16 APRIL 2016

Ø  India has sought transparency in the U. N. procedures to designate a group or an individual terrorist. The demand comes days after China blocked its bid to designate Jaish- e- Mohammad chief Masood Azhar a terrorist. The existing rules allow Security Council members to oppose any move in the sanctions committees in a clandestine manner and without offering any explanation. The sanctions committees can take decisions only unanimously, and this means any of the 15 members can veto a move. For instance, China put a ‘ technical hold’ on action against Azhar, and India came to know only informally from members of the council. This amounts to allowing a “ hidden veto” for every member of the council, Syed Akbaruddin, Permanent Representative of India to the U. N., said at an open debate. The Security Council has Al- Qaeda, Taliban and Islamic State Sanctions Committees that can mandate international sanctions, which will require countries to freeze the targeted group’s or individual’s assets, ban designated individuals from travelling and prevent the supply of weapons, technology and other aid. Earlier too, China delayed moves against the Pakistan- based terror groups such as the Jamaat- Ud- Dawa and the Lashkar- e- Taiba.

Ø  For a region that has been historically seafaring, India in the modern era has been bafflingly inward-looking. It is therefore welcome to hear Prime Minister Narendra Modi say, as he did at the Maritime India Summit in Mumbai on Thursday, that “the maritime agenda will complement the ambitious infrastructure plan for the hinterland which is going on in parallel”. India has for long been slow, and ad hoc, in developing infrastructure to reap the economic opportunity its seaboards naturally provide. And having been Chief Minister of Gujarat, a State that stands out in port development, Mr. Modi has a keener sense of this untapped potential. As he said in Mumbai, apart from the length of the coastline, 7,500 km, “India’s maritime potential also lies in its strategic location on all major shipping highways.” There has been an increasing emphasis on maritime infrastructure, and his government has added weight to it. The ambitious Sagarmala programme intends to promote port-led development, improve the coastal economy, modernise ports and integrate them with special economic zones, and create port-based smart cities, industrial parks, warehouses, logistics parks and transport corridors. India has also begun to collaborate with neighbouring Bangladesh and Myanmar in building waterways and port infrastructure. This is essential as ultimately it’s economics that provides the necessary push to take forward strategic overtures.

Ø  While the seventh and last of the regional navigation spacecraft is due to be launched on April 28, space agency Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has lined up a record-making feat towards the end of May. It will put in orbit 21 small and mostly foreign commercial satellites along with a larger Indian spacecraft. The primary passenger on the PSLV-C33 launcher will be the Earth observing, high-resolution Cartosat-2C, weighing around 700 kg. Offering a resolution of about 60 cm, Cartosat-2C is touted to be the best Indian eye yet in the sky. It will cater to the country’s military requirements. Its camera, among other functions, can spot objects that are 60 cm wide or long - roughly an arm’s length, from its orbit of around 600 km. As far as multiple launches go, the PSLV has launched 10 spacecrafts including eight small foreign ones in April 2008. Then, too, the main passenger was Cartosat-2A, another defence enabler, giving pictures of 80 cm resolution of the ground below. Last December, a PSLV took up six small Singapore satellites into orbit in one go. NASA holds the 2013 record for placing the highest number — 29 — of mostly small customer satellites in orbit on a Minotaur launcher. Multiple launches need multiple interfaces between the rocket and the spacecraft, and coordination with operators of each spacecraft. ISRO Chairman A.S.Kiran Kumar said such missions must be planned meticulously by timing the release of each customer satellite carefully without affecting the others. According to secondary sources, the small satellites are of masses ranging from one kg to 130 kg. Three are from Indian universities – the 12-kg NIUSAT from the Noorul Islam University in Kanyakumari; the 2-kg SathyabamaSat; and the 1-kg Swayam from Pune’s College of Engineering.