Friday Factly 27 November 2020

General Studies -1

The Desertification and Land Degradation Atlas (2016) by Space Applications Centre (SAC), ISRO, identifies 96.4 m ha as undergoing the process of desertification/land degradation. This is almost 30 per cent of India’s geographical area.
India joined the Bonn Challenge in 2015 with a pledge to restore 21 mha of degraded and deforested land. This was raised to target of 26 mha by 2030 during the United Nations Convention on Combating Desertification Conference held in Delhi in September 2019.

Its contribution to the agricultural and allied sectors in terms of value of output has increased from 17% in 2013-14 to 21% in 2018-19
The value of output of milk group is even higher than the combined value of output of paddy, wheat and sugarcane.
With annual growth of about 5.6% during the last eight years, in real terms, milk group also outpaced the agricultural and allied sectors, which grew at about 3.3% during the same period.
At a time when the share of food in total expenditure has been declining over the years, the share of milk in the food basket has been increasing both in rural and urban areas.

China invests 2.2% of its GDP on R&D ($496 billion),
India’s $50 billion (PPP figures, 2017
American R&D spend of $549 billion
China has clocked over 17% in annual growth rates between 2000 and 2017, against the US average of 4.3%.

India’s merchandise exports have stagnated at $ 315 bn for the past 5 years.

The share of wages in gross value added is not only low but has been declining over the years. As per the Annual Survey of Industries data, this share was 28.5 in 1980–81, 21.4 in 1990–91, 15.5 in 2000–01, 10.3 in 2010–11 and 12.3 in 2015–16.
India’s renewable energy deployment plans for the coming decade are likely to generate business opportunities worth $20 billion a year.