PSFS; MSP for Horticultural produce

Price Stabilisation Fund Scheme

The Department of Agriculture and Cooperation (DAC) under the Union Ministry of Agriculture on 26 March 2015 approved the creation of Price Stabilisation Fund (PSF) as a Centrally Sponsored Scheme (CSS).

The purpose of the scheme is to provide interest free advances towards working capital to the government agencies which are involved in procurement and distribution of perishable agri-horticultural commodities. 

The hassle-free flow of funds will enable the agencies to regulate volatile prices of commodities in an effective manner.

Objectives of PSF Scheme

•    To promote direct purchase by the government agencies from farmers or farmers’ associations at farm gate. 

•    To maintain a strategic buffer stock that would discourage hoarding and unscrupulous speculation.  

•    To protect consumers by supplying such commodities at reasonable prices through calibrated release of stock.

Main Highlights of the Scheme

•    The scheme envisages creation of a 500 crore rupees corpus fund with the name Corpus Fund for Procurement and Distribution of Identified agri-horticulture commodities. 

•    To operationalise the fund a savings account Corpus Fund for Procurement and Distribution of perishable agri-horticulture commodities will be opened by the Small Farmers Agri-Business Consortium (SFAC) in a nationalized bank with flexi-deposit facility. The amount made available by the government will be kept in this account.

•    The SFAC will act as the fund manager and will maintain an account of receipts and expenditure from the corpus fund and report to the Member-Secretary, Price Stabilisation Fund Management Committee (PSFMC).

•    The funds from the Corpus Fund would be provided in two streams, viz., Stream A and Stream B. Stream A account is for State government whereas Stream B account is for Central Government agencies.

•    Under Stream A, States would be given as a onetime interest free advance which will only be released into a revolving fund account set up for the purpose by the State. The contribution to the state level fund by the Central Government and State Governments would be in the ratio 50:50 but for North-East States, the contribution ratio would be 75:25. 

•    Under Stream B, the funds from the Corpus fund would be provided to Central Government agencies as an interest free advance based on their proposal for market intervention for price control. This will be set up as a revolving fund.

•    The proposal from the state agencies should be approved by a state level committee formed at the state level akin to the PSFMC by the respective state governments.

•    Advances received cannot be utilized for any other purpose by the recipient agency, viz., Central Agencies and State Governments.

•    Losses incurred, if any, by the Central Government agencies during the operation of the scheme will be met from Central Corpus fund. 

•    Losses incurred by the States during the operation of the scheme will be shared between the Centre and the States in the ratio 50:50. 

•    In case of North-East States, the losses incurred by these states will be shared between Centre and these states in the ration 75:50.

•    At the time of closure of accounts, profits earned on interventions will be ploughed back into the Central Corpus Fund to extent of 100 percent in case of Central Government agencies and 50 percent in case of State Government.

•    Under the fund, the government agencies will procure notified agri-horticultural commodities directly from farmers or farmers’ organizations at farm gate. 

•    The commodities will be made available at a more reasonable price to the consumers when the prices are not affordable.

•    Initially the fund is proposed to be used for onion and potato only. 

•    The fund will be implemented during 2015-16 and 2016-17. The Fund may be allowed to roll on to future years also.

•    The accounts will be audited by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India.

•    The scheme envisages the creation of Price Stabilisation Fund Management Committee (PSFMC). 

Price Stabilisation Fund Management Committee (PSFMC) 

The PSFMC is the administrative agency responsible for implementing the scheme. 

Objectives of the PSFMC:

•    PSFMC will invite, appraise, approve proposals received from state governments and central agencies. PSFMC will approve the amount of advance.

•    PSFMC will take decisions regarding investing surplus available in the Central Corpus Fund in other bank instruments like fixed deposits, etc for better returns. While doing so, itwill be guided by extant guidelines on this subject.

•    PSFMC will monitor the progress of implementation of the Price Stabilization Operations by the implementing agency. PSFMC will advise suitable measures and corrective actions, if any, during the course of implementation, keeping in view the overall aim and objectives of the scheme

•    PSFMC will meet regularly to review the wholesale and retail prices of essential agri-horticulture

•    Commodities and will guide or propose required interventions.

The PSFMC will be headed by the Secretary to the Department of Agriculture and Cooperation and includes additional secretaries and joint secretaries from the department as members. Joint Secretary, DAC (Marketing) would be the Member-Secretary.  

Concept and institutional framework of Sagarmala Project

Sagarmala Project

The Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 25 March 2015 gave in-principle approval for the concept and institutional framework of Sagarmala Project. 

Sagarmala Project’s main objective is to promote port-led direct and indirect development and to provide infrastructure to transport goods to and from ports quickly, efficiently and cost-effectively. 

It aims at developing access to new development regions with intermodal solutions and promotion of the optimum modal split, enhanced connectivity with main economic centres and beyond through expansion of rail, inland water, coastal and road services. 

Three Pillars of Sagarmala Project Supporting and enabling Port-led Development through appropriate policy and institutional interventions and providing for an institutional framework for ensuring inter-agency and ministries/departments/states’ collaboration for integrated development, Port Infrastructure Enhancement, including modernization and setting up of new ports, Efficient Evacuation to and from hinterland For a comprehensive and integrated planning for Sagarmala Project 

A National Perspective Plan (NPP) for the entire coastline will be prepared within six months which will identify potential geographical regions to be called Coastal Economic Zones (CEZs).

The State Governments to set up State Sagarmala Committee to be headed by Chief Minister/Minister in Charge of Ports with members from relevant Departments and agencies. Sagarmala Coordination and Steering Committee (SCSC) will be constituted under the chairmanship of the Cabinet Secretary. 

National Sagarmala Apex Committee (NSAC) A National Sagarmala Apex Committee (NSAC) is envisaged for overall policy guidance and high level coordination, and to review various aspects of planning and implementation of the plan and projects. The NSAC will be chaired by the Union Minister of Shipping, with Cabinet Ministers from stakeholder Ministries and Chief Ministers/Ministers in charge of ports of maritime states as members. 

This committee, while providing policy direction and guidance for the initiative’s implementation, shall approve the overall National Perspective Plan (NPP) and review the progress of implementation of these plans. 

Sagarmala Development Company (SDC) 

The Sagarmala Development Company (SDC) at the Union Government level will be set up under the Companies Act, 1956. It will assist the state level/zone level Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs), as well as SPVs to be set up by the ports, with equity support for implementation of projects to be undertaken by them. 

Activities to be undertaken under Sagarmala project Port-led industrialization Port based urbanization Port based and coastal tourism and recreational activities Short-sea shipping coastal shipping and Inland Waterways Transportation Ship building, ship repair and ship recycling Logistics parks, warehousing, maritime zones/services Integration with hinterland hubs Offshore storage, drilling platformsSpecialization of ports in certain economic activities such as energy, containers, chemicals, coal, agro products, etc Offshore Renewable Energy Projects with base ports for installations Modernizing the existing ports and development of new ports. 

17 New Mega Food Parks sanctioned

17 New Mega Food Parks

Union Ministry of Food Processing Industries on 24 March 2015 sanctioned 17 Mega Food Parks (MFPs). 

These parks are aimed at creating state-of-the-art infrastructure facilities to reduce food wastage and create value addition.

Details of the 17 MFPs
• The 17 MFPs will be spread across 11 States. While Kerala, Telangana, Haryana, Punjab, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu were sanctioned two MFPs each whereas Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar were sanctioned one MFP each.

• These food parks will attract around 2000 crore rupees in modern food processing infrastructure including 850 crore rupees grant-in-aid provided by the government to these establishments. 

• An additional collective investment of 4000 crore rupees is also expected to be invested in 500 food processing units to be set up in these parks.

• The annual turnover of the food processing units in these MFPs would be more than 8000 crore rupees.

• These parks will generate direct or indirect employment for 80000 people.

• It is estimated to benefit around 5 lakh farmers once they become operational.

• Out of the 17 MFPs six have been sanctioned for various state government agencies and eleven to private sector. 

• For the first time, under the changed eligibility criteria public authorities are also allowed to establish MFPs. Union Ministry of Food Processing Industries is implementing the MFP Scheme since 2008. So far 42 MFPs have been sanctioned (including newly sanctioned 17 MFPs). Currently, 25 projects are under implementation and two have become operational and three more are expected to be operationalised by June 2015. About Mega Food Parks Scheme (MFPS)

The Scheme was launched in 2008 by UPA Government. Its focus is to overcome the bottlenecks in the food supply chain due to which around 33 percent food is wasted in India making it the largest food waster in the world.
A Mega Food Park entails an area of a minimum of 50 acres and works in a cluster based approach based on a hub and spokes model. Union government provides a financial assistance of up to 50 crore rupees to set up a MFP. 

Mission Indradhanush

Mission Indradhanush

Union Ministry of Health and Welfare launched Mission Indradhanush for creating awareness regarding the importance to fully immunize every child against all vaccine preventable diseases in the country. It will cover all children less than two years of age and pregnant women. 

Indradhanush depicting seven colours of the rainbow, aims to cover all those children by 2020 who are either unvaccinated or are partially vaccinated against seven vaccine preventable diseases which include diphtheria, whooping cough, tetanus, polio, tuberculosis, measles and hepatitis B. 

The mission will be implemented in multi phase. In the first phase, 201 high-focus districts will be taken up for implementation of the mission. Of these, 82 districts are in just four states of UP, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan and nearly 25% of the unvaccinated or partially vaccinated children of India are in these 82 districts of four states. 

In the second phase, mission will cover 297 focus districts. 

To make the mission mode successful, Health Ministry developed micro plans on the basis of the lessons learned from the Polio eradication towards systems strengthening, vaccine cold chain management, regular surveillance and monitoring of the plans to reach each and every left out and uncovered child. 

In India, only 65% children, out of 2.7 crore, receive all necessary vaccine during their first year and this coverage grows by a mere one percent every year. Of those children who have remained unvaccinated, 40% are because of lack of information, 32% because of apprehension among their parents arising from a lack of awareness and 28% because their parents do not see the need for it. 

The government wants to increase the percentage of immunization to 4-5% with this mission.

Asian Development Outlook 2015

Asian Development Outlook 2015

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) released the Asian Development Outlook (ADO) on 24 March 2015. The report is titled Financing Asia’s Future Growth.

The ADO report projected that India will overtake China in terms growth rate in Financial Year (FY) 2015, and 2016.

India is forecasted to grow at the rate of 7.4 percent in FY 2014, 7.8 percent in FY 2015 and 8.2 percent in 2016 compared to China’s growth rate of 7.4 percent in FY 2014, 7.2 percent in FY 2015 and 7.0 percent in FY 2016.

Main Highlights of the ADO 2015
• Developing Asia will grow at a steady 6.3percent in 2015 and 2016—the same pace as 2014.
• Driven by the fall in oil prices, Inflation will slow from 3.1 percent in 2014 to 2.6 percent in 2015. As oil prices gradually rebound, inflation will pick up to 3.0 percent in 2016.
• Driven by the growth in the United States (US), the major industrial economies are collectively forecast to expand by 2.2 percent in 2015 and accelerate further to 2.4 percent in 2016.
• Weaker investment in real estates in China is expected to further curtail growth to 7.2 percent in 2015 and 7.0percent in 2016. China grew at a pace of 7.4 percent in 2014.
• The combined GDP of the 10 ASEAN economies is forecast to expand by 4.9 percent in 2015, lifted from 4.4 percent in 2014 by recovery in Indonesia and Thailand.
• Developing Asia has been the main source of global growth since the Financial Crisis in 2009. The region contributed 2.3 percentage points to global GDP growth, nearly 60 percent of the world’s annual 4.0 percent pace.
• The drop in commodity prices, for oil in particular, will enlarge developing Asia’s current account surplus by 0.2 percentage points to 2.5 percent of GDP in 2015.
• Asia has experienced rapid credit growth since the global financial crisis. From 2009 to 2013, proliferating bank loans and bonds in the 14 large economies of developing Asia almost doubled total domestic debt from 18.3 trillion US dollars to 34.1 trillion US dollars.  Dangers to growth in the Asian region
• Reversals in an otherwise supportive environment could dampen growth. If China falters as it adjusts to its new normal, or if India reforms less decisively than anticipated, their slower growth could spill over to others in developing Asia.
• Outside the region, the Greek debt crisis and deepening recession in the Russian Federation may have global consequences. 
• The impending rise in US interest rates may reverse capital flows to the region, requiring monetary responses to maintain stability.
• The benefits flowing from the low price of crude oil could evaporate if geopolitical tensions push it sharply higher.

Recommendations for financing Asia’s growth
• Financial stability must be maintained to enhance growth and equity. 
• A sound, efficient, and well-regulated financial system can help sustain the region’s growth momentum without jeopardizing stability.
• An inclusive financial system that broadens access to finance is a cornerstone of more inclusive growth.
• Macroprudential policy can be applied to directly tackle excessive credit to certain sectors.
• Capital built by long-term finance is vital for productivity growth and innovation. Bond market development in particular deepens the pool of long-term financing
• The approach to developing the financial sector must fit each country’s circumstances. 
• Foreign direct investment and diverse foreign funding can cushion external financial shocks.  ADO and India
The initial phase of the Indian government’s effort to remove structural bottlenecks is lifting investor confidence. With the support of stronger external demand, India is set to expand by 7.8 percent in FY2015 (ending 31 March 2016), a sharp uptick from 7.4 percent growth recorded in FY2014. 

This momentum is expected to build to 8.2 percent growth in FY2016, aided by the expected easing of monetary policy in 2015 and a pickup in capital expenditure.  

Now, fine of 5000 rupees for littering on railway property

NGT directed Indian Railways to impose a fine of 5000 rupees for littering on railway property

National Green Tribunal (NGT) on 18 March 2015 directed the Indian Railways to impose a fine of 5000 rupees on individuals spotted littering or throwing waste on the railway platforms and railway tracks. The order was given with an aim to implement the genesis of Swacch Bharat Abhiyan and was passed by a bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Swatanter Kumar. The Bench said that maintaining clean environment and hygiene at the stations and tracks is the prime duty of the Railway authorities and it cannot shift the burden in this regard to any other department. The bench passed a slew of directions to Railways and other authorities for maintaining cleanliness on railway tracks.

The directions are as follows:

• Place dustbins after identifying exact locations for collection of garbage in 46 slum clusters adjoining railway tracks.

• For collection and disposal of municipal solid wastes, it directed the Railways to collect, transport and treat the waste at the treatment plants instead of directly releasing the garbage into sewer system.

• Install mobile toilets near slum clusters in order to control pollution caused by plastic products and human defecation around railway tracks.

The NGT Bench issued the directions while hearing a petition filed by lawyers Saloni Singh and Arush Pathania seeking a blanket ban on use and sale of plastic products on railway platforms across the country besides a ban on open defecation by people around tracks.

Air Quality checking Mobile App SAFAR-Air launched

India’s first air quality checking Mobile App SAFAR-Air launched

India’s first air quality checking Mobile App, SAFAR-Air was launched on 17 February 2015 at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology in Pune, Maharashtra. SAFAR is an acronym for System of Air Quality Weather Forecasting and Research which was first launched in Delhi in 2010 during the Commonwealth Games. The Project Director of SAFAR is Gufran Beig.

The App was launched by Union Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) to provide online metro Air Quality information Service in real time.

At present the App service is available only for Pune and Delhi city and it will be available in Mumbai by May 2015.By 2017 the forecasting services will be extended to cover Chennai and Kolkata.

The system is jointly run by the IITM and the India Meteorology Department (IMD) and the forecasting model is running on a supercomputer in IITM called Aditya.

Characteristic Features of SAFAR-Air
• SAFAR-Air is the first mobile application service in India to provide a current and advanced forecast for air quality. 
• The application was developed by scientists at Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM), Pune. It will enable citizens to check their city’s air quality in real time. 
• The app will provide current data and a forecast for air quality in the user’s current location through a colour-coded system- green is good, yellow is moderately polluted, orange is poor, rMobileed is very poor and maroon is critical.
• The app will initially be available on smartphones operating on Google's Android system and later on devices using Apple's iOS.
• Users can also share the information from the app on Twitter, Facebook, and by email.
• It will aid in enhancing the awareness of the hazards of air pollution and will also aid the policy makers to adopt practical city-level measures to address air pollution.

Air Quality in India
The air quality in Indian metro cities, partcularly Delhi, is worsening day-by-day leading to increasing number of morbidity related to poor air quality. According to World Health Organisation (WHO), 1.9 million people in India die every year due to air pollution. 

In a study published by the WHO in May 2014 and by Yale University in February 2014, the air in New Delhi was the most polluted in India and in the world. 

The incidence of particulate matter less than 2.5 micrometers in diameter was the highest between November 2014 and January 2015 in New Delhi since 2010. On an annual average over the five years, PM 2.5 pollution was around 100, while this year it was 114, as compared to 101 in 2013 and 98 in 2012.

What are Particulate Matters?
Particulate matter (PM) includes sulfates, nitrates, ammonia, sodium chloride, black carbon, mineral dust and water. These are considered the most dangerous air pollutants. These can settle deep inside the lungs, making people vulnerable to cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, as well as lung cancer. 

According to WHO, the most health-damaging particles are those with a diameter of 10 microns or less, which can penetrate and lodge deep inside the lungs.