GS Analyst: Daily Current Affairs

Recently, the Prime Minister has inaugurated 600 Kisan Samridhi Kendras and ‘One Nation, One Fertilizer’ scheme to modernise agriculture.

• One Nation, One Fertilizer Scheme has been launched with the Kisan Samriddhi Kendras functioning as the helping centers for farmers.
• During the launch event, the 12th installment of the PM Kisan Samman Nidhi has also been announced.
• Under the scheme, ?16,000 crores will be credited into the bank accounts of over 8.5 crore farmers.
• The amount under the scheme would be credited directly into the accounts of farmers and there will be ‘no mediators’.
  
  

Need of the Initiative:

• India is among the world’s largest buyers of fertilizer, besides China, Brazil, and the US.
• India imports four types of fertilizers:
  • Urea
  • diammonium phosphate (DAP)
  • muriate of potash (MOP)
  • nitrogen-phosphorous-potassium (NPK)

One Nation, One Fertilizer Scheme:

• The scheme will consist of a “Single Brand for Fertilisers and Logo” under the fertilizer subsidy scheme named “Pradhanmantri Bhartiya Janurvarak Pariyojna” (PMBJP).
• The scheme would extend to all four fertilizers – Urea, Di-Ammonium Phosphate, Muriate of Potash, and complex NPK – with ‘BHARAT’ pre-fixed.
• The single brand name would be BHARAT UREA, BHARAT DAP, BHARAT MOP, and BHARAT NPK, etc. respectively for all Fertiliser Companies, State Trading Entities (STEs) and Fertiliser Marketing Entities (FMEs).
• Under the scheme, companies are allowed to display their name, brand, logo, and other relevant product information only on one-third space of their bags.
• On the remaining two-thirds of the space, the “Bharat” branded Pradhanmantri Bharatiya Jan Urvarak Pariyojana logo will have to be shown.

Significance of the Scheme:

• Uniformity: It will bring uniformity in fertilizer brands across the country.
• Stop crisscross movements: It will stop the crisscross movement of fertilizers, especially urea. Which leads to its diversion for industrial purposes.
• Brand-wise demand for fertilizers in specific areas by farmers is one of the reasons for the crisscross movement of fertilizers. Since fertilizer companies get the freight subsidy, they do not hesitate to move bags a longer distance.

Concerns associated:

• It will disincentivize fertilizer companies from undertaking marketing and brand promotion activities.
• Under this program, fertilizer companies are expected to get reduced to just contract manufacturers and importers for the government.
• As of now, the company is blamed in case any bag or batch of fertilizer is not up to the standards. But after the scheme's implementation, the onus may be put on the government.

Addressing the questioning on subsequent Rise in prices of Wheat and related products in last few months, the Department of Food and Public Distribution Secretary has mentioned that the price rise is not abnormal and will intervene only if required.

Why have the wheat prices gone up?

• Free foodgrains scheme: Union government in the aftermath of the covid pandemic has been running a 5kg per month free foodgrains scheme.
• No selling of FCI stocks in the open market: When wheat (or rice) prices start going up, the government sells FCI stocks in the open market to cool down prices. That hasn’t happened this year, primarily because of the free foodgrains scheme.
• Export of wheat: During the first five months (April-August) of the financial year 2022-23, Indian wheat exports have doubled from last year’s level.
• India exported 43.50 lakh metric tonnes (LMT) of wheat during April-August 2022-23, which was 116.7 percent more than the corresponding months last year.
• Impact of the Russia-Ukraine war: The majority of the wheat export was done during October 2021 – Feb 2022 period. This means that countries that do not produce enough wheat began to stock up once the chances of Russia attacking Ukraine went up.
• Import of wheat by Egypt: This has led to private wheat traders stocking up on wheat from the open market, pushing up prices.
• Fall in production in India: India's wheat production is projected to have declined nearly three percent to 106.84 million tonnes in the 2021-22 crop year.
  
  
  

Key Points related to Wheat:

• This is the second most important cereal crop in India after rice.
• It is the main food crop, in the northern and north-western parts of the country.
• Wheat is a rabi crop that requires a cool growing season and bright sunshine at the time of ripening.
• The success of the Green Revolution contributed to the growth of Rabi crops, especially wheat.
• Macro Management Mode of Agriculture, National Food Security Mission, and Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana are a few government initiatives to support wheat cultivation.
• Temperature: Between 10-15°C (Sowing time) and 21-26°C (Ripening & Harvesting) with bright sunlight.
• Rainfall: Around 75-100 cm.
  
  
  
• Soil Type: Well-drained fertile loamy and clayey loamy (Ganga-Satluj plains and black soil region of the Deccan).
• Top Wheat Producing States: Uttar Pradesh > Punjab > Haryana>Madhya Pradesh > Rajasthan> Bihar>Gujarat.

Suggestive measures

• Open Market Sale Scheme (OMSS): OMSS refers to the selling of food grains by government/government agencies at predetermined prices in the open market from time to time.
• This can reduce the burden on price levels and keeps less fluctuating wheat prices.

Recently, the Union Finance Minister has said that the decline in India’s foreign exchange reserves is largely due to the valuation changes arising from an appreciating U.S. dollar.

• The GDP growth for Q1 of the current financial year 2022-23 at 13.5% is the highest among the large economies.
• The Government expenditure is now tilted towards capital rather than revenue, strengthening the foundations for medium-term growth.
• Touching 13.5% GDP growth in Q1 enabled India to cross the pre-pandemic level by 3.8%.
• Bolstering consumer confidence and revival of contact-intensive activities.
• Gross fixed capital formation (GFCF) growth shot up to 20% in Q1.
• Both exports and imports are growing at double digits but import growth is more robust than that of exports, reflecting the revival of the domestic economy.
  
  
  

How Dollar affects other Currencies?

• The U.S. dollar has been a bedrock of the global economy and a reserve currency for international trade and finance.
• Like any other fiat currency, the dollar's relative value depends on the economic activity and outlook of the United States.
• In addition to fundamentals and technical factors, market psychology and geopolitical risk also influence the dollar's value on the world market.

India and Strengthening Dollar:

• India’s foreign exchange reserves at $537.5 billion as of September 23, 2022, are in a favorable position with most peer economies.
• Two-thirds of the decline in reserves is due to valuation changes arising from an appreciating U.S. dollar and higher U.S. bond yields.
• External indicators like net international investment position and short-term debt also indicate lower vulnerability.
• India’s external debt to GDP ratio is the lowest among major emerging market economies (EMEs).

Impacts:

• Elevated imported inflation pressures
• Continuing appreciation of the U.S. dollar
• Withdrawal of monetary accommodation

Possible Implications:

• The Russia-Ukraine war could further disrupt the global energy system.
• Fresh supply concerns in the winter for critical commodities such as crude oil and natural gas.
• Inflation control remains a major concern in developed economies.

Concerns for Global Economy

• Mounting inflationary pressures
• Currency depreciation
• Rising debts
• Shrinking fiscal space

Measures to be taken:

• Adopt a people-centric approach driven by innovation
• Nurture new growth drivers
• Bringing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development back on track

• The recently released Global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) indicates that 41.5 crore people exited poverty in India during the 15-year period between 2005-06 and 2019-21.

  The Global Multidimensional Poverty Index:

  • Definition: The global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) is an international measure of acute multidimensional poverty covering over 100 developing countries.
  • It complements traditional monetary poverty measures by capturing the acute deprivations in health, education, and living standards that a person faces simultaneously.
  • Developed by: The global MPI was developed by Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) with the UN Development Programme (UNDP) for inclusion in UNDP’s flagship Human Development Report in 2010.
  • It has been published annually by OPHI and in the HDRs ever since.
  • The global MPI constructs a deprivation profile of each household and person through 10 indicators spanning health, education, and standard of living and includes both incidences as well as the intensity of poverty.
  • All indicators are equally weighted within each dimension.
  • The global MPI identifies people as multi-dimensionally poor if their deprivation score is 1/3 or higher.

  Key Highlights: (India-specific Data)

  • It shows that the incidence of poverty fell from 55.1% in 2005-06 to 16.4% in 2019-21 in the country.
  • The deprivations in all 10 MPI indicators saw significant reductions as a result of which the MPI value and incidence of poverty more than halved.
  • About 41.5 crore people exited poverty in India during the 15-year period between 2005-06 and 2019-21, out of which two-thirds exited in the first 10 years, and one-third in the next five years.
  • Improvement in MPI for India has significantly contributed to the decline in poverty in South Asia.
  • It is for the first time that it is not the South Asian region with the highest number of poor people, at 38.5 crores, compared with 57.9 crores in Sub-Saharan Africa.
  • The report doesn’t fully assess the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on poverty in India as 71% of the data from the National Family Health Survey-5 (2019-2021) relied upon for MPI were collected before the pandemic.
  • Bihar is the poorest State in 2015-2016, seeing the fastest reduction in MPI value in absolute terms. The incidence of poverty there fell from 77.4% in 2005-2006 to 34.7% in 2019-2021.
  
  
  
  

India’s present scenario:

• India has by far the largest number of poor people worldwide at 22.8 crores, followed by Nigeria at 9.6 crores.
• Two-thirds of these people live in a household in which at least one person is deprived of nutrition.
• There were also 9.7 crore poor children in India in 2019-2021.
• About 4.2% of the population in the country still lives in severe poverty.
• Rural areas account for nearly 90% of poor people.

The General Assembly of Interpol to be organized by India this year has drawn attention regarding its Functioning and roles. As, Interpol and cross-national law enforcement agencies must endeavor to build a people-centric ecosystem to meet evolving challenges.

90th General Assembly of Interpol:

• Rising criminality has caused law enforcement to come under strain.
• It is against this backdrop that the 90th General Assembly of Interpol will be hosted by India this month.
• The General Assembly of the International Criminal Police Organisation (Interpol) is meeting in Delhi for four days from October 18, 2022.
• This is the second time since 1997 the 195-member-strong body is holding such a large conference in India.

About Interpol:

• It was set up in 1923, as a secure information-sharing platform that facilitates criminal investigation of police forces across the globe through the collection and dissemination of information received from various police forces.
• It is headquartered in Lyon, France.
• It keeps track of the movements of criminals and those under the police radar in various regions and tips off police forces that had either sought Interpol’s assistance or which in its opinion will benefit from the particulars available with it.
• It aims to promote the widest-possible mutual assistance between criminal police forces.

India and the Interpol:

• India, as one of the oldest and strongest members of Interpol, has been involved in productive engagements over the years.
• Several operations have been undertaken by the CBI with Interpol.

Working of Interpol:

• Interpol uses 19 databases and tools for issuing alerts and sharing information about criminals and their modus operandi.
• It has a huge repository of fingerprints, DNA profiles, facial recognition kits, cyber-enabled financial crimes, and property crimes, among others.
• It has undertaken various operations in different countries relating to the trafficking of women and children, cybercrimes, online piracy, spurious pharmaceuticals, narcotics smuggling, illegal gun trade, missing persons, and stolen and lost travel documents.

Interpol’s global security architecture is used in:

• Providing information about crime and criminals in the digital space
• Preventing abuse of cyberspace
• Stalling hackers on the dark web

Interpol databases populated by India relate to:

• Interpol Criminal Information System
• Stolen and lost travel documents
• Works of art and international child sexual exploitation.

Areas of concern addressed by Interpol:

• Human trafficking
• Financial crimes by the high and mighty
• Safe haven provided to fugitives accused of terrorism
• Money laundering
• The proliferation of illicit trade based on counterfeiting and smuggling
• Transnational organized crime

Interpol Vs. Other Policing Organisations

• It is not meant for dispute resolution.
• It is designed to assist the police forces of member nations.
• Interpol is neither an investigative agency like the CBI nor a front-line police force.
• It is mandated to share information and provide back-end technical assistance to law enforcement agencies.
• Interpol's action against notorious fugitives is consequential upon commensurate action from member nations where the fugitives might be seeking shelter.
• Interpol cannot act on its own.
• The desired legal course of action depends on bilateral arrangements like mutual legal assistance treaties.

Suggestive Measures:

• Interpol needs to calibrate to counter emergent challenges
• Need for public-spirited efficient policing
• Build, maintain and operate a people-centric ecosystem

With an aim to give impetus to the defense sector, India’s ‘biggest ever’ defense exhibition – DefExpo 2022 is going to begin in Gandhinagar, Gujarat from October 18 to 23.

About the DefExpo 2022:

• This is the 12th edition of the event that has been organized on the theme ‘Path to Pride’.
• Objective: DefExpo 2022 aims to showcase the growing prowess of the domestic defense industry, calling it one of the major drivers of the nation’s resolve to achieve ‘Make in India, Make for the World’.
• It is a biennial exhibition (organized every Two years) that has been organized to support, showcase, and forge partnerships for the Indian aerospace and defense manufacturing sectors with Indian as well as global customers.
• The Expo event is exclusively for Indian companies, as a humble tribute of an ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’ to Mahatma Gandhi who he called the “pillar of the Swadeshi movement”.
• DefExpo 2022 will be the first-ever edition exclusively for Indian companies.
• Indian Participants for the Event:
  • Indian companies,
  • Indian subsidiaries of Foreign OEMs,
  • Division of a company registered in India, and
  • Exhibitors having a Joint Venture with an Indian company will be considered Indian participants.
• This edition has the largest participation so far and is spread over one lakh square meters with 75 countries, 33 Foreign Ministers, 1,340 Indian companies, and 10 State pavilions.
• Events listed: As part of the DefExpo, a live demonstration by the Army, the Navy, the Air Force, the Coast Guard, and the DRDO, showcasing land, naval, and air procedures, and systems in action will be done at the ‘Sabarmati River Front.

Significance:

• Pan-India participation: For the first time, States/Union Territories (UTs) have been invited to set up pavilions at the event. It is a new initiative for States/UTs as they will get an opportunity to participate in nation-building by attracting investment and bolstering their potential for indigenous aerospace & defense manufacturing. 
• The DefExpo 2022 will also mark the celebration of one year of the formation of the seven new defense companies, carved out of the erstwhile Ordnance Factory Board.

It is high time for India to develop technologies that not only fulfill food and nutritional needs but also address climate change.

Global Scenario:

• The global population in 1945 was a little less than 2.5 billion and was increasing at an annual rate of about 1.9 percent per annum.
• Today, there are almost 8 billion people on this planet, and there is ample food to feed them.
• Access to food at affordable prices, however, remains a challenge for a substantial segment of humanity.

Food sustainability and Climate change

Change in behavior of people:

• Incentivize people to change their way of doing things, be it in agriculture or any other field.
• There seems to be a lack of sync between policies and technologies.
• We need to double or even triple its expenditure on agri-research and development and education.

Climate change and Food Security:

• Climate change is already affecting food security through increasing temperatures, changing precipitation patterns, and greater frequency of extreme events.
• The factors affecting crop yields due to Climate change have shown that yields of some crops (e.g., maize and wheat) in many lower-latitude regions have been affected negatively.
• Warming compounded by drying has caused large negative effects on yields in parts of the
• Based on indigenous and local knowledge (ILK), climate change is affecting food security in drylands, particularly those in Africa, and high mountain regions of Asia and South America.

Role of Technology:

• The technologies that can have the largest impact on agricultural productivity include the use of existing genetically modified crops, soil and water management, pest control, and post-harvest processing.

The path towards self-reliance:

• There seems to be a lack of sync between policies and technologies.
• India needs to double or even triple its expenditure on agri-research.
• This needs to go up preferably between 1.5 to 2 percent of the agri-GDP.

Government Interventions

• Weather-Based Crop Insurance Scheme (WBCIS), aims to mitigate the hardship of the insured farmers against the likelihood of financial loss on account of anticipated crop loss resulting from adverse weather conditions relating to rainfall, temperature, wind, humidity, etc.