Main Factly December 2022

ESSAY

• Quotes for Farmer’s Day 2022
  • “If agriculture goes wrong, nothing else will have a chance to go right in the country”—S. Swaminathan
  • “I would rather be on my farm than be emperor of the world”—George Washington
  • “The nation that destroys its soil destroys itself”—Franklin D. Roosevelt
  • “The farmer is the only man in our economy who buys everything at retail, sells everything at wholesale, and pays the freight both ways”—John F. Kennedy
  • “It is only the farmer who faithfully plants seed in the spring, who reaps a harvest in the Autumn”—C Forbes

GS-1

GEOGRAPHY

• NFHS Data
  • NFHS Data indicates that although the fertility rate of Muslims is higher than Hindus, the gap b/w the two has shrunk substantially. In 1992-93, the gap b/w the Hindu and Muslim fertility rate was 1.1, which now has reduced to 0.35. A close comparison of Census data on avg fertility rates is insightful. For instance, in UP with around 20% Muslim population, the TFT declined from 5.8% in 1981 to 2.7% in 2011. In Assam, where the Muslim population is about 33%, the TFR is 1.9%
• Inland Waterway
  • India has about 14,500 km of navigable waterways comprising rivers, canals, backwaters, canals, backwaters & creeks. Annually, over 55 million tonnes of cargo are being moved annually by IWs
• Youth Population
  • India had the world’s largest youth population, at around 356 million. At 64 percent, the high percentage of India’s working population not only contributes to growth in GDP and per capita income, but also represents a large customer base for companies to target and thrive
• Groundwater
  • According to UN’s World Water Development Report, 2022, the country extracts 251 cubic km or more than a quarter of the world’s groundwater withdrawal each year; 90 percent of this water is used for agriculture. If agriculture is to continue to feed the country’s undernourished population—5 million, according to the UN’s State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World, 2022 — and drive its economy, it needs to work in harmony with nature, not against it
• Arctic
  • The Arctic has been warming more than twice as fast as rest of the world
• Coal Reserves
  • India holds 107,727million tons (MMst) of proven coal reserves as of 2016, ranking 5th in the and accounting for about 9% of the world’s total coal reserves of 139471 million tons (MMst). India has proven reserves equivalent to 111.5 times its annual consumption
• Heat Waves
  • From 2030, 160 million people to 200 million people can be exposed to lethal heat waves in India every year and nearly 31 million Indians will face job losses due to heat stress related productivity declines
• Fishery Sector
  • The Pradhan Mantri Matsya Yojana (PMMSY), aims to increase fish production to 220 lakh tonne, avg annual growth rate of fish production to 9 percent, fisheries exports Rs 100000 crore, reduce post-harvest losses to 10 percent and increase employment in the sector to 55 lakhs by 2024-25
  • India is the 2nd largest fish producing country in the world accounting for 56% of global production and contributing about 1.24% to the country’s GVA and over 7.28% to the agricultural GVA. Fisheries and aquaculture continue to be an important source of food nutrition, income and livelihood to millions of people. Export earnings from fishery sector has been Rs 46,662.85 crores during 2019-20

GS-2

POLITY

• The Supreme Court in its judgement had repeatedly said that India needs 50 judges per million population. Presently, the sanctioned strength is about 18 judges per million population and the working strength is about 14 judges per million

GOVERNANCE

Facts

• Rural Broadband penetration is only 29 percent against a national avg of 51 percent
• As per ITU’S World Communication/ICT Indicators Database, only 43 percent of the population in India uses the internet. The IAMAI-Kantar Report ICUBW 2020 suggests that there are 58 percent male internet users and 42 percent female internet users in India. The National Family Health Surveys 2019-21 (NHFS), however shows a significantly larger gender gap in internet usage. The NFHS Report suggests that only 1 percent of the male population and 33.3 percent of the female population had ever used the internet
• Digital Divide
  • There is a rural-urban digital divide, such that rural broadband penetration is only 29 percent against a national average of 51 percent
• Organ Donation
  • India has an organ donation rate of about 0.52 per million population. In comparison, the organ donation rate in Spain, the highest in the world, is 49.6 per million population
• Health Expenditure
  • India ranks poorly on multiple health financing indicators. Its public health expenditure as a percentage of its GDP (1.28%) and share of general govt expenditure dedicated to health (4.8%) remain akin to the poorest countries. Private spending still constitutes nearly 60% of overall expenditure on health

IR

• G20
  • G20 member nations account for nearly 60 percent of the world’s population, including 85 percent of the global GDP and 75 percent of the International Trade
  • According to UNESCO’s Institute for Statistics (UIS) latest report, the G20 Nations accounted for 6% of global GERD in 2018. Global R&D expenditure has reached a record high of about 2.2 trillion current PPP$(2018), while Research Intensity has gradually increased from 1.43% in 1998 to 1.72% in 2018
• Diaspora
  • According to World Bank estimates, India will get $100 billion in non-resident inflows in 2022, a 12 percent jump from last year’s $89 billion total

GS-3

ECONOMY

• Global Trade
  • Between 1990 and 2008, global trade in goods soared from 15.3% to 25.2% of world GDP. Inclusive of trade in services, the increase was from 18.8% to 31.7%
• Oil Seeds
  • Around 22 million tonnes of oil seeds were produced in 2019-20, according to the oil division of the Dpt of Food and Public Distribution under Govt of India. The oil seeds provided 10.7 million tonnes of net domestically produced edible oil
• Edible Oil
  • India imported 14.03 million tonnes (mt) of edible oil worth $19.6 billion during the year ended October 2022
• Exports
  • 40% of our exports is still accounted for only 7 countries
• Non-Institutional Credit
  • According to a NABARD Survey, approximately 30% of all agricultural households had borrowed money from non-institutional sources, which is primarily made up of relative, friends or informal moneylenders
• Manufacturing Sector
  • India’s manufacturing sector has underperformed when compared to other nations, with a meagre share of 16.3 percent of the GDP. This is much less than that of China and Korea, whose manufacturing accounts for 29 per cent of the GDP and 27 percent in Thailand. In India 65 percent of the population is below the age of 35 and the manufacturing sector will play a key role in tapping potential of this demographic dividend
• Agriculture
  • Crops and Livestock farming is estimated to occupy some 50 percent of the world’s habitable land.
  • A/q to National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) data, almost 70% of agricultural households spend more than they earn and more than half of all farmers are in debt. In states such as Andhra Pradesh and Telengana, levels of indebtness are arround 90% where each households bears an avg debt of Rs 1lakh
• Power
  • Power Finance Corporation has reported that the aggregate technical and commercial (AT&C) losses of discoms have gone up from 7 per cent in 2019-20 to 22.3 per cent in 2020-21
• FPOs
  • According to a report from Azim Premji University (2022), less than 4 percent of the FPOs have paid up capital of more than Rs10 lakhs

ENVIRONMENT

• Circular Economy
  • India generates 62 million tonnes (mt) of waste each year, of which around 43 mt is collected and only 12 mt is treated
• Renewable Energy
  • MNRE estimates roughly $25 billion annual investment to meet the Renewable Energy Generation Target of 500 GW by 2030

SECURITY

• India is one of the largest importers of weapons from Israel, contributing to about 40 percent of its annual arms exports
• India’s priority issues on terrorism have been guided by “Five S” approach: –Sanman (Respect), Samvad (Dialogue), Sahyog (Cooperation), Shanti (Peace) and Samriddhi (Prosperity).