Current Events - August I Week

PANEL SET UP TO BEEFUP RURAL CREDIT CO-OPS

          The Reserve Bank of India, constituted a committee to suggest ways to strengthen the rural co-operative credit structure. The panel, headed by Nabard Chairman Prakash Bakshi, will review the existing short-term co-operative credit structure (STCCS), focussing on structural constraints in the rural credit delivery system. It will also explore ways to strengthen the rural co-operative credit architecture. The seven-member panel will make an in-depth analysis of the STCCS, and examine various alternatives with a view to reducing the cost of credit, the RBI said in a release.

It will also look at the feasibility of setting up of a two-tier STCCS as against the existing three-tier structure. The STCCS targets the credit requirement of the small and marginal farmers in the country. It will mainly assess the role played by State and district cooperative banks in fulfilling the requirement of agriculture credit.

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EXPORT SLIDE BY 5.45% IN JUNE

          With the slowdown in the U.S., eurozone, China and Japan continuing, Indian exports have come under tremendous pressure for the second consecutive month with shipments declining by 5.45% in June to$25 billion. Handicrafts, jute, tea and cashew accompanied by coffee were some of the items hit by the decline in exports. Similarly, imports also witnessed a sharp fall of 13.46 per cent at $35.37 billion against $40.8 billion in June 2011, resulting in a narrowing of the trade deficit to $10.3 billion for the month.

The decline in the country’s shipments comes amid India’s economic growth slipping to a nine-year low of 6.5 per cent in 2011-12, and subdued industrial output in the first two months of the current fiscal. 

According to official data released by the Commerce Ministry, exports during the April-June quarter of 2012-13 dipped by 1.7 per cent to $75.2 billion, from $76.5 billion in the same period last fiscal. For instance, imports during the first quarter of this fiscal dipped by 6.10 per cent to $115.25 billion from $122.74 billion in the April-June period of last fiscal. Trade deficit during the quarter stood at $40 billion. Top exporting commodities during the April-June quarter included rice, which increased by 104 per cent, iron ore (40 per cent), oil meal (38 per cent) and spices (35 per cent).

In value terms, exports of petroleum products ($12.9 billion), engineering goods ($14.6 billion), gems and jewellery ($10 billion) and pharmaceutical and readymade garments, too, showed strong growth. Imports of petroleum products touched $41.5 billion during April-June 2012. Other importing sectors which registered growth include gems and silver ($9.4 billion), machinery ($8.5 billion) and electronics ($7.1 billion).

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TN @ 5^TH IN HIV

Tamil Nadu, which even 10 years ago had an alarmingly high incidence of HIV infection, has dropped from third to fifth among states with the largest number of people infected with the deadly virus. Tamil Nadu previously ranked in the top three with 1.54 lakh HIV-positive people, it has now been overtaken by Karnataka (2.45 lakh), and West Bengal (1.67 lakh). Andhra Pradesh, which accounts for 5 lakh of the 24 lakh HIV positive in the country, remains the state with the most number of HIV-infected people, official statistics show.

Number of new HIV cases has come down in TN over the years
2009	2010	2011
27000	23000	20000

Number of HIV positive people
Andhra Pradesh	5lakh
Maharashtra	4.19 lakh
Karnataka	2.45 lakh
West Bengal	1.67 lakh
Tamil Nadu	1.54 lakh

              

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INDIA INTO ‘BHARAT’: 21 STATES WITHOUT POWER

            An overstrained power generation and transmission structure spreading across 21 States of the North, East and North-East regions collapsed, plunging half of the country into darkness, trapping hundreds of miners in Jharkhand and West Bengal and paralysing the movement of inter-State trains. The second massive breakdown in as many days was caused by the continuing grid indiscipline on the part of the State Electricity Boards (SEBs) and power utilities that overdrew power from an already overstretched generation system. Earlier, the northern grid collapsed and it was restored after 15 hours. The Eastern and North-Eastern transmission lines too failed later.

The Power Ministry and the PGCIL were unable to pinpoint the cause of the outage. States were overdrawing power was all that they had to say. Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab and Rajasthan refused to adhere to grid discipline and continued to overdraw power despite repeated warnings by the Northern Regional Load Despatch Centre (NRLDC) and other State centres, posing a serious danger to the safety of the grid. Even more shocking is the fact that most of these States have refused to install under frequency relays (UFRs) for automatic demand management schemes, which could have prevented such a massive failure. Similarly, the States were found to have overdrawn power when the grid frequency was below 49.5 Hz and even 48.8 Hz, in contravention of the orders of the regulatory authority and load despatch centres. 

However, the Punjab government described the charge of overdrawing as absurd, factually baseless and grossly misleading. Such was the scale of power failure that mining operations in Eastern India came to a grinding halt.

The grid collapse took place around affecting Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, West Bengal, Punjab, Jammu & Kashmir, Orissa, Bihar, Rajasthan and Assam and the Union Territory of Chandigarh. The railway network was the worst hit with trains across major parts of the country stopping midway. This is possibly the first time that all three grids have collapsed simultaneously. Supply to the affected regions is being extended from western and southern Grids.

      684 people in 21 States and Union Territories affected. That’s almost 57% of India’s population and around 10% of the world’s.

      3 lakh passengers in 345 trains across 10 states stranded or delayed.

      200 freight trains hit. The real face of Delhi Metro Class: 100 Delhi Metro Trains on all 6 lines stop on their tracks. Services suspended for 2 hours. Commuters stranded underground in 8 trains brought out through emergency door near driver seat.

      780 traffic signals in Delhi go on the blink.

Top Consumers of electricity in India:-

State	Demand (in MW)
Maharashtra	24,181
Gujarat	17, 419
Tamil Nadu	16,080
Andhra Pradesh	15, 801
Karnataka	12, 366
Uttar Pradesh	12, 115
Rajasthan	09, 500
Punjab	07, 950

Northern Grid (9): Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Rajasthan and Chandigarh

Northeastern Grid (6): Asom, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur, Meghalaya and Tripura

Eastern Grid (5): West Bengal, Bihar, Odisha, Jharkhand and Sikkim

Data from census 2011 shows that just 67.2% of Indian households use electricity as their primary source of lighting, meaning some 40crore Indians get little or no power on a regular basis. Over 21 crore of people with little or no electricity belong to two states alone – Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. Just 16.4% of households in Bihar use electricity to light their houses and just10% in rural Bihar, while this proportion is 36.8% in Uttar Pradesh. Among the other states with abysmally low electricity access are Asom (37%), Odisha (43%), Jharkhand (46%) and West Bengal (55%).

          In contrast, in western and southern India, which were unaffected like this, all states (Except Maharashtra at 84%), have over 90%of their households using electricity as the main source of lighting.

Stalled Projects:-

Power Project	Capacity  (in MW)	Reason for Delay
NPCIL’s Mithvirdi, Gujarat	6000	Environmental clearance
NTPC, Bijapur, Karnataka	4000	Environmental clearance
Saurashtra Coal based, Gujarat	4000	Forest clearance
Reliance Power, Chitranagi, MP	3960	Environmental clearance
NHPC, Dibang valley	3000	Environmental clearance
NPCIL Kudankulam,  Tamil Nadu	2000	Safety concerns/ protests
Coastal Energen, Tuticorin, Tamil Nadu	1200	Power purchase agreement with TNEB
Essar, MP	1200	Environmental clearance

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RURAL INDIA’S POOR LIVE ON LESS THAN RS. 17/DAY

          Two decades of economic reforms and drum beating about inclusive growth seem to have failed to change the face of rural India as 10 per cent of the population live on less than Rs 17 a day. According to a government survey released for 2011-12 on household consumer expenditure, "The poorest 10 per cent of India's rural population had an average monthly per capita expenditure (MPCE) of Rs 503.49 per month."

Their urban counterparts are only slightly better with daily per capita expenditure of Rs 23.40. As per the National Sample Survey Organisation's (NSSO) 68th round of survey for the period of July 2011 to June 2012, "The poorest 10 per cent of the urban population had an average MPCE of Rs 702.26." The survey, which was conducted two decades after the economic reforms were launched in 1991, is aimed at measuring the living standards of people in the country.

This is in fact much lower than the poverty line of Rs 28.65 per capita daily consumption in cities and Rs 22.42 in rural areas fixed by the Planning Commission for 2009-11 as released in March this year. In urban areas, it said, 70 per cent of the population live on a daily expenditure of about Rs 43.16. Although the person belonging to the top 20 per cent of population consumes more than Rs 100 a day. As regards the rural areas, the survey said, half of the population was living on a per capita daily expenditure of Rs 34.33. "In rural areas, half of the population belong to households with MPCE below Rs 1,030 and nearly 40 per cent of the rural population had MCPE of below Rs 922," the survey said. The provisional results of the NSS survey are based on sample of 59,070 households in 7,391 villages and 41,602 households in 5,223 urban blocks.

90% of rural Indians spend less than Rs. 68.5 per day person

90%of urban Indians spend less than Rs. 142. 7

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UNION MINISTRY RESHUFFLE

          P. Chidambaram returns to his favourite end of North Block to take charge of the Finance Ministry after three and a half years spent presiding over the Home Ministry. In a minor reshuffle, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh gave the Home portfolio to Sushil Kumar Shinde, who was Power Minister. Simultaneously, Union Corporate Affairs Minister M. Veerappa Moily has been given additional charge of Power.

          The changes were announced through a press communique issued by Rahstrapati Bhavan. The announcement makes clear that the widely anticipated recasting of the Union Council of Ministers will have to wait till September, after the monsoon session of Parliament.

            Mr. Chidambaram is clearly the riding star and is set to play a key role in the two years that remain of the United Progressive Alliance’s term in power. Indeed, after the Prime Minister rationalized the Group of Ministers and the Empowered Group of Ministers, and reconstituted those that remained, after the departure of Pranab Mukherjee for Rashtrapathi Bhavan, Mr. Chidambaram has got the lion’s share: he now heads 7 out of the 15 GoMs and to EGoMs, while Defence Minister Antony chairs 3 EGoMs and 4GoMs. Sharad Pawar heads of 1 EGoM and 3 GoMs. 

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ASHOKE SEN

Indian scientist Ashoke Sen has won the world's biggest prize in physics. Ashoke Sen, a professor at the little known but exclusive Harish-Chandra Research Institute, Allahabad, was today declared one of the winners of the first Fundamental Physics Prize started by Russian billionaire Yuri Milner. Sen and eight other scientists will get $3 million each - double of what is given with the Nobel Prize. Seven of the winners are based in the United States, one in France and one in India. Sen has been awarded for his pioneering work on string theory. Yuri Milner made his billions from investments in various Internet based companies including Facebook and Twitter after giving up his job as a researcher at Moscow's Lebedev Physical Institute. He personally selected the winners of this year's award but in future the work would be done by a committee. Ashoke Sen is considered one of original contributors to string theory, a complex mathematical construct which is meant to resolve one of science's biggest mysteries - that gravity as explained by Einstein does not fit in with quantum theory which explains all other forces and particles of nature. Sen has won the ICTP Prize in 1989, the Shanti Swaroop Bhatnagar award in 1994, the Padma Shri in 2001 and the Infosys prize in Mathematical Sciences in 2009.

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