Daily Prelims Notes 17 September 2020

September 17, 2020
Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
Category: DPN

Table Of Contents

Subject: Science and tech

Context:

During the last three years, the Government has accorded administrative approval and financial sanction for construction of twelve (12) nuclear power reactors to enhance nuclear power capacity in the country.

Concept:

Presently, two public sector companies of the Department of Atomic Energy, Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) and BharatiyaNabhikiyaVidyut Nigam Limited (BHAVINI) are involved in nuclear power generation.
There is no proposal under consideration at present to permit non-Government sector in the area of nuclear power generation.
However, the private sector participates in the nuclear power sector by providing core reactor components, equipment, materials and services in areas that include construction, fabrication & erection of equipment, piping, electrical, instrumentation, consultancy, auxiliary and logistical services.

2. FDI

Subject: Economy

Context:

Information about FDI was given by the Union Minister of Commerce and Industry, Shri Piyush Goyal, in a written reply in the Lok Sabha

Concept:

As compared to previous years, Foreign Direct Investment has increased in the financial year 2018-19. The year-wise increase in FDI inflow can be seen in the following table:

S. No.	Financial Year	Total FDI Inflow (in US$ billion)
1.	2015-16	55.56
2.	2016-17	60.22
3.	2017-18	60.97
4.	2018-19 (P)	62.00

Note: (P) Figures are provisional. Source: Reserve Bank of India.

3. National Council for Transgender Persons

Subject: Government organisation

Context:

Minister has informed in Rajya sabha that National Council for Transgender Persons will assess impact of various policies with respect to transgenders

Concept:

The council was established by the Centre in exercise of the powers conferred by the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019.
According to the Act, the functions of the council include advising the Centre on the formulation of policies, programmes, legislation and projects with respect to transgender persons; monitoring and evaluating the impact of policies and programmes designed for achieving equality and full participation of transgender persons.
The other functions of the council are to review and coordinate the activities of all the departments of government and other governmental and non-governmental organisations dealing with matters relating to transgender persons, to redress the grievances of transgender persons, and to perform such other functions as may be prescribed by the Centre.
The council will have representatives from community members, five states and 10 Central departments.
Its chairperson will be the Union minister for social justice and empowerment while the vice-chairperson will be the junior minister in the ministry, according to the gazette notification.
The other members will be from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Ministry Home Affairs, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Minority Affairs ministry and Rural Development ministry among others.
The representatives of the state governments and union territories by rotation, one each from the north, south, east, west and northeast regions have also been announced.
Also, five representatives of the transgender community, one each from the north, south, east, west and northeast regions have also been announced.

4. The Farmers’ Produce Trade And Commerce (Promotion And Facilitation) Bill

Subject: Agriculture

Context:

The Bill is introduced in Loksabha to replace the Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Ordinance, 2020

Concept:

It seeks to provide for the creation of an ecosystem where the farmers and traders enjoy the freedom of choice relating to sale and purchase of farmers’ produce
It facilitates remunerative prices through competitive alternative trading channels to promote efficient, transparent and barrier-free inter-State and intra-State trade and commerce of farmers’ produce outside physical premises of markets or deemed markets notified under various State agricultural produce market legislations
It also provides a facilitative framework for electronic trading and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.

Background

Farmers in India suffered from various restrictions in marketing their produce.
There were restrictions for farmers in selling agri-produce outside the notified APMC market yards.
The farmers were also restricted to sell the produce only to registered licensees of the State Governments.
Further, Barriers existed in free flow of agriculture produce between various States owing to the prevalence of various APMC legislations enacted by the State Governments.
This legislation is a historic-step in unlocking the vastly regulated agriculture markets in the country.
It will open more choices for the farmer, reduce marketing costs for the farmers and help them in getting better prices.
It will also help farmers of regions with surplus produce to get better prices and consumers of regions with shortages, lower prices.

5. The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill

Subject: Agriculture

Context:

The bill was introduced in Loksabha

Concept:

It seeks to provide for a national framework on farming agreements that protects and empowers farmers to engage with agri-business firms, processors, wholesalers, exporters or large retailers for farm services and sale of future farming produce at a mutually agreed remunerative price framework in a fair and transparent manner and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.

Background

Indian agriculture is characterized by fragmentation due to small holding sizes and has certain weaknesses such as weather dependence, production uncertainties and market unpredictability.
This makes agriculture risky and inefficient in respect of both input & output management.
This legislation will transfer the risk of market unpredictability from the farmer to the sponsor and also enable the farmer to access modern technology and better inputs.
It will reduce cost of marketing and improve income of farmers.
Farmers will engage in direct marketing thereby eliminating intermediaries resulting in full realization of price. Farmers have been provided adequate protection.
Effective dispute resolution mechanism has been provided for with clear time lines for redressal.

6. Five Finger Strategy

Subject: IR

Context:

Heart of the PRC’s strategy to manage its periphery which is often referred to as Mao’s ‘Five Finger strategy’

Concept:

The Five Fingers of Tibet is a Chinese foreign policy attributed to Mao Zedong that considers Tibet to be China’s right hand palm, with five fingers on its periphery: Ladakh, Nepal, Sikkim, Bhutan, and Arunachal Pradesh, and that it is China’s responsibility to “liberate” these regions.

7. Import substitution

Subject: Economy

Context:

Promoting self-reliance in sectors such as electronics, defence equipment, pharmaceuticals, among others, can lead to import substitution of over USD 186 billion for the country, says a study by Export and Import Bank of India (Exim Bank).

Concept:

Government strategy that emphasizes replacement of some agricultural or industrial imports to encourage local production for local consumption, rather than producing for export markets.
Import substitutes are meant to generate employment, reduce foreign exchange demand, stimulate innovation, and make the country self-reliant in critical areas such as food, defense, and advanced technology.
It seeks to provide added protection to domestic industries via tariffs, import quotas, government loans at subsidised rates of interest. This encourages people to start new production units.
The economies adopt this policy to protect its budding industry from international competition that has easily attained economies of scale due to large-scale production.
Import substitution gained widespread prominence and adopted by many countries after World War II to bolster domestic industry and growth. This was also done to reduce dependence on other countries.
India too had resorted to import substitution which was later reversed during 1991 currency crisis.

8. National cyber security coordinator

Subject: IR

Context:

Government has set up an expert committee under the National Cyber Security Coordinator to study the revelations in China Watching, an investigation by The Indian Express, that a Shenzen-based company, is monitoring over 10,000 Indian individuals and entities.

Concept:

In 2013, the cabinet had approved the National Cyber Security Policy.
In that, there were a number of new institutions that were proposed.
For example, there is an institution called the NCIIPC — National Critical Information Infrastructure Protection Centre — for the CII [critical information infrastructure]; then, for threat analysis, there was the NCCC — National Cyber Coordination Centre; for cybercrime, there was the I4C — Cyber Crime Coordination Centre under the MHA; and as a coordinator of all these aspects, there was an appointment created called the National Cyber Security Coordinator
National Security Council is chaired by the Prime Minister and it comprises four major ministries— External Affairs, Finance, Defence and Home. That’s the highest decision-making body for taking decisions on national security. And the secretary general of this council is the National Security Advisor.
To provide a secretariat for the Security Council, there is the National Security Council Secretariat. It has various verticals: there is a vertical that handles internal threats, vertical that handles strategic threats, etc.
National Cyber Security Coordinator (NCSC) under National Security Council Secretariat (NSCS) coordinates with different agencies at the national level for cyber security matters.
National Cyber Security Coordinator mandate
- to advise this Council in overseeing and compliance of all the cyber security aspects including implementation of action plans in cyber security by the nodal agencies, evaluation and analysis of incidents, then forming incident response monitoring teams.
- There’s an aspect of international forums and providing consultation and guidance to state governments.
- And also engage with the private industry for formulation of policies.

9. Fertilizer and climate change

Subject: Environment

Context:

Fertilizers usage has been making climate change worse

Concept:

Widely-used synthetic fertiliser, ammonium nitrate and its chemical cousins ammonium sulfate, sodium nitrate and potassium nitrate are significant contributors to climate change.
Fertilizers production is energy-intensive, requiring the burning of fossil fuels.
After farmers apply these synthetic fertilisers to crops, chains of chemical reactions generate nitrous oxide, or N2O, a greenhouse gas.
The International Fertilizer Association pegs the amount of anthropogenic GHG emissions for which the industry is responsible at 2.5 per cent, but all greenhouse gasses are not created equal. N2O has a far greater global warming potential than either methane or carbon dioxide.
Alternatives include organics such as manure, and deployment of cover crops like soya and other legumes that convert nitrogen in the air into plant food. But these methods will only take food production so far