The Union Cabinet approved a relief package for the ailing telecom sector that includes a 4-year moratorium on adjusted gross revenue (AGR) related dues to provide relief to Vodafone Idea and Bharti Airtel. The package also allows telcos to surrender unused spectrum and includes other measures to ease financial burden. The relief aims to boost 4G proliferation, infuse liquidity, and create an enabling environment for 5G investment to generate employment and promote healthy competition for the benefit of consumers.

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Current Affairs
Helina Missile
Reference News-
The helicopter-launched Nag Anti-Tank Guided Missile (ATGM), Helina, being developed
indigenously, has completed all trials.
About Helina
• Helina is a third-generation, Lock on Before Launch (LOBL) fire and forget class anti-tank
guided missile (ATGM) system.
• It has all- weather day and night operational capabilities.
• It can defeat battle tanks with conventional and explosive reactive armour (ERA).
• It can engage targets both in direct hit mode as well as top attack mode.
About Nag Missile
• Nag is a third-generation; fire-and-forget, anti-tank guided missile developed by DRDO to
support both mechanized infantry and airborne forces of the Indian Army.
• It is an all-weather condition with day and night capabilities and with a minimum range of
500m and a maximum range of 4 km.
• Nag can be launched from land and air-based platforms. The land version is currently available
for integration on the Nag missile carrier (NAMICA).
• DRDO has developed nag Missiles under the Integrated Guided Missile Development Program.
The five missiles (P-A-T-N-A) developed under this program are:
o Prithvi: Short-range surface to surface ballistic missile.
o Agni: Ballistic missiles with different ranges, i.e., Agni (I, II, III, IV, V).
o Trishul: Short-range low-level surface to air missile.
o Nag: 3rd generation anti-tank missile.
o Akash: Medium range surface to air missile.
Energy-efficient Low-C bricks
Reference News: Researchers have developed a technology to produce energy-efficient walling
materials using construction and demolition waste and alkali-activated binders.
Key takeaways
• The researchers developed low embodied carbon bricks from construction and demolition
waste through an alkali activation process using fly ash and ground slag.
• Called Low-C bricks, they do not require high-temperature firing and avoid the use of high-
energy material such as Portland cement.
• The technology will also solve the disposal problems associated with construction and
demolition waste mitigation.

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What is fly ash?
• Fly ash is a fine powder that is a byproduct of burning pulverized coal in electric generation
power plants.
• When mixed with lime and water, fly ash forms a compound similar to Portland cement.
• It is used in concrete and cement products, road base, metal recovery, and mineral filler
among others.
• Fly ash particles are toxic air pollutants. They can trigger heart disease, cancer, respiratory
diseases and stroke.
Humboldt Penguin
Reference News:
Two new Humboldt penguin chicks, join seven adult Humboldt penguins at Mumbai’s Byculla Zoo.
About Humboldt penguins
• Humboldt penguin is named after the cold ocean
current, known as Humboldt Current.
o Humboldt Current, also called the Peru Current, is
a cold, low-salinity ocean current that flows north
along the western coast of South America.
• Habitat: Humboldt penguin is a South American
penguin that breeds in coastal Chile and Peru.
• When not raising chicks, these penguins have been
known to travel long distances at sea to find food.
• Humboldt penguins can breed at any time of year.
• IUCN status: Vulnerable
Shankhalipi script
Reference news-
Recently, Archeologists of Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) have found ‘Shankhalipi’ inscriptions
on the stairs on an ancient temple dating back to the Gupta period in Uttar Pradesh’s Etah district.
• Bilsarh, in Etah-Uttar Pradesh, where the remains were found has been a protected site
from the colonial times and is a known Gupta period settlement.
Key findings
• The ‘shankhalipi’ inscriptions were deciphered by the archaeologists as saying, ‘Sri
Mahendraditya’, the title of Kumaragupta I of the Gupta dynasty.

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• The discovery becomes significant since only two other structural temples from the Gupta
age have been found so far — Dashavatara Temple (Deogarh) and Bhitargaon Temple
(Kanpur Dehat).
About the Shankhalipi script
• This script is assumed to be Brahmi derivatives that look like conch shells or shankhas.
• They are found in inscriptions across North-Central India and date to between the 4th and 8th
centuries.
• The inscriptions consist of a small number of characters, suggesting that the shell inscriptions
are names or auspicious symbols or a combination of the two.
• The script was discovered in 1836 on a brass trident in Uttarakhand’s Barahat by English
scholar James Prinsep.
• Prominent sites with shell inscriptions include the Mundeshwari Temple in Bihar, the
Udayagiri Caves in Madhya Pradesh, Mansar in Maharashtra and some of the cave sites of
Gujarat and Maharashtra.
• The shell inscriptions are also reported in Indonesia’s Java and Borneo.
Kumaragupta I of the Gupta dynasty
• The Guptas were the first to build structural
temples, distinctly different from the ancient rock-
cut temples.
• Kumaragupta I was the son of Chandragupta II and
grandson of the Great Samudragupta of Gupta
dynasty.
• He built the world famous ancient Nalanda
University.
• Among the Gupta kings, he issued the largest
varieties of coins.
World Bank Stops ‘Ease of Doing Business’ Report
Reference News-
The World Bank would discontinue the practice of issuing ‘Doing Business report’ following an
investigation reported “data irregularities” in its 2018 and 2020 editions (released in 2017 and
2019, respectively) and possible “ethical matters” involving bank staff.
• It will be working on a new approach to assessing the business and investment climate.
About Ease of Doing Business Report
• The report was introduced in 2003 to provide an assessment of objective measures of
business regulations and their enforcement across 190 economies on ten parameters
affecting a business through its life cycle.

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• Notably, in three reports, released in 2017, 2018 and 2019, India ranked among the top 10
economies showing “the most notable improvement”.
About World Bank
• It was created in 1944, as the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD)
along with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
o The IBRD later became the World Bank.
• It works for sustainable solutions that reduce poverty and build shared prosperity in developing
countries.
• Major reports:
o Ease of Doing Business.
o Human Capital Index.
o World Development Report.
• Its Five development institutions:
o International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD): provides loans, credits, and
grants.
o International Development Association (IDA): provides low- or no-interest loans to low-
income countries.
o International Finance Corporation (IFC): provides investment, advice, and asset
management to companies and governments.
o Multilateral Guarantee Agency (MIGA): insures lenders and investors against political risk
such as war.
o International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID): settles investment-
disputes between investors and countries.
Parker Solar Probe:
Reference News-
Scientists using data from NASA’s Parker Solar Probe have assembled the most complete picture
yet of the inner structure and behavior of the large cloud of space dust, known as the zodiacal
cloud, that swirls throughout the solar system.
They found three dust populations in the cloud:
1. Most of the grains are being slowly pulled in toward the Sun (alpha-meteoroids).
2. The second population is generated as grains in the swirling cloud collide, creating
fragments so small that they are pushed out of the solar system in all directions by pressure
from sunlight (beta-meteoroids).
3. A third group, probably created when a “tube” of cometary debris collides with grains from
the first two populations, is scattered out in a distinctive wedge shape.

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What are zodiacal clouds?
• The sources of zodiacal clouds/interplanetary dust particles (IDPs) include at least: asteroid
collisions, cometary activity and collisions in the inner Solar System, Kuiper belt collisions,
and interstellar medium grains.
• It scatters sunlight in a way that can be seen with the naked eye, but only on very dark,
clear nights, as moonlight or light from cities both easily outshine it.
• Thickest near the sun and thinnest near the edges of the solar system, the zodiacal cloud
looks smooth to the naked eye, but infrared wavelengths reveal bright streaks and ribbons
that can be traced back to their sources: comets and asteroids.
About the mission:
• NASA’s historic Parker Solar Probe mission will revolutionize our understanding of the sun,
where changing conditions can propagate out into the solar system, affecting Earth and
other worlds.
• Parker Solar Probe will travel through the sun’s atmosphere, closer to the surface than any
spacecraft before it, facing brutal heat and radiation conditions — and ultimately providing
humanity with the closest-ever observations of a star.
Journey:
In order to unlock the mysteries of the sun’s atmosphere, Parker Solar Probe will use Venus’
gravity during seven flybys over nearly seven years to gradually bring its orbit closer to the sun.
The spacecraft will fly through the sun’s atmosphere as close as 3.9 million miles to our star’s
surface, well within the orbit of Mercury and more than seven times closer than any spacecraft has
come before.
Parker Solar Probe has three detailed science objectives:
1. Trace the flow of energy that heats and accelerates the solar corona and solar wind.
2. Determine the structure and dynamics of the plasma and magnetic fields at the sources of
the solar wind.
3. Explore mechanisms that accelerate and transport energetic particles.
G-33
• The G33 (or the Friends of Special Products in agriculture) is a coalition of developing
countries, established prior to the 2003 Cancun ministerial conference, that have
coordinated during the Doha Round of World Trade Organization negotiations, specifically
in regard to agriculture.
• There are currently 47 members in the G33.
• The group has “defensive” concerns regarding agriculture in relation to WTO negotiations,
and seeks to limit the degree of market opening required of developing countries.

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• The group has advocated the creation of a “special products” exemption, which would allow
developing countries to exempt certain products from tariff reductions, and also a “special
safeguard mechanism” which would permit tariff increases in response to import surges.
• India is a member of this group.
Daily Topic
A relief package to lift India’s Telecom gloom
Reference News-
The Union Cabinet has approved a crucial plan to provide relief to the ailing telecom sector.
The relief package will provide much-needed relief to telecom companies like Vodafone Idea and
Bharti Airtel.
As per earlier reports, the relief package is likely to include a four-year moratorium on
adjusted gross revenue (AGR) related dues besides allowing telecom firms to surrender unused
spectrum.
The relief package will also include some other measures that will further ease the burden on
telcos.
The relief package will primarily provide relief to Vodafone Idea, which is on the brink
of going bankrupt.
A moratorium on AGR-related dues will offer space to the cash-strapped company to improve its
business and clear dues over a longer period.
About Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR) in Telecom Sector:
Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR) is the usage and licensing fee that telecom operators are charged
by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT).
The AGR directly impacts the outgo from the pockets of telcos to the DoT as it is used to calculate
the levies payable by operators.
It is divided into spectrum usage charges and licensing fees, pegged between 3-5 percent
and 8 percent respectively. The definition of AGR has been under litigation for 14 years.
While telecom companies argued that it should comprise revenue from telecom services, the
DoT’s stand was that the AGR should include all revenue earned by an operator, including that
from non-core telecom operations.
Currently, telecom operators pay 8% of the AGR as licence fee, while spectrum usage
charges (SUC) vary between 3-5% of AGR.
Why Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR) has been a contentious issue?
1. When the AGR issue, first went under litigation there were about 15 operators. However,
until now 10 of them have either closed operations or are undergoing insolvency proceedings
in the last 14 years.
2. Further, at the current juncture, profits for telcos are under pressure from severe
competition and the falling ARPUs (Average Revenue Per User).

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3. Given this, AGR due will seriously hurt financial stability of whatever telecom companies are
doing business in the Indian market.
4. Also, Telecom equipment suppliers may also go down as their dues will not be paid.
5. In 2019, the Supreme Court of India upheld the Department of Telecom (DoT)’s interpretation
of Adjusted Gross revenue (AGR).
6. This meant a huge blow to telecom service providers, as the telcos had to pay an estimated
₹1.4 lakh crore to the government.
7. The definition of AGR has been such a contentious issue because it has huge financial
implications for not only telcos, government but on the Indian economy at large.
Government choses reforms in Telecom sector:
1. In the backdrop of the outstanding performance of the Telecom Sector in meeting COVID-
19 challenges, with huge surge in data consumption, online education, work from home,
interpersonal connect through social media, virtual meetings etc., the Reform measures will
further boost the proliferation and penetration of broadband and telecom connectivity.
2. The Cabinet decision reinforces the Prime Minister’s vision of a robust Telecom Sector.
3. With competition and customer choice, antyodaya for inclusive development and bringing
the marginalized areas into the mainstream and universal broadband access to connect the
unconnected.
4. The package is also expected to boost 4G proliferation, infuse liquidity and create
an enabling environment for investment in 5G networks.
5. A number of structural and process reforms in the Telecom sector. These are expected
to protect and generate employment opportunities, promote healthy competition, protect
interests of consumers, infuse liquidity, encourage investment and reduce regulatory
burden on Telecom Service Providers (TSPs).
Structural Reforms by the government:
1. Rationalization of Adjusted Gross Revenue: Non-telecom revenue will be excluded on
prospective basis from the definition of AGR.
2. Bank Guarantees (BGs) rationalized: Huge reduction in BG requirements (80%) against
License Fee (LF) and other similar Levies. No requirements for multiple BGs in different
Licenced Service Areas (LSAs) regions in the country. Instead, One BG will be enough.
3. Interest rates rationalized/ Penalties removed: From 1st October, 2021, Delayed payments
of License Fee (LF)/Spectrum Usage Charge (SUC) will attract interest rate of SBI’s MCLR
plus 2% instead of MCLR plus 4%; interest compounded annually instead of monthly;
penalty and interest on penalty removed.
4. For Auctions held henceforth, no BGs will be required to secure instalment payments.
Industry has matured and the past practice of BG is no longer required.
5. Spectrum Tenure: In future Auctions, tenure of spectrum increased from 20 to 30 years.
6. Surrender of spectrum will be permitted after 10 years for spectrum acquired in the future
auctions.
7. No Spectrum Usage Charge (SUC) for spectrum acquired in future spectrum auctions.

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8. Spectrum sharing encouraged- additional SUC of 0.5% for spectrum sharing removed.
9. To encourage investment, 100% Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) under automatic route
permitted in Telecom Sector.
However, concerns that need to be take care:
1. Gross revenue has dropped by 15% to 20% for the year 2017-18 over the preceding year for
the incumbents and overall sector revenue has dropped. Also, there is drop in voice and
data revenue per user.
2. Service providers have to incur huge initial fixed cost to enter semirural and rural areas. Key
reasons behind these costs are lack of basic infrastructure like power and roads, resulting in
delays in rolling out the infrastructure.
3. The change in definition of AGR that will reduce the burden on telcos, applies only
prospectively, so those past dues remain payable.
4. While it provides time to put their house in order, the telcos’ overall liability does not come
down and ultimately they will have to raise tariffs to generate sufficient cash flows. AGR
dues will have to be paid with interest.
5. A long-standing demand for the government’s intervention in setting telecom floor tariffs,
as it has done in the civil aviation sector to protect competition, did not find a place in the
relief package.
6. Available spectrum is less than 40% as compared to European nations and 50% as
compared to China. Hence, it is imperative that spectrum auctioning at sustainable prices is
the need of the hour.
7. Also, government auction spectrum at an exorbitant cost which makes it difficult for mobile
operators to provide services at reasonable speeds.
8. However, the government was keen on ensuring that there were more players in the
sector and customer retaining choices. Competition in the sector will always lead to better
prices and better technology.
Conclusion:
Enhanced accessibility of the broadband services will enable the digital empowerment of India,
hence adequate steps must be taken by the government to strengthen the overall telecom sector.
The government needs to actively facilitate shared infrastructure with policies and legislation.
One way is through consortiums for network development and management, charging for usage
by authorized operators.
The telecom industry is crucial to India’s next wave of growth through digitalisation and the
government should not be blinded by short-term revenue considerations that imperil long-term
prospects.

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Questions of the day
1. Which ministry has launched a Pan-India
Special Campaign called “Ek Pahal Drive?”
(a) Ministry of Law and Justice
(b) Ministry of Rural Development
(c) Ministry of Corporate Affairs
(d) Ministry of Finance
2. Which organization has signed a
Memorandum of Understanding (MoU)
with the Convergence Energy Services
Limited (CESL) for installing public
charging station for electric vehicles?
(a) Calcutta Electric Supply Corporation
(b) Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation
Limited
(c) Bangalore Electricity Supply Company
Limited
(d) Punjab Energy Development Agency
3. With which organization, NITI Aayog has
partnered to provide free access to
education to students in 112 Aspirational
Districts in India?
(a) Unacademy
(b) BYJU
(c) Tata Institute of Fundamental
Research
(d) IIT Kanpur
4. The Indian High Commission located in
which country has celebrated the 57th
Indian Technical and Economic
Cooperation (ITEC) day?
(a) Australia
(b) Qatar
(c)
(d) Bangladesh
(e) South Korea
5. Which organization has decided to train
50,000 youths under a recently launched
scheme?
(a) NITI Aayog
(b) Ministry of Railways
(c) Prasar Bharati
(d) Ministry of Finance