Centre to hold talks with states in order to curb pollution as winter approaches
With
winter approaching and concerns over an imminent rise in pollution across Delhi
and other cities in the Gangetic plain, Union Environment Minister Prakash
Javadekar has said that he will be convening a “virtual conference” of
Environment Ministers of Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan
and officials in the State departments as well as from city corporations.
“We
had asked States to prepare short, medium and long-term plans for curbing
pollution in 2016 and this meeting will be a review. It will be a free
discussion,” he said at a conference on Tuesday.
So
far, the Minister said, there have been several meetings this year already with
the States as well one that included the Prime Minister’s Office to discuss
issues around curbing pollution.
From
October, teams of officials from the Central Pollution Control Board will be
conducting spot checks in the Delhi -National Capital Region to catch and fine
offenders who may be burning plastic waste, littering or be constructing
structures without adhering to protocol.
Defence
ministry launches startup challenge -4.
Defence
Minister Rajnath Singh launched the Defence India Startup Challenge (DISC 4)
during the iDEX event, featuring the initiatives aimed at expanding the
horizons of Innovations for Defence Excellence (iDEX) ecosystem in New Delhi
today. Mr Singh also launched the iDEX4Fauji initiative and Product Management
Approach (PMA) guidelines during the event.
iDEX4Fauji
is a first of its kind initiative, launched to support innovations identified
by members of the Indian Armed Forces and will bolster frugal innovation ideas
from soldiers and field formations.
Speaking
on the occasion, Mr Singh said, the iDEX initiative stands out as one of the
most effective and well-executed defence Startupecosystem created in the
country. He said, it would be a decisive step towards achieving self-reliance
in the spirit of the AtmaNirbhar Bharat campaign.
Responsible
AI for Social Empowerment (RAISE) 2020
Recently,
the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) and NITI Aayog will
organize a Mega Virtual Summit on Artificial Intelligence (AI), RAISE
2020-‘Responsible AI for Social Empowerment 2020’.
It
is a first of its kind, global meeting of minds on Artificial Intelligence to
drive India's vision and roadmap for social transformation, inclusion and
empowerment through responsible AI.
•
It includes using AI in areas like Health, Agriculture, Education, Skilling,
Mobility,
Fintech,
Research, Inclusive AI, Future of Work, among others.
•
The event will witness participation from global industry leaders, key opinion
makers, Government representatives and academia.
•
It will also feature some startups working in AI-related fields.
•
India can leverage AI for inclusive development, representing the country's 'AI
for All' strategy.
•
India has launched National AI Strategy and National AI Portal and has also
started leveraging AI across various sectors such as education, agriculture,
healthcare, e-commerce, finance, telecommunications, etc.
•
Recently, India joined the 'Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence
(GPAI)' as a founding member to support the responsible and human-centric
development and use of
Artificial
Intelligence (AI).
About
Artificial Intelligence:
•
It describes the action of machines accomplishing tasks that have historically
required human intelligence.
•
It includes technologies like machine learning, pattern recognition, big data,
neural networks, self-algorithms etc. Example: Facebook’s list of suggested
friends for its users, self-driving cars, etc.
•
It Automates Processes and reduces human error but the principal limitation of
AI is that it learns from the data. This means any inaccuracies in the data
will be reflected in the results.
•
It is important to make AI responsible as it can be misused for various
purposes like Deep Fakes, Cybercrimes, Social Manipulation etc.
EU
raises concern over exit of amnesty international from India.
Expressing
“concerns” about the government’s investigation into Amnesty International
(AI), the European Union said it hopes the global human rights agency can
continue its work in India.
▶However, the government defended its actions, and
said AI is in “clear contravention” of Indian law.
▶The action against AI including freezing their funds, followed a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) inquiry, and is part of the government’s scrutiny of more than 20 international NGOs including Greenpeace, Compassion International, and Ford Foundation, over the past few years.
▶However, the Ministry of Home Affairs issued a broad
defence of actions by various agencies against AI for the past decade, calling
it a “bipartisan and purely legal approach towards Amnesty”, which has now
suspended its India operations, claiming a “witch-hunt” by the government.
▶“India, by settled law, does not allow interference
in domestic political debates by entities funded by foreign donations,” the MHA
added, in a reference to AI’s reports on alleged human rights violations in
Jammu and Kashmir, and its reference to Delhi Police investigations into the
February riots where 53 people were killed.
Afghan
negotiator team suggest increased cooperation with Pakistan.
The
chief of Afghanistan’s peace negotiating team said Tuesday on a visit to
Pakistan that the time has come for the two neighbouring countries to shun the
suspicion, “stale rhetoric” and tired conspiracy theories that have dogged past
relations.
Abdullah
Abdullah is in Pakistan on a bridge-building mission meant to mend deep-rooted
mistrust between the two countries. It was his first visit in 12 years.
Mr.
Abdullah told the Institute of Strategic Studies in Islamabad that the two
neighbours are on the threshold of a new relationship characterised by “mutual
respect, sincere cooperation and shared prosperity”
Demand
for credit from priority segments drop.
Despite
efforts by the government to boost credit supply by offering many a scheme to
MSMEs and other priority sectors, the same has plunged to a low 1.9% in the
June quarter from 10.2% a year ago, according to a report.
Citing
the Reserve Bank’s quarterly statistics on deposits and credit for the June
quarter, Care Ratings on Tuesday said in absolute terms, overall bank deposits
stood at ₹141.3 lakh crore in June 2020, up 11.5% from ₹126.7 lakh crore in
June 2019.
Outstanding
credit stood at ₹103.3 lakh crore, up 6.4% but lower than 11.7% in the same
period in June 2019. But on a sequential basis, credit growth has seen a
negative 1.1% during the reporting period, which was also a negative 1% in the
March 2020 quarter.
Though
overall contraction in credit demand has continued in the June quarter at minus
1.1% from minus 1% in June 2019, in absolute terms, incremental credit declined
by a higher ₹1.2 lakh crore in June 2020 from ₹1 lakh crore in June 2019.
This
is owing to decline in overall sectoral growth — agriculture and allied credit
declined by 0.4% incrementally, industrial credit by 1%, services sector
declined by 2.6% and personal loan segment declined by 2.5% growth, the report
said.
NTPC invites bid for procurement of
biomass pellets.
India's
largest power producer, NTPC Limited has invited bids for procurement of biomass
pellets for its various thermal plants as part of its endeavour to reduce
burning of crop residue on farmlands that cause air pollution.
The
power producer has envisaged consumption of five million tonnes of pellets in
the current year at its 17 power plants including NTPC Korba, (Chhattisgarh),
NTPC Farakka, (West Bengal), NTPC Dadri (Uttar Pradesh), NTPC Kudgi (Karnataka)
and NTPC Rihand (Uttar Pradesh).
In
a statement, NTPC Limited said, it had first undertaken this unique initiative
on pilot basis in 2017 for biomass co-firing by replacing some of the coal with
pellet based fuel at NTPC Dadri, Uttar Pradesh.
Post successful implementation, NTPC now plans to replicate the model in 17 of its state of the art plants.
The
Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation releases “Health in India”
report.
The
Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation has released the “Health in
India” report. The main objective of the report was to gather quantitative data
on India’s health sector. The report have highlighted on the health of
religious communities across country.
▶The report has been prepared on the basis of
information provided by the NSS Schedule 25.0 (Household Consumption: Health).
The data was collected through a sample survey of around 1.13 households that
include 5.55 lakh people.
▶Report states that, women were more susceptible to
suffering than men. Around 6.1% of males were suffering from ailments in rural
area while percentage of women in rural area was 7.6%. On the other hand,In
urban areas, 8.2% of males and 10% of females were sick of ailments.
▶The relation between health and religion is highly
important in the manner that many religious practices helps to reduce the
impacts of some of the diseases. The religious practices works as a guard
against blood pressure. These practices also helps to strengthen the immune
system.
How
Remunerative is Farming in India.
The government’s push to reform India’s agriculture sector has divided opinions and Triggered a debate about the state of Indian Agriculture.In the context of this debate, two long-standing characteristics of Indian agriculture are Noteworthy:
Indian Agriculture is Highly
Unremunerative:
•
It has been heavily Regulated by the Government and Protected from the free
play of Market Forces
•
According to the government, the new Bills passed by Parliament attempt to make
it easier for farmers to sell to and produce for the private sector.
•
The hope is that liberalizing the sector and allowing greater play for market
forces will make Indian agriculture more efficient and more remunerative for
the farmers.
•
In this context, it is important to understand some of the basics of Indian
agriculture.
Basics of Indian
Agriculture:
1. Workforce Engaged:
✓ At the time of
Independence, about 70% of India’s workforce (a little less than 100 million)
was employed in the agriculture sector.
✓ Even at that time, agriculture
and allied activities accounted for around 54% of India’s national income.
✓ Over the years,
agriculture’s contribution to national output declined sharply. As of 2019-20,
it was less than 17% (in gross value added terms).
✓ And yet, the proportion
of Indians engaged in agriculture has fallen from 70% to just 55% (Chart1).
✓ As the Committee on
Doubling Farmers’ Income (2017) observes, “the dependence of the rural
workforce on agriculture for employment has not declined in proportion to the falling
contribution of agriculture to GDP”.
2. Land Holdings:
✓ While the number of
people dependent on agriculture has been burgeoning over the years, the average
size of landholdings has become reduced sharply — even to the extent of being
unviable for efficient production.
✓ The average size among
marginal holdings is just 0.37 ha which hardly provides Enough Income to stay
above the Poverty line.
3. Debts:
✓ The combined result of
several such inefficiencies is that most Indian farmers are Heavily Indebted
(Chart 2).
✓ The data shows that
40% of the 24 lakh households that operate on landholdings smaller than 0.01 ha
are indebted. The average amount is Rs 31,000.
✓ A good reason why such
a high proportion of farmers is so indebted is that Indian agriculture — for
the most part — is unremunerative.
✓ Chart 3 provides the
monthly income estimates for an agriculture household in four very different
states as well as the all-India number.
✓ Some of the most
populous states like Bihar, West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh have very low levels
of income and Very high Proportions of Indebtedness.
4. Buying & selling:
✓ Another way of
understanding the plight of the farmers relative to the rest of the economy is
to look at the Terms of Trade between farmers and non-farmers.
✓ Terms of Trade is the
ratio between the prices paid by the farmers for their inputs and the prices
received by the farmers for their output.
✓ As such, 100 is the
benchmark. If the ToT is less than 100, it means farmers are worse off. As
Chart 4 shows, ToT rapidly improved between 2004-05 and 2010-11 to breach the
100-mark but since then it has worsened for Farmers.
5. MSP:
✓ A key variable in the
debate is the role of minimum support prices. Many protesters fear governments
will roll back the system of MSPs.
✓ MSPs provide
“guaranteed prices” and an “assured market” to farmers, and save them from
price fluctuations. This is crucial because most farmers are not adequately
informed.
✓ But although MSPs are
announced for around 23 crops, actual procurement happens for very few crops
such as wheat and rice.
✓ Moreover, the
percentage of procurement varies sharply across states (Chart 5). As a result,
actual Market prices — what the farmers get — are often Below MSPs.
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