Comprehensive News Analysis - 03 May 2017

What’s in news?

• Public sector lenders like State Bank of India (SBI) and Bank of Baroda have reduced interest on fixed deposits on various maturities from the end of April as the banking system is flush with liquidity.
• SBI, the country’s largest lender, reduced the retail term deposit rate (for up to ₹1 crore) by 25-50 basis points (bps) on various maturities. (100 bps = 1 percentage point).
• According to Reserve Bank of India, the surplus liquidity in the banking system was ₹8 lakh crore in March, though it has come down from its peak of ₹8 lakh crore in January.
• In early January, banks had reduced the benchmark lending rate — the marginal cost of funds based lending rate — sharply, by about 90 bps.
• The move followed demonetisation which resulted in significantly high mobilisation of low-cost deposits.
• Banks had not reduced deposit rates at that time and now they have not cut their lending rates.

What’s in news?

• Madhya Pradesh will be the first State to switch to the January-December financial year from the present April-March cycle.
• The change will mean the financial year will coincide with the calendar year.
• It is believed that such a switch could have a significant impact on the economy.

What’s in news?

• The Supreme Court while looking into farmers’ suicides, the various reasons behind the tragedy, including bad debts and vagaries of nature has questioned the government policy on the fate of insurance schemes provided to farmers.

Question:

• Whether the entire claim money would be forfeited, with the farmers getting nothing, in case he is unable to pay an instalment.

Why did the question arose:

• The query came after Additional Solicitor General P.S. Narasimha submitted that the insurance provided to farmers has seen a “sea change” at the ground level.
• Mr. Narasimha also said that the budgetary allocation devoted to protect the farmer is like “never before”.

What’s in news?

• A study was conducted by the Centre for Research in Rural and Industrial Development (CRRID):
• Study was conducted on the subject ‘Optimisation of Agriculture Power Subsidy and Irrigation Water Intensity in Haryana’,
• Main objective: Assessing efficiency in water utilisation for source wise irrigation and assess implications of source wise irrigation for sustainable growth in agriculture and power sector. Subsidised and unmetered power supply to the farm sector in Haryana is leading to “inefficient” utilisation of groundwater and electricity on paddy cultivation.

Highlights

• An estimated amount of Rs 844 crore is being spent as power subsidy on excess consumption of electricity on the paddy crop in the state.
• An estimated 7.23 million acre feet (MAF) of underground water was extracted to meet excess irrigation for paddy crop, which suggested that water was being utilised in an inefficient manner through electric tube wells
• Major findings: average number of times of actual irrigations was significantly higher than optimum number of times of irrigations required in most of kharif crops particularly in case of irrigation through electric tube wells.
• During field surveys, the deterioration of quality of soil was also observed, mainly on account of continuous excess use of chemical fertiliser pesticides and ground water for irrigations.
• Solution: Unmetered power supply promotes inefficiency in electricity consumption as well as utilisation of ground water. There is urgent need to ensure metered supply at consumer ends
• Subsidised power supply should be targeted to marginal and small farmers and policy of direct benefit transfer may be explored in power subsidy which will require proper metering at consumer ends.

What’s in news?

• CSIR-Institute of Microbial Technology, Chandigarh (IMTech), is working on a programme to tap its vast collection of microbial samples and develop therapeutic products or drugs.
• The global probiotics (or beneficial bacteria) industry has already started using certain species of bacteria as healing or curative agents. Mother Dairy, Amul, Danone Yakult, and Nestle India are among the leading producers of probiotic functional foods and beverages in India.
• Their foods use lactobacilli and bifidobacteria to make yoghurt, curd, and several dietary supplements.
• Evidence suggests that atherosclerosis, obesity, intestinal problems, and many psychological disorders lead to distinct changes in the composition of bacteria in the gut. Restoring balance or teasing out how the by-products of these organisms lead to chemical changes that cause disease, is at the heart of research. 

Key Fact:

• The human body is estimated to have about 35 trillion cells, and about two to three times as many microbial organisms.
• Most of them live in the gastrointestinal tract, which is home to around 3,000-4,000 species of bacteria, not including viruses and other life forms.
• Some are harmful and many not.

What’s in news?

• The Indian Army successfully test fired an advanced version of the Brahmos land-attack cruise missile in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, revalidating the weapon’s strike capability.
• The land-to-land configuration of Brahmos missile was launched from a mobile autonomous launcher
• The test firing of the block-III version of the missile demonstrated the weapon’s unmatched lethality of hitting the centre of a designated target with “bull’s eye” precision.

What’s in news?

• India will unveil a new series of Index of Industrial Production with a base year 2011-12 on May 9

Main Aim:

• To map economic activities more accurately.
• Currently, the IIP is calculated on base year of 2004-05.

Index of Industrial Production:

• The Index of Industrial Production (IIP) is an index for India which details out the growth of various sectors in an economy such as mining, electricity and manufacturing.
• The all India IIP is a composite indicator that measures the short-term changes in the volume of production of a basket of industrial products during a given period with respect to that in a chosen base period.
• It is compiled and published monthly by the Central Statistical Organisation (CSO) six weeks after the reference month ends.
• The Eight Core Industries comprise nearly 38 % of the weight of items included in the Index of Industrial Production (IIP). These are Electricity, steel, refinery products, crude oil, coal, cement, natural gas and fertilisers.

• The Centre is planning to build an aerotropolis in Assam and has sought 2,000 acres from the state for the purpose.
• Centre proposed to build an aerotropolis in the state which would bring huge benefits to the region in terms of civil aviation and air connectivity.
• Centre has requested state government to allot 2,000 acres an hour’s journey away from Guwahati city near Brahmaputra river.

Basic Information:

• An aerotropolis is a metropolitan subregion where the layout, infrastructure, and economy are centered on an airport which serves as a multimodal “airport city” commercial core.
• It is similar in form to a traditional metropolis, which contains a central city commercial core and commuter-linked suburbs.
• The engine of the aerotropolis is the airport and its air routes which offer firms speedy connectivity to their distant suppliers, customers, and enterprise partners worldwide.
• The aerotropolis encompasses aviation-dependent businesses and the commercial facilities that support them and the multitude of air travelers who pass through the airport annually.
• Airport-linked businesses include, among others, time-sensitive manufacturing, logistics, and e-commerce fulfillment; high-value perishables and biomeds; retail, sports, and entertainment complexes; hotels; conference, trade, and exhibition centers; and offices for business people who travel frequently by air or engage in global commerce.

D. GS4 Related

G. Practice Questions for UPSC Prelims Exam