Daily Current Affair - UPSC/KAS Exams - 12th June 2021

What is the news : India’s export of agricultural and allied products in 2020-21 have increased by 17.34 percent and exports of India’s organic farm products has increased to 51 percent

Farm products

• India experienced huge growth in the export of cereals, wheat, millets, non-basmati rice, maize and other coarse grains.
• Exports have taken place from several clusters for first time. For example, export of fresh vegetables & mangoes from Varanasi and black Rice from Chandauli.
• Exports of agricultural products (excluding marine and plantation products) increased by 28.36 per cent in 2020-21 as opposed to USD 23.23 billion in 2019-20.
• Largest markets for agricultural products of India are United States, China, Bangladesh, United Arab Emirates, Vietnam, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Nepal, Iran and Malaysia.

Organic products

• Outbound shipments of organic products have hit 1,040 million dollars in last fiscal as compared to 689 million dollars in 2020.
• Farm exports have increased over 17 percent to 41.25 billion dollars in last fiscal.
• Exports of organic products increased by 39 percent and reached to 8 lakh 88 thousand 179 tonnes in terms of volume in last fiscal.
• Organic products that were shipped include oil cake & meals, oil seeds, millets, cereals, spices and condiments, tea, dry fruits, sugar, coffee and medicinal plant products.

Agri Export Policy: About 18 states, including Maharashtra, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Nagaland, Punjab, Assam and Karnataka, have finalised their specific action plan to implement Agri export policy. As per the policy, 46 unique product-district clusters have been identified for export promotion while 29 cluster level committees have been formed.

Organic farming in India

• Organic farming in India is in nascent stage. As per Union Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare, As of March 2020, 2.78 million hectare of farmland was under organic cultivation. It accounts for just two per cent of the 140.1 million ha net sown area in India. some of the states have improved their organic farming coverage.
• Major part of this area is concentrated only in few states like Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Rajasthan.
• These states cover half of area under organic cultivation. Madhya Pradesh tops the list with 0.76 million ha of area under organic cultivation, which equal to the 27 per cent of India’s total organic cultivation area.

What is in news : A report on progress on sub mission on farm mechanization was released

Details :

• Madhya Pradesh under SMAM has distributed 2000 agricultural machinery and equipment and establishment of 90 Custom Hiring centres.
• Andhra Pradesh has established 525 Custom Hiring centres and 34 High Tech Hubs.
• Tamilnadu has distributed  269 agricultural machineries and equipment, established 115 numbers of Custom Hiring centres, 10 Hi-Tech hubs and 100 farm Machinery banks at village level
• Kerala has distributed 4280 numbers of various machines and equipments to the farmers on subsidy and established  58 Farm machinery Banks at village level.
• North-Eastern states too have received large number of benefits

About Sub-Mission on Agricultural Mechanization :

• Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare has launched a Sub-Mission on Agricultural Mechanization (SMAM) in 2014-15 with the objectives of increasing the reach of farm mechanization to small and marginal farmers and to the regions & difficult area where farm power availability is low. 
• For strengthening of agricultural mechanization in the country and to bring more inclusiveness Sub-Mission on Agricultural Mechanization (SMAM) has been introduced with the main objectives of are to promote ‘Custom Hiring Centres’ and ‘Hi-tech Hubs of High-Value Machines’ to offset the adverse economies of scale arising due to small and fragmented landholding and high cost of individual ownership; Creating awareness among stakeholders through demonstration and capacity building activities and ensuring performance testing and certification of agricultural machines at designated testing centres located all over the country.

Benefits of Farm mechanization

• To boost up mechanization in the agriculture sector improved agricultural implements and machinery are essential inputs for modern agriculture that enhance the productivity of crops besides reducing human drudgery and cost of cultivation.
• Mechanization also helps in improving the utilization efficiency of other inputs therefore considered to be one of the most important segments of the agriculture sector to boost the income of farmers and growth of the agricultural economy.

What is the news : Maharashtra Cabinet  cleared an action plan to protect ancient and old trees aged 50 years and above in urban areas by implementing ‘Heritage Tree’ concept.

Details :

• Action plan amends Maharashtra (Urban Areas) Tree Protection and Conservation Act, 1975.
• Amendment will help in safeguarding green cover across urban landscapes and would also provide a robust mechanism to protect heritage trees.
• Under the amendment, government will introduce “concept of Heritage Trees” and age of trees for their protection and preservation.
• Ensure compensatory plantation which will have a net positive impact.
• Proposes common land for plantation to be reserved and scientific methods like Miyawaki plantation should be followed.
• Fines and penalties are being revised and maximum limit has been kept at up to Rs 1 lakh per tree.
• Also government will set up “Maharashtra State Tree Authority”. Authority will define utilisation of tree cess. A tree expert will be a part of local Tree Authority to give expert opinion. Chief officer of municipal council will be chairman of Tree Authority

What is in news : Recently, Birth anniversary of Ram Prasad Bismil was celebrated

About Ram Prasad Bismil

• Revolutionary freedom fighter Ram Prasad Bismil was born at Shahjahanpur in Uttar Pradesh on 11 June 1897.
• Ram Prasad Bismil was born to a Municipality employee Muralidhar and his wife. He learnt Hindi at home and Urdu from a Moulvi. In spite of his father’s objections, he was admitted to an English medium school.
• He also joined the Arya Samaj founded by Dayananda Saraswati. This had a profound influence on him.
• When he was 18 years old, Bhai Parmanand, a prominent Hindu Mahasabha leader was sentenced to death. This angered him and stirred patriotic feelings in him.
• He was also a prolific writer from a very young age. On reading Parmanand’s death sentence, he composed a Hindi poem titled ‘Mera Janm’ (My Birth).
• He also translated English and Bengali works into Hindi.
• He formed an organisation Matrivedi and got in touch with Genda Lal Dixit, a school teacher. They both shared revolutionary ideas and wanted to organise the youth of the country to fight the British government.
• Meanwhile, Bismil also published original and translated works all with patriotic and nationalistic themes to distribute them to the public.
• Bismil was involved in the Mainpuri Conspiracy of 1918 in which police found a few young people including Bismil selling books that were proscribed by the government. Bismil escaped arrest by jumping into the Yamuna River.
• He also attended the 1921 session of the Indian National Congress at Ahmedabad.
• Bismil was one of the chief founders of the Hindustan Republican Association (HRA) along with Sachindra Nath Sanyal and Jadugopal Mukherjee.
• The organisation was founded in 1924 and its constitution was drafted chiefly by Bismil.
• The HRA produced many pamphlets which sought to inspire people to fight the government through revolutionary activities.
• Bismil is perhaps most remembered for the Kakori Conspiracy Case. He was the mastermind behind the plan which was to loot a train carrying government money. The incident occurred on 9th August 1925 at Kakori, near Lucknow. Bismil, along with nine other revolutionaries stopped the train and looted the government treasury. The radicals used semi-automatic pistols for the plot. One passenger was accidentally killed in the incident which made it a murder case.
• Apart from Bismil, some of the others involved in the train robbery were Ashfaqulla Khan, Chandrasekhar Azad, Rajendra Lahiri, Manmathnath Gupta.
• The government came down heavily on the revolutionaries. Over 40 people were arrested in connection with the case although many were unrelated to it. Some people were let off after the trial. But others were found guilty and convicted.
• The legal process lasted 18 months. Bismil, Lahiri, Khan and Thakur Roshan Singh were awarded death sentences. Some others were deported to the Cellular Jail in Port Blair while others were given prison sentences of varying lengths.
• While lodged in Gorakhpur Central Jail, Bismil went on a hunger strike demanding to be treated as a political prisoner.
• Despite widespread outrage over the death sentences, and support from various Indian political leaders for the revolutionaries, the government did not budge.
• Bismil was hanged on 19th December 1927 at Gorakhpur Jail. He was just 30 years old.

By : Knight Frank’s

House Price Index (HPI): HPI measures price changes of residential housing with respect to percentage change from some specific start date. Hedonic regression (HR), repeat sales regression (RSR) and simple moving average (SMA) are common methodologies to measure HPI.

Details :

• This year, India has been ranked at 55th position while during Q1 2020, India was ranked at 43rd position in terms of property prices.
• Home prices in India decreased by 1.6 percent on a year-on-year basis.
• In terms of changes in 6-month (Q3 2020-Q1 2021) and 3-month (Q4 2020-Q1 2021), residential prices have increased by 0.6 percent and 1.4 percent, respectively.
• US witnessed highest annual price growth rate since 2005. Prices have increased by 13.2 percent year on year (YoY)
• Turkey is the topper in annual rankings with prices of 32 percent.
• Turkey is followed by New Zealand at 22.1 percent and Luxembourg with 16.6 percent growth in prices YoY.
• Spain emerged as weakest-performing territory in Q1 2021. In Spain, home prices fell by 1.8 percent.
• Space is followed by India with 1.6 per cent decline on prices.

INTERNATIONAL ISSUES

When : June 10th every year

What is the news :

International Level Crossing Awareness Day was observed by “South-Central Railway (SCR)” on June 10, 2021. Awareness programmes was conducted for public at level crossing gates.

International Level Crossing Awareness Day (ILCAD)

ILCAD is a worldwide initiative which seeks to improve awareness of level crossing safety. This awareness campaign is spearheaded by UIC which is the worldwide railway organisation. The day is observed with commitment after the success of first European Level Crossing Awareness Day which was held on June 25, 2009 in 28 countries to raise public awareness on dangers of misbehaviour across level crossings.

South Central Railway (SCR)

SCR is one among 18 zones of Indian Railways. Jurisdiction of SCR lies with states of Telangana, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh. It administers three divisions viz. Secunderabad, Hyderabad and Nanded. It was reorganized recently in 2019 when divisions of Vijayawada, Guntur and Guntakal railway station were separated and they formed South Coast Railway zone. Secunderabad railway station is current headquarter while Gajanan Mallya is the present general manager of SCR.

What is the news : G7 countries annual summit to be held

Which are G7 countries : United States, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom

Details :

• Together the member countries represent 40% of global GDP and 10% of the world’s population
• Unlike other bodies such as NATO, the G7 has no legal existence, permanent secretariat or official members. It also has no binding impact on policy and all decisions and commitments made at G7 meetings need to be ratified independently by governing bodies of member states.
• The G7 draws its roots from a meeting between the current G7 members, excluding Canada, that took place in 1975
• The UK holds the G7 presidency for 2021 and has organised the conference for this Saturday at the Carbis Bay Hotel in Cornwall.
• This year, India, South Korea and Australia have been invited to attend the G7 summit as participating guests.
• At the end of the summit, the UK will publish a document called a communique which will outline what has been agreed upon during the meeting.

What is on the agenda this year?

• The UK currently holds the presidency and has invited India, along with Australia, South Korea and South Africa, as guest countries for the Summit, which will witness a hybrid of physical and virtual participation.
• The theme is ‘Build Back Better’, and the UK has outlined four priority areas for its presidency: leading the global recovery from coronavirus while strengthening resilience against future pandemics; promoting future prosperity by championing free and fair trade; tackling climate change and preserving the planet’s biodiversity; and championing shared values and open societies.
• The leaders are expected to exchange views on the way forward on global recovery from the pandemic with a focus on health and climate change.

How often has India attended it: Since 2014, this is the second time the Prime Minister will be participating in a G7 meeting. India had been invited by the G7 French presidency in 2019 to the Biarritz Summit as a "Goodwill Partner” and Prime Minister Modi participated in the sessions on ‘Climate, Biodiversity and Oceans’ and ‘Digital Transformation’.

What’s in it for India?

• India has long called for reforming global institutions and groupings to reflect modern-day geopolitical realities. Trump’s offer to expand G7 fitted into New Delhi’s idea of being part of the global high table. With an assertive China round the corner, the US is calling all like-minded countries to partner in dealing with Beijing. If Biden and Johnson want to work towards constituting a global alliance of 10-11 countries, it will be an important signal.
• As India faces a massive shortage of vaccines, New Delhi will be watching the allocation to be announced by the US President.
• Last week, the US had said that it will distribute vaccines to India as part of its "strategy for global vaccine sharing”, days after External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar met key officials in the administration in Washington DC.
• While Biden made the announcement, Vice President Kamala Harris had called up Modi about Washington’s plans to make vaccines available to other countries, including India. A US statement said the Biden-Harris administration will begin sharing the “first 25 million doses” to the countries as part of the framework for sharing at least 80 million vaccines globally by the end of June.
• This means India is likely to get vaccines from the US — both directly as well as through COVAX. Initial estimates suggest India will get about 2 to 3 million vaccines in the first tranche.

What is in news : The four Indian women lodged in an Afghanistan prison, who accompanied their husbands to join the Islamic State in Khorasan Province (ISKP), are unlikely to be allowed to return to India

What is the geographical expanse of ISKP:

• The geographical spread of ISKP, its selective and big attacks and its “near peaceful coexistence” with Taliban cannot be misread.
• The group has never gained much traction in Afghanistan or Pakistan.
• Except claiming a few big attacks in Kabul and Quetta, ISKP has not shown any keenness to expand its areas of influence.
• Post-Caliphate, no mass movement of regional foreign fighters back to the fold of ISKP has been reported.

Indians in ISKP:

• The Caliphate was gaining traction among foreign fighters globally.
• Subsequently, a group of Indians from Kerala, including women and children, had migrated to Afghanistan around 2016-17.
• Around 60-plus Indians were believed to be living in the territory controlled by ISKP in Nangarhar.
• In 2019, over 1,400 people with ISKP, including fighters and their families, surrendered before Afghan forces in Nangarhar.
• These included fighters from Pakistan, Bangladesh and India.
• Some Indian women and children were in this group.
• With the surfacing of Mushin, it appears that a few more Indians may have joined ISKP.

What are the online entities:

• In recent times, online entities called the Islamic State Hind Province (ISHP) or Islamic State-Kashmir (IS-K) have surfaced.
• Their focus is on propaganda and recruitment of Indians, or of fighters from the region, for attacks on Indian interests.
• The activities of ISHP and IS-K are closely linked to ISKP.
• In March 2020, Delhi Police Special Cell arrested a Kashmiri couple being linked to ISHP/IS-K.
• This may have been an attempt to test the waters with Indians, driven by personal grievances, radicalised in the name of ISIS.

• Noted Kannada poet,Popularly known as "Dalita Kavi", Siddalingaiah passed away  due to Covid-19 related ailments. His Ooru Keri, an autobiography, had won him the Sahitya Akademi Award. He had also chaired the 81st Kannada Sahitya Sammelana (a premier gathering of Kannada literature) held in Shravanabelagola.
• Karnataka established the maximum number of colleges [181] in the country in 2019, according to data from the All-India Survey on Higher Education 2019-2020
• Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Friday inaugurated two centres of excellence established by the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) at Seema Sadak Bhawan in New Delhi. At the event, Mr. Singh also flagged off the first-ever solo women motorcycle expedition by Kanchan Ugursandi to Umling La Pass, Ladakh and back. “These centres have been established to achieve excellence in road safety as well as foster growth in construction of roads, bridges, air fields and tunnels
• Sri Lankan President inaugurated the China-Sri Lanka Friendship Hospital in Polonnaruwa, built with a Chinese grant of $60 million.The hospital is located in Sri Lanka’s North Central Province, will specialise in treating kidney ailment
• Russia is set to deliver an advanced satellite system to Iran that will vastly improve its spying capabilities. It is named Kanopus-V . It will help monitor facilities of its adversaries across the West Asia
• The Pulitzer Prizes in journalism and the arts were announced Friday recognising the best work in a year in which people isolated themselves because of a deadly pandemic and took to the streets over racial injustice.
• Pulitzer Prizes awarded special citation to Darnella Frazier, the teenager who recorded the killing of George Floyd.The Pulitzer Prizes in journalism were first awarded in 1917 and are considered the field's most prestigious honor in the United States.
• The Kerala government on Friday announced a 100-day action plan to help the state recover from the economic slowdown caused by the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic from June 11 to September 19.Creation of  jobs in various departments, increasing agricultural production, and augmenting health infrastructure, reducing inequality etc
• Punjabi University, Patiala, is all set to roll out upgraded version of its flagship software ‘Akhar’, which means ‘word’ in Punjabi, with advanced features like multilingual search, spell check with an emphasis on nouns, Punjabi grammar check and transliteration of Gurmukhi text to Shahmukhi (Punjabi script used in West Punjab in Pakistan), Devanagri and Roman scripts and reverse.
• The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi has expressed grief over the demise of noted neurologist Dr. Ashok Panagariya.
• The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi has expressed grief over the demise of Noted Economist and Environmentalist Prof Radhamohan Ji
• More than 240 Radio Services of All India Radio are livestreamed on NewsOnAir App, Prasar Bharati’s official App. These All India Radio Streams on NewsOnAir App have a large number of listeners not just in India, but globally, in more than 90 countries.