Source: The Hindu, Live Mint and Indian Express
HEAT WAVES
Context: Three persons were reportedly killed as heat wave continued to sweep several districts of Andhra Pradesh.
Essentials
What is heat wave?
- A continuous spell of abnormally hot weather.
- Heat wave need not be considered till maximum temperature of a station reaches at least 40º C for Plains and at least 30º C for Hilly regions.
Criteria to declare a heat wave:
- a) When normal maximum temperature of a station is less than or equal to 40º C
- Heat Wave: Departure from normal is 5º C to 6º C
- Severe Heat Wave: Departure from normal is 7º C or more
- b) When normal maximum temperature of a station is more than 40º C
- Heat Wave: Departure from normal is 4º C to 5º C
- Severe Heat Wave: Departure from normal is 6º C or more
- c) When actual maximum temperature remains 45ºC or more irrespective of normal maximum temperature, heat wave should be declared.
MATERNAL MORTALITY IN INDIA
Context: According to the Sample Registration System’s special bulletin on ‘Maternal Mortality in India 2014-16’, the MMR across India was 130 per 1,00,000 live births.
Essentials
Maternal Mortality in India
- The maternal mortality ratio is the number of women who die from any cause related to or aggravated by pregnancy or its management (excluding accidental or incidental causes) during pregnancy and childbirth or within 42 days of termination of pregnancy, irrespective of the duration and site of the pregnancy, per 100,000 live births.
- The Office of the Registrar General of India (ORGI) under the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India provides estimates of Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR) using demographic data collected through the Sample Registration System (SRS).
- Under MDG (millennium development goal) 5, India had committed to reducing maternal mortality to 108 deaths per 100,000 live births by 2015.
- However, only three states—Kerala with an MMR of 66 per 100,000 live births, Tamil Nadu with an MMR of 90 and Maharashtra with an MMR of 87—had been able to achieve the millennium development goal before the deadline.
- As per recent survey, Kerala remains at the top with an MMR of 46 (down from 61). Maharashtra was at the second position with 61, but the pace of fall has been much lower, dropping from 68 during 2011-13. Tamil Nadu with 66 (79) is in the third position.
- These three States have already achieved the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal of MMR 70.
- The SRS segments States into three groups: “Assam and the Empowered Action Group” (EAG) — Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh/Uttarakhand; “Southern States” — Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu; and “Others” — the remaining States and union territories.
- The highest reduction from the last SRS is with the EAG States at 23%, a drop from 246 (2011-2013) to 188, while the Other States have dropped by 19%, taking the MMR down from 115 in 2011-2013, to 93 now.
- Southern States, which are at a better average of 77, dropped 17%.
- Truly encouraging is the massive drop of 29% in Uttar Pradesh/Uttarakhand where the MMR has dropped from 285 to 201.
COUNTERVAILING AND ANTI-DUMPING DUTIES
Context: The Finance Ministry has, on the recommendations of the Commerce Ministry, imposed an anti-dumping duty on the import of saccharine from Indonesia. Saccharine is a compound most commonly used in sugar-substitute sweeteners.
Essentials:
- Binding tariffs, and applying them equally to all trading partners (most-favoured-nation treatment, or MFN) are key to the smooth flow of trade in goods.
- The WTO agreements uphold the principles, but they also allow exceptions — in some circumstances.
- Three of these issues are:
- actions taken against dumping (selling at an unfairly low price);
- subsidies and special “countervailing” duties to offset the subsidies;
- emergency measures to limit imports temporarily, designed to “safeguard” domestic industries.
Countervailing duty
- Countervailing duty (CVD) is an additional import duty imposed on imported products (by the importing country) when such products enjoy benefits like export subsidies and tax concessions in the country of their origin.
- The objective of CVD is to nullify or eliminate the price advantage (low price) enjoyed by an imported product when it is given subsidies or exempted from domestic taxes in the country where they are manufactures.
- The WTO permits member countries to impose countervailing duty when the exporting country gives export subsidy.
Anti-Dumping Duty
- Dumping is a process where a company exports a product at a price lower than the price it normally charges on its own home market.
- An anti-dumping duty is a protectionist tariffthat a domestic government imposes on foreign imports that it believes are priced below fair market value.
- Typically anti-dumping action means charging extra import duty on the particular product from the particular exporting country in order to bring its price closer to the “normal value” or to remove the injury to domestic industry in the importing country.
- Anti-dumping duty is imposed on the basis of margin of dumping which can vary across countries, producers or exporters. Accordingly, there are variable rates of anti-dumping duty on different exporting countries, producers or exporters.
- the WTO agreement allows governments to act against dumping where there is genuine (“material”) injury to the competing domestic industry. In order to do that the government has to be able to show that dumping is taking place, calculate the extent of dumping (how much lower the export price is compared to the exporter’s home market price), and show that the dumping is causing injury or threatening to do so.
- The use of anti-dumping measure as an instrument of fair competition is permitted by the WTO.
- Disputes in the anti-dumping area are subject to binding dispute settlement before the Dispute Settlement Body of the WTO.
Anti Dumping and The Customs Duty
- Although anti-dumping duty is levied and collected by the Customs Authorities, it is entirely different from the Customs duties not only in concept and substance, but also in purpose and operation.
- The following are the main differences between the two:-
- Anti-dumping and the like measures in their essence are linked to the notion of fair trade. The object of these duties is to guard against the situation arising out of unfair trade practices while customs duties are there as a means of raising revenue and for overall development of the economy.
- Customs duties fall in the realm of trade and fiscal policies of the Government while anti-dumping and anti subsidy measures are there as trade remedial measures.
- Anti dumping duties are not necessarily in the nature of a tax measure inasmuch as the Authority is empowered to suspend these duties in case of an exporter offering a price undertaking. Thus, such measures are not always in the form of duties/tax.
- Anti dumping and anti subsidy duties are levied against exporter/country in as much as they are country specific and exporter specific as against the customs duties which are general and universally applicable to all imports irrespective of the country of origin and the exporter.
Extent of anti-dumping duty
- Under the WTO arrangement, the National Authorities can impose duties up to the margin of dumping i.e. the difference between the normal value and the export price.
- The Indian law also provides that the anti-dumping duty to be recommended/levied shall not exceed the dumping margin.
- The anti-dumping duty cannot be levied retrospectively beyond 90days from the date of issue of Notification imposing duty.
Authority For Anti Dumping
- Anti-dumping and anti subsidies & countervailing measures in India are administered by the Directorate General of anti-dumping and Allied Duties (DGAD) functioning in the Dept. of Commerce in the Ministry of Commerce and Industry and the same is headed by the “Designated Authority”.
- The Designated Authority’s function, however, is only to conduct the anti-dumping/anti-subsidy & countervailing duty investigation and make recommendation to the Government for imposition of anti-dumping or anti subsidy measures.
- Such duty is finally imposed/levied by a Notification of the Ministry of Finance.
- Thus, while the Designated Authority (in the Department of Commerce) recommends the anti-dumping duty, provisional or final , it is the Ministry of Finance, Dept. of Revenue which acts upon such recommendation within three months and imposes/levies such duty.
- Safeguard measures, on the other hand, are administered by another Authority namely, Director General (Safeguard), which functions under the Dept. of Revenue, Ministry of Finance.
- The Standing Board of Safeguards (chaired by the Commerce Secretary) considers the recommendations of the DG (Safeguards) and then recommends the impositions of the Safeguard Duty as it deems fit, to the Ministry of Finance which levies the duty.
Minimum Level Of Imports
Individual exporter:
- Any exporter whose margin of dumping is less than 2% of the export price shall be excluded from the purview of anti-dumping duties even if the existence of dumping, injury as well as the causal link is established.
Country:
- Further, investigation against any country is required to be terminated if the volume of the dumped imports, actual or potential, from a particular country accounts for less than 3% of the total imports of the like product.
- However, in such a case, the cumulative imports of the like product from all these countries who individually account for less than 3%, should not exceed 7% of the import of the like product.
APPEAL
- The law provides that an order of determination of existence degree and effect of dumping is appealable before the Customs, Excise and Gold (Control) Appellate Tribunal (CEGAT).
- However, as per the judicial view, only the final findings/order of the Designated Authority/Ministry of Finance can be appealed against before the CEGAT.
- Appeal cannot lie against the Preliminary findings of the Authority and the provisional duty imposed on the basis thereof.
- The Appeal to the CEGAT should be filed within 90 days.
INVESTMENT IN GOLD
Sovereign Gold Bond
- For those eyeing returns on investment in gold, sovereign gold bonds are the best option today. These provide interest at 2.5% per annum on the face value of the bond.
- This means that when gold prices go up, you get the twin benefits of price gain as well as interest, and when gold prices fall, you are not impacted as much as your peers who invested in physical gold, as you will get the interest on the bond.
- These bonds are issued by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
- Everyone except for non-resident Indians (NRIs) can invest.
- Investment in these bonds can be made through cash (up to ₹20,000), cheque or demand draft.
- The bonds are issued in denominations of one gram and in multiples thereof.
- Maximum investment in a year is capped at 4 kg for individuals. Minimum permissible investment will be 1 gram of gold.
- The RBI fixes the price of the bond.
- You can buy these bonds from banks, the Stock Holding Corporation of India, designated post offices and the National Stock Exchange of India and the Bombay Stock Exchange.
- The investment tenure of the sovereign gold bonds is eight years.
- Premature exit is allowed from the end of the fifth year.
- Bonds will be tradable on stock exchanges within a fortnight of the issuance on a date as notified by the RBI.
Gold ETFs
- Gold exchange traded funds (ETFs) are another way to invest in gold. These are units of mutual fund schemes.
- You can buy/sell these units through a share broker, provided you have a demat and trading account.
- From the time of listing of these ETFs in the bourses, selling/buying happens at the market price between the existing holders of the ETFs and the new subscribers.
- These ETFs track the domestic price of gold. However, depending on the demand/supply of these units in the market, they can trade at a discount/premium to the market price or net asset value (NAV) of the fund.
- Also note that though the cost of investment in gold ETFs is cheaper than that of investing in gold in physical form, you will need to pay the fund management charge and service charges of the broker.
- If you are opening a demat account specifically for investing in gold ETFs, then demat account charges will also have to be factored in your total costs.
- You also need to be aware that some of these funds have high tracking error because of their cash holdings.
- Thus, when you sell, you may not be able to exit at close to the market price of gold.
Terms in news:
Polling Agent
- It is not possible for a candidate to be physically present at every station on the day of voting in her constituency.
- Therefore, the law allows the candidate, or his/her election agent, to appoint a polling agent to act as a representative at every polling station to watch his/her interests.
- The work of polling agents includes ensuring that EVMs and VVPATs are in order, detecting and preventing impersonation of voters, and helping to secure and seal the EVMs, VVPATs and election records after polling is over.
- Those holding government positions and those who have been given security cover at the state’s expense, including Ministers, are not allowed to be polling agents.
