August 25, 2025

Current Affairs

Role of Decoys in Contemporary Warfare

Context: In contemporary warfare, as jets, tanks, and warships have become more sophisticated; the methods used to shield them from detection and attack have greatly evolved. Decoys have emerged as vital tools to protect assets through deception.

Relevance of the Topic: Prelims & Mains: Decoys - working, applications, examples; Role of Decoys in Contemporary warfare.

What are Decoys ?

A decoy in warfare is a deliberately created false target (physical or electronic) that imitates real military assets with the objective of misleading enemy sensors and weapons, thereby protecting actual platforms, wasting adversary munitions, and buying time for counteraction.

Types of Decoys in Modern Warfare

Airborne Decoys:
- Fibre-Optic Towed Decoys (FOTD): E.g., Rafael’s X-Guard, Raytheon’s AN/ALE-50/55.
- Expendable Active Decoys (EAD): E.g., Leonardo’s BriteCloud, that imitate aircraft signatures.
- Stand-in Decoys: E.g., US MALD series, acting as mini-jammers or fake aircraft.
Land-Based Decoys: Inflatable tanks, artillery, or missile batteries with radar/thermal emissions. E.g., Russia’s Inflatech, Ukraine’s wooden/3D-printed systems, US Army’s fake vehicles.
Naval Decoys: Chaff, acoustic emitters, and self-propelled active decoys. E.g.,
- Nulka (Australia-US), mimicking large vessels to mislead anti-ship missiles.
- India: Kavach (chaff decoy) & Maareech (anti-torpedo system).

India’s Deployment of Decoys

X-Guard Fibre-Optic Towed Decoy (FOTD):
- During Operation Sindoor, the Indian Air Force reportedly deployed the X-Guard Fibre-Optic Towed Decoy (FOTD) on its Rafale jets.
- These decoys are believed to have misled Pakistan’s J-10C fighters and their PL-15E beyond-visual-range missiles, resulting in false kill claims by the adversary.
- Integrated with the SPECTRA Electronic Warfare (EW) suite, the X-Guard provided an additional protective layer, enhancing the survivability of Rafales.
- Following the operation, the Ministry of Defence began fast-tracking the emergency procurement of additional X-Guard units to strengthen the Air Force’s defensive capabilities.
T-90 Tank Decoys: In 2025, the Indian Army issued a Request for Information (RFI) to domestic vendors for the development of T-90 tank decoys. These decoys are required to replicate not only the physical dimensions but also the thermal and acoustic signatures of real tanks.
Kavach Decoy System: Indian Navy has inducted the Kavach decoy system, designed to protect warships by diverting radar-guided anti-ship missiles.
Maareech Advanced Torpedo Defence System (ATDS): Indian Navy has also operationalised the Maareech Advanced Torpedo Defence System (ATDS), jointly developed by DRDO and BEL, which detects incoming torpedoes and deploys decoys to neutralise them effectively.

Role of Decoys in Contemporary Warfare:

Protection of High-Value Assets: Decoys act as the first line of defence for expensive platforms like fighter jets, tanks, and warships. E.g., Indian Air Force reportedly used X-Guard Fibre-Optic Towed Decoys on Rafales during Operation Sindoor to protect jets from Pakistan’s J-10C fighters and PL-15E missiles.
Confusing and Misleading Enemy Sensors: They replicate radar, thermal, and acoustic signatures to misguide surveillance and targeting systems. E.g., X-Guard mimics a Rafale’s radar cross-section and Doppler velocity, making it hard for missiles to distinguish between real and fake targets.
Wastage of Enemy Munitions: By drawing enemy fire onto false targets, decoys force adversaries to expend costly missiles and bombs. E.g., Ukraine has used wooden and 3D-printed decoys of artillery and missile systems to make Russia waste drones and precision strikes.
Buying Time for Counteraction: Decoys delay enemy decision-making and create windows for evasion or retaliation. E.g., In naval warfare, Australia-US Nulka active decoy draws incoming missiles away from warships, giving them time to maneuver or launch countermeasures.
Force Multiplication in Ground Warfare: Ground decoys simulate massed formations, creating the illusion of greater strength. E.g., Russia’s Inflatech decoys can quickly create fake tank or artillery formations; Indian Army in 2025 issued an RFI for T-90 tank decoys with thermal and acoustic signatures to deceive drones.
Multi-Layered Defence Systems: Decoys work in tandem with Electronic Warfare (EW) suites to form a layered shield. E.g.,
- On Rafales, SPECTRA EW suite + X-Guard FOTD together provide both onboard jamming and an external trailing shield.
- Indian Navy’s Kavach chaff system and Maareech ATDS provide similar protection against radar-guided missiles and torpedoes.
Psychological and Strategic Impact: Decoys undermine the enemy’s confidence in their own sensors and kill claims, adding to the fog of war.

Decoys, across air, land, and sea, have become indispensable to modern war fighting. For a relatively low investment, they deliver high-impact protection.

How Haryana’s new ‘dictionary meaning of forest’ will affect the Aravallis?

Context: While following the directive of the Supreme Court to identify forests, the state government of Haryana has notified new definition of forest in the state. However, the environmental activists express concern that the new definition of forest would exclude most of the state’s remaining Aravalli forests from legal protection under the Forest Conservation Act.

Relevance of the topic:

Prelims: Definition of Forest; Forest Conservation Act 1980; T.N. Godavarman judgment.

Mains: Issues in defining forests; challenges in balancing conservation with development.

Supreme Court Directive

The Supreme Court, while hearing challenges to the 2023 amendment to the Forest (Conservation) Act in the Ashok Kumar Sharma vs Union of India case, directed all States and Union Territories to define what constitutes a “forest” and begin surveys to identify such areas.
It mandated the formation of expert committees within one month to map “forest-like areas,” “unclassified forests,” and “community forests,” and required these reports to be submitted to the Centre within six months.

Haryana’s definition of Forests

In a recent notification, Haryana’s Environment, Forest and Wildlife department stated: A patch of land shall be deemed to be ‘forest as per dictionary meaning’, if it fulfils following conditions:
- It has a minimum area of five hectares (if it is in isolation).
- It has a minimum area of two hectares (if it is in contiguity with the government notified forests); and
- It has a canopy density of 0.4 (40%) or more.
All linear/ compact / agro-forestry plantations and orchards situated outside the government notified forests shall not be treated as forests under the above definition.

Criticism of Haryana’s Definition:

High Canopy Density Threshold (40%):
- Environmentalists argue that Haryana’s definition creates an unreasonably high threshold for recognising land as forest.
- The requirement of a minimum canopy density of 40% is seen as problematic because the Aravallis naturally consist of scrub and thorn forests adapted to low rainfall conditions of 300-600 millimetres annually.
- These ecosystems, though ecologically valuable, would fail to meet the high canopy density criterion and thus risk exclusion from legal protection under the FCA.
Large Minimum Area Requirement (2-5 hectares): In a dry state like Haryana, smaller forest patches are ecologically significant. The threshold of 2-5 hectares is unreasonably high and risks ignoring these smaller but vital ecosystems.
Exclusion of Plantations and Orchards: Excluding plantations and orchards from the definition of forests undermines their ecological contributions such as soil conservation, carbon sequestration, and micro-climate regulation.

By setting such restrictive thresholds, Haryana’s definition risks excluding large portions of the Aravallis from legal protection under the Forest Conservation Act (FCA).

Forest Conservation Act 1980:

Enacted in 1980 to check rapid deforestation. Aimed at maintaining ecological balance, preserving biodiversity, and preventing indiscriminate diversion of forests for non-forests produce without the prior approval of the Centre.

Definition of Forest

In 1996, the Supreme Court in T.N. Godavarman v. The Union of India ruled that the word “forest” under the Forest Conservation Act 1980 must be understood in its dictionary meaning, covering all statutorily recognised forests i.e., reserved, protected, or otherwise. This landmark judgment meant that any forested land irrespective of size, ownership, or official status could be deemed a forest, thereby expanding the scope of the FCA.
Criticism: This broad interpretation of forest was later criticised for obstructing even small-scale developmental and public utility projects.
Forest (Conservation) Amendment Act, 2023: To address this, the 2023 amendment to the FCA restricted its applicability only to:
- Notified forests, and
- Lands recorded as “forest” in government documents.

The amendment was challenged by retired IFS officers and NGOs like Vanashakti and Goa Foundation, who argued it diluted the Act and weakened protections.

Gender Disparity in Organ Transplants in India

Context: The National Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation (NOTTO) recently issued a direction stating that women patients and relatives of deceased donors will receive priority in organ allocation. This is part of a 10-point advisory aimed at addressing gender disparity in organ transplants and encouraging donations.

Relevance of the Topic: Prelims: State of Organ Donation in India and world.Mains: Gender Disparity in Organ Transplants in India.

India’s Organ Transplant Paradox

A study in the British Medical Journal titled “India’s organ transplant paradox: women donate the most and receive the least” highlighted striking imbalances:

Between 2019 and 2023, 63.8% of all living organ donors in India were women. In the same period, men accounted for 69.8% of all organ recipients, showing a stark gender gap.
Out of 56,509 living organ donations made in the last five years, 36,038 donations came from women. However, only 17,041 transplants were performed on women, while 39,447 transplants went to men.

This indicates that women form the majority of donors but remain a minority among recipients.

Legal Framework for Organ Donation in India:

The Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissues Act (THOTA) 1994 provides the basic legal framework for organ donation and transplantation in India.
The Act permits organ donation by both living donors and deceased (brain-stem dead) donors, subject to strict medical and ethical conditions.
It prohibits commercial trade in human organs, making buying or selling of organs a punishable offence with stringent financial and judicial penalties.
An amendment in 2011 expanded the scope of the law to include the donation of human tissues.

The Act has established the National Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation (NOTTO) as the apex body to oversee Organ donation. All hospitals engaged in organ retrieval or transplantation be registered and linked with NOTTO.

Status of Organ Donation:

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO) around 1,30,000 solid organ transplants are performed worldwide each year, but this meets only about 10% of the global demand.
Countries with streamlined donor systems and higher public awareness, such as Spain and the U.S., have achieved much better organ donation rates.
In India, the demand-supply gap is severe. Every year, nearly 1.8 lakh people develop end-stage kidney disease, but only around 12,000 kidney transplants are performed. Due to this shortage, a large number of patients are forced to remain on dialysis or face premature death.
An organ donor can save up to eight lives through organ donation and can help many more through tissue donation such as corneas, skin, and bones.

However, lack of awareness, cultural myths, and hesitation to discuss organ donation within families remain the biggest obstacles in organ donation.

GST Rate Rationalisation: Two slab GST proposal gets GoM nod

Context: The Group of Ministers (GoM) on Rate Rationalisation formed by the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council has decided to accept the Centre’s two-rate structure proposal for GST. Final decisions on all matters pertaining to GST are taken by the GST Council, as GoMs are only recommendatory bodies.

Earlier, the former Chief Economic Adviser has emphasised the need for simplification of GST structure and rate rationalisation.

Relevance of the Topic:Prelims: Features of GST; GST Rate Rationalisation. Mains: Challenges in GST Implementation.

Features of Goods and Services Tax:

GST is a single tax levied on the supply of goods and services across all stages of the supply chain (right from the manufacturer to the consumer).

GST subsumes multiple state and central taxes:

Excise duty
Service tax
Additional excise duty
Additional customs duty
States sales tax
Entertainment tax
Octroi tax (Entry tax)

GST has dual tax structure:
- CGST (Central GST) goes to the Central Government.
- SGST (State GST) goes to the state government, in which the sale is taking place.
GST is a destination based tax. During interstate trade, tax is imposed by the state (importing state) in which the consumption takes place instead of the state which supplied the goods/service.
Rate slabs: There are four primary tax rates (5%, 12%, 18%, and 28%) under GST.

GST Rate Rationalisation

The GST reforms will simplify the tax structure, reduce disputes on classification of products and also boost consumption. They include:

Elimination of two tax slabs of 12% and 28% in the current GST structure and retention of the 5% and 18% tax rates. This would entail 99% of the items in the 12% slab moving to 5%, and 90% of the items in the 28% slab moving to 18%.
Special slab of 40% for luxury and sin goods: Ultra-luxury goods (like high-end cars) along with sin goods and services such as tobacco, cigarettes, and online real-money gaming would be moved to a higher 40% slab. However, the compensation cess currently being levied on the items in the 28% slab would no longer apply.
Proposed exemption of individual life and health insurance premiums from the 18% goods and services tax (GST) slab to nil.

Final decisions on all matters pertaining to GST are taken by the GST Council, as GoMs are only recommendatory bodies. The date of the next GST Council meeting is expected to take place in early September 2025.

Significance:

Bring down tax burden on consumers: The proposed shift of most items from 12% slab to 5% and from 28% slab to 18% eases costs and enhances affordability for households.
- The GST rate of essential items (food, cloth) is expected to decline to 5% from 12%, the CPI inflation in this category may also come down by 10-15 bps after considering a 60% pass through effect on food items.
- Rationalisation of GST rates of services will lead to another 5-10 bps reduction in CPI inflation on other goods and service items, considering a 25% pass through effect.
Spur growth of MSMEs: Lower GST slabs will have a subsequent multiplier effect because of lower reduced logistics costs and simplified compliance, especially for MSMEs.
Makes goods competitive: A lower GST rate for both the final products and their inputs would make Indian goods competitive in global markets.
GST exemption would provide significant relief to millions of Indians currently paying 18% GST on both life and health insurance premiums.

GST reforms align with the government’s broader agenda of growth and financial inclusion.

Concerns of GST Rate Rationalisation:

Revenue loss to states due to rationalisation: Earlier rate rationalisation by the GST Council has brought down the effective weighted average GST rate from 14.4% to around 11.6%. With the current rationalisation of rates the effective weighted average GST rate is believed to further come down to 9.5%.
- Positive scenario: Lower GST slabs will encourage consumption in the states, lead to higher sales volumes and can partly make up for lower rates.
- Negative scenario: If consumption growth is not high enough, this will lower the GST revenue of the state (unless compensated by the Central government). According to an SBI research report, estimated revenue loss due to the changes could be ₹85,000 crore per annum and around ₹45,000 crore in the current financial year.
Burden on exchequer: GST exemption would cost the exchequer an estimated ₹9,700 crore in annual revenue.

However, since more than 70% GST collections come from 18% slab (which is not proposed to be changed in general) the revenue impact of GST cuts may be limited, particularly because reduced prices will spur demand.

There should be a comprehensive discussion on the possibility of loss in revenue for the States due to GST rate rationalisation. If the States incur any losses due to rationalisation, there should be a mechanism to compensate the States and preserve revenue neutrality.

Also Read: Challenges in GST Implementation