1)Vertical Farming :-
- Vertical farming as a component of urban agriculture is the practice of cultivating plant life within a skyscraper greenhouse or on vertically inclined surfaces. A common version of vertical farming uses techniques similar to glass houses, where natural sunlight can be augmented with artificial lighting and metal reflectors.
- Ecologist Dickson Despommier argues that vertical farming is legitimate for environmental reasons. He claims that the cultivation of plant life within skyscrapers will produce less embedded energy and toxicity than plant life produced on natural landscapes. He moreover claims that natural landscapes are too toxic for natural, agricultural production, despite the ecological and environmental costs of extracting materials to build skyscrapers for the simple purpose of agricultural production.
- Criticism :-
- Opponents question the potential profitability of vertical farming. A detailed cost analysis of start-up costs, operation costs, and revenue has not been done. The extra cost of lighting, heating, and powering the vertical farm may negate any of the cost benefits received by the decrease in transportation expense
- During the growing season, the sun shines on a vertical surface at an extreme angle such that much less light is available to crops than when they are planted on flat land. Therefore, supplemental light, would be required in order to obtain economically viable yields. Few believe that power demands of vertical farming will be too expensive and noncompetitive with traditional farms using only free natural light
- Relevance in India :-
- Land is a a scarce commodity in India.
- Indian farmers are small and marginal farmers , save few.
- In a land of huge population and limited geography ,India needs to adopt to vertical farming given it is viable.This will solve issue of small land holdings and feeding 1.2 billion mouths and ensuring food security
- News related Item :-
- Antony John, a progressive farmer at Sakthikulangara in Kerala, harvesting vegetables from his vertical garden set up on the terrace of his house
- Antony uses Bio-char* and compost tea as recipe with soil being constituting only 5% of the total frame where plants are grown
- Kerala, is known for its acidic soil and hence not suitable for agriculture, however Antony’s unique method of vertical farming can be a solution to the problem
*Bio-char :-
- Biochar is charcoal used as a soil amendment. Like most charcoal, biochar is made from biomass via pyrolysis{(Pyrolysis is a thermochemical decomposition of organic material at elevated temperatures in the absence of oxygen (or any halogen)}. Biochar is under investigation as an approach to carbon sequestration to produce negative carbon dioxide emissions.
- Biochar is found in soils around the world as a result of vegetation fires and historic soil management practices. Intensive study of biochar-rich dark earths in the Amazon (terra preta), has led to a wider appreciation of biochar’s unique properties as a soil enhancer.Biochar can be an important tool to increase food security and cropland diversity in areas with severely depleted soils, scarce organic resources, and inadequate water and chemical fertilizer supplies.Biochar also improves water quality and quantity by increasing soil retention of nutrients and agrochemicals for plant and crop utilization. More nutrients stay in the soil instead of leaching into groundwater and causing pollution.
- It also reduces Acidity of soil as well.
2)Red – Sanders a.k.a Red Sandalwood :-
Prelude- Red-sanders has been in news since past few months. What important from UPSC perspective is red-sanders itself, not the news related to it, which is , of course has little/no value as long as UPSC preparation is concerned..
- Red sanders biologically known as – Pterocarpus santalinus (no necessary to remember) occurs in Southern Tropical Dry Deciduous Forests
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It prefers lateritic and gravelly soil and cannot tolerate water logging
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Red Sanders has a highly restrictive distribution in the South Eastern portion of Indian peninsula to which it is endemic
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The Palakonda and Seshachalam hill ranges of Cuddapah-Chittoor districts of the State of Andhra Pradesh are its principal geographical range.
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Use of red-sanders:- Red Sanders is said to be used in the making of oriental musical instruments like Shamisen, Koto and Erhu . It has a wide significance in religious practices and hence it has been smuggled at a large scale.
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Recently smugglers and police conflict led to death of many smugglers. Given its endemic nature , it must be protected , while at the same time the commercial farming of red sanders can be promoted to meet the commercial needs.But due to its high incubation period , commercial farming is not viable at a personal economic activity , hence govt must take proactive action to increase the no. of red sanders trees in the wild through afforestation.
3) Terrorism, Internet and Anti -Radicalization Measures :-
- Youth and especially adolescence is a wonderful yet a dangerous age to be in .Most have an impressionist mind at this age.Teens are extremely susceptible to radicalization at this age.
- Given the terrorist propaganda and abundance of radicalizing literature availability over internet, recruiters for ISIS or any other terror organization are just a click away.
- The terrorist and their recruiting agencies are as close as they have ever been in the history , to the teens of various countries , even their propaganda is so strong that a mature reasoning mind even falls prey for their antics.
- It is in this context that Govt has adopted Anti-radicalizing measures :-
- Create positive Internet content
- Counter radicalization messages and its online promotion
- Penalizing the radicalizers
- Counseling the youth
- Making parents involvement more robust in this manner
Note:-This is a bigger debate indeed, and we are contemplating to write an essay for this topic as topic like this needs holistic analysis and only an essay could do justice to such topic.The Essay section will soon be updated with this issue.
4)Buffer Stock for Pulses :-
- Hoarding has been a major issue where the hoarders artificially create a supply -demand mismatch . Recently Govt raids across states led release of huge amount of pulses.
- To offset any artificial manipulation of supply-demand mismatch Govt has come up with Buffer Stock proposal for Pulses where in it will create a buffer of 3.5 Lakh ton of pulses by utilizing the recently created price stabilization fund (Rs-500 cr )
5) BrahMos missile test-fired from Indian Navy’s stealth destroyer INS Kochi, hits target:-
- The BrahMos (Hindi: brahmos, Russian: Брамос) is a short range ramjet supersonic cruise missile that can be launched from submarines, ships, aircraft or land. It is a joint venture between the Russian Federation’s NPO Mashinostroeyenia and India’s Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) who have together formed BrahMos Aerospace Private Limited.It is based on the Russian P-800 Oniks cruise missile and other similar sea-skimming Russian cruise missile technology.
- The name BrahMos is a portmanteau formed from the names of two rivers, the Brahmaputra of India and the Moskva of Russia.
- It is the world’s fastest cruise missile in operation. A hypersonic version of the missile, BrahMos-II, is also presently under development with speed of Mach 7 to boost aerial fast strike capability.
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Steve Ovett, the famous British middle-distance athlete, won the 800-metres gold medal at the Moscow Olympics of 1980. Just a few days later, he was about to win a 5,000-metres race at London’s Crystal Palace. Known for his burst of acceleration on the home stretch, he had supreme confidence in his ability to out-sprint rivals. With the final 100 metres remaining,
[wptelegram-join-channel link=”https://t.me/s/upsctree” text=”Join @upsctree on Telegram”]Ovett waved to the crowd and raised a hand in triumph. But he had celebrated a bit too early. At the finishing line, Ireland’s John Treacy edged past Ovett. For those few moments, Ovett had lost his sense of reality and ignored the possibility of a negative event.
This analogy works well for the India story and our policy failures , including during the ongoing covid pandemic. While we have never been as well prepared or had significant successes in terms of growth stability as Ovett did in his illustrious running career, we tend to celebrate too early. Indeed, we have done so many times before.
It is as if we’re convinced that India is destined for greater heights, come what may, and so we never run through the finish line. Do we and our policymakers suffer from a collective optimism bias, which, as the Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman once wrote, “may well be the most significant of the cognitive biases”? The optimism bias arises from mistaken beliefs which form expectations that are better than the reality. It makes us underestimate chances of a negative outcome and ignore warnings repeatedly.
The Indian economy had a dream run for five years from 2003-04 to 2007-08, with an average annual growth rate of around 9%. Many believed that India was on its way to clocking consistent double-digit growth and comparisons with China were rife. It was conveniently overlooked that this output expansion had come mainly came from a few sectors: automobiles, telecom and business services.
Indians were made to believe that we could sprint without high-quality education, healthcare, infrastructure or banking sectors, which form the backbone of any stable economy. The plan was to build them as we went along, but then in the euphoria of short-term success, it got lost.
India’s exports of goods grew from $20 billion in 1990-91 to over $310 billion in 2019-20. Looking at these absolute figures it would seem as if India has arrived on the world stage. However, India’s share of global trade has moved up only marginally. Even now, the country accounts for less than 2% of the world’s goods exports.
More importantly, hidden behind this performance was the role played by one sector that should have never made it to India’s list of exports—refined petroleum. The share of refined petroleum exports in India’s goods exports increased from 1.4% in 1996-97 to over 18% in 2011-12.
An import-intensive sector with low labour intensity, exports of refined petroleum zoomed because of the then policy regime of a retail price ceiling on petroleum products in the domestic market. While we have done well in the export of services, our share is still less than 4% of world exports.
India seemed to emerge from the 2008 global financial crisis relatively unscathed. But, a temporary demand push had played a role in the revival—the incomes of many households, both rural and urban, had shot up. Fiscal stimulus to the rural economy and implementation of the Sixth Pay Commission scales had led to the salaries of around 20% of organized-sector employees jumping up. We celebrated, but once again, neither did we resolve the crisis brewing elsewhere in India’s banking sector, nor did we improve our capacity for healthcare or quality education.
Employment saw little economy-wide growth in our boom years. Manufacturing jobs, if anything, shrank. But we continued to celebrate. Youth flocked to low-productivity service-sector jobs, such as those in hotels and restaurants, security and other services. The dependence on such jobs on one hand and high-skilled services on the other was bound to make Indian society more unequal.
And then, there is agriculture, an elephant in the room. If and when farm-sector reforms get implemented, celebrations would once again be premature. The vast majority of India’s farmers have small plots of land, and though these farms are at least as productive as larger ones, net absolute incomes from small plots can only be meagre.
A further rise in farm productivity and consequent increase in supply, if not matched by a demand rise, especially with access to export markets, would result in downward pressure on market prices for farm produce and a further decline in the net incomes of small farmers.
We should learn from what John Treacy did right. He didn’t give up, and pushed for the finish line like it was his only chance at winning. Treacy had years of long-distance practice. The same goes for our economy. A long grind is required to build up its base before we can win and celebrate. And Ovett did not blame anyone for his loss. We play the blame game. Everyone else, right from China and the US to ‘greedy corporates’, seems to be responsible for our failures.
We have lowered absolute poverty levels and had technology-based successes like Aadhaar and digital access to public services. But there are no short cuts to good quality and adequate healthcare and education services. We must remain optimistic but stay firmly away from the optimism bias.
In the end, it is not about how we start, but how we finish. The disastrous second wave of covid and our inability to manage it is a ghastly reminder of this fact.