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SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

pertaining to monitoring of traffic shall also include information about by telecom operators. That move
management practices and specialised services, direct or came under immediate attack from
enforcement of principles on non- indirect arrangements entered into various industry bodies and the civil
discriminatory treatment and by them.” society. In February last year, Trai
making appropriate Trai’s consultation paper on Net addressed a part of Net neutrality
recommendations to the neutrality was sought by the which was under its jurisdiction. It
authority”. Trai is in favour of Department of Telecom (DoT) barred platforms like Facebook’s
telecom operators declaring their following the suggestion of a High Internet.Org and Airtel Zero which
traffic management practices “as Level Committee which proposed allowed free access to select
and when deployed and the impact regulation of domestic calls on websites to check ‘gate-keeping’
it may have had on the users”. It Internet-based apps by putting in cyber space.
said: “Disclosure requirements them at par with services offered (PTI Economic)

(Contd from page 72) with the PAD [Prithvi Air Defense developed by DRDO, to distinguish
(PAD)/Pradyumna Ballistic Missile between incoming warheads and
The single stage solid rocket- Interceptor] and PDV [Prithvi Defense decoys. Both PAD and PDV are
propelled AAD/Ashin interceptor Vehicle] designed to destroy missiles designed for mid-course interception.
missile is part of India’s planned two- at exoatmospheric altitudes of 50–150 The AAD missile interceptor features
layered ballistic missile defense kilometers (some sources say 180 an inertial navigation system with mid-
(BMD) system and is designed to
kilometers). The AAD, a hit-to-kill course radar updates and active radar
shoot down incoming enemy missiles interceptor, constitutes the second tier homing in the terminal phase. It can
in the endo-atmosphere at altitudes of
defense against incoming enemy reach top speeds of up to Mach 4.5.
20- 40 kilometers. AAD missiles are ballistic missiles. India’s home grown BMD system can
terminal phase interceptors capable of The PDV is slated to replace the purportedly intercept medium-range
intercepting missiles after they re-enter existing Prithvi Air Defense (PAD)/ ballistic missiles traveling at speeds
the earth’s atmosphere. Pradyumna Ballistic Missile of Mach 3 to 8. Israel, Russia, and the
After the end of the Kargil War and Interceptor, which has a maximum United States are the only three
in reaction to China and Pakistan’s interception altitude of 80 kilometers. countries to have successfully
growing missile arsenals, India has Among other things, the new two-stage developed and built an indigenous
been working since 1999 on a two- solid-fueled PDV interceptor is fitted ballistic missile defense system.
tiered ballistic missile defense system with an Imaging Infrared (IIR) seeker, (PTI Feature)

74 Competition Wizard March 2018