21 July 2018: UPSC Exam PIB Summary & Analysis

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Student Police Cadet (SPC)

• The Union Home Minister Shri Rajnath Singh launched the Student Police Cadet (SPC) programme for nationwide implementation at a ceremony in Gurugram, Haryana.
• The Home Minister said the SPC programme will provide a healthy interface between schools and police peace and inculcate in the students aspects of public safety, discipline, patience, tolerance, empathy, respect of senior citizens, social harmony, traffic sense and a corruption-free environment. The youth of tomorrow who emerge out of such programme would bear ethical values of social commitment and be aware of social evils such as drugs, alcohol abuse, intolerance and vandalism.
• He expressed confidence that this programme would result in overall development of a student’s personality and bring big change in society.
• SPC initially will be launched as pilot programme in all States and Union Territories.
• The SPC programme focuses on students of Classes 8 & 9 and special care has been taken to ensure that it does not lead to increase in the workload of the students.
• The programme does not have any prescribed textbook nor is any exam envisaged. Only one class in a month is proposed.
• The programme seeks to cover broadly two kinds of topics, – crime prevention and control; and values and ethics.

Development of agriculture sector

Aim: To reorient the agriculture sector by focusing on an income-centeredness in addition to pure production centeredness approach.

• The Department has, therefore, been implementing various schemes to meet this objective viz. Soil Health Card (SHC) scheme, Neem Coated Urea, Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana (PKVY), Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana (PMKSY), National Agriculture Market Scheme (e-NAM), Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY), Interest Subvention Scheme etc.
• The Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP) has recommended MSPs for all kharif crops broadly in line with the announced principle.
• Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture (MIDH), a Centrally Sponsored Scheme is implemented to holistic growth of the horticulture sector covering fruits, vegetables, root and tuber crops, mushrooms, spices, flowers, aromatic plants, coconut, cashew and cocoa.
• Mission subsumes National Horticulture Mission (NHM), Horticulture Mission for North East & Himalayan States (HMNEH), National Horticulture Board (NHB), Coconut Development Board (CDB) and Central Institute for Horticulture (CIH), Nagaland. All States/UTs are covered under MIDH.
• Various interventions being taken under MIDH for the development of horticulture sector and to increase their income are given below:

1. Increasing productivity through introduction of improved varieties, quality seeds and planting materials, protected cultivation, high density plantation, rejuvenation, precision farming and horticultural mechanization.
2. Diversification to High Value Horticulture for orchards and Plantation crops, Vineyards, vegetable & flower gardens, Bee keeping, Mushroom cultivation, off season vegetables.
3. Promoting Post Harvest Management through Cold Storage (CS), cold chain supply including pack houses, ripening chamber, reefer vehicle, etc.
4. Promoting Primary and minimal processing.
5. Market Linkages: Market infrastructure such as mobile vending cart, retail outlet, primary and wholesale markets. Creating direct market/farmers market.
6. Aggregating farmers into Farmer Producers Organisation (FPO)/Farmer Interest Group (FIG) and promoting their tie up with Market Aggregators (MAs) and Financial Institutions (FIs).
7. Skill Development: Human Resources Development such as awareness programme, farmers training, exposure visit, etc. Providing training on latest technologies on production and post-harvest management to women and youth.  Converting Human Resource Development (HRD) interventions to Skill Development in Horticulture as per Agriculture Skill Council of India (ASCI) curriculum.
8. Food & Nutritional Security: Increasing Area and Production of horticulture crops with high nutritional value.
9. Promotion of Integrated Nutrient Management (INM)/Integrated Pest Management (IPM), organic farming, Good Agricultural Practices (GAP).

Reconstitution of National Bamboo Mission

• The restructured National Bamboo Mission (NBM) has been launched this year with the approval of Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) under the National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture (NMSA) for implementation with the objectives inter alia:

1. To increase the area under bamboo plantation in non-forest Government and private lands to supplement farm income and contribute towards resilience to climate change as well as availability of quality raw material requirement of industries. The bamboo plantations will be promoted predominantly in farmers’ fields, homesteads, community lands, arable wastelands, and along irrigation canals, water bodies etc.
2. To improve post-harvest management through establishment of innovative primary processing units near the source of production, primary treatment and seasoning plants, preservation technologies and market infrastructure.
3. To promote product development keeping in view market demand, by assisting R&D, entrepreneurship & business models at micro, small and medium levels and feed bigger industry.
4. To rejuvenate the under developed bamboo industry in India.
5. To promote skill development, capacity building, awareness generation for development of bamboo sector from production to market demand.

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