Daily Currentaffairs: 13 Oct 2020

Tables of contents

1.Poverty and Shared Prosperity Report

2.Pusa Decomposer 

3.India’s Sulphur Dioxide (SO2) Emissions 

4.Geographical Indication (GI) tag for Salem Sago

5.India's GDP to contract at 9.6% in 2020-21

1.Poverty and Shared Prosperity Report

Recently, the World Bank released the biennial 'Poverty and Shared Prosperity Report 2020'.

Background

• The rate of reduction slowed to less than half a percentage point per year between 2015 and 2017, when 52 million people were lifted out of poverty between 2015 and 2017.

• The global poverty had declined at the rate of around 1 percentage point per year between 1990 and 2015.

• In two-and-a-half decades (1990-2015), the extreme poverty rate declined by 26 percentage points and it dropped to 10 per cent from nearly 36 per cent.

• During 2012-2017, the growth was inclusive and the incomes of the poorest 40 per cent of the population grew.

Key Highlights of Poverty and Shared Prosperity Report 2020

• The world will have 88-115 million ‘new extreme poor people’ in 2020 due to the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic and the number could rise to as many as 150 million by 2021.

  • It indicates that it is for the first time in 20 years that the global poverty rates have go up.

• The global extreme poverty rate is projected to rise by around 1.3 percentage points, to 9.2 per cent in 2020.

• It provides that if the pandemic would not have been there, the poverty rate was expected to drop to 7.9 per cent in 2020.

• Most of the ‘new extreme poor’ will be in countries that already have high poverty rates and several middle-income countries will see significant numbers of people slip below the extreme poverty line.

• The increasing numbers of urban dwellers are expected to fall into extreme poverty but the majority of the rural areas still share the burden of ‘extreme poverty’.

• While less than a tenth of the world’s population lives on less than $1.90 a day, close to a quarter lives below the $3.20 line and more than 40 per cent i.e. almost 3.3 billion people, live below the $5.50 line.

  • The average income of people is projected to decline and it will hit the poorest the most.

• The shared prosperity or growth in income of the poorest 40 per cent of a country’s population will suffer due to the pandemic-led deceleration in economic activity.

• The average global shared prosperity may stagnate or even contract over 2019-2021 due to the reduced growth in average incomes.

Poverty and Shared Prosperity Report and India

• India, along with Nigeria, is considered to have the largest number of the poor in the world.

• India tops the global list in terms of absolute number of poor, going by the last national survey of 2012-13.

  • The country accounted for 139 million of the total 689 million people living in poverty in 2017.

• It is imperative that if the world has to meet its United Nations-mandated Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) I to eradicate poverty by 2030, India has to achieve this goal first.

• India joins the ranks of countries termed as ‘conflict-affected’ and ‘fragile’ in World Bank terminologies.

Source: DownToEarth

2.Pusa Decomposer

As part of its initiative to curb stubble burning, the Delhi government on Tuesday began the process of preparing the liquid Pusa Decomposer solution.

About Pusa Decomposer

• It is essentially a fungi-based liquid solution that can soften hard stubble to the extent that it can be easily mixed with soil in the field to act as compost.

• The low-cost technology ‘Pusa Decomposer’ capsule has been developed by Indian Agriculture Research Institute (IARI).

• It would rule out the need to burn the stubble, and also help in retaining the essential microbes and nutrients in soil that are otherwise damaged when the residue is burned.

Working of Pusa Decomposer

• The window of time required for the solution to work, which is currently the main concern of farmers, is around 20 to 25 days.

• The farmers argue that the window of time is too long for them, as they ideally wait about a week or 10 days after harvesting the non-basmati variety of rice to sow the wheat crop.

• The scientists from IARI have said that the farmers do not necessarily have to plant the next crop in a rush and that 20-25 days is enough waiting time.

How is the decomposer to be used by farmers?

• There are seven strains of fungi that IARI has identified after research which help in rapid breakdown of hard stubble.

  • The seven strains of fungi are packed into four capsules.

• There is a process for developing the liquid solution from these capsules which can take about four to five days.

  • It starts with boiling 25 litres of water mixed with 150 grams of jaggery.

  • After this mix has cooled, 50 grams of besan (or gram flour) is added to it along with four ‘Pusa Decomposer’ capsules.

  • The solution is then covered with a thin piece of cloth and left in a dark room for four days.

What is the ‘dose’ of decomposer that has to be used?

• A 25-litre solution is advisable for use in one hectare of land after being mixed with 500 litres of water.

• The decomposer will work even in fields where stubble has not been finely chopped with a Super Straw Management System (Super SMS) machine.

• The technology would be used over 100 hectares of land in Punjab and Haryana, 800 hectares in Delhi and 10,000 hectares in Uttar Pradesh.

Source: The Indian Express

3.India’s Sulphur Dioxide (SO2) Emissions

Recently, a report from Greenpeace India and the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) has provided that for the first time in four years India’s sulphur dioxide (SO2) emissions recorded a significant decline of approximately 6% in 2019 compared to 2018.

Key Highlights

• Despite the significant decline in India's sulphur dioxide emissions, India continues to occupy the top spot among emitters for the fifth consecutive year.

• The report ranks the world’s biggest emitters of SO2, a poisonous air pollutant that increases the risk of stroke, heart disease, lung cancer, and premature death.

• In 2019, India emitted 21% of global anthropogenic (human-made) SO2 emissions or about 5,953 kilotons a year.

• India's SO2 emissions are nearly double that of second-ranked global emitter, Russia at 3,362 kt/year and China which occupied the third position at 2,156 kt per annum.

• The biggest emission hotspots in India are thermal power stations (or clusters of power stations) at Singrauli, Neyveli, Sipat, Mundra, Korba, Bonda, Tamnar, Talcher, Jharsuguda, Kutch, Surat, Chennai, Ramagundam, Chandrapur, Visakhapatnam and Koradi.

• The renewable energy capacity has been increasing in India’s power sector, delivering more than two-thirds of the subcontinent’s new capacity additions during the FY 2019-20.

Source: The Hindu

4.Geographical Indication (GI) tag for Salem Sago

Recently, the Salem Starch and Sago Manufacturers Service Industrial Co-operative Society Limited, popularly known as Sagoserve, has applied for geographical indication (GI) tag for Salem Sago (Javvarisi).

About Salem Sago (Javvarisi)

• The Salem Sago is made from wet starch powder crushed from Tapioca roots.

• Javvarisi is a Tamil name to Tapioca pearls.

• Sago is a starch extracted from the spongy centre, or pith, of various tropical palm stems, especially those of Metroxylon sagu.

• Sago is used in various industries, including food, paper, construction, textile, cosmetic, pharmaceutical, mining, and alcohol, among others.

Source: The Hindu

5.India's GDP to contract at 9.6% in 2020-21

Recently, the World Bank has said that India’s GDP is expected to contract by 9.6% in 2020-21.

Causes of GDP Contraction

• The GDP Contraction is reflective of the national lockdown and the income shock experienced by households and firms due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

• The income-per-capita in the region will remain 6% below 2019 estimates which indicates that the expected rebound will not offset the lasting economic damage caused by the pandemic.

• The spread of the coronavirus and containment measures have severely disrupted supply and demand conditions in India.

• The measures to shield vulnerable households and firms were taken but the trajectory of poverty reduction has slowed.

Implication of GDP Contraction on India

• India’s economy was already slowing down before the pandemic and the ongoing crisis has led many people losing their jobs.

• India has deal with the growing percentage of the non-performing assets (NPAs).

• The informal sector has no coverage in social insurance and we have witnessed that the informal workers in the middle of the income distribution have lost their jobs.

• The slowdown in India is expected to depress manufacturing and exporting industries.

• The construction sector (which relies on Indian migrant workers) is also likely to experience a protracted slowdown due to a limited pipeline of public sector infrastructure projects.

Source: The Indian Express

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