News of the Day : 03 – April – 2019

News of the day – Congress manifesto: highlights

Employment

“All of the 4 lakh vacancies as on 1 April 2019 in the Central Government, Central Public Sector Enterprises, Judiciary, and Parliament will be filled before the end of March 2020. Congress will request State Governments to fill all vacancies, estimated at 20 lakh, in the 2 sectors, and in local bodies.”

NYAY

“Poorest 20% of families to be guaranteed a cash transfer of Rs. 72,000 a year each; money to be transferred to the account of a woman of the family; estimated cost will be <1% of GDP in Year 1 and <2% of GDP in Year 2 and thereafter.

Taxation

“Congress promises to enact the Direct Taxes Code in the first year of government; review and replace the current GST laws with the GST 2.0 regime based on a single, moderate, standard rate of tax; abolish the e-way bill.”

Electoral reforms

“Will scrap the opaque Electoral Bond Scheme that was designed to favour the ruling party; set up a National Election Fund to which any person may make a contribution; promise that 50% of EVMs will be matched against VVPATs.”

Laws, rules, and regulations

“Congress promises to decriminalise defamation and sedition; amend laws that allow detention without trial; pass Prevention of Torture Act; amend ASFPA; institute comprehensive prison reforms.”

Anti-corruption

“Will enforce anti-corruption laws without discrimination; will investigate several deals entered into by the BJP Government in the last 5 years and, in particular, the Rafale deal.”

Planning

“Will scrap Niti Aayog and constitute a Planning Commission with re-defined responsibilities.”

Agriculture and farm labour

“Congress promises to waive the outstanding farm loans: introduce a separate ‘Kisan Budget’; re-design the BJP government’s failed Fasal Bima Yojana (Crop Insurance Scheme); double the funding in 5 years for teaching, R&D, agriculture-related pure sciences and applied science and technology in the agricultural sector; resotre the original Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013 and the Forest Rights Act.”

Rural development

“Congress promises to launch MGNREGA 3.0, which will ncrease the guaranteed days of employment up to 150 days; connect all villages and habitations with a population of 250 with a road under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana; pass the Right to Homestead Act to provide a homestead for every household that does not own a home or own land.”

Women

“Will provide for reservation of 33% of seats in the Lok Sabha and State Legislative Assemblies. Equal Remuneration Act, 1976 to be enforced effectively; repeal any provision of law that prohibits night shifts for women; comprehensive review of the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplaces Act, 2013; establish a separate investigative agency to investigate heinous crimes against women and children.”

Economic policy

“Congress promises to achieve the target of 3% of GDP by 2020-21 and remain under that limit; achieve a savings level of 40% of GDP and a Gross Capital Formation level of 35% of GDP; bring every Fortune 500 company to set up a business in India; withdraw Angel Tax.

Manufacturing

“Congress promises to increase the share of India’s manufacturing sector from the current level of 16%of GDP to 25% within a period of 5 years and to make India a manufacturing hub for the world.”

Public infrastructure and urban policy

“Congress promises to modernise all outdated railway infrastructure; formulate a comprehensive policy on Urbanisation; Right to Housing for the urban poor and protection from arbitrary eviction; introduce a new model of governance for towns and cities through a directly elected mayor with a fixed term of 5 years, an elected Council and a separate administrative structure for each urban body.”

National security

“Will ensure defence spending is increased to meet requirements of the Armed Forces; evolve suitable policies to address data security, cyber security, financial security, communication security; rapidly expand domestic capacity to manufacture defence and security equipment.

Foreign policy

“Congress promises to establish a National Council on Foreign Policy; re-double the efforts to win for permanent membership India in the UNSC and the Nuclear Suppliers Group; significantly increase the size of the Foreign Service.”

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India space debris may have doubled after Mission Shakti

The amount of Indian space debris may have almost doubled in the aftermath of the Mission Shakti anti-satellite strike but this is still significantly less than the existing space debris generated by China, Russia and the United States.

Data from SPACE-TRACK.org, a public access repository maintained by the U.S. defence wing that tracks space activity, notes only 80 pieces of “space debris” attributable to India in orbit.

This, however, doesn’t include debris from MICROSAT-R, the DRDO satellite that was pulverised by India’s anti-satellite missile.

NASA on Monday criticised India for the test, describing it as a “terrible, terrible” thing that had endangered the International Space Station (ISS) and led to the creation of nearly 400 pieces of orbital debris.

NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine said some of the debris posed a risk to astronauts on board the ISS. Mr Bridenstine said of the nearly 400 pieces, only 60 were being tracked and 24 of them were going above the apogee of the ISS (the farthest point from the earth of the ISS’ orbit). The latter posed the maximum risk to the ISS, he said.

Prior to the March 27 test, for India’s 80 pieces, there were 4,091 pieces of debris by the U.S., 4,025 by Russia and China’s 4,038, according to SPACE-TRACK.

Orbital debris are tracked by a variety of ground-based radar and space stations. The speeds at which these objects — between 1mm to 10 cm across — hurtle through space travel makes them extremely dangerous, various studies have showed.

That said, the International Space Station is among the most fortified space objects. It has debris shields deployed around the crewed modules, each composed of two metal sheets, separated by about 10 cm. The outer bumper shield exploits the impact energy to shatter the debris object, such that the inner back wall can withstand the resulting spray of smaller-sized fragments.

Between the walls, fabric with the same functionality as in bullet-proof vests is deployed. This design enables the shield to buffer against debris objects up to 1 cm in size.

The U.S. Space Surveillance system can calculate if an object will veer too close to the ISS and — if need be — the station can be moved out of the orbit of the offending projectile. By the end of 2012, the Station had performed more than 15 of these manoeuvres, according to the ESA.

Source – The Hindu