Daily Prelims Notes 28 December 2021

December 28, 2021
Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
Category: DPN

Daily Prelims Notes

28 December 2021

Table Of Contents

1. Farmer Producer Organizations (FPO)

Subject – Agriculture

Context – Just 1-5 per cent of FPOs have received funding under central government schemes introduced to promote them in the last seven years, the State of India’s Livelihood (SOIL) Report 2021 stated.

Concept –

FPO is an organization, where the members are farmers itself. Farmers Producers Organization provides end-to-end support and services to the small farmers, and cover technical services, marketing, processing, and others aspects of cultivation inputs.
The Government of India has approved and launched the Central Sector Scheme of “Formation and Promotion of 10,000 Farmer Producer Organizations(FPOs)” to form and promote 10,000 new FPOs till 2027-28 with a total budgetary outlay of Rs.6865 Cr.
An FPO can be a Producer Company, a Cooperative Society or any other legal form.
FPOs are basically the hybrids of cooperatives and private companies.
The idea behind the Farmer Producer Organizations (FPO) was that “Farmers, who are the producers of their agricultural products, can form the groups and can register themselves under the Indian Companies Act”.
Small Farmers Agribusiness Consortium (SFAC) was mandated by the Department of Agriculture and Cooperation, Ministry of Agriculture, Govt. of India, to support the State Government in the formation of the Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs).
The goal is to enhance the farmers’ competitiveness and to increase their advantage in emerging the market opportunities.
The major operations of Farmers Producer Organization (FPO) include the supply of seed, machinery, market linkages & fertilizer, training, networking, financial and technical advice.

Key points of FPO

Initially, the minimum members in Farmer Producer Organization are 100 in North East & Hilly Areas and 300 in plain areas.
The Farmers Producers Organizations are formed and promoted through the Cluster-Based Business Organizations and engaged at the State or Cluster level by implementing the agencies.
Farmer Producer Organization is promoted under “One District One Product” to promote the specialization and better branding, marketing, processing and exports by FPO.
The Farmers Producer Organization provide adequate training & handholding and the CBBOs provide the initial training.
Priority is given for the formation of Farmer Producer Organization in aspirational districts with at least one FPO in each block of the aspirational districts.

2. Section 13 of FCRA

Subject – Governance

Context – Centre ‘refuses’ to renew Mother Teresa charity’s FCRA status, cites ‘adverse inputs’

Concept –

According to provisions of Section 13 in the Act, the suspension lasts 180 days each time.
Section 14(d) of the FCRA Act states that the FCRA certificate could be cancelled for violating “any” rule or provision of the Act.

When is a registration suspended or cancelled?

The MHA on inspection of accounts and on receiving any adverse input against the functioning of an association can suspend the FCRA registration initially for 180 days.
Until a decision is taken, the association cannot receive any fresh donation and cannot utilise more than 25% of the amount available in the designated bank account without permission of the MHA.
The MHA can cancel the registration of an organisation which will not be eligible for registration or grant of ‘prior permission’ for three years from the date of cancellation.

To know about FCRA, please refer May 2021 DPN.

To know about The Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2020, please refer October 2021 DPN.

3. Cellular Immunity

Subject – Science and Tech

Context – ‘AstraZeneca/Covishield kept death rate low in UK’

Concept –

Cell-mediated immunity is an immune response that does not involve antibodies. Rather, cell-mediated immunity is the activation of phagocytes, antigen-specific cytotoxic T-lymphocytes, and the release of various cytokines in response to an antigen.
Cellular immunity protects the body through:
- T-cell mediated immunity or T-cell immunity: activating antigen-specific cytotoxic T cells that are able to induce apoptosis in body cells displaying epitopes of foreign antigen on their surface, such as virus-infected cells, cells with intracellular bacteria, and cancer cells displaying tumor antigens;
- Macrophage and natural killer cell action: enabling the destruction of pathogens via recognition and secretion of cytotoxic granules (for natural killer cells) and phagocytosis (for macrophages);
- Stimulating cells to secrete a variety of cytokines that influence the function of other cells involved in adaptive immune responses and innate immune responses.

Adaptive Immunity

There are two main mechanisms of immunity within the adaptive immune system – humoral and cellular.

Humoral immunity is also called antibody-mediated immunity. With assistance from helper T cells, B cells will differentiate into plasma B cells that can produce antibodies against a specific antigen. The humoral immune system deals with antigens from pathogens that are freely circulating, or outside the infected cells. Antibodies produced by the B cells will bind to antigens, neutralizing them, or causing lysis (dissolution or destruction of cells by a lysin) or phagocytosis.
Cellular immunity occurs inside infected cells and is mediated by T lymphocytes. The pathogen’s antigens are expressed on the cell surface or on an antigen-presenting cell. Helper T cells release cytokines that help activated T cells bind to the infected cells’ MHC-antigen complex and differentiate the T cell into a cytotoxic T cell. The infected cell then undergoes lysis.

4. Tejas or Training in Emirate Jobs & Skills

Subject – Governance

Context – Eye on Gulf job market, Govt to launch upskill project for overseas workers

Concept –

In a bid to keep Indian workers relevant in the job market of Gulf nations, the government is launching a programme to upskill and re-skill overseas workers to cope with requirements in the post-pandemic scene.
Under the new programme — dubbed Tejas, or Training in Emirate Jobs & Skills — the government has partnered with leading employers in the UAE to “train, certify and place 10,000 Indian workers in a year”and “100,000 across the GCC [Gulf Cooperation Council] region over the next five years”.
The government has also decided to extend the programme for those who have returned to India during the pandemic, thus giving them an opportunity to return to their employers with new skills.
The programme, to be converged with existing skill development programmes of the Centre and state governments, will leverage the training infrastructures of the National Skill Development Corporation, ITIs, Indian Institutes of Science, and private and public skill training institutions.
The Tejas project extends across blue-collar jobs, including electricians, plumbers, multi-skilled technicians, welders, food and beverage service operators, cooks, car/bike riders and the mid-level workforce, which includes IT, finance and healthcare professionals.
The project aims to create a bridge courses in close collaboration with Sector Skill Councils in India and employers in GCC countries.

GCC

The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) is a political and economic alliance of six countries in the Arabian Peninsula: Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
Established in 1981, the GCC promotes economic, security, cultural and social cooperation between the six states and holds a summit every year to discuss cooperation and regional affairs.
The Secretariat is located in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
It is a political, economic, social, and regional organisation according to its charter.

5. Health Index

Subject – Governance

Context – Kerala best state on health parameters, Uttar Pradesh worst: Niti Aayog

Concept –

Kerala remained the best-performing state in the health indicators for a fourth consecutive time, according to Health index which also ranked Uttar Pradesh at the bottom of the rankings although the state also saw the most progress.
“The Healthy States, Progressive India” report — compiled by the Niti Aayog, Union Health Ministry and the World Bank for a fourth edition between 2019-2020 — surveyed 19 large states, eight small states and seven Union Territories.
- It did not include West Bengal and Ladakh due to unavailability of adequate data.
Among large states, Kerala and Tamil Nadu topped the list, and Telangana emerged strong on the third position in health outcomes and incremental performance.
Among small states, Mizoram emerged as the best performer and Nagaland the worst.
Delhi and Jammu & Kashmir were ranked the lowest among Union Territories in overall performance, but topped the list in incremental performance.

Parameters

The Health Index score is prepared based on the States’ performance across a large set of indicators that are divided into three broad domains — health outcomes, governance and information, and key inputs and processes.
Health outcomes, include parameters such as neonatal mortality rate, under-5 mortality rate and sex ratio at birth.
Governance includes institutional deliveries, average occupancy of senior officers in key posts earmarked for health.
And the “key inputs” domain consists of the proportion of shortfall in healthcare providers to what is recommended, functional medical facilities, birth and death registration and tuberculosis treatment success rate.

6. Type Of Galaxies

Subject – Science and Tech

Context – In just our observable universe we estimate there are over 2 trillion galaxies!

Concept –

There are four main categories of galaxies: elliptical, spiral, barred spiral, and irregular. These types of galaxies are further divided into subcategories while at the same time other types of galaxies exist based on their size and other unique features.

Spiral Galaxy

The most common type of galaxy found throughout the universe is the spiral galaxy. Around 77% of the galaxies observed by man are spiral galaxies. A good example of this type is the Andromeda galaxy.
Around two-thirds of all spiral galaxies have a bar-like structure – thus they are classified as barred spiral galaxies. Our galaxy, the Milky Way is an example of this type of galaxy.
They have a flat, spinning disk with a central bulge surrounded by spiral arms. The spinning motion reaches speeds of up to hundreds of kilometers/miles per second.
The bulge located in the center is made up of older, dimmer stars, and is thought to usually contain a supermassive black hole.

Elliptical Galaxies

Elliptical galaxies have an elongated spherical shape and lack a nucleus or bulge at the center.
Although there is no nucleus, the galaxy is still brighter in the center and becomes less bright toward the outer edges of the galaxy.
Their light is dominated by older reddish stars. They appear to also lack spiral arms. The stars, gases and other materials are spread throughout an elliptical galaxy.
The rarest type of galaxies is the elliptical double-ringed galaxy. PGC 1000714 is an example. Estimates suggest that around 0.1% of galaxies are this type. It is sometimes named the Hoag-type galaxy.
Elliptical galaxies are usually comprised of very old stars or stars with low mass. They make up around 10-15% of galaxies in the Virgo Supercluster, a supercluster of which we are also part of. They are very dim in comparison with the very bright spiral galaxies.
The largest galaxies are usually giant elliptical galaxies, containing a trillion or even more stars. They span as much as one million light-years across – 10 times as much as the Milky Way.
Curious enough, the smallest galaxies are also the elliptical types.

Irregular Galaxies

Irregular galaxies have no definite shape, though they are in constant motion like all other galaxies. They have a chaotic appearance as they don’t seem to possess a nuclear bulge or traces of spiral arms.
Some irregular galaxies were once spiral or elliptical galaxies but were deformed by an uneven external gravitational force.
Irregular galaxies are commonly small, and collectively they make up about a quarter of all the galaxies.
The oldest and farthest galaxy ever discovered is an irregular type of galaxy called GN-z11. It is 32 billion light-years / 9.8 billion parsecs away from us. It is estimated that the galaxy formed just around 400 million years after the Big Bang.

Lenticular Galaxies

They appear like cosmic pancakes, fairly flat and featureless in the night sky. These galaxies can be thought of as the “in between” of spiral and elliptical galaxies.
The majority of star formation has stopped but lenticular galaxies can still have significant amounts of dust in them.

7. Resolution of Financial Institution

Subject – Economy

Context – In recent years, resolution of troubled financial institutions has attracted considerable attention in India especially after the failure of YES Bank, PMC Bank and some prominent NBFCs.

Concept –

At present, India lacks a special resolution regime or a comprehensive policy/law on bankruptcy, exclusively, for financial institutions.
Under the existing legal framework, the Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporation (DICGC) doesn’t have powers to apply resolution tools to problem banks; it only “assists” the RBI in carrying out resolution.
- In addition to making payouts to banks under liquidation, DICGC assists in mergers by meeting the shortfalls in depositors’ claims up to the coverage limit (now ₹5 lakh) when the acquiring bank is unable to meet this liability.
The Banking Regulation Act, 1949, through its various Sections, empowers the RBI to deal with the resolution of problem banks through mergers, moratorium imposition, management suspension and liquidation.
However, the most ‘common’ method has been an assisted or compulsory merger through which the weak bank is merged with a strong lender.
In the case of smaller urban co-operative banks, the general approach has been to liquidate them with reimbursement made to the depositors.
Following the announcement of ‘Key Attributes of Effective Resolution Regimes for Financial Institutions’ in 2011 (and updated in 2014) by the Financial Stability Board, the government set up the Financial Sector Legislative Reforms Commission, which in 2013 recommended a single Resolution Corporation (RC) for financial institutions. It also recommended that DICGC be subsumed by the the proposed RC.

Systemically Important Financial Institutions (SIFIs)

The Financial Stability Board (FSB), in consultation with the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS) and national authorities, has identified Global Systemically Important Banks (G-SIBs) since 2011.
Financial Stability Board (FSB) refers Systemically Important Financial Institutions (SIFIs) as institutions “whose distress or disorderly failure, because of their size, complexity and systemic interconnectedness, would cause significant disruption to the wider financial system and economic activity”.
- Financial Stability Board (FSB) is an international body that monitors and makes recommendations about the global financial system. It was established in 2009. India is a member.
Systemically Important Financial Institutions (SIFIs) are perceived as institutions that are Too Big to Fail (TBTF).

Domestic Systemically Important Banks

D-SIB framework is based on the assessment conducted by the national authorities, who are best placed to evaluate the impact of failure on the local financial system and the local economy.
The RBI had issued the framework for dealing with D-SIB in 2014. The D-SIB framework requires the Reserve Bank to disclose the names of banks designated as D-SIBs starting from 2015 and place these banks in appropriate buckets depending upon their Systemic Importance Scores (SISs).
The indicators which are used for assessment are: size, interconnectedness, substitutability and complexity.
Based on their systemic importance scores in ascending order, banks are plotted into four different buckets and are required to have additional Common Equity Tier 1 Capital (CET1) requirements ranging from 0.20% to 0.80% of risk weighted assets (RWA).
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has retained State Bank of India, ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank as Domestic Systemically Important Banks (D-SIBs) or banks that are considered as “too big to fail”.

To know about The Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporation (DICGC), please refer September 2021 DPN.

Financial Sector Legislative Reforms Commission

The Financial Sector Legislative Reforms Commission (FSLRC), constituted by the Ministry of Finance in March 2011, was asked to comprehensively review and redraw the legislations governing India’s financial system.
This Commission is chaired by a former Judge of the Supreme Court of India, Justice B. N. Srikrishna and has an eclectic mix of expert members drawn from the fields of finance, economics, public administration, law etc

8. Mangroves

Subject – Environment

Context – Deepen understanding of Indian mangrove ecosystems, says mangrove scientist

Concept –

Mangroves are the plant communities occurring in inter-tidal zones along the coasts of tropical and subtropical countries.
Mangrove forests perform multiple ecological functions such as production of woody trees; provision of habitat, food, and spawning grounds for fin-fish and shellfish; provision of habitat for birds and other valuable fauna; protection of coastlines and accretion of sediment to form new land.
Mangrove plants have several unique adaptations that allow them to survive in harsh environment. Mangroves are extremely important to the coastal ecosystems they inhabit.
Physically, they serve as a buffer between marine and terrestrial communities. They protect coastlines from damaging winds, waves, and floods.
Mangrove has an important role in improving water quality by filtering pollutants and trapping sediments from the land. They reduce coastal erosion.
Ecologically, they provide habitat for a diverse array of terrestrial and marine organisms.
The area of mangroves has greater species diversity as it is the junction of terrestrial and marine ecosystems.
They have very high salt tolerance and so some species which require this ambience also thrive upon mangroves.
According to one of its oft-quoted definition, “Mangroves represent a characteristic littoral (near the sea shore) forest ecosystem and they are mostly evergreen forests that grow in sheltered low lying coasts, estuaries, mudflats, tidal creeks backwaters (coastal waters held back on land), marshes and lagoons of tropical and subtropical regions”.
Mangrove Forests trees project different types of roots:
Prop – They are down into the water
Air – They are vertically configured up from the mud
Stilt – These roots emerge from the main trunk of the tree; also called adventitious roots.
According to the Forest Survey of India, 2019, Mangroves’ cover in the country increased by 54 sq km (91.10 percent) in comparison to the 2017 assessment.
Mangrove Cover in India is 4975 sq km (0.15 percent of the total geographical area.)
The protection or restoration of blue carbon — organic carbon sequestered and stored over long timescales by coastal vegetated ecosystems such as mangrove forests, seagrasses, and saltmarshes — is steadily gaining prominence as a key natural climate solution.
Mangrove cover is divided as:
Very Dense – 1476 sq km (29.66 percent)
Moderately Dense – 1479 sq km (29.73 percent)
Open Mangroves – 2020 sq km (40.61 percent)

There are three important types of mangroves:

Red mangroves: They grow along coastlines and are the hardiest of the three major mangrove plant types.
Black mangroves: They are named so because of their dark bark. They usually grow at slightly higher elevations than red mangroves. They have access to more oxygen because the roots are more exposed.
White mangroves: They grow at higher elevations than red and black mangroves. Generally they do not have aerial roots. But sometimes there is unique growth of peg roots when oxygen is depleted due to flood.

9. Convergence Energy Service (CESL)

Subject – Economy

Context – CESL to roll out ₹1,800-crore subsidy scheme for e-buses

Concept –

Convergence Energy Services Limited (CESL) is a newly established subsidiary of state-owned Energy Efficiency Services Limited, itself a joint venture of public sector companies under the Ministry of Power, Government of India.
CESL is focused on delivering clean, affordable and reliable energy.
Convergence focuses on energy solutions that lie at the confluence of renewable energy, electric mobility and climate change.