Affordable air power
Defence Ministry refused to sign $20 billion contract for 126 Rafael fighters.
The author justifies the defence ministry's decision as the life cycle cost of these planes is almost 3 times the initial acquisition price.
So author explores the alternatives for Rafael.
India's need
India needs to be prepared for a simultaneous two front confrontation at multiple levels. This requires:
1. high-end fighters like the Su-30 and the forthcoming fifth generation fighter aircraft
2. cheaper tactical air-crafts to deal with low intensity conflicts where using expensive assets like Sukhoi might be risky
Currently IAF's inventory of combat aircraft is well below its sanctioned 39-and-a-half squadron strength because of :
1. Rapid retirements of MiG-21s, -23s and -27s that have been the tactical backbone of the IAF
2. Delays in the procurement process saw the Mirage going out of production and international pressure made sure that the final tender included much heavier and expensive aircraft than the tactical ones that the service originally wanted. Mirage 2000s were to replace the retiring MiGs.
So in 2007 request for proposals (RfP) finally went out for 126 Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCAs). Rafales were shortlisted but their now being viewed as too costly because:
1. nearly 50 “miscellaneous” items that were left unpriced as part of the original French bid
2. depreciation of the rupee with respect to the dollar since the RfP was issued
3. Rafale’s two engines and expensive maintenance
Tejas
Indian designed and developed Tejas multirole light combat aircraft (LCA) is not in the same class as the Rafale, but it is far more capable than the MiG-21s it was designed to replace. It has features such as:
1. Modern radar and ground targeting systems, both coupled to a helmet-mounted display and sight, confer superb target acquisition and missile launch capability.
2. Advanced beyond visual range and close combat missiles, along with precision guided munitions, make it more potent than the more powerful MiG-23s and -27s.
Other advantages of Tejas:
1. Tejas fighters would cost well under $4 billion, or a fifth of an equal number of Rafales.
2. Operating costs would probably be comparable to that of the frugal Gripen largely because it is small, light and powered by a slightly different version of the efficient and hugely reliable GE-F404 engines that also power currently operational Gripens.
Author defends Tejas from being criticised as a failed project which has taken such a long time :
>> delays were there because resource estimation was not proper as IAF was skeptical and HAL not fully committed
>> project completion dates were not estimated properly
>> Rafale entered service in 2001 nearly 15 years after it first took to the air; an interval that will only be slightly exceeded when the Tejas reaches Final Operational Clearance (FOC) late next year.
So author summarizes:
going ahead with the MMRCA programme will cripple India for decades to come. Affordable air power is effective air power. Conversely, unaffordable air power is poor strategy.
IMF’s cautious optimism
IMF’s flagship publication, World Economic Outlook:
>> projects a modest growth in world output by about 3 per cent in 2013, going up to 3.6 per cent in 2014 and to 3.9 the next year. increase is attributable to the pick-up in the industrial economies led by the U.S.
>> global economy continues to move in a two-speed recovery mode but it is the developed world that is the locomotive providing traction for it. In the early post-recovery period, developing economies led by India and China were providing the traction, making up for the slack in the advanced economies. The roles have been reversed dramatically.
Regarding India:
For India and China, the outlook remains unchanged from January.
>> The IMF quite optimistically expects India’s GDP to grow by 5.4 per cent in 2014 and by 6.4 next year. While official statistics have so far pegged growth at below 5 per cent, the IMF’s estimate does corroborate the views of certain sections that the economy has bottomed out and can, from now on, only go up.
>> Amid the improving global economy, the IMF points out that acute risks have decreased but certain risks have not disappeared. New risks such as low inflation in developed economies and geopolitical issues have emerged in addition to the existing factors such as non-completion of financial sector reform and infrastructure shortfalls.
>>The two-speed recovery of the world economy has certain positives for India. Exports to advanced countries will go up. But on the other hand, the richer countries are in the process of trimming their ultra-soft monetary policies. This could even threaten macroeconomic stability in countries heavily dependent on short-term flows.
The whole article is really informative...
At India’s stage of development, more workers joining agriculture at a time when agricultural productivity is very low is exactly the opposite of what is expected, since agricultural productivity is already lower than comparator countries. Incomes fall when a sector has more workers than needed. Development implies that workers leave agriculture for more productive work in industry and services, and total factor productivity increases in the entire economy. Every developing country is supposed to undergo this structural transformation.
Since 2004-05, this transformation has been happening for the first time in the history of India. Of the 60 million additions to the workforce between 1999-2000 and 2004-05, a third (20 million) joining agriculture indicated growing rural distress, on account of the slow growth in agriculture between 1996 and 2005.
Agriculture has grown much faster since 2005. In fact, during the 11th Plan, agricultural output grew at 3.2 per cent per annum (2007-12) on average, despite crippling drought in 2009-10. The share of agriculture in the workforce has been in decline for decades (falling to 49 per cent in 2001-12). However, the absolute numbers in agriculture have always grown till 2004-05. So, fewer workers were producing more output in agriculture, farm mechanisation increased, and productivity grew.
There was another development. Unskilled workers who left agriculture flocked to construction employment. Such employment increased by only eight million (17 to 25.6 million) during 1999-2000 to 2004-05. But it grew sharply to 50 million by 2011-12. This was an increase from under two million a year to seven million a year. While a part of this increase in construction employment was in housing real estate, it was infrastructure (roads, bridges, airports, ports, energy projects) investment which drove most of the employment growth.
Rural areas also saw significant growth in non-farm construction-related employment: government investment in rural housing for the poor (Indira Awas Yojana) grew, as did rural roads and other rural construction investment (Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana and the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act). In addition, $475 billion worth of infrastructure investment materialised during the 11th Plan period.
Increasing employment was accompanied by rising wages. Wages were stagnant between 1999-2000 and 2004-05, especially rural wages. However, two factors drove wages upward after 2004-05.
>> First, as a result of MGNREGA and rising minimum support prices for government procured cereals, a floor wage was created in the rural areas. This along with an increasing demand for labour in construction led to a tightening of the labour market, both rural and urban. This led to a knock-on effect on urban unskilled wages as well.
>> A second reason for the rise in wages for unskilled/semi-skilled workers was the demand for labour in construction — which is treated as non-manufacturing industry.
Most importantly, services jobs grew by 11 million, and manufacturing employment increased by a remarkable nine million in two years alone (2009-10 and 2011-12), although manufacturing employment fell in absolute terms by three million between 2004-05 and 2009-10. It is crucial to understand why non-agricultural employment has risen rapidly between 2009-10 and 2011-12. After 2004-05, demand for a number of consumer goods has grown sharply, which is reflected in the rise in consumption expenditure to 2011-12. This rise of consumption expenditure shows that the numbers of poor fell from 407 million (Tendulkar line) in 2004-05 to 356 million in 2009-10, and further to 269 million (2011-12).
For the first time in the history of India, there was a decline in the absolute numbers of the poor after 2004-05; until then for nearly 30 years (1973-74 to 2004-5), there was a fall in the percentage, but not in the absolute numbers of the poor (322 million poor in 1973-74 and 302 million poor in 2004-05, by the Lakdawala poverty line). The decline in poverty was driven by a rise in real wages. This rise in real wages and an increase in consumption expenditure have driven demand for goods to the bottom of the pyramid, as poor people have emerged out of poverty.
The new non-poor demand simple manufactured consumer goods: processed food (biscuits, milk), leather goods (shoes, sandals), furniture (plastic chairs/tables, wooden furniture), textiles, garments and mobiles. All these product areas and services saw a dramatic increase in employment between 2009-10 and 2011-12, primarily because these simple, low-end products (at least those consumed by the new non-poor) are produced in the unorganised sector, using labour-intensive methods.
A new inclusive dynamic is in place in the Indian economy, which is difficult to reverse. There is a feedback loop between increasing demand, and production to meet that demand, that generates employment among those who will consume the products that are produced.
News: SC recognising the transgender community as a third gender
Supreme Courts judgement not only provides for a negative right against discrimination but also a positive right for giving them the freedom just like other citizens to do what they want to do. SC has asked them to be treated as socially backward class and to give them reservation in education and jobs.
The decision is based on the fact that gender can not be based on biological tests but also must consider the psyche of individual.
Indian laws : treat gender as a binary concept male/female
The Court has also relied on the Yogyakarta Principles — norms on sexual orientation and gender identity evolved in 2006 at Yogyakarta in Indonesia — to bolster its reasoning.
Court also made some subtle criticism of the Supreme Court’s earlier ruling in Suresh Kumar Koushal upholding Section 377 of IPC that criminalises even consensual same-sex activity.
Judges have highlighted the fact that misuse of Section 377 is one of the principal forms of discrimination against the transgender community.
The Reserve Bank of India, on Wednesday, asked the Fixed Income Money Market and Derivatives Association of India (FIMMDA) and the Foreign Exchange Dealers’ Association of India (FEDAI) to form an independent body, either separately or jointly, for administration of the benchmarks with regard to rupee interest rate and foreign exchange. This is “to overcome the possible conflicts of interest in the benchmark setting process arising out of the current governance structure of the FIMMDA and FEDAI,” the RBI said in a notification.
China’s economy registered 7.4 per cent growth in the first quarter of the year — a figure that most emerging economies would perhaps deem robust, but the slowest growth in China over the past five quarters, underlining renewed concerns here over falling investment, a cooling real estate market and a slump in foreign trade. Growth in the first three months fell from 7.7 per cent in the last quarter of 2013.
Chinese officials said the figures reflected the economy entering a new period of lower growth where the focus would be on structural adjustment — away from investment-driven growth to boosting domestic demand and high technology industries — rather than on achieving double-digit growth rates.
Industry asked to enhance quality to boost export prospects
India needs a comprehensive law for formulating standards as they have “effectively replaced tariffs in the international trade discourse,” Commerce Secretary Rajeev Kher said here on Wednesday.
“Development of rules has gained greater importance than tariffs…. Indian industry may find itself shut out of some of these markets if it does not enhance its quality,’’ he said.
Internationally, the role of standards had gained importance with the adoption of Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) and Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) agreements during the Uruguay Round of World Trade Organisation, Cabinet Secretary Ajit Seth said in his inaugural address.
“India does not have a standard driven culture, and India’s manufacturing sector has been accustomed to developing in an environment where standards have been lax,” Mr. Seth said adding that appropriate legislation, therefore, needed to be put in place to provide an instrument to notify standards. This, he said, would help improve the competitiveness of Indian industry and improve its export prospects.
No opinion polls of States where elections are over: EC
Taking exception to the telecast and publication of the results of opinion polls conducted in the States and Union Territories that have already gone to the polls, the Election Commission on Wednesday asked the media to desist from the practice to “maintain a level playing field.”
In a communication to the chief editors and heads of television channels and the print media, the EC drew attention to Section 126 A of the Representation of the People Act that bars the media from publishing the outcome of exit polls.
Explaining the prohibited period for this purpose, the EC said: “The period may commence from the beginning of the hours fixed for poll on the first day of poll and continues till half an hour after closing of the polling in all the States and Union Territories.” it noted. Publication of the results of exit polls of any kind has been banned for the period from April 7, first phase of the election, to May 12, last phase.
After facing two years of criticism for spying on the Muslim community in the greater New York City area for no reason other than their religious affiliation, the New York Police Department (NYPD) announced this week that it had ended its controversial surveillance programme.
True Hb Hemometer
- Developed by IIT Delhi student
- allows you to test your haemoglobin levels with just one drop of blood and gives you the results within seconds
- very cheap and small, and can withstand higher temperatures.
Lipoprotien Analysis
quick and easy medical testing device to to check cholestrol levels
The Sandesh Pathak application:
>> developed jointly by C-DAC Mumbai, IIT-Madras, IIIT Hyderabad, IIT Kharagpur, and C-DAC Thiruvananthapuram
>>will enable SMS messages to be read out loud, for the benefit of farmers who may have difficulty in reading.
>> available for download from the Appstore of the Mobile Seva Project of government of India
>> part of the project launched by the Indian Government to help farmers read messages which may be of the following types: advice to solve farming problems — insect, disease, fertilizer or weed management; information on weather — such as forecasts; and updates on latest technology — for improving yield and much more.
>>created by a team at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc)
>> contains live malaria sporozoites (an immature stage of the parasite Plasmodium berghei ) with an important genetic modification. The researchers knocked out a gene that produces “heme,” a molecule central to the pathogen’s survival. The vaccine targets the pathogen as it enters the liver, the first destination in the host.
>> Wikipedia:
Weather buoys are instruments which collect weather and ocean data within the world's oceans, as well as aid during emergency response to chemical spills, legal proceedings, and engineering design. Moored buoys have been in use since 1951, while drifting buoys have been used since 1979. Moored buoys are connected with the ocean bottom using either chains, nylon, or buoyant polypropylene.
>> they play a vital part in collecting data about what is happening in and above the oceans. That information is needed for weather forecasting and climate modelling as well as by scientists seeking to better understand ocean processes.
>> The National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT) in Chennai has been indigenising different sorts of ocean buoys. It designs these buoys, undertakes their final integration and testing, deploys them out in the ocean and then maintains them in working condition.
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