Important outcomes of India US meet

GS Paper - 2 (International Relations)

The Joint Statement issued by India and the United States affirmed a vision of the two countries as “among the closest partners in the world — a partnership of democracies looking into the 21st century with hope, ambition, and confidence”. The Joint Statement affirmed that “no corner of human enterprise is untouched by the partnership between our two great countries, which spans the seas to the stars”.

Technology partnership

• Strengthening semiconductor supply chains: Micron Technology, with support from the India Semiconductor Mission, will invest more than $800 million toward a new $2.75 billion semiconductor assembly and test facility in India.
• Critical Minerals Partnership: India has become the newest partner of the US-led Minerals Security Partnership (MSP) that has been established to accelerate the development of diverse and sustainable critical energy minerals supply chains globally.
• Advanced Telecommunications: India and the US have launched public-private Joint Task Forces on the development and deployment of Open RAN systems and on advanced telecoms research and development.
• NASA-ISRO collaboration in space: India has signed the Artemis Accords, joining 26 other countries committed to peaceful, sustainable, and transparent cooperation that will enable exploration of the Moon, Mars, and beyond.
• Quantum, Advanced Computing, and Artificial Intelligence: The two countries have established a Joint Indo-US Quantum Coordination Mechanism to facilitate joint research between the public and private sectors across the two countries.
• Cutting-edge Research: The US National Science Foundation has announced 35 joint research collaborations with India’s Department of Science and Technology, and signed a new cooperative arrangement with India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology on emerging technologies.
• Innovation Handshake: To support the US-India Initiative on Critical and Emerging Technology (iCET), the US-India Commercial Dialogue will launch a new “Innovation Handshake” to connect the startup ecosystems of the two countries.
• Fiber Optics Investments: India’s Sterlite Technologies Limited has invested $100 million in the construction of an optical fibre cable manufacturing unit near Columbia, South Carolina, which will facilitate $150 million in annual exports of optical fibre from India.

Defence partnership

• GE F414 Engine Co-Production: The Joint Statement welcomed the groundbreaking proposal by General Electric to jointly produce the F414 jet engine in India.
• General Atomics MQ-9Bs: India intends to procure armed MQ-9B SeaGuardian UAVs. The drones will increase India’s intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance capabilities.
• Service and repair of US Navy ships: The US Navy has concluded a Master Ship Repair Agreement (MSRA) with Larsen and Toubro Shipyard in Kattupalli (Chennai) and is finalizing agreements with Mazagon Dock Limited (Mumbai) and Goa Shipyard (Goa).
• More robust defence cooperation: The two countries advanced steps to operationalize tools to increase defence cooperation. They have resolved to strengthen undersea domain awareness cooperation, and agreed to place three Indian liaison officers in US commands for the first time.
• Defence “Innovation Bridge”: The India-US Defence Acceleration Ecosystem (INDUS-X) — a network of university, incubator, corporate, think tank, and private investment stakeholders — was inaugurated on 21 June 2023.

Cooperation in the Indo-Pacific

• Indo-Pacific and Indian Ocean: The US will join the Indo-Pacific Oceans Initiative, a regional initiative inaugurated by Prime Minister Modi in 2015 to promote a safe, secure, and stable maritime domain and promote its conservation and sustainable use.
• India will continue to participate as an observer in the Partners in the Blue Pacific.
• The US and India will hold an Indian Ocean Dialogue with experts and stakeholders from across the Indian Ocean region to promote greater regional coordination.

Sustainable development

• Energy collaboration: India and the US will continue to work together to achieve their national climate and energy goals. The US welcomes India’s decision to co-lead the multilateral Hydrogen Breakthrough Agenda to make affordable renewable and low carbon hydrogen globally available by 2030, the Joint Statement said.
• Green technology: The Joint Statement mentioned the two countries’ commitment to creating innovative investment platforms that will lower the cost of capital and attract international private finance at scale for renewable energy, battery storage, and emerging green technology projects in India.
• It also refers to initiatives taken to decarbonise the transportation sector, and the Global Biofuels Alliance, which has been established by India with the US as a founding member.

Go First’s insolvency resolution

GS Paper - 3 (Economy)

The low-cost airline Go First (originally GoAir) filed for the initiation of insolvency proceedings in early May this year. The company had been struggling with engine troubles for some time, which had led to the grounding of a large number of its aircraft. The percentage of grounded aircraft had risen from 7% of Go First’s fleet in December 2019 to 50% in December 2022.

What is the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code?

• In 2016, the government put in place a framework to deal with the problem of bad loans in the country’s banking system.
• The IBC provides a framework for a time-bound resolution process. Broadly, if a company is unable to service its obligations (payments that are due to its financial and operational creditors), one of two processes could follow: (i) the company’s liabilities are restructured, and it gets a chance to continue its operations, perhaps under new owners; (ii) its assets are liquidated, and the money is recovered.
• Before the IBC, there were other regulatory frameworks to deal with bad loans. But it usually took very long for the process to conclude.
• As per the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business report, it would take 4.3 years on average to resolve insolvency cases before the IBC was enacted.
• The IBC put strict timelines in place. Initially, the process was to be completed within 270 days, failing which the company would be pushed into liquidation; the deadline was subsequently extended to 330 days.
• The time-bound nature of the process under IBC was appealing, because delays in resolution lead to further destruction in the value of the firm.

Did the introduction of the IBC help creditors?

• The IBC attempted to reshape the credit culture in the country by tilting the balance in favour of creditors. The threat of losing their company — under this framework, as soon the proceedings are initiated, the existing promoters/ management lose control over the firm — works as a powerful deterrent for errant promoters and puts pressure on them to honour their obligations.
• This framework has also given a negotiating tool to operational creditors, who are typically small firms, to negotiate the payment of their dues by larger firms.
• Data from the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India show that of all the cases admitted under IBC, proceedings in almost half have been initiated by operational creditors, signalling how widely this is being used by these firms.

BepiColombo spacecraft flew close to Mercury

GS Paper - 3 (Space Technology)

BepiColombo, a joint mission between the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), flew about 236 kilometres above the planet Mercury’s surface, according to ESA. Three images taken by the spacecraft highlight its journey around the closest planet to the Sun.

More about the Mission

• During the close encounter where BepiColombo flew above the night side of the planet, its camera snapped many images of the rocky planet.
• About twenty minutes after the spacecraft’s closest approach to the planet, it was already around 1,800 kilometres away from the surface.
• At that point, some features of the planet began appearing out of the shadows, as seen from the camera. But the planet’s surface became a lot more optimally illuminated for imaging about 20 minutes after close approach. At that point, it was more than 3,500 kilometres above the planet.
• There is a large 218 kilometre-wide impact crater visible to the right of BepiColombo’s antenna in the two closest images. It was named “Manley” after Jamaican Artist Edna Manley.
• A large 218 km-wide peak-ring impact crater visible just below and to the right of the antenna in the two closest images presented here has just been assigned the name Manley by the International Astronomical Union’s Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature after Jamaican artist Edna Manley (1900–1987).
• In those same images, the geological thrust systems are visible close to the “terminator” of the planet.
• The terminator of the planet or the “twilight zone” is where the planet’s night side and day side meet. The slopes are called Beagle Rupes. They are an example of “lobate scarps,” which Mercury has many of. Lobate scarps are the “wrinkles” that formed on the planet when it was cooling and contracting.
• This was the spacecraft’s third close flyby near Mercury and the next one is set to happen on 5 September 2024.

Flashback

• BepiColombo is a joint European-Japanese mission to explore the planet Mercury. It launched in 2018 and will enter Mercury orbit in 2025.
• BepiColombo is composed of three separate spacecraft that blasted off from Earth together.
• The mission will study water ice at Mercury’s poles and the planet’s abnormally large core.
• This will ultimately help us learn how Mercury formed, and what the early solar system was like.

The Nutraceutical properties of Joha rice

GS Paper - 1 (Geography)

Scientists at the Institute of Advanced Study in Science and Technology (IASST), an autonomous institute of the Department of Science and Technology explored the nutraceutical properties of aromatic Joha rice.

About Joha Rice

• Joha rice, aromatic rice cultivated in the Northeastern region of India is effective in lowering the blood glucose and preventing diabetes onset and hence is an effective nutraceutical of choice in diabetes management.
• Joha is a short-grain winter paddy known for its significant aroma and noteworthy taste.
• The traditional claims are that the consumers of Joha rice have low incidence of diabetes and cardiovascular diseases, but these needed scientific validation.
• Through in vitro laboratory analysis, they detected two unsaturated fatty acids viz., linoleic acid (omega-6) and linolenic (omega-3) acid.
• These essential fatty acids (which humans cannot produce) can help maintain various physiological conditions.
• Omega-3 fatty acid prevents several metabolic diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and cancer.
• Joha has also proved to be effective in lowering the blood glucose and preventing diabetes onset in diabetic rats.
• The researchers also found that scented Joha rice has a more balanced ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 in comparison to the widely consumed non-scented variety.
• The ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 essential fatty acids (EFA) required by human beings for maintaining the proper diet is around one.
• They have used this Joha rice to make rice bran oil, a patented product that they claim to be effective in diabetes management.
• Besides, Joha rice is also rich in several antioxidants, flavonoids, and phenolics.
• Some of the reported bioactive compounds areoryzanol, ferulic acid, tocotrienol, caffeic acid, catechuic acid, gallic acid, tricin, and so on, each with reported antioxidant, hypoglycaemic and cardio-protective effects.