Daily Current Affairs for UPSC CSE
Topics Covered
- Namami Gange Programme
- Generalized System of Preference
- Prepaid Payment Instruments
- Recurving Cyclones
- Pepsico vs Gujarat Farmers Issue
- Facts for Prelims : Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, CSIR – CFTRI
1 . Namami Gange Programme
Context : The National Democratic Alliance government has only finished 10 of the 100 sewage infrastructure projects commissioned after 2015 under the Namami Gange mission, according to records.
About Namami Gange Programme
- Namami Gange Programme, is an Integrated Conservation Mission, approved as ‘Flagship Programme’ by the Union Government in June 2014 to accomplish the twin objectives of effective abatement of pollution, conservation and rejuvenation of National River Ganga.
- Its implementation has been divided into Entry-Level Activities (for immediate visible impact), Medium-Term Activities (to be implemented within 5 years of time frame) and Long-Term Activities (to be implemented within 10 years).
Main Pillars of Namami Gange Programme
- Sewerage Treatment Infrastructure
- River front Development
- River surface cleaning
- Biodiversity
- Afforestation
- Public awareness
- Industrial effluent monitoring
- Ganga Gram
2 . Generalized System of Preference
Context : The U.S. should not terminate the GSP programme with India after the expiry of the 60-day notice period on Friday, a group of 25 influential American lawmakers urged the U.S. Trade Representative, warning that companies seeking to expand their exports to India could be hit.
Background
- n March 4, President Donald Trump announced that the U.S. intended to terminate India’s designations as a beneficiary developing country under the GSP programme. The 60-day notice period ended on May 3.
- India’s termination from GSP follows its failure to provide the United States with assurances that it will provide equitable and reasonable access to its markets in numerous sectors
About the News
- On the eve of the end of the notice period, the 25 U.S. lawmakers made a last-ditch effort to convince the Trump administration from going ahead with its decision.
- The 25 members of the U.S. House of Representatives, in a passionate letter, urged U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer to continue negotiating a deal that protects and promotes jobs that rely on trade — both imports and exports — with India.
- They argued that terminating GSP for India would hurt American companies seeking to expand their exports to India.
What is GSP programme
- The GSP, the largest and oldest US trade preference programme, allows duty-free entry for over 3,000 products from designated beneficiary countries. It was instituted on January 1, 1976, and authorised under the US Trade Act of 1974.
- India has been the biggest beneficiary of the GSP regime and accounted for over a quarter of the goods that got duty-free access into the US in 2017.
- Exports to the US from India under GSP — at $5.58 billion — were over 12% of India’s total goods exports of $45.2 billion to the US that year. The US goods trade deficit with India was $22.9 billion in 2017.
Possible impact
- India’s Department of Commerce feels the impact is “minimal”, given that Indian exporters were only receiving duty-free benefits of $190 million on the country’s overall GSP-related trade of $5.6 billion.
- Some experts feel the move will not have a major impact on India also because it has been diversifying its market in the Latin American and the African region and its trade with countries of the Global South has also been expanding at a “very competitive pace”.
- At the same time, the move could hit Indian exporters if it gives an edge to competitors in its top export categories to the US. The amount of price advantage India has versus competitor countries and what happens to their GSP privileges will determine the extent to which India’s exports will be impacted
3 . Prepaid Payment Instruments
Context : The Reserve Bank of India has slapped monetary penalty on five pre-paid payment instrument issuers including Vodafone m-pesa and Phonepe, for violating regulatory guidelines.
What is PPIs
- PPIs are instruments that facilitate purchase of goods and services, including financial services, remittance facilities, etc., against the value stored on such instruments.
- PPIs that can be issued in the country are classified under three types viz. (i) Closed System PPIs, (ii) Semi-closed System PPIs, and (iii) Open System PPIs.
What are various types of PPIs?
- Closed System PPIs: These PPIs are issued by an entity for facilitating the purchase of goods and services from that entity only and do not permit cash withdrawal. As these instruments cannot be used for payments or settlement for third party services, the issuance and operation of such instruments is not classified as payment system requiring approval / authorisation by the RBI.
- Semi-closed System PPIs: These PPIs are issued by banks (approved by RBI) and non-banks (authorized by RBI) for purchase of goods and services, including financial services, remittance facilities, etc., at a group of clearly identified merchant locations / establishments which have a specific contract with the issuer (or contract through a payment aggregator / payment gateway) to accept the PPIs as payment instruments. These instruments do not permit cash withdrawal, irrespective of whether they are issued by banks or non-banks.
- Open System PPIs: These PPIs are issued only by banks (approved by RBI) and are used at any merchant for purchase of goods and services, including financial services, remittance facilities, etc. Cash withdrawal at ATMs / Points of Sale (PoS) terminals / Business Correspondents (BCs) are also allowed through such PPIs.
4 . Recurving Cyclone
Context : Cyclone Fani was a ‘re-curving cyclone’ and therefore harder to precisely predict than most cyclones
What is Recurving Cyclone
- Normally cyclones that strike the India in the northern hemisphere rotate anticlockwise.
- Their normal behaviour is to derive strength from the moisture in waters such as the Bay of Bengal, move west, incline in a northerly direction and peter out into the sea or land, depending on their origin.
- In a re-curving cyclone, the cyclone gets a sort of second wind when it is on the wane. Like the googly in cricket, it’s deflected right or eastwards.
- Tropical Cyclone recurvature is the change in TC track from westward and poleward to eastward and poleward.
- This is due to air currents in the local atmosphere that push cold air from the poles towards the equator and interfere with cyclone formation. That’s what make them ‘re-curving.’
- Hence a recurving cyclones’ are those that sharply turn north-eastwards instead of a more typical path of north-westwards
Recurving TCs can be further classified with respect to how rapidly they recurve :
- Sharply Recurving Cyclones – Sharply recurving cyclones are those which change rapidly from a westerly or northwesterly course to a northeasterly or easterly one
- Slowly Recurving Cyclones – Slowly recurving cyclones are those which change slowly from a westerly or northwesterly course to a northeasterly or easterly one. The term broad recurvature is also used for these tracks.
Why does it matter
- Long-term data suggest that while there has been an increase in the number of tropical cyclones in India’s neighbourhood there is no clear trend in re-curving ones.
- As climate change is projected to increase the frequency of extreme events, scientists have warned that tropical cyclones are likely to get more intense, and this could mean more scrutiny of re-curving ones.
- A challenge with re-curving cyclones is that it is hard for weather models to pick them early on and so they pose unique challenges in terms of hazard preparedness and disaster management
5 . Pepsico vs Gujarat Potato Farmers
Context : PepsiCo India Holdings (PIH) announced it is withdrawing lawsuits against nine farmers in north Gujarat, after having sued 11 farmers for “illegally” growing and selling” a potato variety registered in the company’s name.
About the variety
- The patent is for the potato plant variety FL-2027 (commercial name FC-5).
- Pepsi’s North America subsidiary Frito-Lay has the patent until October 2023.
- For India, PIH has patented FC-5 until January 2031 under the Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights (PPV&FR) Act, 2001.
Details of the case
- PIH, which has a buyback agreement with Gujarat farmers, accused the 11 farmers — three of whom earlier had contracts with the company — of illegally growing, producing and selling the variety “without permission of PIH”.
- Farmers had said the agreement was that PIH would collect potatoes of diameter greater than 45 mm, and that farmers had been storing smaller potatoes for sowing next year.
- Four other farmers, who were slapped with Rs 1.05 crore lawsuits, said they got registered seeds from known groups and farmer communities and had been sowing these for the last four years or so, and had no contractual agreement with anyone.
- As per the Farmers they learnt they were growing a registered variety only when they got a court notice
Section 39 (1) (iv) of the Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights (PPV&FR) Act, 2001
- Farmer unions and other organisations cited Section 39(1)(iv) of the PPV&FR Act in defence of the farmers.
- The section states: “Notwithstanding Anything contained in this Act — a farmer shall be deemed to be entitled to save, use, sow, resow, exchange, share or sell his farm produce including seed of a variety protected under this Act in the same manner as he was entitled before the coming into the force of this Act, provided that the farmer shall not be entitled to sell branded seed of a variety protected under this Act.
6 . Facts for Prelims
Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI)
- The Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) is an independent, non-partisan, international non-governmental organisation, headquatered in New Delhi, India, working for the practical realisation of human rights across the Commonwealth.
- In 1987, several Commonwealth associations founded CHRI as a response to South Africa’s policy of racism.
- These groups felt that while member countries had a common set of values and legal principles from which to work and a forum within which to promote human rights, there was relatively little focus on human rights issues.
- CHRI’s objectives are to promote awareness of and adherence to the Harare Commonwealth Declaration, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and other internationally recognised human rights instruments, as well as domestic instruments supporting human rights in member states.
Central Food Technological Research Institute
- CSIR-Central Food Technological Research Institute (CSIR-CFTRI), is one of the constituent laboratory under the aegis of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). It was opened on 21 October 1950 in Mysore, Karnataka.
- The institute has developed over 300 products, processes, and equipment types. It holds several patents and has published findings in reputed journals. India is the world’s second largest food grain, fruit and vegetable producer, and the institute is engaged in research in the production and handling of grains, pulses, oilseeds, spices, fruits, vegetables, meat, fish, and poultry.
- The institute develops technologies to increase efficiency and reduce post-harvest losses, add convenience, increase export, find new sources of food products, integrate human resources in food industries, reduce costs, and modernize.