Miscellaneous
World Air Quality Report 2020

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about World Air Quality report 2020 - highlights)
What's the NEWS

• Delhi remained the most polluted capital city in the world but India, on the whole, had improved its average annual PM2.5 (particulate matter) levels in 2020 than in 2019, according to a report from IQ Air, a Swiss air quality technology company specialising in protection against airborne pollutants, and developing air quality monitoring and air cleaning products.

Know! the report highlights

• Bangladesh and Pakistan were the countries in 2020 with worse average PM2.5 levels than India
• China ranked 11^th in the latest report, a deterioration from the 14^th in the previous edition of the report.
• In the 2020 report, 106 countries were evaluated. The pollution levels are weighted averages, meaning that the population of a country influences the pollution values reported.
• In 2020, 84% of all monitored countries observed air quality improvements. Other improvements in major cities over 2019 included a 11% drop in Beijing, a 13% drop in Chicago, a 17% drop in Paris and a 16% drop in London and Seoul.
• However, of the 106 monitored countries, only 24 met the World Health Organization annual guidelines for PM 2.5, the report underlined.
• When ranked by cities, Hotan in China was the most polluted, with an average concentration of 110.2 μg/m³, followed by Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh at 106. Of the 15 most polluted cities, 13 were in India.
• In spite of being a pandemic year, 2020 was a particularly severe for agricultural burning. Farm fires in Punjab increased 46.5% over 2019.

Economy
Development Finance Institution

Relevance IN - Prelims (all about DFI) + Mains (GS III Economic developments)
What's the NEWS

• The cabinet has approved a detailed proposal for setting up the developmental finance institution (DFI) that was announced in the budget last month, clearing the decks for a dedicated government-owned infrastructure financier.

Developmental finance institution (DFI)

• The National Bank for Financing Infrastructure and Development (NaBFID) will be set up with a corpus of Rs.20,000 crore and an initial grant of Rs.5,000 crore from the government
• A bill to set up the DFI will soon be introduced in Parliament
• Initially, it will be wholly owned but the government stake will be lowered to a quarter.
• It will start with 100% government of India ownership and gradually, in the long run, government ownership will come down to 26%.
• The proposed entity will also enjoy some tax benefits for an initial 10-year period and some amendments will be carried out in the Indian Stamp Act in this regard.
• DFI will have a professional board and at least 50% of members will be non-official directors. It will be a complete professional setup

Know! more about DFI

• A development finance institution is an agency that finances infrastructure projects that are of national importance but may or may not conform to commercial return standards.
• In most cases, these agencies are government owned and their borrowings enjoy the comfort of government guarantees, which help bring down the cost of funding.
• In her Budget 2019-20 speech, Sitharaman had proposed a study for setting up DFIs for promoting infrastructure funding.
• About 7,000 projects have been identified under the National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP) with a projected investment of Rs 111 lakh crore during 2020-25.
• NIP, a first-of-its-kind initiative to provide world-class infrastructure across the country and improve the quality of life for all citizens, will be crucial for attaining the target of becoming a USD 5 trillion economy by FY 2025.

Know! about the inception of DFI

• In setting up a DFI, India will return to an earlier experiment with the idea.
• ICICI, it in original form, and IDBI were both set up as DFIs but were later converted into universal banks as it was perceived that they needed access to public deposits.
• The earlier generation of DFIs ran into the problem of financing because retail deposit access was cornered by banks and availability of long-term finance

• ICICI and IDBI, in their previous avatars, were DFIs. Even the country's oldest financial institution IFCI Ltd acted as a DFI but were later converted into universal banks as it was perceived that they needed access to public deposits.
• The earlier generation of DFIs ran into the problem of financing because retail deposit access was cornered by banks and availability of long-term financing without government guarantees was limited
• During the pre-liberalised era, India had DFIs which were primarily engaged in the development of industry in the country.
• In India, the first DFI was operationalised in 1948 with the setting up of the Industrial Finance Corporation (IFCI).
• Subsequently, the Industrial Credit and Investment Corporation of India (ICICI) was set up with the backing of the World Bank in 1955.
• The Industrial Development Bank of India (IDBI) came into existence in 1964 to promote long-term financing for infrastructure projects and industry

Social Issues
Medical Termination of Pregnancy (Amendment) Bill, 2020

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about Medical Termination of Pregnancy (Amendment) Bill, 2020 - highlights) + Mains ( GS II Social Issues)
What's the NEWS

• The Rajya Sabha passed the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (Amendment) Bill, 2020 that increases the time period within which an abortion may be carried out.
• The Bill was passed in March last year in the Lok Sabha.
• The original Bill was framed in 1971.

Know! the highlights of the bill

• The Act regulates the conditions under which a pregnancy may be aborted.
• The Bill increases the time period within which abortion may be carried out.
• Currently, abortion requires the opinion of one doctor if it is done within 12 weeks of conception and two doctors if it is done between 12 and 20 weeks.
• The Bill allows abortion to be done on the advice of one doctor up to 20 weeks, and two doctors in the case of certain categories of women between 20 and 24 weeks.
• The Bill sets up state level Medical Boards to decide if a pregnancy may be terminated after 24 weeks in cases of substantial foetal abnormalities.
• The amendments had been made pursuant to the rising number of pleas in the court.
• There are 23 petitions in front of the Supreme Court and many hundreds in the High Courts.
• This is to preserve and protect the dignity of women

Concerns

• The Bill still did not give women the freedom to decide, since they would need a nod from a medical board in the case of pregnancies beyond 24 weeks.
• The Opposition's demand to send the Bill to a parliamentary Select Committee for detailed scrutiny was defeated by a voice vote.
• The medical board had to have specialists but government data itself showed a grave shortage in availability of doctors.
• Should the State intervene when the pregnant woman is worried about her own life, about the well-being of the foetus, and also about the stigma involved?"

Written reply by the Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers in Lok Sabha
Small Farmers' Agri-Business Consortium (SFAC)

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about SFAC + FPO + initiatives taken by the Agriculture ministry to double the farmer's income) + Mains ( GS III Farmers welfare)
Know! the role of SFAC

• Government of India through Small Farmers' Agribusiness Consortium (SFAC), a registered society under Department of Agriculture, Cooperation & Farmers' Welfare, Government of India, is promoting Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) by mobilizing the farmers and helping them in registering as companies and providing them with handholding support and training for their sustainability.
• SFAC has undertaken various FPO promotion programmes in the country such as through Vegetable Initiative for Urban Cluster (VIUC), Mission Organic Value Chain Development (MOVCD), National Food for Security Mission (NFSM), Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture (MIDH) etc.. SFAC has promoted 910 FPOs in the country out of which 58 FPOs are from Uttar Pradesh.
• Government of India has launched a Central Sector Scheme of "Formation and Promotion of 10,000 Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs)" on 29th February, 2020 for providing better facilities to farmers due to economy of scale and better bargain power of FPOs thus improving income of the member farmers.
• Under this scheme, provision is made for professional handholding support for a period of five years to new FPOs formed.
• Further, a provision has been made for matching equity grant upto Rs. 2,000 per farmer member of FPO with a limit of Rs. 15.00 lakh per FPO and a credit guarantee facility upto Rs. 2 crore of project loan per FPO from eligible lending institution to ensure institutional credit accessibility to FPOs.
• Suitable provision for training and skill buildings of the FPOs has also been made.
• Already more than 2200 FPOs produce clusters have been allocated during 2020-21 for formation of FPOs.
• Farmers are enthusiastically participating under the scheme for formation of FPOs. The process of registration of FPOs is already initiated.

Increasing Farmer Income through FPOs

Know! the role of FPOs and initiatives taken by the Ministry

• The Government has been promoting the scheme of "National Agricultural Market" popularly known as e-NAM, whereby regulated physical wholesale mandis of different States/ Union Territories (UTs) are integrated on a virtual platform to facilitate online trading of agricultural commodities to enable farmers to realize better remunerative prices for their produce through improved access to market.
• The e-NAM also facilitates Farmer Producer Organizations(FPOs) to get access to large number of buyers for selling their produce to increase the income of their farmer members.
• So far, 1820 Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) from various States have been on-boarded in the e-NAM platform.
• The Government of India has already been implementing the Central Sector schemes of "Formation and Promotion of 10,000 FPOs" under which well defined skill training have been provided for capacity building of FPOs including their skill development in marketing, processing and export.
• The Ministry of Food Processing Industries (MoFPI) has been implementing the Scheme for Human Resources and Institution - Skill Development (SHRISD) under the umbrella Scheme namely the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Sampada Yojana (PMKSY), from 2017-18 onwards for the purpose of assisting creation of skill infrastructure and development of course curriculum in food processing
• Ministry of Food Processing Industries (MOFPI) has launched an all India centrally sponsored scheme called "PM Formalisation of Micro food processing Enterprises (PMFME) Scheme" for providing financial, technical and business support for upgradation of existing micro food processing enterprises.
• The scheme aims at supporting Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs), Self Help Groups (SHGs) and Producers Cooperatives along their entire value chain.
• In order to facilitate export facility for FPOs, the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) has taken an initiative to develop a Farmer Connect Portal viz. providing a platform for FPOs/FPCs, Cooperatives to connect with exporters with the key objective to facilitate and integrate the activities of Farmers and aggregators in the form of FPOs with Exporters through the assistance of ICT platform.

Prelims Factoids
India's arms imports down by 33%

Relevance IN - Prelims( about SIPRI and its report highlights)
What's the NEWS

• Arms imports decreased by 33% between 2011-15 and 2016-20 while India continues to remain the second largest arms importer after Saudi Arabia, according to a report from Swedish think tank Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) - Report Highlights

• The overall drop in arms imports between 2011-15 and 2016-20 seems to be mainly due to its complex and lengthy procurement processes, combined with its attempts to reduce its dependence on Russian arms by diversifying its network of arms suppliers
• Russia was the largest arms supplier in both years. "However, Russia's deliveries dropped by 53% between the two periods and its share of Indian arms imports fell from 70 to 49%.
• The U.S. was the second largest arms supplier to India in 2011-15 but in 2016-20 India's arms imports from the U.S. were 46% lower than in the previous five-year period, making the U.S. the fourth largest supplier in 2016-20.
• France and Israel were the second and third largest arms suppliers in 2016-20.
• India's arms imports from France increased by 709% while those from Israel rose by 82%
• Based on its outstanding deliveries of combat aircraft, air defence systems, ships and submarines, India's arms imports are expected to increase over the coming five years
• Arms imports by Pakistan between 2011-15 and 2016-20 decreased by 23%. China accounted for 61% of its imports in 2011-15 and for 74% in 2016-20.

Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI)

• It is an international institute based in Stockholm.
• It was founded in 1966 and provides data, analysis and recommendations for armed conflict, military expenditure and arms trade as well as disarmament and arms control.
• The research is based on open sources and is directed to decision-makers, researchers, media and the interested public.
• SIPRI's organizational purpose is to conduct scientific research in issues on conflict and cooperation of importance for international peace and security, with the goal of contributing to an understanding for the conditions for a peaceful solution of international conflicts and sustainable peace.

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