Essential Facts (Prelims) – April 30 , 2019


Committee to oversee clean air programme

Category: Environment

  • The Environment Ministry has constituted a committee to implement the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP), which aims to reduce particulate matter (PM) pollution by 20%-30% in at least 102 cities by 2024.
  • The NCAP unveiled in January is envisaged as a scheme to provide the States and the Centre with a framework to combat air pollution. The committee would be headquartered in New Delhi and its remit includes ensuring “inter-ministerial organisation and cooperation, sharing information and resolving issues that could arise between ministries… The committee would also give overall guidance and directions to effectively implement the programmes,” said a ministerial note.
  • The NCAP is envisioned as a five-year action plan with 2019 as the first year. There would be a review every five years.
  • For achieving the NCAP targets, the cities would be expected to calculate the reduction in pollution, keeping 2017’s average annual PM levels as the base year.
  • In 2018, 14 of the world’s 15 most polluted cities were in India.
  • The NCAP requires cities to implement specific measures such as “ensuring roads are pothole-free to improve traffic flow and thereby reduce dust” (within 60 days) or “ensuring strict action against unauthorised brick kilns” (within 30 days). It doesn’t specify an exact date for when these obligations kick in.
  • Experts have criticised the lack of mandatory targets and the challenge of inadequate enforcement by cities.

Loya Jirga

Category: International

  • Thousands of Afghans congregated in Kabul for a rare consultative meeting aimed at finding ways to negotiate a peace deal with the Taliban and end Afghanistan’s war.
  • The four-day consultative grand assembly, known as a Loya Jirga, is an attempt by President Ashraf Ghani to influence peace talks between the United States and the Taliban.
  • A Loya Jirga is aimed at building consensus among various ethnic groups and tribal factions and is traditionally convened under extraordinary circumstances.

Srinagar-UNESCO

Category: Art & Culture

  • Jammu and Kashmir does not have any site or monument with the UNESCO inscription of a World Heritage Site.
  • Since 2010, four sites in the state made it to UNESCO’s “tentative list” for the World Heritage tag, the nomination dossiers for these sites are yet to take shape.
  • If the nomination comes through, Srinagar will become the fourth Indian city — after Varanasi (Music), Jaipur (Crafts and Folk Art) and Chennai (Music) — to become part of the network of 180 cities, where development is believed to be intricately linked to their creative traditions.

India-US pact to check tax evasion

Category: International

  • Aimed at providing relief to subsidiaries of US multinationals and ensuring a check on cross-border tax evasion, India has notified the inter-governmental agreement with the United States for exchange of country-by-country (CbC) reports filed by multinational enterprises (MNEs) regarding income allocation and payment of taxes.
  • This follows the two nations signing a pact in March for sharing the CbC reports by the ultimate parent corporations based in either of the countries.
  • As per the agreement, it is intended to provide relevant and reliable information to perform an efficient and robust transfer pricing risk assessment analysis.
  • It will also obviate the need for Indian subsidiary companies of US multinationals to do local filing of CbC reports, thereby reducing the compliance burden.
  • A CbC report aggregates country-by-country information relating to the global allocation of income, taxes paid, and certain other indicators of an MNC. It also contains a list of all the group companies operating in a particular jurisdiction and the nature of the main business activity of each such constituent entity.

Missile Deal

Category: Defence & security

  • The Army is in the process of procuring Spike-LR Anti-Tank Missiles from Israel and Igla-S Very Short Range Air Defence Systems (VSHORAD) from Russia through a set of new financial powers for emergency procurements sanctioned by the Defence Ministry earlier this month.
  • Under the latest emergency financial powers, armed forces have been given a free hand to procure equipment worth up to ₹300 crore on a priority basis.

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