DAILY NEWS ANALYSIS

Recently, Prime Minister of India took part in cleaning the Kalaram temple premises under the ‘Swachh Bharat Abhiyan’ campaign.

• Built in – 1792, with the efforts of one Sardar Rangarao Odhekar.
• Name – It derives its name from a black statue of the Lord Kala Ram translates literally to “Black Ram.”
• Location – On the banks of the River Godavari in the Panchavati area of the Nashik in Maharashtra.

Panchavati, whose comes from the existence of 5 banyan trees in the area. It was a part of Dandakaranya (dense forest in central India). According to Ramayanam, Lord Ram, Sita, and Lakshman set up a hut here as the presence of 5 banyan trees made this region auspicious.

• Features – It has 14 steps, which represent the 14 years of Ram’s exile and has 84 pillars, which represents the cycle of 84 lakh species that one must complete to be born as a human.
• Sanctum sanctorum – Statues of Ram, Sita, and Lakshman, and a black idol of Hanuman at the main entrance.
• Historical importance – It is also the site of a landmark agitation led by Babasaheb Ambedkar demanding temple entry rights for Dalits more than 90 years ago.

Bhavarth Ramayana, written in Marathi, by Sant Eknath.

Nashik Satyagraha in 1930

• Lead by – B R Ambedkar along with the Marathi teacher and social activist Pandurang Sadashiv Sane, known as Sane Guruji.
• Aim – To demand access for Dalits to Hindu temples.
• Events – On March 2, 1930, Ambedkar organised a large protest outside the Kalaram temple with many dalit protesters.
• Over the next few days, they sang songs, raised slogans, and demanded the right to enter the temple.
• Sane Guruji too, travelled all over Maharashtra to campaign for Dalit rights, and led a protest fast at the Vitthal Temple.
• This continued until 1935.

In 1927, Ambedkar had launched Mahad or Chavdar Tale satyagraha to assert the rights of Dalits to use the water in public places.

India is poised to become the world’s largest producer of lentils (masoor) in the 2023-24 crop year due to increased acreage.

• Cultivation in India – Agriculture Ministry shows that 19.45 lakh hectares is under lentil till January 2024, 6% higher from last year’s area, and 37% higher than the normal area.
• India’s lentil production – In the 2022-23 crop year, it stood at 1.56 million tonne.
  • According to FAO, India is world’s 2^nd largest lentil growers (1.26 million tonnes) in 2022 while Canada tops the chart. followed by India.

Lentil Production in India has tapered since 2017-18 when the country recorded its highest output of 1.62 million tonne. But Indian government had increased the MSP of lentils to Rs 6,425 per quintal for the Rabi Marketing Season 2024-25 from the Rs 2,950 per quintal in 2014-15.

• Imports – It is to meet its domestic requirements, buying mainly from Australia, Canada, Russia, Singapore, and Turkey.
• During the current year, it also imported some quantities of lentil from UAE, USA, Sri Lanka and Nepal.

Recent facts:

1. India’s pulse imports have significantly decreased from about 6 million tonnes in 2016-17 to about 2 million tonnes in 2022-23. The decline is attributed to reduced imports of yellow peas and chickpeas over the past decade, primarily influenced by high import duties and procurement policies.
2. The government’s incentives to boost pulse cultivation have led to a higher lentil crop area, reaching over 19 lakh hectares by January 2024.
3. The government has increased the Minimum Support Price (MSP) to further support farmers
4. The government recently stated its objective of achieving self-sufficiency in pulses by the end of 2027
5. Despite the current increase in production, the past three decades have seen stagnation in acreage, production, and productivity of pulses across the country

Importance of pulse production for India:

• Pulses are rich in proteins and found to be the main source of protein to vegetarian people of India so it is the second important constituent of the Indian diet after cereals.
• Pulses being legumes fix atmospheric nitrogen into the soil. Being leguminous crops, all these crops except Arhar help in restoring soil fertility.
• These are mostly grown in rotation with other crops
• They add organic matter into the soil in the form of leaf mould.
• They supply additional fodder for cattle. Some pulse crops like Gram, Lobia, Urad bean & Moong bean are fed to animals as green fodder.
• They provide raw materials to various industries. Dal industry, Roasted grain industry, Papad industry, etc.

The major factors responsible for the stagnation in Pulses are:

Policy factors:

• Introduction of Green Revolution: A report “Pulses in India: Retrospect and Prospects” (2017) a report published by the Agriculture Ministry, says farmers in the Gangetic plains quit pulses for other crops around 1990 because of the improvement in irrigation facilities. The breakthrough via HYVs in cereals has been accompanied by a loss of acreage under pulses to cereals, and consequently a sharp decline in the total production of pulses.
• Skewed implementation of agriculture reforms: Due to a number of economic and political compulsions, the strategies for agricultural growth remained anxious with the aim of achieving rapid increases in food grain production by concentrating the resources and efforts on the relatively better-endowed areas and strata of cultivators.

Demand factor:

• Cobweb phenomenon: Shrinking demand due to a surge in prices leads to farmers diverting to other crops in the next agriculture seasons (thereby reducing production further), which leads to a vicious cycle of high price, low demand, and low production.

Infrastructure factors:

• Lack of Infrastructure: Inadequate Warehousing Facilities & Collateral Finance.
• Uncertain monsoons and insufficient irrigation amenities

Other factors:

• Pest attack: Pulses are highly prone to damage by insect pests, diseases, nematodes, and weeds.
  • Damage to pulses by nilgais and other stray animals is a big factor in Uttar Pradesh for farmers moving to other crops.
• Low seed rate resulting in poor crop stands.
• Imbalance of use of fertilizers: Unstable use of fertilizers is one of the important reasons for low productivity and depleting soil fertility. The average N: P: K ratio in the past two decades has been 7:3:1 against the recommended 4:2:1.
• Inadequate MSP by the government for pulses (compared to cereals)

Government Initiatives:

1. Providing Minimum Support Prices (MSP) to farmers through:
   1. National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India (NAFED)
   2. Small Farmers Agri Consortium (SFAC)
2. National Food Security Mission (NFSM)-Pulses.
3. ICAR’s Role in Research and Variety Development.
4. Pradhan Mantri Annadata Aay SanraksHan Abhiyan (PM-AASHA) Scheme.

Measures that can be taken to improve pulse production:

Short-term Strategies

• Strengthening seed delivery system: Availability of quality seeds of already-developed improved varieties would increase the pulse production by at least 15–20 per cent.
  • In addition to public seed corporations, seed societies and private companies should be involved in seed production.
• Ensuring remunerative prices: The MSP for pulses should be fixed considering not only the cost of its cultivation and parity with the competing crops but also considering the yield variability in pulses and externalities it brings to the system in terms of nitrogen saving and subsidy saved on fertilizer and irrigation.
• Effective procurement: Bring the procurement centres to the doorstep of the growers, particularly during harvest season.
• Skilling of pulse growers: India’s 600+ Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs) can be used for skilling pulse growers on modern production practices—from sowing to harvesting.
• Efficient crop insurance mechanism: Only 20 per cent of farmers subscribe to crop insurance. Providing efficient crop insurance would give sufficient confidence to these farmers to combat the situation of crop failure.

Medium-term Strategies

• Expansion of area under pulses: Fallow lands or reclaimed wastelands can be identified and targeted in each state to bring it under pulse crops.
• Farmers’ producer organization (FPO) on pulses: It will integrate the backward and forward linkages and will help the farmers in reducing the cost of production substantially.
• Customization and development of farm equipment: Developing small-size multi-crop harvesting farm machines and other farm equipment for plant protection
  • New age app-based custom hiring services for farm equipment can be quite useful, particularly for smallholders in doing the basic farm operations timely and economically.
  • Case study: Private Tractor Company, like Mahindra and Mahindra, has started on a pilot basis ‘on-demand farm equipment rental start-up, Trringo in Karnataka state, through which farmers can book tractors by the hour via a phone call.
• Setting up of storage and warehousing in rural areas
• Foresight for international trade: Develop a predictive tool to determine the demand and supply of pulses in forthcoming seasons to plan in advance to import or export pulses in the international market.

Long-term Strategies

• Developing short-duration and pest- and disease-resistant cultivars: Infestation of pests and diseases such as pod borer, wilt, and so on and variation in rainfall and temperature bring huge risks to pulses cultivation.
  • The development of suitable cultivars specific to production regions will be very important to break the yield barrier, as has happened in the southern region, particularly in the case of chickpeas.
• Integrating pulses into the public distribution system: Compulsory inclusion of pulses in the existing schemes such as the mid-day meal scheme or public distribution system (PDS) shall be ensured so that the minimum pulses consumption by poor households is maintained even during the scarcity in pulses production.

Over 10,000 kg of poppy straw, under the cover of cattle feed, has been seized by the Central Bureau of Narcotics in the last 1 year.

• Poppy straw – It is the husk left after the opium is extracted from the pods which also contains a very small morphine content.
• Drug – It is one of the narcotic drugs under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 (NDPS).

India is one of the few countries that legally cultivate opium poppy and is the only country on earth that illicitly produces opium gum.

• Legal regulation – Possession, sale, use, etc. are regulated by the State Governments under the State NDPS Rules.
• Farmers sell the poppy straw to those licensed by the State Governments to purchase poppy straw and any excess poppy straw is ploughed back into the field.
• Responsible authorities – The Central Bureau of Narcotics is responsible for
  • Issuing licenses to farmers to cultivate opium poppy
  • Supervising and controlling the cultivation
  • Procuring the opium produced by the licenced cultivators
• A Deputy Narcotics Commissioner is in-charge of each of the 3 opium growing States Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.
• The Narcotics Control Bureau, that comes under the Ministry of Home Affairs is also responsible in regulating NDPS.
• Violation – Anyone possessing, selling, purchasing or using it without a license or in violation of any conditions of the license is liable to prosecution under the NDPS Act.
• Control operations - In 2023, record high anti-narcotics operations were undertaken.
  • Under Operation Prahaar in 2023, 10,326 hectares of illicit opium field was destroyed in Arunachal and Manipur.

India is a signatory to the single Convention on Narcotic Drugs 1961, as amended by the 1972 Protocol, the Conventions on Psychotropic Substances, 1971 and the United Nations Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances, 1988.

On 12^th August 2011, the NMCG was listed as a society under the Societies Registration Act, 1860. It acted as the implementation arm of the National Ganga River Basin Authority (NGRBA) which was constituted under the provisions of the Environment (Protection) Act (EPA),1986.

NGRBA was dissolved in 2016 and replaced by the National Council for Rejuvenation, Protection, and Management of River Ganga.

Objective: The objective of the NMCG is to reduce pollution and ensure the rejuvenation of the Ganga River.Namami Gange is one of the Coveted Programmes of NMCG to clean Ganga.

This can be achieved by promoting intersectoral coordination for comprehensive planning & management and maintaining minimum ecological flow in the river, with the aim of ensuring water quality and environmentally sustainable development.

Organization Structure: The Act envisages a five-tier structure at the national, state, and district levels to take measures for prevention, control, and abatement of environmental pollution in river Ganga as below:

• • • National Ganga Council under the chairmanship of the Hon’ble Prime Minister of India.
    • Empowered Task Force (ETF) on river Ganga under the chairmanship of Hon’ble Union Minister of Jal Shakti (Department of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation).
    • National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG).
    • State Ganga Committees
    • District Ganga Committees in every specified district abutting river Ganga and its tributaries in the states.

Achievements

In the last seven years, while some progress has been made by India’s National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG), there are still significant challenges ahead in achieving the mission's goals.

• The NMCG has installed treatment plants capable of treating just 20% of the sewage estimated to be generated in the five major States that lie along the Ganga River.These states are Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, and West Bengal.
• The NMCG has projected that the treatment capacity for sewage will increase to 33% of the estimated amount generated by 2024, and further increase to 60% by 2026.
• The NMCG plans to set up Sewage Treatment Plants (STPs) capable of treating about 7,000 MLD of sewage by 2026.
• As of July 2023, STPs with a total capacity of 2,665 MLD have been commissioned and are operational. The progress has picked up significantly in recent years, with 1,455 MLD capacity completed in the last financial year (2022-23).
• STPs and sewerage networks are at the heart of the Namami Ganga Mission and account for about 80% of the overall project outlay.

Initiatives Related to Ganga?

• Namami Gange Programme
• Ganga Action Plan
• National River Ganga Basin Authority (NRGBA)
• Clean Ganga Fund
• Bhuvan-Ganga Web App
• Ban on Waste Disposal

The Pench Tiger Reserve in Maharashtra has been designated as India's first Dark Sky Park and the fifth in Asia, protecting the night sky and preventing light pollution.

India’s First Dark Sky Park

• The Pench Tiger Reserve (PTR) in Maharashtra is India's first Dark Sky Park within a tiger reserve for earmarking areas around the park that restrict light pollution for stargazers to access pristine dark skies.
• Dark Sky Place certification focuses on lighting policy, dark sky-friendly retrofits, outreach and education, and monitoring the night sky.
• This designation positions PTR as a sanctuary where tourists can witness celestial spectacles, shielded from the intrusion of artificial light pollution.
• PTR became the fifth such park in Asia.
• The certification was given by the International Dark-Sky Association, a global dark-sky movement to promote astronomy.

Pench Tiger Reserve (PTR)

Location: The Reserve is located in the southern reaches of the Satpura hills in the Seoni and Chhindwara districts in Madhya Pradesh and continues in Nagpur district in Maharashtra as a separate Sanctuary.

• It is named after the Pench River, which flows from north to south through the Reserve.
• It comprises the Indira Priyadarshini Pench National Park, the Pench Mowgli Sanctuary, and a buffer.
• The area of the Pench Tiger Reserve and the surrounding area is the real story area of Rudyard Kipling's famous "The Jungle Book".

Terrain: It is undulating, with most of the area covered by small hills and steep slopes on the sides.

Vegetation: The undulating topography supports a mosaic of vegetation ranging from a moist sheltered valley to an open, dry deciduous forest.

Flora: The reserve boasts a diverse range of flora, including teak, saag, mahua, and various grasses and shrubs.

Fauna:

• • The area is especially famous for large herds of Chital, Sambar, Nilgai, Gaur (Indian Bison), and wild boar.
  • The key predator is the tiger, followed by leopard, wild dogs, and wolf.
  • There are over 325 species of resident and migratory birds, including the Malabar Pied Hornbill, Indian Pitta, Osprey, Grey-Headed Fishing Eagle, White-Eyed Buzzard, etc.

• The X-65 is an experimental jet aircraft developed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's (DARPA) Control of Revolutionary Aircraft with Novel Effectors (CRANE) program.

It is a full-scale aircraft to demonstrate a new method of flight control that uses no external moving parts.

• Hot Jupiters are a class of exoplanets that have features similar to Jupiter, but are much closer to their host star & its upper atmosphere is hotter than 1,800 degrees Celcius.
• The harsh ultraviolet radiation from its star is heating the planet’s upper atmosphere, which in turn causes magnesium and iron gas to escape into space.

The star’s powerful gravitational tidal forces altered the planet’s shape, making it more oblong-shaped.