Topics (August 3rd Week) › ... · Topics (August 3rd Week) 1. Basics of Floods 2. Mahadayi verdict 3. International Nitrogen Initiative 4. Uttarakhand high court appoints itself

Topics (August 3rd

Week)

1. Basics of Floods

2. Mahadayi verdict

3. International Nitrogen Initiative

4. Uttarakhand high court appoints itself legal guardian of cows in state

5. International year of millets

6. International Conference on Recent Advances in Food Processing Technology

(iCRAFPT)

7. Forest Rights Act

8. What happens when the rupee falls?

9. Ease of Living index

10. Global Liveability Index

11. Pitch to MOVE

12. RUCO (Repurpose Used Cooking Oil) initiative

13. NABARD All India Rural Financial Inclusion Survey 2016-17

14. Employment Generation Programmes in India.

15. Financial Inclusion and poverty

16. Economic Growth –Hunger and malnutrition

Basics of Floods

Context

The 2018 Kerala floods were a result of the unusually severe amount of southwest

monsoon rains.

It is the first time in its history all five gates of the Idukki Dam were opened at the same

time and also 35 out of 39 reservoirs in the state were opened.

What do you mean by “Flood”?

It is a temporary inundation of large regions as a result of an increase in reservoir, or of

rivers, flooding their banks because of heavy rains, high winds, cyclones, storm surge

along coast, tsunami, melting snow or dam bursts.

Causes of Flood:

Excessive rainfall

Landslides causing obstruction to flow and change in the river course

Poor natural drainage

Cyclone and very intense rainfall

Intense rainfall when river is flowing full

Climate change is responsible for abrupt rainfall and a high variability in rainfall.

Melting of glacier due to increase in mean global temperature.

The floods in Kerala have been exacerbated by several factors

Heavy rains

Reservoirs of dams are full till the danger mark and are having to release water in an

emergency situation.

The Gadgil Report on Conservation of Western Ghats (2011) was not implemented,

leading to encroachments in ecologically sensitive zones, unrestricted quarrying and

deforestation. This has increased the chance of landslides, which have caused great

devastation.

Encroachments in flood basins and catchment areas lead to disturbance in the natural

drainage system.

People have settled in ecologically sensitive zones which are prone to flooding and

landslides, increasing vulnerability.

Encroachment over wetlands (wetlands help in flood control) - Growing population

pressure has led to more demand for food and consequently more and more wetlands

have been turned into paddy fields.

IMD study says the causes are climate changes and deforestation

Approach to Flood Management/Prevention

Structural Measures: Attempts to Modify Flood

Dams and Reservoirs

Embankment

Drainage Improvements

Non- Structural Measures: Attempts to modify susceptibility of Flood

Flood plain zonin – It aims to regulate the developments in the flood plains, so that it is

compatible with Flood Risk. It recognises the basic fact that the flood plains are

essentially the domain of the river, and as such all developmental activities must be

compatible with the flood risk involved

Flood forecasting - Involves observing and collecting hydrological and meteorological

data, transmission and then processing the data with a view to work out the likely level to

be achieved at a particular site, i.e. to give advance warning

Flood Proofing - It is essentially a combination of structural change and emergency

action without evacuation. A programme of the flood proofing provides the raised

platforms for flood shelter for men and cattle and raising the public utility installations

above flood levels.

Attempts to modify loss burden by way of Disaster relief, Flood fighting, Flood insurance

Government Policy response:

Enactment of National disaster management act 2005 and NDRF

Setting up of National Flood commission and Task Force on Flood Management/ Erosion

Control to study India’s flood control measures.

Central Water Commission (CWC) –apex body for flood and water management

National Water Policy ( 1987/ 2002/2012)

Effort at International Level

The Sendai Framework for disaster risk reduction(2015-2030) must be implemented

completely involving adopting integrated and inclusive institutional measures so as to

work towards preventing vulnerability to disaster, increase preparedness for response and

recovery and strengthen resilience by inclusion of private sector and local population to

prevent such mishaps in the future.

Mahadayi verdict

Context:

The Mahadayi Water Disputes Tribunal which has been hearing the tussle over sharing of

the Mahadayi or Mandovi river between Goa, Karnataka and Maharashtra, has delivered

its final verdict.

The final verdict:

The tribunal has allowed Karnataka access to 13.4 tmc of water for its consumptive use

(5.4 tmc) and power generation (8.02 tmc).

The share of Goa was pegged at 24 tmc with the Tribunal allowing it for the state’s

municipal water needs, irrigation water requirements and industrial water demands.

Maharashtra got the lowest share of 1.33 tmc for meeting its in-basin needs with respect

to five projects.

The tribunal also directed the Centre to set up the Mahadayi Water Management

Authority to implement its report and final decision.

Rejected Karnataka’s plea for diversion of 7 tmcft of water from the river to the

Malaprabha basin.

River Mahadayi

Mahadayi, the west-flowing inter-state river in the Western Ghats, takes birth in Degaon

village, belgaum district.

The river travels 35 km in Karnataka; 82 km in Goa before joining the Arabian Sea.

The River Mahadayi is called Mandovi in Goa.

The Mahadayi river basin drains an area of 2032 square kilometres of which 375 square

km lies in Karnataka, 77 sq km in Maharashtra and the remaining in Goa.

Dispute: The sharing of waters of Mahadayi River was major cause of dispute between Karnataka

and Goa.

Karnataka was proposing to divert excess water from Mahadayi river to Malaprabha river

basin by constructing number of dams, canals and barrages to route Mahadayi river water

as part of Kalasa-Banduri Nala project.

It had citied that, diversion of surplus water from Mahadayi which drains into Arabian

sea (approximately 188 tmcft of water at 75% dependability flows into the Arabian Sea

now without being used for anything) to meet requirements of water-scarce districts of

Bagalkot, Gadag, Dharwad and Belagavi.

Goa had opposed Karnataka’s proposal, contending that its population is dependent on

river’s natural path and its diversion will affect its fragile ecosystem.

It also claimed that ingress of saltwater in river, which is dependent on monsoons, will

ultimately end up killing state’s mangroves and green belt, disturb relationship between

its people and land as well as ecological balance.

What is Kalasa-Banduri Nala project? The Kalasa-Banduri Nala is a project undertaken by the Government of Karnataka

to improve drinking water supply to the Districts of Belagavi, Dharwad and Gadag.

It involves building across Kalasa and Banduri, two tributaries of the Mahadayi river to

divert 7.56 TMC of water to the Malaprabha river, which supplies the drinking water

needs of the said 3 districts, i.e., Dharwad, Belagavi and Gadag.

It is canal project undertaken by Karnataka to divert water from the Mahadayi river to the

Malaprabha

International Nitrogen Initiative

Context

Indian scientist Nandula Raghuram has been elected as the Chair of the International

Nitrogen Initiative (INI), a global policy making initiative. He is the first Indian and

Asian to be elected to the Chair of INI.

About International Nitrogen Initiative:

The International Nitrogen Initiative (INI) is an international program, set up in 2003

under sponsorship of the Scientific Committee on Problems of the Environment (SCOPE)

and from the International Geosphere-Biosphere Program (IGBP).

The initiative aims to optimise nitrogen’s beneficial role in sustainable food production

and minimise nitrogen’s negative effects on human health.

INI is coordinated by a Steering Committee, led by a chair and six regional centre

directors representing, Africa, Europe, Latin America, North America, South Asia and

East Asia.

The INI holds a conference once in every three years, inviting members of the

international nitrogen community to meet up and discuss ideas and exchange knowledge

on nitrogen issues.

The program is currently a sustained partner of Future Earth, an international

organisation that works to accelerate transformations to global sustainability through

research and innovation.

Nitrogen: Nitrogen is one of the five major chemical elements that are necessary for life. While

nitrogen is the most abundant of these, more than 99% of it occurs as molecular nitrogen,

or N2, which cannot be used by most organisms. This is because breaking the triple bond

holding the two nitrogen atoms together requires a large amount of energy, which can be

mustered only through high-temperature processes or by a small number of nitrogen-

fixing microbes.

Most living organisms can only make use of reactive nitrogen, which includes inorganic

forms of nitrogen like ammonia, ammonium, nitrogen oxide, nitric acid, nitrous oxide,

and nitrate, and organic compounds like urea, amines, proteins, and nucleic acids. It

includes any nitrogen compound that is radiatively, chemically or biological active.

Why care about it? In the prehuman world, a small amount of usable reactive nitrogen was created from N2

by lightening and biological nitrogen fixation, but the spread of reactive nitrogen was

held in check by denitrification, a process that converts reactive N back to N2.

This is no longer the case. Human beings have dramatically altered the nitrogen balance,

breaking into the vast reservoir of molecular nitrogen and releasing reactive forms into

the environment. We have done so by cultivating legumes, rice, and other crops that

promote nitrogen fixation, by burning fossil fuels, and by transforming nonreactive

atmospheric nitrogen to ammonia to sustain food production and some industrial

processes.

During the last few decades, the global increase of reactive nitrogen by all human sources

has far outstripped production from all natural terrestrial systems, and since the 1960s,

the rate of increase has accelerated sharply.

This unprecedented growth in reactive nitrogen has impacted the health and welfare of

people and ecosystems worldwide. On the positive side, approximately 40 percent of the

world’s population is fed by crops sustained by human-induced formation of reactive

nitrogen.

At the same time, this reactive nitrogen can cascade through a variety of environmental

systems, damaging them significantly and exacting a toll on human health. Reactive

nitrogen is implicated in the high concentration of ozone in the lower atmosphere, the

eutrophication of coastal ecosystems, the acidification of forests, soils, and freshwater

streams and lakes, and losses of biodiversity. In the form of nitrous oxide, a greenhouse

gas, nitrogen contributes to global warming and stratospheric ozone depletion.

Uttarakhand high court appoints itself legal guardian of cows in state

Context

The Uttarakhand high court would henceforth act as the legal guardian of cows in the

state. It has also issued some directions to the state government in this regard.

Background:

The judgment came as a response to a public interest litigation claiming that stray cattle

were being slaughtered and waste from a slaughter house was flowing into water bodies ,

posing a health threat to the villagers.

The court cited animal welfare law, national and international documents and Hindu

religious texts to say that animal welfare was part of “moral development of humanity”.

Significance of the judgment

This is the first time in India that a court has had invoked the ‘parens patriae’ doctrine for

cow protection.

Parens patriae: The court did this by invoking the ‘parens patriae’ doctrine. Parens patriae

in Latin means ‘parent of the country’ and is a doctrine that grants the court inherent

power and authority to act as guardian for those who are unable to take care for

themselves.

Implications of the judgment:

The court can now act as the legal guardian of the cows in the state and keep a tab on all

issues related to cows especially its directions with regard to their protection. If there are

any violations in laws and rules regarding cows, the court can take suo moto cognisance

and issue directions to the state.

Important Directions issued by the Court:

All civic bodies in the state shall construct “gaushalas/gausadans” or shelters/homes for

housing cows and other stray cattle within one year.

No commercial charges shall be levied for supplying the electricity and water connections to

gaushalas/shelters.

The state government shall register cases against people who abandon cows and owners of

cattle found on the streets, roads and public places under the Indian Penal Code, Prevention

of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960 and Uttarakhand Protection of Cow Progeny Act, 2007.

The state government shall also set up a special squad to be headed by an officer not below

the rank of deputy superintendent of police in both the Kumaon and Garhwal regions with

one veterinary doctor to protect cows.

The court banned slaughter of cows, bulls, bullocks, heifers or calves in the state and ruled

that no person shall sell beef or beef products in any form in Uttarakhand.

International year of millets

Context

Continuing its efforts to get ‘millets’ a global recognition for its promotion among

consumers, India has written to Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United

Nations proposing declaration of the upcoming year as “International Year of Millets”.

Significance of this move: Adoption of this proposal by FAO with the support of its member nations will enable it to

be moved to the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) for declaration of the

upcoming year as International Year of Millets.

Dedicating a year for millets will not only increase awareness about its health benefits,

but also result in higher demand for these drought-resistant varieties, resulting in

remunerative prices for poor and marginal farmers.

Efforts by government to promote millets:

In order to promote ‘millets’, India had on its part notified these climate resilient crops

as “Nutri-Cereals”and allowed its inclusion in the Public Distribution System (PDS) for

improving nutritional support in April.

Recognising millets’ anti-diabetic properties, the notification called it a “powerhouse of

nutrients” and identified several varieties of millets for promotion. The millets in the

category of “Nutri-Cereals” include Sorghum (Jowar), Pearl Millet (Bajra), Finger Millet

(Ragi), Foxtail Millet (Kangani/Kakun) and Buckwheat (Kuttu) among others.

Besides, the government had in July substantially hiked the minimum support price

(MSP) of millets so that more and more farmers may opt for cultivation of these less

water consuming crops.

What are Millets? Millet is a common term to categorize small-seeded grasses that are often termed nutri-

cereals or dryland-cereals, and includes sorghum, pearl millet, ragi, small millet, foxtail

millet, proso millet, barnyard millet, kodo millet and other millets.

Benefits of Millets: An important staple cereal crop for millions of small holder dryland farmers across sub-

saharan Africa and Asia, millets offer nutrition, resilience, income and livelihood for

farmers even in difficult times.

They have multiple untapped uses such as food, feed, fodder, biofuels and brewing.

Therefore, millets are Smart Food as they are Good for You, Good for the Farmer and

Good for the Planet.

Nutritionally superior to wheat & rice owing to their higher levels of protein with more

balanced amino acid profile, crude fiber & minerals such as Iron, Zinc, and Phosphorous,

millets can provide nutritional security and act as a shield against nutritional deficiency,

especially among children and women.

The anaemia (iron deficiency), B-complex vitamin deficiency, pellagra (niacin

deficiency) can be effectively tackled with intake of less expensive but nutritionally rich

food grains like millets.

Millets can also help tackle health challenges such as obesity, diabetes and lifestyle

problems as they are gluten free, have a low glycemic index and are high in dietary fibre

and antioxidants.

Adapted to low or no purchased inputs and to harsh environment of the semi-arid tropics,

they are the backbone for dry land agriculture.

Photo-insensitive & resilient to climate change, millets are hardy, resilient crops that have

a low carbon and water footprint, can withstand high temperatures and grow on poor soils

with little or no external inputs. In times of climate change they are often the last crop

standing and, thus, are a good risk management strategy for resource-poor marginal

farmers.

International Conference on Recent Advances in Food Processing Technology (iCRAFPT)

Context

International Conference on Recent Advances in Food Processing Technology

(iCRAFPT) 2018 is being held at Indian Institute of Food Processing Technology,

Thanjavur in Tamilnadu.

Theme: Doubling farmers’ income through food processing.

Significance and the need for strengthening of food processing sector:

Most of the agricultural products are not consumable in their original form, for which

they are processed. Wheat is converted into flour, Paddy into rice, sugarcane into jagery,

Sugar, ethanol, alcohol etc. These products can be further processed such as flour into

bread. Apart from this, left over part of crop such as risk husk can also be processed to

get some useful product for e.g. Rice Bran oil, cattle feed, Sugarcane bagasse can be used

for power cogeneration.

Hence, food processing not merely adds value to the agro products, but also increases

their utility. We know that activities in an economy are broadly divided into Agriculture,

industry and Services. Food processing Industry is the product of agriculture and

Industry.

Food processing industry in India: India Food Processing Industry is estimated at $135 billion industry which is growing at

about 8% annually. This growth rate is significantly more than agricultural growth rate

which remains around 4%. These signals indicate toward phenomenal shift toward food

processing from traditional ways.

Food processing industry and employment growth: FPI is employment intensive industry; it can be an answer to jobless growth of past

decade. Currently, only 3 % of employment is in FPI, while in developed countries it

handles 14% population.

Again, much of the employment will be created into rural India. This can remedy

problem of distress migration. Growth in direct employment in the organized food

processing sector stands at 6 % between 2011-12.

Key Challenges

Poor supply chain linkages: India’s agriculture market has a long and fragmented supply

chain that results in high wastage and high costs, especially due to seasonality,

perishability, and variability of produce.

Infrastructure bottlenecks: The export related infrastructure for agri-produce is grossly

inadequate, especially at sea ports and airports. More than 30 percent of the produce from

the fields gets spoilt due to poor post-harvesting facilities and lack of adequate storage

infrastructure.

Lack of skilled manpower: The agricultural workforce is inadequately skilled across

different levels of food processing.

Low adherence to quality standards: India lacks basic standardization and certification

infrastructure. Given the size of the food processing industry, there is a huge gap in the

availability of laboratories, trained manpower, and certification agencies.

Forest Rights Act

Why in news? Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights)

Act, 2006 (commonly known as Forest Rights Act or ROFR Act) is in news.

Supreme Court had issued directive asking states to detail about actions taken against the

forest rights claimants whose claims have been rejected.

Forest department has highlighted that there was no provision to act on ‘illegal’

occupants of forest land or penalise such claimants.

Important Value Additions:

About ROFR Act/FRA ROFR Act is also known as Forest Rights Act, the Tribal Rights Act, the Tribal Bill, and

the Tribal Land Act.

The law deals with the rights of forest-dwelling communities to land and other resources,

denied to them over decades as a result of the continuance of colonial forest laws in

India.

Do you know? India’s forests are governed by two main laws, the Indian Forest Act, 1927 and the Wild

Life (Protection) Act, 1972.

The former empowers the government to declare any area to be a reserved forest,

protected forest or village forest.

The latter allows any area to be constituted as a “protected area”, namely a national park,

wildlife sanctuary, tiger reserve or community conservation area.

Under these laws, the rights of people living in or depending on the area to be declared as

a forest or protected area are to be “settled” by a “forest settlement officer.” This

basically requires that officer to enquire into the claims of people to land, minor forest

produce, etc., and, in the case of claims found to be valid, to allow them to continue or to

extinguish them by paying compensation.

Studies have shown that in many areas this process either did not take place at all or took

place in a highly faulty manner.

Therefore the Forest Rights Act was intended to correct the “historical injustice” done to

forest dwellers by the failure to recognise their rights

Eligibility to get rights under the Act Eligibility is confined to those who “primarily reside in forests” and who depend on

forests and forest land for a livelihood.

Further, either the claimant must be a member of the Scheduled Tribes scheduled in that

area or must have been residing in the forest for 75 years.

Misunderstanding the Act as a land distribution scheme A great deal of the debate is fuelled by misunderstandings of the purpose of the Act.

The most common is that the purpose of the law is to distribute forest land to forest

dwellers or tribals, often claimed to be at the rate of 4 hectares per family.

The Act is intended to recognise lands that are already under cultivation as on 13

December 2005, not to grant title to any new lands.

What happens when the rupee falls?

Country’s imports become more expensive and exports cheaper.

It takes more rupees to pay for the same quantum of imports and fewer dollars for a buyer

to pay for the same quantity of exports.

More expensive imports are likely to drive inflation upward, especially in India where

input products constitute a large part of our imports.

It impacts the oil import bill since it costs more rupees per barrel of oil, which plays its

own part in pushing inflation up.

GDP growth – On the one hand, costlier inputs and the subsequent increase in the prices

of finished goods should have a positive impact on GDP. But the consequent decrease in

demand due to higher prices could nullify this. ‘Household consumption of goods and

services’ plays a big role here.

Domestic tourism could grow as more tourists visit India since their currency now buys

more here. In the medium term, export-oriented industries may also create more jobs.

Ease of Living index

Context: Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs has released Ease of Living Index.

About the index:

The index has been developed to allow city managers to get a grip on the city’s baseline

and compare its performance across key indicators.

The index covers 111 cities that are smart city contenders, capital cities, and cities with

population of 1 million plus.

The index captures the quality of life based on the data collected from the urban local

bodies on four parameters, which were further broken down into 15 categories.

The four parameters include institutional (governance), social (identity, education, health,

security), economic ( economy, employment) and physical factors (waste water and solid

waste management, pollution, housing/ inclusiveness, mixed land use, power and water

supply, transport, public open spaces).

Institutional and social parameters carry 25 points each, physical factors have a

weightage of 45 points and economic factors five points totalling to a 100 mark scale on

which cities were evaluated.

Performance of states:

Pune has ranked first while two more Maharashtra cities — Navi Mumbai and Greater

Mumbai — figure in the second and third spots.

Tirupati, Chandigarh, Thane, Raipur, Indore, Vijaywada and Bhopal also figure in the top

10 list in that order. Among other major cities, Chennai holds 14th rank, Ahmedabad

23rd, Hyderabad 27th, and Bengaluru 58th.

Rampur in Uttar Pradesh has ranked the worst on the scale with Kohima and Patna on the

bottom two and three ranks while Varanasi stands at 33.

Kolkata is excluded from the index (West Bengal refusing to participate in the

Centre's rankings)

Global Liveability Index

The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) has released the Global Liveability Index 2018.

The index ranks 140 global cities based on their living conditions.

The liveability index quantifies the challenges that might be presented to an individual’s

lifestyle in 140 cities worldwide, and assesses which locations provide the best living

conditions.

Parameters of the Global Liveability Index:

The survey rates cities worldwide based on 30 qualitative and quantitative criteria, which fall

into five general categories:

1. Stability – political and social; crime

2. Health care

3. Culture and environment

4. Education

5. Infrastructure

Key facts:

The top 3 cities to live in the world are: Vienna, Melbourne, and Osaka

For India, only New Delhi (112)) and Mumbai (117)could make it to the list with

This year too, not a single US city could make it into the top 10 cities.

It is the first time that a European city has topped the rankings.

Security has improved in “several western European cities” and Vienna’s top place

reflects “a relative return to stability across much of Europe”.

South Asian countries including India have fared poorly in the ranking of the world’s

most liveable cities.

Pakistan’s financial capital Karachi and Bangladesh’s capital Dhaka are among the

world’s least liveable cities.

Pitch to MOVE

Context

NITI Aayog has launched “Pitch to MOVE” – a mobility pitch competition that aims to

provide budding entrepreneurs of India a unique opportunity to pitch their business ideas

to a distinguished jury.

About “Pitch to MOVE”: “Pitch to MOVE” is organised by NITI Aayog in collaboration with Invest India and

Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM).

Aim: The competition aims to identify and reward the start-ups offering innovative

solutions for shared, connected, and environment friendly mobility. It also aims to

incentivise the startups, which will help the Government realize its vision of Shared,

Connected, Intermodal and Environment Friendly Mobility for India. The objective is to

harness the latest disruption for generating employment and growth in our country.

RUCO (Repurpose Used Cooking Oil) initiative Context:

The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has launched RUCO

(Repurpose Used Cooking Oil), an initiative that will enable collection and conversion of

used cooking oil to bio-diesel.

Under this initiative, 64 companies at 101 locations have been identified to enable

collection of used cooking oil. For instance: McDonald’s has already started converting

used cooking oil to biodiesel from 100 outlets in Mumbai and Pune.

FSSAI wants businesses using more than 100 litres of oil for frying, to maintain a stock

register and ensure that UCO is handed over to only registered collecting agencies.

Significance of the initiative:

FSSAI believes India has the potential to recover 220 crore litres of used cooking oil for

the production of biodiesel by 2022 through a co-ordinated action. While biodiesel

produced from used cooking oil is currently very small, but a robust ecosystem for

conversion and collection is rapidly growing in India and will soon reach a sizable scale.

Background:

The initiative has been launched nearly a month after the food safety regulator notified

standards for used cooking oil. According to FSSAI regulations, the maximum

permissible limits for Total Polar Compounds (TPC) have been set at 25%, beyond which

the cooking oil is unsafe for consumption.

What is Total Polar Compounds (TPC)? In many countries, TPC is used to measure the quality of oil. The level of TPC increases

every time oil is re-heated. Some of the studies show that TPC accumulation in oil

without food is slower than that in oil frying with food.

Higher level of TPC in cooking oil leads to health issues like hypertension,

atherosclerosis, Alzheimer’s disease and liver disease. One of the studies also noticed

high levels of glucose, creatinine and cholesterol with declined levels of protein and

albumin in cooking oil.

About FSSAI

The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has been established under

Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 which consolidates various acts & orders that have

hitherto handled food related issues in various Ministries and Departments.

It was created for laying down science based standards for articles of food and to regulate

their manufacture, storage, distribution, sale and import to ensure availability of safe and

wholesome food for human consumption.

Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Government of India is the Administrative

Ministry for the implementation of FSSAI.

Composition: The Chairperson and Chief Executive Officer of Food Safety and

Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) are appointed by Government of India. The

Chairperson is in the rank of Secretary to Government of India.

NABARD All India Rural Financial Inclusion Survey 2016-17

Context

NABARD All India Financial Inclusion Survey (NAFIS), conducted by National Bank

for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) released recently

Highlights: More than half the agricultural households in the country have outstanding debt.

Their average outstanding debt is almost as high as the average annual income of all

agricultural households.

NABARD found that 52.5% of the agricultural households had an outstanding loan.

For non-agricultural households in rural India, that figure was 10 percentage points

lower, at only 42.8%.

The average debt of an indebted agricultural household stood at ₹1,04,602 in

comparison to ₹76,731 for indebted non-agricultural households.

According to the survey, the average annual income of an agricultural household is

₹1.07 lakh.

Only 10.5% of agricultural households were found to have a valid Kisan Credit Card.

Households who had the card utilised 66% of the sanctioned credit limit.

Employment Generation Programmes in India.

With more than 60 percent of population under working age category, Employment

generation has become one of the most important issue for the government with

increasing demographic dividend and demands for jobs.

Government has introduced various employment generation programs in recent times like:

MGNREGA.

Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana.

Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gramin Kaushal Yojana.

Mudra Yojana.

Pradhan Mantri employment generation program.

Make in India.

Stand-up India and Start Up India.

National Apprenticeship Training scheme.

Rojgar Mela.

Recognition of Prior learning.

Certain issues with the program:

Quality: There is lack of quality assets created under these programs at ground level

especially under MGNREGA.

Transparency, accountability and audit: of work created, work undertaken and completion.

Corruption: Full benefits of schemes are not passed on to end beneficiaries.

Lack of awareness: Government is constantly coming up with several programs but people are

not aware about them. Ex: Stand up India and Start-Up India.

Discrimination: Benefits under program are cornered by only limited/Certain sections of

society leading to unequal distribution of benefits. Also women participation has not

increased as per expectation. Ex: Mudra Loan, Stand-up India and Start-Up India scheme.

Resources: Many programs face lack of funds which affect in their implementation.

As per recent study, India is no longer home to largest number of poor in the world. The

contribution from above programs cannot be overlooked in this achievement. But still there is a

long way to go, government has to focus on certain areas like Basic Education and Skill

development to achieve the intended benefits of demographic dividend of country.

Financial Inclusion and poverty

Financial inclusion refers to the access to financial services like savings, insurance, credit

etc. In line with SDG 1, to end global poverty, financial inclusion will be key. The 2030

Agenda seeks to guarantee human beings, especially those in vulnerable situations, the

right to financial services, including microfinancing.

Role of financial inclusion in reducing poverty:

When the poor are able to save, it is most often in the form of cash which can be all too

easy to spend under stress. This leaves the poor vulnerable, as an unplanned health

emergency, theft or loss can push people into total poverty.

Access to social benefits availed by government like DBT, insurance policies.

Reduced dependence on informal sources like moneylenders in times of need. Rates

charged are high making the poor enter into vicious cycle of indebtness.

Empowering women who, with a credit line, could undertake labor activities unthinkable

without economic aid; increase consumption and investment, and thus grow revenues;

and increase spending on other social aspects, such as preventive health.

Promotes habit of savings which eventually helps in capital investment.

Financial inclusion boosts confidence of poor as it brings them the feeling of being part

of mainstream. The risk-taking ability also increases. This overall promotes

entrepreneurship.

Challenges:

Low financial literacy and lack of awareness.

Poor infrastructure- Lack of banks and ATMs in remote areas.

Way ahead

The CRISIL Inclusix index’s readings for fiscal 2016 show financial inclusion has

improved significantly in India, with the all-India score rising to 58.0 in fiscal 2016,

compared with 50.1 in fiscal 2013.

The government has come up with schemes such as Jeevan Jyoti Beema, Sukanya

Samriddhi, Kisan Credit Card, MUDRA etc to promote financial inclusion.

However, more needs to be done.

Promoting digital and financial literacy.

Strengthening the banking correspondent model.

Infrastructure building- Banks, ATMs in remote and rural areas.

Developing products catering to specific needs of the poor like micro-pension.

Sensitization of bank employees while dealing with the poor.

A combination of effective public policy, public-private partnerships and the thoughtful

application of the latest technology can help deliver financial services to all including the poor.

Economic Growth –Hunger and malnutrition

Despite rapid economic growth, hunger and malnutrition remain a challenge in many

districts of India

Post economic reforms of 1991, India achieved higher economic growth reaching close to

double digits and even today, is fastest growing economy. However, economic growth

has not resulted in elimination of hunger and malnutrition.

Today, Hunger and Malnutrition remains as a challenge in India which is reflected by

India’s poor ranking in Global Hunger Index 100/119.

Malnutrition rate of 38.4% among children below 5 years (NFHS-4).

In India 44% children underweight, 52% women are anaemic.

There are many reasons such as

Growth did not eliminate poverty. Still 23% of population are poor according to WB report

who face difficulty in meeting their food requirements.

Lower status of women in society: As a child, as a pregnant woman her nutritional

requirements are ignored.

Skewed pattern of food consumption mainly tilted towards cereals.

Modern lifestyles-urbanisation: lack of physical activities leading to problems like obesity.

Poor governance: inefficiency in the implementation of schemes like PDS, ICDS. While their

number of schemes implemented by Ministry of women and child development, ministry of

health and family welfare, lack of synchronised efforts is resulting into poor results.

Measures needed to address the issue:

Integration of nutrition related intervention across sectors like women and child development,

health, food and public distribution, sanitation, drinking water, rural development.

Focus on most vulnerable communities in districts with higher levels of malnutrition. Ex:

Districts in Uttar Pradesh like Bahraich, Shrawasti have highest rates of stunting.

Need for more research in improving efficiency of PDS system. Ex: food fortification.

Gender sensitization and gender approach to food and nutritional security. Priority should be

on meeting needs of adolescents, pregnant women. Creating better awareness about need for

better nutrition and its effects on child.

Focus on sanitation through government initiatives like swachh bharat mission.

Conclusion:

Though hunger and malnutrition levels have come down recently, they are still very high. India

has to continue its fight to end all forms of hunger and malnutrition (SDG 2) to realize its true

economic potential and development by having healthy citizens.