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PRAGNYA IAS

ACADEMY’S

Current Affairs analysis May 2017

c

Highlights

Background information and explanation added in important articles.

Use of diagrams and maps at relevant places.

Question and answer format for mains examination and

better understanding.

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GS -1

1 Culture

Basva Jayanti

India to organize culture festival in Egypt to mark Tagore’s 156th anniversary

Karmapa’s travel curbs to go Southern Sojourn” and “Southern Jewels

Exhibition of sculptures returned by Australia

2 Geography

Rise and fall of Indian Ocean

GS -2

3 polity

Municipal bonds

National development Agenda

SC seeks reply from 6 states on plea to ban cow vigilantes

ECI EVMs are Non-Tamperable

Shri Rajnath Singh to chair the Northern Zonal Councilmeeting

IB-like secrecy norms to be imposed on NTRO staff

4 Government policies, Bills & interventions

Real estate Act came into force

Sampada scheme

National steel policy 2017

Wi-Fi will be soon on board

One IP – two dispensaries

31 drugs put under price capping by NPPA

Swachh Bharat Mission to go all out for ‘Darwaza Band’

AFSPA gets six-month extension in Manipur End of Red Beckon culture Policy for providing preference to domestically manufactured iron & steel




4141 Villages to be electrified by 2018 eVIN Project Kambala Bill

Financial assistance to fisher folk

Development for biopharmaceuticals

Cabinet approves amendment of the public premises Act, 1971

Pan – India implementation of maternity benefit Program

New curbs on cattle slaughter

5 social Justice

Food fortification to tackle malnutrition

Swatch surveksham

Odisha’s Sualgiri, Swalgiri Communities Notified as Scheduled Castes

Mission Indradhanush

Swatch Pakhwada by Min of Textiles

“Rashtriya Swachhata Kendra” to be set up by “Swachh Bharat Mission” at Gandhi Smriti

Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY)

DIPP & WIPO to set up Technology and Innovation Support Centers

Taxes on processed food

Survival of newborns: India ranks lower than Somalia

6 GOVERNANCE, TRANSPARENCY AND ACCOUNTABILITY

Skill councils have conflict of interests

Public affairs index

Seva App

7 India & its neighborhood

India – Pakistan

India – Srilanka

India – Palestine




India - Bangladesh

South Asia Satellite – GSAT 9

OBOR summit

Minesweeper deal to be inked soon

8 Bilateral & Multilateral International Institutions

India to head UN’s habitat

Annual meet of AfDB

G7 Summit

India - Germany

India – japan

Cooperation on railway safety

Japan’s interest for chabahar port

India Turkey inks 3 agreement

British PM Theresa May signed letter to trigger Brexit from EU

Urea manufacturing plant in Malaysia

ADB to set up their regional branch in India

Project LOTUS

Officials from Arctic nations to meet amid drilling concerns

Military exercises

GS – 3

9 Economy

Government’s push for generic drugs

Change in WII & IIP’s base year

Doors close on 25-year-old FIPB

Farm loan waivers in India

Revision in WPI




SEBI launched norms for green bonds

Bad loans

SBI launches national hackathon

Government’s Move to boost domestic nuclear industry (Energy)

Dhola Sadiya Bridge

Tejas express inaugurated between Mumbai and Goa

PM reviews performance of key infrastructure sectors

Procurement of Toor from Maharashtra under Price Support Scheme

Cabinet approves cooperation between Indian and Japan on Railway Safety

International publication lists Ganga cruise as one of the ‘six river cruises to take in 2017’

GST Council announces GST rates

Payment Bank

10Science & technology

Law cost solar cells using Jamun

Measles are back

Indian Railways to Track Wagons and Coaches with RFID

Bio ink to treat osteoarthritis – 3D printing

Tarang Sanchar

Malware attack

Juno discovered earth sized cyclones on Jupiter

MDR TB

Large Hardon collider

Brahmos Test fired

Development of synthetic Retina

Water to convert methane into methanol




11 Environment

India’s first bio refinery

Sendai framework on Disaster Risk Reduction

GEAC cleared GM Mustard

BONN Climate meet

Indian star tortoise

Chitale committee recommendation on desilting of Ganga River

International day on Biodiversity

Drought in south India

Water level of 91 major reservoirs of the country goes down by 1 %

MGNREGA funds to make Sarasvati flow again

12 Internal Security

Samadhan Doctrine to tackle naxals

Army to procure 2 Indigenous Akash Missile

GS – 4

13 Ethics and integrity

World Press Freedom Index 2017

1 Indian Art & culture

BASAVA Jayanti Celebration

Who was Basava?

Vishwaguru Basavanna was a great revolutionary who established spiritual democracy

called "Anubhava Mantapa" in the 12th century in India (Anubhava Mantapa - which is also

called as the "FIRST PARLIAMENT CONCEPT OF THE WORLD". Its lead by Saint

Allamprabhu), and gave practical solutions to all kind of problems mankind was suffering at that

time. His teachings are time tested, scientific and proven. Basava-Tatva is never ending

inspiration to achieve the welfare of mankind. Basava vachanas.

How it is celebrated?

The Basava Jayanti Utsav Samiti will organize a three-day programme to mark the 884th birth

anniversary of the 12th century social reformer Basaveshwara in Kalaburagi from Thursday.

Samiti president Sharanabasappa Bhusnoor, addressing presspersons here on Wednesday,

said that cultural events and seminars would be organised to highlight the preachings of

Basaveshwara during the celebrations.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vachanas


The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi, today dedicated the holy Vachanas ofBasavanna, translated

into 23 languages, and addressed an event to mark the inauguration of Basava Jayanthi 2017, and

Golden Jubilee Celebration of Basava Samithi, at Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi.

India to Organize Cultural Festival in Egypt to mark Tagore’s 156th

Birth Anniversary

India will organize Tagore cultural Festival in Egypt to mark the 156th birth anniversary of

Rabindranath Tagore from May 8-12. Tagore Festival will be organized by the Maulana Azad Centre

for Indian Culture (MACIC), which is the cultural wing of the Indian Embassy in Cairo. The fest will be

organized in cooperation with the Egyptian Ministry of Culture, Cairo Opera House, Cultural

Production Sector, Dancers’ Guild and the Indian Community Association in Egypt. The festival will

feature a dance show, film screening, a play and painting competition. As a part of the festival, a

dance drama based on Tagore’s work called ‘Chitrangada‘will be performed by the Kolkata-based

Dancers’ Guild. Chitrangada is the warrior princess in the epic, Mahabharata. Egypt’s Connection

Tagore visited Egypt as a young adolescent in 1878 and later in 1926. Tagore was impressed by the

strong literary trends of Egypt. On his visit, he met King Fouad and has interacted with many scholars

in Alexandria and Cairo. He had an enduring friendship with Egyptian poet Ahmed Shawki and wrote

a moving eulogy on his death in 1932.

Tagore had also written about the beautiful relationship between the Nile River and the flourishing

civilization of Egyptians. Rabindranath Tagore Rabindranath Tagore was a famous Indian poet (1861-

1941). He was the first non-European to receive the Nobel Prize. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for

Literature in 1913 for his collection of poems, ‘Gitanjali‘. His poetry, novels, plays, short stories and

essays are world famous and are widely read across the world. He has contributed immensely to

Bengali literature and India’s literary heritage. Rabindranath Tagore had renounced his knighthood

protesting against the Jallianwalla Bagh Massacre. Rabindranath Tagore was the youngest son of

Debendranath Tagore who was associated with the Brahmo Samaj.




Karmapa’s travel curbs to go

Urgyen Trinley Dorje, the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa, may be allowed to visit any place in the country, except Sikkim, without seeking the government’s permission. The Home Ministry has moved the proposal before the Cabinet Committee on Security, a senior government official said here on Tuesday.

The move assumes significance in the wake of China’s repeated warnings over the recent Northeast visit of the Dalai Lama, who Beijing describes as a “separatist” for spearheading the Tibetan freedom movement.

The move assumes significance in the wake of China’s repeated warnings over the recent Northeast visit of the Dalai Lama, who Beijing describes as a “separatist” for spearheading the Tibetan freedom movement.

Why Ban at monastery? (Background)

The entry of all three Karmapa claimants has been banned at the Rumtek monastery in East Sikkim since 1994, following objections by some prominent teachers of the Kagyu School to recognizing Dorje as the 17th Karmapa.

In 2011, the police had recovered ₹1.2 crore of unaccounted-for foreign currency, including Chinese ones, from Gyuto Tantric University and Monastery in Dharamsala.

The police registered a case against the Karmapa and the then government put more restrictions on his travel.

Who is Karmapa?

The Karmapa is the head of the Karma Kagyu School, one of the four main schools of Tibetan Buddhism and is based in Dharamsala, his temporal home. He escaped from Tibet in 2000.

“Southern Sojourn” and “Southern Jewels”: The Indian Railway PSU, Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Ltd (IRCTC) has

decided to start two new circuits of their flagship luxury train Maharajas’ Express, this year. These two new trips have been named as “Southern Sojourn” and “Southern Jewels” which will

cover prominent destinations in West and South India. The Southern Sojourn will cover Goa, Hampi, Mysore, Ernakulam, Kumarakom and Trivandrum.

The Southern Jewels will cover Chettinad, Mahabalipuram, Mysore, Hampi and Goa.

Ministry of culture and tourism inaugurated an exhibition in view of Return of Three stone sculptures from Australia to India

An exhibition “Return of the Three Stone Sculptures from Australia to India” has begun in National Museum, Janpath, New Delhi. It has been organised to mark the safe return of three stone sculptures (Seated Buddha; Worshippers of Buddha; & Goddess Pratyangira)




from Australia to India. These sculptures were purchased by National Gallery of Australia from the Nancy Wiener, New York in 2007 and Art of the Past, New York, 2005. Minister of State (I/C) for Culture and Tourism Dr. Mahesh Sharma inaugurated the exhibition yesterday. He attended a special event at National Gallery of Australia (NGA) in Canberra, Australia in which Senator Mitch Fifield formally handed over three ancient artefacts stolen and smuggled out of India and inadvertently acquired by National Gallery of Australia. Earlier, during the visit of Australian Prime Minister to India in September, 2014, the Australian government had also returned sculpture of ‘Dancing Shiva’. This exhibition is important as it celebrates the return of rare heritage sculptures that were stolen from the country.

I. The statue of Worshippers of the Buddha : (Satavahana, Ist Century BCE to 2nd Century CE, Andhra Pradesh, South India, Lime Stone, size: 96.5x106.7x12.7cm). This architecture piece adorning a stupa (possibly drum slab) is made of limestone. The panel depicts the worship of some of the Buddhist symbol (possibly chakrastambha or Bodhi tree but it is not visible as the piece is damaged at the top) kept on a throne, below which the Buddha-pada are visible. The central objects are flanked by worshipper couples on either sides in standing posture. On both the sides, male worshippers are represented first followed by the female worshippers. The most probable offering objects held in their hands are vases with flower or garlands. This sculpture was unearthed in 1970s during the excavation of a Buddhist stupa at Chandavaram (District, Prakasham) in Andhra Pradesh.




II. Seated Buddha with large halo : (Kushan, 2nd century CE, Maholi, Mathura, Uttar Pradesh Spotted Red sand stone, size: 129.5x101.5x30.5cm). This image represents the Buddha seated cross legged (Padmasana) wearing ekansika sanghati (drapery covering one shoulder and arrayed with additional pleats). The transparent effect of the cloth is apparent through the conspicuous marking of the navel. The image indicates that the right hand was raised in the abhaya mudra (protection pose) and the left rests on the thigh. The large halo with a scalped border (hasti nakha) emerges just above the waist. He is shown with an urna, pralamba karna (elongated ear-lobes), ushnisha and with a filing contemplation on his face.

III. Standing Pratyangira : (Chola, 13th Century CE, Tamil Nadu, South India Grey coloured granite stone, size: 125.1x55.9x30.5cm). In order to carry out his supreme task of preservation, Lord Vishnu took incarnation in the form of Narasimha in which he is represented by a human body and a lion’s head, who destroyed the demon kind Hiranykashipu, the personification of evil. The deity represented here is a tantric deity




who is the female aspect of God Narasimha also known as Narasimhi. She is invoked in the Sadhanamala also. She is standing in pralambapadita pose, the face of a roaring and furious lion while the body is of a female. Flames are coming out of her head. However, the attributes tridents (trisula) and drum (damaru) in her right hands suggest her to be Pratyangira, a form of Bhairavi as per Saivite cult. The image was under worship in Vriddhachalam temple near Chennai before its theft.

2 Geography

Indian Ocean Rise and fall

How is global warming affecting oceans?

Since 2004, it has been known that the Indian Ocean has been rising particularly rapidly. However, it turned out that this was specific to a smaller stretch called the North Indian Ocean, which consists of the Bay of Bengal, the Arabian Sea and a large part of the Indian Ocean until the 5 degree S latitude. This is an imaginary line cutting through Indonesia, central Africa and Peru. More surprisingly, as a team of oceanographers observed in a report published in the March edition of the peer-reviewed Climate Dynamics, the North Indian Ocean sea levels actually dipped between 1993 and 2004, at about 0.3 mm per year, but after 2004, the rise was 6 mm annually. Such a fluctuating trend hasn’t been observed for the Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean.

Why did this happen?

Unlike the Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean, the North Indian Ocean is hemmed in on all sides, except an outlet on the southern side. This influences the rate at which heat is absorbed and flushed out from within the system. According to their calculations, heat was moving out slower after 2004 than during the 1990s. Moreover, wind flows, which led to warm water welling up on the Indian Ocean surface, changed directions every decade and probably influenced sea level patterns.

What does this imply?

This means a rise in average global temperature doesn’t mean a concurrent rise in sea levels everywhere. Every year in the last decade has broken temperature records that have held for over a century but researchers associated with this study are willing to wager that North Indian Ocean levels may see a fall over the next decade (like seen between 1993 and 2004). This points to a need for more research to understand the inherent variability of the Indian Ocean. This could help sharpen monsoon forecasts and predicting coastal erosion patterns. Better understanding of sea level undulations could also inform future reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Does this challenge conventional science?




It doesn’t challenge it but certainly complicates it. Researchers use various models to extrapolate future trends on sea level rise and quantify the risk it poses to coastal populations. Several of these model, however, lack the resolution power to capture the vagaries of local climate and it is assumed that what is true for one sea will broadly apply to the others too. For this study the scientists relied on new data sources--from argo floats and satellite-based measurements — and it indicated numbers at variance from previous measurements, from tide gauges. More micro-level data with improved computing power would mean better local-level forecasts.

3 Polity

Municipal bonds

What is a 'Municipal Bond'

A municipal bond is a debt security issued by a state, municipality or county to finance its capital expenditures, including the construction of highways, bridges or schools. Municipal bonds are exempt from federal taxes and from most state and local taxes, making them especially attractive to people in high income brackets. In India, First muni bond was issued in 1997 by BangaloreMunicipal Corporation

SEBI Guidelines on municipal bonds: Which ULB can issue muni bonds? As per the SEBI Regulations, 2015, a municipality or a Corporate Municipal Entity (CME) should meet certain conditions:

The ULB should not have negative net worth in any of three immediately preceding financial years. Non-default: The municipality should not have defaulted in repayment of debt securities or loans

obtained from banks or financial institutions during the last 365 days.



http://www.investopedia.com/terms/d/debtsecurity.asp

http://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/capitalexpenditure.asp

http://www.investopedia.com/video/play/what-municipal-bond/

http://www.investopedia.com/video/play/what-municipal-bond/

http://www.investopedia.com/terms/l/localtax.asp


Now willful defaulter: The corporate municipal entity, its promoter, group company or director(s), should not have been named in the list of the willful defaulters published by the RBI or should not have defaulted of payment of interest or repayment of principal amount in respect of debt instruments issued by it to the public, if any.

Why in news?

Recently, 94 cities across 14 states received credit ratings from agencies such as Crisil as part of their

preparations for issuing municipal bonds.

It rated the cities covered under Smart city Mission and AMRUT mission.

55 of these cities got “investment grade” ratings, 39 received credit ratings below the investment

grade (BBB-).

Significance:

Indian cities revenue is less than 1% of gross domestic product. The net result is that cities

do not have adequate financial autonomy.

Low cost of borrowing will be an advantage for the ULBs, whose projects typically have low

viability, long gestation period and low to moderate cost recovery. Higher the rating of

corporation, lower is the interest and cost of borrowing.

Municipal Bonds are necessary for the financial independence of the Urban Local Bodies

National Development Agenda




NITI Aayog’s third governing councils was held on 23rd April, 2017 attended by PM

Narendra Modi, Union Ministers and Chief Ministers of all states. NITI presented the

roadmap for development which will benefit all the states.

Background: after the abolition of planning commission in the year 2014, a government

think tank NITI (National Institution for Transforming India) has taken over. Now, NITI Aayog

has replaced the 5 year plans with 3 year action agenda, 7 year Strategy, Fifteen Year Vision

The National Development Agenda includes:

– Vision: A 15-year-long vision between 2017-18 to 2031-32 that combines national goals

with international sustainable goals.

– Strategy: A 7-year long plan between 2017-18 to 2023-24 to convert border vision into

implementable policy.

– Action Plan: A three year short-term action plan between 2017-18 to 2019-2020 to

translate policies into action by 2019.




SC seeks reply from 6 states on plea to ban cow vigilantes

The Supreme Court on 7 April 2017 sought response from six states, namely Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh, on a plea seeking a ban on cow vigilante (‘Gau Raksha’) groups there.

A bench comprising Justice Dipak Misra and Justice A M Khanwilkar issued notices to these states and asked them to file their reply within three weeks. The court sought the response from these states during the brief hearing a petition referring to the recent incident at Alwar in Rajasthan where a man was killed allegedly by a mob of cow vigilante group.

The counsel appearing for the petitioner claimed that the ground-level situation in these states was worrisome as the cow vigilante groups were resorting to violence there.

The response of the six states was sought after the Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar, appearing on behalf of the Union Government told the bench that formal notices were not issued to the states on the plea. The bench has fixed the matter for hearing on 3 May 2017.

Background




Earlier on 21 October 2016, the apex court agreed to examine the plea, which sought action against cow vigilantes. The plea mentioned that these vigilantes were allegedly indulged in violence and committing atrocities against Dalits and minorities.

Activist Tehseen S Poonawalla, in his plea alleged that these groups were committing atrocities against Dalits and minorities in the name of protection of cows and other bovines and they needed to be regulated and banned in the interest of social harmony, public morality and law and order in the country.

The plea filed in the Supreme Court seeks to declare certain clauses of Acts of few states as unconstitutional. These acts provide for protection of persons acting in good faith under the Act or rules. They are:

Section 12 of the Gujarat Animal Prevention Act, 1954

Section 13 of Maharashtra Animal Prevention Act, 1976

Section 15 of Karnataka Prevention of Cow Slaughter and Cattle Preservation Act, 1964The plea termed these laws as a catalyst to violence perpetrated by these vigilant groups.

Besides, the plea seeks an action against the vigilante. The petition said the atrocities committed by these cow vigilantes were punishable under various provisions of IPC and under the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of atrocities) Act, 1989.

ECI EVMs are Non-Tamperable

The Election Commission, through media, has learnt about a so called demonstration of tampering

of ‘look-alike’ EVM. In this context it should be understood that it is possible for anyone to make any

electronic gadget which ‘looks-like’ ECI EVM and demonstrate any Magic or Tampering. Very simply

put, any 'look-alike'' machine is just a different gadget, which is manifestly designed and made to

function in a ‘tampered’ manner and has no relevance, incidence or bearing on the Commission's

EVMs. It is common sense that gadgets other than ECI EVMs can be programmed to perform in a

pre-determined way, but it simply cannot be implied that ECI EVMs will behave in the same manner

because the ECI EVMs are Technically Secured and function under an elaborate Administrative and

Security Protocol. Such so called demonstration on extraneous and duplicate gadgets which are not

owned by the ECI cannot be exploited to influence our Intelligent Citizens & Electorate to assail or

vilify the EVMs used by the Commission in its electoral process.

Election Commission of India (ECI) has scheduled an All Political Parties meeting on 12th May 2017

for EVM Issues and other Electoral Reforms. The Status Paper on ECI EVMs is available on ECI’s




website (http://eci.nic.in/eci_main1/current/StatusPaperonEVM_09052017.pdf) which gives details

of Safety and Security Measures taken by ECI to make ECI EVMs non-tamperable.

Shri Rajnath Singh to chair the Northern Zonal Council meeting to be held at Chandigarh on 12th May

The Union Home Minister Shri Rajnath Singh will chair the 28th meeting of the Northern

Zonal Council comprising of the States of Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir,

Punjab, Rajasthan, National Capital Territory of Delhi and Union Territory of Chandigarh. The

meeting is to be held at Chandigarh on May 12, 2017. The Chief Ministers in the zone, some

Ministers, Chief Secretaries and senior officers from the State Governments and Central

Government will attend the meeting.

The 27th meeting of the Northern Zonal Council was held at New Delhi on April 25, 2015. In

this meeting, 25 items were taken up, out of which 14 items were disposed of. The 17th

meeting of the Standing Committee of the Northern Zonal Council was held on the May 26,

2016 at Srinagar to scrutinize the agenda for this meeting. In that meeting 35 agenda items

were taken up, out of which 28 items were resolved at the level of the Standing Committee.

18 items (including sub-items) will be taken up for discussion and decisions in the 28th

meeting of Northern Zonal Council.

Five Zonal Councils viz. Central, Western, Northern, Southern and Eastern have been

established under the State Reorganization Act, 1956. These Zonal Councils are advisory

bodies and may discuss any matter in which some or all of the States represented in a

Council, or the Union and one or more of the States represented in a Council, have a

common interest and advise the Central Government and the Government of each State

concerned as to the action to be taken on any such matter. In particular, a Zonal Council

may discuss, and make recommendations with regard to any matter of common interest in

the field of economic and social planning; any matter concerning border disputes, linguistic

minorities or inter-State transport; and any matter connected with, or arising out of, the

reorganization of the States.

The Zonal Councils aim to discuss and resolve many substantive issues of development

concerning regional interest and national programmes through its consultative mechanism.

IB-like secrecy norms to be imposed on NTRO staff



http://eci.nic.in/eci_main1/current/StatusPaperonEVM_09052017.pdf


National Technical Research Organisation (NTRO), the Central agency looking after technical surveillance, will now be bound by secrecy norms just like Intelligence Bureau (IB) and Research & Analyses Wing (RAW), with its staff restricted from speaking about the structure and functioning of the organisation. In this regard, the Home Ministry has issued a notification listing NTRO under The

Intelligence Organisations (Restriction of Rights) Act, 1985, a demand being made by the organisation for over a decade now.

Implications of this move The inclusion of NTRO in the Schedule under the Intelligence Organisations (Restriction of Rights) Act, 1985 will insulate it from answering queries under the Right to Information Act. The agency can decline RTI queries on its structure, functioning, personnel and organisation affairs by invoking Section 6 of the Act. Under Section 6 of the Intelligence Organisations (Restriction of Rights) Act, 1985, no

member of a scheduled intelligence agency can communicate with the press or publish or cause to be published any book, letter, pamphlet, poster or other document except with the prior permission of the head of the intelligence organisation.

The member also cannot use the name of his organisation for purposes not authorised by the head or in any other manner except for purposes relating to the official work and functioning of the organisation itself.

Any person who contravenes the aforesaid provisions will be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to two years, or with fine which may extend to Rs 2,000 or with both.

What you need to know about NTRO? The NTRO was created after the 1999 Kargil conflict as a dedicated technical intelligence agency. It has been fighting tooth and nail to get included in the list as it has the right to lawfully intercept and monitor communications externally. It reports to the PMO and the NSA.

4 Government policies, Bills & interventions

Real Estate Act comes into effect

The Real Estate Act which aims to protect the interests of homebuyers by ensuring

transparency has come into effect. The Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation

(HUPA) has asked all the states and Union Territories to implement the Act with letter and

spirit. Since land is a state subject, real estate sector comes within the ambit of the state

governments.

The Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Bill, 2016 was passed by Parliament in March

last year. Partially, the act came into force on 1 May last year with 59 of 92 notified sections

of the act coming into force. The remaining provisions have come into the force now.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Technical_Research_Organisation


Already the act has been notified by 13 states and Union Territories including Andhra

Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Delhi, Daman and Diu.

SAMPADA Scheme

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has approved re-structuring the schemes of the

Ministry of Food Processing Industries (MoFPI) under new Central Sector Scheme called as

SAMPADA (Scheme for Agro-Marine Processing and Development of Agro-Processing

Clusters) for the time period 2016-20. Salient Highlights SAMPADA is an umbrella scheme

incorporating ongoing schemes of the Ministry of Food Processing Industries (MoFPI) such

as Mega Food Parks, Integrated Cold Chain and Value Addition Infrastructure, Food Safety

and Quality Assurance Infrastructure, etc. It will also incorporate the new schemes like

Infrastructure for Agro-processing Clusters, Creation of Backward and Forward Linkages, as

well as Creation / Expansion of Food Processing & Preservation Capacities. SAMPADA with

an allocation of Rs. 6,000 crore is expected to benefit 20 lakh farmers and generate 5,

30,500 direct and indirect employment opportunities in the country by the year 2019-20.

The objective of SAMPADA is to supplement agriculture, modernize processing of Agri

products and decrease their wastage.

Significance:

The new umbrella scheme gives renewed thrust to the food processing sector in the

country. It aims to develop modern infrastructure to facilitate entrepreneurs to set up food

processing units based on cluster approach and provide effective and seamless backward

and forward integration for processed food industry. It proposes to achieve this by plugging

gaps in supply chain and development of infrastructure facilities for processing and

preservation and modernization of existing food processing units. As a result, SAMAPADA

will result in the creation of modern infrastructure coupled with efficient supply chain

management from farm gate to a retail outlet. It would provide better prices to farmers and

would help in doubling their incomes. Implementation of the scheme will result in creating

huge employment opportunities, especially in rural areas. From the perspective of the

consumer, it would promote the availability of safe and convenient processed foods at an

affordable price.

Other initiatives to boost Food Processing industry

The government has allowed 100% FDI in trading including through e-commerce with

respect to food products manufactured and produced in India.

The Governments has created a Special Fund of Rs. 2000 crore in NABARD to provide credit

at the concessional rate of interest to designated food parks and agro-processing units in

the designated food parks.

Food and agro–based processing units and cold chain infrastructure have been placed under

the ambit of Priority Sector Lending (PSL).

National steel policy 2017




Union Cabinet has given its approval for National Steel Policy (NSP) 2017 which enshrines the long term vision of the Government to give impetus to the steel sector. NSP 2017 seeks to enhance domestic steel consumption, ensure high quality steel production and create a technologically advanced and globally competitive steel industry.

Key features of the NSP 2017:

Create self-sufficiency in steel production by providing policy support & guidance to private manufacturers, MSME steel producers, CPSEs

Encourage adequate capacity additions Development of globally competitive steel manufacturing capabilities Cost-efficient production Domestic availability of iron ore, coking coal & natural gas Facilitating foreign investment Asset acquisitions of raw materials Enhancing the domestic steel demand

Highlights

Indian steel sector has grown rapidly over the past few years (Production in 2016-17= 100 MT)

It is third largest steel producer globally, contributing to about 2% of the country’s GDP. NSP 2017 aspires to achieve 300MT of steel-making capacity by 2030. It seeks to increase consumption of steel and major segments are infrastructure,

automobiles and housing. Steel Ministry will facilitate R&D in the sector through the establishment of Steel

Research and Technology Mission of India (SRTMI). With the roll out of the National Steel Policy-2017, it is envisaged that the industry will

be steered in creating an environment for promoting domestic steel and thereby ensuring a scenario where production meets the anticipated pace of growth in consumption.

Background

Steel is one of the most important products in the modern world and forms the backbone to any industrial economy.

The sector is of strategic importance to India due to its extensive application right from construction, infrastructure, and power, aerospace and industrial machinery to consumer products.

Owing to the strategic importance of the sector along with the need to have a robust and restructured policy in present scenario, the new NSP, 2017 became imminent.

Though, National Steel Policy 2005 sought to indicate ways and means of consolidating the gains flowing out of the then economic order and charted out a road map for sustained and efficient growth of the Indian steel industry, it required adaptation in view of the recent developments unfolding in India and also worldwide.




WI-FI on board soon

Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has sent a revised proposal that will enable in-flight access to voice, data and video services.

Background: The idea was initially floated by the communications ministry. The Home Ministry had raised concerns about security agencies being able to monitor data and voice transmission in the initial proposal floated by DoT under the Communication Ministry. However, the revised proposal has addressed the issue of flight data monitoring. At present, both domestic and international passengers are unable to use in-flight Internet services over Indian airspace. Even international airlines that offer such a facility to its passengers have to discontinue the service while the aircraft is flying over the Indian airspace.

Which laws need to be amended? The Centre will need to amend the Telegraph Act, 1885, as well as the related Indian

Telegraphy Rules to provide on-board Wi-Fi services

ONE IP- TWO DISPENSARIES SCHEME AND AADHAAR BASED ONLINE CLAIM SUBMISSION FOR SOCIAL SECURITY

Why in News?

Minister of State for Labour and Employment, launched two schemes namely; One IP- Two Dispensaries and Aadhaar based Online Claim Submission. Highlight of the Schemes

Two Dispensaries schemes of ESIC has given an option to an Insured Person (IP) to choose two dispensaries, one for self and another for family through an employer.

It will benefit all IPs, especially migrant workers who are working in other than home State.

Moreover, Aadhaar based online Claim Submission scheme will provide an easy PF (Provident Fund) final settlement under EPFO

31 drugs put under price capping by NPPA

The National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) has capped the prices of 31 more drugs. The notification brings under price control intrauterine devices used for birth control; Factor

VIII, a life-saving medicine for haemophilic patients; morphine, a pain killer; and rifampcin, a powerful antibiotic used to treat infections such as tuberculosis and leprosy.




With these 31 drugs, the NPPA has brought 791 medicines under price control. There are 829 drugs on the National List of Essential Medicines, 2015, all of which will be brought under price control.

National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority

An independent body of experts, in Ministry of chemicals and fertilizers was formed by Government of India at 1997. The organization is also entrusted with the task of recovering amounts overcharged by manufacturers for the controlled drugs from the consumers. It also monitors the prices of decontrolled drugs in order to keep them at reasonable levels

Swachh Bharat Mission to go all out for ‘Darwaza Band’ Amitabh Bachchan led Toilet Usage Campaign set for national launch

For promotion of toilet usage across the country’s villages, the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation has come out with an aggressive new campaign called Darwaza Band starting tomorrow, May 30th, 2017.

Iconic actor, Shri Amitabh Bachchan, who leads the campaign, is proposed to be joined by Union Minister for Drinking Water and Sanitation, Shri Narendra Singh Tomar, Chief Minister of Maharashtra Shri Devendra Fadnavis, Secretary, Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation, Shri Parameswaran Iyer, and other dignitaries at the formal launch event in Mumbai tomorrow. Champion functionaries from the State will also be awarded on the occasion.

The campaign has been supported by the World Bank and is being rolled out countrywide immediately after the launch. It is designed to encourage behaviour change in men who have toilets but are not using them. The campaign also features actor, Ms Anushka Sharma, who will be seen encouraging women to stand up for this issue in their villages and assume a leadership role.

AFSPA gets six-month extension in Manipur

The Manipur Cabinet has decided to extend the Disturbed Areas Act for another period of six months to facilitate the imposition of the AFSPA except in seven Assembly segments in Imphal. The government had lifted the AFSPA from these segments on August 12, 2004.




What you need to know? In exercise of the powers conferred by Section 3 of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958, the Governor of Manipur declares the entire state of Manipur, excluding the Imphal Municipal Area, as “Disturbed Area”.

What is AFSPA?

AFSPA, enacted in 1958, gives powers to the army and state and central police forces to shoot to kill, search houses and destroy any property that is “likely” to be used by insurgents in areas declared as “disturbed” by the home ministry. The Act provides army personnel with safeguards against malicious, vindictive and frivolous

prosecution. Security forces can “arrest without warrant” a person, who has committed or even “about to

commit a cognizable offence” even on “reasonable suspicion”.

What are ‘disturbed’ areas? The state or central government considers those areas as ‘disturbed’ “by reason of differences or disputes between members of different religious, racial, language or regional groups or castes or communities.” Note: Entire Assam is also declared as disturbed area

Government banned red beacons on all VIP vehicles, including PM’s, emergency services exempt

The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 19 April 2017 decided to ban the use of red beacons symbols on the vehicles of VIPs. The decision says that Ministers and officials in the Central government will not be able to use red beacons on their official vehicles from 1 May 2017.

The ban does not exempt even vehicles of the country’s top dignitaries such as the President, Prime Minister and the Chief Justice of India. However, a certain category of institutions is exempted from the ban and they are ambulances and vehicles of



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the fire service, police, and army. They will be allowed to use blue flashing beacons to cut through traffic.

During the cabinet meet the Rule 108 (I) and 108 (II) of the Motor Vehicles Act that allows central and state governments to permit red beacons for dignitaries was scrapped. As per the existing norms, the President, Vice President and Prime Minister along with several dignitaries like the Lok Sabha Speaker, Chief Justice of India, Chief Ministers, Governors, Chief Justices of High Courts, Supreme Court judges and Leader of Opposition were allowed red beacons.

The move is aimed at eradicating VVIP culture in the country and was taken with the spirit of new India where every Indian is special and a VIP.

Earlier, the Supreme Court of India had asked all state governments to restrict the list of VIPs who are allowed beacons on their vehicles. After which some state governments barred the use of red beacons. Example, after winning the assembly elections, Chief Ministers of Uttar Pradesh and Punjab namely Yogi Adityanath and Captain Amarinder Singh respectively decided to remove beacons from the vehicles of ministers as well as government vehicles. Even, they ordered that the beacons will not be available on the vehicles of the Chief Ministers.

Policy for providing preference to domestically manufactured iron & steel products in government procurement The Union Cabinet has approved the policy for providing preference to domestically manufactured iron & steel products on Government procurement.

This policy seeks to accomplish the PM’s vision of ‘Make in India’ with objective of nation building and encourage domestic manufacturing.

What you need to know about the new policy? The policy mandates to provide preference to Domestically Manufactured Iron & Steel Products

(DMI&SP), in Government Procurement. The policy is applicable on all government tenders where price bid is yet to be opened. The policy provides a minimum value addition of 15% in notified steel products which are

covered under preferential procurement.



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In order to provide flexibility, Ministry of Steel may review specified steel products and the minimum value addition criterion.

While implementing who shall provide the policy, it poses trust on each domestic manufacturer who shall provide self-certification to the procuring Government agency declaring that the iron & steel products are domestically manufactured in terms of the domestic value addition prescribed.

It shall not normally be the responsibility of procuring agency to verify the correctness of the claim. In few cases, the onus of demonstrating the correctness-of the same shall be on the bidder when asked to do so.

In case any manufacturer is aggrieved, a grievance redressal committee set up under the Ministry of Steel shall dispose of the complaint in a time bound manner, in four weeks.

There are provisions in the policy for waivers to all such procurements, where specific grades of steel are not manufactured in the country, or the quantities as per the demand of the project cannot be met through domestic sources.

“Remaining 4141 Villages to be electrified by 2018”: Shri Piyush Goyal “Power is the fulcrum around which an ecosystem can be created to give better quality of life to every citizen of India”. While delivering the inaugural address at the two-day State Power Ministers’ Conference here today, Minister of State (IC) for Power, Coal, New & Renewable Energy and Mines, Shri Piyush Goyal said that the objective of the conference is to review the work done in the sectors of power, coal, renewable energy and mining by State Governments/ Union Territories in last six months. Further, the conference intends to forge new policies for achieving the goal of providing 24x7 quality and affordable power for all in the stipulated time, upholding Prime Minister of India, Shri Narendra Modi’s vision of ‘New India’, Shri Goyal added. Addressing the august gathering, the Minister stressed that this conference is an ‘Outcome focussed gathering’ while reiterating the resolution taken in last State Power Ministers’ conference in Vadodara to provide electricity to every household in the country by December 2018. He also noted that the challenges in achieving 24x7 Power for all are not over yet and in the next 3-4 months, a final push is needed to electrify remaining 4141 un-electrified villages in the country. Talking about the transparency and accountability that a number of mobile apps and web portals have brought in the energy sector in India, Shri Goyal said that transparency has been a hallmark of this government. The Minister encouraged the esteemed gathering to put forward a collective, collaborative and cooperative approach of State and Central Government which will help in creating a corruption free power sector in the country.

eVIN Project of Health Ministry becomes global best practise in immunisation Five-Country International Delegation meets Health Secretary

Members of a five country international delegation called on Shri C K Mishra, Secretary Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, here today. They interacted with the Health Secretary to learn more about the global best practice of eVIN (electronic vaccine intelligence network) project of the Health Ministry and to understand how it is being implemented in




the country and the ways in which it be replicated in their own countries. Representatives from Philippines, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Nepal and Thailand are on a visit to India to study the project. Mr. Jaco Cilliers, Country Director, UNDP and Dr Rakesh Kumar, Addl. Country Director, UNDP were also present during the meeting.

Shri Mishra said that the Ministry is ready to provide support and collaborate with other countries to strengthen their capacities and scale up their programs. He also stated that this is a big boost for the Digital India and Make in India initiatives of the Government. This sets a benchmark in the field of Immunisation, he said. The delegation shared the experience from their countries of the immunisation projects, and expressed the shared view that the India visit shall enrich them to strengthen their own country programs.

Stating that India has a lot to share in terms of best practices and new learning, Mr. Jaco Cilliers, Country Director, UNDP stated that such visits provide an opportunity to other countries to learn from these best practices of India in the field of immunisation and strengthen their own programs.

Dr. Rakesh Kumar, Addl. Country Director, UNDP stated that while the country is working towards enhancing the coverage of immunisation, quality of vaccines through maintenance of the right temperature is also a critical component to for the quality and efficacy of the vaccines. eVIN is a step towards ensuring that, he stated.

eVIN (Electronic Vaccine Intelligence Network) is an indigenously developed technology system in India that digitizes vaccine stocks and monitors the temperature of the cold chain through a smartphone application. The innovative eVIN is presently being implemented called across twelve states in India. eVIN aims to support the Government of India’s Universal Immunization Programme by providing real-time information on vaccine stocks and flows, and storage temperatures across all cold chain points in these states. The technological innovation is implemented by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

eVIN aims to strengthen the evidence base for improved policy-making in vaccine delivery, procurement and planning for new antigens in India. eVIN provides an integrated solution to address widespread inequities in vaccine coverage by supporting state governments in overcoming constraints of infrastructure, monitoring and management information systems and human resources, often resulting in overstocking and stock-outs of vaccines in storage centres.

The integrated solution combines:

Technology: to facilitate evidence-based decision-making by making available online real-time information on vaccine stocks and storage temperature through the eVIN application software and temperature loggers;

Governance: to ensure efficient vaccine logistics management by systemizing record keeping through standardizing stock and distribution registers; identifying gaps and improving clarity on vaccine cold chain network; drawing attention to infrastructure




upgrades; developing standard operating procedures; and encouraging good practices;

Human Resources: to empower the state cold chain network by building the capacities of government cold chain handlers; and deploying vaccine and cold chain managers in every district for constant support to estimate vaccine requirements, supervise cold chain handlers and coordinate with cold chain technicians across the district.

eVIN empowers the cold chain handlers by building technical capacities and providing a robust decision-making tool for cold chain managers through a complete overview of vaccine replenishment times, supply and consumption patterns.

By streamlining the vaccine flow network, eVIN is a powerful contribution to strengthening health systems and ensures equity through easy and timely availability of vaccines to all children.

Kambala Bill to be sent again to President with minor modifications

The Union Home Ministry has asked Karnataka to modify the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Karnataka Amendment) Bill, 2017, and resend it for legalising kambala, the traditional buffalo slush race.

What’s suggested?

Union Home Ministry has suggested to the government to modify or omit the phrase “subject to such other conditions as may be prescribed” in sub-section 2 of section 3, in the Bill. The phrase opens the window for inclusion of more such sports involving animals through government notifications in the future, as the Centre was keen to prevent such powers to the State government.

As per the modification sought, State government’s powers to include more sports or races involving animals by notifications in future will be clipped.

Background



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The Karnataka Legislative Assembly had cleared the Bill in February 2017. Governor had referred the Bill to the President for his assent. The Bill seeks to exempt kambala and bullock-cart racing from the ambit of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (PCA) Act, 1960.

About Kambala

Kambla in its traditional form is non-competitive with buffalo pairs made to race one after another in paddy fields, which is considered a thanksgiving to the Gods for protecting the animals from diseases.

Over the years, it has however become an organised sport with animal rights activists claiming that the buffaloes run in the race due to fear of being beaten, which the organisers dismiss, saying no violence is involved and that several modifications had been made to ensure that it is an animal friendly event.

Center mulls financial assistance to fisher folk

With about four million people — mainly small-scale and artisanal fishers — in India depending on marine fisheries resources for livelihood, the Centre plans to provide them financial assistance and introduce norms to improve labour conditions in the sector. However, it will ensure that the Indian fishing fleet does not engage in ‘Illegal,

Unreported and Unregulated’ (IUU) fishing, according to the National Policy on Marine Fisheries, 2017.

Need for financial assistance: The Indian marine fisheries account for an economic wealth of about Rs. 65,000 crore, according to the policy — meant to guide the coordination and management of India’s marine fisheries during the next 10 years. However, fishermen are having difficulties in availing institutional credit to buy fishing

implements and crafts, and that the risky nature of returns has led to many fishermen falling into the debt trap of private financiers and middlemen.

Therefore, the Centre, with the help of National Bank of Agriculture and Rural Development, will provide financial assistance to fishermen with liberal terms and conditions.

What is IUU fishing? “IUU” stands for illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing. IUU fishing includes all fishing that breaks fisheries laws or occurs outside the reach of fisheries laws and regulations. An important part of IUU fishing is illegal fishing, which usually refers to fishing without a license, fishing in a closed area, fishing with prohibited gear, fishing over a quota, or the fishing of prohibited species. Most of the world’s fish is caught in the national waters of coastal States. Illegal fishing

in such areas can range from a licensed vessel fishing more than its allowed catch to a vessel coming into the zone with no fishing license at all, or even a vessel crew not




reporting or underreporting their catch—even if the vessel is licensed to catch that species.

A lot of unregulated fishing occurs on the high seas. The high seas are international waters beyond the exclusive economic zone, which extends 200 nautical miles from the shoreline, of a coastal state. Patchy regulation, little enforcement, and the vast expanse of the ocean—the high seas cover almost 45 percent of our planet—combine to allow rampant illegal and unregulated fishing in those areas.

Even when unregulated fishing on the high seas does not break any national law, it can have a significant harmful impact on marine life in the world’s oceans. So, the international community needs to develop and implement policy solutions that both forbid and eradicate these activities.

What are the impacts of illegal fishing? Illegal fishing adversely affects legitimate commercial fishers as well as fish populations. Illegal fishers avoid overhead costs, such as licensing fees. They fish without the constraints accepted by legal fishers, often falsify documentation, and effectively “launder” their ill-gotten catch. Illegal fishers’ actions constitute a clear case of unfair competition since they operate without the costs of doing business legally or the strictures of following established policies and laws. Also, because illegal fishers do not report catch, their fishing activities affect the

accuracy of official fish catch and stock estimates. This adversely affects how fisheries are managed because regulatory bodies use reported catches and stock estimates to set catch limits and otherwise manage fish populations. Thus, because the real volume of fish caught is unknown, it is very difficult to effectively manage fisheries where illegal fishing is taking place.

Finally, illegal fishing often causes grave environmental damage, especially when vessels use prohibited gear, such as driftnets, that catches no target species (including sharks, turtles or dolphins) or physically damages or destroys reefs, seamounts, and other vulnerable marine ecosystems.

Industry-Academia Collaborative Mission for accelerating discovery research to early development for biopharmaceuticals

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has given its approval for Industry-Academia Collaborative Mission for accelerating discovery research to early development for biopharmaceuticals – “Innovate in India (13) empowering biotech entrepreneurs & accelerating inclusive innovation” to be funded by the Government of India.

What you need to know? The Mission will be implemented by Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC) – a Public Sector Undertaking of Department of Biotechnology (DBT).




The Mission Program would be a Pan-India program. The key focus areas of the program would aid in preparing India’s technological and product development capabilities in the biopharmaceutical sector to a level that it is globally competitive over the next 10-15 years and will transform the health standards of India’s population through affordable product development.

Total project cost to be funded by Government of India is Rs. 1500 crore for five years. 50% cost for the Mission Programme will be arranged through the World Bank loan.

For the implementation, a Programme Management Unit will be set up at BIRAC which will work as an operational and functional arm that oversees and monitors program implementation and progress.

The Mission will focus on Development of specific products – vaccines, biotherapeutics, medical devices and diagnostics; establishment of shared infrastructure and facilities; building and strengthening domain specific knowledge and management skills; creating and enhancing technology transfer capabilities in public and private sector.

The Mission will provide a holistic and integrated approach to strengthen and support the entire product development value chain for accelerating the research leads to product development. This will help not only in immediate product development addressing public health needs, but will also help to create an ecosystem which will facilitate development of a continuous pipeline of products.

Cabinet approves amendment of the Public Premises (Eviction of Unauthorized Occupants) Act, 1971

The Union Cabinet has given its approval for amendment in Section 2 and Section 3 of the Public Premises (Eviction of Unauthorized Occupants) Act, 1971 (PPE Act, 1971), by inserting definition of ‘residential accommodation occupation’ in a new clause in section 2 of the Act and inserting provisions relating to eviction from ‘residential accommodation occupation’ in a new sub-section 3B below sub-section 3A of Section 3 of the Act.

What you need to know? The amendment will facilitate smooth and speedy eviction of unauthorized occupants from government residences. The Amendment will enable the Estate officer to apply summary proceedings for evicting unauthorized occupants from residential accommodations allotted for a fixed tenure or for a period he/she holds office on the basis of an order of allotment on license basis, as non-vacation of such residences leads to unavailability of houses to new incumbents. As a consequence to these amendments, Government of India can now ensure that the

unauthorized occupants are evicted from government residence in a speedy and smooth manner and the vacated accommodations are made available to eligible Govt. employees thus reducing the waiting period.

The beneficiaries include the employees of the Central Government offices who are eligible for General Pool Residential Accommodation (GPRA) and waiting for the maturity of their turn.




Background The Government of India has to evict unauthorized occupants from Government accommodations under the provisions of PPE Act, 1971. However, the eviction proceedings take unusually long time, thereby reducing the availability of govt. accommodations to new incumbents.

Cabinet approves Pan-India implementation of Maternity Benefit Program

The Union Cabinet has given ex-post facto approval to Pan-India implementation of Maternity Benefit Program which now has been extended to all districts of the country. The total cost of the proposal for the period from 01.01.2017 to 31.03.2020 including

Central and State Government share is Rs.12,661crore.

What you need to know about the Maternity Benefit Program? The Maternity Benefit Program will provide compensation for the wage loss in terms of cash incentives so that the women can take adequate rest before and after delivery and not be deprived of proper nutrition. It is a centrally sponsored scheme and the cost sharing between Centre and states is 60:40 for all the states and union territories (with legislature), 90:10 for NER and Himalayan States and 100% Centre share for union territories without legislatures.

Objective of the Scheme To provide partial compensation for the wage loss in terms of cash incentives so that

the woman can take adequate rest before and after delivery of the first living child. The cash incentives provided would lead to improved health seeking behaviour

amongst the Pregnant Women and Lactating Mother (PW&LM) to reduce the effects of under-nutrition namely stunting, wasting and other related problems.

Target Group All eligible Pregnant Women and Lactating Mothers (PW&LM), excluding the Pregnant Women and Lactating Mothers who are in regular employment with the Central Government or State Government or Public Sector Undertakings or those who are in receipt of similar benefits under any law for the time being. It has been decided to give the benefit of Rs.5000/- to PW&LM in three installment for the birth of the first live child by MWCD and the remaining cash incentive as per approved norms towards Maternity Benefit under existing programmes after institutional delivery so that on an average, a woman will get ₹6000/-.

Significance of this scheme




India’s maternal and infant mortality indicators are very poor. Every third woman is undernourished and every second woman is anaemic, government statistics show. An undernourished woman would likely give birth to a low-weight baby. As per the UN Millennium Development Goals Report 2014, India recorded the highest number of maternal deaths in the preceding year, and accounted for 17% of global deaths due to pregnancy- and childbirth-related complications (some 50,000 of 2.89 lakh such deaths worldwide). Less than 40% of births in India are institutional deliveries. Data from the Registrar General of India, Sample Registration System (RGI-SRS) show a recent decline in Maternal Mortality Ratios (MMR) — from 212 per 100,000 live births in 2007-09 to 167 per 100,000 live births in 2011-13 — but there’s a long way to go still. The Infant Mortality Rate is 40 per 1,000 live births, according to SRS 2011-13.

New curbs on cattle slaughter In a surprise gazette notification, the environment ministry has banned cattle slaughter and

introduced restrictions on the sale of cattle to prevent their killing. A gazette notification, titled Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Regulation of Livestock Markets) Rules, 2017 by the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change states that no one can bring cattle to an animal market unless he or she has furnished a written declaration that the cattle will not be sold for the purpose of slaulghter. Further, upon sale of cattle, the animal market committee will take an “undertaking” that the animals are for agricultural purposes and not for slaughter.

Key highlights

The Rule applies to the whole of India, except the State of Jammu and Kashmir. Cattle cannot be brought to an animal market for sale for slaughter. Animal Market consists of: Marketplaces where animals are brought from other places

for sale or auction. It includes animal fairs, or areas adjoining a market or a slaughterhouse.

Cattle as defined: A bovine animal including bulls, bullocks, cows, buffalos, steers, heifers and calves and includes camels.

All existing animal markets will have to be registered within three months with the District Animal Market Monitoring Committee by making an application to the Committee.

Cruel and harmful practices have been prohibited for animals including, painting of horns, ear cutting buffaloes, making animals lay on hard ground without proper bedding.

Purchaser of cattle cannot sell animal for slaughter or sacrifice the animal for religious purposes.

The rule mandates the appointment of Veterinary inspectors who shall screen the animals before they enter the market. The inspector shall also check whether animals are being transported in trucks which are authorised by law to carry animals.

The new rules apply only to animal markets and not to individual cattle buying and selling by people.




Implications of this move Experts predict that the worst hit from the rules will be Muslim meat and leather

traders who are increasingly facing violence from aggressive cow vigilante groups. Farmers will also be affected as they will be deprived of the compensation they get

from selling aged or non-milch cattle. Farmers may now have to spend on feeding their aged cattle or the animals will have to be abandoned.

Background For years, the Supreme Court has struggled for consistency in its judicial pronouncements regarding cattle, leaving it ultimately to the Centre and States to devise an appropriate policy. While Supreme Court banned the bull-running sport jallikattu as cruel, it refused to intervene with States to frame a uniform policy on cattle slaughter. Neither did the court deem it fit to examine a plea to ban animal sacrifices for religious purposes.

5 social Justice

Fortified food to tackle malnutrition

Malnutrition: Malnutrition refers to the situation where there is an unbalanced diet in

which some nutrients are in excess, lacking or wrong proportion. Simply put, we can

categories it to be under-nutrition and over-nutrition. Despite India's 50% increase in GDP

since 1991. More than one third of the world's malnourished children live in India. Among

these, half of them under 3 are underweight and a third of wealthiest children are over-

nutrient

India’s status:The 2016 global hunger index said 38.7 % of Indian children under 5 years

are stunted due to lack of food. The report by international food policy research Institute

(FPRI) also ranked India 97 among 118 countries, worse than neighboring countries like

china (29), Nepal (72), Myanmar (75), and Srilanka (84) in measures of hunger.

Efforts to eradicate malnutrition so far by GOI

Integrated child development services (ICDS) scheme, SABLA (Rajiv Gandhi Scheme for Adolescent Girls),National health mission, Mid-day meal scheme, Nutrition Rehabilitation Centers, Indira Gandhi Matritva Sahyog Yojana (IGMSY). To tackle the issue of malnutrition, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) released a set of standards and a logo last year. Since then, a number of enterprises have begun adding premixes of micronutrients to launch fortified foods.




Various efforts in this regard:

Milk cooperatives in Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan, Assam and Maharashtra are fortifying their products.

Targeting children, the Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh governments have begun using fortified oil for their mid-day meal schemes.

West Bengal and Andaman and Nicobar Islands are now distributing fortified wheat flour through the public distribution system, and the Maharashtra government has started a pilot project.

The FSSAI is also working with small local suppliers, for instance local flour grinding mills, to get them to add premixed micronutrients.

What is food fortification? Food fortification or enrichment is the process of adding micronutrients (essential trace elements and vitamins) to food. Food fortification is a proven and effective strategy to meet the nutritional needs of a large number of people across various sections of the society, including the poor and underprivileged as well as the vulnerable, such as pregnant women and young children.

On May 4 2017, Ministry of Urban Development has released the finding of Swachh Surveksham 2017.

Swachh Survekshan-2017 - Aimed at capturing the outcomes of efforts towards:

Open Defecation Free

Door-to-door collection of garbage

Processing and disposal of Municipal Solid Waste.

Highlights

The Swachh Surveksham 2017 was conducted by Quality Council of India in 434 cities and towns to monitor the progress of the Swachh Bharat Mission.

Indore has been declared the cleanest city in India and Bhopal ranked second.

Gujarat has the highest number with 12 of its cities among the top 50 clean cities followed by Madhya Pradesh with 11 cities.




Odisha’s Sualgiri, Swalgiri Communities Notified as Scheduled

Castes

Sualgiri and Swalgiri communities of Odisha have been notified as Scheduled Castes after

President Pranab Mukherjee gave his assent to the Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order

(Amendment) Act, 2017. Last month, Rajya Sabha had passed the bill after it was cleared by

the Lok Sabha in March. Accordingly, the Sualgiri, Swalgiri communities have been notified

as Scheduled Castes in the modified list for Odisha. Similarly, the Constitution (Pondicherry)

Scheduled Castes Order, 1964 has replaced the term Union Territory of Pondicherry to

Puducherry.

Benefits: The Constitution provides certain privileges and concessions to the members of

Scheduled Castes notified under the provisions of Article 341 of the Constitution. The

Scheduled Castes status will entitle these communities to get reservation in government

jobs and admission into educational institutions in addition to some other financial benefits.

The government implements various schemes for the benefit of the Scheduled Castes like

post-matric scholarship, national overseas scholarship, Rajiv Gandhi national fellowship,

concessional loans from National Scheduled Castes Finance and Development Corporation,

provision of hostel facilities for the SC boys and girls etc.

Background: The constitution of India empowers the Parliament of India to modify the list

of notified scheduled castes, which upon receiving the assent of the President of India can

be notified as Scheduled Castes. Under the provision of Article 341, list of SCs in relation to a

states/UT is to be issued by a notified Order of the President after consulting concerned

state Government. But the clause (2) of Article 341 envisages that, any subsequent inclusion

in or exclusion from the list of Scheduled Castes can be effected only through an Act of

Parliament.

Mission Indradhanush

Why in news?

PMO (Prime Minister Office) had advance the deadline of Mission Indradhanush from 2020

to 2018.

PMO will review the mission through multi-modal platform PRAGATI (Pro-Active

Governance and Timely Implementation) platform. Mission Indradhanush

It is a strategic endeavor under Universal Immunisation Programme 1985.

It targets to immunize all children below two years of age either unvaccinated, or are

partially vaccinated as well as all pregnant women.

Immunisation against seven vaccine preventable diseases namely; Diphtheria, Pertussis,

Tetanus, Childhood Tuberculosis, Polio, Hepatitis B and Measles.




Moreover, Vaccines for Japanese Encephalitis, Haemophilus influenza type B, inactivated

polio vaccine, Rotavirus vaccine and Measles Rubella vaccine are also being provided in

selected states.

Mission is technically supported by WHO, UNICEF, Rotary International and other donor

partners.

Swachh Pakhwada being observed by the Ministry of Textiles throughout the country

The Ministry of Textiles is observing Swachh Pakhwada from May 1 – 15, 2017. The fortnight-long observance of programmes to spread the message of cleanliness and make it a part of our lives, was inaugurated by the Minister of State, Textiles, Shri Ajay Tamta, in Udyog Bhawan, New Delhi, and today. The list of activities that would be undertaken by the Ministry of Textiles during the Swachhta Pakhwada includes the following:

Visit of Minister of State, Textiles to Powerloom Service Centres in Delhi/Haryana/Uttarakhand

Visit of Minister of State, Textiles to Silk Cluster in Haridwar for a special Swachh drive

Seminar on the theme “Waste to Wealth” to be organized Films on “Waste to Wealth” to be made by NIFT, and to be shown by all

organizations NIFT students to be promoted as volunteers to lead youth teams for Swachhta

activities in all Weavers’ Service Centers Awareness and motivation programmes to be conducted for employees Debate competition on Swachh Abhiyan to be held, for employees at various levels Honoring prize winners in the competitions, by senior officers of the Ministry Personal hygiene campaign to be conducted at all jute mills, co-opting CGHS doctors,

on all days of the Pakhwada Special drive on Swachh to be done in a NTC Mill Chawl area, and in a jute mill in

Kolkata (cleaning of workers’ colonies to be undertaken) Undertaking cleaning of Office premises, toilets & wash rooms Provision for supply of clean drinking water through water dispensers, to all sections



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Providing dustbins in all sections Dusting and cleaning of office equipment Cleaning of common passages and open areas in Udyog Bhavan Co-ordination with CPWD and DIPP to ensure that renovation work such as

replacement of tiles, false ceiling works, installation of LED lights are completed timely

Weeding out of old files/Records/un-serviceable articles

“Rashtriya Swachhata Kendra” to be set up by “Swachh Bharat Mission” at Gandhi Smriti & Darshan Samiti, Rajghat M/O Culture Develops “E-Guide (Audio-Visual)” App to Create Awareness for Tourists M/O Tourism Strives to Realise Mahatma Gandhi’s Dream of Clean India by his Sesquicentennial (150th Year) Birth Anniversary Celebrations in 2019

“Rashtriya Swachhata Kendra” will be set up by “Swachh Bharat Mission” Ministry of

Drinking Water and Sanitation at Gandhi Smriti and Darshan Samiti (GSDS), Rajghat by “Swachh Bharat Mission” Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation under the vision of Prime Minister during the centenary year of Champaran Satyagraha and the Ministry of Culture is considering to provide space for the purpose. This was announced by Dr. Mahesh Sharma, Minister of State (I/C) for Culture and Tourism while addressing media persons on the culmination of “Swachhata Pakhwada” of Ministry of Culture here today. Shri Narendra Singh Tomar, Minister for Rural Development, Pachayati Raj and Drinking Water & Sanitation was also present.

Dr. Sharma informed the media persons that Ministry of Culture dedicated a total of 275 effort hours for cleanliness and awareness during Swachhata Pakhwada. A total of 82 activities/events were organised by the Ministry and its organizations during the Swachhata Pakhwada. He said that to create awareness on “Swachhata”, Ministry of Culture has developed “e-guide (Audio-Visual) App e3.eguide.net.in” to create awareness for the tourists visiting National Museum.

Addressing on the occasion, Shri Narendra Singh Tomar said that that Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) is not only the top priority of the Government but it has become a national mission for the people of India and positive results are pouring in from every nook and corner of the country. He said that since the launch of SBM on 2nd October, 2014, till date more than 4 crore individual household latrines have been built and one lakh, 94,000 villages and 135 districts have become Open Defecation Free, ODF. He added that apart from Sikkim, Kerala and Himachal Pradesh which are ODF Sates, 6 to 7 more States will soon declare them ODF as the work is going on a rapid scale.

Shri Tomar said that the total budget for Swachh Bharat Mission is now Rs 19,300

crore with a Central share of Rs 14,000 crore and Rs 5,300 crore is the budgetary




provision declared by all government departments as they had been asked to make a special mention of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan in their budget proposals, besides finalising their ‘Swachhta Action Plan’.

On completion of 3rd year of Swachhata Abhiyan, Ministry of Culture and Tourism

organised “Swachhata Pakhwada” from 16th – 30th April, 2017. During the period, they initiated various Swachhata activities namely; (i) creating permanent mechanism of cleanliness for all organisations under Ministry of Culture and Tourism ; (ii) to spread awareness through various cultural activities by involving all their organisations: and (iii) spread of swachhata awareness through Music, Dance and Drama by its Academies and maintaining cleanliness at all ASI Protected Monuments etc.

Major initiatives undertaken by Ministry of Culture during Swachhata Pakhwada are :-

Ministry is considering to provide space at Gandhi Smriti and Darshan Samiti (GSDS), Rajghat to host “Rashtriya Swachhata Kendra” to be set up by “Swachh Bharat Mission” Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation under vision of Prime Minister during the centenary year of Champaran Satyagraha.

Archives of India organized “Swachhagraha- Bapu ko Karyanjali” a mission, and exhibition to commemorate centenary year of Champaran Satyagraha.

To create awareness on “Swachhata”, Ministry of Culture has developed “e-guide (Audio-Visual)” App to create awareness for the tourists visiting National Museum 2 days festival – “Vimal Yatra” was organized by Sangeet Natak Akademi through cultural and devotional performances. Special exhibition titled “SUNO- Broom Sticks” was organized by the Indian Museum to highlight importance of broom sticks. 7 Zonal Cultural Centres of Ministry organized various competitions such as essay writing, poster making, painting, rangoli making amongst students for Swachhta awareness.

he Archaeological Survey of India observed World Heritage Day on 18th April, 2017 through awareness campaign “Swachh Bharat – Swachh Smarak” in all its monuments and site museums. Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Manav Sanghralaya organized series of activities such as painting competition, lectures and seminars. The National Gallery of Modern Art participated in heritage walk and cleanliness drive on World Art Day and World Heritage Day. They also organized poster making competition for school students. Allahabad Museum organized series of activities namely seminar on waste management, debate completion on hygiene and cleanliness for school children etc.

Major initiatives undertaken by Ministry of Tourism during Swachhata Pakhwada are:

The Ministry of Tourism, with the aim and objectives of promoting these places of

attraction, has adopted the motto “Incredible India” and considers the visitors as guests and regards them as “Atithi devo Bhava” and works towards the maintaince of cleanliness in the tourist destinations through various schemes/programmes, such as Campaign Clean India, undertaking awareness campaigns, Swachhta Runs,




conferring National Awards etc. One such programme is the observance of a campaign on cleanliness and undertaking a fortnightly intensive cleanliness drive called “Swachhta Pakhwada”.

During the current financial year, the Ministry has undertaken a Swachhta Pakhwada from 16th-30th April, 2017, to synchronize with the World Heritage Day celebrations by the Ministry of Culture, as per the consolidated guidelines issued by the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation. During this Pakhwada period, an intensive cleaning operation was undertaken In-house in Transport Bhawan and C-1, Hutments by all the staff members, which yielded good results.

Ministry of Tourism has joined the celebrations of World Heritage Day by the ASI at the historic Humayun’s Tomb, a world heritage monument in Delhi. An intensive cleanliness drive undertaken jointly by the officials of MoT and ASI has yielded good results and made the monument, its approach, its garden area, its drinking water units and toilet area neat and clean and kept the monument in a presentable condition. Similar cleaning operation was undertaken at the historic Firoz Shah Kotla & Purana Qila, national monuments in New Delhi which resulted in the monument and its environs in a presentable condition. As a tribute to the Father of Nation, who dreamed a clean India, the MoT officials have undertaken an intensive cleanliness activity at the Martyrdom Place in Tees January Marg, New Delhi.

The consolidated guidelines received from MoDW&S were sent to all State and UTs Govts., requesting them to undertake a fortnightly intensive campaign on cleanliness at the tourist destinations in their State and UTs, during the same period. Action taken reports from states/UTs are awaited.

Ministry of Tourism in collaboration with the PSUs is implementing Swachhta activities at tourist destinations under the CSR scheme. A review meeting of the status of the Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives by the Public Sector Undertakings (PSU) at the Archaeological monuments already adopted by them and further adoption of more number of monuments by the PSUs was held under the chairmanship of Secretary (Tourism), in which the progress achieved by various PSUs was reviewed and modalities worked out for adoption of more number of Adarsh monuments and the other ASI monuments, which are in dire need of priority action on cleanliness, based on the study conducted by the Ministry.

Thus Ministry is striving to take all actions making a Swachh Bharat, in respect of all the tourist destinations in the country and realise Mahatma Gandhi Ji’s dream of a clean India by his sesquicentennial (150th year) birth anniversary celebrations in 2019.




Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana

“Mahilao ko mila Samman, Yahi hai Ujjwala ki Pehchan” says Shri Dharmendra

Pradhan

Over 2.20 Cr LPG Connections given in 1st year of Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana;

surpasses target of 1.5 Cr for Financial year 2016-17

Overall 3.25 Cr LPG connections given in 2016-17; Highest ever in any given year

“Total LPG Consumer base increased to over 20 Cr in 2017 from 14 Cr in 2014; Over

10% growth in LPG demand”, says Petroleum Minister

“4600 new LPG distributorships added in the last 3 years” – Shri Dharmendra Pradhan

“Over 85% of new consumers have come back for refill under PMUY” says Petroleum

Minister

38% of beneficiaries under PMUY are from SC / ST Category

Various efforts made by use of Digital Governance for successful implementation of

PMUY

Shri Pradhan says “There is 360-degree engagement and monitoring of implementation

of PMUY”

Safety and safe usage of LPG is our priority says Petroleum Minister

“PMUY has become a social movement with the beneficiaries coming forward in large

number to apply and get cylinders installed”, says Shri Pradhan

Minister of State (I/C) for Petroleum and Natural gas, Shri Dharmendra Pradhan addressed the media on the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY), a flagship scheme of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas here today.

Shri Pradhan said that the PMUY has surpassed the targets for the financial year 2016-17 in terms of installing new connections. Over 2.20 Crore connections have been given in the first year of its launch scheme to BPL families as per the SECC 2011 data. This has surpassed the target of 1.5 Cr connections for the financial year. PMUY was launched on 1st May, 2016 at Ballia, Uttar Pradesh by Hon’ble Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi.

In the financial year 2016-17, Oil Marketing Companies have given 3.25 Cr new connections across the country. This is the highest ever LPG connections released in any given year. Today the total number of active LPG consumer has crossed 20 Crore. This has been a quantum jump from 14 Cr in the year 2014 he said.




Shri Pradhan said that the LPG demand in the country has registered a growth rate of more than 10%. More than 4,600 new distributors have been added in the last 3 years which have come up primarily in rural areas.

Speaking on the key features of implementation of PMUY, Shri Pradhan said that 85% of the new consumers have come back for a refill. About 38% of the beneficiaries in PMUY are from SC/ST category. He added that PMUY has been implemented in a participatory mode involving beneficiaries, elected representatives, distinguished personalities, local administration etc. A differential communication strategy to popularize the scheme as well as educating beneficiaries on safety norms through regional languages was carried out. There is a 360-degree engagement and also monitoring of the implementation of the scheme. Shri Pradhan said PMUY has become a social movement with the beneficiaries coming forward in large number to apply and get the cylinders installed.

The Petroleum Minister also highlighted the efforts made by the Ministry and OMCs by the use of Digital Governance in the execution of the PMUY Scheme. Activities like Digitally aided identification and selection of beneficiaries of Ujjwala; Digital filing of KYC of Ujjwala beneficiaries; transfer of Subsidy to all PAHAL beneficiaries digitally without human interference; Monitoring of Ujjwala implementation on daily basis using IT enabled dashboard; Identification of new locations to set up LPG distributorships through use of technology; Online Application and Online draws have been carried out by the Ministry and Oil Marketing Companies for successful execution of this scheme.

The Minister laid emphasis on the efforts made by District Nodal Officers (DNOs) from Oil Marketing Companies. He said that the DNOs have been ‘foot soldiers’ at the ground level to effectively coordinate with all the stakeholders to implement the PMUY.

The Minister also said that an exercise was undertaken to get the feedback of the beneficiaries through the district visits by Senior officials of Ministry and the Oil PSUs (over 650 districts were visited).

Shri Pradhan laid strong emphasis on safety and safe usage of LPG. He said measures like installation of LPG cylinder through a Mechanic at houses of all PMUY beneficiaries was being done so that safe and correct usage of LPG can be explained to the beneficiaries. Safety Clinics/Camps are being organized on a regular basis Pan-India for the beneficiaries to make them aware of the safe usage of LPG also.

The Minister concluded that through PMUY “Mahilao ko mila Samman, Yahi hai Ujjwala ki Pehchan”.

DIPP & WIPO to set up Technology and Innovation Support Centers




The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) and World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)have signed an agreement to establish Technology and Innovation Support Centers (TISC)

WIPO’s Technology and Innovation Support Centers (TISC) program provides innovators in developing countries with access to locally based, high quality technology information and related services, helping them to exploit their innovative potential and to create, protect, and manage their intellectual property (IP) rights.

Services offered by TISCs may include

• Access to online patent and non-patent (scientific and technical) resources and IP-related publications; • Assistance in searching and retrieving technology information; • Training in database search; • On-demand searches (novelty, state-of-the-art and infringement); • Monitoring technology and competitors; • Basic information on industrial property laws, management and strategy, and technology commercialization and marketing.

The Cell for IPR Promotion and Management (CIPAM) is designated as the National Focal point for the TISC national network. As the national focal point, CIPAM shall identify potential host institutions, assess their capacities and support them in joining the TISC project. CIPAM will also act as the main intermediary between WIPO and TISC host institutions and coordinateall the activities of the national TISC network.

Over 500TISCs operate worldwide and establishing TISC in India will give the host institutions access to the Global network. In upcoming years CIPAM is planning to establish TISC’s in Universities, State Science Councils, R&D institutions etc. TISC will give an impetus to Knowledge sharing, sharing of best practices among the TISC’s, capacity building, generation and commercialization of IPs

Tax processed foods: FSSAI panel

An expert panel set up by food regulator FSSAI recently submitted its report to the government. The FSSAI had constituted the panel consisting of experts from different fields




like medicine, nutrition and dietetics from well-known medical research and academic institutions. The report by the 11-member panel on ‘Consumption of Fat, Sugar and Salt (FSS) and

its health effects on Indian population’ suggests ways to cut consumption of unhealthy food products and reduce rising burden of chronic diseases like cancer and diabetes.

This report will serve as a guideline document for all the stakeholders, including the industry, the FSSAI and consumers, in reducing consumption of fat, sugar and salt through processed food products.

Important recommendations made by the committee:

Additional tax on highly processed commodities and sugar sweetened beverages. Imposing additional tax on the purchase of commodities such as pre-packaged foods with high salt and fat content, sugar sweetened beverages, etc can be a pragmatic approach to reduce their intake.

Imposition of excise tax on unhealthy eating products would lead to positive health effects among population. The nutrition-related programmes of the government can be supported through profit from taxing unhealthy food products.

Advertisement ban for foods high in FSS during children TV shows or kids TV channels is urged. In fact, the country should progress towards a total ban law as being done in a few other countries like Chile.

Celebrity endorsements of such foods need to be discouraged, adding that online social media websites should also comply with advertising ban for unhealthy foods.

Reliable monitoring systems should be there to examine FSS intake periodically at the national level. The industry should be encouraged for “voluntary reformulation” of food products to cut down FSS intake in packaged food items.

Like total calories, amount of carbohydrates, sugar, fat, protein, sodium, dietary fibre, amount of trans-fat added in food should be mandatory for labelling in food products.

On nutrient-specific recommendations, the panel said fats should be largely consumed in the unsaturated form. The consumption of unsaturated fatty acids, especially the long chain mono- and poly unsaturated-fatty acids, should be encouraged in everyday diets. What necessitated this move?

In India, the rising burden of mortality and morbidity due to chronic diseases such as cardiovascular, respiratory diseases, diabetes and cancers is alarming. In the next 25 years, the burden of chronic diseases will tend to increase continuously as a ramification of the rapidly transitioning food intakes, changing dietary patterns and other lifestyle factors.

A salient finding was that Low Income Groups (LIG) reportedly consumed more fried snacks and sweets than High Income Groups (HIG) and, the highest consumption of bakery items was in slums, said a study on urban populations.

Survival of newborns: India ranks lower than Somalia




Healthcare access and quality index (HAQ), part of the Global burden of diseases has been released. The HAQ Index is based on death rates from 32 ailments that could be avoided by timely medical intervention.

What you need to know about GBD? The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors study is put together by the

Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), an independent population health research centre associated with the University of Washington, along with a consortium of 2,300 researchers in more than 130 countries.

Performance of India: India is at 154th among 195 countries. India’s healthcare access and quality (HAQ) index has increased by 14.1, up from 30.7 in

1990 to 44.8 in 2015. India lags behind Sri Lanka (72.8), Bangladesh (51.7), Bhutan (52.7) and Nepal (50.8)

and ranks above Pakistan (43.1) and Afghanistan (32.5). As per the study, India has performed poorly in tackling cases of tuberculosis, diabetes,

chronic kidney diseases and rheumatic heart diseases. The journal lists India among the biggest underachievers in Asia in health care access. The top five performers were Andorra (94.6), Iceland (93.6), Switzerland (91.8), Sweden

(90.5), and Norway (90.5). Among the developed nations, those who did not perform well include the US and the

UK.

6 GOVERNANCE, TRANSPARENCY AND ACCOUNTABILITY

Skill councils have conflict of interests’

The Government may soon review the public report of Sharda Prasad committee that suggested the challenges in vocational education and training system of the country and convergence, synergy and rationalization of sector skill councils (SSCs).

The committee has advised the skill development ministry to drastically reduce the number SSCs from 40 to around 20 by merging identical sector councils and curtail their powers of assessment of skill training centers. It is because these SSCs are overlapping in nature, and were unnecessarily floated without giving proper thought, making it difficult to manage a large number of them.

What are SSCs?



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Sector Skill Councils are set up as autonomous industry-led bodies by NSDC. They create Occupational Standards and Qualification bodies, develop competency framework, conduct Train the Trainer Programs, conduct skill gap studies and Assess and Certify trainees on the curriculum aligned to National Occupational Standards developed by them. Till date, the NSDC Board has approved proposals for 38 Sector Skill Councils. There are approximately 450 Corporate Representatives in the Governing Councils of these SSCs.

Public affairs index Public affairs index (PAI) for the year 2017 has been released. The PAI aims to rank the states of India objectively in the field of governance based on various focus subjects and indicators and is an initiative of the Public Affairs Committee (PAC). The survey was based on 10 themes, 26 focus subjects and 82 indicators. The report

was based on a wide range of themes such as essential infrastructure, support to human development, social protection, women and children, crime, law and order, delivery of justice, environment, transparency and accountability, fiscal management and economic freedom.

The PAC is a not-for-profit think-tank focused on good governance, which was established in 1994.

Performance of various states:

For the second year running, Kerala and Tamil Nadu have maintained their positions as the states with the best governance in the country. They are followed by Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh and Karnataka.

Among 12 small States (population less than two crore), Himachal has wrested the first rank, followed by Goa and Mizoram. Delhi slipped from third position in 2016 to 9th position in 2017. Meghalaya (12th), Arunachal Pradesh (11th) and Jammu Kashmir (10th) are at the bottom of the table.

Punjab is the best performer among all States in the category of essential infrastructure. Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat secured second, third and fourth positions, respectively.

In human development, Kerala, Maharshtra, and Punjab are top of the table while Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Assam are the worst performers.

Kerala, Assam and Madhya Pradesh secured top three ranks in implementation of social protection policies, while Telangana, Haryana and Punjab are lagging in execution of various State and Central government schemes.

In the category of women and children, Kerala topped the list followed by Odisha and Karnataka while Jharkhand, Haryana and Maharashtra are poor performers.

Tamil Nadu secured first rank in maintaining law and order, delivery of justice and environment categories and secured last rank in transparency and accountability in the administration.

Telangana is the best performer in fiscal management while its neighbor Andhra Pradesh is the poor performer and secured last rank.

In the category of economic freedom, Gujarat secured top rank while Bihar secured the last rank.



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SEVA’ App The government has launched the Saral Eindhan Vitaran Application (SEVA), developed in-house by Coal India Limited (CIL) for power sector consumers.

What you need to know about the app? SEVA is a part of ‘Digital India’ initiative, which is aimed at increasing the Consumer

Connect as well as the Transparency and Accountability in Coal dispatch. The SEVA Dashboard provides summary of quantity of coal dispatched along with

grades for the given day, month, and the latest yearly updates as well. It also provides information on rake movement including latest status of indents of rake, allotment and loading. This would help consumers making advance logistics planning.

The app has a dedicated backend team to monitor the status of specific grievances from consumers and take action on the feedback received on the app. While much of the information on the SEVA Dashboard is available in open access, consumer specific data would be password protected.

Significance of this app: The consumer friendly mobile app helps in tracking of coal dispatch to 118 Power Plants through Fuel Supply Agreement (FSA) of around 500 MT besides, dispatch through Special Forward E-Auction and Bridge Linkage from more than 200 dispatch points spread over eight states of the country. By using this app the common man would be able to hold the Government accountable for the coal linkage allocations and would be able to check any pilferage or inefficiencies in coal consumption for power generation. This would, in turn, lead to rationalization of coal linkages and finally reduction in the power prices in the country. In near future, non-power sector mines would also be added in this App.



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7 India & its neighborhood

India – Pakistan

Why in news?

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) stayed the execution of Kulbhushan Jadhav, who was sentenced to death by a Pakistan military court on the charge of spying, till its final decision

The Court said that India should have been granted consular access to Kulbhushan Jadhav as per the Vienna Convention.

Pakistan should now inform the court about the steps it takes to implement the order.

The ICJ judges are clear that these provisional measures are binding and create international legal obligations for the country to which they are addressed. Background of Kulbushan Jadhav’s case Kulbhushan Jadhav was allegedly arrested in the Chaman area of Baluchistan on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border on March 3, 2016.

India denied that he had any links to its government but said that he was running a business in the Iranian port city of Chabahar after a “premature retirement” from the Navy.

India believed that Kulbhushan Jadhav was kidnapped from Iran and his subsequent presence in Pakistan has never been explained credibly.

Kulbhushan Jadhav was sentenced to death in a Field General Court Martial on April 10, 2017 after three-and-half months of trial after he was found guilty on charges of espionage. India Approach to the International Court of Justice (ICJ)

India had dragged Pakistan to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on May 8, 2017 for refusing consular access to Jadhav and for violating the Vienna Convention on consular relations.

India accused Pakistan of violating the Vienna Convention and conducting a "farcical trial" for convicting Jadhav without a "shred of evidence". India’s argument at ICJ Following are the main arguments made by India in the Kulbhushan Jadhav case at the International Court of Justice on May 15, 2017.

Kulbhushan Jadhav has not got the right to get proper legal assistance and the right to consular access.

The execution of the death sentence cannot be done while this court is hearing the appeal. Else, it will be a violation of the Vienna Convention.

Jadhav was kidnapped from Iran where he was involved in business activities after retiring from the Indian Navy. Pakistan’s argument at the ICJ At the May 15 hearing convened by the International Court of Justice (ICJ), Pakistan identified three problems with India’s request and called for its dismissal.




There is no “urgency” in this case as the date on which Jadhav will be executed has not yet been fixed;

The ultimate relief sought by India, that is, a “reversal” of Jadhav’s conviction, is unavailable; and

The court lacks jurisdiction

Also, Pakistan argued that Vienna Convention provisions not intended to apply to a ‘spy’ involved in terror activities. Analysis India has achieved its immediate objective in approaching the ICJ, which has outlined provisional measures that enjoin Pakistan to take all steps needed to ensure that Mr. Jadhav is not executed pending adjudication of the matter. It may appear to be a complete victory for India on the questions of jurisdiction, urgency and the core charge that Pakistan violated the Vienna Convention. However, this is a preliminary ruling and all issues are open for adjudication at the final stage. As an immediate consequence, Pakistan is now under an obligation to grant consular access to Mr. Jadhav. India will have to leverage the moral and diplomatic advantage it has obtained through this ruling to help Mr. Jadhav prove his innocence before a civilian court and win his freedom

2) Expedite work on Kishanganga Project: PMO directs power ministry and J&K government

Notwithstanding Pakistan’s challenge to Jammu and Kashmir’s 330 mw Kishanganga hydro-electric project, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) has directed the power ministry and the J&K government to expedite work on the two major Kishanganga transmission lines that are to be commissioned along with the first unit of the crucial project. Two transmission lines — the Kishanganga-Amargarh and the Amargarh-Wagoora lines

— are to be commissioned by the power ministry.

Background: Pakistan has been consistently objecting to the Kishanganga hydro-electric project which is to be completed by India in three units of 110MW each, the first of which is set to be



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commissioned in the coming months. Last month, India had put on hold a World Bank-facilitated initiative for water secretary-level talks with Pakistan in Washington, owing to differences of opinion on technical issues on the Indus river hydro-projects like Kishanganga. In January, Pakistan had reportedly asked India to suspend the ongoing construction of the Kishanganga project and asked the World Bank to set up a court of arbitration to mediate the dispute over the Indus Waters Treaty between India and Pakistan.

About the Project: The Kishanganga Hydroelectric Plant is an $864 million dam which is part of a run-of-the-river hydroelectric scheme that is designed to divert water from the Kishanganga River to a power plant in the Jhelum River basin. It is located 5 km north of Bandipore in Jammu and Kashmir, India and will have an

installed capacity of 330 MW. Construction on the project began in 2007 and is expected to be complete in 2016.

Construction on the dam was temporarily halted by the Hague’s Permanent Court of Arbitration in October 2011 due to Pakistan’s protest of its effect on the flow of the Kishanganga River (called the Neelum River in Pakistan). In February 2013, The Hague ruled that India could divert a minimum amount of water for power generation.

India – Srilanka

Why in news?

Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Sri Lanka to participate in the UN Vesak Day celebrations in

Colombo.

Highlights of the visit

Prime minister said that the themes of social justice and sustainable world peace, chosen for the

Vesak day, resonate deeply with Buddha’s teachings.

He inaugurated the Dickoya Hospital that has been built with Indian's assistance.

He hailed the spirit of Indian-origin Tamils in Sri Lanka and announced the construction of

additional 10,000 houses in upcountry areas and the extension of the emergency ambulance service.

What is Vesak?

Vesak (Sinhalese), Vesākha (Pāli), Vaisākha (Sanskrit) is the name used for the 2nd month in Sri

Lankan traditional Moon calendar (Lunar calendar) which corresponds with the month of May in the

Gregorian calendar (Solar calendar).

It was on the full moon day in the month of Vesak, Prince Siddharta was born, became enlightened

and attained Mahaparinibbāna.

Vesak is associated with three important locations of Buddhist history – Lumbini in Nepal, the birth

place of Prince Siddharta, Bodh Gaya (Buddha Gaya) Bihar State in India where The Buddha attained

the most exalted Enlightenment under a Bodhi Tree and Kushinagar (Kusinara) in Uttar Pradesh,

India where The Buddha attained Mahaparinibbāna.




United Nations International Day of Vesak

International Day of Vesak is a National holiday declared by the United Nations in 1999. The

proposal was tabled by Sri Lanka. In 2017, United Nations International Day of Vesak was hosted by

Sri Lanka under the theme “Buddhist Teachings for Social Justice and Sustainable World Peace”.

India – Palestine

Why in news?

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas visited India recently.

Highlights of the visit

India and Palestine signed five memorandums of understanding.

List of MoUs inked during the visit of President Abbas include:

MoU on Visa Exemption on Diplomatic and official Passports

MoU on Cooperation in Youth Affairs and Sports

MoU on Agricultural Cooperation

MoU on Cooperation in Health Sector

MoU on Information-Technology and Electronics

“Political Support” to the Palestinian cause:

India reaffirmed its support for a political solution to the Palestine issue.

Prime Minister said that India hope to see a sovereign, independent, united and viable

Palestine, co-existing peacefully with Israel.

Peace talks between Palestine and Israel.

India hopes for early resumption of talks between Palestinian and Israeli sides to move towards

finding a comprehensive resolution.

Capacity building in Palestine

India has been contributing to material & technical assistance to Palestine. India has been building a

techno Park in Ramallah at the cost of $12 million.

Both the countries also called for enhancing cultural exchanges between the two sides. India has

sought Palestine’s participation in the International Yoga Day to be observed next month.

The Palestinian President also condemned terrorism in all its forms and manifestations and called

for regional and international efforts to fight the menace.

Background

India and Palestine enjoy historically close and friendly ties.

In 1947, India voted against the partition of Palestine at the United Nations General Assembly.

India was the first Non-Arab State to recognize Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) as sole and

legitimate representative of the Palestinian people in 1974. India was one of the first countries to

recognize the State of Palestine in 1988.




In 1996, India opened its Representative Office to the Palestine Authority in Gaza, which later was

shifted to Ramallah in 2003.

Minesweeper deal to be inked soon After repeated delays and protracted negotiations, India and South Korea are set to be close to finalizing the deal for 12 minesweepers for the Indian Navy. Commercial negotiations are in the final stages and should be concluded in the next two months. The technical negotiations have long been completed which also involves the Indian Navy.

Key facts: The deal for 12 minesweepers or Mine Counter Measure Vessels is worth about ₹32,640 crore

and the ships would be manufactured in India under Transfer of Technology. The first ship is expected to be delivered three years after the contract is signed. Minesweepers

are crucial to detect mines and explosives planted by the enemy targeting our ships as they enter or leave harbors.

Need for Minesweepers:

Minesweeper ships use sonar systems to detect mines planted on the seabed or mines that float at predetermined depths. They are used to keep seas mine-free. The Navy is presently left with four ageing minesweepers which will be retired by 2018 end.

However, efforts to procure new MCMVs have been repeatedly delayed.

India – Bangladesh

Cabinet approves MoU on Third Line of Credit of US $ 4.5 billion to Bangladesh for

implementation of developmental projects

The Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has given ex-post facto approval to the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Third Line of Credit (LoC) of US $ 4.5 billion to Bangladesh forimplementation of developmental projects. The MoU was signed during the visit of the Prime Minister of Bangladesh to India in April 2017. The MoU provides for deepening the strategic partnership, development of infrastructure in Bangladesh, improving connectivity between India and Bangladesh, thus enhancing accessibility to our North Eastern Region, as well as creating new business opportunities for Indian companies in Bangladesh.



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The concessional financing system to Bangladesh would strengthen bilateral relations and development cooperation between India and Bangladesh. The MoU specifies a list of projects which will be undertaken under the concessional financing system. This provides an opportunity to ensure that projects of India’s interest are undertaken under this LoC. Some of the projects will ensure better and faster connectivity to the North Eastern region of India with the mainland as well as to the outside world. They will also ensure India’s security and will open up business for Indian companies.

South Asia Satellite, GSAT-9 – beginning of space diplomacy India on 4th June 2017, launched the first South Asia Satellite, built by the Indian Space Research Organization and funded entirely by India that at once boosted its “neighborhood first policy” as well as helped it carve a unique place for itself in space diplomacy by “gifting” a satellite to its neighbors. The benefits of India’s GSAT-9, or the South Asia Satellite, include mapping natural resources, telemedicine, IT connectivity and people-to-people links. It is also expected to cement bonds between Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka.

The South Asia Satellite is a geosynchronous communications and meteorology satellite. According to news reports, it will provide significantcapability to each of the participating countriesin terms of DTH (direct-to-home), besides linking the countries for disaster information transfer.

Other geospatial aspects of SAARC

Pakistan and Srilanka have launched satellite with help of china

Afghanistan, Maldives and Nepal have launched a satellite with help of china

Bangladesh with the help of European space agency have launched satellite called Bangabandhu -1

India to skip OBOR forum meet

China organized a grand two-day OBOR summit to showcase its plans to build a network of trade routes-One Belt, One Road (OBOR)-that will connect Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Europe.

What is OBOR?

OBOR is an ambitious China’s ambitious development strategy and framework that aims to boost its connectivity and trade that will that will connect Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Europe. It was proposed by Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2013. It comprises two components viz. the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road. OBOR initiative is part of China’s revived 21st century Silk Road diplomacy that seeks to push it to take a bigger role in global affairs as a major global power. It is basically investment and trade promotion scheme aiming to deepen economic connections between China and rest of the world




India’s objection to OBOR

India has stayed away from the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) summit, making its concerns public

. One, the B&RI’s flagship project is the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, which includes projects in the Gilgit-Baltistan region, ignoring India’s “sovereignty and territorial integrity”.

India claims that China has not only been insensitive to its sovereignty, but has never fully explained its plan for the Belt and Road (formerly called One Belt One Road) initiative. There is a lack of transparency in China’s agenda, indicating that New Delhi believes the B&RI is not just an economic project but one that China is promoting for political control.

Two, the B&RI infrastructure project structure smacks of Chinese neo-colonialism. The projects could push smaller countries on the road into a crushing debt cycle, destroy the ecology and disrupt local communities.

Analysis

India’s decision to skip the meeting came after a year of bilateral discord over China’s stubborn opposition to India’s entry into the NSG and a UN ban against Pakistan-based terrorist group Jaish-e-Muhammad leader Masood Azhar.

The decision to not attend even as an observer, however, effectively closes the door for diplomacy. It stands in contrast to countries such as the U.S. and Japan, which are not a part of the B&RI but sent official delegations.

There have been arguments within India that, by boycotting the Beijing meet, India was denying itself unending benefits of something as big as OBOR.

India may also face some difficult choices in the road ahead, because as a co-founder of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and as a member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (from

June 2017) it will be asked to support many of the projects under the B&RI. Given the endorsement from the UN Secretary General, who said the B&RI is rooted in a shared vision for global development, India should not simply sit out the project.

Way forward

India must actively engage with China to have its particular grievances addressed, articulate its concerns to other partner countries in a more productive manner, and take a position as an Asian leader, not an outlier in the quest for more connectivity

7 Bilateral & Multilateral International Institutions

India to head UN’s habitat India elected to head UN-Habitat, the United Nations’ Human Settlements Programme

About: UN Habitat came into being in 1978. It promotes socially and environmentally sustainable human settlements across the world.




UN-Habitat reports to the United Nations General Assembly. As an inter-governmental policy making and decision making body, the Governing Council of UN-

Habitat seeks to promote integral and comprehensive approach to human settlements, assist the countries and regions in addressing human settlement problems and strengthen cooperation among all countries on human settlement issue.

India will be leading the organization for third time after heading it in 1988 and 2007. India will be the President of the Governing Council for the next two years.

The theme of the 26th Meeting of the Governing Council is “Opportunities for effective implementation of the New Urban Agenda”.

The New Urban Agenda was adopted by the world community at Quito, Ecuador in 2016.

Annual meeting of African Development Bank

The 52nd Annual Meetings of the African Development bank are being held in Gandhinagar. This is the first time that the Annual Meetings of AfDB are being held in India. These Meetings are the Bank’s largest annual event and serve to raise the profile of the institution on the global stage. In addition to the Annual Meeting of the Board of Governors, these Meetings will bring

together about 3000 delegates and participants, and will feature a number of official, knowledge, and side events. The Governors of the Bank are from the 54 African regional member countries and 27 non-regional member countries (including India).

The Annual Meetings provide a unique forum for representatives of government, business, civil society, think-tanks, academia and the media – from Africa and beyond – to debate key issues on Africa’s development, and to discuss the Bank’s performance in delivering on its mandate.

Reflecting the significance of agriculture in Africa and in the Bank’s development work, the 2017 Annual Meetings will be held on the theme: “Transforming Agriculture for Wealth Creation in Africa.”

What you need to know about AfDB? The African Development Bank Group (AfDB) is a multilateral development finance institution established to contribute to the economic development and social progress of African countries. The AfDB was founded in 1964 and comprises three entities: The African Development Bank,

the African Development Fund and the Nigeria Trust Fund. The AfDB’s mission is to fight poverty and improve living conditions on the continent through

promoting the investment of public and private capital in projects and programs that are likely to contribute to the economic and social development of the region.

Governing: The AfDB is controlled by a Board of Executive Directors, made up of representatives of its member countries.

Voting: The voting power on the Board is split according to the size of each member’s share, currently 60%-40% between African (or “regional”) countries and “non-regional” member countries (“donors”). The largest African Development Bank shareholder is Nigeria with nearly 9% of the vote.

Representation: All member countries of the AfDB are represented on the AfDB Board of Executive Directors. Member governments are officially represented at the AfDB by their Minister of Finance, Planning or Cooperation who sits on the AfDB Board of Governors. The AfDB Governors meet once a year to take major decisions about the institution’s leadership, strategic directions and governing bodies.

Unit of account: The African Development Bank is using a Unit of Account which is registered as XUA as ISO 4217 standard currency code. It is not exchanged directly by individuals, it is used for accounting between state members.



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India and AfDB: India joined the African Development Fund in 1982, and became a member of the Bank in 1983. India is a non-regional member of the Bank. India and Africa share a great relationship, and have great degree of commonalities in terms of a shared history, and current challenges.

G7 summit The leaders of the United States, Canada, Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Japan – countries collectively known as the Group of Seven (G7) – recently held a two-day summit in Taormina, Italy. The bloc meets annually to discuss a wide range of issues, including global economy, security and energy – and this year will be no exception.

The leaders issued a collective statement at the close of the talks, saying that they have committed to “strengthening our collective energy security and ensuring open, transparent, liquid, and secure global markets for energy resources and technologies.”

What you need to know about G7? The Group of Seven (G7) is an informal bloc of industrialized democracies. Its current members make up nearly 50% of the world economy, and represent more than 60% of net global wealth. It consists of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the

United States. EU is also represented. The G7 takes no mandatory decisions, and the meeting is billed as an opportunity to

allow leaders to exchange ideas in key issues. A leaders’ declaration at the end of summit is not binding in nature.

The presidency, which rotates among member states, is responsible for setting the agenda and arranging logistics.

Joint Declaration of Intent between Germany and India regarding cooperation in the sector of alternative medicine

The Union Cabinet has approved the Joint Declaration of Intent (JDI) between Germany and India regarding cooperation in the sector of alternative medicine.



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The financial resources necessary to conduct research, training courses, conferences / meetings will be met from the existing allocated budget and existing plan schemes of Ministry of AYUSH.

Significance of this move The signing of the JDl will enhance bilateral cooperation between the two countries in the areas of traditional/alternative medicine. Initiation of collaborative research, training and scientific capacity building in the field of alternative medicine under the JDI between the two countries would contribute to the enhanced employment opportunities in the AYUSH sector.

JAPAN pitches for chabahar port Japan has shown interest in collaborating with India on projects in Asia and Africa as a counter to China’s Belt and Road initiative (B&RI). Categorically, it has shown interest in Chabahar port development.

Where is Chabahar port?

It is located on the Makran coast, Chabahar in southeastern Iran. Its location lies in the Gulf of Oman. This coast is a relatively underdeveloped free trade and industrial zone, especially when compared to the sprawling port of Bandar Abbas further west. Also, it is the only Iranian port with direct access to the ocean.

For India, Chabahar is of strategic importance for the following reasons: It is the nearest port to India on the Iranian coast, which provides access to the

resources and markets of Afghanistan and Central Asia. It is located 76 nautical miles (less than 150km) west of the Pakistani port of Gwadar,

being developed by China. This makes it ideal for keeping track of Chinese or Pakistani military activity based out of Gwadar.

Also, Chabahar port is suitably located to serve India’s outreach in the region to Afghanistan and beyond as well as link with International North-South Transport

Corridor (INSTC) to which India is one of the initial signatories. The port will cut transport costs/time for Indian goods by a third. From Chabahar, the existing Iranian road network can link up to Zaranj in Afghanistan,

about 883 kms from the port. The Zaranj-Delaram road constructed by India in 2009 can give access to Afghanistan’s Garland Highway, setting up road access to four major cities in Afghanistan — Herat, Kandahar, Kabul and Mazar-e-Sharif.



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India and Turkey have signed three agreements Following delegation-level talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. This is Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s first foreign visit after winning the April 16 referendum that will transform Turkey into a presidential form of democracy. The previous visit of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to India was made in 2008. In total three agreements were signed by both the sides in the fields of ICT, training and culture: An agreement for a cultural exchange programme for the years 2017-2020 was signed. A MoU was signed between the Foreign Services Institute (FSI) of India and the Diplomacy Academy of Turkey. A MoU was signed for cooperation in the area of information and communication technologies (ICT). Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had also assured India of Turkey’s full support in the fight against terrorism and for India’s bid for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council. During his visit, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was conferred the Degree of Doctor of Letters (Honoris Causa) by the Jamia Millia Islamia university for “his contribution to strengthen international cooperation, peace and diplomacy as well as for his extraordinary humanitarian aid to millions of refugees.” India-Turkey India and Turkey established diplomatic relations in 1948. Bilateral trade between both the countries stands at $6.5 billion. As of 2016, Turkey’s exports to India stood at $652 million, while its imports were $5.75 billion. Both the countries have set a target of increasing the volume of bilateral trade to $10 billion by 2020. Intelligence cooperation between Turkey and India over ISIS has increased in last few years, especially after it was found that many Indian nationals who attempted to travel to Syria travelled through Turkey.

British PM Theresa May signed letter to trigger Brexit from EU

British Prime Minister Theresa May on 28 March 2017 signed the letter that will trigger Britain's exit from the European Union (EU). The formal notification that seeks to leave EU was signed by May at 10 Downing Street office.

The letter is an official notification to other 27 European Union members that Britain has invoked Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty. This letter was delivered to European Council President Donald Tusk by British ambassador to the EU Sir Tim Barrow on 29 March 2017.

Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty that was invoked with the sign provides both sides a time-limit of two years to reach an agreement.




This means, the letter also sets the clock for a two-year negotiation process for Britain's relationship with the EU as a non-member. Unless that time-frame is extended, Britain will have to leave the economic bloc by 29 March 2019.

After signing the letter, the Prime Minster chaired a cabinet meeting before making a statement in the House of Commons confirming the countdown to the UK's departure from the EU has begun.

The signed letter is a follow-up step of the 23 June 2016 referendum which resulted in a vote to leave the European Union. In short, the notification of Article 50 marks the first formal step in the direction of Brexit after the June referendum in favor of Britain leaving the EU.

Timeline for Brexit

29 March 2017: Article 50 was triggered

30 March 2017: Great Repeal Bill was published. The bill aims at converting EU lawinto domestic legislation and repeal the European Communities Act.

31 March 2017: negotiation guidelines will be published by Donald Tusk, thePresident of the European Union

29 April 2017: EU summit, where remaining members of the European Council willadopt negotiation guidelines

Spring 2017: Great Repeal Bill will be announced at the opening of the Parliament

May/June 2017: Face to face talks will start

Late 2017: The Great Repeal Bill will go through stages of parliamentary scrutiny




December 2017: Michel Barnier, the EU chief negotiator, will expect initialdiscussions to conclude

Early 2018: The Great Repeal Bill will receive royal assent

Mid 2018: Parliament will have to pass certain laws that will help in covering gaps(if any) in the legislation

30 September 2018: Michel Barnier will wrap up the Brexit terms

End of 2018 or start of 2019: Both houses of Parliament along with Europeancouncil and Parliament will have a vote on the deal

March 2019: The negotiation period of two years comes to an end and with thisend UK will leave the Union with or without any agreement.

Maharashtra government sends three Marathi films to Cannes, again

The Maharashtra government has entered three Marathi films for screening at Cannes 2017, one of the biggest film festivals in the world.

The films have been chosen to promote Marathi Cinema internationally and to open the doors of the global market for Marathi filmmakers.

Key Highlights

The Cannes film festival will be held from 17 May to 26 May 2017.

It is the biggest film market in the world with more than 12000 participants and the showcase of over 1400 films.

The selected Marathi films include Dashakriya (Tenth Day Ritual) directed by Sandeep

Bhalachandra Patil, Cycle by Prakash Kunte and Take Care Good Night, which has

been directed by Girish Joshi

Among the selected films, Dashakriya won the National Film award for best Marathi

film, best screenplay and best-supporting actor and Cycle won the National award

for best costume design.




This is the second consecutive year that Maharashtra is sending award-winning films to the festival.

All the three films will have two industry screenings each at Cannes.

Two members from each of the film’s team will be accompanying the films to the esteemed festival.

Background

Every year, the Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting sets up an India Pavilion at the festival to represent Indian cinema on the International stage.

However, Maharashtra is the only Indian state, which sets up its own booth at Cannes.

The decision was taken last year at the order of Vinod Tawde, the Minister of State for

School Education, Higher and technical education, Sports and Youth welfare,

Minority development as well as Marathi language and culture.

The three Marathi films that were showcased in 2016 include Ringan by Makarand Mane, Halal directed by Shivaji Lotan Patil and Punarvasu Naik’s VakratundaMahakaya.

With the coming of contemporary writers and filmmakers, Marathi cinema has witnessed a huge transformation from its earlier declining stage. The Industry has managed to produce many films that are not only critically acclaimed but are commercially successful as well. In fact, Marathi film Shwaas was India’s official entry to the 77th Academy Awards. The film was also awarded the President’s medal for best film, becoming the only second Marathi film to achieve the feat.

Cabinet approves MoU on Urea manufacturing Plant in Malaysia

The Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has given its ex-post facto approval to the signing of Memorandum of Understanding with Malaysia on development of a Urea and Ammonia manufacturing plant in Malaysia with off take to India and/or off take of existing surplus Urea from Malaysia to India. The project is expected to cost US$ 2.1 billion with capacity to produce 2.4 million tonnes of Urea and 1.35 million tonnes of Ammonia per annum and dedicated supplying to Indian market.




The signing of MoU will ensure consistent supply of Urea and Ammonia to cater the need of the country at a lower price, if agreed to by both the participants

The Union Finance Minister (FM) Shri Arun Jaitley asks the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to set up a regional hub in New Delhi for the South Asia region to meet growing aspirations of the people

FM calls for a greater focus on renewable energy and climate resilient agriculture;

urges ADB to promote sustainable models for urban development

The Union Finance Minister Shri Arun Jaitley asked the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to set up a regional hub in New Delhi for the South Asia region in order to keep pace with the growing aspirations of the people and to expedite the process of project preparation and delivery for India and other countries in the region. He also urged the Bank to adopt country system for procurement, social and environmental safeguards expeditiously. He was addressing the Board of Governors of the ADB at its 50th Annual Meeting at Yokohama, Japan. The Finance Minister was accompanied by Shri Shaktikanta Das, Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs, who is also the Alternate Governor of India to ADB. The Union Finance Minister Shri Arun Jaitley congratulated the Asian Development Bank (ADB) on completing its 50 years and serving the people of Asia-Pacific region. While lauding the efforts of the Bank in eliminating poverty in the region through development of physical and social infrastructure, Shri Jaitley called for a greater focus on renewable energy keeping in view our commitment to tackle climate change. In urban development, especially in the sectors of drinking water and sanitation, Shri Jaitley underlined the major challenges faced by many developing countries in making the system work without having to depend much on the budgetary support from the national governments. He urged the Bank to promote sustainable models that will address these challenges. He called upon ADB to focus on climate resilient agriculture, better farm production technologies, improved value chain management and creation of better marketing infrastructure for farm produce. The Union Minister of Finance, Defence and Corporate Affairs, Shri Arun Jaitley is on a three-day official visit to Japan to participate in the Annual Meeting of Board of Governors’ of Asian Development Bank (ADB) among others. During his visit, the Finance Minister is being accompanied by Shri Shaktikanta Das, Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs (DEA) and other senior officials of the Ministry of Finance.

Project “LOcal Treatment of Urban Sewage Streams for Healthy Reuse) (LOTUS HR)




Department of Biotechnology (DBT) and NWO, the Netherlands Science Agency have announced a joint call for proposals for cleaning the Barapullah drain. Accordingly, work has begun on Cleaning the Barapullah Drain in New Delhi under the Project “Local Treatment of Urban Sewage Streams for Healthy Reuse (LOTUS HR).

What you need to know about LOTUS HR? The project Local Treatment of Urban Sewage Streams for Healthy Reuse (LOTUS HR) is an Indo-Netherlands joint project funded by Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Govt of India and NWO/STW, The Govt of Netherlands. The project has stakeholders from both Academia and Industry from India and

Netherlands. It is coordinated by Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi with participation of The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), New Delhi and National Environment Research Institute, Nagpur from India while Technical University Delft is coordinating it from The Netherlands, with participation of Environmental Engineering and Water Technology Department, UNESCO, Wageningen University and its Aquatic Ecology Department. There is also commitment from industry, especially from The Netherlands, in terms of both cash and kind towards the project.

The project aims to demonstrate a novel holistic (waste-) water management approach, that will produce clean water that can be reused for various proposes (e.g. industry, agriculture, construction etc.), while simultaneously recovering nutrients and energy from the urban waste water, thus converting drain into profitable mines. Special attention will be paid to pathogen removal and removing conventional and emerging pollutants.

The project will develop an innovative pilot scale plant, suitable to cope with Indian conditions in a location specific manner. The final design of the pilot plant will be scalable and modular, to fit into the highly populated urban terrain.

Officials from Arctic nations to meet amid drilling concerns

High-level officials from the world’s eight Arctic nations are meeting in Alaska amid concerns about the future of the sensitive region after United States President Donald Trump called for more oil drilling and development.

No formal discussions were set in Alaska on key issues such as climate change, development and drilling. But those issues will provide a backdrop as the chairmanship of the council passes from the US to Finland. What is the Arctic Council?

The Arctic Council is an advisory body that promotes cooperation among member nations and indigenous groups. Its focus is on sustainable development and environmental protection of the Arctic. What it does?




It does not make policy or allocate resources, and its decisions must be unanimous. In terms of being a reflection of a nation’s priorities, it can only go so far since all eight have to agree to the same thing. Composition:

Eight member countries constitute the council: Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden, and the United States as these are the eight countries with sovereignty over the lands within the Arctic Circle.

Observer status is open to non-Arctic states approved by the Council at the Ministerial Meetings that occur once every two years. Observers have no voting rights in the Council. Presently, there are 12 observer states including India and China.

Military exercises 29th India- Indonesia Co-Ordinated Patrol (Corpat) Commences

The 29th series of India–Indonesia CORPAT is scheduled from 09 – 25 May 17 with the opening ceremony being conducted from 09 -12 May 17 at Port Blair under the aegis of Andaman and Nicobar Command. The Indonesian Naval Ship KRI Sutedi Senoputra has arrived at Haddo Wharf, Port Blair to mark the commencement of the 29th series of IND–INDO CORPAT today. An Indonesian Maritime Patrol Aircraft also flew in with the Indonesian Naval delegation led by First Admiral Bambang Irwanto to INS Utkrosh, Port Blair. First Admiral Bambang Irwanto called on Maj Gen PS Sai, Chief of Staff, Andaman and Nicobar Command and the delegation also interacted with Commodore Ashutosh Ridhorkar, the Naval Component Commander.

Siam Bharat:

It is the Indo-Thailand Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) Table Top Exercise 2017 held recently in Chiang Mai, Thailand between the Indian Air Force and Royal Thailand Air Force (RTAF).

The aim of the bilateral exercise is to evolve SOPs for planning and executing relief missions during unforeseen natural calamities like Tsunami, earthquakes, cyclones, floods etc. The objective is to enhance interoperability between both the Air Forces, while conducting combined air operations triggered by a crisis. The exercise would assist in laying down procedures and establish decision support system at various stages of relief operations.

8 ECONOMY

ANALYSIS OF GOVERNMENT'S PUSH FOR GENERIC DRUGS




What's the news?

Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently put forward another disruptive policy prescription—this time in healthcare.

Doctors will now be required to prescribe generic formulations of medicines, as opposed to specific brands.

This is an initiative that goes beyond attempts by institutions like the Medical Council of India to encourage the prescription of generic names, and instead works towards creating a

formal legal framework for such a practice.

What are Generic Drugs?

A generic drug is a medication that has exactly the same active ingredient as the brand-name drug and yields the same therapeutic effect. It is the same in dosing, safety, strength, quality, the way it works, the way it is taken, and the way it should be used.

However, a generic drug can only be marketed after the brand-name drug's patent has expired, which may take up to 20 years after the patent holder’s drug is first filed

Generic drugs are usually much less expensive than brand name drugs once they reach the market.

But what exactly is the difference between a generic drug and brand- name drug?




When a company develops a new drug — often after years of research — it applies for a patent, which prohibits anyone else from making the drug for a fixed period.

To recover the cost of research and development, companies usually price their brand- name drugs on the higher side.

Once the patent expires, other manufacturers duplicate and market their own versions of the drug. Since the manufacture of these generic drugs do not involve a repeat of the extensive clinical trials to prove their safety and efficacy, it costs less to develop them. Generic drugs are, therefore, cheaper.

However, because the compounds in the generic versions have the same molecular structure as the brand-name version, their quality is essentially the same.

The generic drug has the same “active ingredient” as the brand-name drug. This ingredient is the one that cures the patient; and other, “inert ingredients”, which give the drug its colour, shape or taste, vary from the brand-name drug to the generics.

What exactly has Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on generic drugs?

The Prime Minister referred to the Pradhan Mantri Bharatiya Janaushadhi Pariyojana (PMBJP), which aims to provide cheaper medical drugs to the people.

In the coming days, the government will bring a legal framework under which doctors will have to prescribe generic medicines which are cheaper than equivalent branded drugs.

How will it be beneficial?

This is expected to bring down drug prices and expand access to affordable health solutions.As per the latest National Sample Survey Office survey on healthcare, in 2014, medicines emerged as a principal component of total health expenses—72% in rural areas and 68% in urban areas.

For a country with one of the highest per capita out-of-pocket expenditureson health, even a modest drop in drug prices will free hundreds of households from the widespread phenomenon of a medical poverty trap.

In addition to the social benefits, the generics-only policy also makes economic sense. By promoting generic drug consumption, the government safeguards the health of its generic drug manufacturing industry—one of the largest suppliers of low-cost medicines in the world.

With increasing pressure from the “Big Pharma” companies in developed countries, Indian generic manufacturers must now operate under a markedly restrictive intellectual property rights (IPR) regime.

The new policy can ensure that—at least in the Indian market—generic manufacturers retain an advantage. Big Pharma’s access to Indian consumers will have to be routed through generic companies using channels such as voluntary licensing.

Last year, US-based Gilead, for instance, licensed out its Hepatitis C drug, Sovaldi, to 11 Indian generic companies at a drastically reduced price. A generic-only policy is expected to mainstream such practices.




In a global economic environment that is turning increasingly hostile to generic drug production, this is a bold move—indicative of the government’s categorical support for one of its key industries.

What are the various concerns related to Generic drugs in India?

A section of doctors argue there is no concrete evidence to show that generic drugs are equal to branded drugs, with respect to bioavailability, potency, efficacy and impurity content. There can be complications and some of the ailments and diseases can go out of control.

Besides, some of the branded drugs are available at a lower cost than generic drugs as they have been price capped under the National List of Essential Medicines (NLEM).

Further, the very fact that the same company manufacturing a branded drug also manufactures a generic drug means that there is a shift in quality.

Another aspect relates to the hygiene standards of the manufacturing plants. Individuals suffering from illness are especially susceptible to infections, and inspections of generic drug plants reveal pest infestations and dilapidated infrastructure.

Way forward

Healthcare should be accessible to all, irrespective of purchasing power. The government’s leadership on this issue is welcome.

Rolling out a half-baked populist agenda, however, is likely to backfire. Unlike demonetization, one cannot afford to wait and watch for the full impact of a generics-only policy to unfold.

The current government has invested heavily in creating institutions to promote evidence-based policymaking, and it must leverage these in crafting an effective generic medicine policy.

Doors close on 25-year-old FIPB




What's the news?

The Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has given its approval to the phasing out of Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB).

The proposal entails abolishing the FIPB and allowing administrative Ministries/Departments to process applications for FDI requiring government approval.

Background

FIPB was an inter-ministerial body housed in the Department of Economic Affairs in the finance ministry responsible for processing foreign direct investment (FDI) proposals and recommending for approval to the finance minister and subsequently to the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs if the investment amount exceeded Rs3,000 crore.

FIPB was chaired by the economic affairs secretary and its other permanent members included secretary, Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), commerce secretary, economic relations secretary in the ministry of external affairs and overseas Indian affairs secretary.

The proposal for abolition of FIPB was approved by the Cabinet in its meeting on 24-05-2017.

Who would handle the application process now?

Now individual departments of the government have been empowered to clear FDI proposals in consultation with DIPP which will also issue the standard operating procedures for processing applications.

Now timelines will be fixed for approving applications regarding FDI by competent authorities and a rejection by the department concerned has been made difficult as it will now mandatorily require concurrence of DIPP.

So will the imposition of additional conditions other than provided in the FDI policy. All FDI




from Pakistan and Bangladesh and FDI proposals requiring approval in private security agencies and manufacture of small arms have to be approved by the ministry of home affairs.

Why was the FIPB abolished?

The objective of abolishing the FIPB is clearly to make India a far more investor-friendly destination, and seeks to act as a further catalyst for the ‘Make in India’ campaign of the Narendra Modi government to accelerate the growth of the economy.

The move will provide ease of doing business and will help in promoting the principle of Maximum Governance and Minimum Government.

Will such a move make India a more investor-friendly destination?

The positive effect of the move can be assessed once the standard operating procedures (SOP) is in the public domain, since clarity is essential on how the fresh applications will be dealt with and by which authority/ministry, how the existing approval route investments will be addressed and whether the Reserve Bank of India will be given a bigger role in the gamut of the SOP.

As a consequence, it would also mean rewriting the FDI Policy, since restructuring the FDI functionality framework and introducing the SOP will have to be incorporated into the FDI Policy.

It also remains to be seen whether there will be further liberalisation in FDI norms in the remaining sectors (which remain under the approval route).

Way forward

As far as the government’s objective of providing a convenient platform to foreign investors is concerned, abolishing the FIPB certainly ticks the right boxes.

However, it is hoped that the actual SOP and its implementation results in doing just that, and actually shortens the process and time taken for FDI approvals.

FARM LOAN WAIVERS IN INDIA




What's the news?

Recent events — the UP government’s waiver of farmer loans, dramatic protests by Tamil Nadu farmers in Delhi and a warning from the RBI Governor against loan waivers — have once again brought farm loan write-offs under public glare.

What is it?

Farm loans may be crop loans or investment loans taken to buy equipment. Both farmers and banks reap a good harvest when all is well.

But when there is a poor monsoon or natural calamity, farmers may be unable to repay loans. The rural distress in such situations often prompts States or the Centre to offer relief — reduction or complete waiver of loans.

Essentially, the Centre or States take over the liability of farmers and repay the banks. Waivers are usually selective — only certain loan types, categories of farmers or loan sources may qualify.

For instance, in 2008, crop loans and investment loans were waived for marginal and small farmers (those with less than 2 hectares of land ownership); other farmers were only given a 25 per cent reduction. The recent waiver in UP is also a selective one.

How do the farm loan waivers help the farmers?

Agriculture in India has been facing many issues — fragmented land holding, depleting water table levels, deteriorating soil quality, rising input costs, low productivity. Add to this vagaries of the monsoon. Output prices may not be remunerative.

Farmers are often forced to borrow to manage expenses. Also, many small farmers not eligible for bank credit borrow at exorbitant interestrates from private sources.

When nature rides roughshod over debt-ridden farmers in the form of erratic monsoon and crop failures, they face grim options. Indebtedness is a key reason for the many farmer suicides in the country.




What are the concerns related to Farm loan waivers?

Loan waivers provide some relief to farmers in such situations, but there are debates about the long-term effectiveness of the measure.

Critics demand making agriculture sustainable by reducing inefficiencies, increasing income, reducing costs and providing protection through insurance schemes. They point out that farm loan waivers are at best a temporary solution and entail a moral hazard — even those who can afford to pay may not, in the expectation of a waiver.

Such measures can erode credit discipline and may make banks wary of lending to farmers in the future. It also makes a sharp dent in the finances of the government that finances the write-off.

But farmers can decide the fortunes of political parties, and politicians are wary of antagonising them.

India faces a cumulative loan waiver of Rs 3.1 lakh crore ($49.1 billion), or 2.6% of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) in 2016-17.

A waiver of thisscale could pay for the 2017 rural roads budget 16 times over or pay for 443,000 warehouses or increase India’s irrigation potential by 55% more than the achievements of the last 60 years.

The waivers were primarily meant to discourage suicides by farmers, apparently caused by widespread indebtedness. However, analysis shows this had little or no impact on suicide rates, probably because small and marginal farmers across India (with farm holdings of less than 1 to 2 hectares in size) rely on informal sources of credit.

Meanwhile, loan waivers have led to a rise in the non-performing assets of banks, especially public-sector banks, and are likely to have a significant bearing on the state and national fiscal deficits.

Way forward

Indebtedness is not the problem in itself. Instead, it is the result of problems. Efforts must be made to identify and tackle the root causes.

This will solve the indebtedness crisis and break a vicious circle of farmer loan and loan-waiver. The need of hour is for an efficient mechanism for monitoring agricultural policies along with efficient feedback system from the farmers to understand their requirements. Avoidance of overlapping policies and improving coordination among them is vital.

Waivers must be used as temporary aid, in case of severe crisis situation. Selective waiver for States must be adopted as nature as situations are different for different State. Waiver in aggregate form must be evaded.

Huge amount spent on waiver can alternatively be used for infrastructure purposes, agricultural development, skilling, education, reducing unemployment etc.

This will help increase productivity, income, reduce suicidal rates, reduce loan-waiver rounds and in turn reduce strain on fiscal power of the Government and will have less pressure on the tax payers and thus boost economic growth and development.




What is a startup? The definition just changed

What's the news?

In order to promote entrepreneurship in the country, the Government of India has amended the definition of a Startup.

Startup India was launched by the Government of India on 16th January, 2016 to build a strong eco-system for nurturing innovation and Startups in the country to drive economic growth and generate large scale employment opportunities.

What are the new changes?

The following significant changes have been made to the definition of Startups –

a) Age of Startup increased: Taking into account the long gestation period by Startups to establish, an entity shall be considered as a Startup up to seven years from the date of its incorporation/ registration (from earlier 5 years). However, in the case of Startups in the Biotechnology sector, the period shall be up to ten years from the date of incorporation/ registration.

b) No Letter of Recommendation required: No letter of recommendation from an incubator/industry association shall be required for either recognition or tax benefits

c) Potential of Job and Wealth Creation: The scope of definition has been broadened to include scalability of business model with potential of employment generation or wealth creation.

REVISION IN THE WPI

What's the news?

The Government periodically reviews and revises the base year of the macroeconomic indicators as a regular exercise to capture structural changes in the economy and




improve the quality, coverage and representativeness of the indices.

In this direction, the base year of All-India WPI has been revised from 2004-05 to 2011-12 by the Office of Economic Advisor (OEA), Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, Ministry of Commerce and Industry to align it with the base year of other macroeconomic indicators like the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and Index of Industrial Production (IIP).

Background

The Wholesale Price Index (WPI) series in India has undergone six revisions in 1952-53, 1961-62, 1970-71, 1981-82, 1993-94 and 2004-05 so far.

The current series is the seventh revision. The revision entails shifting the base year to 2011-12 from 2004-05, changing the basket of commodities and assigning new weights to the commodities.

It has generally been the practice to undertake the revisions on the advice of a Working Group constituted each time.

For the new series with base 2011-12=100, a Working Group was constituted on 19th March 2012 chaired by Late Dr. Sumitra Chaudhuri, Member, erstwhile Planning Commission and comprised most stakeholders.

Key Highlights

In the revised series, WPI will continue to constitute three Major Groups namely Primary Articles, Fuel & Power and Manufactured Products. Highlights of the changes introduced in the new series are summarized below:

Updated item basket and weighting structure conforming to the structure of economy in 2011-12.

Increase in number of items from 676 to 697. In all 199 new items have been added and 146 old items have been dropped.

In the new series of WPI, prices used for compilation do not include indirect taxes in order to remove impact of fiscal policy. This is in consonance with international practices and will make the new WPI conceptually closer to ‘Producer Price Index’.

A new “WPI Food Index” will be compiled to capture the rate of inflation in food items.

Seasonality of fruits and vegetables has been updated to account for more months as these are now available for longer duration.

A high level Technical Review Committee has been set up for the first time to carry out dynamic review process in order to keep pace with the changing structure of the economy.

Sebi finalizes norms for listing of green bonds




Regulator Sebi has finalized norms for issuance and listing of green bonds, which will help

in raising funds from capital markets for investment in the renewable energy space.

The rules have been finalised by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) after taking into account inputs from the finance and environment ministries, as also from the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE).

What are Green bonds? Green bonds are like any other debt instrument but the funds raised from such a bond sale are used exclusively for renewable energy projects.

Why are green bonds important for India? India has embarked on an ambitious target of building 175 gigawatt of renewable energy capacity by 2022. This requires a massive $200 billion in funding. However, higher interest rates and unattractive terms under which debt is available in India raise the cost of renewable energy by 24-32% compared to the U.S. and Europe. Budget allocations have also been insufficient and the market is also very limited. Therefore, green bonds help raise funds for the projects in this sector.

What are its benefits? Green bonds enhances an issuer’s reputation, as it helps in showcasing their commitment to wards sustainable development. It also provides issuers access to specific set of global investors who invest only in green ventures. With an increasing focus of foreign investors towards green investments, it could also help in reducing the cost of capital.

The Concept of Bad Bank

Why in news? An ordinance was promulgated to tackle the bad loan problem – to

amend banking regulation act 1949.

What is a bad bank?

The idea of bad bank has been there since the problem of bad loans started growing rampantly. The concept of ‘bad bank’ would be a centralized agency that would take over the largest and most difficult stressed loans from



http://www.investopedia.com/terms/g/green-bond.asp


public sector banks in order to help clean their balance sheets, and would take

Politically tough decisions to reduce debt, providing an impetus to further lending to spur economic activity.

The concept of bad bank is simple. It is about dividing a bank’s assets into two categories, good and bad. After the separating them into two categories, a bank can avoid the contamination of good assets by the bad. It also reduces the concerns of investors and helps the bank focus on future lending by improving transparency and health.

History of the Bad Bank concept

First time, the concept of bad bank was pioneered at the Pittsburgh-headquartered Mellon Bank in 1988 in response to problems in the bank’s commercial real-estate portfolio. According to McKinsey & Co, the concept of a “bad bank” has been applied in previous banking crises in France, Sweden, and Germany.

In India, over the years the RBI has introduced multiple schemes to solve the problem of bad loans. Most important schemes of them are Flexible Refinancing of Infrastructure (5/25 scheme), Strategic Debt Restructuring (SDR), Asset Reconstruction (ARC), Sustainable Structuring of Stressed Assets (S4A) and Asset Quality Review (AQR).

The Stressed loan problem in India

The main reason behind the bad loan problem is the lending boom that India’s banks embarked on in the period 2004-08. In this period, India saw economic growth reach the 9-10% range.

It is not the case that by itself did not create a problem of the current magnitude. It is the government’s fiasco to resolve the bad loan problem over the past several years that has worsen the problem.

Apart from it, the “twin balance sheet problem” continues to exist in India. On the banking side, stressed assets stand at over 12% of the total loans in the banking system. Public sector banks, which own almost 70% of banking assets in India, have a stressed-loan ratio of almost 16%.

At public sector banks (PSBs), bad loans were 12% of all advances. Another 3% of loans in the aggregate (and 4% at PSBs) have been restructured.




The Economic Survey (2016-17) states that market analysts are saying that 4-5% of loans are bad loans that have not been recognized as such. Thus, total stressed assets or NPAs, or restructured loans and unrecognized bad loans would amount to a staggering 16% of all loans and nearly 20% of loans at PSBs.

Setting up a bad bank

Establishing a bad bank is a very complex process. It should not be considered a silver bullet which will solve all the problems in the Indian banking sector. More significantly, a

One-size-fits-all approach to designing a bad bank can be less effective and very expensive.

As The Economic Survey (2016-17) suggested PARA for solving NPA problem.

But just setting up one PARA will not be enough to get the banking sector back on

Track. The most efficient approach would be to design solutions tailor-made for different parts of India’s bad loan problem.

It is important for banks to decide whether or not to keep the bad assets on the bank’s balance sheet. Moving assets off the balance sheet is better for investors and counterparties. It provides more transparency into the bank’s core operations. But it is more complex and expensive.

It is also important to decide whether the bad-bank assets will be housed and managed in a banking entity or a special purpose vehicle (SPV). There are four basic bad-bank models: on-balance-sheet guarantee, internal restructuring unit, special-purpose entity and bad-bank spin-off.

1. On-balance-sheet guarantee

In the on-balance-sheet guarantee structure, the bank gets a loss-guarantee from the government for a part of its portfolio. This model is less expensive, simple and can be implemented quickly. The transfer of risk is limited and bad assets continue to remain on the bank’s balance sheet, contaminating its core performance.

This approach is useful for assisting a bank in trouble. For example we can consider the case of the Indian Overseas Bank (IOB).Till December 2016, the bank reported gross non-performing assets (NPAs) of 22.42%, net NPAs of 14.32% and a net loss of Rs554 crore. Since May 2016, the stock price of IOB has dropped more than 20%. In this case, an on-balance-sheet guarantee by the government can restore confidence in the bank.




2. Internal restructuring unit

An internal restructuring unit is similar to setting up an internal bad bank. The bank specifies bad assets in a separate internal unit, assigns a separate management team and provides them clear incentives. This works as a signaling mechanism to the market.

It also increases the bank’s transparency, if the results are reported separately. It is explicit that this model depends on the existing management team to restructure assets.

3. Special-purpose entity

In this kind of structure, bad assets are offloaded into a SPV, securitized and sold to a diverse set of investors. The model is best for a small, homogeneous set of assets.

The bad loan problem in India is concentrated in a few sectors like infrastructure and basic metals. An effective solution would be to transfer bad loans from these distressed sectors into sector-specific SPVs, securitize them and sell them in an auction. If the pricing is determined by the market, PSU bankers will receive less blame for losses to the exchequer.

4. Bad-bank spin-off

bad-bank spin-off is the most familiar, effective and thorough bad-bank model. In a spin-off design, the bank shifts bad assets into a separate banking entity, which ensures maximum risk transfer.This model is expensive and complex because it requires setting up a separate organization, equipped with IT systems, a skilled management team, and a regulatory compliance set-up.

The problem pertaining to asset valuation and pricing will be the most severe in this model. The Public Sector Asset Rehabilitation Agency (PARA) proposed by the Economic Survey 2016-17 falls in this category.

Challenges in Implementation

Now we know that the concept of a bad bank is simple, but the implementation can be very complicated. Economic and Banking experts have unanimously agreed that the structure and design of the bank would be most significant factor in the success of bad bank. Several financial and organizational choices are available while designing a bad bank.




The concept of ‘bad bank’ has its own critics, they think that such an approach would simply shift the soured debt from banks to another firm. They have argued that the focus needed to be on how to restructure the bad loans.

There is another factor of reputation which makes the problem of bad bank funding very difficult. Due to the fear of vigilance inquiries, bankers will not be willing to sell stressed assets to the bad bank at a substantial haircut.

In such cases, the bad bank will have to pay more to acquire the assets and thus increase the funding burden on the government. Apart from it, political and macroeconomic viability will play a key role while considering the implementation of the bad bank.

Conclusion

By considering the whole band bank and bad loan scenario, it can be said that solutions to the NPA problem will have to be designed keeping in mind the political economy of India.

Regular communication about running efforts to bring fraudulent defaulters to justice can help in boosting confidence in the bad bank initiative.

For making bad bank a viable solution, the government and the RBI will have to ascertain that it does not get labeled as a “bailout” of crony capitalists and corrupt bankers at the cost of taxpayers.

For this purpose, we need a larger and multiple and oversight committee to speedily vet loan write-offs. It is advisable constitute a Loan Resolution Authority by an Act of Parliament.

The government would be required to provide adequate capital to the banks to cover write-offs and also facilitate fresh loan growth. If all these measures would be met then it can be possible that India could get rid of the bad loan problem.

SBI launches national hackathon State Bank of India (SBI) has launched a national hackathon for developers, start-ups and

students to come up with innovative ideas and solutions for the banking sector. The hackathon, named ‘Code For Bank’, will focus on the business value driven by technologies

like predictive analytics, fin-tech/block chain, digital payments, IOT, artificial intelligence,

machine learning, BOTS and robotic process automation.




Government’s Move to boost domestic nuclear industry (Energy)

In a significant decision to fast-track India’s domestic nuclear power programme, and give a push to country’s nuclear industry, the Union Cabinet has given its approval for construction of 10 units of India’s indigenous Pressurized Heavy Water Reactors (PHWR). The 10 PHWR project will result in a significant augmentation of nuclear power generation

capacity. With this, the total installed capacity of the Plants will be 7000 MW. The ten reactors will be part of India’s latest design of 700 MW PHWR fleet with state-of-art

technology meeting the highest standards of safety.

Background: India has current installed nuclear power capacity of 6780 MW from 22 operational plants. Another 6700 MWs of nuclear power is expected to come on-stream by 2021-22 through projects presently under construction.

Significance of this move:

This Project will bring about substantial economies of scale and maximize cost and time efficiencies by adopting fleet mode for execution.

It is expected to generate more than 33,400 jobs in direct and indirect employment. With manufacturing orders to domestic industry, it will be a major step towards strengthening

India’s credentials as a major nuclear manufacturing powerhouse. It also supports India’s commitment to sustainable development, energy self-sufficiency and

bolsters global efforts to combat climate change.

Dhola sadiya (infrastructure) It is the country’s longest bridge located in Assam. It was recently inaugurated by PM Modi. This new, three lane, 9.15 kilometer bridge has been built over river Lohit, a tributary of the

Brahmaputra, linking Dhola to Sadiya in Assam. It has been constructed on BOT Annuity basis at a total cost of Rs 2,056 crore, as part of the

Arunachal Package of Roads and Highways under the Ministry’s Special Accelerated Development Programme for North East (SARDP-NE). The objective was to bring the people of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh closer to each other.

The bridge will also reduce the distance from Rupai on NH- 37 in Assam to Meka/Roing on NH-52 in Arunachal Pradesh by 165 KM. The travel time between the two places will come down from the current six hours to just one hour – a total five hour reduction. This will result in saving of petrol and diesel worth Rs 10 Lakh per day. Name given to this bridge is ‘’Bhupen Hazarika Bridge ‘’,estimatedcost: 2056 crores

Tejas – semi high speed Train has been launched




Aim: The Tejas service aims to provide comfort to passengers in the inter-city journeys. Once the Mumbai-Goa run becomes operational, the Railways is likely to extend the Tejas service in Delhi-Chandigarh route. The Tejas service was promised in the Union Railway Budget 2016-17.

Special features

Running at a speed of 200km / hour due to constrains related to rail tracks it will run at a speed of 160

km / hour

CCTV camera

Smoke and fire detection systems

Bio vacuum toilets

GPS based passenger information display system

Tea or coffee vending machines in each coach

LED with touch screen control system

Call bell facilities Other trains which were recently introduced are:




PM reviews performance of key infrastructure sectors

The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi, on Monday reviewed progress of key infrastructure sectors including petroleum and natural gas, power, renewable energy and housing. The review meeting, which came soon after the review of connectivity-related infrastructure sectors in the last week of April, lasted for about three hours, and was attended by top officials from PMO, NITI Aayog and all infrastructure Ministries of the Government of India.

In course of the presentation made by CEO NITI Aayog, it was noted that remarkable progress has been made in several sectors, including generation of renewable energy, affordable and rural housing, LED bulbs etc.

The Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana has benefited 1.98 crore BPL households so far. The contribution of gas to the primary energy mix has risen to 8%. 81 cities are being covered under City Gas Distribution networks.

The Prime Minister called for greater emphasis on ethanol blending, and evolution of mechanisms so that farmers can benefit the most from this process. He said that setting up of 2nd generation bio-ethanol refineries should be expedited, to utilize agricultural residues for this purpose.

The rural electrification programme is proceeding swiftly, with over 13,000 villages electrified out of a total of 18,452, and is on track for completion within the targeted 1000 days. Over 22 lakh rural BPL households were electrified in 2016-17, and over 40 crore LED bulbs were distributed in the same period. The total inter-regional transmission capacity has been significantly enhanced, with 41 GigaWatts transmission capacity being added from May 2014 to April 2017.

The total renewable generation capacity has crossed 57 GigaWatts, with an increase of 24.5% being registered in the last fiscal year. The capacity addition in solar energy in FY17 was the highest-ever, at 81%. Solar and wind tariffs have now achieved grid parity, with rates well below 4 rupees per Kilowatt-Hour. The Prime Minister called for establishment of




some model solar cities, where the power requirement is fulfilled solely by solar energy. A similar effort can be made to make certain localities kerosene-free, he added.

The Prime Minister emphasized that manufacturing of solar equipment should be given priority, to drive employment generation, and derive maximum benefit from the renewable energy drive.

Under Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana, remarkable progress has been achieved in rural areas. IT and space-based applications are being extensively used to monitor progress of the scheme. Over 32 lakh houses have been completed in rural areas in FY17. The Prime Minister enquired about the training and skills being given to rural masons, who were involved with this scheme.

Seeking a consolidated approach to various schemes, such as electrification, IT networks and housing, the Prime Minister called for a focused approach on the 100 worst performing districts in each case. He directed that future reviews should focus on problems at the

district-level, so that the progress of poorly performing districts can be better monitored.

Agriculture

Procurement of Toor from Maharashtra under Price Support Scheme (PSS)

Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare approves the procurement of one lakh MT

of Toor under PSS upto 31st May, 2017 The proposal for implementation of Price Support Scheme (PSS) for procurement of Toor during the current Kharif season 2016-17 was received from Government of Maharashtra. As per their proposal, it was mentioned that expected production of Toor in Maharashtra will be 12.56 lakhs MT and they have requested for procurement of 2 lakhs quintal during 1st November, 2016 – 29th January, 2017. This proposal was transferred to Department of Consumer Affairs to create a buffer stock of pulses by making procurement directly from the farmers at MSP plus bonus under Price Stabilization Fund (PSF). This procurement continued till 22nd April, 2017 and around 4 lakhs MT of Toor was procured which is 31.95% of total expected production. Due to continuous arrival, State Government had decided to procure the Toor from the farmers who have been registered or token has been issued till 22nd April, 2017 at various procurement centers from their own resources. On 5th May, 2017, request for implementation of PSS was again received from Government of Maharashtra. In the fresh proposal they had requested for procurement of 20 lakhs quintal (2 lakhs MT) of Toor up to 31st May, 2017. They have also informed that as per their third estimate the expected production in the State will be 20.35 lakhs MT. The Notification for harvesting period of Kharif Toor was revised from September to March and extended upto 31st May, 2017.




Considering the proposal, this Department has approved the procurement of one lakh MT of Toor under PSS upto 31st May, 2017 with the condition that the procurement already made as per State Government Notification dated 27.4.2017 shall not be reimbursed or adjusted from the procurement made under PSS and State Government will make necessary arrangements for godown space and other resources for smooth PSS operation in the State.

Cabinet approves cooperation between Indian and Japan on Railway Safety

The Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has given its ex-post facto approval to the signing the Memorandum of Cooperation (MoC) with Japan on Railway Safety. The MoC has already been signed in February, 2017. The signing of MoC will enable cooperation in the following areas: i. Track Safety (e.g. rail welding, rail inspection, track circuit etc.) ii. Latest technology related to railway track safety (automatic inspection technology etc.) iii. Rolling stock safety (e.g. maintenance etc.) iv. Any other relevant railway safety matter jointly determined by both the sides within the scope of this MoC with consideration for major railway accident preventions based on the analysis of accident causes. The MoC would provide a platform for Indian Railways to interact and share the latest development and knowledge in the railway sector. The cooperation under this MoC will involve: a. dispatch of experts

b. Training of core staff in Japan c. Sharing of information and best practices d. Facilitating the participation of other institutions, organization and ministries, including contribution of National Traffic Safety and Environmental Laboratory of Japan to Research Design and Standards Organisation, Ministry of Railway, Government of India (RDSO), subject to their respective national laws and regulations where appropriate and possible.

International publication ‘Condé Nast Traveller’ lists Ganga cruise as one of the ‘six river cruises to take in 2017’




A reputed US based international media house in the latest issue of its publication ‘Condé Nast Traveller’ has listed the river cruise on Ganga as one of the ‘six river cruises to take in 2017’. The media house has placed the luxury cruise vessel Ganges Voyager II which sails on the Ganga from Kolkata to Varanasi, in the league of cruises on Mekong and Yangtze in China, Amazon in South America, Volga in Russia and Irrawaddy in Myanmar. Conde Nast’s endorsement of Ganga as a cruise destination is a shot in the arm for river tourism in the country. The Inland Waterways Authority of India facilitates cruise operations on NW-1 (river Ganga) from Kolkata to Varanasi in collaboration with private cruise operators. The facilities provided by IWAI include navigation aids including night navigation facility, embarking and disembarking at designated locations, facilitating expeditious crossing of Farakka Navigation Lock, pilotage, and assistance in distress National Waterway NW-1 from Varanasi to Haldia is being developed by the Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI), under the Jal Marg Vikas Project (JMVP). In addition to becoming one of the principal cargo movement routes in India, this stretch on NW-1has good potential for river cruise tourism.

GST Council Announces GST Rates The GST Council headed by finance Minister Arun Jaitley has finalised tax rates and has approved all the seven rules for the GST regime that is scheduled to be implemented from July 1. The remaining two rules of the GST pertaining to transition and return is under the examination of the legal committee. In total, the council has fixed the rates of 1211 items. It will decide rates of some other items and services in the coming days. Salient Highlights Out of 1211 items, 81% of the items will attract tax of 18% or less. Only the remaining 19% of items will attract a highest rate of 28% Household items like Sugar, Tea, Coffee and edible oil will attract 5% levy. Cereals and milk will be exempted from the tax. Manufactured goods will attract 18% levy. Luxury cars will attract 28% GST in addition to a cess of 15%. Small petrol cars will attract 28% GST plus a 1% cess, and diesel cars will be taxed at 28% plus 3% cess. Capital goods, a key asset for the manufacturing sector, will be taxed at 28%. Aerated drinks will fall under the 28% tax bracket. Significance The GST Council has not increased the overall tax in any of the 1211 items but have reduced tax on many items. For example, Soap, which is now taxed at the rate of 22-24%, will be taxed at 18%. The present tax incidence in excess of 28% on luxury items will be treated as cess and will be deposited in the corpus for compensating states if they suffer any revenue loss. Food items are expected to become cheaper. Daily use items like hair oil, toothpaste, and soap are kept in the 18% tax slab instead of 28%. The cost of energy generation is expected to become less as tax incidence on coal has been reduced from 11% to 5%. GST regime is expected to unify the whole of the country into a common market eliminating both Central and State levies. Also, GST is expected to increase state and federal tax revenues, ease inflation and boost economic growth by 1-2% points in the medium term.

Paytm Payments Bank




Why in news?Paytm has finally rolled out its Payments Bank, which is an almost-complete banking solution offered by the company. The digital wallet and e-commerce service provider received the final license from RBI for the bank last week. With the launch, Paytm is transferring all wallets to the new Paytm Payments Bank.

Under the new banking system, wallets and accounts will be two separate entities. In

order to be a part of the banking system, the user will have to open a bank account with Paytm.

What is a Payments Bank? A Payments bank is similar to any other bank except it operates on a smaller scale. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) introduced it in 2014 to increase the scope of financial inclusion to small savings account holders, low income households, small businesses, unorganised sector entities and migrant labour force.

Key facts on payment banks: Customers can deposit only up to Rs 1,00,000. Payments bank can issue ATM/debit cards but not credit cards. Payments and remittance services through various channels can be done. Customers will be able to buy insurance and mutual funds. Bank would not carry out lending activities. With this, the network of 1,54,000 post offices (including 1,30,000 rural post offices)

will be offering banking services to the masses in the country. Payments banks are targeting migrant laborers, low income households, small

businesses, and other unorganised sector entities. Initial capital required for a Payments bank is Rs 100 crore. Eligibility: Existing pre-paid payment instrument issuers, individuals, professionals,

NBFCs, corporate business correspondents, telecom companies, super-market chains, real estate sector cooperatives that are owned and controlled by residents and public sector entities may apply.

Promoter’s contribution initially must be 40% for the first 5 years. For foreign holding, it is up to 74% of paid-up capital, on a par with private banks.

The banks must maintain CRR, minimum 75% of demand deposits in government bonds of up to one year and maximum 25% in current and fixed deposits with other scheduled commercial banks for operational purposes and liquidity management.

9 Science and Technology

Scientists at IIT Create Low Cost Solar Cells using Jamun

Scientists at IIT Roorkee have used Indian summer fruit, Jamun, to create low cost and more efficient

solar cells. To create the solar cells, the researchers made use of naturally occurring pigment present

in Jamun as an inexpensive photosensitizer for Dye Sensitized Solar Cells (DSSCs) or Gratzel cells.

Gratzel cells are nothing but thin film solar cells made of a porous layer of titanium dioxide (TiO2)




coated photo anode, a layer of dye molecules that are capable of absorbing sunlight, an electrolyte

for regenerating the dye, and a cathode. The above components of the Gratzel cell form a sandwich-

like structure with the dye molecule playing a crucial role through its ability to absorb visible light.

Researchers made use of ethanol to extract the dyes from Jamun. The extracted colored pigment

called anthocyanin was used as a sensitizer. The research got published in the Journal of

Photovoltaics.

It will help--- to augment country’s vision of building up a 40% share of non-fossil fuel capacity in the

power sector by 2030 as the cells produced from the natural pigment of Jamun are cheaper than

regular ruthenium based pigments to create solar cells.

Measles are back

In a small village of Uttar Pradesh, Narainpur outbreak of measles have taken troll of several life. Measles a vaccine preventable disease caused by an airborne virus of Measles is caused by

the measles virus, a single-stranded, negative-sense, enveloped RNA virus of the genus Morbillivirus within the family Paramyxoviridae India is not the only country reporting measles cases, as per WHO’s report as many as 77 countries have reported the cases this year including USA, Italy, Romania, Australia etc. India accounts 37% of the total measles death globally. Government is trying to increase the vaccination coverage.

Indian Railways to Track Wagons and Coaches with RFID

Leveraging information technology in a big way, the Indian Railways is set to make use of the

radiofrequency identification tags (RFID) for tracking of wagons, coaches and locomotives to ensure

the effective and transparent functioning of the system. For this purpose, the RFID tags have been

designed by the Centre for Railway Information System (CRIS) at an estimated cost of Rs 1000 per

tag. For the first phase of implementation of this project, the Railways have sanctioned a sum of Rs

57 crore.

How it works?

The trackside readers that will be installed at stations and other key points would read the RFID tag

fitted in the rolling stocks and would transmit the wagon identity over a network to a central

computer. From here afterwards, all new wagons coming out of manufacturing units would be

equipped with RFID tags as a part of the standard practice. Indian railways have about 2.25 lakh

wagons, 50,000 coaches and 9,000 locomotives in its possession. Earlier, the Railways used RFID tags

on Vishakhapatnam-Talcher-Paradeep section as a pilot project. Significance RFID tags will help the

railways in knowing the exact location of wagons, locomotives and coaches. Such data at present is

manually maintained and hence are prone to errors. By the use of RFID tags, the railways plans to

address the issue of shortage of wagons, locomotives and coaches in a more transparent and

expeditious manner. As the RFID tags have a lifespan of 25 years, RFID tags can be removed and

reused. RFID tags will be of significant use especially in freight maintenance management,

locomotive management and coach maintenance management. RFID tags The RFID uses

electromagnetic fields to automatically identify and track tags attached to objects. The RFID tags

contain electronically stored information. Unlike a bar code, the tag need not be within the line of

sight (LoS) of the reader, so it can be easily embedded in the tracked object. Hence, RFID is a

powerful enabling technology that is being applied in an astonishing range of applications ranging



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Measles_virus

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sense_(molecular_biology)#RNA_sense_in_viruses

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RNA_virus

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morbillivirus

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paramyxoviridae


from supply chain management and product inventory control to identity authentication and access

control.

BIO-INK to treat osteoarthritis

Scientists at the University of Bristol have developed a new kind of bio-ink, which could eventually

allow the production of complex tissues for surgical implants.

The new stem cell-containing bio ink allows 3D printing of living tissue, known as bio-printing. The new bio-ink contains two different polymer components: a natural polymer extracted from

s Seaweed, and a sacrificial synthetic polymer used in the medical industry, and both had a role

to play. The synthetic polymer causes the bio-ink to change from liquid to solid when the temperature is

raised, and the seaweed polymer provides structural support when the cell nutrients are introduced.

Department of Telecom (DoT) Launches Tarang Sanchar

About: It is a web portal for Information sharing on Mobile Towers and EMF Emission Compliances.

It will help in clearing the myths and misconceptions of public on mobile towers and emissions from them. There are over 25,000 studies by WHO in the last 30 years on the subject and there is no proof that EMF radiation has any harmful effect on human health.

In future, it will help in identifying the blind spots and it is also environment friendly as no paper work is required for this.

For realizing the vision of Digital India, it is necessary to have more and more mobile towers in every nook and corner of the country as mobile phone today has become an essential requirement for all including the poor in the remotest corner of the country

The portal will allow users to get a tower or base station checked for radiation emission, for a fee of Rs 4,000. The portal also has ‘EMF Overview’ and ‘Learn’ Sections, which provide numerous articles, booklets and videos, to further educate the citizens about EMF and coverage of telecom services.

In addition to Government to Citizen (G2C) services, portal also facilitates Government to Business (G2B) service delivery in a transparent and eco-friendly manner.

Aims to reinvigorate and revitalize various institutions, groups, individuals, non-government organizations, researchers and scholars so that they may engage in activities/projects for strengthening, protecting, preserving and promoting the rich intangible cultural heritage of India.

IT Ministry asks stakeholders to protect digital payments ecosystem against ‘Malware’ attack

The IT Ministry has reached out to key stakeholders like RBI, National Payments Corporation of India, NIC and UIDAI (Aadhaar) to advise them to protect their systems against ‘WannaCry’ ransomware to ensure that the digital payments ecosystem in the country is protected.

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has also instructed cyber security unit CERT-In to gather information of ‘WannaCry’ ransomware that has wreaked havoc across sectors like healthcare and telecommunications in more than 100 countries.




Over the weekend, the ransomware hit systems in over 100 countries, including Russia and the U.K., in one of the most widespread cyber-attacks in history. It infected computers running on older versions of Microsoft operating systems like XP, locking access to files on the computer. The cyber criminals have demanded a fee of about $300 in crypto-currencies like Bitcoin for unlocking the device.

NASA’s Juno spacecraft has discovered Earth-sized cyclones at the poles of the Jupiter. It has also unveiled the presence of the storm systems that travel deep into the heart of the planet. Both the poles of the Jupiter were found to be covered with Earth-sized swirling storms which are densely clustered and rubbing together. The findings were the result of the Juno probe’s first data-collection pass on August last year. The spacecraft flew for about 4,200 kilometers of Jupiter’s swirling cloud top. The findings suggest the presence of ammonia clouds over the planet which are quite variable and continue to increase up to a few hundred miles or kilometers. Measurements of Jupiter’s magnetosphere indicate that Jupiter has a stronger magnetic field than expected which is more irregular in shape. The magnetic field in the planet is in the order of 7.766 Gauss which is about 10 times stronger than the strongest magnetic field found on Earth. The next flyby of the Juno Probe has been scheduled for July 11. During the flyby, the spacecraft willfly directly over Jupiter’s Great Red Spot.

Juno Spacecraft Juno was launched in August 2011 to study Jupiter’s composition and evolution. It’s the first solar powered spacecraft to orbit Jupiter. It is second spacecraft to orbit Jupiter, after Galileo probe which had orbited the planet from 1995–2003. The unmanned spacecraft had successfully entered Jupiter’s orbit in July 2016 after a five year journey and traversing distance of nearly 2 billion miles. The primary goals behind the launch of Juno is to find out whether Jupiter has a solid core, study of the formation of its atmosphere and magnetosphere, and to ascertain whether or not water is present in the gas cloud shrouding the planet. Juno has nine instruments on board to study atmosphere, gravity, magnetic field and possible existence of solid core in Jupiter. The information gathered from it will provide vital clues to how the planet has formed and evolved. The spacecraft has been named after the Roman goddess Juno, the wife of Jupiter who is considered as the god of the sky in ancient Greco-Roman mythology.




MDR TB

India share 29 % of global tuberculosis burden with the incidence of 28 lakh new cases in

one year.

Only 58 % of them notified every year and nearly 5 lakh patients die of this disease

Around 70,000 to 1 lakh people are notified and every year nearly 5 lakh patients are

affected by MDR TB

Only 33,280 TB patients with MDR – TB are notified in 2016

Patients suffering from MDR – TB and XDR TB are not receiving adequate treatment, TB is

contagious disease and spreads through the air much like cold and flu, when resistance is not there,

spreads faster.







India sets an ambitious target of elimination of Tb by 2015. However study published by LANCET

indicates very gloomy picture by 2040. The report says by 2040 one out of 10 cases could be drug

resistant.

Why normal TB turns into MDR-TB and XDR TB ?

Irregularity in taking medicine or leaving it midway

When they don’t take all combinations prescribed by doctor

When they spent some time with person having MDR or XDR TB

Spread also through migration




Recent trend shows that transmission from infected people to others in increasing. In 2015 India

including four countries accounted for 40% of Tb cases in the world. MDR cases will touch 12.5 % in

2040 up from 7.9% in 2000.

What need to be done?

Capacity of public sector to be augmented

Gov must engage with private sector for notification

For early detection TB NAAT machine must be available in each district

Diagnosis f MDR TB cases should be expedited

Access to new drugs like Bedaquiline must be made Universal

Contact screening of family member and preventive treatment of all children below 5

Large Hadron Collider restarts for 2017 run

The world’s largest and most powerful particle smasher Large Hadron Collider (LHC) has restarted circulating beams of protons for the first time this year, following a 17-week-long extended technical stop. Each year, the machines shut down over the winter break to enable technicians and engineers

to perform essential repairs and upgrades, but this year the stop was scheduled to run longer, allowing more complex work to take place.

Work this year included the replacement of a superconducting magnet in the LHC, the installation of a new beam dump in the Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS) and a massive cable removal campaign.

Among other things, these upgrades will allow the collider to reach a higher integrated luminosity — the higher the luminosity, the more data the experiments can gather to allow them to observe rare processes.




Large Hadron Collider: The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is the world’s largest and most powerful particle accelerator. Built by: European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) Aim: to allow physicists to test the predictions of different theories of particle physics

and high-energy physics, and particularly prove or disprove the existence of the theorized Higgs boson and of the large family of new particles predicted by supersymmetric theories.

The LHC consists of a 27-kilometre ring of superconducting magnets with a number of accelerating structures to boost the energy of the particles along the way.

How it operates? Inside the accelerator, two high-energy particle beams travel at close to the speed of

light before they are made to collide. The beams travel in opposite directions in separate beam pipes – two tubes kept at

ultrahigh vacuum. They are guided around the accelerator ring by a strong magnetic field maintained by superconducting electromagnets.

The electromagnets are built from coils of special electric cable that operates in a superconducting state, efficiently conducting electricity without resistance or loss of energy. This requires chilling the magnets to -3°C – a temperature colder than outer space. For this reason, much of the accelerator is connected to a distribution system of liquid helium, which cools the magnets, as well as to other supply services.

Just prior to collision, another type of magnet is used to “squeeze” the particles closer together to increase the chances of collisions. The particles are so tiny that the task of making them collide is akin to firing two needles 10 kilometres apart with such precision that they meet halfway.

BrahMos missile achieves rare feat



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The Army recently carried out a successful test of the advanced BrahMos Block III Land Attack Cruise Missile (LACM) in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. This is the fifth consecutive time when the Block-III version of BrahMos LACM has been

successfully launched and hit the land-based target in “top-attack” mode, an incredible feat not achieved by any other weapon system of its genre.

These tests were carried out in full operational land-to-land configurations from Mobile Autonomous Launchers (MAL) at full-range.

What you need to know about BrahMos?

BrahMos is a product of joint collaboration between India and Russia and is capable of being launched from land, sea, sub-sea and air against surface and sea-based targets. The range of the supersonic missile was initially capped at 290 km as per the

obligations of the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR). Since India’s entry into the club, the range has been extended to 450 km and the plan is

to increase it to 600km.

Researchers develop synthetic soft retina Scientists from the University of Oxford have developed a synthetic, soft tissue retina that closely mimics the natural retinal process.

What you need to know about the synthetic soft retina? The synthetic, double-layered retina replica consists of soft water droplets (hydrogels)

and biological cell membrane proteins. Designed like a camera, the cells act as pixels, detecting and reacting to light to create a

grey scale image.



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The synthetic material can generate electrical signals, which stimulate the neurons at the back of our eye just like the original retina.

Significance of this discovery: Until now, artificial retinal research has used mostly rigid, hard materials. The human

eye is incredibly sensitive, which is why foreign bodies like metal retinal implants can be so damaging, leading to inflammation and/or scarring. But a biological synthetic implant is soft and water-based, so much friendlier to the eye environment.

The researchers believe this could lead to the development of less invasive products that closely resemble human body tissues, helping to treat degenerative eye conditions such as retinitis pigments. The condition changes how the retina responds to light, causing people to slowly lose vision. Background

Just as photography depends on camera pixels reacting to light, vision relies on the retina performing the same function. The retina sits at the back of the human eye, and contains

protein cells that convert light into electrical signals that travel through the nervous system, triggering a response from the brain, ultimately building a picture of the scene being

viewed.

A Way to use water to convert methane into methanol

A team of researchers has developed a one-step process that uses water to convert methane to methanol. This method in addition to offering a simple and relatively cheap way to make methanol, offered hydrogen as the only byproduct.

Significance of this move: Methane has been identified as a greenhouse gas, one that is perhaps more of a problem even than carbon dioxide because it traps more heat (some studies have suggested 25 times as much)—fortunately, not nearly as much of it is emitted by humans into the atmosphere. It makes its way into the atmosphere due to animal flatulence and some industrial processes. It is also a byproduct at gas wells, where it is generally burned.



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Methanol, on the other hand, has been considered a good alternative to gasoline for use in automobile engines. It is currently made using a variety of techniques and basic materials including coal, natural gas and even municipal waste.

How was it converted? Water is used to oxidize methane over a bed of copper containing zeolite—the unique structure of the mineral lets the water behave as an oxidant. The team claims the process is 97 percent efficient, emitting only methanol and hydrogen. The method, the researchers note, is simple and easy enough that it could be used at drilling sites and the resulting methanol could be used as a liquid fuel or as an ingredient in making resins or plastics. The hydrogen could be used in any number of ways, including in fuel cells.

10Environment

India’s First Bio Refinery Plant inaugurated in Pune

Union Minister for Road Transport, Highways and Shipping Nitin Gadkari has inaugurated India’s

First Integrated Bio‐refinery for Renewable Fuels & Chemicals for producing ethanol from a variety

of biomass. The plant is situated at Rahu in Pune district of Maharashtra. The demonstration plant

has been built by Praj industries. The inaugurated Bio‐refinery plant is capable of producing one

million liters of ethanol per annum by processing a variety of biomass like rice and wheat straw,

cotton stalk, bagasse, cane trash, corn cobs & Stover with superior product yields. In 2015, the

Government has asked Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) to target 10 % blending of ethanol in as

many States as possible.

The fuel doping programme that required blending of 5% ethanol had started in November 2012. It

was notified under the Motor Spirits Act on January 2, 2013. The Government has also allowed the

OMCs to procure ethanol produced from other nonfood feedstocks, like cellulosic and lignocellulosic

materials including petrochemical route. Significance Biofuel is cost‐effective and pollution‐free.

Ethanol blending is the practice of blending petrol with ethanol. Globally many countries including

India, have resorted to ethanol blending to reduce vehicle exhaust emissions

Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction

Why in news?

Union minister for home affairs, participated in the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction (GPDRR) held at Cancun, Mexico from 22-26, 2017




GPDDRR: GPDDR is a global forum for strategic advice, coordination, Partnership development

and review progress in the implementation of the SENDAI framework for disaster Risk reduction (SFDRR) 2015-2030. SFDRR was adopted at the 3rd UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction held in March, 2015 in Sendai, Japan.

Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC) has cleared GM Mustard

Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC) has cleared the genetically modified (GM) Mustard for commercial cultivation and recommended its approval to the environment ministry.

What is GM? Genetic modification is the alteration of natural genetic structure to make the variety high yielding.

Why oppose?

Makes a mockery of the commitment in the Bharatiya Janata Party manifesto that “GM foods will not be allowed without full scientific evaluation on the long term effects on soil, production and biological impact on consumers”.

The yield claims on which GM mustard has been cleared are not even remotely reliable — being based on comparisons with 30-year-old cultivars, and not on more recent high-yielding hybrids. The highest yields in mustard are from the five countries which do not grow GM mustard — U.K., France, Poland, Germany and Czech Republic — and not from the GM-growing U.S. or Canada (see graph based on FAO data).

Gaps in evaluation: there have been numerous severe deficiencies in the evaluation process of GM mustard. The risks to health, environment and agriculture have not been evaluated even through those inadequate tests which were conducted at the time of Bt brinjal examination, though mustard is far more extensively grown and consumed than brinjal.

HT (herbicide tolerant) GM crops have been condemned by a number of medical professionals and other scientists for increasing chemical herbicide use, leading to serious health conditions — at all stages, but most worryingly at the foetal stage. A scientific report from Argentina found a fourfold increase in birth defects and a threefold increase in childhood cancers in HT soya areas. Shockingly, the GEAC has conveniently omitted to have any herbicide-related studies. A small committee was constituted to “examine” the safety dossier — the tests that were done and the deliberations of GEAC were shrouded in secrecy. After a scathing order from the Central Information Commission, the GEAC made a sham of public consultations, through an opaque and perfunctory eyewash process.




BONN CLIMATE MEET

Why in news

The Bonn Climate Change Conference, organized by UNFCCC begin in Bonn, Germany to further implementation of Paris Agreement.

At Bonn, Parties would continue their work on formulating the rule book for implementation of the provisions of Paris Agreement, the deadline of which is agreed to be 2018. About UNFCCC?

In 1992, countries joined the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, as a framework for international cooperation to combat climate change by limiting average global temperature increases. Paris Agreement

At the Paris climate conference (COP21) in December 2015, 195 countries adopted the first-ever universal, legally binding global climate deal.

The agreement sets out a global action plan to put the world on track to avoid dangerous climate change by limiting global warming to well below 2°C.

INDIAN STAR TORTOISES

Why in news?




Chinnar Wildlife Sanctuary (CWS) has successfully rehabilitated Indian star tortoises, making it the only rehabilitation centre for star tortoises in the country. About Indian star tortoise

This species naturally inhabits scrub forests, grasslands, and some coastal scrublands of arid and semi-arid regions.

It is found in northwestern India (Gujarat, Rajasthan) and adjoining southeastern Pakistan; eastern and southern areas from Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and eastern Karnataka to Odisha and throughout Sri Lanka

Threats to this species survival include illegal collection and habitat loss.

Included in Appendix II of the CITES

IUCN status: vulnerable

Placed under Schedule IV of the Wildlife (Protection) Act 1972 About Chinar wildlife sanctuary

Chinar Wildlife Sanctuary is a unique protected area located in the rain shadow region in the eastern slope of Western Ghats in Idukki in Kerala.

The area is diverse in eco systems and rich in ethnic cultural heritage.

It is a well-known repository of medicinal plants

. It supports a population of grizzled giant squirrel, star tortoise, tufted grey langur, gaur, spotted deer, slender Loris, wild elephant, crocodile, tiger, leopard and many a birds, insects and plants.

Chitale Committee recommends several measures for Desiltation of Ganga

Chitale committee on Desiltation of Ganga has recommended a slew of measures which include study of reach wise sediment transport processes along with establishing annual sediment budgets to guide de-silting activities, Preparation of annual reports (Sand registry) describing the previous de-silting/ dredging activity and a technical institute may be entrusted to conduct the sediment budget, morphological and flood routing studies that would examine and confirm the necessity of the de-silting of the reach under consideration.

The committee says though de-siltation works can improve hydraulic performance of the river and this itself can justify undertaking de-siltation, these have no direct role in improving environment flow in the river. On the other hand, indiscriminate de-silting or sand mining would cause adverse impacts on river e-flow. Recognizing the importance of sediment transport in rivers, following basic principles of siltation in rivers should be kept in mind while considering de-siltation works:

Catchment Area Treatment and Watershed Development works, along with good agricultural

practices and river bank protection/anti-erosion works, are necessary to reduce silt inflow into the river system and must be undertaken in a comprehensive way.

Erosion, movement and deposition of sediment are natural regulating functions of river and Sediment equilibrium of river should be maintained.

Rivers should be provided with sufficient flood plains (lateral connectivity) without any hindrance to the flow.

Instead of “keeping the silt away”, strategy to “giving the silt way” should be adopted.




In specific reference to de-siltation works in river Ganga, in addition to MoEF&CC Sand Mining Guidelines, which are statutory in nature, and the GSI Guidelines, the committee has suggested following Guidelines;

1. River Ganga tends to achieve equilibrium on its own given the hydrology, sediment and natural

bed and bank disposition. It is necessary to provide the river sufficient areas of flood plain and lakes along the river to moderate the flood level. Any encroachment of flood plain, reclamation of lakes or disconnection of lakes from river should be avoided; rather adjoining lakes/depressions may be de-silted to increase their storage capacities. The de-silting of lakes, etc., should be in such a manner that the sediment continuity is maintained and should not lead to head cut that creates safety issues for the river crossings, water intakes or river training works locally, downstream or upstream.

2. Upstream reaches of natural constriction works, like barrages/bridges, etc., tend to get silted

leading to wandering of river. Possibly river training, cut-off developments and provision of extra water way near the constrictions could be tried after proper assessment without impacting the morphology of river elsewhere. The area freed from the development in the form of oxbow lakes should be used for flood moderation rather than reclaiming it for other purposes.

3. In case where constriction is causing large scale siltation, de-siltation along the preselected

channel to deepen and attract the flow could be tried to guide the main course of flow. The dredged material may be dumped along the alternate channel which was to be closed to avoid bank erosion. Care shall be taken to develop stable channel which do not affect the flow either on upstream or downstream. Efforts should be made to provide silt continuity along the weirs and barrages.

4. Embankments, spurs and river training measures provided to protect the banks should not

encroach upon the flood plains and delink the lakes, flood plains and other riverine environment from the river.

5. The proposed de-silting of any river reach need to be justified bringing out clearly the flooding

caused due to siltation along with technical comparisons of the alternative flood mitigation measures with “do nothing” or “proposed de-silting/ dredging” being other options. It should invariably be associated with sediment flux studies and morphological studies to confirm no significant adverse effect on downstream or upstream reach of the river including the safety and effectiveness of river crossings, water intakes, existing river bank / flood protection measures etc.

6. De-silting of the confluence points, especially with huge silt carrying tributaries, such as Ghagra,

Sone, etc., may be necessary to make confluence hydraulically efficient.

7. Reservoirs in main river Ganga and its tributaries, particularly in upper reaches, should be

operated in such a manner that first floods, having high silt load, are allowed to pass through without storage and river flows in later phases of the monsoon are only stored for use during




non-monsoon season. This would require quantitative long term forecast with decision support system to be established for optimum reservoir operations.

8. Agricultural practices along the river flood plains should be such that it does not disturb the

passage of flood by increasing the resistance to flow causing aggradations.

9. River morphological studies should be carried out to initiate in-stream channel improvement

works. It shall be ensured that the head cut induced upstream should automatically de-silt the reach. The head cut induced should progress upstream slowly so that the flora and fauna will have sufficient time to re-adjust its habitat.

10. The proposal should also contain environmentally acceptable and practically feasible silt

disposal plan. River gravels/sands/silts could be used gainfully in construction works, including housing, roads, embankment and reclamation works. Under no circumstances, disposal should create any contamination of the water bodies, harmful to the flora and fauna existing adjacent to the disposal sites. It should also be ensured that disposed material should not come back into the river again.

11. In view of specific issues being raised about siltation in front of the Farakka Barrage, it is

suggested that the shoals formed may be de-silted/dredged by taking care of the river training works around it. The sediment removed may be used for re-grading the Farakka Feeder Canal or may be used for strengthening the existing embankments around the barrage pond. Sediment sluicing may be incorporated to maintain sediment continuity from upstream to downstream reaches after carrying out necessary studies. The de-silting / dredging works of the barrage pond shall not cause any structural problem to the barrage by excessive erosion on the downstream. In view of this the dredging shall be restricted only up to original bed level or higher.

12. Feasibility of introducing an arrangement need to be studied to pass the incoming sediment

safely to downstream of the dams/ barrage structures to maintain the sediment equilibrium. It shall also be ensured that the concentrated sediment flux passed downstream will not create any major morphological changes on the downstream reaches.

13. Any bridges across River Ganga which are causing large afflux (more than 1% of normal depth)

should be modified to reduce the afflux, which in turn will also reduce the sediment deposition and erosion of banks on the upstream.

14. The dredging/de-siltation/mining activities may result into some adverse impacts, i.e., (a) River

bed degradation; (b) Bank erosion; (c) Channel widening; (d) lowering of water surface elevations in the river channel; (e) lowering of water table elevations adjacent to the river; (f) a reduction in the structural integrity of bridges, pipelines, jetties, barrages, weirs, foundations supporting high tension lines, existing bank protection works and other manmade structures; and (g) a loss of environmental values resulting from (a) through (e). Restrictions as presented in Appendix IV of this Report need to be enforced before planning and executing any dredging/ de-silting / mining activities. These restrictions may be modified only after proper study and

monitoring the effects of dredging / de-silting / mining.




15. The Ganga Flood Control Commission, a sub-ordinate office of Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation and secretariat and executive wing of Ganga Flood Control Board, headed by Union Minister of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation with the Chief Ministers of Ganga river basin States and Member, NITI Ayog (erstwhile Planning Commission) may be entrusted with additional mandate to carry out necessary studies with regard to sediment management in river Ganga and incorporate sediment management strategies in their comprehensive plans prepared for all sub-basins of river Ganga. These integrated plans could serve as base documents for Central, State and District Level Authorities for considering proposals for environment clearances for works related to river Ganga.

Combustible ice

Commercial development of the globe's huge reserves of a frozen fossil fuel known as “combustible ice” has moved closer to reality after Japan and China successfully extracted the material from the seafloor off their coastlines.

Combustible ice is a frozen mixture of water and concentrated natural gas. Technically known as methane hydrate, it can be lit on fire in its frozen state and is believed to comprise one of the world's most abundant fossil fuels.

If methane hydrate leaks during the extraction process, it can increase greenhouse gas emissions. The fuel also could displace renewables such as solar and wind power, said David Sandalow, a former senior official with the US State Department now at Columbia University's Center on Global Energy Policy.



http://www.independent.co.uk/topic/fossil-fuels

http://www.independent.co.uk/topic/Japan

http://www.independent.co.uk/topic/China


International Day for Biodiversity The International Day for Biodiversity (IDB) 2017 was celebrated all over the country on May

22, by different States and various organizations. The International Day for Biological Diversity was first established in 1993, when the 29th of

December was selected to serve as the day to educate the world of the importance of Biodiversity. This was later changed to the 22 of May in 2000. Too many winter holidays were interfering with countries holding meaningful celebrations.

2017 Theme: “Biodiversity and Sustainable Tourism”.

Note: UN celebrating 2011- 2020 as a decade on Biodiversity

Droughts in South India




Why in news?

Kerala and Tamil Nadu are facing an unprecedented drought – the worst ever in over a century, according to experts; Karnataka’s northern districts are without water for the third consecutive year.

Reasons for the Drought?

Rainfed agriculture-Failure of Northeast monsoon and lack of irrigation facilities being the major reason for the drought.

Urbanization has converted the wetlands and other areas into concrete surfaces that does not allow the conservation of water.

Interstate river water disputes: southern states are not ready to sit together and solve the problem of sharing of river waters.

Water has lost the cultural connect- historically large number of ponds were connected to each other so that overflow of water in one reaches other, there used to be celebration of festivals for conservation of water has gone, etc.

Faulty cropping pattern- water intensive crops such as paddy, sugarcane are given preference by farmers because of high Minimum Support Price (MSP) given by government

What can be done?

Focus should be on developing large number of small reservoirs at local levels may or may not linked to irrigation canals. Eg Gujarat has developed large number of check dams in Saurashtra region.

Agro climatic cropping pattern- should be followed

Increase investment in irrigation especially micro irrigation practices like drip irrigation. Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayi Yojna would help in this.

Centre to tap MGNREGA funds to make Sarasvati flow again

The Centre plans to tap rural employment guarantee funds to recharge remnants of ancient rivers — including the mythical Sarasvati — in a bid to boost groundwater reserves.

Reviving such paleo-channels may not be useful for irrigation but it could improve groundwater storage.

Background: Palaeo-channels are old rivers that have dried up and filled with sediment. Last October, a committee of hydrologists, geologists and archaeologists — as part of study commissioned




by the Water Resources Ministry — reported evidence on the course of the Saraswati, mentioned in the Rigveda and Hindu mythology. K.S. Valdiya, who led the team, concluded that the Sutlej river “represented the western branch of the Saraswati.”

About Saraswati: Saraswati river flowed through Haryana, Rajasthan and North Gujarat. It also flowed

through Pakistan before meeting Western Sea through Rann of Kutch and was approximately 4,000 km in length.

One-third of the river stretch fell in present-day Pakistan. The longer, two-third stretch measuring nearly 3000 km in length fell in India.

The river had two branches: western and eastern. The Himalayan-born Satluj “of the PAST”, which flowed through the channels of present-day Ghaggar-Patialiwali rivulets, represents the western branch of the ancient river.

On the other hand, Markanda and Sarsuti represented the western branch of Saraswati, known as Tons-Yamuna.

The confluence of the branches was near Shatrana, 25 km south of Patiala. And suddenly, it flows crossing the dessert (Rann of Kutch) and meet gulf of western sea.

Water level of 91 major reservoirs of the country goes down by one per cent

The water storage available in 91 major reservoirs of the country for the week ending on May 04, 2017 was 41.066 BCM which is 26% of total storage capacity of these reservoirs. This percentage was at 27 for the week ending on April 27, 2017. The level of May 04, 2017 was 128% of the storage of corresponding period of last year and 106% of storage of average of last ten years. The total storage capacity of these 91 reservoirs is 157.799 BCM which is about 62% of the total storage capacity of 253.388 BCM which is estimated to have been created in the country. 37 Reservoirs out of these 91 have hydropower benefit with installed capacity of more than 60 MW.

REGION WISE STORAGE STATUS:- NORTHERN REGION The northern region includes States of Himachal Pradesh, Punjab and Rajasthan. There are 6 reservoirs under Central Water Commission (CWC) monitoring having total live storage capacity of 18.01 BCM. The total live storage available in these reservoirs is 4.57 BCM which is 25% of total live storage capacity of these reservoirs. The storage during corresponding period of last year was 21% and average storage of last ten years during corresponding period was 29% of live storage capacity of these reservoirs. Thus, storage during current year is better than the corresponding period of last year but is less than the average storage of last ten years during the corresponding period.




EASTERN REGION

The Eastern region includes States of Jharkhand, Odisha, West Bengal and Tripura. There are 15 reservoirs under CWC monitoring having total live storage capacity of 18.83 BCM. The total live storage available in these reservoirs is 7.54 BCM which is 40% of total live storage capacity of these reservoirs. The storage during corresponding period of last year was 28% and average storage of last ten years during corresponding period was 26% of live storage capacity of these reservoirs. Thus, storage during current year is better than the corresponding period of last year and is also better than the average storage of last ten years during the corresponding period. WESTERN REGION The Western region includes States of Gujarat and Maharashtra. There are 27 reservoirs under CWC monitoring having total live storage capacity of 27.07 BCM. The total live storage available in these reservoirs is 8.27 BCM which is 31% of total live storage capacity of these reservoirs. The storage during corresponding period of last year was 17% and average storage of last ten years during corresponding period was 31% of live storage capacity of these reservoirs. Thus, storage during current years better than the storage of last year and is equal to the average storage of last ten years during the corresponding period CENTRAL REGION The Central region includes States of Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. There are 12 reservoirs under CWC monitoring having total live storage capacity of 42.30 BCM. The total live storage available in these reservoirs is 16.00 BCM which is 38% of total live storage capacity of these reservoirs. The storage during corresponding period of last year was 28% and average storage of last ten years during corresponding period was 23% of live storage capacity of these reservoirs. Thus, storage during current year is better than the storage of last year and is also better than the average storage of last ten years during the corresponding period. SOUTHERN REGION The Southern region includes States of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, AP&TG (Two combined projects in both states) Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. There are 31 reservoirs under CWC monitoring having total live storage capacity of 51.59 BCM. The total live storage available in these reservoirs is 4.68BCM which is 9 % of total live storage capacity of these reservoirs. The storage during corresponding period of last year was 13% and average storage of last ten years during corresponding period was 20% of live storage capacity of these reservoirs. Thus, storage during current year is less than the corresponding period of last year and is also less than the average storage of last ten years during the corresponding period. States having better storage than last year for corresponding period are Punjab, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Odisha, West Bengal, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, and Telangana. States having equal storage than last year for corresponding period is AP&TG (Two combined projects in both states). States having lesser storage than




last year for corresponding period are Himachal Pradesh, Tripura, Uttarakhand, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu.

Action plan for Pampa conservation

A seven-point action plan for the conservation of pampa has been chalked out. The document, named Pampa Declaration, delineates a comprehensive plan to be implemented with the active involvement and support of the government and the public.

Highlights of the action plan The salient features of the declaration include bestowing living entity status to river

Pampa; the constitution of a River Management Board for the governance of the river; documentation of livelihood along the river basin; publication of periodic status report of flood plains and wetlands and formation of tributaries, micro watersheds, and ponds linked to the river every five years.

It also calls for digitising biodiversity reports with the support of students from

institutions and colleges affiliated to Mahatma Gandhi University, implementation of

green protocol for containing the pollution of the river and for the conservation of the Pampa ecosystem.

The declaration calls upon the government to create an additional standing committee on environment at the local bodies to ensure participation of local government institutions in the governance of the river.

Know about pampa river

Pampa is the third longest river in Kerala after Periyar and Bharathappuzha and the longest river in the erstwhile princely state of Travancore. Sabarimala temple dedicated to Lord Ayyappa is located on the banks of the river. The river is also known as ‘Dakshina Bhageerathi’ and ‘River Baris’.

12 Internal security

Army going to procure 2 more indigenously produced Akash missile

The Akash missile is India’s first indigenously designed, developed and produced air defence surface-to-air missile system. Akash is a supersonic short range surface-to-air missile capable of neutralising aerial

threats. The asset of this missile system is its capability to neutralise multiple aerial targets

coming from different directions at the same time. The maximum range of this missile is 25 kilometers and can neutralise targets at a

maximum altitude of 20 kilometers. It is meant for neutralising medium range air targets flying at low or medium height.




An Akash missile regiment has six launchers with three missiles each. This defence system consists of surveillance and tracking radars, control centers and ground support systems. This all-weather missile system can work from both static and mobile platforms.

Akash has been indigenously built. It is a result of 96% indigenisation, with the design being developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation and built by Bharat Dynamics Limited along with the involvement of Bharat Electronics Limited.

SAMADHAN Doctrine to tackle Naxals

“SAMADHAN”, is the name of the doctrine to counter the Naxalite problem that was announced by Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh in the Left Wing Extremism (LWE) situation review meeting held on 8 May 2017

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on 8 May 2017 launched a new security operations doctrine called ‘SAMADHAN’ to counter Naxalism menace in the country. “SAMADHAN” stands for – Smart leadership, Aggressive strategy, Motivation and training, Actionable intelligence,Dashboard-based key performance indicators and key result areas, Harnessing technology, Action plan for each threat, No access to funding.

– The new strategy also focuses on using advanced technology including drones and smart guns that feature triggers that get activated by bio-metrics.

– “SAMADHAN” doctrine was announced in the Left Wing Extremism (LWE) situation review meeting held on 8 May 2017 that was chaired by Rajnath Singh. The meeting was attended by several chief ministers including Yogi Adityanath (Uttar Pradesh), Naveen Patnaik (Odisha), Raman Singh (Chhattisgarh), Devendra Fadnavis (Maharashtra), Nitish Kumar (Bihar) and Raghubar Das (Jharkhand).




13 Ethics and integrity World Press Freedom Index 2017 World Press Freedom Index for the year 2017 has been released.

What you need to know about the index? World Press Freedom Index is published annually by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) since 2002. It measures the level of freedom available to journalists in 180 countries using the following criteria – pluralism, media independence, media environment and self-censorship, legislative environment, transparency, infrastructure, and abuses.

Performance of various countries:

India is ranked 136, three points down from last year. India’s previous rank was 133. The report blames the rise of Hindu nationalism for the drop in ranking.

Norway is at the apex and North Korea at the bottom of the 180-strong list of nations. After six years at the top, Finland has surrendered its No. 1 position due to political

pressure and conflicts of interests. Sweden has risen six places to take 2nd position. The Index’s bottom five also include Turkmenistan (178th), one of the world’s most

repressive and self-isolated dictatorships, which keeps increasing its persecution of journalists, and Syria (177th), riven by a never-ending war and still the deadliest country for journalists, who are targeted by both its ruthless dictator and Jihadi rebels.

Important observations made by the report: RSF’s latest World Press Freedom Index highlights the danger of a tipping point in the

state of media freedom, especially in leading democratic countries.



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The obsession with surveillance and violations of the right to the confidentiality of sources have contributed to the continuing decline of many countries previously regarded as virtuous.

Media freedom has never been so threatened and RSF’s “global indicator” has never been so high (3872). This measure of the overall level of media freedom constraints and violations worldwide has risen 14% in the span of five years.

The Middle East and North Africa region, which has ongoing wars in Yemen (down 4 at 166th) as well as Syria, continues to be the world’s most difficult and dangerous region for journalists.

Eastern Europe and Central Asia, the second worst region, does not lag far behind. Nearly two third of its countries are ranked below or around the 150th mark in the Index.

The Asia-Pacific region is the third worst violator overall but holds many of the worst kinds of records. Two of its countries, China (176th) and Vietnam (175th), are the world’s biggest prisons for journalists and bloggers.

It has some of the most dangerous countries for journalists: Pakistan (139th), Philippines (127th) and Bangladesh (146th).

Miscellaneous Facts

Banganapalle mango gets GI tag Molecule Disarib:

What is it? It is a novel small molecule, designed and synthesised by Indian researchers. It has shown promise in targeted killing of cancer cells. It works by binding itself to a protein called BCL2, which suppresses the death of cancerous cells. While BCL2 protein is produced in excess in cancer cells, its expression is almost undetectable in normal cells. Hence, Disarib targets and kills only cancer cells while sparing normal cells.

Amur Falcon: Amur falcons are the longest travelling raptors in the world. They weigh just 150 grams. Males are mostly grey in colour and the females have dark-streaked cream or orange

underparts. The species flies non-stop from Mongolia to northeast India covering 5,600 km in five

days and nights, a small part of its 22,000 km circular migratory journey. The birds halt briefly in Myanmar. After a month or so, they reach central and western India en route to South Africa.

Until recently, Naga tribesmen used to hunt thousands of Amur falcons for meat. But, after a vigorous campaign by wildlife activists, they have pledged to protect the bird and since then, not a single bird has been hunted in the area.

Darbar Move:




Leaders in Jammu and Kashmir have floated the idea of abrogation of the 146-year-old Dogra-era practice of ‘Darbar Move’.

What is it? Under this the State’s civil secretariat shuttles between summer capital Srinagar and winter capital Jammu bi-annually. It was introduced by Maharaja Gulab Singh in 1872.

Terming this as a costly affair, leaders have asked for bifurcation of the offices. Every year, over 7,000 employees of the civil secretariat shuttle between Srinagar and Jammu along with the files, which are ferried in buses and tracks. It costs the State over ₹40 crore.

Yellow-eyed penguins could be wiped out in 25 years: Researchers have predicted that New Zealand’s iconic Yellow-eyed penguins may go

extinct within the next 25 years due to rising ocean temperatures and climate change. The study highlights where conservation efforts could be most effective in building

penguins’ resilience against climate change. It is classified as endangered by the IUCN.

State gets its own butterfly: The Southern Bird Wing has been designated as the ‘State butterfly’ of Karnataka. It is

the largest butterfly in India and is endemic to south India, particularly Karnataka. Karnataka is second state in the country to adopt a state butterfly. Maharashtra had

chosen the Blue Moron in 2015. It should be noted here that state butterfly tag does not come with additional

protection.

In news- Henderson island: Henderson island, located in south Pacific Ocean, has been classified as the most

polluted place on the earth by Tasmania’s Institute for Marine and Aquatic Studies. The island contained 37.7 million pieces of debris.

The island is a world heritage site. It lies between Chile and New Zealand. It is one of the world’s last two raised coral atolls.

India is no. 2 stainless steel producer in the world:

India has emerged as the second largest stainless steel producer in the world after China. India toppled Japan in the year 2016 according to the figures disclosed by International Stainless Steel Forum at a conference held in Tokyo, Japan, recently.

India’s First Fleet of 200 Electric Vehicles Launched in Nagpur: India’s first multi-modal electric vehicle project was recently launched at Nagpur. This unique project brings together e-buses, e-cabs, e-rickshaws and e-autos on a single

platform, the Ola App, which will enable commuters in Nagpur to book them. The fleet of 200 vehicles consists of 100 of Mahindra’s new e20 Plus vehicles, besides

those from other manufacturers like Tata Motors, Kinetic and TVS.

See-through’ frog is at risk of extinction: A newly identified frog species — with transparent skin through which it’s beating heart

is visible — is under threat of extinction.




What you need to know? The frog (Hyalinobatrachium yaku), discovered in the Amazonian lowlands of Ecuador,

has unique physical and behavioural traits. Males guard the eggs, which are attached below a tree’s leaves, until they hatch and

fall on the water stream below. Not all glass frogs have hearts that are visible through the chest. In some, the heart

itself is white, so you don’t see the red blood. What’s the threat? Drying and polluting streams. If the stream dries up, or becomes polluted, the frogs can’t survive, and other more resilient creatures may be next.






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