National Current Affairs – UPSC/IAS Exams- 13th November 2019

by Mentors4ias · November 13, 2019

Why BRICS matters for India

Topic: International Relations

In News: Prime Minister Narendra Modi left for Brazil to attend the 11th BRICS Summit.

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As a formal grouping, BRIC started after the meeting of the leaders of Russia, India and China in St Petersburg on the margins of the G8-Outreach Summit in July 2006.
The grouping was formalised during the first meeting of BRIC Foreign Ministers on the margins of the UNGA in New York in September 2006. The first BRIC Summit was held in Yekaterinburg, Russia, on June 16, 2009.
It was agreed to expand BRIC to BRICS with the inclusion of South Africa at the BRICS Foreign Ministers’ meeting in New York in September 2010.
BRICS now brings together five economies accounting for 42% of the world’s population, 23% of the global GDP and an around 17% share of world trade.

India & the current BRICS Summit:

From the Indian perspective, BRICS has emerged the voice of developing countries, or the global south.
As these countries face an aggressive club of developed countries, raising challenges on issues from WTO to climate change, New Delhi believes BRICS has to protect the rights of the developing countries. The five BRICS countries are also members of G-20.
While the economic heft of three of the five countries has been dented in the last few years, the BRICS cooperation has two pillars
consultations on issues of mutual interest through meetings of leaders and ministers
Cooperation through meetings of senior officials in areas including trade, finance, health, education, technology, agriculture, and IT.
New Delhi believes that over the last few years, India has taken the lead in galvanising BRICS has also worked within the grouping to take a strong stand against terrorism and bring about focused consultations on specific aspects relating to terrorism.

The Upcoming Meeting:

Terrorism: This year, the joint working group on counter-terrorism has decided to constitute sub-working groups in five areas: terrorist financing; use of Internet for terrorist purposes; countering radicalisation; the issue of foreign terrorist fighters; and capacity-building. It is expected that India will chair the subgroup on use of Internet for terrorist purposes. The fact that BRICS has put counter-terrorism on top of the agenda has been a success for India.
India China Ties: That was evident in the BRICS Summit in Xiamen in September 2017, with China as the chair. The fact that it was achieved, despite the strained ties due to the standoff in Doklam, was a testimony to the value Beijing and New Delhi attach to the outcomes of the grouping.
Multilateralism: Prime Minister of India has articulated a vision for strengthening and reforming the multilateral system itself. He has underlined that when India calls for multilateralism, it is not a call to reinforce the status quo of multilateralism but to reform it since this is what BRICS had originally set out to do.
National Sovereignty: Leaders will attend a BRICS-restricted session, expected to focus on challenges and opportunities for the exercise of national sovereignty in the contemporary world.
Opportunities For India: The Summit will be an opportunity for India to lay the groundwork for hosting the 2021 Summit scheduled in India. India will also be mindful of the fact that the G20 Summit to be hosted in India will take place in 2022, and this will be an opportunity to synergise the two agendas from New Delhi’s lens as well.

Source: Hindu

Premature deaths in India

Topic: Health/Reports and Indices

In News: An analysis published in The Lancet Global Health, which looked at about 9.7 million deaths in India in 2017, found that every condition that was common in one part of India was uncommon elsewhere.

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Premature deaths due to various causes, expressed as YLLs, too were unevenly distributed in terms of the burden on the states. By the World Health Organzation definition, YLLs, or years of life lost, are calculated from the number of deaths multiplied by a standard life expectancy at the age of death.
For example, liver and alcohol-related YLL rates were high in the northeastern states, Bihar, Karnataka, and Maharashtra, accounting for 18% of national YLLs.
Suicide YLL rates were highest in the southern states, accounting for 15% of national totals. Road traffic injuries were high in the northern states of Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh, accounting for 33% of national totals.
In 2017, India had 486 million DALYs (disability-adjusted life years, a measure of the number of years lost due to ill health or disability). The ratio of DALYs to the 9.7 million deaths was about 50 to 1. More than three quarters of deaths and DALYs occurred in rural areas, and males accounted for 54·3% of all DALYs.
At all ages, the DALY rate per 100 000 population was 36,300, but rates were higher among rural residents and among males. DALY rates in rural areas were at least twice those of urban areas for certain conditions.
The study was funded by the Ministry of Heath and Family Welfare, included authors from the Indian Council of Medical Research, and from the global health research wings of the University of Toronto and University of California, San Francisco.

Source: The Hindu

e-NAM

Topic: Agriculture/Economy

In News: Finance Minister said the Central government is impressing upon states to dismantle the Agricultural Produce Market Committees (APMCs) and move towards a better platform by adopting electronic National Agriculture Market (e-NAM).

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e-NAM is a pan-India electronic trading portal which networks the existing APMC mandis to create a unified national market for agricultural commodities.
So far, 21 e-NAM mandis of eight states namely Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh have joined hands to start inter-state trade on e-NAM.
Initially started with 25 commodities, e-trade facilities have been provided on 124 commodities with tradable parameters on e-NAM portal. Through inter-state trade, farmers get better market access, more buyers/ traders and realise better prices for their produce.

About APMCs:

At time of Independence, a moneylenders or trader in villages mainly controls the whole distribution system of agriculture commodities; consequently farmers were trapped into a perpetual debt instead of getting any profit. Hence to overcome this problem, different state enacted their APMC acts to set up Agricultural Markets.

Features:

The state is divided into different markets based on geography and many principal or sub markets established in various parts of the state. Once a particular area is declared a market area and falls under the jurisdiction of a Market Committee, no person or agency is allowed freely to carry on wholesale marketing activities.
These markets are managed by the Market Committees constituted by the State Governments. Market Committee generally composes of 10-20 members who are either elected or nominated by govt but elections are rare.
Market committee authorizes various commission agents or traders to carry out various procurement and distribution activities related to agriculture produce. In other words, license raj is prevalent in today’s liberalized India as traders had to take license before carrying out any activity.

Flaws of APMC:

APMC process leads to monopolization as The Market committee authorize many commission agents or traders in market area to undertaken various activities in APMCs. Now farmers have to sell their agriculture produce only to these commission agents either through personal relations or through process of auctions.
Various taxes, fees/charges and cess levied on the trades conducted in the markets or Mandis are also notified under the APMC Act. APMCs charge a market fee from buyers, and a licensing fee from the commissioning agents who mediate between buyers and farmers.
Further, APMCs play dual role of regulator and Market. Consequently, their role as regulator is undermined by vested interest in lucrative trade.
APMC boards are generally administered by bureaucrats and create various bureaucratic problems.

Model APMC Act 2003:

The act was enacted to rectify the flaws of the previous act but had some criticisms such as:
The model APMC Act provides some freedom to the farmers to sell their produce directly to the contract-sponsors or in the market set up by private individuals, consumers or producers but this act is not enough for setting a common agriculture market even at state level.
The reason is that the model APMC Act retains the mandatory requirement of the buyers having to pay APMC charges even when the produce is sold directly outside the APMC area either under contract farming or private markets set up individuals.
In some states minimum limit of setting up a private market was too high say 10Crore and act as barrier for small farmers to come together and form a market.
Also many states have not amended their APMC act in line of Model APMC Act 2003 and even some states adopted this act in partial manner only.

Evolution of e-NAM:

To improve the marketing system in India the Department of Agriculture, Government of India has launched a National Agricultural Market with the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs approving a scheme of Rs 200 crore through Agri-Tech Infrastructure Fund.
This will serve as a common electronic platform for trading agricultural commodities.
This will integrate wholesale markets across India. The NAM will facilitate the emergence of value chains in major agricultural commodities across the country and help to promote scientific storage and movement of agri goods.

Model Mains Question: Compare and contrast APMCs and e-NAM.

Source: Indian Express

International Lavi fair

Topic: Culture

In News: The four-day-long International Lavi fair is being organised in Rampur district of Shimla, Himanchal Pradesh.

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The Lavi Fair, is almost 400 years old and dates back to time when Raja Kehari Singh of Rampur Bushahr state signed a treaty to promote trade with Tibet. For centuries this fair has remained an important trade fair between India and Tibet. It has been a unique example of glorious, social, cultural, economic history and legacy of Himalayan state of Himachal Pradesh.
Every year, the main attraction during the fair is sale and purchase of Chamurthi horses, an endangered species of horse which traces its origin to the Tibet region. Chamurthi horses are also known as the ‘ship of the cold desert’.
It plays an important role in preserving the rich cultural heritage of state and restoring old glory.
The fair provided a good opportunity for promotion and sale of woollens, dry fruits and other traditional crafts and products, besides benefiting the traditional craftsmen and farmers. Such trade fairs also provide self-employment opportunities to the rural people.

Source: Hindu

International Seed Treaty

Topic: Environment and Ecology

In News: The eighth session of the Governing Body of International Treaty of Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA) is being held in Rome, Italy.

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The Governing Body sessions are held
India highlighted the need for conservation of plant genetic resources and the uniqueness of Indian legislation Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights (PPV&FR) Act to address the related issues.

About the Treaty:

International Treaty of Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA),is popularly known as the International Seed Treaty.
It is a comprehensive international agreement, which aims at guaranteeing food security through the conservation, exchange and sustainable use of the world’s plant genetic resources for food and agriculture (PGRFA).

It also recognizes farmers’ rights, subject to national laws to:

The protection of traditional knowledge relevant to plant genetic resources for food and agriculture;
The right to equitably participate in sharing benefits arising from the utilization of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture.
The right to participate in making decisions, at the national level, on matters related to the conservation and sustainable use of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture.
The Treaty establishes the Multilateral System of Access and Benefit-sharing to facilitate plant germplasm exchanges and benefit sharing through Standard Material Transfer Agreement (SMTA).
The treaty was negotiated by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (CGRFA) and since 2006 has its own Governing Body under the aegis of the FAO.

PPV & FR Act:

Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights (PPV&FR) Act is an unique Indian legislation to protect Farmers’ Rights and breeder’s rights.
Under this act a farmer is entitled to save, use, sow, resow, exchange, share or sell his farm produce including seed of a variety protected under the PPV&FR Act, 2001 except brand name.
PPV&FR Act is fully compliant to the International Seed Treaty.
Under the provisions of PPV&FR Act, 138 farmers/farming communities have been awarded with Plant Genome Saviour Awards.

Source: Hindu

Capacity-building programme for Afghan diplomats

Topic: International Affairs

In News: Indian and Chinese officials began a course to train diplomats from Afghanistan at the Foreign Service Institute (FSI), New Delhi run by the External Affairs Ministry.

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The two-week intensive programme is designed to give the visiting Afghan diplomats exposure to Indian diplomatic practices and traditions.
FSI and the China Foreign Affairs University (CFAU) were parties to a BRICS-level MoU to train diplomats.
The joint training of Afghan diplomats is part of the outcome of the Wuhan Summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Accordingly, the first joint training programme was held from October 15 to 26 in 2018.
179 Afghan diplomats had been trained at the FSI till date, the largest number of diplomats to be trained from any country at the institute.

Source: PIB

Brown to Green Report 2019

Topic: Reports and Indices

In News: The 2019 Brown to Green Report has been published by the Climate Transparency partnership, an international research collaboration.

Highlights of the Report:

Carbon emissions from the world’s 20 biggest economies, including India, are rising.
None of the G20 countries have plans that will help them achieve the target. Many of the current 2030 climate targets under the Paris Agreement (Nationally Determined Contributions or NDCs) are too weak, with about half of the G20 countries projected to meet or overachieve their inadequate NDCs.
Energy-related carbon dioxide emissions in G20 countries shot up by 1.8 per cent in 2018 due to rising energy demand.
Energy supply is not getting cleaner: despite a more than five per cent rise in G20 total renewable energy supply in 2018, the share of fossil fuels in the G20 energy mix remains at 82 per cent.
While renewables now account for 25.5 per cent of power generation, this is not sufficient to outweigh the growth of emissions from fossil fuel sources.
Low-carbon fuels need to increase roughly 10 times by 2050 to keep global warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius.
G20 emissions in the building sector grew more than in any other sector in 2018 (4.1 per cent). Retrofitting existing buildings challenges all G20 and especially OECD countries. New buildings have to be near zero-energy by 2020-25 to keep global warming below 1.5 degrees.

About the Brown to Green Report :

The report is the most comprehensive review of G20 countries’ climate performance, mapping achievements and drawbacks in their efforts to reduce emissions, adapt to climate impacts and green the financial system.

Source: The Hindu