Kerala’s SilverLine Project
Context:
In view of the inordinate delay in getting the final approval for the SilverLine project from the Centre, the Kerala government has decided to redeploy the revenue officials deputed for land acquisition for the project in 11 districts to other essential projects.
Relevance:
GS-III: Industry and Infrastructure (Infrastructure- Roads, Railways etc.)
Dimensions of the Article:
- What is SilverLine in Kerala?
- Details regarding the SilverLine
- Advantages of the SilverLine project
- Why are there protests against the project?
What is SilverLine in Kerala?
- SilverLine is a semi high-speed railway project connecting the state’s northern and southern ends at a cost of over Rs 63,000 crore. The government has said that the project will bring about an upgrade to the railway infrastructure.
- The proposed 529.45-km line will link Thiruvananthapuram in the south to Kasaragod in the north, covering 11 districts through 11 stations.
- The deadline for the project, being executed by the Kerala Rail Development Corporation Limited (KRDCL, or K-Rail is a joint venture between the Kerala government and the Union Ministry of Railways created to execute big railway projects), is 2025.
- The state government has begun the process of land acquisition after the Cabinet gave its approval in June 2021. The Cabinet has also approved administrative sanction to get Rs 2,100 crore from the Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (KIIFB), the central investment arm of the government.
Details regarding the SilverLine
- As per the alignment, the railway line, beginning from Thiruvananthapuram, will have stations in Kollam, Chengannur, Kottayam, Ernakulam (Kakkanad), Cochin Airport, Thrissur, Tirur, Kozhikode and Kannur before culminating in Kasaragod.
- The Cochin International Airport Limited (CIAL) has already offered one acre for the station there.
- According to K-Rail, the project will have trains of electric multiple unit (EMU) type, each with preferably 9 cars (maximum of 675 passengers) extendable to 12. The trains can run at a maximum speed of 220 km/hr on a standard gauge track, completing journeys in either direction in under four hours.
- Of the 11 stations, three will be elevated (Thiruvananthapuram, Ernakulam and Thrissur), one underground (Kozhikode) and the rest at grade.
Advantages of the SilverLine project
- When the project is completed, one can travel from Kasaragod to Thiruvananthapuram in less than four hours at 200 km/hr. On the existing Indian Railways network, it now takes 12 hours.
- The government claims the SilverLine project can take a significant load of traffic off the existing stretch and make travel faster for commuters, which in turn will reduce congestion on roads and help reduce accidents.
- The government claims the line will also reduce greenhouse gas emissions, help in expansion of Ro-Ro services, produce employment opportunities, integrate airports and IT corridors, and enable faster development of cities it passes through.
- The SilverLine is meant to meet the demands of the future as the existing railway infrastructure in Kerala cannot do so with most of the trains run at an average speed of 45 km/hr due to a lot of curves and bends on the existing stretch.
Why are there protests against the project?
- Primary criticisms of the SilverLine project are over its “lack” of financial viability as well as environmental and social impact.
- Some of the main concerns put forth are:
- Why is there such an obvious lack of consultation?
- How a debt-ridden state can afford the project?
- Would the train service be affordable given the cost of building it?
- What are the plans are to rehabilitate those displaced?
- What are the ecological costs for tackling climate change and other ecological damage as an effect of this SilverLine project?
-Source: The Hindu, Indian Express
Registration of Birth and Death (RBD) Act, 1969
Context:
Recently, the Union Home Ministry proposed amendment to the Registration of Birth and Death (RBD) Act, 1969. The bill will be introduced in the winter session of parliament.
Relevance:
GS II: Government Policies and Interventions
Dimensions of the Article:
- What changes are being proposed?
- Need for the Amendments
- About Registration of Birth and Death (RBD) Act, 1969
What changes are being proposed?
- It has been proposed to make birth certificates a mandatory document for almost every sphere of life — admission in educational institutions, inclusion in the voter list, appointment in Central and State government jobs, issue of driving licence and passport.
- It shall be mandatory for hospitals and medical institutions to provide a copy of all death certificates, stating the cause of death, to the local registrar apart from the relative of the deceased.
- The country’s birth registration level improved to 92.7% in 2019 from 82.0% in 2010, and the level of recorded deaths increased from 66.9% in 2010 to 92.0% in 2019, according to the Civil Registration System (CRS) report.
- CRS is an online system for registration of births and deaths under the operational control of the RGI.
Need for the Amendments
- The proposed amendments will make it possible for the Ministry of Home Affairs’ (MHA) Registrar General of India (RGI) to “keep a database of registered births and deaths at the national level.”
- The RGI will provide a birth and death database at the national level that may be used to update the Aadhar, ration card, passport, driving licence, population register, and electoral register databases.
- If the changes are made, the Center might use the information to update the National Population Register (NPR), which was created in 2010 and updated in 2015 via door-to-door enumeration.
- According to the Citizenship Rules of 2003, the NPR is the first step toward the formation of a National Register of Citizens, and it already has
About Registration of Birth and Death (RBD) Act, 1969
- Registration of Births and Deaths in India is mandatory with the enactment of RBD, Act 1969 and is done as per the place of occurrence of the event.
- The RBD Act mandates that births and deaths be registered by the States.
- Facilities have been set up by state governments for keeping records of births, deaths, and registrations.
- Every State appoints a Chief Registrar who is in charge of carrying out the Act’s provisions.
- The work is performed by a hierarchy of authorities at the district and lower levels.
- The RGI, chosen in accordance with this Act, is in charge of organising and unifying the RBD Act’s execution.
-Source: The Hindu
Rare Earths Minerals
Context:
To counter India’s reliance on China for imports of critical rare earth minerals, industry has urged the government to establish ‘India Rare Earths Mission’.
Relevance:
GS-I: Geography (Distribution of Key Natural Resources, Mineral & Energy Resources), GS Paper-II: International Relations (India and its Neighborhood)
Dimensions of the Article:
- What are REMs?
- Heavy dependence
- India Rare Earths Mission
What are REMs?
- The rare earths minerals (REM) are a set of seventeen metallic elements. These include the fifteen lanthanides on the periodic table in addition to scandium and yttrium that show similar physical and chemical properties to the lanthanides.
- The REMs have unique catalytic, metallurgical, nuclear, electrical, magnetic and luminescent properties. While named ‘rare earth’, they are in fact not that rare and are relatively abundant in the Earth’s crust.
Strategic importance of REMs:
- They have distinctive electrical, metallurgical, catalytic, nuclear, magnetic and luminescent properties.
- Its usage range from daily use (e.g., lighter flints, glass polishing mediums, car alternators) to high-end technology (lasers, magnets, batteries, fibre-optic telecommunication cables).
- Even futuristic technologies need these REMs (For example high-temperature superconductivity, safe storage and transport of hydrogen for a post-hydrocarbon economy, environmental global warming and energy efficiency issues).
- Due to their unique magnetic, luminescent, and electrochemical properties, they help in technologies perform with reduced weight, reduced emissions, and energy consumption; therefore give them greater efficiency, performance, miniaturization, speed, durability, and thermal stability.
Heavy dependence
- In 2019, the U.S. imported 80% of its rare earth minerals from China, the U.S. Geological Survey says.
- The EU gets 98% of its supply from China, the European Commission said last year.
- Amid the transition to green energy, in which rare earth minerals are sure to play a role, China’s market dominance is enough to sound an alarm in western capitals.
- Rare earth minerals, with names like neodymium, praseodymium and dysprosium, are crucial to the manufacture of magnets used in industries of the future, such as wind turbines and electric cars. And they are already being used in consumer goods such as smartphones, computer screens and telescopic lenses.
- In 2021 the U.S. Senate passed a law aimed at improving American competitiveness that includes provisions to improve critical minerals supply chains.
- U.S. aims to boost production and processing of rare earths and lithium, another key mineral component, while “working with allies to increase sustainable global supply and reduce reliance on competitors,” Deputy Director of the National Economic Council in 2021.
- The best hope for boosting American production can be found at the Mountain Pass mine in California.
- Once one of the major players in the sector, the mine suffered as China rose and ate up its market share, aided by Beijing’s subsidies.
- China is expected to remain dominant for some time to come, but experts say that if recycling is scaled up, “20 to 30% of Europe’s rare earth magnet needs by 2030 could be sourced domestically in the EU from literally zero.”
India Rare Earths Mission
- Industries in India have encouraged the government to establish a mission, staffed by experts, similar to the India Semiconductor Mission, and make ocean exploration a key part of the strategy for the Deep Ocean Mission.
- In addition to diversifying sources of supply for these strategic raw materials, it would aim to promote private sector mining in the industry.
- In reference to China’s “Made in China 2025” effort, which focuses on novel materials and employs rare earth minerals to create permanent magnets, the business group has proposed adding rare earth minerals in the “Make in India” campaign.
Why such move?
- Though India has 6% of the world’s rare earth reserves, it only produces 1% of global output, and meets most of its requirements of such minerals from China.
- In 2018-19, for instance, 92% of rare earth metal imports by value and 97% by quantity were sourced from China.
-Source: The Hindu
PSLV-C54
Context:
Recently, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has successfully launched the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) C54 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh.
Relevance:
Facts for Prelims
Dimensions of the Article:
- What are the Satellites Launched?
- What are the launch vehicles used by ISRO?
What are the Satellites Launched?
Nano Satellite-2 for Bhutan (INS-2B):
- India and Bhutan worked together to launch the INS-2B satellite, which has two payloads.
- NanoMx, a multispectral optical imaging payload developed by Space Applications Centre (SAC)
- APRS-Digipeater which is jointly developed by DITT-Bhutan and URSC was successfully deployed.
- The importance of INS-2B is that it will give Bhutan high-resolution photos for managing its natural resources.
- India’s attempts to support Bhutanese King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck’s intentions to utilise cutting-edge technology, particularly ICT and space technology, for the development of Bhutan include the launch of the new satellite.
- The partnership also adheres to India’s “neighbourhood first” philosophy.
EOS-6:
- The Oceansat series’ third-generation satellite, the Earth Observation Satellite-06 (EOS-06), is designed to monitor ocean colour information, sea surface temperature information, and wind vector information for use in oceanographic, climatic, and meteorological applications.
- Chlorophyll, Sea Surface Temperature (SST), wind speed, and land-based geophysical characteristics are used by the satellite to identify possible fishing zones.
Anand:
- The Anand three axis stabilized Nano satellite is a technology demonstrator for miniaturized electro-optical payload and all other sub-systems like TTC, power, onboard computer and ADCS from Pixxel, India was also placed in the orbit successfully.
Astrocast:
- Astrocast, a 3U spacecraft, is a technology demonstrator satellite for the Internet of Things (IoT) as the payload.
- There are 4 nos. of Astrocast Satellites in this mission.
- These spacecrafts are housed within an ISISpace QuadPack dispenser.
- The dispenser protects the satellite from contamination.
Thymbolt Satellites:
- The Thybolt is a 0.5U spacecraft bus that includes a communication payload to enable rapid technology demonstration and constellation development for multiple users from Dhruva Space using their own Orbital Deployer with a minimum lifetime of 1 year.
What are the launch vehicles used by ISRO?
| Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV): | Since its initial launch in 1994, PSLV has served as ISRO’s primary rocket. However, compared to those deployed in the 1990s, today’s PSLV is significantly more advanced and powerful. The PSLV is the most dependable rocket that ISRO has employed to date, with 52 of its 54 flights being successful. It is the first Indian launch vehicle to be fitted with liquid stages. It successfully launched two spacecraft that later travelled to the Moon and Mars, namely Chandrayaan-1 in 2008 and Mars Orbiter Spacecraft in 2013. There are numerous variations of the two launch vehicles that ISRO currently utilises, the PSLV and GSLV (Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle). |
| Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV): | The considerably more potent GSLV rocket is designed to lift heavier satellites farther into space. 18 missions have been completed by GSLV rockets to this point, four of them were unsuccessful. Lowering earth orbits may require satellites weighing 10,000 kg. The third stage of the GSLV Mk II is the indigenously developed Cryogenic Upper Stage (CUS), and the Mk-III variants have rendered ISRO completely self-sufficient for launching its satellites. The European Arianne launch vehicle was previously utilised to carry its heavier satellites into orbit. |
| Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV): | SSLV is designed to provide affordable launch services for satellites up to 500 kg in response to the growing demand for small and micro-satellites around the world. It is intended to launch the indigenous EOS-03 earth observation satellite into orbit. |
-Source: The Hindu
What is Bluebugging?
Context:
Cybersecurity experts note that apps that let users connect smartphones or laptops to wireless earplugs can record conversations, and are vulnerable to hacks through a process called Bluebugging.
Relevance:
GS III: Science and Technology
Dimensions of the Article:
- What is Bluebugging?
- Preventive Measures
What is Bluebugging?
- It is a form of hacking that lets attackers access a device through its discoverable Bluetooth connection.
- Once a device or phone is blue-bugged, a hacker can listen to the calls, read and send messages and steal and modify contacts.
- It started out as a threat for laptops with Bluetooth capability. Later hackers used the technique to target mobile phones and other devices.
- He noted that the bug exploited a loophole in Bluetooth protocol, enabling it to download phone books and call lists from the attacked user’s phone.
- Even the most secure smartphones like iPhones are vulnerable to such attacks.
Preventive Measures:
- Turning off Bluetooth and disconnecting paired Bluetooth devices when not in use,
- Updating the device’s system software to the latest version,
- Limiting the use of public Wi-Fi, and
- Using VPN as an additional security measure