The Prayas ePathshala

Exams आसान है !

Q1. Explain about Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS), its significance and challenges. (250 Words)

Paper & Topic: GS III à Indian Agriculture

Model Answer:

Primary Agricultural Credit Society: What Is It?

The last link between the primary borrowers, or rural residents, and the higher institutions, such as the Central Cooperative Bank, State Cooperative Bank, and Reserve Bank of India, is the Primary Agricultural Credit Society.
Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS) have been offering credit and other services to its members as recognised cooperative societies.

PACS often provide their members with the following services:

A monetary or in-kind component for input facilities
Hired agricultural equipment
Facility for storage
A group of ten or more villagers can create a basic agricultural credit association. The management of the society is supervised by an elected body.
Even the most underprivileged farmer can join because the membership cost is so inexpensive.
Each member of the society has unlimited liability, which means that in the event of the society’s failure, each member is fully responsible for the total loss.
Working capital for the major credit societies comes from their own money, deposits, borrowings, and other sources.
The company’s own funds include reserve funds, membership dues, and share capital.
Both members and non-members can make deposits.
The main sources of borrowing are the central cooperative banks.

Agricultural Primary Credit Societies and Their Importance:

Primary agriculture cooperative credit societies are financial organisations that are essential to the grassroots growth of local communities.
They are multifaceted businesses that offer a range of services like banking, on-site supplies, marketing crops, and trading in consumer goods.
As a result, primary agriculture co-operative credit societies must function effectively.
The socioeconomic advancement of the nation’s rural areas must heavily involve the Primary Agricultural Credit Society.
They serve as counters for agricultural supplies and consumer goods as well as mini-banks for financing.
To preserve and store their food grains, these cooperatives also offer storage services to farmers.
Higher level institutions like Central Cooperative Bank and State Cooperative Bank are required to provide PACs with suitable assistance within the federal structure of the cooperative finance system in the form of subscriptions and grants.
The initial Primary Agricultural Credit Society (PACS) was founded in 1904.
Since that time, these organisations have been crucial in supplying short- and medium-term financing to farmers.
This was the sole institution-based credit agency accessible to rural residents until the early 1970s.
To enable PACS to offer more services to its members while also making money for themselves, a project has been started to develop PACS as Multi Service Centers.
As a result, PACS will be able to diversify its activities and offer auxiliary services to its members.

Limitations for Primary Agricultural Credit Societies:

Q2. What to do you understand by Carbon Footprint. (250 Words)

Paper & Topic: GS III à Environmental Conservation

Model Answer:

Carbon Footprint Concept:

The amount of CO2 released into the atmosphere as a result of burning fossil fuels can be measured as either an organization’s, business’s, or household’s daily operations, an individual’s or family’s daily life, or the transportation of a good or commodity to market.
In other terms, an entity’s “Carbon Footprint” is the entire quantity of GHG emissions it has produced, whether directly or indirectly through other people, organisations, activities, or products.
Tons of carbon dioxide (C02) or tonnes of carbon are typically emitted on an annual basis and are used to express a carbon footprint.
For instance, when we fly 5000 miles, drive 2,500 miles in a medium-sized car, or cut down and burn a 40-foot-tall, one-foot-diameter tree, a tonne of carbon dioxide is released.
There are two components to a carbon footprint: the direct or primary footprint and the indirect or secondary footprint.
The primary footprint is a measurement of CO2 emissions that are produced directly from burning fossil fuels, such as household energy use and transportation (e.g. car and Plane).
The indirect CO2 emissions from the entire lifecycle of the utilised products are measured by the secondary footprint. These are connected to their creation and destruction. The overall amount of CO2 released for a nation is correlated with the carbon footprint of its citizens and corporate entities.

Utilizing “flexible mechanisms:” carbon offsets and credits for reducing carbon emissions:

Members of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) are split into two categories under the Kyoto Protocol: Annex 1 countries, which mostly consist of OECD and eastern European developed nations, and Non-Annex-l countries, which are developing nations.
To reduce the overall economic cost of attaining the agreed-upon emission reductions, three “flexibility mechanisms” based on emission trading have been adopted. They are as follows:
The transfer of Assigned Amounts Units (AAU) among the Annex 1 nations in international emission trading.
Project-based activities are carried out between Annex 1 nations as part of joint implementation (JI).
For each tonne of CO2 that an industry in the developing world saves by implementing cleaner technology, increasing energy efficiency, or switching to non-conventional sources of energy generation, the United Nations’ body on climate change awards a certificate called Certified Emission Reduction (CER) to the concerned industry.
The company receiving the CER can then sell the surplus.
The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) involves emission reduction projects carried out in non-Annex- 1 countries.