Space Awareness

Ingenuity's trip

Relevance IN - Prelims (about Ingenuity's trip)
What's the NEWS

• Ingenuity's trip, which is to be the first-ever powered, controlled flight on another planet, was set for Sunday but is now on hold until at least 14 April
• NASA has delayed by at least several days the first flight of its mini-helicopter on Mars after a possible tech issue emerged while testing its rotors

Know! about Ingenuity's trip

• Ingenuity's trip, which is to be the first-ever powered, controlled flight on another planet
• A high-speed test of the four-pound (1.8 kilogram) helicopter's rotors ended earlier than expected due to an alert of a potential issue.
• Initially the plan was to have Ingenuity fly for 30 seconds to take a picture of the Perseverance rover, which touched down on Mars on February 18 with the helicopter attached to its underside.
• NASA calls the unprecedented helicopter operation highly risky
• It could reap invaluable data about the conditions on Mars.
• The flight is a true challenge because the air on Mars is so thin -- less than one percent of the pressure of Earth's atmosphere.
• This means Ingenuity must spin its rotor blades much faster than a helicopter needs to do on Earth in order to fly.
• After the flight, Ingenuity will send Perseverance technical data on what it has done, and that information will be transmitted back to Earth.
• This will include a black and white photo of the Martian surface that Ingenuity is programmed to snap while flying.

NASA's Mars Exploration Program

• Mars 2020 is a Mars rover mission forming part of NASA's Mars Exploration Program that includes the rover Perseverance and the small robotic, coaxial helicopter Ingenuity.
• Mars 2020 was launched from Earth on an Atlas V launch vehicle and confirmation of touch down in Jezero crater on Mars was received
• NASA named the landing site of the rover Octavia E. Butler Landing
• As of 11 April 2021, Perseverance has been on Mars for 50 sols (52 total days; 52 days).
• Perseverance will investigate an astrobiologically relevant ancient environment on Mars and investigate its surface geological processes and history, including the assessment of its past habitability, the possibility of past life on Mars, and the potential for preservation of biosignatures within accessible geological materials.
• The launch of Mars 2020 was the third of three space missions sent toward Mars during the July 2020 Mars launch window, with missions also launched by the national space agencies of the United Arab Emirates (the Emirates Mars Mission with the orbiter Hope on 19 July) and China (the Tianwen-1 mission on 23 July, with an orbiter, lander, and rover).

Defence
KAZIND Exercise
Relevance IN - Prelims (about KAZIND exercise + about Kazakhstan - location)
What's the NEWS

• Defence Minister of India held bilateral talks with Defence Minister of Republic of Kazakhstan

Meeting Highlights

• During the meeting, the two Ministers exchanged views to further strengthen bilateral defence cooperation, including through training, defence exercises and capacity building.
• They agreed that both sides must look at the possibility of defence industrial collaboration of mutual interest.
• The Defence Minister of Kazakhstan thanked Raksha Mantri for the opportunity given to the Kazakh troops for deployment as part of the Indian battalion in United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).
• Both Ministers also positively assessed the annual KAZIND Exercise.

Education/Science and Technology
NanoSniffer

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about NanoSniffer)
What's the NEWS

• Union Education Minister launched NanoSniffer, the world's first Microsensor based Explosive Trace Detector (ETD) developed by NanoSniff Technologies, an IIT Bombay incubated startup.
• NanoSniffer has been marketed by Vehant Technologies, a spin-off from a former IIT Delhi incubated startup Kritikal Solutions.

NanoSniffer

• NanoSniffer is a 100% Made in India product in terms of research, development & manufacturing.
• The core technology of NanoSniffer is protected by patents in the U.S. & Europe.
• This affordable device will reduce our dependency on imported explosive trace detector devices.
• It will also encourage other institutions, startups and medium-scale industries to research & develop products indigenously.
• This home-grown Explosive trace detector device (ETD) - NanoSniffer can detect explosives in less than 10 seconds and it also identifies and categorizes explosives into different classes.
• It detects all classes of military, conventional and homemade explosives. NanoSniffer gives visible & audible alerts with sunlight-readable color display
• NanoSniff Technologies has partnered with Vehant Technologies, a pioneer in Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning- based Physical Security, Surveillance and Traffic Monitoring & Junction Enforcement Solutions.
• NanoSniffer provides trace detection of nano-gram quantity of explosives & delivers result in seconds.
• It can accurately detect a wide range of military, commercial and homemade explosives threats.
• Further analysis of the algorithms also helps in categorization of explosives into the appropriate class.
• With local manufacturing, including its MEMS sensor, it will save a lot of import cost for the country.
• NanoSniffer has successfully passed Pune based DRDO's High Energy Materials Research Laboratory (HEMRL) testing and has also been tested by the country's elite counter-terror force National Security Guard (NSG).

NITI Aayog
NITI Aayog to Launch Online Dispute Resolution Handbook

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about ODR handbook + about ADR) + Mains ( GS II Separation of powers between various organs dispute redressal mechanisms and institutions.
What's the NEWS

• NITI Aayog-in association with Agami and Omidyar Network India and with the support of ICICI Bank, Ashoka Innovators for the Public, Trilegal, Dalberg, Dvara, NIPFP launch ed the first-of-its kind Online Dispute Resolution (ODR) handbook in India

Know! about the handbook

• The handbook is an invitation to business leaders to adopt ODR in India.
• It highlights the need for such a mechanism, the models of ODR that businesses can adopt and an actionable pathway for them.
• ODR is the resolution of disputes outside courts, particularly small- and medium-value cases, using digital technology and techniques of alternate dispute resolution (ADR), such as negotiation, mediation, and arbitration.
• While courts are becoming digitized through the efforts of the judiciary, more effective, scalable, and collaborative mechanisms of containment and resolution are urgently needed.
• ODR can help resolve disputes efficiently and affordably.

Alternative dispute resolution (ADR)

• Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) refers to any means of setting disputes outside of the Court Room.
• Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) refers to a variety of processes that help parties to resolve disputes without a trial.
• ADR offers to resolve all type of matters including civil, commercial, industrial and family etc., where people are not being able to start any type of negotiation and reach the settlement.
• Generally, ADR uses neutral third party who helps the parties to communicate, discuss the differences and resolve the dispute.

Types of ADR
Arbitration

• The dispute is submitted to an arbitral tribunal which makes a decision (an "award") on the dispute that is mostly binding on the parties.
• It is less formal than a trial, and the rules of evidence are often relaxed.
• Generally, there is no right to appeal an arbitrator's decision.
• Except for some interim measures, there is very little scope for judicial intervention in the arbitration process.

Conciliation

• A non-binding procedure in which an impartial third party, the conciliator, assists the parties to a dispute in reaching a mutually satisfactory agreed settlement of the dispute.
• Conciliation is a less formal form of arbitration.
• The parties are free to accept or reject the recommendations of the conciliator.
• However, if both parties accept the settlement document drawn by the conciliator, it shall be final and binding on both.

Mediation

• In mediation, an impartial person called a "Mediator" helps the parties try to reach a mutually acceptable resolution of the dispute.
• The mediator does not decide the dispute but helps the parties communicate so they can try to settle the dispute themselves.
• Mediation leaves control of the outcome with the parties.

Negotiation

• A non-binding procedure in which discussions between the parties are initiated without the intervention of any third party with the object of arriving at a negotiated settlement to the dispute.
• It is the most common method of Alternative Dispute Resolution.
• Negotiation occurs in business, non-profit organizations, government branches, legal proceedings, among nations and in personal situations such as marriage, divorce, parenting, and everyday life.

Lok Adalat

• An interesting feature of the Indian legal system is the existence of voluntary agencies called Lok Adalats (Peoples' Courts).
• The Legal Services Authorities Act was passed in 1987 to encourage out-of-court settlements, andthe new Arbitration and Conciliation Act was enacted in 1996.
• Lok Adalat or "People's Court" comprises an informal setting which facilitates negotiations in the presence of a judicial officer wherein cases are dispensed without undue emphasis on legal technicalities.
• The order of the Lok-Adalat is final and shall be deemed to be a decree of a civil court and shall be binding on the parties to the dispute.
• The order of the Lok-Adalat is not appealable in a court of law

Alternative Dispute Resolution (benefits)

• Alternative Dispute Resolution mechanism provides scientifically developed techniques to Indian judiciary which helps in reducing the burden on the courts.
• ADR provides various modes of settlement including, arbitration, conciliation, mediation, negotiation and lok Adalat.
• ADR is also founded on such fundamental rights, article 14 and 21 which deals with equality before law and right to life and personal liberty respectively.
• ADR also strive to achieve equal justice and free legal aid provided under Article 39-A relating to Directive Principle of State Policy (DPSP).

The Acts which deals with Alternative Dispute Resolution are

• Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 and,
• The Legal Services Authority Act, 1987

Bilateral Relations
Freedom of Navigation Operation (FONOP)
Relevance IN - Prelims ( about FONOP and FON report + about UNCLOS and India's Maritime Zones Act of 1976) + Mains ( GS II bilateral relations)
What's the NEWS

• India has protested the U.S. decision to conduct a patrol in the Indian Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) in the western Indian Ocean, rejecting the U.S.'s claim that its domestic maritime law was in violation of international law.
• The US Navy conducted a Freedom of Navigation Operation (FONOP) in the Indian Ocean region, and its warship entered India's Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) near Lakshadweep without seeking prior consent from India.
• The 7^th Fleet of the US Navy, which is the largest forward deployed naval fleets of the US asserted navigational rights and freedoms approximately 130 nautical miles west of the Lakshadweep Islands, inside India's exclusive economic zone, without requesting India's prior consent, consistent with international law".

Freedom of Navigation Operation

• This Freedom of Navigation Operation upheld the rights, freedoms, and lawful uses of the sea recognized in international law by challenging India's excessive maritime claims.

FON Report for 2020

• This is not the first time that US Navy has conducted such an operation in India's Exclusive Economic Zone.
• The US Department of Defence publishes an annual Freedom of Navigation Report which is "an unclassified report identifying the excessive maritime claims that US forces operationally challenged"
• The report mentioned that the US Freedom of Navigation Program was formally established in 1979 and "consists of complementary diplomatic and operational efforts to safeguard lawful commerce and the global mobility of U.S. forces".
• "‘Excessive maritime claims' are attempts by coastal States to restrict unlawfully the rights and freedoms of navigation and overflight and other lawful uses of the sea.
• These claims are made through laws, regulations, or other pronouncements that are inconsistent with international law as reflected in the Law of the Sea Convention.
• If left unchallenged, excessive maritime claims could permanently infringe upon the freedom of the seas enjoyed by all nations
• India was not among the countries mentioned in the 2020 report where the US forces "challenged" the claims. India was last mentioned in the 2019 report, along with 21 other nations that included China, Russia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Maldives and Saudi Arabia. Before that, India was mentioned in the 2017 and 2016 reports as well.

UN Convention of the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and India's Maritime Zones Act of 1976

• According to the UN Convention of the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), countries cannot prevent ships, either commercial or military, from using the Exclusive Economic Zone. But Indian laws mandate that any foreign military needs to inform before conducting any activity in India's EEZ.
• India's Territorial Waters, Continental Shelf, Exclusive Economic Zone & Other Maritime Zones Act of 1976 requires foreign warships to provide notice before entering territorial sea.
• The reference manual for India, till 2016, mentioned that the US "does not recognize this claim" and protested it in 1976, 1983 and 1997.
• Further, it mentioned that the US forces "conducted operational assertions" in Financial Years "1985 through 89, 1991 through 1994, 1996, 1997, 1999, 2001, 2007, and 2011".
• While India ratified UNCLOS in 1995, the U.S. has failed to do it so far.

United Nations Convention for the Law of the Sea.

• UNCLOS, as a law of the sea, came into operation and became effective from 16th November 1982.
• The first time such a proposal was announced before the United Nations was in the year 1973.
• Over the course of nine years, with representations from over 160 countries coming forward, UNCLOS came into existence.
• In 1967, the Third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea was convened.
• It was this UNCLOS III that paved the way for the now existing nautical law.

The features and highlights of the same can be explained as follows:

• UNCLOS as the currently prevailing law of the sea is binding completely.
• Even as the name of the nautical law suggests a United Nations' involvement, the UN does not have any major functional role in the working of UNCLOS
• There are 17 parts, 320 articles and nine annexes to UNCLOS
• The law of the sea provides for full money rights to nations for a 200-mile zone by their shoreline.
• The sea and oceanic bed extending this area is regarded to be an Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) and any country can use these waters for its economic utilisation
• The IMO (International Maritime Organisation) plays a vital role in the operation of UNCLOS.
• Along with the IMO, organisations like the International Whaling Commission and the International Seabed Authority are vital parties in the functional areas of the nautical law
• Even though UNCLOS has 160 member parties, the US is a country that has still not sanctioned (ratified) the nautical law.
• The main reason for the US not sanctioning the law of the sea arises mainly because of its disagreement about Part XI of UNCLOS.
• This part deals with the aspect of the minerals found on the seabed on the EEZ.
• The International Seabed Authority was established on the basis of this part of the nautical law and called for equitable distribution of the proceeds of such seabeds.

KEEP Learning KEEP Evolving
TEAM CL IAS