The Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) has cleared a ₹15,000 crore project to design and develop the Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA), India's fifth-generation multirole fighter jet.
About News
The Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) under the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) will be the nodal agency for executing the programme and designing the aircraft.
It will be manufactured by state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL).
Features of AMCA
Stealth: The 25-tonne twin-engine aircraft, which will be bigger than other fighters in the Indian Air Force inventory, will have advanced stealth features to avoid detection by enemy radar.
Fuel & Weapons: The aircraft will have a large, concealed internal fuel tank of 6.5-tonne capacity, and an internal weapons bay for a range of weapons, including indigenous weapons, to be buried in its belly.
Engine: The AMCA Mk1 variant will have the US-built GE414 engine of the 90 kilonewton (kN) class, while the more advanced AMCA Mk2 will fly on the more powerful 110kN engine, which will be developed indigenously by DRDO’s Gas Turbine Research Establishment (GTRE) in collaboration with a foreign defence major. India has been talking with Safran SA of France, one of the world’s largest manufacturers of aircraft engines and related equipment, in order to finalise the roadmap for the development of the combat aircraft engine.
AMCA Special
Discussions for developing the AMCA started in 2007.
The initial plan was to jointly develop the aircraft with Russia under a Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft (FGFA) programme. However, India withdrew from the FGFA project in 2018.
The AMCA will be India’s indigenous fifth-generation fighter aircraft. The indigenous Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas is a 4.5-generation single-engine multirole aircraft.
Other fifth-generation fighters
The list of the aircraft currently in service includes,
The F-22 Raptor and F-35A Lightning II of the US
The Chinese J-20 Mighty Dragon
The Russian Sukhoi Su-57
Deaths from pulmonary diseases highest in last 7 years in Delhi
Time to Read :🕑 5 Mins
Why in news?
The number of deaths due to Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) has increased over the last seven to eight years. According to a reply to an RTI filed by The Indian Express, deaths attributed to COPD in 2022-23 alone showed a ninefold increase compared to the average of the preceding seven years.
More details about news
2022-2023 saw the highest number of deaths — 886 — while the numbers in the last seven years did not cross 150.
In 2015-2016, there were 181 deaths, which reduced to 98 in 2016-2017. In 2017-2018, the number increased to 111 followed by a dip to 55, 98, 62, and 125 in the next four years.
According to the RTI, the Directorate General of Health Services said not all healthcare facilities in Delhi are represented in this data which was sourced from several private, public, and autonomous healthcare facilities.
The completeness and accuracy of the information depends on the voluntary participation and timely submission of data by the healthcare institutions.
Furthermore, variations in data reporting practices among different healthcare institutions may impact the consistency and comparability of the information presented.
About COPD
COPD is a common lung disease causing restricted airflow and breathing problems; smoking and air pollution are the most common causes.
In such patients, the lungs can get damaged or clogged with phlegm.
Symptoms include cough, sometimes with phlegm, difficulty breathing, wheezing, and tiredness.
People with COPD are at higher risk of other health problems.
While it is not curable, symptoms can improve if one avoids smoking and exposure to air pollution and gets vaccines to prevent infections.
It can also be treated with medicines, oxygen therapy, and pulmonary rehabilitation.
Key data
The data comes at a time when Delhi recorded the most polluted December month in four years in 2023.
According to doctors, apart from smoking, there is a clear connection between COPD and long-term exposure to pollution (indoor and outdoor).
For years, studies worldwide have shown how air pollution is directly related to increased risk of COPD.
A study published in Jama Network journals in 2019 said long-term exposure to ambient air pollutants was significantly associated with increasing emphysema, assessed quantitatively using CT imaging and lung function.
Emphysema is one of the diseases that comprise COPD.
Another study published in the Lancet in 2022 said long-term exposure to air pollution was associated with an increased risk of COPD, especially in those with high genetic risk and unfavourable lifestyles.
New toll collection system
Time to Read :🕑 11 Mins
Why in news?
The government plans to implement a new highway toll collection system based on the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) before the model code of conduct for the 2024 election comes into effect.
Global Positioning System (GPS)
The global navigation satellite system is a term used to refer to any satellite-based navigation system, including the United States’ Global Positioning System (GPS).
It uses a large constellation of satellites to provide more accurate location and navigation information to users globally as compared to the GPS alone.
About the new proposed highway tolling system
An official of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways explained that its implementation will involve an On-Board Unit (OBU), or a tracking device, fitted inside a vehicle whose location can be mapped using GAGAN, the Indian satellite navigation system with an approximate accuracy of 10 metres.
The co-ordinates of the entire length of the country’s national highways will have to be logged with the help of digital image processing, and software will be used to assign the toll rate on a particular highway, calculate the toll amount for a vehicle as per the distance travelled by it and then deduct it from a wallet linked to the OBU.
The system will additionally have gantries, or arches mounted with CCTV cameras, at various points on a highway for enforcement purposes.
These will capture an image of the vehicle’s high-security registration plate and cross-verify if a road user is trying to trick the system by either removing the tracking device or travelling without an OBU onboard.
The aim of the technology:-
It is to provide users with the benefit of paying toll only for the actual distance travelled on a highway, or pay-as-you-use.
The government also hopes that it will eventually allow barrier-free movement.
Challenges of the new system
Recovering the toll amount:- One of the major challenges posed by this technology is that of recovering the toll amount if a road user fails to clear his payment after completing a journey on a highway, for instance, if the digital wallet linked with the OBU is empty.
Infrastructure:- Because there are no barriers involved that can stop a non-compliant vehicle, there are other issues such as when a vehicle travels on a highway without an OBU device linked or the OBU device is deliberately switched off to avoid payment or if a car’s OBU is installed on a truck to pay less toll.
ANPR system:- Gantry-mounted Automatic Number-Plate Recognition (ANPR) based systems for capturing violations have to be set up on highways across India. Further, the success of an ANPR system depends on the quality of the licence plates, which are currently limited to a few cities and States. The government will also have to amend the National Highways Fee (Determination of Rates and Collection) Rules in order to provide for the recovery of unpaid toll, define offences as well as require the necessity of an OBU in vehicles.
New Technology and Safeguard Privacy
The Ministry had decided to use the GAGAN satellite system and not GPS, which is owned by the U.S., to ensure data security within the country.
The Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 passed in Parliament last year will address privacy concerns.
The law had received flak from civil society for the widening of exemptions granted to government agencies that may facilitate increased state surveillance.
The new tolling system and FASTags
The new tolling system will co-exist with the FASTag-based toll collection as the government has not yet taken a decision on whether OBUs will be made mandatory for all vehicles or only for new vehicles.
The Ministry has been speaking about implementing satellite-based toll collection since 2020, even though radio frequency identification-based FASTags for toll collection was rolled out in 2016 and made mandatory only from February 16, 2021. Over the years robust compliance has been achieved.
By December 2023, 98.9% of vehicles passing through toll fee plazas at national highways were FASTag compliant.
Toll collection increased 1.5 times from ₹17,942 crore in 2016-2017 to ₹27,744 crore in 2020-2021 at National Highway fee plazas due to a multitude of factors, which included rising number of vehicles as well as revision in tolls and adoption of FASTags.
However, officials say that the global navigation satellite system involves lower operational costs as compared to FASTags due to the absence of toll plazas and less number of entities in the toll collection process.
India’s golden langur population estimated at 7,396
Time to Read :🕑 7 Mins
Why in news?
Recently, the comprehensive population estimation of the endangered primate was carried out in two phases by the Primate Research Centre NE India (PRCNE), Assam Forest Department, Bodoland Territorial Council, Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History (SACON), and Conservation Himalayas.
Key highlight:
In the first phase during March-April 2020, the survey covered the western part of the Manas Biosphere Reserve, including Ripu Reserved Forest — a major part of it was recently upgraded to Raimona National Park – Chirang Reserve Forest, Manas Reserve Forest, and Manas National Park up to the western bank of the Manas River.
The second phase during the same months in 2021 focussed on fragmented forest habitats of golden langurs in the Bongaigaon, Kokrajhar, and Dhubri districts of western Assam. The block count method was applied for the first time to assess the abundance, spatial distribution, and densities of the golden langur populations.
The survey observed 7,720 individuals of golden langurs in 706 unique groups and 31 lone males or floating males.
Estimating minimum population size, there to be 7,396 individuals in 707 groups, inclusive of bisexual and male bands, along with 31 lone males.
Threat to fragmented populations
The population of golden langurs is divided into two major sub-populations.
The northern extended population, which encompasses the western part of the Manas Biosphere Reserve, extending from the Sankosh River to the Manas River up to the India-Bhutan border along the northern side of National Highway 27 and State Highway 2.
The southern fragmented population occurs along the southern side of NH27 up to the Brahmaputra River in the south.
The northern population of the primate with the golden sheen was estimated at 5,566 in 534 groups and 23 lone males. The population of the southern fragments was estimated at 1,830 langurs in 173 groups and eight lone males.
While the Ripu Reserve Forest was home to the most (2,847) northern population of golden langurs, Kokrajhar district’s Chakrashila Wildlife Sanctuary had 838 individuals, the most in the southern fragmented range of the primate.
The survey report underlined an unstable situation in the fragmented habitats of the golden langurs, particularly due to the absence of non-breeding all-male bands.
The primatologists involved in the survey highlighted the need for corridor linkage among the fragmented habitats through plantations and canopy bridges to offset potential threats the primates face from anthropogenic interactions.
The previous population estimation in 2008-09, recorded 6,000 golden langurs in India.
Each group then had an average of 9.24 individuals, which was 1,45 individuals less than the average group recorded in the latest survey.
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