DBT

Why in news?

Acknowledging that problems have been experienced by three Union Territories (UTs) in the implementation of direct benefit transfer (DBT) for food subsidy, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has advised States that are planning to shift to cash transfer to be cautious while effecting the migration.

Problems Associated with DBT

• Inadequacy of transfers to maintain pre-DBT consumption levels,
• Insufficiency of last-mile delivery mechanisms
• weak grievance redressal system.

Implementing UTs

At present, three UTs — Puducherry, Chandigarh and urban areas of the Dadra and Nagar Haveli — are implementing the mode of cash transfer under which 9.31 lakh beneficiaries receive Rs. 12.82 crore every month through their bank accounts, according to a publication of the Department of Food and Public Distribution in the Union government.

Benefits

• Cash transfer mode reduced the need for large physical movement of food grains.
• Further, given the wide inter-State and intra-State variations in food consumption habits, the DBT provides “greater autonomy” to beneficiaries to choose their consumption basket, apart from enhancing dietary diversity.
• The beneficiaries have the choice of buying food grains from the open market.
• Reduce the leakage in the PDS, as the Central government has to absorb a huge food subsidy bill under the existing system of distribution of food grains in fulfilment of provisions of the National Food Security Act (NFSA).

Pre conditions to implement DBT

• The RBI has referred to certain pre-conditions mentioned in the Central government’s 2015 food subsidy rules.
• The pre-conditions include complete digitisation and de-duplication of the beneficiary database, and seeding of bank account details and Aadhaar numbers in the digitised database.

MSP

Why in news?

A section of farmers  groups have announced four months of agitations ending with a march to Delhi, in protest against the government’s minimum support prices for kharif crops, which, they said, were based on a lower calculation than what was recommended by the Swaminathan Commission.

Old formula

• The Modi government’s MSP for kharif is based on the same formula of A2 + FL [actual paid out expenses plus imputed family labour costs] that was given by the Manmohan Singh government for rabi.
• This is entirely different from the demand of C2 [comprehensive costs] + 50%, which was also promised by the Prime Minister.

MSP

• Minimum Support Price (MSP) is a form of market intervention by the Government of India to insure agricultural producers against any sharp fall in farm prices.
• The minimum support prices are announced by the Government of India at the beginning of the sowing season for certain crops on the basis of the recommendations of the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP).
• MSP is price fixed by Government of India to protect the producer – farmers – against excessive fall in price during bumper production years.

MeerKAT

Why in news?

South Africa has unveiled MeerKAT- a super radio telescope, a first phase of what will be the world’s largest telescope in a project to try to unravel the secrets of the universe. The telescope was inaugurated in the remote South African town of Carnarvon.

MeerKAT

• It is a follow up to the KAT 7 (Karoo Array Telescope), built in the vast semi-desert Karoo region north of Cape Town to demonstrate South Africa’s ability to host the SKA. It will be the biggest radio telescope of its kind in the southern hemisphere.
• It will address some of the key science questions in modern astrophysics – how did galaxies form, how are they evolving, how did we come to be here.

Purvanchal Expressway

Why in news?

The 354-km Purvanchal Expressway project, the country’s longest, is on stream with the Uttar Pradesh government awarding the eight packages of the project to five companies — PNC Infratech Limited, Gayatri Projects, GR Infra, Oriental Structural Engineering and Apco Infra.

Purvanchal Expressway

• The project, which will connect Lucknow with Ghazipur, will start from Chand Sarai area near NH-56 in Lucknow and is estimated to cost around Rs 23,000 crore.
• It will also be connected to Varanasi through a separate link road.
• Once completed, the Purvanchal Expressway will provide uninterrupted connectivity to 9 districts of Lucknow, Ghazipur, Amethi, Ajamgarh, Faizabad, Barabanki, Mau, Ambedkar Nagar and Sultanpur.
• It would provide seamless access to the national capital Delhi via the 302-km long Lucknow-Agra expressway and the 165-km Agra-Greater Noida Yamuna Expressway.
• The Project is being implemented on Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) Mode.

What is EPC model?

• EPC is a model of contract between the government and private sector players for public infrastructure building. Under this system, the entire project is funded by the government.
• The EPC entails the contractor build the project by designing, installing and procuring necessary labour and land to construct the infrastructure, either directly or by subcontracting.
• Under EPC, all the clearances, land acquisition and regulatory norms have to be completed by the government itself.