24^th August 2019

 

Topic:- Agriculture & Institution.

(Important for both Mains and Prelims)

 

News:- Make potato key source of farmers’ livelihood.

 

Context:- Himachal Governor Kalraj Mishra today shared  at a function organised by the Central Potato Research Institute (CPRI) on the occasion of its 71st Foundation Day that is  the need to undertake intensive scientific research work on potato to encourage more and more farmers towards potato cultivation and making it a major source of their livelihood.

 

About Central Potato Research Institute (CPRI):-

• The Central Potato Research Institute is a governmental organisation in India.
• Head Quarter:- Shimla

 

• Historical background:-

1. Potato research in India formally began on 1st April 1935 with the opening of three breeding and seed production stations at Shimla, Kufri (both Shimla hills) and Bhowali (Kumaon hills), under the Imperial Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi.
2. In 1945, a scheme for the establishment of Central Potato Research Institute was drawn up under the guidance of the then Agriculture Advisor to the Government of India
3. The institute was established in August 1949 at Patna and started functioning from an old single-storey, barrack-type building provided by the Government of Bihar. Three small units under the IARI looking after potato, namely Potato Breeding Station at Shimla, Seed Certification Station at Kufri, and Potato Multiplication Station at Bhowali were merged with the newly created CPRI. The headquarter of the institute was shifted to Shimla, Himachal Pradesh in 1956 in order to facilitate hybridization work and better maintenance of seed health.

 

Aim:-

• To undertake basic and strategic research for developing technologies to enhance productivity and utilisation of potato.
• To produce disease-free basic seed of different notified varieties developed by the institute.

 

HP Governor underlined the need to tackle new challenges in taking Indian potato to new heights:-

1. To balance fluctuations in production.
2. Increasing potato processing by more than eight per cent.
3. Taking potato exports beyond one per cent.
4. Reducing the post-harvest losses by 16 per cent.

 

Suggestions shared by Governor:-

• Identification of special potato growing zones
• Setting up and promotion of import-export areas,
• Exploring the potato market within and outside the country
•  Promoting the use of market intelligence and other information technologies to interconnect them.
•  There is a need to build an environment where farmers get encouraged to adopt small business from their products like chips production which would also boost ‘start-Up’ campaign.

 

Potato in HP:-

• The potato was being cultivated in about 14,000 hectares area in the state with total production about two lakh tonnes.

 

 

Topic:- Environment

 

News:- Efforts on to make Dalhousie cleanest

 

Context:- ‘Hilldaari’ movement launched to make Dalhousie cleanest.

 

Who launched this movement?

• The Nestle India, in collaboration with Recity Network and Dalhousie Municipal Council, launched the ‘Hilldaari’ initiative.

 

What is the aim of this initiative?

• The ‘Hilldaari’ movement aims to transform solid waste management practices and make Dalhousie one of the cleanest hill stations of India.

 

 What is the campaign anthem?

•  ‘Do Ekam Do’

 

How they will do?

• In the pilot stage, they had ensured that the vehicles plying to collect waste from the city had two separate compartments to collect dry and wet waste.
•  In Dalhousie, the terrain makes it difficult to collect waste from certain areas. To tackle this, ‘caged storage bins’ have been installed as a pilot project in Ward 4 of the town”.

 

 

Topic:-Festival of HP

 

News:- Nurpur’s Janmashtami fair to be the state event

 

Historical background:-

• Brij Raj Swami temple in the historical Nurpur fort is the only temple across the world where the idol of Meera is worshipped alongside Lord Krishna’s.
• Earlier too, the Janmashtami fair was declared district fair by previous PK Dhumal government (2008-12).

 

About Nurpur:-

• Nurpur was founded in the 11th century by Raja Jhet Pal, who was the younger brother of the ruler of Delhi. It reached its peak during the reign of Raja Basu, from 1580 to 1613, who built an impressive fort that can still be seen today.
•  Earlier Nurpur was known with the name of Dhameri. But in 1622, during the reign of Raja Jagat Singh Pathania, the name of the town was changed to Nurpur in honour of the Mughal queen who fell in love with the beauty of the place. Before 1947, Nurpur was a princely state ruled by the Pathania clan of Rajputs. The Pathania Clan (or Tomar / Tanwar clan of Chandravanshi Rajputs) had ruled here for more than eight centuries.

 

Now, Nurpur is a city and a municipal council in Kangra district in the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh.

 

 

Topic:- New Scheme in Himachal Pradesh.

 

News:- 5,000 poly houses to be built in Himachal, 20 thousand people will get employment

Context:- The state government has announced the launch of “Chief Minister Nutan Poly House Project” with a view to double the income of farmers.

 

About Scheme:-

• “Chief Minister Nutan Poly House Project” will be run in a 4-year period (2019-20 to 2022-23) in a phased manner. After the scheme is launched, the farmers will have to contact the agriculture department to take advantage of it. The special thing is that 85 per cent subsidy will be provided by the state government for setting up poly houses.

 

Is there any Scheme before this?

• The “Deen Dayal Upadhyay Kisan-Bagwan Yojana” currently being implemented has reached the final year of its implementation period. In view of this, the “Chief Minister Nutan Poly House Project” will be started.

 

 

PRELIMS:-

 

Topic:- Awards

• It is a matter of joy that the state has received 3 National Awards undernutrition campaign.
• The Award was awarded by the union minister for women and child development, Mrs Smriti Irani during the ceremony held in Delhi.

 

Topic:-New appointment.

 

Newly appointed president of Kangra agriculture and rural development Bank

Mr Kamal Nayan.

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QUIZ:-

 

Question1:- Identify the breed of potato grown in Himachal Pradesh?

1. Arka Shreshta
2. Kufri Jyoti
3. Himsagar
4. None

 

Question 2:- Who is the newly appointed president of Kangra agriculture and rural development Bank?

1. Surender Gupta
2. Kamal Nayan
3. Himanshu Negi
4. Rahul Sharma

 

 

Answers:-

• Q1:-2
• Q2:-2

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