Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre has developed a multi-purpose app that will help astronauts on the Gaganyaan space flight mission carry out a range of tasks such as looking up vital technical information or communicating with one another.
About SAKHI
The Space-borne Assistant and Knowledge Hub for Crew Interaction (SAKHI) will, among other things, monitor the health of the astronauts, help them stay connected with Earth and even alert them about their dietary schedules.
The space facility has successfully tested an engineering model of the custom-built, hand-held smart device featuring SAKHI. The development of a flight model is in progress.
SAKHI health - This comprehensive system provides information on key parameters like blood pressure, heart rate and oxygen saturation, providing invaluable insights into the crew’s physical condition throughout their mission.
SAKHI will keep the crew connected with the onboard computer and ground-based stations, guaranteeing a seamless communication link. The app will also remind them about their hydration and dietary schedules and sleep patterns.
Tiger Triumph-24
Time to Read :🕑 5 Mins
Why in news?
A bilateral tri-service humanitarian assistance and disaster relief (HADR) exercise named Tiger Triumph-24 between India and the United States commenced on the Eastern Seaboard on March 18 and will continue until March 31.
About Exercise
This exercise, aimed at enhancing readiness and cooperation between the two forces, is part of the ongoing partnership between India and the US.
Purpose: The exercise is designed to improve interoperability for conducting HADR operations and refine Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) to enable rapid and smooth coordination between the armed forces of both countries.
Participants: Indian Navy Ships with integral helicopters and landing crafts embarked, Indian Navy aircraft, Indian Army personnel and vehicles, Indian Air Force aircraft and helicopters, along with the Rapid Action Medical Team (RAMT) will be participating from the Indian side. The US will be represented by US Navy Ships with embarked troops of the US Marine Corps and US Army.
Harbour Phase (March 18 - March 25): This phase involves Training Visits, Subject Matter Expert Exchanges, Sports Events, and Social Interactions among personnel from both navies.
Sea Phase (March 25 - March 31): Participating ships, with embarked troops, will undertake Maritime, Amphibious, and HADR operations based on simulated scenarios.
Previous Exercises and Alliances
In 2019, the first Tiger Triumph exercise took place for a period of nine days.
The United States also participated in Milan-24, an Indian Navy-initiated multilateral naval exercise with 50 other countries held in February.
On March 8, both countries participated in Sea-Defenders 2024, an Indian and US Coast Guard cooperative maritime security exercise in Port Blair.
The Captive Elephant (Transfer or Transport) Rules, 2024
Time to Read :🕑 7 Mins
Why in news?
The Centre has notified a set of rules called the Captive Elephant (Transfer or Transport) Rules, 2024 that liberalise the conditions under which elephants may be transferred within or between states.
Background
Until August 2022, the Wildlife Protection Act explicitly prohibited the trade in wildlife including both wild and captive elephants.
However, amendments to the Act brought in an exemption that for the first time allowed captive elephants to be transferred.
Key highlight
The circumstances under which captive elephants
Can be transferred when an owner is no longer in a position to maintain the elephant,
The elephant will likely have a better upkeep than in the present circumstances.
A state’s Chief Wildlife Warden “deems it fit and proper” in the circumstances of the case for better upkeep of the elephant.
Before a transfer within the state, an elephant’s health has to be ratified by a veterinarian and the Deputy Conservator of Forests must establish that the animal’s current habitat and prospective habitat are suitable. The Chief Wildlife Warden on receipt of such documents may choose to reject or approve the transfer.
If the transfer involves moving the elephant outside of a state, similar conditions apply. Before a transfer is effected, the “genetic profile” of the elephant has to be registered with the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.
Elephant exemption
The elephant being transferred ought to be accompanied by a mahout and an elephant assistant.
A health certificate from a veterinary practitioner to the effect that the elephant is fit for transport and is not showing any sign of musth or infectious or contagious disease, is to be obtained.
The transport shall be carried out after the mandatory quarantine period as advised by the veterinary practitioner is over, in case of contagious disease.
The elephant shall be properly fed and given water before loading.
Necessary arrangements shall be made to provide food and water to the elephant en route.
Tranquilisers/sedatives shall be used to control nervous or temperamental elephants upon prescription by the veterinary practitioner.
Violence, homelessness, and women’s mental health
Time to Read :🕑 11 Mins
Why in news?
The findings of the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5) showcase an alarming rate of violence against women in India, which has significant implications for their mental health and increases the risk of homelessness.
Background
The National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5) presents a sobering picture of the pervasive violence against women in India.
Almost 30% of women between the ages of 18-49 years have experienced physical violence beginning at age 15; 6% reported sexual violence.
Evidence indicates that violence and mental health conditions have a reciprocal, cause-and-effect relationship, and both factors significantly heighten the risk of homelessness.
In the three decades of working with homeless women with mental health conditions at the Banyan (The Banyan Academy of Leadership in Mental Health), witnessed his recursive interaction between violence against women, homelessness, and mental health almost universally.
Key finding violence against women
A survey of 346 women accessing outpatient services at the Banyan found that relational disruptions, often in the background of violence, predicted homelessness, even when women had accessed care for their mental health — a finding that is mirrored in other studies globally.
Qualitative research - Qualitative research that examined user accounts of trauma drawn from women with histories of homelessness showed that descriptions of experiences relating to violence in social relationships, experience of alienation and shame, and poverty did not entirely match with the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders conceptualisations of trauma.
Qualitative interviews - Qualitative interviews with several women living with mental health conditions detail their journeys into homelessness, not merely as a deficit in access to care but also as an escape and possible liberation from repeated cycles of unremitting violence — whether it was from a predatory father, a husband who controlled all aspects of life or an aunt who issued threats to sell into slavery to pay for meals.
A recurrent theme that emerged was the impact of child sexual abuse and intimate partner violence on individual mental health and homelessness.
Multifactorial matrix of structural barriers - Within a multifactorial matrix of structural barriers such as poverty and caste, violence and associated feelings of loss of agency feature prominently amongst reasons that precipitate an exit from typical relational bonds and conventional notions of home assumed to provide safety, a sense of community, and belongingness.
Challenges
Historically, the label of madness has been used to discredit, subjugate, and silence women who are seen as demonstrating undesirable traits — intellectual curiosity, assertiveness, and autonomy.
From the witch trials in the Middle Ages to the incarceration of women in asylums, resistance to oppression and refusal to comply with expected norms were labelled as missteps due to a deranged imagination.
In contemporary patriarchal society, the social construct of womanhood continues to be carefully curated and enforced, confining women and their value within reproductive roles and docile submission to various forms of violence, routinely normalised and justified.
Some women describe their madness as resistance, as a defiant embrace of what is taboo for women, an opportunity to break free from coerced identities and assume new personas that transcend patriarchal norms.
Others describe their madness as a solace in beliefs such as being the mother of 100 male children or transforming into a goddess with special powers by performing a complex ritual.
Impact of Women's Health
Multifaceted descriptions of madness in the context of violence, the mainstream discourse on women’s mental health is dominated by a narrow focus on higher prevalence rates of depression, anxiety or eating disorders, or mental health needs associated with the prescribed reproductive role such as postpartum depression.
All these deserve attention but not in a manner that isolates these experiences from the larger narrative.
Women’s experiences of distress are often viewed through a reductionist biomedicine-dominated lens, neglecting the insidious impact of violence that women endure and absolving society of its complicity.
Navigating mental health and social care systems that mirror these biases, in the background of poverty and caste-based marginalisation, takes a profound toll, elevating risks of homelessness.
Way forward
To develop comprehensive solutions based on a systematic unpacking of multiple factors and their interactions that perpetrate violence against women.
Recognising and compensating women for their unpaid labour in household roles and creating the space for women to find supportive networks and alternate family structures outside of typical heteronormative relationships may offer security and refuge.
Ensuring access to basic income, housing, and land ownership may offer economic independence and reduce vulnerability to homelessness.
Embedding in the education environment, a curriculum that helps growing adolescents interrogate and challenge harmful gendered norms may help foster a generation that values egalitarian norms and rejects all forms of violence against women.
India-EFTA TEPA
Time to Read :🕑 11 Mins
Why in news?
The India-EFTA Trade and Economic Partnership Agreement (TEPA) is the latest Free Trade Agreement (FTA) signed by India, establishing closer economic ties with the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) countries, including Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Switzerland.
Background
Talks for an FTA between India and the EFTA states began in 2008, and were resumed in 2023, after a decade-long break.
The 14-chapter treaty was concluded after 21 rounds of negotiations, including specific chapters on investment, rules of origin, intellectual property rights and sustainable development that were particularly tricky.
A breakthrough came in December 2023, as the two sides agreed on putting the investment goals into a separate chapter, and they were able to conclude the agreement, which was cleared by the Union Cabinet on March 7.
About TEPA
The Trade and Economic Partnership Agreement (TEPA) marks the second such full-fledged FTA signed after India’s agreement with the United Arab Emirates, and will see considerable tariff reductions, increase market access, and simplify customs procedures.
The EFTA countries, which are separate from the European Union, said that, for the first time, the FTA also included a chapter on commitments to human rights and sustainable development.
The agreement will come into force after ratification by the EFTA states according to their parliamentary procedures, expected possibly by the end of the year.
According to TEPA's Chapter 7 that deals with “Investment Promotion and Cooperation”, the two sides had shared “objectives” to increase foreign direct investment from EFTA states into India by $50 billion within 10 years and another $50 billion in the next five years. EFTA states would also “aim to facilitate the generation of 1 million jobs within 15 years in India” resulting from those investments.
Key features of TEPA
Investment
TEPA sets out a target of a $100 billion investment into India from EFTA countries, and consequently one million jobs over a 15-year period.
It also provides India the ability to withdraw its tariff concessions if such expected investment is not achieved.
A closer look at the legal text reveals that for the promised investments and jobs to materialise, two conditions need to be met: India growing at a fast rate of 9.5%, and the return on EFTA investments in India exceeding 16% annually over the 15-year timeline. If not, both sides may lower their level of ambitions. If India is not satisfied, it can pull back its tariff concessions in a proportionate manner after 18 years.
The investment chapter is not subject to dispute resolution and is overall, a statement of positive intent, and its benefits will be dependent on the private sector’s responsiveness to the TEPA.
Trade in goods
The chief gain here is for EFTA’s market, which can have more access to India due to tariff concessions.
India is mandated to eliminate tariffs on most products within seven to 10 years.
This will benefit EFTA exports of seafood like tuna and salmon, fruits like olives and avocados, coffee capsules, oils like cod liver and olive oil, and a variety of sweets and processed foods including chocolate and biscuits.
Also covered are smartphones, bicycle parts, medical equipment, clocks, and watches, many medicines, dyes, textiles, apparels, iron and steel products, and most machinery.
Additionally, tariffs on cut and polished diamonds will be reduced from 5% to 2.5% in five years.
For wines, India has extended tariff cuts as follows: wines priced between $5 and less than $15 will see a duty reduction from 150% to 100% in the first year, which will then decrease gradually to 50% over 10 years. For wines costing $15 or more, the initial duty cut is from 150% to 75%, eventually reducing to 25% after 10 years.
Gold, which accounts for 80% of the merchandise imports from EFTA countries, as well as dairy, soya, coal and some sensitive agricultural products have been excluded from India’s tariff concession list.
Trade in services
On services, both India and the EFTA members have committed to liberalisation across a wide range of sectors.
Some key benefits for India include commitments by Norway for access to yoga instructors and practitioners of traditional medicine from India, subject to compliance with its legal framework.
Both Norway and Switzerland have committed four and three years respectively for highly skilled Indian professionals moving as intra-corporate transferees, subject to obtaining work permits.
The nitty-gritties of actual service delivery are often impacted by regulatory requirements in each country. A separate annex in the TEPA lays the framework for easing the recognition of qualifications of service suppliers through streamlining the various requirements, including the possibility of achieving equivalence by topping up academic or training requirements, rather than having to repeat the entire professional degree.
Separate annexes on financial services and telecom services similarly lay down disciplines that aim to enable ease of providing such services.
In a departure from previous FTAs of India, benefits of the trade in services chapter would extend to any juridical person (i.e., corporate entity) by merely being incorporated in an EFTA member, while having its actual operations in any other WTO member, including those with which India does not have FTAs.
Sustainable development
The TEPA’s chapter on Trade and Sustainable Development (TSD), comprising commitments on environment and labour aspects, represents a first for India in any FTA.
India has so far been sceptical of linking environmental and labour related issues within a FTA, given the concern that these may simply become proxies for protectionist measures.
The TSD chapter refers to a range of multilateral environmental agreements and labour conventions, whose implementation is based on a balance of rights and obligations. For example, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and Paris Agreement recognises differential obligations for developed and developing countries.
Labour conventions under the International Labour Organization (ILO) are based on a tripartite framework involving the government, as well as organisations representing employers and employees.
Intellectual property rights
The EFTA countries are home to several pharmaceutical and high technology MNCs, whose task has been commitments on protection of intellectual property rights that exceed the WTO’s Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement. The TEPA represents a nod to some of these. For example, India’s Patents Act provides for pre-grant opposition of a patent application.
The TEPA’s IPR Annex requires swift rejection of “prima facie unfounded” oppositions. This potentially opens up India’s internal regulatory process to external scrutiny on whether this standard was met.
Similarly, a statutory requirement under Indian law is filing of an annual statement on working of a patent. The TEPA mandates that this periodicity be increased to three years, with annual statements to be required only in specified cases, which potentially raises the concern that the statutory requirement as it exists under Indian law, may need reconsideration to make it case specific.
Conclusion
The concluded TEPA is expected to increase trade in sectors like pharmaceuticals, medical devices, food products and processing as well as R&D in many areas, raising it from current levels of about $25 billion, with a massive trade deficit of $18.58 billion.
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