Context: The Reserve Bank of India maintained status quo in policy rates as the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) voted unanimously to keep the policy repo rate at 4% to keep the stance accommodative.
Key takeaways
Marginal Standing Facility (MSF) rate and bank rate will remain unchanged at 4.25%.
Reverse repo rate will also remain unchanged at 3.35%.
GDP Projection: Real GDP growth for 2022-23 was projected at 7.8%.
Accommodative Stance: It decided to continue with an accommodative stance as long as necessary to revive and sustain growth and continue to mitigate the impact of Covid-19 on the economy, while ensuring that inflation remains within the target going forward.
An accommodative stance means a central bank will cut rates to inject money into the financial system whenever needed
Key Terms
Repo rate is the rate at which the central bank of a country (RBI in case of India) lends money to commercial banks in the event of any shortfall of funds. Here, the central bank purchases the security.
Reverse repo rate is the rate at which the RBI borrows money from commercial banks within the country.
Bank Rate: It is the rate charged by the RBI for lending funds to commercial banks.
Marginal Standing Facility (MSF): MSF is a window for scheduled banks to borrow overnight from the RBI in an emergency situation when interbank liquidity dries up completely.
What is Monetary Policy Committee?
Urjit Patel committee in 2014 recommended the establishment of the Monetary Policy Committee.
It is a statutory and institutionalized framework under the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934, for maintaining price stability, while keeping in mind the objective of growth.
Composition: Six members (including the Chairman) – three officials of the RBI and three external members nominated by the Government of India.
The Governor of RBI is ex-officio Chairman of the committee
Functions: The MPC determines the policy interest rate (repo rate) required to achieve the inflation target (presently 4%). Decisions are taken by majority with the RBI Governor having the casting vote in case of a tie.
Part of: Prelims and GS-II International Relations And GS-III Environment
Context: IndianPrime Minister will address the high-level segment of One Ocean Summit.
Key takeaways
The Summit will also be addressed by several Heads of States and Governments including Germany, United Kingdom, South Korea, Japan and Canada among others.
One Ocean Summit is being organised by France from 9th to 11th February in Brest, in cooperation with the United Nations and the World Bank.
Objective: To mobilise the international community to take tangible action towards preserving and supporting healthy and sustainable ocean ecosystems
The goal of the One Ocean Summit is to raise the collective level of ambition of the international community on marine issues and to translate our shared responsibility to the ocean into tangible commitments
Commitments will be made towards combating illegal fishing, decarbonising shipping and reducing plastic pollution
Will also focus on efforts to improve governance of the high seas and coordinating international scientific research.
Part of: Prelims and GS-III Science and technology
Context: Elon Musk’s Starlink has lost dozens of satellites that were caught in a geomagnetic storm a day after they were launched on February 3. Up to 40 of the 49 satellites were impacted, Starlink said, causing them to fall from orbit before they could be commissioned.
About Solar storms
Solar storms are magnetic plasma ejected at great speed from the solar surface.
They occur during the release of magnetic energy associated with sunspots (‘dark’ regions on the Sun that are cooler than the surrounding photosphere), and can last for a few minutes or hours.
The solar storm that deorbited the satellites occurred on February 1 and 2, and its powerful trails were observed on February 3.
Effect on Earth
Not all solar flares reach Earth, but solar flares/storms, that come close can impact space weather in near-Earth space and the upper atmosphere.
Solar storms can hit operations of space-dependent services like global positioning systems (GPS), radio, and satellite communications.
Geomagnetic storms interfere with high-frequency radio communications and GPS navigation systems.
Aircraft flights, power grids, and space exploration programmes are vulnerable.
Part of: Prelims andMains GS-III: Indian Economy and issues relating to planning, mobilization, of resources, growth, development and employment.
Context: India has a unique maritime position. Its 7517 km long coastline is home to nine coastal states and 1382 islands. The Government of India’s Vision of New India by 2030 enunciated in February 2019 highlighted the Blue Economy as one of the ten core dimensions of growth.
Therefore, the Deep ocean mission is an important mission for India from the perspective of geopolitics, energy security, economic development and scientific advancement which will achieve targets of both blue economy and New India by 2030.
Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) & Ministry of Earth Sciences for implementation
National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT), an autonomous institute under the Ministry of Earth Sciences is developing a manned submersible with a capacity to carry three human beings to 6000 m ocean depth.
The Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) of ISRO is involved in developing a titanium alloy human sphere of 2.1 m diameter for the manned submersible.
Importance of Oceans for India
For India, with 7,517 km long coastline, nice coastal states with 30 percent of the country’s population and three sides surrounded by the oceans, the ocean is a major economic factor supporting fisheries and aquaculture, tourism, livelihoods and blue trade.
The oceans are also storehouse of food, energy, minerals, medicines.
They are also modulator of weather and climate system of earth. Thus, oceanic health is important for Indian nonsoons.
Oceans also provide ecosystem services like carbon sequestration, coastal protection, waste disposal and the existence of biodiversity.
The Deep Ocean Mission will consist of six major components:
1.Development of Technologies for Deep Sea Mining, and Manned Submersible:
A manned submersible will be developed to carry three people to a depth of 6,000 metres in the ocean with a suite of scientific sensors and tools.
An Integrated Mining System will also be developed for mining Polymetallic Nodules from a depth of 6,000 metres in the central Indian Ocean.
2.Development of Ocean Climate Change Advisory Services:
A suite of observations and models will be developed to understand and provide future projections of important climate variables on seasonal to decadal time scales under this proof of concept component.
3.Technological innovations for exploration and conservation of deep-sea biodiversity:
The bio-prospecting of deep-sea flora and fauna including microbes and studies on sustainable utilisation of deep-sea bio-resources will be the main focus of the mission.
4.Deep Ocean Survey and Exploration:
The primary objective of this component is to explore and identify potential sites of multi-metal Hydrothermal Sulphides mineralisation along the Indian Ocean mid-oceanic ridges.
5.Energy and freshwater from the ocean:
Studies and detailed engineering design for offshore Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) powered desalination plant is envisaged in the concept proposal.
6.Advanced Marine Station for Ocean Biology:
This component is aimed at the development of human capacity and enterprise in ocean biology and engineering.
This component will translate research into the industrial application and product development through on-site business incubator facilities.
Part of: Prelims andMains GS-I: Modern Indian History
Objective: Utilization of Remote Sensing Technology for Inventorization, Assessment and Monitoring of the country’s natural resources.
Development of knowledge based decision tool to simulate mechanism of vegetation change due to climatic change in Western Himalayan Ecoregion
Monitoring of Snow and Glaciers of Himalayan Region
Desertification Status Mapping of India
Soil and Water quality appraisal in the Salt Affected Land Forms of Nagapattinam District, Tamil Nadu using Remote Sensing (RS) and Geographic Information System (GIS) techniques
Application of Remote Sensing for Integrated Land use, Water and Energy Management in Rural Areas: Exploring Energy Plantation Opportunities, Public Systems Group
Land use dynamics and its impact on microelements, structure, composition and diversity of Achanakumar – Amarkantak Biosphere Reserve using satellite remote sensing and GIS techniques
Natural Resources Assessment of selected Eco-Tourism sites of Gujarat and its associated environments using remote sensing and GIS
In News: A recent study has shown that water vapour exhibits a positive radiative effect at the top of the atmosphere (TOA), suggesting an increase in overall warming in the High Altitude Himalayas due to it.
The precipitable water vapor (PWV) is one of the most rapidly varying components in the atmosphere and is mainly accumulated in the lower troposphere.
Due to the large variability in space and time, mixing processes and contribution to a series of heterogeneous chemical reactions, as well as sparse measurement networks, especially in the Himalayan region, it is difficult to accurately quantify the climatic impact of PWV over space and time.
Moreover, aerosol-cloud-precipitation interactions over this region, which are one of the most climatic-sensitive regions, are poorly understood, apparently due to a lack of proper observational data.
The researchers assessed the combination of aerosols and water vapour radiative effects over the Himalayan range that is specifically important for regional climate and highlighted the importance of water vapour as a key greenhouse gas and climate forcing agent over the Himalayan region.
Minority Communities of India: Christians, Sikhs, Muslims, Buddhists, Jains and Parsis
Krishi Udan Scheme 2.0
Aim: To ensure seamless, cost-effective, time-bound air transportation and associated logistics for all Agri-produce originating especially from North East (including Assam), hilly and tribal regions of the country.
Objective: To increase the share of air carriage in the modal mix for transportation of Agri-produce, which includes horticulture, fishery, livestock and processed products.
Enhancing the existing provisions, mainly focusing on transporting perishable food products from the hilly areas, North-Eastern States and tribal areas.
India has a total of 53 operational satellites in space providing various identified services to the nation.
21 of these are communication satellites
8 are Navigation satellites
21 are Earth Observation Satellites
3 are Science Satellites
A large number Indian classics, popular Indian works and literary masterpieces have been promoted into foreign languages by Sahitya Akademi
The Ayodhya Canto of the Ramayana as told by Kamban from Tamil (English)
Chemmeen from Malayalam (English and several Eastern European languages)
Kavitavali by Tulsidas (English)
Godaan by Premchand (English)
Garambica Bapu by S.N. Pendse (English)
Pather Panchali by Bibhuti Bhushan Bandyopadhyay (French)
Surujmukhir Swapna by Syed Abdul Malik (Assamese)
Arogyaniketan by Tara shankar Bandyopadhyay (Bengali)
Vevishaal by Jhaverchand Meghani (Gujarati)
Kavve Aur Kala Pani by Nirmal Verma (Hindi)
Parva by S. L. Bhyrappa (Kannada)
Manoj Dasanka Katha O Kahini by Manoj Das (Odia)
Marhi Da Diva by Gurdial Singh (Punjabi)
Sila NerangalilSila Manidargal by D. Jayakanthan (Tamil)
Illu by R. Viswanatha Sastry (Telugu)
Ek Chadar Maili Si by Rajinder Singh Bedi (Urdu).
(Mains Focus)
ECONOMY/ GOVERNANCE
GS-3: Issues related to direct and indirect farm subsidies and minimum support prices and food security
Context: The massive solidarity (despite deeply divisive social faultlines) seen in the recent farmers’ movement is a struggle to transform Indian agriculture. One of the core demands of the movement was regarding Minimum Support Price regime (where farmers demanded legal backing for it)
What purpose does MSP serve?
MSP could serve, in principle, three purposes —
Price stabilisation in the food grains market
Income support to farmers
A mechanism for coping with the indebtedness of farmers.
How has Price stabilization policy evolved over years?
The price stabilisation policy for food grains in India evolved over time, first with the Essential Commodities Act in 1955 to counter price rise due to speculative private trading and then MSP in the 1960s.
A buffer stock policy with the public storage of food grains for market intervention was developed that entailed storing the procured surplus for sale through the Public Distribution System (PDS) at issue price, and market intervention to stabilise price when deemed necessary.
This task required interlinking procurement, storage and distribution with more centralised investment and control of each of these tasks.
These induced farmers to shift to a high-yielding varieties cropping pattern during the Green Revolution, while ensuring food security for citizens.
What has been the consequences of the above policies?
The procurement and PDS from the Green Revolution period provided assured price incentives for rice and wheat but left out some 20 crops now under discussion for MSP including millets, coarse cereals, pulses and oilseeds.
As a result, this partial MSP coverage skewed the cropping pattern against several coarse grains and millets particularly in rain-fed areas.
From the time of the Green Revolution till recently, the area under cultivation of rice increased from 30 million hectares to 44 million hectares, while that under wheat increased nine million hectares to 31 million hectares.
However, area under the cultivation of coarse cereals decreased from 37 million hectares to 25 million hectares.
As a result, these left-out crops (grown mostly in rain-fed conditions) were not made available in ration shops, which impacted the nutritional security of people.
Almost 68% of Indian agriculture is rain fed and the crops grown in these regions are usually more drought resistant, nutritious and staple in the diet of the poorer subsistence farmers.
Such a regime also posed huge fiscal burden on government as the total economic cost involving subsidy for selling below market price would be around ₹3 lakh-crore.
What measures needs to be taken to reform MSP?
Wider MSP: Greater coverage of all 23 crops under MSP is a way of improving both food security and income support to the poorest farmers in rain-fed regions.
Price Band: Each crop within a band of maximum and a minimum price depending on harvest conditions (i.e. higher price in a bad and lower price in a good harvest year in general) will have its price set in the band.
The price of some selected coarse grains can be fixed at the upper end of its band to encourage their production in rain fed areas.
Bank Credit: A real breakthrough in the recurring problem of agricultural debt can be made by the linking of selling of grains under MSP to provision of bank credit particularly for small farmers.
The farmer can get a certificate selling grains at MSP which would be credit points proportional to the amount sold and this can entitle them to a bank loan.
Decentralising the implementing agencies: MSP scheme could be implemented effectively upon decentralising the implementing agencies under the constitutionally mandated supervision of panchayats.
What will be the additional cost for govt in case of widened MSP?
Of the total grains produced some 45%-50% is for farmers’ self-consumption and the rest is marketed surplus.
This marketed surplus sets the upper bound of total procurement cost from which must be deducted the net revenue recovered through the PDS (if all these crops are sold through ration shops). Preliminary estimate puts it in the range of ₹5 lakh-crore.
This is not a big amount considering that it is of the same order of magnitude as DA to public sector employees (less than 5% of the population).
The additional amount can be tapped from the income foregone announced in the Budget for a handful of industrial houses (₹3 lakh-crore)
Increased expenditure on MSP will benefit more than half the population directly and another 20%-25% of the population indirectly in the unorganised sector — over 70% of India’s citizens.
Context: The Supreme Court of India will soon hear a petition to remove the stay (imposed by Punjab & Haryana High Court) on the implementation of Haryana State Employment of Local Candidates Act, 2021.
The act reserves 75% of jobs in the private sector in the State for local residents.
The Act applies to jobs that pay up to ₹30,000 per month, and employers have to register all such employees on a designated portal.
The Government may also exempt certain industries by notification, and has so far exempted new start-ups and new IT companies, as well as short-term employment, farm labour, domestic work, and promotions and transfers within the State.
What are the constitutional challenges to this act?
There are at least three important constitutional questions that arise from this Act.
Right to Freedom
First, Article 19(1)(g) of the Constitution guarantees freedom to carry out any occupation, trade or business. There may be reasonable restrictions “in the interests of the general public”.
This Act, by requiring private businesses to reserve 75% of lower end jobs for locals, encroaches upon their right to carry out any occupation.
Article 16
Second, the provision of reservation by virtue of domicile or residence may be unconstitutional. Article 16 of the Constitution specifically provides for equality of opportunity for all citizens in public employment.
Article 16 prohibits discrimination on several grounds including place of birth and residence. However, it permits Parliament to make law that requires residence within a State for appointment to a public office.
This enabling provision is for public employment and not for private sector jobs. And the law needs to be made by Parliament, and not by a State legislature.
Quantum of Reservation
The third question is whether 75% reservation is permitted.
In the Indra Sawhney case in 1992, the Supreme Court capped reservations in public services at 50%.
It however said that there may be extraordinary situations which may need a relaxation in this rule. It also specified that “in doing so, extreme caution is to be exercised and a special case made out”.
Therefore, the onus is on the State to make a special case of exceptional circumstances, for the 50% upper limit on reservations to be relaxed.
The Maharashra Act, which provided reservations for Marathas was struck down by the Supreme Court in May 2021 on grounds of breaching the 50% limit.
One may contend that any reservation requirement imposed on the private sector should not be higher than the limits on the public sector.
What are the other criticisms of the Haryana Job Reservation Act?
Affects Equality: The Haryana Act does not further “caste rule” as it is for all residents of the State irrespective of caste but it breaches the notion of equality of all citizens of India.
Widen Inequality across States: Other than potentially increasing costs for companies, there may also be an increase in income inequality across States as citizens of poorer States with fewer job opportunities are trapped within their States.
Idea of Nation: Over the last three years, three States have enacted laws that limit employment for citizens from outside the State. These laws raise questions on the conception of India as a nation.
The Constitution conceptualises India as one nation with all citizens having equal rights to live, travel and work anywhere in the country. These State laws go against this vision by restricting the right of out-of-State citizens to find employment in the State.
Conclusion
The courts, while looking at the narrow questions of whether these laws violate fundamental rights, should also examine whether they breach the basic structure of the Constitution that views India as one nation which is a union of States, and not as a conglomeration of independent States.
Context: Odisha can see the highest-ever human casualties due to human-elephant conflict (HEC) in 2021-2022 than the years before, experts have warned.
Some 97 people have been killed in HEC from March 2021 to January 18, 2022.
There have been 96 injuries.
Sundargarh has recorded the highest human deaths due to HEC this year: 21 of the total 97 deaths. It is followed by Keonjhar (12) where rampant mining is permitted by the forest department.
Some 611 elephants too have died in Odisha from April, 2014 to January 18, 2022. Of these, 191 have died unnatural deaths mainly due to electrocution (90), poaching and poisoning (77) and train and road kills (24).
Reasons for man-animal conflict:
Expansion of human settlements into forests – expansion of cities, industrial areas, railway/road infrastructure, tourism etc.
Allowing livestock to graze in forest areas
Land use transformations such as change from protected forest patches to agricultural and horticultural lands and monoculture plantations are further destroying the habitats of wildlife.
Unscientific structures and practices of forest management in the country
Infestation of wildlife habitat by invasive exotic weeds leads to decreased availability of edible grasses for wild herbivores
Decreased prey base caused by poaching of herbivores has also resulted in carnivores moving out of forests in search of prey and to indulge in cattle lifting.
Due to uncontrolled mining activity, the stressed elephants are angry and enter villages in search of food, killing locals in the process. Every mining proposal in dense forests that are elephant habitat and feeding grounds has been cleared by the department,
The Way Forward
India’s culture of tolerance must be supplemented by innovative, evidence-driven, socially-just institutions that govern the human-wildlife interface. For this, the Indian government and civil society need relevant and timely data.
First, we need to better understand the core ecological variables
How many elephants are there, and how are they distributed? Do the forests that the elephants live in have enough palatable vegetation, or has it been replaced by invasive weeds and inedible plantation trees like teak?
In northeast India, we don’t even know all the places elephants go, inhibiting the protection of their habitat and lives. Such vital data could empower conservationists to pursue forest regeneration, grassland restoration, and corridor protection necessary to support large populations of elephants.
Second, data on human-elephant conflicts
Currently, data on crop-raiding by elephants, elephant deaths, and human deaths due to conflict are buried in paper files scattered across the country, preventing timely analyses. If state governments develop electronic databases on human-elephant conflict, the government and civil society can target interventions to places where elephants are troubling communities.
We can strategically choose where to help farmers replace lethal electric fences with effective non-lethal barriers, deploy awareness programmes to minimise accidental encounters, and strengthen the administration of fair compensation programmes.
The building of such evidence-driven institutions to protect elephants requires funding. While NGOs could use help from the private sector, the government must also step up.
Third, consider further dis-incentivizing cruelty towards animals
Currently, the wildlife laws guiding sentencing for illegal hunting do not consider whether the animal suffered a slow and painful death. India’s conservation laws are geared to protect species, not prevent animal cruelty.
Accepting that the people will continue to kill wild animals, perhaps our laws should regard cruel acts more harshly than, say, defending crops with a gun when there is no alternative.
Also,
60 per cent of HEC involved tuskers. It was possible to prevent these confrontations if tuskers were identified and continuously tracked by expert trackers. Tracking is not happening since most trackers are actually deployed on other duties.
Humans encountered elephants early in the morning while going out to relieve themselves in 50 per cent of the cases. The forest department should convince people to use toilets built under the Swachh Bharat Mission.
Local youth teased elephant herds who then vented their anger on old people who could not run. Some casualties had occurred while people were taking selfies with elephants. The forest department must prevent this harassment by putting up warning sign boards and punishing offenders.
Nearly 25 per cent of human casualties happened when the walls of huts were toppled by elephants to raid paddy and liquor. A massive door-to-door campaign needed to be launched by the forest department to make people aware about the danger of storing food grains and liquor in bedrooms.
The forest department must prevent people from collecting fruits from reserve forests and sanctuaries so that there is enough left for elephants’ consumption.
Discoms should strengthen power supply poles, raise power lines to the stipulated 5.5 metres in height and fix earth leakage circuit breakers instead of abruptly cutting off power.
Ensuring that elephant corridors are not razed/neglected due to overzealous developmental approach
Radio tagging of elephants can help identify danger spots and also avoid man-animal conflict
Ban on illegal electrical fencing with proper guidelines for maintaining the height of high tension electrical wires – cabling of power lines should be mandatory
A proper zone-wise management plan for different elephant landscapes — where to allow elephants and where to restrict their movement
Effort should be to expand elephant corridors, using the successful models within the country, including acquisition of lands using private funds and their transfer to the government.
Note:
World Elephant Day: 12th August
The Indian elephant
One of three extant recognized subspecies of the Asian elephant and native to mainland Asia
Listed as Endangered on the IUCN Red List
The wild population has declined by at least 50% since the 1930s
Threatened by loss, degradation and fragmentation of its habitat
An endangered species included in Schedule 1 of the Wildlife Protection Act of 1972. The animals included in Schedule 1 need high level of protection. The Schedule provides for the certificate of ownership and makes it mandatory for the elephant owners to provide adequate facilities for the housing, maintenance and upkeep of captive elephants.
About Project Elephant
It is a flagship programme of Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF)
Launched in 1992 it is a Centrally-sponsored scheme
Primarily aimed at protecting elephant, their habitats and corridors
It addresses issues of man-animal conflict and welfare of domesticated elephants.
Elephant corridors are strips of land connecting two large habitats, which are supposed to provide a safe corridor for elephants to migrate from one landscape to another. In India, there are 101 elephant corridors.
Elephant Information Network (EIN)
Has enabled human-elephant coexistence in southern India
Acts as an early warning mechanism to alert people when elephants are nearby, minimizing negative human-elephant interactions, and increasing people’s tolerance towards elephants.
By Mr. Ananda Kumar
Can you answer the following questions?
Why are man-animal conflicts on the rise in India? Identify the high risks/vulnerable zones and also suggest what corrective measures can be taken to avoid these conflicts?
Human-wildlife conflict is not linear, and can have unforeseen ripple effects on biodiversity and the forest ecosystem. Discuss
(TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE)
Model questions: (You can now post your answers in comment section)
Q.1 Consider the following statements
Reverse Repo rateis the rate at which the central bank of a country lends money to commercial banks in the event of any shortfall of funds.
Repo rate is the rate at which the RBI borrows money from commercial banks within the country.
Which of the above is or are correct?
1 only
2 only
Both 1 and 2
Neither 1 nor 2
Q.2 Consider the following:
Solar storms are magnetic plasma ejected at great speed from the solar surface.
Dark regions on the Sun are cooler than the surrounding photosphere.
Which of the above is or are correct?
1 only
2 only
Neither 1 nor 2
Both 1 and 2
Q.3 ‘Chintamani Padya Natakam’, recently seen in news, was banned by which of the following state of India?
Telangana
Andhra Pradesh
Tamil Nadu
Kerala
ANSWERS FOR 11th Feb 2022 TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE (TYK)
1
D
2
C
3
B
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