14 Jul 2023: PIB Summary for UPSC

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Namda Art
2. Sushruta Jayanti
3. Mission Organic Value Chain Development for North Eastern Region (MOVCD-NER)

1. Namda Art

Syllabus: GS-1, Art and Culture; GS-2, Govt Schemes

Prelims: Namda Art, Skill India Mission, Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana

Context:

Skill India project successfully revives the dying Namda Art of Jammu and Kashmir.

What is Namda Art?

Image source: https://m.indiamart.com/

• Namda craft is a rug made of sheep wool through the felting technique instead of the normal weaving process. 
• The process of making a Namda plain rug takes about an hour. After it is dried, Kashmiri Aari embroidery work is done on it to make it more beautiful.
• The art is said to have originated during the time of Emperor Akbar in the 16th century when he wanted some blankets for his horses to protect them from the cold.
• Namda work is used to make carpets, rugs, bed covers and floor mats.
• Namda has been practised by the Pinjara and Mansuri communities.

Under Skill India:

• The export of the Namda works had declined due to the low raw material availability, lack of skilled workers and not enough marketing.
• Under Skill India, as part of the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY), 2,200 candidates from across six districts of J&K received training in the art form.

2. Sushruta Jayanti

Syllabus: GS-1, History

Prelims: Sushruta Jayanti

Context:

The All-India Institute of Ayurveda organised a three-day seminar on the occasion of Sushruta Jayanti.

Sushruta Jayanti:

• Sushruta Jayanti is celebrated every year on 15th July to honour the legendary Sushruta, hailed as the father of surgery. 
• Sushruta is considered the author of the Sushruta Samhita, an ancient Indian treatise on medicine and one of the most important foundational texts for Ayurveda.
• He is believed to have been born in the mid-first millennium BCE and lived in Varanasi.
• His work includes rhinoplasty, treating burns, classification of eye diseases, the introduction of wine as a surgical anaesthetic, etc.

3. Mission Organic Value Chain Development for North Eastern Region (MOVCD-NER)

Syllabus: GS-2, Govt Schemes

Prelims: MOVCD-NER

Mains: NER development schemes and their implementation

Context:

Review progress of Phase-III of Mission Organic Value Chain Development for North Eastern Region.

About MOVCD-NER:

• It is a central sector scheme launched by the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare for implementation in the states of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura.
• It is a sub-mission under the National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture (NMSA).
• The scheme is aimed at the development of certified organic production in a value chain mode to link growers with consumers and to support the development of the entire value chain starting from inputs, seeds, and certification, to the creation of facilities for collection, aggregation, processing, marketing and brand building initiative.
• The scheme was launched in 2016.
• Objectives of the mission:
  • To develop crop commodity-specific organic value chain and address gaps in organic crop production, wild crop harvesting, organic livestock management and processing handling and marketing of organic agricultural products
  • To empower producers with program ownership through FPOs
  • To replace conventional farming/subsistence farming systems with local resource-based, self-sustainable, high-value commercial organic enterprise
  • To develop organic parks/zones with facilities for collection, aggregation, value addition, processing, storage and market linkages for specific commodities requiring capital-intensive technology
  • To develop North Eastern Region products as brands/labels through brand-building and marketing efforts
  • To create a state-specific lead agency (Organic Commodity Board or Organic Mission) for coordinating, monitoring, supporting and financing the development and operationalization of the entire value chain

Read the previous PIB articles here.

July 14th, 2023, PIB:- Download PDF Here