Sudden Ban of Wheat Exports in India

• Indian Government has planned to increase wheat exports from 7 million tonnes to 10 million tonnes this financial year (2021-22). Surprisingly, few days back, India imposed an immediate ban on exports of wheat.
• Reasons behind the Ban: India, world's second largest producer of wheat has banned wheat exports due to:

1.  Rising global prices due to Russia - Ukraine conflict.
2. rising domestic prices of wheat
3. Food security in India
4. Risk of possible famine in India.
5. Due to climate change, India recorded its warmest  March and temperature has been consistently crossing 45 degree Celsius everyday in the past few weeks.
6. As a result, India's own harvest has suffered and the government is already expecting a 5% fall in output from the 109 million tonnes output recorded in 2021.                                                       Statistically, India consumes most of the wheat it produces but markets have been getting lower supplies due to stunting production.                                                                                                 Priortising its own needs first, India decided to ban wheat exports to ensure food security and wisely use its buffer stock of 20 million tonnes.

 

Health Monitor - NFHS Report

• 21% Women & 25% men above 15 have hypertension.
• 12% Women & 14% men above 15 have random blood glucose levels above normal           (140mb/dl)
• Crude Death Rate: 9 per 1000 population annually.
• 83% house holds have access to toilet facility (96% in urban and 76% in rural)
• 87% in 6 - 17 age bracket attend school
• 70% aged 15 -17 attend school.
• 38% men and 9% women above 15 use tobacco products.
• 1% women and 19% men drink alcohol.
• 36% houses have at least one mosquito net.
• 70.5% women and only 24.5% men collect drinking water.
• 32% married women and 98% married men are employed.
• 83% employed women earn cash, 15% not paid at all.
• 71% married women participate in making decisions on their health care, major household purchases,and visits to their own family or relatives alone or jointly with husband.
• 30% women aged 18 - 49 have experienced physical violence since  15.
• 6% women have experienced sexual violence.
• one - Fourth married women (18-49) have experienced spousal physical or sexual violence, report physical injuries; only 14% have sought help.
• No. of women having a bank or savings account that they use grew from 53% to 79% in 4 years.
• 77% children aged 12 - 23 months were fully immunized in NFHS -5 compared to 62% in NFHS - 4

                 You Can Pay with time instead of Money - IKEA

• We all have heard that time is money, but in 2020 IKEA has made it real.
• IKEA's giant super stores are usually built on the outskirts of the cities. Thus, a lot of time is spent driving to stores.
• "Buy With Your Time" is true IKEA Dubai, allowed customers to purchase items using the travel time disclosed by their Google Maps timeline.
• For this, everything in the store was outfitted with tags which showed the price in both time and money.
• During checkout, shoppers just had to show their Google Maps timeline which would have a record of all their past trips converting that time into an amount.
• The time Currency was created through a simple calculation, based on the average family income in Dubai.
• During check out, customers were given the option to pay with cash, time or a combination of both.
• With "Buy with Your Time" IKEA became the part of wonderful conversation & took the global retail industry by storm, becoming the first retailers to make time a currency.  

                             India's 1st Digital Bus Inaugurated in Mumbai 

• These buses will be exclusively for cashless travelers.
• A unique "Tap-in Tap-out" feature is available on the bus.
• Passengers can use smart cards or the "Chalo" app on their smart phones to access the service
• The traveler gets a receipt on their phone at the completion of the journey when they tap out using the app and the bus fare will be automatically deducted.