Daily Current Affairs for 18th August 2021

GS PAPER III

National Gene Bank

Why in News

Recently, the Union Ministry of Agriculture and Famers Welfare on 16^th August, 2021, inaugurated the world’s second-largest refurbished state-of-the-art National Gene Bank at the National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources, Pusa in New Delhi.

Key Points

• According to the Union Ministry, the farmers in India are completely capable of accepting the challenges faced by the agriculture sector and can also conquer them.
• The revamped state-of-the-art National Gene Bank is a powerful step in the direction of helping the farmers of India.

National Gene Bank

• The National Gene Bank was established in 1996 for conserving the seeds of Plant Genetic Resources (PGR) for future generations.
• It has the capacity to preserve about one million germplasm in the form of seeds.
• Presently, it has been protecting 4.52 lakh accessions, out of which 2.7 lakh are the Indian germplasm while the rest have been imported from other countries.
• The National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources is meeting the need of in-situ and ex-situ germplasm conservation through the Delhi Headquarters and ten other regional stations in the country.

Need of gene bank

• Large number of germplasm samples or entire variability can be conserved in a very small space.
• In seed banks, handling of germplasm is easy.
• Germplasm is conserved under pathogen and insect free environment.
• The agriculture farmers will be greatly benefited by the new gene bank with state-of-the-art facilities at germplasm.
• The goal is to make the farmers of the country self-reliant and the government has been making every effort in that direction.

Challenges

• Seeds of recalcitrant species cannot be stored in seed banks.
• Failure of power supply may lead to loss of viability and thereby loss of germplasm.
• It requires periodical evaluation of seed viability. After some time multiplication is essential to get new or fresh seeds for storage.

Agricultural production in India

• In ancient times there were no resources or technology, however, the fabric of nature was strong, there was complete coordination because of which there was neither malnutrition nor death due to hunger.
• But when this fabric broke, the country started facing difficulties and was required to make special efforts.
• Because of the successful efforts of the Central Government with the farmers and the agricultural scientists, the production and the productivity of food grains in India are increasing continuously.
• The Minister further added that if proper attention had been given to the development of agriculture in the country 20-30 years ago, the world today would have been dependent on India for the agriculture and allied sectors.

GS PAPER III

Financial Inclusion Index (FI-Index)

Why in News

The Reserve Bank of India introduced its first financial inclusion index to measure and improves the extent of financial inclusion in the country.

Financial inclusion index

• 
• The FI-Index has been conceptualised as a comprehensive index incorporating details of banking, investments, insurance, postal as well as the pension sector in consultation with Government and respective sectorial regulators.
• The index captures information on various aspects of financial inclusion in a single value ranging between 0 and 100, where 0 represents complete financial exclusion and 100 indicates full financial inclusion.
• The FI-Index comprises of three broad parameters:
• Access (35%),
• Usage (45%), and
• Quality (20%), with each of these consisting of various dimensions, which are computed based on a number of indicators.
• The Index is responsive to ease of access, availability and usage of services, and quality of services, comprising in all 97 indicators.
• The annual FI-Index for the period ending March 2021 is 53.9 as against 43.4 for the period ending March 2017.
• The FI-Index will be published annually in July every year.
• According to RBI the scaling up of financial inclusion has been supported by the digital ID (Aadhaar), the proliferation of mobile phones and world-class payment systems.
• They helped to address two challenges of access and usage to a large extent. The third challenge, quality, requires both demand and supply-side interventions.
• Payment systems are a lifeline of an economy and are seen as a means of achieving financial inclusion. India has state-of-the-art payment infra­structure and products leading to a wider adoption of digital payments.

Significance

• A unique feature of the Index is the Quality parameter which captures the quality aspect of financial inclusion as reflected by financial literacy, consumer protection, and inequalities and deficiencies in services.
• The FI-Index has been constructed without any ‘base year’ and as such it reflects cumulative efforts of all stakeholders over the years towards financial inclusion.

GS PAPER III

WPI Inflation

Why in News

Inflation in wholesale prices slowed marginally to 11.2% in July, from June’s 12.1%.

Key Points

• 
• Manufactured product prices gained momentum in July.
• On a month-on-month basis, the Wholesale Price Index (WPI), however, increased 0.6% in July from June 2021.
• Inflation in fuel and power at the wholesale level was at 26% in July, slowing from 36.7% in May and 32.8% in June, while manufactured products inflation accelerated from 10.9% in June to 11.2% in July.
• The Food Index saw 4.46% inflation compared with 6.66% in June.
• The high rate of inflation in July 2021 is primarily due to low base effect and rise in prices of crude petroleum & natural gas; mineral oils; manufactured products like basic metals; food products; textiles; chemicals and chemical products as compared to the corresponding month of the previous year.
• Retail inflation was now well below the 6% ceiling for monetary policy and was expected to remain below it.
• Reflecting the base effect and the supply-side measures taken by the government related to pulses and oilseeds, the primary food index was flat at the year-ago level in July 2021.
• ICRA expects core-WPI inflation to have peaked at 10.8% in July.

Economic terms

• Inflation:
• Inflation is nothing but increase in price over a specific period of time.
• It can also be define as decline of purchasing power of a given currency over time.
• A quantitative estimate of the rate at which the decline in purchasing power occurs can be reflected in the increase of an average price level of a basket of selected goods and services in an economy over some period of time.
• The rise in the general level of prices, often expressed as a percentage, means that a unit of currency effectively buys less than it did in prior periods.
• Retail Inflation: The change in the price index over a period of time is referred to as retail inflation.
• Consumer Price Index:
• Consumer Price Index or CPI is an index that measures the retail inflation in the economy by collecting the change in prices of most common goods and services used by consumers.
• It is calculated for a fixed list of items including food, housing, apparel, transportation, electronics, medical care, education, etc.
• It is very much helpful in understanding the real value of wages, salaries and pensions, the purchasing power of a country’s currency; and regulating prices.
• In India, there are four types of consumer price index numbers:
• CPI for Industrial Workers (IW);
• CPI for Agricultural Labourers (AL);
• CPI for Rural Labourers (RL) and
• CPI for Urban Non-Manual Employees (UNME).
• While the Ministry of Statistics and Program Implementation collects CPI (UNME) data and compiles it, the remaining three are collected by the Labour Bureau in the Ministry of Labour.
• Wholesale Price Index (WPI)
• A wholesale price index (WPI) measures and tracks the changes in the price of goods before they reach consumers: goods that are sold in bulk and traded between entities or businesses (rather than consumers).
• Wholesale price indexes (WPIs) are one indicator of a country’s level of inflation.
• In 1978, the U.S. began using a more detailed producer price index (PPI) in place of wholesales price indexes (WPIs).

GS PAPER III

RoDTEP scheme

Why in news

The government has announced Rs 12,400-crore outlay for the Remission of Duties and Taxes on Exported Products (RoDTEP) export promotion scheme.

Key Points

• 
• The Commerce Department announced on 17^th August that new export refund rates under RoDTEP would cover 8,555 tariff lines, or individual merchandise products traded by India internationally.
• With this, it is expected that exporters would benefit from better rates for fresh orders.
• Employment-oriented sectors like marine, agriculture, leather, gems & jewellery are covered under the scheme.
• Other sectors like automobiles, plastics, electrical and machinery will also get support.
• At present, sectors like pharma and steel are not included.
• In sectors like electrical, glass valves and tubes for products are included under the scheme. This would mean the small component manufacturers that make and export these products will benefit.

MEIS scrapped

• The Merchandise Export from India Scheme (MEIS), which was replaced by RoDTEP, offered refunds at the rate of 2%, 3% and 5% of the value of exports.
• The MEIS had to be scrapped as it was not directly linked to input taxes and levies that went into the production of the exported item and was hence held by the WTO as incompatible with multilateral trade norms.
• The new scheme covers 8,555 product lines of a total of about 11,000 traded items. MEIS, on the other hand, had an annual outlay of over ₹40,000 crore while it covered about 8,000 items.

Relief for exporters

• Despite the low rates, exporters are relieved that the period of uncertainty is over and they can now avail the benefits and price their products accordingly.
• The RoDTEP rates, which provide zero rebating of exports, are WTO compatible and thus will continue for a long time until all the products and services are brought within the ambit of GST and embedded incidence is completely neutralised.
• RoDTEP scheme will be subject to periodic review, and if needed, changes would be made in response to change in the ground situation.
• The simple goal of the scheme is to ensure that all taxes borne by exporters are not exported. It should be reimbursed. It also includes taxes collected by States and local governments.
• The overall outlay for the RoDTEP scheme will be finalised by the Finance Ministry in consultation with the Department of Commerce, taking into account all factors.

GS PAPER III

Odisha plans odyssey to wild Cattle Island

Why in news

There’s every chance of visitors to the Hirakud reservoir in western Odisha bumping into the large numbers of cattle growing in the wild there for over 60 years.

Key Points

• The Odisha Forest and Environment Department is all set to begin ‘Island Odyssey’ and ‘Hirakud Cruise’ ecotourism packages for tourists to islands inside the reservoir when COVID-19 restrictions are lifted.
• ‘Cattle Island’ is one of three islands in the Hirakud reservoir, has been selected as a sight-seeing destination.
• When large numbers of people were displaced from their villages when the Hirakud dam was constructed on the Mahanadi River in 1950s, villagers could not take their cattle with them. They left their cattle behind in deserted villages.
• As the area started to submerge following the dam’s construction, the cattle moved up to Bhujapahad, an elevated place in the Telia Panchayat under Lakhanpur block of Jharsuguda district.
• Subsequently named ‘Cattle Island’, it’s surrounded by a vast sheet of water.
• Soon after India got freedom, the Hirakud dam construction began. A total of 73,923 hectares of land was submerged. This included 49,920 ha of agricultural land and 24,003 ha of government land, including forest land.
• A total of 111 villages were fully submerged, out of which 108 were in Odisha.
• Tourists can also get a magnificent view of the sunset from the reservoir. ‘Sunset Island’ is one of the three stops on the unique boat ride.

Hirakud Dam

• 
• Hirakud is the longest earthen Dam in the world and stands across the mighty river, Mahanadi, in the Sambalpur region of Odisha.
• The main dam has an overall length of 4.8 kms spanning between two hills.
• The dam is flanked by 21 km of earthen dykes on both the left and right sides.
• It also forms the biggest artificial lake in India.
• It is one of the first major multipurpose river valley projects started after India’s independence.