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Distribution: yearly

  • What are Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS)?

    pacs

    The Union Budget has announced Rs 2,516 crore for computerization of 63,000 Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS) over the next five years.

    Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS)

    • PACS are village level cooperative credit societies that serve as the last link in a three-tier cooperative credit structure headed by the State Cooperative Banks (SCB) at the state level.
    • Credit from the SCBs is transferred to the district central cooperative banks, or DCCBs, that operate at the district level.
    • The DCCBs work with PACS, which deal directly with farmers.
    • Since these are cooperative bodies, individual farmers are members of the PACS, and office-bearers are elected from within them.
    • A village can have multiple PACS.

    What is its lending mechanism?

    • PACS are involved in short term lending — or what is known as crop loan.
    • At the start of the cropping cycle, farmers avail credit to finance their requirement of seeds, fertilisers etc.
    • Banks extend this credit at 7 per cent interest, of which 3 per cent is subsidised by the Centre, and 2 per cent by the state government.
    • Effectively, farmers avail the crop loans at 2 per cent interest only.

    NPAs with PACS

    • NABARD’s annual report of 2021-22 shows that 59.6 per cent of the loans were extended to the small and marginal farmers.
    • A report published by the Reserve Bank of India on December 27, 2022 put the number of PACS at 1.02 lakh.
    • At the end of March 2021, only 47,297 of them were in profit.
    • The same report said PACS had reported lending worth Rs 1,43,044 crore and NPAs of Rs 72,550 crore. Maharashtra has 20,897 PACS of which 11,326 are in losses.

    Why are PACS attractive?

    • The attraction of the PACS lies in the last mile connectivity they offer.
    • For farmers, timely access to capital is necessary at the start of their agricultural activities.
    • PACS have the capacity to extend credit with minimal paperwork within a short time.

     

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  • What are White Label ATMs?

    atm

    The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has extended the validity of authorization issued to Vakrangee to setup, own and operate White Label ATMs in India.

    What is White Label ATM?

    • Usually ATMs are managed by banks. But White Label ATMs are owned and operated by non-banking entities.
    • ATMs operated under this business model allow customers to use them for banking transactions regardless of the bank they have an account with.
    • RBI approved the operation and inclusion of WLA ATM by non-banking organisations under the Payment and Settlement Systems Act of 2007.
    • It was introduced to expand India’s ATM network, especially in semi-urban and rural areas.

    How does it work?

    • White Label ATM companies work with banking networks to enable bank customers to use banking services like withdrawing funds, paying bills and depositing cash.
    • White Label ATM (WLA) operators’ charge card-issuing bank fees to provide this facility to the bank’s clients.
    • The transaction process in White Label ATM operators consists of a lending bank, a sponsor bank that handles settlements and an ATM network provider.
    • The Sponsor bank provides the cash facility for the White ATM.

    Significance of WLA: Financial Inclusion

    • Financial inclusion is concerned with the availability of financial services and adequate financing to low-income individuals and other vulnerable segments of society.
    • ATMs promote financial inclusion and provide customers with various banking services at any location and time.

    White Label ATM Operators in India

    • Non-banks set up and operate White ATMs as per the rules laid down by RBI for using ‘other bank’ ATMs.
    • These ATMs accept all domestic debit cards and offer the first five or three transactions per month free of cost, depending on the location.
    • Below mentioned are some examples of companies that operate white label ATMs:
    1. Indicash – India’s largest White Label ATM network responsible for ‘uberisation of ATMs.’
    2. India1 Payments (BTI Payments Pvt. Ltd.)
    3. Hitachi Payment Services Pvt. Ltd.
    4. Tata Communications Payment Solutions Ltd.
    5. Vakrangee Limited

    Benefits of White Label ATMs

    There are many benefits of White Label ATMs:

    • Customers benefit from White Label ATMs since they eliminate the need to visit a bank branch on a regular basis
    • ATMs are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, including holidays
    • Banks benefit from this because they do not have to maintain a huge staff/office (compared to a system without ATMs). It lowers their branch-operational costs
    • Financial inclusion of rural, semi-urban, and low-income people
    • It allowed ATM cards to be issued by any bank that can be used at White Label ATMs
    • WLA atm also provides mobile recharge, energy bill payments, and other value-added services

    Limitations of White Label ATMs

    There are also a few limitations of White Label ATMs:

    • The issue of unsuccessful transactions is a key source of concern. In the event of a dispute, the dispute resolution method will include three entities, namely the WLA operator, the WLA operator’s sponsor bank, and the customer’s bank.
    • Customers will be discouraged by the cost issue, as they will be obliged to pay a price to use the White Label ATMs, as only a limited number of free transactions are permitted on the WLAs
    • White label ATMs’ financial viability is questioned because of their low interchange charge and hefty operational expenses
    • If there is a bank-managed ATM in the same area as a WLA ATM, the White Label ATMs may not be able to generate a profit

    Differences Between Brown Label and White Label ATMs

    The differences between Brown Label ATM and White Label ATMs are:

    Brown Label ATM White Label ATM
    Brown Label ATMs have their hardware and ATM machine leased by a service provider Non-banking entities own and operate ATMs
    The sponsor bank’s brand name appears on the Brown label ATM There is no bank logo on a white label ATM machine
    The RBI is not directly involved. These outsourcing firms are bound by contracts with their respective banks The RBI is directly involved as white label companies must obtain a license or permission from the RBI in order to conduct business

     

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  • Bard: Google’s answer to ‘ChatGPT’

    bard

    Google has finally decided to answer the challenge and threat posed by Microsoft-backed OpenAI and its AI chatbot- ChatGPT.

    What is Bard, when can I access it?

    • Google’s Bard is functioned on LaMDA, the firm’s Language Model for Dialogue Applications system, and has been in development for several years.
    • It is what Sunder Pichai termed an “experimental conversational AI service”.
    • Google will be opening it up to trusted testers ahead of making it more widely available to the public in the coming weeks.
    • It is not yet publicly available.

    What is Bard based on?

    • Bard is built on Transformer technology—which is also the backbone of ChatGPT and other AI bots.
    • Transformer technology was pioneered by Google and made open-source in 2017.
    • Transformer technology is a neural network architecture, which is capable of making predictions based on inputs and is primarily used in natural language processing and computer vision technology.
    • Previously, a Google engineer claimed LaMDA was a ‘sentient’ being with consciousness.

    How does it work?

    • Bard draws on information from the web to provide fresh, high-quality responses.
    • In short, it will give in-depth, conversational and essay-style answers just like ChatGPT does right now.
    • It requires significantly less computing power, enabling us to scale to more users, allowing for more feedback.

    A user will be able to ask Bard to explain new discoveries from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope to a 9-year-old, or learn more about the best strikers in football right now, and then get drills to build your skills.

     

    What about its computing power?

    • Remember running these models also requires significant computing power.
    • For instance, ChatGPT is powered by Microsoft’s Azure Cloud services.
    • This also explains why the service often runs into errors at times, because too many people are accessing it.

    Key difference between ChatGPT and Google’s Bard

    • It appears that to take on ChatGPT, Google has an ace up its sleeve: the ability to draw information from the Internet.
    • Bard draws on information from the web to provide fresh, high-quality responses.
    • ChatGPT has impressed with its ability to respond to complex queries — though with varying degrees of accuracy — but its biggest shortcoming perhaps is that it cannot access real-time information from the Internet.
    • ChatGPT’s language model was trained on a vast dataset to generate text based on the input, and the dataset, at the moment, only includes information until 2021.

    Is Bard better than ChatGPT?

    • Bard looks like a limited rollout right now.
    • Google is looking for a lot of feedback at the moment around Bard, so it is hard to say whether it can answer more questions than ChatGPT.
    • Google has also not made clear the amount of knowledge that Bard possesses.
    • For instance, with ChatGPT, we know its knowledge is limited to events till 2021.
    • Of course, it is based on LaMDA, which has been in the news for a while now.

    Why has Google announced Bard right now?

    • Bard comes as Microsoft is preparing to announce an integration of ChatGPT into its Bing Search engine.
    • Google might have invented the ‘Transformer’ technology, but it is now being seen as a latecomer to the AI revolution.
    • ChatGPT in many ways is being called the end of Google Search, given that conversational AI can give long, essay style and sometimes elegant answers to a user’s queries.
    • Of course, not all of these are correct, but then AI is capable of correcting itself as well and learning from mistakes.

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  • Turkey hit by series of powerful Earthquakes: The science behind it

    turkey

    More than 4000 people died and several hundred were injured after a major earthquake of magnitude 7.8 hit south-central Turkey and Northwest Syria.

    What is an Earthquake?

    • An earthquake is an intense shaking of the ground caused by movement under the earth’s surface.
    • It happens when two blocks of the earth suddenly slip past one another.
    • This releases stored-up ‘elastic strain’ energy in the form of seismic waves, which spreads through the earth and cause the shaking of the ground.

    What exactly causes Earthquakes?

    • As we know, the earth’s outermost surface, crust, is fragmented into tectonic plates.
    • The edges of the plates are called plate boundaries, which are made up of faults.
    • The tectonic plates constantly move at a slow pace, sliding past one another and bumping into each other.
    • As the edges of the plates are quite rough, they get stuck with one another while the rest of the plate keeps moving.
    • Earthquake occurs when the plate has moved far enough and the edges unstick on one of the faults.
    • The location below the earth’s surface where the earthquake starts is called the hypocenter, and the location directly above it on the surface of the earth is called the epicentre.

    How prone is Turkey to Earthquakes?

    • Turkey and Syria lie in a seismically active region
    • The region where the earthquake has struck lies along a well-known seismic fault line called the Anatolia tectonic block that runs through northern, central, and eastern Turkey.
    • It is a seismically active zone — though not as active as, say, the Himalayan region which is one of the most dangerous regions in the world from the perspective of earthquakes.

    What makes Turkey a hotbed of seismic activity?

    turkey

    • Turkey is frequently shaken by earthquakes. In 2020 itself, it recorded almost 33,000 earthquakes in the region.
    • Turkey is located on the Anatolian tectonic plate, which is wedged between the Eurasian and African plates.
    • On the north side, the minor Arabian plate further restricts movement.
    • One fault line — the North Anatolian fault (NAF) line, the meeting point of the Eurasian and Anatolian tectonic plates — is known to be “particularly devastating”.
    • Then there is the East Anatolian fault line, the tectonic boundary between the Anatolian Plate and the northward-moving Arabian Plate.
    • It runs 650 kilometers from eastern Turkey and into the Mediterranean.
    • In addition to this, the Aegean Sea Plate, located in the eastern Mediterranean Sea under southern Greece and western Turkey, is also a source of seismic activity in the region.

    Where was the earthquake epicentered?

    • The centre of the earthquake was centred about 33 km from Gaziantep, around 18 km deep.
    • Its effect was felt across West Asia, Northern Africa and South Eastern Europe with residents of Lebanon, Cyprus, Greece, Israel and Egypt also reporting tremors.

    Aftermath: Many Aftershocks hits the region

    • Aftershocks are a sequence of earthquakes that happen after a larger mainshock on a fault.
    • Aftershocks occur near the fault zone where the mainshock rupture occurred and are part of the “readjustment process” after the main slip on the fault.
    • While they become less frequent with time, although they can continue for days, weeks, months, or even years for a very large mainshock.

    Can earthquakes be predicted?

    • An accurate prediction of an earthquake requires some sort of a precursory signal from within the earth that indicates a big quake is on the way.
    • Moreover, the signal must occur only before large earthquakes so that it doesn’t indicate every small movement within the earth’s surface.
    • Currently, there is no equipment to find such precursors, even if they exist.

    India offers assistance

    • India is among the 45 countries, which have so far offered assistance to Turkey.
    • It’s sending search and rescue teams of the National Disaster Relief Force (NDRF) and medical teams along with relief material to the West Asian nation.

  • NASA-ISRO partnership’s NISAR and its Mission

    nisar

    An earth-observation satellite NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) jointly developed by NASA and ISRO is all set to be shipped to India later this month for a possible launch in September.

    What is NISAR?

    • NISAR has been built by space agencies of the US and India under a partnership agreement signed in 2014.
    • The 2,800 kilograms satellite consists of both L-band and S-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR) instruments, which makes it a dual-frequency imaging radar satellite.
    • While NASA has provided the L-band radar, GPS, a high-capacity solid-state recorder to store data, and a payload data subsystem, ISRO has provided the S-band radar, the GSLV launch system and spacecraft.
    • Another important component of the satellite is its large 39-foot stationary antenna reflector.
    • Made of a gold-plated wire mesh, the reflector will be used to focus the radar signals emitted and received by the upward-facing feed on the instrument structure.

    What is the mission?

    • Once launched into space, NISAR will observe subtle changes in Earth’s surfaces, helping researchers better understand the causes and consequences of such phenomena.
    • It will spot warning signs of natural disasters, such as volcanic eruptions, earthquakes and landslides.
    • The satellite will also measure groundwater levels, track flow rates of glaciers and ice sheets, and monitor the planet’s forest and agricultural regions, which can improve our understanding of carbon exchange.
    • By using synthetic aperture radar (SAR), NISAR will produce high-resolution images.
    • SAR is capable of penetrating clouds and can collect data day and night regardless of the weather conditions.

     

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  • In news: Archaeological Survey of India (ASI)

    The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) has decided to form a special committee to trace and certify 24 protected monuments that have gone “missing”.

    Why in news?

    • PMO has in a report last month said there was an urgent need to “rationalise” the list of monuments of national importance.

    Sites in news

    • Barakhamba Cemetery temple ruins, Mirzapur (UP) dating to 1000 AD
    • Kos Minars – one at Faridabad’s Mujesar and
    • Inchla Wali Gumti at Mubarakpur Kotla in the capital

    Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) 

    • Founded by Alexander Cunningham, who is also revered as the “Father of Indian Archaeology”
    • He was the protege of James Prinsep.
    • It was Lord Canning who helped pass a statute for ASI’s establishment in 1861.
    • Post-Independence, it is a Statutory body that now works under Ancient monuments and archaeological sites and remains act (AMASR Act), 1958.
    • It works as an attached Office of the Ministry of Culture.
    • ASI has 3678 protected monuments and Archaeology sites of National Importance + 29 cultural under the World Heritage List by UNESCO.

    Initiatives by ASI

    1. Museums
    • ASI’s museums are customarily located right next to the sites that their inventories are associated with “so that they may be studied amid their natural surroundings and not lose focus by being transported”.
    • A dedicated Museums Branch maintains a total of 44 museums spread across the country.
    1. Publications by ASI
    • Epigraphia Indica
    • Ancient India
    • Indian Archaeology: A Review (Annually)
    1. Library
    • Central Archaeological Library in the National Archives building in Janpath, New Delhi

     

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  • [pib] Yuva Sangam Portal

    The Union Ministry of Education has launched the “Yuva Sangam” registration portal.

    Yuva Sangam

    • The Yuva Sangam is an initiative of Hon’ble Prime Minister to build close ties between the youth of North East Region and rest of India under the spirit of Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat.
    • Yuva Sangam embodies the philosophy of our rich culture, our glorious history and ancient heritage.
    • Youth between the ages of 18 and 30 will take part in this program.
    • Over 20000 youth will travel across India and gain a unique opportunity of cross cultural learning.
    • Through the course of the program, students will interact with each other in the areas of language, literature, cuisine, festivals, cultural events and tourism.
    • They will get a first-hand experience of living in a completely different geographical and cultural scenario.

    Significance of the program

    • The program will give an opportunity to see, know, and understand India and do something for the country.
    • This is yet another initiative of PM Modi for cementing the bond between the northeast and the rest of India.
    • Yuva Sangam will celebrate India`s diversity, rejuvenate the spirit of oneness and highlight the strength of India`s democracy as envisioned by the PM.

     

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  • MISHTI: Budgetary push for Mangroves

    mangrove

    The Union Budget for 2023-24 announced an initiative for mangrove plantation along the coastline and on saltpan lands, under MISHTI (Mangrove Initiative for Shoreline Habitats & Tangible Incomes).

    MISHTI

    • MISHTI is a new programme that will facilitate mangrove plantation along India’s coastline and on salt pan lands.
    • This new programme will aim at intensive afforestation of coastal mangrove forests.

    Implementation strategy

    • The Budget states that MISHTI will be implemented through convergence between-
    1. MGNREGS (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme),
    2. CAMPA (Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority) Fund and other sources.

    What are Mangroves?

    • Mangroves are salt-tolerant plant communities found in tropical and subtropical intertidal regions.
    • They are important refuges of coastal biodiversity and also act as bio-shields against extreme climatic events.
    • With the threat of climate change and frequent tropical storms looming large, planting more mangroves is a welcome development for India which has a coastline of about 7,500 km.

    Mangroves in India

    • India has about 4,992 sq km (0.49 million hectares) of mangroves, according to the Indian State of Forest Report (IFSR) 2021.
    • Mangroves in India are distributed across nine States and three UTs with West Bengal having the highest mangrove cover of 2,114 sq km.
    • The IFSR report also points out that there has been an increase in the mangrove cover from 4,046 sq km in 1987 to 4,992 sq km in 2021.

    Why protect mangroves?

    • Infrastructure projects — industrial expansion, shifting coastlines, coastal erosion and storms, have resulted in a significant decrease in mangrove habitats.
    • Between 2010 and 2020, around 600 sq km of mangroves were lost of which more than 62% was due to direct human impacts, the Global Mangrove Alliance said in its 2022 report.

    Importance of mangroves

    • Biodiversity: Mangrove forests — consisting of trees and shrub that live in intertidal water in coastal areas — host diverse marine life.
    • Fishing grounds: They also support a rich food web, with molluscs and algae-filled substrate acting as a breeding ground for small fish, mud crabs and shrimps, thus providing a livelihood to local artisanal fishers.
    • Carbon sinks: Equally importantly, they act as effective carbon stores, holding up to four times the amount of carbon as other forested ecosystems.
    • Cyclone buffers: When Cyclone Amphan struck West Bengal in May, its effects were largely mitigated by the Sundarbans flanking its coasts along the Bay of Bengal.

    Threats to Mangroves

    • Anthropogenic activities: They are a major threat to the mangroves. Urbanization, industrialization and the accompanying discharge of industrial effluents, domestic sewage and pesticide residues from agricultural lands threaten these fragile ecosystems.
    • Saltpan and aquaculture: This causes huge damage to the mangroves. Shrimp farming alone destroyed 35,000 hectares of mangroves worldwide.
    • Destruction for farming: 40% of mangroves on the west coast has been converted into farmlands and other settlements in just 3 decades.
    • Sea-level rise: This is another challenge to these mangroves- especially on the Bay of Bengal coast.

    What lies ahead?

    • A contract-based one-time plantation under MGNREGS and CAMPA alone may not work unless the local communities take ownership of the forests.
    • Discharge of untreated domestic and industrial effluents into the rivers should be immediately stopped.
    • The natural inter-tidal flow along the coast should be conserved.

    Try this PYQ:

    Q. Which one of the following is the correct sequence of ecosystems in the order of decreasing productivity?

    (a) Oceans, lakes, grasslands, mangroves

    (b) Mangroves, oceans, grasslands, lakes

    (c) Mangroves, grasslands, lakes, oceans

    (d) Oceans, mangroves, lakes, grasslands

     

    [wpdiscuz-feedback id=”7fvmdn1tyf” question=”Please leave a feedback on this” opened=”1″]Post your answers here.[/wpdiscuz-feedback]

     

     

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  • 73rd establishment day of Supreme Court

    supreme court

    The Supreme Court of India is hosting its celebration of the 73rd anniversary of its establishment today.

    Why in news?

    • This year’s event is being aired on social media platforms and will witness Singapore’s Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon, who is of Indian origin, as the chief guest.

    When was the Supreme Court founded?

    • On January 28, 1950, two days after India became a sovereign democratic republic, the Supreme Court of India came into being.
    • The first CJI of India was H. J. Kania.
    • The inauguration took place in the Chamber of Princes in the Parliament building which was the home to the Federal Court of India for 12 years preceding the Supreme Court’s establishment.
    • The Parliament House was to be the home of the Supreme Court for years that were to follow until the court acquired its own present building with lofty domes and its signature spacious colonnaded verandas in 1958.

    History of established

    • In 1861, the Indian High Courts Act 1861 was enacted to create high courts for various provinces and abolished Supreme Courts at Calcutta, Madras and Bombay and also the sadar adalats in presidency towns in their respective regions.
    • These new high courts had the distinction of being the highest courts for all cases till the creation of the Federal Court of India under the Government of India Act 1935.
    • The Federal Court had jurisdiction to solve disputes between provinces and federal states and hear appeals against judgment of the high courts.

    Premise of the Supreme Court

    • In 1958, when the court shifted its premises, the building was shaped to project the image of scales of justice, in the central wing.
    • In 1979, two new wings – the East wing and the West wing – were added to the complex. In all, there are 19 Courtrooms in the various wings of the building.
    • The Chief Justice’s Court is the largest of the Courts located at the Centre of the Central Wing.

     

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  • What is the North Star?

    north star

    Vice President said Parliament is the “North Star” of democracy, “a place of discussion and deliberation to realize the aspirations and dreams of the people”.

    What is North Star?

    • North Star is a metaphor to refer to something constant/permanent that leads and provides direction.
    • Polaris, also known as the North Star or the Pole Star, is a very bright star (around 2500 times more luminous than our sun) placed less than 1° away from the north celestial pole.
    • Its position and brightness have made humans use it for navigation since late antiquity.
    • It is a part of the constellation Ursa Minor and is around 323 light-years away from Earth.

    How it helps navigation?

    • It stands almost motionless in the night sky, with all the stars of the northern sky appearing to rotate around it.
    • This makes it an excellent fixed point from which to draw measurements for celestial navigation.
    • Simply the elevation of the star above the horizon gives the approximate latitude of the observer and in the northern hemisphere, if you can see Polaris you can always tell which way is north.
    • Upon crossing the equator to the South, the North Star is lost over the horizon and hence stops being a useful navigational aid.

    When the North Star was first used to navigate?

    • Polaris seems to have been first charted by the Roman mathematician and astronomer Ptolemy, who lived from about 85 to 165 B.C.
    • While there does exist some evidence pointing at how the star was used for navigation in late antiquity, it is during the ‘Age of Exploration’ that it becomes such a central part of human history.
    • Christopher Columbus, on his first trans-Atlantic voyage of 1492, “had to correct (his ship’s bearings) for the circle described by the pole star about the pole”, wrote his son in his biography.
    • As European colonizers set sail for exotic locations across the world, the North Star became an ever-so-important feature.

     

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