20 June 2024, The Hindu
Union Cabinet gives go-ahead to increase MSP of 14 kharif crops
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GS 3: Issues related to direct and indirect farm subsidies and minimum support prices
- The Union Cabinet gave its nod to raise the minimum support price (MSP) for paddy by 5.35% to ₹2,300 per quintal for the upcoming 2024-25 kharif marketing season, a decision that comes ahead of Assembly elections in Haryana, Maharashtra, Jharkhand and Delhi.
- In the first major decision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s third term in office, the Cabinet approved MSP hikes for all 14 kharif season crops, in alignment with the government’s “clear policy” of keeping MSPs at least 1.5 times above the cost of production as calculated by the government, Information and Broadcasting Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said.
- However, only four of these crops have MSPs that will provide farmers with a margin of more than 50% above their production costs: bajra (77%), followed by arhar dal (59%), maize (54%), and black gram (52%).
NHRC sends notice to Centre over ‘anti-labour practices’ at a warehouse of a multinational company in Haryana
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GS 2: mechanisms, laws, institutions and Bodies constituted for the protection and betterment of vulnerable sections
- The National Human Right Commission (NHRC) on Wednesday issued notice to the Centre over reports that one of the warehouses of a multinational company in Haryana’s Manesar is asking its employees to take a pledge that they would not take toilet or water breaks until they finished unloading packages from six trucks, each measuring 24 feet long, after their team’s 30-minute tea break had ended.
- As per the reports, one of the workers, who works 10 hours a day for five days a week and earns ₹10,088 per month, stated that even if they work continuously without breaks, including the 30-minute lunch and tea breaks, they cannot unload more than four trucks per day.
- A woman worker also claimed that she keeps standing for nine hours daily and is required to evaluate 60 small products or 40 medium-sized products per hour during duty.
- Reportedly, the multinational company has also encountered similar accusations internationally.
Blueprints beyond borders, for solace and shelter
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GS 3: Security challenges and their management in border areas
- Today, the world has over 43.4 million refugees, and with conflicts raging in different parts of the world, this number is only increasing.
- But as it rises, we also run the risk of treating these people as figures in a statistical compilation, and not human beings with needs, fears, hopes and wants.
- Yet this, precisely, is what they are. And World Refugee Day (June 20) is a sombre occasion to think of all those human beings — a ceaseless succession of families with dreams and desires, laughter and joy — whose lives have been uprooted, all those homes that have been destroyed, and all those futures that have been jeopardised.
- But this is also an occasion to think of safe havens granted, asylum ensured, refugees protected, and solutions found.
A story of displacement to one of empowerment
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GS 2: International Relations- India and its neighbourhood
- The Sri Lankan Tamils who arrived on the shores of Tamil Nadu, India, for the first time in 1983 had lost everything.
- Their only objective was to save their lives from the hate-filled ethnocentric violence which caused their displacement.
- Most vulnerable Sri Lankan Tamils chose India due to its proximity, accessibility and linguistic commonality of Tamil.
- Though aware of all the hardships, they were sure of leading a threat-free life in Tamil Nadu.
A torrid crisis
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Prelims syllabus: General issues on Environmental Ecology, Biodiversity and Climate Change
- Northern India has been bearing the brunt of the longest stretch of heatwaves in the last 15 years.
- The minimum day temperatures in some States have consistently remained above 45° C and those in the relatively cooler ones, at least 3°-6° C above what is usual for this time of the year.
- Even night temperatures have consistently been 3°-6° C above normal, a consequence of the near-absence of moisture and rain.
- To add to this, the monsoon has been sluggish. After an early start, the monsoon has stalled since June 12 and is stuck in central India.
- Before its onset over Kerala, the India Meteorological Department had forecast the rainfall in June over India to be ‘normal’.
- It has now updated that estimate to be ‘below normal’ or, in quantitative terms, a minimum 8% shortfall over the month’s expected quantum of 16.69 cm.
- This update, however, is not useful as it does not give an insight into the progress of the monsoon.
- The normal dates of the monsoon’s arrival over the northwestern and northern States are those spanning the June 25-July 1 timeframe.
- Whether the monsoon’s current hiatus will push these dates even further remains to be seen.
- A prolonged hiatus could mean an even greater load on the infrastructure in these States.
Invisible suffering of Rohingya refugees
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GS 3: Security challenges and their management in border areas
- At a recent group psychosocial support session for Rohingya women refugees in Delhi, women burst into laughter when the therapist asked about feeling anxious at night.
- “I wake up paralysed on many nights. My hands and legs numb thinking there is a fire in our camp again.” Rozina laughed, acting out her paralysis. Another added, “everytime there is a loud sound we run out half naked, without our burqas, fearing another fire.
- There is no time to cover”. All 20 women in the room were laughing with tears in their eyes.
- Psychotherapists say that laughter can be a defense mechanism that protects trauma survivors from feeling the depth of their actual pain.
- According to United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) data from December 2023, more than 22,000 Rohingya refugees live in India.
On the Hindu Kush Himalayas snow update
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Prelims syllabus: Indian and World Geography-Physical, Social, Economic Geography of India and the World
- The Ganga river basin — India’s largest — reached a record low snow persistence in 2024, the Hindu Kush Himalaya snow update of the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) has reported.
- The Brahmaputra and the Indus basins have suffered similarly, threatening water supply to millions of people.
- “Tragically this is yet another postcard from the frontlines of a climate crisis that is accelerating even beyond scientists’ projections and causing huge challenges in one of the most populated regions of the world,” Miriam Jackson, Cryosphere Lead at ICIMOD and a contributor to reports of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, told The Hindu.
India, U.S. working to scale up partnership on critical minerals
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GS 2: International Relations- Bilateral, regional and global groupings and agreements involving India and/or affecting the Indian interests
- India and the U.S. are looking to “quickly” conclude a bilateral agreement on furthering cooperation on critical minerals between the U.S. Department of Commerce and the Indian Ministry of Commerce and Industry and the Ministry of Mines, and to drive a partnership in supply chains for graphite, gallium, and germanium.
- One of the aims will be to promote “India’s vital role in the mineral security partnership, including through co-investing in a lithium resource project in South America and a rare earths deposit in Africa, to responsibly and sustainably diversify critical mineral supply chains”, said a fact sheet issued on June 17 on the India-U.S. Initiative for Critical and Emerging Technology (iCET) dialogue, chaired by the National Security Advisers of the countries.
India eyes breakthrough against sickle cell
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GS 2: Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Education, Human Resources
- India is getting closer to developing a gene therapy for sickle cell disease, a genetic blood disorder with a high prevalence rate among the Scheduled Tribes, officials of the Union Tribal Affairs Ministry said on June 19.
- Vibhu Nayyar, Secretary, of the Tribal Affairs Ministry, said the government was expecting to hear “good news” by January 2025 on the laboratory tests that are being run. M. Srinivas, Director of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), said researchers were working to develop a gene therapy using CRISPR-Cas9, a gene-editing tool.
