UPSC 2017-18: PIB Summary and Analysis Sept 09

GENERAL STUDIES PAPER 1

Topic: Art and Culture

MoS DoNER Dr Jitendra Singh to inaugurate two-day “North East Calling” festival tomorrow

About “North East Calling” festival

• The two-day “North East Calling” event is being organised by the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), Government of India under its ‘Destination North East series’ of this year.
• The purpose of the event is to promote the art, culture, heritage, cuisine, handicrafts, business and tourism of North East India.

GENERAL STUDIES PAPER 3

Topic: Agriculture

Agriculture Ministry is working sincerely and honestly to fulfil our Prime Minister’s dream to Double Farmers Income by 2022: Shri Radha Mohan Singh

Context:

• Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi’s target to improve the economic condition of the farmers.
• The goal is to double the income of farmers by 2022.

Governments Seven-point Strategy to achieve the targets set:

1. Increase in production: ‘Per Drop More Crop’

• It is important to improve irrigation efficiency to increase production. ‘
• Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana has been launched to mitigate the drought effect and to ensure ‘water to every farm’. Hence, pending medium and large projects have also been expedited.
• Watershed development and water harvesting & management projects have been put on the fast track.

2. Effective use of input cost

• Soil Health Card Scheme to inform farmers about nutrients status of the soils. This is reduces the cultivation
• In addition, the Government has curbed illegal use of urea and ensured adequate supply through Neem Coated Urea scheme.
• The government is also encouraging organic farming.
• The adoption of new technologies in agriculture such as space technology is helping in better planning through forecasting of crop production, agricultural land-use mapping, drought prediction, and utilisation of fallow paddy fields for Rabi crops.
• Apart from this, farmers are getting timely information and advisory services through online and telecom mediums such as Kisan Call Centre and Kisan Suvidha App.

3. Reduction of post-harvest losses

• One of the biggest problems of the farmers is storage after harvesting as a result they are forced to sell their products at a lower cost.
• Therefore, the government is encouraging farmers to use warehouses and avoid distressed sales.
• Loans against negotiable warehouse receipts are being provided with interest subvention benefits.
• To protect farmers from losses, the government is focusing on storage facilities and integrated cold chains in rural areas.

4. Value Addition

• The government is also promoting quality through food processing.
• Pradhan Mantri Kisan Sampada Yojana: Under this scheme, food-processing capabilities will be developed by working on the forward and backward linkage of agro processing cluster.

5. Reforms in Agriculture Marketing

• Reforms initiated: e-NAM was launched with three reforms and so far, 455 mandis have been linked to this platform.
• Online trading has begun on various mandis.
• The government has circulated model Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) Act, which includes private market yards and direct marketing.
• In addition, the Government is also working on a Model Act to promote contract farming.

6. Risk, Security and Assistance

       Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY):

• The scheme creates a security shield.
• The lowest rate has been fixed for Kharif and Rabi crops. Maximum rate is 2% and 1.5% respectively.
• The scheme covers standing crops as well as pre-sowing to post-harvesting losses.
• Not only that, 25% of the claim is settled immediately online.
• New technologies like Smartphones, satellite imagery and drones facilities are being utilised to carry out faster assessments of crop loss under PMFBY.
• Key fact: The government is providing compensation if at least 33% of the crop is damaged. Compensation amount has been increased to 1.5 times.

7. Allied Activities

I. Horticulture:

• The Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture (MIDH) scheme is playing an important role in doubling the income of farmers.

II. Integrated Farming:

• Government is also using Integrated Farming System (IFS).
• In addition to agriculture, the focus is also on horticulture, livestock, and bee keeping.
• This scheme will not only increase farmers’ income, it will also mitigate the effect of drought, flood, and other natural disasters.

III. White Revolution:

• Indigenous breeds of cows are being conserved under Rashtriya Gokul Mission.
• The genetic makeup is improving and increasing the production of milk.
• The government is set to establish Dairy Processing and Infrastructure Development Fund.

IV. Blue Revolution:

• Blue Revolution: Integrated Development and Management of Fisheries is a new initiative and it includes activities such as inland fisheries, Aquaculture, Mariculture undertaken by National Fisheries Development Board (NFDB). Apart from this Deep Sea Fishing scheme has also been initiated.

V. Sub-Mission on Agroforestry:

• For the first time Sub-Mission on Agroforestry has been initiated with an aim to promote inter-cropping. Under this scheme, “Med Per Ped” campaign has also been included

VI. Beekeeping: A large number of farmers/beekeepers are being trained for bee keeping.

VII. Rural Backyard Poultry Development:

• Under this scheme, supplementary income and nutritional support are provided to poultry farmers.
• Awareness program sensitizing sheep, goat, pig and duck farmers about opportunities to enhance income through Rural Backyard Poultry Development mission is being carried out.

Topic: Internal Security and Defense

Eastern Fleet Ships on Overseas Deployment to East and South-East Asia

Context:

• India’s ‘Act East Policy’
• The Indian Navy routinely undertakes deployment of ships to friendly nations.
• The visit of Indian Naval Ships to East and South-East Asia underscores India’s peaceful presence and harmonious relations with the countries in the region.
• The deployment aims to strengthen existing bonds between India and the regional countries.

Press release:

• Two Indian Naval Ships proceeded on deployment to East and South-East Asia this year.
• INS Satpura and INS Kadmatt departed Visakhapatnam today to visit 12 ports in Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Philippines, South Korea, Japan, Brunei and Russia.
• During this deployment, the ships will participate in the International Fleet Review hosted by the Association of South East Asian Countries (ASEAN) at Thailand.
• They will visit Singapore, Vietnam, Philippines, Cambodia and Brunei to commemorate the 25th anniversary of India-ASEAN dialogue.
• The ships will also participate in the Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) exercise at Malaysia.
• At Russia, the ships will participate in the annual India-Russia bilateral exercise INDRA.

Key Fact:

• INS Satpura and INS Kadmatt are both indigenously built warships.
• INS Satpura, synonymous with the formidable mountain range in Central India, is a multi-role stealth frigate.
• INS Kadmatt, named after an island in the beautiful Lakshadweep chain, is an Anti-Submarine Corvette.