Insuring a risky venture called agriculture

Indian farmers face yield risks as much as they face price risk


A new crop insurance scheme was approved by the Union cabinet on Wednesday. If implemented well, it could help delink agriculture from the associated uncertainties. The scheme, covering all crops, includes small and marginal farmers in its initial phase. It will merge all farm-related insurance schemes and provide cover for production-related risks and price volatility.

India derives about 17% of the gross domestic product from agriculture. If over half the Indian population wasn’t reliant on it for livelihood and agriculture wasn’t the risky venture it is, this figure wouldn’t have been as worrying.

The last financial year recorded the agriculture sector growing at a meagre rate of 2%. The two successive droughts haven’t helped ease matters. Against this backdrop, chief economic adviser Arvind Subramanian has stated that the 2016 annual budget needs to focus on agriculture in the detail it deserves.

The fundamental problem with Indian agriculture is that farmers face yield risks as much as they face price risks. No other sector can claim this level of uncertainty at almost every level of operation—the risk of monsoon failure and infestations during crop growth, the risk of lower prices after harvest, compromise in quantity and quality during storage and distribution, the list goes on. These risks assume higher proportions given productivity and technology lacunae and affects the economy as a whole through the agriculture sector’s extensive linkages.

In this context, the new crop insurance scheme is a well-timed policy. But here is a word of caution: attempts were made in the past to insure the Indian crop market, and almost all of them have failed. Glaring gaps remained in the insurance market years after implementation of schemes like Comprehensive Crop Insurance and National Agricultural Insurance. The extremely poor stayed out of the insurance brackets because of their inability to pay premiums; insurance was made compulsory for farmers who had borrowed money from banks with defaulters not being entitled to claim the insurance; insurers defining areas for each notified crop for calamities excluded many isolated cases of crop failure; adverse selection of crops by farmers continued on account of information asymmetries.

If these implementation shortfalls are not addressed, the entire endeavour risks being written off as yet another sunk cost.

But de-risking agriculture does not begin or end with insurance. The assessment of risk should begin much before sowing and proceed beyond harvest. The decision of what to sow and reap is currently not a well informed choice based on a sound assessment of soil, yield and prices. If insured, small and marginal farmers show an increasing tendency to sow cash crops reliant on the monsoon—a classic case of moral hazard. It is here that better risk assessment, contract design and cooperatives prove handy. Mixed farming and inter-cropping also helps in diversifying the risks generally associated with monocropping.

Commodity futures are yet another solution to achieve price risk management and price discovery. Unfortunately in India, no significant price discovery has occurred in agricultural commodity markets which started their operation a decade ago. This is primarily because of the lack of integration between the futures and spot markets.

An Agricultural Economics Research Association paper cites a number of exchange-specific problems to explain the inefficiencies in futures markets—thin volume, infrequent trading, lack of effective participation of trading members, non-awareness of futures market among farmers, absence of well-developed grading and standardization system and market imperfections.

Resolving these issues would enable the futures markets to finally achieve the objective for which it was established—discovering and managing price. If the newly proposed unified agricultural market is successful in unifying the agricultural prices across mandis in the country, spot markets too will emerge as a winner.

‘No risk, no gain’ may be a favourite adage but true wisdom involves diversifying, insuring and managing risk. The country will do well if it educates its farmers of the same and farmers will do well to heed this advice.

What other measures can help in de-risking agriculture in India?

Focus offline to make it big online, says World Development Report

The takeaway from World Bank’s World Development Report is that there is no short cut for developing countries if they want to reap digital dividends 

 Every day, there are 4 billion searches made on Google. That number is also the count of people who do not have access to the internet, according to the World Development Report (WDR) 2016, released by the World Bank on Thursday. The report, which discusses the importance of advances in information communication technology (ICT) for overall development, has one clear message: to exploit ICT’s full potential in economic upliftment of the poor, attention must be paid towards overcoming backwardness in traditional areas such as education, skill development and governance. Here are five charts that explain that in detail.

1. ICT has led to huge increases in labour productivity
The importance of technical advances such as steam engine and electricity in ushering economic development is well established. The WDR cites research to show that trajectory of growth in labour productivity in the US in the digital era is similar to what was witnessed during the electrification era. The gains, though initially slow, accelerated once technological progress became ripe for widespread usage. What’s better is that developing countries can exploit ICT gains more quickly than past advances.
It took Indonesia 160 years after the invention of steamships to reap its benefits, and Kenya 60 years to have electricity; but for Vietnam to introduce computers, it took only 15 years. Mobile phones and the internet took fewer number of years. More households in developing countries own a mobile phone than have access to electricity or improved sanitation, the report says.

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2. Digital economy offers flexible work, making it easier for disadvantaged groups to find employment
One of the biggest challenges towards equitable development is providing employment to groups that face a relative disadvantage in the traditional economy, such as women or disabled persons. ICT-based jobs might be able to solve this problem. The report cites statistics to show that the share of women in ICT sector employment is much more than total non-agricultural employment. These advantages are rooted in the greater flexibility in ICT sector employment such as the option of working from home and reduction in search costs.

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3. ICT’s overall contribution to employment is still low

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The report, however, also gives good reason not to go overboard with optimism on the employment front. Firstly, ICT employment is not without its share of problems, such as job security and non-fulfilment of income expectations. Job availability is also contingent on availability of infrastructure and requisite skills. Moreover, ICT employment is still a very small share of overall employment in economies, especially in developing countries, where average ICT employment is just 1%. Also, the sector has very low labour intensity of employment. For example, Instagram, a photo sharing app, had just 13 employees in 2012 when it was bought by Facebook for $1 billion. Facebook, in turn, had 5,000 employees at the time—compared with 145,000 at Kodak at its peak in photographic film industry in the 1990s. Yet, Facebook’s market value is several times what Kodak’s was back then, the report says.
4. Access to internet is still ridden by inequality; India has the largest number of offline people in the world

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The biggest challenge to realizing ICT-enabled gains is at the most basic level. Majority of people still do not have access to the internet. Less than 15% of the world’s 7.4 billion people have access to high speed internet, although 5.2 billion have mobile phones. India has the highest number of offline people in the world, followed by China. The report lauds policy measures to facilitate Internet access for poor people and those in remote regions on the grounds that, although not a classic public good, the Internet does have significant positive externalities which can help development. 5. Leapfrogging to digital methods in seeking democratic opinion can produce skewed results
The report also has a warning. Notwithstanding the virtues ICT revolution has brought to governance systems—ease in filing tax returns, applying for new businesses or increased transparency and accountability are some examples—it is early days to take online views as sacrosanct, especially in developing economies. Since poor people lag the privileged sections in accessing ICT services, such feedback is likely to be skewed in favour of the latter, the report says. It cites profile-based voting turnouts from a poll in Brazil in support of its advice. Those who treat online polls as the only barometer of societal opinion would do well to pay heed to this warning.

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Swami Vivekananda: Youth and Governance

The National Youth Festival in India is an annual gathering of youth celebrated to commemorate the birth anniversary of youth icon Swami Vivekananda. It is organized by Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, Government of India in collaboration with one of the State Governments.

Swami Vivekananda's birthday on January 12 is celebrated as National Youth Day and the week commencing from that day is known as the National Youth Week. As part of National Youth Week celebrations, the Government of India holds the National Youth Festival every year. The youth festival aims to propagate the concept of national integration, spirit of communal harmony, brotherhood, courage and adventure amongst the youth by exhibiting their cultural prowess in a common platform. This is done by organizing gatherings of youth across the country and encouraging them to take part in different activities. The activities held during the festival include competitive and non-competitive cultural events, martial arts, exhibitions, intellectual discourses, young artist’s camps, seminars and adventure programmes.

Swami Vivekananda and Youth

 “My Faith is in the Younger Generation, the Modern Generation, out of them will come my workers. They will work out the whole problem, like Lions”- Swami Vivekananda expressed  this confidence in the youth of this country exactly 50 years before the end of colonial rule while speaking to a mammoth gathering of youngsters in erstwhile Madras. Swamiji himself was the embodiment of youth, dynamism and vibrancy. Many great personalities both in India and across the world became deeply inspired by Swamiji.  

Today, the youth of this country faces various challenges and the message of Swami Vivekananda has the power to guide them into the future. Swamiji always held that the real birth of the individual takes place when the purpose of his life is understood and he has the confidence in the self. Swami Vivekananda attached more importance to self-confidence than even faith in God! Swamiji believed that if our youth is determined, there can be nothing impossible for them to achieve in the world!  He urged youth to have dedication to the cause to attain success. Pursuing a challenge with utmost dedication is really the road to success, for our youth.

Swami Vivekananda believed in organization and teamwork. Be it any sector from science, technology to business, teamwork constitutes a major cornerstone to attaining the desired results. When he was in USA, Swami Vivekananda was greatly impressed by the spirit of teamwork there and he thought of the need to re-vitalize this spirit of teamwork in India. Leading by example, he founded the Ramakrishna Mission and organized Sanyasis to work towards nation building.

Vivekananda Philosophy and Governance

Youth is that wonderful time in life when energy is limitless, human creativity is at its best and the ’never say die’ spirit is at its peak. Today, one keeps seeing and reading about the achievements of hundreds of young people in practically all spheres of life. Demographically, the India of today is at its youngest best .India with a large and young population has a great demographic advantage. The average age of the 125 billion -strong Indian population will be 29 years in 2020, even younger than China and the US. There will be a significant addition of about 63.5 million new entrants between 2011 and 2016, with a large number of young persons in the 20-35 age group. This is a great opportunity for India. Taking advantage of such an opportunity is contingent upon progress on the human development front to fully reap the benefits of the demographic dividend.

The Government is giving full thrust to the development of youth who form a considerable percentage of country’s population. In his Man Ki Baat Radio address to the nation recently, the Prime Minister urged youngsters to provide inputs for the forthcoming Youth Festival scheduled at Raipur, Chhattisgarh. If the present youth walks on the path of Swamiji’s ideals and beliefs, it will be just a matter of time before India becomes the leader of the World. In any case, we are the most youthful nation in the world but simply that is not enough. It is necessary to arm our youth with the relevant knowledge and skill that will convert this mammoth potential to desired results.

Realising the importance of Vivekanada’s prophecy for a total transformation of the youth of this country, including their physical, social, economic and spiritual development, the Government has launched a number of programmes to unleash the huge potential in youth. Among some of the unique initiatives is the introduction of Yoga in a big way and the support and enthusiasm it generated all across the world. Sawcchta Abhiyan addresses the need to inculcate in the younger generation the importance of cleanliness/hygiene, not only of self but also the surrounding community which in turn impacts the health, education, economic development, to name the few.

Programmes like Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana and Pradhan Mantri Mudhra Yojana address the need to empower the youth who were out of the banking network and were denied access to financial services, namely, Banking, Credit, Insurance, Pension in an affordable manner. Many youngsters in unorganised sector will now be funded under Mudra scheme as per their requirement to the extent of Rs 10 lakh. Social Security Schemes like Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana,Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana, Atal Pension Yojana (APY) and Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana further add to the financial security of the youth.

Programmes like Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) will incentivise skill training by providing financial rewards to candidates who successfully complete approved skill training programmes. The skills of young people who lack formal certification, such as workers in India’s vast unorganised sector, will be recognised. Under Digital India programme, it is envisaged to transform India into a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy by establishing Digital Infrastructure as a utility to every citizen in the form of high speed internet; Cradle to grave digital identity; Mobile phone & Bank account, enabling participation in digital & financial space; governance & services on demand integrated across departments or jurisdictions.

Last but not the least is the Vivekananda philosophy of Team Work which Swamiji observed among Americans and practised through establishing Ramakrishna Mission. Even the Government has adopted it for better governance in the form of NITI Aayog where state leaders actively participate in decision making collectively and thus strengthen governance by Competitive cooperative federalism. Prime Minister calls it Team India.

Youth is an impressionable age wherein we try to model our life against that of a ‘role model’ or ‘icon’. This is the time when one is ready to take on tasks however onerous they are; the time when our ideals can drive and determine one’s actions; the time when we believe that we can do anything under the sun. This is the time when we are easily motivated by the environment and by what we see and value around us. Hence Swamiji called upon the youth to not only build up their mental energies, but their physical ones as well. He wanted ‘muscles of iron’ as well as ‘nerves of steel’.

What Gandhiji said indicates the great importance of spreading Swami Vivekananda's ideas and ideals among the youth in our country today. “He personified the eternal energy of the youth and their restless quest for truth”. It is entirely fitting that the Government of India has declared 12th January, the birthday of Swami Vivekananda, as National Youth Day. We must work to rekindle the eternal message of this great patriot and son of India.

Swami Vivekananda belonged to the 19th century, yet his message and his life are more relevant today than in the past and perhaps, will be more relevant in future because persons like Swami Vivekananda do not cease to exist with their physical death. Their influence and their thought, the work which they initiate, go on gaining momentum as years pass by, and ultimately, reach a fulfilment which these persons envisaged.

Technology Vision 2035 – Putting Science to Use

The Prime Minister unveiled the ‘Technology Vision Document 2035’ while inaugurating the 103^rd Indian Science Congress on 3^rd January 2016. 

The document foresees the Indians of 2035, and technologies required for fulfilling their needs.  It is not a visualization of technologies that will be available in 2035, but a vision of where our country and its citizens should be in 2035 and how technology should bring this vision to fruition.

The document is dedicated to late Dr.A.P.J.Abdul Kalam, the former President of India. 

The Prime Minister in his foreword to the document hoped that the 12 Sectoral Technology roadmaps being prepared by Technology Information, Forecasting and Assessment Council, (TIFAC), which is also the author of this ‘Technology Vision 2035’ document, would excite our scientists and decision makers. He also said “India will be the country of young for the next few decades.  It is imperative that every youth blossoms to his/her full potential and that the potential is fully tapped for the benefit of the nation.  This in turn requires that needs of our children and youth for nutrition, health, knowledge, skill, connectivity and identity are met. Sh. Narendra Modi had called upon the intelligentsia, Universities and think tanks to actively work for fulfilling the vision”. After unveiling this document, in his speech Sh. Modi said that his government intends to integrate Science & Technology into choices it makes and strategies that it pursues.

The 12 identified sectors of Vision Document are:

Education

Medical Sciences & Healthcare

Food and Agriculture

Water

Energy

Environment

Habitat

Transportation

Infrastructure

Manufacturing

Materials

Information and Communication Technology

Roadmaps, when prepared, will be presented to the Government of India and they would lead for further adoption of technologies in those sectors.

The document says that as technology is for empowering individual citizens, it will empower the country as well.

The Aim  of this ‘Technology Vision Document 2035’ is to ensure the Security, Enhancing of Prosperity, and Enhancing Identity of every Indian, which is stated in the document as “Our Aspiration” or “Vision Statement” in all languages of the 8^th Schedule of the Constitution. The Vision documents also identifies twelve (12) prerogatives- (six for meeting individual needs and six  for the collective needs) that should be available to each and every Indian. These are:

Individual Prerogatives:-

Clean air and potable water

Food and nutritional security

Universal healthcare and public hygiene

24x7 energy

Decent habitat

Quality education, livelihood and creative opportunities

Collective Prerogatives:-

Safe and speedy mobility

Public safety and national security

Cultural diversity and vibrancy

Transparent and effective governance

Disaster and climate resilience

Eco-friendly conservation of natural resources

Assurance of these prerogatives, according to the Vision document, is the core of technology vision for India. For assuring these prerogatives, technologies are mapped as: 1) those readily deployable, 2) those that needs to be moved from Lab to Field, 3) those that require targeted Research and 4) those that are still in Imagination. The last of these category of technologies could come about as a result of curiosity driven or paradigm- shattering ‘Blue-sky’ Research like on Internet of Things, Wearable Technology, Synthetic Biology, Brain computer Interface, Bio-printing and regenerative medicine. Precision agriculture and robotic farming, vertical farming, interactive foods, autonomous vehicles, Bioluminescence, 3D printing of buildings, earthquake prediction, weather modification technologies, green mining etc are some other such technologies expected that would go a long way in sustainably fulfilling the needs of the present and future generations of mankind.

To illustrate such mapping here is the table of categorization of various technologies for meeting the need of ‘Clean air and Potable Water’:

The vision document also makes a mention of three critical essential prerequisites or Transversal Technologies i.e., materials, manufacturing, and Information and Communication technology (ICT) to provide the foundation upon which all other technologies would be constructed.

The document also talks of required infrastructure which it says primarily include relevant knowledge institutions besides ports, highways, airports, railways, cold chains, etc.  Among the essential prerequisites, it also mentions fundamental research in the fields of physics, chemistry, biology and other allied sciences.

The document dwells upon the grand challenges in the field of Technologies which, it says, we should resolve as a nation.  The challenges are:

·         Guaranteeing nutritional security and eliminating female and child anaemia

·         Ensuring quantity and quality of water in all rivers and aquatic bodies

·         Providing learner centric, language neutral and holistic education to all

·         Developing commercially viable decentralized and distributed energy for all

·         Making India non-fossil fuel based

·         Securing critical resources commensurate with the size of our country

·         Ensuring universal eco-friendly waste management

·         Taking the railway to Leh and Tawang

·         Understanding national climate patterns and adapting to them

·         Ensuring location independent electoral and financial empowerment

There has also been a raging debate on the Social Impact of technology and the choice between capital intensive and manpower intensive. Capital intensive technology, especially in India with abundant human resources, has been projected as detrimental to the use of ‘Manpower’ as it is argued that it would reduce jobs. The Vision Document seeks to bust this myth by arguing in favor of judicious policy and conscious planning in employing technology to impart new skills to the manpower and fulfill needs of the society. It visualizes technology as a great leveler rather than as an enhancer of social stratification.

In order to overcome these challenges, the Vision Document 2035 envisages a rational assessment of the capabilities and constraints of the Indian Technological Landscape. It categorizes technologies into a six-fold classification from an Indian perspective which is as follows:

·         Technology Leadership – niche technologies in which we have core competencies, skilled manpower, infrastructure and a traditional knowledge base eg., Nuclear Energy, Space Science.

·         Technology Independence – strategic technologies that we would have to develop on our own as they may not be obtainable from elsewhere eg., Defence sector.

·         Technology Innovation – linking disparate technologies together or making a breakthrough in one technology and applying it to another eg., solar cells patterned on chlorophyll based synthetic pathway are a potent future source of renewable energy.

·         Technology Adoption – obtain technologies from elsewhere, modify them according to local needs and reduce dependence on other sources eg., foreign collaboration in the sectors of rainwater harvesting, agri-biotech, desalination, energy efficient buildings.

·         Technology Constraints – areas where technology is threatening and problematic i.e. having a negative social or environmental impact because of serious legal and ethical issues eg., Genetically Modified(GM) Crops.

The Vision Document, in a separate section, gives a ‘Call to Action’ to all the key stakeholders. It brings to notice that for long term sustainability of India’s technological prowess, it is important that

·         Technical Education Institutions engage in advanced research on a large scale leading to path-breaking innovations.

·         Government enhances its financial support from the current 1% to the long-envisaged 2% of the GDP.

·         the number of full-time equivalent Scientists in the core research sector should increase.

·         Private Sector Participation and Investment in evolving technologies that is readily deployable and is translatable from lab to field thereby increasing efficiency in terms of technology and economic returns.

·         Academia-Intelligentsia-Industry connect is established via idea exchange, innovative curricula design, based on the needs of the industry, industry-sponsored student internships and research fellowships inter alia.

·         Creation of an Research Ecosystem so as to achieve the translation of research to technology product/process by integrating students, researchers and entrepreneurs.

The document also identifies three key activities as a part of the ‘Call to Action’.  The first being knowledge creation.  It says that India cannot afford not to be in the forefront of the knowledge revolution, either applied or pure.  The second activity that cannot be reflected, it says is ecosystem design for innovation and development.  The document again interestingly says that the primary responsibility for ecosystem design must necessarily rests with government authorities.  A third key activity that it mentions is technology deployment with launching certain national missions involving specific targets, defined timelines requiring only a few carefully defined identified players.

While this Vision document walks towards the future taking into consideration the country as a whole, the technology roadmap of each sector would provide of outlining future technology trends, R&D directives, pointers for research, anticipated challenges and policy imperatives pertaining to each sector.

Neeranchal National Watershed Project.

Government of India and World Bank sign a loan agreement for Neeranchal National Watershed Project.

The Government of India today signed a loan agreement with World Bank here for the Neeranchal National Watershed Project. The project to be implemented by the Ministry of Rural Development over a six-year period (2016-21) will support the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayi Yojana in hydrology and water management, agricultural production systems, capacity building and monitoring and evaluation. The Neeranchal project was approved by the cabinet in October last year with a total budget outlay of Rs.2142 crore with the Government share of Rs.1071 crore and the rest 50% by the World Bank.

Union Minister for Rural Development Shri Birender Singh who presided over the loan signing agreement later told the media that the all 28 states which implement the watershed projects will benefit from Neeranchal. He, however, added that nine states of Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujrat, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Rajasthan and Telangana will benefit more from the project due to implementation of large number of watershed schemes in these states.

Shri Singh informed that 12% of the area which can be called as wasteland will be targeted through this project to make about 336 lakh hectares of land arable. The Minister said that the effective implementation of the scheme will go a long way in strengthening the economic conditions of the farming community.

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System of Aerosol Monitoring And Research (SAMAR)

Dr. Harsh Vardhan Dedicates System of Aerosol Monitoring and Research and User Friendly Website of India Meteorological Department Tomorrow

Union Minister of Science & Technology and Earth Sciences Dr. Harsh Vardhan will be inaugurating the new website of IMD and dedicate to the nation the System of Aerosol Monitoring And Research (SAMAR) which is a network of 16 Aethalometers, 12 Sky radiometers and 12 Nephelometers to characterize aerosol radiative properties & climate impacts. He will the Chief Guest as the India Meteorological Department (IMD) would celebrate its 141st Foundation Day tomorrow on 15 January, 2016. Dr. P.K. Mishra, Additional Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister of India shall be the Guest of Honour. Dr. Madhavan Nair Rajeevan, Secretary, Ministry of Earth Sciences shall preside over the function.

IMD is celebrating the Foundation Day with a view to promote awareness about advancements made in the field of Weather Monitoring & Forecasting during 2015 and the new initiatives taken by the Department for accelerating its capabilities & services, with focus on further improving the accuracy of prediction of extreme weather events at city, block and district level. Some of the achievements during 2015 are given below:

Accurate prediction of SW Monsoon 2015 rainfall (Actual: 86%, Forecast: 88% of Long Period Average)

Accurate prediction of NE Monsoon 2015 rainfall (Actual: 132%, Forecast: >111% of Long Period Average)

Accurate prediction of Extreme weather events like extremely heavy rains over Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu during southwest and northeast monsoon 2015, severe heat wave in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh in May, 2015, Hail storm over northwest, central and adjoining north Peninsula India during March, 2015.

Significant improvement in short and medium range weather forecasts ( Probability of Detection & Critical Success Index improved by 37% and 46% and False Alarm rate & missing rate reduced by 77% and 36% respectively in 2013-2015 over 2002-2012 for southwest monsoon heavy rainfall warnings).

Accurate prediction of cyclones (forecast error reduced by 13,13,17 km for 1,2,3 days, respectively in 2015 over 2010-2014).

Provided City Weather forecast for 324 stations, tourism forecast for 106 stations and nowcast for 156 stations.

Increased forecasts and colour code warnings validity from 3 to 5 days over India and introduced sector wise 7-days special forecast & warnings for Western Himalayan Region for Indian Army. Provided Model based QPF for river basin for flood forecasting.

IMD has made rapid strides in modernizing its services by adopting DIGITAL INDIA initiative of the Prime Minister by using latest technology for information dissemination. IMD has upgraded its website to make it more user-friendly and we are now widely using GIS platform, mobile apps and SMS for dissemination of its alerts and advisories. Under MAKE IN INDIA programme, Department has already deployed 20 Drishti Transmissometers at critical Airports and 222 DTH based Digital Cyclone Warning Dissemination Systems (CWDS). Automatic weather observing system jointly developed by National Aeronautical Laboratory and IMD is under validation.

Dr. Shailesh Nayak, Former Secretary, Ministry of Earth Sciences will be felicitated on this occasion. Union Minister will also give certificates of appreciations to the best employees and best offices of IMD who have made outstanding contribution during 2015.

Environment Ministry Holds First National Stakeholder Consultation on the Biodiversity Finance Initiative

Environment Ministry Holds First National Stakeholder Consultation on the Biodiversity Finance Initiative

The Environment Ministry started a two-day National Stakeholder Consultation Meeting on Biodiversity Finance Initiative to conserve India’s biodiversity, here today. This National Stakeholder meeting has been organized to understand the BIOFIN project and to seek professional inputs from experts of various fields in strengthening the biodiversity conservation efforts in the country.

The objective of the meeting is to introduce the BIOFIN project to the various stakeholders, enumerate the programmes/activities being undertaken by different organizations in the context of India’s 12 National Biodiversity Targets developed in line with 20 global Aichi biodiversity targets, and then assess the expenditure being made by different organizations for activities related to biodiversity conservation. A global high level panel set up by the Convention on Biological Diversity has estimated that USD 150-440 billion need to be invested annually in biodiversity for effective implementation of Aichi global biodiversity targets.

Besides the central and the state governments, the NGOs, central public sector undertakings, and the private corporate sector play an important role in this context by taking up specific projects/works, which directly promote conservation of biodiversity/ relevant for biodiversity, and by contributing to policy making. As part of this study, an assessment of expenditure is also being carried out.

The experts who participated in the meeting provided important inputs on the efforts being made by MoEFCC and technical institutions viz. the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) and National Institute of Public Finance and Planning (NIPFP) in assessment of biodiversity finance and policies in India.

This national meet would serve as a forum to share the collective expertise and ideas of different stakeholders - both government and the civil society institutionsand especially the corporate sector on the implementation of the Biodiversity Finance Initiativeat national, state and local levels - to ultimately bridge the gap between available and required funding for biodiversity conservation in India.

India updated its National Biodiversity Action Plan (NBAP) and also developed 12 National Biodiversity Targets in 2014. As part of the exercise of updating NBAP, the Ministry had undertaken an assessment of budgetary allocations and expenditures related to biodiversity conservation in India through Ministry’s core biodiversity related programmes and non-core programmes as well as indirect peripheral funding from budgetary resources of other Government of India Ministries/Departments towards programmes that have some bearing on biodiversity conservation.

The Ministry has partnered with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in a global project on Biodiversity Finance Initiative (BIOFIN). The experts have gathered to attend the consultation on January 14-15, 2016. Scheduled over two days, the meeting will see over 200 participants from various Ministries, Central Government Institutions, State Biodiversity Boards, NGOs, Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs), educational institutions and the corporate sector.

Addressing the National Stakeholder Meeting on BIOFIN, Shri Ashok Lavasa, Secretary, MoEFCC, explained thatthe idea behind implementing BIOFIN is to first assess the gap between the ‘available funding’ and the ‘required funding’ for biodiversity conservation and then to plan for resource mobilization.

The meeting also saw opening remarks made by Director General of Forests & Special Secretary, MoEFCC, Dr SS Negi, Special Secretary MoEFCC, Shri Hem Pande, and Deputy Country Director UNDP, India Ms Marina Walter also made opening remarks.