Published on Feb 26, 2018

IASbaba's Daily Current Affairs

IASbaba's Daily Current Affairs [Prelims + Mains Focus] - 26th February 2018

IASbaba's Daily Current Affairs (Prelims + Mains Focus)- 26th February 2018

(PRELIMS+MAINS FOCUS)

Ombudsman scheme for NBFCs

Part of: Mains GS Paper II- Government interventions, schemes by central government

Key pointers:

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) issued an ombudsman scheme for non-banking finance companies (NBFCs), offering a grievance redressal mechanism for their customers.
An officer at the RBI not below the rank of general manager will be appointed by the regulator as the ombudsman with territorial jurisdiction being specified by the central bank.
Any customer or person can file a compliant with the ombudsman on various grounds like non-payment or inordinate delay in payment of interest, non-repayment of deposits, lack of transparency in loan agreement et.
The NBFC shall, unless it has preferred an appeal, within one month of the award by the complainant, comply with the award and intimate compliance to the complainant and the ombudsman.
The ombudsman will be required to send a report to the RBI governor annually on 30 June containing general review of the activities of his office during the preceding financial year.

Article link: Click here

Waste to wealth: In rural areas

Part of: Mains GS Paper II- Government interventions, schemes by central government

Key pointers:

The government plans to set up an online platform for trading in cow dung and agricultural waste under its recently announced waste-to-wealth scheme.
The Gobar-Dhan (galvanising organic bio agro resources) scheme announced in the Budget, has the potential to create new jobs linked to waste collection, transportation, biogas sales, etc.
India’s cattle population numbering 300 million produce 3 million tonnes of dung every day. This together with agricultural waste and kitchen waste could be used for producing biogas. The Gobar-Dhan scheme would not only keep the villages clean and sanitised, but also help generate additional income for people.

Reference article: Generating energy and wealth from waste

Article link: Click here

(MAINS FOCUS)

INTERNATIONAL

TOPIC: General Studies 2:

India and its neighbourhood- relations.

Bilateral, regional and global groupings and agreements involving India and/or affecting India’s interests

Effect of policies and politics of developed and developing countries on India’s interests

Canada's PM visit to India

Introduction:

India-Canada cooperation can be seen as anchored on five Es: economy, energy, education, entertainment industry linkages, and empowerment of women. The recent visit of Canadian PM to India has many takeaways.

Key takeaways:

Countering terrorism:

From the Indian viewpoint, the most important agreement signed during the visit is the “Framework for Cooperation between India and Canada on Countering Terrorism and Violent Extremism”. It commits the two nations to combating this phenomenon in all its “forms and manifestations”, and to facilitate “effective cooperation” on security, finance, justice, law enforcement and operations. Progress in this realm will spur positivity in other domains of mutual cooperation.

Regional, bilateral issues:

A close commonality of views emerged on several regional issues.

The two Prime Ministers called for dismantling the infrastructure of support to terrorism “from across borders of Afghanistan”, a clear reference to Pakistan.
The Maldives government was urged “to ensure early resumption of the political process.” On Myanmar, the need for voluntary, safe and sustainable return of the Rohingya refugees was stressed.
Canada and India showed a common perspective on freedom of navigation and over-flight “throughout the Indo-Pacific region” and respect for international law, including the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.
Canada implicitly shared India’s reservations on China’s mega Belt and Road Initiative.

Other developments:

The decision to expand the scope of Ministerial Energy Dialogue is noteworthy.
A new Canada-India Track 1.5 Dialogue on Innovation, Growth and Prosperity was launched. This aims to establish contours of convergence through sustained research and brainstorming among experts, officials and business people.

Potential:

As a capital, technology and innovation-rich economy and an open, inclusive and multi-cultural society, Canada is highly relevant to India. It is sharpening its role as a Pacific Ocean power. India’s commitment to peace and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific should deepen geopolitical affinity. The two sides had forged close cooperation on energy and trade, including a civil nuclear cooperation agreement and a commitment from Canadian pension funds to invest in India. India and Canada have much in common as two pluralistic, diverse democracies with very strong people-to-people ties: there is an Indian diaspora of 1.3 million in Canada, besides 100,000 Indian students.

Conclusion:

The mutual interests are likely to drive the two nations to strengthen their strategic partnership. However, for this vision to turn into reality, the Canadian leadership needs to demonstrate greater sensitivity to India’s core concerns (the Khalistan issue).

Connecting the dots:

Discuss the potential and challenges of India-Canada relationship.

For reference: India-Canada relationship: Issues & Potential

AGRICULTURE/ECONOMY

TOPIC:

General Studies 2:

Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.

General Studies 3:

Indian Economy and issues relating to planning, mobilization of resources, growth, development and employment
Issues related to direct and indirect farm subsidies

Achieving the goal of doubling farmers' income by 2022

In news:

The ministry of agriculture and farmers welfare recently organized conference to prepare a strategy for doubling farm income by 2022. Prime Minister Narendra Modi emphasized on four ideas:

Reducing the cost of inputs.
Ensuring remunerative prices.
Reducing wastage at the farm level.
Creating alternative sources of income.

After two consecutive years of drought, in 2014-15 and 2015-16, farmers of many crops were hit by low market prices in several states in 2016-17. In view of widespread discontent, there is a sense of urgency about addressing their issues.

Variation in agro-climatic conditions:

Agriculture is subject to a lot of uncertainties, ranging from rainfall and pest attacks to market prices.

Even within states, there is enormous variation in agro-climatic conditions, extent of irrigation, penetration of roads, proximity to markets, and availability of credit through banking infrastructure.

In Uttar Pradesh (UP), for example- Western UP farmers have access to irrigation and banking infrastructure and are close to a large market in the National Capital Region. They grow sugar cane, rice and wheat, for which they are assured a fair price as almost the entire production of sugar cane is bought by sugar mills and rice and wheat are procured by the government. The agriculture in seven districts of Bundelkhand in UP, however, is mostly unirrigated, farmers have smaller holdings, and do not have easy access to a large consuming market.
The requirements of Punjab’s agriculture may have little in common with agriculture in Maharashtra or Bihar.
The annual income of a farm household in Punjab in 2013 (70th-round National Sample Survey) was Rs2,17,450 while in Bihar it was only Rs44,172. It is clear that doubling farmer incomes in Punjab is not only much more difficult but will also require a completely different strategy than in Bihar.

Therefore, the strategy for doubling farmer incomes will differ from state to state, and from one region to another even within a state.

In March 2015, the government had set up a task force under Arvind Panagariya, which submitted its report that year itself, but the report has not been made public.

Key issues that needs to be addressed:

The wasteful use of water for irrigation-

The micro-irrigation fund of Rs5,000 crore announced in the 2017 budget has not yet taken off and wasteful practices in the use of water continue in most areas, especially in the northern states. Even in Punjab, we do not see any action on the emerging water crisis. Several ideas put forward by experts continue to be discussed in conferences but state and centre have not taken a single decision which would make a real difference to the wasteful use of water.

Model land leasing law-

A model law prepared by NITI Aayog, has been circulated to states but they seem to have ignored it. The Union ministry of rural development, which deals with the subject of land leasing, has also haven't taken steps to see the implementation of the law.

Considering price deficiency payment (PDP) system-

To ensure that farmers receive remunerative prices. This has been tried in Madhya Pradesh (MP) in kharif 2017 and the results have not been very encouraging. The market price of some crops, particularly urad, continued to be much lower than the minimum support price (MSP) in MP, yet only 42% of urad production was brought to the mandis to avail of the benefit. NITI Aayog needs to examine various alternatives to ensure MSP to farmers.

Conclusion:

The states need to be persuaded to put useful and innovative ideas recommended by various committees and in conferences into practice for the goal of doubling famers' income by 2022 is to be achieved.

Connecting the dots: