Comprehensive Current affairs 16 October 2020

 Cengov. asks supreme court to strike balance between freedom of speech and contempt of court.

Indian Attorney General Venugopal yesterday told the Supreme Court that there is an urgent need to strike a balance between freedom of speech and contempt of court as the media is foraying into forbidden territory.

He added that a bail petition is filed in a court of law and TV channels go to town with private WhatsApp conversation messages of the accused. This is prejudicial to the rights of the accused and is very dangerous for the administration of justice.

Addressing the court on larger issues, the Attorney General told a bench of Justices A M Khanwilkar, B R Gavai and Krishna Murari that abuse of the right to freedom of speech had taken serious proportions today.

Mr.Venugopal said that electronic media and print media are commenting on cases which are pending and are seeking to influence the court, and in big cases when bail applications are about to come up for hearing, TV reports are aired which are very damaging for the accused who has filed the bail application.

Operation green provides 50% subsidy on transportation of crops including storage.

Ministry of Food Processing and Ministry of Railways directly provide subsidised rate of 50 per cent in freight for transportation of perishable surplus agriculture produce like Oranges and Vegetables by Railway.

• Operation Green is being implemented as part of Atmanirbhar program under the ageis of Ministry of Food Processing. Under this scheme, 50 per cent subsidy is given to the farmers for transporting the surplus produce of agricultural commodities like oranges and vegetables to the markets by rail.

50 per cent subsidy is also given for cold chain storage of agricultural commodities. However, in order to get this subsidy, farmers have to attach self-certified documents online on ‘Sampada’ portal of the Ministry of Food Processing.

• It has been suggested that the subsidy for the transport should be given to the farmers at the time of registration itself for rail transport. This suggestion was taken up by the Ministry of Railways and the Union Ministry of Food Processing Industries and a 50 per cent concession has been accepted in the railway transport of eligible agricultural produce.

• This step will enable farmers to register for railway transport at subsidized rates for agricultural produce and more farmers could avail this facility; it would provide better ticket fares to the railways and increase its profits.

Germany accuses turkey of escalating tensions between Greece & Cyprus.

Germany's foreign Minister criticized Turkey for unilateral steps in the eastern Mediterranean that are undercutting efforts to de-escalate tensions with Greece and Cyprus over sea boundaries and drilling rights.

 Heiko Maas said Yesterday said any attempt by a Turkish survey ship to begin prospecting for hydrocarbons in disputed waters around the Greek island of Kastellorizo would strike a serious blow to efforts at easing tensions and improving ties between the European Union and Turkey.

Ankara's redeployment of the Oruc Reis survey vessel for new energy exploration around Kastellorizo has reignited tensions over sea boundaries between Greek islands, Cyprus and Turkey's southern coast.

Turkey rebuffed international criticism of its research ship's redeployment, insisting that the Oruc Reis is operating in Turkish waters.

Omer Celik, spokesman for Turkish President RecepTayyipErdogan's ruling party, accused Greece of stirring up tensions and of trying to avoid negotiations by engaging in actions like military drills during Turkey's national day celebrations.

FATF's Asia Pacific Group keeps Pakistan on ‘enhanced follow-up list.

Pakistan is going to exit the Financial Action Task Force (FATF’s) greylist next week, when the plenary session of the Paris-based global terror-financing watchdog is held, after its latest evaluation saw it clear 21 of 27 action points, with six key areas outstanding where Pakistan has yet to show progress.

According to sources, there is still no consensus amongst the 39-member FATF, which includes the U.S., U.K., China and Russia, to blacklist Pakistan, despite its failure to meet its original deadline in September 2019, which would mean the group would maintain the status quo and continue Pakistan on the greylist until February 2021.

On Tuesday, the International Co-operation Review Group (ICRG) of the FATF held a meeting to discuss the final recommendation to the plenary session on October 21-23.

Earlier, Pakistan had requested for its ratings pertaining to targeted financial sanctions on terrorism and terrorist financing to be revised.The APG stated that the insufficient progress made by the country fails to justify a re-rating.

 The APG said, Pakistan will remain in the enhanced follow-up list and will have to continue to report back to the APG on progress to strengthen its implementation of comprehensive Anti-money Laundering and Terrorist Financing measures.

Centre allows open market borrowing for 20 states.

The Department of Expenditure in the Ministry of Finance yesterday granted permission to 20 States to raise an additional amount of 68 thousand 8 hundred 25 crore rupees through open market borrowings.

The Ministry of Finance said, additional borrowing permission has been granted at 0.50 per cent of the Gross State Domestic Product, GSDP to those States who have opted for Option- 1 out of the two options suggested by the Ministry to meet the shortfall arising out of GST implementation.

In the meeting of GST Council held on 27th August this year, these two options were put forward and were subsequently communicated to the States on 29th August. Twenty States have given their preferences for Option-1.

The facilities available to the States who choose Option-1 include a special borrowing window, coordinated by the Ministry of Finance to borrow the amount of shortfall in revenue through issue of debt.

The total shortfall in the revenue of the States on this account has been estimated at around 1.1 lakh crore rupees. Permission to borrow the final installment of 0.5 per cent of GSDP out of the 2 per cent additional borrowings permitted by the Government of India in view of the COVID pandemic, waiving the reforms condition.

The Department of Expenditure, on 17th May this year, had provided an additional borrowing limit of upto 2 per cent of GSDP to the States. The final installment of 0.5 per cent out of this 2 per cent limit was linked to carrying out at least three out of four reforms stipulated by the Government of India.

 

 

TRIPS Agreement.

India and South Africa, in a formal submission to the World Trade Organization (WTO), have sought a waiver on Sections 1, 4, 5, and 7 of Part II of the TRIPS Agreement that regulate intellectual property rights to speed up efforts to prevent, treat and contain the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Issues Raised by India and South Africa through submission:

• There were several reports about intellectual property rights hindering or potentially hindering timely provisioning of affordable medical products to COVID -19 patients and that a particular concern for countries with insufficient or no manufacturing capacity were the requirements of cumbersome and lengthy process of the import and export of pharmaceutical products.

• Many countries, especially the developing ones, may face institutional and legal difficulties when using flexibilities available in the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS Agreement).

• Beyond patents, other intellectual property rights may also pose a barrier, with limited options to overcome those barriers, noted the Submission.

• The Medical Products Companies Especially medicine and vaccine manufacturers want to profit from pandemic by keeping the monopoly rights through intellectual protection.

Importance of the Submission:

• In the Present Context of global emergency, it is important for WTO to ensure that intellectual property rights do not create barriers to timely access to affordable medical products, or to Scaling up research, development, manufacturing and supply of medical products essential to combat COVID-19.

• The waiver of TRIPS Obligation is a major initiative to ensure availability and affordability of medical products.

Sections 1, 4, 5, and 7 of Part II of the TRIPS Agreement:

• PART II of the TRIPS Agreement relates to Standards Concerning the Availability, Scope and Use of Intellectual Property Rights

1. Sections 1: Copyright and Related Rights.

2. Sections 4: Industrial Designs.

3. Sections 5: Patents.

4. Sections 7: Protection of Undisclosed Information.

Academic institutions to set up supercomputer infrastructure in the country.

Several premier academic institutions across the country will soon partner with indigenous assembling and manufacturing facilities to establish supercomputing infrastructure in the country at an affordable cost.

Centre for Development of Advanced Computing, C-DAC signed a total of 13 Memoranda of Understanding with the premier academic and R&D institutions for establishing Supercomputing Infrastructure under National Supercomputing Mission.

In a virtual ceremony yesterday, Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology Sanjay Dhotre said that these MoUs will help the Aatmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan. He expressed his satisfaction over the progress made in the National Supercomputing Mission.

Secretary of Department of Science and Technology Prof. Ashutosh Sharma said that major changes took place under the National Supercomputing Mission in the last five years where the emphasis was given on design and fabrication of hardware and software of the supercomputers.

Atal Innovation Mission to promote innovation across schools.

Atal Innovation Mission (AIM), NITI Aayog, has signed a Statement of Intent with CGI India in order to promote innovation across the schools.

 Atal Innovation Mission, AIM has collaborated with CGI India which is one among the largest IT and business consulting services firms, for creating a successful and innovative workforce from the Atal Tinkering Lab, ATL schools.

As part of the Statement of Intent, CGI has agreed to adopt 100 schools with ATLs across Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad and Mumbai to promote and train students. CGI volunteers will coach and mentor students at the ATLs to enhance technical literacy and provide immersive learning experiences to the students through hands-on experience using STEM tools.

CGI will also conduct training workshops for teachers at select schools on topics such as design thinking, computational thinking, robotics and coding.

Mission Director Atal Innovation Mission, NITI Aayog R Ramanan said that the collaboration between AIM and CGI is crucial for ATLs and that it would prove of utmost benefit to both ATL students and teachers.

AIM is the flagship programme of the Government that promotes a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship across country. Its ATLs are accessed by over 2.5 million school kids in India. ATL is a dedicated innovation workspace set-up at schools where students get access to do-it-yourself (DIY) kits and learn to tinker and create innovative solutions using the latest technologies.

IgaSwiatek becomes new French open champion.

In Tennis, Polish teenager IgaSwiatek has become the new French Open Champion. She beat the American Australian Open winner Sofia Kenin in the Women Singles final by 6-4, 6-1.

The 19-year-old Swiatek will earn $1,900,000 for the incredible achievement and moves to 17th position in the world ranking.

Earlier, Sofia Kenin left the court due to injury and could not play her natural game after returning on the court.

 DAY-NRLM Special Package for J&K and Ladakh.

Recently, Indian Cabinet has approved a special package worth Rs. 520 crore in the Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh for a period of five years under the Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Rural Livelihood Mission (DAY-NRLM).

The decision is in line with Centre’s aim to universalise all centrally sponsored beneficiary-oriented schemes in J&K and Ladakh in a time-bound manner.

The package has been approved for a period of five years till the financial year 2023-24 and it has been decided to ensure funding on a demand-driven basis without linking allocation with poverty ratio during the extended period.

Around two-third rural women from the UTs will be covered and 10.58 lakh women will get the benefit from the special package.

The step was based on the outcomes of an evaluation pointing to the potential of the Mission to improve the quality of life of rural households and women empowerment under the changed circumstances in the recently downgraded territories of J&K and Ladakh.

• Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Rural Livelihood Mission is a centrally sponsored programme, launched by the Ministry of Rural Development in June 2011.

• It aims to eliminate rural poverty through the promotion of multiple livelihoods and improved access to financial services for the rural poor households across the country.

To reach out to all rural poor households and impact their livelihoods.

• It involves working with community institutions through community professionals in the spirit of self-help which is a unique proposition of DAY-NRLM.

• It impacts the livelihoods through universal social mobilization by inter alia organising one-woman member from each rural poor household into Self Help Groups (SHGs), their training and capacity building, facilitating their micro-livelihoods plans, and enabling them to implement their livelihoods plans through accessing financial resources from their own institutions and the banks.

• It is implemented in a Mission mode by special purpose vehicles (autonomous state societies) with dedicated implementation support units at the national, state, district and block levels, using professional human resources in order to provide continuous and long-term handholding support to each rural poor family.

• There were 63 lakh SHGs comprising seven crore women members in India which had been granted Rs. 3 lakh crore in loans and the non-performing assets (NPA) amounted to only 2.3%.

The outstanding loans were to the tune of Rs. 1 lakh crore.The government plans to take the scheme to 10 crore women.

Focus on mains:

Pakistan’s relection to the UNHRC.

Pakistan is currently serving on the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) since 1st January, 2018. With its re-election, Pakistan will continue as a member for another three-year term commencing on 1st January, 2021.

A total of Fifteen countries were elected to the 47-nation council. Russia and Cuba were elected unopposed. Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Nepal and China were elected from the Asia-Pacific region.

Key Points

Pakistan has been re-elected despite the accusation by few groups over its human rights records which Pakistan is reported to have improved. This is the fifth time that Pakistan has been elected to the UNHRC.

Acoording to the British Government’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office Report titled ‘Human Rights and Democracy’, there were the report of few human rights concerns and violations in Pakistan in 2019, including restrictions on civic space and freedom of expression etc.

 

Concerns:

Countries with Dubious Record: With a number of countries with questionable rights records being elected, the current system of entry to UNHRC is in serious need of reform.

The election of states such as China and Russia “damages the reputation of the HRC, its standing within the international human rights committee and beyond”.

Non-competitive Elections: Problem of election without opposition.

For example, the Eastern European group had two available seats but only two countries were nominated to fill those positions, meaning there was no competition for the spots.

Except for the Asia-Pacific contest, the election of 15 members to the 47-member Human Rights Council was decided in advance because all the other regional groups had unopposed states.

The Other View: Electing nations with dubious human rights records has some positives.

There is a silver lining to repressive countries being elected to the council – their position as the supposed guardian of human rights makes it far more difficult for them to hide their own human rights abuses.

United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC)

It was established in 2006.

Headquarter: Geneva, Switzerland

Aim: Promoting and protecting human rights around the globe, as well as investigating alleged human rights violations.

Features: The UNHRC has 47 members elected for staggered three-year terms on a regional group basis from 5 groups.

Membership: To become a member, a country must receive the votes of at least 96 of the 191 states of the UN General Assembly (an absolute majority).

 

According to Resolution 60/251, which created the council, members are elected directly by secret ballot by the majority of the UN General Assembly. Membership has to be equally distributed geographically.

Five regional groups for membership: Africa, Asia-Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean, Western Europe and Eastern Europe.

The members are elected for a period of three years, with a maximum of two consecutive terms.

Sessions: The UNHRC holds regular sessions three times a year, in March, June, and September.

The council also carries out the Universal Periodic Review of all UN member states, which allows civil society groups to bring accusations of human rights violations in member states to the attention of the UN.

Way Forward

The USA withdrew from the UNHRC in 2018 citing its ineffectiveness and bias. For India it is a testing time as Pakistan got re-elected may increase the tight vigelence over India’s recently downgraded and dubious status regarding human rights.

However, India’s commitment towards respecting institutions of global governance mandates to have a critical voice against some events instead of quitting the membership without reasons backed by principles.

Comprehensive Current affairs 15 October 2020

India sets up Panel of Secretaries to streamline telecom spectrum allocation.

The Government of India formed a Panel of Secretaries under cabinet secretary Rajiv Gauba to streamline the spectrum allocation process and examine it.

• The Panel has been constituted to streamline the allocation of spectrum. It will analyse the potential of drawing up an annual calendar for the public sale of airwaves that may give telcos a transparent street map of the quantum in addition to the frequency of spectrum on supply for industrial use.

• Besides cabinet secretary Rajiv Gauba, the Panel also constitutes the secretaries of house, defence, railways, telecom, I&B and division of the house. The first meeting of the newly constituted panel was held on 12 October, 2020.

• The immediate and initial task for the panel is to resolve a tussle between the telecom department and Department of Space on 5G spectrum in the 26 GHz band. The DoS has chunks of these coveted airwaves but the department is refusing to part with it. The DoT and the telcos are in need of the super-efficient millimetre waves for commercial use, given that the global 5G ecosystem is rapidly developing around this band. If access to these airwaves is denied, 5G network deployment costs would reach high.

The spectrum trade at the moment has a debt of over Rs. 8.55 lakh crore together with these associated to authorities dues on airwave purchases. It has spent an amount of Rs.2.51 lakh crore on shopping for spectrum within the six auctions since 2010. The discussions about this will happen when the federal government plans to carry a 4G airwaves sale early subsequent 12 months. The final sale happened in October 2016.

Uttarakhand to Start Plantation Drive to Clear Compensatory Afforestation Backlog in other states.

Uttarakhand Forest Department is to set up a plantation drive in Bundelkhand region of Uttar Pradesh and parts of Rajasthan to clear the backlog for compensatory afforestation over the following two years. The Compensatory afforestation is done against the transfer of forest land for non-forestry purposes.

• In compensatory plantation, 1,100 vegetation are planted over an area of one hectare.

• Compensatory afforestation is done against the transfer of forest land for non-forestry purposes. Non-forestry purposes done in the transfer of forest includes mining, construction of dams etc.,

• The report of the Uttarakhand Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA) steering committee made the state government have done afforestation on the 24,908 hectare land as of now.

• CAMPA has set a target of afforestation on 33,944 hectare.

•Uttarakhand is facing a shortage of 5,535 hectares of land for the plantation drive. To overcome the shortage, the CAMPA steering committee came up with a proposal for a plantation drive in other states. However, for implementing the proposal of the department, the Uttarakhand government will require to bring about a report on availability or unavailability of the land within

the state. So, The District authorities of Uttarakhand have also been asked to create land banks for compensatory afforestation.

E- Sanjeevani Initiative records 5 lakh teleconsultations.

Union Health Ministry’s E- Sanjeevani Initiative recently recorded 5 lakh teleconsultations. The initiative recorded one lakh consultations in just 17 days.

• Top 3 states with highest teleconsultations include Tamil Nadu (1,69,977) Uttar Pradesh (1,34,992) and Himachal Pradesh (39,326).

• Presently, 26 states are using two versions of eSanjeevani’s telemedicine namely, eSanjeevani OPD (Patient-to-Doctor) and e-Sanjeevani AB-HWC (Doctor-to-Doctor)

• As per the government report, 20% of the patients have used e-Sanjeevani services for consultation more than once.

• Currently, eSanjeevani AB-HWC is functional at 4,000 Health and Wellness Centres in our country.

About e-Sanjeevani:

e-Sanjeevani OPD was launched on April 13, 2020, and e-Sanjeevani AB-HWC was launched in November 2019. E-Sanjeevani was launched by the Health Ministry in November 2019. It is a national telemedicine service that offers teleconsultations enabling patient to doctor consultations from their home.This e-Sanjeevani platform has launched two types of telemedicine services that is Doctor-to-Doctor and Patient-to-Doctor Tele-consultations. The telemedicine platform is hosting various OPDs, which include Gynaecology, ENT, Ophthalmology, Psychiatry, Dermatology, antiretroviral therapy (ART) for the AIDS/HIV patients, Non-Communicable Disease etc.

 

 FATFs Asia Pacific Group marks Pakistan on Enhanced Follow-up List.

Financial Action Task Force (FATF) Asia Pacific group has kept Pakistan in its ‘Enhanced Follow Up’ list. The organisation had downgraded Pakistan status from “regular follow-up”.

• The Asia-pacific group of FATF submitted the report called “Follow up report on the mutual evaluation of Pakistan”.

• The report states that the progress of Pakistan to combat the Financing of terror system and anti-money laundering made by the FATF has remained the same in 2020 as compared to that of 2019.

• Enhanced follow up status means the country needs to provide reports on monthly basis compliance to the Financial Action Task Force.

• Mutual Evaluation Report (MER) report also showed the gaps in the process of developing and identifying vulnerabilities, threats and risks.

• After the publication of a National Risk Assessment (NRA) 2017, on Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing by Pakistan, The MER report came.

• The MER highlighted that 2017 NRA had not been circulated to private sector stakeholders and they were not yet subjected to the comprehensive Anti-money Laundering and Terrorist Financing measures.

•Pakistan has made significant progress to implement the FATF’s plan of action after the publication of the earlier report. Pakistan is unlikely to be placed in the FATF’s blacklist. Pakistan was under the FATF grey list in the year 2019. After that, Pakistan passed three bills to combat the terrorism and money laundering - Anti-terrorism act (Amendment) Bill 2020, Anti-money laundering (Amendment) Bill and Islamabad capital territory Waqf properties Bill, 2020.

Fifth Meeting of India-Mexico Bilateral High Level Group on Trade, Investment and Cooperation Held.

 The fifth meeting of India and Mexico Bilateral High-Level Group on Trade, Investment and Cooperation was held through video conferencing on 9th October 2020. In this meeting both the countries reviewed their bilateral trade, investment and commercial relations.

• The official discussed several topics including the Bilateral investment treaty, Cooperation Framework on phytosanitary and sanitary products, Audiovisual co-production, Technical barriers to trade, Market access for Agricultural Products, Cooperation in intellectual property rights and Promotion of tourism and the improvisation of people to people contact.

• They also reaffirmed to diversify their bilateral relationship in the trade of Pharmaceuticals, Medical equipment, Healthcare, Agro products, Fisheries, Food processing industries and Aerospace.

• Both the Countries signed the following MOUs between Mexican Chamber of Electronics telecommunication & information Technologies (CANITEI), Electronics & Computer software export Promotion Council of India (ESC), Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & industry (FICCI), Mexican Business Council of foreign trade investment & Technology (COMCE), Export of products from India to Mexico in sectores like jewellery, gems, Textiles, leather and software and Import of products to India from Mexico like machinery, fertilizers, petroleum and Chemicals.

Focus on Civil Services Mains:

Corporatization of Ordnance Factory Board.

The Centre’s move to corporatize the Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) has been strongly opposed by the trade unions.

OFB is an umbrella body for the ordnance factories and related institutions, and is currently a subordinate office of the Ministry of Defence (MoD).

The first Indian ordnance factory was set up in the year 1712 by the Dutch Company as a GunPowder Factory, West Bengal.

 It is a conglomerate of 41 factories, 9 training Institutes, 3 regional marketing centres and 5 regional controllers of safety.

Headquarters: Kolkata

Significance: A major chunk of the weapon, ammunition and supplies for not just armed forces but also paramilitary and p744olice forces comes from the OFB-run factories.

Production includes: Civilian and military-grade arms and ammunition, explosives, propellants and chemicals for missile systems, military vehicles, armoured vehicles, optical devices, parachutes, support equipment, troop clothing and general store items.

Corporatization:

In September 2020, an Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) for Corporatization was constituted under the chairmanship of the Defence Minister.

Aim:

To oversee and guide the entire process, including transition support and redeployment plan of employees while safeguarding their wages and retirement benefits.

The corporatization will result in the conversion of the OFB into (single or multiple) fully (100%) government-owned entities under the Companies Act, 2013 like other public sector undertakings.

Reasons for Corporatization:

A performance evaluation by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) in its report for 2019 on the OFB highlights a few of the lacunae, which ails this organisation.

Overheads (expenses not directly attributed to creating a product or service) constitute a staggering 33% of the overall allotted budget for the year.

The major contributors being supervision costs and indirect labour costs.

 Delayed Production: The Ordnance factories achieved production targets for only 49% of the items.

More than half the inventory (52%) was store-in-hand, procured for manufacture but not used within the year by the factories.

The Atmanirbhar Bharat initiative, also calls for the Corporatisation of OFB for: ‘improving autonomy, accountability and efficiency in ordnance suppliers’.

Apprehensions:

One of the main apprehensions of the employees is that corporatisation (ownership and management lies with the government) would eventually lead to privatisation (transfer of ownership and management rights to the private player).

The new corporate entities would not be able to survive the unique market environment of defence products that has very unstable demand and supply dynamics.

Restructuring will result in greater autonomy and lesser government control over the corporation but there is a fear of job loss.

Way Forward

The corporatisation of OFB is likely to transform ordnance factories into a modernised, state of the art facility with flexible and better decision making in its functioning.

Currently the MoD has deferred the ongoing process till the talks with the unions protesting, reach to a meaningful conclusion. This is a welcome step.

The broader consultation, on all the major concerns, is essential for sensitive issues like corporatization. Here, the need is to have a reflective road-map for the plan. This can help to ease the apprehensions regarding the corporatization.

 Aquaponics Facility.

A pilot ‘Aquaponics facility’ has been developed by the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), Mohali at Guru Angad Dev Veterinary University (GADVASU), Ludhiana.

State-of-the-art facility: It is equipped with advanced sensors for monitoring and automated controls of the farming system.

The supercomputing power being provided by C-DAC in developing agriculture technology.

Funding Support was provided by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (Meity).

Other Features:

The facility is nearly 100% organic.

Needs much less land for a given yield of crop.

Consumes 90% less water.

The fish and plants grown together are more nutritious.

Significance:

Demand for fishes and crops (lettuce, spinach, capsicum, coriander, broccoli and some other leafy plants) is increasing rapidly in urban areas.

The aspirational rural youth will be drawn into the mainstream with help of this technology and agri-economy will get a boost.

This technique will help the farmer in increasing the productivity of his land.

Also augment farmer’s income especially in non-coastal areas.

Aquaponics is a system that combines hydroponics, soil-less agriculture, and aquaculture within a closed system.

 Hydroponics: It is a method of growing plants in a water-based, nutrient-rich solution.

Hydroponics does not use soil, instead, the root system is supported using an inert medium such as clay pellets.

The basic premise behind hydroponics is to allow the plant’s roots to come in direct contact with the nutrient solution, while also having access to oxygen, which is essential for proper growth.

Aquaculture: Breeding, raising, and harvesting fish, and aquatic plants.

There are three biological components in the aquaponics process: fish, plants, and bacteria (for cycling of nutrients- ammonia to nitrate conversion).

Process:

With aquaponics, the farmer combines the aquaculture with hydroponic vegetables – the fish waste provides fertilizer for growing plants.

The plants absorb nutrients and filter the water. This filtered water is used to replenish the fish tank. This is an environment friendly technique.

The result is value-added, local production of both fish and vegetables together, using the same water.

Benefits:

Extremely water efficient.

Does not require soil.

Does not use fertilizers or chemical pesticides.

Prevents aquaculture waste from polluting nearby watersheds.

Higher control on production leading to lower losses.

Can be used on non-arable lands such as deserts, degraded soil or salty, sandy islands.

 While the creation of an aquaponics system may require a large initial investment, once it has been built it only incurs low recurring costs.

In addition, aquaponics can offer quality-of-life improvements because the food is produced locally using comparatively simple harvest methods and culturally appropriate crops can be grown.

Centre for Development of Advanced Computing.

C-DAC is the premier Research & Development organization of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (Meity) for carrying out R&D in IT, Electronics and associated areas.

India's first supercomputer PARAM 8000 was indigenously built (in 1991) by the C-DAC.

Various activities of C-DAC in the area of agriculture:

Electronic Nose and Vision (ENOVISION) system for measuring quality parameters of tea and rice.

This work is being extended to other products such as chilli, turmeric and to environmental engineering.

C-DAC has also developed Wireless Data Logger used for determining the fitness of perishable agricultural items.

Ubiquitous Agriculture (u-Agri): An Internet of Things (IoT) based system for acquiring micro-climate information from agricultural fields and providing personalized and localized advisories on Pest and Disease Forewarning and Irrigation Scheduling, to farmers.

World Mental Health Day 2020.

World Mental Health Day is observed on 10th October every year, with the overall objective of raising awareness of mental health issues around the world and mobilising efforts in support of mental health.

• Theme: Mental Health for All, Greater Investment – Greater Access

The Big Event for Mental Health: It is the first ever global online advocacy event on mental health, hosted by the World Health Organisation (WHO) on the day.

•Impact of Covid-19 on Mental Health: Surveys have indicated that the pandemic is increasing mental health problems.

Half the respondents from seven countries in a survey by non-profit International Society for the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement reported negative effects on mental health. Practo, an integrated health care company, reported a 665% jump in the number of mental health consultations.

More than two-thirds of the queries were from those aged 21-40.

Anxiety, stress and panic attacks were the most commonly discussed topics.

In the United States, more than 90% of respondents to a survey of Harvard Medical School reported increased worry, frustration, boredom or anxiety.

The global economic cost of mental illness is expected to be more than USD 16 trillion over the next 20 years, which is more than the cost of any other non-communicable disease.

More Vulnerable: People in younger age, female gender and those with comorbidities reported more psychological impact.

Causes:

Related to Pandemic: The pandemic has increased isolation and loss of income which are well known triggers of mental health conditions.

The disease itself has been reported to lead to neurological and mental complications such as delirium, agitation and stroke.

The Covid-19 has disrupted or halted mental health services in 93% of the countries.

Funding and aid: Lack of funding for huge challenges posed by pandemic and mental health issues.

 The World Health Organisation (WHO) pointed out that countries are spending less than 2% of their health budget on mental health.

Only around 1% of the international aid available for health is earmarked for mental health.

Indian Scenario:

A report published in The Lancet Psychiatry in February 2020 indicates that in 2017, there were 197.3 million people with mental disorders in India.

The top mental illnesses were depressive disorder (45.7 million) and anxiety disorder (44.9 million).

The contribution of mental disorders to the total DALYs in India increased from 2.5% in 1990 to 4.7% in 2017.

Depressive disorder and anxiety disorder contributed the most to the total mental disorders DALYs.

Disability-Adjusted Life Years (DALYs): The burden of disability associated with a disease or disorder can be measured in units called disability-adjusted life years (DALYs).

DALYs represent the total number of years lost to illness, disability, or premature death within a given population.

Budgetary Spending: The year 2020 began with a reduction of budget allocation for mental health in India.

India’s healthcare budget in 2018 was Rs. 52,800 crore, of which Rs. 50 crore was for mental health and that was reduced to Rs 40 crore the following year.

India is barely spending 0.5% of the health budget on this sector.

Initiatives: The Mental Health Care Act (MHCA) 2017 came into force in 2018 to meet the requirements of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities which India ratified in 2007.

 KIRAN:

The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment has launched a 24/7 toll-free helpline to provide support to people facing anxiety, stress, depression, suicidal thoughts and other mental health concerns. Manodarpan Initiative: It is an initiative of the Ministry of Education under Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan.

It is aimed to provide psychosocial support to students, family members and teachers for their mental health and well-being during the times of Covid-19.

Mental Health Care Act, 2017

Right to make an Advance Directive, wherein patients can state on how to be treated or not to be treated for the illness during a mental health situation.

Right to appoint a Nominated Representative: A person shall have the right to appoint a nominated representative to take on his/her behalf, all health related decisions like:

Right to access mental health care,

Right to free & quality services,

Right to get free medicines,

Right to community living,

Right to protection from cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment,

Right to live in an environment, safe and hygienic, having basic amenities,

Right to legal aid, and No Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT) without anesthesia.

This act brought changes in Section 309 of the Indian Penal Code (which criminalized attempted suicide). The attempt to commit suicide is punishable only as an exception.

 Way Forward

Increasing the number of psychologists and psychiatrists alone won’t help. Stigma and awareness are two separate issues although interlinked. They need to be addressed in parallel in order to tackle the burden of mental illness.

Community Partnership: By forming self-help groups of carers families along with NGO’s which brings community participation and helps reduce the social stigma associated with mental illness.

Increase Resources:

Increasing mental healthcare facilities and related infrastructure through more resource allocation in the budget.

Adequate Mental healthcare professional availability.

Empathetic Service delivery: Delivery of services should be sensitive, compassionate and free from stigma and discrimination in public healthcare institutions.