New NavIC satellite launched

GS Paper- 3 (Space Technology)

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) launched the first of the second-generation satellites for its navigation constellation successfully on 29 May 2023. The 2,232 kg satellite, the heaviest in the constellation, was launched by a Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) rocket that lifted off from Sriharikota. Each of the seven satellites currently in the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS) constellation, operationally named NavIC, weighed much less — around 1,425 kg — at liftoff. They all rode the lighter Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), ISRO’s workhorse launch rocket.

What’s new in the second-generation NavIC satellite?

1. The second-generation satellite — christened NVS-01, the first of ISRO’s NVS series of payloads — is heavier. Other than that:
2. Atomic Clock: The satellite will have a Rubidium atomic clock onboard, a significant technology developed by India. The space-qualified Rubidium atomic clock indigenously developed by Space Application Centre-Ahmedabad is an important technology which only a handful of countries possess.
3. L1 signals for better use in wearable devices: The second generation satellites will send signals in a third frequency, L1, besides the L5 and S frequency signals that the existing satellites provide, increasing interoperability with other satellite-based navigation systems.
4. The L1 frequency is among the most commonly used in the Global Positioning System (GPS), and will increase the use of the regional navigation system in wearable devices and personal trackers that use low-power, single-frequency chips.
5. Longer mission life: The second-generation satellites will also have a longer mission life of more than 12 years. The existing satellites have a mission life of 10 years.

What is the advantage of having a regional navigation system?

1. NavIC provides coverage over the Indian landmass and up to a radius of 1,500 km around it. In this region, NavIC signals will likely be available in even hard-to-reach areas.
2. Unlike GPS, NavIC uses satellites in high geo-stationery orbit — the satellites move at a constant speed relative to Earth, so they are always looking over the same region on Earth.
3. NavIC signals come to India at a 90-degree angle, making it easier for them to reach devices located even in congested areas, dense forests, or mountains. GPS signals are received over India at an angle.

Flashback

1. The last IRNSS satellite, IRNSS-1I, was launched in April 2018 to replace an older, partially defunct satellite in the constellation.
2. IRNSS-1I was ISRO’s ninth satellite for the NavIC constellation, but is considered to be the eighth because the IRNSS-1H — launched eight months earlier in August 2017 and originally intended to replace the older satellite — was lost after the heat shield of the payload failed to open on time.

CJI condemns ‘forum shopping’

GS Paper - 2 (Polity)

I will not permit forum shopping”, said Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud last week to a litigant appearing before him on 19 May 2023. The remark came as the litigant mentioned his case before the CJI, seeking a hearing, although he had mentioned the same case a day before Justice KM Joseph.

What is the practice of forum shopping?

1. When litigants or lawyers attempt to deliberately move their case to a particular judge or Court where they think the judgment could be more favourable, they are said to be “forum shopping.”
2. The forum shopping as the “practice of choosing the court in which to bring an action from among those courts that could properly exercise jurisdiction based on a determination of which court is likely to provide the most favorable outcome.
3. Lawyers think about which is the right forum to approach as part of their litigation strategy.
4. For example, one could directly approach the Supreme Court via a public interest litigation case instead of the concerned High Court because the issue could get more eyeballs.
5. However, an obvious effort to circumvent the process or avoid a particular judge is frowned upon. Judges have cited the injustice caused to the other party in the case and overburdening some courts over others and interfering with judicial process.
6. Even the US and UK courts have criticised the practice of forum shopping as something to be avoided or prohibited.
7. However, most common law countries use the “forum non-conveniens” principle to prevent forum shopping, which gives the court discretionary powers to refuse to exercise its jurisdiction over a matter where another court, or forum, may more conveniently hear a case. Using this power, the court can dismiss a case in the interests of justice and the parties while allocating it to the appropriate bench.
8. The Supreme Court in its 1988 ruling in ‘Chetak Construction Ltd. vs. Om Prakash’ said, “A litigant cannot be permitted choice of the forum,” and that every attempt at forum shopping “must be crushed with a heavy hand.”

What is the Supreme Court’s view on this practice?

1. Last year, on 22 March, an SC Bench of Justice S. Abdul Nazeer and Justice Krishna Murari in the case of ‘Vijay Kumar Ghai vs. State of W.B.’ termed forum shopping as a “disreputable practise by the courts” that “has no sanction and paramountcy in law”.
2. On 28 March 2023, the Jammu, Kashmir, and Ladakh High Court in ‘Dr. Khair-Un-Nisa and Ors vs. UT of Jammu and Kashmir and Ors’ imposed costs worth one lakh rupees on the petitioners for indulging in forum shopping by filing multiple petitions before different wings of the court, albeit having the same cause of action.
3. In its judgement, the court remarked, “Forum shopping is essentially a practice of choosing the Court in which to bring an action from among those Courts that could properly exercise jurisdiction based on a determination of which Court is likely to provide a most favourable outcome.”
4. Similarly, “Bench hunting” refers to petitioners managing to get their cases heard by a particular judge or court to ensure a favourable order, the court added.
5. Relying on the 2017 SC ruling in ‘Kamini Jaiswal vs. Union of India’, the court said that “unscrupulous elements” are always on the hunt to find a court or forum of their choice but are not permitted to do so by law.

India’s first polarimetry mission

GS Paper - 3 (Space Technology)

The Indian Space Research Organisation is collaborating with the Raman Research Institute (RRI), Bengaluru, an autonomous research institute, to build the X-Ray Polarimeter Satellite (XPoSat) that is scheduled to be launched later this year.

What is the XPoSat mission?

1. XPoSat will study various dynamics of bright astronomical X-ray sources in extreme conditions.
2. It has been billed as India’s first, and only the world’s second polarimetry mission that is meant to study various dynamics of bright astronomical X-ray sources in extreme conditions.
3. The other such major mission is NASA’s Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) that was launched in 2021.
4. IXPE carries three state-of-the-art space telescopes. Each of the three identical telescopes hosts one light-weight X-ray mirror and one detector unit.
5. These will help observe polarized X-rays from neutron stars and supermassive black holes.
6. By measuring the polarisation of these X-rays, we can study where the light came from and understand the geometry and inner workings of the light source.

How are X-Rays witnessed in space?

1. X-rays have much higher energy and much shorter wavelengths, between 0.03 and 3 nanometers, so small that some x-rays are no bigger than a single atom of many elements.
2. The physical temperature of an object determines the wavelength of the radiation it emits. The hotter the object, the shorter the wavelength of peak emission.
3. X-rays come from objects that are millions of degrees Celsius — such as pulsars, galactic supernova remnants, and black holes.
4. Like all forms of light, X-rays consist of moving electric and magnetic waves. Usually, peaks and valleys of these waves move in random directions.
5. Polarised light is more organised with two types of waves vibrating in the same direction.
6. The field of polarimetry studies the measurement of the angle of rotation of the plane of polarised light (that is, a beam of light in which the vibrations of the electromagnetic waves are confined to one plane) that results upon its passage through certain transparent materials, according to Britannica.