Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: PLIS
Mains level: Paper 3- Food processing industry in India
Context
One of the largest producers of fruits and vegetables in the world to boost processed food in large quantities, India has formulated a unique Production-Linked Incentive Scheme (PLIS) which aims to incentivise incremental sales.
Progress made so far
- A sum of ₹10,900 crore has been earmarked for the scheme.
- Beneficiaries have been obliged to commit a minimum investment while applying for the scheme.
- Under Category 1, firms are incentivised for incremental sales and branding/marketing initiatives taken abroad.
- Assuming the committed investment as a fixed ratio of their sales and undertaking execution of at least 75% of the projects, the sector is likely to witness at least ₹6,500 crore worth of investment over the next two years.
- New alternatives are being explored which have immense potential in replacing the staples of rice and wheat in the form of Nutri-cereals, plant-based proteins, fermented foods, health bars and even fresh fortified foods for pets.
- By welcoming the new brands in the category, PLIS aims to create an enabling ecosystem for innovation in both food products and processes.
Way forward
1] Improve infrastructure
- A study in the United States concluded that a 1% increase in public infrastructure increased the food manufacturing output by 0.06% in the longer run (https://bit.ly/3rOeE0l).
- This correlation holds good for India too as a higher investment is being concentrated in States such as Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh.
- These States as reported by the Good Governance Index 2020-21, ranked among the highest in the ‘Public Infrastructure and Utilities’ parameter with ‘Connectivity to Rural Habitations’ showing the highest improvement.
2] Improve profitability in export
- For the exports market, it is now established that sales promotion is positively related to increased sales volume, but inversely related to profitability.
- To bridge this gap, of the 13 key sectors announced under the PLIS, the ‘Food Processing PLIS’ earmarks a dedicated Category 3 for supporting branding and marketing activities in foreign markets.
- This ensures that India’s share of value-added products in the exports basket is improved, and it may leverage on its unique geographical proximity to the untapped markets of Europe, the Middle East/West Asia, Africa, Oceania and Japan.
3] Access to credit
- The access of micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) to finance is a perennial problem in the country, predominating due to a lack of proper credit history mechanism for MSMEs.
- Smart financing alternatives such as peer-to-peer (P2P) lending hold potential for micro-food processors.
- Access to working capital has in theory been addressed by the Trade Receivables Discounting System (TReDS), a platform for facilitating the financing/discounting of trade receivables of MSMEs through multiple financiers.
Conclusion
With growing populations, changing food habits and unrestricted use of natural resources, nations must come together and lay out a road map for a common efficient food value chain.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: Paper 3- Issues with rapid transition to green energy
Context
Europe’s push for renewable energy at the cost of conventional fuel may end up causing a global food crisis.
Consequences of fuel shortage in Western Europe
- Since August 2021, Western Europe has faced a problem with renewable energy – the wind doesn’t always blow when needed and the sun doesn’t always shine.
- Commodity markets across the world operate on a balance of demand and supply — even seemingly “small” changes in either side of a few percentage points can push the prices up or down sharply.
- High energy bills: Higher gas prices have pushed up energy bills for households and are expected to impact household spending and consumption as well.
- High urea prices: Natural gas is used to produce urea – if gas prices go up, fertiliser also becomes expensive.
- Some poor and middle-income countries are already starting to face problems of fertiliser availability — there are reports from several Indian states as well.
- High food prices: The impact of expensive fertiliser will be felt some months down the line as expensive fertiliser and reduced harvests push up food prices.
- India is relatively less affected as the share of natural gas in the country’s energy mix is low but will still face problems due to high food prices.
- In 2007-08, when oil prices were high, there was a push to use “biofuels” led by the US and Europe.
- The effects of the 2008 food price crisis were felt around the world, especially by the poor.
Lessons for India
- Cheap and reliable energy sources should not be abandoned until the alternatives have been stringently stress tested.
- India will be especially hard hit if oil prices spike as it imports close to 1.4 billion barrels of oil annually.
Consider the question “What are the inherent dangers in rapid transition to the green energy? Suggest the way forward for India.”
Conclusion
A blind push to shut down traditional sources of energy and move to less reliable “clean” energy can have second and third order effects.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Contingency Fund of India
Mains level: Not Much
The government has tweaked spending norms for Contingency Fund of India, allowing 40% of the total corpus to be placed at disposal of the Expenditure Secretary.
What are the proposed changes?
- Budget 2021-22 proposed to enhance the Contingency Fund of India from ₹500 crore to ₹30,000 crore through Finance Bill.
- An amount equivalent to 40 per cent of the Fund corpus shall be placed at the disposal of the Secretary, Ministry of Finance, Department of Expenditure.
- This would serve the purpose of meeting unforeseen expenditure.
What is Contingency Fund of India?
- Contingency is a negative event which may occur in future, like recession or pandemic.
- The Constitution has a provision for a contingency fund. Its corpus is always kept intact.
- Article 267 of the Constitution mandates formation of a corpus under Contingency Fund of India to deal with any emergency situation.
- It is placed at the disposal of the President of India.
- Government cannot withdraw funds from it without authorization of the Parliament.
- And the corpus has to be replenished with the same amount later.
Management of the fund
- The fund is held by the Department of Economic Affairs on behalf of the President of India and it can be operated by executive action.
- The fund can be increased through a Finance Bill when Parliament is in the session.
- Or through Ordinance if the House is not in session and situation warrants.
- Withdrawal from the fund takes place with the approval of the Secretary of Department of Economic Affairs, in terms of the Contingency Fund of India Act, 1950.
- An amount equivalent to 40% of the corpus has now been placed at the disposal of the Expenditure Secretary.
- All further Contingency Fund releases beyond this limit will require the approval of the Expenditure Secretary in addition to the Economic Affairs Secretary’s approval.
Back2Basics:
Consolidated Funds of India
- The provision for this fund is given in Article 266(1) of the Constitution of India.
- The government meets all its expenditure from this CFI.
- It receives money from:
- Direct and indirect taxes Loans taken by the Indian government
- Returning of loans/interests of loans to the government by anyone/agency that has taken it
- The government needs parliamentary approval to withdraw money from this fund.
- Each state has its own Consolidated Fund of the state with similar provisions.
- The Comptroller and Auditor General of India audits these funds and reports to the relevant legislatures on their management.
Public Account of India
- All other public money (other than those covered under the Consolidated Fund of India) received by or on behalf of the Indian Government are credited to this account/fund.
- It is constituted under Article 266(2) of the Constitution.
- This is made up of:
-
- Bank savings account of the various ministries/departments
- National small savings fund, defense fund
- National Investment Fund (money earned from disinvestment)
- National Calamity & Contingency Fund (NCCF) (for Disaster Management)
- Provident fund, Postal insurance, etc.
- Similar funds
- The government does not need permission to take advances from this account.
- Each state can have its own similar accounts.
- CAG makes audit of all the expenditure from the Public Account of India.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Padma Awards
Mains level: National Honours
The central government has announced the names of Padma awardees for this year.
What are Padma awards?
- The Padma awards are the highest civilian honor of India after the Bharat Ratna.
- They are announced every year on the eve of Republic Day.
- The awards are given in three categories:
- Padma Vibhushan (for exceptional and distinguished service)
- Padma Bhushan (distinguished service of higher order) and
- Padma Shri (distinguished service)
- The award seeks to recognize achievements in all fields of activities or disciplines where an element of public service is involved.
Note: During the years 1978 and 1979 and 1993 to 1997, Padma awards were not announced.
Who are the awardees?
- The awards are given in certain select categories which include Art, Social Work, Public Affairs, Science & Engineering, Trade & Industry, Medicine, Literature & Education, Civil Service and Sports.
- Awards are also given for propagation of Indian culture, protection of human rights, wild life protection among others.
Its constitution
- The PADMA Awards were instituted in 1954 along with Bharat Ratna.
- At that time only Padma Vibhushan existed with three sub-categories – Pahela Varg, Dusra Varg and Tisra Varg.
- These were subsequently renamed as Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan and Padma Shri vide Presidential Notification issued on January 8, 1955.
Particulars of the awards
- The awardees do not get any cash reward but a certificate signed by the President apart from a medallion which they can wear at public and government functions.
- The awards are, however, not a conferment of title and the awardees are expected to not use them as prefix or suffix to their names.
- A Padma awardee can be given a higher award only after five years of the conferment of the earlier award.
Terms of awarding
- Not more than 120 awards can be given in a year but this does not include posthumous awards or awards given to NRIs and foreigners.
- The award is normally not conferred posthumously.
- However, in highly deserving cases, the Government could consider giving an award posthumously.
Who is eligible for Padma awards?
- All persons without distinction of race, occupation, position or sex are eligible for these awards.
- However, government servants including those working with PSUs, except doctors and scientists, are not eligible for these awards.
- The award seeks to recognize works of distinction and is given for distinguished and exceptional achievements or service in all fields of activities and disciplines.
- According to Padma awards selection criteria, the award is given for “special services” and not just for “long service”.
- It should not be merely excellence in a particular field, but the criteria has to be ‘excellence plus’.
Who nominates the awardees?
- Any citizen of India can nominate a potential recipient.
- One can even nominate one’s own self. All nominations are to be done online where a form is to be filled along with details of the person or the organisation being nominated.
- An 800-word essay detailing the work done by the potential awardee is also to be submitted for the nomination to be considered.
- The government also writes to various state governments, governors, Union territories, central ministries and various departments to send nominations.
Who selects the awardees?
- All nominations received for Padma awards are placed before the Padma Awards Committee, which is constituted by the Prime Minister every year.
- The Padma Awards Committee is headed by the Cabinet Secretary and includes Home Secretary, Secretary to the President and four to six eminent persons as members.
- The recommendations of the committee are submitted to the Prime Minister and the President of India for approval.
- The antecedents of the selected awardees are verified using the services of central agencies to ensure nothing untoward has been reported or come on record about them.
- A final list is then prepared and announced.
Is the recipient’s consent sought?
- There is no provision for seeking a written or formal consent of the recipient before the announcement of the award.
- However, before the announcement, every recipient receives a call from the Ministry of Home Affairs informing him or her about the selection.
- In case the recipient expresses a desire to be excluded from the award list, the name is removed.
Try this question from CSP 2021
Q.Consider the following statements in respect of Bharat Ratna and Padma Awards
- Bharat Ratna and Padma Awards are titles under the Article 18(1) of the Constitution of India.
- Padma wards, which were instituted in the year 1954, were suspended only once.
- The number of Bharat Ratna Awards is restricted to a maximum of five in a particular year.
Which of the above statements are not correct?
(a) 1 and 2 only
(b) 2 and 3 only
(c) 1 and 3 only
(d) 1, 2 and 3
Post your answers here.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), 2021
Mains level: Corruption and money laundering
The 2021 Corruption Perception Index by Transparency International places India 85th on a list of 180 countries, one position above last year.
Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI)
- The CPI is an index which ranks countries “by their perceived levels of public sector corruption, as determined by expert assessments and opinion surveys.”
- The CPI generally defines corruption as an “abuse of entrusted power for private gain”.
- The index is published annually by the non-governmental organisation Transparency International since 1995.
- The index ranks 180 countries and territories by their perceived levels of public sector corruption according to experts and business people.
- It uses a scale of 0 to 100 to rank CPI, where 0 is highly corrupt and 100 is very clean.
What kind of corruption does the CPI measure?
The data sources used to compile the CPI specifically cover the following manifestations of public sector corruption:
- Bribery
- Diversion of public funds
- Officials using their public office for private gain without facing consequences
- Ability of governments to contain corruption in the public sector
- Excessive red tape in the public sector which may increase opportunities for corruption
- Nepotistic appointments in the civil service
- Laws ensuring that public officials must disclose their finances and potential conflicts of interest
- Legal protection for people who report cases of bribery and corruption
- State capture by narrow vested interests
- Access to information on public affairs/government activities
The CPI does NOT cover:
- Citizens’ direct perceptions or experience of corruption
- Tax fraud
- Illicit financial flows
- Enablers of corruption (lawyers, accountants, financial advisors etc)
- Money-laundering
- Private sector corruption
- Informal economies and markets
Highlights of the 2021 Report
- The top-performing countries were Denmark, Finland and New Zealand — all having a corruption perceptions score of 88 — followed by Norway, Singapore and Sweden, all of them scoring 85.
- In contrast, the worst-performing countries were South Sudan with a corruption perceptions score of 11, followed by Syria (13), Somalia (13, Venezuela (14) and Afghanistan (16).
India’s performance
- In 2021, India ranked 86th with the same CPI score of 40.
- The report highlighted concerns over the risk to journalists and activists who have been victims of attacks by the police, political militants, criminal gangs and corrupt local officials.
- Civil society organizations that speak up against the government have been targeted with security, defamation, sedition, hate speech and contempt-of-court charges, and with regulations on foreign funding.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Chakmas and Hajongs
Mains level: Not Much
In Arunachal Pradesh, the Chakma and Hajong people are feeling heat since the State government decided to conduct a special census in December 2021.
What is the news?
- The North-Eastern States have had a history of being paranoid about outsiders outnumbering the indigenous communities and taking their land, resources and jobs.
- The threat from “non-locals” in a specific area has also been perceived to be from communities indigenous elsewhere in the region.
- This has often led to conflicts such as the recent attacks on non-tribal people in Meghalaya’s capital Shillong or an Assam-based group’s warning to a fuel station owner in Guwahati against employing Bihari workers.
Who are the Chakmas and Hajongs?
- The Chakmas and Hajongs of Arunachal Pradesh are migrants from the Chittagong Hill Tracts of erstwhile East Pakistan, now Bangladesh.
- Displaced by the Kaptai dam on the Karnaphuli River in the 1960s, they sought asylum in India.
- They settled in relief camps in the southern and south-eastern parts of Arunachal Pradesh from 1964 to 1969.
- A majority of them live in the Changlang district of the State today.
- Mizoram and Tripura have a sizeable population of the Buddhist Chakmas while the Hindu Hajongs mostly inhabit the Garo Hills of Meghalaya and adjoining areas of Assam.
Why was a special census of the two communities planned?
- The Arunachal Government has cited to resolve the protracted issue of racial antagonism.
- It seeks to rehabilitate the Chakma-Hajongs in other States.
- The census plan was however dropped after the Chakma Development Foundation of India petitioned the PMO.
Issues with the census
- Chakma organizations said the census was nothing but racial profiling of the two communities because of their ethnic origin and violated Article 14 of the Indian Constitution.
- It is against Article 1 of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, ratified by India.
What is their citizenship status?
- Members of the two communities had been settled in Arunachal Pradesh six decades ago with a rehabilitation plan, allotted land and provided with financial aid depending on the size of their families.
- Although local tribes claim the population of the migrants has increased alarmingly, the 2011 census says there are 47,471 Chakmas and Hajongs in the State.
- They are granted citizenship by birth under Section 3 of the Citizenship Act, 1955, after having been born before July 1, 1987, or as descendants of those who were born before this date.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Spot-billed Pelicans
Mains level: NA
A nematode infestation has led to mass mortality of spot-billed pelicans (Pelicanus philippensis) at Telineelapuram Important Bird Area (IBA) in Andhra Pradesh.
Spot-billed Pelicans
- The spot-billed pelican (Pelecanus philippensis) or grey pelican is a member of the pelican family.
- It breeds in southern Asia from southern Iran across India east to Indonesia.
- It is a bird of large inland and coastal waters, especially large lakes.
- The breeding population of these pelican species is limited to India, Sri Lanka and Cambodia.
- In the non-breeding season they are recorded in Nepal, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos and Vietnam.
Conservation status
- IUCN status: Near Threatened
- Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972: Schedule IV (Hunting prohibited but the penalty for any violation is less compared to the first two schedules)
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