Union Cabinet approves Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana

The Cabinet approved Pradhan Mantri Fasal Beema Yojna, a crop insurance scheme aimed to ensure farmers’ welfare.

The scheme will offer more insurance with less premium, and lead to rise of purchasing capacity of farmers.
The new scheme replaces the existing National Agricultural Insurance Scheme.
Government liability on premium subsidy will be shared by central and state governments on fifty-fifty basis.
The budget for Crop Insurance will be substantially increased from 2823 crore rupees in 2015-16 to 7750 crore rupees in 2018-19.
Remote Sensing, smart phones and drones will be used for quick estimation of crop losses and early settlement of claims.
Currently, farmers have to pay premium ranging from 4 to 15 per cent to insure crops.

Example: the case of Lalitpur in Uttar Pradesh’s Bundelkhand region, where the actual premium for paddy is 22 per cent of the sum insured and farmers have to pay a premium as high as 5.75 per cent.

a farmer will not have to pay more than 2.5 per cent of the sum insured as premium for kharif crops (paddy, maize, millet, etc), 2 per cent for all rabi crops except wheat, 1.5 per cent for wheat and 2 per cent for all pulses.
The proposal also envisages a cap of 5 per cent on premium a farmer has to pay to get horticulture crops (including fruits, vegetables and commercial crops) insured.
The new scheme will also seek to address a long-standing demand of farmers and provide farm-level assessment for localised calamities, including hailstorms, unseasonal rains, landslides and inundation.
The government is planning to use smartphones to capture crop cutting data to reduce the time taken to finalise yield data .

The new Crop Insurance Scheme is in line with One Nation – One Scheme theme.

Comparing the new insurance scheme with the previous schemes:

No	Feature	NAIS [1999]	MNAIS [2010]	PM Crop Insurance Scheme[2016]
1	Premium rate	Low	High	Lower than even NAIS (Govt to contribute 5 times that of farmer)
2	One Season – One Premium	Yes	No	Yes
3	Insurance Amount cover	Full	Capped	Full
4	On Account Payment	No	Yes	Yes
5	Localised Risk coverage	No	Hail storm Land slide	Hail storm Land slide Inundation
6	Post Harvest Losses coverage	No	Coastal areas – for cyclonic rain	All India – for cyclonic + unseasonal rain
7	Prevented Sowing coverage	No	Yes	Yes
8	Use of Technology	No	Intended	Mandatory
9	Awareness	No	No	Yes (target to double coverage to 50%)

Comments

India’s challenge of securing the seas

Three recent events underline India’s efforts to highlight its growing maritime interests and ambitions in order to secure them unilaterally and in partnership with others. The first was the quiet release of the Indian Maritime Security Strategy (IMSS) titled Ensuring Secure Seas in October. The second was the holding of the combined senior commanders’ conference, with top officers from all three services, on board INS Vikramaditya , the Indian Navy’s latest aircraft carrier and its largest platform, in December. The last and most recent was India’s hosting of its second International Fleet Review (IFR) at Visakhapatnam in early February. While the pomp and circumstance as well as the photo-ops of the IFR, which attracted naval vessels from 50 countries, predictably, created the biggest splash, its significance is best understood in tandem with the 185-page IMSS-2015. Although the document is simultaneously comprehensive, conservative and cautious, it conveys on...

Differences between Indus civilization & Vedic Culture

What were the Differences between Indus civilization & Vedic Culture? The Indus civilization and Vedic culture constitute two great corner stone's in the history of Indian culture and civilization. When we make a comparison between the two, we notice more differences than similarities. Our sources of information of the Harappan civilization are mainly archaeological, while the Vedic culture is mostly known from the literary sources - the Vedas. Differences: Harappans are said to have been the original inhabitants of India while the Aryans, the founders of Vedic culture, are believed to have come to India from Central Asia. The Harappan civilization was urban in nature as is evidenced by its town-planning, drainage system, and granary and so on. The Vedic culture was rural. There is almost complete absence of towns in the Rigvedic period. At best the Rigvedic Aryans lived in fortified places protected by mud walls; and these cannot be regarded as towns in the Harap...

India at 90th rank in terms of energy security, access: World Economic Forum

India has been ranked at the 90th place in a list of 126 countries compiled by World Economic Forum (WEF) on the basis of their ability to deliver secure, affordable and sustainable energy, which was topped by Switzerland . The latest Global Energy Architecture Performance Index Report, explored the energy architecture of 126 countries based on their ability to provide energy access across three dimensions of the "energy triangle" - affordability, environmental sustainability, security and access. The list was topped by Switzerland followed by Norway and Sweden in the second and third place, respectively. Others in the top 10 include France (4th), Denmark (5th), Austria (6th), Spain (7th), Colombia (8th), New Zealand (9th) and Uruguay (10th). Among the BRIC nations, Brazil was the top performer as it was ranked at the 25th place, followed by Russia (52nd), India (90th), China (94)y. Regarding India, the report noted that it is "facing a vast array o...

Civil Service Bytes

Search This Blog