PIB 4th February

Contents:

1. LOW AGRICULTURAL INCOME
2. GLOBAL HUNGER INDEX 2019
3. Buddhist Studies and Culture in India
4. PRASAD SCHEME 
5. FUNDING NBFCS UNDER CREDIT GUARANTEE SCHEME
6. PRADHAN MANTRI KISAN SAMPADA YOJANA 
7. DNA ANALYSIS CENTRE
8. SOCIETY FOR WELFARE SCHEMES FOR FARMERS
9. Indigenous Technology for Artificial Insemination

LOW AGRICULTURAL INCOME

• The average income of agricultural households in the country is estimated by National Statistical Office (NSO) through the ‘Situation Assessment Survey of Agricultural Households’ conducted from time to time.
• As per the Survey results, the average monthly income per agricultural household from various sources is estimated to have increased from Rs. 2115 in 2003 to Rs. 6426 in 2013.
• Apart from different Government schemes to assist agriculture, govt has also adopted the principle of fixing Minimum Support Price (MSP) at a level of 50 per cent over the all-India weighted average cost of production of crops.

GLOBAL HUNGER INDEX 2019

• India’s ranking in the Global Hunger Index (GHI) 2019 brought out by Concern World Wide is 102. In 2018, it was 103.
• As per GHI Report 2019 of Concern World Wide, the composite GHI scores of India have improved from 38.8 in 2000 to 30.3 in 2019
• NFSA provides for coverage of up to 75% of the rural population and upto 50% of the urban population for receiving food grains under Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS), thus covering about two-thirds of the population of the country for receiving foodgrains @ Rs 1/2/3 per kg for nutri-cereals/wheat/rice respectively
• Identification of beneficiaries under the Act is under two categories- households covered under Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) and Priority Households (PHH), within the coverage determined for the State/UT.
• While Priority Households are entitled to receive 5 kg per person per month, AAY households, which constitute the poorest of the poor, continue to receive 35 Kg of foodgrains per household per month.
• At present, the Act is being implemented in all the States/UTs covering about 80 crore persons

Special protection under NFSA

• Pregnant women, lactating mothers and children upto 14 years of age are entitled to nutritious meals, free of cost, as per the prescribed nutritional standards.
• In case of non-supply of entitled foodgrains or meals, the beneficiaries will receive food security allowance.
• The Act also contains provisions for setting up of grievance redressal mechanism at the District and State levels.

Regulation by the government

The implementation of NFSA through the Public Distribution System (PDS) is a joint responsibility of the Central and State Governments/UT Administrations, and the State Governments/UT Administrations are responsible for the identification of beneficiaries under the NFSA

BUDDHIST STUDIES AND CULTURE IN INDIA

• To promote research on Buddhist Studies and Buddhist Culture in India, the Ministry of Culture currently operates four Autonomous Buddhist educational Institutions namely
  • (i) Nava Nalanda Mahavihara, Nalanda, Bihar
  • (ii) Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies (CIHTS), Sarnath, Varanasi
  • (iii) Central Institute of Buddhist Studies (CIBS), Leh, Ladakh and
  • (iv) Central Institute of Himalayan Culture Studies (CIHCS), Dahung, Arunachal Pradesh

PRASAD SCHEME 

• Introduced in 2015, the Pilgrimage Rejuvenation and Spiritual Augmentation Drive (PRASAD) is a government scheme that focuses on identifying and developing the pilgrim sites across the country to enrich the religious tourism experience
• It was launched by Union Ministry of Tourism
• It aims at integrated development of pilgrimage destinations in planned, prioritized and sustainable manner to provide complete religious tourism experience

FUNDING NBFCS UNDER CREDIT GUARANTEE SCHEME

• A number of steps have been taken since 2018 to ease the liquidity position of Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs) and to increase credit flow
• Banks have been permitted to provide partial credit enhancement to bonds issued by Non-Deposit-taking Systemically Important (NDSI) NBFCs registered with Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and Housing Finance Companies (HFCs) registered with National Housing Bank (NHB)

PRADHAN MANTRI KISAN SAMPADA YOJANA 

• The Ministry of Food Processing Industries (MoFPI) has sanctioned 39 Mega Food Parks and 298 Integrated Cold Chain Projects throughout the country to fill in the gaps across the value chain and establishing the Cold Chain Grid
• Pradhan Mantri Kisan Sampada Yojana (PMKSY), comprises of component schemes namely
  • (i) Integrated Cold Chain and Value Addition Infrastructure,
  • (ii) Mega Food Park,
  • (iii) Creation of Backward & Forward Linkages,
  • (iv) Creation/ Expansion of Food Processing and Preservation Capacities
  • (v) Agro Processing Clusters
  • (vi) Operation Greens.

DNA ANALYSIS CENTRE

• State-of-the-art DNA Analysis Centre has been set up in Central Forensic Science Laboratory, Chandigarh under the Nirbhaya Fund scheme with an allocation of Rs.99.76 crores
• This facility has an annual capacity to examine 2000 forensic cases relating to sexual assault, homicide, paternity, human identification and Mitochondrial DNA

SOCIETY FOR WELFARE SCHEMES FOR FARMERS

• A National Farmer’s Welfare Programme Implementation Society has been registered to operate certain Central Sector Schemes related to farmers’ welfare
• The Department regularly monitors the progress of schemes through meetings with concerned officers of the State Governments/UTs, visits of nodal officers of the Department to the States/UTs, video conferencing, Rabi and Kharif Conferences, etc
• Besides the beneficiary details of different schemes of the Department are uploaded in the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) portal for monitoring and tracking of beneficiaries
• Financial assistance extended to the beneficiary is directly credited into their bank accounts through the DBT mode.

INDIGENOUS TECHNOLOGY FOR ARTIFICIAL INSEMINATION

• Agencies: ICAR-National Dairy Research Institute (NDRI), Karnal (Haryana) and Anand Agricultural University, Anand (Gujarat)
• Steps taken by the Government to conserve and develop indigenous breeds of cattle are as under:
  • i) Nationwide Artificial Insemination (AI) programme
  • ii) Krishi Kalyan Abhiyan
  • iii) Establishment/strengthening of Embryo Transfer and In-Vitro Fertilization centres
  • iv) National Bovine Genomic Centre for Indigenous Breeds (NBGC-IB)
  • v) Establishment of Facility for Sex Sorted Semen Production
  • vi) E Pashu Haat Portal
    vii) Gokul Gram
  • viii) National Kamdhenu Breeding Centre
  • ix) Pashu Sanjivni
  • x) National Gopal Ratna and Kamdhenu Awards