World’s richest men, Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, fight over satellite fleets

 The world’s two richest men are duking it out before U.S. regulators over celestial real estate for their satellite fleets.

Elon Musk’s SpaceX has asked the Federal Communications Commission for permission to operate Starlink communications satellites at a lower orbit than first planned.

Jeff Bezos’s Amazon.com Inc. says the move would risk interference and collisions with its planned Kuiper satellites, which like Starlink are designed to beam internet service from space.

A dispute that would normally be confined to regulatory filings is spilling into public view, in a spat that showcases the large personalities involved as billionaires chase dreams in the sky.

“It is SpaceX’s proposed changes that would hamstring competition among satellite systems,” Amazon tweeted Tuesday from its official news account. “It is clearly in SpaceX’s interest to smother competition in the cradle if they can, but it is certainly not in the public’s interest.”

The statement followed a tweet from Musk, the richest person according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

“It does not serve the public to hamstring Starlink today for an Amazon satellite system that is at best several years away from operation,” Musk said in a tweeted reply to coverage by CNBC journalist Michael Sheetz.

Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies Corp. has launched more than 1,000 satellites for its Starlink internet service and is signing up early customers in the U.S., U.K. and Canada. Amazon last year won FCC permission for a fleet of 3,236 satellites and has yet to launch any.

Amazon earlier urged the FCC to reject SpaceX’s request for lower orbits. It said the change would put SpaceX satellites in the midst of the Kuiper System orbits, according to filings at the agency.

SpaceX pushed back in calls to the FCC, saying its plans wouldn’t increase interference for what it termed Amazon’s “still nascent plans.”

A lower orbit allows quicker internet service because the signal doesn’t travel as far. SpaceX told the FCC that having the satellites closer to Earth lessens the risk of space debris because they would fall out of orbit more quickly than higher spacecraft.

SpaceX eventually plans to operate some 12,000 satellites and has won FCC authorization for about 4,400 birds, including 1,584 at 550 kilometers — where its satellites currently orbit. The company is seeking permission to stage another 2,824 satellites at the same approximate altitude, rather than twice as high as originally proposed.

Source: Indian Express, 27/01/21

The Anthropocene era has placed an ethical challenge before the human race

 With the rapid advance of the manufacturing sector and deeper penetration of the global market since the Second World War — what is known as the Great Acceleration — the emission of carbon dioxide increased in geometric proportions. The Keynesian revolution from the 1940s to the beginning of the 1980s made massive investments in infrastructure with the aim of increasing demands. It has been observed that Keynesianism did not replace capitalism but made it ordinary, acceptable to the masses.

In the mid-1980s, the Thatcher-Reagan joint economic regime dismantled the welfare system of the previous decades and heralded the turn towards neoliberalism. The transformation of the social into a mere extension of the economy being complete, every human affair could be explained in market terms. With the rise of digital, virtual, and biotechnological systems from the 1990s, capital could operate as an integrative, hermetic bind transforming itself into a rationalised regime of the projective calculation for the market like never before. The combined result is humankind’s entry into an era where everything they do will have a direct impact on the planetary history from now on. In other words, mankind has entered the Anthropocene era leaving behind that of the Holocene.

The argument that the Anthropocene emerged dialectically from the contradiction of capitalism and nature, however, is problematic and has influential detractors. It can be conjectured that had the entire world gone socialist after the Russian Revolution, it would have produced more, and not less, greenhouse effect since the equitable distribution of resources across the population would have meant more purchasing power on a global scale.

Interestingly, the figure of the Anthropocene has now been constructed as the ultimate test of humanity’s capacity for self-overcoming through technologistic solutions. Apart from ensuring the faith of the global populace in the prevailing economic-technological order, it offers capitalism a new market. Bioengineering in the form of genome science is posing as the new form of a political messiah. Calling it a genetic bomb, French philosopher Paul Virilio explains the promises of this new science in terms of the installation of a new human being with a smaller ecological footprint because it uses fewer proteins, oxygen, and water, a creature made compatible with an earth of dwindling resources. The damage of ecology that so long compromised and promised conditions suitable for human biological existence now paves the way for the success of a new techno-market solution. If the bomb signalled the destruction of human life, decoding the human genome heralds the industrial production of life.

Is it possible even now for us as a collective to work out an escape from the impending doom? Can the Anthropocene be made liveable for humans? Time has come to develop a species sense, the sense that we as a species were born through the longue durée of geological and biological changes. The weave through which we are related to one another is the weave of power be it at the global, national, professional, or familial level. But along with this, we need what may be called an ethical understanding at the level of species. Though not connected intrinsically, the issues of power and ethics can be brought on the same plane through patient reflection.

Mere criticism of capitalism will not suffice. We need to imagine a feasible global systemic alternative where the human considers itself a part of the natural order and actively cooperates with it. The planet is not for humankind’s loot. The task is to reconfigure the political. The incorporation of the geobiological into the human calculus is oftentimes seen as an escape from the pressing issues of hunger and injustice. There is little awareness at present that unless the question of ecological impact is woven into the question of justice in human affairs, it will be of less and less practical relevance. The compass of the political must include ecological.

So far, human-social thinking has taken the natural and planetary world as constant, not affecting human affairs. The tree I see from my window will bloom at a particular time of the year, the planets and the sun will reside in their stately domains and have the same effect on our planet, and so forth. As a matter of fact, those functions of the human that resembled the animal world like food, nutrition, and reproduction were left out from the centre of human knowledge. Only those aspects of the human beings that are specific to our species being like language, justice, and the fight for it were considered the proper domain of human investigation. Hence, the difference between human-historical time and the time of geology thus never bothered us. History became the study of human consciousness.

The irony is in their attempt to transcend nature, humans made an abrupt fall into nature, allowing fundamental earthly forces to dictate their lives and unleashing the beast of geophysical forces that cannot be controlled by human endeavour. The pandemic moves around the world at great speed while climate change is a slow process occurring over centuries. Only a drastic reduction of the global population to half the present number in the next 30 years and a practice of ascetic life can save the planet. It is difficult but not impossible. The textures of our comportment as we conduct our lives and engage in different transactions with not only humans but nature at large deserves its due importance. This is the domain of spirituality. Today’s politics begins from here.

Written by Manas Ray

This article first appeared in the print edition on January 28, 2021 under the title ‘The ecological is political’. The writer is former professor in cultural studies at the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Kolkata.

Source: Indian Express, 28/01/21

Quote of the Day

 

“Everything is always created twice, first in the mind and then in reality”
Anonymous

“हर चीज का सृजन दो बार होता है, पहली बार दिमाग में और दूसरी बार वास्तविकता में।”
अज्ञात

Current Affairs – January 27, 2021

 

India

Bharat Parv 2021 being organised on a virtual platform

Bharat Parv 2021, a festival to celebrate the spirit of India, is being organised on a virtual platform from January 26 to 31, 2021. Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla inaugurated the Bharat Parv-2021.

Bangladesh tri-service contingent marches in Republic Day parade

As New Delhi and Dhaka celebrate the 50^th anniversary of the 1971 Liberation War, a 122-member tri-Service contingent of Bangladesh marched on Rajpath at the Republic Day parade in New Delhi on January 26, 2021. It had soldiers drawn from the units of 1971.

Akshay Kumar launches mobile action game FAU-G

Akshay Kumar launched the mobile action game ‘Fearless and United Guards (FAU-G). The initial episode of the game is based in the Galwan Valley in Ladakh and the rest of the episodes will be set in other Indian battlegrounds. The game is free to download and play while the users will have to pay for several premium features like skins of their avatars.

Economy & Corporate

India’s economy to grow 11.5% in FY22 fiscal, 6.8% in FY23 fiscal: IMF

India’s economy is expected to bounce back strongly in the next fiscal year with 11.5% growth, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said in its World Economic Outlook (WEO) update released on January 26, 2021. India is the only major economy forecast to grow in double digits next year and forecast to follow that up with the highest 6.8% rise in the FY23 fiscal.

India’s economy to grow at 7.3% in 2021: UN DESA

India’s economy is projected to grow at 7.3 per cent in 2021, even as it is estimated to contract by 9.6 per cent in 2020 because of lockdowns and other efforts to control the Covid-19 pandemic slashed domestic consumption, the World Economic Situation and Prospects 2021, produced by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA), revealed.

Dhanlaxmi Bank Board approves appointment of Shivan as MD and CEO

Board of Directors of Kerala-based Dhanlaxmi Bank have given approval to appoint J K Shivan as managing director and CEO of the Bank.

World

US: President Joe Biden signs ‘Buy American’ executive order

President Joe Biden signed an executive order on January 25, 2021 to boost government buying from U.S. manufacturers. Biden’s order would modify the rules for the Buy American program, making it harder for contractors to qualify for a waiver and sell foreign-made goods to federal agencies. It also changes rules so that more of a manufactured good’s components must originate from U.S. factories.

US: Joe Biden signs order to reverse Trump’s transgender military ban

President Joe Biden signed an executive order that brought in a policy of including all qualified Americans to serve in the US military, effectively overturning a ban on transgender persons that was introduced by the former Trump administration, the White House said on January 25, 2021.

US: Senate confirms Janet Yellen as first woman treasury secretary

The United States Senate on January 25, 2021 confirmed economist and former Federal Reserve Chairperson Janet Yellen as first woman Treasury Secretary of the United States.

What is Green Tax?

 The Ministry of road transport has decided to impose the additional taxes on old vehicles that are no more fit on road. This additional tax is being called as the “Green Tax”. Th decision was taken to curb pollution. It will also motivate people to switch to environment-friendly alternatives to the vehicles

Highlights

• The Green tax will reduce the pollution level.
• It will also make the polluter to pay for creating pollution.
• Revenue collected from the green tax will be kept in a separate account. The amount will be used for tackling the problem of pollution.
• The states have been asked to set up state-of-art facilities to monitor the emission.

How the vehicles will be taxed?

• Under the Green Tax norms, the transport vehicles older than eight years will be charged with the green tax at the time of renewal of fitness certificate. They will be charged at the rate of 10 to 25% of road tax.
• While, the Public transport vehicles like city buses will be paying lower Green Tax.
• However, the vehicles used in farming like tractor and harvestor will be exempted from the tax.

What is Green tax?

Green tax is also called as the pollution tax or environmental tax. The tax is an excise duty on goods that results into the environmental pollutants. An economic theory says, that if taxes will be charged on emissions causing pollution will lower the environmental impairment in a cost-effective manner. The tax will encourage the behavioural changes in households and firms that are required to reduce the pollution. The tax mainly aims to ensure that polluters are duly punished for their pollution creating activities.

Green Tax in India

This tax in India is relatively new trend. However, the RFID tags are being given and CCTV cameras have been deployed at border entry points. With this, the commercial vehicles that enter the city are monitored for emissions. In the cities like Delhi, Environmental Compensation Charge (EEC) is imposed on pollutants depending upon the vehicle’s size.

What is “Blue Jet Lightning”?

 The Scientists from the International Space Station (ISS) have observed a bright-blue lightning bolt that is shooting upward from the thunderclouds. Such blue jets are hard to observe from the ground because the electrical discharges emerge from the tops of thunderclouds. But from space, one can easily observe the phenomenon.

Highlights

• The instrument at the space station had captured a blue jet shooting from the thunderstorm cell near a small island in the central Pacific Ocean on February 26, 2019.
• Scientists had observed the five intense flashes of blue light.
• Each of the lighting lasting about 10 to 20 milliseconds.
• After that, the blue jet moved out from the cloud towards a narrow cone shape stretching into the stratosphere.

What are blue jets?

• Blue jets are initiated as “normal” lightning discharges.
• It emerges between the upper positive charge region in a thundercloud and a negative screening layer above the charge region.
• The positive end network fills the negative charge region and after that the negative end fills the positive charge region.
• After that, the positive end exits the cloud and starts propagating upward.
• Earlier, it was believed that blue jets are directly related to lightning flashes but it is the result of the hails.
• The blue jets are brighter than sprites and are blue in colour.
• The blue colour of the jets is the result of blue and near-ultraviolet emission lines from neutral and ionized molecular nitrogen.
• The blue jets were recorded on October 21, 1989 for the first time.

Thunderstorm

It is also known as an electrical storm or a lightning storm. It is characterized by the presence of lightning and the acoustic effect on the Earth’s atmosphere that is thunder. This phenomenon is usually taking place in the cumulonimbus cloud, the thunderstorm is also accompanied by strong winds and heavy rain. It could also lead to snow, sleet, or hail.

Cumulonimbus Cloud

It is a dense and towering vertical cloud. This cloud is formed by the water vapor which is carried by the powerful upward air currents.

International Education Day: Engineering, diverse cultural experience attract foreign students to India

Twenty-one-year-old Rhythm Patel, a Qatari resident of Indian origin, chose India to study computer sciences after finishing school. Patel says he had offers from universities in the US and Canada but the quality of education here was a clinching factor for him. He chose IIIT-Delhi for B.Tech in Computer Science and Engineering. “Contrary to public opinion, some colleges in India have a very good quality of education. If one graduates from a top institute in India like IITs, IIITs, and NITs, it also opens many doors for securing a job,” Patel tells indianexpress.com.

Promising ‘quality education’ at a reasonable price as compared to other countries, engineering education in India seems to be a preferred choice for foreign students, especially from South Asian countries. According to the Education Ministry’s latest AISHE report, the number of foreign students in India has gone up from 6,988 in 2000 to 47,427 in the academic year 2018-19. Much like Indian students, engineering and medicine courses are popular among foreign students.

Course-wise, BTech is the most preferred choice, with the gender ratio, however, remaining skewed in favour of male students. BTech is followed by BBA, BSc, BA, and MBBS courses. Like with Indian students, in the medicine stream, enrolment of female students is higher for foreign students too; with 58.92 per cent of total foreign enrolments in the stream being that of women.

The recent employability report by the Times Higher Education (THE) reported that India is among one of the biggest study destinations for foreign students because of the ’employability’ factor it offers. The report also claimed that traditional foreign destinations such as the US and the UK are struggling to “compete in terms of value for money” with these younger nations. Students and their parents are motivated by the ability to get a job rather than the brand, as per the report, and in the coming decade, universities will have to focus on their employability more.

Atal Zadran, an Afghanistan national, studied BCA from Bangalore University. Like Patel, he had the option of studying in any other European country but he decided to study in India. After securing high grades in BCA, he got a job in his own country. Three years ago when Zadran wanted to pursue higher studies, he decided to return here. Apart from the “updated MCA curriculum”, he says he prefers India because it offers “peace of mind” and a “cultural familiarity”.

Non-STEM courses not as popular

India is the favourite destination for students from Africa, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan. As per the Education Ministry data, Nepal sends the most number of students to India.

Desmond Papa Wusu Mill, a 23-year-old student from Ghana, is in his second year of Mass Communication at Lovely Professional University (LPU), Punjab. But his first choice was engineering because he had heard greatly about India’s reputation as an emerging IT giant. It was during his engineering degree here that he discovered his interest in a course in public relations.  “During my stay here in India, despite initial adjustments to adapt to the culture, I could easily interact with people despite us having different accents in English.

Cultural Mix a USP

Mazharul Miraz, a 24-year-old Bangladeshi student at LPU says that India gives an “experience of not just studying in a country but a united entity with multiple countries”.

“India is a combination of multiple countries. It has such a diversity in terms of languages, cultures, and cuisines that I have learned a lot of management and public dealing skills along with my engineering degree. When I had joined I was a bit scared because people from different parts of the nation have entirely different viewpoints, but they all deal with each other very nicely. This cultural experience helped in giving me a well-rounded experience,” he said.

Shahid Nawaz Khan, a resident of Kuwait and a B.Tech student from IIIT-Delhi, says there is an environment of competitiveness here which drives “me to achieve my full potential”. “Having been brought up in a very protective environment in Kuwait, moving to any other country at that time seemed like a daunting task, and coming to India was not such a big step. My parents were a little skeptical about the pollution in Delhi,” says Khan.

Gopal Rizal, a 34-year-old Bhutanese student pursuing PhD in nanotechnology at IIT-Guwahati, claims that he had to move his classes online due to the pandemic shortly after he had started studying here. Even as his academic studies are continuing online, he says that culturally he had learned a lot.

“Ever since I took admission at IIT-Guwahati, the Covid-19 pandemic led to switch the teaching and learning process to online mode. During my short stay in India, I started to learn how people from cultural and ethnic diversities work together here. I aim to embrace these qualities of Indian citizens and work in building my own country after the completion of my study here. I would also like to collaborate with the friends and the professors of IIT-G to build a strong scientific temper among the youth of Bhutan.”

Are there concerns over women’s safety?

Masoda Khairzada, a 33-year-old Afghan national and a PhD fellow at the chemical engineering department of IIT-Madras, headed back home due to the lockdown but cannot wait to come back and “walk freely on Tamil Nadu’s lush green roads”.

Like many other female foreign students, Khairzada too had apprehensions about studying in India but was surprised by the sense of security she was offered here.

“I really miss working in the lab. I want to go back to labs and perform my experiments but I also miss walking on roads with its green and fresh environment. Chennai really impressed me with its security. When I was in Afghanistan, I was a little worried about staying in Chennai because I was the only Afghan student in IIT-M. However when I lived in Chennai it has started to feel like my second home,” said Khairzada who has worked as a lecturer at Jawzjan University in Afghanistan.

Bangladesh’s Swarna Roy too was skeptical of studying in India. “There was a myth about India that it is not very safe for girls and the system is not women-friendly, but I have found myself completely safe and comfortable during my whole journey in India.” said the 25-year-old student.

Hemlita Mondal, another MTech student at IIT-M recalls, “I heard about alarmingly growing rape cases in India. So, I was worried about women’s safety there.” However, it was the country’s ever-increasing technological education that had made her select it as her study destination.

Source: Indian Express, 25/01/21