‘Development of Pilgrimage Amenities-Gujarat’, Indian maritime sector and economic development, India & the European Union agreed on Scientific cooperation, Tied Grant by Fifteenth Finance Commission, Jal Jeevan Mission, Foundation Day
1. 'Development of Pilgrimage Amenities at Somnath, Gujarat' under Prashad scheme of Tourism Ministry
- Union Minister of State(IC) for Tourism Sh. Prahlad Singh Patelvirtually joined Chief Minister of Gujarat Sh. Vijaybhai Rupanion the inauguration of project “Development of Pilgrimage Amenities at Somnath, Gujarat”.
- The project “Development of Pilgrimage Amenities at Somnath, Gujarat” sanctioned under the PRASHAD scheme in March 2017 has been successfully completed with the cost of Rs. 45.36 crores.
- High quality world class facilities for Parking, Tourism Amenities Centre and Solid Waste Management have been developed under the project.
- The ‘National Mission on Pilgrimage Rejuvenation and Spiritual, Heritage Augmentation Drive’ (PRASHAD) launched by the Ministry of Tourism in the year 2014-15 with the objective of integrated development of identified pilgrimage and heritage destinations.
- The scheme aimed at infrastructure development such as entry points (Road, Rail and Water Transport), last mile connectivity, basic tourism facilities like Information/ Interpretation Centers, ATM/ Money exchange, eco-friendly modes of transport, area Lighting and illumination with renewable sources of energy, parking, drinking water, toilets, cloak room, waiting rooms, first aid centers, craft bazars /haats/ souvenir shops/ cafeteria, rain shelters, Telecom facilities, internet connectivity etc.
2. Historic move in Indian maritime sector and economic development of North East Region
- Union Minister of State for Shipping (I/C) Shri Mansukh Mandaviya today flagged off the first trial container ship from Kolkata to Agartala through Chattogram Port of Bangladesh.
- This has been done under the Agreement on use of Chattogram and Mongla Ports for movement of India’s transit cargo through Bangladesh.
- The route will open doors of new opportunities for both the countries.
- It will provide the alternative and shorter route to connect the North East Region through Bangladesh.
- This is a historic move to utilize Chattogram and Mongla Port for movement of India’s transit cargo.
- It will be a new chapter in India-Bangladesh maritime relations.
- The consignment of the trial movement includes two TEUs carrying TMT steel bars destined for West Tripura district and two TEUs carrying pulses destined for Karimganj, Assam. After reaching Chattogram, the consignment will move to Agartala on Bangladeshi trucks.
- The trial runs highlight the efforts that both sides have undertaken to strengthen the connectivity between Bangladesh and the North Eastern states of India, as per the understanding reached between the two countries at the highest level, during the visit of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to India in October 2019, when the Standard Operating Procedures for the use of Chattogram and Mongla ports for movement of goods to and from India, were concluded.
- This movement further strengthens long standing partnership between India and Bangladesh.
- It will reduce distance and time taken in transportation of goods for India and is a win-win for both the economies.
- Job creation, investment in the logistical sector, enhanced business services and revenue generation are advantages that will accrue to Bangladesh.
- Bangladeshi vessels and trucks will be utilized to move the Indian cargo.
- India and Bangladesh have enhanced cooperation in shipping and inland water trade in the recent years.
- Under the Protocol on Inland Water Transit and Trade, in addition to the six existing Ports of Call, five more in each country have been added recently.
- Dredging of inland waterway routes is ongoing under an MoU, signed by the two countries on development of fairway in selected stretches of Bangladesh waterways with the Government of India bearing 80% of the project expenditure and the balance being borne by the Government of Bangladesh.
- Cruise services have also commenced between the two countries promoting tourism and people to people contacts.
3. India & the European Union agreed to renew the Agreement on Scientific cooperation
- India & the European Union agreed to renew the Agreement on Scientific cooperation for the next five years, 2020-2025, at the 15th India-EU Summit.
- With the agreement to renew adopted, both India and the EU agreed to further collaborate in research and innovation based on the principles of mutual benefit and reciprocity, as established in the India-EU Agreement on Science and Technology concluded in 2001, which expired on May 17.
- Both parties are committed to launch the renewal procedure in time and acknowledge 20 years of robust cooperation on research and innovation.
- This will help to enhance research and innovation cooperation in different fields like Water, Energy, Healthcare, Agritech & Bioeconomy, Integrated Cyber-Physical Systems, Information and Communication Technologies, Nanotechnology, and clean technologies, etc.
- It will also strengthen the institutional linkages in research, exchange of researchers, students, startups and attract co-investment of resources for co-generation of knowledge.
- Renewal of the agreement on S&T co-operation between the countries, recalled that in the last 5 years, 73 joint research projects have been implemented, resulting in around 200 joint research publications & filing of few patents.
- There have also been 500 exchange visits of researchers & students in this period.
- The 5 years have seen joint activities in knowledge generation, human capacity development, technology development, technology deployment in Water, Health, Material (including Nano sciences) & Bio economy.
4. Tied Grant by Fifteenth Finance Commission for the FY 2020-2021
- Upon the recommendations of Ministry of Panchayati Raj and Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation, Ministry of Jal Shakti, an amount of Rs.15187.50 crore, as grants-in-aid, in respect of 2.63 lakh Rural Local Bodies (RLBs) spread in 28 States of the country has been released by the Ministry of Finance on 15th July 2020.
- This grants-in-aid forms part of the Tied Grant as recommended by Fifteenth Finance Commission (XV-FC) for the period FY 2020-21 and is to be used by RLBs to facilitate taking up of various developmental work concerning supply of drinking water, rain water harvesting, water recycling, sanitation and maintenance of ODF status, which are national priorities.
- Availability of this fund with the RLBs will boost their effectiveness in delivery of basic services to the rural citizens and would also empower them in providing gainful employment to migrant labourers who have returned to their native places owing to Covid-19 pandemic situation as well as in augmenting rural infrastructure in a constructive way.
- Upon the recommendations of Ministry of Panchayati Raj, an amount of Rs.15187.50 crore, as grants-in-aid, in respect of 2.63 lakh Rural Local Bodies (RLBs) spread in 28 States of the country had been released by the Ministry of Finance on 17th June 2020.
- This grants-in-aid was part of the Untied Grant as recommended by Fifteenth Finance Commission (XV-FC) for the period FY 2020-21, to be used by RLBs for the location-specific felt needs.
- The Fifteenth Finance Commission (XV FC) submitted its interim report for the period FY 2020-21 and the Government of India accepted its recommendations in respect of the Local Bodies.
- The Commission has worked out the total size of the grant to be Rs.60,750 crore for the period FY 2020-21 for the Rural Local Bodies (RLBs) which is the highest ever allocation made by the Finance Commission in any single year.
- The Commission has recommended Grants-in-aid to all tiers of the Panchayati Raj including the Traditional Bodies of Fifth and Sixth Schedule areas, in 28 States, in two parts, namely,
(i) a Basic Grant and
(ii) a Tied Grant. Fifty percent of the grant will be Basic Grant and fifty percent will be the Tied Grant.
- The basic grants are untied and can be used by RLBs for location-specific felt needs, except for salary or other establishment expenditure.
The Tied Grants are to be used for the basic services of
(a) sanitation and maintenance of open-defecation free (ODF) status and
(b) supply of drinking water, rain water harvesting and water recycling.
- The RLBs shall, as far as possible, earmark one half of these Tied Grants each to these two critical services.
- However, if any RLB has fully saturated the needs of one category it can utilize the funds for the other category.
- The State Governments will be distributing the XV FC Grants to all the tiers of panchayats – village, block and district and the traditional bodies of Fifth and Sixth Schedule areas based on the accepted recommendations of the latest State Finance Commission (SFC) and in conformity of the following bands recommended by XV FC.
a) 70-85 % for village/gram panchayats
b) 10-25 % for block/intermediate panchayats
c) 5-15 % for district/zilla panchayats
d) In states having two-tier system with only village and district panchayats, the distribution will be in the bands of 70-85 % for village/gram panchayats and 15-30% for district/zilla panchayats
- The intra-tier distribution among the relevant entities in a tier across the State (including Fifth and Sixth Schedule areas) will be on the basis of population and area in the ratio of 90:10 or as per the accepted recommendations of the latest SFC.
5. Jal Jeevan Mission: One lakh tap connections
- Jal Jeevan Mission was launched in August 2019 and in 7 months of 2019-20, around 84.83 lakh rural households were provided with tap connections.
- Further, amidst CoVID-19 pandemic, since Unlock-1, about 45 lakh tap connections have been provided so far in the year 2020-21.
- Thus, daily about 1 lakh households are being provided with tap connections, which indicates the ‘Speed’.
- For ensuring transparency, every asset created is being geo-tagged and connections are being linked with the ‘Aadhar’ of the ‘head of the household’.
- After the mission came into being, States were requested to undertake a revalidation exercise of baseline data, as per which there are 19.04 Crore rural households in the country, out of which 3.23 Crore households are already provided tap connections.
- Remaining 15.81 Crore households are to be provided with tap connections.
- The objective is to cover approx. 16 Crore households in a time-bound manner while ensuring the functionality of already provided connections.
- This means 3.2 Crore households to be covered every year i.e. approx. 88,000 tap connections to be provided on daily basis. With this goal in mind, States/ UTs are working hard to provide tap connection to every rural household.
- In this endeavour, States like Bihar, Telangana, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh lead with excellent performance.
- In 2020-21, a sum of Rs. 23,500 Crore has been allocated for the implementation of JJM.
- At present, more than Rs. 8,000 Crore of Central fund is available with the States/ UTs for the implementation of the Mission.
- Besides this, in 2020-21, 50% of 15th Finance Commission grants to Rural Local Bodies, i.e. Rs. 30,375 Crore have also been earmarked for water supply and sanitation.
- 50% of this amount has been released to States on 15 July, 2020.
- This will help in better planning, implementation, management, operation and maintenance of drinking water supply systems in villages so as people continue to get potable water on regular and long-term basis.
- The Government hopes that water will turn into the next people’s movement and will become everyone’s business, a transformational change for the sector which has hitherto been seen as only a public sector responsibility.
- To make water everyone’s business, mission strives to build partnerships and work together with various institutions/ individuals to achieve drinking water security for all.
- The Ministry of Jal Shakti has been implementing Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) in partnership with the States with an aim to provide potable water in adequate quantity of prescribed quality on regular and long-term basis through tap connections to every rural household in the country by 2024.
- The mission was announced by the Prime Minister on 15th August, 2019, for which the operational guidelines were released on 25th December, 2019.
- All out efforts are being made by the National Mission under Ministry of Jal Shakti to handhold the States/ UTs for its implementation.
- Intensive village-wise analysis was taken up during March-May, 2020, based on which the action plans of the States were firmed up.
- Union Minister, Jal Shakti is also holding regular meetings with Chief Ministers/ Lieutenant Governors of States and UTs for expeditious implementation of the mission.
- States have planned 100% Functional Household Tap Connection (FHTC) coverage in villages, blocks and districts and ultimately saturating the States to become ‘Har Ghar Jal Rajya’.
- Various States/ UTs have committed to achieve the goal of the Mission well before 2024.
- In 2021, Bihar, Goa, Puducherry and Telangana have planned for complete saturation.
- Similarly in 2022, States/ UTs of Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Ladakh, Meghalaya, Punjab, Sikkim and Uttar Pradesh. While Arunachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura, Chhattisgarh have planned for 100% coverage in 2023.
- States like Assam, Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand, Kerala, Maharashtra, Odisha, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttarakhand and West Bengal have planned for 2024.
- The objective of the Mission is universal coverage and emphasis is on the principle of ‘equity and inclusiveness’ i.e. every family in the village gets tap water connection in their household and ‘none is left behind’.
- Accordingly, States are giving priority to SC/ ST majority populated villages, aspirational districts, villages in drought prone and desert areas and quality-affected habitations.
- Special focus is given to the districts affected with Japanese Encephalitis/ Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (JE-AES) which is one of the reasons behind infant mortality in the affected districts.
- As on date, 3.01 Crore households are there in 61 JE/ AES endemic districts of 5 States of Assam, Bihar, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. Out of this, 27.32 lakh (9%) households have FHTCs and remaining 2.74 crore households (91%) are to be provided with FHTCs under JJM.
- Potable water supply to water quality-affected habitations is a top priority under JJM as the ill effects of Flurosis and Arsenicosis is to be reduced.
- In the light of interim order of National Green Tribunal, States have to ensure piped water supply to all households in Arsenic and Fluoride affected habitations before December, 2020.
6. 92nd Foundation Day of Indian Council of Agricultural Research
- Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) celebrated its 92nd foundation day is 16 July 2020.
- On this occasion, Union Minister of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare Shri Narendra Singh Tomar appreciated the efforts of the agricultural scientists due to which ICAR has contributed immensely in the progress of agriculture in the country during the last nine decades.
- Shri Tomar also expressed gratitude to Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi for bringing in long-awaited agricultural reforms by announcing legal amendments and ordinances which will empower the farmers and help them in getting remunerative prices for their produce.
- ICAR and KVK scientists also have to ensure that the benefits of contract farming reach the small farmers.
- Exhorting the scientists to ensure that in its tenth decade, the Pusa Institute (IARI) gets upgraded from a national institute to an institute of international status, the Minister said that there is need to reduce dependence on imports, increase production of healthy foods and also increase production of pulses and oilseeds.
- Palm oil production needs to be increased by research and increased cultivation.
- Laying emphasis on developing new varieties of oilseeds, Shri Tomar said that the near self-sufficiency achieved in pulses production needs to be replicated for oilseeds production also so that import of edible oils is reduced.
- The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) is an autonomous organisation under the Department of Agricultural Research and Education (DARE), Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Government of India.
- It was established on 16 July 1929 as a registered society under the Societies Registration Act, 1860.
- The Council is the apex body for co-ordinating, guiding and managing research and education in agriculture including horticulture, fisheries and animal sciences in the entire country.
- With 102 ICAR institutes and 71 agricultural universities spread across the country this is one of the largest national agricultural systems in the world.
- The ICAR has played a pioneering role in ushering Green Revolution and subsequent developments in agriculture in India through its research and technology development, thus making a visible impact on the national food and nutritional security.
- It has played a major role in promoting excellence in higher education in agriculture.
- The Indian Council of Agricultural Research has been recognising and rewarding the institutions, scientists, teachers, farmers and agricultural journalists every year.
- This year nearly 160 awardees under 20 different categories have been selected.
- These comprise three Institutions, two AICRP, 14 KVKs, 94 Scientists, 31 farmers, 6 journalists and 10 staff members of various ICAR Institutes.
- It is heartening to note that of the 141 awarded persons 19 are women.
- All India Coordinated Research Project on Sorghum, Hyderabad and All India Coordinated Research Project on Maize, Ludhiana have been jointly conferred Chaudhary Devi Lal Outstanding All India Coordinated Research Project Award 2019. Deendayal Upadhyay Krishi Vigyan Protsahan Puruskar for KVKs at National Level has been jointly bagged by Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Datia, Madhya Pradesh and Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Venkataramannagudem, Andhra Pradesh for outstanding extension/ outreach activities having significant impact in developing agriculture and allied sectors of the district.
