Sugarcane production in India shifting from South to North: NSO report (GS Paper 3, Agriculture)
Why in news?
- Sugarcane production in India is experiencing a distinct shift from the South to the North,according to a latest National Statistical Office (NSO) report.
Key Findings:
- The six sugarcane producing Northern Indian states saw a 42 per cent increase in their sugarcane output value during the period between 2011- 2020 while output value of five sugarcane producing Southern states declined 32.4 per cent during the same period.
- The report shows that the cumulative production value of sugarcane in Bihar, Haryana, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand increased from Rs 302.16 billion to Rs 429.2 billion over the decade in real terms.
- Meanwhile sugarcane output in the five sugarcane producing Southern states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Telangana, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra declined from Rs 268.23 billion to Rs 181.19 billion in the corresponding period.
Why Northward shift?
- This Northward shift in sugarcane production is on account of larger irrigated area in the North and higher State Advisory Price (SAP) over and above the centre's Fair and Remunerative Price (FRP) being offered especially by Uttar Pradesh.
- For example, the UP government pegged sugarcane SAP at Rs 340 per quintal in 2022 whereas sugarcane farmers in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Maharashtra are only able to realise prices in the range of Rs 280-310.
- Although Maharashtra is the leading sugar producer in the country, Uttar Pradesh has the highest sugarcane output value in the country.
- Uttar Pradesh alone accounts for around 83 per cent of the output value among the six northern states and it registered a growth of 43.9 per cent in its output value from Rs 248.6 billion to Rs 357.7 billion over the decade, as the sucrose levels in the sugarcane produced in the state continue to increase.
- Bihar, Punjab, Haryana and Uttarakhand also saw their output value increase by nearly 35, 30, 23 and 10 per cent respectively.
Output in Southern states:
- In the Southern states, Tamil Nadu saw the highest decline of nearly 66 per cent in the output value to Rs 18.55 billion, followed by Andhra Pradesh which saw a decline of nearly 63 per cent to Rs 7.3 billion.
- Barring Karnataka, which saw a marginal increase of 0.9 per cent in the output value, other sugarcane producing southern states like Telangana and Maharashtra also saw their output value decline by nearly 50 and 27 per cent respectively.
- Data sourced from the Reserve Bank of India shows total sugarcane production in the five Southern states has come down from 181.35 million tonnes to 130.65 million tonnes during the 2011- 2020 period while the production in the six Northern states has increased from 161.7 million tonnes to 222.51 million tonnes.
World Health Summit: Global leaders pledge $2.5 billion for polio eradication
(GS Paper 2, Health)
Why in news?
- Recently, the Global leaders committed to donating $2.54 billion for eradicating polio at the World Health Summit.
- World Health Summit held in Berlin, Germany.
Stakeholders:
- Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation pledged $1.2 billion to the largest international public health initiative, Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI).
- Humanitarian organization Rotary International pledged $150 million, the United States pledged 114 million, Germany over $70 million and France over $49 million.
- The GPEI is led by national governments with six core partners - Rotary International, the World Health Organization (WHO), the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance.
How this funding will help inpolio eradication?
- The funding will support global efforts to overcome the final hurdles to polio eradication, vaccinate 370 million children annually over the next five years and continue disease surveillance across 50 countries.
- The initiative needed $4.8 billion to implement its 2022-2026 strategy fully. If fully funded, the strategy can save up to $33.1 billion in health cost savings this century compared to the price of controlling outbreaks.
- It would also be able to deliver additional health services and immunizations alongside polio vaccines to underserved communities.
Declaration on2022-2026 strategy:
- A declaration endorsing the 2022-2026 strategy was also released by a group of more than 3,000 influential scientists, physicians, and public health experts from around the world. It called on n donors to stay committed to eradication and ensure GPEI is fully funded.
- The new tactics contained in the programme’s strategy, like the continued roll-out of the novel oral polio vaccine type 2 (nOPV2), that make them confident in GPEI’s ability to end polio.
- Five hundred million doses of nOPV2 have already been administered across 23 countries and field data continued to show its promise as a tool to more sustainably stop outbreaks of type 2 circulating vaccine-derived polioviruses (cVDPV).
Potential threats:
- Wild poliovirus is endemic in just two countries — Pakistan and Afghanistan. However, after just six cases were recorded in 2021, 29 cases have been recorded so far this year, including a small number of new detections in southeast Africa linked to a strain originating in Pakistan.
- Additionally, outbreaks of cVDPV, variants of the poliovirus that can emerge in places where not enough people have been immunized, continue to spread across parts of Africa, Asia and Europe, with new outbreaks detected in the United States, Israel and the United Kingdom in recent months.
Way Forward:
- Polio, like any virus, knows no borders; its continued transmission threatens children everywhere. With strong financial and political commitments, the long-awaited vision of a polio-free world can become a reality.
PM & UNSG Launch Mission LiFE at Statue of Unity, Gujarat
(GS Paper 3, Environment)
Why in news?
- Recently, Prime Minister launched Mission LiFE (Lifestyle for Environment), in the presence of the UN Secretary General AntónioGuterres, at the Statue of Unity, Ekta Nagar, Gujarat.
- First proposed by the Prime Minister at COP 26, Mission LiFE is envisioned as an India-led global mass movement that will nudge individual and collective action to protect and preserve the environment.
Concept:
- The Mission LiFE makes the fight against climate change democratic, in which everyone can contribute with their respective capacities.
- The Mission LiFE emboldens the spirit of the P3 model, i.e. Pro Planet People. It functions on the basic principles of ‘Lifestyle of the planet, for the planet and by the planet’.
What is LiFE?
- The concept of LiFE was introduced by the Prime Minister at COP26 at Glasgow on 1 November 2021.
- It is also a part of India's nationally determined contributions (NDC).
- On 5 June 2022, on World Environment Day, India furthered the vision of LiFE by launching the LiFE Global Movement, inviting academicians, researchers and start-ups across the world to think about specific and scientific ways in which the full potential of collective action can be harnessed to address the environment crisis. The movement received record support from global leaders.
- Mission LiFE will action the ideas and ideals of LiFE through a mission-mode, scientific and measurable programme and demonstrate India’s commitment to walk the talk on climate change.
Objective:
- Mission LiFE is designed with the objective to mobilise at least one billion Indians and other global citizens to take individual and collective action for protecting and preserving the environment in the period 2022 to 2027.
- Within India, at least 80% of all villages and urban local bodies are aimed to become environment-friendly by 2028.
Strategy:
- Mission LiFE aims at following a three-pronged strategy for changing people's collective approach towards sustainability.
- This includes nudging individuals to practice simple yet effective environment-friendly actions in their daily lives (demand), enabling industries and markets to respond swiftly to the changing demand (supply), and to influence government and industrial policy to support both sustainable consumption and production (policy).
- It includes an example of the adoption of LED bulbs in India for reducing electricity bills and protecting the environment. This led to massive savings and environmental benefits and this is a recurring permanent benefit.
India’s initiatives:
- The annual per capita carbon footprint in India is only about 1.5 tonnes, compared to the world average of four tonnes per year. Nevertheless, India is working at the forefront to solve global problems like climate change.
- India is ranked fourth in wind energy and fifth in solar energy. India's renewable energy capacity has increased by about 290 per cent in the last seven-eight years.
- India have also achieved the target of achieving 40 per cent of the electric capacity from non-fossil-fuel sources nine years ahead of the deadline.
- India had also achieved a target of 10 per cent ethanol blending in petrol, and that too five months before the deadline.
- India has moved towards an environment-friendly energy source through the National Hydrogen Mission.
