Cabinet approves Interest subvention of 1.5% per annum on Short Term Agriculture Loan (GS Paper 3, Economy)
Why in news?
- Recently, the Union Cabinet has approved to restore Interest Subvention on short term agriculture loans to 1.5% for all financial institutions.
Details:
- The Interest Subvention of 1.5% will be provided to lending institutions (Public Sector Banks, Private Sector Bank, Small Finance Banks, Regional Rural Banks, Cooperative Banks and Computerized PACS directly ceded with commercial banks) for the financial year 2022-23 to 2024-25 for lending short term agri-loans upto Rs 3 lakh to the farmers.
- This increase in Interest Subvention support requires additional budgetary provisions of Rs 34,856 crore for the period of 2022-23 to 2024-25 under the scheme.
Benefits:
- Increase in Interest Subvention will ensure sustainability of credit flow in the agriculture sector as well as ensure financial health and viability of the lending institutions especially Regional Rural Banks & Cooperative Banks, ensuring adequate agriculture credit in rural economy.
- Banks will be able to absorb increase in cost of funds and will be encouraged to grant loans to farmers for short term agriculture requirements and enable more farmers to get the benefit of agriculture credit.
- This will also lead to generation of employment since short term agri-loans are provided for all activities including Animal Husbandry, Dairying, Poultry, fisheries.
- Farmers will continue to avail short term agriculture credit at interest rate of 4% per annum while repaying the loan in time.
Background:
- Ensuring hassle-free credit availability at cheaper rate to farmers has been the top priority of Government of India. Accordingly, Kisan Credit Card scheme was introduced for farmers, to empower them to purchase agriculture products and services on credit at any time.
- To ensure that the farmers have to pay a minimal interest rate to the bank, the Government of India introduced Interest Subvention Scheme (ISS), now renamed as Modified Interest Subvention Scheme (MISS), to provide short term credit to farmers at subsidized interest rates.
Outlay of the scheme:
- Under this scheme, short term agriculture loan upto Rs. 3.00 lakh is available to farmers engaged in Agriculture and other allied activities including Animal Husbandry, Dairying, Poultry, fisheries etc. at the rate of 7% p.a.
- An additional 3% subvention (Prompt Repayment Incentive - PRI) is also given to the farmers for prompt and timely repayment of loans. Therefore, if a farmer repays his loan on time, he gets credit at the rate of 4% p.a.
- For enabling this facility to the farmers, Government of India provides Interest Subvention (IS) to the Financial Institutions offering this scheme. This support is 100% funded by the Centre, it is also the second largest scheme of DA&FW as per budget outlay and coverage of beneficiaries.
Way Forward:
- Keeping in view the changing economic scenario, especially increase in the interest rate and lending rates for the financial institutions especially Cooperative Banks and Regional Rural Banks, the Government has reviewed the rate of Interest subvention provided to these Financial Institutions.
UDAN Scheme of Ministry of Civil Aviation completes 5 years of success
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
Why in news?
Recently, the Ministry of Civil Aviation’s flagship program Regional Connectivity Scheme UDAN (UdeDeshkaAamNagrik) has completed 5 years of success since the launch of it first flight by Prime Minister on 27th April 2017.
Background:
- The scheme was initiated on 21st October 2016 with the objective to fulfil the aspirations of the common citizen by following the vision of ‘UdeDeshkaAamNagrik’, with an enhanced aviation infrastructure and air connectivity in tier II and tier III cities.
Achievements:
- In the last five years, UDAN has significantly increased the regional air-connectivity in the country.
- There were 74 operational airports in 2014. Because of the UDAN scheme this number has increased to 141 by now.
- 68 underserved/unserved destinations which include 58 Airports, 8 Heliports & 2 Water Aerodromes have been connected under UDAN scheme.
- With 425 new routes initiated under the scheme, UDAN has provided air connectivity to more than 29 States/ UTs across the length and breadth of the country. The scheme has also provided a much-needed platform to the regional carriers to scale up their operations.
- 220 destinations (airports/heliports/water aerodromes) under UDAN are targeted to be completed by 2026 with 1000 routes to provide air connectivity to unconnected destinations in the country. Under UDAN, 954 routes have already been awarded to connect 156airports.
RCS-UDAN:
- RCS-UDAN was formulated based on the review of The National Civil Aviation Policy (NCAP)-2016 and it was planned to remain in force for a period of 10 years. It has a self-financing mechanism with the development of Regional Connectivity Fund (RCF).
- Under this Scheme, RCF was created, which funds the VGF requirements of the scheme through a levy on certain domestic flights. This way, funds generated from the sector themselves stimulate the growth and development of the sector.
- UDAN Scheme has benefitted a diverse set of stakeholders. Passengers have got the benefits of air connectivity, airlines have received concessions for operating regional routes, unserved regions have received the direct and indirect benefits of air connectivity for their economic development.
- UDAN created a framework based on the need and led to the formulation of:
- Lifeline UDAN (for transportation of medical cargo during pandemic).
- Krishi UDAN (value realization of agriculture products especially in Northeastern Region {NER} and tribal districts).
- International UDAN routes for NER to explore International Connectivity from / to Guwahati and Imphal.
- Lifeline UDAN - Lifeline UDAN initiative commenced in March 2020 during COVID-19 period and it helped to operate 588 flights transporting almost 1000 Tonnes of voluminous cargo and essential medical services to various parts of the country.
Award& Honours:
- RCS-UDAN was awarded Prime Minister’s Award for Excellence in Public Administration under Innovation Category for the year 2020.
- Republic Day Tableau for 26th January 2022 on UDAN was adjudged as the Best Tableau by the Ministry of Defence.
Delhi’s PM2.5 levels worst in the world’
(GS Paper 3, Environment)
Why in news?
- The recent report, ‘Air Quality and Health in Cities’ , released by U.S.-based Health Effects Institute analyses pollution and global health effects for more than 7,000 cities around the world, focusing on two of the most harmful pollutants - fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2).
Details:
- The report, using data from 2010 to 2019, found that global patterns for exposures to the two key air pollutants were “strikingly different.”
- While exposures to PM2.5 pollution tend to be higher in cities located in low- and middle-income countries, exposure to NO2 is high across cities in high-income as well as low- and middle-income countries.
Key Highlights:
- A global analysis of air quality found that Indian cities, while recording particulate matter emissions (PM2.5) that are among the highest in the world, do relatively better on nitrogen dioxide (NO2) emissions.
- Delhi and Kolkata were ranked first and second in the list of top 10 most polluted cities when PM2.5 levels were compared, with Delhi and Kolkata reporting an average annual exposure of (relative to population) of 110 ug/m3 and 84 ug/m3 respectively.
ug/m3 refers to microgram per cubic metre.
Nitrogen dioxide (NO2) emissions:
- However no Indian city appeared in the list of top 10 – or even top 20 - polluted cities when N02 levels were compared. This list saw Shanghai at the top with an average annual exposure of 41 ug/m3. Average NO2 levels for Delhi, Kolkata and Mumbai ranged from 20-30 ug/m3.
- Other cities with high NO2 population levels included Moscow, Beijing, Paris, Istanbul and Seoul.
- In 2019, 86% of the more than 7,000 cities analysed in the report exceeded the WHO’s 10 ug/m3 guideline for NO2, impacting about 2.6 billion people.
Causes for NO2 emissions:
- NO2 comes mainly from the burning of fuels in older vehicles, power plants, industrial facilities and residential cooking and heating.
- As city residents tend to live closer to busy roads with dense traffic, they are often exposed to higher NO2 pollution than residents of rural areas.
Paradoxical situation in India:
- This paradoxical situation in India was likely due to the relatively lower adoption of high-efficiency engine vehicles.
- Complete combustion of fuel results in higher NOx (nitrogen oxides) where incomplete combustion sees other kinds of emissions.
- Due to their highly reactive nature, nitrogen oxides also contributed to the formation of other pollutants, including ozone and particulate matter. NO2 also has a shorter lifetime compared with PM2.5 and other air pollutants.
- As a result, NO2 levels show very high variability in space and time, levels can vary significantly even across a few kilometres. In comparison, PM2.5 levels tend to show less spatial variation.
- In 2019, the global average NO2 exposure was 15.5 ug/m3, but exposure levels varied considerably across cities
- Ground monitoring of air quality remains limited in many regions of the world, obscuring the true degree of NO2 pollution in countries such as India.
Asteroids to bring water to Earth
(GS Paper 3, Science and Tech)
Why in news?
- Recently, scientists from Japan suggested that water and organic materials might have been brought to Earth from the outer edges of the solar system.
The scientists made the hypothesis after analysing samples from the asteroid Ryugu, collected by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s (JAXA) Hayabusa-2 probe, which had brought 5.4 grams of rocks and dust from the asteroid to Earth in December 2020.
What was the Hayabusa-2 mission?
- The Hayabusa-2 mission was launched in December 2014 when the spacecraft was sent on a six- year voyage to study the asteroid Ryugu. The spacecraft, which was approximately the size of a refrigerator, traveled more than 5 billion kilometers during its journey.
- The spacecraft arrived at the asteroid in mid-2018 after which it deployed two rovers and a small lander onto the surface.
- In 2019, the spacecraft fired an impactor into the asteroid’s surface to create an artificial crater with a diametre of a little more than 10 metres, which allowed it to collect the samples.
- In December 2020, Hayabusa-2 delivered a small capsule that contained the rock and dust samples when it was 220,000 km from the Earth’s atmosphere, which safely landed in the South Australian outback.
- Hayabasu2’s predecessor, the Hayabusa mission, brought back samples from the asteroid Itokawa in 2010.
What were the findings of the study?
- Since the capsule landed on Earth, scientists have been studying the invaluable material, weighing merely a few grams, but approximately 4.6 billion years old in order to explore the foundations of the solar system. Their analyses of the samples have helped us explore the origins of life on our planet.
- In June, a group of scientists found that the materials contained amino acids, and suggested that these building blocks of life might have formed in space.
- The current study states that “Volatile and organic-rich C-type asteroids may have been one of the main sources of Earth’s water,” which is essential for the emergence of life. While the delivery of volatiles (water and organics) to Earth has been a subject of debate amongst scientists, the materials found in the Ryugu particles probably represent one important source of volatiles.
- The study claimed that the organic material collected probably originated from the fringes of the Solar System, but was “unlikely to be the only source of volatiles delivered to the early Earth”.
- While the composition of particles collected from Ryugu closely matches water on Earth, the study notes there were slight differences, leading scientists to hypothesise that our planet’s water might have also originated from places other than asteroids.
What is an asteroid?
- Asteroids are rocky objects that orbit the Sun, much smaller than planets. They are also called minor planets.
- According to NASA, there are 994,383 known asteroids, the remnants from the formation of the solar system over 4.6 billion years ago.
Asteroids are divided into three classes:
- First are those found in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, which is estimated to contain somewhere between 1.1-1.9 million asteroids.
- The second group is that of trojans, which are asteroids that share an orbit with a larger planet. NASA reports the presence of Jupiter, Neptune and Mars trojans. In 2011, they reported an Earth trojan as well.
- The third classification is Near-Earth Asteroids (NEA), which have orbits that pass close to theEarth.
Potentially hazardous asteroids (PHAs):
- Those that cross the Earth’s orbit are called Earth-crossers. More than 10,000 suchasteroids are known, out of which over 1,400 are classified as potentially hazardous asteroids (PHAs).
- Ryugu is also classified as a PHA and was discovered in 1999 and was given the name by the Minor Planet Center in 2015.
- It is 300 million kilometres from Earth and it took Hayabusa-2 over 42 months to reach it.
Why do scientists study asteroids?
- Since asteroids are one of the oldest celestial bodies in the Solar System, scientists study them to look for information about the formation and history of planets and the sun.
- Another reason for tracking them is to look for asteroids that could possibly crash into Earth, leading to potentially hazardous consequences.
- NASA’s OSIRIS-REX mission had collected samples from the asteroid Bennu in October 2020, which will be brought to Earth in 2023.
- Scientists are interested in studying asteroids such as Bennu, because it hasn’t undergone drastic changes since its formation over billions of years ago and therefore it contains chemicals and rocks dating back to the birth of the solar system. It is also relatively close to the Earth.
