Yojana & Kurukshetra, April-2016-IASbaba

Preface
This is our 13th edition of Yojana Gist and the 4th edition of Kurukshetra Gist,
released for the month of April, 2016. Both the magazines are increasingly
finding a place in the questions of both UPSC Prelims and Mains and therefore,
weve come up with this initiative to equip you with knowledge thatll help you
in your preparation for the CSE.
Every Issue deals with a single topic comprehensively sharing views from a
wide spectrum ranging from academicians to policy makers to scholars. The
magazine is essential to build an in-depth understanding of various socioeconomic issues.
From the exam point of view, however, not all articles are important. Some go
into scholarly depths and others discuss agendas that are not relevant for your
preparation. Added to this is the difficulty of going through a large volume of
information, facts and analysis to finally extract their essence that may be
useful for the exam.
We are not discouraging from reading the magazine itself. So, do not take this
as a document which you take read, remember and reproduce in the
examination. Its only purpose is to equip you with the right understanding.
But, if you do not have enough time to go through the magazines, you can rely
on the content provided here for it sums up the most essential points from all
the articles.
You need not put hours and hours in reading and making its notes in pages. We
believe, a smart study, rather than hard study, can improve your preparation
levels.
Think, learn, practice and keep improving! That is the key to success
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Yojana & Kurukshetra, April-2016-IASbaba

A SANJEEVANI FOR LIVE STOCK SECTOR
The vibrant Indian livestock sector

Indian agricultural system predominantly a mixed farming system, with the

livestock segment supplementing farm incomes by providing employment, draught
animals and manure.

Live stock is one of the fastest growing components of agriculture

Indias milk production: Highest in the world with nearly 21.5 crore cattles, it
occupies premier position in its livestock wealth.

Egg production stood at 78.84 billion

Fisheries constitute for one percent of GDP

Budget initiatives for livestock sector:

1. Pashudhan Sanjivini

Animal wellness programmeto increase productivity by improving the health

Issuance of animal health cards

2. Nakul swasthya patra

Health card- help dairy farmers to keep a record of his livestock, as well as

information regarding age and dates on which to carry out vaccination ,

artificial insemination and generic background of the bull or semen used

(First step towards scientific management of animals in India)

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3. E-Pashudhan haat
E-portal for farmers for connecting directly to breeders, eliminating middle men and
bring in simplicity and transparency.

4. National genomic centre:

Promise of unleashing the potential of many neglected breeds of cattle which would
eventually help the farmers to improve their dairying productivity by inculcating the
traits of disease resistance and climate resilience

Most of the Indians being small farmers, having less than two hectares of land, and this
coupled with further deterioration in future restricts the famers to derive benefits from crop
production Livestock will thus form important source of income
Small farmers owning three fourth of cattle wealth will infuse a rapid growth in this sector
and will have a multiplier effect on agriculture and hence rural prosperity.

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A BOOST TO ORGANIC FARMING

Viability of agriculture and its accelerated growth is vital for employment generation
and food security of the country. Reviving the farm sector is a major challenge and as
of 2011 census farm sector accounts for 54.6 percent of total employment.

The decline in the absolute number of cultivators is putting the pressure on the
government for increased budgetary support.

Growth of organic farming in India

India is bestowed with abundant potential to produce all varieties of organic

products due to its varied agro climatic regions.

Total area under organic cultivation is 47.2 lakh crore. (17 fold increase in one
decade)

Need of the hour is to use the bio resources that India is bestowed with, judiciously.

Crop protection is the main concern in organic production. There are more than 200
plant species in our country which can be used effectively for management of pests
among them Neem is the most important trees which has the greatest potential for
disease and insect pest management in India.

There is a need to fine tune the traditional package and practices of crop production
with the available knowledge inputs about the potentialities of bio resources.

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Challenges of organic farming:

Lack of post harvest technology, supply chain, branding and certification of produce

Lack of private investment and appropriate aggregation model for marketing of

produce

Under such circumstances the union budget has rightly focussed its attention on agriculture
and rural sector. Budget also gave boost to organic farming through various schemes and
initiatives.

1. Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana (PKVY)

The programme aims for promotion of traditional farming to rejuvenate Indian

agriculture. It was started in the year 2015-16 with an allocation of 300 crore and
was increased to 412 crores in 2016-17

It is a cluster based programme to encourage group of farmers to take up organic

farming. In three years it aims to form 10000 clusters and cover 5 lakh acres under
organic farming.

In addition, other continuing programmes and schemes of the central government

like

National Mission on Sustainable Agriculture,

Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana ,

Mission for integrated Development for Horticulture,

National Mission on Oil seeds and Oil palm,

Network project on organic farming of ICAR are also helping in promotion of

organic farming.

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2. Organic value chain development in North-Eastern region

It aims at development of certified organic production in a value chain mode to link

growers with consumers and to support development of entire value chain.

Efforts will be made to convert subsistence farming to commercial organic farming

with end to end facilities.

It aims to make north-east as major supplier of organic commodities for national and
international markets.

Organic park zone will be developed with facilities for collection aggregation, value
addition, processing, and storage and market linkages for specific commodities
requiring capital intensive technology.

With its strategic location and cultural diversity north-east is one of the few regions
in India where the use of chemical fertilizers is meagre. Hence the development of
organic farming in this region is more advantageous.

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Bringing health to the underprivileged
Health care scenario is India:

India is placed at 95th rank in Nutrition and Basic medical care segment of the social
progress index and 120th position on health and wellness segment (lesser than
Bangladesh and BRICS)

Indias health care spending is about 1.3 percent of GDP, compared to 3% in China
and 8 percent in US and EU

India also aims to increase the health spending by 2.5 percent of GDP by 2020 as per
Draft national policy.

The bright spots in the budget from health care perspective were: The focus on health
insurance which is going to address Indias Out of Pocket outlay problem. Out of pocket
outlays refer to direct cash outlays by individuals for health care. It is 70 percent in India
compared to 12 percent in US.

However government is taking steps like

Rashtriya Swasthya Suraksha Yojana: it is a cashless health insurance scheme which

cover up to 30000 per annum for BPL families employed in 11 occupational groups in
the unorganised sector and MGNREGA workers. In the present budget- allocation
has been increased to 1500 crores which is 152 percent hike from previous budget.

The Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana: It aims to address the regional
imbalances in the availability of affordable health care facilities. The focus on
underserved states includes the setting up of six AIIMS like institutions in Bhopal,

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Bhubaneswar, Jodhpur, Patna, Raipur and Rishikesh and upgradation of 70 existing
government medical colleges in PMSSY (Phases 1, 2, 3 and 4)

Jan Aushadhi Stores (JAS): it offers affordable generic medicines. The biggest
challenge however is that most doctors do not prescribe generic medicines. There is
a need to launch advocacy measures to generate awareness level among public as to
sensitize the doctors.

National Dialysis Services Programme: To provide dialysis services in all district

hospitals. To reduce the cost, the Finance Minister proposed to exempt certain parts
of dialysis equipment from basic customs duty, excise/CVD and SAD.

Suggestions:
The following steps should be taken

Infrastructure to tackle the shortage of community and public health centres

Training of more professionals to arrest the lack of man power to treat patients at
PHCs

Increase in the insurance coverage generation of more awareness campaigns

India has only 9 hospital beds per 10000 populations compared with 41 in china and
91 in Russia. This needs to improve.

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North-East Region
Destination North-East 2016

Organised in Delhi for the first time in New Delhi by the Ministry of Development of
North-Eastern Region (DoNER) and Ministry of Culture.

Main Objective To showcase the inherent economic, social and cultural strength of
the North East Region at national level

Highlights

Initiatives taken for development of North-Eastern Region

Holistic Development of Tourism in the North-East - Exploring the Unexplored

Opportunities for IT & ITES in the region

Enhancing scope of livelihood

Micro Finance for inclusive growth

Start-up opportunities & challenges in NER

Need-based Skill Development & entrepreneurship promotion

Growing up value chain from Handloom to fabrics to Garments

North-East folk music & dance

Business Summit for sectors like

Tourism

Agriculture

Food Processing

Skill Development & Entrepreneurship

IT

Handloom & Handicrafts

Livelihood

Micro Finance

Start ups

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Paryatak Mitra Programme
Launched by: Ministry of Tourism
Aim: For College going students to inculcate appropriate tourism traits and knowledge and
to enable them to act/work as Tourist Facilitators (Paryatak Mitra)
The development and promotion of tourism is primarily the responsibility of the State
Governments/Union Territory Administrations.

Highway Projects in North-Eastern Region

Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) to give loan for widening and
upgradation of National Highways in the region
Various road improvement projects to speed up road construction taken up by the
Centre under Special Accelerated Road Development Programme for North East
(SARDP-NE)
Government has also adopted Engineering Procurement and Construction (EPC)
mode of contract To speed up the projects

Tikhor Park
Where: Guwahati University and NEHU, Shillong
Why:

To preserve the legacy of the 12th South Asian Games

Tikhor was mascot of 12th SAG

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Prelims oriented:
Unified National Agricultural Market

Implemented by Department of Agriculture & Cooperation through Small Farmers

Agribusiness Consortium (SFAC)

Integration of agri-markets across the country through e-platform

Through this new initiative farmers can discover the price and would be able to sell
their produce at a higher price and at anytime and anywhere.

Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana: Aims to provide 100 percent electricity
connections to rural households by 2018

National digital literacy mission and Digital Saksharta

This programme aims to empower at least one person from every household with digital
literacy skills by 2020.

Rashtriya Gram Swaraj Abhiyan (RGSA)

Aims to help Panchayat Raj institutions deliver sustainable development goals. The
details of the programme are yet to be announced but the provision of 655 crore
may be used for Panchayat Shasktikaran.

Under this scheme, every district and every village will

locally produce clothes for children,

provide textile machinery training in every village

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promote indigenously manufactured clothes

By this scheme, typically age old agrarian village economy will be converted in to small scale
industrial economy.

Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana

This scheme aims to impart skill to 1 crore youth over next 3 years from current 24 lakh.

Clean Street Food Project

Launched by: Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) and Ministry of Skill
Development & Entrepreneurship
Aim: To raise safety standards of food sold on streets across New Delhi by training roadside
vendors on aspects of health & hygiene
Under: Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) category of Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana
(PMKVY)

Deen Dayal Antyodaya Yojana

Upliftment of urban and rural poor through enhancement of livelihood opportunities
through skill development and other means

Imparting skills with an expenditure of Rs.15,000 Rs.18,000 on each urban poor;

Promotion of self-employment through setting up individual micro-enterprises and

group enterprises with interest subsidy for individual projects costing Rs.2.00 lakhs
and Rs.10.00 lakhs for group enterprises. Subsidized interest rate will be 7%;

Training urban poor to meet the huge demand from urban citizens by imparting
market oriented skills through City Livelihood Centres. Each Centre would be given a
capital grant of Rs.10.00 lakhs.

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Enabling urban poor form Self-Help Groups for meeting financial and social needs
with a support of Rs.10,000/- per each group who would in turn be helped with bank
linkages;

Development of vendor markets besides promotion of skills of vendors; and

Construction of permanent shelters for urban homeless and provision of other

essential services.

Shyama Prasad Mukherji Rurban Mission

It is an ambitious scheme to transform rural areas to economically, socially and

physically sustainable spaces.

The Mission aims at development of rural growth clusters which have latent
potential for growth, in all States and UTs, which would trigger overall development
in the region.

These clusters would be developed by provisioning of economic activities,

developing skills & local entrepreneurship and providing infrastructure
amenities. The Rurban Mission will thus develop a cluster of Smart Villages.

The mission aims to create 300 such Rurban growth clusters over the next 3 years,
across the country.

The funding for Rurban Clusters will be through various schemes of the Government
converged into the cluster.

The SPMRM will provide an additional funding support of up to 30 percent of the

project cost per cluster as Critical Gap Funding (CGF) as Central Share to enable
development of such Rurban clusters.

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National Land Record Modernization Programme

The main objective of the NLRMP is to develop a modern, comprehensive and

transparent land records management system in the country with the aim to
implement the conclusive land-titling system with title guarantee.

The major components of the programme are

o Computerization of all land records including mutations.
o Digitization of maps and integration of textual and spatial data
o

Survey/re-survey and updating of all survey and settlement records including

creation of original cadastral records wherever necessary.

o Computerization of registration and its integration with the land records

maintenance system.
o Development of core Geospatial Information System (GIS) and capacity
building.

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