Daily News Digest 4 March 2024

Table of content

• Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project (KLIP)
• Non-lapsable Defence Modernisation Fund
• Banglar muslin
• Grey Zone Warfare
• How to bring about White Revolution 2.0

Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project (KLIP)

Time to Read :🕑 5 Mins

Why in news?

National Dam Safety Authority (NDSA) has constituted a five-member committee to examine the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project (KLIP).

About Committee

• Five-member committee under the chairmanship of J. Chandrasekhar Iyer, former chairman of the Central Water Commission (CWC), along with U.C. Vidyarthi, R. Patil, Shivakumar Sharma, and Rahul Kumar Singh as members. 
  • Amitabh Meena, Director (Technical) of NDSA, will serve as the member secretary of this committee.
• The committee has been asked to submit its report to the NDSA within four months. 

About the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project (KLIP) 

• It is a multi-purpose irrigation project on the Godavari River in Kaleshwaram, Bhupalpally, Telangana. 
• Its farthest upstream influence is at the confluence of the Pranhita and Godavari rivers. 
• The Pranahita River is itself a confluence of various smaller tributaries including the Wardha, Painganga, and Wainganga rivers which combine to form the seventh-largest drainage basin on the subcontinent, with an estimated annual discharge of more than 6,427,900 acre feet (7,930 cubic hectometres) or 280 TMC. 
• The Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project is divided into 7 links and 28 packages spanning a distance of approximately 500 km (310 mi) through 13 districts and utilizing a canal network of more than 1,800 km (1,100 mi). 
• The project aims to produce a total of 240 TMC (195 from Medigadda Barrage, 20 from Sripada Yellampalli project and 25 from groundwater), of which 169 has been allocated for irrigation, 30 for Hyderabad municipal water, 16 for miscellaneous industrial uses and 10 for drinking water in nearby villages, with the remainder being estimated evaporation loss.

Non-lapsable Defence Modernisation Fund

Time to Read :🕑 5 Mins

Why in news?

The government has abandoned the proposal to establish a Non-lapsable Defense Modernization Fund, citing drawbacks related to parliamentary scrutiny and accountability.

Background

• The 15th Finance Commission had recommended the constitution of a dedicated non-lapsable Modernisation Fund for Defence and Internal Security (MFDIS), after the Centre had included the examination of such a fund’s creation in its terms of reference. 
• In 2021, placing an action-taken report in Parliament along with the Commission’s report, the government had said it has “in-principle” accepted the creation of such a fund in the Public Account of India.

About Non-lapsable Defence Modernisation Fund

• Articles 112-114 & 266 of the Constitution provide that no money can be spent by the Government from Consolidated Fund of India without authorisation through an Annual Budget presented before the Parliament. 
• Since authorisation under the Appropriation Act is meant for that particular financial year, the same does not allow operationalization of a Public Fund which is non-lapsable in nature. 
• In this regard, a separate mechanism is being worked out by the Ministry of Finance in consultation with MoD, to explore a special dispensation to MoD to operationalize a Non-lapsable Defence Modernisation Fund.

Lapsable and non-lapsable fund

• Lapsable funds are budgetary allotments in India that have a temporal constraint on their use before they revert to the government's general reserves.
• On the other hand, funds that are not lapsable can be carried over if they are not spent by the end of the fiscal year. They typically don't expire at the end of the year and are set aside for particular uses.

Banglar muslin

Time to Read :🕑 3 Mins

Why in news?

Banglar muslin receives GI tag recognition.

About Banglar muslin

• The Banglar muslin is one of the popular traditional handloom craft of Bengal. 
• This finest sort of muslin is made of cotton, which are spun to create threads that maintained tensile strength at counts (above 300 counts and up to 600 counts) i.e., higher than any other cotton products. 
• And Narsapur in West Godavari region of Andhra Pradesh, which is known for crochet skills, has received global acclaim for its intricate craftsmanship, unique designs and good quality crochet craft was brought by missionaries to Narsapur, and now Narsapur is a strong centre for intricate handmade crocheted lace work.

Grey Zone Warfare

Time to Read :🕑 3 Mins

Why in news?

Recently, India's Chief of Defence Staff (CSD) mentioned the term "grey zone warfare".

About Grey Zone Warfare

• Grey zone warfare generally means a middle, unclear space that exists between direct conflict and peace in international relations.
• The gray zone describes a set of activities that occur between peace (or cooperation) and war (or armed conflict). 
• A multitude of activities fall into this murky in-between—from nefarious economic activities, influence operations, and cyberattacks to mercenary operations, assassinations, and disinformation campaigns. 
• Generally, gray-zone activities are considered gradualist campaigns by state and non-state actors that combine non-military and quasi-military tools and fall below the threshold of armed conflict. 
  • They aim to thwart, destabilize, weaken, or attack an adversary, and they are often tailored toward the vulnerabilities of the target state. 

How to bring about White Revolution 2.0

Time to Read :🕑 11 Mins

Why in news?

The government's latest Household Consumption Expenditure Survey (HCES) for 2022-23 reveals that milk has emerged as the top food item in terms of spending, both in rural and urban areas of India.

Dairy Sector in India

• India is the highest milk producer and ranks first position in the world contributing 24.64% of global milk production in the year 2021-22. The milk production of India has registered 58% increase during the last nine years i.e., during the year 2014-15 and 2022-23 and increased to 230.58 Mn Tonnes in the year 2022-23. The milk production has increased at a CAGR 5.85% over the past 9 years.
• The top 5 milk-producing states are: Rajasthan (15.05%), Uttar Pradesh (14.93%), Madhya Pradesh (8.6%), Gujarat (7.56%) and Andhra Pradesh (6.97%).  They together contribute 53.11% of total Milk production in the country.
• India's Export of Dairy products was 67,572.99 MT to the world for the worth  $284.65 Mn during the year 2022-23.

HCES Data

• The monthly value of milk and dairy products consumed by an average person in rural India, at Rs 314, was ahead of vegetables (Rs 203), cereals (Rs 185), egg, fish & meat (Rs 185), fruits (Rs 140), edible oil (Rs 136), spices (Rs 113) and pulses (Rs 76).
• The HCES data reveals the same for urban India: Milk (Rs 466), fruits (Rs 246), vegetables (Rs 245), cereals (Rs 235), egg, fish & meat (Rs 231), edible oil (Rs 153), spices (Rs 138) and pulses (Rs 90).

Challenge

• The first relates to consumer demand itself from inflation. 

• • • The all-India modal (most-quoted) price of milk has gone up from Rs 42 to Rs 60 per litre in the last five years, according to the department of consumer affairs. Much of the increase – from Rs 52 to Rs 60 – has happened in the last one year alone.

• The second has to do with the cost of fodder, feed and raw materials/ingredients. 

• • As these have increased significantly, dairies have had to hike procurement prices paid to farmers and, in turn, pass-through the same to consumers.

• There’s a limit to how much more the consumer can pay for milk without it causing demand destruction. 

• • If farmer incomes are to be raised without shrinking domestic demand and eroding the global competitiveness of the Indian dairy industry, the only solution is to reduce the cost of milk production.

How to boost milk yield per animal

• One way is to boost milk yield per animal through genetic improvement and new breeding technologies.

• • • A typical crossbred cow giving birth first at 24-30 months can produce 5-7 calves over its lifetime. The normal breeding route, whether natural or via artificial insemination (AI), would result in only 50% of these being female calves or future milk-producing cows. But with the use of sex-sorted (SS) semen, there is a 90%-plus probability of only female calves being born, as against 50:50 with conventional semen.

• Embryo transfer (ET) technology and IVF

• • • A good cow, even with SS semen, can produce, at best, 5-6 as-good future milkers. That’s where embryo transfer (ET) technology, to exploit the high genetic merit (HGM, i.e. milking potential) of an existing cow, comes in.
    • ET entails injecting follicle-stimulating hormone in cows to make them release multiple ova (eggs) in a single estrous cycle. These ova – numbering 4-6 in Jersey, 6-8 in Holstein Friesian (HF) and 10-15 in Gir cows – are fertilised by sperms from the semen of a proven genetically-superior bull. The fertilised eggs (zygotes) are, then, collected from inside the donor cow and transferred for implanting in the uteruses of multiple recipient animals. Multiple ovulation and ET, thus, enables production of several calves from a single HGM cow. With 6 such procedures, each yielding 6 viable embryos, and 33-35% conception rate, it would result in some 12 calves being born from every donor cow per year.

• A more recent technology involves extracting the oocytes or immature ova directly from the cow’s ovaries using an aspiration pump. 

• • The oocytes – about 10-50 can be collected from each ovary at a time – are kept in an incubator for 24 hours to develop into ova. In this case, the fertilisation of the mature ova takes place in vitro, i.e. outside the cow’s body, in a petri-dish where the sperms are introduced. The zygotes formed remain in the in vitro culture medium for another six days, before ready for transfer to the recipient cows. With 20 procedures, 5 viable embryos per procedure and 33-35% conception, there can be 33-35 calves per donor cow per year. This is as compared with 5-7 calves during its entire lifetime through normal breeding.

Recent Update on Breeding

• In March 2020, AMUL opened a Bovine Breeding Centre at Mogar in Gujarat’s Anand district. 
  • The objective was to breed a nucleus herd of HGM bulls and cows, whose superior semen and in vitro-fertilised embryos frozen at minus 196 degrees Celsius, could be used for AI or transferring into the animals of farmers.

• The Centre, set up with an investment of Rs 15 crore, has so far produced 170 male and 180 female animals through in vitro fertilisation (IVF) and ET technology. 

• • These include exotic (HF and Jersey giving 10,000-12,000 litres and 7,000-10,000 litres of milk respectively per year), HF-Gir and HF-Sahiwal crossbred (5,000-7,000 litres) and indigenous Gir, Sahiwal and Murrah buffalo (3,000-4,000 litres) breeds.

Animal nutrition (Way forward)

• Genetics apart, there is intervention required to bring down feeding costs of animals. 
  • This should be done by farmers cultivating high-yielding protein-rich green fodder grasses and reducing reliance on expensive compound cattle feed and oil-meal concentrates.
• The focus of White Revolution 2.0 would clearly have to be on lowering the cost of producing milk at the farm-gate, as opposed to increasing procurement prices year after year.

   

Table of content

• Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project (KLIP)
• Non-lapsable Defence Modernisation Fund
• Banglar muslin
• Grey Zone Warfare
• How to bring about White Revolution 2.0

Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project (KLIP)

Time to Read :🕑 5 Mins

Why in news?

National Dam Safety Authority (NDSA) has constituted a five-member committee to examine the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project (KLIP).

About Committee

• Five-member committee under the chairmanship of J. Chandrasekhar Iyer, former chairman of the Central Water Commission (CWC), along with U.C. Vidyarthi, R. Patil, Shivakumar Sharma, and Rahul Kumar Singh as members. 
  • Amitabh Meena, Director (Technical) of NDSA, will serve as the member secretary of this committee.
• The committee has been asked to submit its report to the NDSA within four months. 

About the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project (KLIP) 

• It is a multi-purpose irrigation project on the Godavari River in Kaleshwaram, Bhupalpally, Telangana. 
• Its farthest upstream influence is at the confluence of the Pranhita and Godavari rivers. 
• The Pranahita River is itself a confluence of various smaller tributaries including the Wardha, Painganga, and Wainganga rivers which combine to form the seventh-largest drainage basin on the subcontinent, with an estimated annual discharge of more than 6,427,900 acre feet (7,930 cubic hectometres) or 280 TMC. 
• The Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project is divided into 7 links and 28 packages spanning a distance of approximately 500 km (310 mi) through 13 districts and utilizing a canal network of more than 1,800 km (1,100 mi). 
• The project aims to produce a total of 240 TMC (195 from Medigadda Barrage, 20 from Sripada Yellampalli project and 25 from groundwater), of which 169 has been allocated for irrigation, 30 for Hyderabad municipal water, 16 for miscellaneous industrial uses and 10 for drinking water in nearby villages, with the remainder being estimated evaporation loss.

Non-lapsable Defence Modernisation Fund

Time to Read :🕑 5 Mins

Why in news?

The government has abandoned the proposal to establish a Non-lapsable Defense Modernization Fund, citing drawbacks related to parliamentary scrutiny and accountability.

Background

• The 15th Finance Commission had recommended the constitution of a dedicated non-lapsable Modernisation Fund for Defence and Internal Security (MFDIS), after the Centre had included the examination of such a fund’s creation in its terms of reference. 
• In 2021, placing an action-taken report in Parliament along with the Commission’s report, the government had said it has “in-principle” accepted the creation of such a fund in the Public Account of India.

About Non-lapsable Defence Modernisation Fund

• Articles 112-114 & 266 of the Constitution provide that no money can be spent by the Government from Consolidated Fund of India without authorisation through an Annual Budget presented before the Parliament. 
• Since authorisation under the Appropriation Act is meant for that particular financial year, the same does not allow operationalization of a Public Fund which is non-lapsable in nature. 
• In this regard, a separate mechanism is being worked out by the Ministry of Finance in consultation with MoD, to explore a special dispensation to MoD to operationalize a Non-lapsable Defence Modernisation Fund.

Lapsable and non-lapsable fund

• Lapsable funds are budgetary allotments in India that have a temporal constraint on their use before they revert to the government's general reserves.
• On the other hand, funds that are not lapsable can be carried over if they are not spent by the end of the fiscal year. They typically don't expire at the end of the year and are set aside for particular uses.

Banglar muslin

Time to Read :🕑 3 Mins

Why in news?

Banglar muslin receives GI tag recognition.

About Banglar muslin

• The Banglar muslin is one of the popular traditional handloom craft of Bengal. 
• This finest sort of muslin is made of cotton, which are spun to create threads that maintained tensile strength at counts (above 300 counts and up to 600 counts) i.e., higher than any other cotton products. 
• And Narsapur in West Godavari region of Andhra Pradesh, which is known for crochet skills, has received global acclaim for its intricate craftsmanship, unique designs and good quality crochet craft was brought by missionaries to Narsapur, and now Narsapur is a strong centre for intricate handmade crocheted lace work.

Grey Zone Warfare

Time to Read :🕑 3 Mins

Why in news?

Recently, India's Chief of Defence Staff (CSD) mentioned the term "grey zone warfare".

About Grey Zone Warfare

• Grey zone warfare generally means a middle, unclear space that exists between direct conflict and peace in international relations.
• The gray zone describes a set of activities that occur between peace (or cooperation) and war (or armed conflict). 
• A multitude of activities fall into this murky in-between—from nefarious economic activities, influence operations, and cyberattacks to mercenary operations, assassinations, and disinformation campaigns. 
• Generally, gray-zone activities are considered gradualist campaigns by state and non-state actors that combine non-military and quasi-military tools and fall below the threshold of armed conflict. 
  • They aim to thwart, destabilize, weaken, or attack an adversary, and they are often tailored toward the vulnerabilities of the target state. 

How to bring about White Revolution 2.0

Time to Read :🕑 11 Mins

Why in news?

The government's latest Household Consumption Expenditure Survey (HCES) for 2022-23 reveals that milk has emerged as the top food item in terms of spending, both in rural and urban areas of India.

Dairy Sector in India

• India is the highest milk producer and ranks first position in the world contributing 24.64% of global milk production in the year 2021-22. The milk production of India has registered 58% increase during the last nine years i.e., during the year 2014-15 and 2022-23 and increased to 230.58 Mn Tonnes in the year 2022-23. The milk production has increased at a CAGR 5.85% over the past 9 years.
• The top 5 milk-producing states are: Rajasthan (15.05%), Uttar Pradesh (14.93%), Madhya Pradesh (8.6%), Gujarat (7.56%) and Andhra Pradesh (6.97%).  They together contribute 53.11% of total Milk production in the country.
• India's Export of Dairy products was 67,572.99 MT to the world for the worth  $284.65 Mn during the year 2022-23.

HCES Data

• The monthly value of milk and dairy products consumed by an average person in rural India, at Rs 314, was ahead of vegetables (Rs 203), cereals (Rs 185), egg, fish & meat (Rs 185), fruits (Rs 140), edible oil (Rs 136), spices (Rs 113) and pulses (Rs 76).
• The HCES data reveals the same for urban India: Milk (Rs 466), fruits (Rs 246), vegetables (Rs 245), cereals (Rs 235), egg, fish & meat (Rs 231), edible oil (Rs 153), spices (Rs 138) and pulses (Rs 90).

Challenge

• The first relates to consumer demand itself from inflation. 

• • • The all-India modal (most-quoted) price of milk has gone up from Rs 42 to Rs 60 per litre in the last five years, according to the department of consumer affairs. Much of the increase – from Rs 52 to Rs 60 – has happened in the last one year alone.

• The second has to do with the cost of fodder, feed and raw materials/ingredients. 

• • As these have increased significantly, dairies have had to hike procurement prices paid to farmers and, in turn, pass-through the same to consumers.

• There’s a limit to how much more the consumer can pay for milk without it causing demand destruction. 

• • If farmer incomes are to be raised without shrinking domestic demand and eroding the global competitiveness of the Indian dairy industry, the only solution is to reduce the cost of milk production.

How to boost milk yield per animal

• One way is to boost milk yield per animal through genetic improvement and new breeding technologies.

• • • A typical crossbred cow giving birth first at 24-30 months can produce 5-7 calves over its lifetime. The normal breeding route, whether natural or via artificial insemination (AI), would result in only 50% of these being female calves or future milk-producing cows. But with the use of sex-sorted (SS) semen, there is a 90%-plus probability of only female calves being born, as against 50:50 with conventional semen.

• Embryo transfer (ET) technology and IVF

• • • A good cow, even with SS semen, can produce, at best, 5-6 as-good future milkers. That’s where embryo transfer (ET) technology, to exploit the high genetic merit (HGM, i.e. milking potential) of an existing cow, comes in.
    • ET entails injecting follicle-stimulating hormone in cows to make them release multiple ova (eggs) in a single estrous cycle. These ova – numbering 4-6 in Jersey, 6-8 in Holstein Friesian (HF) and 10-15 in Gir cows – are fertilised by sperms from the semen of a proven genetically-superior bull. The fertilised eggs (zygotes) are, then, collected from inside the donor cow and transferred for implanting in the uteruses of multiple recipient animals. Multiple ovulation and ET, thus, enables production of several calves from a single HGM cow. With 6 such procedures, each yielding 6 viable embryos, and 33-35% conception rate, it would result in some 12 calves being born from every donor cow per year.

• A more recent technology involves extracting the oocytes or immature ova directly from the cow’s ovaries using an aspiration pump. 

• • The oocytes – about 10-50 can be collected from each ovary at a time – are kept in an incubator for 24 hours to develop into ova. In this case, the fertilisation of the mature ova takes place in vitro, i.e. outside the cow’s body, in a petri-dish where the sperms are introduced. The zygotes formed remain in the in vitro culture medium for another six days, before ready for transfer to the recipient cows. With 20 procedures, 5 viable embryos per procedure and 33-35% conception, there can be 33-35 calves per donor cow per year. This is as compared with 5-7 calves during its entire lifetime through normal breeding.

Recent Update on Breeding

• In March 2020, AMUL opened a Bovine Breeding Centre at Mogar in Gujarat’s Anand district. 
  • The objective was to breed a nucleus herd of HGM bulls and cows, whose superior semen and in vitro-fertilised embryos frozen at minus 196 degrees Celsius, could be used for AI or transferring into the animals of farmers.

• The Centre, set up with an investment of Rs 15 crore, has so far produced 170 male and 180 female animals through in vitro fertilisation (IVF) and ET technology. 

• • These include exotic (HF and Jersey giving 10,000-12,000 litres and 7,000-10,000 litres of milk respectively per year), HF-Gir and HF-Sahiwal crossbred (5,000-7,000 litres) and indigenous Gir, Sahiwal and Murrah buffalo (3,000-4,000 litres) breeds.

Animal nutrition (Way forward)

• Genetics apart, there is intervention required to bring down feeding costs of animals. 
  • This should be done by farmers cultivating high-yielding protein-rich green fodder grasses and reducing reliance on expensive compound cattle feed and oil-meal concentrates.
• The focus of White Revolution 2.0 would clearly have to be on lowering the cost of producing milk at the farm-gate, as opposed to increasing procurement prices year after year.