GS PAPER: III

Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-Kisan) scheme

Why in the news?

• According to the data available with the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare every fourth beneficiary added under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-Kisan) scheme over the past two months is a woman.
• The new beneficiaries were added to the scheme under the Viksit Bharat Sankalp Yatra (VBSY), the Centre’s flagship initiative to raise awareness on its schemes. 

About the report

• As per the data, of the 40,50,375 beneficiaries added between November 15, 2023, and January 14, 2024, under PM-Kisan, 10,61,278 were women, 29,87,884 men and 1,213 others.
• Among states that added the maximum number of women beneficiaries under the scheme, Uttar Pradesh is at the top with 1.69 lakh additions, followed by Rajasthan (1.56 lakh), Manipur (1.05 lakh), Jharkhand (90,949) and Kerala (66,887).
• In four states — Meghalaya, Manipur, Nagaland and Mizoram — women outnumbered men when it came to the number of new beneficiaries added under the scheme.
• In Meghalaya, women accounted for 68.96 per cent of the 24,557 new beneficiaries added during this period.
• The numbers stood at 56.57 per cent in Manipur, 54.97 per cent in Nagaland and 50.26 per cent in Mizoram. In the case of Arunachal Pradesh, women accounted for 48.77 per cent of the new beneficiaries.
• In fact, all North-East states except Assam (20.67 per cent women) and Tripura (22.67 per cent women) performed better than the all-India average (26.20 per cent women).
• The proportion of women among the new scheme beneficiaries was higher than the overall figure during the launch of VBSY.
• On November 15, 2023, the overall figure of PM-Kisan beneficiaries stood at 8.12 crore, of which 6.27 crore or 77.33 per cent were men and 1.83 crore or 22.64 per cent were women.
• Uttar Pradesh (29.22 lakh) reported the highest number of women PM-Kisan beneficiaries, followed by Bihar (22.48 lakh), Maharashtra (15.62 lakh), Madhya Pradesh (14.84 lakh) and Rajasthan (14.75 lakh).
• Overall, the highest proportion of women beneficiaries was recorded in Meghalaya (70.33 per cent), followed by Nagaland (55.84 per cent), Arunachal Pradesh (52.63 per cent) and Manipur (51.85 per cent).
• The lowest proportion of women PM-Kisan beneficiaries was reported at just 0.26 per cent in Punjab. Of 4.59 lakh PM-Kisan beneficiaries in Punjab, only 1,279 were women.
• The proportion of women in the overall beneficiaries of the scheme is higher as compared to the percentage share of women operational holders in the country, which stood at 13.96 per cent in 2015-16.
• As per the Agriculture Census, an operational holding is defined as “all land which is used wholly or partly for agricultural production and is operated as one technical unit by one person alone or with others without regard to the title, legal form, size or location”.
• According to the 2011 Census, of 11.87 crore cultivators, 30.3 per cent were women.

About PM-Kisan scheme

• Under the PM-Kisan scheme, eligible farmer families receive Rs 6,000 per annum in three equated instalments through Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) every four months. The scheme was launched on February 24, 2019, just before the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
• At the time of the first instalment in December-March 2018-19 (since the four-month cycle started from December 2018), the number of beneficiaries stood at 3.03 crore.
• It rose sharply in the following rounds, hitting a peak of 10.47 crore in April-July 2022.
• The numbers dropped to 8.12 crore during August-November 2023, for which the instalment was released on November 15, 2023. This dip is the reason why the Centre has focused on saturation of beneficiaries under the scheme.

GS PAPER – III

Kashmir without snow

Why in the news?

• Kashmir’s main winter tourism attractions, Gulmarg, has been bereft of snow this season, leading to a plunge in the flow of tourists and severely hitting the business.
• Government data shows that 95,989 tourists, including 547 foreigners, had visited Gulmarg in January last year, and though the data for the first half of this month is not yet available, officials said the footfall seemed to be at least 60 per cent lower.
• Snowfall in Kashmir, however, is much more than just a tourist attraction. It is crucial for the local climate, winter crops and horticulture, availability of waters in streams and rivers, and for the local economy.

Dry winter

• Though the lack of snow is the most visible in Gulmarg, a major tourist destination during this time of the year, the whole of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh have remained largely without rains or snow this winter.
• Winter precipitation in Jammu and Kashmir, as also Ladakh, is mainly in the form of snowfall. Normally, the region gets its first snowfall in the first half of December, and then through most of January.
• But it has been mostly dry this season. Jammu and Kashmir saw 80 per cent rainfall deficit in December and 100 per cent (absolutely no rain) deficit in January so far, India Meteorological Department (IMD) data show. Ladakh has had no precipitation at all in December or January.
• While snowfall in the region has been showing a declining trend in recent years, this season is remarkable.
• The overall decreasing trend of snowfall has been attributed to a decline in western disturbance events and gradual rise in temperatures, which invloves the role of climate change.
• The prevailing El Nino event in the eastern Pacific Ocean might be the additional factor to account for this year.

Role of western disturbance

• Winter precipitation in the Himalayan region is caused mainly by Western Disturbances. These are large eastward-moving rain-bearing wind systems that originate beyond Afghanistan and Iran, picking up moisture from as far as the Mediterranean Sea and even the Atlantic Ocean.
• Western Disturbances are the primary source of rainfall over north and northwest India during the post-monsoon and winter months. Along with the south-west monsoon season that runs from June to September, and the north-east monsoon that brings rains to Tamil Nadu and some other regions, Western Disturbances are the third major contributors to India’s annual rainfall.
• During winters, about four to six western disturbance events happen every month on an average. This season there was one feeble western disturbance event in December that did not bring any rains, and another similar one in January.
• Western disturbances have been showing a declining trend in recent times. In some years we have seen just two or three events a month, when normally five or six are expected. Because of this, the overall precipitation during the winter months in the northern regions has also been declining.

El Nino impact

• Indeed, there have been several years in the last one decade — 2022, 2018, 2015 — when winters have been relatively dry in Jammu and Kashmir, and snowfall has been very low. 
• For the past few months, El Niño has persisted and will continue to do so in the coming months. This has affected the global atmospheric circulation, and might be contributing to the deficit precipitation in the region as well.
• In the absence of El Nino, some years had seen very less snowfall. In recent years, 2022 (December), 2018 (December-January), 2015 (January), 2014 (December), 1998 (December-January) and 1992 (December) were dry.

Repercussions

Long-term:

• It includes the generation of less hydroelectricity, an increase in the rate of glacier melting, and an adverse impact on the drinking water supply, since scanty snowfall means very little recharge of groundwater.

Short term

• A dry spell can result in an increase in forest fires, agricultural drought, and a drop in crop production.
• It can lead to an early spring, which means early flowering, which can cause a reduction in yield.

GS PAPER – II

Defence upgrade Roadmap

Why in news?

• Body chaired by Prime minister, with the defense minister and the National security advisor as its vice presidents, should determine the country’s defense technology roadmap and decide on major projects and their execution.

Composition of the body:

• This top body called the defense technology council is proposed to have ab executive committee chaired by the chief of defense staff.
• The principal scientific advisor, along with the three service chiefs and their vice chiefs will also be its members.
• It will include representation from academia and industry, with two members from each sector.

Why this body came into existence?

• The nine-member panel was set up by the government to review the functioning of the DRDO and report on same has been submitted.
• The Government decision to review the functioning of DRDO comes against the backdrop of several of its project suffering from huge delays.

What were the goals?

• Restructuring and redefining the role of Department of Defence (R &D) and DRDO, as well as their relationship with each other and with academia and industry.
• Maximise academia, MSME, and start-up participation in the development of cutting-edge technologies.
• Attract and retain high-quality manpower, including a system of project-based manpower by a proper system of incentives and disincentives, with strict performance accountability, and weed out the non-performers.
• Utilize the expertise of NRIs/foreign consultants, inter-country collaborations for development of cutting edge and disruptive defence technologies.
• Modernize administrative, personnel and financial systems to achieve speedier implementation of projects.
• Rationalisation of laboratory structures and their performance evaluation process.

What is DRDO?

• DRDO works under the administrative control of Ministry of Defence, Government of India.
• It is working to establish world class science and technology base for India and provides our Defence Services decisive edge by equipping them with internationally competitive systems and solutions.
• Dr G. Satheesh Reddy is the incumbent Chairman of DRDO.

GS PAPER – II

Passengers rule

Why in news?

• In a shocking incident in Delhi, a passenger aboard a commercial flight assaulted the pilot while he was announcing the delay, causing concern among the passengers and the aviation community in general.
• The incident unfolded during a routine flight when the irate passenger allegedly became aggressive and from one of the last rows came running and did what he did.
• This sudden and unprecedented act of violence sent shockwaves through the aviation industry, prompting immediate intervention from the cabin crew and other passengers to restrain the individual.

Action taken by Indigo

• IndiGo has initiated the process of putting on the no-fly list a passenger who assaulted a pilot after the flight was delayed for several hours amid heavy fog in Delhi.
• The airline declared the passenger “unruly”, and further action will be guided by the Civil Aviation Requirements (CAR) on “Handling of unruly passengers” issued by the aviation watchdog Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).
• The CAR lay down the procedure that airlines must follow with regard to unruly passenger behaviour of varying degrees at the time of the incident and subsequently.
• Over the past few months, the DGCA has been prodding carriers to proactively report incidents of disruptive passenger behaviour on board aircraft, which the regulator feels could compromise operational safety.

How are airlines supposed to respond to incidents of unruly passenger behaviour?

• The airline should first inform the passengers concerned that in case their behaviour is deemed unruly as per the guidelines, they could be arrested.
• Unruly behaviour includes (but is not limited to): consuming liquor or drugs resulting in unruly behaviour; smoking; not obeying the pilot’s instructions; using threatening or abusive language against crew or other passengers; physically threatening and abusive behaviour; intentionally interfering with discharge of duties by the crew; and endangering the safety of the aircraft and those on board.
• In the incident that took place at Delhi’s IGI Airport, the aircraft was still on ground, so the passenger was handed over to airport security immediately. In cases of unruly behaviour in the air, the pilot is required to quickly assess if the cabin crew can control the unruly passenger, and accordingly inform the airline’s central control on the ground.
• If the pilots and the airline’s central control believe that the unruly passenger cannot be brought under control by the cabin crew, they must land as soon as possible at the nearest available airport. “Upon landing…, airline representative shall lodge FIR (First Information Report) with the concerned security agency at aerodrome, to whom, the unruly passenger shall be handed over,” the rules state.

What is the procedure to be followed after the incident is over?

• When an airline receives a complaint of unruly passenger behaviour from the pilot-in-command, it must refer the complaint to an internal committee, which must include (i) a retired district and sessions judge as chairman, (ii) a representative of a different airline and, (iii) a representative of a passengers’ association, or consumer association, or a retired officer of a consumer disputes redressal forum.
• The internal committee is required to decide the matter within 30 days, along with the categorisation of the incident in one of three defined category levels. The committee shall also decide the duration for which the unruly passenger will be banned from flying. The committee’s decision shall be binding on the airline.

What are the category levels of disruptive passenger behaviour?

• The levels define behaviour ranging from verbal harassment to murderous assault.
• Level 1: Unruly behaviour, including physical gestures, verbal harassment, and unruly inebriation.
• Level 2: Physically abusive behaviour, including pushing, kicking, hitting, and grabbing or inappropriate touching or sexual harassment.
• Level 3: Life-threatening behaviour, including damage to aircraft operating systems, physical violence such as choking, eye gouging, murderous assault, and attempted or actual breach of flight crew compartment.

What penalties can unruly behaviour by a flight passenger attract?

• The airline can ban the unruly passenger for up to 30 days immediately after the incident.
• “Pending decision of the Internal Committee, the concerned airline may ban such unruly passenger from flying, but such period may not exceed a period of 30 days… In case the Internal Committee fails to take a decision in 30 days, the passenger will be free to fly,” the rules say.
• Airlines are required to maintain a database of unruly passengers and share it with the DGCA and other airlines. The DGCA maintains a No-Fly List based on the data shared by carriers.
• In addition to the airline on whose aircraft the incident occurred, other carriers also have the option of banning such passengers from flying for varying durations based on offence levels. For Level 1 and 2 offences, the ban on flying can extend to three months and six months respectively. For a Level 3 offence, the minimum ban should be for 2 years, with no upper limit.
• An individual who is banned from flying can appeal within 60 days to an Appellate Committee constituted by the Ministry of Civil Aviation, and headed by a retired judge of a High Court. An appeal against the appellate panel’s decision shall be made to a High Court.

What has been the DGCA’s message to airlines?

• In April, the DGCA said that it had noticed incidents of smoking in aircraft, consumption of liquor resulting in unruly passenger behaviour, altercations between passengers, and incidents of inappropriate touching or sexual harassment by passengers “wherein post holders, pilots and cabin crew members have failed to take appropriate actions”.
• The regulator underlined that norms must be followed, and advised the heads of operations of all airlines to sensitise pilots, cabin crew, and other concerned officials on handling unruly passengers. Training programmes should be held to ensure “effective monitoring, maintenance of good order and discipline on board the aircraft so that safety of aircraft operations is not jeopardised in any manner”, the DGCA said.
• Airline personnel should also “carefully monitor” the behaviour of passengers who are “likely to be unruly” and, if deemed as posing a threat to flight safety or safety of crew and other passengers, they should not be taken on board.
• “All airlines shall establish mechanism to detect and report unruly passenger behaviour at check-in, in the lounges, at the boarding gate or any other place in the terminal building in order to prevent such passengers from boarding,” the rules state.
• The rules note that unruly passenger behaviour could stem from “an event of unsatisfactory service/ condition or effect of a series of such events that build up” (which appears to have happened in the recent case in Delhi), and state that in such cases, airline staff should watch out for early signs of “potential unruly behaviour”.
• “Airlines shall focus and act on these early signs, rather than dealing exclusively with escalated events. At no stage, the airline staff/ crew member shall show discourteous behaviour during redressal of genuine passenger rights,” the rules say.