Daily CURRENT AFFAIRS

Daily Current Affair - UPSC/KAS Exams - 25th Oct 2021

What is in news : An acute shortage of di-ammonium phosphate (DAP) in Haryana has seen desperate farmers pelting stones at the police, blocking roads in protest, and even resorting to “loot” the fertilizer from a private dealer’s outlet in Mahendragarh district of south Haryana.

Why is DAP so important for farmers:

• Basic nutrient for Rabi crops
• Has to be sprinkled at the time of sowing crops like mustard and wheat.
• Farmers say they need a bag of at least 45 kilos for sowing an acre of land.
• Any delay in its supply could adversely impact the sowing of crops.

How did it all begin:

• Shortage is the fallout of less import in the wake of a spurt in the global prices of DAP.
• All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) Haryana alleged that the problem was a fallout of mismanagement on the part of the government.

As per the latest Situation Assessment Survey (SAS) of agricultural households conducted by the National Statistical Office (NSO), an average Indian farmer earned Rs 10,218 per month in 2018-19 (July-June).

Details of the survey

• Across states, the highest income was received by a farming household in Meghalaya (Rs 29,348) followed by Punjab (Rs 26,701), Haryana (Rs 22,841), Arunachal Pradesh (19,225) and Jammu and Kashmir (Rs 18,918) while the lowest income levels were in West Bengal (Rs 6,762), Odisha (Rs 5,112) and Jharkhand (Rs 4,895).
• The moment one normalises these incomes of agri-households by their holding sizes, as in the SAS, Punjab’s ranking on per hectare income falls from 2nd to 11th and Haryana goes down from 3rd to 15th.
• The states that would do well on this score are Jammu and Kashmir, Kerala, Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh where people earn their income from cultivating fruits and vegetables, spices, and livestock. These are high value in nature, not linked to MSPs, and market and demand-driven. There is a lesson here for Punjab and Haryana farmers on augmenting their incomes on a per hectare basis, and also doing farming more sustainably.
• The average landholding data is collected by both the SAS and Agriculture Census (latest 2015-16) but there is a big variation between the two data sources, especially for states like Punjab, Rajasthan, Haryana and Gujarat. This anomaly needs to be corrected.
• As per the SAS, the average operated area per holding for Punjab is 1.44 ha , but the Census gives a much higher value of 3.62 ha of average operational holding. If we normalise incomes of agri-households using Census values of average holding sizes, Punjab’s rank would go further down to 21st (household monthly income Rs 7,376) out of 28 states.
• Even Bihar (household monthly income Rs 19,338) will do much better than Punjab on this criteria — it will rank 5th. This implies that farmers in Punjab and Haryana are earning higher incomes primarily because the size of their landholding is greater compared to their counterparts from other states.

Modifications centre must bring about

• A fund of support must be created which should be under a five-year plan to shift at least a million hectares of paddy area (out of a total of 3.1 million hectares of paddy area in Punjab) to maize.
• Corpus should have equal contributions from the Centre and state.
• Since Punjab wants that farmers be given MSP for maize, an agency, the Maize Corporation of Punjab (MCP), should be created to buy maize from farmers at MSP. This agency should enter into contracts with ethanol companies, and much of this maize can be used to produce ethanol as the poultry and starch industries will not be able to absorb this surplus in maize once a million hectares of paddy area shifts to maize.
• Maize productivity must be as competitive as that of paddy in Punjab and the best seeds should be used for that purpose. This is to ensure that ethanol from maize is produced in a globally competitive manner.

ALSO

• The GoI’s policy for 20 per cent blending of ethanol in petrol should come in handy for this purpose. In the process, Punjab will arrest its depleting water table as maize needs less than one-fifth the water that paddy does for irrigation.
• Punjab will save much on the power subsidy to agriculture, which was budgeted at Rs 8,275 crore in the FY2020-21 budget, as paddy irrigation consumes much of the power subsidy. This saving subsidy resulting from the switch from paddy to maize can be used to fund a part of the state’s contribution to the Maize Corporation of Punjab. This could result in a win-win situation for all — farmers, the Government of Punjab and the country — as there will be lesser methane emissions and less stubble burning. Moreover, ethanol will also reduce GHG emissions in vehicular pollution.
• Other parts of the diversification strategy have to be along the lines of increasing the area under fruits and vegetables, and a more focused policy to build efficient value chains in not just fruits and vegetables but also livestock and fisheries.
• They are more nutritious and the SAS data shows that their profitability is much higher in these enterprises than in crop cultivation, especially cereals. The sector needs to be backed by proper processing, grading and packaging infrastructure to tap its full potential.

CONCLUSION

 Punjab was at the forefront of providing food security to the country in the late 1960s and early 1970s but today, the Punjabi farmer is languishing in a low-level equilibrium trap of the rice-wheat cycle with the open-ended procurement system of the government. Their income on a per hectare basis needs to increase more sustainably, protecting the state’s land, water and air from further degradation, and producing more nutritious food. Punjab can then shine again on the nutritional security front with sustainable and climate-resilient agriculture.

What is in news : Kerala wins award for city with most sustainable transport system

Details :

The award

• Has been given in recognition of the projects implemented — like Kochi Metro, Water Metro and e-mobility — to enhance the transport facilities in the city of Kochi. The formation of the Kochi Open Mobility Network, which digitized and integrated various transport facilities, helped to win the award.
• Given in recognition of the transport facilities in various states and Union Territories of India by Union Ministry for Housing and Urban Affairs

About Kochi Open Mobility Network

• Initiative of the Kochi Metropolitan Transport Authority to support the local community in Kochi.
• KOMN
  • Drives the integration of urban transport-across modes using technology, which is a key objective of Kochi MTA.
  • One of the novel initiatives towards digitising mobility, where all mobility apps in the network are built in such a way as to enable them to communicate with each other in the same language.
  • Offers an open interoperability led integration approach that is akin to the design of the Internet itself and to the UPI payments open infrastructure in India that has witnessed population scale adoption in a noticeably short period of time across the country.
• Kochi MTA, backed by the Kerala MTA Act -November 2019, is the first authority of its kind in India to integrate, plan and regulate different commuting modes. KMTA is proud to power KOMN – the world’s first inclusive, multimodal mobility network enabled by open specifications of beckon protocol.

What is in news : The Gujarat High Court has reprimanded the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) and the Gujarat Pollution Control Board (GPCB) for the pollution on the Sabarmati riverfront

About :

• Gujarat’s Sabarmati river remains highly polluted
• Centre had allocated₹200 crore that the to curb pollution in the river from 2014-15 to 2017-18.
• Gujarat high court has intervened
• The High Court
  • Amonished that officials accountable for the functioning of laboratories in sewage treatment plants (STP), who failed to keep a check on polluted water dumped into the riverfront, will be “dealt with strictly”.
  • Observed that the root cause of pollution in the Sabarmati was the lack of accountability on part of the authorities, as there appears to be a nexus between the officials and industries that discharge untreated effluents into the river stream, polluting its water.
  • Has also constituted a joint task force (JTF), which submitted its report highlighting the failures of STPs and effluent treatment plants. The JTF brought out systemic flaws in the running of STPs.
  • Has learnt that the laboratories inside STPs across the city, which were supposed to keep a check on the water dumped into the Sabarmati river, were almost non-functional. The JTF and the Amicus Curiae Hemang Shah submitted that the Sabarmati riverfront was in poor state due to the “legal” as well as the illegal release of untreated industrial effluents and sewage water in Ahmedabad city.

The High Court order:

• Industrial units found to have discharged pollutants into the Sabarmati river in Gujarat will not be provided water and power.
• They will also be penalised, named and shamed.
• All such polluting units will also be banned from participating in any industrial fair, public-private partnership events, etc.

Need of the hour:

• Rivers are our lifeline since we are completely dependent on them for our existence. The major reason behind this alarming situation is our utter ignorance and carefree attitude towards our environment and maintaining rivers and riversides.
• So, it is high time that we take some stringent actions in this regard.
• Each and every individual should understand that rivers belong to all of us.
• It is a joint responsibility of each and every individual to keep them clean.

About Sabarmati river : Originating from the Aravalli hills in neighbouring Rajasthan, the Sabarmati meets the Arabian Sea in the Gulf of Khambhat area, after traversing a distance of 371 km, passing through districts like Udaipur in Rajasthan, and Aravalli, Sabarkantha, Gandhinagar, Ahmedabad and Kheda in Gujarat. It has a total catchment area of 21,674 sq. km

What is in news : Hurricane Rick to hit Coast of Mexico. The US National Hurricane Centre said Rick had winds as high as 85 miles per hour (140 kph) and was expected to hit somewhere around the seaport of Lazaro Cardenas and the resort of Zihuatanejo.

MAHITI FOR PRELIMS

HURRICANES

• Hurricanes are
  • Large, swirling storms
  • Produce winds of 119 kilometers per hour (74 mph) or higher.
  • Form over warm ocean waters.
• Parts of a Hurricane:
  • Eye: The eye is the “hole” at the center of the storm. Winds are light in this area. Skies are partly cloudy, and sometimes even clear.
  • Eye wall: The eye wall is a ring of thunderstorms. These storms swirl around the eye. The wall is where winds are strongest and rain is heaviest.
  • Rain bands: Bands of clouds and rain go far out from a hurricane’s eye wall. These bands stretch for hundreds of miles. They contain thunderstorms and sometimes tornadoes.
• A hurricane starts out as a tropical disturbance. This is an area over warm ocean waters where rain clouds are building.
• A tropical disturbance sometimes grows into a tropical depression. This is an area of rotating thunderstorms with winds of 62 km/hr (38 mph) or less.
• A tropical depression becomes a tropical storm if its winds reach 63 km/hr (39 mph).
• A tropical storm becomes a hurricane if its winds reach 119 km/hr (74 mph).
• Causative factors:
  • Warm ocean waters provide the energy a storm needs to become a hurricane. Usually, the surface water temperature must be 26 degrees Celsius (79 degrees Fahrenheit) or higher for a hurricane to form.
  • Winds that don’t change much in speed or direction as they go up in the sky. Winds that change a lot with height can rip storms apart.

HISTORY – ART - CULTURE

What is in news : The Prime Ministers’ Museum on the Teen Murti Bhavan premises is likely to miss yet another deadline, this time the “October, 2021” tentative date, for completion

About :

• Teen Murti Estate is under the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs.
• Complex will be constructed with a built up area of 10975.36 sq meters
• Comprises of basement, ground and first floor with galleries at all the three levels.
• Will include an orientation space, souvenir shop, space for organising talks and discussions, seminar halls, auditorium, workshop areas, library, documentation room, laboratory and archive areas.
• Design shall be symbolic of an emergent and rising India, shaped over the years by its eminent leaders and would focus on collecting, documenting, researching and disseminating information in respect of all the Prime Ministers of India.

Significance

• Envisaged to give visitors a holistic understanding of the continued thread of leadership.
• Single institution where the visitors can learn about the Prime Minister’s Office, its evolution, role and centrality to governance at the Union level.
• Depict Modern India through collections relating to each of the Prime Ministers of India, their lives, works and significant contributions made towards nation building.
• Bring India’s democratic experience alive to the visitors.
• Encourage curiosity and research about the role of PM and his office.
• Provide an interactive and informative experience to the visitors and youth of India through state of the art audio-visual technology and effective modes of communication.

What is in news : The Prime Minister has paid tributes to cartoonist RK Laxman on his 100th birth anniversary

About :

• Rasipuram Krishnaswami Laxman (24 October 1921 – 26 January 2015) was an Indian cartoonist, illustrator, and humorist.
• The Common Man is a cartoon character created by Indian author and cartoonist R. K. Laxman.
• For over a half of a century, the Common Man has represented the hopes, aspirations, troubles and perhaps even foibles of the average Indian, through a daily comic strip, “You Said It” in The Times of India. The comic was started in 1951.
• It became one of the most recognised feature on The Times of India the largest-circulation English language daily broadsheet newspaper in the world.
• Created a popular mascot for the Asian Paints Ltd group called "Gattu" in 1954.
• Awarded Padma Vibhushan (2005) and Ramon Magsaysay Award for Journalism, Literature and Creative Communication Arts (1984).

• Journalist Maria Ressa from the Philippines is one of two journalists to have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for 2021, along with Russian Editor Dmitry Muratov. Ms. Ressa, who is the author of upcoming book How to Stand Up to a Dictator speaks about her battles with the Philippines Government and ‘Big Tech’ social media companies. It is not since 1935 that the Nobel Peace Prize went to a journalist. Carl Von Ossietzky, who wrote about the Nazi regime and Germany’s remilitarisation plan, won that year.
• Teleindia Networks unveiled its greenfield hyperscale data centre — DataSamudra — in Bengaluru in line with the growing market demand and to offer value differentiation in data centre market.