries among nations have intensified. There is virtual elimination of the middle ground in global politics, and it has become far more adversarial than at any time previously. Even the definition of a liberal order seems to be undergoing changes. Several more countries today profess support for their kind of liberalism, including Russia and China. At the other end, western democracy appears far less liberal today.
China, U.S. and Asian realities
In this backdrop, India needs to rework many of its policies in the coming five years. South Asia, in particular, and the region of our highest priority, according to the new External Affairs Minister, S. Jaishankar, needs close attention. The region is one of the most disturbed in the world and India has little or no say in any of the outcomes taking place. India-Pakistan relations are perhaps at their lowest point. Tarring Pakistan with the terror brush is hardly policy, and stable relations continue to be elusive. India has no role in Afghan affairs and is also excluded from current talks involving the Taliban, the Afghan government, Pakistan, the U.S. and even Russia and China. India might have recouped its position more recently in the Maldives, but its position in Nepal and Sri Lanka remains tenuous. In West Asia again, India is no longer a player to reckon with.
Across much of Asia, China is the major challenge that India has to contend with. Smaller countries in the region are being inveigled to participate in China’s programmes such as the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). India and Bhutan are the only two countries in this region that have opted out of the BRI, and they seem like the odd men out. The challenge in the coming years for India is to check the slide, especially in Asia, and try and restore India to the position it held previously. India cannot afford to wait too long to rectify the situation.
Deepening India-U.S. relations today again carry the danger of India becoming involved in a new kind of Cold War. This is another area that needs our special focus. India must ensure that it does not become a party to the conflicts and rivalries between the U.S. and a rising China, the heightened tensions between the U.S. and Russia, and also avoid becoming a pawn in the U.S.-Iran conflict.
There is little doubt that current India-U.S. relations provide India better access to state-of-the-art defence items; the recent passage of the National Defence Authorisation Act in the U.S. makes India virtually a non-NATO ally. However, such close identification comes with a price. It could entail estrangement of relations with Russia, which has been a steadfast ally and a defence partner of India’s for the better part of half-a-century. Closer relations with the U.S. also carries the risk of aggravating tensions between India and China, even as China and the U.S. engage in contesting every domain and are involved in intense rivalry in military matters as well as competition on technology issues.
The U.S.-China-Russia conflict has another dimension which could affect India adversely. The strategic axis forged between the Mr. Putin’s Russia and Mr. Xi’s China will impact not only the U.S. but also India’s position in both Asia and Eurasia, with India being seen as increasingly aligned to the U.S. Hence, India needs to devise a policy that does not leave it isolated in the region.
Again, notwithstanding the ‘Wuhan spirit’, India cannot but be concerned about China’s true intentions, given the regional and global situation and its desire to dominate the Asian region. Within the next decade, China will become a truly formidable military power, second only to the U.S. The ongoing India-U.S. entente could well provoke a belligerent China to act with greater impunity than previously. As it is, China would be concerned at the rise of a ‘nationalist’ India, which is perhaps not unwilling in the prevailing circumstances of today to become embroiled in a conflict over ‘freedom of navigation’ in the South and East China seas.
The new buzzword
On another plane, as India intensifies its search for state-of-the-art military equipment from different sources, it may be worthwhile for India to step back and reconsider some of its options. Military power is but one aspect of the conflicts that rage today. Experts point out that outright war, insurgencies and terror attacks are fast becoming passé. Nations confront many other and newer threats at present. Today, disruptive technologies have tremendous danger potential and nations that possess these technologies have the ability to become the dominant powers in the 21st and 22nd Centuries.
A major challenge for India will hence be how to overcome our current inadequacies in the realm of disruptive technologies rather than remaining confined to the purely military domain. The U.S., China, Russia, Israel and few other countries dominate these spheres as also cyberspace and cyber methodologies. New policy parameters will need to be drawn up by India, and our capabilities enhanced in areas such as artificial intelligence, biotechnology and cyber methodology, all of which constitute critical elements of the disruptive technology matrix.
The economy needs attention
None of this would, however, be possible unless India pays greater heed to its economy. Despite a plethora of official statements, the state of the economy remains a matter of increasing concern. Even statistics regarding the economy are being questioned. Notwithstanding India’s ambition to become a $5-trillion economy by 2024-25, the reality today is that the economy appears to be in a state of decline. Jobs, specially skilled jobs, are not available in sufficient numbers and this should be a matter for concern. The ability to sustain a rate of growth between 8.5% and 9.5% is again highly doubtful. Neither the Economic Survey nor the Budget contain useful pointers to a more robust economy, one that is capable of providing a higher rate of growth, more opportunities for skilled labour, and greater potential for investments.
The looming challenge for India in the coming five years, therefore, would be how to build a strong economic foundation, one that is capable of providing the kind of power structure needed for an emerging power, and also one possessing the best liberal credentials.