EDITORIALS & ARTICLES
1st June 2021
World’s First Nano Liquid Urea
Recently, the Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative Limited (IFFCO) has launched the Nano Urea Liquid.
Need for Nano Liquid Urea
- India is dependent on imports to meet its urea requirements.
- During 2019-20, the production of urea was only 244.55 LMT as against the consumption volume of 336 lakh metric tonnes leaving a gap of over 91 LMT.
- India imported 91.99 LMT urea fertiliser in 2019-20 to fill this gap.
- The excess urea causes environmental pollution, harms soil health, and makes plants more susceptible to disease and insect infestation.
Nano Urea Liquid
- It is a nutrient to provide nitrogen to plants as an alternative to the conventional urea.
- It is the world’s first nano liquid urea.
- It is developed to replace conventional urea and it can curtail the requirement of the same by at least 50%.
- It contains 40,000 ppm of nitrogen in a 500 ml bottle which is equivalent to the impact of nitrogen nutrient provided by one bag of conventional urea.
- The conventional urea is effective 30-40 per cent in delivering nitrogen to plants, while the effectiveness of the Nano Urea Liquid is over 80 per cent.
- It will have a huge positive impact on the quality of underground water, very significant reduction in the global warming with an impact on climate change andsustainable development.
AmbiTAG
Recently, the Ministry of Education has launched a temperature data logger called ‘AmbiTAG’.
- It is India's first indigenous temperature data logger for the cold chain management.
- It is developed by Indian Institute of Technology, Ropar (IIT Ropar) in Punjab.
- It is a first-of-its-kind Internet of Things (IoT) device.
- It records real-time ambient temperature during the transportation of perishable products, vaccines and even body organs and blood.
- The recorded temperature further helps to know whether that particular item transported from anywhere in the world is still usable or perished because of temperature variation.
- It continuously records the temperature of its immediate surroundings from -40 to +80 degrees in any time zone for a full 90 days on a single charge.
- It has been developed under Technology Innovation Hub i.e. AWaDH (Agriculture and Water Technology Development Hub) and its Startup ScratchNest.
Horticulture Cluster Development Programme
Recently, the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare has launched the Horticulture Cluster Development Programme.
Features of Horticulture Cluster Development Programme
- It is a central sector programme.
- It will be implemented by the National Horticulture Board (NHB) of the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare.
- It will be implemented in 12 horticulture clusters out of the total 53 clusters selected for the programme covering 11 States/UTs.
- The clusters of the pilot phase include:
- Shopian (J&K) and Kinnaur (H.P.) for Apple;
- Lucknow (U.P.), Kutch (Gujarat) and Mahbubnagar (Telangana) for Mango;
- Anantpur (A.P.) and Theni (T.N.) for Banana;
- Nasik (Maharashtra) for Grapes;
- Siphahijala (Tripura) for Pineapple;
- Solapur (Maharashtra) and Chitradurga (Karnataka) for Pomegranate; and
- West Jaintia Hills (Meghalaya) for Turmeric
- The clusters will be implemented through Cluster Development Agencies (CDAs)which are appointed on the recommendations of the respective State/UT Government.
Implementation Framework of Horticulture Cluster Development Programme
- National Horticulture Board (NHB) shall provide financial assistance and supervise the overall implementation of the programme.
- A government/ public sector entity recommended by the State/Central Government shall be appointed as a Cluster Development Agency (CDA) for each identified cluster for the implementation of CDP.
- CDA will establish a Cluster Development Cell (CDC) with a dedicated team of officers within the CDA for the smooth implementation of the programme.
- The CDAs shall select Implementing Agency/ Agencies (IAs) through Expression of Interest (EOI) in an open and transparent manner for different verticals of the Cluster.
- The Programme Management Unit (PMU) of NHB shall provide technical assistance to NHB and CDA for the effective implementation of the Cluster Development Programme.
Significance of Horticulture Cluster Development Programme
- It is aimed at growing and developing identified horticulture clusters to make them globally competitive.
- It will address all major issues related to the Indian horticulture sector including pre-production, production, post-harvest management, logistics, marketing and branding.
- It will benefit about 10 lakh farmers and related stakeholders of the value chain.
- It aims aim to improve exports of the targeted crops by approx. 20% and create cluster-specific brands to enhance the competitiveness of cluster crops.
- It is designed to leverage geographical specialisation and promote integrated and market-led development of horticulture clusters.
- It is expected to attract an estimated investment of INR 10,000 crore when implemented in all the 53 clusters.
Weak Business Confidence Index
Recently, the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) has released the latest round of FICCI’s Business Confidence Survey.
- The business sentiment in India has taken a beating with 70 per cent of businesses citing a weak demand situation as a key containing factor for business.
- The overall business confidence index as measured by FICCI nosedived to 51.5 in May from a decadal high of 74.2 measured in February.
Reasons for businesses losing confidence
Financial concerns
- A low demand scenario led to 47 per cent of businesses projecting lower profits in the upcoming six months and 37 per cent of businesses projecting similar profits as the previous six months.
- The businesses are also expecting stagnation in exports, with 73 per cent of businesses expecting similar or lower exports in the next six months and only 27 per cent expecting an increase in exports.
Employment and consumer sentiment
- The lower optimism about profits also translated to muted hiring plans, with only 19 per cent of businesses foreseeing hiring prospects in the coming two quarters.
Factors holding back business growth
- An increasing number of businesses saw the availability of credit and the cost of raw materials as a major concern.
- The rising cost of raw materials is hitting profitability.
- Sixty-five per cent of respondents cited the high cost of raw material as a constraining factor for business growth.
- There was a significant increase in the number of businesses reporting worse conditions in the economy, industry, and their firms.
- The number of respondents reporting worsening conditions for their firms rose to 28 per cent in May from 16 per cent in February.
Policy Recommendations for limiting the impact on Economy and Businesses
- The respondents of the survey unanimously felt that the government must, first and foremost, focus on controlling covid cases.
- A massive vaccination drive could decouple India’s economy from another pandemic induced shock.
- The participants strongly believed that regular communication from the government on the status of the pandemic and necessary response measures undertaken is vital to dispel any doubts and panic.
- The RBI should continue to ensure ample liquidity in the system and must take additional measures to encourage banks to lend more.
- The companies unanimously felt the need for another fiscal package, focusing majorly on addressing the demand side.
- The demand boosting measures such as direct income support to rural as well as urban poor, income tax reductions for the middle class and temporary reductions in indirect taxes must be urgently considered.
FICCI
- It is the largest and oldest apex business organization in India, established in 1927.
- It is a non-government, not-for-profit organization.
- Its history is closely interwoven with India’s struggle for independence, its industrialization, and its emergence as one of the most rapidly growing global economies.
- It provides a platform for networking and consensus building within and across sectors.
- It is the first port of call for Indian industry, policy makers and the international business community.
Perspective on India’s falling GDP
Recently, the Indian government released its latest estimates of economic growth for the last financial year that ended in March 2021.
Key Highlights
Gross Domestic Product
- The GDP growth rate has been a point of growing weakness for the last 5 of these 7 years of the current government.
- The GDP growth rate steadily fell from over 8% in FY17 to about 4% in FY20 due to ripples of demonetisation and a poorly designed and hastily implemented Goods and Services Tax (GST).
- India’s GDP growth pattern resembled an “inverted V” even before Covid-19 hit the economy.
GDP per capita
- India’s GDP per capita is now what it used to be in 2016-17 i.e. the year when the slide started.
- It is a metric that breaks down a country's economic output per person and is calculated by dividing the GDP of a country by its population.
Unemployment rate
- According to the government’s own surveys, India’s unemployment rate was at a 45-year high in 2017-18 i.e. the year after demonetisation and the one that saw the introduction of GST.
- It was estimated that between 2012 and 2018, the total number of employed people fell by 9 million.
- India started routinely witnessing unemployment rates close to 6%-7% in the years leading up to Covid-19 as against the norm of unemployment rate of 2%-3%.
Inflation Rate
- In the first three years, the government greatly benefited from very low crude oil prices.
- The sudden and sharp fall in oil prices allowed the government to completely tame the high retail inflation in the country.
- It allowed the government to collect additional taxes on fuel.
- India was one of few countries that has witnessed inflation trending consistently above or near the RBI’s threshold since late 2019.
Fiscal Deficit
- It is essentially a marker of the health of government finances and tracks the amount of money that a government has to borrow from the market to meet its expenses.
- There are two downsides of excessive borrowing:
- The government borrowings reduce the investible funds available for the private businesses to borrow which drives up the price for such loans.
- It increase the overall debt that the government has to repay i.e. the higher debt levels imply a higher proportion of government taxes going to pay back past loans.
Rupee vs dollar
- The exchange rate of the domestic currency with the US dollar is a robust metric to capture the relative strength of the economy.
- A US dollar was worth Rs 59 when the government took charge in 2014 and seven years later, it is closer to Rs 73.
- The relative weakness of the rupee reflects the reduced purchasing power of the Indian currency.
What is the impact of falling GDP?
- If the rate of GDP growth falls below the rate of labour force growth, there won’t be enough new jobs created to accommodate all new job seekers.
- A fall in per capita income reduces the tax revenues for the Government which also reduces the amount spent on public services including investment in infrastructure.
- At a higher debt level, there is a risk that rating agencies would downgrade India’s credit rating.
- The higher interest rate will increase the amount of Government’s debt interest payments, reducing the available amount to be spent on public infrastructure.
- A weaker rupee would mean that everything from studying abroad to holidaying abroad will become more expensive.
Litoria Mira
Recently, a team of Australian scientists has discovered a curious "chocolate frog" tree frog i.e. Litoria Mira in the lowland rainforests of New Guinea.
Litoria Mira
- It is a species of frog lives in the rainforests of New Guinea that appears to be made from chocolate.
- It is inspired by the Latin adjective mirum, which means surprised or strange.
- It stems from the scientist’s surprise in discovering an undescribed member of the predominately Australian Litoria genus of tree frogs.
- It has a well-known relative i.e. the common green tree frog of Australia called Litoria cerulean.
- It can be distinguished from all other Litoria by its unique combination of moderately large size, webbing on hand, relatively short and robust limbs, and small violet patch of skin on the edge of its eyes.
- The reason that the chocolate frog from New Guinea and the Australian green tree frog are similar is that Australia and New Guinea used to be linked by land for much of the late Tertiary period.
- It was discovered in one of the world’s most unpleasant places for humans i.e. a hot rainforest swamp infested with malarial mosquitoes, spiky trees and crocodiles and without roads.
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