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Table of Contents

The rupee problem

Rupee: currently the worst-performing currency in Asia
Union government: list of measures to arrest the sharp decline in the currency

✓Curb the import of non-essential goods

✓Encourage the export of domestic goods

✓Address burgeoning current account deficit

✓Removing restrictions on foreign portfolio investments

✓Encouraging Indian borrowers to issue rupee-denominated ‘masala bonds’

These are all good for short term but for long term we need to think about how we can avoid such situation and how we can increase value of our currency against dollar.

Where goes the rupee?

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has rightly observed that external factors are the cause.
Global capital and perhaps currency speculators have been flocking to the American economy.
U.S. economy has become a very attractive option.
U.S. President: announced a massive decrease in corporate tax rates.
U.S. Federal Reserve has also increased interest rates.
It has moved up against both the Euro and the Pound. Countries such as Turkey and South Africa have experienced significantly higher rates of devaluation than India. Ripple effect
Diesel price hikes increase the cost of transportation of goods being transported by road.
Many domestic companies that have taken dollar loans will also face significantly higher servicing costs.
The RBI has several policy options. It could, of course, take the most direct route — of offloading large amounts of dollars.
Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the RBI to raise interest rates again in order to dampen inflationary tendencies.
Any sharp increase has an obvious downside risk to it — any increase in interest rates can have an adverse effect on growth.
This can actually backfire if profitability of companies goes down.
Any ‘big’ negative change in profitability may make foreign portfolio investors pull out of Indian stocks and actually exacerbate the rupee’s woes.
Perhaps the best option for the government would be to borrow from non-resident Indians (NRIs) by floating special NRI bonds that have to be purchased with foreign exchange, and with maturity periods of at least three years.
Interest rates have to be attractive, and investors must of course be protected from exchange rate fluctuations. Since interest rates in countries like the U.K. and even the U.S. are quite low, the promised interest rate does not really have to be very high by prevailing Indian levels.
2013 we tried it. It worked. It should work now too.
Much will depend on whether the economy can continue to grow at a reasonably high rate, for this will steady the nerves of portfolio investors and prevent them from pulling out of the Indian stock market.

Lethal filth

The death of five young men who were employed to clean a septic tank in an upmarket residential community in New Delhi.
Around the same time as the Delhi incident, five workers died in a septic tank in Odisha.
Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013
Under the provision, no person, local authority or agency should engage or employ people for hazardous cleaning of sewers and septic tanks.
Mechanised cleaning of septic tanks is the prescribed norm. But in spite of a well-funded programme such as the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan in operation, little attention is devoted to this aspect of sanitation.
The Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation in its manual of 2016 on toilet design acknowledges that in rural areas, mechanical pumps to clear septic tanks are not available.
Tamil Nadu recorded 144 fatalities of workers engaged for septic tank cleaning in the past three years.
The Centre must ensure that this does not become a fresh avenue to oppress members of some communities who are expected to perform such work, reflecting social inequalities.

The power of Kudumbashree

There are around 4,00,000 women of Kudumbashree self-mobilised across the State of Kerala to do relief work,

➢including collecting,

➢packing and distributing relief material,

➢cleaning up public spaces and private homes,

➢counselling affected families and

➢putting them in touch with concerned authorities.

Kudumbashree State Mission estimates that Kudumbashree groups cleaned up 11,300 public places including schools, hospitals, panchayat buildings, and anganwadi centres, and 2 lakh houses.
Around 40,000 affected families received counselling and information assistance from Kudumbashree groups.
To provide shelter to families rendered homeless by the floods, 38,000 Kudumbashree members opened up their own homes.
Kudumbashree members also donated ₹7.4 crore to the Chief Minister’s Distress Relief Fund.
This scale of voluntary relief work by women is quite unprecedented by any standard.
Democratic and secular functioning of internal mechanism of Kudumbashree.
This ‘Made in Kerala’ model can be implemented across India, if it is done with the same secular and gender-sensitive spirit.

Covering the last field

2016: Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY)
PMFBY is more farmer friendly
Linkage with parallel programmes like the ‘Jan Dhan Yojana’ and ‘Digital India’
The scheme therefore led to increased coverage of 5.7 crore farmers in 2016 and the sum insured crossed ₹200,000 crore.
Scrutinised more for its misses than its hits.
2017: about 17% farmers refrained themselves to join it.
Faster and appropriate claim settlement: Timely estimate of loss assessment is the biggest challenge before the PMFBY.
CROP CUTTING EXPERIMENTS (CCEs) are periodic exercises conducted nationwide every season to determine crop yields of major crops.
Sample villages are chosen through scientifically designed surveys, and crops are physically harvested to determine yields.
These experiments require huge capital and human resources and have to be done simultaneously all over India in a limited time.
Therefore, they have large errors.
With options such as available today, such as detailed weather data, remote sensing, modelling and big data analytics, the exercise of monitoring crop growth and productivity can be not only more accurate and efficient but also resource saving
Their deployment can assist in multi-stage loss assessment and thus provide farmers with immediate relief for sowing failure, prevented sowing and mid-season adversity apart from final crop loss assessment.
Monitoring & Immediate claims settlements
Automatic insurance for all farmers: Currently, farmers pay a capped premium rate of 1.5-2%, while the rest is shared equally between the States and the Centre.
At this rate, if today all 14 crore farmers were to be insured under the PMFBY, they would need to pay the premium close to ₹10,000 crore annually.
If no premium is charged from marginal and small farmers (who own less than 2 hectares and account for 12 crore out of 14 crore) and only partial subsidy on actuarial premium is given to others, almost the same revenue can be collected, but in the process, coverage can go up almost 100%.
The premium rates, and hence subsidy load on the government, can come down significantly if we make greater use of such proxies and appropriate sum insured levels.
The government today spends more than ₹50,000 crore annually on various climate risk management schemes in agriculture, including insurance.
Climate-risk triggered farm-loan waivers are an additional expense.

Transforming agriculture

Convention on Biological Diversity
Climate change and development without consideration for biodiversity are leading to loss of biodiversity.
India’s National Biodiversity Action Plan (NBAP) recognises the importance of biodiversity for inclusive development.
The Green Agriculture project implemented by the Indian government and the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) takes a novel approach to support the NBAP and synergise biodiversity conservation, agriculture production and development.
It is being implemented in five landscapes adjoining Protected Areas/Biosphere Reserves:
Madhya Pradesh,
Mizoram,
Odisha,
Rajasthan,
Uttarakhand
It envisages a transformation in Indian agriculture for global environmental benefits by addressing land degradation, climate change mitigation, sustainable forest management, and biodiversity conservation.
India gave the world crops such as rice, chickpea, pigeon pea, mango and eggplant.

Important News

More river stretches are now critically polluted: CPCB

The number of polluted stretches in India’s rivers has increased to 351 from 302 two years ago, and the number of critically polluted stretches — where water quality indicators are the poorest — has gone up to 45 from 34, according to an assessment by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB).
PCB says several of the river’s stretches — in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh — are actually far less polluted than many rivers in Maharashtra, Assam and Gujarat.
These three States account for 117 of the 351 polluted river stretches.
Three arrested in Rewari gang-rape case; SP shifted
CIC wants break-up of how MPLADS funds are utilised
₹12,000 crore remains unspent: Information Commissioner
Noting that ₹12,000 crore of the Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS) funds remains unspent, the Central Information Commission (CIC) has asked the Lok Sabha Speaker and the Rajya Sabha Chairman to come out with a legal framework to ensure its transparency and hold parliamentarians and political parties accountable for their obligations under the scheme.
The MPLADS allots ₹5 crore per year to each Member of Parliament (MP) to be spent on projects of their choice in their constituency.
The scheme is funded and administered through the Union Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI).
Projects are to be recommended to and implemented by the district-level administration.
Typhoon slams into China after killing 59 in Philippines
Storm toll rises to 13 as U.S. States brace for river flooding
In managing water, Surat takes the lead
India’s ‘Diamond City’ offers a lesson for the country’s ever-expanding cities on water management and the optimal use of water, which is rapidly becoming a scarce resource.
Surat’s civic body is setting up state-of-the-art sewage treatment plants (STPs) to ensure every drop of waste water is treated and reused for purposes other than drinking.
From March 2019, the Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC) will be supplying 115 MLD (million litres per day) treated water to industries located within the city, in order to meet the entire industrial requirement of water through treated or recycled water.

Financial News

India Clears Way for $2.2-b Frigates Deal With Russia
The agreement, which will allow India to procure from Russia four new warships for the Navy, will be signed during a summit between President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the Capital in Octoberitter or our Telegram Channel .