Whatsapp 93125-11015 For Details
States
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), which is scheduled to launch the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle C55 (PSLV-C55) mission on April 22, will carry out in-orbit scientific experiments by using the spent PS4 (fourth and final stage of PSLV) as an orbital platform.
The PSLV-C55 will have Singapore’s TeLEOS-2 as primary satellite and Lumelite-4 as a co-passenger satellite.
The PSLV-C55 mission has the PSLV Orbital Experimental Module (POEM), where the spent PS4 of the launch vehicle would be utilised as an orbital platform to carry out scientific experiments through non-separating payloads.
This is the third time that PS4 will be used after satellite separation as a platform for experiments. According to the space agency, the POEM has seven experimental non-separable payloads.
The PSLV-C55 mission is a dedicated commercial mission. The TeLEOS-2 and Lumelite-4 satellites are intended to be launched into an eastward low inclination orbit.
The ISRO said that the TeLEOS-2 satellite is developed under a partnership between DSTA (representing the Government of Singapore) and ST Engineering.
Once deployed and operational, it will be used to support the satellite imagery requirements of various agencies within the Government of Singapore.
The TeLEOS-2 will be able to provide all-weather day and night coverage, and be capable of imaging at 1m full-polarimetric resolution.
Editorial
A new edge to the fight against tuberculosis (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 2, Health)
At the One World TB Summit in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh on March 24, 2023, Prime Minister Narendra Modi instilled fresh energy to the global tuberculosis (TB) elimination response and reiterated India’s commitment to spearhead this effort.
Mr. Modi further emphasised the importance of innovation and the need to “find new ways and formulate new strategies” to achieve the desired outcomes.
The Prime Minister’s remarks are critical as we look to redefine India’s and the world’s TB elimination response — with innovation and research being central drivers of change.
The COVID-19 pandemic provides a good reflection point — even with innumerable challenges, countries were able to counter COVID-19 by drawing upon the innate human spirit to adapt, learn, experiment, and innovate.
The pandemic has shown us that together, we can overcome unprecedented adversity. And if we could do it to overcome COVID-19, we can, and must certainly, do it to end TB.
Over the last few years, India has made significant progress in its efforts to end TB. India’s National TB Elimination Programme, or the NTEP (previously known as the Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme, or RNTCP), has introduced several measures to find, notify and treat TB cases, with case notifications rising from 15.6 lakh in 2014 to over 24 lakh in 2022. This reflects the programme’s expanded reach and improved detection measures.
Further, novel approaches including engagement with the private sector, launch of social support provisions and introduction of diagnostic tools and new drug regimens, have improved TB management.
However, while these efforts have been commendable, lack of widespread awareness about the disease and lack of access to quality care continue to be a challenge.
The recent National TB Prevalence Survey (in India) found that 64% of people with infectious TB did not seek care. As a result, national-level estimates suggest that for every person notified with TB, we miss detecting almost two more cases.
To address this challenge and truly bring transformative change in our TB response efforts, we will need to introduce disruptive approaches and new tools to change the way we prevent, diagnose, and treat TB.
India has long recognised the importance of investing in health research and development, especially in recent years.
Numbers game (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 1, Population and Associated Issues)
The latest State of World Population Report, an authoritative analysis by the UN, has officially stamped what has been known for a while: that India will become the most populous country in mid-2023, surpassing China’s 142.5 crore by about 3 million.
These estimates are based on official country data as well as extrapolating birth, mortality and international migration trends. India has had a vacillating relationship with the size of its population.
In the ‘socialist’ era, the growing population was a convenient excuse to explain India’s poverty and the state’s inability to improve average standards of living.
These seeded deranged ‘sterilisation’ programmes that violently compromised dignity and freedom. Globalisation and the opening up of the economy in the 1990s saw India as a vast, untapped market, with ‘fortunes at the bottom of the pyramid’ that framed population as an advantage.
India’s large working age population — or the demographic dividend — relative to the developed countries, where the workforce was ageing, has provided labour-wage arbitrage and valuable economic opportunities.
Indian numbers are behind the skilled and unskilled labour that power workforces in West Asia and Africa, undergird business process outsourcing projects from developed European countries and the United States, and are increasingly a significant component of university enrolment abroad.
This relative prosperity, though unable to solve India’s crisis of economic inequality, has, however, busted the myth of forced sterilisation and legal limits on family sizes being key to population control.
Despite overtaking China, India’s population growth is slowing. The National Family Health Survey reported in 2021 that the total fertility rate had, for the first time, dipped to below the replacement level of 2.1.
India’s population is forecast to grow from its current 1.4 billion to 1.67 billion in 2050 before settling at 1.53 billion in 2100, with the peak at 1.7 billion sometime in 2064, according to UN estimates.
Text & Context
India’s fighter jet conundrum (Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 3, Defence)
Against the sanctioned strength of 42 fighter squadrons, we are today at 31 squadrons which won’t go up in the next decade, but on the contrary can go further down by 2029, an Indian Air Force (IAF) representative informed the Parliamentary standing committee on defence as per a report tabled in Parliament last month.
This sums up the conundrum faced by one of the world’s largest Air Forces in modernising its fleet which has been beset with unending delays in procurement.
As far as going from 31 to 42 squadrons, I will not be able to say by when it can be accomplished”, the representative added noting that they have been trying for the past many years to move forward, but there are certain procedures that have to be followed.
If what has been ordered is delivered, and the case for 114 Multi-Role Fighter Aircraft (MRFA) has progressed, then by 2030 we can be between 29 to 31 squadrons, the IAF rep said assuring that it will not go below that.
The bulk of the heft to arrest the drawdown and ensure it doesn’t fall below 29 squadrons rests on the 83 Light Combat Aircraft (LCA)— MK1A, LCA-MK2 and MRFA. The decision on MRFA is essential to arrest this drawdown, the House Panel was informed.
It must be noted that of the 31 squadrons at present, the three Mig-21 squadrons will be phased by 2025. Also, the Jaguars, Mirage-2000s and Mig-29s will begin going out by the end of the decade.
For instance, by 2027-28 the first of the MIG-29s, inducted in the late 1980s, will start going out and by early 2040s, when most of these types will be phased out, some of the earlier batch of SU-30s will also start going out.
The IAF has in total contracted 272 SU-30s. A deal to procure 12 additional SU-30MKIs to replace the ones lost in accidents as well 21 additional MIG-29s from Russia has been stuck, though both IAF and Russian officials state that it has only been delayed but is on track.
India has an ambitious plan lined up for the acquisition of over 500 fighter jets, a bulk of them to be indigenously designed and manufactured, with a majority of them being for the IAF.
However, these are at various stages of development. Their manufacturing and timely deliveries are critical.
Speaking at an event in October 2022, IAF Chief Air Chief Marshal V. R. Chaudhari conceded that even with the LCA-Mk1A, LCA-Mk2 and the MRFA “we will still be at 35-36 (squadrons) by middle of next decade.”
News
IAF to join multilateral exercise in Greece (Page no. 14)
(GS Paper 3, Defence)
The Indian Air Force (IAF) will be participating in Exercise INIOCHOS-23, a multi-national air exercise hosted by the Greece Air Force from April 24 to May 4. This will be the third exercise that the IAF will be taking part simultaneously. The Exercise Cope India with the U.S. is under way at Kalaikunda and four Rafale fighters are taking part in multilateral exercise Orion hosted by France.
The exercise will be conducted at the Andravida Air Base in Greece and the IAF will be participating with four Su-30 MKI and two C-17 aircraft.
The objective of the exercise is to enhance international cooperation, synergy and interoperability amongst the participating Air Forces,” the IAF said in a statement.
The exercise will be conducted in a realistic combat scenario involving multiple types of air and surface assets and it will also enable the participating contingents to engage in professional interactions, providing valuable insight into each other’s best practices.