24 August 2023 : Daily Current Affairs
Daily Current Affairs
24-August-2023
Daily Current Affairs For UPSC ,Daily Current affairs of The hIndu and Indian Express.
1. Implementing a car safety programme.
Topic: GS3
Context:
- The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has rolled out an indigenous star-rating system for crash testing cars under which vehicles will be assigned between one to five stars indicating their safety in a collision.
More about the news:
- The Bharat NCAP will be voluntary and will come into effect from October 1, 2023.
- Cars will be assigned a rating between one star to five stars after being evaluated on three parameters — adult occupant protection, child occupant protection and safety assist technologies present in the car.
- The testing protocols adopted by the Bharat NCAP are modelled on the Global NCAP.
- India will need to develop its crash testing capabilities and knowledge expertise for the Bharat NCAP programme to be implemented meaningfully.
- Over the years, India will also have to align Bharat NCAP with global standards by expanding testing parameters.
2. Downgraded at the stroke of a pen: the bifurcation of the erstwhile State of J&K
Topic: GS2 – Indian polity.
Context:
- A five-judge Constitution Bench led by the Chief Justice of India has been hearing petitions challenging the dilution of Article 370 and the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019.
- The revocation of J&K’s special status raises constitutional questions regarding President’s powers, obligations under Article 370, and the authority to bifurcate J&K into Union Territories (UTs).
Conversion into Union Territories:
- Transformation of a State with elected legislature into a UT impacts democratic participation.
- A centrally appointed administrator (Lieutenant Governor) gains more decision-making power than regular State Governor.
- Legislative authority of UT of J&K, akin to Puducherry, coexists with Parliament’s overriding powers, limiting elected representatives’ decision-making.
J&K’s Unique Position::
- J&K’s accession to India differs from Delhi’s case; it was a sovereign Princely State.
- Article 370 granted J&K special status, granting higher autonomy within India.
- J&K’s autonomy allowed larger democratic participation, making its conversion into a UT a more significant democratic rights reduction than Delhi’
Differential Treatment and Constitutional Design:
- Indian Constitution recognizes special status for States with diverse cultural and geopolitical contexts.
- This recognition reflects India’s federal principle to respect subjective contexts, ensuring diverse states remain united.
- Eviscerating democratic participation, as in J&K’s case, raises concerns about disregarding subjective contexts and potential similar actions in other states.
Constitutional Amendments and Implications:
- Delhi’s transition to a UT and the subsequent restoration of its Legislative Assembly were through constitutional amendments.
- J&K’s UT status resulted from a regular parliamentary law, easily amenable based on majoritarian consensus.
- The alteration of J&K’s status prompts reflection on the implications for democratic participation and respect for subjective contexts in other states.
Mains question: How does the Indian Constitution accommodate differential treatment for states based on diverse cultural, ethnic, and geopolitical contexts? Explain the significance of this approach in maintaining the unity of the nation while respecting regional variations
3. India welcomes consensus-based approach to expand BRICS: PM
Topic: GS2 – International relations.
Context:
- India welcomes the expansion of BRICS through a consensus-based approach.
More about BRICS summit:
- The current BRICS summit is being held in Johannesburg, South Africa.
- The summit is being attended by the leaders of the five BRICS countries, as well as other delegates.
- India is focusing on the prospects of the Global South and the African Union because it is the G-20 president this year.
- India is demanding changes in global multilateral systems because it believes that these systems are not responsive to the needs of the Global South.
- India has proposed that the African Union should be made a member of the G-20.
- India is also focusing on the prospects of the Global South and the African Union.
- Russia is seeking to create an alternative to the G-7-driven global political-economic model.
- India is demanding changes in global multilateral systems to make them more responsive to the needs of the Global South.
- India has not spoken aggressively for de-dollarisation, though it has entered into local currency agreements with a few trading partners.
4. Astra air-to-air missile test-fired from Tejas in ‘textbook launch’
Topic: GS3 – defence development
Context:
- Astra beyond-visual-range air-to-air missile successfully test-fired from Tejas aircraft over Goa coast.
More about the news:
- Test launch of Astra missile conducted at about 20,000 ft altitude, achieving all test objectives.
- Monitoring of test launch involves Aeronautical Development Agency, DRDO, HAL, and other organizations.
- Astra missile designed for engaging and destroying agile supersonic targets.
- Defence Minister Rajnath Singh emphasizes the test’s contribution to Tejas’ combat capabilities and import reduction.
Note: for more details on the news – please refer PIB 24 August 2023
5. LUPEX MISSION
Topic: GS3-Science and tech
Context:
- With CHANDRAYAAN-3 successfully landing on the Moon’s surface, decks have been cleared for ISRO to unveil the next stage of its lunar exploration programme.
- As of now, ISRO is preparing for one more lunar mission, this one in collaboration with Japanese space agency, JAXA.
- This mission, called LUPEX or Lunar Polar Exploration, is slated for 2024-25.
Details:
- LUPEX will offer ISRO another opportunity to probe the surface of the Moon.
- As its name suggests, LUPEX will also explore the polar regions of the Moon, this time venturing into the permanently shaded regions.
- One half of the Moon never faces the Sun, and is therefore permanently dark. To land in these areas, the spacecraft and the onboard instruments have to have an alternative power supply option through an onboard battery.
- LUPEX is also planned to investigate the abundance of water in the polar regions, and explore the possibilities of locating a long-term station in these areas.
- For the LUPEX mission, the launch vehicle and rover are supposed to be contributed by the Japanese agency, while the lander will come from ISRO.
Aditya-L1
- The immediate priority for ISRO is the Aditya-L1, its first mission to the Sun, which is slated for an early September launch.
- Aditya-L1, will observe the Sun from a distance of 90 million km.
- It is meant to study the different kinds of phenomena like solar corona, solar emissions, solar winds and flares, and coronal mass ejections.
- It will also do an imaging of the Sun.
Other Missions:
- ISRO is working on sending an Orbiter to Venus within the next two years while the human spaceflight mission, Gaganyaan, is also being readied.
- Gaganyaan which would be India’s maiden human space flight mission under the Gaganyaan programme is targeted to be launched in the fourth quarter of 2024.
About Gaganyaan:
- Gaganyaan is an Indian crewed orbital spacecraft that is intended to send 3 astronauts to space for a minimum of seven days by 2023, as part of the Indian Human Spaceflight Programme.
- The spacecraft, which is being developed by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), consists of a service module and a crew module, collectively known as the Orbital Module.
- It will be for the first time that India will launch its manned mission to space, making the country fourth in line to have sent a human to space.
Next exciting Missions:
- The next mission that is likely to result in the same kind of excitement as Chandrayaan-3 is likely to come in ISRO’s collaborative mission with NASA.
- ISRO and NASA agreed to send a joint human spaceflight mission to the International Space Station by next year.
- That would mean that the first Indian astronauts to go in space in 40 years would ride a NASA spacecraft and not India’s own.
6. FIVEKEY TAKEAWAYS FOR INDIA FROM THIS MOON MISSION
Topic: GS3-Science and Tech
- ROCKET POWER:
- The time has come for India to look beyond “frugal engineering” and think big. Frugal innovation is no longer enough for India to make a difference to global activity on the Moon.
- While Chandrayaan took nearly six weeks to get to the Moon, the failed Russian mission Luna-25 arrived there in a week.
- China’s Change-5 launched in 2020 took a week.
- In 1969, the US Apollo-11 mission, which landed the first men on the Moon, took just four days.
- The difference is in the power of the rockets. If India wants more impactful Moon projects, it needs bigger budgets and more powerful rockets that can arrive quicker and with heavier payloads to work on the Moon.
- HUGE RESOURCES AND ROLE OF PVT SECTOR:
- The massive scale of resources needed for significant space projects means markets must contribute to the space budget, not just the government.
- India has taken the first steps this year by letting the private sector into the space programme.
- This long overdue reform aligns with the broader global trend. In the second half of the 20th century, space activity was state-owned and driven by considerations of nationalism.
- Today space programmes are animated by commerce, and the private sector has emerged as a much bigger player than the state.
- INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION
- Privatisation alone is not enough. It needs to be complemented with international cooperation.
- There was a reason India had to rely on frugal innovation—technology sanctions.
- Although India’s space programme began with expansive international cooperation, especially with the US and the West, the non-proliferation sanctions that kicked in after India’s first nuclear test in May 1974 severely crimped India’s space programme.
- Many of those sanctions are now gone, thanks to the historic 2005 India-US civil nuclear initiative.
- India is now part of the missile technology control regime (MTCR) that regulates trade in space technology and is a member of the Wassenaar Arrangement that sets the rules for the transfer of dual-use technologies.
- India also recently joined the Artemis Accords, a set of nonbinding space-use principles that the US and several likeminded countries have adopted.
- The massive cost of space programmes means no country, not even the US or China, can be an effective space player when they act alone.
- India’s, lunar possibilities can only be realised through space partnerships and joint Moon projects.
- GEOPOLITICAL COMPETITION.
- The talk of international cooperation brings us to the real world of geopolitical competition.
- Great power rivalry on the Earth has inevitably begun to envelop the Moon.
- Two competing Moon projects are already at hand. The US is developing the Artemis Mission, with several partners, to land a man and a woman on the Moon by 2025
- China has plans to do the same before 2030 and is working with Russia to build an International Lunar Research Station on the Moon.
- Given India’s growing problems with China, it appears unlikely that Delhi will team up with Beijing on the Moon in the near term.
- It then needs to embark on a serious negotiation with the US on the possible terms of mutually beneficial Indian participation in the Artemis Mission.
- NEED FOR LAWS:
- With outer space and the Moon set for an increased range of activity, Delhi needs laws–domestic as well as international for its effective promotion and regulation.
- India must also pay serious attention to shaping the global governance of space.
- Delhi played a key role at the UN in drafting the 1967 Outer Space Treaty. India is among the states that signed the 1979 Moon Treaty.
- That regime is now under stress amidst changing technology, growing human activity in space, and mounting great power rivalries.
- While geopolitical rivalry isa reality, Delhi must work to limit competition and expand cooperation in outer space.
7. Why are nations racing to Moon’s heavily cratered south pole?
Topic: GS3-Science and Tech
Context:
- India’s space agency landed a spacecraft on the moon’s south pole, a mission that will expand knowledge of lunar ice, potentially one of the moon’s most valuable resources.
What makes South Pole of Moon especially tricky:
- The south pole – far from the equatorial region targeted by previous missions like Luna-25 including the crewed Apollo landings is full of craters and deep trenches.
Why water on Moon is important:
- Scientists are interested in ancient ice because they could provide records of lunar volcanoes, material comets and asteroids delivered, and origin of oceans.
- If ice exists in sufficient quantities, it could be a source of drinking water for moon exploration and could help cool equipment.
- It could also be broken down to produce hydrogen for fuel and oxygen to breathe, supporting missions to Mars or lunar mining.
Way forward:
- Such explorations might lead to insightful discoveries which could ultimately be beneficial for future missions and also be helpful for mankind.
8. Port project in Peru to be gateway from South America to Asia:
Topic: World Geography
Context:
- Compaction of soil is being carried out on Peru’s Pacific coast, part of China’s most ambitious port project in Latin America designed to facilitate trade between the regions.
Details:
- The port of Chancay, 60 kilometers north of the Peruvian capital of Lima, will be “the gateway from South America to Asia”.
- The $1.3 billion project will offer a direct route to China with a travel time reduction of 10days.
- Ships travelling from South America to China normally take 45 days with stops in Central America, Mexico or the US.
- Offering a deepwater port, Chancay will be able to handle container ships that can’t dock elsewhere in South America.
- The port is part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative.
- This global port gamble by Chinese firms is raising concerns among US officials.
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