Daily Current Affairs : 22nd and 23rd March 2022

Daily Current Affairs for UPSC CSE

Topics Covered

  1. Srilanka’s Economic Crisis
  2. Common Entrance Test
  3. Recycling Waste Heat from Data Centre
  4. PLFS
  5. Minimum Support Price
  6. National Ayush Mission
  7. Facts for Prelims

1 . Srilanka’s Economic Crisis


Context : The economic crisis in Sri Lanka has forced at least 16 Tamils to flee the country illegally and seek shelter in coastal Rameswaram in Tamil Nadu

About the issue

  • Sri Lanka’s economic crisis is aggravating rapidly, putting citizens through enormous hardship. Over the weekend, at least two senior citizens died while waiting in long queues to buy fuel; the price of cooking gas spiked to LKR 4,199 (roughly ₹1,150), the price of the widely used milk powder shot up by LKR 600 a kg, and authorities were forced to cancel school examinations for millions of students, due to a shortage of paper.

Why are prices soaring and why is there a shortage?

  • Sri Lanka is in the grips of one of its worst economic meltdowns in history. The first wave of the pandemic in 2020 offered early and sure signs of the distress — when thousands of Sri Lankan labourers in West Asian countries were left stranded and returned jobless; garment factories and tea estates in Sri Lanka could not function, as infections raged in clusters, and thousands of youth lost their jobs in cities as establishments abruptly sacked them or shut down. It meant that all key foreign exchange earning sectors, such as exports and remittances, along with tourism, were brutally hit.
  • The lack of a comprehensive strategy to respond to the crisis then, coupled with certain policy decisions last year — including the government’s abrupt switch to organic farming —widely deemed “ill-advised”, further aggravated the problem. In August last year, the government declared emergency regulations for the distribution of essential food items, amid wide import restrictions to save dollars which in turn led to consequent market irregularities, and reported hoarding.
  • Fears of a sovereign default rose by the end of 2021, with the country’s foreign reserves plummeting to $1.6 billion, and deadlines for repaying external loans looming. But Sri Lanka managed to keep its unblemished foreign debt servicing record. All the same, without enough dollars to import essentials such as food, fuel, and medicines, the year 2022 began on a rather challenging note, marked by further shortages and an economic upheaval.

What is happening on the ground?

  • At the macro-economic level, all indicators are worrisome. The Sri Lankan rupee, that authorities floated this month, has fallen to nearly 265 against the U.S. dollar. Consumer Price inflation is at 16.8% and foreign reserves stood at $2.31 billion at the end of February.
  • Sri Lanka must repay foreign debt totalling nearly $7 billion this year and continue importing essentials from its dwindling dollar account. In a recent address to the country, President Rajapaksa said Sri Lanka will incur an import bill of $22 billion this year, resulting in a trade deficit of $10 billion.
  • For citizens, this means long waits in queues for fuel, a shortage of cooking gas, contending with prolonged power cuts in many localities and struggles to find medicines for patients. In families of working people, the crisis is translating to cutting down on milk for children, eating fewer meals, or going to bed hungry.

How is India helping?

  • Beginning January 2022, India has extended assistance totalling $ 2.4 billion — including an $400 million RBI currency swap, a $500 million loan deferment, and credit lines for importing food, fuel, and medicines. Of this, a billion-dollar credit line was finalised last week, during Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa’s visit to New Delhi. “Neighbourhood first. India stands with Sri Lanka. $1 billion credit line signed for supply of essential commodities. Key element of the package of support extended by India,” External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar said in a tweet.
  • Meanwhile, China is considering Sri Lanka’s recent request for further $2.5 billion assistance, in addition to the $2.8 billion Beijing has extended since the outbreak of the pandemic, the Chinese Ambassador in Colombo told a media conference.

2 . Central University Entrance Test


Context : University Grants Commission (UGC) announced the introduction of the Central University Entrance Test (CUET), which is now mandatory for undergraduate admission at any of the 45 central universities in the country. They told officials that they left their country due to rising prices of essential goods and lack of jobs.

Why a common entrance test?

  • Several governments, over the years, have made attempts to replace multiple entrance tests with a single one to reduce the burden on higher education aspirants. In fact, even CUET is not new.
  • It had been launched as the Central Universities Common Entrance Test (CUCET) in 2010 under the UPA-II government, but had failed to gather steam since only 14 central universities had adopted it until last year.
  • CUET is a revamped version of CUCET and it’s now compulsory for all 45 central universities to adopt it. This has come after the announcement of the new National Education Policy (NEP), which advocates the need for an entrance test for university admissions.

What does this mean for undergraduate admissions at a reputable central university such as, say, Delhi University?

  • As far as Delhi University is concerned, sky-high cut-off marks will now be history. A student’s Board marks will have no role in determining her admission to a college or a programme. It will be based only on her CUET score. At best, colleges affiliated to Delhi University — or any central university for that matter — can use Board marks as the minimum eligibility criteria for admission.
  • For skill-based courses that have major practical components, such as music, painting, sculpture and theatre, universities will be allowed to conduct practical exams or interviews along with CUET. For professional programmes such as engineering and MBBS, central universities will admit through the entrance exams JEE (Main) and NEET respectively.

Why did the government decide against giving weightage to students’ performance in Class 12 Board exams?

  • The government did not favour using Board marks for admission because of the “diversity” in evaluation methods adopted by different Boards. “Some Boards are more generous than others in marking and this gives their students an unfair advantage over others

So, who will conduct CUET

  • The National Testing Agency (NTA), which conducts entrance tests such as JEE (Main) and UGC-NET, will also conduct CUET for all central universities in the first week of July.
  • It is a computer-based test that will be held in two shifts and can be taken in 13 languages — Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati, Tamil, Telegu, Kannada, Malayalam, Urdu, Assamese, Bengali, Punjabi, Odia and English.

3 . Recycling Waste Heat from Data Centre


Context : Microsoft has partnered with Fortum, a Finnish energy company to heat homes, services and businesses in Finland with sustainable waste heat from a new datacentre region that Microsoft has planned to build in the Helsinki metropolitan area in Finland. The software giant claims the waste heat recycling concept from the datacentre region to be the world’s largest scheme to recycle waste heat from data centres. The joint project takes place at the intersection of two megatrends: digitalisation and energy transition.

What is a datacentre?

  • A datacentre is a physical facility that organisations use to store their critical applications and data, process data and disseminate them to users. It is designed based on a network of computing and storage resources that enables delivery of shared applications and data. The key components of a datacentre are routers, switches, firewalls, storage systems, servers, and application-delivery controllers.
  • Many large datacentres are located in dedicated buildings. Smaller datacentres may be situated in specially designed rooms within buildings constructed to serve multiple functions. Since datacentres consume large amounts of energy, its important to ensure the physical structures that house them are well-designed and insulated to optimise temperature controls and energy efficiency.

How much heat do datacentres generate?

  • The temperatures recorded in the hot aisles of a datacentre hover between 80 and 115 degrees Fahrenheit, according to Lifeline datacentres, a provider of datacentre facilities and services.
  • Global cybersecurity firm Kaspersky estimates over 75% of a datacentre’s electricity becomes waste heat. It noted that in winter, a datacentre can provide heating up to 85 degrees Fahrenheit, similar to a gas boiler, with better energy efficiency than a heat pump in a new house.

What is the scale of their carbon footprint?

  • On a global level, datacentres consume around 200 terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity, which is more than 1% of the world’s total electricity. They contribute to 0.3% of all global CO2 emissions, according to the International Energy Agency.
  • Datacentre energy usage in some countries could take up to 15% to 30% of their total domestic electricity consumption by the end of the decade, according to predictive models by Eric Masanet and Nuoa Lei of Northwestern University. Ireland’s energy regulator says datacentres could use almost 30% of the country’s electricity by 2027, endangering climate goals.

What is Microsoft’s plan to cut carbon emission in Finland?

  • According to Microsoft, the recycled waste heat, along with other carbon reduction measures, can help the city of Espoo and its neighbouring communities to reach their CO2 emission reduction targets. It can also help decommission Fortum’s last coal-fired heat unit in the city.
  • The heat recycling system can provide clean heat to homes, businesses and public buildings in Helsinki, and can reduce up to 4,00,000 tons of CO2 emissions annually, according to estimates by Fortum.
  • The company highlighted that once the new data centre region’s waste heat capture is in operation, a total of about 60% of the area’s heating will be generated by climate-friendly waste heat. Of this, 40% results from the datacentre region and the rest from other waste heat sources like purified waste water.

How will this work?

  • Fortum will capture the excess heat generated by the new datacentre region and transfer the clean heat from the server cooling process to homes, services and business premises that are connected to the district heating system.
  • District heating is the most popular method of heating in Finland. It is a system of generating heat in a centralised location by capturing heat and then distributing it to buildings for residential and commercial heating needs. The heat is transferred to customers as hot water which is pumped through insulated underground pipes.
  • The new generation of district heating is based on replacing fossil fuels with flexible solutions like renewable electricity, heat pumps and waste heat utilisation. Artificial intelligence will help optimise operations of the entire system.

Which other countries recycle waste heat from datacentres?

  • District heating is popular in the Nordic and Baltic countries, as well as in Russia and China, which have high heat demands during winters.
  • Datacentres thrive in cold climates. Their location in cold climates helps to cut down on the need to cool server rooms. Cold weather is also an asset as technology companies shift to selling their heat which doesn’t have a lot of demand in hot weather.

4 . Periodic Labour Force Survey


Context : The government will aim to release employment data within five months of conducting the relevant surveys and strive to align these releases with GDP data in the long run, the Statistics Ministry told a Parliamentary panel that questioned the significant delay in the release of ‘one of the most important socio-economic indicators’ for policymaking.

About the issue

  • Urging the Statistics Ministry to reduce the time lags in releasing the reports based on the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS), the Standing Committee on Finance chaired by the BJP’s Jayant Sinha had pointed out that annual as well as quarterly findings from the Survey introduced in 2017, had been plagued by delays.
  • For instance, while the annual PLFS report for 2019-20 was released in July 2021, the quarterly report for July to September 2020 was released in August 2021.
  • As of now, the PLFS data had been released till March 2021, and data for the next quarter was expected in 15 days

About Periodic Labour Force Survey

  • Considering the importance of availability of labour force data at more frequent time intervals, National Statistical Office (NSO) launched Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) on April 2017.
  • PLFS provides Annual reports as well as quarterly bulletins

Objectives

  • The objective of PLFS is primarily twofold:
    • to estimate the key employment and unemployment indicators (viz. Worker Population Ratio, Labour Force Participation Rate, Unemployment Rate) in the short time interval of three months for the urban areas only in the Current Weekly Status (CWS)
    • to estimate employment and unemployment indicators in both usual status  (principal activity status + subsidiary economic activity status) and CWS in both rural and urban areas annually
      • Principal activity status– The activity status on which a person spent relatively long time(major time criterion) during 365 days preceding the date of survey, was considered the usual principal activity status of the person.
      • Subsidiary economic activity status– The activity status in which a person in addition to his/her usual principal status, performs some economic activity for 30 days or more for the reference period of 365 days preceding the date of survey, was considered the subsidiary economic status of the person.

Conceptual Framework of Key Employment and Unemployment Indicators

ThePeriodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) gives estimates of Key employment and unemployment Indicators like the Labour Force Participation Rates (LFPR), Worker Population Ratio (WPR), Unemployment Rate (UR), etc. These indicators are defined as follows:

  • Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR): LFPR is defined as the percentage of persons in labour force (i.e. working or seeking or available for work) in the population.
  • Worker Population Ratio (WPR): WPR is defined as the percentage of employed persons in the population.
  • Unemployment Rate (UR): UR is defined as the percentage of persons unemployed among the persons in the labour force.
  • Activity Status- Usual Status: The activity status of a person is determined on thebasis of the activities pursued by the person during the specified reference period. When the activity status is determined on the basis of the reference period of last 365 days preceding the date of survey, it is known as the usual activity status of the person.
  • Activity Status- Current Weekly Status (CWS): The activity status determined on the basis of a reference period of last 7 days preceding the date of survey is known as the current weekly status (CWS) of the person.

5 . Minimum Support Price


Context : The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs on Tuesday approved the Minimum Support Price (MSP) for raw jute for the 2022-2023 season.

What is Minimum Support Price (MSP)?

  • Minimum Support Price (MSP) is a form of market intervention by the Government of India to insure agricultural producers against any sharp fall in farm prices.
  • MSP is the minimum price set by the Government at which farmers can expect to sell their produce for the season.
  • When market prices fall below the announced MSPs, procurement agencies step in to procure the crop and ‘support’ the prices. Hence minimum support prices are a guarantee price for their produce from the Government.
  • The major objectives are to support the farmers from distress sales and to procure food grains for public distribution.
  • In case the market price for the commodity falls below the announced minimum price due to bumper production and glut in the market, government agencies purchase the entire quantity offered by the farmers at the announced minimum price.
  • The Cabinet Committee of Economic Affairs announces MSP for various crops at the beginning of each sowing season based on the recommendations of the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP).
  • The FCI and Nafed help the Centre procure select food crops with the help of the States. Procured farm products are kept in government warehouses and distributed through the PDS and various food security programmes.
  • Currently, there are 20-plus crops that have an MSP announced for them every year before the beginning of the kharif and rabi seasons.

Factors taken into consideration for fixing MSP include:

In formulating the recommendations in respect of the level of minimum support prices and other non-price measures, the Commission takes into account, apart from a comprehensive view of the entire structure of the economy of a particular commodity or group of commodities, the following factors:-

  • Cost of production
  • Changes in input prices
  • Input-output price parity
  • Trends in market prices
  • Demand and supply
  • Inter-crop price parity
  • Effect on industrial cost structure
  • Effect on cost of living
  • Effect on general price level
  • International price situation
  • Parity between prices paid and prices received by the farmers.
  • Effect on issue prices and implications for subsidy

Cost of Production

  • CACP considers both A2+FL and C2 costs while recommending MSPs. CACP reckons only A2+FL cost for return.
  • However, C2 costs are used by CACP primarily as benchmark reference costs (opportunity costs) to see if the MSPs recommended by them at least cover these costs in some of the major producing States.
  • The Union Budget for 2018-19 had announced the pre-determined principle to keep MSP at levels of one and half times of the cost of production. Accordingly, Government has increased the MSPs for all mandated Kharif, Rabi and other commercial crops with a return of atleast 50 per cent of cost of production for the agricultural year 2018-19.
  • During 2019-20 also, Government has increased the MSP of all mandated kharif and rabi crops in line with the principle of fixing the MSP with a return of atleast 50 per cent of the cost of production.

Formulae to arrive at the cost of production

The CACP has three formulae to arrive at the cost of production: A2, A2+FL and C2.

  • A2 costs cover all paid-out expenses, both in cash and kind, incurred by farmers on seeds, fertilisers, chemicals, hired labour, fuel and irrigation, among others.
  • A2+FL covers actual paid-out costs plus an imputed value of unpaid family labour.
  • C2 costs are more comprehensive, accounting for the rentals and interest forgone on owned land and fixed capital assets respectively, on top  of A2 + FL

Crops Covered

  • Government announces minimum support prices (MSPs) for 22 mandated crops and fair and remunerative price (FRP) for sugarcane.
  • The mandated crops are 14 crops of the kharif season, 6 rabi crops and two other commercial crops. In addition, the MSPs of toria and de-husked coconut are fixed on the basis of the MSPs of rapeseed/mustard and copra, respectively. The list of crops are as follows.
    • Cereals (7) – paddy, wheat, barley, jowar, bajra, maize and ragi
    • Pulses (5) – gram, arhar/tur, moong, urad and lentil
    • Oilseeds (8) – groundnut, rapeseed/mustard, toria, soyabean, sunflower seed, sesamum, safflower seed and nigerseed
    • Raw cotton
    • Raw jute
    • Copra
    • De-husked coconut
    • Sugarcane (Fair and remunerative price)
    • Virginia flu cured (VFC) tobacco

Advantages

  • Price volatility makes life difficult for farmers. Though prices of agri commodities may soar while in short supply, during years of bumper production, prices of the very same commodities plummet.
  • MSPs ensure that farmers get a minimum price for their produce in adverse markets. MSPs have also been used as a tool by the Government to incentivise farmers to grow crops that are in short supply.

Criticisms

  • The Government of India has an MSP for 23 crops, but procurement at the MSP is effectively limited to rice and wheat, and that too concentrated in a few States only.
  • Some critics argue that a rise in the MSP will lead to increase in food inflation, while others that it will augment farmers’ income
  • Substantial proportion of crops are sold to local private traders and input dealers to whom the resource-poor marginal and small landholders are obligated to sell their crops due to tie-up with credit.
  • A vast majority of the farming population is unaware of its existence as per the National Sample Survey’s (NSS) Situation Assessment Survey of Agricultural Households 2013, even for paddy and wheat, less than one-third of farmers were aware of the MSP; for other crops, such awareness was negligible.

6 . National Ayush Mission


Context : Till date, the Ministry of Ayush has supported 59,350 farmers in the cultivation 84 medicinal plants species out of the 140 prioritised medicinal plants, and covered 56,305 hectare area throughout the country from the financial year 2015-16 to 2020-21, according to information submitted by Ayush Minister Sarbananda Sonowal in Rajya Sabha in the ongoing Parliament session.

About National Ayush Mission

  • Department of AYUSH, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India has launched National AYUSH Mission (NAM) during 12th Plan for im­plementing through States/UTs.
  • The basic objective of NAM is to promote AYUSH medical systems through cost effective AYUSH services, strengthening of educational systems, facilitate the enforcement of quality control of Ayurveda, Siddha and Unani & Homoeopathy (ASU &H) drugs and sustainable availability of ASU & H raw-materials.
  • It envisages flexibility of implementation of the programmes which will lead to substantial participation of the State Governments/UT.
  • The NAM contemplates establishment of a National Mission as well as corresponding Missions in the State level. NAM is likely to improve significantly the Department’s outreach in terms of planning, supervision and monitoring of the schemes.

Vision

  1. To provide cost effective and equitable AYUSH health care throughout the country by improving access to the services.
  2. To revitalize and strengthen the AYUSH systems making them as prominent medical streams in addressing the health care of the society.
  3. To improve educational institutions capable of imparting quality AYUSH education
  4. To promote the adoption of Quality standards of AYUSH drugs and making available the sustained supply of AYUSH raw-materials.

Objectives

  1. To provide cost effective AYUSH Services, with a universal access through upgrading AYUSH Hospitals and Dispensaries, co-location of AYUSH facilities at Primary Health Centres (PHCs), Community Health Centres (CHCs) and District Hospitals (DHs).
  2. To strengthen institutional capacity at the state level through upgrading AYUSH educational institutions, State Govt. ASU&H Pharmacies, Drug Testing Laboratories and ASU & H enforcement mechanism.
  3. Support cultivation of medicinal plants by adopting Good Agricultural Practices (GAPs) so as to provide sustained supply of quality raw-materials and support certification mechanism for quality standards, Good Agricultural/Collection/Storage Practices.
  4. Support setting up of clusters through convergence of cultivation, warehousing, value addition and marketing and development of infrastructure for entrepreneurs.

Components of the Mission

  • Mandatory Components
    • AYUSH Services
    • AYUSH Educational Institutions
    • Quality Control of ASU &H Drugs
    • Medicinal Plants


7 . Facts for Prelims


 India’s major sources of crude oil imports

  •  India’s major sources of crude oil imports are the U.S., Iraq, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Nigeria. 

Monetisation of Govt Assets

  • When the government monetises its assets, it essentially means that it is transferring the revenue rights of the asset (could be idle land, infrastructure, PSU) to a private player for a specified period of time.
  • In such a transaction, the government gets in return an upfront payment from the private entity, regular share of the revenue generated from the asset, a promise of steady investment into the asset, and the title rights to the monetised asset.
  • There are multiple ways to monetise government assets; in the case of land monetisation of certain spaces like offices, it can be done through a Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) — a company that owns and operates a land asset and sometimes, funds income-producing real estate. Assets of the government can also be monetised through the Public Private Partnerships (PPP) model.
  • There are different reasons why the government monetises its assets. One of them is to create new sources of revenue. Monetisation is also done to unlock the potential of unused or underused assets by involving institutional investors or private players. Thirdly, it is also done to generate resources or capital for future asset creation, such as using the money generated from monetisation to create new infrastructure projects.

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