25-Sep-2023-Daily-Current-Affairs

SEPTEMBER RAIN FOR CROPS

(GS 1 (INDIAN GEOGRAPHY)-SOURCE-THE INDIAN EXPRESS)

• The monsoon’s turnaround after the driest August since 1901 has soothed food inflationary fears, though the risks from El Niño still remain
• Farmers had to rely on releases from dams by irrigation departments and draw down underground water reserves to salvage their crops.
• The September showers have been most beneficial for oilseeds, especially soyabean and groundnut, due for harvesting from this month-end.
• A reasonably good kharif harvest, along with record imports, should allay any inflation fears in vegetable oils
• Both cereals (rice and wheat in government godowns) and sugar (with mills) at six-year-lows.
• Over a third of India’s paddy area is un-irrigated

Road ahead

• The real challenge may be in the upcoming rabi (winter-spring) season, where the water for crops – from wheat, mustard and chana to potato, onion, garlic and jeera (cumin) – comes from underground aquifers and dams.
• The monsoon rain hasn’t been enough to fill up reservoirs or replenish groundwater tables.

PRELIMS FACTS:

1. In Eastern Uttar Pradesh, the showers in September have been callaed as “amrit sanjeevani”
2. Gujarat’s Junagadh district, who calls the southwest monsoon’s revival this month “kachu sona” or raw gold from heaven.

MOODY’S REPORT

(GS 3 (INDIAN POLITY AND GOVERNANCE)–SOCIAL JUSTICE-SOURCE-THE HINDU)

• Global rating major Moody’s Investors Service has flagged concerns about security and privacy vulnerabilities in centralised identification systems like India’s Aadhaar programme
• The problem is-The unique ID system often results in “service denials”, and using biometric technologies in humid conditions is unreliable
• It is the world’s largest digital ID program” that assigns unique numbers to over 1.2 billion Indian residents using biometric and demographic data.
• The rating agency’s remarks assume significance in view of the government’s adoption of Aadhaar for routing direct benefit transfers to beneficiaries of official welfare schemes
• The adoption of DID (decentralized ID (DID) systems) — where personal data is saved in a user’s digital wallet
• Identity verification takes place not via a single, centralized institution but on a decentralized digital ledger such as a blockchain
• Increases privacy and reduces the amount of personal information held by intermediaries

PRELIMS FACTS:

1. The rating agency termed Aadhaar, and a new crypto-based digital identity token called Worldline, as two digital ID systems in the world that stand out due to their scale and extent of innovation.
2. Estonia, known for its fully digitalized public services, has embraced SSI [Self-Sovereign Identity] to grant citizens complete control over their dig

NATIONAL EDUCATION POLICY

(GS 2(INDIAN POLITY AND GOVERNANCE)-EDUCATION-SOURCE-THE HINDU)

After several organizations of students and teachers raised objections to the option of multiple entry and multiple exit (MEME) in the national education policy (NEP)

 WHAT IS MEME?

A student will get the option to drop their course and resume it at a later stage as and when they desire or deem it worth pursuing.

• While MEME looked like a flexible system, which was being operated by western educational institutions effectively, it might not work well in the country.
• If institutions allow MEME, it would be very difficult for the institutions to predict how many students would exit and how many would join midway.
• Since institutions would not know the in- and out-traffic, it will certainly disturb the pupil-teacher ratio

CONS OF MEME:

1. Uneven geographical distribution of higher educational institutions would create hurdles in managing MEME in several areas.
2. It will reduce the value of one’s degree and this is a way to produce cheap labour for the job market.

VACCINE WHEEL AND UNIVERSAL IMMUNISATION PROGRAM

(GS 2 (INDIAN POLITY AND GOVERNANCE)-HEALTH-SOURCE-THE HINDU)

• The immunization wheel, called a teekakaran chakra in Hindi, is a simple plastic-laminated cardboard construction developed and funded by the Clinton Foundation, under the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI).
• HOW IT WORKS?
• Health workers register a child’s birth in what they call the ASHA diary. They use the wheel to match a birthdate to the first vaccine
• The rest of the dates for year one of an infant’s life (for immunization at 1.5, 2.5, 3.5, and 9 months) fall into place, without the need for manual calculation.
• The vaccine wheel also has details of the vaccines for pregnant women and for babies from 16 months to 24 months, leading up to the fifth year

PRELIMS FACTS:

1.National Rural Health Mission (NRHM)

• The National Rural Health Mission was launched on 12th April 2005 to provide quality health care to the rural population. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare implements it.
• It is s a centrally sponsored scheme.

2.Universal Immunization Programme

• The Universal Immunization Programme (UIP) has always been a crucial component of the National Rural Health Mission since its inception in 2005.
• Under UIP, immunization is provided free of cost against 12 vaccine-preventable diseases:

Nationally against 9 diseases –

Diphtheria, Pertussis, Tetanus, Polio, Measles, Rubella(a severe form of Childhood Tuberculosis), Hepatitis B, and Meningitis & Pneumonia which is caused by Hemophilus Influenza type B

Sub-nationally against 3 diseases –

Rotavirus diarrhoea, Pneumococcal Pneumonia, and Japanese Encephalitis.

• Mission Indradhanush

Announced “Mission Indradhanush” in December 2014 in an effort to speed up the full immunisation coverage for all children and expectant women and to enhance and reenergize the program.

NEW AIRCRAFT

(GS 3 (INTERNAL SECURITY)-SOURCE-THE HINDU)

• The Defence Procurement Board (DPB) last week discussed the Indian Navy’s proposal for acquiring a second Vikrant-like aircraft carrier
• With modifications and upgrades to the design of the country’s first Indigenous Aircraft Carrier (IAC) INS Vikrant, commissioned in September 2022.
• Navy also operates the 44 carrier INS Vikramaditya, which also employs the STOBAR mechanism, procured from Russia.

 

PRELIMS FACTS:

 Defense Acquisition Council

• The DAC is the highest decision-making body in the Defence Ministry for deciding on new policies and capital acquisitions for the three services (Army, Navy and Air Force) and the Indian Coast Guard.
• The Minister of Defence is the Chairman of the Council.
• It was formed, after the Group of Ministers recommendations on ‘Reforming the National Security System’, in 2001, post Kargil War (1999).

SURETY BONDS

(GS 3 (INDIAN ECONOMY)-SOURCE-THE INDIAN EXPRESS)

The ambitious plan of the government to launch the Surety Insurance Bonds market – an alternative to bank guarantees in infrastructure projects — has failed to take off

What is surety bond?

• A surety bond is a type of insurance policy that ensures parties involved in a contract are protected from financial losses if one party fails to fulfil its obligations.
• If a construction company fails to complete a project as agreed, the surety bond compensates the client for the losses. It ensures financial protection and guarantees that the contract will be fulfilled.
• It has taken almost three years to get IRDAI’s approvals for Surety Bond product.
• The Surety Bond will also help contractors to have financial closure of their projects without depending upon only bank guarantees

Issues with Surety bonds:

1. Surety Bonds need extensive reinsurance support and no primary insurers can issue any policy without proper reinsurance back up
2. Apart from pricing, there is also no clarity on reinsurance options due to current provisions around indemnity document

PRELIMS FACTS:

National Infrastructure Pipeline:

• NIP will enable a forward outlook on infrastructure projects which will create jobs, improve ease of living, and provide equitable access to infrastructure for all, thereby making growth more inclusive.
• NIP includes economic and social infrastructure projects.
• Centre, States and the private sector to share the capital expenditure in a 39:39:22 formula.

PRELIMS BYTES

Global Capacity Building Initiative

1. India and the United Nations launched a joint capacity building initiative for the Global South
2. Aims to share India’s development experiences, best practices and expertise with partner countries in the Global South through capacity building and training programs.

Agro Processing Clusters scheme

• The scheme aims at development of modern infrastructure and common facilities to encourage group of entrepreneurs
• to set up food processing units based on cluster approach by linking groups of producers/ farmers to the processors and markets through well-equipped supply chain
• beneficiaries under the APC scheme are given up to Rs 10 crore in three phases of grants to set up an agro processing cluster for at least 5 food processing units with a minimum investment of Rs 25 crore
• A subcomponent of the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sampada Yojana scheme,
• The Project Execution Agency (PEA) (Ministry of Food Processing Industries) which is responsible for overall implementation