DAILY NEWS ANALYSIS

The Tamil Nadu government has planned to declare the entire hillocks of Alampadi, Melvalai, and Sethavarai a protected monument.

• All 3 sites are located in Villupuram district of Tamil Nadu.
• Melvalai – A nondescript village whose paintings dates back to 3000 B.C. and majority of etchings was in red ochre.

The word, Rattapparai, has become synonymous with the rock art painted in red ochre.

• There are 4 sets of paintings that includes human figurines, animals, and symbols.
• 1^st set – There are 3 persons, with a man mounted on a horse; another is pulling the horse with a rope fastened to the animal, while the 3^rd man is depicted with hands stretched, welcoming others.
• 4^th set – 6 men standing and a few others with hands stretched out.
• Link with IVC – Painting depicting a group of men rowing a boat, indicates a link between the Indus Valley and the southern region.

• Challenges – There have been instances of unregulated entry of people and they also face threats from quarrying and vandalism.
• Measures – Tamil Nadu Ancient and Historical Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act, 1966 and Tamil Nadu Ancient and Historical Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Rules, 1971.

Japan recently landed a spacecraft called SLIM (Smart Lander for Investigating Moon) on the lunar surface, becoming the 5th country after the Soviet Union, the US, China and India to achieve a soft landing on the moon.

About SLIM

• SLIM was launched by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) in September 2023 aboard the H-IIA rocket from the Tanegashima spaceport.
• It aims to demonstrate precision landing within 100 metres through new technologies.
• It also carried two mini robotic rovers developed by Sony and Tomy for reconnaissance.
• The mission aims to revitalise Japan's space program which suffered setbacks like the failure of the flagship H3 rocket in March 2023.

Objectives

• The mission aims to observe X-rays coming from deep space and to identify their wavelengths with unprecedented precision.
• It will use state-of-the-art spectroscopy to measure changes in the brightness of celestial objects at different wavelengths.
• It detects X-rays with energies ranging from 400 to 12,000 electron volts. (For comparison, the energy of visible light is 2 to 3 electron volts.)
• This range will provide astrophysicists with new information about some of the universe's hottest regions, largest structures, and objects with the strongest gravity.

Future Moon Missions

• ISRO (India): LUPEX with JAXA, Chandrayaan-4
• NASA (USA): Lunar Trailblazer Mission, Viper Rover, Artemis 2-6 (Manned mission).
• ROSCOSMOS (Russia): LUNA 26-28, ORYOL
• CNSA (China): Chang'e 6-8
• JAXA (Japan): Destiny+

Minimum Support Price (MSP) is a form of market intervention by the Government of India to insure agricultural producers against any sharp fall in farm prices. The minimum support prices are announced by the Government of India at the beginning of the sowing season for certain crops on the basis of the recommendations of the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP).

• At present, the Central Government sets MSP for 23 crops.
• These include:
  • 7 cereals (bajra, wheat, maize, paddy barley, ragi and jowar);
  • 5 pulses (tur, chana, masur, urad and moong);
  • 7 oilseeds (safflower, mustard, niger seed, soyabean, groundnut, sesame and sunflower);
  • 4 commercial crops (raw jute, cotton, copra and sugarcane).

MSP is price fixed by Government of India to protect the producer - farmers - against excessive fall in price during bumper production years. The minimum support prices are a guarantee price for their produce from the Government.

The major objectives are to support the farmers from distress sales and to procure food grains for public distribution. In case the market price for the commodity falls below the announced minimum price due to bumper production and glut in the market, government agencies purchase the entire quantity offered by the farmers at the announced minimum price.

Importance of Minimum Support Price:

1. Fixed Remunerations: The farmers are financially secured against the vagaries of price instability in the market. It provides security to farmers from the risk of crop failure and less production.
2. Informed decision making: MSP are announced at the beginning of the sowing season, this helps farmers make informed decisions on the crops they must plant. This advance information helps the farmer to make an informed decision about which crop to sow for maximum economic benefit within the limitations of his farm size, climate and irrigation facilities.
3. Diversification of crops: The MSP announced by the Government of India for the first time in 1966-67 for wheat has been extended to around 24 crops at the present. This has encouraged the farmers to grow these diverse crops to maximise their income.
4. Benchmark for private buyers: MSP sends a price-signal to market that if merchants don’t offer higher than MSP prices the farmer may not sell them his produce. Thus it acts as an anchor or benchmark for the agro-commodity It ensures the market prices will not be drastically lower than MSP.
5. Targeted crops: MSP is used as a tool to incentivize production of specific food crops which is short in supply. MSP motivates farmers to grow targeted crops and increased production.
6. Enhance purchasing power: Slow farm growth and increasing farmer’s distress demand for more MSP for farmers. It helps in enhancing the purchasing capacity of farmers.

Various Committees on Minimum Support Price (MSP)

• The Agricultural Prices Commission (APC) was founded in 1965 with the purpose of recommending MSPs for agricultural commodities. The Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP) was later given its new name. For 23 different crops, including wheat, rice, pulses, oilseeds, and cotton, the CACP suggests MSPs.
• National Commission on Farmers (NCF): The NCF was established in 2004 under the leadership of M.S Swaminatha, to address the problems of farmers and recommend policies for their welfare. The NCF recommended a minimum of 50% profit over the cost of production as MSP.
• Shanta Kumar Committee: The Shanta Kumar Committee was set up in 2014 to review the Food Corporation of India (FCI) and suggest reforms. The committee recommended a shift from price-based to income-based support for farmers.

Various issues associated with Minimum Support Price:

1. Non-proportional increase: The support prices that are being provided do not increase at par with increase in cost of production. A rating agency, CRISIL pointed out that the increase in MSP has indeed fallen during 2014-17.
2. Reach: The benefits of this scheme do not reach all farmers and for all crops. Not all farmers have been able to get the benefits of MSP because of lack of awareness. There are many regions of the country like the north-eastern region where the implementation is too weak.
3. Excess storage: MSP without sufficient storage has resulted in huge piling of stocks in the warehouses. The stock has now become double the requirements under the schemes of PDS, Buffer stock etc.
4. Market distortion: It distorts the free market by favouring some particular crops over other crops.
5. Fiscal burden: Open-ended procurement of paddy and wheat at MSPs is completely out of sync with market prices and lead to fiscal burden.
6. Impact agricultural exports: Hikes in MSP also adversely affect the exports by making Indian farm goods un-competitive especially when international market prices are lower.
7. Ecological problem: MSP leads to non-scientific agricultural practices whereby the soil, water are stressed to an extent of degrading ground water table and salinization of soil.
8. Crop diversity: MSP affects the crop diversity of india. With MSP cropping patterns get affected as it leads to production of MSP supported crops as it guarantee returns.

Determination of MSP

In formulating the recommendations in respect of the level of minimum support prices and other non-price measures, the Commission takes into account, apart from a comprehensive view of the entire structure of the economy of a particular commodity or group of commodities, the following factors:-

• Cost of production
• Changes in input prices
• Input-output price parity
• Trends in market prices
• Demand and supply
• Inter-crop price parity
• Effect on industrial cost structure
• Effect on cost of living
• Effect on general price level
• International price situation
• Parity between prices paid and prices received by the farmers.
• Effect on issue prices and implications for subsidy

The Commission makes use of both micro-level data and aggregates at the level of district, state and the country. The information/data used by the Commission, inter-alia include the following :-

• Cost of cultivation per hectare and structure of costs in various regions of the country and changes there in;
• Cost of production per quintal in various regions of the country and changes therein;
• Prices of various inputs and changes therein;
• Market prices of products and changes therein;
• Prices of commodities sold by the farmers and of those purchased by them and changes therein;
• Supply related information - area, yield and production, imports, exports and domestic availability and stocks with the Government/public agencies or industry;
• Demand related information - total and per capita consumption, trends and capacity of the processing industry;
• Prices in the international market and changes therein, demand and supply situation in the world market;
• Prices of the derivatives of the farm products such as sugar, jaggery, jute goods, edible/non-edible oils and cotton yarn and changes therein;
• Cost of processing of agricultural products and changes therein;
• Cost of marketing - storage, transportation, processing, marketing services, taxes/fees and margins retained by market functionaries; and
• Macro-economic variables such as general level of prices, consumer price indices and those reflecting monetary and fiscal factors.

The increase in MSP for Kharif Crops is in line with the Union Budget 2018-19 announcement of fixing the MSPs at a level of at least 1.5 times of the All-India weighted average Cost of Production (CoP), aiming at reasonably fair remuneration for the farmers.

• Cost provided – The MS Swaminathan Commission had recommended C2+50% but the government is providing A2+FL+50%.
• Calculation of Cost of Production
  • A2 – Actual cost of farming including seeds, fertilisers and hired labour.
  • A2+FL – Includes value of unpaid labour of family workers in addition to A2
  • C2 – Includes the cost of land rentals or interest on invested capital in addition to A2+FL

Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) has been issuing alerts with maps from various weather monitoring satellites.

Solar reflectance is a ratio of the amount of solar energy reflected by a surface and the amount of solar energy incident on it.

Brightness temperature is the relationship between the temperature of an object and the corresponding brightness of its surface.

• Daytime Microphysics (DtMicro) RGB – It is the data formed by combining information about the cloud brightness, cloud particle phase and size, and cloud top temperature.
• Aim – To distinguish ice from water phase and to monitor the development of convection, fog and low clouds.

• Observations – Water cloud is more reflective than ice cloud and have a stronger red beam, smaller water or ice particles have a higher reflectivity, resulting in a stronger green beam and warm surface corresponds to strong blue beam component.
• Night microphysics – It is designed for monitoring the evolution of night time fog and stratus clouds.

• Observations – A strong red beam for thick clouds, strong green beam for water clouds with small droplets and a strong blue beam for warm surfaces.

The Kalpana 1 and INSATs 3A, 3D, and 3DR satellites have bolstered India’s weather monitoring and warning services.

The Global Carbon Project report for 2023 was released during the recent COP28 summit held in Dubai, UAE.

It is a Global Research Project of Future Earth and a research partner of the World Climate Research Programme.

• Established in – 2001
• It is prepared every year by a global consortium of scientists.

Aim – To develop a complete picture of the global carbon cycle, including both its biophysical and human dimensions together with the interactions and feedbacks between them.

Focus – On the global biogeochemical cycles which govern 3 greenhouse gases (GHGs) like carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), and nitrous oxide (N2O), including their natural and human drivers, and opportunities for low carbon pathways.

Significance – It produces Global Carbon Budget annually which provides an in-depth look at the amount of fossil fuels that nations around the world burn and where it ends up.

• 2023 report – It projects fossil CO2 emissions of 36.8 billion tonnes in 2023, up 1.1% from 2022.
• Global emissions from coal, oil and gas are all projected to increase with most steep increase from oil.
• Atmospheric CO2 levels are projected to average 419.3 ppm in 2023, 51% above pre-industrial levels.

In India – CO2 emissions will cross 3 gigatons (gt) by the end of 2023, about 8% higher than the figure of 2022.

• India’s per capita emissions is only about 1.9 tonnes (against a world average of almost 5 tons) and its cumulative emissions is only 3% (as against 25% for US) of the global emissions.

• On the sidelines of the Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit, PM interacted with prominent business leaders in the Global FinTech Leadership Forum at GIFT city in Gujarat recently.

The Global Fintech Forum is a space for shareholders, customers, and participants to share experiences and experiment.

• Zero Defect Zero Effect (ZED) is a certification scheme for Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs).
• The scheme's goal is to improve the competitiveness and sustainability of MSMEs, and to help them become national and international champions.
• The ZED scheme has 3 levels of certification - Bronze, Silver, and Gold.

The certification is based on parameters such as quality, safety, production, cleanliness, energy, and the environment.

• Swayam Siddha is a financial product from the State Bank of India (SBI) that provides loans to women entrepreneurs from Self Help Groups (SHGs).

The loans can be up to 5 lakh rupees.