Developing Mass Rapid Transit Systems in India

Traffic in almost all major population centres in India seems to have been stuck in chronic congestion with an average vehicle speed of around only 10-15km/h. Indian urban centres have long lacked both a city railway network and short-distance rail lines connecting the suburbs. These cities are facing an explosive combination of rapid population growth, a sharp rise in the number of privately owned vehicles as city dwellers have been forced to depend on only buses, private-owned cars and two or three-wheelers for transportation. The low-quality fuel and inefficient engines used in cars and buses add to the toxicity of the prevailing problem of air pollution.

In this backdrop, it had become critical that a mass rapid transit system be developed in all major cities of India for accelerating the modal shift from automobile to the metro system. Cities with an operating Metro system in the country have seen successful alleviation of traffic congestion as well as the reduction in air pollution caused by exhaust fumes and emission of greenhouse gases.

Today, Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone of Pune Metro and inaugurated several other developmental projects in the city.

In his address, the Prime Minister said that Smart Mobility for citizens is the need of the hour. This includes having more green transport, electric buses, electric cars, electric two-wheelers and the use of a single card for transport facilities.

“There should be Integrated Command & Control Center in every city to make the facilities smart,” PM Modi iterated emphasising that the more people travel in metros, the better it will be for cities.

Not only on cities but the Metro system also has a very positive impact on worker productivity. The system ensures that city-based employees have lesser stress of the commute with less time wasted in traffic. People are able to save money and are under less financial strain from car costs when they are seeking employment in different parts of their city. Metros have become the engines of growth as they are opening doors of opportunities for the poor who otherwise are limited by the lack of available transport or ability to pay. Clearly, the public health benefits of the Metro system are the real winner as lower pollution as well as fewer accidents are observed, as a great proportion of accidents happen during rush hours.

While the Metro system has been a boon, it needs to be seen as the first step towards the development of a sustainable long term mass rapid transit system. Currently, all urban mass transit systems are developed on the hub-and-spoke concept, where the transport system is the hub and users have to travel from various parts of the city and converge in the hub to use it. Prototypes of one next-gen MRT system, known as MINI ELEVATED cTrain (caterpillar train) developed by one of the engineers of Indian Railways had won a global competition on innovations at MIT, Boston. Rather than the current form of Metro coaches, the C-Train envisages a series of small, seating-only cars that would be “as high as an SUV” with a capacity of only 20 passengers. These would have wheels both below and on top, giving them the ability to travel on the track as well as under it, thereby giving them the appearance of a caterpillar. Further, due to lightweight coaches, C-Train would run on poles joined together to form an arch, and it would run on electricity (with battery backup). With a combination of such innovations on the horizon with solar power harnessing capability enhancement, India is looking to emerge as the true leader of next-gen public commutation.

Religious Individuals of a Secular Society

KT Shah had put in demand in 1948 during the constituent assembly debate to include the word ‘Secular’ in the Preamble to Indian Constitution. Though the members agreed to the secular nature of the constitution, yet chose not to incorporate the word in the Preamble.

Dictionary definition of secularism is the belief that religion should not influence or be involved in the organization of society, education, government, etc. The term was coined in the mid-nineteenth century in England by George Holyoake (1817–1906), founder of secularist society which attempted to end religious discrimination in parliament and elsewhere. So, in a generic sense, developing an understanding and respect for different religions is secularism.

It was only in 1976 that the Indira Gandhi government enacted the 42nd Amendment Act and the word ‘Secular’ was added to the Preamble. This was supposed to strengthen the already existing Constitutional Provisions relating to Right of Religion, which are given in Article 25 (Freedom of conscience and free profession, practice and propagation of religion), Article 26 (Freedom to manage religious affairs), Article 27 (Freedom as to payment of taxes for promotion of any particular religion), and Article 28 (Freedom as to attendance at religious instruction or religious worship in certain educational institutions).

The interesting thing is that the constitution has not as such defined the terms ‘religion’ and ‘matters of religion’. In a way, it was left to the Supreme Court to determine the judicial meaning of these terms, and one can refer to Supreme Court’s Justice Hansaria’s observation of 1996 in A.S. Narayan vs. State of Andhra Pradesh case that, “our constitution makers had used the word “religion” in these two articles (Articles 25 and 26) in the sense conveyed by the word ‘dharma’.” Justice Hansaria explained the difference between religion and dharma as “religion is enriched by visionary methodology and theology, whereas dharma blooms in the realm of direct experience. Religion contributes to the changing phases of a culture; dharma enhances the beauty of spirituality. Religion may inspire one to build a fragile, mortal home for God; dharma helps one to recognize the immortal shrine in the heart.”

Haryana has joined Odisha, Chhatisgarh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Arunachal Pradesh to table the anti-conversion bill. The critics are claiming that these bills, by seeking to target conversions, interfere with both the right to dignity and freedom to practise the faith of their choice. They claim that under the light of Article 25 these bills are unconstitutional and some have even gone on to tear the bill in front of the entire assembly. One of the major concerns is the vagueness in defining “allurement” as one of the bases of needs of such bills.

In this light, the ongoing efforts of state governments towards anti-conversion bills and their resistances, bring the matter of personal practice vs impact on social fabric as a matter of debate at the national level. Religion is a matter of personal choice and secularism is the nature of society. India is a country where ardent religious individuals make a strongly secular society. Respecting others’ choices is the basis of this strong social fibre.

Nearly There Now

Cent percent of eligible group for vaccination is within reach for India now as over 97% have been vaccinated. This has brought economic, educational and even social activities back to normal. This has not been easy ride for sure. India has braved 3rd wave very effectively and is almost back to normalcy. Beginning of the vaccination process was not a nice sight when only 450-550 million doses seemed doable, as late as Nov 2020. There were huge concerns of difficulties in geographical mobility and lack of cold storage facilities. With multiple other factors acting towards vaccine wastage, India had a mountain to move.

Hence, since the beginning of world’s largest vaccination drive, India has battled both vaccine hesitancy and vaccine shortage to reach current vaccine demand across the nation and abroad. A lot has happened since the first vaccine dose was administered on January 16, 2021. On February 19 2021, within just a month of its start, India had already achieved the 1 crore vaccination milestone.One of the key challenges in the success of the vaccination drive also involved the need for a robust registration and tracking mechanism for the beneficiaries. In March 2021, India began vaccination registration through CoWin portal, Arogya Setu and Umang App.

The Co-WIN platform was at the heart of the vaccination drive. In a country like India, where access to technology and digital literacy is limited, introducing a digital platform like CoWIN was a challenge. The software performed the crucial functions of registration of beneficiaries, the listing of facilities/planning unit and session sites, planning and scheduling of vaccine sessions with real-time status on booked and available booking slots on different dates and at different sites, end-to-end implementation of vaccine process, traceability of beneficiaries and monitoring of vaccine doses and wastages, etc. at national, state, district and block levels. Fast forward to October 21, 2021, the country had already hit its Vaccine Century with the administration of 100 crore vaccine doses. The same month, India also launched ICMR’s “i-Drone” (Drone Response and Outreach in North East) policy. For the first time, a “Make in India’ drone was used in South Asia to transport COVID vaccine over an aerial distance of 15 kms in 12-15 mins from the Bishnupur district hospital to Loktak lake. With this India had mounted over the challenge of vaccine delivery to far-flung areas, ensuring that none was left behind. To ensure that the vaccine reached every household, the Government had launched “Har Ghar Dastak” (door-to-door) vaccination campaign on November 3, 2021, to achieve 100 per cent first dose coverage.
India’s fight against COVID19 opened gates for an ecosystem that supported indigenous manufacturing and innovation. Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation co-chair Bill Gates lauded India’s work on design, manufacturing and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines that helped save a massive number of lives. He also called it “a testament to innovation.” And why not, from CoWin platform, affordable COVID testing kits to innovative PPE kits for doctors, the country has developed devices that ensure innovations meet necessities.

Indeed, India has leapt into the front-row seat in the post-Covid world order due to its large scale implementation capabilities demonstrated in handling the pandemic while considering the welfare of all at home with Sabka Saath and abroad with Vaccine Maitri.

Ease of Doing Science’ gets coined in India

‘India has data, demography, demand, democracy to achieve world-class scientific solutions,’ PM modi said in his inaugural address at the India International Science Festival-2020

Ancient India has immensely contributed to the knowledge in various branches of Science. The science of astronomy, called Khagolshastra, was in fact well advanced in ancient India. Contributions of popular ancient scientists & discoverers like Kanad, Varahamihira, Nagarjuna, Charak, Sushruta, Aryabhatta, and others, are a proof of India’s rich legacy in science, technology and innovation.

Many of world’s most remarkable and game-changing discoveries were made here long before they got cracked by the western world. The only drawback, however, had been on the promotional front as ancient India missed out on proper pedestalling of the discoveries and a shout out to the world. The new India, which is on a roundabout of taking science to newer heights, is but taking care of both showcasing India’s scientific prowess to the world and promoting science enthusiasm within the country, through even funding and other facilitations now.

Government of India coined a new term i.e. ‘Ease of Doing Science’ in the country today. Union Minister of Science and technology Dr. Jitendra Singh released the new guidelines for ‘Ease of Doing Science: Towards less government, more governance’ on the foundation day of the Department of Biotechnology. This step has been taken to reduce the compliance burden and switching from research administration to research facilitation. Under the initiative, the central government has relaxed compliance guidelines for scientists, therefore making it easier for them to access grants and rope in associates for research and development projects.

It is pertinent to mention that the reforms include single-step approval for administration issues including Budget re-appropriation within the recurring head and change of principle investigatory. The guidelines also stated that to ease the burden of research personnel engaged in research & development projects, salaries for the first two years will be released during the first year as ‘grant-in-aid’ in the project. With the view to promote scientific research in India, the Centre also planned to develop “Ease of Doing Scientific Index” that would ensure effective use of both disbursed funds and the time to weed out sub-standard research work.

Budget 2022-2023 allotted the Ministry of Science & Technology a sum of Rs 14,217, of which Rs 6,000 crore went to DST , Rs 5,636 crore to DSIR and Rs 2,581 crore to DBT. This allocation to DST and DSIR in 2022-2023 has increased by 15% and 6% respectively, as compared to last year allotment. The budget of the Department of Science & Technology (DST) also saw a miniscule jump of Rs 67 crore, whereas the allocation under R&D in DST saw an increase of Rs 11 crore. As the spectrums of innovation, startups, technology, indegeneity and science converge rapidly with changing times in the country, it would be rather interesting to see what all solutions India comes up with before the world in the coming years.

Building Cyber Sustainable Solutions

With growing digital indulgence and technological shift, the matters of privacy and secured networking and storage channels also become of prime importance and require equally robust support systems and mechanisation. Building and replicating a technology is one challenge. Another challenge, rather trickier one, is posed when all these technologies get interconnected to form a web of the country’s total digital & cyber undertakings and the state is met with piling needs to protect its cyber net. This vulnerability gives birth to the need of developing strong data protection systems and technologies.

One such data protection solution is the technology of ‘Quantum key distribution’ (QKD) which is a secure communication technology that uses quantum physics to construct a cryptographic protocol. It allows two parties to generate a shared secret key that is only known to them and can be used to encrypt and decrypt messages. For the first time in India, a team of DRDO scientists and IIT Delhi successfully demonstrated a Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) link between Prayagraj and Vindhyachal in Uttar Pradesh spanning over 100 kilometres, using a commercial-grade optical fibre that was already on the market. In the test runs, the performance parameters for this QKD were found to be repetitively within the reported international standards at sifted key rates of up to 10 KHz.

With this breakthrough, the country has demonstrated its own secure key transfer method, which can be used to bootstrap a military-grade communication security key hierarchy. The QKD technology will further enable India’s security agencies to plan a suitable quantum communication network with indigenous technology backbone.

A report by the Data Security Council of India (DSCI) highlighted India’s remarkable growth in the cyber space. It said that India’s cyber security industry nearly doubled in size amid the pandemic, with revenues from cyber security products and services growing from $5.04bn in 2019 to $9.85bn in 2021. India, its startups, various industries and public & private institutions are also getting acquainted and/or working on other tech-solutions and systems like the blockchain technology, Digital Forensics Technology, modern data science tools, vulnerability assessment & penetration testing tools and solutions, etc.

To build even better capacity towards this, the government has been making relevant provisions in the budget and various policies. Budget 2022, under GIFT-IFSC, talked about Data Centres and Energy Storage Systems including dense charging infrastructure and grid-scale battery systems to be included in the harmonized list of infrastructure. This will facilitate credit availability for digital infrastructure and clean energy storage. It also mentioned Blended Financing solutions where Government backed Funds like ‘NIIF’ and ‘SIDBI Fund of Funds’ have provided scale capital creating a multiplier effect. For encouraging important sunrise sectors such as Climate Action, Deep-Tech, Digital Economy, Pharma and Agri-Tech, the government proposes to promote thematic funds for blended finance with the government share being limited to 20 per cent and the funds being managed by private fund managers.