📰 Jobs grew in final quarter of last fiscal, manufacturing is largest contributor: survey
Estimated employment in nine non-farm sectors rose from 3.14 crore during September-December 2021 to 3.18 crore in January-March 2022, says Labour Minister Bhupender Yadav; marginal increase in participation of women workers
•Manufacturing continues to be the largest institutional employer in the country, employing about 38.5% of the workers, according to the fourth round (January-March 2022) of the Quarterly Employment Survey (QES), which is a part of the All India Quarterly Establishment based Employment Survey (AQEES).
•The survey, which was released by Union Labour Minister Bhupender Yadav here on Tuesday, estimated that around 3.18 crore workers were employed in about 5.31 lakh establishments between January and March. It claimed an increase of about four lakh workers compared with the third round of QES, which was done for the last three months of 2021.
•Education, manufacturing, trade and financial services together accounted for 84% of the total estimated units. “Manufacturing sector accounts for the largest percentage (38.5%) of the total number of workers, followed by education sector with 21.7%, IT/BPO sector with 12% and health sector 10.6%,” the survey said. Almost 80% of the establishments engaged 10 to 99 workers. About 12% of the establishments reported fewer than 10 workers. Only 1.4% of the establishments surveyed reported at least 500 workers. “Such large establishments were mostly in the IT/ BPO sector and in the health sector,” the report said.
•The participation of women workers witnessed a marginal increase from 31.6% in the third quarter to 31.8% in the fourth quarter report. However, women workers constituted about 52% of the workforce in the health sector, while the corresponding percentages in education, financial services and IT/ BPO sectors stood at 44%, 41% and 36%, respectively.
•“It is noteworthy that in financial services, women far outnumber males among self-employed persons,” the report added.
•The survey said 86.4% of the workers were regular employees, and 8.7% were contractual employees followed by casual employees (2.3%) and self-employed (2%). “The share of fixed term employees in the establishments was found to be the least (0.7%) over all,” the survey said.
•Releasing the report, Mr. Yadav said employment was showing an increasing trend and estimated employment rose from 3.14 crore in the third quarter (September-December 2021) to 3.18 crore in the fourth quarter (January-March 2022). “It is important to mention here that the total employment in these nine selected sectors taken collectively was reported as 2.37 crore in the sixth economic census (2013-14),” he said.
•The Labour Bureau had taken up AQEES to provide quarterly estimates about employment and related variables of establishments in both organised and unorganised segments of nine sectors — manufacturing, construction, trade, transport, education, health, accommodation and restaurant, IT / BPO and financial services.
📰 Permanent membership of the UNSC is another story
•There is a buzz in India about the prospects of the country becoming a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council. India’s External Affairs Minister has been actively canvassing for the country’s candidature, meeting his counterparts from several countries. He has repeated the call, made often in the past, for a text-based negotiation on what has been euphemistically referred to as the reform of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), i.e., negotiation on a written document outlining the proposed reform instead of just holding forth verbally.
•The five permanent members of the UNSC — China, France, the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom and the United States — constitute what is the last, most exclusive club in international relations. All other clubs have been breached. Until a quarter century ago, the nuclear weapon club had five members, the same five as the P-5. India, Pakistan, North Korea and Israel have since joined the club. The P-5 could do nothing to stop the latter countries from forcing themselves into membership of the nuclear club. But the permanent membership of the Security Council is another story.
Declarations that deserve scepticism
•The inescapable fact is that none of the P-5 wants the UNSC’s ranks to be increased. One or the other of them might make some noise about supporting one or more of the aspirants. Each is confident that someone among them will torpedo the enlargement of the club. Declarations of support for India’s candidature need to be taken with a fistful of salt.
•When delegations of 50 countries were drafting the Charter of the future United Nations at Dumbarton Oaks near Washington DC in 1944-45, the article regarding the Security Council, particularly the right of veto, was the subject of maximum debate and controversy. Many countries opposed it. The British representative made it clear: either you have a United Nations with veto or there will be no United Nations. The other participating nations had to lump it. The chief Indian delegate said that it was better to have an imperfect United Nations than not to have one.
Intricacies of membership
•There is considerable unhappiness among membership at large in the UN about the right of veto. The debate about veto is most often raked up when the western members of the P-5 club are not able to have their way. It is true that Russia, in its incarnations as the Soviet Union and the Russian Federation, has cast more vetoes (estimated to be 120 times, ‘or or close to half of all vetoes’) than the three western members of the club. But the western members have used their privileged position any number of times to protect Israel when the Palestinian question was being discussed. They also used veto to prevent sanctions being imposed on the apartheid regime of South Africa. There are no saints there.
•India needs to be circumspect about veto. We ought to remember that the Russians have bailed India out on many occasions on the question of Kashmir. Most importantly, Russia helped India by vetoing unfavourable resolutions during the war of Bangladesh liberation in 1971. Looking ahead, we can never rule out the possibility of the Kashmir issue being raised in the Council at some time in the future. While we might expect, though not be certain of, Russia to come to our help, we must rule out either Britain or America from casting a negative vote against Pakistan. Going by the Chinese position of repeatedly blocking India’s efforts to include confirmed Pakistani terrorists in the sanctions list, we can be sure of Chinese hostility towards us for a long time.
•There are four declared candidates for permanent membership: India, Japan, Brazil and Germany, called the G-4. Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean are unrepresented in the permanent category at present. Africa’s claim for two permanent seats has wide understanding and support, but the Africans have yet to decide which two countries these are to be. As for India, we can discount Pakistan’s opposition; China will not support India nor will it ever support Japan. Brazil has regional opponents and claimants. As for Germany, Italy is firmly opposed to its claim. Italy has an interesting argument. If Germany and Japan — both Axis powers during the Second World War, and hence ‘enemy’ states — were to join as permanent members, that would leave out only Italy, the third founding member of the Axis group. In any case there are already three western nations among the P-5. Even if India enjoyed near universal support, there is no way that India alone can be elected; it will have to be a package deal involving countries from other groups.
•There is quite a debate going on about whether the aspiring countries should accept permanent membership without the right of veto. There is no ambiguity regarding the position of the P-5. Every one of them is firmly opposed to conferring the veto power to any prospective new permanent member. Not just the P-5. The vast majority of members do not want any more veto-wielding members in the Council. There is a proposal to the effect that a resolution can be defeated only by a negative vote of at least two permanent members. This also is a non-starter; the P-5 are firmly opposed to any dilution of their privileged position.
•Changing the membership of the Council requires amending the Charter. This involves consent of two-thirds of the total membership of the U N, including the concurring votes of P-5. This means that each of the five has a veto. The Charter was amended once in the 1960s to enlarge the Council by additional non-permanent seats.
•Even now, if the proposal was to add a few non-permanent seats only, it would be adopted with near unanimity or even by consensus. It is the permanent category that poses the problem. One can have a good idea of the difficulty of amending the Charter by the fact that the ‘enemy clause’ contained in Article 107 of the Charter remains in it even though some of the enemy states such as Germany, Japan, Italy, etc. are very active members, often serve on the Council, and are close military allies of some of the victors in the war.
A new category is an idea worth considering
•A distinguished group of experts suggested a few years ago that a new category of semi-permanent members should be created. Countries would be elected for a period of eight to 10 years and would be eligible for re-election. India ought to give serious consideration to this idea.
•Some experts are of the opinion that India should not accept permanent membership without the right of veto. “We cannot accept second class status”, is what they say. First, nobody is offering India permanent membership. Second, membership with veto power should be firmly ruled out. If by some miracle we are offered or manage to obtain permanent membership without veto, we must grab it. Even a permanent membership without veto will be tremendously helpful in protecting our interests. For, there should be no illusion about how states view membership in the Council. It is all about national interest; nobody is there for any worthy cause such as human rights or even war and peace. India will be and should be no different.
📰 Energising India-Nepal ties, the hydropower way
•On August 18, 2022, the Investment Board Nepal signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with India’s National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC) Limited to develop the West Seti and Seti River (SR6) projects — a total of 1,200 MW.
•Interestingly, nearly four years have passed since China’s withdrawal from the project before Nepal decided to grant the project to India. Considering that hydro-power cooperation is a pillar in India-Nepal relations, there is a need to reflect on these questions: what does the decision offer to India and Nepal? What are the shared concerns and common interests? What are the options and alternatives?
Many hurdles
•Historically, the 750MW West Seti Hydroelectric Project was thought of in the early 1980s as a 37 MW run-of-the-river scheme. Nepal issued the developing licence to France’s Sogreah, which prepared a pre-feasibility study in 1987 proposing the scheme without building a dam.
•With the project failing to see the light of the day, Australia’s Snowy Mountains Engineering Corporation (SMEC) acquired a majority stake in the early 1990s. Between 1997-2011, attempts to make progress were affected due to investment and environmental concerns. Consequently, the China National Machinery and Equipment Import and Export Corporation stepped in in 2009, with SMEC holding a majority stake. However, China National Machinery and Equipment Import and Export Corporation withdrew citing a poor investment environment.
•In 2011 Nepal revoked the licence of the West Seti Hydropower Company Limited in which SMEC had a majority stake, and handed it over to China. In an MoU in 2012, China’s Three Gorges International Corporation was assigned to develop the project, but it withdrew in 2018, citing issues of resettlement and rehabilitation.
•Subsequently, Nepal tried to develop the project by mobilising internal resources. However, increased costs resulted in further delays. Meanwhile, the project was remodelled as the West Seti and Seti River (SR6) joint storage project (1,200 MW).
Much potential
•The decision to involve India is a sign that Nepal is reposing its faith in India to complete the project. If completed, it is expected to provide India the much-needed leverage in future hydropower cooperation.
•The NHPC has initiated a preliminary engagement of the site with an investment of over ₹18,000 crore. It has also signed an MoU with the Power Trading Corporation Limited, India for sale of power. India is already involved in the Mahakali Treaty (6,480 MW), the Upper Karnali Project (900 MW) and the Arun Three projects (900 MW) in western and eastern Nepal, respectively. This will also help India minimise the geopolitical influence of China and firm its presence in Nepal, considering that the West Seti Hydroelectric Project was a major Chinese venture under the Belt and Road Initiative. In a tilt towards India, Nepal’s Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba said, “We failed to invest in this project... Since India is reluctant to purchase energy produced by Chinese companies in Nepal, we will talk with PM Modi for the engagement of Indian developers.”
•The project has the potential to enhance cross-border power exchanges between the two countries.
•It is ironic that despite its huge hydropower potential, Nepal experiences power shortages during peak time, increasing its dependence on India to bridge the shortfall. With an estimated potential of 83,000 MW, Nepal’s electricity exports to India are expected to increase foreign exchange and address the power shortage. It is estimated that if the hydropower potential is fully harnessed, Nepal can generate revenue to the tune of ₹310 billion in 2030 and ₹1,069 billion per year in 2045 by exporting electricity to India.
•Similarly, India’s severe deficit in coal-based thermal power plants in recent years, which meet 70% of India’s electricity demand, has compelled the Government to arrange supplies through coal imports, accelerating the search for better alternatives. Given the growing energy demand, the West Seti Hydroelectric Project can provide an added alternative and viable way to address power deficits.
Steps to take
•For the project to be successfully completed, options and alternatives need to be explored. First, the revised cost around the construction process has increased to $2.04 billion. Since investment-related constraints have delayed the project, there needs to be a careful study of investment scenarios, particularly a conducive investment environment, distribution and transmission network and cost of resettlement and rehabilitation, at the preliminary stage.
•Second, Nepal is concerned that the electricity rates and supply from India is inadequate to meet the rising demands. To address these concerns, the new MoU has already revised the percentage share of energy that Nepal will receive free of cost from the generation projects to 21.9% from 10% (Section 6.1) and provides for discussion ‘in good faith for further modalities, including Section 6.1’ to make it commercially viable (Section 6.2). Further, to address domestic demand, the MoU allows Nepal to request the NHPC to sell the power generated from the projects to the domestic market before selling whole or part to the export market (Section 8.2).
•Third, the project can also be extended to other regional partners under the Bangladesh-Bhutan-India-Nepal (BBIN) framework for cross-border energy cooperation. For example, if the combined estimated hydropower potential in Nepal and Bhutan, along with the potential of Northeast India, is effectively harnessed, a cross-border energy market can be created and optimally operationalised. It will be a win-win at the bilateral and regional levels.
•While in most cases the Supreme Court’s own precedent provides principled answers, the challenges made to the 103rd constitutional amendment present a more difficult judicial examination than usual
•The Supreme Court has reserved its verdict on a batch of pleas challenging the validity of the 103rd constitutional amendment providing 10% reservation to EWS persons in admissions and government jobs. In this article dated July 16, 2019, Suhrith Parthasarathy explains how reservations based on economic status is against the elementary conception of equality guaranteed by the Constitution.
•Constitutional challenges are often described as hard cases. This is, however, seldom true. Invariably, disputes possess a simple solution. We can debate over what theories of interpretation to apply and over whether the text of a clause needs to be read literally or in light of its historical background, but in most cases, the Supreme Court’s own precedent and commonly accepted legal theories provide an easy enough guide to finding a principled answer. The challenges made to the 103rd constitutional amendment, though, which a two-judge bench of the Supreme Court is slated to hear this month , present a rather more difficult test.
•Here, the issues involved concern questions both over whether the amendment infringes the extant idea of equality, and over whether that idea is so intrinsic to the Constitution, that departing from it will somehow breach the document’s basic structure. The court’s answers to these questions will operate not merely within the realm of the law but will also likely have a deep political bearing — for at stake here is the very nature of justice that India’s democracy embodies.
•The law, which was introduced in January this year, amends Articles 15 and 16 of the Constitution, and grants to government the power to provide for reservation in appointments to posts under the state and in admissions to educational institutions to “economically weaker sections [EWS] of citizens”. At first blush, this reservation, which can extend up to 10% of the total seats available, may not appear to impinge on the existing constitutional arrangement. But what it does mandate is a quota that will apply only to citizens other than the classes that are already eligible for reservation. Consequently, persons belonging to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and persons who are not part of the creamy layer of the Other Backward Classes will not be eligible to the seats available under the quota.
•According to the petitioners in the Supreme Court, the central hypothesis of the amendment, where reservation is predicated on individual economic status, violates the Constitution’s basic structure. In their belief, the law, by providing for affirmative action unmindful of the structural inequalities inherent in India’s society, overthrows the prevailing rationale for reservations. In doing so, they argue, the amendment destroys the Constitution’s idea of equal opportunity. The Union of India argues that while the Constitution demands equality, it does not confine Parliament to any singular vision. According to it, the power to amend the Constitution must necessarily include a power to decide how to guarantee equal status to all persons.
Meaning and purpose
•In some senses, as sociologist Gail Omvedt wrote in these pages (“The purpose of reservation – I”, March 24, 2000), “the whole history of the struggle for reservation has also been a debate about its very meaning and purpose”. When reservations were first introduced by some of the princely states the policy was seen largely as an alleviative measure. For instance, in the princely State of Mysore, where privileged castes had cornered virtually every post available under the government, a system of reservations was introduced denominating communities as “Backward Classes”, and providing for them a larger share in the administration. By the time the Constitution was being drafted as a reading of the Constituent Assembly’s debates shows us, the rationale for reservations had broadened. The Constitution’s framers saw the measure as a promise against prejudice, as a tool to assimilate deprived groups into public life, and as a means of reparation, to compensate persons belonging to those groups for the reprehensible acts of discrimination wrought on them through history. Marc Galanter has called this a compensatory discrimination principle.
•Yet, despite the expanded justification, the basic foundational logic for reservations was still predicated on a demand for a fairer and more representative share in political administration. This is demonstrated by R.M. Nalavade’s comment in the Constituent Assembly. “Our experience in the provinces, though there are provisions for reservation in the services, is bitter,” he said. “Even though the depressed classes are educated and qualified, they are not given chances of employment under the Provincial Governments. Now that we have provided for this in the Constitution itself, there is no fear for the Scheduled castes. According to this clause we can be adequately represented in the provincial as well as in the Central services.”
•By providing for a more proportionate distribution of the share in administration, the programme of reservations, it was believed, would end at least some of caste-based domination of jobs, particularly of employment in the public sector — a domination that was built over thousands of years, where Dalits and Adivasis were denied access to equal status. As Ms. Omvedt has pointed out, the strategy behind reservations could, therefore, never have involved an attack on pure economic backwardness. The idea was always to disavow caste-monopoly in the public sector.
Theory of justice
•Even when the Constitution’s first amendment was introduced in 1951, to allow the state to make special provisions beyond reservations in public employment for “the advancement of any socially and educationally backward classes of citizens, or for the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes”, the rationale, as the lawyer Malavika Prasad has argued, remained constant. Attempts made at the time to categorise individuals on the basis of economic status were expressly rejected. Behind this thinking was a distinctive theory of justice: that by according a greater share in public life to historically disadvantaged groups the relative position of those groups would stand enhanced. No doubt such a policy would not, in and of itself, help eliminate the various inequalities produced by the caste system, but it was believed it would represent a resolute effort to eliminate at least some of the caste-based domination prevailing in society.
•Indeed, the policy and the idea of justice that undergirds it have been seen as so indispensable to the Constitution’s aims and purposes that the Supreme Court in State of Kerala v. N. M. Thomas (1975) held that reservations based on social and educational backwardness, far from being an exception ought to be seen as an intrinsic facet of the idea of equality.
Unseating equality
•It is in departing from this logic that the 103rd amendment unseats the Constitution’s code of equality. Pure financial ability is a transient criterion; it doesn’t place people into a definite group requiring special privileges. If anything, allowing for reservation on such a principle only further fortifies the ability of powerful castes to retain their positions of authority, by creating an even greater monopolisation of their share in administration. If such an end is indeed the vision, it’s difficult to see how the elementary conception of equality guaranteed by the Constitution can continue to survive. Now, no doubt the Supreme Court may, on the face of things, consider Parliament as possessing the power to altogether dismantle the Constitution’s existing idea of equality without simultaneously demolishing the document’s basic structure. But, if nothing else, when the court hears the challenges made to the 103rd amendment, it must see the petitioners’ arguments as representing a credibly defensible view. The least the court ought to do, therefore, is to refer the case to a constitution bench, given that Article 145(3) mandates such an enquiry on any issue involving a substantial question of law concerning the Constitution’s interpretation, and, in the meantime, stay the operation of the amendment until such a bench hears the case fully. Should the court fail to do so the government will surely one day present to it a cruel fait accompli.
📰 Government app Jaldoot to capture data on ground water tables
The water levels in will be measured twice a year, pre and post monsoon
•With the rapidly declining water table threatening to push many regions into drought, the Union government on Tuesday launched a mobile application – Jaldoot – jointly developed by the Union Ministry of Rural Development and the Panchayati Raj Ministry to monitor the underground water levels across the country.
•The application was launched by Minister of State for Rural Development Faggan Singh Kulaste in the presence of Ministers Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti and Kapil Moreshwar Patil.
•The app will be used to capture the water level of selected two-three wells in every village. The water levels in these open wells will be measured twice a year, from May 1 to May 31 during the pre-monsoon time, and from October 1 to October 31 for post-monsoon levels. To ensure transparency, the officers assigned to measure have been told to upload the geotagged photographs through the app each time the measurement is done. The mobile app, the ministry in a statement said, will work both in online and offline mode to ensure that lack of internet connectivity does not come in the way of the exercise. The regular data to be input by the ‘Jaldoots’ would be integrated with the database of the National Water Informatics Centre, which can be utilised for analysis and help in conservation efforts.
•“The State governments and gram panchayats should involve themselves towards systematically collecting groundwater level data and assimilation of the same in the central digital database for analysis. We believe that data generated by this exercise will help us in better planning and give us the right assessment of the problem at hand,” Mr. Kulaste said.
📰 An attempt to get the Indian Railways back on track
Adding more AC III tier economy class coaches is a step in the right direction
•The Indian Railways’ experiment to introduce AC III tier economy class coaches has started to pay off. Since its introduction, in the last one year, these coaches have earned the Railways more than ₹230 crore in revenue by ferrying around 21 lakh passengers. Fares in AC III tier economy are 6%-7% cheaper than the AC III tier class. The economy class has a capacity of 83 berths compared to 72 in the regular coach.
•Only 370 such coaches have been used so far, but with demand picking up, the Railways has planned to add more such coaches. Data suggest that adding more AC III tier economy class coaches is a step in the right direction. In recent years, the operating margin of the Indian Railways has taken a beating. Latest data show that the Railways spends ₹98 to earn ₹100. It has consistently failed to meet the expected revenue internally, and its reliance on extra-budgetary resources such as funds from LIC and market borrowings has significantly increased.
•Chart 1 shows the operating ratio (OR) of the Railways in the last 12 years. OR measures the amount spent by the Railways to earn ₹100. Between FY09 and FY16, OR ranged from 90% to 95%. But between FY17 and FY20, it ranged from 96% to 98%. In other words, the Railways was spending ₹98 to earn ₹100.
•Chart 2 shows the share of internal revenue, extra budgetary resources and gross budgetary support in the total revenue receipts of the Railways. The share of internal resources in total revenue receipts fell from 79% in FY15 to 53% in FY20, while reliance on extra budgetary resources to raise funds rose from 5% to 26% during the same period.
•The AC III tier is the only class of service which has generated consistent profits for the Railways. Between FY16 and FY20, AC III tier coaches carried only 1% of the total passengers, but were responsible for 21% of the earnings from travellers. Such a low-passenger, high-revenue dichotomy was not seen in any other class. On the other hand, a high-passenger, low-revenue dichotomy was seen in the inexpensive classes. For instance, over 90% passengers travelled by second class which accounted for only 37% of the earnings. Table 3 shows the relevant data for all classes of service.
•While the first AC and second AC coaches also ferry a smaller share of passengers, their share in earnings was far lower than AC III tier. While the average rate charged per passenger per kilometre in first AC, second AC and executive AC coaches was higher than AC III tier, their share in total earnings was lower. And so, AC III tier stands out. It is not as expensive as the other AC classes and at the same time, its share in revenue has not been impacted by the relatively low pricing.
•Table 3 also shows the class-wise share in passenger kilometres. One passenger kilometre is the equivalent of transporting one passenger over one kilometre.
•Table 4 further brings out the uniqueness of AC III tier. It shows operational losses (in ₹crore) incurred while operating various classes of service. A negative figure points to losses incurred. For instance, in operating AC first class service, the Railways incurred a loss of ₹403 crore in FY20. In contrast, the Railways made a profit of ₹65 crore by operating AC III tier coaches. The table shows that AC III tier was the only class which made profits in the FY13-FY20 period, while all the other classes except AC chair car posted losses. So, the move to introduce an economy version of AC III tier may help the Indian Railways get back on track.
📰 The NASA spacecraft-asteroid collision
What is the ‘kick’ method which was used to deflect an asteroid headed towards earth? How can the technique be further utilised for space mining technologies?
•On September 27, at 4:44 am IST, the DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) spacecraft collided with the space rock Dimorphos (just 160 metres wide). NASA has confirmed that the collision of the auto-rickshaw sized 600 kilogram weighing DART, on the football stadium-sized Dimorphos, about five billion kilogram in mass (orbiting around the 780 metres wide primary asteroid Didymos), has deflected the trajectory of the pair of space rocks.
•The momentum of DART crashing at a breakneck speed of 23,760 kilometres per hour, is adequate to slash the angular momentum of Dimorphos, making it speed up and move closer to Didymos. All of these reduce the orbital period and the time taken for the moonlet to go around the primary asteroid. The pair’s trajectory is thus deflected as the net result of these dynamics.
•While ostensibly the drive comes from the desire to protect earth from killer asteroids, the technique also carries the lure of space mining. If one can tug a mineral-rich asteroid near the Moon or establish a space mining factory between the orbits of earth and Mars, precious mineral resources needed for decades could be easily sourced. The ‘kick’ technique that deflects asteroids can then be used to move a small asteroid into a convenient position for space mining.
The story so far:
•On September 27, at 4:44 am IST, the DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) spacecraft collided with the space rock Dimorphos (just 160 metres wide). NASA has confirmed that the collision of the auto-rickshaw sized 600 kilogram weighing DART, on the football stadium-sized Dimorphos, about five billion kilogram in mass (orbiting around the 780 metres wide primary asteroid Didymos), has deflected the trajectory of the pair of space rocks. This kinetic impact technique, which appears as the climax of Hollywood sci-fi movies like Deep Impact and Armageddon,is also known as the ‘kick’ method. It could one day save humanity from a potential cataclysmic collision by safely deflecting a killer asteroid on its course towards earth. It could also fuel space mining technologies and unleash the space economy in decades to come.
What are asteroids?
•Around a construction site, bits and pieces of leftover bricks, unused steel rods, and emptied paint canisters are usually strewn. Likewise, leftover materials from the formation of the sun, earth and planets, through the accretion and agglomeration of giant gas and rocks, are scattered as comets, asteroids and meteoroids in the solar system. Some of these cross their path and collide with earth from time to time, resulting in a spectacular meteor shower. Most rocks are so small that they burn up completely in the atmosphere due to frictional heating. If they are large enough, the charred piece falls through as a meteorite. The falling piece from a meteoroid 140 metres wide or more will be capable of completely wiping out a city like Chennai. The impact would be devastating if it was one or more kilometres wide.
•Neither the plot nor NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office, made famous by the blockbuster Netflix movie Don’t Look Up is imaginary. About 66 million years ago, an asteroid about 10-15 kms struck earth. The tsunami, volcanic eruptions and thick dust clouds ensuing from the blow decimated dinosaurs and nearly 75% of all species. What happened in the past can occur in the future. The chances of a giant asteroid striking earth are small; however, if it did occur, the devastation would be cataclysmic, wiping out the entire human civilisation. While dinosaurs were mute spectators, humans can prepare themselves to face the imminent threat. NASA tracks and keeps a close watch on the nearly 26,115 asteroids whose orbits are dangerously close to earth.
What was NASA’s mission?
•NASA, to put it simply, undertook the ‘kick’ technique. Compared to the massive Dimorphos, DART is a tiny Goliath. Yet crashing at a breakneck speed of 23,760 kilometres per hour, the momentum is adequate to slash the angular momentum of Dimorphos, making it speed up and move closer to Didymos. All of these reduce the orbital period and the time taken for the moonlet to go around the primary asteroid. The pair’s trajectory is thus deflected as the net result of these dynamics. Consider it like this: a fast-moving moped slamming into a truck is sure to undergo a massive crash and burn, yet will veer the massive truck a bit. This is the essence of the ‘kick’ technique.
•The extent of the trajectory change depends on the context. Compare throwing a ball against a solid wall and a sand pit. If the Dimorphos were solid, the crashing craft would make a dent on its surface and skim a tiny bit of its angular momentum, reducing the orbital time by about 75 seconds. However, close-up images transmitted by the DART moments before the fatal collision indicate that Dimorphos is more like a pile of rubble loosely held by gravity. If true, the impact will eject a cascade of debris, each piece carrying away a bit of momentum and energy. And as a net result, the asteroid will suffer a considerable loss. It will speed up more, and the orbit will become nearer to Didymos. The orbital period will then reduce by as much as 10 minutes.
What has been the impact assessment?
•The DART craft carried a high-resolution DRACO (Didymos Reconnaissance and Asteroid Camera for Optical navigation) camera to observe the collision and its consequences. The close-up images until its fatal crash are being analysed. In addition, like a kangaroo with a baby in its pouch, a tiny toaster-sized Italian Space Agency-built Light Italian CubeSat for Imaging of Asteroids (LICIACube) took a piggyback ride with the DART.
•The CubeSat was released and deployed two weeks before the impact. Hovering 50 kilometres from the asteroid, the two cameras aboard the CubeSat have captured the plume of the debris ejected by the collision. At 11 million kilometres, the asteroids appear like a blip of dot even through the best of telescopes. As they waltz around each other, once in 11 hours and 55 minutes, Dimorphos and Didymos line up, eclipsing one another. The total brightness of the pair darkens when Dimorphos passes in front of and behind Didymos.
•Astronomers will now spend weeks and months observing the periodic change in the brightness using the telescopes to tease out the altered orbital period. All this data is still in process and will help fine-tune the technology.
What are the other possibilities of this technique?
•At the heels of NASA, China is set to deflect a 40m diametre earth-crossing asteroid called 2020 PN1 sometime in 2026. While ostensibly the drive comes from the desire to protect earth from killer asteroids, perhaps the lure of space mining lurks behind. Mining rare earth elements comes with a high environmental cost. In the coming years, the penalty for polluting could make space mining economically viable. If one can tug a mineral-rich asteroid near the Moon or establish a space mining factory between the orbits of earth and Mars, precious mineral resources needed for decades could be easily sourced. The ‘kick’ technique that deflects asteroids can then be used to move a small asteroid into a convenient position for space mining. Now shelved, NASA’s Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM) aimed at precisely this by bringing a 20-tonne space rock near earth to study and mine. In a way, the DART mission is also part of this frame.
•For developing green energy technologies — electric vehicles, solar panels, wind turbines, and energy storage devices — and ushering in the low carbon economy of the future, rare earth elements such as yttrium, niobium, rhodium, palladium, osmium, iridium and scandium are critical. They are short in supply, and asteroid mining, it is believed, could solve the rare earth supply problem.
•From the robotic Soviet Luna 16 in the 1970s to U.S. Apollo missions and China’s first lunar sample-return mission, Chang’e 5 — all have brought back lunar soil. NASA’s Stardust spacecraft returned a canister full of dust from comet Wild-2 captured by an aerogel-based sample collector in 2004. Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)’s Hayabusa 1 to 25143 Itokawa, the Hayabusa 2 to 162173 Ryugu, and NASA’s OSIRIS-Rex to near-earth asteroid Bennu are missions to extract and return samples from asteroids.
