Shri Bhim Sain Bassi takes over as Member UPSC

Shri Bhim Sain Bassi takes over as Member UPSC

Shri Bhim Sain Bassi took the Oath of Office and Secrecy as Member, Union Public Service Commission today. The Oath was administered by Shri Deepak Gupta, Chairman, UPSC.

An Officer of Indian Police Service of AGMU cadre of 1977 batch, Shri Bhim Sain Bassi during his career spanning over 38 years has held several important positions like Commissioner, Delhi Police, Special Commissioner (Traffic), Delhi Police, Special Commissioner (Vigilance), Delhi Police, Inspector General, Chandigarh police and DGP, Goa Police. 

Union Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister today briefed the press about the achievements of the Ministry during past two years

Union Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister today briefed the press about the achievements of the Ministry during past two years

The first priority of the central government was to take up effective initiatives to fight the challenges prevailing in agricultural sector. These challenges have been bifurcated in two parts so as to work on them in mission mode. The government has chalked out a plan to reduce the input cost in the agriculture sector and to provide farmers better return for their produce. Union Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister Shri Radha Mohan Singh said that Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narender Modi has taken the resolve to double the income of farmers. The government is also giving priority to the enterprises linked to agricultural sector so as to achieve this target. Mr Singh was addressing the Press Conference organized here today.

Government is taking a number of initiatives to minimize the cost of agricultural production. With this goal in mind, 14 crore farmers in the country are being given Soil Health Cards. Apart from this, Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana has been launched to promote organic farming. Neem Coated Urea, improved varieties of seeds and planting material, schemes like Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana have been introduced. Farmers are also being provided agricultural loans on concessional rate. The norms related to disaster relief have been altered to help the farmers affected by natural calamities so that they are compensated for the losses appropriately. The discrepancies existing in crop insurance schemes have been removed and a new scheme called Pradhan Mantri Fasal Beema Yojana has been launched.

The Government has taken a historical initiative to provide farmers better return of their produce. The concept of one nation and one mandi – has been taken ahead. Hon’ble Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister said that long pending mandi/ marketing reforms process has been accelerated. The pilot project related to e-mandi has been launched in this financial year. Under this, 21 mandis of 8 states have been linked so far. The government is continuously making efforts to bring uniformity in the rules and regulations pertaining to various mandis in various states. Most of the states have expressed willingness to participate in this project. As of now, proposals of 365 mandis in 12 states have been sanctioned. Ministry of Agriculture has set a target of establishing unified e-trading platform in 585 mandis throughout the country by 2018.

The Minister has said that states are expected to rectify three rules and regulation related to mandis. One is to impart permission to e-trade, second is to implement mandi tariff on single window and third is to implement single licence across the state to carry out the trade. So far, 17 states have started working in this direction. The amendment of mandi related rules and regulations will pave way for achieving appropriate price of agricultural produce.

To promote agricultural sector the government has enhanced the allocation to this field from Rs. 15809 crore to Rs. 35984 crore which is more than as double. The government has made an allocation of Rs. 9 lakh crore to provide farmers cheap and concessional loan while accelerating the inflow of agricultural credit. The government has made provision for farmer credit cards as well as relaxation in payment of interests at the time of calamities.

Shri Singh said that Hon’ble Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi has chalked out a target to double farmers incomes by 2022. The Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare is making focused efforts in this direction. The government is also imparting priority to the ancillary areas of agricultural sector. Under this, horticulture, livestock, dairy, beekeeping as well as poultry have been promoted. A new scheme called National AgroForestry has been initiated for planting trees over the meadows. The dairy and fisheries sectors have made greater strides in terms of growth and development. The government has accelerated second green revolution in the North Eastern region to achieve food security in the country which will lead to enhancement in the agriculture productivity on the one hand and on the other will result in improvement of the farmers’ economy in North Eastern region. A number of schemes have been launched to promote the production of pulses and oilseeds so that dependence on imports can be reduced.

Initiative taken by Ministry of Agriculture to increase farmer incomes have begun to show results on ground. A number of important measures have been taken to preserve the agriculture and farmers from the adverse affect of climate change. A number of gao palan schemes have been commenced for for maintaining milk productivity. 35 projects have been approved in 29 states for this purpose. Approvals have also been given to establish 14 Gokul Villages in the states.

To remove the scarcity of manpower in agricultural sector, the government has opened two central agriculture universities, 14 agriculture colleges and various agriculture research institutes. Recruitment of scientists has been increased.

All agriculture science centers established in nearly all rural districts are being equipped with sophisticated and scientific facilities throughout the country. 

India continues to remain a bright spot in world economy with robust macro-economic and fiscal parameters;

India continues to remain a bright spot in world economy with robust macro-economic and fiscal parameters;

Together with GDP growth of 7.9% in Q 4 of 2015-16 and 7.6% in the whole of 2015-16

The Provisional Accounts for 2015-16 have been released by the Government today (31.5.2016). Fiscal Deficit in 2015-16 stands at 3.9% of GDP as estimated both in BE and RE of 2015-16. This is a significant improvement over the Fiscal Deficit of 4.1% in 2014-15 and 4.7% in 2013-14.

Revenue Deficit has also shown significant improvement due to increase in Capital Expenditure of the Central Government. Revenue Deficit which stood at 3.2% of GDP in 2013-14 has improved to 2.9% in 2014-15 and 2.5% in 2015-16. The Capital expenditure has increased substantially to Rs 2,35,253 crore in 2015-16 which is an increase of Rs. 38,572 crore over 2014-15 and Rs.47,578 crore over 2013-14.

Similarly, the Plan Expenditure in 2015-16 is Rs. 4,71,081 crores which is higher by Rs. 8437 crores over the previous year despite substantial increase in share of tax devolution to the States.

The Gross tax collection at Rs. 14,56,887 crore has shown 17% growth as compared to Fiscal 2014-15. The Gross tax collection has improved to 10.74% of GDP (tax-GDP ratio) in 2015-16 as compared to 10.06% in 2013-14. The devolution of tax collections to State Governments in 2015-16 is Rs..5,06,193 crore, which shows an increase of Rs. 1,68,385 crore over the devolution of Rs.3,37,808 crore in 2014-15. In 2013-14 the tax share devolution to the States was Rs. 3,18,230 crore.

Non Tax Receipts are Rs. 2,50,744 crore this year as compared to Rs..1,97,766 crore last year and Rs.1,98,865 crore in 2013-14.

The above highlights clearly indicate that the fiscal parameters are very robust and in line with the Budget projections. Together with GDP growth of 7.9% in Q 4 of 2015-16 and 7.6% in the whole of 2015-16, India continues to remain a bright spot in world economy with robust macro economic and fiscal parameters.

Seminar on International Day of UN Peacekeepers

Seminar on International Day of UN Peacekeepers

On ‘International Day of UN Peacekeeper's’, a joint seminar on “United Nations Peacekeeping : Role and Relevance in Conflict Resolution” was organized at New Delhi by the Centre for Land Warfare Studies (CLAWS) and Centre for United Nations Peacekeeping (CUNPK) along with United Nations Resident Coordinator’s Office.

The event was attended by COAS, members of the diplomatic community, veteran peacekeepers, UN Country Teams, students from prominent universities and Indian Army contingents earmarked for UN deployment.

Gen Dalbir Singh, Chief of Army Staff delivered the inaugural address wherein he applauded the role of UN Peacekeeping Contingents in maintaining peace across the world. He also highlighted India’s achievement as the second largest troop contributing country with deployment of 7695 personnel across the globe. Gen Dalbir also applauded the Indian Peacekeepers, 04 from Army and one civilian, who were awarded the UN ‘Dag Hammarskjold Medal’ this year on 19 May 2016.

Gen Dalbir further highlighted the necessity of the major Troop Contributing Nations in having a say in the mandate, tasks and policy coordination. He added that mandate of peacekeeping forces was transitioning from Peace Keeping to Peace Reinforcement. The COAS also stressed on the requirement for better training to make sure the soldier’s understand the task and the manner in which they are required to operate in actual scenario.

Mr Yuri Afanasiev, United Nations Resident Coordinator in India also read out the UN Secretary General's message, after which homage was paid to the fallen peacekeepers by observing two minutes silence.

india participates in Mission Innovation and Clean Energy Ministerial on 1st and 2nd June, 2016 in San Francisco, USA.

india participates in Mission Innovation and Clean Energy Ministerial on 1st and 2nd June, 2016 in San Francisco, USA.

Indian delegation led by Union Minister for Science & Technology and Earth Sciences , Dr. Harsh Vardhan

World’s Energy Leaders to gather in San Francisco for the 7th Clean Energy Ministerial and Inaugural Mission Innovation Ministerial on June 1-2,2016. Energy Ministers from Nations with 90% of Clean Energy Investments and 75% of GHG Emissions to Focus on Advancing Clean Energy Cooperation and Implementing PRIS Agreement Commitments.

The Indian delegation led by Dr. Harsh Vardhan, Minister Science & Technology and Earth Sciences will be participating in the Mission Innovation and Clean Energy Ministerial along with Senior Officials from the Ministry of Science & Technology, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy and Ministry of Power.

1. Mission Innovation

i. MI was announced on November 30, 2015 by the leaders of 20 countries that have a shared desire to accelerate global clean energy innovation during COPE 21 in Paris in the presence of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi. The ‘Mission Innovation’ (MI) is an effort to accelerate public and private global clean energy innovation, including through participating countries doubling their respective clean energy research and development investment.

ii. There is a concerted effort to enhance the pace of innovation and scale of transformation through this clean energy revolution launch to meet the requirement for economic, energy security goals in timely manner.

iii. India is Founding Member of the Steering Committee and also a Member of the two sub-groups: Joint research and Capacity Building and Private Sector Engagement.

iv. During the meeting, India will be announcing its current investment and doubling Plan in Clean Energy Research. Formal announcement on new Joint collaborations with Mission Innovation Countries will also be made by the Minister.

2. Clean Energy

i. The Clean Energy Ministerial (CEM) is a high-level global forum to share lessons learnt and best practices, and to encourage the transition to a global clean energy economy. Initiatives are based on areas of common interest among participating

Governments and other stakeholders. The CEM is the initiative of the USA. Presently, 23 countries are members of CEM. There are 13 initiatives under CEM covering energy efficiency, clean energy supply and cross cutting areas.

ii. Since its launch in 2010, the Clean Energy Ministerial (CEM) has come a long way. Its various initiatives were instrumental in leading significant collaborative work amongst members in context of clean energy supply, demand side management and relevant cross cutting issues.

iii. During the 7th Clean Energy Ministerial the Minister for Science & Technology and Earth Sciences will also launch the Global Cooling Challenge.

An unsavoury fact: India tops global slavery index

An unsavoury fact: India tops global slavery index

The report, however, says the country has made significant progress in introducing measures to tackle the problem

India has the dubious distinction of having the highest number of people in the world trapped in modern slavery with 18.35 million victims of forced labour, ranging from prostitution and begging, according to a new report, which estimated that nearly 46 million people are enslaved globally.

According to the 2016 Global Slavery Index, released by Australia-based human rights group Walk Free Foundation on Tuesday, an estimated 45.8 million people, including women and children, are subject to some form of modern slavery in the world, compared to 35.8 million in 2014.

The report said India has the highest absolute numbers of people trapped in slavery with 18.35 million slaves among its 1.3 billion population, while North Korea has the highest incidence (4.37 per cent of the population) and the weakest government response to deal with it.

Five countries account for 58% of the world’s enslaved

Incidences of slavery were found in all 167 countries in the index, with Asian countries occupying the top five places.

China (3.39 million), Pakistan (2.13 million), Bangladesh (1.53 million) and Uzbekistan (1.23 million) were behind India in the list. The index said that these five countries combined accounted for almost 58 per cent of the world’s enslaved, or 26.6 million people.

Modern slavery refers to situations of exploitation that a person cannot leave because of threats, violence, coercion and abuse of power or deception.

The research included over 42,000 interviews conducted in 53 languages across 25 countries, including 15 State-level surveys in India. These representative surveys covered 44 per cent of the global population.

The countries with the highest estimated prevalence of modern slavery by the proportion of their population are North Korea, Uzbekistan, Cambodia, Cambodia, India, and Qatar.

The countries with the lowest estimated prevalence of modern slavery by the proportion of their population are Luxembourg, Ireland, Norway, Denmark, Switzerland, Austria, Sweden and Belgium, the United States and Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

Govt. actions and responses

The study also tracked the government actions and responses to the modern slavery and of the 161 assessed, 124 nations had criminalised human trafficking in line with the U.N. trafficking Protocol and 96 nations had developed national action plans to coordinate government response.

It noted that while India had more people enslaved than any other country, it had made significant progress in introducing measures to tackle the problem.

“It has criminalised trafficking, slavery, forced labour, child prostitution and forced marriage. The Indian government is currently tightening legislation against human trafficking, with tougher punishment for repeat offenders. It will offer victims protection and recovery support,” it said.

Those governments taking the least action to combat modern slavery are North Korea, Iran, Eritrea, Equatorial Guinea, Hong Kong, Central African Republic, Papua New Guinea, Guinea, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and South Sudan.

A team from IISc. reported finding an anti-cancer compound in the tree

A team from IISc. reported finding an anti-cancer compound in the tree

Fungus to treat a dreadful disease like cancer? It is possible. Research over the years has thrown up surprises that nature has in store, one of the most remarkable being Paclitaxel (marketed as Taxol), a chemical compound from the bark of a Pacific Yew tree (Taxus brevifolia). But the difficulty in extracting the compound as well as concerns over the entire tree being cut for the purpose pushed scientists to look for alternatives.

Closer home, a team from the biochemistry lab at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore has been working on identification and extraction of natural compounds of pharmaceutical value found in well-known medicinal plants and their endophytic fungi for over a decade. At first, they stumbled upon Taxol-producing endophytic fungus growing from the aseptic cuttings of the Chinese yew shrub. The team recently reported finding an anti-cancer compound (Cholestanol glucoside), isolated from an endophytic fungus in the Ashoka tree (Saraca asoca).

The potential

“The fungus has to be isolated from the plant, algae or the source. We culture the fungus and see if it has anti-cancer properties before fermenting it,” explained C. Jayabaskaran, Professor, Department of Biochemistry, IISc. The compound produced by the fungus has to be purified and undergo pre-clinical and clinical tests.

Though available in several plants and trees, Prof. Jayabaskaran said they have to be approved by the FDA. Different kinds of fungus are said to treat different types of cancer.