Space Awareness
SATNAV Policy - 2021

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about SATNAV Policy - highlights) + Mains ( GS III awareness in the field of space)
What's the NEWS

• The draft of the Indian Satellite Navigation Policy - 2021 (SATNAV Policy - 2021) has been presented on the official website of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)
• The Draft seeks public consultation, after which, the draft would be placed before the Union Cabinet for approval and authorization.
• Objective - In order to achieve the goal of self-reliance in India's satellite-based navigation and augmentation services sector, a comprehensive and substantive policy for satellite-based navigation has been proposed.

Know! about Space-Based Navigation Systems
PVT (Position, Velocity, and Time) based applications

• With the advent of rapid development of communication & information and mobile phone technology, crores of users across the nation are dependent on PVT (Position, Velocity, and Time) based applications for almost every task that happens virtually in their lives.
• Over the last few decades, there has been tremendous growth in the number of applications that depend on Position, Velocity, and Time (PVT) services that are provided by space-based navigation systems.
• Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) is a general term describing a space-based navigation system that provides positioning, navigation, and precise-time (PNT) services on a global or regional basis.

Currently, there are four GNSS:

- GPS: The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a satellite-based radio navigation system owned by the USA and operated by the United States Force.
- GLONASS: A Russian space-based satellite navigation system is a GNSS that provides an alternative to GPS and is the second navigational system with global coverage, freely available to all.
- Galileo: A global GNSS was created in 2016 by European Space Agency.
- BeiDou: The BeiDou Navigation Satellite System is owned and operated by the People's Republic of China. It consists of two separate satellite constellations.

In addition to this, there are two regional navigation satellite systems
NavIC:

• With the operational name NavIC, the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System is an independent regional navigation satellite system developed by India.
• It provides accurate, precise, and real-time positioning and services. The satellite covers India and a region extending 1,500 km around.

QZSS:

• The Quasi-Zenith Satellite System, also known as Michibiki, is a regional GNSS owned by Japan and operated by QZS System Service.
• It is a four-satellite regional time transfer system, enhancing the United States-operated Global Positioning System in the Asia-Oceania regions, with a focus on Japan.

Indian Satellite Navigation Policy - 2021

• The policy has been formulated with the objective to address the growing demands of space-based navigation and timing applications, with the view of self-sustenance in areas of commercial, strategic, and societal applications to maximize the socio-economic benefits.
• For a variety of applications, navigation signals are offered free-to-air. These applications include tracking, telematics, location-based services, automotive, survey, mapping & GIS, and timing.
• According to the draft, there is a need for such secured services that are exclusive to the Indian strategic community.
• The objective of the draft is to ensure the continuous availability of free-to-air navigation signals for civilian uses and secured navigation signals for strategic uses in the defined coverage area.
• For aviation safety in the defined coverage area, the draft ensures guaranteed and continuous availability of the Satellite-Based Augmentation System (SBAS).
• The draft also aims to focus on technology development for enhancing the navigation satellite systems and work towards compatibility and interoperability of Indian satellite navigation and augmentation signals with other GNSS/SBAS signals.
• The draft ensures continuity of NavIC and GAGAN services, upgrading the system and ensuring the capability to operate in conjecture with other GNSS/SBAS.

International Organisations
India takes over UNSC presidency for August

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about India as a President of UNSC + about UNSC) + Mains ( GS II international organisations)
What's the NEWS

• From August India will be the president of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) for the month and it will host various events in the three major areas of fight against terrorism, maritime security and peacekeeping.
• India joined the UNSC in January 2021 for a two year term as one of the 10 rotating non permanent members.

India as UNSC President

• As part of its new role as president of the UNSC that all 15 members get in rotation, India will decide the agenda of the UN's highest decision making body whose resolutions and directives are binding on all member states.
• India will also coordinate important meetings on a range of issues during August.
• Apart from meeting on maritime security, peacekeeping and counter-terrorism, India will also be organizing an event in memory of peacekeepers.
• India along with Pakistan and Bangladesh is one of the top contributors to UN peacekeeping operations with men and material.
• India has been campaigning for a permanent seat at the UNSC along with Germany, Japan and Brazil for many years.
• In recent years, New Delhi has made the theme of "reformed multilateralism" central to its diplomacy-calling the UN structure that came into existence in the immediate aftermath of World War 2 "anachronistic" and in need of urgent change.
• While the US, France, Britain and Russia are not averse to India joining the UNSC as a permanent member, China has been opposed it.
• On January 1, 2021 India's two-year term as a non-permanent member of the Security Council began
• The August presidential term will be India's first chairmanship during its non-permanent membership of the Security Council in 2021-22.
• India will again chair the Council in December next year, which is the last month of its two-year term.

Know! about UNSC

• The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) is one of the six main organs of the United Nations (UN).
• It is responsible for ensuring international peace and security, approving any changes to the UN Charter and recommending the admission of new UN members to the General Assembly.
• Its powers include establishing enacting international sanctions, peacekeeping operations and authorizing military operations.
• The UN Security Council is the only UN agency that has the authority to issue binding resolutions for member states.
• António Guterres is the current Secretary-general of UNSC.

Space Awareness
JOINT ISRO-NASA SATELLITE NISER TO LAUNCH IN 2023

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about NISER) + Mains ( GS III Space awareness + GS II bilateral relations)
What's the NEWS

• The ISRO-NASA joint mission NISER (NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar) satellite, aimed at making global measurement of land surface changes using advanced radar imaging, is proposed to be launched in early 2023,

Know! all about NISER

• It aimed at making global measurement of land surface changes using advanced radar imaging
• It is proposed to be launched in early 2023
• India and the U.S. had agreed upon this mission during then President Barack Obama's visit to India in 2015
• NISAR is a joint Earth-Observation mission between ISRO and U.S. space agency NASA for global observations over all land masses including the Polar cryosphere and the Indian Ocean region.
• It is a dual-band (L-band and S-band) radar imaging mission with the capability of full polarimetric and interferometric modes of operation to observe minor changes in land, vegetation and cryosphere.
• NASA is developing L-band SAR and associated systems while ISRO is developing S-band SAR, spacecraft bus, the launch vehicle and associated launch services
• The major scientific objectives of the mission are to improve understanding of the impact of climate change on Earth's changing ecosystems, land and coastal processes, land deformations and cryosphere

Agriculture
National Farmers Database

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about National farmers database + about agristack) + Mains ( GS III e-technology in the aid of farmers)
What's the NEWS

• A data policy was being prepared specifically for the agriculture sector in collaboration with the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY)
• The Central Government's new National Farmers Database will only include land-owning farmers for now as it will be linked to digitised land records.

Know! about the database

• Government can make use of the database for targeted service delivery with higher efficiency and in a focussed and time bound manner.
• The database would be linked to the digital land record management system and would thus only include farmers who were legal owners of agricultural land.
• In future, the possibility of including others may be considered in consultation with State governments and other stakeholders,
• The database would facilitate online single sign-on facilities for universal access and usher in proactive and personalized services to farmers such as DBT, soil and plant health advisories, weather advisories
• It would also facilitate seamless credit & insurance, seeds, fertilizers, and pesticide-related information.
• It is the first step for the initiative that would serve as the core of the Agristack.

Know! about Agristack

• AgriStack is a collection of technologies and digital databases that focuses on farmers and the agricultural sector.
• AgriStack will create a unified platform for farmers to provide them end to end services across the agriculture food value chain.
• It is in line with the Centre's Digital India programme, aimed at providing a broader push to digitise data in India, from land titles to medical records
• These new databases are being built to primarily tackle issues such as poor access to credit and wastage in the agricultural supply chain.
• Under AgriStack', the government aims to provide ‘required data sets' of farmers' personal information to Microsoft to develop a farmer interface for ‘smart and well-organized agriculture'.
• The digital repository will aid precise targeting of subsidies, services, and policies.
• Each farmer will have a unique digital identification (farmers' ID) that contains personal details,
• Each ID will be linked to the individual's digital national ID Aadhaar.

Benefits

• Problems such as inadequate access to credit and information, pest infestation, crop wastage, can be addressed by use of digital technology
• It will increase innovation and investment towards the agricultural sector
• The availability of a database would serve an important role in the formulation of evidence-based policies for the agricultural sector.

Know! also about
India Digital Ecosystem of Agriculture (IDEA)

• The Department has commenced the work for creating Agristack in the country.
• In order to create Agristack, the department is in the process of finalising "India Digital Ecosystem of Agriculture (IDEA)" which will lay down a framework for Agristack.
• The IDEA would help in laying down the architecture for the Agri-stack in the country
• It would serve as a foundation to build innovative agri-focused solutions leveraging emerging technologies to contribute effectively in creating a better Ecosystem for Agriculture in India.
• This Ecosystem shall help the Government in effective planning towards increasing the income of farmers in particular and improving the efficiency of the Agriculture sector as a whole.
• As a first step in this direction Government has already initiated building federated farmers' database that would serve as the core of the envisaged Agristack.

Science and Technology
Biotech-PRIDE (Promotion of Research and Innovation through Data Exchange) Guidelines

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about Biotech-PRIDE) + Mains ( GS III Awareness in the fields of IT, Space, Computers, robotics, nano-technology, bio-technology and issues relating to intellectual property rights.)
What's the NEWS

• Recently the Union Minister of Science & Technology released Biotech-PRIDE (Promotion of Research and Innovation through Data Exchange) Guidelines developed by Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Ministry of Science and Technology.
• The Minister also launched the website of Indian Biological Data Centre, IBDC.

Know! about the guidelines of Biotech-PRIDE

• Initially, these Guidelines will be implemented through Indian Biological Data Centre (IBDC) at Regional Centre for Biotechnology supported by Department of Biotechnology.
• Other existing datasets/ data centres will be bridged to this IBDC which will be called Bio-Grid.
• This Bio-Grid will be a National Repository for biological knowledge, information and data and
• The Grid will be responsible for enabling its exchange, developing measures for safety, standards and quality for datasets and establishing detailed modalities for accessing data
• The Biotech PRIDE Guidelines will facilitate this and enable exchange of information to promote research and innovation in different research groups across the country.
• The Biotech-PRIDE guidelines aim at providing a well-defined framework and guiding principle to facilitate and enable sharing and exchange of biological knowledge, information and data and is specifically applicable to high-throughput, high-volume data generated by research groups across the country.
• These guidelines do not deal with generation of biological data per se but is an enabling mechanism to share and exchange information and knowledge generated as per the existing laws, rules, regulations and guidelines of the country.
• These guidelines will ensure data sharing benefits viz. maximizing use, avoiding duplication, maximized integration, ownership information, better decision-making and equity of access.
• These guidelines are the enabling mechanism for sharing the data publicly and within a reasonable period of time after data-generation, thus the utility of the data will be maximal. Resultantly, accrual of benefit of public investment for data generation will not be compromised.
• The PRIDE Guidelines will be helpful to harmonize, synergize and encourage the data sharing for research and analysis in the country and to promote scientific work and foster progress by building on previous work.
• These guidelines will also be advantageous in avoiding duplication and wasteful expenditure of resources on research.

Prelims Factoids
Halam Community
Relevance IN - Prelims ( about Halam Community)
What's the NEWS

• At least 700 people of Halam sub-tribes were displaced after rioters torched several houses at Damcherra area of north Tripura district
• Bru refugees of a makeshift camp in Damcherra area in Tripura and Halem community clashed over alleged encroachment of farmland
• The displaced people crossed the Longai river to reach Karimganj of Assam.
• Karimganj district administration provided them shelter and distributed relief materials.

Know! about Halam community

• Ethnically Halam communities of Tripura belong to the Kuki-Chin tribes of Tibeto-Burmese ethnic group.
• Their language is also more or less similar to that of Tibeto-Burman family.
• Halams are also known as Mila Kuki, though they are not at all Kukis in terms of language, culture and living style.
• As per 2011 Census their total population is 57,210 and distributed throughout the State.
• Halams live in typical "Tong Ghar" specially made of bamboos and Changrass (thatch).
• Hi-Hook dance of the Halams is the most popular among all
• Rai Balmani Festival is now-a-days observed by Koloi clan of Halams with full of joy and community participation.

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