31-08-2023-CNA

1.
Understanding curbs on rice exports-Page 8

2. What are the changes to the process for sale of SIM cards?- Page 8
3. Smooth operation of ‘LAM’ critical to Aditya-L1 success-Page 12
4. In India, 74% can’t afford a healthy diet: UN agency report- Page 7
Prelims Bytes
5. WCS-India report flags illegal trade of red sand boa- Page 4
6. Dell, HP, 30 other firms show interest in IT hardware PLI-Page 14
7. What to do with spent nuclear fuel?- Page II
Understanding curbs on rice exports
In a move to check domestic rice prices and ensure domestic

food security, the Indian government has prohibited the
export of white rice, levied a 20% export duty on par-boiled
rice till October 15, and permitted the export of Basmati rice
for contracts with value of $1,200 a tonne or above. The
export of broken rice has been prohibited since last
September.
GS Paper III- Page 8

What is the rice production estimate?
• According to the third Advanced Estimate of the Department of

Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, during the Rabi season 2022-2023, rice
production was 13.8% less, at 158.95 lakh tonnes against 184.71 lakh
tonnes during Rabi 2021-2022.
• Kharif sowing data show that rice is sown on 384.05 lakh hectares this
year as on August 25 compared with 367.83 lakh hectares during the same
period last year. But, in States such as Tamil Nadu where the Samba crop
sowing starts usually in August in the Cauvery delta area, a section of
farmers says there will be delayed sowing due to a shortfall in the south
west monsoon. Trade and rice millers say that new season crop arrivals
will start after the first week of September and that El Nino effects are
likely to impact arrivals to some extent.
What about rice exports?
• India is the largest rice exporter globally with a 45% share in the world rice
market. Overall rice exports in April-May of 2023 were 21.1% higher compared
with the same period last financial year. In May alone, export of Basmati rice was
10.86% higher than its exports in May 2022. Non-Basmati rice shipments were
7.5% more, despite the government introducing a 20% export duty on white rice
and prohibiting the export of broken rice last September.
• The data shared by the government says that till August 17 this year, total rice
exports (except broken rice) were 15% more at 7.3 million tonnes as against the
6.3 million tonnes during the corresponding period last year.
• Thailand expects nearly 25% lower production in 2023-2024; Myanmar has

stopped raw rice exports; and the crop is said to be hit in Iraq and Iran as well.
Consequences
• The government has increased the Minimum Support Price (MSP) for rice, and the
paddy procured now by rice millers are at a price higher than the MSP.
• The prices will not decline for farmers.
• The restrictions on exports will ensure that there is no steep climb in rice prices in
the market. When the bench mark price set by the government is high, the farmers
will realise better prices, say trade sources.
• For domestic consumers, though there is a slight increase in rice prices at present,
in the long run, availability is secured and prices are not expected to spiral. A clear
situation on the arrivals and government policy will be known by mid-September.
What are the changes to the process for sale of SIM
cards?
On August 17, seeking to further tackle the menace of

cybercrimes and financial fraud, Union Minister for
Telecommunications Ashwini Vaishnaw introduced two
reforms. These entail a revision of norms for bulk
procurement of SIM cards and registering the final point
of sale (PoS) by the licensees (or providers).

What is Sanchar Saathi?
• Broadly, the citizen-centric portal allows

• Citizens to check the connections registered against their names
• Block mobile phones which are stolen or lost
• Report fraudulent or unrequired connections
• Verify the genuineness of a device (before a purchase) using the IMEI (International
Mobile Equipment Identity).
• Sanchar Saathi has, till date, analysed 114 crore active mobile connections.
Of these, 66 lakh connections were flagged as suspicious, and 52 lakh
connections were disconnected because they failed re-verification.
• Furthermore, as per the Department of Telecommunication, more than 300

FIRs have been filed against more than 1,700 dealers.
What is the reform on PoS?
• From now on, it will be mandatory for franchisee, agents and distributors
of SIM cards — all PoS — to be registered with the licensees or the
telecom network operator.
• The onus would be on the operator to carry out an “indisputable”

verification of the PoS. Importantly, police verification (of the dealer) is
mandatory.
• Existing SIM card providers have been given 12 months to comply with
the registration requirements.
• If the PoS is found to be involved in any illegal activity, the agreement

would be terminated with the entity being blacklisted for three years. It
would also draw a penalty of ₹10 lakh.
What about bulk SIM cards?
• Broadly, the latest provisions would replace the system of ‘bulk

procurement’ of SIM cards (by businesses, corporates or those meant for
specific events) with a system of entailing ‘business’ connections —
sizeable procurement by a registered business entity or enterprise.
• The new norms maintain that though businesses can procure any number
of connections, it would be subject to completing KYC requirements for
all end-users. In other words, the final user— the executive who would be
holding the connection — would have to undergo the KYC procedure.
• In order to prevent the misuse of printed Aadhaar, the provisions mandate

that demographic details would be required by scanning the QR code of
the printed Aadhaar. Subscribers would also have to undergo the entire
KYC procedure for replacing their SIM; for a period of 24 hours, all
outgoing and incoming SMS facilities would be barred.
Smooth operation of ‘LAM’ critical to Aditya-L1
success
A small but powerful engine going by the acronym ‘LAM’ will have a critical
role to play in the upcoming Aditya-L1 mission of the Indian Space Research
Organisation (ISRO) to study the sun.
The successful operation of LAM, short for Liquid Apogee Motor, is vital to
the ISRO’s plans to place the Aditya spacecraft in a halo orbit at Lagrangian
Point L1.

Tried and trusted
• Developed by the Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre (LPSC), the ISRO

centre for liquid and cryogenic propulsion in Thiruvananthapuram, LAM
has played an important role in missions, including the 2014 Mars Orbiter
Mission (MOM), Mangalyaan, and the more recent Chandrayaan-3.
• In simple terms, LAM engines are used for orbital adjustment manoeuvres
of satellites and spacecraft in orbit.
• For the Aditya-L1 mission, the ISRO will use a LAM identical to the one
used in the Mars and moon missions, says LPSC Director V. Narayanan.
• Aditya-L1 is the first ‘space-based observatory class Indian solar mission

to study the sun’, the ISRO said.
• The big challenge before the ISRO is restarting LAM at the precise
moment for ‘braking’ the spacecraft as it closes in on its destination
and nudging it into the desired halo orbit at L1.
• During the Mangalyaan mission, this critical manoeuvre, ‘waking’ the

LAM engine after an extended ‘hibernation’, had given ISRO
scientists nail-biting moments.
In India, 74% can’t afford a healthy diet: UN agency
report
The report, ‘State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World’
(SOFI) 2023, published last month, shows that while the cost of a
healthy diet has increased in recent years in India, it is still the
lowest among the BRICS nations (including the newly added six
countries) and India’s neighbours.
SOFI is published by the Food and Agriculture Organization and

jointly produced with fellow United Nations agencies.

Chart 1 shows the cost of a healthy diet
in terms of PPP dollars per person per
day in 2021, the latest year with
comparable data. For instance, in India, a
healthy diet costs 3.066 PPP dollars per
person per day, the lowest among the
countries considered.
PPP stands for ‘Purchasing Power Parity’. In simple terms, 1 PPP

dollar in the United States should buy the same amount of goods
and services as 1 PPP dollar in, say, India or Brazil. The cost of a
healthy diet expressed as ‘X PPP dollars per person per day’ means
that it would cost that much per person every day to maintain a
healthy diet, accounting for differences in the cost of living between
countries.
Chart 2 shows the share of the
population that is unable to afford
a healthy diet in 2021. For
instance, in India, 74% were not
able to afford a healthy diet, the
fourth highest share among the
nations considered. Charts 1 and 2
show that the cost of a healthy diet
in India, though increasing, is still
lower than many comparable
economies. However, given the
poor income levels in India, a
healthy diet is still unaffordable to
many.
Conclusions
• The share of people who are able to afford such a healthy diet is still
low: India features at the bottom of that list since income levels are
stagnant or going down.
• Cost of meals in Mumbai rose by 65% in five years, while

salaries/wages rose by just 28%-37%. Mumbai was chosen as an
exemplar due to the availability of consistent data.
Prelims Bytes
WCS-India report flags illegal trade of red sand boa
• A report by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS)-India has pointed out

172 incidents of seizures of red sand boa (Eryx johnii) between the years
2016-2021.
• The report, compiled by the Counter Wildlife Trafficking unit of WCS-India,

and titled‘Illegal Trade of Red Sand Boa in India 2016-2021’collates
information from media reports on the seizures.
• The red sand boa is classified as ‘Near Threatened’ by the International Union
for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), with a ‘decreasing’ population trend in
most of their habitat ranges.
Dell, HP, 30 other firms show interest in IT hardware PLI
• Thirty-two firms have expressed interest in the Ministry of Electronics

and Information Technology’s subsidies for local laptop, PC, server and
tablet assembly, IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Wednesday.
Applicants include Dell Inc., the Hewlett-Packard Company and other
firms that work with large brands for assembly.
• Under the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for IT hardware,

the Centre will provide a 5% incentive to brands on fresh local
production. Observers point out this gives firms a reason to tolerate
other high costs of producing in India, compared to global assembly
hotspots like China and Vietnam.
What to do with spent nuclear fuel?
• Japan has started releasing treated radioactive water from the beleaguered Fukushima
nuclear power plant into the ocean, stirring up a question that scientists and
governments have been struggling to answer for decades: how to manage nuclear
waste?
• Temporary options include storing spent fuel in pools until they cool and in dry casks
and burying them in near-surface disposal facilities at ground level or below. These
facilities typically have a protective covering at least a few metres thick. The waste is
placed in vaults and then backfilled with soil and clay. The volume is then covered
with an impermeable material followed by topsoil.
• These facilities are usually used for low-level and intermediate-level waste – i.e.
which has such levels of radioactivity, typically coming from an operating plant.
• High-level waste has few options; the most feasible is deep geological disposal, and
Finland seems to be showing the way. A facility in this Scandinavian country will
become the first to realise this option when the Onkalo repository opens in 2025.
Mains Questions
Q1. Discuss the need and rational behind the export ban on
non-basmati white rice in the present context? (250 words,
15 marks)- GS Paper III
Q2. What is Sanchar Saathi? Discuss the recent efforts to

curb cybercrime and fraud in this sector? (150 words, 10
marks)- GS Paper II

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1.

Understanding curbs on rice exports-Page 8

In a move to check domestic rice prices and ensure domestic

GS Paper III- Page 8

• According to the third Advanced Estimate of the Department of

• Thailand expects nearly 25% lower production in 2023-2024; Myanmar has

• The prices will not decline for farmers.

On August 17, seeking to further tackle the menace of

GS Paper III- Page 8

• Broadly, the citizen-centric portal allows

• Furthermore, as per the Department of Telecommunication, more than 300

• The onus would be on the operator to carry out an “indisputable”

• If the PoS is found to be involved in any illegal activity, the agreement

• Broadly, the latest provisions would replace the system of ‘bulk

• In order to prevent the misuse of printed Aadhaar, the provisions mandate

GS Paper III- Page 12

• Developed by the Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre (LPSC), the ISRO

• Aditya-L1 is the first ‘space-based observatory class Indian solar mission

• During the Mangalyaan mission, this critical manoeuvre, ‘waking’ the

SOFI is published by the Food and Agriculture Organization and

GS Paper III- Page 7

PPP stands for ‘Purchasing Power Parity’. In simple terms, 1 PPP

• Cost of meals in Mumbai rose by 65% in five years, while

• A report by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS)-India has pointed out

• The report, compiled by the Counter Wildlife Trafficking unit of WCS-India,

• Thirty-two firms have expressed interest in the Ministry of Electronics

• Under the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for IT hardware,

Q2. What is Sanchar Saathi? Discuss the recent efforts to

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