Current Affairs Of Today Are
1) Finance Minister announces short term and long-term measures for supporting the poor, including migrants, farmers, tiny businesses and street vendors
- Hon’ble Prime Minister announced a Special economic and comprehensive package of Rs 20 lakh Crore - equivalent to 10% of India’s GDP on 12th May 2020. He gave a clarion call for आत्मनिर्भर भारत अभियान or Self-Reliant India Movement. He also outlined five pillars of Aatmanirbhar Bharat – Economy, Infrastructure, System, Vibrant Demography, and Demand.
- Announcing the 2nd Tranche of measures to ameliorate the hardships faced specifically by migrant laborers, street vendors, migrant urban poor, small traders self-employed people, small farmers and housing, Union Finance & Corporate Affairs Minister Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman in her press conference detailed the short term and long-term measures for supporting the poor, including migrants, farmers, tiny businesses, and street vendors.
Following short term and long-term measures for supporting the poor, including migrants, farmers, tiny businesses and street vendors:-
- Free food grains supply to migrants for 2 months
- For the migrant labor, additional food grain to all the States/UTs at the rate of 5 kg per migrant laborer and 1 kg Chana per family per month for two months i.e. May and June 2020 free of cost shall be allocated. Migrant laborers not covered under National Food Security Act or without a ration card in the State/UT in which they are stranded at present will be eligible. States/UTs shall be advised to put a mechanism for targeted distribution as envisaged in the scheme. 8 Lakh MT of food-grain and 50,000 MT of Chana shall be allocated. The entire outlay of Rs. 3500 crore will be borne by the Government of India.
- Technology system to be used enabling Migrants to access PDS (Ration) from any Fair Price Shops in India by March,2021-One Nation one Ration Card
- The pilot scheme for the portability of ration cards will be extended to 23 states. By that, 67 crore beneficiaries covering 83% of the PDS population will be covered by the National portability of Ration cards by August 2020. 100% National portability will be achieved by March 2021. This is part of PM’s Technology-Driven System Reforms This scheme will enable a migrant worker and their family members to access PDS benefits from any Fair Price Shop in the country. This will ensure that the people in transit, especially migrant workers can also get the benefit of PDS benefit across the country.
- Scheme for Affordable Rental Housing Complexes for Migrant Workers and Urban Poor to be launched
- Central Government will launch a scheme for migrant workers and urban poor to provide ease of living at an affordable rent. Affordable Rental Housing Complexes will provide social security and quality life to migrant labor, urban poor, and students, etc. This will be done through converting government-funded houses in the cities into Affordable Rental Housing Complexes (ARHC) under PPP mode through concessionaire; manufacturing units, industries, institutions, associations to develop Affordable Rental Housing Complexes (ARHC) on their private land and operate; and Incentivizing State Govt agencies/Central Government Organizations on similar lines to develop Affordable Rental Housing Complexes (ARHC) and operate. The exact details of the scheme will be released by the Ministry/Department.
- 2% Interest Subvention for 12 months for Shishu MUDRA loanees- Relief of Rs. 1,500 crore
- The government of India will provide Interest subvention of 2% for prompt payees for 12 months to MUDRA Shishu loanees, who have loans below Rs 50,000. The current portfolio of MUDRA Shishu loans is around Rs 1.62 Lakh crore. This will provide relief of about Rs 1,500 crore to Shishu MUDRA loanee.
- Rs 5,000 crore Credit facility for Street Vendors
- A special scheme will be launched within a month to facilitate easy access to credit to Street vendors, who are amongst the most adversely impacted by the present situation for enabling them to restart their businesses. Under this scheme, the bank credit facility for initial working capital up to Rs. 10,000 for each enterprise will be extended. This scheme will cover urban as well as rural vendors doing business in the adjoining urban areas. The use of digital payments and timely repayments will be incentivized through monetary rewards. It is expected that 50 lakh street vendors will be benefitted from this scheme and credit of Rs. 5,000 crore would flow to them.
- Rs 70,000 crore boost to the housing sector and middle-income group through the extension of Credit Linked Subsidy Scheme for MIG under PMAY(Urban)
- The Credit Linked Subsidy Scheme for Middle Income Group (annual Income between Rs 6 and 18 lakhs) will be extended up to March 2021. This will benefit 2.5 lakhs middle income families during 2020-21 and will lead to an investment of over Rs 70,000 crore in the housing sector. This will create a significant number of jobs by giving a boost to the housing sector and will stimulate demand for steel, cement, transport, and other construction materials.
- Rs 6,000 crore for Creating employment using CAMPA funds
- Approximately Rs 6,000 crore of funds under Compensatory Afforestation Management & Planning Authority (CAMPA) will be used for Afforestation and Plantation works, including in urban areas, Artificial regeneration, assisted natural regeneration, forest management, soil & moisture conservation works, Forest protection, forest, and wildlife-related infrastructure development, wildlife protection and management, etc. The government of India will grant immediate approval to these plans amounting to Rs 6000 crore. This will create job opportunities in urban, semi-urban, and rural areas and also for Tribals (Adivasis).
- Rs 30,000 crore Additional Emergency Working Capital for farmers through NABARD
- NABARD will extend additional re-finance support of Rs 30,000 crore for meeting crop loan requirements of Rural Cooperative Banks and RRBs. This refinance will be front-loaded and available on tap. This is over and above Rs 90,000 crore that will be provided by NABARD to this sector in the normal course. This will benefit around 3 crore farmers, mostly small and marginal and it will meet their post-harvest Rabi and current Kharif requirements.
- Rs 2 lakh crore credit boost to 2.5 crore farmers under the Kisan Credit Card Scheme
- A special drive to provide concessional credit to PM-KISAN beneficiaries through Kisan Credit Cards. Fisherman and Animal Husbandry Farmers will also be included in this drive. This will inject additional liquidity of Rs 2 lakh crore in the farm sector. 2.5 crore farmers will be covered.
Source: PIB
3) Nepal can let India use link road: Oli
- Nepal expressed regret after the Defence Minister inaugurated the link road that will cut traveling time to the Tibetan plateau and the Kailash Mansarovar.
- In this background, Nepal’s Prime Minister has proposed a solution to the ongoing border tension between India and Nepal.
Details:
- Prime Minister of Nepal said that he was against India’s unilateral actions in the region but agreed that a solution can be found that will preserve Nepal’s territorial integrity and sovereignty.
- He said that they can allow India to use the link road to the Lipulekh Pass as part of an agreement, but will not surrender the Kalapani territory on which India has been carrying out construction.
- Nepal has objected to the road as Lipulekh, through which the link passes, is considered by Nepal as part of its own territory.
- Nepal disputes India’s claims over the Kalapani region located in the state of Uttarakhand.
- It maintains that the territories to the east of Mahakali river are a part of its domain, as agreed in the Treaty of Sugauli of 1816 between the East India Company and the King of Nepal.
What is the Kalapani dispute?
- Kalapani is a 372-sq km area at the China-Nepal-India tri-junction.
- India claims Kalapani as a part of Uttarakhand while Nepal depicts the area in its map.
- The border dispute flared up again recently after India released its new political map following the reorganization of J&K showing the area as its own.
- According to the Sugauli treaty signed between Nepal and British India in 1816, the Mahakali river that runs through the Kalapani area is the boundary between the two countries.
- However, British surveyors subsequently showed the origin of the river, which has many tributaries, at different places.
- While Nepal claims that the river, west of the disputed territory is the main river and so Kalapani falls in its territory, India claims a different origin and includes the area in its territory.
- Strategically, Lipulekh pass in Kalapani serves as an important vantage point for India to keep an eye on Chinese movements.
- Since 1962, Kalapani has been manned by the Indi-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP).
Source: The Hindu
4) Taiwan wants to join hands with India
- Taiwan has proposed a regular communication channel with India to link up medical agencies to better cooperate in the fight against COVID-19.
Details:
- According to the Foreign Minister of Taiwan, India and Taiwan have been cooperating, from research on treatments to share Taiwan’s experience in controlling COVID-19, although they do not have formal diplomatic ties.
- Despite the lack of official diplomatic ties, both the countries set up representative offices in each other’s respective capitals in 1995.
- Since then, they have engaged in dynamic ongoing communication on many levels.
- However, the sharing of information on COVID-19 has been restricted to relying on the International Health Regulations (IHR) focal point under the WHO.
- Taiwan believes that the arrangement is far from satisfactory.
- Foreign Minister of Taiwan opines that setting up a regular communication channel between medical agencies will help coordination.
- He suggested that Taiwan and India could consider setting up a regular communications channel between their medical agencies to ensure the availability of medical resources.
Conclusion:
- Taiwan wants to share its experience with the World Health Organization (WHO) where it is not a member but wants participation.
- The Foreign Minister of Taiwan believes that if Taiwan could participate fully in the WHO and if it could interact with other countries on an equal basis under the WHO framework, more nations would receive Taiwan’s early warning.
Source: The Hindu
5) Army’s Proposal of 3-year Tenure for Civilians
Recently, the Army has proposed 3 years of voluntary Tour of Duty (ToD) for
civilians on a trial basis.
Key Points
- Proposal:
- The Army plans to take civilians on a three- year ‘Tour of Duty’ (ToD) or ‘Three-year Short Service’ on a trial basis to serve in the force as both officers and Other Ranks (ORs).
- The proposal suggests several measures to incentivize this scheme like a tax-free income for three years and a token lump sum at the end of three years of about Rs.5-6 lakh for officers and Rs.2-3 lakh for ORs.
- However, there will be no severance packages, resettlement courses, professional encashment training leave, ex-Servicemen status, ex-Servicemen Contributory Health Scheme (ECHS) for the ToD officers and other ranks.
- The proposal is a shift from the concept of permanent service/job in the Armed Forces, towards internship/temporary experience for three years.
- If approved it will be a voluntary engagement and there will be no dilution in selection criteria.
- The Army hopes that this would attract individuals from the best colleges, including the Indian Institute of Technology.
- The rationale behind the Proposal:
- There is a "resurgence of nationalism and patriotism" in the country and the proposal attempts to tap the feeling of the youths who do not want to join the Army as a profession but wish to experience military life for a temporary duration.
- Expected Benefits to the Army:
- Reduction of Financial Burden: The cost of a three-year service per officer will be a fraction of the cost incurred on Short Service Commission (SSC) officers, which includes the cost of pre-commission training, pay, allowances, gratuity, leave encashment among others.
- Modernization of Army: The reduced financial burden will shift the focus towards modernization of the army in terms of training, arms, and equipment.
- Expected Benefits to the Youth:
- It will not only provide a job with a higher salary but also ensures placement in corporate sectors after retirement as the corporate sector will prefer to hire such youths rather than fresh graduates.
- It has been seen that corporates favor individuals who have been trained by the military at 26 or 27 years of age.
- Benefits to the Nation:
- It will help to channelize the youth energy into positive utilization of their potential.
- Rigorous military training and habits inculcation will lead to the healthy citizenry.
- The entire nation will benefit from trained, disciplined, confident, diligent, and committed young men or women who have done the three-year service.
Source: The Hindu
6) Revenue Loss to States
- According to estimates from the India Ratings and Research (a credit rating agency), the Covid-19 lockdown has caused 21 major States to suffer a collective revenue loss of about Rs. 97,100 crore for April.
Key Points
- The lockdown caused disruptions to production, supply-chains, trade, and the total washout of activities in aviation, tourism, hotels, and hospitality.
- The disruption caused has taken place with such speed and scale that even if the lockdown is lifted, economic activity is unlikely to normalize shortly.
- Although, during the lockdown, nearly 40% of the economy was functional as economic activities defined as essentials were allowed to operate.
- This means that despite the lockdown some amount of revenue did accrue to the states. But despite this, the states faced significant revenue loss in April.
- The lockdown has a more paralyzing impact on the states, which have a high share of own revenue in the total revenue mix.
- For example, for Goa, Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, and Telangana 65%-76% of their revenue comes from their own sources.
- Both the Union government and State governments are struggling due to the dried-up cash inflow.
- But the problems of the States are more precarious because of the actual battle against the Covid-19 and the associated expenditure being incurred by them.
- Under the current circumstance, there is a fair amount of uncertainty regarding the quantum and timings of the states' receivables from the Centre. Their own sources of revenue have also fallen to abysmally low levels.
- This is pushing states to adopt austerity measures and combine it with exploring new/more ways of generating revenues.
- Austerity measures include action by the government to reduce the amount of money it spends.
- Conclusion
- The situation may improve somewhat in May 2020 due to the easing of some restrictions–
- Allowing the liquor sale.
- Raising the excise duty on liquor.
- Some states have raised VAT on petrol and diesel.
Note
- Sources of State government revenue:
- States’ Own Tax Revenue (SOTR),
- Share in central taxes,
- States’ Own Non-Tax Revenue (SONTR)
- Grants from the Centre.
- States’ own revenue mainly comes from seven heads–
- State Goods and Services Tax (SGST), State Value Added Tax (VAT)- mostly on petroleum products, State excise-mostly on liquor, stamps and registration fees, vehicle tax, tax, and duty on electricity, and own non-tax revenue.
Source: The Hindu
7) Direct Seeding of Rice
- Due to the labor shortage in two granary states of Punjab and Haryana, farmers are now being encouraged to adopt ‘Direct Seeding of Rice’ (DSR) in place of conventional transplanting.
- Covid-19 pandemic has led the laborers to reverse migrate to their villages, which has created a shortage of laborers.
Key Points
- Normal Transplanting of Paddy vs Direct Seeding of Rice
- Transplanting Paddy:
- In transplanting paddy, farmers prepare nurseries where the paddy seeds are first sown and raised into young plants.
- The nursery seedbed is 5-10% of the area to be transplanted.
- These seedlings are then uprooted and replanted 25-35 days later in the puddled field.
- Direct Seeding of Rice (DSR):
- In DSR, the pre-germinated seeds are directly drilled into the field by a tractor-powered machine.
- There is no nursery preparation or transplantation involved in this method.
- Farmers have to only level their land and give one pre-sowing irrigation.
- Protection against the weeds
- Transplanting Method: In transplanting for the first three weeks or so, the plants have to be irrigated almost daily to maintain a water depth of 4-5 cm.
- Water prevents the growth of weeds by denying them oxygen in the submerged stage, whereas the soft ‘aerenchyma tissues’ in paddy plants allow air to penetrate through their roots. Water, thus, acts as a herbicide for paddy.
- DSR Method: In DSR as flooding of fields is not done during sowing, chemical herbicides are used to kill weeds.
- The advantage with Direct Seeding of Rice
- Water savings.
- Fewer numbers of laborers required.
- Saves labor costs.
- Reduce methane emissions due to a shorter flooding period and decreased soil disturbance compared to transplanting rice seedlings.
- Drawbacks of Direct Seeding of Rice
- Non-availability of herbicides.
- The seed requirement for DSR is also high, 8-10 kg/acre, compared to 4-5 kg/acre in transplanting.
- Further, laser land leveling is compulsory in DSR. This is not so in transplanting.
- The sowing needs to be done timely so that the plants have come out properly before the monsoon rains arrive.
Rice
- Rice is a staple food for the overwhelming majority of the population in India.
- It is a Kharif crop that requires high temperature, (above 25°C) and high humidity with annual rainfall above 100 cm.
- In the areas of less rainfall, it is grown with the help of irrigation.
- In southern states and West Bengal, the climatic conditions allow the cultivation of two or three crops of rice in an agricultural year.
- In West Bengal farmers grow three crops of rice called ‘aus’, ‘aman’, and ‘boro’.
- About one-fourth of the total cropped area in India is under rice cultivation.
- Leading producer states West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, and Punjab.
- High Yielding States: Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Haryana, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, West Bengal, and Kerala.
- Punjab and Haryana are not traditional rice-growing areas.
- Rice Cultivation in the irrigated areas of Punjab and Haryana was introduced in the 1970s following the Green Revolution.
- Almost the entire land under rice cultivation in Punjab and Haryana is irrigated.
- India contributes 21.6% of rice production in the world and ranked second after China in 2016.
Source: Indian Express
9) ARI develop a novel process for the synthesis of Quantum Dots used in photographing cellular organelles
- Researchers at the Agharkar Research Institute (ARI), Pune an autonomous institute under the Department of Science & Technology have developed a new process for the synthesis of quantum efficient and biocompatible quantum dots (QDs) used in capturing images of cellular organelles and processes within the visible wavelength ranges across the electromagnetic spectrum.
- The process which involves continuous flow and is active microreactor assisted has been published in the journal Advances in Colloid and Interface Science recently.
- Currently, bioimaging applications such as visualization of cellular organelles, tracking cellular processes, etc. are reliant on traditional fluorophores which are fluorescent chemical compounds that can re-emit light upon excitation.
- These fluorophores are vulnerable to photobleaching, have low signal intensity, and overlapping spectra which restrict their use, particularly in multispectral bioimaging. Quantum Dots have advantages over traditional fluorophores in terms of quantum efficiency, photo- and chemical-stability and their toxicity can be tackled by a surface coating which also expands the possibility of the conjugation of various biomarkers while targeting different organelles during multispectral bioimaging. However, it is challenging to reproducibly obtain the essential properties during synthesis. Thus, QDs are still not favored commercially over traditional fluorophores.
- To overcome this challenge Dr. Dhananjay Bodas, Scientist, Nanobioscience Group at ARI developed the continuous flow active microreactor based synthesis in conjunction with mathematically predicted process parameters and employed it to obtain narrow size-tunable monodispersed QDs with a high degree of reproducibility.
- Further, the synthesized QDs were rendered biocompatible by coating with silicone. The coating not only provided biocompatibility but also enhanced quantum efficiency and photostability. These polymer-coated quantum efficient fluorescent nanocrystals were successfully applied in multispectral bioimaging -- multiple emission at the single excitation wavelength, of organelles of cells and zebrafish tissue.
- According to Dr. Boda's reproducibility can be achieved by stringent control on the synthesis process. Micro reaction technology offers not only this alternative but advantages such as faster reaction rates, less concentration/ thermal gradients, less consumption of reagents, and so on.
- The method could be made industry viable by automation and could be scaled-up in the future, which could pave the way for cost-efficient production of monodispersed, quantum efficient, photostable, and biocompatible quantum dots, that might serve as an excellent alternative to traditional fluorophores says Dr. Bodas.
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Figure: a) Schematic of the microreactor used for the synthesis of
quantum dots. b) The photoluminescence spectra showing the emission
spectra (different colors) obtained at an excitation wavelength of 350
nm. The background is a photograph of different colored QDs
synthesized using the continuous flow of active microreactors. c) The
top panel shows the QDs bound to the nucleus and cytoskeleton of NIH
3T3 cells and the bottom one to MF-20 and PCNA cells of zebrafish
tissue. The images on the left are “control” whereas those on the
right are the polymer quantum dot conjugates used for multiplexed
bioimaging. Source: PIB
10) Devices for Disabled and Elderly
The Department of Science and Technology has helped in developing
various assistive tools, devices and technological solutions to
mitigate the impact of Covid-19 among Divyangjan and Elderly
through a program on Technology Interventions for Disabled and
Elderly (TIDE).
Key Points
Source: PIB
11) A novel tool to help gain deeper insight into Parkinson’s disease
Source: PIB
12) US-Israel Talks on West Bank Annexation
Key Points
Source: Indian Express
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