India is planning to use surplus rice, besides sugarcane, to meet its biofuel target of blending 20% ethanol with petrol.
Could this impede India’s crop diversification goals or worsen nutritional indicators? Let us see!
Govt’s plan to promote ethanol
India is estimated to achieve about 8.5% blending with petrol by this year, which it plans to increase to a mandatory 20% blending by 2025.
Sources for ethanol
The plan is to divert its excess sugar production to produce ethanol, 3.5 million tonnes in 2021-22 and 6 million tonnes the next year, in addition to grains like rice, corn, and barley.
Using surplus rice: The government’s food department revealed its plans to divert 17 million tonnes of surplus rice from its food stocks of 90 million tonnes to produce ethanol.
Sugarcane: This is in addition to the 2 million tonnes of sugar which is already being diverted to produce ethanol.
How would this benefit the country?
Cost saving: A successful biofuels programme can save India $4 billion or about ₹30,000 crore every year by lowering import of petroleum products.
Emission cut: Ethanol is also less polluting and offers equivalent efficiency at a lower cost than petrol.
Biofuel’s policy boost: Rising production of grains and sugarcane and feasibility of making vehicles compliant to ethanol-blended fuel makes its biofuels policy a strategic requirement.
Early rollout: Towards this, govt has put in place interest subsidies for distilleries to expand capacity while auto firms have agreed to make compatible vehicles.
What are the unintended effects of the policy?
Unsustainability of cash-crops: Increasing reliance on biofuels can push farmers to grow more water-intensive crops like sugarcane and rice.
Huge water requirement: Currently use 70% of the available irrigation water, negating some positive impact on the environment of using more ethanol.
Food and nutrition security: The move could impact India’s hunger situation by limiting the coverage of the food security schemes.
Food inflation: Diversion of mass consumption grains can also push food prices up.
How will it impact crop diversification?
Monotonous crops: Although the biofuels policy stresses on using less water-consuming crops, farmers prefer to grow more sugarcane and rice due to price support schemes.
Water stress: Growing more of them can lead to an adverse impact in water-stressed areas in states.
What about food security?
It is unethical to use edible grains to produce ethanol in a country where hunger is rampant.
India is already a poor performer in Global Hunger Index.
Although about 80 crore people are now receiving subsidized food grains, calculations show that over 10 crore eligible households are still excluded.
The Union Commerce Minister has announced that the government has decided to waive customs duty on import of crude sunflower, palm and soyabean oil, a move aimed at controlling their prices.
Edible Oil Imports and India
Given the heavy dependency on imports, the Indian edible oil market is influenced by the international markets.
Of the 20-21 million tonnes of edible oil that India consumes annually, around 4-15 mt is imported.
India is second only to China (34-35 mt) in terms of consumption of edible oil.
Crude and food-grade refined oil is imported in large vessels, mainly from Malaysia, Brazil, Argentina, Indonesia etc.
Home-grown oilseeds such as soyabean, groundnut, mustard, cottonseed etc find their way to domestic solvent and expellers plants, where both the oil and the protein-rich component is extracted.
Do you know?
Palm oil (45%) is the largest consumed oil, mainly used by the food industry for frying namkeen, mithai, etc, followed by soyabean oil (20%) and mustard oil (10%), with the rest accounted for by sunflower oil, cottonseed oil, groundnut oil etc.
Prices and politics
Prices of edible oil have been rising across the country since few months.
Most edible oils are trading between Rs 130-Rs 190/litre.
Also, the festive season will see increased buying of edible oils.
Impact of the move
Consumers might not see a drastic reduction immediately in prices of edible oil.
The reduction in duty is expected to affect the earnings of oilseed growers across the country.
Long-term implications
Over the last few years, the government has taken a series of steps to remove India’s import dependency on pulses, and tried to do the same for oilseeds through national missions.
However, frequent market interventions that ultimately bring down prices would backfire on the government and veer farmers away from growing oilseeds.
We need continuity in prices to help farmers stick to oilseeds or pulses.
Back2Basic: Customs Duty
Customs duty refers to the tax imposed on goods when they are transported across international borders.
In simple terms, it is the tax that is levied on import and export of goods.
Custom duty in India is defined under the Customs Act, 1962, and all matters related to it fall under the Central Board of Excise & Customs (CBEC).
The government uses this duty to raise its revenues, safeguard domestic industries, and regulate movement of goods.
The rate of Customs duty varies depending on where the goods were made and what they were made of.
Types of custom duty
Basic Customs Duty (BCD): It is the duty imposed on the value of the goods at a specific rate at a specified rate of ad-valorem basis.
Countervailing Duty (CVD): It is imposed by the Central Government when a country is paying the subsidy to the exporters who are exporting goods to India.
Additional Customs Duty or Special CVD: It is imposed to bring imports on an equal track with the goods produced or manufactured in India.
Protective Duty: To protect interests of Indian industry
Safeguard Duty: It is imposed to safeguard the interest of our local domestic industries. It is calculated on the basis of loss suffered by our local industries.
Anti-dumping Duty: Manufacturers from abroad may export goods at very low prices compared to prices in the domestic market. In order to avoid such dumping, ADD is levied.
The Reserve Bank of India has issued a small finance bank (SFB) license to a consortium of fintech companies BharatPe and Centrum Financial Services Ltd.
What is a SFB?
Small finance banks (SFBs) are a type of niche banks in India.
They can be promoted either by individuals, corporate, trusts or societies.
They are governed by the provisions of Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934, Banking Regulation Act, 1949 and other relevant statutes.
They are established as public limited companies in the private sector under the Companies Act, 2013.
Banks with a SFB license can provide basic banking service of acceptance of deposits and lending.
Objectives of setting-up an SFB
To provide financial inclusion to sections of the economy not being served by other banks, such as small business units, small and marginal farmers, micro and small industries and unorganized sector entities
Key features of SFBs
Existing non-banking financial companies (NBFC), microfinance institutions (MFI) and local area banks (LAB) can apply to become small finance banks.
The banks will not be restricted to any region.
75% of its net credits should be in priority sector lending and 50% of the loans in its portfolio must in ₹25 lakh.
The firms must have a capital of at least ₹200 crore.
The promoters should have 10 years’ experience in banking and finance.
Foreign shareholding will be allowed in these banks as per the rules for FDI in private banks in India.
The Global Hunger Index 2021 has ranked India at 101 positions out of a total 116 countries.
Note the parameters over which the GHI is based and their weightage composition.
Global Hunger Index (GHI)
The Global Hunger Index is a peer-reviewed annual report, jointly published by Concern Worldwide and Welthungerhilfe.
It determines hunger on a 100-point scale, where 0 is the best possible score (no hunger) and 100 is the worst.
It is designed to comprehensively measure and track hunger at the global, regional, and country levels.
The aim of the GHI is to trigger action to reduce hunger around the world.
For each country in the list, the GHI looks at four indicators:
Undernourishment (which reflects inadequate food availability): calculated by the share of the population that is undernourished (that is, whose caloric intake is insufficient)
Child Wasting (which reflects acute undernutrition): calculated by the share of children under the age of five who are wasted (that is, those who have low weight for their height)
Child Stunting (which reflects chronic undernutrition): calculated by the share of children under the age of five who are stunted (that is, those who have low height for their age)
Child Mortality (which reflects both inadequate nutrition and unhealthy environment): calculated by the mortality rate of children under the age of five
India’s (poor) performance
India is among the 31 countries where hunger has been identified as serious.
Only 15 countries fare worse than India.
Some of these include Afghanistan (103), Nigeria (103), Congo (105), Mozambique (106), Sierra Leone (106), Timor-Leste (108), Haiti (109), Liberia (110), Madagascar (111) and Somalia (116).
India was also behind most of the neighbouring countries.
Pakistan was placed at 92 rank, Nepal at 76 and Bangladesh also at 76.
Reasons for such poor performance
Poor maternal health: Mothers are too young, too short, too thin and too undernourished themselves, before they get pregnant, during pregnancy, and then after giving birth, during breast-feeding.
Poor sanitation: Poor sanitation, leading to diarrhoea, is another major cause of child wasting and stunting.
Food insecurity: Low dietary diversity in India is also a key factor in child malnutrition.
Poverty: Almost 50 million households in India are dependent on these small and marginal holdings.
Livelihood loss: The rural livelihoods loss after COVID and lack of income opportunities other than the farm sector have contributed heavily to the growing joblessness in rural areas.
Issues over credibility of GHI
India has ranked among many African countries while it is among the top 10 food-producing countries in the world.
In Tamil Nadu, the Karuppur kalamkari paintings and the Kallakurichi wood carvings recently received the geographical indication (GI) tags.
[A] Kallakurichi Wood Carvings
The Kallakurichi wood carvings are a unique form of wood carving practiced in Tamil Nadu.
It involves the application of ornamentation and designs, derived from traditional styles by the craftsmen.
They are mainly practiced in Kallakurichi, Chinnaselam and Thirukkovilur taluks of Kallakurichi district.
[B] Karuppur Kalamkari Paintings
Kalamkari paintings are done on pure cotton cloth, predominantly used in temples for umbrella covers, cylindrical hangings, chariot covers and asmanagiri (false ceiling cloth pieces).
Documentary evidence shows that kalamkari paintings evolved under the patronage of Nayaka rulers in the early 17th century.
Back2Basics: Geographical Indication
A GI is a sign used on products that have a specific geographical origin and possess qualities or a reputation that are due to that origin.
Nodal Agency: Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), Ministry of Commerce and Industry
India, as a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO), enacted the Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and Protection) Act, 1999 w.e.f. September 2003.
GIs have been defined under Article 22 (1) of the WTO Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement.
GI is granted for a term of 10 years in India. As of today, more than 300 GI tags has been allocated so far in India (*Wikipedia).
The Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) has launched an automated fuelling technology -UFill- to ensure that its customers have a better experience at outlets.
What is UFill?
UFill functionality, which has been described as swift, secure and smart, has been launched in 65 cities and will soon be launched across the country.
It does not need any app download, and is payment app agnostic.
Customer can use any payment app already downloaded on his/her phone.
It offers real time QR and voucher code through SMS and is accepted at all BPCL Fuel Stations where the functionality is enabled.
Key features
UFill aims to improve customer’s turn-around time (TAT) at fuel outlet and increase transactional transparency, thereby providing enhanced retail like experience.
The technology provides the customer with control of fuelling as well as touch less pre-payment solution.
There is no need to check zero before fuelling or final reading, the dispensing unit will automatically dispense the exact quantity of fuel.
From 2013-2021, prelims papers had an average of 15 polity questions. There have not been any major variations over the years. Hence, polity is one of the most important subjects in the prelims exams.
If you like our polity analysis, fill the form below to have a one-on-one interactive session with our mentors on other subjects as well.
Every year, atleast 10 questions appear from the Laxmikant book. This makes it a standard source for polity studies. Difficulty level of most questions in polity is easy. This means preparing from current affairs and the standard sources is enough for the prelims examination. Aspirants can prepare from the following sources for Polity –
A. Polity Fundamental basics
NCERT 9th and 10th Political theory book
Value Addition on Political science Basics by Santosh Gupta
B. Polity and Constitution
1. Indian Constitutional at Work (NCERT)
2. M. Laxmikant on Polity
3. The Oxford Handbook of the Indian Constitution by Madhav Khosla
C. Current Affairs
1. CivilsDaily Monthly Magazines
2. Samachar Manthan Notes
Sub-topics wise analysis
Aspirants have to pay attention to topics like fundamentals of polity, fundamental rights, directive principles of state policy, the preamble, schedules and articles in constitution and the recent bills cleared in the Parliament. Most of the questions have been asked from these topics from 2013 to 2021.
Sub-Topic Wise Comparative study of 2021 Questions from 2020 Questions & Before.
Questions both in 2021 and 2020 papers have appeared from the following three areas. For detailed analysis, go through the table below:
A.Polity Fundamental aspects- Related to basics of Political Science
B. Polity and Constitution aspects
C. Current Affairs
A. Polity Fundamentals/Pol Science type questions
Questions before 2021 prelims
Questions in 2021 prelims
1.Constitutional Government
On the meaning of the word
Repeat question on meaningseems to UPSC’s FavouriteAvailable in NCERT
2.Idea of Liberty : definition, restriction, relation with article14 etc.
No question in 2020However, Continued theme since 2014.Definition of Liberty (2019)Relation of law and liberty(2018), Restriction on liberty(2014)
Question on Safeguards to libertyUPSC intends to ask for various aspects of liberty and rule of lawCan be solved by NCERT/ NIOS level Gyan
3. Definition of keywords: state/nation/communism/GandhismRule of Law, equality
No such questionQuestions on Gandhism and Marxism Definition of equality in 2017
Question on definition of state.Need to be prepared on Political science definition of keywords.
B.Questions on ConstitutionGood Number of Questions from Preamble, FRs and DPSP
Questions before 2021 prelims
Questions in 2021 prelims
Preamble1-2 questions ever year
One direct question on preamble, in another Preamble is one of right option. Two questions in 2017 such minds of constitutional makers and another on contents of preamble Contents of preamble(2015)
Indirect question on Preamble- Status of India on 26th January 1950
Fundamental rights2 questions every year
One direct question in 2020 (Article 17-Untouchability)Two questions in 2019 such as right to marry and 9th schedule
Two questions in 2021Article 14- equalityArticle 18- Abolition of titles
DPSPsAt least 2 questions every year
Two direct questions in 20201.Welfare State2.Part IVOne Indirect Question- UNHDR
One Direct question: Concentration of Wealth in 2021
Debatable questionsEach year 1-2 questions
(2019) will state legislatures follow the rules of Lok Sabha?(2017) right to vote Repeated theme of Confusing aspirants over constitutional and Legal Rights such as vote, property etc.
Two Questions in 2021 Right to Property whether available to citizen only/all Definition of State Separation of powers- Committed Judiciary type option
Parliament Few Difficult questions on Parliament Procedures, Committees etc. 1-2 questions on motions/ resolutions, qualifications
One Question on Rulebook(2020) Minister eligibility & RPA (2020) 2019: office of profit and disqualification
Complete omission of this area of questions in 2021 2022 may have 2-3 questions
Judiciary relatedAt least one question
Basic Structure and Judicial Review (2020)Judicial Review and 44th Amendment (2019)Impeachment of Judges(2019)
Direct question on Independence of JudiciaryIndirect question on role of Judiciary in federalismIndirect question on role of judiciary in ensuring liberal democracy
C. Current Affairs:
Questions before 2021 prelims
Questions in 2021 prelims
Random Laws and Schemes from older Current Affairs
NALSA (2013 and 2020)MPLADS (2020)AADHAR (2019 and 2020)Transgender Law
No Current Affairs as such not even from old current (>1 year) Two questions on Parole and Judicial custody- seems to inspired from current events related to death of an actor last year.
How to Prepare Polity for Prelims 2022
Watch this strategy video to get a clear understanding:
Polity is certainly the first subject most aspirants read when they start their preparation. If you are a 2022 aspirant who needs polity test series or guidance for the subject then click here.
In prelims 2021 paper, Polity seems to be the most doable section. Most questions are easy to moderate and from standard sources of NCERT and Laxmikant. There is less emphasis on current affairs directly however many questions seem to inspired from current affairs. More focus is on understanding the basic concepts and constitutional aspects while linking it with current happenings. Aspirants need not to worry about older current affairs as there are lesser number of questions. Controversial questions get more mileage in the interview round, where one is expected to give balanced answers.
Want to know the best sources, important topics to prepare and how to study other subjects for UPSC CSE 2022 exams? Fill the form below and a veteran CD mentor will get in touch with you within 24 hours.
Failing to qualify Prelims does not mean that you give up! There have been top rankers in the history of UPSC who failed to qualify Prelims multiple times but learned from each mistake and kept improving themselves. Pranav Vijayvargiya (AIR Rank 65) 2020 is the biggest example of this. He failed consecutively in 2 prelims but he kept himself motivated and finally got (AIR Rank 65) under the guidance of Sajal sir.
Fear of failure keeps you from learning and this is not the time to lose hope! It may be a tough situation but there’s still a lot you can learn from it.
Sajal Sir has helped over 400 aspirants secure ranks in the last 6 years. He has helped 30 students secure ranks in the top 100 in UPSC 2020. He knows about success but he also knowshow success is built from lessons of failure. He knows how bad the situation may become if you don’t qualify for Prelims but he also knows how to use that learning to crack the exam. And that’s the secret he will share with you in an absolutely free webinar.
How to keep yourself motivated in this exam process whose gestation period is very high.
2. How to cope up with failures in this exam cycle
3. How to maintain consistency during preparation
3. How to re-start preparation again for the 2022 exam
4. Which mistakes to avoid in your next attempt
5. Blueprint of your preparation plan. When to start preparation for prelims again.
6. How to utilize these next 4 months before you start preparing for prelims again.
7. What to study, From where to study, and how to study.
8. Smart study-related practical strategies which work on the ground.
9. 4-2-4 Model of Preparation
10. Open 1-1 Q&A session with Sajal sir
Join Sajal sir for the free webinar and take the first step towards cracking the exam in the upcoming attempt!
Date: 16/10/21
Time: 7 p.m.
About Sajal Sir
He is the founder and Core Faculty at CD. An economics Post-Graduate, He had scored the highest marks in GS Mains in the 2017 UPSC exam, and under his guidance, more than 80 students cracked the UPSC exam in 2020.
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Failing to qualify Prelims does not mean that you give up! There have been top rankers in the history of UPSC who failed to qualify Prelims multiple times but learned from each mistake and kept improving themselves. Pranav Vijayvargiya (AIR Rank 65) 2020 is the biggest example of this. He failed consecutively in 2 prelims but he kept himself motivated and finally got (AIR Rank 65) under the guidance of Sajal sir.
Fear of failure keeps you from learning and this is not the time to lose hope! It may be a tough situation but there’s still a lot you can learn from it.
Sajal Sir has helped over 400 aspirants secure ranks in the last 6 years. He has helped 30 students secure ranks in the top 100 in UPSC 2020. He knows about success but he also knowshow success is built from lessons of failure. He knows how bad the situation may become if you don’t qualify for Prelims but he also knows how to use that learning to crack the exam. And that’s the secret he will share with you in an absolutely free webinar.
