GEOGRAPHY                                                                                       

1. Bougainville                                                                                     

POLITY AND GOVERNANCE                                                             

1. Child Health Programme under NHM                                                

2. Kishori Health Cards                                                                        

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS                                                          

1. ‘India’s reluctance to join RCEP understandable’                                

ECONOMY                                                                                             

1. Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY)                                

2. GDP slump will hit $5 tn target, warns NITI Aayog                             

3. Zero Budget Natural Farming                                                            

4. Adoption of Integrated Organic Farming System by States               

5. Certifying Agency for Organic Foodgrains                                        

6. Ministry of Food Processing Industries issues guidelines for OPERATION GREENS                                                                   

7. Adarsh Railway Stations                                                                 

GEOGRAPHY

Bougainville

GS PAPER - 01 GEOGRAPHY

Context :

• On November 23, the people of Bougainville (a small South Pacific island), will vote for a referendum to gain independence from Papua New Guinea.

  •  If the referendum is passed, Bougainville would become the world’s newest and possibly the smallest independent country.

Bougainville :

• Bougainville is currently a province of Papua New Guinea- one of the most populous Pacific island states. It forms the part of the Solomon Islands archipelago.

• Bougainville has a population of around 300,000 people comprising of 21 distinct language groups.

• In the late 1970s, a decentralized system of provincial government was introduced in Bougainville.

• The current autonomy arrangements were implemented following the constitutional enactment of the Bougainville Peace Agreement.

  • The Bougainville Peace Agreement, signed in 2001, brought autonomy and an end to the violent conflict between the people of Bougainville and the government of Papua New Guinea.

All about  Bougainvillean referendum  :

• The subsequent dissatisfaction among Bougainvilleans over implementation of the agreed arrangements for Bougainville autonomy (2001), particularly in regard to the constitutionally guaranteed financial grants was the major bone of contention.
   

  • The Autonomy Bougainville Government (ABG) was legally entitled to the financial grants but the Papua New Guinea National Government did not provide the same in accordance with the ABG’s calculations.

• Also, the historic plunder of the resource-rich island and the unequal distribution of wealth that followed was the major issue.
   

  • Bougainville has large deposits of copper.

  • The Panguna mine (also known as the Bougainville Copper Mine) holds some of the world’s largest reserves of copper. It is the world’s largest open-cut copper mine.
     

    • The export of copper extracted from the Panguna mine contributed significantly to Papua New Guinea’s economy.

    • The mine also created job opportunities for people from Papua New Guinea and Australia, leading to conflicts with Bougainvilleans who reported cases of discrimination and racism at the hands of foreigner mine workers.

    • Mining activities over the years also caused environmental degradation of Bougainville’s lands and water.

Way forward :

• The referendum is not binding and would still have to be passed by the Government and the Parliament of Papua New Guinea, in consultation with the Autonomous Bougainville Government before a final decision is made.

• If Bougainville becomes independent, the immediate steps would involve putting in place the law and order, economic opportunities, and access to education.

• If the referendum is passed it will have implications on countries like Australia, New Zealand, and China in general, and other provinces of Papua New Guinea in specific.

• The stability of the region of which Bougainville is part is clearly important to Australia and other nations.

POLITY AND GOVERNANCE

Child Health Programme under NHM

GS PAPER - 02 GOVERNANCE - Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Education, Human Resources.

Context :

• Government of India is implementing Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child, Adolescent health and Nutrition (RMNCHAN) strategy to improve maternal and Child health outcome under National Health Mission (NHM).

The various interventions under RMNCHA+N strategy are  :

• Promotion of Institutional deliveries through cash incentive under Janani Suraksha Yojana (JSY) and Janani Shishu Suraksha Karyakaram (JSSK) which entitles all pregnant women delivering in public health institutions to absolutely free delivery including Caesarean section, post-natal care and treatment of sick infants till one year of age.

• Pradhan Matritvya Vandana Yojana (PMMVY) is another maternity benefit programme under which cash incentive of Rs. 5000 is provided to pregnant women and lactating mothers.

• Early initiation and exclusive breastfeeding for first six months and appropriate Infant and Young Child Feeding (IYCF) practices are promoted under Mothers’ Absolute Affection (MAA) in convergence with Ministry of Women and Child Development.

• Village Health Sanitation and Nutrition Days (VHSNDs) are observed for provision of maternal and child health services and creating awareness on maternal and child care.

• Nutrition Rehabilitation Centres (NRCs) have been set up at public health facilities to treat and manage the children with Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM) admitted with medical complications.

• Universal Immunization Programme (UIP) is being supported to provide vaccination to children against life threatening diseases such as Tuberculosis, Diphtheria, Pertussis, Polio, Tetanus, Hepatitis B, Measles, Rubella, Pneumonia and Meningitis caused by Haemophilus Influenzae B. The Rotavirus vaccination has also been rolled out in the country for prevention of Rotaviral diarrhoea. “Mission Indradhanush is targeted to immunize children who are either unvaccinated or partially vaccinated i.e. those that have not been covered during the rounds of routine immunization for various reasons. Intensified Mission Indradhanush (IMI) 2.0 is being planned as per road-map for achieving 90% full immunization coverage across the country.

• All the children from 0 to 18 years of age are screened for 30 health conditions classified into 4Ds – Diseases, Deficiencies, Defects and Developmental delay under “Rastriya Bal Swasthya Karyakaram” (RBSK).

• National Deworming Day (NDD) is implemented biannually every year for deworming of children (one to nineteen year of age).

• Name based tracking of mothers and children till two years of age is done through RCH portal to ensure complete antenatal, intranatal, postnatal care and immunization as per schedule.

• Capacity building of health care providers is regularly done to build and upgrade the skills in basic and comprehensive obstetric care of mother during pregnancy, delivery and for essential new-born care.

Besides above programme and scheme, few newer initiatives started under RMNCHA+N are as follows:

• Pradhan Mantri Surakshit Matritva Abhiyan (PMSMA) has been launched to provide fixed-day assured, comprehensive and quality antenatal care universally to all pregnant women on the 9th of every month.

• “LaQshya” programme aims to improve the quality of care in Labour room and Maternity operation theatres.

• Surakshit Matritva Aashwasan (SUMAN) initiative is focussed on assured delivery of maternal and newborn health care services encompassing wider access to quality care services, at no cost, zero tolerance for denial of services, assured management of complications along with respect for women’s autonomy and dignity.

• Defeat Diarrhoea (D2) initiative has been launched for promoting ORS and Zinc use and eliminating the diarrhoeal deaths by 2025.

• Social Awareness and Actions to Neutralize Pneumonia Successfully (SAANS) initiative is launched for reduction of Childhood morbidity and mortality due to Pneumonia.

• Anaemia Mukt Bharat (AMB) strategy is a part of Poshan Abhiyan that aims to strengthen the existing mechanisms and foster newer strategies to tackle anaemia, which include testing & treatment of anaemia in school going adolescents & pregnant women, addressing non-nutritional causes of anaemia and a comprehensive communication strategy.

                                                                                                                                                                Source :- PIB

Kishori Health Cards

GS PAPER  -02 GOVERNANCE -  Welfare schemes for vulnerable sections of the population by the Centre and States and the performance of these schemes;

Context :

• Minister of Women and Child Development says that States are maintaining Kishori Health Cards for Adolescent Girls in Angawadi Centres (AWCs).

Kishori Health card Scheme :

• The government is implementing Scheme for Adolescent Girls across the country.

• Kishori Health Cards for Adolescent Girls (11-18 years) in Anganwadi Centres (AWCs) to record the information about the weight, height, Body Mass Index (BMI)

• This scheme is a redesign of the already existing Adolescent Girls (AG) Scheme being implemented as a component under the centrally sponsored Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) Scheme.

• The new scheme aimed at empowerment and enhanced self-perception. It also fosters convergence with other sectoral programmes, addressing the interrelated needs of adolescent girls and women

Objective :

• The broad objectives of the Scheme are to improve the nutritional, health and development status of adolescent girls, promote awareness of health, hygiene, nutrition and family care, link them to opportunities for learning life skills, going back to school, help them gain a better understanding of their social environment and take initiatives to become productive members of the society.

                                                                                                                               Source :- PIB

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

‘India’s reluctance to join RCEP understandable’

GS PAPER - 02 INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS - Bilateral, regional and global groupings and agreements involving India and/or affecting India's interests

Context :

• India’s decision to walk away from the RCEP trade deal.

More in the news :

• “The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) agreement looks like an extension of China’s Belt and Road initiative”, former Australian Prime Minister has said, adding that he understood India’s reluctance to join the pact.

• Just as the Trans-Pacific Partnership was the economic leg of the U.S. pivot to the Asia Pacific, RCEP is like the trade leg of the Belt and Road Initiative.

• One of India’s primary concerns about joining the RCEP pact was that its already-huge trade deficit with China would widen significantly.

• India opined that while it is important to promote freer trade, it is also important to ensure that it does not unduly benefit one country at the cost of another.

                                                                                                                       Source :- The Hindu

ECONOMY

Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY)

GS PAPER - 03 ECONOMY- Welfare schemes for vulnerable sections of the population by the Centre and States and the performance of these schemes

Context :

• Enrolling of Ex-Servicemen under Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY)

Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) :

• Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) is the flagship scheme for skill training of youth to be implemented by the new Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship through the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC).

• The scheme will cover 10 million youth during the period 2016 -2020.

• Under this Scheme, Training and Assessment fees are completely paid by the Government.

• Skill training would be done based on the National Skill Qualification Framework (NSQF) and industry led standards.

• Under Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) skilling is being imparted through Short Term Training (STT) courses and Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL).

• STT is being imparted to either school/college dropouts or unemployed youth at accredited and affiliated Training Centres (TCs).

• Upon successful completion of their assessment, candidates are being offered / provided with placement assistance by Training Providers (TPs).

• Under RPL, individuals with prior learning experience or skills are being assessed and certified.

• It aims to align the competencies of the unregulated workforce of the country to the National Skills Qualification Framework (NSQF).

                                                                                                                                 Source :- PIB

GDP slump will hit $5 tn target, warns NITI Aayog

GS PAPER - 03 ECONOMY - growth, development and employment. Inclusive growth and issues arising from it.

Context :

• In the backdrop of slowing economic growth rate, NITI Aayog has warned the government that the road to a $5 trillion economy by 2025 is beset with many speed breakers.

India a $5 trillion economy by 2025 :

• Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, in her Budget presentation, had said that the government would work to make India a $5 trillion economy by 2025.

Concern :

• The nominal GDP growth — a measure of growth without accounting for inflation — has to be at least 12.4% on an average, if the set target has to be reached

  • However, the growth rate was 8% in the first quarter (April to June) of the current financial year (2019-20).

• Experts estimate that growth will dip in Q2 (July to September) compared to Q1 in both real and nominal terms. While GDP growth in real terms in Q1 stood at 5%, State Bank of India recently estimated that this could dip to 4.2% in Q2, with a corresponding dip in nominal growth as well.

• Domestic investment and consumption are the only dependable drivers for sustainable re-acceleration (of the economy). However, a deceleration in investment is visible, primarily in the household sector, almost entirely due to real estate.

• Gross fixed capital formation in the sub-sector of ‘dwellings, other buildings and structures’ fell from 12.8% of GDP in 2011-12 to 6.9% in 2017-18.

• The slowdown in the domestic market is also because of the limited availability of capital with the banks which are tied down due to high non-performing assets in heavy industry and infrastructure.

• In the power sector, there is a high cross-subsidisation in favour of residential tariff leading to very high industrial tariffs. The electric power transmission and distribution (T&D) losses in India stand at 19%, higher than that of Bangladesh and Vietnam. This undue burden on industries is affecting their profitability.

Way Forward :

• Need for “structural changes” in the economy and in this direction India needs to focus on the export of high-value technology and manufacturing goods.

                                                                                                                                                           Source :- The Hindu

Zero Budget Natural Farming

GS PAPER - 03 ECONOMY - Major crops cropping patterns in various parts of the country, different types of irrigation and irrigation systems storage, transport and marketing of agricultural produce and issues and related constraints;

Context :

• The ICAR-Indian Institute of Farming Systems Research initiated a study on Evaluation of Zero Budget Natural Farming practices in Basmati/ coarse rice-wheat system from Rabi 2017 at 4 locations namely Modipuram, Pantnagar, Ludhiana, Kurukshetra .

Zero Budget Natural Farming :

• Zero Budget Natural Farming (ZBNF) is a set of farming methods, and also a grassroots peasant movement, which has spread to various states in India

• It has attained wide success in southern India, especially the southern Indian state of Karnataka where it first evolved.

• Intercropping with leguminous crops is one of the components of Zero Budget Natural Farming (ZBNF) and it improves the crop productivity and soil fertility by way of fixing the atmospheric nitrogen.

• Further, the cowdung, urine based formulations and botanical extracts used in ZBNF help farmers in reducing the input cost.

The four pillars of ZNBF :

            The four-Pillars of zero budget natural farming require locally available materials:

• Jivamrita/jeevamrutha is a fermented microbial culture. It provides nutrients, but most importantly, acts as a catalytic agent that promotes the activity of microorganisms in the soil, as well as increases earthworm activity

• Bijamrita/beejamrutha is a treatment used for seeds, seedlings or any planting material. Bijamrita is effective in protecting young roots from fungus as well as from soil-borne and seedborne diseases that commonly affect plants after the monsoon period.

• Acchadana – Mulching. According to Palekar, there are three types of mulching:

• Soil Mulch: This protects topsoil during cultivation and does not destroy it by tilling. It promotes aeration and water retention in the soil. Palekar suggests avoiding deep ploughing.

• Straw Mulch: Straw material usually refers to the dried biomass waste of previous crops, but as Palekar suggests, it can be composed of the dead material of any living being (plants, animals, etc).

• Live Mulch (symbiotic intercrops and mixed crops): According to Palekar, it is essential to develop multiple cropping patterns of monocotyledons and dicotyledons grown in the same field, to supply all essential elements to the soil and crops.

• Whapasa – moisture: Palekar challenges the idea that plant roots need a lot of water, thus countering the over reliance on irrigation in green revolution farming. According to him, what roots need is water vapor.

Benefits :

• As both a social and environmental programme, it aims to ensure that farming – particularly smallholder farming – is economically viable by enhancing farm biodiversity and ecosystem services.

• It reduces farmers’ costs through eliminating external inputs and using in-situ resources to rejuvenate soils, whilst simultaneously increasing incomes, and restoring ecosystem health through diverse, multi-layered cropping systems.

• Cow dung from local cows has proven to be a miraculous cure to revive the fertility and nutrient value of soil. One gram of cow dung is believed to have anywhere between 300 to 500 crore beneficial micro-organisms.

  • These micro-organisms decompose the dried biomass on the soil and convert it into ready-to-use nutrients for plants.

• Resilient food systems are the need of the day given the variability of the monsoons due to global warming and declining groundwater in large parts of India.

  • The drought-prone regions in India is reportedly seeing promising changes already in farms with the ZBNF.

• Zero budget natural farming requires only 10 per cent water and 10 per cent electricity than what is required under chemical and organic farming.

  • ZBNF may improve the potential of crops to adapt to and be produced for evolving climatic conditions.

                                                                                                                                      Source :- PIB

Adoption of Integrated Organic Farming System by States

GS PAPER - 03 ECONOMY - Major crops cropping patterns in various parts of the country, different types of irrigation and irrigation systems storage, transport and marketing of agricultural produce and issues and related constraints;

Context :

• The ICAR-Indian Institute of Farming Systems Research, Modipuram has developed One acre Integrated Organic Farming System (IOFS) models under the scheme All India Network Programme on Organic Farming (AI-NPOF).

Integrated Organic Farming System (IOFS) :

• Integrated Organic Farming System does not merely mean not using pesticides, It also comprises many other practices such as bee keeping, dairy management, biogas production, water harvesting and composting.

  • Several integrated farming system modules with a combination of small enterprises such as crop, livestock, poultry, piggery, fish and duck rearing were demonstrated to farmers in NICRA villages in the eastern, northern and north eastern states where monocropping is mostly practiced due to climatic constraints.

• One acre Integrated Organic Farming System (IOFS) model is one of the research programmes of the ICAR.

• IoFS models suitable for marginal farmers have been established in Kerala, Meghalaya, Sikkim and Tamil Nadu which provides scope to generate more than 80 % of inputs required for organic farming within the farm, thus reducing the cost of production.

                                                                                                                                   Source :- PIB

Certifying Agency for Organic Foodgrains

GS PAPER - 03 ECONOMY - Food processing and related industries in India

Context :

• Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) is the food regulator in the country and is responsible for regulating organic food in domestic market and imports.

• FSSAI has notified domestic standards for organic products recognizing National Programme for Organic Production (NPOP), Participatory Guarantee System for India (PGS) or any other equivalent procedure as pre-requisite for qualifying the organic food claim in domestic market.

Food Safety and Standards (Organic Foods) Regulations, 2017 :

• These Regulations require organic food to comply with the provisions of any one of the existing certification systems – National Programme for Organic Production under Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) or Participatory Guarantee System for India (PGS) under Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare.

• Organic foods are required to comply with the requirements of labelling of FSSAI in addition to that of NPOP or PGS-India.

• Therefore, a proper system is in place to regulate the organic foods in the country.           

                                                                                                                                                                          Source :- PIB

Ministry of Food Processing Industries issues guidelines for OPERATION GREENS

GS PAPER - 03 ECONOMY - Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.

Context :

• Ministry of Food Processing Industries(MoFPI) has approved the operationalisation strategy for Operation Greens.

Operation Green :

• Operation Greens was announced in the Budget speech of 2018-19 to stabilize the supply of Tomato, Onion and Potato(TOP) crops

  • and to ensure availability of TOP crops throughout the country round the year without price volatility.

• The scheme was launched to promote Farmer Producers Organizations, agri-logistics, processing facilities and professional management.

• The idea behind Operation Greens is to double the income of farmers by the end of 2022.

• NAFED will be the Nodal Agency to implement price stabilisation measures.

                                                                                                                                Source :- PIB

 Adarsh Railway Stations

GS PAPER - 03 ECONOMY - Infrastructure: Energy, Ports, Roads, Airports, Railways etc.

Context :

• ‘Adarsh’ Station Scheme has been started since 2009-10 and presently, upgradation of Railway stations is being carried out under ‘Adarsh Station Scheme’.

• The Adarsh station scheme of Ministry of Railways aims to upgrade the suburban stations of India to Adarsh stations.

Adarsh stations will be beautified and upgraded with modern facilities like:

• Improvement of facade of the station building.

• Duly streamlining traffic flow

• Improvement of platform surface

• Improvement of existing waiting halls and retiring rooms

• Toilet facilities

• Provision of foot overbridges

• Provision of lifts and escalators etc.

The Upgradation process will be monitored by the Indian Government and Indian Railways.

                                                                                                                                    Source :- PIB

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