Highlights
- Schemes: The Cabinet approved continuation of PM-AASHA with Rs 35,000 crore outlay until 2025-26 to protect farmers' income.
- Space: Cabinet approved Chandrayaan-4 mission targeting Earth-return technology and lunar sample collection, a foundation for a manned landing by 2040.
- Tribal welfare: Pradhan Mantri Janjatiya Unnat Gram Abhiyan approved to cover 63,000 tribal-majority villages and 5 crore tribal people.
- Science: The Bio-RIDE scheme targets a $300 billion bioeconomy by 2030.
1. PM-AASHA: farmer price protection continued
GS area: Economy (agriculture), Governance
The Union Cabinet approved the continuation of Pradhan Mantri Annadata Aay SanraksHan Abhiyan (PM-AASHA) with a total outlay of Rs 35,000 crore until 2025-26.
Key details of PM-AASHA's three components:
- Price Support Scheme (PSS): The government directly procures oilseeds, pulses and copra from farmers at Minimum Support Price (MSP) when market prices fall below MSP. NAFED and NCCF are the procurement agencies.
- Price Stabilisation Fund (PSF): Used to stabilise retail prices of agri-commodities by building buffer stocks. Controls price volatility.
- Price Deficiency Payment Scheme (PDPS): Instead of physical procurement, the government pays farmers the difference between MSP and the market price directly into their bank accounts. Reduces storage logistics burden.
- Pilot of Private Procurement and Stockist Scheme (PPSS): Involves private sector in procurement to increase reach.
- What PM-AASHA addresses: The gap between procurement and the large number of farmers who do not benefit from MSP because they sell in local markets below MSP.
- MSP context: MSP is announced for 23 crops. The CACP (Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices) recommends MSPs based on production costs. MSP is not a legal entitlement; the 2020 farm laws controversy centred partly on this.
Static linkage: MSP mechanism, NAFED, farm income policy, CACP.
2. Chandrayaan-4: Cabinet approval
GS area: Science and Technology
The Cabinet approved the Chandrayaan-4 mission, a landmark step in ISRO's human spaceflight roadmap.
Key details:
- Primary objectives: Demonstrate Earth-return technology (the ability to send a spacecraft to the Moon and bring it back) and collect lunar soil and rock samples.
- Timeline: 36-month completion target from funding approval.
- Manned mission goal: Chandrayaan-4 is foundational infrastructure for India's ambition to land an astronaut on the Moon by 2040.
- Lead agency: ISRO, with industry and academia involvement.
- Relation to Gaganyaan: Gaganyaan (India's first crewed orbital spaceflight) will test human spaceflight systems. Chandrayaan-4's Earth-return technology is an intermediate milestone.
- Comparison with Chandrayaan-3: Chandrayaan-3 achieved a soft landing near the lunar south pole on 23 August 2023, making India the fourth country to soft-land on the Moon and the first near the south pole.
- Lunar south pole significance: Permanently shadowed craters near the south pole contain water ice, crucial for in-situ resource utilisation in future manned missions.
Static linkage: Space programme, ISRO, Gaganyaan, Chandrayaan series.
3. Pradhan Mantri Janjatiya Unnat Gram Abhiyan
GS area: Governance (tribal welfare), Social justice
The Cabinet approved the Pradhan Mantri Janjatiya Unnat Gram Abhiyan to develop infrastructure and livelihoods in tribal-majority villages.
Key details:
- Coverage: 63,000 tribal-majority villages across India. Target population: 5 crore tribal people.
- Focus areas: Infrastructure (roads, electricity, water), education, health, livelihoods, housing and digital connectivity.
- Context: Tribal communities form approximately 8.6 per cent of India's population (Census 2011). They are disproportionately represented among those in extreme poverty and lacking basic services.
- Scheduled Tribe provisions:
- Article 342: The President may specify tribes as Scheduled Tribes.
- Fifth Schedule: Administers Scheduled Areas in states other than north-eastern states.
- Sixth Schedule: Autonomous District Councils for tribal areas in Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram.
- Relation to PM-JANMAN: A preceding scheme (PM Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups Development Mission) targeted 75 PVTGs. This Abhiyan extends to all tribal-majority villages.
Static linkage: Tribal welfare, scheduled areas, Fifth and Sixth Schedules, PVTGs.
4. National Centre of Excellence for Animation: Mumbai
GS area: Economy (creative industries), Governance
A National Centre of Excellence for Animation (also called IIIC) was approved for Mumbai, structured on the IIT/IIM model.
Key details:
- Sectors covered: Animation, Visual Effects (VFX), Gaming, Comics and Extended Reality (AR/VR/MR). Collectively called the AVGC-XR sector.
- Purpose: Position India as a global content creation hub. India's animation and VFX industry has high technical talent but lacks the formal training and IP creation that global studios have.
- AVGC Promotion Task Force: Established in 2022 under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. The Centre is one of its key outputs.
- India's AVGC opportunity: India produces VFX and animation for global studios (Hollywood, streaming platforms) but owns very little intellectual property. The Centre aims to shift India from service provider to IP creator.
Static linkage: Creative economy, digital India, AVGC sector.
5. Bharatiya Antariksh Station (BAS-1)
GS area: Science and Technology
The Cabinet approval for the Chandrayaan-4 mission was part of a broader space framework that includes BAS-1.
Key details about BAS-1:
- Target: Operational by 2035.
- Eight missions planned: From Gaganyaan modules to module assembly, all to be completed by December 2028 to support the station's construction.
- Purpose: Microgravity research, materials science, astronomy, Earth observation and technology development.
- Analogy: Conceptually similar to the ISS (International Space Station, 1998-present). BAS-1 is India's ambition to have a sovereign orbital platform rather than relying on access to ISS.
- Scale: BAS-1 is planned at a smaller scale than the ISS but larger than a single module. Exact mass and configuration are under development.
Static linkage: Space programme, Gaganyaan, human spaceflight.
6. Pheromone dispenser for pest control
GS area: Science and Technology (agriculture)
JNCASR (Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research) and ICAR-NBAIR (National Bureau of Agricultural Insect Resources) developed a mesoporous silica pheromone dispenser for sustainable pest control.
- What pheromones do: Insects communicate using chemical signals called pheromones. Synthetic pheromone dispensers placed in fields attract and trap male insects, disrupting mating and reducing pest populations without pesticides.
- Mesoporous silica: A nanomaterial with a regular pore structure that controls the release rate of the pheromone. The controlled release reduces how frequently dispensers need to be replaced.
- Advantage: Reduces pesticide use, lowers farmer costs and is environmentally benign (species-specific; does not harm non-target insects or pollinators).
- NBAIR: Develops biopesticides and biological control agents for Indian agriculture.
Static linkage: Biotechnology in agriculture, integrated pest management.
7. Briefly noted
- Neuralink Blindsight: FDA granted "Breakthrough Device" designation to Neuralink's Blindsight device, which aims to restore vision for individuals who have lost optic nerve function. A second patient was successfully implanted.
- Bio-RIDE Scheme: The Biotechnology Research Innovation and Entrepreneurship Development scheme supports three components: R&D, industrial development and biomanufacturing. Target: $300 billion bioeconomy by 2030.
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