5 Facts about India's Newly Tested Nuclear-Capable Agni-IV Missile

TSCFWA -- India successfully test fired the nuclear-capable strategic ballistic missile Agni IV today. The launch came exactly a week after India tested the Agni-V, the country's longest range nuclear capable missile. The missile was successfully launched from Kalam Island off Odisha coast. India has a battery of nuclear capable missile like, the Agni series, Prithvi series and the Submarine Launched Ballistic Missile.

Here are 5 facts about the Agni-IV:

1. Agni-IV, which is a nuclear capable missile, has a range of over 4,000 kilometres. The Agni-V, which was tested last week has a range of over 5,000 kilometres. Both missiles are capable of covering most parts of China.

2. The Agni-IV missile, which is about 20 metres tall and weighs 17 tons, was launched from the Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Abdul Kalam Island, formerly known as Wheeler Island, at around 12 noon.

3. This was the sixth trial of the Agni-IV missile. The previous test was conducted on November 09, 2015. This fire and forget missile is navigated using a jam proof ring laser gyroscope. The re-entry heat shield can withstand temperatures in the range of over 4,000 degrees centigrade and makes sure the avionics function normally with inside temperature remaining less than 50 degrees centigrade.

4. Agni-IV missile is equipped with 5th generation on-board computer and distributed architecture. It has the latest features to correct and guide itself for in-flight disturbances. The sophisticated surface-to-surface missile is equipped with modern and compact avionics to provide high level of reliability.

5. With the most accurate ring laser gyro-based inertial navigation system (RINS) and supported by highly reliable redundant micro navigation system (MINGS), the Agni-IV ensures the vehicle reaches the target within two-digit accuracy.

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By 2050, India to Surpass Indonesia, Will Have Largest Muslim Population

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TSCFWA -- Hindus will become the world's third largest population by 2050, while India will overtake Indonesia as the country with the largest Muslim population, according to a new study.

According to the Pew Research Center's religious profile predictions assessed data released on Thursday, the Hindu population is projected to rise by 34 per cent worldwide, from a little over 1 billion to nearly 1.4 billion by 2050.

By 2050, Hindus will be third, making up 14.9 per cent of the world's total population, followed by people who do not affiliate with any religion, accounting for 13.2 per cent, the report said.

The people with no religious affiliation currently have the third largest share of the world's total population.
Muslims are projected to grow faster than the world's overall population and that Hindus and Christians are projected to roughly keep pace with worldwide population growth, the report said.

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The Trans-Pacific Partnership and India's Trade Strategy

TSCFWA -- On 5 October, 12 nations signed an agreement that, if ratified, will form the largest trade bloc in the world, accounting for roughly 40% of global income. The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) brings together the US, Canada, Japan and nine other Pacific Rim economies—although, notably, neither China nor India are involved at the moment. The TPP is a prime example of what economists call a preferential trade agreement (PTA).

With the Doha round of multilateral trade negotiations under the World Trade Organization (WTO) all but dead, attention has shifted to PTAs as an avenue to jumpstart global trade. Yet, PTAs—as distinct from multilateral trade liberalization under the WTO—raise a host of distinct analytical questions. There is by now a lot of literature in economics that analyzes both the economics and the political economy of preferential—as opposed to multilateral—trade liberalization.

In a 2012 research paper, economist Pravin Krishna, a professor at Johns Hopkins University, provides a comprehensive overview of the debates around PTAs. I draw on this paper, and works cited in it, in what follows.

While PTAs are sometimes misleadingly referred to as “free trade areas”—a case in point being the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)—the reality is that they are a very different beast from free trade. A fundamental proposition of international trade theory asserts that in the absence of market failures, a movement towards freer trade—by, say, cutting tariffs and quotas that restrict imports—will be generally efficiency-enhancing for an economy.

And for a “small” economy—one that does not influence the prices of goods and services it trades in the global economy—the best policy will be a move to completely unfettered, fully free trade—again, in the absence of market failures.

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Currency War: India to take up currency devaluation issue at G20

TSCFWA -- The recent shocks in the global economy triggered by the Chinese devaluation of yuan and its economic slowdown are likely to dominate discussions in the two-day meeting of G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors starting here tomorrow over which India has expressed serious concern.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley arrived here today with India deprecating the recent devaluation of major currencies followed by currency depreciation

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What progress has India's economy made??

TSCFWA --  "You'll find the airport has changed dramatically, you'll be able to book a taxi using an app on your phone, and you'll see a real spring in the step of many people in India now - people are charged with optimism," one Indian businessman said when I asked what had changed in the five years I'd been away from a city that, in many ways, had been my second home.

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A Priest with 39 wives

TSCFWA -- The world's population hits 7 billion this week, but Ziona, the patriarch of what may be the biggest family in the world, is not bothered.

"I don't care about overpopulation in India ... I believe God has chosen us to be like this (have big families). Those who are born into this family don't want to leave this tradition so we just keep growing and growing," he says with a smile.

Ziona, who only goes by his first name, has 39 wives, 86 children and 35 grandchildren.

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