Srinagar (Jammu and Kashmir) , June 23,2021: Jammu and Kashmir Students Association (JKSA) on Wednesday urged Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha to establish centres for entrance examinations to Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), Jamia Milia Islamia (JMI), Delhi University, and Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) for Kashmiri students in Srinagar amid the COVID-19.
Issuing a statement, the spokesperson of the Association, Nasir Khuehami, said that it is not possible for the students to afford air tickets to travel to other states and appear for exams as most of the them are hailing from marginalised communities.
“Hundreds of students from the Kashmir Valley are appearing for the entrance examinations for JNU, Delhi University (DU), JMI, and AMU. The problem is that students from Kashmir have their centers in Delhi and Aligarh. The present circumstances of COVID-19 could prove fatal for the aspirants. The students said that it is not possible for them to afford air tickets to travel to other states and appear for exams. Most of the students are hailing from marginalised communities,” Khuehami stated.
Khuehami also expressed the parents’ fear, who said that their wards are being compelled to travel for appearing in these upcoming examinations.
As the examinations will be conducted from the next month, many students fear contagion, are giving second thoughts to traveling. It is going to be a lot of a hassle for students to travel to Delhi and other places when most of the students are not vaccinated as yet, and there is also a possibility of the third wave, he added.
Despite the pandemic, no centre has been allotted to Kashmir by these universities which has left the local students high and dry.
JKSA Secretary Davood Ahmad said: “It will be very inconvenient for the Kashmiri students to travel all the way and spend money on accommodation in other states if their examination centres are not arranged locally. This is a grave situation especially for the students belonging to the average income group who can not afford the travel and accommodation expenses.”
He further requested LG Sinha to urgently look into the matter and hoped that he will take up this issue at the appropriate level.
New Delhi, Jun 23,2021: India and New Zealand need to rejuvenate their economic engagement by finding new avenues for investment and business, such as digital technology and space exploration for civilian use, Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan said on Wednesday.
In an online address to the inaugural session of India-New Zealand Business Summit, Muraleedharan said there is huge unrealised potential for mutually beneficial collaboration and plugged for closer economic ties for post-pandemic economic growth in both countries.
He highlighted new opportunities for businesses.
“We need to find new avenues for rejuvenating our economic engagements…Ties in emerging areas such as digital technology and civilian space cooperation can be explored.
We are committed to address market access issues,” he said.
The minister said India’s growth story provides new opportunities for investment in infrastructure including roads, ports, power sector, renewable energy, and film production, while agriculture, dairy, forestry remain priorities on both sides.
Businesses in the two countries, he said, can forge long-term partnerships on supply chains in the Indo-Pacific region.
“India and New Zealand have worked closely with other like-minded countries in Indo-Pacific by exchanging information and best practices to keep regional supply chains open during the pandemic. Businesses from both sides can complement this effort by seeking long-term partnerships for more diverse and resilient supply chains,” said the minister.
A good beginning in this regard has been made with some of the leading New Zealand companies establishing business in India, he added.
Muraleedharan also emphasized the role of trade, pointing out that India is not just a large market, but a diverse market with an immense talent pool.
Stronger economic interactions through technology tie-ups and collaborations would be more relevant in the future, he said.
“India’s vibrant start-up ecosystem provides opportunities for collaborations that can help us define and adjust to the ‘new normal’.”
The two sides must also have a long-term perspective for strengthening people-to-people ties to ensure mobility of people, especially talented students and skilled workers, as in a globalised world, talents, ideas and resources often move together.
The minister also reminded the role of Indian students in New Zealand who can be an asset to the future of this relationship.
The number of students from India to New Zealand, however, has declined over last few years. Giving Indian students the opportunity to work after study, would encourage them to choose New Zealand as a destination for higher studies, he said.
Also, current travel restrictions have affected many students, professionals and their family members who are in India.
“We look forward to working with New Zealand authorities for facilitating their return.”
The COVID-19 pandemic also highlighted the utility of air connectivity, he said, and hoped that direct flight between India and New Zealand will start once the travel restrictions ease.
New Delhi, Jun 23,2021: Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday informed that it has transferred attached assets worth Rs 9,041 crore to Public Sector Banks (PEBs), who suffered losses due to the bank fraud by fugitive businessmen Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi.
In an official statement, the federal financial probe agency said “As on date, out of total attached and seized assets of Rs. 18,170.02 crore under provisions of Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), assets worth of Rs 329.67 crore has been confiscated and assets worth Rs 9,041.5 crore which is 40 percent of total loss to the bank have been transferred to the PSBs”.
The Debts Recovery Tribunal (DRT) has sold shares worth over Rs 5,800 crore of United Breweries Limited (UBL) that were earlier attached under the provisions of the PMLA as part of an alleged bank fraud probe against Mallya, the agency further said, adding that further realisation of Rs 800 crore by sale of shares is expected by June 25.
Recently, the ED had transferred shares attached by it (worth about Rs 6,600 crore) to the SBI-led consortium as per order of the special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) Mumbai.
The agency also said due to the cooperation and help extended by the agency, PSBs have already recovered Rs 1,357 crore by selling the shares earlier. “Thus, the banks shall be realising a total amount of Rs 9041.5 crore through sale of a part of assets attached and seized by ED under the provisions of PMLA,” it added.
The agency said, liquor baron Mallya and diamontaire uncle-nephew duo (Modi and Choksi) have defrauded Public Sector Banks by siphoning off the funds through their companies, which resulted in total loss of Rs. 22,585.83 crore to the banks.
Consequent upon the FIRs registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the ED said, it took swift action by unearthing “myriad web of domestic and international transactions and stashing of assets abroad”.
The officials in ED said, “as sequel to FIR by CBI, the agency had taken swift action by unearthing myriad web of domestic and international transactions and stashing of assets abroad.”
Investigation has also irrevocably proved that these three accused persons used dummy entities controlled by them for rotation and siphoning off the funds provided by the banks, they added.
Jun 22,2021: The Assam government has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Survey of India for implementing the Svamitva scheme in the state, which aims to provide an integrated property validation solution for rural areas.
The MoU was signed between Assam, Director of Land Records and Surveys, Shantanu P Gotmare and Director Assam and Nagaland, Survey of India on Monday.
The Union Ministry of Panchayati Raj, and Assam Government’s Department of Revenue and Disaster Management will implement the scheme with the support of the Panchayat and Rural Development.
Survey of India, as the technology partner, will take steps for survey of inhabited rural land by drone as well as establishment of ground based control stations to enable a detailed spatial database of properties in rural areas.
It is expected to reduce property related disputes in rural areas and legal cases.
The Svamitva scheme was launched on a pilot basis on April 24, 2020, on the occasion of National Panchayati Raj Day, and was rolled out across India on April 24 this year.
The scheme would provide the ‘record of rights’ to village household owners possessing houses in inhabited rural areas in villages which, in turn, would enable them to use their property as a financial asset for taking loans and other financial benefits from banks.
Washington, Jun 22,2021: Biden administration officials are insisting that the election of a hard-liner as Iran’s president won’t affect prospects for reviving the faltering 2015 nuclear deal with Tehran. But there are already signs that their goal of locking in a deal just got tougher.
Optimism that a deal was imminent faded as the latest talks ended Sunday without tangible indications of significant progress. And on Monday, in his first public comments since the vote, incoming Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi rejected a key Biden goal of expanding on the nuclear deal if negotiators are able to salvage the old one.
At the same time, Raisi is likely to raise the Iran’s demands for sanctions relief in return for Iranian compliance with the deal, as he himself is already subject to US human rights penalties.
I don’t envy the Biden team, said Karim Sadjapour, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace who has advised multiple US administrations on Iran. I think the administration now has a heightened sense of urgency to revise the deal before Raisi and a new hard-line team is inaugurated.
President Joe Biden and his team have made a US to return to the deal one of their top foreign policy priorities. The deal was one of President Barack Obama’s signature achievements, one that aides now serving in the Biden administration had helped negotiate and that Donald Trump repudiated and tried to dismantle as president.
Despite Raisi’s impending presidency, Biden administration officials insist prospects for reaching an agreement are unaltered. They argue that Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who signed off on the 2015 deal known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA, will make any final decisions regardless of who is president.
The president’s view and our view is that the decision leader is the supreme leader, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Monday. That was the case before the election; it’s the case today; it will be the case probably moving forward.
Iran will have, we expect, the same supreme leader in August as it will have today, as it had before the elections, as it had in 2015 when the JCPOA was consummated for the first time,” State Department spokesman Ned Price said.
But hopes for substantial progress fizzled last week ahead of the Iranian election amid a flurry of speculation about the impact of the vote on the indirect talks between Iran and the U.S. in Vienna. Diplomats and others familiar with the talks had thought the last round, the sixth, could produce at least a tangible result even if it fell short of a full deal.
Now, that round has ended and a seventh round has yet to be scheduled as Raisi, Iran’s conservative judiciary chief, brandished an absolute rejection of anything more than Iran’s bare minimum compliance with the 2015 agreement in exchange for a lifting all of US sanctions.
In his public comments Monday, Raisi brushed aside US calls for Iran to agree to follow-on discussions on expanding the initial nuclear deal to include its ballistic missile program and its support for regional groups that the US designates terrorist organizations.
It’s nonnegotiable, Raisi said’
Iran experts agree it will be a tough, if not impossible, for Biden to get Iran to go beyond the nuclear agreement.
I’m very skeptical that once we’ve lifted the sanctions to get them to return they’ll feel any incentive to come back and negotiate more concessions, Sadjapour said. And, if we coerce them with sanctions to come back to the table, they’ll argue that we’ve abrogated our end of the nuclear deal. Again.
Critics of the nuclear deal maintain that the administration has already given away too much in exchange for too little by signaling its desire to repudiate Trump’s repudiation of the nuclear deal. And, they say that even if Iran agrees to some sort of additional talks, the pledge will be meaningless.
It was pretty obvious that the Iranians were never gong to negotiate in good faith beyond the JCPOA, said Rich Goldberg, a Trump administration National Security Council official who has espoused a hard line on Iran.
But now, even if the administration gets some sort of face-saving language from the Iranians about future talks, Raisi has already said they’re not interested. The jig is up, he said. You can’t come back to a skeptical Congress, allies and deal opponents and say the promise means anything it means when Raisi has already said it doesn’t.
But administration officials are adamant that as good as the nuclear deal is, it is insufficient and must be improved on.
We do see a return to compliance as necessary but insufficient, but we also do see a return to compliance as enabling us to take on those other issues diplomatically, Price said, adding that the point had been made clear to the the Iranians in no uncertain terms.
An additional complication is that Raisi will become the first serving Iranian president sanctioned by the U.S. government even before entering office, in part over his time as the head of Iran’s internationally criticized judiciary a situation that could complicate state visits and speeches at international forums such as the United Nations.
Psaki and Price both said that the U.S. will continue to hold Raisi accountable for human rights violations for which he was sanctioned by the Trump administration.
Trump withdrew from the nuclear deal in 2018 and set about a maximum pressure campaign on Iran that included re-instating all the sanctions eased under the agreement along with adding a host of new ones.
Tel Aviv [Israel], June 21: Chinese loans have surpassed lending by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund combined together. It has become the largest global overseas creditor accounting for close to 65 per cent of the world’s official bilateral debt with outstanding foreign debt estimated to be around USD 5.6 trillion in 2020.
In a White Paper released in January 2021, China dubbed its lending as “international development cooperation within the framework of south-south cooperation” which it is undertaking as a “responsible member of the global community”. But the empirical evidence could be further from the truth.
Fabien Baussart, in a blog post of The Times of Israel said that contrary to China’s claims of its lending being a “global public good” laying the foundation of a robust “development cooperation” framework, it has been seen that Chinese loans are predatory and opaque in nature, with terms that are heavily skewed against the borrowing country.
The highly unsustainable levels of debt created by China in the developing world allow it to create economic dependencies and political leverages in these countries, with serious implications for the degree of their sovereignty vis-a-vis Beijing.
Moreover, contrary to common perception, the bulk of Chinese loans (nearly 60 per cent) are offered at commercial rather than concessional rates, which is unusual for overseas “development assistance”, says Baussart.
China has always maintained that its overseas lending follows a “no-strings-attached” approach and respects other countries’ right to select “their own development path” with a focus on “developing countries’ control”.
The stark differences between the rhetoric and reality of Chinese overseas lending are further revealed in a recent (April 2021) report titled “How China Lends: A Rare Look into 100 Debt Contracts with Foreign Governments”, reported The Times of Israel.
The study by Germany’s Kiel Institute and the Washington-based Centre for Global Development, Aid Data, and Peterson Institute for International Economics, analyses a hundred Chinese loan contracts with 24 developing countries, between 2000 and 2020, and compares it with 142 non-Chinese foreign debt contracts across 28 commercial, bilateral and multilateral creditors.
As per the study, a comparison of Chinese and non-Chinese loan contracts reveals that the former is characterised by extremely stringent terms of lending.
These include strict confidentiality clauses barring borrowers from revealing loan terms and often even the very existence of a loan.
This is not in line with the disclosure standards of the development assistance extended by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries and creates a problem of “hidden debt” in the recipient country resulting in underestimation of actual levels of debt distress. It also leads to a tendency for governments to over-borrow since the public is unaware of the actual debt, says the report.
The study also finds that close to 75 per cent of the Chinese debt contracts in the study sample categorically commit to a “No Paris Club” clause exempting the debt from restructuring in the Paris Club of official bilateral creditors. (The Paris Club is a group of major creditor countries with policies for extending coordinated debt relief to developing countries in addition to ensuring sustainable debt levels).
Despite being the largest global overseas lender at present, China has stayed away from joining the Paris Club, thereby precluding it from the responsibility of ensuring either transparency or debt sustainability in the borrowing country, while guaranteeing that repayment of its own loans gets priority over other creditors.
The study also finds that in comparison with other foreign creditors, Chinese lending contracts have more stringent security clauses.
Borrowing countries are compelled to maintain “special bank accounts” in Chinese banks where revenues from the projects financed by China are held as collateral.
Chinese lending contracts also include a cross-default clause that allow the lender to terminate the contract and demand immediate and full repayment if the borrower defaults on any of its other lenders.
They also have a stabilisation clause wherein the creditor can demand immediate repayment or compensation in case of a significant change in the laws of the borrowing country, including labour or environmental policies.
This has the potential to significantly restrict the policy space of the borrowing country and impinge on its sovereignty. It also rings hollow China’s claims about being a major proponent of “green development” or an altruistic lender with a focus on “developing countries’ control”, says Baussart.
Interestingly, Chinese lending contracts, which are ostensibly commercial in nature, also have political clauses which allow the lender to cancel or accelerate a loan repayment if the borrowing country engages in any actions that are perceived to be adverse to the interests of “a People’s Republic of China (PRC) entity”.
This clearly indicates that Chinese lending terms are designed not just to maximise pure commercial interests, but also to protect the politico-strategic objectives of the Chinese state. Such terms amplify the lender’s influence over the debtor’s foreign policies and ensure that they always toe the Chinese line, says Baussart.
Moreover, the stark disparity between what China claims defines its overseas development cooperation and the actual nature of such lending, which is predatory and tailored to serve Beijing’s strategic, geopolitical and economic interests, is therefore, clearly brought out as above.
Chinese loans are far from having “no strings attached” as is evident from the amalgam of inbuilt clauses including confidentiality, stringent security, need for collateral, little scope for restructuring, cross-default and acceleration of loan repayment if found incompatible with Chinese interests, reported The Times of Israel.
Unlike Paris Club members, China often additionally demands collateralisation of official lending, which means that in the event of default, repayment is secured by ceding some other asset, usually of strategic significance for Beijing. This raises further doubts over the Chinese intent to acquire overseas strategic assets under the garb of lending.
Instances are galore including the Hambantota Port in Sri Lanka; Chinese acquisition of majority control over Laos’ national electric grid; Tajikistan having to cede disputed territory to Beijing in lieu of debt forgiveness; Chinese acquisition of strategic islets of the Maldives in the Indian Ocean and of the Solomon Islands in the South Pacific.
China also puts other kinds of political pressure on countries, apart from kickbacks, to win tenders for strategic projects. For instance, in the case of the Jakarta-Bandung High-Speed Rail project, China offered an interest rate of 2 per cent, as against Japan’s 0.1 per cent; yet the project was accorded the former.
Contrary to China’s claims in its White Paper on Development Cooperation that its lending is a “global public good”, clauses like maintenance of confidentiality actually increase the public debt burden of the borrowing country since there is no government accountability of debt incurred.
A good example of China’s double standards, wherein it calls for confidentiality while claiming altruism, is the case of COVID-19 vaccines. Despite China harping over how it has made vaccines a “global public good”, recent reports (May 31) revealed how Beijing is asking countries (Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka) to sign non-disclosure agreements about the prices of vaccines before making them available.
Since China is not a member of the Paris Club, it does not have any obligations vis-a-vis debt sustainability in borrowing countries. In 2018, close to fifty countries owed more than 15 per cent of their GDP to China; eight countries in particular, were assessed to be at particularly high risk of default vis-a-vis Beijing, with some of them owing close to 45 per cent of their GDP to China.
Countries should be even more wary of depending predominantly on Chinese “development assistance”, given China’s recent embrace of “wolf warrior” diplomacy and more frequent and unabashed use of economic warfare against countries that do not toe its line (eg: Beijing’s recent spate of trade tariffs against Australia).
The other worrying aspect of China’s overseas lending is the fact that loans are more often than not also accompanied by Chinese labour, material and an insistence on use of Chinese currency in the borrowing countries.
This has caused a lot of local resentment and protests against Chinese projects in many countries including in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Myanmar, apart from several African and South East Asian countries.
A recent (April 2021) report by US-based China Labour Watch also revealed the highly problematic terms on which Chinese workers in overseas BRI projects are employed, including low pay, no medical benefits, and in some cases forced labour, with the workers’ passports being confiscated by subcontractors of Chinese state-owned enterprises (SoEs). This really leads one to question who indeed the actual beneficiaries of Xi’s BRI are! says Baussart.
Srinagar, Jun 20: Hectic activities were witnessed on Sunday in Kashmir valley where political parties discussed the invitation from the Centre for an all-party meeting which will be presided over by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi on June 24.
However, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) despite holding detailed meeting is yet to announce any final decision as the Political Affairs Committee (PAC), which is the highest decision making body of the party, has authorised president Mehbooba Mufti to take final call on the invitation.
The National Conference (NC) said party leadership will hold consultations with senior party leaders, including from Ladakh, till Monday before announcing final decision about the invitation to the meeting.
Similarly, Peoples Conference (PC) headed by Sajad Gani Lone is expected to meet in the summer capital on Monday to discuss whether they will take part in the meeting or not.
Senior CPI (M) leader Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami said the party leaders have started discussion over the invitation and will soon take a call.
Meanwhile, Peoples’ Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD) — National Conference (NC), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), CPI(M), Awani National Conference (ANC) and Peoples Movement — is meeting on Tuesday to discuss the invitation from the Centre.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will chair a meeting of 14 leaders from eight political parties in J&K on June 24 to discuss the future course of action for the Union Territory.
Mehbooba has been very vocal against the BJP-led NDA government after the abrogation of special status of Jammu and Kashmir on August 5, 2019, when hundreds of mainstream and separatist leaders besides trade union leaders and political activists were detained while all communication networks were suspended.
Mehbooba, who headed a coalition government with BJP from 2016 to 2019, had said nothing short of restoration of pre-August 5 position will be acceptable. She had even said she will not contest elections till the time the demands were fulfilled.
Meanwhile, the PAGD alliance has time and again said they will fight for the restoration of pre-August 5 position in Jammu and Kashmir.
Chief spokesperson and media advisor to PDP president and former Chief Minister Mehbooba, Syed Suhail Bukhari on Sunday told reporters after the PAC meeting that the invitation from the centre was discussed in detail. “Finally it was left to Ms Mehbooba to take a final call on the invitation,” he said.
However, he said a meeting of Peoples Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD) is being held on Tuesday to discuss the invitation. PAGD had recently held a meeting at the residence of Ms Mehbooba, where it was decided to avail every opportunity to raise the issue of abrogation of special status of J&K at every forum, including Parliament.
NC president Farooq Abdullah on Sunday started consultation with senior party leaders on the invitation by centre to mainstream political parties in Jammu and Kashmir for the meeting. “Dr Abdullah, who was invited as a former chief minister, will continue consultation with the party leaders, including those from Ladakh, till Monday before taking a final decision about the party’s participation in the meeting,” Provisional President of Kashmir Nasir Aslam Wani told reporters.
“Few senior leaders met with the party president today and discussed in details the invite to Dr Abdullah and Omar Abdullah to the all-party meeting called by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi on June 24. Some more leaders will meet Dr Abdullah in the evening and on Monday morning,” Mr Wani said.
However, he said the NC has not so far called any ‘structured or organized meeting’ to take a decision over the issue. “So far no decision has been taken and we will be able to inform you about the further course of action by tomorrow evening,” he added.
The centre has invited four former chief ministers – Farooq Abdullah, his son Omar Abdullah, Ghulam Nabi Azad and Mehbooba Mufti, besides four Deputy Chief Ministers – Muzafar Hussain Beigh, Tara Chand, Nirmal Singh, Kavinder Gupta. Leaders of six other political parties — Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami of CPI(M), Sajad Gani Lone of Peoples Conference, Mohammad Altaf Bukhari of Apni Party, Prof Bhim Singh of Panthers Party, Ravinder Raina of BJP and G A Mir of Congress – were also invited in the meeting.
The meeting by the Centre is the first such initiative since August 5, 2019, when the BJP-led NDA government abrogated Article 370 and Article 35 A, besides dividing Jammu & Kashmir into two Union Territories.
Vijayawada, Jun 19: Ms. Sreelekha Bhuvaneswari, a BSc physics final year student in SRM University-Andhra Pradesh, filed a patent for her work titled “A fibre material with moisture retention capacity with thermal tolerance and a method for manufacture”, under the guidance of Dr Sabyasachi Mukhopadhyay, Assistant Professor, Department of Physics, SRM University-AP.
The project develops a methodology to design a fabric cloth that would replace the use of air conditioners.
This cloth design is inspired by Saharan silver ants which regulate their body temperatures in the scorching desert heat and also from the cooling properties of clay. This research would significantly scale down the usage of AC and other cooling devices in warm places, thus reducing the use of electricity and emission of greenhouse gases to the environment.
As this cloth would be environment friendly with long durability and cost-efficiency, Sreelekha hopes that this research would bridge the socioeconomic divide of haves and have-nots between communities.
“There were several failed models, but he believed in the concept and that inspired me to go forward with the project. The facilities at the University made the process seamless; once the proposal was made, the procedure was automated.
I thank the officials of SRM University-AP for believing in my proposal and helping me get through the procedures smoothly. If it were not for the facilities available at my university, I could not have finished the design,” She added.
I am grateful to Dr.Sabyasachi for his constant help and guidance along the way”, Ms. Bhuvaneswari said.
Washington, Jun 18: Cleaner-burning jet fuels made from sustainable sources can produce 50-70 per cent fewer ice crystal contrails at cruising altitude, reducing aviation’s impact on the environment, according to research conducted by NASA and the German Aerospace Center (DLR).
Ice crystal contrail formations can linger in the upper atmosphere for hours and affect the way Earth is heated and cooled. They produce localized increases in temperature – which over time impacts climate change.
“We know that contrail formation from jet exhaust has a larger, more immediate impact on climate than carbon dioxide emissions,” said Richard Moore, a NASA scientist at Langley Research Center in Virginia.
“This research shows we have an opportunity using alternative fuels to make immediate changes that could help the planet.”
A blend of half biofuel and half regular fuel was used for the research purpose. This showed a decrease in contrails
by about 50-70 per cent.
The research was published on Thursday in the Nature research journal Communications Earth & Environment. Moore was one of 29 contributors to the paper. Christiane Voigt, head of the Cloud Physics Department within the DLR Institute of Atmospheric Physics, served as lead author.
Jet engine exhaust includes water vapor and soot particles. As the water vapor cools, it condenses, ice crystals form when that supercooled water interacts with either exhaust soot or particles naturally present in the air.
By using alternative fuel, jet engines release fewer soot particles, resulting in fewer ice crystal formations, a NASA press release said. The crystals that do form are larger, but that does not create a problem because they fall more quickly and melt in the warmer air below.
“While computer models have shown that contrail ice crystal numbers should vary proportionally with aircraft engine exhaust particle emissions, it’s been really hard to observationally make this link,” Moore said.
In 2018 NASA and DLR conducted a joint flight research campaign known as Emission and Climate Impact of Alternative Fuel experiment by DLR and ND-MAX (“N” for NASA, “D” for DLR, and MAX for maximum research opportunity) by NASA, the campaign was staged from Ramstein Air Base southwest of Frankfurt, Germany.
The international collaboration saw the DLR’s Advanced Technology Research Aircraft A320 airliner burning alternative biofuels while NASA’s DC-8 “Flying Laboratory” trailed a safe distance behind, sampling and analyzing gases and particles in the German aircraft’s wake.
The experiment was the latest step in a series of research campaigns, some in the United States and some in Germany, that used different aircraft, flight conditions, and sampling techniques to build a knowledge base about alternative fuels.
NASA led previous research flight programs over California called Alternative Fuel Effects on Contrails and Cruise Emissions (ACCESS I and II) in 2013 and 2014.
During these campaigns, NASA’s DC-8 burned the alternate fuels, while smaller, business-class jets, such as the NASA Falcon HU-25 and DLR Falcon 20, flew behind to gather data.
Those flights showed that using a blend of half biofuel and half regular fuel reduced soot emissions by as much as 50-70 per cent. Researchers had intended to study contrail research as part of the ACCESS campaigns, but atmospheric conditions prevented contrail formation. The more recent tests over Germany allowed researchers to gather the data they needed.
“The exciting thing about this new paper is that all of the pieces of the puzzle finally fell into place: We had the sustainable aviation fuel blends, the world-class DLR ATRA and NASA DC-8 research aircraft, and favorable meteorology for forming persistent contrails,” Moore said.
NASA partners with industry, academia and other government agencies through its Sustainable Flight National Partnership, said NASA in its press release, to accomplish an aggressive climate change agenda for aviation.
The partnership seeks to reduce aviation carbon emissions by 2050 compared to their 2005 level, and achieve net-zero emissions by 2060.