Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: National Food Security Act
Mains level: Paper 3- Problem of food subsidy and excess grain stocks
The article highlights the challenge of managing the procurement of wheat and rice at MSP by the FCI and maintaining its financial health.
The problem of surplus in wheat and rice procurement
- While MSP is declared for 23 crops, the biggest financial burden comes from wheat and rice.
- Procurement has increased significantly with states like MP, Chhattisgarh, Telangana and Odisha stepping up their efforts.
- Overall procurement of rice and wheat has gone up to 52 million tonnes and 39 million tonnes, respectively.
- The requirement of PDS and welfare schemes is about 60 million tonnes.
- This leaves a surplus of about 30 million tonnes, in addition to the carry-over stock of about 42 million tonnes (current)—far above the buffer and strategic reserve norms.
Cost of the surplus and its significance
- The subsidy burden for rice and wheat (2020-21) is estimated to be Rs 1.8 lakh crore.
- FCI procures wheat and rice at MSP (some states do so under the decentralised procurement & distribution scheme).
- They incur costs like market fees, labour charges, packing costs, transport, storage charges, etc.
- These are of the order of 9% for procurement, 9-11% for labour and transport, and 15-17% for distribution.
- The sale price is fixed at Rs 2 and Rs 3 per kg for wheat and rice, respectively, under the National Food Security Act.
- In addition, there are releases under LEAN (lower entitlements and higher costs compared to NFSA cards, but subsidised nonetheless) and Open Market Sales (OMSS).
- Cost of holding the buffer for a year is about Rs 5,500 per tonne.
- FCI is holding 39 million tonnes of rice and 55 million tonnes of wheat (July 2020) against the buffer/strategic reserve norm of 13.5 million tonnes of rice and 27.6 million tonnes of wheat, i.e., a surplus of 52 million tonnes.
- The cost of holding this stock works out to Rs 29,000 crore per year.
Financial burden on FCI
- The finance ministry has not been able to allocate adequate funds to meet the full requirement of food subsidy.
- Under-provisioning on this account has been going on, and FCI was being given loans at 8% interest from the National Savings Scheme Fund (NSSF) since 2016-17.
- The outstanding loan on this account (October 31, 2020) is Rs 2,93,000 crore.
- This has meant FCI getting zero budgetary support against current subsidy claims since 2017, thereby, postponing the problem year after year.
- The subsidy burden is rising (with MSP increasing every year, quantities going up and prices under PDS fixed), and is likely to cross Rs 2 lakh crore.
Conclusion
Government need to bring in the reforms in the PDS and MSP regime to stop both the systems from collapsing under their own weights.
Source:-
https://www.financialexpress.com/opinion/union-budget-2021-22-the-burgeoning-food-subsidy-bill-will-be-a-key-budget-worry/2155584/
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Targets under the Paris Agreement
Mains level: Paper 3- 5 years of Paris Agreement and actions of EU and India
This article by the Ambassador of the European Union underscores the need for implementation and action on the commitments made in the Paris Agreement to deal with climate change.
EU’s commitment to implement Paris Agreement
- In December 2019, the European Commission launched the European Green Deal — roadmap to achieve climate neutrality in the EU by 2050.
- “Next Generation EU” recovery package and our next long-term budget earmark more than half a trillion euros to address climate change.
- Recently EU leaders unanimously agreed on the 2030 target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% compared to 1990 levels.
Impact on low carbon technologies
- These actions and commitments of the EU towards Paris Agreement will further bring down the costs of low carbon technologies.
- The cost of solar photovoltaics has already declined by 82% between 2010 and 2019.
- Achieving the 55% target will even help us to save €100 billion in the next decade and up to €3 trillion by 2050.
EU working with India on climate actions
- No government can tackle climate change alone.
- India is a key player in this global endeavour.
- The rapid development of solar and wind energy in India in the last few years is a good example of the action needed worldwide.
- India has taken a number of very significant flagship initiatives such as the International Solar Alliance, the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure and the Leadership Group for Industry Transition.
- India and Team Europe are engaged to make a success of the forthcoming international gatherings: COP 26 in Glasgow on climate change and COP 15 in Kunming on biodiversity.
Way forward
- The international community should come forward with clear strategies for net-zero emissions and to enhance the global level of ambition for 2030.
- Our global, regional, national, local and individual recovery plans are an opportunity to ‘build back better’.
- We will also need to foster small individual actions to attain a big collective impact.
Conclusion
With climate neutrality as our goal, the world should mobilise its best scientists, business people, policymakers, academics, civil society actors and citizens to protect together something we all share beyond borders and species: our planet.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: League of Nations
Mains level: Paper 2- Changing global order and opportunities for India
Despite China’s rise, the world will remain committed to multi-polar order. The article highlights the emerging trends in the global order against the backdrop of a pandemic and explains how there could be an opportunity for India.
Changing geopolitical landscape and choices India face
- As the world is slowly recovering from the disruption caused by the pandemic, there are worrying intimations of other crises looming round the corner.
- Geopolitics has been transformed and power equations are being altered.
- There are a new set of winners and losers in the economic changes.
- Technological advancement will magnify these changes.
- India will need to make difficult judgements about the world that is taking shape and find its place in a more complex and shifting geopolitical landscape.
- As the pandemic recedes, the world could draw the right lessons and proceed on a more hopeful trajectory.
Unlearnt lessons: lack of international cooperation
- Most challenges the world faces are global, like the pandemic.
- However, international cooperation in either developing an effective vaccine or responding to its health impacts has been minimal.
- The pre-existing trend towards nationalist urgings, the weakening of international institutions and multilateral processes continues.
- Even in the distribution of vaccines, we are witnessing a cornering of supplies by a handful of rich nations.
Need for a collaborative solution
- Global challenges such as climate change, cybersecurity, space security, terrorism, drug trafficking, money laundering and ocean and terrestrial pollution demand collaborative, not competitive solutions.
- The challenges require some display of statesman-like leadership to mobilise action on a global scale.
- The nation-state will endure but its conduct will need to be tempered by a spirit of internationalism and a sense of common humanity.
Role of China and Asia
- The pre-pandemic shift in the centre of gravity of the global economy and political power and influence, from the trans-Atlantic to the trans-Pacific, has been reinforced under the impact of the crisis.
- East Asian and South-East Asian countries are the first to register the green shoots of recovery.
- China has been the first large economy to witness a significant rebound in its growth rate.
- The regional supply chains centred on China have been reinforced rather than disrupted.
- China will emerge in pole position in the geopolitical sweepstakes commencing in 2021.
- The power gap with its main rival, the US, will shrink further.
Why should India prefer multi-polar world order
- As the power gap between India and China is expanding, the threat from China will intensify and demand asymmetrical coping strategies.
- Despite China emerging a relative gainer from the pandemic the trend towards multi-polarity is here to stay.
- Neither the US nor China can singly or as a duopoly manage a much more diffused distribution of economic and military capabilities across the globe.
- This is only possible through multilateral approaches and adherence to the principle of equitable burden-sharing.
- But a multipolar order can only be stable and keep the peace with a consensus set of norms, managed through empowered institutions of international governance and multilateral processes.
- India’s instinctive preference has been for a multipolar order as the best assurance of its security and as most conducive to its own social and economic development.
- India now has the opportunity to make multipolar order as its foreign policy priority as this aligns with the interests of a large majority of middle and emerging powers.
- This will be an important component of a strategy to meet the China challenge.
The favourable geopolitical moment for India
- Due to China’s aggressive posture across the board and its unilateral assertions of power, there is a significant push-back even from smaller countries, for example, in South-East Asia and Africa.
- China’s blatant “weaponisation of economic interdependence” such as action against Australia, has made its economic partners increasingly wary.
- In this context, India is seen as a potential and credible countervailing power to resist Chinese ambitions.
- The world wants India to succeed because it is regarded as a benign power wedded to a rule-based order.
- India can leverage this propitious moment to encourage a significant flow of capital, technology and knowledge to accelerate its own modernisation.
Consider the question “Though it may sound counterintuitive, India which is dealing with pessimism about its economic prospect in the wake of the pandemic, may be located at favourable geopolitical moment” Comment.
Conclusion
India should seize the opportunity and make multi-polar world order a pillar of its foreign policy to counter China threat while trying to leverage the moment to attract the flow of capital, technology and knowledge to accelerate its own modernisation.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not Much
Mains level: TIbetan issue
The US and China sparred over Tibet and the South China Sea over the passing of the Tibetan Policy and Support Act (TPSA).
Do you think that India’s support for the Tibetan cause is the root cause of all irritants in India-China relations?
About TPSA
- The TPSA once signed into law would make it the official policy of the US Government to oppose any effort by the govt. of the People’s Republic of China to select, educate, and venerate Tibetan Buddhist religious leaders in a manner inconsistent with Tibetan Buddhism.
- The proposed legislation will empower the US Government to impose sanctions on China who might try to interfere in the process of selecting the next incarnation of the Dalai Lama.
Why such a law?
- Tibetans were concerned over the possibility of the Chinese Government making an attempt to install someone loyal to it as the 15th Dalai Lama after the death of the incumbent.
- The PRC could use him as a puppet to fizzle out the global campaign against its occupation of Tibet.
- The incumbent and the 14th Dalai Lama have been living in exile in India ever since his 1959 escape from Tibet, which had been occupied by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) in 1950-51.
- He has been leading the movement for “genuine autonomy” for Tibet and the Tibetans.
Significance of TPSA
- The TPSA acknowledged the legitimacy of the Tibetan Parliament in Exile elected by the exiled community as well as the CTA.
- It seeks to introduce key provisions aimed at protecting the environment and water resources on the Tibetan Plateau.
- In an aggressive move, the PRC government has forced resettlement of the nomads from grasslands.
- TPSA recognizes the importance of traditional Tibetan grassland stewardship in mitigating the negative effects of climate change in the region.
- In addition, it calls for greater international cooperation to monitor the environment on the Tibetan plateau.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not Much
Mains level: India's population boom
The latest data from the National Family Health Survey-5 (NFHS-5) proves that the country’s population is stabilizing and fears over a “population explosion” and calls for a “two-child policy” is misguided.
Try this PYQ:
Q.Economic growth in country X will necessarily have to occur if
(a) There is technical progress in the world economy
(b) There is population growth in X
(c) There is capital formation in X
(d) The volume of trade grows in the world economy
Two-Child Policy
- The two-child policy is a state-imposed limit of two children allowed per family or the payment of government subsidies only to the first two children.
- A two-child policy has previously been used in several countries including Iran, Singapore, and Vietnam.
- In British Hong Kong in the 1970s, citizens were also highly encouraged to have two children as a limit (although it was not mandated by law), and it was used as part of the region’s family planning strategies.
- Since 2016, it has been re-implemented in China replacing the country’s previous one-child policy.
Present status in India
- There is no national policy mandating two children per family.
- A parliamentarian had tabled a Bill in the Rajya Sabha in 2019 on the matter, proposing incentives for smaller families.
- PM in 2019 had appealed to the country that population control was a form of patriotism.
- Months later, the NITI Aayog called various stakeholders for a national-level consultation on the issue, which was subsequently cancelled following media glare on it.
- In 2020, the PM spoke about a likely decision on revising the age of marriage for women, which many stakeholders view as an indirect attempt at controlling the population size.
Why doesn’t India need it?
- The survey provides evidence of uptake in the use of modern contraceptives in rural and urban areas.
- It gives an improvement in family planning demands being met and a decline in the average number of children borne by a woman.
- The report stated that most States have attained replacement level fertility, i.e., the average number of children born per woman at whom a population exactly replaces itself from one generation to the next.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Matter, Anti-matter
Mains level: Formation of the universe and the Big Bang
This newscard is an excerpt from the original article published in DownToEarth.
Try this PYQ:
Q.The known forces of nature can be divided into four classes, viz, gravity, electromagnetism, weak nuclear force and strong nuclear force. With reference to them, which one of the following statements is not correct?
(a) Gravity is the strongest of the four
(b) Electromagnetism act only on particles with an electric charge
(c) Weak nuclear force causes radioactivity
(d) Strong nuclear force holds protons and neutrons inside the nuclear of an atom.
What is Antimatter?
- Antimatter is the opposite of normal matter. More specifically, the sub-atomic particles of antimatter have properties opposite those of normal matter.
- The electrical charge of those particles is reversed.
- Antimatter was created along with matter after the Big Bang, but antimatter is rare in today’s universe.
- To better understand antimatter, one needs to know more about the matter.
- The matter is made up of atoms, which are the basic units of chemical elements such as hydrogen, helium or oxygen.
Their existence
- The existence of antimatter was predicted by physicist Paul Dirac’s equation describing the motion of electrons in 1928.
- At first, it was not clear if this was just a mathematical quirk or a description of a real particle.
- But in 1932 Carl Anderson discovered an antimatter partner to the electron — the positron — while studying cosmic rays that rain down on Earth from space.
- Over the next few decades’ physicists found that all matter particles have antimatter partners.
- Scientists believe that in the very hot and dense state shortly after the Big Bang, there must have been processes that gave preference to matter over antimatter.
- This created a small surplus of matter, and as the universe cooled, all the antimatter was destroyed, or annihilated, by an equal amount of matter, leaving a tiny surplus of matter.
- And it is this surplus that makes up everything we see in the universe today.
Studying the difference between matter and antimatter
- A Quark is a type of elementary particle and a fundamental constituent of matter.
- Quarks combine to form composite particles called hadrons, the most stable of which are protons and neutrons, the components of atomic nuclei.
- The behaviour of quarks, which are the fundamental building blocks of matter along with leptons, can shed light on the difference between matter and antimatter.
- Since they are unstable, they will “decay” — fall apart — into other more stable particles at some point during their oscillation.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Great Indian Bustard
Mains level: Not Much
The Environment Ministry along with the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) India has come up with a unique initiative a “firefly bird diverter” for overhead power lines in areas where Great Indian Bustard (GIB) populations are found in the wild.
Try this PYQ:
Q.Which one of the following groups of animals belongs to the category of endangered species?
(a) Great Indian Bustard, Musk Deer, Red Panda, Asiatic Wild Ass
(b) Kashmir Stag, Cheetah, Blue Bull, Great Indian Bustard.
(c) Snow Leopard, Swamp Deer, Rhesus Monkey, Saras (Crane)
(d) Lion Tailed Macaque, Blue Bull, Hanuman Langur, Cheetah
Great Indian Bustard
- The GIB is one of the heaviest flying birds and can weigh up to 15 kg which grows up to one metre in height.
- In July 2011, the bird was categorised as “critically endangered” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
- It is considered the flagship grassland species, representing the health of the grassland ecology.
- For long, conservationists have been demanding to secure this population, warning that the bird might get extinct in the coming decades.
- It would become the first mega species to disappear from India after Cheetah in recent times.
- Till the 1980s, about 1,500-2,000 Great Indian Bustards were spread throughout the western half of India, spanning eleven states.
- However, with rampant hunting and declining grasslands, their population dwindled.
Bird Diverters
- The diverters are called fireflies because they look like fireflies from a distance, shining on power lines in the night.
- GIBs are one of the heaviest flying birds in India. Therefore, when they encounter these wires, they are unable to change the direction of their flight.
- Death is most cases is due to impact with the wires and not due to electrocution.
- The diverter will not only save GIB but other species of large birds, including migratory birds.
Why such a move?
- GIB is one of the most critically threatened species in India, with less than 150 birds left in the wild.
- A report has pointed out that power lines, especially high-voltage transmission lines with multiple overhead wires, are the most important current threat for GIBs in the Thar region.
- They are causing unsustainably high mortality in about 15% of their population.
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