GS PAPER I
Bhalia wheat
Why in News
The first shipment of Geographical Indication (GI) certified Bhalia variety of wheat was exported to Kenya and Sri Lanka from Gujarat.
Key Points
- The GI certified wheat has high protein content and is sweet in taste. The crop is grown mostly across Bhal region of Gujarat, including Ahmedabad, Anand, Kheda, Bhavanagar, Surendranagar, Bharuch districts.
- The unique characteristic of the wheat variety is that grown in rainfed conditions and cultivated in about two lakh hectares in Gujarat.
- The Bhalia variety of wheat received GI certification in July, 2011. The registered proprietor of GI certification is the Anand Agricultural University, Gujarat.
- This is expected to give boost wheat exports.
- In 2020-21, wheat exports witnessed a significant growth of 808 per cent atto ₹4,034 crore from ₹444 crore in the previous fiscal. In US dollar terms, the exports rose by 778 per cent to $ 549 million.
- India exported substantial quantity of grain to seven new countries – Yemen, Indonesia, Bhutan, Philippines, Iran, Cambodia and Myanmar during 2020-21.
About GI Tag
- A geographical indication or GI is a sign used on products that have a specific geographical origin and possess qualities or a reputation that are due to that origin.
- It is the part of the intellectual property rights that comes under the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property.
- In India, GI Tag is governed by the Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration & Protection) Act, 1999 and issued by the Geographical Indications Registry (Chennai).
Significance of Geographical Indications
- GI Tag provides legal protection to Indian Geographical Indications thus preventing unauthorized use of the registered GIs by others.
- It promotes economic prosperity of producers of goods produced in a geographical territory.
- It also leads to recognition of the product in other countries thus boosting exports.
GS PAPER II
Cooperation Ministry
Why in News
Recently, the government announced the formation of a separate Union Ministry of Cooperation, a subject that till date was looked after by the Ministry of Agriculture.
Objective of Ministry of Cooperation
- The Ministry of Cooperation will provide a separate administrative legal and policy framework for strengthening the cooperative movement in the country.
- It will help deepen Co-operatives as a true people-based movement reaching upto the grassroots.
- A Co-operative based economic development model is very relevant where each member works with a spirit of responsibility.
- The Ministry will work to streamline processes for ‘Ease of doing businesses for co-operatives and enable development of Multi-State Co-operatives (MSCS).
Cooperative Movement
- By definition, cooperatives are organisations formed at the grassroots level by people to harness the power of collective bargaining towards a common goal.
- In agriculture, cooperative dairies, sugar mills, spinning mills etc are formed with the pooled resources of farmers who wish to process their produce.
- The country has 1,94,195 cooperative dairy societies and 330 cooperative sugar mill operations.
- In 2019-20, dairy cooperatives had procured 4.80 crore litres of milk from 1.7 crore members and had sold 3.7 crore litres of liquid milk per day.
- In banking and finance, cooperative institutions are spread across rural and urban areas.
- Village-level primary agricultural credit societies (PACSs) formed by farmer associations are the best example of grassroots-level credit flow. These societies anticipate the credit demand of a village and make the demand to the district central cooperative banks (DCCBs).
- State cooperative banks sit at the apex of the rural cooperative lending structure. Given that PACSs are a collective of farmers, they have much more bargaining powers than an individual farmer pleading his case at a commercial bank.
- There are also cooperative marketing societies in rural areas and cooperative housing societies in urban areas.
Laws that govern Cooperative Societies
- Cooperation is in the concurrent list, which means both the central and state governments can govern them.
- A majority of the cooperative societies are governed by laws in their respective states, with a Cooperation Commissioner and the Registrar of Societies as their governing office.
- In 2002, the Centre passed a Multistate Cooperative Societies Act that allowed for registration of societies with operations in more than one state. These are mostly banks, dairies and sugar mill whose area of operation spreads across states.
- The Central Registrar of Societies is their controlling authority, but on the ground the State Registrar takes actions on his behalf.
Need of new ministry
- It was necessary to restore the importance of the cooperative structure in the country. Various studies conducted by institutions like Vaikunt Mehta Institute of Cooperative Management have shown the cooperative structure has managed to flourish and leave its mark only in a handful of states like Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka etc.
- Under the new Ministry, the cooperative movement would get the required financial and legal power needed to penetrate into other states also.
- Cooperative institutions get capital from the Centre, either as equity or as working capital, for which the state governments stand guarantee. This formula had seen most of the funds coming to a few states such as Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka while other states failed to keep up.
GS PAPER II
Central Information Commission (CIC)
Why in News
The Supreme Court directed the Central government to place on record the latest information on the appointment of Information Commissioners, vacancies and pendency of cases in the Central Information Commission (CIC).
Key Points
- The court directed the government amidst submissions made by advocate Prashant Bhushan, for activist and bureaucrats have been shortlisted and appointed to the CIC in an opaque manner despite a specific direction from the court in 2019 that the appointment process should be transparent and has to be put in the public domain.
- The court also directed the States to also file status reports on the appointments, vacancies and pendency in their respective information commissions.
- The court ordered that the Union of India and all other States are directed to file their latest status/compliance report within four weeks.
Central Information Commission (CIC)
- The Central Information Commission is a statutory body set up under the Right to Information Act in 2005 under the Government of India.
- The Central Information Commission shall consist of the Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) and such number of Central Information Commissioners not exceeding 10 as may be deemed necessary.
- Section 12(3) of the RTI Act 2005 provides as follows:
- The Prime Minister, who shall be the Chairperson of the committee;
- The Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha; and
- A Union Cabinet Minister to be nominated by the Prime Minister.
- Section 12(5) of the RTI Act 2005 provides that the Chief Information Commissioner and Information Commissioners shall be persons of eminence in public life with wide knowledge and experience in law, science and technology, social service, management, journalism, mass media or administration and governance.
- Section 12(6) of the RTI Act 2005 provides that Chief Information Commissioner or an Information Commissioner shall not be a Member of Parliament or Member of the Legislature of any State or Union Territory as the case may be, or hold any other office of profit or connected with any political party or carrying on any business or pursuing any profession.
- The Chief Information commissioner and an information commissioner holds office for five years or until they attain the age of 65 years, whichever is earlier. They are not eligible for reappointment.
Power and Functions
- The commission can order inquiry into any matter if there are reasonable grounds.
- It has the power to secure compliance of its decisions from the public authority.
- It may recommend steps which ought to be taken for promoting such conformity, if public authority does not conform to the provisions of this act.
- Commission has the duty of the commission to receive and inquire into a complaint from any person:
- who has not received response to his information request within the specified time limits;
- who thinks information given is incomplete, misleading or false and any other matter relating to obtaining information;
- who has not been able to submit an information request because of non-appointment of a Public Information Officer;
- who thinks the fees charged are unreasonable;
- who has refused information that was requested;
- Commission has power to may examine any record which is under the control of the public authority and no such record may be withheld from it on any grounds during the investigation.
- All public records must be given to the commission during inquiry for examination.
- While inquiring, the commission has the powers of a civil court.
- The commission submits an annual report to the central government on the implementation of the provisions of this act. The central government places this report before each house of Parliament.
GS PAPER II
Zika Virus
Why in News
Amid efforts to contain coronavirus disease (Covid-19), Kerala reported 13 cases of mosquito-borne Zika virus for the first time.
Key Points
- All samples tested positive for the Zika virus were collected from the Thiruvananthapuram district and sent to the National Institute of Virology (NIV) in Pune.
- The samples were collected for testing after a 24-year-old pregnant woman sought treatment late last month with symptoms like fever, headache, and red marks on the skin.
About Zika Virus
- Zika virus spreads mostly by the bite of an infected Aedes species mosquito, which bites during the day.
- Aedes mosquitoes are the same that transmit dengue, chikungunya and yellow fever.
- The virus can be passed from a pregnant woman to her fetus and can cause infants to be born with microcephaly and other congenital malformations.
- It is also associated with other complications of pregnancy including preterm birth and miscarriage.
- According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), individuals infected with the Zika virus can also transmit the disease to their sex partners.
Symptoms of Zika Virus
- The symptoms for the mosquito-borne disease include mild and include fever, rash, conjunctivitis, muscle and joint pain, malaise or headache.
- The incubation period of Zika virus disease is estimated to be 3–14 days and the symptoms typically last for 2–7 days.
- According to the World Health Organization (WHO), most people with Zika virus infection do not develop symptoms.
Prevention and Treatment
- There is no specific treatment or vaccine for the Zika virus and the development of the Zika vaccine remains an active area of research.
- The UN health agency advises people with symptoms to get plenty of rest, drink fluids, and “treat pain and fever with common medicines.”
- Zika virus infection can only be prevented by avoiding mosquito bites.
- According to WHO, Special attention should be given to prevent mosquito bites among pregnant women, women of reproductive age, and young children.
GS PAPER III
Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS)
Why in News
In the first six months in Jharkhand, more than 55% of the surveyed 18, 288 beneficiaries of Supplementary Nutrition given to the most vulnerable under Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS), did not receive it by the state even once.
Key Points
- The report came out recently during ‘State Level Public Hearing and Policy Dialogue’ in implementation of ICDS services under Women and Child Development Department conducted by Right to Food Campaign along with various other organizations.
- Under the ICDS Scheme children between the age of 6 months to 6 years and pregnant and lactating women are provided Supplementary Nutrition, Pre-school non-formal education, Nutrition and health education, Immunization, Health check-up and referral services through Anganwadi services as well as through Health Department.
- Supplementary Nutrition includes Take Home Ration (THR), Hot Cooked Meal and morning snacks and holds importance for many vulnerable households as it impacts the nutritional outcome of the children.
- As per National Family Health Survey-4 data, Jharkhand specifically is important as every second child in the state is stunted and underweight and every third child is affected by stunting and every 10th child is affected from severe wasting and around 70% children are anaemic.
- The ICDS survey in Jharkhand covered a total of 8818 families in 159 blocks.
Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS)
- Launched on 2nd October, 1975, the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) Scheme is one of the flagship programmes of the Government of India and represents one of the world’s largest and unique programmes for early childhood care and development.
- It is the foremost symbol of country’s commitment to its children and nursing mothers, as a response to the challenge of providing pre-school non-formal education on one hand and breaking the vicious cycle of malnutrition, morbidity, reduced learning capacity and mortality on the other.
- The beneficiaries under the Scheme are children in the age group of 0-6 years, pregnant women and lactating mothers.
Objectives of the Scheme:
- To improve the nutritional and health status of children in the age-group 0-6 years;
- To lay the foundation for proper psychological, physical and social development of the child;
- To reduce the incidence of mortality, morbidity, malnutrition and school dropout;
- To achieve effective co-ordination of policy and implementation amongst the various departments to promote child development; and
- To enhance the capability of the mother to look after the normal health and nutritional needs of the child through proper nutrition and health education.