Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 2- How interaction with the rest of the world shaped India
Context
Ever since Independence, India’s fate has been closely tied to the rest of the world.
How global interactions and how it shaped India
- A large, newly independent, impoverished, and diverse country required active engagement with a variety of partners for its survival, security, and development.
- But a constantly evolving international environment presented India not just with opportunities but numerous challenges.
- Poorly demarketed borders: Its frontiers were initially poorly demarcated and poorly integrated.
- Nuclear-armed neighbours: India came to have two nuclear-armed neighbors with which it competed for territory.
- Relations with the US and Russia: India’s first leaders opted for flexible and friendly relations with both the U.S. and the Soviet Union and their respective allies.
- The Indo-Soviet Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation and the Bangladesh war altered India’s relations with both superpowers and shifted the dynamics of the rivalry with Pakistan.
- Role in global politics: India also played an activist role in the decolonizing world, extending diplomatic and (in some cases) security assistance to independence movements in Asia and Africa and sending military missions to Korea and the Congo.
- Economic progress: There were also important economic strides made, including the Green Revolution, undertaken with considerable foreign technical and financial assistance.
- Independent policy: India often found itself at odds with the great powers when it felt its greater interests were threatened, as on intervention in Bangladesh, nuclear non-proliferation, or trade.
India after the Cold War
- The 1991 Gulf war resulted in a balance of payments crisis and the liberalization of the economy.
- India then adopted a range of reforms to liberalize the economy, but it faced more than just economic turmoil.
- Yet, the period that followed witnessed some important developments under the prime ministership of P.V. Narasimha Rao:
- The period saw the advent of the Look East Policy and relations with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations
- It also saw the establishment of diplomatic ties with Israel.
- The signing of a border peace and tranquility agreement with China took place in the same period
- The period also witnessed initial military contracts with the U.S., and preparations for nuclear tests.
- The Atal Bihari Vajpayee government built further upon these developments, conducting a series of tests in 1998, negotiating a return to normal relations with most major powers within two years.
- Economic development: These years also witnessed a rapid growth of the Indian economy, fuelled by a boom in information and communication technology companies, the services sector, and a rising consumer market.
- After 2004, the Manmohan Singh government worked extensively to resolve the outstanding question of India’s nuclear status.
- By eliminating barriers to ‘dual use’ technologies and equipment, as well as a host of associated export controls, India had the opportunity to establish robust defense relations with the U.S. and its allies.
- Coupled with an economic deceleration after 2011, India’s relations with the U.S. and Europe grew more contentious over the next three years.
Relationship with China
- The global financial crisis in 2008-09 presaged a slight change in approach, whereby India sought to partner with China and other rising powers on institutional reform, financial lending, climate change, and sovereignty.
- Beginning in 2013, China began to test India on the border and undermine Indian interests in South Asia and the Indian Ocean Region.
- With further stand-offs at Doklam and Ladakh between 2017 and 2021, India opted to boycott China’s Belt and Road Initiative, raise barriers to Chinese investment.
- In response, India began consulting more closely with other balancing powers in the Indo-Pacific.
- Security relations and understandings with the U.S. and its allies (Japan, France, Australia) accelerated after 2014.
- A greater emphasis on neighborhood connectivity was adopted.
Way forward
- As India enters its 75th year of independence, there are plenty of reasons for cautious optimism about its place in the world.
- COVID-19 and growing international competition also underscore the difficulties that India will likely face as it attempts to transform into a prosperous middle-income country.
- What is certain is that India will not have the luxury to turn inwards.
Conclusion
India’s objectives have been broadly consistent: development, regional security, a balance of power, and the shaping of international consensus to be more amenable to Indian interests. At the same time, India’s means and the international landscape have changed, as have domestic political factors.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Third schedule of Constitution
Mains level: Paper 2- Oath of an elected representative
Context
Some Cabinet Ministers in Karnataka who took oath recently stood out from the rest. All these oaths run against the spirit of the Constitution.
Background of agnostic Constitution
- The public officials who took office under the Government of India Act, 1935 had to take oath which had no mention of God.
- During the Constituent Assembly debate, B.R. Ambedkar proposed the Preamble, “We, the people of India…”.
- H.V. Kamath moved an amendment to the Preamble, “In the name of God, we, the people of India…”.
- To this proposal, another member, A. Thanu Pillai said that if this amendment is accepted it would affect the fundamental right of freedom of faith.
- He said that a man has a right to believe in God or not, according to the Constitution.
- H.N. Kunzru opposed Kamath’s amendment stating that in a matter that vitally concerns every man individually, the collective view should not be forced on anybody.
- The amendment was defeated, thereby excluding ‘God’ from the Preamble.
- Thus, our founding fathers gave us an agnostic Constitution.
What are provisions in Consitution
- The public officials who took office under the Government of India Act, 1935 had to take oath which had no mention of God.
- However, the framers of the Indian Constitution rejected this conception of secularism.
- Constitution gives office-holders an option to swear in God’s name if they so wished.
- The Supreme Court of India observed in 2012 that the oath by an elected representative should be taken “in the name of God” if the person is a believer or should be “solemnly affirmed” if the person is a non-believer.
- The Supreme Court said that the oath of an elected representative should be in strict compliance with the wordings of the Constitution.
Way forward
- As the Republic belongs to all the citizenry, irrespective of whether he is a theist, atheist or agnostic, and irrespective of his caste or religion, a person occupying a constitutional post should take oath in the format of ‘“solemnly affirm”.
- The Constitution should be amended accordingly.
Conclusion
If a person takes the oath in the name of a God affiliated to a particular religion or caste, the citizenry cannot expect the absence of affection or ill-will from him. The allegiance of a person holding a constitutional post should only be to the Constitution.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 3- Lessons from China's economic progress
Context
As we look back on our own journey after independence and feel proud of our achievements, wisdom lies in also looking around to evaluate how other nations have performed, especially those which started with a similar base or even worse conditions than us.
How India’s neighbouring countries have performed?
- Independent India has done better than Pakistan if measured on a per capita income basis:
- Comparison with Pakistan: India’s per capita income stood at $1,960 (in current PPP terms, it was $6,460) in 2020, as per the IMF estimates, while Pakistan’s per capita income was just $1,260 (in PPP terms $5,150).
- Comparison with Bangladesh: Bangladesh, whose journey as an independent nation began in 1971, had a per capita income of $2,000 (though $5,310 in PPP terms), marginally higher than India, and certainly much higher than Pakistan in 2020.
- Comparison with China: The real comparison of India should be with China, given the size of the population of the two countries and the fact that both countries started their journey in the late 1940s.
- By 2020, China’s overall GDP was $14.7 trillion ($24.1 trillion in current PPP terms), competing with the USA at $20.9 trillion.
- India, however, lags way behind with its overall GDP at $2.7 trillion ($8.9 trillion in PPP terms).
- The quality of life, however, depends on per capita income in PPP terms, with the USA at $63,420, China at $17,190 and India at $6,460.
What made the difference between India and China?
- India adopted a socialist strategy while China took to communism to provide people food, good health, education, and prosperity.
- China, having performed dismally on the economic front from 1949 to 1977, started changing track to more market-oriented policies, beginning with agriculture.
- Agriculture reforms: Economic reforms that included the Household Responsibility System and liberation of agri-markets led to an annual average agri-GDP growth of 7.1 percent during 1978-1984.
- Reform in the non-Agri sector: Success in agriculture reforms gave political legitimacy to carry out reforms in the non-agriculture sector.
- Manufacturing revolution: The success of reforms in agriculture created a huge demand for manufactured products, triggering a manufacturing revolution in China’s town and village enterprises.
- Population control measures: China adopted the one-child norm from 1979-2015.
- As a result, its per capita income grew much faster.
- India’s attempts to control its population succeeded only partially and very slowly.
- India’s sluggish performance when compared to China raises doubts about its flawed democratic structure that makes economic reforms and implementation of policy changes more challenging, unlike China.
Way forward for India
- Liberating agri-markets is part of the reform package that China followed. That’s the first lesson.
- Increase purchasing power of rural areas: Even for manufacturing to grow on a sustainable basis, we have to increase the purchasing power of people in rural areas.
- This has to be done by raising their productivity and not by distributing freebies.
- Investment in various areas: Increasing productivity requires investments in education, skills, health and physical infrastructure, besides much higher R&D in agriculture, both by the government as well as by the private sector.
- Create institutional setup: This requires a different institutional setup than the one we currently have.
Conclusion
India’s sluggish performance when compared to China raises doubts about its flawed democratic structure that makes economic reforms and implementation of policy changes more challenging, unlike China. But India has lessons to learn from China.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Fortification of food
Mains level: Addressing malnutrition issues
PM in his I-day speech has announced the fortification of rice distributed under various government schemes, including the Public Distribution System (PDS) and mid-day meals in schools, by 2024.
What is Fortification?
- FSSAI defines fortification as “deliberately increasing the content of essential micronutrients in a food so as to improve the nutritional quality of food and to provide public health benefit with minimal risk to health”.
What is Fortified Rice?
- Rice can be fortified by adding a micronutrient powder to the rice that adheres to the grains or spraying the surface of ordinary rice grains with a vitamin and mineral mix to form a protective coating.
- Rice can also be extruded and shaped into partially precooked grain-like structures resembling rice grains, which can then be blended with natural polished rice.
- Rice kernels can be fortified with several micronutrients, such as iron, folic acid, and other B-complex vitamins, vitamin A and zinc.
- These fortified kernels are then mixed with normal rice in a 1:100 ratio, and distributed for consumption.
Note: Biofortification is the process by which the nutritional quality of food crops is improved through agronomic practices, conventional plant breeding, or modern biotechnology. It differs from conventional fortification in that Biofortification aims to increase nutrient levels in crops during plant growth rather than through manual means during the processing of the crops.
What is the plan announced by the PM?
- Malnutrition and lack of essential nutrients in poor women and poor children pose major obstacles in their development.
- In view of this, it has been decided that the government will fortify the rice given to the poor under its various schemes.
- Be it the rice available at ration shops or the rice provided to children in their mid-day meals, the rice available through every scheme will be fortified by the year 2024.
Why such a move?
- The announcement is significant as the country has high levels of malnutrition among women and children.
- According to the Food Ministry, every second woman in the country is anemic and every third child is stunted.
- India ranks 94 out of 107 countries and is in the ‘serious hunger’ category on the Global Hunger Index (GHI).
- Fortification of rice is a cost-effective and complementary strategy to increase vitamin and mineral content in diets.
- According to the Food Ministry, seven countries have mandated rice fortification – the USA, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, and the Solomon Islands.
Advantages offered
- Health: Fortified staple foods will contain natural or near-natural levels of micro-nutrients, which may not necessarily be the case with supplements.
- Taste: It provides nutrition without any change in the characteristics of food or the course of our meals.
- Nutrition: If consumed on a regular and frequent basis, fortified foods will maintain body stores of nutrients more efficiently and more effectively than will intermittently supplement.
- Economy: The overall costs of fortification are extremely low; the price increase is approximately 1 to 2 percent of the total food value.
- Society: It upholds everyone’s right to have access to safe and nutritious food, consistent with the right to adequate food and the fundamental right of everyone to be free from hunger
Issues with fortified food
- Against nature: Fortification and enrichment upset nature’s packaging. Our body does not absorb individual nutrients added to processed foods as efficiently compared to nutrients naturally occurring.
- Bioavailability: Supplements added to foods are less bioavailable. Bioavailability refers to the proportion of a nutrient your body is able to absorb and use.
- Immunity issues: They lack immune-boosting substances.
- Over-nutrition: Fortified foods and supplements can pose specific risks for people who are taking prescription medications, including decreased absorption of other micro-nutrients, treatment failure, and increased mortality risk.
Adhering to FSSAI standard
The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) sets standards for food items in the country.
- According to FSSAI norms, 1 kg fortified rice will contain iron (28 mg-42.5 mg), folic acid (75-125 microgram), and Vitamin B-12 (0.75-1.25 microgram).
- In addition, rice may also be fortified with micronutrients, singly or in combination, with zinc(10 mg-15 mg), Vitamin A (500-750 microgram RE), Vitamin B1 (1 mg-1.5 mg), Vitamin B2 (1.25 mg-1.75 mg), Vitamin B3 (12.5 mg-20 mg) and Vitamin B6 (1.5 mg-2.5 mg) per kg.
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Back2Basics: Public Distribution System (PDS)
- The PDS is an Indian food Security System established under the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food, and Public Distribution.
- PDS evolved as a system of management of scarcity through the distribution of food grains at affordable prices.
- PDS is operated under the joint responsibility of the Central and State Governments.
- The Central Government, through the Food Corporation of India (FCI), has assumed the responsibility for procurement, storage, transportation, and bulk allocation of food grains to the State Governments.
- The operational responsibilities including allocation within the State, identification of eligible families, issue of Ration Cards and supervision of the functioning of FPSs etc., rest with the State Governments.
- Under the PDS, presently the commodities namely wheat, rice, sugar, and kerosene are being allocated to the States/UTs for distribution.
- Some states/UTs also distribute additional items of mass consumption through PDS outlets such as pulses, edible oils, iodized salt, spices, etc.
Mid-Day Meal Scheme
- The Midday Meal Scheme is a school meal program in India designed to better the nutritional standing of school-age children nationwide.
- It is a wholesome freshly-cooked lunch served to children in government and government-aided schools in India.
- It supplies free lunches on working days for children in primary and upper primary classes in government, government-aided, local body, and alternate innovative education centers, Madarsa and Maqtabs.
- The programme has undergone many changes since its launch in 1995.
- The Midday Meal Scheme is covered by the National Food Security Act, 2013.
The scheme aims to:
- avoid classroom hunger
- increase school enrolment
- increase school attendance
- improve socialization among castes
- address malnutrition
- empower women through employment
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Hydrogen
Mains level: National Hydrogen Mission
During his I-Day speech, the PM has announced a National Hydrogen Mission and said India will become the world’s largest exporter of green hydrogen in the years to come.
National Hydrogen Mission
- The PM’s announcement takes forward the proposal, made in the 2021 Budget, for the launch of NHM that would enable the generation of hydrogen “from green power sources”.
- The added advantage of hydrogen is that, apart from transportation, it can be a “decarbonizing agent” for industries like chemicals, iron, steel, fertilizer and refining, transport, heat and power.
- While the details of the NHM are yet to emerge, India has taken several exploratory steps.
- India has been working on a pilot project on Blue Hydrogen, Hydrogen CNG (H-CNG), and Green Hydrogen.
- Several programs are focusing to blend hydrogen with compressed natural gas for use as a transportation fuel as well as an industrial input to refineries.
Hydrogen as a fuel
- Hydrogen is the fuel of stars and packs awesome energy. It is also the most abundant element in the universe.
- But on Earth, it is found in complex molecules such as water or hydrocarbons.
- Hydrogen is not a source of energy, like fossil fuels or renewable sources like sunlight and air, but an energy carrier, which means it has to be produced, or extracted, and stored before it can be used.
- But no matter how it is used, the by-product the burning of hydrogen produces is water.
How is Hydrogen produced?
- There are several ways of extracting hydrogen and, depending on the method, the hydrogen produced is classified as ‘grey’, ‘blue’, or ‘green’ hydrogen.
- According to WEC, as of 2019, 96 percent of hydrogen is produced from fossil fuels via carbon-intensive processes.
- Hydrogen thus obtained is called ‘grey’ hydrogen as the process, though not as expensive as the other methods, releases a lot of carbon dioxide.
What Is Grey, Blue, Green Of Hydrogen?
- ‘Grey’ hydrogen becomes ‘blue’ hydrogen when the CO2 given out during its production is locked up through carbon capture and storage (CCS) processes.
- But while the CO2 output is lowered, this process is quite expensive.
- ‘Grey’ and ‘blue’ hydrogen, thus, are both produced by the same processes, the only difference for ‘blue’ hydrogen being that the CO2 produced is sequestered.
- But it is ‘green’ hydrogen that governments are aiming at. This is any hydrogen that is produced from clean energy sources like renewables.
- ‘Green’ hydrogen is released via the electrolysis of energy from renewable sources. This process, though it gives rise to no CO2 emissions, is expensive and not commercially viable yet.
Key challenges
- Lack of infrastructure: India does not have enough storage capacity for the current state of domestic consumption.
- Safety concerns: Hydrogen is highly inflammable.
Way ahead
- Developing technologies to produce ‘green’ hydrogen is cost-intensive.
- However, falling renewable energy and fuel cell prices and stringent climate change requirements have provided an impetus for investments in this area.
- In India, the IITs, IISc, Benaras Hindu University, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research laboratories etc. are exploring different aspects of hydrogen production.
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Also read:
[Burning Issue] India’s push for a Gas-based Economy
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Various Naga tribes
Mains level: Tribal assertiveness in NE region
The Parliament has passed a bill that seeks to amend the nomenclature of certain tribes from Arunachal Pradesh mentioned in the Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Order, 1950.
What does the Bill amend?
- The Bill seeks to modify Part-XVIII of the Schedule to the Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Order, 1950.
- Part-XVIII lists 16 tribes of Arunachal, in order: Abor, Aka, Apatani, Nyishi, Galong, Khampti, Khowa, Mishmi [Idu, Taroon], Momba, Any Naga tribes, Sherdukpen, Singpho, Hrusso, Tagin, Khamba, and Adi.
- The Bill corrects the names of tribes spelled incorrectly and adds names of a few tribes that were either named ambiguously or had their parent group named only.
Why is it significant?
- Self-identification: It is an essence for much-needed respect for small indigenous communities in the Northeast.
- Indigenous nomenclature of tribes: This has been a long-standing demand in Arunachal Pradesh for two reasons: for the recognition of individual identity and to do away with the ambiguity as a result of errors in their names.
- Identity assertion: For long, communities — whether civil society members or student leaders — have demanded that they must be known by their respective names.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Gati Shakti Master Plan
Mains level: Infrastructure development
In his I-day speech, the PM has announced a ₹100 lakh crore “Gati Shakti” infrastructure plan.
What is Gati Shakti Master Plan?
- The PM has pegged the project as a source of employment opportunities for the youth in the future.
- The plan will make a foundation for holistic infrastructure and give an integrated pathway to our economy.
- More details and the launch date of the project are awaited.
What are the focus areas of the project?
- The Gati Shakti plan will help raise the global profile of local manufacturers and help them compete with their counterparts worldwide.
- It also raises possibilities of new future economic zones.
- The PM also said that India needs to increase both manufacturing and exports.
Why need such a plan?
- The push for infrastructure is in line with the government’s efforts to step up capital expenditure in infrastructure to promote economic growth.
- Infrastructure development has the ability to create a multiplier effect with every rupee invested, yielding much higher returns.
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Back2Basics:
National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP)
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Karez/ Qanat
Mains level: Not Much
The Taliban are set to seize Kabul, but some expert believes they will spare the age-old Karez system of underground aqueducts in the country given its importance.
What is a Qanat / Karez?
- This system of underground vertical shafts in a gently sloping tunnel that is built from an upland aquifer to ground level.
- Some historians and archaeologists have attributed people in the southeast Arabian Peninsula as the first developers. Others, however, ascribe it to the ancient Persians.
- The Qanat / Karez system, wherever it was developed, soon spread to many Persian, Arab and Turkic lands.
- It even came to the Indian Subcontinent during the 800-year-old Islamic Period.
Karez in India
- The system was brought in the Indian Subcontinent during the Bahamani Sultanate, founded by Alaudin Bahman Shah.
- It later broke into five other Sultantates: Bijapur, Golconda, Ahmadnagar, Bidar and Berar.
- The Bahamani Sultanate was Persianate in nature and encouraged many things Persian, among them, the Karez.
- They was built in the city of Bidar during the reign of Bahamani Sultan Ahmad Shah Wali (1422-1436), who shifted the capital from Gulbarga to Bidar.
- By the 15th century, Bijapur city had a network of pipelines. Everyone got 24×7 supply of water.
- It also worked as confidence-building measure between the Sultan and his subjects since the Karez was built the state.
Try answering this PYQ:
With reference to the economic history of medieval India, the term Araghatta’ refers to:
(CSP 2016)
(a) bonded labour
(b) land grants made to military officers
(c) waterwheel used in the irrigation of land
(d) wastel and converted to cultivated land
Post your answers here.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Greater Adjutant Storks
Mains level: NA
In a first, Bihar has decided to tag endangered greater adjutant storks (Leptoptilos dubius), locally known as ‘Garuda’, with GPS trackers to monitor their movement as a part of their conservation.
Greater Adjutant Storks
- Bhagalpur’s Kadwa Diara floodplains area is the third-most-popular breeding centre for the greater adjutant stork in the world after Assam and Cambodia.
- Historically the range of the Greater Adjutant covered India and Southeast Asia, but today the endangered storks are mostly found in the Indian state of Assam and in Cambodia.
- In India, the Greater Adjutant is now confined to the northeastern state of Assam, their last stronghold.
Try answering this PYQ:
Q.If you walk through the countryside, you are likely to see some birds stalking alongside the cattle to seize the insects, disturbed by their movement through grasses. Which of the following is/are such bird/ birds?
- Painted Stork
- Common Myna
- Black-necked Crane
Select the correct answer using the code given below:
(a) 1 and 2 only
(b) 2 only
(c) 2 and 3 only
(d) 3 only
Post your answers here:
Their conservation
- The greater adjutant is one of the most threatened stork species of the world and is widely considered to be a rare bird.
- However, the global population of the Greater Adjutant Stork is estimated to be roughly not more than 1,500 now.
- Hence it is classified as ‘endangered ‘on the IUCN’s Red List 2004 of threatened species and listed under Schedule IV of the Indian Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972.
- The Bombay Natural History Society will help and work along with the state forest, environment, and climate change department to start the process of tagging greater adjutant storks with GPS tracker.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: IndiGau
Mains level: Not Much
The National Institute of Animal Biotechnology (NIAB), Hyderabad has launched a chip called IndiGau.
IndiGau
- IndiGau is India’s first Cattle Genomic Chip for the conservation of pure varieties of indigenous cattle breeds like, Gir, Kankrej, Sahiwal, Ongole etc.
- It is purely indigenous and the largest cattle chip in the world.
- It has 11,496 markers more than that placed on 777K Illumina chip of US & UK breeds.
- The manufacturing of this chip is in synergy with Rashtriya Gokul Mission and is a great example of Atmanirbhar Bharat.
Utility of IndiGau
- Indigenous bovines are robust and resilient and are particularly suited to the climate and environment of their respective breeding tracts,
- Their productivity is less likely to be impacted by the adversities of climate change.
- The milk of indigenous animals is high in fat and SNF (solids-not-fat) content.
(SNF content are the substances in milk other than butterfat and water in the form of casein, lactose, vitamins, and minerals which contribute significantly to the nutritive value of milk.)
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Back2Basics: National Programme for Bovine Breeding and Dairy Development
- The NPBBDD has been formulated by merging four ongoing schemes of the Department of Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries in the dairy sector.
- It was launched in Feb 2014.
- This merger has been done to integrate milk production and dairying activities in a scientific and holistic manner to meet the increasing demand for milk in the country.
Components of the scheme
NPBBDD has the following three components.
- National Programme for Bovine Breeding (NPBB)
- National Programme for Dairy Development (NPDD) and
- Rashtriya Gokul Mission.
Differences between all these schemes:
1) National Programme for Bovine Breeding
It aims-
- To arrange quality Artificial Insemination services at farmers’ doorstep
- To bring all breedable females under organized breeding through Artificial Insemination or natural service using germplasm of high genetic merits
2) National Programme for Dairy Development
It aims-
- To create and strengthen infrastructure for the production of quality milk including cold chain infrastructure linking the farmer to the consumer
- To strengthen dairy cooperative societies/Producers Companies at the village level
- To increase milk production by providing technical input services like cattle-feed, and mineral mixture etc.
3) Rashtriya Gokul Mission
It aims-
- To undertake breed improvement programme for indigenous cattle breeds so as to improve the genetic makeup and increase the stock.
- To enhance milk production and productivity of indigenous bovines.
- To upgrade nondescript cattle using elite indigenous breeds like Gir, Sahiwal, Rathi, Deoni, Tharparkar, Red Sindhi.
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