2 August 2024

• Aviation: the Bharatiya Vayuyan Vidheyak 2024 replaced the colonial Aircraft Act of 1934. Drones, flying taxis and electronic gliders now have a statutory framework.
• Climate and floods: atmospheric rivers drove devastating flooding across India this monsoon season. Over 80 per cent of Western USA flooding is traced to the same phenomenon.
• Economy: India was elected Vice-Chair of the IPEF Supply Chain Council, a step toward reducing dependence on single-source supply chains.
• Infrastructure: the Krishna Raja Sagar dam in Karnataka was back in the news. The 1931 engineering landmark remains critical for water supply to Mysuru, Mandya and Bengaluru.

GS area: Governance, Economy, International Relations

Parliament passed the Bharatiya Vayuyan Vidheyak 2024, replacing the Aircraft Act of 1934. The old Act was a British-era instrument that India had amended piecemeal over nine decades. The new law makes a clean break:

• Scope: the new Act removes balloons and gliders from the definition of "aircraft," narrowing the scope to powered aircraft, drones, UAVs, flying taxis and electronic gliders.
• Regulatory bodies strengthened: the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security and the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau all receive enhanced statutory powers.
• Chicago Convention alignment: the 1944 Convention on International Civil Aviation, known as the Chicago Convention, is the foundational treaty governing international air travel. Aligning Indian law with it reduces compliance friction for foreign carriers operating in India.
• Atmanirbhar Bharat linkage: the Bill explicitly supports domestic aviation manufacturing, which fits the broader policy push for indigenous aircraft and component production.
• Opposition objection: members raised concerns about using Hindi naming conventions for legislation and queried whether specific constitutional articles required amendment.

Static linkage: governance, aviation regulation, international conventions.

GS area: Geography, Disaster Management, Environment

Atmospheric rivers caused extreme flooding across several states this monsoon season. The phenomenon is now central to understanding why intense, concentrated rainfall events are becoming more frequent:

• Definition: long, narrow bands of water vapour that transport moisture from the tropics toward higher latitudes. They are typically 400 to 500 km wide and thousands of kilometres long.
• Wind threshold: the atmospheric river designation applies when wind speeds in the lowest two kilometres of the atmosphere exceed 12.5 metres per second and vapour transport is intense.
• Pineapple Express: the well-known atmospheric river that carries moisture from near Hawaii to the US West Coast is a useful reference. Over 80 per cent of Western USA flooding events are linked to atmospheric rivers.
• India's exposure: India experienced 574 atmospheric rivers between 1951 and 2020. That is a significant frequency for a country whose farming calendar and flood management systems are built around the relatively predictable southwest monsoon.
• Climate change link: warming oceans hold more water vapour, intensifying atmospheric rivers. Frequency and intensity are both projected to increase.

Static linkage: monsoon systems, disaster management, physical geography.

GS area: International Relations, Economy

India was elected Vice-Chair of the Supply Chain Council established under the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity's Supply Chain Resilience Agreement:

• IPEF: launched by the United States in May 2022. The 14-member grouping covers trade, supply chains, clean energy and anti-corruption pillars. India joined the supply chain pillar.
• Supply Chain Council: a standing body that coordinates member-country actions to identify and address supply chain vulnerabilities. India's Vice-Chair position gives it a formal role in shaping the council's agenda.
• Strategic objective: reducing dependence on any single country for critical goods. The unstated but understood reference is China's dominance in semiconductor components, rare earths and pharmaceutical active ingredients.
• India's stake: India's pharmaceutical sector is a major supplier to IPEF members. Its emergence as an electronics assembly hub (mobile phones, semiconductors) makes supply chain integration valuable.

Static linkage: India's foreign economic policy, Indo-Pacific geopolitics.

GS area: Geography, Infrastructure, Water management

The Krishna Raja Sagar dam in Karnataka featured in the news. Essential facts:

• Location: Mandya district, Karnataka, on the Kaveri River.
• Construction: 1911 to 1931. Designed by Sir M. Visvesvaraya, the engineer who became Dewan of Mysore and whose birthday is celebrated as Engineers' Day (15 September).
• Dimensions: 2,621 metres long, 40 metres high, with 177 arch-type sluice gates.
• Reservoir: covers 130 square kilometres.
• Water supply: irrigates Mysuru and Mandya and supplies drinking water to Bengaluru.
• Downstream linkage: water flows from KRS to Tamil Nadu's Stanley Reservoir (Mettur dam) on the Kaveri. Interstate sharing is governed by the Kaveri Water Disputes Tribunal award.

Static linkage: Kaveri basin, dams and reservoirs, interstate water disputes.

• Dark tourism: also called grief tourism. Sites include Auschwitz, Chernobyl, Hiroshima and the 9/11 Memorial. Ethical concerns centre on exploitation, voyeurism and disrespect for victims. Community consent and sensitivity guidelines are the emerging standard.
• Fully Accessible Route: the RBI's Fully Accessible Route allows non-residents to invest without limits in specified Indian government securities. The RBI excluded new 14-year and 30-year securities from FAR in August, affecting foreign portfolio investor access.
• Nano-MIND technology: developed at the Institute for Basic Science in South Korea. Uses magnetic fields and magnetised nanoparticles to modulate neural circuits wirelessly. Potential applications include neurological disorders and understanding brain circuits for feeding and behaviour.
• mRNA vaccine for H5N1: WHO and the Medicines Patent Pool are collaborating under the mRNA Technology Transfer Programme to develop an avian influenza vaccine for low- and middle-income countries. The programme adapts the platform used for COVID-19 vaccines.