Agrihub to provide one-stop solution to farmers
The Agrihub, a digital platform floated by two mechanical engineers will provide one-stop solution for farmers about products and technologies.
The Bengaluru-based portal will connect seed providers, agriculture equipment providers, retailers and distributors. It will also help the stakeholders to track innovations or products, find suppliers and facilitate and educate to make rapid purchase decisions.
Rajeeb Roy co-founded the firm along with another Mechanical Engineer Abhishek Bhatt and Sidharth Kumar in Bengaluru.
“While the urban trader has access to new products and technology it is difficult for those from remote towns to know about them. At best they can know about it through extensive visits to exhibitions. Businesses and small companies spend thousands of dollars to showcase their existing products and launch new products in exhibitions. The duration of these exhibitions is for about three to four days and the footfall is usually more of casual visitors. Agrihub has been started to address these issues,” Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Roy said.
Over 3,600 farmers and well-known brands such as John Deere, Yara Fertilizers, Rallis, Namdhari Seeds, Tafe, KF Bioplants, New Holland Agriculture, Known Your Seed, Ginegar and Nagarjuna have already been listed on the platform.
The product category offered by the company includes: seeds and plants; irrigation products; fertilizers and plant protection products; farm tools and equipment and hi-tech agriculture and allied products.
Indian economy poised to grow 7.3 % in 2016: U.N. report
Notwithstanding delays in domestic policy reforms, India’s economy “is slowly gaining momentum” and “is projected to grow by 7.3 per cent this year,” a United Nations report forecast on Thursday.
The World Economic Situation and Prospect report, in its mid-2016 update, has said India is expected to achieve a 7.5 per cent GDP growth in 2017 and the economic prospects of the South Asian region will be “contingent” on the growth trajectory of India and Iran.
Economy slowly gaining tempo
“India’s economy is slowly gaining momentum, with an expected GDP growth of 7.3 and 7.5 per cent in 2016 and 2017, respectively.
“Despite some delays in domestic policy reforms and enduring fragilities in the banking system, investment demand is supported by the monetary easing cycle, rising FDI, and government efforts towards infrastructure investments and public-private partnerships,” the report, released here said.
Bad news for China
China, which grew at about 6.9 per cent in 2015, will continue to witness slowdown in growth, with its GDP projected to grow 6.4 per cent in 2016 and 6.5 per cent in 2017.
“A larger-than-expected slowdown in China would have widespread spill-over effects through trade, financial and commodity markets, while a further deterioration of commodity prices could trigger debt crises in certain commodity-dependent economies,” said the report, produced jointly by the U.N. Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA) and the U.N. Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).
In line with January projections
India’s economy, which accounts for over 70 per cent of South Asia’s GDP, had grown by about 7.2 per cent in 2015.
Oil does the trick for South Asia
The report added that despite the protracted instabilities and general weakness of the global economy, South Asia’s economic outlook remains favourable, with most countries benefiting from low oil prices.
Regional GDP growth is expected to accelerate from 6.1 per cent in 2015 to 6.6 this year and 6.8 per cent in 2017, owing to robust private consumption, strengthening investment demand and gradual progress on domestic policy reforms.
Relatively tame inflation
Inflation in the South Asian region is projected to remain relatively tame, reflecting subdued commodity prices and lower pressures from supply-side bottlenecks.
Indirect tax collections rise 42 % in April
Indirect tax collections for April 2016 grew 42 per cent over their level in April 2015.April’s collections amount to 8.3 per cent of the Budget Estimates for the financial year.
Central excise collections saw a 71 per cent increase in April 2016, coming in at Rs. 28,252 crore compared to the Rs. 16,546 crore in April 2015.
The growth in total indirect tax collections were mainly driven by the growth in excise collections due to several additional revenue generating measures taken by the government over the last year such as increasing the excise duty on petrol, diesel, and tobacco.
Excluding such measures, the growth in total indirect tax collections stood at 17 per cent, according to the government.
Service tax collections amounted to Rs. 18,647 crore in April 2016 compared to Rs. 14,585 crore during the same period of the previous year, a growth of 27.9 per cent.The third category of indirect tax collections, customs duty collections, came in at Rs. 17,495 crore in April 2016, up 22.5 per cent from the Rs. 14,286 crore seen in April 2015.
This data comes at a time when the government announced on Tuesday that it has unearthed approximately Rs. 50,000 crore of indirect taxes evasion and undisclosed income of Rs. 21,000 crore over the last two years.
WHO clears air: Delhi no longer most polluted, that’s Zabol in Iran
Glow-In-The-Dark Cement Could Save Electricity
Researcher José Carlos Rubio needed to check whether he could make sense of an approach to light up expressways and streets around evening time – without utilizing power.
Rubio soon found a genuinely creative arrangement; he found that by modifying the fine structure of cement in some ways, he could come up with a variety that seemed to glow in the dark.
As per Rubio, the light-transmitting item could keep going for a long time and give light to around 12 hours during the evening. The force of light radiated can be changed so it doesn’t overpower drivers or cyclists. The light gleams as a cool green or blue.
The cement would spare a lot of power, as well as the procedure to make it is naturally neighborly too. Amid assembling, the main thing discharged is water vapor.
There are a wide assortment of business applications; as indicated by Rubio, four billion tons of cement were made all through the world in 2015, and the sparkling cement can be put to use for roads as well as structures too. The innovation could even be utilized as a part of plaster. As per the journal Investigacion ,Desarrollo, Rubio’s examination has achieved the commercialization stage.
Domestic violence Act misused: Centre
The government recently told the Rajya Sabha that provisions of the Domestic Violence and Anti-Dowry Acts are being misused and several NGOs had also given reports supporting it.
Records show that only 13 persons were convicted out of the 639 charge sheeted in 2014 under the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act 2005. Many fake cases are being registered under the act and there the Act is also being misused.
Way Forward:
Even while admitting that misuse does happen, the government has made it clear that it’s focus is on women safety and any dilution to it could not be allowed.Legal experts say that there have to be checks and balances.
Eradicating these acts is not the solution as there are still several genuine cases and such women need protection. There ought to be a better mechanism to deal with such cases. Instead of immediately arresting people upon a complaint, the police should first probe before taking action.
The Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act 2005 was enacted to protect women from domestic violence.
- It is a civil law meant primarily for protection orders and not meant to penalize criminally.The Act provides for the first time in Indian law a definition of “domestic violence”, with this definition being broad and including not only physical violence, but also other forms of violence such as emotional/verbal, sexual, and economic abuse.
- The act does not extend to Jammu and Kashmir, which has its own laws, and which enacted in 2010 the Jammu and Kashmir Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2010.
Few Facts :-
- 266% Growth in Tourists arrival on E-Tourist Visa in April 2016 over the same period in 2015.
- World’s biggest plane, the Antonov An-225, destined for Perth, takes off from Prague.
Recent Posts
- In the Large States category (overall), Chhattisgarh ranks 1st, followed by Odisha and Telangana, whereas, towards the bottom are Maharashtra at 16th, Assam at 17th and Gujarat at 18th. Gujarat is one State that has seen startling performance ranking 5th in the PAI 2021 Index outperforming traditionally good performing States like Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, but ranks last in terms of Delta
- In the Small States category (overall), Nagaland tops, followed by Mizoram and Tripura. Towards the tail end of the overall Delta ranking is Uttarakhand (9th), Arunachal Pradesh (10th) and Meghalaya (11th). Nagaland despite being a poor performer in the PAI 2021 Index has come out to be the top performer in Delta, similarly, Mizoram’s performance in Delta is also reflected in it’s ranking in the PAI 2021 Index
- In terms of Equity, in the Large States category, Chhattisgarh has the best Delta rate on Equity indicators, this is also reflected in the performance of Chhattisgarh in the Equity Pillar where it ranks 4th. Following Chhattisgarh is Odisha ranking 2nd in Delta-Equity ranking, but ranks 17th in the Equity Pillar of PAI 2021. Telangana ranks 3rd in Delta-Equity ranking even though it is not a top performer in this Pillar in the overall PAI 2021 Index. Jharkhand (16th), Uttar Pradesh (17th) and Assam (18th) rank at the bottom with Uttar Pradesh’s performance in line with the PAI 2021 Index
- Odisha and Nagaland have shown the best year-on-year improvement under 12 Key Development indicators.
- In the 60:40 division States, the top three performers are Kerala, Goa and Tamil Nadu and, the bottom three performers are Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and Bihar.
- In the 90:10 division States, the top three performers were Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim and Mizoram; and, the bottom three performers are Manipur, Assam and Meghalaya.
- Among the 60:40 division States, Orissa, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh are the top three performers and Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Delhi appear as the bottom three performers.
- Among the 90:10 division States, the top three performers are Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland; and, the bottom three performers are Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh
- Among the 60:40 division States, Goa, West Bengal and Delhi appear as the top three performers and Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Bihar appear as the bottom three performers.
- Among the 90:10 division States, Mizoram, Himachal Pradesh and Tripura were the top three performers and Jammu & Kashmir, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh were the bottom three performers
- West Bengal, Bihar and Tamil Nadu were the top three States amongst the 60:40 division States; while Haryana, Punjab and Rajasthan appeared as the bottom three performers
- In the case of 90:10 division States, Mizoram, Assam and Tripura were the top three performers and Nagaland, Jammu & Kashmir and Uttarakhand featured as the bottom three
- Among the 60:40 division States, the top three performers are Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Orissa and the bottom three performers are Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand and Goa
- In the 90:10 division States, the top three performers are Mizoram, Sikkim and Nagaland and the bottom three performers are Manipur and Assam
In a diverse country like India, where each State is socially, culturally, economically, and politically distinct, measuring Governance becomes increasingly tricky. The Public Affairs Index (PAI 2021) is a scientifically rigorous, data-based framework that measures the quality of governance at the Sub-national level and ranks the States and Union Territories (UTs) of India on a Composite Index (CI).
States are classified into two categories – Large and Small – using population as the criteria.
In PAI 2021, PAC defined three significant pillars that embody Governance – Growth, Equity, and Sustainability. Each of the three Pillars is circumscribed by five governance praxis Themes.
The themes include – Voice and Accountability, Government Effectiveness, Rule of Law, Regulatory Quality and Control of Corruption.
At the bottom of the pyramid, 43 component indicators are mapped to 14 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that are relevant to the States and UTs.
This forms the foundation of the conceptual framework of PAI 2021. The choice of the 43 indicators that go into the calculation of the CI were dictated by the objective of uncovering the complexity and multidimensional character of development governance
The Equity Principle
The Equity Pillar of the PAI 2021 Index analyses the inclusiveness impact at the Sub-national level in the country; inclusiveness in terms of the welfare of a society that depends primarily on establishing that all people feel that they have a say in the governance and are not excluded from the mainstream policy framework.
This requires all individuals and communities, but particularly the most vulnerable, to have an opportunity to improve or maintain their wellbeing. This chapter of PAI 2021 reflects the performance of States and UTs during the pandemic and questions the governance infrastructure in the country, analysing the effectiveness of schemes and the general livelihood of the people in terms of Equity.
Growth and its Discontents
Growth in its multidimensional form encompasses the essence of access to and the availability and optimal utilisation of resources. By resources, PAI 2021 refer to human resources, infrastructure and the budgetary allocations. Capacity building of an economy cannot take place if all the key players of growth do not drive development. The multiplier effects of better health care, improved educational outcomes, increased capital accumulation and lower unemployment levels contribute magnificently in the growth and development of the States.
The Pursuit Of Sustainability
The Sustainability Pillar analyses the access to and usage of resources that has an impact on environment, economy and humankind. The Pillar subsumes two themes and uses seven indicators to measure the effectiveness of government efforts with regards to Sustainability.
The Curious Case Of The Delta
The Delta Analysis presents the results on the State performance on year-on-year improvement. The rankings are measured as the Delta value over the last five to 10 years of data available for 12 Key Development Indicators (KDI). In PAI 2021, 12 indicators across the three Pillars of Equity (five indicators), Growth (five indicators) and Sustainability (two indicators). These KDIs are the outcome indicators crucial to assess Human Development. The Performance in the Delta Analysis is then compared to the Overall PAI 2021 Index.
Key Findings:-
In the Scheme of Things
The Scheme Analysis adds an additional dimension to ranking of the States on their governance. It attempts to complement the Governance Model by trying to understand the developmental activities undertaken by State Governments in the form of schemes. It also tries to understand whether better performance of States in schemes reflect in better governance.
The Centrally Sponsored schemes that were analysed are National Health Mission (NHM), Umbrella Integrated Child Development Services scheme (ICDS), Mahatma Gandh National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan (SmSA) and MidDay Meal Scheme (MDMS).
National Health Mission (NHM)
INTEGRATED CHILD DEVELOPMENT SERVICES (ICDS)
MID- DAY MEAL SCHEME (MDMS)
SAMAGRA SHIKSHA ABHIYAN (SMSA)
MAHATMA GANDHI NATIONAL RURAL EMPLOYMENT GUARANTEE SCHEME (MGNREGS)