May 14, 2025

Current Affairs

Indigenous Defence Innovation: Key Technologies used in Operation Sindoor

Context: Operation Sindoor has highlighted India's military might and indigenous weapons. Indigenous development of the defence ecosystem has been made possible by contributions of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), and lately by Innovations for Defence Excellence (iDEX).

Relevance of the Topic : Prelims: Key facts about iDEX, Indigenous Defence Technologies (SkyStriker; D-4 Anti-Drone System)

Key Indigenous Technologies used in Operation Sindoor:

SkyStriker Loitering Munitions:

Suicide drones developed by Bengaluru-based Alpha Design Technologies in collaboration with Elbit Systems (Israel).
The precision-striking drone can carry a 5-10 kg warhead and has a range of 100 km.
Its electric propulsion system helps reduce noise, making it suitable for covert missions at low altitudes.
Cost-effective solution for long-range precision strikes. The drone supports direct aerial fire missions and enhances operational awareness and survivability for ground forces.

D-4 Anti-Drone System:

Anti-drone system developed by DRDO.
Capability to neutralise hostile drones by disrupting GPS signals.
Equipped with advanced radar, RF jammers, and laser-based kill mechanisms, the D4 system can disrupt and disable enemy UAVs mid-flight.
Can be utilised for other purposes like- real-time battlefield monitoring and surveillance.

Akashteer

Akashteer is an indigenous AI-powered Air Defence System (India’s own Iron Dome).
Designed and manufactured jointly by: DRDO, ISRO and Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL).
Part of India's overall C4ISR (Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance) system.
Akashteer works in coordination with ISRO satellites and Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (NAVIC) GPS.
Integrates data from radars and sensors, and provides real-time situational awareness and enables swift responses to aerial threats (drones, missiles, UAVs and other loitering munitions).
Through automated detection-and-response mechanisms, Akashteer can neutralise hundreds of incoming threats with unmatched precision.
Its vehicle-based, mobile configuration guarantees flexibility in high-risk areas.

Akash Missile Defence System

Indigenously developed by DRDO.
Medium-range, mobile surface-to-air missile (SAM) designed to neutralise aerial threats such as fighter jets, drones, cruise missiles, and air-to-surface missiles.
Operates on a command-guidance system with datalink for mid-course corrections and switches to active radar homing in the terminal phase.
Propulsion: The missile is propelled by an integrated ramjet-rocket engine, allowing it to maintain supersonic speeds (Mach 1.8 to 2.5) throughout its flight.
Range: Its range extends up to 25–45 km, with the ability to intercept targets at altitudes up to 20 km. The missile carries a 60 kg high-explosive, pre-fragmented warhead, detonated by a digital proximity fuse for maximum impact.
Supported by a sophisticated radar network. Real time multi-sensor data processing enables simultaneous engagement of multiple targets from any direction.
- Rajendra phased array radar can track up to 64 targets and guide eight missiles simultaneously.
- 3D Central Acquisition Radar (3D CAR) provides long-range surveillance and target acquisition.
Akash has evolved over the years, with variants like Akash-1 (25 km range), Akash-NG (up to 30 km with improved guidance), and Akash Prime (up to 35 km, optimised for low-altitude threats).

The Akash’s integration with advanced command-and-control systems like Integrated Air Command and Control System (IACCS) enabled real-time threat neutralisation.

Innovations for Defence Excellence (iDEX):

Innovations for Defence Excellence (iDEX) is a flagship initiative under the Ministry of Defence launched in 2018.
It brings together all the key innovation ecosystem actors, including start-ups, individual innovators, R&D institutions, and academia, to foster self-reliance in defence technologies.
Funding and Management: iDEX is funded and managed by the Defence Innovation Organisation (DIO), a Section 8 company, whose founding members were Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) and Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL).
iDEX adopts an open innovation approach. E.g., Through Defence India Startup Challenge (DISC), iDEX launches challenges for start-ups to offer solutions to specific technological needs of the Indian Armed Forces.
iDEX has facilitated domestic-global collaboration. E.g., iDEX partners with the US Department of Defense’s Innovation Unit to facilitate joint co-development of innovation between Indian and US start-ups.

Lately, iDEX has accelerated the defence innovation ecosystem in India. It has signed over 350 agreements with start-ups as of June 2024. This approach ensures an alignment between the operational needs of the defence sector and innovative solutions developed.

India keeps Data Exclusivity out of UK FTA

Context: India safeguards its $25B generic drug industry by excluding data exclusivity from the India-UK FTA to ensure affordable drug access and faster generic launches. India’s stance upholds the TRIPS norms, protecting pharma exports and local manufacturers' interests.

Relevance of the Topic: Prelims: Concept of Data Exclusivity.

Data Exclusivity out of UK FTA:

Recently, India and the UK have announced the conclusion of the free trade agreement (FTA) that will substantially liberalise trade between the two countries.
The UK was pushing for inclusion of Data Exclusivity provisions in the FTA which would have prevented Indian generic drugs manufacturers from using the clinical trial data generated by the pharma patent holders.
India has protected the interest of its generic pharma industry by keeping out data exclusivity provisions from the FTA with the UK. Earlier, India had also rejected a similar demand from the four-nation European Free Trade Association (EFTA) in their FTA signed in 2024.

What is Data Exclusivity?

Data Exclusivity refers to the fixed period during which the non-clinical and clinical trial data submitted by the innovator pharmaceutical company to the regulatory body cannot be used by the generic manufacturers.
Purpose: Protects data generated in the course of clinical trials of a drug. By gaining exclusive rights over this data, innovator companies can prevent their competitors from obtaining marketing licence for low-cost generic versions during the tenure of this exclusivity.

Lack of Data Exclusivity law in India:

The Indian Drug and Cosmetic Act, 1940 and the Drug and Cosmetic Rules, 1945 do not provide for data exclusivity.
Lack of Data Exclusivity law risks unfair commercial use of test data submitted to the Indian government during application for market approval of pharma or agro-chemical products.
Indian laws allow the use of this data by companies to launch copies of the drugs that go off-patent. This reduces time and costs for generic manufacturers. If generic companies were to generate the same data independently, it would delay their generic launches.

India’s generic drug industry is estimated at about $25 billion and the country exports half of its output. Data exclusivity is beyond the provisions of the Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement under the World Trade Organisation.

IMF’s Loan to Pakistan

Context: The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) allowed an immediate disbursement of $1 billion (around Rs 8,500 crore) under the IMF’s Extended Fund Facility (EFF) to Pakistan.

The IMF Executive Board also approved Pakistan’s request for an arrangement under the Resilience and Sustainability Facility (RSF) of about US$1.4 billion. India abstained from voting in the IMF.

Relevance of the Topic: Prelims: Key facts related to Extended Fund Facility (EEF) and Resilience and Sustainability Facility (RSF).

Extended Fund Facility of IMF

Extended Fund Facility (EFF) provides financial assistance to countries facing serious medium-term balance of payments problems because of structural weaknesses that require time to address.

The IMF provides assistance under the EFF to countries that do not have enough money to pay their bills to the rest of the world for the goods and services they import.
The reason for inability to pay is the “structural weaknesses” in their economy, i.e., fundamental problems in an economy that hold back growth and development. This includes:
- Inadequate physical infrastructure
- Lack of an educated workforce
- Underdeveloped financial and banking system
- Inadequate capital required for businesses.
Such assistance is in the form of a loan that has to be paid back, and not in the form of a grant or aid.
Extended means that these countries need more time than usual to pay back the money because they need to bring about “structural” changes.

Key details of Extended Fund Facility of IMF

Eligibility: All member countries facing actual or potential external financing needs.
Conditionality:
- Countries’ policy commitments are expected to focus on structural reforms and policies to maintain macroeconomic stability.
- Disbursements are conditional on the observance of quantitative performance criteria.
Review Modalities: Periodic reviews of policies and program implementation, as access to IMF resources occurs in tranches (phasing). The IMF’s Executive Board regularly assesses program performance and can adjust the program to adapt to economic developments.
Duration: Typically approved for periods of 3 years, but may be approved for periods as long as 4 years to implement deep and sustained structural reforms.
Repayment: Over 4.5 - 10 years in 12 equal semiannual installments.
Access limits: Normal access: A member can currently borrow up to 145% of its quota annually and 435% cumulatively.
Interest rate: Basic rate of charge + Surcharges
- Basic rate of charge: The market-determined Special Drawing Rights (SDR) interest rate and a margin (currently 100 basis points).

Resilience and Sustainability Facility:

RSF provides affordable longer-term financing to support low-income and vulnerable middle-income countries undertaking macro-critical reforms to reduce the risks to prospective balance of payments (BoP) stability, including those related to climate change and pandemic preparedness.
Eligible Countries:
- All Poverty Reduction and Growth Trust (PRGT) eligible low-income countries.
- Small states (population under 1.5 million) with per capita GNI below 25 times the 2021 IDA operational cutoff.
- All middle-income countries with per capita GNI below 10 times the 2021 IDA operational cutoff.
Interest Rate: Very low, often close to the SDR interest rate, with no surcharge.
Duration:
- It runs together with another IMF program (like SBA or EFF).
- It must last at least 18 months.
- Expires when all amounts available are disbursed. Automatically ends upon the termination, cancellation, or expiry of the concurrent IMF-supported program.
Repayment: 20-year maturity and a 10.5 year grace period during which no principal is repaid.

India’s Response

India has conveyed its strong dissent to the IMF’s decision. India highlighted Pakistan’s poor track record using IMF’s funds, pointing to the possibility of misuse of debt financing funds for state-sponsored cross-border terrorism.
India abstained from voting in the meeting, as there is no option with member countries to vote against such a decision.

Over the past 35 years, Pakistan has entered 28 IMF programmes, including four in the last five years, with negligible structural reforms or lasting economic stability.

Soviet spacecraft Kosmos 482 crashes to Earth after 53 years

Context: A piece of a Soviet spacecraft, Kosmos 482, launched more than 50 years ago crashed back to Earth, splashing into the Indian Ocean off Jakarta's western coast, Indonesia.

Relevance of the Topic: Prelims: Key facts about Soviet spacecraft Kosmos 482.

Kosmos 482 Mission:

Kosmos 482 Mission is one among the series of probes launched to explore Venus by the erstwhile Soviet Union. Under the Venera Program, the Soviet Union sent 28 spacecraft to Venus between 1961 and 1984.
The probe was launched in 1972 with the purpose of landing on Venus. It consisted of various instruments to measure the temperature, pressure, wind speed, visibility, atmospheric gases and rock composition, and radio the results back to Earth.

What went wrong with Kosmos 482?

Soon after the launch, a malfunction took place in the rocket. The upper rocket stage/engine (that was meant to propel the Kosmos 482 out of the Earth orbit) shut off too early due to a timer malfunction.
As a result, the spacecraft was left stranded in an orbit around the Earth. The lander module, which was supposed to land on Venus, broke apart from the main spacecraft. It kept orbiting the Earth for over 50 years. The main spacecraft, which was large and heavy, burned up in the (Earth’s) atmosphere.
Within the period of over 50 years, the spacecraft's orbit decayed slowly as the atmospheric drag slowly pulled it towards the Earth, leading to its re-entry into the Earth.

Concerns:

Growing space junk: Kosmos 482's reentry into the Earth serves as a reminder of the growing issue of space junk. While most space objects plunge into Earth's atmosphere and burn up; some particularly heavy or dense objects such as Kosmos 482, survive the hot reentry.
Environmental damage: Researchers also warn that satellite and space reentry can discharge harmful pollutants in the atmosphere of Earth and destroy the ozone layer and the environment at large, leading to climate change.

Also Read: What is Satellite Pollution?

With the volume of space traffic increasing, space debris management and minimising its environmental impacts will be an increasingly important issue.

Asteroid YR4 may hit Moon in 2032

Context: National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has announced that there is a 3.8% chance that Asteroid YR4 could collide with the moon in December 2032.

Earlier, it was thought the asteroid might hit Earth, but the latest trajectory analysis concludes a very little chance of that happening. The asteroid is below the threshold size (140 metres), so it would not be a threat to Earth.

Relevance of the Topic:Prelims: Key facts about Asteroid 2024 YR4; Double Asteroid Redirection Test spacecraft (DART).

About Asteroid 2024 YR4

The 2024 YR4 was first discovered in December 2024 by a telescope in Chile.
It is a near-Earth asteroid measuring 40 to 100 metres across.
It came closest to Earth in December 2024— passing within roughly 800,000 kilometres of Earth, about twice the distance of the moon.
Scientists are using some of the most powerful telescopes to determine 2024 YR4’s path and size before it gets out of sight (becomes too faint to observe).
One AU (Astronomical Unit) is approximately equal to 93 million miles - the distance between the Sun and the Earth.
The closest asteroids which travel within 1.3 AU of the sun are called near-Earth objects (NEO).

If an NEO's orbit also intersects Earth's orbit, and the object is larger than about 140 metres in diameter, then it is classified as a potentially hazardous object (PHO).

The Challenge

Determination of the size of Asteroid:
- To determine the size of an asteroid, astronomers examine the brightness of the object — brighter objects are bigger.
- However, the brightness depends on how reflective the asteroid’s surface is (asteroids do not emit a light of their own, they only reflect sunlight).
- As a result, it is a challenge to distinguish between a large, dark-colored asteroid and a small, highly reflective one.
1% chance of crashing into Earth:
- The 2024 YR4 is expected to release 8 to 10 megatons of energy in case of a crash. Its impact could be 100 times more powerful than an atomic bomb.

What are Asteroids?

Asteroids are rocky remnants from the early formation of our solar system (about 4.6 billion years ago).
They are rocky, metallic, or icy bodies with no atmosphere.
Roughly one million asteroids are known. Majority of them are located between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, in a region known as the main asteroid belt.
- The asteroid belt is a nearly flat ring that contains millions of asteroids, about 1000 kms or less in diameter.
- The largest asteroid in our solar system is Ceres (diameter ~940 kms), which is about one-quarter the size of Earth’s moon.
They are generally classified to be of three types: C-type, M-type, and S-type, i.e., carbonaceous, metallic, and siliceous compositions, respectively.
The first close-up observation of an asteroid was made by the NASA’s Galileo spacecraft (1991).

Asteroids as threats from Space

Thousands of Asteroids enter the Earth’s atmosphere every day. Most are very small and burn up in the atmosphere due to friction.
In some cases, unburnt fragments reach the Earth’s surface, although they are not large enough to cause much damage.
- In 2013, a 20-metre-wide asteroid entered the atmosphere and exploded about 30 km above a Russian town.
- Most of the energy released was absorbed by the atmosphere, however, shock waves travelled to the ground, damaged buildings, trees and injured people.
Space agencies are working on planetary defence mechanisms that can prevent celestial bodies from colliding with Earth with potentially catastrophic consequences.

Planetary Defence Mechanisms:

1. Double Asteroid Redirection Test spacecraft (DART):

DART was the first planetary defence mission of NASA, launched in 2021, to test a method for defending Earth from potentially hazardous asteroids.
Target:
- It targeted the binary asteroid system which consists of a larger asteroid called Didymos and a smaller asteroid called Dimorphos.
- Dimorphos did not pose a threat to Earth, and was circling the Sun some 11 million kilometres away from the planet.
Objective: To intentionally crash the DART spacecraft into Dimorphos to slightly alter its orbit around Didymos.
Impact: In 2022, DART spacecraft crashed into Dimorphos, and successfully changed both its shape and its trajectory.
Significance: The data gathered from DART will help scientists develop more effective strategies for deflecting asteroids that pose a threat to Earth in the future.

2. OSIRIS-APophis EXplorer (OSIRIS-APEX):

NASA has redirected its Space-craft OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security – Regolith Explorer) that previously studied the asteroid Bennu, to track Asteroid Apophis.
OSIRIS-APEX is a mission to study the physical changes to asteroid Apophis that will result from its rare close encounter with Earth in April 2029.
Our planet’s gravitational pull is expected to alter the asteroid’s orbit, change how fast it spins on its axis, and possibly cause quakes or landslides that will alter its surface. OSIRIS-APEX will allow scientists on Earth to observe these changes.
Additionally, the OSIRIS-APEX spacecraft will dip toward the surface of Apophis and fire its engines to kick up loose rocks and dust. This manoeuvre will give scientists a peek at the composition of material just below the asteroid’s surface.