Daily Quiz #5 UPSC Prelims Marathon – August 6, 2019

Explanation: Popularly known as Package Programme, the Intensive Agricultural Development Programme (IADP) was taken up in 1961 and it paved the way to an Adoption Breakthrough for Green Revolution in India. It aimed at diffusing technical know-how, credit and agricultural technology to step up agricultural production in selected districts so that it may have demonstration effect. The relevance of IADP experiment (1961-64) arises from the fact that it provided a crucial and much needed ‘adoption breakthrough”-adoption of modem techniques of agricultural growth which, when coupled with the epochmaking ‘biological breakthrough, gave birth to the Green Revolution in India”. The pilot project was launched first in 7 districts of 7 different states. Out of these, four were rice producing, two wheat producing and one millets producing. The districts were Shahabad in Bihar, Thanjavur in Tamil Nadu, Aligarh in U.P., West Godavari in Andhra Pradesh, Ludhiana in Punjab, Raipur in Chhattisgarh and Pali in Rajasthan. Later 8 more districts were selected for this programme. The programme was a grand success and it created new dynamism in the stagnant countryside. It was extended to a total of 114 districts in 1964-65.

Explanation: The economics of animal rearing plays a very vital role in the country. The agriculture sector in India is predominantly a mixed crop-livestock (animals, birds and fishes) farming system. Animal rearing has always remained an integral part of it. Animal rearing (which includes rearing of cows, camels, buffaloes, goats, pigs, ships, etc.), besides directly contributing to the national income and socio-economic development, plays the following vital functions in the country:
•Supplements family income and generates gainful employment in the rural sector
•Particularly helps the landless laborers, small and marginal farmers and women (economic empowerment of women)
•Provides cheap nutrititional food
•Functions as the best insurance against drought, famine and other natural calamities;
•It is more inclusive in nature; and
•Promotes the cause of sustainable agriculture.

Explanation: The Market Intervention Scheme (MIS) is similar to MSP, which is implemented on the request of state governments for procurement of perishable and horticultural commodities in the event of fall in market prices. The scheme is implemented when there is at least 10 per cent increase in production or 10 per cent decrease in the ruling rates over the previous normal year. Proposal of MIS is approved on the specific request of the state/UT governments, if the states/UTs are ready to bear 50 per cent loss (25 per cent in case of North-Eastern states) incurred on its implementation.

Explanation: PM Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru had termed the PSUs the ‘temples of modern India’, symbolically pointing to their importance. There was a time soon after Independence when the PSUs were regarded as the principal instrument for raising savings and growth in the economy. The rapid expansion of PSUs accounted for more than half of the GDP of the economy by 1988-89.

Explanation: As per the SMSE Act, 2006 the MSME are classified in two classes-manufacturing and service enterprises-and they are defined in terms of investment in plant & machinery. The Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) play a very vital role in the economy—3.6 crore such units employ 8.05 crore people and contribute 37.5 per cent to the country’s GDP. The sector has huge potential for helping address structural problems like, unemployment, regional imbalances, unequal distribution of national income and wealth. Due to comparatively low capital costs and their forward backward linkages with other sectors, they are headed to play a crucial role in the success of the Make in India initiative.
Realizing the importance of the sector, over the time, the government has undertaken a number of schemes for the establishment of new enterprises and development of existing ones like:
•PMEGP (Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Programme)
• CGTMSE (Credit Guarantee Trust Fund for Micro and Small Enterprises)
•CLCSS (Credit Linked Capital Subsidy Scheme) for Technology Upgradation,
•SFURTI (Scheme of Fund for Regeneration of Traditional Industries), and
•MSECDP (Micro and Small Enterprises-Cluster Development Programme)