 Welcome to Civil Speedia, the current affairs digital library powered by Shankara IAS Academy. As part of today's discussion, we will look at global environmental facilities, small grants program, and Kankesanthurai, Harbor and Sri Lanka and minor forest produce. And then we will discuss National Productivity Council established in the year 1958. And finally, we will discuss the main article published in the Hindu newspaper wherein three authors have commented their opinion in the ways of yes, no, and it is complicated. We will discuss unemployment crisis, whether it is happening or not. First we will discuss this global environmental facilities small grants program. Before entering into this, let us discuss this global environmental facility was established in the year 1992, the year 1992 is special because of the Rio Environmental Summit. And in this year, the World Bank, but or in other words, the International Bank for Bank for Reconstruction and Development are the World Bank and the United Nations Development Program, Development Program and United Nations Environmental Program. These three agencies came together and established this global environmental facility to provide funds and financial and technical assistance to developing countries and those countries whose economies are in the transition phase, so as to meet out their commitments under international environmental agreements, convention and treaties. Say for example, a minimata convention on Mercury or Montreal Protocol on substances that deplete the ozone layer and you know, Stockholm Convention on persistent organic pollutants, etc. And in the same year, 1992, this small grants program was also established as a corporate program of this global environmental facility. This small grant program works on the basis that certain environmental problems can be addressed more effectively through, you know, community driven or community based and civil society led programs or projects or changes, all right. Therefore, small grants will be given to these community based organizations or civil society organizations, so as to bring environmental positive change, right. And the implementing agency for this small grants program is the United Nations Development Program. And in India, we have a national host institution that is Center for Environmental Education. This institution was set up in the year 1984 by the government of India along with the type with a non-governmental organization and establishing a Center for Excellence, which is the primary focus at that time was to promote environmental awareness among the masses in India. And this institution has taken the role of national, was given the role of national host institution. This national host institution, in order to maintain impartiality and transparency, they cannot obtain any grants from this small grants program, rather they will coordinate all the issues other than, you know, providing those issues that deal with grants, getting grants from this program, they will assist the UNDP office related to the program updates, etcetera. But they will not be getting any grant from small grants program, right. And this is our national host institution in India. And the five, six focal areas within which this small grant program aims to work, its biodiversity, as we all know, the United Nations General Assembly has announced the decade from 2011 to 2020 to be the decade for biodiversity, all right. And the much, much importance and much special focus have been given to this biodiversity. And other focal areas climate change wherein they will taking up issues related to reducing emissions, reducing carbon emissions, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, promoting low carbon growth plans, etcetera. And in land degradation, which is also one of the focus area where they will combat desertification. And in international waters, this in, in this area, they will be focusing about, you know, the conserving or protecting the health of marine waters or the, also fresh water. And under persistent organic pollutants, they will take necessary steps as under various pollutants such as DDT, e-waste and mercury and other greenhouse gas, this other chemicals that come under persistent organic pollutants, right. And also sustainable forest management. These are the six focal areas. And to be very precise, even the global environmental facility also works in all these areas. And one important fact related to all projects that come under biodiversity, come under the focal area of biodiversity is that, no, the small grants program will not, has not yet started providing grants for any exit to conservation program. That means any project which, which, which talks about in situ conservation, conserving within the geographical area of a particular, you know, particular plant or animal will be given grant. But any exit to conservation will not be given grant of as of now. These are, this is about this small grants program, which is a corporate program of global environmental facility. And the funds for small grants program comes from the global environmental facility trust fund, right. Next, we'll discuss this Kankesanthore harbor in Sri Lanka. Before entering into this, we'll look at the northern province. One of the nine provinces in Sri Lanka, like as we have states in India. And this northern province in Sri Lanka consists of five districts. They are Manar district, Vavunia districts, Vavunia district, Mulaitivu district, Kilinochi district. And in the north, we have Jaffna district, all right. In the northern coast of Jaffna, we could see this Kankesanthore harbor, right. And some of the important ports in Sri Lanka, which are, which come under the Sri Lankan Port Authority. And this image is taken from the website of Sri Lankan Port Authority. And here we could see this Kankesanthore and Point Pedro port. And here, Trincomali port and Oluwil seaport and Mahinda Rajapaksa port. And this is also called as Hambanthota seaport and Gully and Colombo seaport. These are some of the important seaports or simply the seaports that come under Sri Lankan Port Authority. And recently this Kankesanthore harbor was in news because the Sri Lankan government has actually started to discuss various plan to implement or to develop this Kankesanthore seaport so that it could be developed into a commercial port so that the entire economic infrastructure of the northern province could be developed and also the Jaffna peninsula so that the economic infrastructure and also the economic development will be a bit quicker at least in the northern province. And also if this in the last year, India has announced a developmental assistance of 45 million US dollars, which they will be they were they are yet to start the implementation process implementation process for development in this particular harbor. India aims to develop this harbor into a commercial port so that the northern province particularly Jaffna peninsula will be able to have communication through various countries through different sea routes. And it will also facilitate India because if we have a if Sri Lanka has a commercial port here in the northern province in Jaffna peninsula, then most of the ports in the eastern eastern coast of India will be able to have a less or minimal transit route to take bring in products or take products from the state from the country of Sri Lanka. And we should also keep in mind that this Hamanthota airport Hamanthota seaport of Sri Lanka was currently you know currently manned by the Chinese firms along with Sri Lankan government Sri Sri Lanka Port Authority because earlier Sri Lanka has got dipped from China but since Sri Lanka could not pay off the debts therefore Sri Lanka has given this Hamanthota airport not airport Hamanthota seaport or in other words Mahindra Raj Paksha seaport to China for 99 year lease alright and for one another benefit for China's Chinese firms have a stake of around 70% in this in this seaport and for next 32 years they need not pay any taxes to the Sri Lankan government and there is also one another airport near this Mahindra Raj Paksha seaport called as Matala Matala seaport Matala airport which which was actually a loss making entity for the Sri Lanka government where India has stepped in for the Sri Lanka to support to assist to have a joint venture with Sri Lankan government so as to promote air services from the Matala airport alright and in the north in near Jaffna there is also a Jaffna airport in other words also called as Palali Airport wherein also India has extended its willingness to support modernization of the particular airport which which was very much interesting for the Sri Lanka and strategically also this Kankeshwantra Rehabar is a very vital scheme and it also develops India-Sri Lanka relation further and with this we come to the end of this discussion about Kankeshwantra Rehabar which India wants to develop into a commercial port so that the Sri Lankan economic infrastructure gets a new development. Next we will discuss about this minor forest produce alright the scheduled tribes and the other traditional forest dwellers act of 2006 has defined minor forest produce as all non-timber forest produce of plant origin that includes bamboo, canes, cocoon, honey etc right this is the definition for minor forest produce and the act of 2006 alright the scheduled tribes and other traditional forest dwellers act of 2006 has granted this right of ownership access to collect and use and dispose of minor forest produce to those individual forest dwellers are the scheduled tribes and other traditional forest dwellers and that is one of the special thing related to this act and in the year 2010 a report of the National Committee on Forest Rights Act 2011 has stated that the almost 100 million or almost 100 million people belonging to scheduled tribes or other traditional other traditional forest dwellers are in a way benefited because of this minor forest produce by way of selling or by way of having it for subsistence right and recently particularly in the year 2014 the government of India has launched this minimum support price for minor forest producers so as to help these forest dwellers and forest dwellers and scheduled tribes so that it was it was commonly found that these people who live in forests or those who have the right of ownership and access to collect and use and dispose these minor forest produce have were significantly lacking the support systems for transportation and storage of these minor forest produce and therefore the scheme of a minimum support price wherein a fair price will be provided to the gatherers under the scheme was enacted in launched in the year 2014 at that time it was for only eight states coming under the schedule five of Indian constitution however in the year 2016-17 it was launched nationwide all over India where in all states and union territories could participate all all those forest dwellers could benefit from the minimum support price that is being launched by the the program launched by the government and another objective of this minimum support price is to ensure sustainable harvesting of minimum minor forest producers and also the scheme will have a huge social development for these minor forest produce gatherers on majority of whom are tribals all right and we should keep in mind that triford triford has also developed a minor forest produce net so as to assist so as to assist and also to connect various stakeholders the sellers the buyers the government etc so as to and it also be helpful to get to know all the information related to minor forest produce the selling and also the buying thing related to minor forest produce with this we come to the end of this topic minor forest produce next we will discuss national productivity council all right this national productivity council was not something new but it was even established in their 1958 by the ministry of industry as established as a autonomous society under the registration under the society registration act of 1860 all right we will discuss who is the president the the minister the minister in charge of the minister of state who is of independent charge associated with minister ministry of commerce and industry is the president and the secretary for department of industrial policy and promotion is the chairman of this national productivity council this council was established to promote a culture or a consciousness of productivity and to stimulate productivity in all sectors of Indian economy and the mission the vision is to be the knowledge leader in productivity to provide state of art services to Indian economy to be globally competitive and the mission was to contribute to the sustainable and inclusive socio-economic development of the country by enhancing the productivity all right and it was established on february 12 1958 the day february 12 is important because every year from february 12 to february 18 a celebrated as national productivity week and therefore it was recently news and this year's theme of the national productivity week is circular economy for productivity and sustainability all right and one important institute that we have to keep in mind is that doctor ambedkar institute of productivity located in ambatur in chennai was one of the was the premium long-term training wing of this national productivity council and let us discuss the objectives of the council objective is to increase awareness of productivity in general and to function as a think tank of government on measures of measures needed to enhance focus on productivity and all other aspects related to that and to be among the premium productivity consultancy and training agency of the country in the first phase and of the south and southeast asian region in the long-term and the it also provides various courses related to industrial engineering and also for consultants in economic services etc and it also offers various services related to productivity one another objective is also to promote innovation led productivity as well all right and with this come to the end of this topic next we'll discuss the mains in a mains perspective particularly the article that has come in the hindu newspaper the title is the unemployment crisis for real wherein we have found we can find three authors giving three different opinion like yes it is a crisis or no it is not and it is complicated let us look into that the author that it was in news because you know the even in the year 2018 the world employment and social outlook trend report of 2018 published by the international labour organization has stated that in the year 2019 it is predicted that around three lakh people will lose their jobs or will become unemployed and if one goes through the if one goes through the report one could find in the year 2017 it is around 18.3 million unemployed in India and in the year 2018 it is 18.6 million unemployed and it was predicted in the year 2019 it will be 18.9 million and however very recently and another report by the the centre for monitoring Indian economy CAPEX database has revealed that during the period of one year from December 2017 to December 2018 around one crore were made unemployed or one crore or 10 million people have become unemployed it was very much shocking and the report also had few other things to say and very recently a leaked report of government of India as stated in various newspapers has also stated since 1972 this is the first time the India has reached an unemployment rate of 6.1 percent this in this backdrop there were various discussions debates and you know editorials in various newspapers let us discuss in this regard the author who says yes there is a matter of serious concern although it is not a crisis to be looked upon in an emergency manner there is a matter of serious concern related to this unemployment the author states that since the year 2010-11 wherein there was the value of new investment proposals where around rupees 25 trillion and it has come down to by the end of around 2018 it was just 9 trillion all right from 25 trillion rupees to 9 trillion rupees that is the new investment proposals the value of new investment proposals therefore the author was saying with decrease in the investment opportunities with decrease in investments there is a strong correlation with decrease in increase in unemployment all right and that is that is one of the reason as stated by the author since December 2017 to December 2018 between this period we could find according to the Center for Monitoring Indian Economy CAPEX database 11 million people have become unemployed all right in the in the year in December 2017 it was 408 million who are employed and it came down to 397 million by the by December 2018 and author states it is because of the reduction or decrease in the investments wherein the author highlights the new investment proposal values all right and if you look at the average employment in the year 2017 and 2018 we can find the number of unemployment persons those people between 2017 and 2018 is around 4.5 million all right this is a matter of serious concern the author says and if this being getting be unemployed is if the unemployment increases that is very bad but if people you know leave from labor participation that will be worse for an economy because that means people are not interested to work people are not interested to participate in labor activity or in the contribution of nation building process all right this was the opinion of the author therefore according the author also highlights that the nation the government of India should not should use statistically sound principles whenever it collects data and also it should not you know disregard those reports wherein the sample size was larger particularly the national sample survey organization surveys which are for which the samples sample size is larger the author states the government of India should not disregard those reports all right therefore the author says it is a matter of serious concern see the he also says that every year the it is working very gradually and it may lead to a significant crisis in the future although it is not the right time for a crisis but it is a it can happen in future if not arrested accordingly and let us now discuss about the next author who says that there is no problem as of an unemployment crisis because according to the author there is no depth of formal jobs the author states every year 2.5 crore Indians attain the age of 21 and according to the author one crore of this 2.5 crore Indians who attained the age of 21 or 40 percent of them will take agriculture or will become a house make homemakers after the marriage it is of course disputable and contestable and therefore according to the author it is you know for 1.5 crore people we have to give a formal employment the author states that if you look at the social security estimates or database there is a there is a possibility that in companies where there are more than 20 employees there are around 70 lakh job formal jobs are created and similarly in transport sector around 30 to 35 lakh jobs are created and so also in a professional sectors therefore author say this itself comes around 1.1 crore all right and also if because of various programs like make in India and of ease of improvement of Indian governments various provisions related to ease of doing business have made around 30 to 40 lakh job opportunities every year which will thrive because of various schemes like make in India and therefore according to author now 70 lakh plus 30 to 35 lakh or 6 to 12 lakh in professional sector and you know by venture own venture if people are going to start then it will around up it is around 1.5 crore if we leave that one crore who are going to be homemakers or going to take profession in agriculture which is according to the author is a non non formal employment then there is no depth of formal employment say the other this particular other however also states that there is a deficit of skilled labour and also there is a deficit of ins there is a deficit of providing adequate compensation for the skilled labourers all right and therefore according to the other there is no problem as of unemployment however there is a problem related to wages this is what the author here means to say and the author has also criticized the report given by the center center for monitoring Indian economies CAPEX database stating that they have given excessive weights to states where population is more or which are of more land area rather than giving higher weights to the states where there is more potential of creating jobs for example Maharashtra Tamil Nadu and the author also states weights higher weight should have been given to cities because in cities there is more opportunity for formal job opportunities but the particular database given by the center for monitoring Indian economy CMIE has been given biased weights and also coming to sample size of the particular study conducted by CMIE the author says it is just 1.4 lakhs for a nation of around 1.3 billion even a decent comes around 0 it just comes around 0.01% all right of the overall nation it is just 0.01% of Indian population the author says how it can be how it can represent the ground realities what we have and therefore one need not worry about the report which says between the period of December 2017 to December 2018 around 1 crore people have become unemployed only not worry about that because the study was biased because the sample size sampling biases and they have used biased weights according to the author and this is about the opinion of the second author and finally the one author who talks who talked about it is complicated all right he the author says more than the problem of unemployment it is the problem of under employment that is haunting India all right and according to the author it says that the author says that this unemployment is higher among those who were educated well and also those who can afford higher education or education and those who cannot afford education or those who haven't got you know higher education or like that they have they have to make their ends meet and they have to go for work however unskilled or less quality the particular jobs are and this is one fact about this unemployment and coming to the author is also telling that this informal economy 90% of both farm and non-form sector jobs are informal and even if we come into non-form sector 66% of the jobs are informal and one of the biggest problem with the informal economy according to the author is it is characterized with low levels of productivity and low wages and that is what the author means this because because of under employment in under employment there the person is given a job but not up to the potential of his or her qualification the author cites an explanation say for example a mechanical engineer is working as a bike mechanic all right he or she is not aptly working here she not given a job getting a job so as to utilize their full potential according to their qualification of mechanical engineering all right this is what we mean by under employment and the author also says that if this under employment becomes persistent then it will affect the labor workforce participation rate because when there is persistent under employment people will leave workforce because they will be frustrated because they haven't found the job which fit which fulfill their skill requirement or their their actual requirement therefore they they lack interest in finding a job itself all right when we talk about labor workforce the labor workforce means those who are working and those who are willing to work it excludes those who are not willing to work and if if the if the number of people who are not willing to find a job or not willing to work is increasing that means it's a bad sign according to the leaked report the labor workforce participation has come down from around 55. some percentage till to 49. something which means a matter of serious very however the government of India has stated it is just a draft report and nothing to worry but we have to wait and watch how far the the report related to this labor works labor workforce participation comes out in the near future these are the various opinions given by the author in this but authors in the particular article we request you to like our video comment our video and also to subscribe to our Shankar IAS academy youtube channel for more updates and content on civil services preparation