 Welcome to Civil Speedia, the current affairs digital library powered by Shankar IAS Academy. As part of today's discussion, we will discuss the Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces Treaty sovereign Gold Board scheme of 2018-2019 and National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority and Delhi Special Police Establishment Act and what it says on the appointment related to CBI director and particularly also on officers on or above the rank of superintendent of police. And finally, we will discuss about the Prime Minister Pradhan Mandri Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojana and about the welfare of the farmers. First, let us discuss the Intermediate Range Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces Treaty. We should know when it was signed. It was signed in the year 1987 and it came into force on June 1, 1988. And it was signed between the United States of America and USSR, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. And after the dissolution of USSR in the year 1991, the membership of this INF Treaty or the Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces Treaty was expanded to one side, there is United States of America and to Belarus, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Russia, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. And it has been stated that Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan has not been attending the various meetings related to this INF Treaty in recent years and they are refraining from doing so with the support of the other member states. And the core philosophy or the core content of this treaty is that it requires destruction or the elimination of all the member countries, ground launched ballistic and cruise missiles with the ranges between 500 kilometers to 5500 kilometers. And not just the missiles, but also their launchers and associated support structures and support equipment within three years when the treaty enters into phase, force. Therefore, the initial deadline, the deadline was June 1, 1991. And it was stated that more than 2500 to be very accurate based on some reports around 2692 missiles were destroyed or eliminated among the parties by the time of between the three years from June 1, 1988 to June 1, 1991. And what we have to keep in mind is it is only ground launched ballistic and cruise missiles. It is not applicable to sea based or air based missiles, air delivered missiles. And the recently it is in news because United States of America has given a notice to withdraw from this INF Treaty and it has earlier also in the month of October 2018. The President of United States has stated that expressed concern over withdrawing from this treaty and we should know about they have now cited article 15 of this INF Treaty wherein it has said that in the interest of in exercising national sovereignty, a country has the right to withdraw from this INF Treaty if it decides so based on some extraordinary events. And what they have to keep in mind is that it shall give notice of its decision to withdraw from this treaty six months prior to withdrawal from this treaty. This is what the Secretary of State of United States has stated now from February 2 or February 1. This six month period have stated most probably after the six months if there is no further agreements or negotiations undergo between the United States and particularly the Russia and other member states of this INF Treaty, the United States could withdraw from this INF Treaty mechanism. And the concerns of USA is primarily three things. It has stated that it is exercising this option to issue notice of withdrawal from this INF Treaty because Russia has violated this treaty keeping various missiles and missile launches close to Europe. And however, the statement from Russian side is stating that even United States has actually fielded a lot of missiles and ranges so as to attack Russia. And another concern of United States is that China has been developing various missiles and according to some experts in United States they are saying that if China has brought into this amput of this INF Treaty more than 95 percent of the nuclear missiles or crews or ballistic missiles developed by China should be destroyed if it is brought into this amput. So they also say that it is a play by the United States so as to bring China into the amput within the six months time. However, even Russia has also stated suspension from this treaty. This term suspension is different from withdrawal. Both the countries have now issued only the suspension and these are the some of the aspects and if the countries are withdrawn or relieved from this treaty they can go on with their national ambitions to prepare or to proceed with various missiles because they are not controlled by any treaty now and we have to keep in mind this, mind that although it has stated that intermediate range it also includes shorter range missiles because according to this treaty the definition for shorter range missiles include those missiles with range you know 500 more than 500 in excess of 500 kilometer but not in excess of 1000 kilometer. Those are called as shorter range missiles which come under this definition and intermediate range missiles come under the definition of in excess of 1000 kilometer but not in excess of 5500 kilometer therefore it does not cover long range nuclear forces alright missiles. With this we come to the end of this discussion about INF treaty or intermediate nuclear forces treaty. Next we will discuss the sovereign gold bond scheme of 2018 and 19 government has introduced or not introduced particular government has announced that the sovereign gold bond scheme will be sold from the from October 2018 till February 2019 and we should know that this scheme comes under the ministry of finance and it is a it is a bond that is denominated by gold starting from 1 gram of gold moving on till 4 kilogram of gold if it is you know for one individual or one Hindu undivided family for a fiscal and it could go even 20 kilogram if it is for trust and similar entities for one financial year. These bonds are issued by the Rousseau Bank of India on behalf of government of India but these are sold by banks stockholding cooperation of India limited and designated post offices in order to make it widely available and also recognized stock exchanges particularly the national stock exchange of India limited and BSE limited alright. This bond being issued under the government securities act as the government of India stock under this government securities act of 2006 and the tenure or the maturity period of this bond is eight years with the exit option available from the 5th, 5th or 6th and 7th year during the day of interest but what we have to keep in mind is the maximum limit as I have already told the maximum limit is 20 kilogram for trust and similar entities resident trust and similar entities for one financial year for an individual for one Hindu undivided family it is maximum amount maximum limit is 4 kilogram the minimum limit is just 1 gram of gold and we should know that this issue price of this bond will be based on the simple average of closing price of gold of 999 purity published by this India Bullion and Jewellers Association Limited IBJA for the last three working days preceding the subscription period and this investment investors will be compensated at a fixed rate of 2.5 percent per annum but payable half early and there have been criticism saying some people do say that some investing some advisors related to investments they say that even if you put amount in bank you could get yearly interest of that is interest or rate of interest of 4 percent per annum and here it is only 2.5 percent per annum and this we have to keep in mind yet it is considered as a significant investment opportunity for by many of the advisors and entities and it could be used as this bond could be used as collateral for loans and also tradable at stock exchanges all right this scheme was brought into India particular brought in our country particularly because so as to make the demand for gold lesser in due course and so that it will help us to take a better position in current account deficit related to that basically what happens is that if say for example if I have 20,000 rupees I could go to a bank and deposit the money and get the bond sovereign gold bond and after say some five or six years or particular after the lock-in period I could I could give the bond back and take my money at that time the redemption money will be based on again the closing price of gold of triple nine purity at that point of time say for example after eight years or if I am going to exit at fifth sixth or seventh year the price of gold in the market for triple nine purity at that time will be the the bond will be redeemed at with this we come to the end of this discussion on sovereign gold bond scheme next we will discuss this national pharmaceutical pricing authority this comes under department of pharmaceutical ministry of chemicals and fertilizers the tagline of this authority is affordable medicines for all and this national pharmaceutical and pricing authority comes under the established under the drugs prices control order of 1995 through a resolution in the year 1997 and the basic functions within which this authority is created is to fix and revise the prices of controlled those controlled by this order at present the order is the drug prices control order of 2013 which had superseding effect over this order of 1995 bulk drugs and formulations and to enforce prices and availability of medicines in the country and this is also interested with the task of recovering amounts that are overcharged by this manufacturers for these controlled drugs from the consumers and it also monitors it is one important thing it monitors the prices of those drugs which are not controlled by the orders particularly the drug prices control order in order to keep them at the reasonable levels these are all the main functions one another function is that this national pharmaceutical pricing authority is also the one responsible for enforcing the national pharmaceutical pricing policy of 2012 and also the drug prices control order of 2013 all right with this we come to the end of this discussion on this NPPA next we will discuss and we will also discuss one point this this drug prices control order of 1995 was based on this cost based pricing mechanism or model whereas the recent one the 2013 is about market market based pricing mechanism or model and this authorities also has the moral responsibility to balance the benefits between the producers and the manufacturers or producers and the consumers all right next we will discuss about the appointments in CBI particularly about CBI director and those officers above the rank on or above the of or above the rank of superintendent of police except director the two sections section four capital A of the DSP act of 1946 discusses the committee which recommends the name of a person who has to be appointed as CBI director the committee consists of the prime minister as the chairperson and the leader of opposition of house of people the house of the people or the Lokshaba as a member and in case where there is no leader of opposition then the leader of single largest opposition party in the house of the people or Lokshaba will be the member and also the chief justice of India or a judge of the supreme court appointed by the chief justice of India as also a member thus it is a three-member body which recommends the name for us for a person to become CBI director and the central government shall appoint the director on the recommendation of this committee and recently very recently it was argued by various various persons that the present newly appointed CBI director do not has experience do not have experience in the investigation of anti-corruption cases and therefore this is one of the eligibility criteria and any officer to be recommended should have you know it should be on the basis of seniority integrity and experience in the investigation of anti-corruption cases there could be a question from it and with this this is about CBI director and we should know that under section 4 capital C of this act it states for officers to the post of the level of superintendent of police and above except the director of CBI because for the director of CBI section 4 capital A will be the recommending committee here the committee will consist of central vigilance commissioner vigilance commissioners home secretary alright home secretary and secretary for the department of personal alright and this committee should shall consult the CBI director before submitting its recommendation to the central government and with this and the central government shall appoint as it thinks fit based on the said recommendation given by this committee and we should note that section 26 of central vigilance commission section 26 of CBC act 2003 prescribes an amendment to this deli special police establishment act 1946 it prescribes another committee in that in the place of this committee earlier in this order but this section 26 of CBC act of 2003 was been overrided by the Lokpal and Lokayuktha act of 2013 which prescribed this section capital 4 A and capital 4 C alright I present the this is the recommendation committee with this we move on to our next topic for discussion that is the Pradhan Mandri Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojana the interim budget in the interim budget the minister has announced the Pradhan Mandri Kisan Samman Samman Nidhi the term Samman means dignified financial assistance or with respect right and it stated that the press release from the ministry of agriculture and farmers welfare has stated that for vulnerable land holding farmers who has up to who have up to two hectares or five acres both are same almost same will get rupees 6000 per annum as income support as support as financial support and these this amount will be given in terms of three installment directly through the to the bank accounts of the farmers and it came into it will come into force with retrospective effect that is behind the date first December 2018 and the period will be for four months this period will end in in the month of March 2019 it will get one payment of rupees 2000 and it has been announced for this period for December January February March the amount will be credited within this year of 2019 itself and we have been seeing that farmers have been facing reduced returns from farming because of various reasons one is that the declining prices in international market for agricultural commodities and and also because the fall in food inflation in comparison with the non-food sector particularly since the year 2017 and 2018 2018 and we all know that their farmers have been before you know involved in the having bank accounts with banks they were borrowing money from local money lenders then they have they owe large in-depthness to the money lenders that is there that is also one reason because every time they get some profit they pay interest and they pay depth and this small and fragmented land holding fragmented land for agriculture because with every generation with every family the available land for the land for the family of previous generation has been fragmented and that is also one of the reason why farmers could not you know earn a lot of money out of what they have in the limited land capacity and farmers are those who face vagaries of nature and natural calamities and very every year particularly very recently due to climate change and due to delayed onset of monsoon or due to deficit in normal southwest monsoon the farmers are facing lot of trouble particularly in their cultivation and and they also suffer from pricing mechanism or inflation management because agriculture prices according to some experts are artificially managed and that affect the farmers income and the government has announced to double the farmers by the year 2022 and has taken serious efforts this Pradhan Mandiri Kisan Samman Nidhi the term Samman as already told is to the dignity of the farmer or dignified financial assistance because there had been statements that you give money you give simply money they may utilize it for the purposes which may be unwanted but they have been several scientific researchers more particularly one that has been that has conducted study in Delhi and Madhya Pradesh during the years of 2010 and 13 has found that at high levels of impoverishment or poverty even a very small amount of income support or income transfer or financial assistance is of serious value and have serious impact in nutritional intake and school enrollment and enrollment of female children in schools and also reducing the indebtedness of farmers and it is also considered as reparation cost given by government because of the failure of various policies because these farmers are affected by these policies however this new Pradhan announcement of this Pradhan Mandiri Kisan Nidhi Samman Nidhi Yojana do not talk about tenants or landless laborers at this point of time we have to wait and watch when the scheme will be when the scheme will be formally implemented whether it will talk about tenants or landless laborers and this Ritu Bandhu agriculture investment support scheme of Telangana is based on land holders not it never included this tenants and landless laborers and even Pradhan Mandiri Kisan Yojana is modeled as experts say it's modeled based on this Ritu Bandhu scheme and one important thing is that this scheme in Telangana offer rupees 4000 per crop season for those who hold for one acre of land but there is no limitation of this how many acres should one possess or that however here in Kisan Yojana there is a limitation that up to farmers having up to two hectares or five acres however authorities say that in rain-fed areas a person may have more than two hectares but will be in serious financial difficulty they will also be in eligible beneficiaries but the government has left out as of now and if you consider this Ritu Bandhu scheme for two seasons in a year a beneficiary will get an amount of rupees 8000 however in this scheme an year for an year a farmer family will get only rupees 6000 and the government of Telangana has recently informed that they will introduce this price to 10 000 per year and coming to Kaliya scheme Krushak assistance for livelihood and income augmentation scheme in Odisha there they are providing rupees 5000 per family for one crop season which means for one year the farmers will be given an amount of rupees 10 000 and one important special thing about this Kaliya scheme is that it provides this financial assistance even to tenants and landless laborers all right and for landless laborers for particularly for goat rearing and to beekeeping and for all these for poultry and for all these things for a one-time payment of rupees 12 500 is being given to the to the farmers and this is about the scheme this scheme covers landless laborers and tenants even though there is a scheme like this in Odisha the government has not considered announcing about tenants and landless laborers in this Pradhan Mandir Kisan Yojana and this will help farmers to tackle this market and price fluctuation and also it will improve equity because it has been stated thus farmers suffer farmers and agree those who are involved in agricultural and allied sectors suffered a lot or they were left out after the liberalization since 1991 and therefore there was stark inequality between those involved in industry and services sector and those involved in agriculture so this scheme will try to address the inequality problem that those involved in agriculture and other sectors and it will help the farmers to be less dependent on the money lenders local money lenders and we should talk about whether it has been now stated that the finance the financial transaction will be directly through to the bank accounts various experts have raised that bank could apportion the center support towards the various dues that the farmer has to pay through the pay to the bank from various rent various loans there is also one thing they have therefore they are suggesting it should be the option of the farmer whether to choose the by way of bank account or by way of payers check but right now the government has not talked anything about check pay order it has told only about direct benefit transfer to the bank accounts and we should know that all they are all these farmers are small and marginal farmers they could not be having a bank account the far the small and marginal farmers as announced in the budget again do not include tenants and landless laborers and they may not have a bank account therefore it is it could be considered as an option to issue check check orders so that the the farmers or the beneficiaries could receive the amount at the authorized authorities with this we these are the points we have to keep in mind as of now this is the position related to this Pradhan Mandri Kisan Samman Nidhi with this we will conclude the today's discussion on discussion today's session on discussion on current affairs we request you to like our video comment our video and also to 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