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GS Paper: GS3

  • India’s U-turn on Wheat Exports

    The Union commerce ministry was preparing to send delegations abroad to boost the country’s wheat exports, when the government abruptly banned its exports on 14 May.

    Why did India ban the export of wheat?

    • Record retail inflation has punctured India’s export hopes.
    • While wheat prices are up nearly 20%, prices of essential food items such as flour have risen nearly 15% last year.
    • Prices of other food items that use wheat, like bread and biscuits, have surged, too.
    • Heatwaves in the latter part of March, especially in northwest India, impacted the production of foodgrains.

    Is India staring at a food shortage?

    • India’s grain stocks are well above the buffer levels and the decision to regulate wheat exports was taken largely to check prices and curb hoarding.
    • The public distribution system in the country would be run smoothly.
    • However, the government has replaced wheat with rice in the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana scheme for 2022-23.
    • The effort clearly is a response to the reduced availability of wheat.

    What has been the global reaction to the ban?

    • Agriculture ministers from G7 condemned India’s decision to withhold wheat exports amid a global grain shortage.
    • India is the world’s second-largest wheat producer and was expected to fill the gap created because of the Ukraine war.
    • However, wheat exports will be allowed in cases where an irrevocable letter of credit has already been issued.

    How will the ban affect India’s neighbors?

    • The export control will help India guide wheat trade in a certain direction.
    • Even with the ban, there is a window open for neighbouring countries.
    • The export will be allowed to other countries “based on the request of their governments”.
    • This window is crucial for Sri Lanka because the country is facing an economic crisis.
    • Also, Bangladesh and Nepal have traditionally relied on Indian wheat.

    What is the impact on farmers and traders?

    • The ban has deprived Indian wheat traders the opportunity to gain from the global grain shortage.
    • It may have an unfavorable impact on wheat farmers too.
    • Market prices of wheat had soared past the minimum support price (MSP) in recent months.

    Issues with the ban

    • This ban has impacted the credibility of India as a reliable supplier of anything in global markets.
    • It conveys that we don’t have any credible export policy as it can turn its back at the drop of a hat.
    • More interestingly, it also reflects a deep-rooted consumer bias in India’s trade policies.
    • It is this consumer bias that indirectly becomes anti-farmer. This ban deprives farmers from profit-making.
    • It only shows the hollowness of agri-trade policies and dreams of doubling agri-exports.
    • The export ban also reflects poorly on India’s image in playing its shared global responsibility amid the Russia-Ukraine war.

    Way forward

    • It may be recognised that inflation is a global phenomenon today caused by excessive liquidity injected by central banks and loose fiscal policies around the world.
    • India’s wheat export ban will not help tame inflation at home.
    • The Government could have announced a bonus of Rs 200-250/quintal on top of MSP to augment its wheat procurement.
    • The govt could have calibrated exports by putting some minimum export price (MEP).

    Back2Basics:

    How the Central and State governments procure Wheat?

     

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  • Back in news: Chief of Defence Staff (CDS)

    The Union government is reassessing the concept of the post of Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) and the Department of Military Affairs (DMA) leading to a delay in the appointment to the post.

    The post of CDS has also been lying vacant since the demise of Late. Gen. Bipin Rawat.

    Office of the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS)

    • The CDS is a high military office that oversees and coordinates the working of the three Services, and offers seamless tri-service views and single-point advice to the Executive.
    • On long-term it provides for defence planning and management, including manpower, equipment and strategy, and above all, “joint manship” in operations.
    • In most democracies, the CDS is seen as being above inter-Service rivalries and the immediate operational preoccupations of the individual military chiefs.
    • The role of the CDS becomes critical in times of conflict.

    Duties and Functions of the CDS

    The Ministry of Defence has outlined various functions and duties for the post of CDS:

    • To head the Department of Military Affairs in Ministry of Defence and function as its Secretary.
    • To act as the Principal Military Advisor to Raksha Mantri on all Tri-Service matters.
    • To function as the Permanent Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee
    • To administer the Tri-Service organizations/agencies/commands.
    • To be a member of Defence Acquisition Council chaired by Raksha Mantri.
    • To function as the Military Advisor to the Nuclear Command Authority.
    • To bring about jointness in operation, logistics, transport, training, support services, communications, repairs and maintenance, etc of the three Services.
    • To implement Five-Year Defence Capital Acquisition Plan and Two-Year roll-on Annual Acquisition Plans, as a follow up of Integrated Capability Development Plan.
    • To bring about reforms in the functioning of three Services with the aim to augment combat capabilities of the Armed Forces by reducing wasteful expenditure.

    Why need CDS?

    • Tri-services coordination: The creation of the CDS will eventually lead to the formation of tri-service theatre commands intended to create vertical integration of the three forces.
    • Single-point military advisory: The CDS will be a single-point military adviser to the government and synergise long term planning, procurements, training and logistics of the three Services.
    • Efforts saving: This is expected to save money by avoiding duplication between the Services, at a time of shrinking capital expenditure within the defence budget.
    • Military diplomacy: This is today supporting conventional diplomacy. That can’t be done by different Services.

     

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  • RNA granules to treat neurodegenerative disorders

    Researchers at IISc Bangalore have identified a protein in yeast cells that dissolves RNA-protein complexes, also known as RNA granules.

    What is mRNA?

    • Messenger RNA (mRNA) is a single-stranded RNA (Ribo Nucleic Acid) molecule that is complementary to one of the DNA strands of a gene.
    • The mRNA is an RNA version of the gene that leaves the cell nucleus and moves to the cytoplasm where proteins are made.
    • During protein synthesis, an organelle called a ribosome moves along the mRNA, reads its base sequence, and uses the genetic code to translate each three-base triplet, or codon, into its corresponding amino acid.

    What are RNA granules?

    • Inside the cytoplasm of any cell there are structures made of messenger RNA (mRNA) and proteins known as RNA granules.
    • Unlike other structures in the cell (such as mitochondria), the RNA granules are not covered and confined by a membrane.
    • This makes them highly dynamic in nature, thereby allowing them to constantly exchange components with the surrounding.
    • RNA granules are present in the cytoplasm at low numbers under normal conditions but increase in number and size under stressful conditions including diseases.

    Why are they unique?

    • A defining feature which does not change from one organism to another (conserved) of the RNA granule protein components is the presence of stretches containing repeats of certain amino acids.
    • Such stretches are referred to as low complexity regions.
    • Repeats of arginine (R), glycine (G) and glycine (G) — known as RGG — are an example of low complexity sequence.

    Functions of RNA granules

    • Messenger RNAs are converted to proteins (building blocks of the cell) by the process of translation.
    • RNA granules determine messenger RNA (mRNA) fate by deciding when and how much protein would be produced from mRNA.
    • Protein synthesis is a multi-step and energy-expensive process.
    • Therefore, a common strategy used by cells when it encounters unfavorable conditions is to shut down protein production and conserve energy to deal with a stressful situation.
    • RNA granules help in the process of shutting down protein production.
    • Some RNA granule types (such as Processing bodies or P-bodies) not only regulate protein production but also accomplish degradation and elimination of the mRNAs, which in turn helps in reducing protein production.

    What is the recent study?

    • Researchers concluded that low complexity sequences which normally promote granule formation, in this case promote the disintegration of RNA granules in yeast cells.
    • They observed that the identified protein Sbp1 is specific for dissolving P-bodies and not stress granules which are related RNA granule type also present in the cytoplasm.

    Significance of the study

    • This study has highlighted the potential of amino acid repeats (RGG) as a therapeutic intervention.
    • The study may help analyze the effect of repeat sequences in genetically engineered mice that accumulate insoluble pathological aggregates in brain cells.
    • This could possibly help in treating neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease.

     

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  • What is INSACOG?

    The PM has announced that the Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG) would be extended to India’s neighbouring countries.

    What is INSACOG?

    • INSACOG was established in December 2020 as a joint initiative of the Union Health Ministry of Health and Department of Biotechnology (DBT).
    • It aims to expand the whole-genome sequencing of SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes the Covid-19 disease, across India with the aim of understanding how the virus spreads and evolves.
    • It functions under the Ministry of Science and Technology with the Council for Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR) and Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).

    Composition of INSACOG

    • INSACOG started out with the participation of 10 national research laboratories of the central government, and gradually expanded to a network of 38 labs.
    • It now includes private labs operating on a hub-and-spoke model.
    • These works to monitor genomic variations in SARS-CoV-2 by a sentinel sequencing effort which is facilitated by the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC).
    • It now involves the Central Surveillance Unit (CSU) under the central government’s Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP).

    Working of the INSACOG

    • The data from the genome sequencing laboratories is analysed as per the field data trends to study the linkages, if any, between the genomic variants and epidemiological trends.
    • INSACOG helps to understand super spreader events and outbreaks, and strengthen public health interventions across the country to help break chains of transmission.
    • Linking this data with IDSP data and the patient’s symptoms helps to better understand viral infection dynamics, and trends of morbidity and mortality.
    • The data can be linked with host genomics, immunology, clinical outcomes, and risk factors for a more comprehensive outlook.
    • Sequencing assumes added significance as the incidence of reinfections and vaccine breakthroughs increases.

     

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  • Monetary policy alone won’t bring down inflation

    Context

    The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) last week raised both policy rates and cut back liquidity in a surprise inter-meeting decision. The forcefulness and urgency of the policy shift have been seen as a signal of the RBI’s renewed commitment to fighting inflation via aggressive monetary tightening in the coming months.

    How do higher inflation rates slow inflation?

    • It is true that a large swathe of the global economy is in the throes of runaway inflation and that in many of these economies tightening monetary and fiscal policies is the right response.
    • Initial conditions: But initial conditions matter as do the specific drivers of inflation.
    •  There are typically three ways in which higher inflation rate slows inflation.

    1] Lowering inflationary expectations

    • Suppose one believes that because a central bank has not tightened enough, future inflation will be higher.
    • In that case, the obvious response is to bring forward future consumption and investment to the present, thereby adding to demand and fueling current inflation further.
    • So, in principle, the central bank by credibly committing to bringing down inflation through aggressive current actions can bring down expectations of future inflation. 
    • It won’t work in India: This is a very potent conduit of monetary transmission in developed markets, where there is a wide variety of inflation-hedging instruments, as well as in some emerging markets — Brazil, for instance —where inflation-indexation is widespread.
    • However, there is little empirical evidence that this channel works in India, even weakly.

    2] Exchange rate channel

    • Higher interest rates attract foreign capital that appreciates the currency, lowering import prices and, in turn, inflation.
    • Again, this is a powerful mechanism in Latin America and Central Europe, where bond flows — that are sensitive to interest rate differential —dominate capital movements and the import content of the consumer basket is large.
    • Will it work in India? This is not the case in India and, in any event, for this to work it would require extreme rate hikes in the country, given the anticipated aggressive tightening by the US Fed.

    3] Curbing credit growth

    • Raising both the cost of borrowing as well as its availability (for example, by increasing the cash reserve ratio) reduces credit growth, lowering demand, GDP growth and, eventually, inflation.
    • It works well in India: This is the credit transmission by which higher interest rates dampen inflation and it works well in India.
    • How much of today’s price increase is credit-driven? Even a cursory glance at bank balance sheets would suggest that credit growth is just treading water.
    • Having recovered from being negative in mid-2021, real credit growth is running just around 2 per cent.

    Comparison with inflation-monetary policy dynamics of 2010-11

    • Back then, real GDP growth was clocking over 10 per cent per quarter, nominal credit growth 20-25 per cent, and real credit growth over 10 per cent.
    • Inflation was unambiguously driven by an overheated economy and fueled by runaway credit.
    • In the event, the RBI assessed the drivers of inflation to be originating from the supply side — higher food and commodity prices — and moved at a glacial pace, such that even after 12 rate hikes inflation remained in double digits for much of that period.
    • Faced with a potential US Fed tightening in 2013, India found itself in a near-crisis situation.
    • Today things are different. Much of the inflation is driven by global food and commodity prices.
    • Despite the languishing private demand, core inflation remains high.
    •  But this has been the case for much of the last two years, strongly suggesting that the domestic supply chain disruptions in manufacturing and services, especially at the informal level, haven’t been repaired fully.
    • The reason why firms locate in the informal sector in the first place is because of lower transaction costs, so when parts of the supply chain shift to the higher-cost formal sector, it shows up as inflation during the transition before increased scale of production and efficiency bring down the cost over time.
    • None of these factors is affected much by higher lending rates. 
    • So the burden of taming inflation by tightening monetary policy will fall largely on lower credit.
    • There is clearly a case to remove the extraordinary monetary support provided during the pandemic.

    Conclusion

    The RBI had misread the drivers of inflation badly in 2010-11. Hopefully, it won’t repeat that mistake this time.

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  • Sagittarius A*: Black Hole at the Centre of our Galaxy imaged

    Scientists from the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) facility revealed the first image of the black hole at the centre of our galaxy i.e. the Milky Way.

    The Milky Way is a spiral galaxy that contains at least 100 billion stars. Viewed from above or below it resembles a spinning pinwheel, with our sun situated on one of the spiral arms and Sagittarius A* located at the centre.

    What is Sagittarius A*?

     

    • Pronounced Sagittarius ‘A’ star, it refers to the believed location of the supermassive black hole in the centre of our galaxy.
    • About 50 years ago, astronomers identified an area within the constellation of Sagittarius that was the strongest region of radio emission – thus making it the likely centre of the Milky Way.
    • It possesses 4 million times the mass of our sun and is located about 26,000 light-years—the distance light travels in a year, 5.9 trillion miles (9.5 trillion km)—from Earth.

    What is an event horizon?

    • Black holes are extraordinarily dense objects with gravity so strong that not even light can escape, making viewing them extremely challenging.
    • A black hole’s event horizon is the point of no return beyond which anything—stars, planets, gas, dust and all forms of electromagnetic radiation—gets dragged into oblivion.
    • The closer someone came to a black hole, the greater the speed they would need to escape that massive gravity.
    • The event horizon is the threshold around the black hole where the escape velocity surpasses the speed of light.

    What are the recent observations?

    • The image of Sagittarius A* (SgrA*) gave support to the idea that the compact object at the centre of our galaxy is indeed a black hole, strengthening Einstein’s general theory of relativity.
    • The image was obtained using the EHT’s global network of observatories working collectively to observe radio sources associated with black holes.
    • It showed a ring of light —super-heated disrupted matter and radiation circling at tremendous speed at the edge of the event horizon—around a region of darkness representing the actual black hole.
    • This is called the black hole’s shadow or silhouette.

    How did Einstein’s theory found its proof here?

    • According to Einstein’s theory, nothing can travel faster through space than the speed of light.
    • This means a black hole’s event horizon is essentially the point from which nothing can return.
    • The name refers to the impossibility of witnessing any event taking place inside that border, the horizon beyond which one cannot see.

    About EHT Facility

    • EHT project is a large telescope array consisting of a global network of radio telescopes.
    • It combines data from several very-long-baseline interferometry (VLBI) stations around Earth, which form a combined array.
    • It provides an angular resolution sufficient to observe objects the size of a supermassive black hole’s event horizon.
    • In 2019, the eHT facility made history by releasing the first-ever image of a black hole, M87* — the black hole at the centre of a galaxy Messier 87, which is a supergiant elliptic galaxy.

     

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  • Ujjwala LPG Scheme: 90-lakh beneficiaries don’t take refills

    In the financial year 2021-22, 90-lakh beneficiaries of the flagship welfare scheme, Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY), did not take refill gas cylinders. And over one crore beneficiaries got their refills only once.

    About the PM Ujjwala Yojana

    • Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) was launched in 2016, with the aim to provide Liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) connections to five crore women members of below poverty line (BPL) households in the first phase.
    • he scheme was expanded in April 2018 to include women beneficiaries from seven more categories (SC/ST, PMAY, AAY, Most backward classes, tea garden, forest dwellers, Islands).
    • In the second phase the target was expanded to eight crore LPG connections.

    Why was this scheme launched?

    • Indoor air pollution is also responsible for a significant number of acute respiratory illnesses in young children.
    • Providing LPG connections to BPL households will ensure universal coverage of cooking gas in the country.
    • This measure has empowered women and protected their health. It reduced drudgery and the time spent on cooking.
    • It will also provide employment for rural youth in the supply chain of cooking gas.

    Ujjwala 2.0

    • Now migrant workers would only be required to submit a self-declaration of their residential address to get the gas connection.
    • Along with a deposit-free LPG connection, Ujjwala 2.0 will provide the first refill and a hotplate free of cost to the beneficiaries.

     

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  • PAN, Aadhaar made mandatory for high-value cash deposits & withdrawals

    The government has made requirement of a Permanent Account Number (PAN) or Aadhaar number for depositing or withdrawing Rs 20 lakh or more in a financial year or for opening a current account mandatory.

    Regulating high-value transactions

    • The Central Board of Direct Taxes, in a notification, said furnishing PAN or biometric Aadhaar will be mandatory for such high-value cash deposits or withdrawals from banks in a financial year.
    • The same will be applied for opening of a current account or cash credit account with a bank or post office.
    • Banks, post offices and co-operative societies would be required to report the transactions of deposits and withdrawals aggregating to Rs 20 lakh or more in a financial year.
    • As of now, PAN is required to be furnished for cash deposits of Rs 50,000 or more in a day.
    • With these rules, a threshold of Rs 20 lakh has been defined for the full financial year.

    How will this help tax department?

    • This move will help the government in tracing the movement of cash in the financial system.
    • It is expected to help the income tax department monitor deposits/withdrawals where tax would not be getting paid by the individual otherwise on his or her income.

    Why PAN-Aadhaar interoperability?

    • The PAN-Aadhaar interoperability will help banks to record details for those who don’t have PAN.
    • The interchangeable provision in the rules would allow a bank or financial institution to ask for Aadhaar in case an individual states that he or she doesn’t have PAN.
    • The Finance Act, 2019, has provided for the interchangeability of PAN with Aadhaar.
    • It has been provided that every person who is required to furnish or intimate or quote his PAN under the Income-tax Act.
    • Those who, has not been allotted a PAN but possesses the Aadhaar number, may furnish or intimate or quote his Aadhaar in lieu of PAN.

     

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  • Green Manure and its productivity benefits

    The Punjab agriculture department is promoting the cultivation of green manure these days.

    What is the news?

    • Punjab Agro is providing subsidy on the seed at the rate of Rs 2,000 per quintal, which costs Rs 6,300 per quintal without subsidy
    • The farmers can avail its seed from the block level offices of the agriculture department as limited stock is available.

    What is Green Manure?

    • Green manures are crops grown specifically for maintaining soil fertility and structure.
    • It is done by leaving uprooted or sown crops parts, allowing them to wither onto the field and serve as mulch and soil fertilizers.
    • They are normally incorporated back into the soil, either directly, or after removal and composting.
    • There are three main varieties of green manure, including
    1. Dhaincha
    2. Cowpea
    3. Sunhemp
    • Also some crops such as summer moong, mash pulses and guar act as green manure.
    • They can be sown after wheat cultivation

    Characteristics of green manure

    • Green manure must be leguminous in nature
    • They must bear maximum nodules on its roots to fix large amount of atmospheric nitrogen in the soil.

    Various policy initiatives

    • Under Sub- Mission on Seed and Planting Material (SMSP), the govt. provides 50% cost assistance for the distribution of green manure required for a one-acre area per farmer.
    • The Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana (PKVY) promotes cluster-based organic farming with PGS (Participatory Guarantee System) certification.

     

     

  • Places in news: Pantanal Wetlands

    The world’s largest wetland, the Pantanal in South America, is at the risk of collapse due to legal land-use decisions and proposals.

    About Pantanal

    • The Pantanal is a natural region encompassing the world’s largest tropical wetland area, and the world’s largest flooded grasslands.
    • It is located mostly within the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso do Sul, but it extends into Mato Grosso and portions of Bolivia and Paraguay.
    • It sprawls over an area estimated at between 140,000 and 195,000 square kilometres.
    • Various subregional ecosystems exist, each with distinct hydrological, geological and ecological characteristics; up to 12 of them have been defined.
    • Roughly 80% of the Pantanal floodplains are submerged during the rainy seasons, nurturing a biologically diverse collection of aquatic plants and helping to support a dense array of animal species.

    Significance of Pantanal

    • The Pantanal is a refuge for iconic wildlife. This massive wetland has the largest concentration of crocodiles in the world, with approximately 10 million caimans.
    • Jaguars, the largest feline in the Americas, hunt caiman in the Pantanal, which has one of the highest density of jaguars anywhere the world.

    Threats

    • Around 95% of the Pantanal is under private ownership, the majority of which is used for cattle grazing.

     

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