Daily Prelims Notes 28 September 2020
- September 28, 2020
- Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
- Category: DPN
Table Of Contents
- Herd immunity
- Carbon tax
- Sandalwood Spike Disease
- Uniform Code of Pharmaceutical Marketing Practices
- JIMEX-20
- RBI Monetary policy
- Net metering
- Fortification
- Bharatnet
- Priority sector lending
Subject: Science and tech
Context:
Early indications from the second nationwide sero surveillance conducted by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) show the Indian population is still far from achieving herd immunity against Sars-CoV-2.
Concept:
Herd immunity happens when so many people in a community become immune to an infectious disease that it stops the disease from spreading. This can happen in two ways:
- Many people contract the disease and in time build up an immune response to it (natural immunity).
- Many people are vaccinated against the disease to achieve immunity.
When a large percentage of the population becomes immune to a disease, the spread of that disease slows down or stops. Many viral and bacterial infections spread from person to person. This chain is broken when most people don’t get or transmit the infection. This helps protect people who aren’t vaccinated or who have low functioning immune systems and may develop an infection more easily
2. Carbon tax
Subject: Environment
Context:
With China, the largest carbon dioxide emitter, announcing that it would balance out its carbon emissions with measures to offset them before 2060, the spotlight is now on the U.S. and India, countries that rank second and third in emissions.
Concept:
- Under a carbon tax, the government sets a price that emitters must pay for each ton of greenhouse gas emissions they emit.
- Businesses and consumers will take steps, such as switching fuels or adopting new technologies, to reduce their emissions to avoid paying the tax.
- A carbon tax differs from a cap-and-trade program in that it provides a higher level of certainty about cost, but not about the level of emission reduction to be achieved (cap and trade does the inverse).
- Taxes on greenhouse gases come in two broad forms: an emissions tax, which is based on the quantity an entity produces; and a tax on goods or services that are generally greenhouse gas-intensive, such as a carbon tax on gasoline.
Subject: Environment
Context:
India’s sandalwood trees are facing a serious threat with the return of the destructive Sandalwood Spike Disease (SSD).
Concept:
- It is caused by phytoplasma (bacterial parasites of plant tissues) which are transmitted by insect vectors.
- Sandal spike phytoplasma is a pleomorphic microorganism and are the smallest organism capable of independent replication (i.e. does not need a host). The pathogen is around 0.4 to 1.0 micrometer in diameter, has a cell membrane, ribosome and DNA.
- Natural population of sandalwood in Marayoor of Kerala and various reserve forests in Karnataka are heavily infected with SSD for which there is no cure as of now.
- Presently, there is no option but to cut down and remove the infected tree to prevent the spread of the disease.
- SSD has been one of the major causes for the decline in sandalwood production in the country for over a century. The disease was first reported in Kodagu in 1899
- The devastating impact in natural habitats resulted in sandalwood being classified as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature in 1998.
4. Uniform Code of Pharmaceutical Marketing Practices
Subject: Science and tech
Context:
The Alliance of Doctors for Ethical Health Care (ADEH) has expressed anguish and disappointment over the recent reply by the Minister of Chemicals and fertilizers Sadanada Gowda in the Parliament that there is no decision yet from the part of the government to make Uniform Code of Pharmaceutical Marketing Practices (UCPMP) mandatory
Concept:
- It is a voluntary code issued by the Department Of Pharmaceuticals relating to marketing practices for Indian Pharmaceutical Companies and as well medical devices industry.
Key features
- No gifts, pecuniary advantages or benefits in kind may be supplied, offered or promised, to persons qualified to prescribe or supply drugs, by a pharmaceutical company or any of its agents.
- Companies or their associations/representatives or any person acting on their behalf shall not extend any travel facility inside the country or outside, including rail, air, ship, cruise tickets, paid vacations, etc., to Health Care Professionals and their family members for vacation or for attending conference, seminars, workshops, CME programme etc.
- Free samples of drugs shall not be supplied to any person who is not qualified to prescribe such product.
- UCPMP Code states that, in order to appoint Medical Practitioners/HCPs as Affiliates there should be written contract, legitimate need for the services must be documented, and criteria for selecting affiliates must be directly related to the identified need.
- It also provides that the number of affiliates retained must not be greater than the number reasonably necessary to achieve the identified need and that the compensation must be reasonable and reflect the fair market value of the services provided.
5. JIMEX-20
Subject: IR
Context:
The 4th edition of the biennial India and Japan naval exercise is under way in the North Arabian Sea
Concept:
- The maritime cooperation has significantly increased between the two sides with focus on information sharing and Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA) in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) and Indo-Pacific.
- JIMEX-20 will showcase high degree of inter-operability and joint operational skills through conduct of a multitude of advanced exercises, across the spectrum of maritime operations.
- Multi-faceted tactical exercises involving weapon firings, cross-deck helicopter operations and complex surface, anti-submarine and air warfare drills will consolidate coordination developed by the two navies, it said.
Subject: Economy
Context:
Amid rising inflation and growth contraction, MPC had decided to leave the repo rate unchanged.
Concept:
- Monetary policy refers to the use of monetary instruments under the control of the central bank to regulate magnitudes such as interest rates, money supply and availability of credit with a view to achieving the ultimate objective of economic policy
- The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) constituted by the Central Government under Section 45ZB of RBI Act determines the policy interest rate required to achieve the inflation target.
- Accordingly, the Central Government in September 2016 constituted the MPC as under Governor of the Reserve Bank of India – Chairperson, ex officio;
- The primary objective of monetary policy is to maintain price stability while keeping in mind the objective of growth. Price stability is a necessary precondition to sustainable growth.
- In May 2016, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Act, 1934 was amended to provide a statutory basis for the implementation of the flexible inflation targeting framework.
- The amended RBI Act also provides for the inflation target to be set by the Government of India, in consultation with the Reserve Bank, once in every five years.
- Accordingly, the Central Government has notified in the Official Gazette 4 per cent Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation as the target for the period from August 5, 2016 to March 31, 2021 with the upper tolerance limit of 6 per cent and the lower tolerance limit of 2 per cent.
- The MPC is required to meet at least four times in a year.
- The composition of the MPC is as follows;
- Governor of the Reserve Bank of India – Chairperson, ex officio;
- Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of India, in charge of Monetary Policy –
(Member, ex officio) - One officer of the Reserve Bank of India to be nominated by the Central Board – Member, ex officio;
- Except ex-officio members, three independent members will hold the office for a period of 4 years or until further orders, whichever is earlier.
- The quorum for the meeting of the MPC is four members. Each member of the MPC has one vote, and in the event of an equality of votes, the Governor has a second or casting vote.
7. Net metering
Subject: Schemes
Context:
States and Union Territories have adopted ‘net metering’ for Roof Top Solar projects
Concept:
- Net Metering is a system that gives solar energy owners credits for the power that they add to the grid.
- When solar panels produce excess power, that power is sent to the grid. And this power can be ‘taken back’ when the solar plants are not functioning – example, during the night.
- When a unit of solar energy that has been ‘net metered’, the bi-directional electricity meter will run backwards. Customers are billed only for the ‘net’ energy used.
Subject: Science and tech
Context:
FSSAI considering to make fortification of edible oil with Vitamin A, D mandatory
Concept:
- Food fortification – also known as food enrichment is when nutrients are added to food at higher levels than what the original food provides.
- This is done to address micronutrient deficiencies across populations, countries and regions.
- Governments working with industry, international agencies and NGOs have used this method to help reduce and eliminate micronutrient deficiencies in their populations.
- Fortification of centrally-processed staple foods is a simple, affordable and viable approach to reach large sections of a country’s population with iron, folic acid, and other essential micronutrients.
- Adding micronutrients to common staple foods can significantly improve the nutritional quality of the food supply and improve public health with minimal risk.
- The foods most commonly fortified are salt, wheat, corn, rice, bouillon cubes, soya sauce and other condiments.
9. Bharatnet
Subject: Schemes
Context:
- The lack of workers coupled with a shortage of funds has hit the brakes on the BharatNet work in as many as eight states.
- These states had written to the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and the Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) asking for more funds to start work on the second phase of BharatNet.
Concept:
- BharatNet is a project of national importance to establish, by 2017, a highly scalable network infrastructure accessible on a non-discriminatory basis, to provide on demand, affordable broadband connectivity of 2 Mbps to 20 Mbps for all households and on demand capacity to all institutions, to realise the vision of Digital India, in partnership with States and the private sector.
- The entire project is being funded by Universal service Obligation Fund (USOF), which was set up for improving telecom services in rural and remote areas of the country.
- The objective is to facilitate the delivery of e-governance, e-health, e-education, e-banking, Internet and other services to the rural India.
- The project is a Centre-State collaborative project, with the States contributing free Rights of Way for establishing the Optical Fibre Network. The three-phase implementation of the BharatNet project is as follows
- The first phase envisages providing one lakh gram panchayats with broadband connectivity by laying underground optic fibre cable (OFC) lines by Decmeber 2017.
- The second phase will provide connectivity to all 2,50,500 gram panchayats in the country using an optimal mix of underground fiber, fiber over power lines, radio and satellite media. It is to be completed by March 2019.
- In the third phase from 2019 to 2023, state-of-the-art, future-proof network, including fiber between districts and blocks, with ring topology to provide redundancy would be created.
Universal service Obligation Fund (USOF)
- The New Telecom Policy (NTP) 1999 had Universal Service as one of its main objectives: Strive to provide a balance between the provision of Universal Service to all uncovered areas, including the rural areas, and the provision of high-level services capable of meeting the needs of the country’s economy and encourage development of telecommunication facilities in remote, hilly and tribal areas of the country
- The NTP 1999 provided that the resources for meeting the Universal Service Obligation (USO) were to be generated through a Universal Access Levy (UAL), at a prescribed percentage of the revenue earned by the telecom licensees to be decided in consultation with the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).
- Further, NTP 1999 envisaged the implementation of USO Obligation for rural and remote areas would be undertaken by all fixed service providers who shall be reimbursed from the USOF. Other service providers would also be encouraged to participate in USO provision subject to technical feasibility and would be reimbursed from the USOF.
- The Indian Telegraph (Amendment) Act, 2003 giving statutory status to the Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) was passed by both Houses of Parliament in December 2003.
Subject: Economy
Context:
- Banks that are not able to lend under priority sector on their own, can make outright purchases of such lending from other banks and also buy Inter Bank Participation Certificates
- Recent change announced by the Reserve Bank of India in PSL is to remove the imbalance among different geographical areas.
Concept:
- Priority Sector Lending is an important role given by the (RBI) to the banks for providing a specified portion of the bank lending to few specific sectors like agriculture and allied activities, micro and small enterprises, poor people for housing, students for education and other low income groups and weaker sections..
- This is essentially meant for an all-round development of the economy as opposed to focusing only on the financial sector
- Priority Sector includes the following categories:
(i) Agriculture
(ii) Micro,SmallandMediumEnterprises
(iii) ExportCredit
(iv) Education
(v) Housing
(vi) SocialInfrastructure
(vii) RenewableEnergy
(viii) Others
Priority Sector Lending Certificates (PSLCs):
- Priority Sector Lending Certificates (PSLCs) are a mechanism to enable banks to achieve the priority sector lending target and sub-targets by purchase of these instruments in the event of shortfall.
- This also incentivizes surplus banks as it allows them to sell their excess achievement over targets thereby enhancing lending to the categories under priority sector.
- Under the PSLC mechanism, the seller sells fulfilment of priority sector obligation and the buyer buys the obligation with no transfer of risk or loan assets
Ranking districts:
- The RBI has decided to rank districts based on per capita credit flow to priority sector and build an incentive framework for districts with comparatively lower flow of credit and a disincentive framework for districts with a comparatively higher flow of priority sector credit.
- From FY 2021-22, a higher weight (125 per cent) would be assigned to the incremental priority sector credit in the identified districts where the credit flow is comparatively lower (per capita PSL less than ₹6,000), and a lower weight (90 per cent) would be assigned for incremental priority sector credit in the identified districts where the credit flow is comparatively higher (per capita PSL greater than ₹25,000).
- Accordingly, 205 districts are classified as ‘high PSL credit’ eligible for 90 per cent weightage and 184 districts are classified as low ‘PSL credit’ eligible for 125 per cent weightage. The remaining districts will continue to have an existing weightage of 100 per cent.
- Each district draws an Annual Action Plan and this includes targets under different priority sector credit and each district is assigned to a bank under Lead Bank Scheme. The primary responsibility to reach the priority sector target for the district is with the Lead Bank with the help of other banks and district administration.