Italy Joins Belt & Road Initiative

• Italy has become the first G7 country to join China’s Belt & Road Initiative (previously known as One Belt One Road (OBOR) Initiative).

Belt & Road Initiative (BRI)

• Belt & Road Initiative (BRI) is an ambitious project that focuses on connectivity and cooperation among multiple countries spread across the continents of Asia, Africa, and Europe.  BRI spans about 150 countries (China’s Claim).
• Initially announced in the year 2013, the project involves building networks of roadways, railways, maritime ports, power grids, oil and gas pipelines, and associated infrastructure projects.
• The project covers two parts.
  • Silk Road Economic Belt: It is land-based and is expected to connect China with Central Asia, Eastern Europe, and Western Europe.
  • 21st Century Maritime Silk Road: It is sea-based and is expected to connect China’s southern coast to the Mediterranean, Africa, South-East Asia, and Central Asia.

Significance of BRI For China

• The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is the most emblematic of China’s economic and industrial might, as of its ambitions for global, political and strategic influence.
• As infrastructure spending at home became less sustainable, China has shifted the emphasis to boost the global competitiveness of domestic businesses.
• The large infrastructure investments in the least developed and developing countries have enabled China to leverage its influence around the world, potentially altering the established rules of the global order and challenging western powers.
• BRI will strengthen China’s presence in the Eurasian region and puts it in a commanding position over Asia’s heartland.

Criticism of BRI

• Western critics have attacked the initiative as new colonialism, or Marshal Plan for the 21st century. 
• BRI is also being seen as a part of China’s debt trap policy, wherein China intentionally extends excessive credit to another country with the intention of extracting economic or political concessions from the debtor country.

Significance of Italy joining BRI

• Italy’s endorsement of the BRI is a potential game changer as it is one of the major economies in the world.
• Other major economies may follow Italy’s lead in joining BRI.

Why India has not joined?

• China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is one of the flagship projects of BRI which is seen by India as infringing its sovereignty.
• China is building roads and infrastructure in the disputed territory of Gilgit-Baltistan, which is under Pakistan’s control but which India claims as a part of Jammu and Kashmir.
• If the CPEC project gets implemented successfully, this would hamper India’s strategic interests in the South Asian region. It will serve Beijing's strategic ambition to encircle India.
• CPEC can aid Pakistan’s legitimacy in the Kashmir dispute.
• China’s increasing footprints in the South Asian region is detrimental to India’s strategic hold e.g. construction of the Hambantota Port in Sri Lanka provided China critical strategic location in the Indian Ocean.

No clinical trials in India for new drugs

• Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has allowed waivers on conducting trials for new drugs in India in case the drug is approved and marketed in countries specified by — the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO).

Regulation

• New drugs approved for use in select developed markets will be automatically allowed in India provided global trials included Indian patients.
• This waiver would also extend to drugs that receive these marketing approvals even while a trial is underway in India.
• Data generated(clinical trial) outside the country will be acceptable.
• Providing post-trial access of the drugs to the patients that require it have been defined for the first time.
• It removed a clause in the clinical trials that mandated the sponsor (the entity initiating the trial) to pay 60% of compensation upfront in case of death or permanent disability of a patient.
• Now companies will pay the total amount once it is proven that the injury occurred because of the trial.
• Compensations in cases of death and permanent disability, or “other” injuries to a trial participant will be decided by Drug Controller General of India(DCGI).
• It removed regulations on tests conducted on animals in case of drugs approved and marketed for more than two years in well-regulated overseas drug markets.

Significance of New Rules

• It will end the unnecessary repetition of trials and speed up the availability of new drugs in the country.
• It will lower the cost of drugs.
• It will improve the ease of doing business for drug makers.

Criticism of new regulations

• India is a country of vast ethnic diversity and most of the trials are done in the West. There is need of bridging trials for ethnically diverse populations to check drug suitability population.
• Waiver should be only for drugs required urgently for national emergency.
• Proving injury due to the trial is problematic and it is prone to manipulation.

Important Facts For Prelims (26th March 2019)

Trade Receivables e-Discounting System (TReDS)

• In the recently concluded FinTech Conclave-2019, the Reserve Bank of India Governor termed Invoice trading as another nascent area of fintech application in India.
• The RBI has set up the Trade Receivables Discounting System (TReDs), a financing arrangement where technology is leveraged for discounting bills and invoices which assists Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) to deal with working capital and cash flow problems due to delayed payments.

AUSINDEX- 2019

• India and Australia will participate in the third edition of the biennial "AUSINDEX" exercise that will be held from April 2 to 16 off the coast of Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh.
• Focus of the AUSINDEX exercise will be “anti-submarine warfare”. This will be Australia’s largest display of its defence assets since 1947.
• Another interesting feature of the exercise will be the deployment of Australian personnel on Indian ships and vice versa.
• The AUSINDEX-2019 will be held as a part of Australia’s Indo-Pacific Endeavour 2019 which will see Australia conducting naval exercises with 7 countries in south and southeast Asia apparently to increase its profile as a security provider in the Indian Ocean.
• The first edition of AUSINDEX was held in 2015 off the eastern coast of India, while the second edition was conducted off the Western coast of Australia in the year 2017.

GRAPES-3

• GRAPES-3 muon telescope has measured the electrical potential, size and height of a thundercloud that passed overhead on December 1, 2014.
• GRAPES-3 (Gamma Ray Astronomy PeV EnergieS phase-3) is designed to study cosmic rays with an array of air shower detectors and a large area muon detector.
  • Muon is an elementary particle similar to the electron, with an electric charge of −1 e and a spin of 1/2, but with a much greater mass.
• The GRAPES-3 experiment located at Ooty in India started as a collaboration of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai, India and the Osaka City University, Osaka, Japan.

Chinook Helicopter

• Indian Air Force formally inducted the CH 47 F(I)- Chinook heavy lift helicopters into its inventory.
• IAF had signed a contract with M/s Boeing Ltd in September 2015 for 15 Chinook helicopters. These helicopters will be deployed in the Northern and Eastern regions of India.
• The addition of heavy-lift CH 47 F(I) helicopter is a significant step towards modernization of Indian Air Force’s helicopter fleet.
• The helicopter has been customized to suit IAF’s future requirements and capability roadmap. The helicopter has a fully integrated digital cockpit management system, advanced cargo handling capabilities and electronic warfare suite that complement the aircraft’s performance.
• The helicopter is capable of airlifting diverse military and nonmilitary loads into remote locations.