National Current Affairs – UPSC/IAS Exams- 21st February 2020

by Mentors4ias · February 21, 2020

Food of Harappans

Topic: Culture

In News: The National Museum in New Delhi has decided to keep meat out of the ‘Historical Gastronomica’ event that it is hosting on its premises due to political compulsions.

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The event, presented by the Museum along with One Station Million Stories (OSMS), claims to treat visitors to “The Indus dining experience” through a “specially crafted menu that strictly includes ingredients that were identified by archaeologists & researchers from sites of the Indus-Saraswati Civilisation”.
However, archaeological evidence from Indus Valley sites (c. 3300 BC to 1300 BC) in present-day India and Pakistan suggests that a purely vegetarian meal will not provide a complete picture of what the Harappan people ate.
According to food historian K T Achaya the quantity of bones left behind indicates that animal foods were consumed in abundance: beef, buffalo, mutton, turtles, tortoises, gharials, and river and sea fish were part of the diet.
Apart from meat, the people of the Indus Valley Civilisation grew and ate a variety of cereals and pulses.
There is archaeological evidence for cultivation of pea (matar), chickpea (chana), pigeon pea (tur/arhar), horse gram (chana dal) and green gram (moong).
Several varieties of wheat have been found at Harappan sites, as well as barley of the two-rowed and six-rowed kinds. There is evidence that the Harappans cultivated Italian millet, ragi and amaranth, as well as sorghum and rice.
Oilseeds such as sesame, linseed, and mustard were also grown.

Source: Hindu

Changes in the Crop Insurance

Topic: Agriculture

In News: The Centre decided to restrict its premium subsidy in its flagship crop insurance schemes to 30% for unirrigated areas and 25% for irrigated areas (from the existing unlimited), and to make enrolment of farmers in the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) and Restructured Weather Based Crop Insurance Scheme (RWBCIS) voluntary from the 2020 Kharif season.

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At present, under PMFBY and RWBCIS, farmers pay a premium of 2% of the sum insured for all foodgrains and oilseeds crops of Kharif; 1.5% for all foodgrains and oilseeds crops of Rabi; and 5% for all horticultural crops.
The difference between actuarial premium rate and the rate of insurance premium payable by farmers, which is called the Rate of Normal Premium Subsidy, is shared equally between the Centre and the states. However, states and Union Territories are free to extend additional subsidy over and above the normal subsidy from their budgets.
Until now, there was no upper limit for the central subsidy.

Why changes with this move, and why has the government taken it?

One interpretation of this decision is that the burden of premium subsidy will go up for the states. For example, in the old regime, if a farmer’s Kharif crop was insured for Rs 1,00,000 and the rate of actuarial premium was 40%, then the premium paid by the farmer was 2% (Rs 2,000), and the remaining premium was shared by the Centre and the state equally (19% or Rs 19,000).
In the new regime, for the same sum insured (Rs 1,00,000) and the same rate of premium (40%), the Centre will give subsidy for premium rates up to 30%. This means that from the Kharif 2020 season , the Centre will have to pay premium at the rate of 14% (out of 30%, the farmer’s share is 2%, and the Centre’s and state’s 14% each) instead of the 19% it paid (out of 40%) in the last Kharif season; the state has to bear the entire burden of the premium subsidy in cases where the rate of premium goes beyond the threshold of 30%.
A second interpretation is that the Centre may stop supporting insurance of certain crops in certain areas where the rate of premium is more than 30%.
By capping the subsidy for premium rates up to 30%, the Centre wants to disincentivise certain crops in such areas where growing these crops involve high risks in terms of crop insurance premiums.

How well-placed are states to raise their share of premium subsidy?

The states are already defaulting on their share, and the Centre’s new cap will put an additional financial burden on them.
Madhya Pradesh has not paid its share of premium even for Kharif 2018, which comes to Rs 1,500 crore.
As a result, farmers have not got their claims. In fact, most states have delayed the payment of their share of premium. Sources said that in some states, the expenditure on premium of PMFBY is more than 50% of their budget for agriculture.

What can be the fallout of making the schemes voluntary?

That move will lead to a rise in the rates of premium, as the area covered under insurance and the number of enrolled farmers are expected to come down significantly.
As of now the schemes are compulsory for all loanee farmers and optional for other farmers. Non-loanee farmers under the crop insurance schemes are much fewer than loanee farmers.
If the latter opt out of the schemes, the number of insured farmers will drastically come down. Sources say that in such a scenario, the rate of premium of certain crops in some areas may go beyond 30%.

Which are the other changes in crop insurance schemes?

The government has given flexibility to states/UTs to implement PMFBY and RWBCIS, and given them the option to select any number of additional risk covers/features like prevented sowing, localised calamity, mid-season adversity, and post-harvest losses.
Earlier, these risk covers were mandatory. This change will have two main impacts. First, it may bring down the rates of overall premium as the state governments now will not be required to invite bids factoring these risks. Second, it will make these schemes less attractive for farmers.
However, states/UTs can offer specific single peril risk/insurance covers like hailstorm etc under PMFBY.

Source: Indian Express

Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor

Topic: Economy

In News: World Bank has offered to give financial assistance to the last remaining portion of the Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor (EDFC) between Sonnagar and Dankuni, which India is originally slated to construct in the private public-private partnership (PPP) mode.

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World Bank’s interest in funding the corridor’s 528-km stretch between Bihar’s Sonnagar and West Bengal’s Dankuni has now presented Indian Railways with the option to either do course correction and go for the financial assistance in the form of a viability gap funding, or carry on as planned and invite players to bring in the capital.
The entire EDFC is being built with loan from World Bank, except for the last portion between Bihar and West Bengal.

· Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor or Eastern DFC is a freight specific railway under construction in northern to eastern India by Indian Railways. The railway will run between Ludhiana in Punjab and Dankuni in West Bengal. The railway is one of the multiple freight corridors.

Source: Hindu

The Assisted Reproductive Technology Regulation Bill : Positive Impacts

Topic: Governance

In News: Together, the ART Bill; the Surrogacy Bill; the amendment to the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act; and the older Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act present a bouquet of legislation that will have a positive impact on the reproductive rights and choices of women in India.

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The ART Bill to regulate clinics offering fertility treatments has been long in the works, and was first presented publicly way back in 2008.
ART measures help couples unable to conceive naturally to bear children with the aid of state-of-the-art technology to achieve pregnancy, leading to safe delivery.
India has a rich history of employing ART, though the initial years went officially undocumented at that time.
A market projection (by Fortune Business Insights) said the size of the ART market is expected to reach $45 billion by 2026.
Among Asian countries, India’s ART market is pegged at third position. A lack of regulation and the consequent laxity in operations drove a lot of traffic from other nations to India.
This, in turn, along with the relatively low costs, led to the mushrooming of ART clinics across the country. Undoubtedly, this also led to a plethora of legal, social and ethical issues.

The ART response:

It is at this juncture that the ART Bill has seen a fitting revival, egged on by legislators who facilitated the passage of the Surrogacy Bill in the Rajya Sabha.
It seeks to regulate and monitor ART procedures, and mandates the establishment of a National Board and State Boards to lay down rules for implementation, and also honours a long-pending demand — creation of a national registry, and registration authority.

Way Ahead:

The Bill recommends punishment, even jail time, for violations of the provisions. Since it does impinge on surrogacy too, the government must now work on ensuring synchrony in both Bills.
Having come this far to ensure the reproductive rights of women, the state now has the thriving ART industry to deal with, and the Bill is its best chance to eliminate exploitation in the field.

Source: The Hindu

Lockheed Martin helicopters

Topic: Defence Sector

In News: Cabinet Committee on Security clears procurement of 24 US multi-role helicopters for Indian Navy.

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The 24 Lockheed Martin helicopters will be procured through the foreign military sales (FMS) route from the US government.
The multi-role helicopters will be equipped with Hellfire missiles and torpedoes, and are meant to help the Indian Navy track submarines in the Indian Ocean, where China is expanding its presence.

Source: Hindu

Dairy Processing and Infrastructure Development Fund (DPID)

Topic: Government Policies

In News: Government of India had announced creation of Dairy Processing and Infrastructure Development Fund under NABARD with a total corpus of Rs. 8000 crore over a period of 3 years (i.e. 2017-18 to 2019-20), in the Union Budget of 2017-18.

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The scheme intends to ensure that Dairy Cooperatives remain competitive for the sustained benefit of farmers.
The Funding will be in the form of interest bearing loan, which will flow from National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) to National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) / National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC) and in turn to eligible End Borrowers.
The end borrowers will get the loan © 5% per annum, the period of repayment will be 10 years with an initial two years moratorium.

The scheme have been designed with the following objectives:

To modernize the milk processing plants and machinery and to create additional infrastructure for processing more milk.
To create additional milk processing capacity for increased value addition by producing more dairy products.
To bring efficiency in dairy processing plants/producer owned and controlled dairy institutions, thereby enabling optimum value of milk to milk producer farmers and supply of quality milk to consumers.
To help the producer owned and controlled institutions to increase their share of milk, thereby providing greater opportunities of ownership, management and market access to rural milk producers in the organized milk market.
To help the producer owned and controlled institutions to consolidate their position as dominant player in the organised liquid milk market and to make increased price realisation to milk producers.

Source: Hindu