Brief of newspaper articles for the day bearing
relevance to Civil Services preparation
- GS PAPER 3
- Scientists spot elusive space-time ripples / Gravitational wave astronomy’s finest moment / Gravitational waves: The universe in a new light – {Science & Technology – Waves}
- Plan to eliminate malaria by 2030– {Diseases – Science & Technology}
- ISRO to use electric propulsion system on satellites in two years– {Science & Technology – Space Organisation}
- Why 7.6% growth is hard to square – {National Income Accounting}
- India’s digital transformation– {Digital Economy}
- A story of reckless lending / Banks’ balance sheet clean-up imperative for growth, says Raghuram Rajan – {Banking – Non Performing Assets}
GS PAPER 3
[1]. Scientists spot elusive space-time ripples / Gravitational wave astronomy’s finest moment / Gravitational waves: The universe in a new light
The Hindu | The Hindu | The Indian Express
Context: Gravitational waves (GW) from two merging black holes have reached earth. The merging black holes are 1.3 billion light years away from earth.
What are gravitational waves?
These are small distortions of the “elastic or fluid” space-time that travel at the speed of light, set off by the motion of massive objects in space-time.
Space-time: Space-time is a mathematical model which joins space and time into a single idea called a continuum. This four-dimensional continuum is known as Minkowski space.
Combining these two ideas helped cosmology to understand how the universe works on the big level (e.g. galaxies) and small level (e.g. atoms).
Importance: Predicted by Albert Einstein roughly 100 years back, the waves have been elusive to science community.
How has been it detected?
Gigantic optical instruments, LIGO [Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory] has detected the waves which have emanated from violent merging of two black holes 1.3 billion years ago, the time when multicellular organism have just started developing on earth.
A bit of History:
Indirect evidence of GW were prevalent from 1974 when it was discovered by Russel Hulse and Joseph Taylor (both were awarded Noble for the same in 1993) from decaying orbital period of binary pulsars.
The challenge till today has been the sensitivity of instrument to detect space-time as tiney as 10 – 18 m.
LIGO: The Architecture
It consists of two identical L-shaped laser interferometer systems, one at Hanford in Washington and one at Livingston in Louisiana.
There are two systems to ensure that detection at both the instruments that are about 3000 km apart with the calculated time delay ensures that the detected signal is not due to any spurious seismic signal or any other local vibration.
Each of the arms of the L is a 4 km tunnel in which laser beams bounce back and forth between two highly sensitive suspended mirrors. The laser beams are tuned to be perfectly in opposite phase so that there is total interference when the beams arrive at the intersection of the arms and no light passes through the beam splitter at the intersection into the photo-detector behind.
How LIGO detected Gravitational Waves?
When a gravitational wave passes through the detector, the space-time gets distorted much like a squeezed ball, oscillating between the two states compressed in one direction and elongated in the other. So the effect of this oscillatory compression of one arm and elongation of the other is that there is no total cancellation of the interfering laser beams and a net signal gets through to the photodetector.
The Received Signal:
The total signal lasted for about 0.4 s with the “ringing down” that is characteristic of two orbiting black holes in-spiralling towards each other, shrinking of the orbit, merger of the two, coalescence and finally settling down as a single black hole. The data is consistent with one black hole with 36 solar masses merging with another of 29 solar masses giving rise to a single black hole of 62 solar masses. A total energy of 1049 watts, equivalent to the missing 3 solar masses, has been radiated away as gravitational waves.
Newton V/S Einstein:
In Newton’s theory, space and time are passive spectators. Special relativity mixed up space and time depending on the state of motion. If this motion is slow compared to the speed of light, then the mixing is hardly noticeable! In general relativity, space-time has a life of its own. Einstein also predicted gravitational waves as solutions of his equations.
[2]. Plan to eliminate malaria by 2030
Context: The time bound intervention with specified deliverables has been presented by Union Government of India to eradicate Malaria by 2030 from the country.
The Plan:
- India to be divided in to three zones based on prevalence of the disease in different regions namely – low, moderate and endemic states.
- States to include malaria elimination in their broad health policies by 2016.
- Bring down Annual Parasite Incidence to as low as 1 per thousand by 2017.
- By 2020 15 states/UTs are expected to report zero case of transmission of malaria and any indigenous case. These 15 states/UTs are the ones which are in low zone and hence elimination phase.
- States like Gujarat, Maharashtra and Karnataka with better infrastructure and capacity are expected to move to elimination phase much sooner.
- Improvement of surveillance will have a dependence on civil society organisation.
[3]. ISRO to use electric propulsion system on satellites in two years
Ongoing developments:
- Electrical Propulsion system which will help in space station keeping and orbital manuvere of satellites
- Chandrayan II – objective is to land rover on the moon surface and carry out in-situ experiments. There are plans for manner mission.
- GSLV Mark III – cryogenic engine – undergoing – target to achieve flight in coming December.
Electric Propulsion System: An electrically powered spacecraft propulsion system uses electrical energy to change the velocity of a spacecraft. Most of these kinds of spacecraft propulsion systems work by electrically expelling propellant (reaction mass) at high speed, but electrodynamic tethers work by interacting with a planet’s magnetic field.
ABS–3A, the world’s first all-electric propulsion satellite. ABS–3A makes use of a xenon-ion propulsion system to achieve thrust.
Cryogenic: is the study of behaviour and production of materials at very low temperature. Rankine scale or Absolute temperature scale (Kelvin) is used for temperature measurements.
Cryogenic fuels are used for cryogenic engine for rocket propulsion. These fuels are stored at very low temperature to maintain them in liquid state. The most common used fuel are combination of liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen.
Cryogenics find application across a number of field from biology to medicine to preservation of frozen foods. Also, find uses in MRI and magnetic levitation and transmission of power in big cities.
[4]. Why 7.6% growth is hard to square
Context: Macroeconomic Indicators of the year reflect that India has outpaced China in terms of growth rate becoming the fastest growing nation of the world. But, at home there is a sense of distrust regarding the figure of GDP growth. The articles explores the reason for this distrust.
Change in methodology and impact:
Generally any revision in base year changes the absolute level of GDP but not the growth rate but this time round the case is different. Certain sectors have shown growth rate change like manufacturing going from -0.7% to 5.3% but other economic indicators such as credit flows, output expansion in major industries or capacity utilisation in critical industries such as steel or cement don’t justify the same. This has led to widespread scepticism with the numbers.
The reason for the inflated figures:
The change in institutional composition of calculating GDP has led to this changes. The major change has been decrease in household (45% from 56%) shares while increasing the private sector share (34% from 23%). Hence, a composition change in favour of fast growing sector leads to increased growth.
Private Sector:
There has been a high increase in number of industries/companies registered for GDP calculation with number shooting from 5.2 lakhs to over 9 lakhs including companies that have filed their financial statement even once in past 3 years.
One suspects that a large proportion of the private limited companies are tax hedges and are used to ensure promoters’ control over productive enterprises via benami (illegal) holdings, and/or to avoid laws and regulations. Thus, it can be said that the revised method could have contributed to an overestimation of the corporate sector’s contribution to the GDP.
Household Sector:
Household which doesn’t have the capacity to maintain audited balance-sheet their contribution is generally known through national sample survey.
Conventionally, the sector’s output is estimated as a product of output per worker and the number of workers employed — an imperfect but widely accepted method for the unorganised sector.
Recent revision introduced a new procedure under the assumption that the older method overestimated the contribution of self-employed workers. The changed methodology drastically reduced output per worker in the unorganised sector, leading to the shrinkage of this sector’s output in the GDP.
Conclusion:
After the revision, the size of the fast- growing private corporate sector has got enlarged and that of the household sector contracted. These changes are the result of questionable changes in the methodologies and databases used in the revision. We have contended that they could have seriously affected the GDP growth rates and its constituents. Hence, serious doubts about the GDP estimates persist.
[5]. India’s digital transformation
Context: World Bank report namely, World Development report with focus on Digital Dividends.
Synopsis of the Report:
There has been a widespread of digital technologies and their usage but the expected benefits in term of development still lags behind.
In many instances digital technologies have boosted growth, expanded opportunities, and improved service delivery. Yet their aggregate impact has fallen short and is unevenly distributed.
The report acknowledges that digital divided needs to be closed to achieve the full benefit for society. But this is not possible digital adaptation rather analogue complements needs to be worked upon like – by strengthening regulations that ensure competition among businesses, by adapting workers’ skills to the demands of the new economy, and by ensuring that government institutions and others are accountable. This will ensure complete benefit of Digital revolution.
The Issue: India which is known for its IT sector and software skilled manpower lags behind in terms of digitally transforming its economy. An example of this is that in 20 Internet giant companies, none belong to India while China is in 2nd position with 5 companies.
China and India: The Contrasting Story
India doesn’t stand anywhere in terms of infrastructure and number of users and pricing of broadband in front of China. There has been a lack of learning in an average Indian workers. Except adoption of technology by government where India fares well due to implementation of Aadhar.
There is a lack of traditional infrastructure which has led to underdevelopment of e-commerce industry in the country. There is lack of education among 25% of workforce.
India has launched many schemes like JAM, Start Up India etc which has the potential to digitally transform the country. Successful and accelerated implementation of these programmes can make up for some of the lost time. But India also needs to do more by strengthening the basic foundations of its digital economy.
Making the Internet accessible, open and safe for all Indians is an urgent priority. The cost of mobile phone access is already low by international standards. And with a supportive policy environment involving
- Smart spectrum management,
- Public-private partnerships, and
- Intelligent regulations of Internet markets,
The same can be achieved for Internet access.
Conclusion:
India wrote one of the early success stories of the digital revolution when it became a global powerhouse for software development and information services. Its Aadhaar digital ID system has become a model for many other countries, helping governments to become more efficient and more inclusive in expanding services to those who had been left behind.
Whether the new initiatives will generate even greater and more widely shared digital dividends — faster growth, more jobs, and better services — depends not only on expanding affordable access to all, but also on making long overdue progress on the analogue complements of digital investments.
[6]. A story of reckless lending / Banks’ balance sheet clean-up imperative for growth, says Raghuram Rajan
The Hindu | The Indian Express
Context: The reported fall in profit of SBI by 62% leading to crash of BSE – Sensex yesterday.
The Issue: Rising NPA of the banks due to the reckless lending.
What has government done?
Brought out in public a proposal to set up an asset reconstruction company (ARC) with equity contribution from the government and the RBI, to deal with the mounting problem of non-performing assets (NPAs), particularly in public-sector banks. The proposal, reportedly first mooted eight months ago, has attracted hardly any public debate.
It’s also reported that the government is determined to go ahead with the proposal and has convened a meeting of “experts”, including some from the IMF, despite the RBI’s reservations about the ARC.
Why is RBI governor not in favour of ARC?
RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan is reported to have been “not comfortable”, fearing a “moral hazard”, and apparently said something to the effect of “Why should the taxpayer pay for reckless lending by banks in the past?”
Suggestion to improve the situation by Rajan:
The RBI governor points to political game for such a reckless lending in the country.
Rajan has made several suggestions to ease the NPA crisis, such as corporate debt restructuring (CDR), the 5/25 scheme, and strategic debt restructuring (SDR). These require banks to absorb some stress rather than going scot-free.
The Impact of Ongoing clean – up of bank balance sheets
- Will help spur economic growth and
- Improve the lenders’ profitability,
What is RBI doing?
The RBI had conducted an asset quality review (AQR) of banks and identified specific accounts, which banks have to identify as non-performing in two quarters, October-December and January-March. As a result, bad loans have hit banks’ profitability in the third quarter with most of them posting heavy losses in Q3.
“While the profitability of some banks may be impaired in the short-run, the system, once cleaned, will be able to support economic growth in a sustainable and profitable way,”
Approaches to loan stress:
There are two polar approaches to loan stress. One is to apply band aids to keep the loan current and hope that time and growth will set the project back on track
An alternative approach is to try to put the stressed project back on track rather than simply applying band aids. This may require deep surgery.”
The banks will need government equity or preference share infusion, he said. On its part, RBI will provide whatever liquidity is needed by any bank, he said.
By: ForumIAS Editorial Team
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