Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 27 March 2017

:: National ::

The government is set to change a four-decade-old definition of blindness

• The government is set to change a four-decade-old definition of blindness to bring it in line with the WHO criteria and ensure that the Indian data on blindness meets the global estimates.

• As defined under the National Programme for Control of Blindness (NPCB), a person unable to count fingers from a distance of six metres is categorised as “blind” in India, against the WHO’s stipulation of three metres.

• “We will bring the definition of blindness at par with the WHO’s criteria. Because of the current definition, we project a higher figure of blind people from India at any international forum. Thus India gets presented in a poor light compared to other countries.

• Also, she said, the data “we generate under the programme cannot be compared with the global estimates as other countries are following the WHO criteria.”

Property will have a unique ID

• Soon, your property will have a 10-digit unique ID.

• The number,which will be geo-referenced with the latitude and longitude of the property, will replace your existing PID number.

Civil nuclear agreement between India and U.S. still in doubt (Register and Login to read Full News)

:: International ::

British government wants access to encrypted messaging applications

• The British government said that its security services must have access to encrypted messaging applications such as WhatsApp, revealing it was used by the killer behind the Parliament attack.

• Khalid Masood, the 52-year-old Briton who killed four people before being shot dead in a rampage in Westminster, reportedly used the Facebook-owned service moments before the assault.

• Home Secretary Amber Rudd told Sky News it was “completely unacceptable” that police and security services had not been able to crack the heavily encrypted service.

• Police said that they still do not know why Masood, a Muslim convert with a violent criminal past, carried out the attack and said it was likely that he acted alone, despite a claim by the Islamic State (IS).

• End-to-end encryption was vital to cybersecurity, to ensure that business, banking and other transactions were safe — but it must also be accessible.

:: Science and Technology ::

Tupolev-142M anti-submarine warfare aircraft to be decommissioned

• The Navy’s iconic Tupolev-142M anti-submarine warfare aircraft will be decommissioned.

• The planes have been the mainstay in guarding the Indian Ocean region for almost three decades.

• The Soviet-era aircraft, one of the most formidable airborne reconnaissance platforms around the world, has been part of major operations since its induction in 1988.

India in discussions with Sri Lanka and several Southeast Asian nations for Dhruv (Register and Login to read Full News)

:: Business and Economy ::

Only 14% of the airports and airstrips are equiped

• A study by Crisil Research has found that only about 60 out of the more than 414 identified un-served and underserved regional airports have the necessary infrastructure to support flight operations.

• In other words, only 14% of the airports and airstrips listed under the scheme are equipped to handle small aircraft, that is up to ATR 42.

• Besides, the study has indicated that a passenger load factor (PLF) of about 50-60% would be required to break-even at the EBITDA level even though the government has offered subsidies to operate flights on regional connectivity scheme (RCS) routes.

• These are some of the major challenges to operator participation in the scheme.

• Though domestic passenger traffic in India has grown 10% a year in the five fiscal years ended 2016, to 85 million annually, it is concentrated in the 6 metro airports, which account for about 65% of the total domestic passenger traffic.

• In October 2016, the Government released the final RCS note, just months after a draft was circulated for stakeholder consultation. Under this, airfares for a given distance are locked and are subject to a quarterly revision based on CPI inflation.

• Since these are not high-passenger traffic routes and require deployment of small aircraft that are costlier to operate, the government has decided to encourage the players by providing several incentives, as seen in the table.

• But going by the findings of the research study, only up to 60 airports / airstrips including 12 underserved ones are infrastructure-ready.

• They have the required runway length of up to 1,600 metres that can handle an ATR 42 operation and the terminal buildings.

• These 55-60 airports could see an investment of Rs. 50-100 crore per airport for expansion and modernisation to facilitate aircraft operations and passengers, depending on the airlines’ interest, she said.

• As of January 2017, 19 states had consented to the mplementation of the scheme.

• Of these 11 — Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Mizoram, Puducherry, Uttarakhand and West Bengal — have signed memoranda of understanding.

• Though subsidies are offered to operate on RCS routes, Crisil’s analysis indicates a PLF of 50-60% is required to breakeven at the EBITDA level, assuming the highest possible revenue per RCS seat for a stage length of 500-525 km.

• VGF bidding is a very crucial part of the scheme as it would determine the profitability of the airline. RCS routes will be allocated to airlines on the basis of reverse bidding for VGF (ie, the lowest bid wins).

• As per the scheme, airlines flying RCS routes should allocate 50% of the seat capacity as RCS seats, subject to a minimum of 9 and a maximum of 40 seats. The airfare cap and VGF will be applicable only to these seats.

• These seats are also not subject to any levies or charges imposed by airport operators, which account for about 10-15% of the ticket price at metro airports.

• The budgeted subsidies for regional aviation in China have risen from about $70 million in 2013 to $148 million in 2016.

• This is similar to India’s planned VGF collections of about Rs. 500-600 crore per annum (assuming the levy is charged on existing fleet mix) of which 20% is funded by the state government and the rest through a levy on flights on non-RCS routes.

Airport charges across all non-major airports are raised

• Airfares are set to go up as the government has decided to raise airport charges across all non-major airports operated by Airports Authority of India (AAI) by 5% every year beginning April 1.

• This is the second time the government has raised airport charges in the last five months. The passenger service fee, which is charged as a part of air ticket fare, will increase from Rs. 85 per passenger at present to Rs. 89 in 2017-18.

• The fee will subsequently be increased to Rs. 93 in 2018-19 and Rs. 98 per passenger in 2019-20, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said, following the Civil Aviation Ministry’s decision on March 15.

• The raise in fares will be applicable on non-major airports such as Amritsar, Nagpur, Bagdogra, Madurai, Vijayawada, Jammu, Vadodara, among others, which handle an annual traffic of less than 15 lakh.

• Besides, the user development fee at Amritsar, Udaipur, Trichy and Varanasi airports have been raised from Rs. 165 at present to Rs. 173 in 2017-18.

• A passenger service fee is charged by the airport operator for providing services such as baggage trolleys, escalators, air conditioning at airport terminals, conveyor belt systems for baggage, wi-fi systems, public address systems and other facilities.

• The civil aviation ministry has also mandated a 5% annual increase in landing, parking and route navigation charges at all AAI airports for the next three years to be paid by airlines, which are likely to pass on the burden to consumers.

• Major domestic airlines had opposed the airport fee hike implemented in December as it constituted 10% of their total operational cost.

• The Centre has framed a regional connectivity scheme under which airfares will be capped at Rs. 2,500 for an hour’s flight operated from under-served airports by offering subsidy along with various tax and airport concessions to airlines.

• The International Air Transport Association (IATA) had criticised the government for lack of consultation on the raise in airport tariff ordered in December.

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