Citizenship Bill
Category:Polity & Governance
- The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2019, that had set off a series of violent protests across the northeastern States, lapsed as the government failed to push it through Rajya Sabha.
- Along with the Citizenship Bill, the triple talaq Bill that criminalises instant divorce in a Muslim marriage has also lapsed.
- There have been widespread protests against the Citizenship Bill that proposed to grant citizenship to six religious minorities — Hindus, Jains, Sikhs, Parsis, Christians and Buddhists — from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh, who came to India before December 31, 2014.
- The Bill was seen as violating the terms of the 1985 Assam Accord that had set March 24, 1971 as the cut-off for granting citizenship.
Article 35 A
Category:Polity & Governance
- Normal life was paralysed in the Kashmir Valley due to a shutdown called by separatists in anticipation of the petitions challenging Article 35A coming up before the Supreme Court for hearing.
- The Article 35A, which was incorporated in the Constitution by a 1954 Presidential order, accords special rights and privileges to the citizens of Jammu and Kashmir and bars people from outside from acquiring any immovable property in the State
NBWL
Category:Environment
- India’s apex National Board for Wildlife (NBWL) — charged with allowing forest land in Protected Areas to be diverted for industry — cleared 682 of the 687 projects (99.82%) that came up for scrutiny.
- The NBWL is formally headed by the Prime Minister.
- It adjudicates on industrial projects, road diversions or the like that could encroach into Protected Areas or eco-sensitive zones of forests.
- A smaller Standing Committee of the NBWL is charged with deliberating on the merits of projects that come to it for scrutiny; the committee comprises scientists and government officials and is chaired by Union Environment Minister.
TTZ
Category:Environment
- The Supreme court had said the protection of the Taj Mahal should not be restricted to the world heritage monument alone but everything around it.
- The court had said that the Taj Mahal was only the “centre-piece”. The forest cover, the river Yamuna and the grounds of the Taj Mahal should also be saved from pollution. This is known as Taj Trapezium Zone (TTZ).
Jute
Category:Agriculture
- The government has increased the minimum support price (MSP) for raw jute by ₹250 per quintal, taking the price to ₹3,950 per quintal for the 2019-20 season.
- India is the world’s largest producer of raw jute and West Bengal accounts for the majority of the country’s production.
AADHAR
Category:Polity & Governance
- The Union Cabinet recently approved amendments to the Aadhaar Act, including a provision that gives a child, on attaining maturity (18 years), the power to withdraw his or her Aadhaar details.
- This entails that the Unique Authority of India remove all the details, including biometrics of such persons.
- The proposal to allow those turning 18 to withdraw from Aadhaar will not benefit those who want to file income tax returns as it is now mandatory to provide Aadhaar details while filing taxes.
Ethanol
Category:Energy
- A co-operative sugar mill in Kolhapur district of Maharashtra has taken the lead in producing fuel grade ethanol directly from sugarcane juice in the State.
- The Centre had, in July last year, allowed sugar mills to manufacture ethanol directly from sugarcane juice or intermediate product called B-molasses.
- The decision was taken to help mills divert cane juice for ethanol manufacturing during surplus years. Traditionally, in India ethanol is made from ‘C-Heavy’ molasses, but in July last year, the government gave permission to make ethanol from sugarcane juice and ‘B-Heavy’ molasses or B-grade molasses.
- The fuel grade ethanol that is produced directly from cane juice is fetching more money per litre. This is going to be beneficial for the sugar industry that is facing crisis of excess stock of sugar.
- The government allowed fuel grade ethanol production from sugarcane juice with an aim to increase the earnings of sugar mills and help them in making full and timely payments to farmers.
- Cane-based ethanol can be produced in three different ways directly from cane juice, from B-grade and C-grade molasses. Molasses is a viscous product obtained from raw sugar during the refining process.
WTO
Category:International
- Canada and the US have accused India at the World Trade Organization (WTO) of “dramatic under-reporting” of market price support for pulses — chickpeas, pigeon peas, black matpe, mung beans, and lentils.
- India’s minimum support price (MSP, also referred to as market price support) for the five pulses is about 26 times higher at ₹69,923 crore instead of the notified ₹2,667 crore, as per a joint submission made by the countries to the WTO.
- It is important for India to defend its own calculation of MSP as it is classified as a ‘trade distorting support’ at the WTO which is capped at 10 per cent of production value.
- In case India’s ‘trade distorting support’ exceeds the cap, it will either be forced to discontinue the support programmes, failing which it may have to pay penalties.
- The main reason behind the stark difference in the MSP figures for pulses notified by India and those calculated by Canada and the US is the fact that the latter have based their calculation on all eligible production, as opposed to just that portion of production actually procured by government entities in India.
- India, however, has consistently maintained at the WTO that “eligible production” for MSP must be that part of the total production of a crop that is actually procured by the agencies and nothing more as the support to farmers is only restricted to that amount.
- Another essential difference in the calculation methodology is that while India has made its MSP calculations in US dollar, Canada and the US have calculated it in Indian rupees.
- India had earlier argued that the AoA gives members the freedom to use the US dollar (which insulates the figures against rupee depreciation) and it has been consistently reporting its calculations in the American currency.
Vande Bharat Express
Category:Social sector
- The ‘Make in India’ effort of Indian Railways has culminated into India’s first Semi High Speed Train, “Vande Bharat Express”.
- It will run o on New Delhi-Kanpur-Allahabad-Varanasi route.
- Vande Bharat Express can run up to a maximum speed of 160 kmph and has travel classes like Shatabdi Train but with better facilities. It aims to provide a totally new travel experience to passengers.
- Adding up the green footprints, the train has regenerative braking system in the Vande Bharat Express coaches which can save up to 30% of electrical energy.
- In keeping with the vision of “Make in India”, the major systems of the train have been designed and built in India.
PM-SYM
Category:Social sector
- Pradhan Mantri Shram Yogi Maan-dhan (PM-SYM) will be rolled out by the Ministry of Labour and Employment tomorrow.
- As many as 42 crore workers are estimated to be engaged in the unorganized sector of the country.
- The unorganised workers mostly engaged as home based workers, street vendors, mid-day meal workers, head loaders, brick kiln workers, cobblers, rag pickers, domestic workers, washer men, rickshaw pullers, landless labourers, own account workers, agricultural workers, construction workers, beedi workers, handloom workers, leather workers, audio- visual workers and similar other occupations whose monthly income is Rs 15,000/ per month or less and belong to the entry age group of 18-40 years are eligible for the scheme.
- They should not be covered under New Pension Scheme (NPS), Employees’ State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) scheme or Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO).
- Further, he/she should not be an income tax payer.
- Each subscriber under the PM-SYM, shall receive minimum assured pension of Rs 3000/- per month after attaining the age of 60 years.
