2 January 2024

• Security: Houthi attacks in the Red Sea near the Bab el-Mandeb Strait hit cargo vessels and pushed shipping costs higher.
• Economy: India's direct-to-cell satellite technology from SpaceX entered the coverage debate for remote regions.
• Defence: India and UAE began Exercise Desert Cyclone at Mahajan, Rajasthan.
• Governance: The Aadhaar-Based Payment System became mandatory for all MGNREGA wages from 1 January, adding a verification layer for 7 million households.

GS area: International Relations, Geography

Explosions were reported near a cargo ship close to the Bab el-Mandeb Strait on 2 January. Houthi rebel attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea had been escalating since November 2023, forcing several major shipping lines to reroute vessels around the Cape of Good Hope.

• Location: the strait separates Eritrea and Djibouti (Africa) from Yemen (Arabia). It connects the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden and onwards to the Indian Ocean.
• Width: roughly 30 km at its narrowest, making it one of the world's most strategically confined sea lanes.
• Traffic: approximately 12 per cent of global trade passes through the strait. This includes crude oil, liquefied natural gas, and containerised goods moving between Asia and Europe.
• India's stake: Indian seafarers work on vessels transiting this route. Rerouting around Africa adds 10 to 14 days and significant fuel costs to each voyage.
• India's response: the Indian Navy deployed warships in the northern Arabian Sea to escort vessels and deter attacks.

Static linkage: world geography (straits and chokepoints), Indian Ocean security.

GS area: Governance, Economy (rural employment)

The Centre mandated the Aadhaar-Based Payment System for all MGNREGA wage payments from 1 January 2024.

• MGNREGA: the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act guarantees 100 days of wage employment per financial year to every rural household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work.
• Scale: approximately 7 million households are employed under the scheme. An estimated 2.89 billion person-days of work were generated in 2022.
• ABPS: the Aadhaar-Based Payment System links a worker's bank account to the Aadhaar number. Wages reach the account only after biometric verification. The aim is to eliminate duplicate and ghost entries.
• Problem: over 34 per cent of job card holders remained ineligible for ABPS as of January 2024. Seven crore job cards had been deleted over the previous 21 months. Civil society organisations argued that the deletions disenfranchised genuine workers.
• Anoop Satpathy Committee: had recommended raising the MGNREGA daily wage to Rs 375, indexed to the Consumer Price Index for Rural Labour.

Static linkage: poverty alleviation schemes, rural economy.

GS area: Defence, International Relations

India and the United Arab Emirates began Exercise Desert Cyclone at the Mahajan Field Firing Range in Rajasthan on 2 January. The exercise ran until 15 January.

• Purpose: sub-conventional operations and interoperability between the two armies.
• Related exercises with UAE: Desert Flag (joint air exercises) and Zayed Talwar (naval exercises).
• Strategic context: India and the UAE signed a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement in 2022. The defence relationship has deepened as India diversifies its arms partnerships.

Static linkage: India's defence partnerships, military exercises.

GS area: Science and Technology

SpaceX launched 21 Starlink satellites, six of which carried direct-to-cell capability. The technology transmits text, voice, and data directly to standard mobile devices without requiring ground infrastructure.

• How it works: the satellite acts as a mobile tower in space, connecting to LTE-compatible handsets.
• Rollout: text functions were planned for 2024; voice, data, and IoT connectivity for 2025.
• India angle: the technology is significant for remote areas without terrestrial network coverage. Spectrum allocation and licensing rules would govern its use in India.
• Partners: T-Mobile (USA), Rogers (Canada), KDDI (Japan) among early operator partners.

Static linkage: space technology, telecommunications policy.

• Maharishi Valmiki International Airport, Ayodhya: inaugurated in advance of the Ram Mandir consecration ceremony. Named after Valmiki, the poet credited with composing the Ramayana and considered the first poet (Adikavi) to write in Sanskrit.
• MARCOS piracy response: Indian Marine Commandos responded to a pirate hijacking in the North Arabian Sea, demonstrating the navy's evolving role in Gulf of Aden security. MARCOS was established in 1987, modelled on the US Navy SEALs.