India likely to become worlds third-largest economy by 2029: SBI report (GS Paper 3, Indian Economy)
Why in news?
- India is likely to become the third-largest economy in the world by 2029 due to a major structural shift since 2014, according to a State Bank of India (SBI) research report.
Key Highlights:
- The path taken by India since 2014 reveals the nation is likely to get the tag of the third-largest economy in 2029, a movement of seven places upwards since 2014 when India was ranked 10th.
- The report highlighted that owing to looming uncertainties, a growth rate of 6-6.5 percent is the new normal in the global economy.
- India should surpass Germany in 2027 and most likely Japan by 2029 at the current rate of growth.
- India's share in world GDP is now at 3.5 percent, as against 2.6 percent in 2014, and is likely to cross four percent in 2027, the current share of Germany in global GDP.
Significance:
- India is likely to be the beneficiary of the investment slowdown in China.
- Broad-based growth of empowerment will also lift India's per person income and this could act as a force multiplier for a better tomorrow.
- It further said that the current estimates might even undergo an upwards revision with the right policy perspective and realignment in global geopolitics.
Forecast:
- It had recently revised downwards the full-year growth forecast to a low 6.8 percent from 7.5 percent earlier for FY23, citing the way below GDP numbers for the first quarter.
- India's Q1 growth numbers showed a consensus growth of 13.5 per cent, pulled down by the poor show of the manufacturing sector, which reported a paltry 4.8 per cent expansion in the first three months of FY23, negating the robust show by the services sector.
Inflatable Aerodynamic Decelerator (IAD)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Tech)
Why in news?
- Recently, the ISRO successfully demonstrated a new technology with Inflatable Aerodynamic Decelerator (IAD).
- An IAD, designed and developed by ISRO’s Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), was successfully test flown in a ‘Rohini’ sounding rocket from Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station (TERLS).
Details of the launch:
- The IAD is made out of Kevlar fabric, coated with Polychloroprene. Since it is made of fabric, IAD can be packed into a small volume of 15 liters, available in the nosecone of the RH300.
- The IAD was initially folded and kept inside the payload bay of the rocket.
- At around 84 km altitude, the IAD was inflated and it descended through atmosphere with the payload part of sounding rocket. The pneumatic system for inflation was developed by ISRO’s Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre (LPSC).
- The IAD has systematically reduced the velocity of the payload through aerodynamic drag and followed the predicted trajectory.
Significance:
- This is the first time that an IAD is designed specifically for spent stage recovery. All the objectives of the mission were successfully demonstrated.
- The IAD has huge potential in variety of space applications like recovery of spent stages of rocket, for landing payloads on to Mars or Venus and in making space habitat for human space flight missions.
New elements tested:
This mission was a test bed for nine new elements developed in the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre & LPSC, which includes the following:
- Inflatable Aerodynamic Decelerator & Inflation system
Micro Video Imaging System
Software Defined Radio Telemetry-Dual Transmitter (SDRT-DTx)
Acoustics Processing Unit with mini-IMAS (Indigenous MEMS Acoustic Sensors)
- New software for wind compensation for TERLS
- Modified nosecone separation system
Modified FLSC separation system for RH300
- Improved 1s delay detonator for spin rocket separation
- Thermally conducting and electrically insulating potting compound ATCAP-75-7030
Way Forward:
- This demonstration opens a gateway for cost-effective spent stage recovery using the Inflatable Aerodynamics Decelerator technology and this IAD technology can also be used in ISRO’s future missions to Venus and Mars.
Nano urea fast-tracked for approval despite incomplete trials
(GS Paper 3, Science and Tech)
Context:
- Nano urea, a product developed by the Indian Farmers and Fertiliser Cooperative (IFFCO) was heavily advertised by the Central government as a panacea to reduce farmer dependence on packaged urea.
- It is yet to be fully tested despite having been fast-tracked for commercial application.
Concerns:
- Normally, three seasons of independent assessment by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) is required for approving a new fertilizer, but in the case of nano urea this was reduced to two. Moreover scientists are still unclear if the product can on its own cut farmers’ dependence on urea.
Claims made by Govt. regarding Nano Urea:
- Nano urea is a patented and indigenously made liquid that contains nanoparticles of urea, the most crucial chemical fertilizer for farmers in India.
- A single half-litre bottle of the liquid can compensate for a 45 kg sack of urea that farmers traditionally rely on, it is claimed.
- The Union Ministry has claimed that by 2025, India’s domestic urea production as well as production of nano urea would together mean India would be “self-sufficient” and would no longer require the 90 lakhtonnes that it imported every year and would save the country close to Rs. 40,000 crore.
Standard practice:
- The standard practice in the cultivation of crops such as wheat, rice, mustard is to use at least two 45-kg sacks of urea, which is an inorganic compound and the crops’ main source of nitrogen.
- The first packet is applied during the early sowing or transplantation stage of the crop.
- The second stage application is done when the plant has sprouted a canopy of leaves, and is approaching the reproductive phase of plant growth.
- However, a crucial point omitted in government communication around nano urea is that the traditional, packaged urea is still necessary during the initial stage, as basal nitrogen, of crop development.
- The nano urea could be useful once the plant grew after which the product could be sprayed on its leaves.
Outcome of first trail:
- Based on the experiments, it was evident that 50% of the top-dressed urea (second stage application) could be replaced but not basal nitrogen.
- The farmer field trials were done over four seasons on 94 crops across 21 States since 2019. Trials were continued during Kharif 2021-22 too in all the agro-climatic regions.
- Various combinations of nitrogen that were made available to plants were evaluated and the resulting yield compared.
- Overall yields from applying nano urea increased average yield by 7% compared to traditional practices deployed by farmers. When tested in fields that employed organic farming practices (no chemical fertilizers, save the nano urea) the yields jumped 11%.
