News & Editorial Analysis 28 February 2023

The Hindu News Analysis

1 – HAL:

GS II Topic Statutory and Non-Statutory Bodies:

Context:

The Hindustan 228-201 LW aircraft was created by Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has now approved a new variation of the aircraft (HAL).

According to the defence PSU with its Bangalore headquarters, this model of the Hindustan 228-201 LW aircraft has a maximum take-off weight of 5,695 kg with 19 passengers.

About the HAL:

Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), a state-owned aerospace and defence company in India, is headquartered in Bangalore.

In the modern world, HAL is among the oldest and largest aerospace and defence companies. As of December 23, 1940, it was founded.

HAL began building aeroplanes in 1942 with the licenced production of the Harlow PC-5, Curtiss P-36 Hawk, and Vultee A-31 Vengeance for the Indian Air Force.

Nowadays, HAL runs 4 manufacturing facilities in India along with 21 manufacturing divisions and 11 dedicated Research and Development (R&D) centres.

The President of India appoints the Board of Directors at HAL on behalf of the Government of India through the Ministry of Defence.

Presently, HAL is involved in the design, development, and production of fighter jets, helicopters, jet engines, marine gas turbine engines, avionics, software, the supply of spare parts, and the refurbishment and modernisation of Indian military aircraft.

The HAL HF-24 Marut fighter-bomber was the first indigenous fighter developed in India.

History:

In partnership with the then-Kingdom of Mysore, Walchand Hirachand established Hindustan Aircraft Corporation in Bangalore on December 23, 1940.

Walchand Hirachand is the company’s chairman.

The Indian Government had acquired a third of the corporation by April 1941.

When India gained independence in 1947, the control of the corporation was transferred to the Indian government.

Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) was founded on October 1st of that year when Hindustan Aircraft Limited joined the partnership formed in June by the IAF Aircraft Manufacturing Depot, Kanpur.

2 – Enforcement Directorate:

GS II Topic Statutory and Non-Statutory Bodies:

Context:

Chief Engineer Virendra Kumar Ram, who was detained by the Enforcement Directorate in a money laundering investigation, has been suspended by the Jharkhand government’s Rural Development Department.

On February 23, a special PMLA court in this city ordered Mr. Ram to spend five days in ED custody. The case has to do with alleged anomalies in the way various initiatives were carried out.

The Directorate of Enforcement (ED) is what, exactly?

The investigation of money laundering offences and transgressions of foreign exchange rules is the responsibility of the multidisciplinary agency known as the Directorate of Enforcement (ED).

It is managed by the Ministry of Finance’s Department of Revenue.

The Enforcement Directorate, a leading financial investigation division of the Indian government, strictly abides by Indian law and the constitution.

Where Does ED’s Origination Take Place?

This Directorate was first established on May 1st, 1956, when the Department of Economic Affairs established a “Enforcement Unit” to handle violations of the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act (FERA), 1947, which dealt with FX Control Regulations.

Its headquarters were in Delhi, and the Director of Enforcement was a Law Service Officer.

At Bombay and Calcutta, it had two branches.

This Unit was renamed the “Enforcement Directorate” in 1957, and a second branch was established in Madras (now Chennai).

The Department of Economic Affairs turned over management of the Directorate to the Department of Revenue in 1960.

FERA 1947 was repealed and replaced by FERA 1973 as time went on.

FERA, 1973, a regulatory law, was repealed with the start of the economic liberalisation movement, and in its substitute, the Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 (FEMA), went into effect on June 1st, 2000.

The Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA) was also passed in accordance with the International Anti-Money Laundering framework, and ED was given responsibility for its enforcement beginning on July 1st, 2005.

What is the ED’s structure?

The Director of Enforcement is in charge of the Directorate of Enforcement, which has its headquarters in New Delhi.

Special Directors of Enforcement are in charge of five regional offices, which are located in Mumbai, Chennai, Chandigarh, Kolkata, and Delhi.

In addition to 11 sub-Zonal Offices, each of which is led by an Assistant Director, the Directorate has 10 Zonal offices, each of which is overseen by a Deputy Director.

Recruitment: Officers are hired directly or by luring them away from other investigative agency.

It consists of police, excise, customs, and income tax officials from the IRS (Indian Revenue Services), IPS (Indian Police Services), and IAS (Indian Administrative Services).

Duration: In November 2021, the President of India issued two decrees allowing the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate directors’ terms to be increased from two to a maximum of five years.

The Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) Act, 2003 (for CV Commissioners) and the Delhi Special Police Establishment (DSPE) Act, 1946 (for ED) have both been amended to give the government the authority to retain the two chiefs in their positions for an additional year after their initial two-year terms have ended.

Currently, the chiefs of the Central Agency have fixed terms of two years, although they are now eligible for three annual extensions.

But, after a total of five years, including the time specified in the first appointment, no additional extensions will be given.

3 – DGCA:

GS II Topic Statutory and Non-Statutory Bodies:

Context:

Arun Kumar, director general of civil aviation (DGCA), claims that for every three pilots who complete their training, there is one unemployed in the country. As airlines increase their fleet size, the “oversupply” of pilots that currently exists will be eliminated.

Background information on the Directorate General of Civil Aviation:

It was created by the 2020 Aircraft (Amendment) Bill as a statutory body.

It is in responsible of providing aviation licences, such as PPLs, SPLs, and CPLs in India. It also conducts investigations into aviation accidents and incidents, upholds all aviation regulations.

The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), which the Indian government aims to model after the American Federal Aviation Administration, will replace the organisation (FAA).

DGCA activities:

Registration of aircraft for civil aviation.

Airport approval.

A licence is given to pilots, engineers in charge of maintaining aircraft, air traffic controllers, and flight engineers. Appropriate exams and inspections are also conducted.

Setting standards for civil aircraft registered in India to receive certificates of airworthiness.

As part of accident prevention strategies, investigations into occurrences and serious accidents involving aircraft up to 2250 kg AUW are conducted, and safety aviation management programmes are put into practise.

4 – Agnipath Scheme:

GS II Topic Government Policies and Interventions:

Context:

The Delhi High Court maintained the legitimacy of the Agnipath programme for armed forces recruitment on Monday. The court dismissed many petitions that questioned the scheme’s introduction on the grounds that it had been done so in the national interest.

After studying the documentation, Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Subramonium Prasad’s division bench maintained that the Agnipath initiative is a properly thought-out policy decision by the Indian government.

About:

It makes it possible for determined and patriotic young people to join the military and serve for four years.

According to this idea, the young soldier joining will be referred to as Agniveer. Youth will have a brief window of opportunity to enlist in the military.

The majority of the 45,000 to 50,000 new recruits who will join the military under the new plan will leave in just four years.

After four years, for a total of 15 years, only 25% of the batch will be hired back into their respective services.

Eligibility criteria:

The only eligible employees are those with lower officer ranks (those who do not join the forces as commissioned officers).

In the army, commission officers hold the highest positions.

Only commissioned officers hold the rank in the Indian Armed Forces. They frequently participate in commissions run by the president and are required by law to protect the country.

Applicants must fall within the age range of 17.5 and 23.

Objectives:

It aims to provide young people with the “Josh” and “Jazba” the opportunity to enlist in the military.

As a result, it is anticipated that the average age of the Indian Armed Forces will drop by 4 to 5 years.

The plan projects that within six to seven years, the average age of the armed forces, which is currently 32 years old, will fall to 26 years old.

Benefits:

After completing their four years of service, the Agniveers would be given a one-time “Seva Nidhi” payment totaling Rs 11.71 lakhs, which will also include any interest that has accrued.

A Rs 48 lakh, four-year life insurance policy would also be given to them.

The amount of the refund, which includes salary for any unused time, will surpass Rs 1 crore in the event of death.

After serving for four years, soldiers who leave the military will be given government support for rehabilitation. Students will obtain skill certificates and bridge courses.

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The Hindu Editorial Analysis

Towards Transparency In OTT Regulation:

Context:

The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MoI&B) was given the power to regulate content on OTT and online platforms when the government published the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Regulations, also known as the new IT Rules 2021, two years ago.

The OTT regulation:

The approach adopted by India can be characterised as a light-touch “co-regulation” paradigm, with industry-level “self-regulation” and a ministry-level “oversight mechanism” for the outcome. A grievance procedure and an ethics code are included in the Guidelines. For programmes classified “A” (18+) and access control measures, including parental locks, for content rated U/A 13+ or above, respectively, are necessary.

Over-the-top platforms, or OTTs, are businesses that first use them as platforms for hosting material before going on to make and distribute their own short films, features, documentaries, and web series.

Take Netflix, Disney+, Hulu, and Amazon Prime Video as examples.

Pursuing media literacy:

The OTT Rules were announced in 2021, but only a small number of individuals are aware of them. According to the Rules, OTT websites and interfaces must provide access to grievance officers’ contact information as well as mechanisms for resolving complaints.

Nonetheless, extremely low compliance rates exist. It is frequently difficult for a user to immediately identify the complaint redressal information since it is either not presented or published in a style that makes it difficult to do so. The information is occasionally missing from the OTT app UI.

This highlights how important it is for OTT publishers to consistently provide important information about their obligations, dates for complaint redress, contact details for grievance offices, etc. The manner, substance, vocabulary, and frequency with which critical information is displayed may all be governed by the Rules. It might be necessary to launch ongoing print and online advertisements from the OTT industry associations promoting the grievance process.

Age categorizations (such as UA 13+) and content descriptors (like “violence”) may be interpreted in the video’s respective languages (apart from English). Such provisions for the inclusion of anti-tobacco messages in motion pictures are included in the law.

In print and electronic media promotions and marketing for OTT material, the Rules may also include precise guidelines for how to make a movie’s classification or rating stand out and be simple to understand.

Clarity is necessary:

The real availability and efficacy of access controls, age verification systems, and the disclosure of complaint information by each OTT platform may be audited periodically by an impartial authority.

The Rules oblige publishers and self-regulatory organisations to divulge specifics of complaints; however, the reporting formats only keep track of the overall number of complaints that were received and dealt with. Instead, the whole content of any complaints that OTT providers and self-regulatory organisations receive, along with any decisions that are taken in response, may be made public.

The Ministry should consider developing a particular website that acts as a hub for all relevant regulations, content standards, advisories, and contact details for appeals and complaints, among other things. The specifics of complaints and redressal rulings can be uploaded by OTT providers and appellate/self-regulatory organisations so that the general public and government officials can view them. This approach will increase transparency.

According to the current Regulations, the Inter-Departmental Committee (IDC), which is composed of officers nominated by several Central government ministries and subject matter experts, is the third and last tier. The way the system is set up, even when IDC suggests a course of action for OTT content violations, the Secretary of the Ministry retains the right to make the final call.

The Supreme Court and High Courts have emphasised the need for a formal entity to be established to oversee broadcast content. The IDC’s membership may be increased, made more representative, and provided tenure security until such a legislative regulator for the media is established.

There is no chance for an apology, warning, or reprimand to be revealed or posted on the platform or website. This might be included in the Rules. Additionally, bad actors could face financial penalties. In the current era of media convergence, it is past time to establish a set of standards for content, categorization, age ratings, infractions, etc. so that the content on all platforms is governed similarly.

Conclusion:

The goal of India’s OTT regulatory framework is to successfully combine self-regulation with support from the government. This is consistent with the global trend. According to the I&B Ministry, India’s OTT regulations were anticipated to “raise India’s stature at a worldwide level.”

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The Indian Express Editorial Analysis

Alma Telescope:

Situation right now:

According to a recent report in the journal Science, the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), a radio telescope with 66 antennas in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile, is about to receive hardware and software upgrades that will enable it to collect much more data and produce sharper images than ever before.

The most significant ALMA modernization will be the replacement of the correlator, a supercomputer that combines data from numerous antennas to create extremely detailed images of celestial objects.

The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array is known by the abbreviation ALMA.

In order to examine celestial objects at millimetre and submillimeter wavelengths, a state-of-the-art telescope named ALMA is used. They can see through dust clouds, which helps astronomers examine distant, faint galaxies and stars. It can also detect radio signals that are exceedingly faint thanks to its extraordinary sensitivity.

The 66 extremely precise antennas on the telescope are spread out over a space of up to 16 kilometres.

There are several receivers attached to each antenna, and each one is set to a certain band of electromagnetic spectrum wavelengths.

The antennas may be adjusted for different perspectives by moving them closer together or farther apart, much like a zoom lens on a camera. According to a report from Science Node, the outcome is amazing, never-before-seen footage of the deepest, darkest space. A separate image is produced from each antenna by the correlator.

The radio telescope was designed, orchestrated, and constructed by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory of the United States (NRAO), the European Southern Observatory (ESO), and the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ). It has been fully operational since 2013. (ESO). Astronomers have used it to make significant discoveries over time, including those about starburst galaxies and the generation of dust inside supernova 1987A.

Why is ALMA located in Chile’s Atacama Desert?

Because the millimetre and submillimeter wavelengths it studies are extremely susceptible to atmospheric water vapour absorption on Earth, ALMA is situated on the Chajnantor plateau in Chile’s Atacama Desert at an elevation of 16,570 feet (5,050 metres) above sea level.

The desert is also the driest spot on Earth, which makes it an excellent location for astronomical observation because most of its nights are cloud- and moisture-free.

The flight from Japan to the ALMA facility in Chile takes 40 hours, connections included. Despite being so far away, the chosen location still offers the greatest ALMA telescope viewing conditions on Earth.

What are some of ALMA’s most important findings?

With ALMA’s ability to take high-resolution pictures of the gas and dust from which stars and planets are created as well as elements that could be the basis for life, scientists are seeking to find answers to long-standing riddles regarding our cosmic origins.

The discovery that starburst galaxies formed earlier in the history of the universe than previously thought was one of the first ones discovered in 2013. According to the study, these recently discovered galaxies “represent the active, star-forming youth of today’s most massive galaxies.”

By producing detailed images of the protoplanetary disc encircling HL Tauri, a very young T Tauri star in the constellation Taurus, some 450 light years from Earth, ALMA “changed the previously accepted theory on the planetary formation,” according to N.

In 2015, using the telescope, a phenomena known as the Einstein ring, which occurs when light from a galaxy or star passes by a massive object on its route to the Earth, was seen in extraordinarily fine detail.

The Event Horizon Telescope project, a large telescope array made up of a global network of radio telescopes, just caught the first image of the supermassive black hole at the centre of our own Milky Way galaxy. Scientists unveiled the image in May 2022.