Daily Current Affairs

Release of ‘Basic Animal Husbandry Statistics 2022’ (GS Paper 3, Economy)

Why in news?

• Recently, Union Minister Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry & Dairying (FAHD) unveiled the department’s annual publication, the ‘Basic Animal Husbandry Statistics 2022’.

 

Details:

• The publication gives an overview of Animal Husbandry sector briefly in terms of important livestock statistics on livestock population, livestock production and other information like animal diseases, infrastructure etc.
• It is the primary source of data on production estimates of four Major Livestock Products (MLPs) like Milk, Egg, Meat and Wool for the year 2021-22 and other technical aspects of Integrated Sample Survey (ISS).
• In addition to the production estimates, it also contains data of secondary information like livestock population as per latest 20th Livestock Census, import and export data of livestock and livestock products, incidence of livestock disease, infrastructure and economic contribution of livestock sector.

 

Key Highlights:

• Total milk production in the country during 2021-22 is 221.06 million tonnes.
• In the current year 2021-22, the milk production has registered an annual growth rate of 5.29%.
• Top five major milk producing States are Rajasthan (15.05%), Uttar Pradesh (14.93%), Madhya Pradesh (8.06%), Gujarat (7.56%) and Andhra Pradesh (6.97%).
• In 2021-22, the total egg production in the country is 129.60 billion nos which has increased by 6.19% as compared to previous year.
• Total five major egg producing States are Andhra Pradesh (20.41%), Tamil Nadu (16.08%), Telangana (12.86%), West Bengal (8.84%) and Karnataka (6.38%).
• The total meat production in the country is 9.29 million tonnes for the year 2021-22 with an annual growth rate of 5.62%.
• The total five major meat producing States are Maharashtra (12.25%), Uttar Pradesh (12.14%), West Bengal (11.63%), Andhra Pradesh (11.04%), and Telangana (10.82%).
• The total wool production in the country during 2021-22 is 33.13 thousand tonnes which has decline by 10.30% as compared to previous year.
• The top five major wool producing States are Rajasthan (45.91%), Jammu and Kashmir (23.19%), Gujarat (6.12%), Maharashtra (4.78%) and Himachal Pradesh (4.33%).
• The per-capita availability of milk is 444 gram/day during 2021-22 increased by 17 gram/day over previous year.
• In 2021-22, the per-capita availability of egg is 95 nos/annuam increased by 5 nos/annuam over previous year.
• The per-capita availability of meat is 6.82 kg/annuam during 2021-22 increased by 0.30 kg/annuam over previous year.
• During 2014-15 and 2020-21, the value addition of sector grew at a compound annual growth rate of 7.93%.
• In 2020-21, the share of Livestock at constant prices in Agriculture Sector and total GVA was 30.13% and 4.9% respectively.

 

Significance:

• The information will be useful for all stakeholders for planning and policy making purposes as well as for research and academician across the globe.

 

National Policy on Senior Citizen

(GS Paper 2, Social Justice)

Why in news?

• Recently, Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment, in a written reply in Rajya Sabha, gave details about ongoing policies for care and welfare of senior citizens.

National Policy on Older Persons (NPOP):

• The National Policy on Older Persons (NPOP) was announced in 1999 to reaffirm the commitment to ensure the well-being of older persons.
• The Policy envisages State support to ensure financial and food security, health care, shelter and other needs of older persons, equitable share in development, protection against abuse and exploitation, and availability of services to improve the quality of their lives.

 

Schemes launched by Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment:

Central Sector Scheme of Integrated Programme for Senior Citizens (IPSrC):

• The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment implements a Central Sector Scheme of Integrated Programme for Senior Citizens (IPSrC) under which grants in aid are given for running and maintenance of Senior Citizens Homes (Old Age Homes)/ Continuous Care Homes, Mobile Medicare Units etc. to the Implementing Agencies (IAs) such as State Governments / Union Territory Administrations (through Registered Societies)/ Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) / Local bodies; Non-Governmental/Voluntary Organizations.

 

Rashtriya Vayoshri Yojana (RVY):

• Rashtriya Vayoshri Yojana (RVY) is a Central Sector Scheme funded from Senior Citizens’ Welfare Fund.
• Under the Scheme of RVY, aids and assistive living devices are provided to senior citizens belonging to BPL category or those senior citizens who earn less than 15000/- per month and suffer from age related disabilities such as low vision, hearing impairment, loss of teeth and loco-motor disabilities.
• The aids and assistive devices viz. walking sticks, elbow crutches, walkers/crutches, tripods/quadpods, hearing aids, wheelchairs, artificial dentures and spectacles are provided to eligible beneficiaries, free of cost.
• The Scheme is being implemented by Artificial Limbs Manufacturing Corporation of India (ALIMCO) which is a Public Sector Undertaking under the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment.

 

National Helpline for Senior Citizen (14567) - Elderline:

• The Ministry has set up the National Helpline for Senior Citizen for senior citizen to address the grievance of the elders.
• The helpline has been launched across the country and has been dedicated to the nation on the occasion of the International Day for Older Persons i.e. on 01st October, 2021. The Elder line offers services to the senior citizens through toll free number 14567.

 

State Action Plan for Senior Citizens (SAPSrC):

• Appreciating the critical and significant role of States/UTs, each State/UT is expected to plan and strategize taking into account their local considerations and frame their own State Action Plans for the welfare of their senior citizens.
• This State Action Plan may comprise a long-term strategy for five years as well as Annual Action Plans. Department of Social Justice and Empowerment shall release funds to the States/UTs for formulation and implementation of their State Action Plans.

 

SAGE:

• To promote out-of-the-box and innovative solutions for the commonly faced problems, innovative start-ups will be identified and encouraged for developing products, processes and services for the welfare of the elderly under this initiative.
• The selected start-ups/start-up ideas can be provided equity support of upto Rs.1 crore per project while ensuring that the total Government equity in the start-up should not exceed 49%. For this, the SAGE portal has been launched in June 2021.

 

Atal Vayo Abhyuday Yojana:

• Under Umbrella Scheme of Atal Vayo Abhyuday Yojana, Ministry has included awareness generation/sensitization programmes with school/college students for strengthening Inter-generational bonding.
• It also aims to provide information and educational material to individuals, families and groups for better understanding of the ageing process so as to enable them to handle issues relating to it.

 

Exports fall 8.8%, trade deficit shrinks over 7%

(GS Paper 3, Economy)

Why in news?

• Tentative global demand pulled India’s goods exports down 8.8% in February to $33.9 billion, while imports fell 8.2% from a year ago to $51.31 billion, according to Commerce Ministry estimates.
• This is the third time in five months that merchandise exports have contracted, following an 11.6% drop in October 2022 and a 3% fall in December 2022.

 

Details:

• Outbound shipments’ value dropped for as many as 16 of India’s top 30 export items in February, with 14 of them recording close to or higher than double digit declines. This included a 9.7% dip in engineering exports, which have been a bulwark of India’s exports in recent years.
• The merchandise trade deficit during February 2023 fell 7% to $17.43 billion, slightly higher than January’s $16.56 billion deficit, which in turn was the lowest in at least 18 months.
• The first two months of 2023 clocked a sharply lower average deficit than seen through all of 2022, when the monthly deficit hit a record $29.23 billion in September.
• Although gold imports dropped almost 45% from February 2022 levels to $2.63 billion, this constituted a 277% month-on-month jump from January’s imports of the yellow metal.

 

Import & Export:

• For the first 11 months of 2022-23, India’s total goods exports now stand at $405.94 billion, 7.55% higher than in the corresponding period of 2021-22.
• Imports have grown 18.82% over the corresponding period to $653.47 billion from about $550 billion a year ago. Consequently, India’s goods trade deficit for this year is now 43.5% higher than in the first 11 months of 2021-22, at $247.53 billion.
• On the exports front, despite the dip, India has “kept the momentum” and will “exceed the year’s target”, related to a $750 billion goalpost for goods and services exports in 2022-23.

 

Revised estimates:

• While the government had initially estimated a 6.6% drop in exports for January, the month’s exports have now been revised upward to $35.76 billion, reflecting a 1.5% rise from January 2022 levels. Import numbers for January have also been upgraded from $50.66 billion to $52.33 billion.
• On a sequential basis, February’s exports were 5.25% lower than January while the import bill was about 2% below the previous month’s level.

 

Foreign lawyers, firms can operate in India, says BCI

(GS Paper 2, Governance)

Why in news?

• The Bar Council of India (BCI) has opened up law practice in India to foreign lawyers and law firms.

Details:

• Recently, the BCI notified in the official gazette the Rules for Registration and Regulation of Foreign Lawyers and Foreign Law Firms in India, 2022.
• It enables foreign lawyers and law firms “to practise foreign law, diverse international law and international arbitration matters in India on the principle of reciprocity in a well-defined, regulated and controlled manner”.
• The BCI said that the move would benefit Indian lawyers, whose standards of proficiency in law are comparable to the international standards.

 

What do the new rules allow?

• According to the Advocates Act, advocates enrolled with the Bar Council alone are entitled to practise law in India. All others, such as a litigant, can appear only with the permission of the court, authority or person before whom the proceedings are pending.
• The notification essentially allows foreign lawyers and law firms to register with BCI to practise in India if they are entitled to practise law in their home countries. However, they cannot practise Indian law.
• They shall be allowed to practise transactional work /corporate work such as joint ventures, mergers and acquisitions, intellectual property matters, drafting of contracts and other related matters on a reciprocal basis.
• They shall not be involved or permitted to do any work pertaining to the conveyancing of property, Title investigation or other similar works, the notification states.
• Indian lawyers working with foreign law firms will also be subject to the same restriction of engaging only in “non-litigious practice.”

 

How have foreign law firms operated so far?

• The issue of foreign law firms entering the Indian market came to courts with a challenge before the Bombay High Court in 2009. In ‘Lawyers Collective v Union of India’, the Bombay High Court essentially held that only Indians holding Indian law degrees can practise law in India.
• The HC interpreted Section 29 of the Advocates Act, which states that only advocates enrolled with BCI can practise law. The HC also held that ‘practice’ would include both litigious and non-litigious practice, so foreign firms can neither advise their clients in India nor appear in court.

 

‘Fly in and fly out’

• In 2012, the issue came up before the Madras High Court in ‘AK Balaji v Union of India’.
• In 2015, the Supreme Court in a decision recognised the practice of foreign law firms in a very narrow sense.
• In ‘AK Balaji v Government of India’, the Madras High Court also held that foreign firms cannot practise either on the litigation or non-litigation side unless they meet the requirements and rules laid down by the Advocates Act and the BCI rules.
• Over 32 foreign law firms from the UK, the US, France and Australia had been impleaded as respondents in the case. However, the Madras High Court created an exception. It said that there would be no ban on temporary visits or advising clients on a “fly in and fly out” basis.

 

BPOs:

• By 2012, Business Process Outsourcing (BPOs) had arrived in India on a big scale and did backend work for US-based companies.
• In the legal profession, these firms, Legal Process Outsourcing (LPOs), carried support operations for lawyers. They operated in uncertain legal frameworks and the Supreme Court had to intervene to settle the law on the issue.

 

What was the SC’s decision?

• Both the Madras and Bombay High Court judgments were challenged by the BCI and Lawyer’s Collective respectively before the Apex Court.
• In 2018, the Supreme Court upheld both the High Court judgments disallowing foreign law firms and lawyers, with some modifications such as holding the expression “fly in and fly out” to cover only “casual visit not amounting to practice.”
• This meant that the “fly in and fly out” route could not mean regular visits. On the issue of LPOs, the SC did not decide on their fate.
• They argued that they were essentially BPOs that managed secretarial support, transcription services, proofreading services, travel desk support services, etc. which technically do not come within the purview of the Advocates Act or the BCI Rules.

 

Way Forward:

• Now, the BCI has reasoned that its move will address concerns about the flow of Foreign Direct Investment in the country and make India a hub of International Commercial Arbitration.
• The rules bring legal clarity to foreign law firms that currently operate in a very limited way in India.

 

About BCI:

• The BCI is a statutory body established under the Advocates Act, 1961, and it regulates legal practice and legal education in India.