Insights Daily Current Affairs, 17 May 2017
Paper 2 Topic: Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.
Sagarmala- DDUGKY Convergence for Skill Development in Coastal Districts
For skills development of youth in coastal areas, the Ministry of Shipping signed an MoU with the Ministry of Rural Development.
Key facts:
- The MoU is for convergence of the Ministry’ prestigious project Sagaramala and Ministry of Rural Development’s flagship programme Deen Dayal Upadhyay Grameen Kaushalya Yojana (DDU GKY).
- DDU-GKY is expected to bring in its skilling expertise to provide skilling for the coastal communities, thereby preparing them to take advantage of the job opportunities that are expected to come up in the maritime sector follwing port led development under Sagarmala.
- This MoU will meet the exact skill needs of industries in the port and maritime sector and provide the coastal communities right skills for better opportunities emanating from the large scale impact of Sagarmala projects.
- With skill development, there will be close involvement of the coastal communities in Sagarmala and will make them contributors in the economic development and will ensure inclusive growth of the coastal districts of the country.
What you need to know about Sagarmala?
The Sagarmala project seeks to develop a string of ports around India’s coast. The objective of this initiative is to promote “Port-led development” along India’s 7500 km long coastline. It aims to develop 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.
The Union Ministry of Shipping has been appointed as the nodal ministry for this initiative.
The Sagarmala initiative will address challenges by focusing on three pillars of development, namely:
- 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.
Know about DDU GKY:
The Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD) announced the Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana (DDU-GKY) Antyodaya Diwas, on 25th September 2014. DDU-GKY is a part of the National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM), tasked with the dual objectives of adding diversity to the incomes of rural poor families and cater to the career aspirations of rural youth.
DDU-GKY is uniquely focused on rural youth between the ages of 15 and 35 years from poor families. As a part of the Skill India campaign, it plays an instrumental role in supporting the social and economic programs of the government like the Make In India, Digital India, Smart Cities and Start-Up India, Stand-Up India campaigns.
Sources: pib.
Paper 3 Topic: Indian Economy and issues relating to planning, mobilization of resources, growth, development and employment.
‘Tough to solve jobs issue’
According to Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian, India’s current employment challenge is particularly difficult as sectors that did well in generating jobs in the country’s previous economic boom years — information technology (IT), construction and agriculture – are in trouble now.
Concerns:
- The IT sector, which was so far very dynamic, has hit a new low. The job losses in the IT sector are due to the (recent) policy announcements by the American government.
- Also, the whole industry is going ahead with automation as a result of which the manpower requirement is going down.
What’s the way out?
The economy needs to clock 8% to 10% growth for greater job creation.
Worrying trend:
The pace of job creation fell to a six-year low in 2015 with 1.35 lakh new jobs being created compared with 4.21 lakh new jobs in 2014 and 4.19 lakh in 2013. Unemployment rate is rising to a five-year high of 5% in 2015-16 compared with 4.9% in 2013-14 and 4.7% in 2012-13.
Sources: the hindu.
Paper 2 Topic: Important International institutions, agencies and fora, their structure, mandate.
Indian bags key post in UNFCCC
Ovais Sarmad, a senior Indian official, has been appointed as the deputy executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), under which the landmark Paris agreement was negotiated and adopted. He was appointed by U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
Know about UNFCCC:
With 197 Parties, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has near universal membership and is the parent treaty of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. The Kyoto Protocol has been ratified by 192 of the UNFCCC Parties. The ultimate objective of both treaties is to stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that will prevent dangerous human interference with the climate system.
- UNFCCC treaty was negotiated at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in June 1992, then entered into force on 21 March 1994. The framework set no binding limits on greenhouse gas emissions for individual countries and contains no enforcement mechanisms. Instead, the framework outlines how specific international treaties (called “protocols” or “Agreements”) may be negotiated to set binding limits on greenhouse gases.
Sources: the hindu.
Paper 2 Topic: Important International institutions, agencies and fora, their structure, mandate.
India working with World Gold Council to create a spot exchange
The World Gold Council is working with the Indian government on plans to create a local physical spot-gold exchange that may start up as soon as next year. this is expected to bring more order and structure to the market.
- The plans still face many hurdles including that the state-level rather than central government has responsibility for gold-related matters in India. Increased infrastructure such as gold vaults and reliable receipts for metal are also needed.
About World Gold Council:
The World Gold Council is the market development organisation for the gold industry. It works across all parts of the industry, from gold mining to investment, and their aim is to stimulate and sustain demand for gold.
- The World Gold Council is an association whose members comprise the world’s leading gold mining companies. It helps to support its members to mine in a responsible way and developed the Conflict Free Gold Standard.
- Headquartered in the UK, they have offices in India, China, Singapore, Japan and the United States.
Sources: et.
Paper 3 Topic: Major crops cropping patterns in various parts of the country, different types of irrigation and irrigation systems storage, transport and marketing of agricultural produce and issues and related constraints; e-technology in the aid of farmers.
Bengal to set up ‘cage culture’ for rearing fish in deep sea
A new method of deep-sea pisciculture is soon going to be introduced in Bengal – cage culture.
What you need to know about cage culture?
As the name suggests, the practice consists of culturing fish inside big floating cages in the middle of the sea.
- This type of fish culture is being successfully practised in Norway, Thailand, Japan, Philippines and some other countries.
- The cages are covered with nets to prevent sea birds from feeding on the fish. They are tied down with buoys to provide stability.
- This is also being encouraged to bring down the pressure on the lakes and inland hatcheries; culture in the open seas would have no environmental impact.
Sources: et.
Facts for Prelims:
State gets its own butterfly:
- The Southern Bird Wing has been designated as the ‘State butterfly’ of Karnataka. It is the largest butterfly in India and is endemic to south India, particularly Karnataka.
- Karnataka is second state in the country to adopt a state butterfly. Maharashtra had chosen the Blue Moron in 2015.
- It should be noted here that state butterfly tag does not come with additional protection.
Yellow-eyed penguins could be wiped out in 25 years:
- Researchers have predicted that New Zealand’s iconic Yellow-eyed penguins may go extinct within the next 25 years due to rising ocean temperatures and climate change.
- The study highlights where conservation efforts could be most effective in building penguins’ resilience against climate change.
- It is classified as endangered by the IUCN.
In news- Henderson island:
- Henderson island, located in south Pacific Ocean, has been classified as the most polluted place on the earth by Tasmania’s Institute for Marine and Aquatic Studies. The island contained 37.7 million pieces of debris.
- The island is a world heritage site. It lies between Chile and New Zealand.
- It is one of the world’s last two raised coral atolls.
India’s first technological park for ornamental fishery at Chennai:
- India’s first Aquatic Rainbow Technology Park (ARTP) in Chennai, an ultra modern exclusive facility for ornamental fish equipped with multi-species hatchery and live feed culture units, will become operational in the next three months, fulfilling a major requirement of the industry for mass production of high-value aquarium fish.
- The facility is being developed by Fisheries College and Research Institute (FCRI), Ponneri in Tamil Nadu, the second largest exporter of ornamental fish after West Bengal.
- After the completion, it will be handed over to ornamental fish breeders and farmers on lease for three years.
