Six spider species discovered, AK-203 assault rifles, MSPs of crops Increased
U.S. hands over 307 antique items, valued at nearly $4 million, to India
The U.S. authorities formally handed over 307 antiquities, estimated to be worth nearly $4 million to Indian officials on Monday. These were recovered from international smuggler Subash Kapoor’s art gallery, other art galleries as well as multiple trafficking networks.
- As many as 235 of the antiquities were seized pursuant to an investigation against Subash Kapoor, who helped traffic items from India and other countries.
- All the antiquities were returned during a repatriation ceremony on Monday evening at the Indian Consulate in New York attended by India’s Consul General
What steps have been undertaken by the government to protect arts and artefacts from being stolen?
- Legislations: Indian Treasure Trove Act (1949) and Antiquities And Art Treasures Act 1972.
- The Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains (AMASR) Act, 1958: It provides for the preservation of ancient and historical monuments and archaeological sites and remains of national importance. It also provides for the regulation of archaeological excavations and for the protection of sculptures, carvings and other like objects.
- National Mission On Monuments And Antiquities: The mission aims to prepare a National database on Built Heritage and sites from secondary sources and a National database on Antiquities from different sources and museums.
- National Manuscript Mission: The mission was established in February 2003, by the Ministry of Tourism and Culture, Government of India. It aims to unearth and preserve the vast manuscript wealth of India. This will help India to connect its past with its future. It also helps to connect India’s memory with its aspirations.
- International collaborations: India is a signatory to the 1970 UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property. India also ratified the convention in 1977.
- Private initiatives: India Pride Project: It is a group of art enthusiasts who uses social media to identify stolen religious artefacts from Indian temples and secure their return.
What are the challenges in controlling idols and artefacts stealing?
In India, Stealing of idols and artefacts is common because,
- The size of the black market: Stealing arts and artefacts has lucrative illegal business prospects. According to the Global Financial Integrity (GFI) Report, the Illegal trade of artefacts and antiquities is one of the world’s most Profitable Criminal Enterprises ($6 Billion dollars). UNESCO also confirmed that ISIS is trafficking in art and antiquities to finance its operations, and earning approximately US$ 1 million of revenue a day.
- Lack of protection in temples: There is a lack of protection for Indian Temples. For instance, Southern Tamil Nadu has many ancient temples situated in small, abandoned premises of a village. With non-existent security, idols are routinely stolen by local thieves.
- Lack of focus on Organised crime: Though the Indian government has taken active steps to bring back the stolen idols and artefacts, there is lack of adequate attention to curb the organized stealing of idols and artefacts. For instance, (a) even two years after the stealing of Nataraja and Uma Maheshvari (this idol was in Singapore) idols, there was lack of awareness among the authorities about the theft; (b) Though stolen idols and artefacts were found in many Western museums and auction-houses, Indian authorities do not have enough track of how the stolen artefacts reached the Western markets and about their internal connivance.
- Inefficiency of the ASI: 2013 report titled “Preservation and Conservation of Monuments and Antiquities” released by CAG highlights the Inefficiency of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI). Such as; (a) Excavation and preservation require distinct skill-sets and expertise, but ASI seeks to combine them both; (b) ASI had never participated in or collected information on Indian antiquities put on sale at well-known international auction houses such as Sotheby’s, Christie’s, etc. This is because there was no explicit provision in the AAT (Antiquities and Art Treasures) Act, 1972 for doing so.
- Lack of Community Participation: Local community is usually the first respondent to path-breaking discoveries. For instance, the Rakhigarhi Excavation was first reported on farming land by local workers and farmers. But in India, there is an absence of incentives to identify and report idols and artefacts discovery, stealing and even the recovery.
What should be done?
- Active involvement from ASI: Worldwide, organisations took many more effective steps. Such as checking catalogues of the international auction house(s), posting information about the theft in the International Art Loss Registry, and sending photographs of stolen objects electronically to dealers and auction houses and intimate scholars in the field. Hence, the ASI should be equipped with adequate powers to protect Indian arts and artefacts.
- India should sign the 1995 UNIDROIT (International Institute for the Unification of Private Law) Convention on Stolen or Illegally Exported Cultural Objects.
- Follow the steps of Italy: Italy is a country with the highest UNESCO Natural and Cultural Heritage sites. Many best practices to retrieve stolen artefacts originate in Italy. Such as,
- (1) A specific law on protecting cultural heritage, with enhanced penalties; (2) Centralised management before granting authorisation for archaeological research; (3) Specialisation in cultural heritage for public prosecutors; (4) An inter-ministerial committee for recovery and return of cultural objects; (5) MOUs and bilateral agreements (6) Created a complete inventory of moveable and immoveable cultural heritage, with detailed catalogues; (7) Monitoring and inspection of cultural sites; and (8) Centralised granting of export requests.
- India can also follow the steps of Italy and implement reforms in this area.
- Frame a Portable Antiquities Scheme like the UK: The UK encourages local communities to voluntarily report and register the discovery of artefacts with help of experts. India has to implement similar schemes in mission mode to prevent idols and artefacts from stealing.
Six spider species discovered
The new species discovered:
Siamspinops garoensis:
- It is the first spotting of the genus Siamspinops from India.
- It belongs to the family of flat spiders, Selenopidae.
- The species is endemic to Garo hills in Meghalaya.
Afraflacilla miajlarensis:
- It is part of family of jumping spiders Salticidae.
- It was discovered from the Thar desert of Rajasthan.
- It is characterised by white fine hairs on a black head and black horizontal lines on the abdomen.
Afraflacilla kurichiadensis:
- It is part of family of jumping spiders Salticidae.
- It was discovered from the Kurichiyad forest ranges of the Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary.
- This species is characterised by red patches around the eyes and white hairs on the abdomen.
Philoponella rostralis:
- This spider species lacks a venom gland and is characterised by a beak like structure on the male reproductive organ.
- It belongs to the family of feather- legged spiders (Uloboridae).
- This spider makes a special type of web under the leaves, and it can subdue the prey with the help of woolly silk produced from their cribellum (additional silk producing organ in front of the spinnerets).
Oxyopes peetham:
- This species is characterised by a yellowish body.
- It has been discovered from the Thumboormuzhi butterfly garden, near the Athirappilly waterfalls in Kerala.
Oxyopes thumboormuzhiensis:
- The members of this family are commonly known as lynx spiders because of their lynx-like feeding behaviour.
- It has been discovered from the Thumboormuzhi butterfly garden, near the Athirappilly waterfalls in Kerala.
AK-203 assault rifles
About AK 203:
- The AK-203 is a Russian gas-operated, magazine-fed, select fire assault rifle designed to chamber the 7.62×39mm cartridge.
- The AK-203 was developed in the 2010s by Kalashnikov Concern in Russia.
- AK-203 rifles are fitted with integral Picatinny rails for a convenient and easy mounting of sights and tactical accessories, enabling the effective use of weapons in various conditions.
- The Indian Army is procuring 670,000 AK-203 assault rifles to replace the INSAS, through a contract with Russia.
- The first 70,000 rifles were purchased from Russia and delivered in January 2022.
- The remaining 600,000 rifles will be manufactured in Amethi, India under a transfer of technology agreement, by joint venture company Indo-Russia Rifles Private Limited (IRRPL).
Indo-Russia Rifles Private Limited:
- To manufacture the rest of the rifles the Indo-Russia Rifles Private Limited was set up in 2019 which has set up Korwa Ordnance Factory in Amethi district.
- The Korwa Ordnance Factory is ready to start manufacturing Kalashnikov AK-203 assault rifles by the end of 2022.
- In future, the joint venture may increase production and modernise facilities to manufacture advanced rifles based on the Kalashnikov assault rifle platform.
About Rosoboronexport:
- Rosoboronexport is a state-owned company, which accounts for over 85 per cent of Russia’s exports of arms and military equipment.
- The company has worked together with Indian authorities for the licensed production of multirole Su-30MKI fighter jets in India, and the modernisation and transfer of the Vikramaditya aircraft carrier to the Indian Navy.
- Rosoboronexport will be participating in the mega DefExpo 2022 due to begin in Gujarat on 18th October.
MSPs of crops Increased
The government announced minimum support prices (MSPs) for six rabi crops of 2022-23 to be marketed in the rabi marketing season 2023-24, with the wheat MSP seeing an increase of Rs 110 per quintal or 5.46 per cent. The MSPs for other rabi crops — barley, gram, lentil (masur), rapeseed & mustard, and safflower — have been increased in the range of 3.84 per cent to 9.09 per cent.
More about the news:
- The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) have approved the increase in the minimum support price for all mandated Rabi crops for marketing season 2023-24.
- Wheat MSP was Rs. 2,015 (per quintal). There is an increase of Rs 110 and it will be Rs 2,125 (per quintal) for the season 2023-24.
- The increase in the MSP of wheat for the 2023-24 is higher in both absolute and percentage terms compared to last year. Last year, the government hiked the wheat MSP by just Rs 40 per quintal (2.03 per cent).
- The increase in the wheat MSP assumes significance in view of lower production and procurement in the just-ended Rabi season.
- As per the Fourth Advance Estimates released by the Agriculture Ministry, wheat production is estimated at 106.84 million tonne during 2021-22, which is lower than the target (110 million tonne) for the year and 109.59 million tonne actual production recorded in 2020-21.
Flashback:
- Minimum Support Price (MSP) is a form of market intervention by the Government of India to insure agricultural producers against any sharp fall in farm prices.
- The minimum support prices are announced by the Government of India at the beginning of the sowing season for certain crops on the basis of the recommendations of the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP).
- MSP is price fixed by the Government of India to protect the producer – farmers – against excessive fall in price during bumper production years. The minimum support prices are a guarantee price for their produce from the Government.
- The major objectives are to support the farmers from distress sales and to procure food grains for public distribution.
What is MSP?
- About:
- The MSP is the rate at which the government purchases crops from farmers, and is based on a calculation of at least one-and-a-half times the cost of production incurred by the farmers.
- MSP is a “minimum price” for any crop that the government considers as remunerative for farmers and hence deserving of “support”.
- Crops under MSP:
- The Commission for Agricultural Costs & Prices (CACP) recommends MSPs for 22 mandated crops and fair and remunerative price (FRP) for sugarcane.
- CACP is an attached office of the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare.
- The mandated crops include 14 crops of the kharif season, 6 rabi crops and 2 other commercial crops.
- In addition, the MSPs of toria and de-husked coconut are fixed on the basis of the MSPs of rapeseed/mustard and copra, respectively.
- The Commission for Agricultural Costs & Prices (CACP) recommends MSPs for 22 mandated crops and fair and remunerative price (FRP) for sugarcane.
- Factors for Recommending the MSP:
- The CACP considers various factors while recommending the MSP for a commodity, including cost of cultivation.
- It takes into account the supply and demand situation for the commodity, market price trends (domestic and global) and parity vis-à-vis other crops, and implications for consumers (inflation), environment (soil and water use) and terms of trade between agriculture and non-agriculture sectors.
- Three Kinds of Production Cost:
- The CACP projects three kinds of production cost for every crop, both at state and all-India average levels.
- ‘A2’: Covers all paid-out costs directly incurred by the farmer in cash and kind on seeds, fertilisers, pesticides, hired labour, leased-in land, fuel, irrigation, etc.
- ‘A2+FL’: Includes A2 plus an imputed value of unpaid family labour.
- ‘C2’: It is a more comprehensive cost that factors in rentals and interest forgone on owned land and fixed capital assets, on top of A2+FL.
- CACP considers both A2+FL and C2 costs while recommending MSP.
- CACP reckons only A2+FL cost for return.
- However, C2 costs are used by CACP primarily as benchmark reference costs (opportunity costs) to see if the MSPs recommended by them at least cover these costs in some of the major producing States.
- The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) of the Union government takes a final decision on the level of MSPs and other recommendations made by CACP.
- The CACP projects three kinds of production cost for every crop, both at state and all-India average levels.
What is the Need of MSP?
- The twin droughts of 2014 and 2015 forced the farmers to suffer from declining commodity prices since 2014.
- The twin shocks of demonetisation and the rollout of GST, crippled the rural economy, primarily the non-farm sector, but also agriculture.
- The slowdown in the economy after 2016-17 followed by the pandemic further ensured that the situation remains precarious for the majority of the farmers.
- Higher input prices for diesel, electricity and fertilisers have only contributed to the misery.
What are the Issues Associated with India’s MSP Regime?
- Limited Extent: As against the official announcement of MSP for 23 crops, only two, rice and wheat, are procured as these are distributed in NFSA (National Food Security Act). For the rest, it is mostly ad-hoc and insignificant.
- Ineffectively Implemented: The Shanta Kumar Committee, in its report in 2015, stated that only 6% of the MSP could be received by the farmers, which directly means that 94% of the farmers in the country are deprived from the benefit of the MSP.
- More of a Procurement Price: The current MSP regime has no relation to prices in the domestic market. Its sole raison d’être is to fulfil the requirements of NFSA making it effectively a procurement price rather than an MSP.
- Makes Agriculture Wheat and Paddy Dominated: Skewed MSP dominated system of rice and wheat leads to overproduction of these crops and discourages farmers to grow other crops and horticulture products, which has higher demand and subsequently could lead to increase in farmers income.
- Middlemen-Dependent: The MSP-based procurement system is also dependent on middlemen, commission agents and APMC officials, which smaller farmers find difficult to get access to.
Way Forward
- A true MSP requires the government to intervene whenever market prices fall below a predefined level, primarily in case of excess production and oversupply or a price collapse due to international factors.
- MSP can also be an incentive price for many of the crops which are desirable for nutritional security such as coarse cereals, and also for pulses and edible oils for which India is dependent on imports.
- Wisdom lies in investing more in animal husbandry (including fisheries) and fruits and vegetables, which are more nutritious.
- The best way to invest is to incentivise the private sector to build efficient value chains based on a cluster approach.
- Government must come up with a suitable transition to agricultural pricing policy, whereby partial agricultural pricing should be state-supported and partially market-driven.
- One way to do this, could be a deficiency payments scheme along the lines of the Bhavantar Bhugtan Yojana (BBY) initiated by Madhya Pradesh.
About 41.5 crore Indians out of multi-dimensional poverty since 2005-06
- According to the global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI),the incidence of poverty decreased from 55.1% in 2005/06 to 16.4% in 2019.
- 41.5 crore people in India were able to escape poverty over a 15-year period between 2005-06 and 2019-21, with two-thirds doing so in the first 10 years and one-third in the following five years.
What is the global MPI?
- The global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) is an international measure of acute multidimensional poverty covering over 100 developing countries.
- The global MPI was developed by OPHI with the UN Development Programme (UNDP) for inclusion in UNDP’s flagship Human Development Report in 2010.
- It has been published annually by OPHI and in the HDRs ever since.
- It complements traditional monetary poverty measures by capturing the acute deprivations in health, education, and living standards that a person faces simultaneously.
- The MPI measures poverty on an individual level.
- The global MPI classifies a person as “MPI poor” if they are deficient in at least three out of ten (weighted) indicators.
- The percentage of deprivations they are dealing with can also be used to gauge how severe their poverty is.
- The worldwide MPI provides information on who is poor and how they are poor, allowing for the creation of a complete picture of those who are poor.
- It enables comparisons between nations and world regions as well as between nations by ethnicity, urban/rural location, subnational region, age group, and other crucial family and community traits.
How is it calculated?
- The global MPI uses ten indicators from the categories of health, education, and standard of living to create a deprivation profile for each household and individual.
- Individually dimension’s indications are each given the same weight.
- When a person’s deprivation score is at least one third or greater, the global MPI classifies them as multidimensionally poor.
- The incidence of poverty and the average intensity of poverty are multiplied to arrive at the MPI.
- The MPI ranges from 0 to 1, and higher values imply higher poverty.
- The international poverty rate of $1.90 per day, which was revised by the World Bank to $2.15 per day last month, is supplemented by the global MPI by distinguishing who is poor, the type of their poverty (their deprivation profile), and how poor they are (their deprivation score).
Highlights of report
- Poverty in South Asia has declined due to reduction in poverty in India.
- It is for the first time that it is not the region with the highest number of poor people, at 38.5 crore, compared with 57.9 crore in Sub-Saharan Africa.
- 120 crore people, or 19.1% of the world’s 610 crore population spread over 111 developing nations, live in multidimensional poverty.
- The majority of them are in severe poverty.
- The COVID-19 pandemic’s effects on poverty in India are not fully evaluated in the study since 71% of the information from the National Family Health Survey-5 (2019–2021), which was used to calculate the MPI, was gathered before to the pandemic.
Status in India
- The MPI value fell from 0.283 in 2005/2006 to 0.122 in 2015/2016 to 0.069 in 2019/2021.
- The incidence of poverty fell from 55.1 percent in 2005/2006 to 27.7 percent in 2015/2016 to 16.4 percent in 2015/2016.
- The MPI value in absolute terms decreased the fastest in Bihar, the State with the highest poverty rate in 2015–2016.
- The poorest States, however, have not caught up relative to other States.
- Only one (West Bengal) of the ten poorest States in 2015–2016 was not among the ten poorest in 2019–2021.
- The remaining states continue to be among the 10 poorest: Bihar, Jharkhand, Meghalaya, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Assam, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, and Rajasthan.
- Despite the progress made, the report acknowledges that there is still much work to be done to alleviate poverty.
- With 22.8 crore, India has by far the most poor people in the world, followed by 9.6 crore in Nigeria.
- Compared to 5.5 percent in urban regions, 21.2 percent of individuals live in poverty in rural areas. The majority of the poor—nearly 229 million of them—live in rural areas, making up 205 million of the total.
- In India, more than one in five children (21.8%) are poor, compared to about one in seven adults (13.9 percent).
- The MPI value in India decreased at the fastest rate from 2005/2006 to 2015/2016 among children, the poorest age group.
- The percentage of children living in poverty decreased from 34.7% to 21.8%, and the percentage of adults living in poverty decreased from 24.0% to 13.9%.
Way Forward
- Target 1.2 of the Sustainable Development Goals calls for countries to cut the percentage of men, women, and children of all ages who live in poverty in all of its forms in half by 2030.
- The development of India demonstrates the reachability of this objective, even on a large scale.
- “While poverty levels have not increased, levels of undernutrition remain very high.
- The rate of improvement between NFHS-3 and NFHS-4 and NFHS-4 and NFHS-5 does not significantly accelerate.
- Furthermore, as 71% of the NFHS-5 interviews took place before COVID, the MPI mostly covers the pre-COVID environment.