The Observer Volume 18, Issue 19

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The Observer An IIJNM Publication

Women of Kushtagi taluk prefer cloth to sanitary napkins, risking their health |P2

Vol 18 Issue 19

Thursday, February 28, 2019

Future wars will be fought over water says Chief Minister Kumaraswamy |P3

News Briefs National lAn Indian pilot, Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman, was captured by Pakistani forces during a dogfight between fighter jets from the two countries along the Line of Control and continued exchange of crossborder fire after India’s air strikes on a Jaish-e-Mohammed training camp at Balakot in Pakistan. The February 25 pre-dawn raids were carried out to avenge a February 14 suicide attack by a Jaish terrorist. lThe government has capped trade margins of 42 cancer drugs at 30%, expanding the span of price control to reduce undue profiteering by chemists and drug stockists on various medicines on the recommendation from the health ministry. International lDonald Trump‘s former lawyer Michael Cohen has accused the President of being a racist and a conman who used his inner circle to cover up politically damaging allegations about sex. lCanadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has rejected an opposition leader’s demand for his resignation. His former justice minister, Jody Wilson-Raybould, had alleged that government officials inappropriately pressured her to help a major company avoid a corruption trail.

: Hundreds of students from schools in Bengaluru converged at NIMHANS on Thursday to celebrate National Science Day. They went from exhibit to exhibit and admired the work of their counterparts from other schools. National Science Day is celebrated on February 28, the day Sir CV Raman discovered the Raman Effect. (Report on page 3) | Credit: Oisika Dev

Drone tech goes to school

It’s based on DIY kits which students can use Shrabona Ghosh

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tal Tinkering Laboratories (ATL), an initiative under the Niti Aayog’s Atal Innovation Mission, has come up with a drone technology for school students. Called ‘Drone Module: Get, Set, Go’, the technology is based on do-it -yourself kits that students can apply to create innovations.

“With the ATL Drone Module, students will learn how to create their own drones and use them for solving community problems in India,” said Amitabh Kant, CEO of Niti Aayog. A drone is an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). It is an aircraft without a human pilot. R Ramanan, mission director, Atal Innovation Mission, informed The Observer: “Drones have a range of possible applications. It is a wide concept which can be applied by students for a variety of innovations. It is a doit yourself-kit that will help students understand the technology better and apply its in creating innovations.”

Ramanan added: “In the age of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, drones are one of the most promising technologies, integrating the concepts of physics, maths, chemistry, engineering and sensor technologies and creating a tremendous range of innovative solutions that can be developed using them.” The application of drones can range

from transportation, agriculture, climate change, weather forecasting, urban planning, healthcare, mining, defence and surveillance. Drona Aviation, an IIT Bombay startup, has collaborated with the Atal Innovation Mission to launch a drone technology. ATL’s vision is to cultivate one million children in India as “neoteric (new, modern) innovators”. Through ATL, young innovators get access to latest technologies of microelectronics, Internet of Things (IoT), 3D printing, robotics, drone technology and artificial intelligence. Continued on page 3

Post-Brexit, India-UK trade likely to increase

Ileena Dutta

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usiness transactions between India and the United Kingdom are projected to increase after the post-Brexit trade deal that was signed by the Indian and British governments. “Imports and exports will escalate with time and effort between the two countries. We hope that though the number of transactions haven’t changed yet, they will escalate with

time as the UK is one of the leading trading partners of India,” Ganesh Bhagath, pricing senior adviser at Dell, Bengaluru, informed The Observer. A confidential joint UK-India Trade Review that was released to ‘Greenpeace Unearthed’ (the UK’s awardwinning journalism project) stated that India would be among one of the countries that won’t benefit from the post-Brexit deal. But a range of statements by British officials regard-

ing non-tariff barriers suggested that the UK government would strengthen trade bonds with India. “Our company deals in imports and exports from the UK, and (has) observed changes in the demand and supply of goods and business transactions between the two countries in recent times. This will definitely be beneficial in maintaining long-term trade relations and industry expansions,” Sukhvinder Singh, senior manager at Essar Capital, Bengaluru,

said at an event. During talks on free trade agreements, the UK said it would prioritize the markets of major developing countries like India and China. It also decided to unilaterally embrace low or zero tariffs and offer the same to its trading partners. “The frequency of imports and exports and the lowering of tariffs on specific goods have helped us to send and accept more cargo and cultivate reasonably more amount than be-

fore,” Sukhvinder Singh added. According to the website Tradecraft, developing countries trying to increase their processing capacity currently face tariff escalation in higher value products. For example, unroasted green coffee beans do not attract a tariff, but roasted beans attract an ad valorem tariff of 2.6% under the GSP scheme; unroasted decaffeinated coffee attracts a tariff of 4.8% under the scheme. Continued on page 3


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