CURRENT AFFAIRS ON 16TH SEPTEMBER

What are Magnetars?

A magnetar is a type of neutron star, a strange object with an incredibly powerful magnetic field that powers the emission of highly energetic X-rays and gamma rays. Neutron stars are formed when the largest stars in the universe reach the end of their lives. When these stars run out of fuel, their core collapses causing outer layers to come crashing in towards the centre.

As stars are so large the crushing forces created can be phenomenal. These pressures can squash the core of the star together and because of this, a neutron star – and hence a magnetar – is made of some of the densest material in the known universe. In fact, their material is so dense that one teaspoon of it contains the same amount of mass as 900 Egyptian pyramids.

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Arundhati Bhattacharya, Chanda Kochhar among most powerful women outside US

SBI chairperson Arundhati Bhattacharya is ranked second, ICICI Bank chief Chanda Kochhar is fifth while Axis Bank CEO Shikha Sharma is 19th on the Fortune list
India’s top women bankers, State Bank of India chief Arundhati Bhattacharya, ICICI Bank head Chanda Kochhar and Axis Bank CEO Shikha Sharma, are among the 50 most powerful women based outside the US, according to a list by Fortune which is topped by Banco Santander’s boss Ana Botín.

Bhattacharya, 60, is ranked second on the list, while Kochhar comes in on the fifth spot and Sharma on the 19th position in the Fortune’s ‘50 Most Powerful Women International’ list, which has ranked the women based outside the US.

Botín, group executive chairman of Banco Santander, Eurozone’s largest bank by market value, repeats as No. 1, in a time of economic and political volatility for all. The 2016 list spans 19 countries.

“Bhattacharya’s profile has risen during her three-year tenure atop India’s largest bank,” Fortune said.

SBI chairperson Bhattacharya, who was widely speculated to succeed Raghuram Rajan as governor of the Reserve Bank of India, has continued her high-profile battle with the bank’s bad loans, while courting overseas partners to invest in the stressed assets. In May, she also orchestrated SBI’s merger with six other groups, a plan that, once complete, will result in one of largest lenders in Asia.

“Though her term leading the bank is set to expire in October, most expect the government will extend her time so she can see the efforts through,” Fortune said.

ICICI Bank managing director and CEO, Kochhar, 54, is regarded even by rival bankers as a “visionary”, Fortune said. “After seven years at the helm of India’s largest private sector lender, with consolidated assets of $139 billion, she has overhauled the nation’s consumer retail business.

“Though bad loans took a toll on income growth this year, Kochhar has engaged turnaround experts to help ditch those distressed assets,” Fortune said, highlighting her efforts to boost the bank’s digital growth and enable female employees to work from home for a year.

Sharma, 57, has grown Axis from an underrepresented bank to the nation’s fastest growing private sector lender, with revenue up 15% to $7.9 billion in 2015 and nearly 3000 branches across 1,800 cities and towns, Fortune said.

“First quarter profit this year was hurt by a spike in bad loans, but Sharma deserves accolades for publicising a ‘watch list’ she created to monitor four per cent of the bank’s potentially-troubled assets,” it said. Last week, PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi was ranked second and was the only woman of Indian-origin in Fortune’s list of the 50 most powerful women in the US, a compilation topped by General Motors CEO Mary Barra.

The international power list also includes Singapore Telecommunications Group CEO Chua Sock Koong on the 4th spot, Walgreens Boots Alliance Co-COO Ornella Barra (10), chairwoman and co-founder of Chinese real estate developer Longfor Wu Yajun (26), CEO and President, GE China, Rachel Duan (35), Huawei Technologies chairman Sun Yafang (38), president, International Markets, MasterCard Ann Cairns (44) and Coca-Cola Amatil group managing director Alison Watkins (47).

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Cabinet approves extension of contract between India and the International Seabed Authority for exploration of Polymetallic Nodules

The Union Cabinet, chaired by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, has approved the extension of contract between Ministry of Earth Sciences, Government of India and the International Seabed Authority (ISA) for exploration of Polymetallic Nodules for a further period of 5 years (2017-22). The earlier contract is expiring on 24th March 2017.

By extending the contract, India's exclusive rights for exploration of Polymetallic Nodules in the allotted Area in the Central Indian Ocean Basin will continue and would open up new opportunities for resources of commercial and strategic value in area beyond national jurisdiction. Further, it would provide strategic importance for India in terms of enhanced presence in Indian Ocean where other international: players are also active.

Background:

Polymetallic nodules (also known as manganese nodules) are potato-shaped, largely porous nodules found in abundance carpeting the sea floor of world oceans in deep sea. Besides manganese and iron, they contain nickel, copper, cobalt, lead, molybdenum, cadmium, vanadium, titanium, of which nickel, cobalt and copper are considered to be of economic and strategic importance. India signed a 15 year contract for exploration of Polymetallic Nodules (PMN) in Central Indian Ocean Basin with the International Seabed Authority (ISA) (an Institution set up under the Convention on Law of the Sea to which India is a Party) on 25th March, 2002 with the approval of Cabinet. India is presently having an area of 75,000 sq.km., located about 2000 km away from her southern tip for exploration of PMN.

Ministry of Earth Sciences is carrying out Survey & Exploration, Environmental Impact Assessment, Technology Development (Mining and Extractive Metallurgy) under polymetallic nodules program through various national institutes viz. National Institute of Oceanography (NIO), Institute of Minerals and Materials Technology (IMMT), National Metallurgical Laboratory (NML), National Centre for Antarctica and Ocean Research (NCAOR), National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT) etc., in accordance with the Contract provisions. India is fulfilling all the obligations of the contract.

A quiet revolution in farm mechanization

A quiet revolution in farm mechanization
Madhya Pradesh is leading the way in setting up custom hiring centres, which rent out machinery to small farmers and employ rural youth to manage them
The frown on the face of Shakti Singh Tomar belies his recent successes. A 44-year-old farmer from Vidisha in Madhya Pradesh, Tomar proudly says he purchased a Mahindra Bolero SUV in 2014 by paying Rs8.1 lakh in cash. “Unlike others, I do not have a loan to repay and purchased two hectares of land recently,” he said.

A large farmer once at the mercy of the vagaries of nature and vulnerable to lower crop prices, Tomar now earns at least Rs6 lakh a year by renting out farm machinery. “The centre that I am running has been a blessing,” he added.

Tomar is not an isolated success story. He is among 1,205 farmers spread across Madhya Pradesh who are running custom hiring centres (CHCs) which rent out machinery to small and marginal farmers and employ rural youth who manage these centres all day.

The cost? Rs25 lakh to set up one centre, which will get a Rs10 lakh government subsidy. However, as Madhya Pradesh has showed, the social benefits of the scheme have far outweighed the costs.

Machinery available for hire has reduced manual labour and lowered the cost of cultivation, which has gone up due to a labour shortage. Farmers renting equipment have reported yields rising by around 20%.

Fragmented farm holdings mean individual ownership of machinery is unviable for small farmers. Photo: Reuters
Fragmented farm holdings mean individual ownership of machinery is unviable for small farmers. Photo: Reuters
Stories like that of Tomar also show the structural transformation under way in Indian agriculture: farmers harnessing the opportunities of the market economy, using new technology and becoming entrepreneurs. For instance, Tomar is planning a trip to Haryana to purchase a seed grading machine that costs more than Rs6 lakh. With a group of farmers, he wants to start production of certified seeds that can be sold at a premium.

Mechanization has become a necessity due to higher costs and paucity of farm labour, said Rajesh Rajora, principal secretary (agriculture) with the state government. “Every year, nearly 4.5 lakh farm hands move out of rural areas (in Madhya Pradesh) in search of skilled or unskilled work. As purchasing equipment is costly and unviable for small farmers, custom hiring is the way out,” he said.

Fragmented farm holdings mean individual ownership of machinery is unviable for small farmers. For instance, 85% of farm holdings in India belong to small and marginal farmers cultivating less than two hectares. A tractor needs at least 1,000 hours of operation every year to be economically viable, while two hectares means at most 100 hours. In states like Punjab—India’s most mechanized state with double the number of tractors it needs—individual ownership of machinery has not only led to higher cost of production and lower net income to farmers, but also rising debt among farm households.

"Every year, nearly 4.5 lakh farm hands move out of rural areas (in Madhya Pradesh) in search of skilled or unskilled work. As purchasing equipment is costly and unviable for small farmers, custom hiring is the way out"
- Rajesh Rajora, principal secretary (agriculture), Madhya Pradesh government.
In comparison, Madhya Pradesh is promoting CHCs as a simple and transparent way of renting farm equipment. Rural youth under 40 years with an undergraduate degree can apply for a grant under the scheme. While agricultural graduates are preferred, final applicants are selected through a lottery. The subsidy is limited to 40% of the cost of a centre or Rs10 lakh. Applicants have to place a margin money of Rs5 lakh and the rest is financed by bank loans.

After the candidates are selected, they are sent for a week-long technical training that is a prerequisite to qualify for the bank loan. The applicant has to purchase a mandatory set of equipment required for farm activities from ploughing to harvesting. Each centre serves 200-300 farmers within a radius of less than 10km.

In January 2015, 38-year-old Gyan Singh Parmar from Sehore district saw an advertisement in the newspaper inviting applications for setting up farm equipment renting centres. “I was lucky to be selected in the lottery and by September, the centre was fully functional,” he said.

The returns for Parmar are handsome. The thresher worked for nearly 500 hours harvesting the winter wheat crop in April at a rental of Rs700 per hour. In less than a year, Parmar earned over Rs3 lakh. He has employed two people at a salary of Rs5,000 per month, and is planning to buy a crop reaper cum binder which costs Rs3.5 lakh.

“We approve applications in such a way that there is no more than one CHC in a village. This helps keep the model financially viable in the long run,” said Anil Porwal, an agriculture engineer who oversees the programme at the state level.

While 286 CHCs were set up in the first year of the scheme (2012-13), the number rose to 444 in 2014-15 and 475 in 2015-16. This year, the state has set a target of 612 centres.

Rural youth under 40 years with an undergraduate degree can apply for a grant under the scheme. While agricultural graduates are preferred, final applicants are selected through a lottery
“The progress of CHC scheme in Madhya Pradesh is impressive,” said Ankur Seth, executive officer at the Confederation of Indian Industry’s agriculture division which carried out a multistate study commissioned by the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development, India’s apex rural development bank. Seth adds that different states have followed different models—while in Andhra Pradesh, CHCs are run by informal groups of farmers who find it difficult to access bank credit, in Punjab, CHCs are run by cooperative societies as an added service.

In comparison, the Madhya Pradesh model is designed to retain youth who are losing interest in farming by giving them an opportunity to run a business and also promote the centres as technology transfer units at the village level, Porwal said.

While Madhya Pradesh has performed exceptionally in the past few years and states like Tamil Nadu, Odisha and Uttar Pradesh are coming on board, some states like Gujarat, Bihar, Rajasthan and Haryana are not utilizing central funds for mechanization, said a senior official in the Union agriculture ministry who did not want to be named.

The centre in 2016-17 allocated Rs160 crore to states under the Sub-Mission on Agricultural Mechanization, but the unspent balance was as high as Rs103 crore by the end of March this year, shows data from the agriculture ministry.

While Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Odisha and Uttar Pradesh are coming on board, some states like Gujarat, Bihar, Rajasthan and Haryana are not utilizing central funds for mechanization
In Madhya Pradesh, the scheme for promoting CHCs does not work in isolation. The state is also implementing a scheme called Yantradoot where 200 villages are adopted every year and farmers get to see first-hand how farm mechanization can boost productivity, save labour costs and even help fight climate change.

For instance, 30km from the state capital of Bhopal, Acharpura village has 20 tractors but few improved implements to go with them. Until last year when the village was adopted under Yantradoot, farmers used single box seed drills (for planting crops like soya bean and pulses) where seeds and fertilizers are mixed together, resulting in a poor harvest.

The scheme brought in double box seed drills where seeds and fertilizers were applied separately, and many farmers benefitted from the reversible plough, which overturns soil from deep within.

Deep ploughing increased the fertility of the soil and also helped control weeds, said Kaluram Ahirwar, a farmer from the village, adding, “productivity of my wheat crop increased from 17 quintal per acre to 22 quintal per acre”.

Machinery available for hire has reduced manual labour and lowered the cost of cultivation, which has gone up due to a labour shortage. Farmers renting equipment have reported yields rising by around 20%. Photo: Mint
Machinery available for hire has reduced manual labour and lowered the cost of cultivation, which has gone up due to a labour shortage. Farmers renting equipment have reported yields rising by around 20%. Photo: Mint
Encouraged by the potential of the machines, 24-year-old Haridesh Maran, a commerce graduate from the village applied for a CHC, but did not make it in the lottery. Maran now wants to buy a combined harvester which costs over Rs20 lakh. Isn’t that a risky investment?

“If harvesters from Punjab can come this far and make money, why can’t I? In one season, a combined harvester can do a business of Rs7 lakh and I can recoup the investment in three years,” he says with confidence.

In the neighbouring village of Ratata, Kalyan Singh shows how his soya bean and groundnut crops were not washed away despite heavy rains. Under Yantradoot, his land was sown with a raised bed cultivator that is attached to a tractor. The cultivator made 15-inch raised beds where seeds were sown, alternated with deep furrows which drain the excess water when it rains too much, and conserve soil moisture during dry spells.

In the rush to mechanize farm operations, the private sector too isn’t far behind. According to a report published in July by lobby group Ficci and the German Agribusiness Alliance, leading farm equipment manufacturers such as Mahindra and Mahindra, TAFE, Escorts and John Deere are trying out different models of custom hiring.

Noting that purchasing costly equipment like combined harvesters can be prohibitively expensive, even for large farmers, the report said that “custom hiring is the only practical way to introduce capital intensive, high quality mechanisation to the small farming structures prevalent of India”.

“Farmers who used the combined harvesters took 45 minutes to harvest, thresh and pack wheat in an acre, which otherwise takes a week and 15 labour days,” the report said, citing a 2013 field study from Madhya Pradesh.

No one knows this better than Chandra Mohan Gupta, a former engineer who quit his job to manage 20 acres of his family farm in Narsinghpur district. In 2013, Gupta opened a CHC with government support. “To meet the rising demand from farmers, I also purchased a second tractor, a raised-bed cultivator and a seed grader that cost Rs15 lakh,” said Gupta.

India has declared itself free from the highly contagious avian influenza (H5N1) or bird flu even as it stressed the need for continued surveillance.

India has declared itself free from the highly contagious avian influenza (H5N1) or bird flu even as it stressed the need for continued surveillance.

“India has declared itself free from avian influenza (H5N1) from September 5, 2016 and notified the same to the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE),” the Department of Animal Husbandry under the agriculture ministry said in a statement.

In a letter to chief secretaries of states, the Centre has emphasised the need for “continued surveillance especially in the vulnerable areas bordering infected countries and in areas visited by migratory birds”.

India had notified outbreak of avian influenza on 9 May 2016 at Humnabad, Bidar district, Karnataka.

In areas on the one-kilometre radius of the outbreak location, the government took measures, including culling, disinfection and clean-up, to contain the spread of avian influenza.

“Post the surveillance, the state has shown no evidence of presence of the disease... There has been no further outbreak reported in the country thereafter,” the ministry said.

Bird flu affects mainly the domestic poultry. The disease spreads from infected birds to other winged creatures through contact with nasal and respiratory secretions and also due to contamination of feed and water

UPSC (ias) prelims -2016 result out.

UPSC (ias) prelims -2016 result out.

On 7th August 2016, UPSC had conducted preliminary exam for civil services aka CSAT.
16th September 2016, they’ve declared result= within 40 days. Seems a new record for UPSC!
Total ~15,500 candidates qualified for Mains-2016 against 1,079 final vacancies. (15,445 to be precise.)

http://www.upsc.gov.in/…/Can…/Result%20of%20CS%28P%29%202016

IAS-2016 PRELIMS RESULT

Qualifying IAS Pre exam is start of great journey.we are happy that you have achieved this with your dedicated hard work.
many of our student failed due to getting one or two marks less than cutoff.we are feeling sad for them,but hope that they deserve it ,and they will make it next year.

Heartfelt Congratulations to Rahul shah for qualifying written exam of CAPF (ACs) .He is very hard working and disciplined guy.he will achieve many more success in coming time.
Best of luck for physical test and interview!!
saveg ias dehradun

WELL DONE ABHINAV

Task Force on Innovation

Task Force on Innovation
Innovation is widely recognized as a central driver of economic growth and development. The Global Innovation Index (GII) aims to capture the multi-dimensional facets of innovation. India’s ranking in GII-2016 jumped 15 places to 66th position. Aiming to strengthen the eco-system of innovation in the country, and thereby further improve India’s ranking in GII, the Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion has decided to set up a Task Force on Innovation.
Global Innovation Index (GII) 2016 was recently launched in which India has retained the top rank in Information and Communication Technology Service Export for more than last three years. India is the top-ranked economy in Central and Southern Asia, and shows particular strengths in tertiary education and R&D, including global R&D intensive firms, the quality of its universities and scientific publications. India also over-performs in innovation relative to its GDP. India ranks second on innovation quality amongst middle-income economies. As per the report, “India is a good example of how policy is improving the innovation environment”. India moved up across all indicators within the Knowledge Absorption sub-pillar. It has also exhibited a solid performance in the GII model’s newly incorporated research talent in business enterprise, where it ranks 31st. Recognizing India’s potential to reach great heights in innovation, the Commerce & Industry Minister, Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman had directed the setting up of a Task Force which would take forward innovation in India.
The Team comprises of Government officials and experts from private organisations - Mr. Naushad Forbes (Co- Chairman , Forbes Marshall Group; President, CII), Dr. Anil Wali (MD, FITT, IIT Delhi), Mr. Gopichand Katragadda (CTO, TATA Sons), Mr. Kris Gopalakrishnan (Executive Vice Chairman, Infosys), Dr. Nikolai Dobberstein (Partner, A.T. Kearney Limited), Mr. Rajeev Srinivasan (Adjunct Faculty, Innovation IIM-B),
Representative from the Department of Science and Technology and the Convenor of the Task Force Mr. Rajiv Aggarwal, Joint Secretary, DIPP. The Task Force will assess India’s position as an innovative country and suggest measures to enhance the innovation eco-system in India and thus improve India’s ranking in the GII. DIPP and CIPAM invite ideas and suggestions from the public. The Task Force may also hold discussions with some of these contributors.

Governmental Initiatives for Meeting Nutritional Needs of the Indians

Governmental Initiatives for Meeting Nutritional Needs of the Indians

Article 47 of the Constitution documents that it is “duty of the state to raise the level of nutrition and the standard of living and to improve public health”. 

National Nutrition week (1-7 September), initiated by the Food and Nutrition Board in 1982, is an annual event of immense significance. It aims at intensifying nutrition/health related awareness among the masses which can profoundly impact productivity, economic growth and ultimately development of the nation. During this week, major emphasis is laid on nutrition education and training programmes carried out by the governmental/non-governmental organizations.

“The theme for 2016 is “Life Cycle Approach for Better Nutrition”

Nutrition constitutes the very foundation of human development by imparting immunity and, thus, reducing morbidity, mortality and disability. In addition, it promotes lifelong learning capacities and enhanced productivity. Malnutrition, on the other hand, tends to lower IQ and impairs cognitive ability of the children, thus, affecting their school performance and productivity in later life. Low-birth weight babies not only have impaired immune function but are at a greater risk of non-communicable diseases during their adulthood.

Global Nutrition Report-2016 clearly indicates how India still lags behind in tackling malnutrition effectively. Malnutrition manifests in the form of stunting, wasting, micronutrient deficiencies and over­weight/obesity. In terms of stunting, India ranks 114^th out of 132 nations (incidence: 38.7%) while for wasting, it is 120^th among 130 countries (incidence: 15.1%). Regarding anaemia prevalence among women of reproductive ages, India ranks 170^th out of 185 countries (incidence: 48.1%) – and this is a matter of grave concern.

Over the years, the Government has accorded the highest priority to combat malnutrition among its people. The Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) scheme was launched in 1975.

ICDS is one of the world’s largest and most unique outreach programme for early childhood care and development and covers all the districts and blocks in the country.

Similarly, the Mid- Day Meal Scheme was universalized in 1995. However, there is a lack of multi­sectoral coordination which is most essential to address the inter­generational and multifaceted nature of malnutrition.

Similarly, although, globally it is well acknowledged that focusing on the first 1000 days (conception to 2 years post-partum) is a critical window of opportunity to address child malnutrition; in India, focus of the nutrition programmes has chiefly been post­birth. Researches indicate that 50% of the growth failure accrued by the age of 2 years occurs in the womb itself, mainly owing to poor maternal nutrition –during and prior to pregnancy. Therefore, maintaining an adequate nutritional status (pre-conception and first trimester when majority of the women may not even be aware of their pregnancy) is rather crucial for appropriate foetal development.

Undernourished girls have greater chances of becoming undernourished mothers as they inevitably bear low birth weight babies, and thus, perpetuate an intergenerational cycle of malnutrition. This gets further compounded in adolescent mothers, who simultaneously carry the burden of two physiological stages (adolescence and pregnancy). This also holds true for closely spaced high parity pregnancies – often exacerbating nutrition deficits, which are passed on to their offspring/s.

For inclusive growth, under the eleventh 5­year plan, universalization of ICDS coupled with setting up of mini­ Anganwadi centers in deprived areas was undertaken; yet, there is a need to further strengthen ICDS in poor­ performing states based on the lessons learnt from various successful models.  Overhauling of ICDS by the Ministry of WCD (May 2016) is expected to improve nutrition scenario of the country.

The Government is now working on close Monitoring of the Nutrition programmes by digitisation of the Anganwadis.

Anganwadis

This is expected to turnaround the entire system since it will help in real time monitoring of nutrition status of each child and take up immediate interventions wherever required. Similarly, diarrhoea has a direct impact on nutrition status of a child. Constructing toilets and providing clean drinking water are being taken up by the Government on a war footing to provide clean living conditions and good health to one and all.

In 2013, government passed the food security bill entitling 5 kg food grain/person/month at highly subsidised rates. It is commendable that food and nutrition security is being promoted through several national level programmes like TPDS, MGNREGA, ICDS and MDMS. Further, programmes like Swachh Bharat, ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padao’ address critical nutrition­ sensitive issues. Fortification of food items especially those being distributed through the PDS is also being taken up to address the issue of malnutrition in the country.

A high level responsiveness is mandated to effectively manage the emergency situations like droughts, floods, and infection. It is important that nutrition related data are collected more frequently (currently gathered once in 5-7 years) to reflect the changing nutritional needs as well as impact of the nutrition interventions. It is important that a national nutrition strategy is designed to ensure that under-nutrition gets utmost priority. India’s nutrition challenges call for urgent action for ensuring faster, gender-sensitive, inclusive and sustainable growth.

Nutrition is a double edged  sword  – both under and over nutrition being harmful…. 

…. Optimum nutrition combined with regular physical activity is the cornerstone of good health!!