Stages of Communalism

What is communalism?

• Bipan Chandra, in his book, “Communalism in Modern India”, defines as “Communalism is an ideology based on the belief that Indian society is divided into religious communities, whose economic, political, social and cultural interests diverge and are even hostile to each other because of their religious differences.”

3 stages of communalism

• In this context, it is important to be aware of the three important phrases which the great historian, Bipan Chandra, mentioned in his book, “Communalism in Modern India”.

1. First Stage-Communal Consciousness

• The 1st stage of communalism, according to Bipan Chandra, originated mainly in the second half of the 19th Century, due to the social religious reform movement.
• If we closely look at the social religious reform movement- this was not aimed against a particular community.
• Most of these reform movements were brought about to bring certain positive changes in their respective communities.
• This ‘communal consciousness’ can be explained through the basis of the below example. When a Hindu begins to think of himself as ‘Hindu’ and a Christian begins to think of himself as ‘Christian’.
• When a peasant for example starts recognizing himself as a ‘peasant’, or a worker in a mill starts recognizing himself as a ‘mill-worker’, then this is referred to as the beginning of a ‘class consciousness’.

2. Second Stage-Liberal Communalism

• This stage is marked by the development where a particular group of people or community starts believing that their political, economical, social and religious interests are different from the other community.

3. Third Stage– Extreme Communalism

• The third stage of communalism is when a group of people, start believing that their interests are not only divergent but also begin to clash, or are contradictory.
• It is this that leads to violence.

Thus the 2nd stage is the result of the 1st stage of communalism, and the 3rd, the result of the 2nd stage of communalism, according to Bipan Chandra.

Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana

1. It was started in 2015 under Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare. It is a sub component of Soil Health Management under National Mission on Sustainable Agriculture.
2. MP has largest area under Organic certification followed by Rajasthan, Maharashtra and UP.

Features of PKVY

3. Produce Agri products free from chemicals and pesticides.
4. Cluster approach in input production, quality assurance and value addition.
   • For more than 50 farmers. Total area = 50 acre (20 ha).
   • It is for 3 years.
   • Farmers will get Rs. 20000 per acre.
   • The amount covers all expenses.
5. Out of total farmers in clusters
   • 65% should be Small and Marginal Farmers.
   • Atleast 30% Budget to women
6. It includes Direct Marketing through innovative means.
7. Participatory Guarantee Systems provides certification to organic products.

Bhartiya Prakritik Krishi Padhati (BPKP),

• Bhartiya Prakritik Krishi Padhati (BPKP), is introduced as a sub scheme of Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana (PKVY) since 2020-21 for the promotion of traditional indigenous practices including natural farming.
• The scheme mainly emphasises on

1. exclusion of all synthetic chemical inputs and promotes on-farm biomass recycling with major stress on biomass mulching;
2. use of cow dung-urine formulations;
3. plant based preparations and
4. time to time working of soil for aeration.

• Under BPKP, financial assistance of Rs 12200/ha for 3 years is provided for cluster formation, capacity building and continuous handholding by trained personnel, certification and residue analysis.

AstraZeneca- Reports of blood clots

Data of global Covid-19 vaccination

• A little over 392 million doses of vaccine have been administered globally, according to the Bloomberg Vaccine Tracker, with India accounting for around 9% of them.

Reports of blood clot

• In the last week, there have been a flurry of reports from Europe, of blood clots developing in a very small fraction of those vaccinated and leading to a cascade of European countries announcing a temporary halt to their vaccination programmes involving the AstraZeneca (AZ) vaccine.
• WHO and the European Medicines Agency have underlined that there is no causal link between vaccines and the occurrence of such clots.
• In fact, there are less than 40 such occurrences reported so far, and that is much below the background of about 1,000 to 2,000 blood clots every single day in the general population, say studies based on the U.S. population.

• These organisations advocate that the ongoing vaccination drives continue, even accelerate, as the rate of vaccination is not keeping pace with what is required to control the pandemic.

Issues with the approved Covid vaccines

• The AZ, Pfizer and Moderna vaccines have been released under emergency use authorisations, meaning that the entire profile of risks associated with them have not been thoroughly studied.
• History is replete with instances of vaccines that have been taken off even years after approval after a slight increase in untoward complications.
• As of now, the risk of dying from serious COVID-19 far outweighs that from vaccine reactions and it is such a calculation that weighs on the minds of regulators before approving vaccines.
• Unlike drugs administered to the sick, vaccines have a higher bar of proving themselves safe as they are given to the healthy.
• Regulators of all countries rely on the experiences of others, as exemplified in India alone where it was AZ trials in the United Kingdom that paved the way for approval in India.
• Therefore, a warning in one country must immediately activate the sensors in another.
• India has a long experience with vaccinations as well as expertise in evaluating risk; however, transparency and prompt data sharing, thereby building public trust, is not one of its strong suits.
• This was evidenced by the approval of vaccines in spite of scant efficacy data.
• There is almost no information by the National Committee on Adverse Events Following Immunisation on the nature of serious adverse events following immunisation.
  • This is in contrast to the frequent analyses shared by organisations such as the U.S. Centre for Disease Control and Prevention on adverse events.

Way ahead

• Public trust is a key ingredient to successful vaccination programmes and this can be only earned by the government’s zealous attention to allaying concerns.

Project RE-HAB-National Honey Mission

• An initiative of the Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC), Project RE-HAB (Reducing Elephant-Human Attacks using Bees) intends to create “bee fences” to thwart elephant attacks in human habitations using honeybees.

• Project RE-HAB is a sub-mission of KVIC’s National Honey Mission.
• That is how the authorities intend to mitigate human-elephant conflict that seems to continue unabated in Kodagu and other parts of south Karnataka region.
• A pilot project launched in Kodagu entails installing bee boxes along the periphery of the forest and the villages with the belief that the elephants will not venture anywhere close to the bees and thus avoid transgressing into the human landscape.
• This idea stems from the elephants’ proven fear of the bees.
• These spots are located on the periphery of Nagarahole National Park and Tiger Reserve, known conflict zones.
• The boxes are connected with a string so that when elephants attempt to pass through, a tug causes the bees to swarm the elephant herds and dissuade them from progressing further.
• Bee boxes have been placed on the ground as well as hung from the trees.
• High-resolution, night vision cameras have been installed at strategic points to record the impact of bees on elephants and their behaviour in these zones.

Data on human fatalities

• Between 2015 and 2020, nearly 2,500 people have lost their lives in elephant attacks across India out of which about 170 human fatalities have been reported in Karnataka alone, according to KVIC.

Great Indian Bustard and Conservation Efforts

• It is one of the heaviest Flight birds. They have weak eyesight. Habitat is grassland (not covered under Forest Conservation Act, 1980).
• It is endemic to the Indian subcontinent found in Central India, west India and eastern Pakistan.
• Bustard species found in India: Great Indian Bustard, Lesser Florican and Bengal Florican; Houbara Bustard in Pakistan.
• It is considered as the flagship/ indicator grassland species, representing the health of the grassland ecology. No species can replace it.
• It has an L-shaped habitat = Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.
• The largest population is in Rajasthan. It is also Rajasthan’s State Bird. There are 150 Great Indian Bustards (GIB) in Rajasthan’s Desert National Park (DNP).
• Other important Sites: Great Indian Bustard WS (Maharashtra), Naliya (Gujarat), Warora (Maharashtra) and Bellary (Karnataka); Rollapadu WS (Andhra Pradesh) and Karera Wildlife Sanctuary (MP); Lala Sanctuary in Kutch.

Conservation Efforts

• Protection under Schedule 1 of Wildlife Protection Act, 1972; Appendix I of CITES; CMS/ Bonn Convention & Critically Endangered under IUCN.
• Rajasthan State has started Project Godawan for its conservation at Desert National Park in Jaisalmer.
• It is 1 of the species under the Integrated Development of Wildlife Habitat's Species Recovery Programme. The important objective of this programme is to build up the captive population of GIB and to release the chicks in the wild for increasing the population.
• The decline in the Population of the Great Indian Bustard
• MoEF initiated a project of 34 crores for the conservation and protection of GIB. Only 130 individuals are left.

Reason for decline:

• Hunting, poaching, habitat erosion, 'greening' projects that transform arid grasslands to wooded areas, change of land use from grassland to farmland, fast moving vehicles and free-ranging dogs in villages.
• In recent times, death due to collision with wind turbines and power transmission lines has emerged as a major factor.
• Grassland is not covered under Forest Conservation Act, 1980.

What is the news?

• The Supreme Court on Monday intervened on behalf of the critically endangered Great Indian Bustards over the birds falling dead after colliding with power lines running through their dwindling natural habitats in Gujarat and Rajasthan.
• A Bench led by Chief Justice of India Sharad A. Bobde will examine on a priority basis whether overhead power cables can be replaced with underground ones to save one of the heaviest flying birds on the planet.
• Attorney General K.K. Venugopal, appearing for the Power Ministry, however, submitted that only low voltage lines can go underground but not the high voltage ones.
• The court found further that an alternative mechanism — to install flight bird diverters — to guide the birds away from the power lines would be expensive.
• The court discovered that the diverters, with their recurring costs, would end up costing more than installing and maintaining underground lines. But the court suggested treading the middle path.
• “Wherever there are high voltage power lines, they can use flight bird diverters even if the recurring costs are high. Wherever there are overhead low voltage lines, these lines can be placed underground,” Chief Justice Bobde remarked.
• Senior advocate A.M. Singhvi, appearing for some power companies, objected to the court passing any sort of blanket ban which would affect over 50 lakh jobs.
• Mr Singhvi said the greater threat to the birds was from their diminishing habitat, flattened for agriculture.

For more information about Great Indian Bustard: click here

Small Farmers’ Agribusiness Consortium

• The government of India through the Small Farmers’ Agribusiness Consortium (SFAC), a registered society under the Department of Agriculture, Cooperation & Farmers’ Welfare, Government of India, is promoting Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) by mobilizing the farmers and helping them in registering as companies and providing them with handholding support and training for their sustainability.
• SFAC handles Prize Stabilization Fund too (PT Pointer).
• SFAC has undertaken various FPO promotion programmes in the country such as through Vegetable Initiative for Urban Cluster (VIUC), Mission Organic Value Chain Development (MOVCD), National Food for Security Mission (NFSM), Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture (MIDH) etc.
• SFAC has promoted 910 FPOs in the country out of which 58 FPOs are from Uttar Pradesh.
• The government of India has launched a Central Sector Scheme of “Formation and Promotion of 10,000 Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs)” on 29th February 2020 for providing better facilities to farmers due to economy of scale and better bargain power of FPOs thus improving income of the member farmers.
• Under this scheme, provision is made for professional handholding support for a period of five years to new FPOs formed.
• Further, a provision has been made for matching equity grant upto Rs. 2,000 per farmer member of FPO with a limit of Rs. 15.00 lakh per FPO and a credit guarantee facility up to Rs. 2 crores of project loan per FPO from the eligible lending institution to ensure institutional credit accessibility to FPOs. Suitable provision for training and skill buildings of the FPOs has also been made.
• Already more than 2200 FPOs produce clusters have been allocated during 2020-21 for formation of FPOs.

Low Efficacy of Adenovirus-Based Vaccines

AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson vaccines, produced from harmless adenovirus have low efficacy compared to Pfizer and Moderna vaccines which are produced from mRNAs.

About Adenovirus:

• Adenoviruses are common viruses that cause a range of illnesses.
• They can cause cold-like symptoms, sore throat, bronchitis, pneumonia, diarrhoea and conjunctivitis.
• Adenoviruses are non-enveloped, double-stranded DNA viruses.

Adenoviruses Transmission:

• Adenoviruses are usually spread from an infected person to others through close personal contact.

Treatment:

• There is no specific treatment for people with adenovirus infection.

Mera Ration Mobile App

The Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food, and Public Distribution launch the ‘Mera Ration’ mobile app.

About Mera Ration Mobile app:

• Mera Ration Mobile app will facilitate the ‘One Nation-One Ration Card’ system.
• It aims to help those ration cardholders who migrated to new areas for livelihoods.
• Its developed by National Informatics Center(NIC).

Features of the app:

• The application allows beneficiaries to
  • Find out the nearest fair price shop available according to the location.
  • Users can check details of a) Recent transactions b) Status of the Aadhaar seeding and c) entitlement of the amount of rations available to them.
  • Migrant beneficiaries can also register their migration details through the application.

About One Nation-One Ration Card System:

• Launched by the Department of Food & Public Distribution under the Ministry of Consumer Affairs.
• The system envisages inter-state portability of ration cards under National Food Security Act, 2013.
• NFSA beneficiaries & migrant beneficiaries can claim foodgrains from any Fair Price Shop (FPS) in the country through existing ration cards with biometric/Aadhaar authentication in a seamless manner.
• The system also allows their family members back home to claim the balance of food grains on the same ration card.
• Not all states have enrolled for the scheme yet.
• At present 32 States/UTs are covered under ONORC and integration of the remaining 4 States/UTs is expected to be completed in the next few months.

Support to State Extension Programs for Extension Reforms

About the Scheme:

• Centrally Sponsored Scheme
• Popularly known as ATMA Scheme - under implementation since 2005.
• Not implemented in all of India. Only in 28 states.
• The scheme promotes a decentralized farmer-friendly extension system in the country.
• Under the scheme, grants-in-aid are released to the State Governments with the objective to support State Government’s efforts to make available the latest agricultural technologies and good agricultural practices
• Includes farmer training for multi-layer farming.