18-02-22 Daily-Himachal Pradesh-HPPSC Current Affairs

The Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) scheme for providing subsidy on the purchase of pesticides to fruit growers has received a poor response. Only a handful of fruit growers have completed the required formalities to claim the subsidy. The response has been poor. Not many growers have come forward to claim the subsidy amount in Shimla district where the consumption of pesticides is the highest because of high apple production, says Desh Raj Sharma, Deputy Director, Shimla. The response in other districts, too, has been lukewarm.

Till last year, when the scheme was introduced, the growers used to get subsidised pesticides from around 350 outlets in the state. The Horticulture Department used to purchase pesticides worth Rs around Rs 18 crore to Rs 20 crore from the market and sell it to the growers on subsidised rates. Under the DBT scheme, a grower can claim a subsidy of Rs 4,000 per hectare for temperate fruits such as apple and pear, and Rs 2,000 per hectare for sub-tropical fruits such as mango, and guava. To avail of the subsidy, the growers have to buy the pesticides mentioned in the spray schedule of the Horticulture Department from the empanelled companies and then upload the bills along with the forms and revenue papers/Udyan card on the e-Udyan portal.

The Government of India approved the New India Literacy Programme scheme for the fiscal years 2022-2027 that will cover all areas of adult Education and match with the national education policy 2020.

The Ministry of Education (MoE) has announced the New India Literacy Programme for the next five years, to cover all aspects of adult education. The ministry has decided to use the term Education for All instead of Adult Education, because the previous term didnt represent all non-literates who are in the age group of 15 years and above.

This programme is expected to cost Rs 1037.90 crore between 2022 and 2027, with the central government providing Rs 700 crore and the states providing Rs 337.90 crore, respectively.

Central government has proposed a law to empowers it to fix maximum selling price of Fertilizers and control its quality and distribution.

Department of Fertilizers has asked comments on the draft Integrated Plant Nutrition Management Bill, 2022, from all the stakeholders.

It is convenient in public interest that central government should take under its control on distribution, price and quality of standards of fertilizers.

The bill seeks to establish an Integrated Plant Nutrition Management Authority of India.

It is aimed at promoting development and sustainable use of balanced fertilizers, including , nano-fertilizers, bio-stimulates, and organic fertilizers.

It seeks to simplify the process for manufacturing production, distribution and price management of fertilizers across India. This will help in improving the Ease of Doing Business.

While Indias solar power capacity is increasing, the country does not have a proper policy on managing the waste that is being generated from solar panels and its manufacturing process.

Currently, India considers solar waste as a part of its generated electronic waste and thus doesnt account for it independently. Also, the nation doesnt have any commercially operated raw material solar E-Waste recovering facility.

In Gummidipoondi, Nadu, a facility has been set up for the purpose of recovering solar e-waste recycling and recovery albeit it is a private firm.

In India, solar waste is sold as scrap and it can lead to the increase of solar e-waste if proper recycling is not done. The government should divert its focus towards drafting a set of rules that will look into dealing with solar e-waste.

The life cycle of a solar panel is 20 to 25 years, so the problem we are facing is yet to come, but when it will eventually catch up the nation will be dealing with a huge problem with most of the landfills being filled with solar waste. Hence, drafting a policy dealing with this is a must.

The first country to adopt Indias UPI system will be Nepal which will be critical in modernising the neighbouring countrys digital economy.

To deliver the Services in Nepal, NPCI International Payments Ltd (NIPL), NPCIs international arm, has partnered with Manam Infotech and Gateway Payments Service (GPS). In Nepal, GPS is the authorized payment system operator, and Manam Infotech will implement the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) there.

Purpose of the collaboration

According to NPCI, the collaboration will benefit Nepals greater digital public good by strengthening interoperable real-time person-to-merchant (P2M) and person-to-person (P2P) transactions in the neighbouring country. This collaboration will allow the citizens of Nepals last-mile consumers to benefit from an interoperable, open payment system that enables real-time financial transfers between merchant payments and bank accounts.

India and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are set to firm up a Comprehensive Economic PARTNERSHIP Agreement (CEPA), during a virtual summit.

Virtual Summit will be held between Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed al Nahyan and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Both leaders are likely to lay out their vision of the historic and friendly bilateral relations, at a time when UAE is marking 50^thanniversary of its foundation and India is celebrating 75 years of its independence.

Both the leaders will discuss bilateral cooperation and exchange views on International And Regional issues of mutual interest.

At the summit, both the leaders will sign the CEPA, on which negotiations were launched in September 2021 and now stands completed. This agreement would take economic and commercial engagement of both the countries to next level.