GSLV Mark III faces its first experimental flight

Later this month, the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) Mark III is expected to lift off for the first time from India’s spaceport at Sriharikota on an experimental flight that will assess the rocket’s performance as it hurtles through the atmosphere to reach speeds many times that of sound.

When operational, the GSLV Mark III will be the Indian Space Research Organisation's most powerful rocket, capable of putting four-tonne communication satellites into orbit, almost double the capacity of the current GSLV. The Mark III will weigh about 640 tonnes at launch, about 50 per cent heavier than the GSLV.

Should India decide to send astronauts into space, this will be the rocket that carries them. So it is perhaps appropriate that the forthcoming launch will also provide an early test of a crew module that is being developed.

During the 1990s, it became clear that a new launcher was needed to meet the country's requirements for communication satellites heavier than what the existing GSLV could carry, according to K. Kasturirangan, who was the ISRO chairman when the Rs. 2,498-crore project for developing the GSLV Mark III was approved by the Government in May 2002. Over four years of studies, simulations, debates on technical issues and several reviews went into finalising the Mark III’s configuration, he said.

Reducing the total number of propulsion modules that make up the GSLV Mark III was seen as crucial to increasing the rocket’s reliability and reducing launch costs, according to ISRO experts this correspondent spoke to. The GSLV Mark III has just four propulsion modules while its predecessor, the GSLV, has seven.

The GSLV Mark III has two huge solid propellants boosters, which are among the largest in the world, flanking a big liquid propellant core stage. Atop the core stage, sits a cryogenic upper stage that will provide half the velocity needed to put communication satellites into the proper orbit.

While the solid booster and the liquid propellant core stage completed ground tests and were qualified for flight about three years back, development of the cryogenic engine, running on liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen, for the Mark III's upper stage is still in progress.

For the experimental launch, the Mark III will be equipped with a dummy cryogenic engine and stage that will simulate the weight and other characteristics of the flight version. Consequently, the rocket will not be able to put the crew module it carries into orbit.

The rocket will, however, give the crew module a velocity of 5.3. km/second when the latter separates at a height of about 125 km. The capsule will then descend and splashdown in the Bay of Bengal, about 600 km from Port Blair in the Andaman Islands.

The GSLV Mark III is “a totally new configuration,” observed K. Radhakrishnan, the current ISRO chairman, explaining the rationale for the experimental mission. “So if there are issues with respect to the configuration and we need to take care of that, it is better to take care of [them] early.” It was not necessary to wait till the cryogenic stage was qualified.

The GSLV Mark III is more sensitive than the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) and the current GSLV to disturbances that might occur as it accelerates through the dense atmosphere, noted S. Ramakrishnan, who was the first project director for its development and retired earlier this year as director of the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) in Thiruvananthapuram. The ability of the rocket’s control systems to effectively handle such perturbations without violating the vehicle's structural capabilities will be tested during the experimental flight.

Building on experience with the big solid propellant first stage of the PSLV and GSLV, which carries 139 tonnes of propellant, the Mark III’s two giant ‘S200’ boosters each holds 207 tonnes of solid propellant. Only the solid boosters for America’s Space Shuttle and Titan IV-B as well as Europe's Ariane 5 have more propellant than the S200. Of these, only the Ariane 5 is still operational.

A separate facility has been established at Sriharikota to make the S200 boosters. The closely matched thrust levels required from the two boosters was achieved by carefully controlling both the quality of the raw materials used and their subsequent processing, said M.C. Dathan, who oversaw the development of the S200 and is currently director of VSSC.

Another major achievement is that the S200’s large nozzle has been equipped with a ‘flex seal.’ The nozzle can therefore be swivelled when the rocket’s orientation needs correction.

The GSLV Mark III’s two S200 boosters fire at lift off, together generating a thrust of over 800 tonnes. The sheer volume of sound produced at lift off could potentially damage the rocket and the spacecraft. A sound suppression system has therefore been installed on the launch pad that will be spray about 20 tonnes of water per second to reduce noise levels during lift off.

In flight, as the thrust from the S200 boosters begins to tail off, the decline in acceleration is sensed by the rocket’s onboard sensors and the twin Vikas engines on the ‘L110’ liquid propellant core stage are then ignited.

Before the S200s separate and fall away from the rocket, the solid boosters as well as the Vikas engines operate together for a short period of time. The thermal environment at the base of the L110 stage will be monitored during the experimental mission. The transition of control over the vehicle’s orientation from the S200s to the L110 will also be closely watched.

The L110 stage, with a diameter of four metres, carries 115 tonnes of liquid propellant. Although the Vikas engine has already flown on the PSLV and the GSLV, those on the Mark III have to operate for a longer duration.

The first developmental flight of the GSLV Mark-III, with a functional cryogenic engine and stage, could take place in two years’ time, according to Dr. Radhakrishnan.

Earth’s most abundant mineral gets name

Bridgmanite was officially coined after an examinable sample was extracted from a meteorite

American geologists have named the earth’s most abundant mineral Bridgmanite.

It had hitherto remained nameless as a large enough sample of the mineral, found in the earth’s lower mantle, had not been recovered. Under the rules of set down by the International Mineralogical Association, a mineral cannot be given a formal name until a specimen has been found and examined first hand.

A group of American geologists were recently able to extract a sample large enough to analyse from a meteorite.

The new name is in honour of Percy Bridgman, a pioneer in the use of high pressure experiments to better understand how many geological formations come about.

Bridgmanite makes up about 70 percent of the earth’s lower mantle and 38 percent of the total volume of the earth. It is made up of high-density magnesium iron silicate.

The lower mantle, which starts at 670 km under the crust, is difficult to access for samples.

The researchers looked at a meteorite that had fallen inside Australia in 1879 as a likely candidate for samples, and found what they were looking for.

Destructive technique

Scientists had looked at likely candidate meteorites in the past, but electron diffraction — the technique they used to look for perovskite — had always wound up causing it to be destroyed.

This time the team used a different, less destructive test — one that involved the use of a micro-focussed X-ray beam in conjunction with electron microscopy.

The researchers noted that the sample had more sodium and ferric acid than expected.

Their discovery is expected to aid future geological research, offer clues about what goes on when celestial bodies collide and potentially give hints about the formation of the universe.

The research paper was published in the journal Science.

A road map for Digital India

With all the talk about Digital India, one would think it's taking off. But in reality, it isn't quite here yet - because of our confused approach to independent networks, and regulations that restrict efficient use of spectrum and radio networks. Oddly enough, we don't suffer this confusion about sharing other infrastructure, such as roads, rail, electricity networks or airports. We readily share these on payment, as is logical, but we simply haven't done this forbroadband and communications. It's unlikely we'll achieve ubiquitous digital access with our current approach. There are too many problems and too few synergies, requiring radical changes in direction.

Our legacy practices have resulted in several independent, countrywide networks like arterial systems, each run by its owner/operator. These systems connect at the customer ends on their own, except when customers are outside their franchise areas. This requires massive capital investment in a multiplicity of redundant backbone and urban networks with insufficient rural coverage, for a start.

Even worse, our administrative rules are far more constraining than the technological limitations. So operators must win their own spectrum at auction as in countries with (a) not many operators and (b) more commercially available spectrum, even as technology has evolved to facilitate shared network solutions.

This creates two further obstacles for Digital India: operators must invest large sums in spectrum auctions for their exclusive-use bands, and limited bandwidth - for instance, in the 900 MHz band - must be subdivided between numerous operators at a location, resulting in suboptimal performance.

The one proposed exception to the multiplicity of uncoordinated networks is the National Optical Fibre Network (NOFN) from state-owned Bharat Broadband Network Ltd. The plan is that this will reach clusters of villages at the gram panchayat level, and be available to all service providers; but it is very far from ready.1 Even when it is complete, the last-mile access to end-users will need to be built. Much of the countryside requires wireless access using the radio spectrum, because laying fibre costs too much. And our approach to spectrum allocation is such that spectrum is simply unavailable.

The required changes must, therefore, address even basic assumptions, for example, whether operators must be restricted to circles; how to organise the infrastructure ownership, build-out and operation to facilitate countrywide access; how to compensate governments for usage rights, and network and spectrum owners for common-carrier access to their assets; how to structure incentives for content development and delivery for education, healthcare, civic services, commerce and entertainment and so on, as well as for domestic high-technology manufacturing. If this isn't done, the already high level of technology imports will rise to unsustainable levels, constraining not only this sector but the potential of most sectors of the economy.

We need policies and regulations framed in our collective best interests, defined thus:

1. Effective and efficient communications services at reasonable costs, paying reasonable taxes and government charges
    
2. Usage for government services, public safety and security, including the armed forces, paramilitary, governance, disaster management, and commercial and private purposes

As explained above, our present approach is unlikely to get us there. So what can be done?

• As a first step, one sweeping change can solve part of this seemingly intractable problem: permitting spectrum sharing between primary users, such as defence and defence-related services, who will continue to have priority rights and authorised secondary users, as under way in the United States and the European Union (EU).2 In this manner, current holders retain their rights, while allowing the utilisation of otherwise idle spectrum. Defence and government users continue without any changes to their equipment and practices, except where feasible for purposes of international harmonisation, such as defence users swapping 15 MHz in the 2,100 MHz band for the 1,900 MHz band.

With this approach, critical defence and security applications are not compromised for government or commercial revenues. Instead, the spectrum would be more fully used, more traffic would generate higher earnings yielding greater revenue share and tax collections, while security retains the priority it deserves.

A prerequisite for this is a collaborative, end-to-end strategy and a problem-solving approach to formulating and executing policies, regulations and processes. The participants must include the central ministries and agencies (department of telecommunications, department of electronics and information technology, information and broadcasting, defence, finance, the armed forces, security agencies); the regulator (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India); state governments; public sector units and their associated ministries/departments; operators. The judiciary and the public must also be involved, because disruptive actions, such as those leading to the arbitrary cancellation of some 2G licences, can be as damaging as dysfunctional policies or regulations.

• The second major change required is to transition to open-access shared networks, available on payment to all licensed operators/service providers (excluding the ambit of defence and security). It may be appropriate to have two, three or even four networks that are interconnected. This has to be worked out by the participants based on technology, economics, business interests and pragmatism in terms of what is achievable in given timeframes. The transition needs to be through consultation and negotiation, as it would not work well if imposed through government or judiciary diktat.
   
• Simultaneously, trials must be conducted with new technologies, starting with wireless broadband utilising unused spectrum reserved for TV broadcasts ("TV white space"). Other countries have done much of the pioneering work. The EU scientists are recommending using TV white space for "super-Wifi" at the International Telecommunication Union's next World Radiocommunication Conference, instead of auctioning it.3

Our trials must validate solutions such as for rural broadband being workable in our situation and circumstances. These trials will need to be extended in phases, both in terms of scope and of scale - for example, for the active sharing of TV and other spectrum, and of radio access networks, through rural and urban field trials. These will test usage by multiple operators in a given area. Once proven, policies and procedures can be developed and implemented across the country.

A man who holds his own: Meet Anil Kumar Sinha, the new CBI director

For civil servants in Bihar, 2006-07 were golden years. Nitish Kumar had been newly installed as Chief Minister and he was determined to get the bureaucracy to become a political force multiplier and get it to – well, just do its job.

Anil Kumar Sinha,  then Additional Director General of Police, Headquarters (ADGP Hq) was one such officer, picked by Nitish Kumar to help him clean out the Augean stables. Eight months after he became Chief Minister, Kumar ordered an FIR against an MLA from his own party, the Janata Dal United.

Anant Singh, MLA from Mokama, along with a band of men all bearing guns, had been trying to get owners of shops on Patna’s posh Fraser Road to vacate their premises: the original owner of the plot and his wife had both died without heirs and Singh thought this was a good time to write the land down as his. He let owners of shops on the plot know that he had already bought small lots and advised them in their own interest to sell to him. The gunmen just stood by while he spoke, guns hanging loosely from their arms.

Nitish Kumar had pledged to bring down exactly these kind of men. It fell to Sinha to motivate, threaten and persuade policemen in the Kotwali police station to file a complaint against Singh.

 

 

Those who know Bihar politics and society alone can appreciate that this is easier said than done. Sinha got an FIR registered but policemen would go to Anant Singh’s house in Patna, not find him, paste a notice and return. He couldn’t be found anywhere, although reporters could find him without any difficulty and he addressed press conferences freely! Speaking to Business Standard in 2007, Sinha pledged he would get the job done.

ALSO READ: Anil Kumar Sinha takes over as new CBI Chief

A lot has happened since then. Anant Singh was found and last heard, another couple of charges of extortion had been registered against him. Sinha meanwhile moved to Delhi in the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). He has now been appointed Director of an organization that is currently everybody’s favourite whipping boy.

In 2006, he, along with then Advocate General of Bihar PK Shahi, hit upon the simple stratagem of ridding Bihar of gun-raaj by invoking the Arms Act. All that is needed to put a gunslinger behind bars under the provisions of this act is the testimony of a sub-inspector. Sinha would get the local police to give testimony and Shahi would prosecute in fast track courts. Between them they put thousands of men with illegal arms in jail.

Later, Sinha got investigations into the 1989 Bhagalpur riots in which more than 2000 people died, reopened. 27 cases were reopened after it found that despite solid evidence against the accused in the police complaints, they were let off. It was a shocking travesty of justice. Sinha built up the case.

He was moved to Bihar’s vigilance department. Around this time, Nitish Kumar was anxious to put an end to rent seeking in contracts and jobs. He found that every time the government moved against officers whose assets were disproportionate to their income, they would move court and the case would drag on and on.

It was Anil Sinha’s idea to set up special courts for corrupt officials. The most significant aspect of the special courts was that the immovable assets of persons being tried in these courts could be seized during the pendency of the trial.

The Special Court Bill was passed by the state Assembly in March 2009. The President gave her assent to the bill in January 2010. In 2010, the home of one of the officials found to have assets disproportionate to his income was seized by the state government and turned into a school. Nitish Kumar won the 2010 election on the back of this legislation.

“We badly needed this legislation to weed out corruption from government offices. Over the years, the vigilance bureau had laid nearly 300 traps, which led to unearthing of investments and property worth hundreds of crores. But we could not confiscate this. The new law will help set up designated courts for speedy and effective trail of corrupt babus. We can pray to the court for confiscation of property, which was not the case earlier. Of course, if the judgment goes in favour of the accused, the government will have to return the property and money with interest,” Sinha had told Business Standard in 2010.

But as is inevitable in Bihar, caste politics intervened. Sinha moved out of Patna to join the Central Vigilance Commission and Abhayanand became Bihar’s top cop. He later moved to the CBI as Ranjit Sinha’s second in command.

Sinha’s greatest quality is that he is afraid of no one but the Constitution of India and the law.

There may be officers more brilliant than him and probably many who are more dashing. But Sinha brings with him a solid earthy dedication to the job - which hopefully, will let the sunlight pour in to India’s premier investigation organization.

Why SEZs in India have failed Of the 564 SEZs formally approved, only 192 were operational as of June this year

Special Economic Zones (SEZs) are likely to be central to realising Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ambitious ‘Make in India’ agenda. But the withdrawal of tax incentives has made SEZs an unattractive proposition, say industry experts.

Under the original scheme, businesses in SEZs were exempted from the minimum alternate tax (MAT) on book profits and developers were exempted from payment of the dividend distribution tax (DDT). But with indications that companies were misusing the policy for real estate arbitrage and that information technology companies were using the policy to recoup tax benefits that they lost when the Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) scheme ended, these exemptions were withdrawn.

From 2011-12 onwards, MAT exemptions for SEZ units and developers were withdrawn and DDT exemptions for developers were terminated. MAT was levied on book profits at the rate of 20 per cent, while DDT was levied at 20 per cent on dividends distributed to shareholders.

ALSO READ: Fin Min rejects tax breaks for SEZs

According to Neeru Ahuja, partner at Deloitte Haskins & Sells, a key attraction for corporate houses was the income tax holiday. “With taxes being levied, the savings for companies on account of tax concessions was reduced, impacting interest in SEZs,” Ahuja said.

 

 

 

Vivek Mehra, partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers, argues DDT and MAT should be scrapped, while Kavita Rao, professor at the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy (NIPFP), a Delhi-based think tank, disagrees. She argues “as companies have been given incentives, toning those down through MAT is not a bad idea, per say. What can be debated is the level at which the tax is levied”.

Arpita Mukherjee, a professor at the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (Icrier), another Delhi-based think tank heading a study on analysing the cost benefit analysis of the SEZ policy, says the imposition of MAT has made SEZs unattractive and adversely impacted investor sentiment. This is because MAT exemptions are punishable under WTO (World Trade Organization) rules; there is need to provide better business facilitation packages and incentives that comply with WTO rules.

Though the issue of taxation is contentious, it is the unpredictability of the tax regime that has had an impact on investments. In their study on trade and investment barriers, Anwarul Hooda and Durgesh Rai, economists at Icrier, argue “predictability in taxation policies is a sine qua non for making the environment conducive for investment, whether foreign or domestic, so the withdrawal of direct tax benefits has been a setback for the SEZ programme and has affected its future prospects”.

Of the 564 SEZs that have been formally approved so far, only 192 were operational in June this year. Total employment in these enclaves was 1,277,645 in 2014, as against an expectation of 1,743,530 by 2009. While the share of SEZs in total exports rose from six per cent in 2006-07 to 28 per cent in 2010-11, it is believed to have declined in subsequent years. The total area under SEZs currently stands at 61,624 hectares, while Shenzhen in China alone covers 49,300 hectares.

However, Mehra saus “the SEZ policy continues to be relevant from a ‘Make in India’ perspective, but several policy initiatives are necessary to get those going”. Mehra argues that for improving their viability “manufacturers should be allowed to sell goods in the domestic market but duty should be imposed on individual parts imported and not on the entire product, which would make it unviable. No Customs duty should be imposed on domestic value added”, he said.

\India has signed a number of free trade agreements (FTAs), with countries like Sri lanka, Japan and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), under which import duties have been slashed to zero for several product lines. This impacts local sales of SEZ units, which are taxed at higher rates. Mehra proposes that “manufacturers in India should have the ‘most favoured nation’ status that implies lowest tariff under the FTAs”. Rao concurs, saying “such reductions should be extended to all manufacturers, not simply the ones in SEZs”.

But experts contend that taxation issues are not the only ones impeding SEZs. According to Mukherjee, “despite offering over 300 incentives and schemes for promotion of manufacturing at the Centre and state levels, manufacturing growth has not risen substantially. Therefore, incentives need to be carefully evaluated and studied. Incentives should not be the only reason for units to be located in SEZs. Success depends on the business facilitation measures adopted. Location, infrastructure, logistics and professional zone management are four key factors determining success of SEZs”.

A major reason for the success of SEZs in China was the creation of complementary infrastructure, power, roads and ports; these are lacking in India. According to Rao, “to get SEZs and manufacturing going in India, the focus should be on creating the necessary infrastructure which will require a more holistic approach”. Anwarul Hooda and Durgesh Rai, in their study, also point out: “Another major reason for the SEZs languishing is the absence of external infrastructure support. The SEZs have to be connected with ports and airports with world-class roads and rail; ports and airports, too, have to be world-class, with Customs authorities adopting international best practices in trade facilitation. This is not the case at present. Deficiencies in the availability and quality of power are an equally important constraint.

India votes against UNGA resolution on nuclear weapons

India, along with the US and Pakistan, has voted against a provision in a UN resolution calling on to "promptly" accede to the NPT as non-nuclear- weapon nation "without conditions" and to place all its nuclear facilities under IAEA safeguards.

A draft resolution on achieving a nuclear weapon-free world and accelerating the implementation of nuclear disarmament commitments was adopted in the UN General Assembly session on Tuesday by a recorded vote of 169 in favour to 7 against with 5 abstentions including by Bhutan and China.

Prior to the passage of the draft as a whole, a separate vote was also taken on operative paragraph 9, which stressed the fundamental role of the NPT (non-proliferation treaty) in achieving nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation and urged India, Israel and Pakistan to accede to it as non-nuclear-weapon States promptly and without conditions and to place all their nuclear facilities under International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards.

The provision was retained by a recorded vote of 165 in favour with India, Israel, Pakistan, the US voting against and Bhutan, France, the UK abstaining.

India, Isreal and the US also voted against the preambular paragraph 24, which emphasised the importance of a successful 2015 NPT Review Conference.

The provision was retained by a vote of 166 in favour and three abstentions from France, Pakistan and the UK.

The Assembly also retained operative paragraph 11, which urged all States to work together to overcome obstacles within the international disarmament machinery and immediately implement the three specific recommendations from the 2010 Review Conference Action Plan, by a recorded vote of 167 in favour to 3 against and 4 abstentions including India.

India, Isreal and the US also voted against a provision which would emphasise the importance of a successful 2015 Review Conference.

The provision was retained by a recorded vote of 166 in favour with 3 abstentions (France, Pakistan and UK).

The general Assembly also took up the draft resolution, 'Towards a nuclear weapon-free world: accelerating the implementation of nuclear disarmament commitments' and adopted by a recorded vote of 169 in favour with India along with Israel, the UK, the US voting against the resolution.

India improves rating on global corruption index, ranks 85th Denmark retained its position as the least corrupt country in 2014

India has showed some improvement in addressing corruption this year, ranking 85th among 175 countries as against 94th last year, graft watchdog Transparency International India (TII) said today.

Denmark retained its position as the least corrupt country in 2014 with a score of 92 while North Korea and Somalia shared the last place, scoring just 8, it said.

In India's neighbourhood, China moved to 100th place, down from 80th last year, while Pakistan and Nepal were at 126th position. Bangladesh was 145th and Bhutan 30th in the ranking. Sri Lanka was ranked 85th with India.Afghanistan was at a bleak 172.

According to the Corruption Perception Index (CPI) report by TII, "the CPI score for India increased by 2 points in 2014 from its 2013 score, helping India's rank move up to 85 in 2014 from 94 in 2013". India's score stood at 38 as compared to 36 last year.

The improvement in CPI for India was driven primarily by two data sources -- from the World Economic Forum and World Justice Project's (WJP) index.

"A score increase on WEF suggested businesses in India were viewing the environment favourably with regards to their perception of corruption and bribery in the country".

The WJP score also went up reflecting the perceptions of public sector corruption coming down slightly in India, the report said.

The report noted that in terms of the new government, the CPI possibly captured the anti-corruption mandate on which the new government was elected and the possibility of some new reforms in this area.

"However, the data used for CPI mostly was collected prior to the change of government and therefore this will not reflect directly into any of the CPI sources," it said.

To calculate India's position this year, 9 out of 12 independent data sources specialising in governance and business climate analysis were also used.

These included Bertelsmann Foundation, World Bank and World Economic Forum. They helped in measuring perceptions of corruption in public sector and cross country comparability.

In his reaction, Chairman of TII S K Agarwal, said the "new Government has got fully majority on agenda of good governance and now it's high time to act and pass all pending anti corruption bills including the right of citizens for time bound delivery of goods and services and Redressal of their Grievances Bill".