Was reading it up at quora… found this…. abhi tak to mujhe pata bhi nahi tha…
There are broadly three types of government officers in India.
1: Central Government Officers
These officers are appointed by the Government of India and they work with a department (cadre) of the Government of India. The appointing authority is the President of India. These officers are appointed by the UPSC. The examples of such officers are IRS, IFS, IRTS who are appointed through Civil Services Examinations; IES, MES officers appointed through Engineering Services Examinations. They can work in State Government or in other Ministries of Central Government on deputation on equivalent rank.
They can be removed/dismissed by the Government of India.
2: State Government Officers
These officers are appointed through the State Public Service Commission by the State Governments. The appointing authority is the Governor of the State. The officers like PCS, BDO, AEE etc. are appointed as State service officers. They can be dismissed/removed by State Government.
They can also be promoted to All India Service (AIS) by UPSC/Government of India.
3: All India Service (AIS) officers
There are three AIS in India at present viz. IAS, IPS and IFoS (Indian Forest Service). These officers are appointed by the Government of India, but they work under the State Government.
Each AIS officer is allotted a cadre (State), where they work for life. However, they can work with Central Government or other State Government on deputation.
These officers can’t be removed by State Governments, which can only suspend them. The final decision to remove the officer lies with Central Government.
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1. Can IAS officers work in different state as well?
2. State officer can become IAS. How long does it take?
In June 1989, both sides announced that “there was agreement by both sides to work towards a comprehensive settlement, based on redeployment of forces to reduce the chance of conflict, avoidance of the use of force and the determination of future positions on the ground so as to conform with the Simla Agreement and to ensure durable peace in the Siachen area.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in 2005 suggested that the world’s highest battlefield be converted into a “peace mountain” without the redrawing of boundaries.
I think this news can be a criss cross of border security + disaster management + historic context (Benazir Bhutto and Rajiv Gandhi agreement)?
Ganga Kumar is a 2000 batch IAS currently posted in Bihar.He is an alumnus of Hindu College, DU and made it to the civil services at an age of 22. His wife Sneha is an architect.
Together, these two are trying to change the face of cancer awareness and diagnosis in India. As a couple, they have always been socially-focused.
Grameen Sneh Foundation
They started the Grameen Sneh Foundation in 2009.
Initially the aim was of increasing public engagement in issues such as health education, early childhood education, and art and culture.
However, Sneha was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2014. She received timely chemotherapy and is now cancer-free, but this episode set the stage for a new focus to their social venture.
The focus has now shifted towards cancer and the intensity has also increased as it is a personal cause for him.
The Foundation began its work in Bihar, Odisha, and Delhi-NCR.
Mostly the NGOs are accused of seeking publicity and funding from various sources, but GSF is one which is shy of publicity despite working in 3 states and not taking financial help from Government and other sources.
Pic Courtesy: Grameen Sneh Foundation
Awards & Recognition
A corner of his living room has a showcase decorated with various awards that he got for his efforts. But his modesty prompts him to say: “These are mostly for the office, I am just one sitting in the chair.”
Among various honours, the most recent one was Udyog Ratna Award.
This award is presented to Economic Leaders or Organizations’ for their exceptional vision, drive, persistence and results in Business and Economy.
‘Karma’ is the secret of my energy!
When asked about how he gets this much time and energy, he says, “Life is small and each one of us must do our part. We must give back to the society. It is our responsibility to work for the betterment. Awards and accolades all come when time wishes. That shouldn’t be the focus.”
His take on Bihar
He has written several books on Bihar’s glorious past which, he said, was limited to merely Nalanda, Bodhgaya, Rajgir.
Lamenting on the fact about migration, he remarked, “Everyone comes from Bihar to work, but no one works for Bihar”.
The philosopher in Ganga – 3 fundas!
#1. On relation of individual to society
We are at a distance from the society. The older you grow, the more society consumes you. The key here is to adapt and not give in.
People do not change, they remain the same. However, adaptability is the key.
#2. His Karma yoga
Do your work, leave the rest to God. Keep a balanced life. Happiness and sorrow are part and parcel. When time comes, your efforts would be recognised.
#3. Sattoo restaurant
Kumar’s happiness, apart from his social efforts, lies in opening a ‘Sattoo restaurant’ (in future) where people could come and consume various delicacies made from the humble gram flour consumed in various forms in Bihar. It is one of the main ingredients of ‘litti’ of the litti-chokha.
Context: Chinese economy grew by 6.9% in 2015, slowest in a quarter century. IMF expects the Chinese economy to slow down to 6.3% in 2016.
Q. Why is China slowing down?
1. It was only expected for no economy can continue to grow at 10% forever. China is still among one of the fastest growing economy.
2. As incomes rise, most economies encounter what is called a middle income trap. To come out of it, china will have to innovate.
3. Slow down in exports as world demand has slowed down.
4. Rebalancing away from exports and investment towards domsetic consumption.
5. Ageing demography
6. Moving away from GDP growth rate obsession to sustainable development.
Q. If slowdown was expected, why is China devaluing its currency?
1. Chinese policymakers want China to still grow at a faster clip hence further devaluation to boost exports.
2. Chinese currency being pegged to US$ had appreciated with appreciation of US$.
Q. Is Chinese restructuring proving to be painful? How deep a trouble China is in? What about its debt level?
2 aspects of restructuring
1. From investment towards consumption
2. From manufacturing towards services
Percentage of GDP coming from consumption has increased. Also in 2015, services sector grew faster than manufacturing at 8% and now accounts for 50% of GDP.
Restructuring will certainly be painful. Worst aspect is nobody believes Chineses numbers and many analyst believes China is growing at 4% not 7%.
Debt Crisis – China invested huge amounts after 2008 financial crisis and its growth since than has been on a credit boom. Debt to GDP ratio increased many times in such a short span and there are no historic parallel of such a huge rise in debt in such a short span of time.
Good news is most of the debt is internally owned. Bad news is nobody knows the scale of debt and who owes to whom.
Q. why is their sudden capital flight from China?
1. 700b$ have been withdrawn from China in last 1 year and prime reason being policy uncertainty. Nobody knows what might be coming.
2. Stock market is volatile, bank returns are very low, real estate market is no longer suitable for investment (ghost cities you know), Chinese are parking their funds abroad.
3. Yuan devaluation will make it even more attractive to park funds outside as purchasing power of Yuan goes down.
Q. How does Chinese slowdown affect world economy?
1. With a major source of demand going down, world economy is heading towards recession.
2. It majorly affects commodity exporting countries of Africa and latin America. China was after all buying about 50% of incremental commodity output.
3. With China moving towards competitive devaluation, bad bad news for world economy.
Q. What about India? Rajan says not good for India while Jaitley says opportunity for India?
Jaitley’s / Pangariya’s view point
1. China slow down # commodity prices down # india major importer # good for India as forex outgo decreases plus input costs come down
2. Investment going towards China shift to India
3. We anyway don’t export much to China so our exports to china can’t go down any further.
4. We don’t compete with China in very many markets.
If we can put our house in order, put in place right policies, predictable tax structure and leverage competitive advantage of low cost labour, we can become global manufacturing hub and provide jobs to 1m people entering workforce every month.
Rajan’s view point-
1. In a globally connected world, Chinese slowdown can not be an unmitigated blessing.
2. Crude prices down but it affects economies of gulf whom we export, our exports down,
3. Expats will lose jobs there, remittances will come down plus social tension of rehabilitating them back.
4. South East Asian nations who export to China will slow, they will not buy from us.
5. Global currency war will be a disaster.
In a globally connected world, we can not grow because others are slowing, we will have to growing by improving our productivity. World demand will only help our growth story.
Today onwards, we will try to discuss one RSTV or DD NEWS video everyday. We shall not restrict ourselves to issues discussed in video but take a more holistic look at all the issues involved in a very simple yet comprehensive manner. Doubts if any can be asked in the comment box below.
Please note that this is on best effort basis. An alarming lack of participation will see me packing my bags and going of to himalayas for nirvana or a frostbite (whichever comes first!)
Today we discuss causes and impact of falling oil prices.
Context : Crude oil price has been in free fall and Brent crude price has declined from 110$ a barrel in mid 2014 to 30$ a barrel.
Q. What are the reasons behind this sudden decline?
1. Glut in the market (increased supply)-
US shale oil, Rising production in post war Iraq
2. Slowdown in demand for oil
Global slowdown, Chinese slowdown, climate change concerns
3. Tactic by S. Arabia to price out US shale producers
4. Geopolitical conspiracy theory– to punish Russia and Iran, both being heavily dependent on oil revenues
Q. Earlier OPEC used to cut supplies to stabilize the prices, why has it not done so this time?
1. S. Arabia is the swing producer. It can produce oil at 10$ a barrel. It declined to cut production to maintain market share.
2. After shale bonanza, US seemed to be withdrawing from middle east oil market, thus effectively from middle east geopolitics, backing Saudis got from US will no longer be forthcoming in such a scenario. Saudi seems to want to suck US back into the equation.
Q. Will prices remain at such low level?
1. At very broad macro level, such prices reflect very weak global economy. Global demand is very muted. In fact almost all commodities are down. Global demand is unlikely to pick anytime soon. Prices are likely to hover around at 20 to 40$ a barrel.
2. After sanctions relief, Iranian crude will enter the market, Iraq is increasing its supply leading to further glut in the market and putting downward pressure on prices.
Q. What will be the impact of falling crude prices on Major oil producing nations?
They are in for a very tough time.
1. Russia is already into recession due to sanctions and falling prices.
2. S. Arabia is likely to run 20% budget deficit, yes 20%. IMF has warned that, at this rate, huge war chest of 1t$ of forex reserves will exhaust within 5 years.
3. Dubai has already started raising user charges.
Effect of all this would be breakdown of compact b/w state and citizen where citizens have sort of parted with their democratic rights in lieu of cheap services which would no longer be forthcoming.
Q. What will be its impact on emerging economies?
1. Most of them are oil importers. To the extent low prices bring down input costs, it will benefit them.
2. But low oil prices also reflect weakening of global demand and that harms emerging market exports.
3. World financial system is very petrodollar dependent. Pull out of sovereign wealth funds from markets would bring down stock market, that may have negative effect on demand through wealth effect.
Q. What would be its impact on India? How should India best utilize this opportunity?
1. Massive forex savings- 10$ decline in crude price improve our net trade or current account balance by 9.4b$.
2. Decreases our subsidy bill, this fiscal deficit.
3. Brings down input cost, increasing competitiveness and reducing inflation.
4. Govt. mop up revenue by increasing indirect taxes on petrol and diesel.
To take full benefit of falling oil prices, govt. need to use the money to boost public investment in infrastructure. It would generate demand in the short term while improving productivity growth in the long term.
Today onward, we shall discuss one RSTV or DDNEWS video everyday. We shall not restrict ourselves to issues discussed in video but take a more holistic look at all the issues involved in a very simple yet comprehensive manner. Doubts if any can be asked in the comment box below.
Today we discuss causes and impact of falling oil prices.
Context : Crude oil prices have been in free fall and Brent crude prices have declined from 110$ a barrel in mid 2014 to 30$ a barrel.
Q. What are the reasons behind this sudden decline?
1. Glut in the market (increased supply)-
US shale oil, Rising production in post war Iraq
2. Slowdown in demand for oil
Global slowdown, Chinese slowdown, climate change concerns
3. Tactic by S. Arabia to price out US shale producers
4. Geopolitical conspiracy theory– to punish Russia and Iran, both being heavily dependent on oil revenues
Q. Earlier OPEC used to cut supplies to stabilize the prices, why has it not done so this time?
1. S. Arabia is the swing producer. It can produce oil at 10$ a barrel. It declined to cut production to maintain market share.
2. After shale bonanza, US seemed to be withdrawing from middle east oil market, thus effectively from middle east geopolitics, backing Saudis got from US will no longer be forthcoming in such a scenario. Saudi seems to want to suck US back into the equation.
Q. Will prices remain at such low level?
1. At very broad macro level, such prices reflect very weak global economy. Global demand is very muted. In fact almost all commodities are down. Global demand is unlikely to pick anytime soon. Prices are likely to hover around at 20 to 40$ a barrel.
2. After sanctions relief, Iranian crude will enter the market, Iraq is increasing its supply leading to further glut in the market and putting downward pressure on prices.
Q. What will be the impact of falling crude prices on Major oil producing nations?
They are in for a very tough time.
1. Russia is already into recession due to sanctions and falling prices.
2. S. Arabia is likely to run 20% budget deficit, yes 20%. IMF has warned that, at this rate, huge war chest of 1t$ of forex reserves will exhaust within 5 years.
3. Dubai has already started raising user charges.
Effect of all this would be breakdown of compact b/w state and citizen where citizens have sort of parted with their democratic rights in lieu of cheap services which would no longer be forthcoming.
Q. What will be its impact on emerging economies?
1. Most of them are oil importers. To the extent low prices bring down input costs, it will benefit them.
2. But low oil prices also reflect weakening of global demand and that harms emerging market exports.
3. World financial system is very petrodollar dependent. Pull out of sovereign wealth funds from markets would bring down stock market, that may have negative effect on demand through wealth effect.
Q. What would be its impact on India? How should India best utilize this opportunity?
1. Massive forex savings- 10$ decline in crude price improve our net trade or current account balance by 9.4b$.
2. Decreases our subsidy bill, this fiscal deficit.
3. Brings down input cost, increasing competitiveness and reducing inflation.
4. Govt. mop up revenue by increasing indirect taxes on petrol and diesel.
To take full benefit of falling oil prices, govt. need to use the money to boost public investment in infrastructure. It would generate demand in the short term while improving productivity growth in the long term.
This thread is dedicated to queries related to economy. Ask any economy related query and get that resolved within 48 hours. Members are requested to chip in to resolve queries of fellow community members.
For queries related to other subjects, use this thread for the time being.
The government’s new crop insurance scheme could be a lifesaver for farmers at a time when the pain of rural distress is unimaginable, as they are facing three successive crop failures due to inclement weather conditions.
In 2015-16, the central assistance towards drought relief is several times higher than what it spends to subsidise crop insurance premiums every year.
Before the scheme was announced, a RBI-constituted committee has also emphasized on the same.
What were the recommendations of RBI-constituted committee?
The committee called for phasing out interest subsidy on short-term agricultural loans.
The money saved should be used for into an universal crop insurance scheme for farmers.
Reasons underlying the recommendation:
NSSO data shows that banks and cooperative societies account for 57.7% of outstanding loans of farming households.
The dependence on informal credit increases with reduction in the landholding size.
Farming is increasingly done by tenant cultivators/ share croppers.
Since, farmer has no regular income, so they are forced to go to money lenders to sustain their consumption.
Govt. spends nearly Rs.13000 crore annually on interest subvention for crop loans, which can be redirected towards subsidy on insurance premium.
<The govt. rolled out Modified National Agricultural Insurance Scheme for the XII plan period across India, but it failed to solve the agrarian crisis.>
Let’s analyse the short-coming in the earlier crop-insurance scheme
Premium rates were as high as 25%.
Lack of awareness.
Sum insured were way below the gross value of output for most crops.
Policy claims can’t even cover half of the value of produce when the crop suffers heavy damage.
The money pay back procedure was too complicated.
What are the features of Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana?
The scheme will replace the existing two schemes National Agricultural Insurance Scheme as well as the Modified NAIS. The new Crop Insurance Scheme is in line with ‘One Nation – One Scheme’ theme.
Nodal Agency: Department of Agriculture, Cooperation & Farmers Welfare , Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare. It will implement the scheme in co-ordination with various other agencies such as financial institutions, PRIs, etc.
Uniformpremium to be paid by farmers. <Rate of premium will be about 1/10th of existing rates>
No upper limit on govt. subsidy, even if the balance premium is 90%, govt. will bear the burden.
Govt. liability on premium subsidy would be shared between Centre and States on a 50:50 basis.
Smart phones, remote-sensing drones and GPS technology will be used to capture and upload data of crop cutting to reduce the delays in claim payment to farmers.
The scheme aims to increase insurance coverage to 50% from the existing levels of 25-27% of crop area.
The new scheme will also be executed by private insurance companies.
There will be exemption from Service Tax liability of all the services involved in the implementation of the scheme.
Risk Covered
A Comprehensive risk insurance is provided to cover yield losses due to:
Non-preventable risks, such as Natural Fire and Lightning, Storm, Hailstorm, Cyclone, Typhoon, Tempest, Hurricane, Tornado.
Risks due to Flood, Inundation and Landslide, Drought, Dry spells, Pests/ Diseases.
In cases where majority of the insured farmers of a notified area, having intent to sow/plant and incurred expenditure for the purpose, are prevented from sowing/planting the insured crop due to adverse weather conditions, shall be eligible for indemnity claims upto a maximum of 25% of the sum-insured.
In post-harvest losses, coverage will be available up to a maximum period of 14 days from harvesting for those crops which are kept in “cut & spread” condition to dry in the field.
International Experience
The mechanism of higher subsidy for crop premiums in Indian scheme is not out of line with international standards.
The US covers over 120 million hectares and gives subsidy to the tune of around 70%.
China insures its farmers for a sown area of around 75 million hectares with a subsidy on premiums of about 80%.
How the scheme overcomes the shortcomings of previous scheme?
Farmers will have to pay the low premium rates and balance premium will be paid by the govt. to provide full insured amount, against the crop loss on account of natural calamities.
The sum insured will be calculated by multiplying the MSP of a crop with the average 7-year threshold yield for the particular village panchayat area where it is grown.
The improvement over previous scheme is that the premiums will be determined by the sum insured, unlike currently where premium determines sum insured.
CACP( Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices) has argued that premium will drop to 3.5% of sum insured if 50% of India’s gross cropped area is insured.
Once the new scheme kicks in, farmers in high-risk areas would stand to benefit the most
One of the best thing is that it will also rid farmers of the web of complex rules of the earlier insurance schemes.
How is current Insurance coverage in the country?
Currently, only 45.82 million hectares out of 195 million hectares was covered under crop insurance in 2014.
Coverage is higher in states of Rajasthan, Karnataka, Bihar, Odisha and Chattisgarh.
UP, West Bengal and Gujarat are worst performers in terms of coverage.
<There are various suggestions pouring from wide spectrum of society to implement scheme in a better manner to mitigate the agrarian distress and suicides>
What steps could be taken to implement scheme in a better manner?
Crop insurance should be done in a transparent manner & within a specified period of time.
Make use of advanced technology like automatic weather stations, drones and low earth orbit satellites.
Compensation must be paid to farmers account directly, within a short duration after assessment of crop damage.
Accountability of each stakeholder needs to be clarified and fixed.
Crop-damage assessment must be done within 2 weeks of the extreme weather event.
Implementing the scheme will require huge premium subsidy outgo, more so in a drought year.
What kinds of financial and technological infrastructure is required?
Information has to be digitised plot wise, the plot of the tiller who has paid the premium has to be synchronised/seeded with their bank account, Aadhar and mobile number.
Ministry of rural development will be required to clean up land records.
Ministry of agriculture and farmer’s welfare to digitise plot-wise information.
One fine gentleman has been summoned recently by RS Parliamentary Committee of Privileges for making public a CAG report even before it could be placed before the Parliament. In this context let us discuss Art 105, the privileges and the contempt.
