Morning Brief: India Saved Rs 1 Lakh Crore In Coal Import Bill In Last Four Years; To Get ‘Lean And Mean’, Indian Army Plans To Cut 150,000 Jobs; And Other News

Good morning, dear reader! Here’s your morning news brief for today.

India Saved Rs 1 Lakh Crore In Coal Import Bill In Last Four Years

In the last four years, India’s coal import bill has come down nearly Rs 1 lakh crore. This is mainly due to a sharp decline in the shipments brought in by the power sector - accounting for 76 per cent of the total demand for coal in the country. The decline, according to an internal paper prepared by the Ministry of Coal, has been registered as a result of rising domestic production and improved quality control. According to the paper, India’s imports shrank from 91.29 million tonne (MT) in 2014-15 to 56.41 MT in 2017-18 even as power generation from coal-fired stations grew at nearly 5 per cent a year during this period.

In comparison, imports by the power sector rose by nearly 10 per cent annually between 2010-11 and 2013-14, when the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance was in power. The decline in shipments directed towards India has not affected the power generation as domestic coal production rose by 110 MT between 2014-15 and 2017-18 against 31 MT in the preceding four years. Quality control has also brought down coal requirement by 40 to 50 MT.

To Get ‘Lean And Mean’, Indian Army Plans To Cut 150,000 Jobs

The Indian Army is planning to cut around 150,000 jobs in the next four to five years to become a leaner and meaner fighting force, Hindustan Times has reported. A cadre review by an 11-member panel, headed by the military secretary Lieutenant General J S Sandhu, is currently underway. The panel is likely to make a presentation to Army Chief General Bipin Rawat on its findings by the month-end and submit its final report in November. According to an official cited in the report, the Army may be able to cut 150,000 jobs by 2022-23.

According to the report, the reduction will be achieved by revamping different verticals including logistics units, communications establishments, repair facilities and other administrative and support areas. However, retired officers have said that downsizing of the force should be done in parallel with the induction of highly sophisticated technical equipment to offset the effect on preparedness. (Read: Why It Is Important For The Army To Cut Numbers)

Google Agrees To Comply With RBI’s Data Localisation Norms

Google has agreed to comply with the data localisation norms set by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), under which the tech giant will have to store a copy of all personal information of its Indian customers on servers within the country. The bank has set 15 October as the deadline for payment system operators to comply with this requirement to continue operations in India. The rule will affect companies like Visa, American Express, Facebook, PayPal, and Mastercard. Some of these companies currently have limited storage in India.

Google’s chief executive officer Sundar Pichai recently met IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad at the company’s headquarters and sought an extension of the deadline to allow it to put in place the required infrastructure. Trade groups representing companies such as Amazon, American Express and Microsoft, have opposed India’s push to store data locally. (Read: Big Tech Using Uncle Sam To Pressure India On Data; We Must Tell Them To Take A Walk)

Scientists Looking For Extraterrestrial Life Find New Radio Bursts Using AI

Breakthrough Listen, a $100 million initiative under which scientists are scanning the stars in search of intelligent life, announced on Monday that artificial intelligence has helped it detect 72 new fast radio bursts (FRBs) emanating from FRB-121102. FRBs are flashes of light radiation from beyond our galaxy which last only for a few milliseconds. These were first detected with the Parkes Telescope in Australia. FBR-121102 is the only one which is known to repeat. Other FBRs, reports say, have not been observed more than one time. FRB-121102’s detection was announced last year and was credited to Vishal Gajjar, a UC Berkeley Postdoctoral Researcher.

Earlier, the scientists had announced the detection of 21 signals. However, using AI to scan through the 400 terabytes of data from 2017, scientists found 72 more originating from a galaxy more than three billion light years from Earth. The new findings may help scientists find what powers the source of these FBRs. Are extra-terrestrial signals intentionally sent Earth’s way? Scientists and researchers are yet to find a satisfactory answer to this question.

Kerala Nun Rape Case: HC Asks Cops To Submit Action Taken Report

Upset with the slow progress of the investigation into a complaint of rape filed by a nun from the Missionaries of Jesus against Roman Catholic bishop Franco Mulakkal, the Kerala High Court on Monday asked the police to submit a report on action taken by it so far in the case. The court has also sought to know the steps that the Communist Party of India (Marxist)-led government has taken to ensure security of the victim and fellow nuns supporting her.

This development came a day after a group of five nuns staged a protest in Kochi for the first time in the history of the Catholic church in India, demanding the arrest of the accused bishop. The nuns have also accused state police chief Loknath Behra and Ernakulam Range inspector general for trying to protect the rape accused Jalandhar bishop. On Sunday, former Kerala High court Justice Kemal Pasha also came down heavily on the government and the police, blaming an unholy nexus between the bishop and the police for the delay in action.

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