MSP for MFP
Context :
TRIFED asks State Nodal Departments & Implementing Agencies to initiate procurement from available funds under ‘MSP for MFP scheme’.
Significance:
Such measures are necessary for mitigating the impact of lockdown on tribal communities.
This will provide much required livelihood support to the tribal gatherers and obviate the movement of middlemen from urban areas to tribal habitations, thus checking any eventuality of spread of corona virus among tribal communities.
What is this scheme all about?
The Union Cabinet, in 2013, approved a Centrally Sponsored Scheme for marketing of non-nationalized / non monopolized Minor Forest Produce (MFP) and development of a value chain for MFP through Minimum Support Price (MSP).
- This was a measure towards social safety for MFP gatherers, who are primarily members of the Scheduled Tribes (STs) most of them in Left Wing Extremism (LWE) areas.
- The scheme had Rs. 967.28 crore as Central Government share and Rs. 249.50 crore as the States share for the current Plan period.
Key features of the scheme:
Ensure that the tribal population gets a remunerative price for the produce they collect from the forest and provide alternative employment avenues to them.
- Establish a system to ensure fair monetary returns for forest dweller’s efforts in collection, primary processing, storage, packaging, transportation etc, while ensuring sustainability of the resource base.
- Get them a share of revenue from the sales proceeds with costs deducted.
Coverage:
Earlier, the scheme was extended only to Scheduled Areas in eight states and fixed MSPs for 12 MFPs. Later expanded to all states and UTs. Total number of MFPs covered under the list include more than 40 items.
Implementation:
The responsibility of purchasing MFP on MSP will be with State designated agencies.
- To ascertain market price, services of market correspondents would be availed by the designated agencies particularly for major markets trading in MFP.
- The scheme supports primary value addition as well as provides for supply chain infrastructure like cold storage, warehouses etc.
- The Ministry of Tribal Affairs will be the nodal Ministry for implementation and monitoring of the scheme. The Minimum Support Price would be determined by the Ministry with technical help of TRIFED.
Significance of the scheme:
The Minor Forest Produce (MFP), also known as Non-Timber Forest Produce (NTFP), is a major source of livelihood and provides essential food, nutrition, medicinal needs and cash income to a large number of STs who live in and around forests. An estimated 100 million forest dwellers depend on the Minor Forest Produce for food, shelter, medicines, cash income, etc.
However, MFP production is highly dispersed spatially because of the poor accessibility of these areas and competitive market not having evolved. Consequently, MFP gatherers who are mostly poor are unable to bargain for fair prices. This package of intervention can help in organizing unstructured MFP markets.
source : pib
Use of ICT in Education
context :
Recently, the Bihar Education Project Council (BEPC) has launched a mobile application and plans to book a slot with the All India Radio (AIR) for the audio broadcast of study materials for government school students.
- The initiative aims to help the government school students, so that their studies do not suffer due to the Covid-19 lockdown.
Key Points :
- The mobile application named “Unnayan: Mera Mobile, Mera Vidyalaya” has been launched for Class VI to XII of over 70,000 government-run schools.
- The app has been jointly developed by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the Bihar government and Eckovation, a social learning platform.
- In collaboration with UNICEF, class-wise and subject-wise study materials are being prepared which will be broadcast by AIR.
- Radio has a deep penetration into villages and is much simpler to operate.
- The BEPC has also encouraged students for the use of online education portals like Diksha.
- On Diksha app NCERT books are available free of cost for Class 1 to XII and have also integrated audio-visual media along with digital textbooks.
Challenges
- Digital Divide: There is a huge digital divide that exists in Bihar.
- Poverty: Most of the people in Bihar are poor and live below the poverty line and are currently struggling to meet their daily sustenance. Expecting them to find ways to make their children digitally connect with schools or participate in online classes is irrational.
- Television and Internet facilities are still luxury items for many people
- Capacity Development: Expecting teachers to seamlessly move to online platforms without adequate training and support would also be unreasonable.
- Inequalities: In a State like Bihar distance learning has also revealed glaring challenges that stem from socio-economic, digital and educational inequalities.
Novel blood plasma therapy for COVID-19
Context :
India has taken a bold step to provide innovative treatment to patients suffering from COVID-19 disease- plasma therapy.
Technically called “convalescent-plasma therapy”, the treatment aims at using the immune power gained by a recovered person to treat a sick person.
But, before understanding more about the therapy, let’s see how our immune system works?
When a pathogen like novel coronavirus infects, our immune systems produce antibodies.
Like the police dogs, the antibodies span out to identify and mark the invading virus.
White blood cells attach the identified intruders, and the body gets rid of the infection.
But, what are antibodies?
Antibodies are one of the front-line immune response to an infection by a microbe. They are a particular type of proteins secreted by immune cells called B lymphocytes when they encounter an invader, such as a novel coronavirus.
The immune system designs antibodies that are highly specific to each invading pathogen. A particular antibody and its partner virus are made for each other.
How plasma therapy works?
- Blood is drawn from a person who has recovered from COVID-19 sickness.
- The serum is separated and screened for virus-neutralizing antibodies.
- Convalescent serum, that is the blood serum obtained from one who has recovered from an infectious disease and especially rich in antibodies for that pathogen, is then administered to a COVID-19 patient.
- The sick acquires passive immunisation.
When was it previously used? How effective has it been?
We have effective antibiotics against bacterial infection. However, we do not have effective antivirals. Whenever a new viral outbreak takes places, there are no drugs to treat it. Hence, the convalescent serum has been used during past viral epidemics.
- 2009–2010 H1N1 influenza virus pandemic.
- The Ebola outbreak in 2018.
How long the antibodies will remain in the recipient?
After the antibody serum is given, it will stay on the recipient for at least three to four days. During this period, the sick person will recover. Various studies have confirmed this.
Difference between this therapy and vaccination?
This therapy is akin to passive immunization. When a vaccine is administrated, the immune system produces the antibodies.
Here, the effect lasts only up to the time the antibodies injected remain the bloodstream. The protection given is temporary.
Whereas, Vaccination provides lifelong immunity.
For example, the mother transfers antibodies through breast milk to an infant before the child could build her own immunity.
Related fact:
In 1890, Emil von Behring, a German physiologist, discovered that the serum obtained from a rabbit infected with diphtheria was effective in preventing the diphtheria infection. Behring was awarded the first-ever Nobel prize for medicine in 1901.
source : pib
Bharat Padhe Online and YUKTI Portal: MHRD
Recently, the Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD) has launched two new initiatives – Bharat Padhe Online Campaign and YUKTI web-portal – for improving and monitoring the online education ecosystem in India.
Bharat Padhe Online
- ‘Bharat Padhe Online’ is a week-long campaign upto 16th April, 2020 for crowdsourcing of ideas for improving the online education ecosystem of India.
- It aims to invite all the best brains in India to share suggestions/solutions directly with the HRD Ministry to overcome constraints of online education while promoting the available digital education platforms.
- Students and teachers are the main target audience in it.
YUKTI Portal :
- YUKTI (Young India Combating Covid with Knowledge, Technology and Innovation) is a unique portal and dashboard to monitor and record the efforts and initiatives of MHRD.
- It will also cover the various initiatives and efforts of the institutions in academics, research especially related to Covid-19, social initiatives by institutions and the measures taken for the betterment of the total wellbeing of the students.
- It will allow various institutions to share their strategies for various challenges which are there because of the unprecedented situation of Covid-19 and other future initiatives.
- The portal will also establish a two-way communication channel between the Ministry of HRD and the institutions so that the Ministry can provide the necessary support system to the institutions.
- This portal will help in addressing critical issues related to student promotion policies, placements related challenges and physical and mental well-being of students in these challenging times.
- Objectives: The portal will give inputs for better planning and will enable it to monitor effectively its activities for coming six months.
- It aims to fulfil the goals of the Ministry in the wake of Covid-19 to keep the academic community healthy, both physically & mentally and to enable a continuous high-quality learning environment for learners.
Jallianwala Bagh Massacre
Context :
13 April 2020 marked the 101st anniversary of the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre. On this day, the martyrs who were killed mercilessly in Jallianwala Bagh are remembered. Prime Minister Narendra Modi paid tribute to the innocent martyrs who showed great courage and sacrifice.
Jallianwala Bagh massacre :
The Jallianwala Bagh massacre, or the Amritsar slaughter, happened on 13 April 1919. On this day, the British Indian Army troops under the command of Colonel Reginald Dyer fired rifles into a crowd of Indians in Jallianwala Bagh, Amritsar, Punjab.
The civilians had assembled for a peaceful protest to condemn the arrest and deportation of two national leaders, Satya Pal, Saifuddin Kitchlew and the Rowlatt Act. General Dyer took a strike force of 50 rifles and 40 khukri-wielding Gurkhas into the enclosed ground, Jallianwala Bagh. Without warning, he ordered open fire on the crowd that resulted in the death of several hundreds of people, and many were wounded