16 JUNE 2016

Ø  In a big push to its reform agenda, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government approved the country’s first National Civil Aviation Policy for increasing air connectivity, allowing new domestic airlines to fly abroad quickly and opening up the skies for European and South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) countries. New airlines, such as Vistara and AirAsia, will no longer have to wait for five years before starting operations on international routes. Start-up airlines can now fly abroad after operating at least 20 planes or 20 per cent of their total flying capacity, whichever is higher, on domestic routes. According to a 2004 norm, which is also known as the ‘5/20 rule’, a domestic airline is allowed to go international only after flying for five years to domestic destinations and operating at least 20 aircraft. “Connecting the unconnected and serving the un-served is the motto of the civil aviation policy. The questionable legacy of the ‘5/20 rule’ has been thrown into the dustbin today,” Information Technology and Communications Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said here after a Cabinet meeting. India will have an open-sky policy for countries beyond the 5,000-km radius from Delhi on a reciprocal basis. This means that airlines from European or Saarc countries will have unlimited access, in terms of number of flights and seats, to Indian airports, leading to increased flight frequencies with these countries. While India has a full open-sky arrangement with the U.S., it has a near open-sky agreement with the U.K. with a restriction on the frequency of flights to and from Mumbai and Delhi. As a part of its regional connectivity scheme, passengers will be charged Rs. 2,500 for an hour’s flight on regional routes by the airlines. The government will provide support to fund airlines’ losses on such unserved routes “by a small levy per departure” on all domestic routes, except in remote ones and in north-eastern States. It has grand plans to revive 50 airports in the next two years through the regional connectivity scheme. However, it is yet to ascertain how it will mop up funds for providing the viability gap funding.

Ø  Monday’s satellite launch will see the Indian Space Research Organisation resuming its Earth Observation (EO) satellite activity after a gap of around three years. The space agency has scheduled to fly Cartosat-2C, an Earth imaging satellite of sub-metre resolution and meant purely for the Armed Forces, on board the PSLV launcher on the morning of June 20. It will also launch 19 other smaller external satellites, including two from Indian universities. In the period since 2013, seven navigation spacecraft and a few communication satellites dominated the domestic space scene, with the exception of the Indo-French SARAL and the weather satellite INSAT-3D of 2013. About the long absence of EOs on their launch schedule, ISRO Chairman A.S. Kiran Kumar said: “The next four or five launches will be EO-based satellites. In the next one year, there will be three more in the Cartosat-2 series and one of them will be for civil use. Then you have Scatsat-1, Resourcesat-2A and Oceansat-3 [on the PSLV], Insat-3DR on the GSLV around August and others.” GISAT, a geo-imaging spacecraft of very high resolution and a higher orbit, is slated for 2018. The upcoming EO (or remote sensing) satellites would be three to four times more efficient than the older ones, providing sharper images of larger areas from about 600 km in space and repeat the view faster. They would provide far more data of ground situations than the older ones, as they would re-visit a location more frequently than before. This was possible with the use of high-speed detection electronics components such as time delay integration devices, which would help to do continuous imaging of land areas. This was required for the country's crop forecasting and monitoring activities that need frequent observation and sharp images.

Ø  Two tiny spacecraft built by students of two Indian universities took off from Bengaluru on June 6 after tests, and are set for a free ride into space on June 20. They are part of an Indian record in the making, of launching 20 satellites on a single launch vehicle. Engineering students of Sathyabhama University, Chennai, have built the 1.6-kg Sathyabhamasat. It is designed to measure greenhouse gases over the region from about 500 km above the ground. The other is the 1-kg Swayam, a project of the College of Engineering, Pune.

Ø  The Senate has failed to recognise India as a “global strategic and defence partner” of the U.S. after a key amendment necessary to modify its export control regulations could not be passed. A day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent address to a joint session of Congress, top Republican senator John McCain moved an amendment to the National Defence Authorisation Act (NDAA-17) which if passed would have recognised India as a global strategic and defence partner. The U.S. had recognised India as a “major defence partner” in a joint statement issued after Mr. Modi held talks with President Barack Obama which supported defence-related trade and technology transfer to the country which would now be treated on par with America’s closest allies. The NDAA was passed by the Senate with an overwhelming bipartisan vote of 85-13. But some of the key amendments including the (SA 4618) — even though they had bipartisan support — could not be passed by the Senate. “The [Senate] amendment [No 4618] was not adopted to the NDAA,” a Congressional aide told PTI. Without specifically mentioning this particular legislative move on India, Mr. McCain expressed disappointment that many key amendments could not see the light of day. “I regret that the Senate was unable to debate and vote on several matters critical to our national security, many of which enjoyed broad bipartisan support,” “In particular, I am deeply disappointed that the Senate was not able to increase the number of special immigrant visas for Afghans who risked their lives to help America in a time of war, and whose lives are still at risk today,” he said. “Too often throughout this process, a single senator was able to bring the Senate’s work on our national defence to a halt. This was a breakdown in the decorum of the Senate, and one that will have serious consequences,” Mr. McCain said. The McCain amendment said that the relationship between the U.S. and India has developed over the past two decades to become a multifaceted, global strategic and defence partnership rooted in shared democratic values and the promotion of mutual prosperity, greater economic cooperation, regional peace, security and stability. As such it asked the President to take such actions as may be necessary “to recognise the status of India as a global strategic and defence partner” of the U.S. through appropriate modifications to defence export control regulations.

Ø  President Pranab Mukherjee on Wednesday made out a strong case for a “concerted push” to make the United Nations more democratic and representative at the annual session of its general assembly scheduled for September, maintaining that any further delay would rob the process of its grace. Mr. Mukherjee raised the issue of U.N. reforms at a meeting with President of Cote D’Ivoire Alassane Ouattara. In his talks, the President regretted that unlike the U.N., the Bretton Woods institutions (such as IMF and World Bank) that were created around the same time seven decades ago had become more inclusive bodies, reflecting the changing world order. “We both recognise the imperatives of strengthening the U.N. system and other international organisations. We would like to see them reformed so that they remain effective in addressing the challenges that confront the world today. In this context, India stands ready to shoulder greater responsibilities in the specialised organs of the U.N., particularly its Security Council”, Mr. Mukherjee told his counterpart at a banquet in his honour. Cote D’Ivoire (also known as Ivory Coast), a francophone country, is the biggest producer and exporter of cashew nuts to India which procures nearly 80 per cent of their total exports. “The Ivory Coast government is very keen to get Indian private sector on board... Another sector he was proudly mentioning was that of chocolates. They produce cocoa. He says the Indian private sector could be useful as they export everything,” Amar Sinha, Secretary (Economic Relations), Ministry of External Affairs, told the media about the delegation-level talks. Mr. Mukherjee was decorated with National Grand Croix, Cote D’Ivoire’s highest honour.

Ø  Days after Chinese troops transgressed into the Indian territory in Yangtse in Arunachal Pradesh, Minister of State (Home) Kiren Rijiju told The Hindu that it was a minor scuffle between the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and its Indian counterpart. He also said that the Chinese even gave a box of chocolates and a gift to Indian Army personnel while leaving Yangste. The statement comes at a time when India is seeking China’s support for entry into the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG). Late last week Prime Minister Narendra Modi had attempted to reach out to China on the issue through Russia.

Ø  India will sign a contract with the International Seabed Authority (ISA), a United Nations organisation, later this year that will give the country exclusive rights to mine for precious metals trapped in magma on the seabed of the Indian Ocean. Officials say that while the long-term mining projects will fructify only over decades, they will be of immense strategic and commercial value. The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved a proposal by the Earth Sciences Ministry to sign the agreement to mine for so-called polymetallic sulphides over 10,000 sq km around parts of central and southwest Indian ridges in the ocean. In 2002, the government was granted permission only to explore ocean regions and prospect for precious metals. Deep seabed polymetallic sulphides (PMS) contain iron, copper, zinc, silver, gold and platinum in variable constitutions and are precipitates of hot fluids from upwelling hot magma from the deep interior of the oceanic crust. These compounds in the ocean ridges have attracted worldwide attention for their long-term commercial and strategic values, said a Ministry statement. Initial estimated resource of polymetallic nodules on the site retained by India on the central Indian Ocean basin is 380 million tonnes with 0.55 tonnes of cobalt, 4.7 tonnes of nickel, 4.29 tonnes of copper and 92.59 tonnes of manganese. However, the actual estimates will vary depending on the results of a detailed survey and exploration, coupled with results of test mining of nodules upon developing the mining technology. A slew of Indian organisations such as the National Institute of Ocean Technology and the National Centre for Antarctic and Ocean Research are involved with these surveys and developing specialised shipping vehicles. A key technical challenge is being able to develop the specialised drills and extraction-technology required to fish out the metals. The ISA, under the United Nations Convention on Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), governs non-living resources of the seabed of international waters.

Ø  Multiple incidents during the ongoing Malabar naval exercises between India, Japan and the U.S. off the Okinawa coast in Japan highlighted the increasing friction between China and the other nations in the region over developments in the South China Sea, unwittingly dragging India into the tensions. According to a report by Reuters, a Chinese observation ship had on Wednesday tailed the U.S. aircraft carrier USS John C Stennis in the Western Pacific which is taking part in the exercises, while in a separate incident Japan said that another ship entered its territorial waters for the first time in over a decade.