- China successfully launched its first unmanned cargo spacecraft, Tianzhou-1, powered by a Long March-7 Y2 carrier rocket.
- It roared into the air from the Wenchang Space Launch Centre in the southern Hainan Province, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
- In space, the cargo ship will dock with the orbiting Tiangong-2 space station, provide fuel and other supplies, and conduct space experiments before falling back to Earth.
- China aims to build by 2022 a permanent space station, which is expected to orbit for at least 10 years, and the debut of the cargo ship is important as it acts as a courier to help maintain the space station.
- Without a cargo transportation system, the station would run out of power and basic necessities, causing it to return to Earth before the designated time.
- If the Tianzhou-1 mission completes its objective, China will become the third country besides Russia and the United States to master the technique of refuelling in space.
- Tianzhou-1 is larger and heavier than Tiangong-2, which is 10.4 metres in length and has a maximum diameter of 3.35 metres, weighing 8.6 tonnes.
- Refuelling is conducted during docking, a process that is much more complicated than refuelling vehicles on land.
- The refuelling procedure will take 29 steps and last for several days each time.
- China’s fast-expanding space programme targets a landing on the dark side of the Moon by 2018.
- It aims to launch its first Mars probe around 2020, followed by a second mission that would include collection of surface samples from the red planet.
The HINDU Notes – 21st April
📰 THE HINDU – CURRENT NOTE 21 April
🌐 India makes fresh bid to get Headley, Rana
- India has made a fresh request to the U.S. for the extradition of David Coleman Headley and Tahawwur Rana, wanted for their roles in the 26/11 Mumbai attacks.
- Andrew McCabe, Deputy Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), visited India earlier this month and met senior officials of the National Investigation Agency (NIA).
- The NIA, which is probing the conspiracy behind the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, raised with Mr. McCabe the pending requests for extradition of Headley and Rana.
- The NIA told him that its multiple requests for the custody of Rana went unanswered.
- Revising its demand, the NIA told Mr. McCabe that though Rana was convicted by a U.S. court of the charge of providing material support to the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), which was behind the attacks, he had not been tried for offences, registered in India, of forgery and criminal breach of trust.
- Rana, a school friend of Headley, is serving a 14-year term in the U.S. for providing material support to the LeT, but has not entered a plea bargain as Headley did.
- Headley has been sentenced to 35 years in prison by a U.S court.
- The ‘double jeopardy’ clause in the U.S. law prohibits punishment for the same crime twice.
- So, last year, India renewed its attempt at Rana’s custody on the ground that he was involved in the planning of an attack on the National Defence College (NDC) in Delhi and Chabad Houses ( Jewish religious centres) in several cities.
- Mr. McCabe assured the NIA that its request would be looked into.
🌐 Logistics pact with U.S. ‘almost done’
- In just about two days, India is expected to notify the operationalising of the Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement(LEMOA) with the U.S.
- India and the U.S. concluded the logistics agreement, the first of the three foundational agreements between the two nations, last August.
- However, its implementation has been delayed, as India was unable to streamline administrative procedures to enable its operationalisation.
- LEMOA gives access to both countries to designated military facilities on either side for refuelling and replenishment in primarily four areas –
i. port calls,
ii. joint exercises,
iv. humanitarian assistance and disaster relief.
- The notification includes designating the points of contact for the U.S. military to work with and setting up a common account for payments.
- The U.S. has similar agreements with several countries.
- Several U.S. officials had stated in the past that the agreements were required for taking forward high-technology cooperation forward.
The other foundational agreements are :
1. Communications Compatibility and Security Agreement (COMCASA)
2. Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement for Geospatial Information and Services Cooperation (BECA)
- Discussions are under way on the next one – the COMSCA – as the BECA is considered the trickiest of the three with India expressing serious reservations about the clauses as well as the need for it.
- Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremsinghe will visit India next week to set the agenda for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s trip to Colombo in May.
- Officials said an MoU to develop Trincomalee port’s prospects through operating a major oil-storage facility, LNG plant and piped-gas projects and developing it as a key transit point with major expressways and industrial zones in the region is in the final stages of negotiations.
- The two sides will also hold discussions on the Economic and Technology Cooperation Agreement (ETCA), a version of the free trade agreement, and will be taken forward during Mr. Modi’s visit for International Vesak Day, the annual Buddhist festival on May 12, officials told.
- Mr. Wickremesinghe’s visit is also significant as it comes a few weeks before his trip to Beijing to attend the Belt and Road Summit, that Sri Lanka has joined.
- While Chinese companies have already clinched many important infrastructure projects in Sri Lanka, including theHambantota and Colombo port development projects, India is hopeful of more projects in the North and the East of the island.
- Mr. Wickremsinghe is expected to discuss the ongoing dispute over fishing rights in the Palk Strait with Ms. Swaraj.
- Despite several rounds of negotiations between the fishing communities of the two countries, Indian fishermen continue to be apprehended by the Sri Lankan Navy for trespassing on their waters.
🌐 ‘U.S. must support Paris accord’
- The nodal climate agency of the United Nations, the UNFCCC, is seeking alternative sources of funding, in the face of likely budget cuts by the United States, its Executive Secretary Patricia Espinosa said.
- U.S. government has postponed a meeting to decide whether to remain in the Paris Agreement.
- The U.S. government’s budget proposal which aimed at slashing funds for the Global Climate Change Initiative could lead to a reduction of 20% of funding towards the UNFCCC’s operational costs.
- On the recent executive orders issued by U.S. President Donald Trump, seeking to reverse the Obama administration’s climate-friendly policies, she said, “The Trump administration has asked the EPA [Environmental Protection Agency] to review the Clean Power Plan to make recommendations on what they should do with that policy. We need to wait and see what comes out of that revision.”
- The veteran diplomat said the economy of the future had been aligned with the climate agenda, as sustainable use of natural resources was key to survival.
- During her visit, Ms. Espinosa met the Union Ministers of Environment, Power and Railways, and interacted with industry representatives.
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)
🌐 India, EU likely to resume talks
- The talks between India and the EU that were stalled in the backdrop of the Italian marines crisis are likely to kick-start during the April 21- 23 visit of a high official of the European Union.
- The 14th EU-India summit will be held in New Delhi in 2017.
- Both sides had also revived joint working groups on defence, and science and technology.
- The joint working group on terrorism also met in January this year.
- India-EU negotiation over the free trade agreement mainly involve issues over duties and market access but additional points of disagreement have reportedly emerged over new clauses that would not allow international companies to rush to international arbitration without completing cases in Indian legal system.
🌐 RBI cracks whip on errant banks
- The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has asked several banks to make a provisioning of 25% of their outstanding loan exposure to Jaiprakash Associates for the January-March quarter of 2016-17, which could impact the profitability of these lenders adversely.
- Total bank loans to the Jaypee group, which decided to sell its cement business to Aditya Birla group last year, are as much as ?58,000 crore.
- State Bank of India and ICICI Bank have exposures of ?7,000 crore and ?6,000 crore respectively.
- While the sale is yet to be concluded, the central bank has said the provision could be reversed once the deal was completed.
- On 19 April 2017, IndusInd Bank and YES Bank said they had set aside 25% of their exposure to the cement maker as provisioning.
- IndusInd Bank, which had an exposure of about ?500 crore, made a provision of ?122 crore, while YES Bank set aside ?228 crore for its ?911.5 crore exposure.
- IndusInd Bank decided to keep the loan as a standard asset and YES Bank classified it as non-performing.
- Stressed loans were flagged by the RBI in its asset quality review of December 2015 and banks were asked to make provisions.
- “Since the group sold two of its hydro power plants to JSW Energy, some bankers argued this amounts to strategic debt restructuring (SDR) as ownership changed, hence avoided provisioning. However, now it seems the regulator has tightened the screws.”
- IndusInd and YES Bank expect provisions will be reversed once the cement assets deal is concluded.
What’s in news?
- The United Nations will issue special stamps commemorating the International Yoga Day on June 21 this year
- The UN postal agency, UN Postal Administration (UNPA) will issue the new special event sheet to commemorate Yoga Day that has been marked annually since 2015
- The special sheet consists of stamps with images of the sacred Indian sound “Om” and various yogic asanas
- Yoga Day: The first International Yoga Day was commemorated at the UN in 2015 with aplomb
- In December 2014, the UN General Assembly had adopted a resolution with a record number of 177 co-sponsoring member states to commemorate the International Day of Yoga every year on June 21
- About UN Stamps: United Nations stamps are issued simultaneously at UN offices in New York, Geneva and Vienna
- Each issue carries a related design theme, with different denominations for each office
- Usually six new commemorative issues are released each year and remain on sale for 12 months only
- UN stamps have illustrated the aims and achievements of the United Nations and its family of organizations
Negotiations on the stalled Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar (BCIM) Economic Corridor are set to resume next week in Kolkata
After a gap of over two year, the meeting of Joint Study Group (JSG) of academics and officials of the four countries on April 25-26 is expected to finalise the road map for the BCIM economic corridor
The last meeting of the BCIM was held in Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh in December 2014
India had become lukewarm to the BCIM project by linking it with its reservations on the China-Pakistan economic corridor which passed through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK)
Declined the possibility of a connection between the two
However, India has expressed readiness for participation in standalone connectivity projects with China, which were not necessarily connected with the Beijing-led Belt and Road Initiative (BRI)
Both the BCIM and the CPEC predate the formal launch of the BRI
The BCIM economic corridor is an ambitious
undertaking that hopes to connect Kolkata with Kunming, capital of the Yunnan province
It envisages formation of a thriving economic belt, focusing on cross-border transport, energy and telecommunication networks
Starting from Kunming, the route passes through nodal points, such as Mandalay and Lashio in Myanmar
It heads towards Kolkata after passing through Manipur and Silchar, before crossing Bangladesh via Sylhet and Dhaka, with branches extending to the ports of Cox’s Bazar and Chittagong
Chinese experts in Yunnan say that except for a 200-km stretch between Silchar in Assam and Manipur, and a similar length between Kalewa and Monywah in Myanmar, the central artery of the route is nearly functional
🌐 China successfully launches first cargo spacecraft
- India Meteorological Department forecasts ‘normal’ monsoon
- It brings promise of a year of growth and good health for India’s economy and ecology
- India will have a second consecutive year of normal rainfall, after two years of drought
- This boosts the prospects of enhanced agricultural output, healthy reservoir levels, more hydropower and reduced conflicts over water
- A normal monsoon will relieve water stress in cities if they prepare catchments and reservoirs to make the most of the season
- Good monsoons will test the efficacy of the expensive water management initiatives launched during 2014 and 2015 by the Centre and the State governments to harness rainfall and build resilience for future drought cycles
Why will the monsoons be good?
- IMD’s experience shows, forecasting the all-India summer monsoon rainfall is fraught with uncertainties and has often gone off the mark
- The dynamic model that it is using this year to make a forecast that includes an assessment of two phenomena:
- A possible late onset El Niño in the Pacific Ocean
- Variations in sea surface temperatures that create the Indian Ocean Dipole
- El Niño is expected only in the later part of the year when the monsoon is in its final stages, the expectation of normal rainfall is reasonable (A confirmation could come in June)
- More than half the population is sustained by agricultural livelihoods, therefore, highly efficient water utilisation holds the key to higher farm productivity
- Preparing for drought remains a top priority today, in spite of a big increase in outlays for irrigation made over successive five-year plans
- Data on five decades of grain output from 1951 show that the negative impact of drought on productivity is disproportionately higher than the positive effects of a normal or surplus monsoon
- This underscores the need to help farmers with small holdings to look ahead
What needs to be done:
- Agriculture scientist M.S. Swaminathan pointed that focus has to be on plant protection, water harvesting and access to post-harvest technologies
- The NITI Aayog has also been calling for ways to cut water use, since India uses two to three times more water per tonne of grain produced compared to, for example, China, Brazil and the U.S
- The way forward is to create ponds, provide solar power for more farms, mechanise operations and expand drip irrigation coverage
- Aiding small farmers with the tools and providing them formal financing can relieve their cyclical distress
- The area under drip irrigation, estimated to be less than 10% of net area sown, can then be expanded
- The government should incentivize residents to install scientific rainwater harvesting systems.