Beginning of End of Co-operation at ISS

To build something delicate takes ages, and destruction can be done in a smack. Something very special to the world is about to perish. International Space Station(ISS), setup as one unit by all space powers in the world for orbital research has remained a rare domain of cooperation amidst hostile relationship between USA and Russia. Russian state media reported Roscosmos General Director Dmitry Rogozin as saying in an interview. “I can say this only, in accordance with our obligations, we’ll inform our partners about the end of our work on the ISS with a year’s notice….The decision has been taken already, we’re not obliged to talk about it publicly.” He had threatened earlier this month to end Russia’s mission unless the U.S., European Union and Canada lifted sanctions against enterprises involved in the Russian space industry.
ISS is largest man-made structure in space and is one of the most complex scientific and engineering projects. Russia had been a crucial player since the inception and making the ISS a success, with other space agencies relying on advanced Russian modular space station construction technology to build ISS. A total of 11 astronauts are presently inhibiting ISS – 6 Americans, 3 Russians, an Italian and a German – the diversity symbolising joint space exploration. Sanctions causing Russia’s international isolation since Ukraine crisis in February has marked the demise of this symbol.

Russia says that withdrawal from ISS will be complete 2025 and it will build and manage its own floating laboratory by 2030. NASA on the other hand, plans to operate ISS through 2030. Instead of Russian Soyuz spacecraft to transport astronauts, the U.S. space agency is now relying more on private space flights. For example, Elon Musk’s SpaceX launched the four astronauts for NASA and the European Space Agency last Wednesday.

The safety of the ISS remains a real concern amidst these promises of independent setups. Russia controls critical aspects of the space station’s propulsion control systems which provided boosts to the ISS at regular intervals. Without these regular boosts the ISS would very slowly fall toward the atmosphere, where it would mostly burn up. Yet, there is a high chance that some components may survive and fall on earth surface and even cause damage to lives, mostly in the equator area.

Ongoing Russia-Ukrain conflict continues to spiral into chaos causing unprecedented damage to sense of global village, something which entire globe had started envisioning. While technology keeps bringing humans together in space and time, the attitudinal shift and lack of communication abilities to resolve conflict have escalated. Digital natives surely need to embrace each other to resolve problems which may have resulted due to kicking the can down the road attitude. Rise of nationalisms, terrorism, lack of International co-operation, global warming are few such issues which require immediate attention.

Combination of Hard and Soft Power

Today, India is the third largest economy by purchasing power parity (PPP) and is fast racing to become the third ranked economy by nominal GDP also. The reformist measures being adopted by the government, are sure to transform its economy further in the years to come. Moreover, with its fastest growing GDP among larger economies, around 40 crore middle class and around 140 crore population, India in any case becomes a darling for the global investors with top economic powers wanting to fortify economic ties.

While India’s soft power helped the country in its approach to leave its imprint in the world engagement, its hard power approach laid the ground for the country to serve its national security interests and objectives. Despite the geo-political challenges, India has been displaying its hard power on the strength of its economy and military. From fighting challenges of terrorism, expansionism to working on lifting country’s economic resources, India has been quick in enhancing its vibrant hard power inheritance.

India’s tangible culture nurtured over the years has captivated the world like anything. Be it growing international fan-base for the Indian Cinemas or the famous Indian delicacy ‘Samosas’ hitting the kitchen of the Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, or the quick adaption of the Indian “Namaste” by the world during the COVID-19 pandemic, India has been successful in using its soft power asset in its engagement with the world. Similarly, the establishment of luxury Taj Hotel properties in Boston, San Francisco and London further adds to this side of the country. Monuments like Taj Mahal and others attract people in millions from world over. India has more UNESCO World Heritage sites than majority of the countries. Further, in the times of global crisis like coronavirus pandemic, India stood up on its ideals- “Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam”, and extended its unwavering commitment for the inclusion, plurality of all in the form of “Vaccine Diplomacy”.

Hard power is when the country uses the military and economic means as an influence on the behaviour or interests of other political bodies. It is a form of political power which is often so aggressive that is it uses coercion. Whereas Soft power is the ability to attract and co-opt, instead of coercing, shaping the preferences of others through appeal and attraction.

On India’s emergence as ‘hard power’, the Union I&B Minister Anurag Thakur shared a story from the past as he spoke at the Raisina Dialogue-2022. He recalled a newspaper once referring India as ‘a country of snake charmers and beggars’. ‘But within three years after India conducted nuclear test under PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee, things changed considerably and world started looking at us in a different way’. “To exist and stay relevant, a nation needs to have Hard Power. But to maintain friendly relationship and to exist beyond boundaries, a nation needs soft power as well, as it touches hearts.. a relationship between Hard power and soft power could be like two batsman at crease with one complimenting other in running,” the MIB Minister added.

Drones have arrived in India

The sky over Delhi was lit up with 1,000 drones, when a spectacular event put up by ‘made-in-India’ drones highlighted this year’s ‘Beating Retreat’ ceremony in January 2022. Notably, the 1,000 drone show set India on the world stage, precisely in the top four after the U.K, China, and Russia. This was followed by by the speech of Budget 2022, wherein Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced that the Centre will promote ‘Kisan Drones‘ to help farmers assess crops, digitise land records as well as spray insecticides and nutrients.

As the government now adds PLI Scheme benefits to manufacturing of drone and drone components, the growth that now awaits this sector would be rapid and exponential. The list of beneficiaries by MoCA includes five drone manufacturers and nine drone component manufacturers. The scheme would provide a total incentive of INR 120 crore over three financial years, which is approximately double the combined turnover of all domestic drone manufacturers in FY 2020-21. What is worth highlighting is the fact that the PLI rate here is 20% of the value-added, which is among the highest rates among PLI schemes. Manufacturers who fail to satisfy the value addition criteria in 2021-22 will also be able to recover the lost incentive in the following year if they make up the shortfall in 2022-23, which is a unique element of the drone PLI scheme. Apart from the PLI Scheme, the government of India has implemented various reforms with an aim to make India a worldwide drone hub by 2030. This includes publication of the Drone Airspace Map 2021 which opened nearly 90% of Indian airspace as a green zone up to 400 feet, The UAS Traffic Management (UTM) policy framework 2021, The Drone Certification Scheme 2022 to make it easier for drone manufacturers to obtain a type certificate and introduction of the Drone (Amendment) Rules, 2022.

The global commercial drone market size was valued at USD 13.44 billion in 2020. It is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 57.5% from 2021 to 2028. In such a time, the ban that the central government imposed on importing drones (The Drone Import Policy 2022) has turned out to be a powerful step in making India self-reliant, as it has hugely encouraged domestic manufacturers. As per the estimates by Civil Aviation Ministry, India’s drone sector is expected to achieve a total turnover of Rs. 120-150 billion (US$ 1.63-2.04 billion) by 2026, from its current turnover of about Rs. 800 million (US$ 10.88 million). In addition, the government plans to attract investments of Rs. 5,000 crore (US$ 669.07 million) in the next three years in the drone manufacturing industry and create over 10,000 job opportunities.

Drones have found quite a good space in the Indian landscapes. In August 2021, the Ministry of Civil Aviation liberalised the drone use policy. This was followed by the Department of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare issuing the SOP for using drones to spray pesticides in agricultural, forest lands and non-cropped areas. This was soon followed by India becoming the first-ever country to commercially produce and spray Nano Liquid Urea through Drone in Gujarat’s Bhavnagar. A drone subsidy proposal was also included later in the drone policy. It is through this clause that FPO’s can now receive a grant of up to 75% of the cost of an agriculture drone. Innovative drone-powered solutions and government initiatives like the Svamitva scheme (Survey of Villages and Mapping with Improvised Technology in Village Areas), which is surveying inhabited Indian rural lands using drone technology are already taking advantage of these measures.

Growth of Niche Tourism domains

Tourism is responsible for the growth of the local economy, which in turn provides employment opportunity to the local residents and give a boost to the place in terms of infrastructure development. Astrostays are one such concept to promote travellers to visit the rural place to stargaze. Established in 2019, Astrostays first came up in Maan village in Ladakh and in almost a few months, it attracted more than 350 guests. While tourists stay with members of a particular community, they get to learn about the local cultural heritage, sustainable living and eco-tourism. Till date, Ladakh’s Astrostay has witnessed more than 600 tourists, bringing in over $25,000 in revenue to villages whose residents have opened their homes. As Astrostays is owned and run by the local communities, the money invested by tourists gets reinvested in local infrastructure. Lieutenant Governor of UT of Ladakh – R.K Mathur, in one of his addresses in 2021 discussed science-based tourism and suggested making Astro-Tourism a flagship tourism product of Ladakh based on its geography.

Earlier this year, Rajasthan became the first Indian state to announce the introduction of night sky Astro Tourism in all of its 33 districts. The pink city of the state – Jaipur, alone has four famous star gazing venues including Jantar-Mantar, Amber Fort, University of Maharaja and Jawahar Kala Kendra. Rajasthan’s Department of Science and Technology has also stated that Bikaner House in New Delhi has been chosen as a spot to promote Astro-Tourism and therefore, a telescope will be installed for skywatching.

Ministry of Tourism has taken the initiative to discuss and explore ‘Nature-based tourism’ during the ‘Dekho Apna Desh’ Webinar series. Concerted efforts are being put into tapping the growing potential of Astro-Tourism in India. States that hold the immense beauty of the night sky and minimal light pollution are planning to explore this area. For example, Benital Village, located 2,600 metres above sea level in the Chamoli district in Uttrakhand, is planning to turn into an Astro village. An Astro park is in the works in Mandu, Madhya Pradesh, whereas in Jaipur, the State Department of Art and Culture introduced a Night Sky Tourism project after the first wave of COVID-19, to encourage visitors to look up through the telescopes set up at Jawahar Kala Kendra and Jantar Mantar. Ladakh administration also took initiatives to promote Astro-tourism in Hanle village, by collaborating with the Indian Institute of Astrophysics.

The Karnataka Tourism Policy (2020-25) mentions Science Tourism as an aspect along with other types including cultural, shopping, sports, spiritual, wellness etc. The northern state of Uttrakhand is also witnessing a change of taste in terms of tourism. Nainital’s tourism department is gearing the development and planning process for the projects in the villages of Takula and Devasthal. Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences (ARIES) has been roped in to look after the technical aspect of the project.

These initiatives highlight that we have come a long way. In 2017, it was touted that around 7 million people travelled across the U.S. to witness the Total Solar Eclipse. The tourism industry, at that time, was not ready for such an overwhelming response on the heels of tourism based on science. Since then, many countries, and communities are using astronomy to bring tourism to their region.

Astro-Tourism is not just responsible to draw a parallel between experiential and eco-tourism but will also promote a sustainable form of travel that has immense potential to bring positive, social, economic and conservative benefits to remote communities and areas.

India’s leap in digital payment paradigm

“Many countries praised the CoWin app, which was created for vaccination during the first COVID period and Nepal has now adopted India’s UPI for digital transactions. It will bolster interoperable real-time person-to-person (P2P) and person-to-merchant (P2M) transactions,” said a PIB release breaking the news of Nepal adopting India’s UPI for digital transactions. The development comes days after tourists & migrants to the United Arab Emirates with Indian bank accounts became eligible to do payments via UPI at various shops, retail facilities and other merchants in the UAE. Apart from these two nations, UPI Global is already live in Singapore and Bhutan, and would enable Indian travellers to make easy payments.

The scale and speed with which UPI operates in India is unprecedented with over 155 banks currently live on the UPI platform. UPI had enabled 39 billion financial transactions amounting to commerce worth $940 billion in the year 2021, a figure equivalent to around 31% of India’s GDP. As per recorded data, such a massive number of transactions haven’t happened on a single platform anywhere in the world. BHIM-UPI even achieved a record of 452.75 crore digital payment transactions to the tune of Rs 8.27 lakh crore till February 28, 2022.

To take digital payment to every nook and corner of the country, various steps have been taken by MeitY. Incentive schemes like the promotion of RuPay Debit cards and low-value BHIM-UPI transactions (P2M) facilitate Banks in building a robust digital payment ecosystem, promoting RuPay Debit cards and BHIM-UPI digital transactions, across all sectors and segments of the population, and further deepening digital payments in India. Additionally, Incentive/cashback schemes were launched by MeitY for changing the customer/merchant behavior for faster adoption of digital payments in India. Some of them were BHIM Cashback schemes for Individuals & Merchants, BHIM Aadhaar Merchant Incentive Scheme, BHIM-UPI Merchant Onboarding Scheme Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) Reimbursement scheme. Another step towards improving digital infrastructure was the scheme titled “Pradhan Mantri Gramin Digital Saksharta Abhiyan (PMGDISHA)” to usher in digital literacy in rural India.The introduction of QR scanning for making digital payments has also contributed to increasing the number of digital payments over the last few years because of the added ease and flexibility.

The success lies in the flexibility as UPI offers users to pay through easy QR codes and quick PINs, while the world still struggles and stays on traditional methods, such as card systems, which are still dominant in developed states across the globe. Check payments are still very common in various parts of the European countries. UPI is simple and doesn’t require users to carry anything extra other than their smartphones. RuPay and UPI, together are beating cash and card-based transactions in the country with whopping margins. The continuation of this trend may lead to them taking over the global competitors like American express, VISA and Mastercard, and other Global Giants that have ruled the Indian payment systems for decades. UPI is becoming popular in other foreign countries at a right time, as absence of a similar Open, Simple & Powerful payments interface may leverage India’s position in the foreign markets.

Data-Driven Rural Reset

Embracing the digital fueled transformation, technology is fast changing the face of the farmers and villages. From laying down the framework of ‘India Digital Ecosystem of Agriculture – (IDEA)’, to involving AI, Machine Learning, Drones, Data Analytics in the agriculture industry, the centre’s policies are overcoming increasing demand and disruptive forces along with other issues.

“At the core of our good governance efforts in India’s villages is to leverage the power of technology for the welfare of people,” these are the words of Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his recent visit to Jammu & Kashmir. Evidently, technology penetration in the Indian agriculture sector is happening at various levels starting from – policy interventions to digital innovations. For policy intervention, the proof in the pudding is the SVAMITVA scheme, in which nearly 36 Lakh Property cards have been prepared in 28,603 villages. Under Digital Innovation, the centre developed mActionSoft – a mobile-based solution to help in capturing photos with Geo-Tags. 2.52 lakh photographs of the assets have been uploaded by the Gram Panchayats for the activities taken under the fifteenth Finance Commission. Further, Towards leveraging technology in data management, MoPR conceptualized the application “AuditOnline” that not only facilitates the auditing of accounts but also provisions for maintaining digital audit records. This is definitely a big leap from Social Audits, a rigorous process that constitutes verifying the field realities with data in official documents and discussing the findings on a public platform such as Gram Sabha.

India’s fight against COVID-19 till now, has also established the importance of bringing data-driven strategies for COVID-19 management, especially in rural areas where the lack of information regarding COVID-19 management can severely constrain pandemic management. Rural India requires localized policy interventions to ensure the optimization of critical resources. With this idea in mind, the focus on technology again proved helpful as MoPR tactfully developed COVID19 DASHBOARD in collaboration with NIC that helped India monitor covid related policy implementation at the grassroots level.

Besides, the country is even in the process of developing Smart Vending Carts to be used by Vendors in rural areas. In fact, a Smart Vending E-Cart, designed by IIT Bombay, has been demonstrated and found to be quite appropriate for the use by vendors / small businesses in rural, peri-urban and farm sectors. With a call for ‘Meri Panchayat Mera Adhikaar – Jan Sevaayein Hamaare Dwaar’ the government has created a Citizen Charter document that rightly shifts focus to where it belongs – the Rural Citizenry. The government is also ensuring ‘ease of living’, financial inclusion and complete digitalisation, among other aspects. And this can rightly be achieved by putting ‘Data’ at the heart of all development goals.

From healthcare to education to finance and manufacturing; various sectors governing our economies, have become technology-driven. This also holds true for one of the oldest industries known to civilization – Agriculture.