Table of Contents
Special Topic: Issues with Sugarcane production
• Farm distress: mainly from excess production of one crop after another.
• Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP) recommends a fair price for all major crops, including cane, based on demand, supply, stocks, international price and other relevant factors.
• Driven entirely by opportunistic politicking, and not by economic sense state governments arbitrarily decree much higher state-advised prices (SAPs).
• This overpricing induces overproduction and recurrent crises for the sugar industry.
• What we are doing is applying Band-Aid to the problem rather than curing the disease.
• Short-term fixes: cess on sugar to compensate bankrupt sugar mills or forcing oil companies to buy ethanol (made from sugarcane and molasses), at ludicrously high prices for blending with petrol.
• 2017-18: 32 million tonnes of sugar
• Domestic demand: 25 million tonnes
• World prices are even lower: impractical exports
• Sugarcane is a water-guzzling crop
• Free or ultra-cheap electricity for farming
• In Maharashtra, economist V M Dandekar showed long ago that switching irrigation from cane to food grain would triple the area irrigated.
• The underlying political problem is that farmers have tightened their political clout.
• On the contrary, political competition between parties threatens to drive SAPs to even crazier heights.
• RBI should declare that, to ensure a healthy banking system, banks must stop lending to mills in states declaring SAPs significantly higher than the CACP price.
• At the very least, ultra-cheap electricity to farmers should be made conditional on their adoption of drip irrigation or sprinkler irrigation, to conserve water and cut electricity subsidies.
• An essential reform is to tell state governments that if they decree SAPs higher than the CACP price, the excess must be paid by the states (and not the mills) to farmers.
Department of Space
• ISRO carried out a major technology demonstration today, the first in a series of tests to qualify a Crew Escape System, which is a critical technology relevant for human spaceflight.
• The Crew Escape System is an emergency escape measure designed to quickly pull the crew module along with the astronauts to a safe distance from the launch vehicle in the event of a launch abort.
• The first test (Pad Abort Test) demonstrated the safe recovery of the crew module in case of any exigency at the launch pad.
• The crew module reached an altitude of nearly 2.7 km under the power of its seven specifically designed quick acting solid motors to take away the crew module to a safe distance without exceeding the safe g-levels.
• Three recovery boats are being exercised to retrieve the module as part of the recovery protocol.
Ministry of Culture
• Country’s premier Arts organization- Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA).
• An autonomous institution under the Union Ministry of Culture • IGNCA has decided to introduce five diploma courses and 6 new Certificate Courses in art and culture and related subjects.
• AIM: to create arts and culture with all its dimension and information technology to design and develop content exploration system to intensify culture learning and visualization.
• This initiative attempts to make our ancient knowledge and achievements accessible on a multimedia platform, thus enabling communication between the ancient and modern knowledge.
External Affairs Minister
• Prime Minister of Bhutan Dasho Tshering Tobgay arrived in New Delhi today on a three day visit to India.
• He will call on President Ram Nath Kovind and hold talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi tomorrow.
• The External Affairs Minister and other Ministers will call on the visiting dignitary.
• India and Bhutan enjoy unique bilateral ties of friendship and cooperation, which are characterized by utmost trust and mutual understanding.
• This year both countries are commemorating the Golden Jubilee of the establishment of formal diplomatic relations.
USA-NK
• US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo left Washington today for Pyongyang for talks with North Korean Leader, Kim Jong Un.
• The talks tasked with negotiating a plan to achieve the complete denuclearize of the Korean peninsula will be held tomorrow and day after in Pyongyang.
• After the talks,Pompeo is scheduled to meet his Japanese and South Korean counterparts in Tokyo.
• President Donald Trump met South Korean leader Kim at a historic summit in Singapore last month and pledged to work towards denuclearize in exchange for US security guarantees.
BBBP
• Beti Bachao Beti Padhao Scheme has not only proved a boon for improving sex ratio in Rajasthan but also increasing the number of girls in schools.
• The Sex Ratio has been increased to 950 from 888 as per 2011 census.
• The President has awarded Nari Shakti Puruskar to the state for effective implementation of the scheme.
• As a result of successful implementation of this scheme, the nomination of girls in the secondary and higher secondary level has also been increased by 20 percent per year from last 3 years.
“Pandharichi Wari”
“Pandharichi Wari” is Maharashtra’s 700 years old tradition in which devotees of Lord Vitthala called Varkari trace the route to Pandharpur.
• For this holy function Devotees from all over state gathers in Dehu and Alandi, the native places of Sant
Tukaram Maharaj and Sant Dnyaneshvar Maharaj in Pune district and the procession starts for its final destination, Pandharpur.
• The Palkhi procession will reach its destination on 22nd of July for next days Ashadhi Ekadashi celebration.
1. India has signed with which nation on visa exemption
for diplomatic passport holders?
A) Panama
B) Peru
C) Guatemala
D) Germany
2. Which state has decided to start 31 government
colleges for girls?
A) Delhi
B) Gujarat
C) Uttar Pradesh
D) Haryana
Answers-
1. Which country has cleared the sale of six Apache attack helicopters to India for $ 930M?
A) Canada
B) Russia
C) UK
D) US
2. Which noted Indian social reformer has been honored with the prestigious Nikkei Asia Prize 2018?
A) Medha Patkar
B) Bindeshwar Pathak
C) Kailash Satyarthi
D) Irom Chanu Sharmila
Questions-
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