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GS Paper: GS3

  • Fertilizer Subsidy to cost 62% more on input costs

    An unprecedented spike in natural gas prices and other raw materials is set to inflate the fertilizer subsidy bill by a whopping 62% or ₹50,000 crores to ₹1,30,000 crore this fiscal.

    Fertilizer Subsidy in India

    • Fertilizer subsidy is purchasing by the farmer at a price below MRP (Maximum Retail Price), that is, below the usual demand-and-supply-rate, or regular production and import cost.
    • Subsidy as a concept originated during the Green Revolution of the 1970s-80s.

    How does it work?

    • Fertilizer subsidy ultimately goes to the fertilizer company, even though it is the farmer that benefits.
    • Before 2018, companies were reimbursed after the material was dispatched and received by the district railhead or designated godown.
    • 2018 saw the beginning of DBT (Direct Benefit Transfer), which would transfer money directly to the retailer’s account.
    • However, the companies will be paid only after the actual sale to the farmer.
    • With the DBT system, each retailer — there is over 2.3 lakh of them across India — now has a point-of-sale (PoS) machine linked to the Department of Fertilizers’ e-Urvarak DBT portal.

    What about non-urea fertilizers?

    • Decontrolled system: The non-urea fertilizer is decontrolled or fixed by the companies.
    • The non- urea fertilizers are further divided into two parts, DAP (Diammonium Phosphate) and MOP (Muriate of Phosphate).

    Issues with such subsidies

    • Flawed subsidy policy: This is harmful not just to the farmer, but to the environment as well.
    • No permanent remedy: Indian soil has low Nitrogen use efficiency, which is the main constituent of Urea.
    • Excessive use: Consequently, excess usage contaminates groundwater.
    • Emission: The bulk of urea applied to the soil is lost as NH3 (Ammonia) and Nitrogen Oxides causing emissions.
    • Health hazards: For human beings, “blue baby syndrome” is a common side ailment caused by Nitrate contaminated water.

    Post your answers in the comment box for this PYQ:

    Q.What are the advantages of fertigation in agriculture? (CSP 2020)

    1. Controlling the alkalinity of irrigation water is possible.
    2. Efficient application of Rock Phosphate and all other phosphatic fertilizers is possible.
    3. Increased availability of nutrients to plants is possible.
    4. Reduction in the leaching of chemical nutrients is possible.

    Select the correct answer using the code given below:
    (a) 1, 2 and 3 only

    (b) 1,2 and 4 only

    (c) 1,3 and 4 only

    (d) 2, 3 and 4 only

     

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  • Species in news: Physella Acuta

    A tiny snail with a striking, pellucid golden-yellow shell found in the Edappally canal in Kochi has been flagged as an invasive species that could play havoc with native ecosystems.

    Snail Physella Acuta

    • First described by J.P.R. Draparnaud in 1805, Physella acuta is considered native to North America but is now found in all continents except Antarctica.
    • The snail was first reported in India in the early 1990s.
    • It is believed to have reached Kerala through the aquarium trade, a major vector for invasive species.
    • In Kerala, the snail had made its home in a highly polluted reach plagued by high sedimentation, untreated sewage, commercial effluents, construction wastes and a thick growth of invasive aquatic weeds.

    Threats posed

    • This snail plays host to worms that can cause food-borne diseases and skin itches in humans.
    • Moreover, its rapid growth rate, air-breathing capability, and tolerance to pollution make it a potential competitor to native fauna.

     

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  • Challenges facing cooperative sector in India

    Context

    The article delved into the past of the cooperative movement and give some suggestions to resolve the issues facing cooperatives in India.

    Background of cooperatives

    • Friedrich Raiffeisen, who along with compatriot Schulze-Delitzsch in Germany, and Luzzatti of Italy, pioneered cooperatives in Europe.
    • Cooperatives in India: The Governor of the Madras Presidency, Lord Wenlock, was the first to seriously attempt replicating European cooperatives in India.
    • Principles: Raiffeisen based them on the principles of self-help, self-governance, and self-responsibility.
    • Nicholson wrote that the ‘future of rural credit lies with those who being of the people, live among the people, and yet by their intelligence, prescience and energy, are above the people’.
    •  Plunkett, in his foreword to Eleanor Hough’s The Cooperative Movement in India (1932), commented that what India had was not a movement, but a policy.
    • It was ‘created by ‘resolutions of the Central Government’ unlike Europe.
    • Increasing government control: John Matthai wrote in 1925 that the challenge was to loosen government grip on cooperation over the years.
    • But, government control has only increased, violating a core cooperative principle of political neutrality.
    • This reflects a collective failure of the political class.

    Challenges facing cooperatives

    • After Independence, cooperative institutions became an instrument of planning and state action.
    • Not surprisingly, successful Indian cooperatives such as the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd (GCMMF)/Amul, Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative Limited (IFFCO) and Krishak Bharati Cooperative Limited (KRIBHCO), are outside government control.
    • Globally, seven of the top 10 cooperatives by asset size are from the financial sector.
    • The Indian financial sector is nowhere in the picture going by asset size.
    •  Cooperatives have also become avenues for regulatory arbitrage, circumventing lending and anti-money laundering regulations.
    •  The committees which examined cooperative banking suffered from the top-down quality that Plunkett and others frowned upon.
    • Recent initiatives such as an umbrella organisation for urban cooperatives and a new Ministry of Cooperation at the Centre threaten to further this approach in the absence of safeguards.

    Suggestions

    • First, the powers of the RCS need to be scaled back.
    •  In almost all States, the RCS has become an instrument of inspection and domination, one which imposes uniform by-laws, and amends them when individual societies do not fall in line.
    •  There is a need to transfer work from the RCS to cooperative federations — as in Singapore.
    • Second, the rural-urban dichotomy in the regulatory treatment of cooperatives is specious and outdated.
    • Such differences are immaterial when regulation is to be based on the cooperative nature of organisations.
    • Third, the regulation and the supervision of cooperative banks should move to a new body from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for urban banks and the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) for rural banks.
    • Fourth, lessons from the Netherlands, where cooperative banks owe their success to a segmented market, are pertinent.
    • In India, adopting a multi-agency approach, especially after bank nationalisation, has affected the efficiency of both commercial and cooperative banks.
    • Commercial bank-cooperative sector linkages at various levels could alternatively provide better synergies.

    Conclusion

    The cooperative sector in India faces challenges on various fronts. There is a need for implementing the changes suggested above to play an important role expected from it in the economy.

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  • Centre and states must work together to tackle the pollution in the NCR

    Context

    Supreme Court (SC) judges have pulled up the Delhi and central governments for not doing enough to correct the dire air quality situation. They also remarked on what message we are sending to the world.

    The pollution problem raises doubt about the quality of urbanisation in India

    •  If one looks at the capitals of G20 countries, Delhi’s air quality index (AQI) during November 1-15, is by far the worst at 312, as per World Air Quality Index Project.
    •  India’s distinction goes beyond Delhi.
    • As per the World Air Quality Report of 2020, prepared by IQAir (a Swiss organisation), of the 30 most polluted cities in the world, 22 are in India.
    • The problem is much deeper, raising doubts about the quality of our urbanisation.

    Contributing sources and their share

    • Contributing sources: As per the report of the Ministry of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change submitted to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change following sources contribute in the given proportion:
    • Energy generation (largely coal-based thermal power) is the biggest culprit with a share of 44 per cent in greenhouse gas emissions,
    • Energy generation is followed by manufacturing and construction-18 per cent.
    • Agriculture-14 per cent.
    • Transport-13 per cent industrial processes and product use- 8 per cent and waste burning- 3 per cent.

    Suggestions to tackle Delhi’s pollution

    • As per the System of Air Quality Forecasting and Research (SAFAR), the reasons for poor AQI differ day to day.
    • On a particular day, say November 7, stubble burning contributed 48 per cent of Delhi’s air pollution, which fell to just 2 per cent on November 18.
    • Reduce rice cultivation: The Centre needs to sit down with neighbouring states and come up with a plan to reduce the rice area in this belt, which is already depleting the water table, creating methane and nitrous oxide, to incentivise farmers to switch to other crops through better returns than in rice cultivation.
    • Adopt EVs: To tackle vehicular pollution, we need a massive drive towards electric vehicles (EVs), and later towards green hydrogen when it becomes competitive with fossil fuels.
    • Charging stations: Scaling up EVs quickly demands creating charging stations on a war footing.
    • Develop carbon sink: Delhi also needs a good carbon sink.
    • Rejuvenating the Ridge area with dense forests and developing thick forests on both sides of the Yamuna may help.

    Enhancing farmers income through solar farming

    •  The Prime Minister has done a commendable job in Glasgow to commit that 50 per cent of India’s energy will be from renewable sources by 2030.
    • To replace coal in energy generation, solar and wind is the way to go at the all-India level.
    • The current model in solar energy is heavily tilted towards companies.
    • They are setting up large solar farms on degraded or less fertile lands.
    • We can supplement that model by developing solar farms on farmers’ fields.
    • This would require solar panels to be fixed at a 10 feet height with due spacing to let enough sunlight come to the plants for photosynthesis.
    • These “solar trees” can then become the “third crop” for the farmers, earning them regular income throughout the year, provided the law allows them to sell this power to the national grid.
    • The Delhi government’s pilot in Ujwa KVK land on these lines showed that farmers can earn up to Rs 1 lakh per acre per year from this “solar farming”.
    • This is on top of the two crops they can keep growing under those solar trees.
    • This will double farmers’ income within a year.

    Conclusion

    As deteriorating air quality grips the whole country, we need to work on multiple levels with coordination to tackle the problem.

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  • Arms Race towards Hypersonic Weapons

    China recently tested a nuclear-capable hypersonic missile while Russia announced that it had successfully test-launched a Tsirkon hypersonic cruise missile in early October.

    What are Hypersonic Weapons?

    • The speed of sound is Mach 1, and speeds upto Mach 5 are supersonic and speeds above Mach 5 are hypersonic.
    • They are manoeuvrable weapons that can fly at speeds in excess of Mach 5, five times the speed of sound.
    • A number of other countries – including Australia, India, France, Germany, and Japan—are developing hypersonic weapons technology.

    Features of HSWs

    • Trajectory: Ballistic Missiles are long-range missile that leaves the earth’s atmosphere before re-entry, pursuing a parabolic trajectory towards its target
    • Maneuverability: HSW travel within the atmosphere and can manoeuvre midway which combined with their high speeds make their detection and interception extremely difficult.
    • Stealth: Radars and air defences cannot intercept them till they are very close. They can penetrate most missile defences and further compress the timelines for response by a nation under attack.

    Types of Hypersonic Weapons

    There are two classes of hypersonic weapons:

    1. Hypersonic glide vehicles (HGV): They are launched from a rocket before gliding to a target.
    2. Hypersonic cruise missiles (HCM): They are powered by high-speed, air-breathing engines, or scramjets, after acquiring their target.

    Where does the US stand?

    • The US has active hypersonic development programs.
    • It is said to be lagging behind China and Russia because most US hypersonic weapons are not being designed for use with a nuclear warhead.
    • It is in process of developing prototypes to assist in the evaluation of potential weapon system concepts and mission sets.

    Hypersonic program in India

    • HSTDV program: India is developing an indigenous, dual-capable hypersonic cruise missile as part of its Hypersonic Technology Demonstrator Vehicle (HSTDV) program.
    • Capacity: India operates approximately 12 hypersonic wind tunnels and is capable of testing speeds of up to Mach 13.
    • In-operation: The DRDO has successfully tested a Mach 6 scramjet in June 2019 and September 2020 using the demonstrated scramjet engine technology.

    DRDO has validated many associated crucial technologies such as:

    1. Aerodynamic configuration for hypersonic maneuvers
    2. Use of scramjet propulsion for ignition and sustained combustion at the hypersonic flow
    3. Thermo-structural characterization of high-temperature materials
    4. Separation mechanism at hypersonic velocities has been validated

    Conclusion

    • There are rising tensions between the US, China and Russia worsening the geopolitical situation worldwide.
    • The focus for hypersonic weapons is only set to accelerate more countries to invest significant resources in their design and development.

    Back2Basics:

     

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  • How is Gold Hallmarking being implemented?

    The Government has made it mandatory for the introduction of a Hallmark Unique Identification (HUID) number in every piece of jewellery.

    What is HUID?

    • HUID is a six-digit alphanumeric code, or one that consists of numbers and letters. It is given to every piece of jewellery at the time of hallmarking and is unique for each piece.
    • It is being implemented by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) in a phased manner.
    • Hallmarking & HUID are mandatory for 14-, 18- and 22-carat gold jewellery and artefacts.
    • Before buying any piece of gold jewellery, the buyer should check all these three symbols.

    Implementation of HUID

    • Symbols: The hallmark consists of three symbols which give some information about the jewellery piece. The first symbol is the BIS logo; the second indicates purity and fineness; and the third symbol is the HUID.
    • A&H centre: Jewellery is stamped with the unique number manually at the Assaying & Hallmarking centre.

    Why is it being introduced?

    • Authentication: HUID gives a distinct identity to each piece of jewellery enabling traceability.
    • Credibility: It is critical to the credibility of hallmarking and to help address complaints against adulteration.
    • Registration: In HUID-based hallmarking, registration of jewellers is an automatic process with no human interference.
    • Prevents malpractice: It also helps check malpractice by members of the trade.
    • Data privacy: It is a secure system and poses no risk to data privacy and security.
    • Financial tracking: HUID provides traceability and financial tracking of purchases.

    Issues with HUID

    • Time-consuming: It is cumbersome to number each piece of jewellery
    • Intricate jewellery: HUID cannot be engraved in tiny pieces.
    • Unnecessary expense: Also it will increase cost for consumers.
    • Infrastructural issues: there needs to be ample AH Centres.

    What does this mean for the consumer?

    • Consumer protection: Given that gold plays a big role in the lives of Indians, mandating gold hallmarking is aimed at protecting consumer interests.
    • Assurance of quality: It provides ‘third-party assurance’ to consumers on the purity of gold jewellery.

    Conclusion

    • HUID concept is innovative, out-of-the-box thinking and more than makes up for stepping in late with mandatory hallmarking.
    • It is the sort of global leadership India has and needs to show in gold-related reforms.

     

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  • Dhawan-1: India’s first privately developed Cryogenic Rocket

    Skyroot Aerospace successfully tested Dhawan-1 last month. It became the country’s first privately developed fully cryogenic rocket engine.

    Dhawan-1

    • The indigenous engine was developed using 3D printing with a superalloy.
    • It runs on two high-performance rocket propellants — liquid natural gas (LNG) and liquid oxygen (LoX).
    • This was after successfully designing and developing the solid propulsion rocket engine, the first private firm in the country to do so.

    Other projects by Skyroot

    • Skyroot is working simultaneously on different stages of both solid propulsion and liquid propulsion engines.
    • It is named after eminent scientists, like Kalam (Abdul Kalam) series for the former and Dhawan (Satish Dhawan).
    • The launch vehicles are named after Vikram Sarabhai.

     

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  • [pib] Project RE-HAB

    Buoyed by the success of its innovative Project RE-HAB (Reducing Elephant-Human Attacks using Bees) in Karnataka, Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) has now replicated the project in Assam.

    Project RE-HAB

    • Project RE-HAB is a sub-mission of KVIC’s National Honey Mission.
    • Under the project, “Bee-fences” are created by setting up bee boxes in the passageways of elephants to block their entrance to human territories.
    • The boxes are connected with a string so that when elephants attempt to pass through, a tug or pull causes the bees to swarm the elephant herds and dissuade them from progressing further.
    • It is a cost-effective way of reducing human-wild conflicts without causing any harm to the animals.

    How does it work?

    • It is scientifically recorded that elephants are annoyed by the honey bees.
    • Elephants also fear that the bee swarms can bite the sensitive inner side of the trunk and eyes.
    • The collective buzz of the bees is annoying to elephants that force them to return.

     

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  • A white touch to a refreshed green revolution

    Context

    November 26, 2021 was celebrated in Anand, Gujarat as the 100th birth anniversary of Verghese Kurien, the leader of India’s ‘white revolution’.

    Analysing the Green revolution

    • Purpose of green revolution: The purpose of the green revolution was to increase the output of agriculture to prevent shortages of food.
    • Technocratic enterprise: The green revolution was largely a technocratic enterprise driven by science and the principles of efficiency.
    • It required inputs, like chemical fertilizers, to be produced on scale and at low cost.
    • Therefore, large fertilizer factories were set up for the green revolution. And large dams and irrigation systems were also required to feed water on a large scale.
    • Monocropping on fields was necessary to apply all appropriate inputs — seeds, fertilizer, water, etc., on scale.
    •  Monocropping increased the efficiency in application of inputs.
    • Thus, farms became like large, dedicated engineering factories designed to produce large volumes efficiently.
    •  Diversity in the products and processes of large factories creates complexity.
    • Therefore, diversity is weeded out to keep the factories well-focused on the outputs they are designed for.

    The contrast between White and Green revolution

    • The contrast between the two revolutions provides valuable insights. Their purposes were different.
    • Purpose of white revolution: The purpose of the white revolution was to increase the incomes of small farmers in Gujarat, not the output of milk.
    • The white revolution was a socio-economic enterprise driven by political leaders and principles of equity.

    Understanding the success of Amul

    • Amul has become one of India’s most loved brands, and is respected internationally too for the quality of its products and the efficiency of its management.
    • The fledgling, farmer-owned, Indian enterprise had many technological problems to solve.
    • That is why they enrolled Kurien, who had studied engineering in the United States.
    • Indigenous solutions: Kurien and his engineering compatriots in the organisation were compelled to develop solutions indigenously when Indian policy makers, influenced by foreign experts, said Indians could not make it.
    • The enterprise achieved its outcome of empowering farmers because the governance of the enterprise to achieve equity was always kept in the foreground, with the efficiency of its production processes in the background as a means to the outcome.

    Increasing productivity and issues with it

    • ‘Productivity’, when defined as output per worker, can be increased by eliminating workers.
    • This may be an acceptable way to measure and increase productivity when the purpose of the enterprise is to increase profits of investors in the enterprise.
    • It is a wrong approach to productivity when the purpose of the enterprise is to enable more workers to increase their incomes, which must be the aim of any policy to increase small farmers’ incomes.
    • The need for new solutions to increase farmers’ incomes has become imperative.
    • Moreover, fundamental changes in economics and management sciences are necessary to reverse the degradation of the planet’s natural environment that has taken place with the application of modern technological solutions and management methods for the pursuit of economic growth.

    Suggestions to increase inclusion and improve environmental sustainability

    • Ensure inclusion and equity: Increase in the incomes and wealth of the workers and small asset owners in the enterprise must be the purpose of the enterprise, rather than production of better returns for investors.
    • Social side: The ‘social’ side of the enterprise is as important as its ‘business’ side.
    • Therefore, new metrics of performance must be used, and many ‘non-corporate’ methods of management learned and applied to strengthen its social fabric.
    • Local solution: Solutions must be ‘local systems’ solutions, rather than ‘global (or national) scale’ solutions.
    • The resources in the local environment (including local workers) must be the principal resources of the enterprise.
    • Practical use of science: Science must be practical and useable by the people on the ground rather than a science developed by experts to convince other experts.
    • Moreover, people on the ground are often better scientists from whom scientists in universities can learn useful science.
    • Sustainable solution through evolution: Sustainable transformations are brought about by a steady process of evolution, not by drastic revolution.
    • Large-scale transformations imposed from the top can have strong side-effects.

    Consider the question “Contrast the differences between the White Revolution and Green Revolution in India. What lessons can be applied to Indian agriculture from the success of the White Revolution in India?”

    Conclusion

    The essence of democratic economic governance is that an enterprise must be of the people, for the people, and governed by the people too.

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  • Species in news: Lesser Florican

    In a major discovery, the longest in-country migration route of lesser floricans, the endangered birds of the bustard group, has been tracked for the first time from Rajasthan to Maharashtra’s Ahmednagar district.

    Lesser Florican

    • The lesser florican (Sypheotides indicus), also known as the likh or kharmore, is the smallest in the bustard family.
    • It is endemic to the Indian Subcontinent where it is found in tall grasslands and is best known for the leaping breeding displays made by the males during the monsoon season.
    • The male has a contrasting black and white breeding plumage and distinctive elongated head feathers that extend behind the neck.
    • These bustards are found mainly in northwestern and central India during the summer but are found more widely distributed across India in winter.
    • The only similar species is the Bengal florican (Houbarobsis bengalensis) which is larger and lacks the white throat, collar and elongated plumes.

    Conservation status

    • The Lesser Florican is protected under Schedule 1 of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, Lesser Florican
    • The bird is listed as “Critically Endangered” on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Threatened Species.

    Threats

    • It is threatened both by hunting and habitat degradation.
    • The species is highly endangered and has been officially hunted to extinction in some parts of its range such as Pakistan.

    Try this PYQ:

    Which one of the following groups of animals belongs to the category of endangered species?

    (a) Great Indian Bustard, Musk Deer, Red Panda, Asiatic Wild Ass

    (b) Kashmir Stag, Cheetah, Blue Bull, Great Indian Bustard

    (c) Snow Leopard, Swamp Deer, Rhesus Monkey, Saras (Crane)

    (d) Lion Tailed Macaque, Blue Bull, Hanuman Langur, Cheetah

     

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