Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Cattle Island
Mains level: Not Much
The Odisha Forest and Environment Department is all set to begin ‘Island Odyssey’ and ‘Hirakud Cruise’ ecotourism packages for tourists to islands inside the reservoir.
Cattle Island
- ‘Cattle island’, one of three islands in the Hirakud reservoir, has been selected as a sight-seeing destination.
- When large numbers of people were displaced from their villages when the Hirakud dam was constructed on the Mahanadi river in 1950s, villagers could not take their cattle with them.
- They left their cattle behind in deserted villages.
- As the area started to submerge following the dam’s construction, the cattle moved up to Bhujapahad, an elevated place in the Telia Panchayat under Lakhanpur block of Jharsuguda district.
- Subsequently named ‘Cattle island’, it’s surrounded by a vast sheet of water.
Other islands
- Then there is an “island of bats”, also within the reservoir, just 1 km away from the Debrigarh ecotourism project.
- It is the habitat of hundreds of bats.
- Tourists also get a magnificent view of the sunset from the reservoir. ‘Sunset island’ is one of the three stops on the unique boat ride.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Emergency award
Mains level: Paper 3- Improving the arbitration in India
Context
The judgment delivered by the Supreme Court in the legal tussle between Amazon and the Future Group has laid the foundation for recognition and enforcement of emergency awards under the Indian arbitration law.
What is an emergency award?
- It is an award rendered by an emergency arbitrator, appointed prior to the formal constitution of an arbitral tribunal by an arbitral institution.
- It is a recent mechanism introduced by arbitral institutions to encourage parties to seek urgent interim relief from an arbitral institution rather than from a court.
- Many leading arbitral institutions such as SIAC, ICC, and LCIA have provisions for the appointment of an emergency arbitrator.
- As far as India is concerned, the 246th Law Commission Report had recommended an amendment in the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 (‘Indian Arbitration Act’) to grant statutory recognition to an emergency award.
- Some of the indigenous arbitral institutions though, such as the Delhi International Arbitration Centre, have made provisions for emergency arbitration.
What is the tussle between Amazon and Future Group about?
- In August 2020, Biyani Group and the Reliance Industries Group decided to amalgamate Future Retail Ltd. (FRL) with Reliance Industries and complete disposal of its retail assets in favor of the Group.
- However, prior to the said transaction, Amazon had invested an amount of Rs 1,431 crores in Future Coupons Pvt. Ltd. (FCPL) based on rights granted to FCPL with regard to FRL.
- So, Amazon initiated arbitration against the Biyani Group, including FRL, under Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC) Rules.
- Amazon made an application seeking urgent interim reliefs under SIAC rules and the appointment of an emergency arbitrator.
- The emergency arbitrator appointed, made an award in favor of Amazon in October 2020, restricting the Biyani Group from proceeding ahead with the disputed transaction.
- However, the Biyani Group proceeded with the disputed transaction, construing the emergency award as a nullity.
Issue of enforcement of the emergency award in India
- Amazon filed an application before the Delhi High Court for enforcement of the award.
- The court had the task of answering two novel legal questions —
- 1) Whether the emergency award is an interim order under section 17(1) of the Indian Arbitration Act,
- 2) Whether it can be enforced under section 17(2).
- The Delhi High Court gave judgment in March 2021 against the Biyani Group.
- The case eventually reached the Supreme Court.
- Party autonomy: The Supreme Court judgment emphasized party autonomy in arbitration, which includes the right of the parties to choose institutional rules as the governing rules of arbitration.
- Once chosen, the parties are bound by such rules.
- The Supreme Court also held that the Indian Arbitration Act does not prohibit the parties from agreeing to a provision providing for an emergency arbitrator.
- The Supreme Court also held that the term “during the arbitral proceedings” is wide enough to encompass emergency arbitration proceedings.
- The Court ultimately held the emergency award to be an interim order under section 17(1) of the Indian Arbitration Act and enforceable under section 17(2).
Significance of the judgment for arbitration in India
- This judgment has contributed to the development of Indian arbitration law.
- In the broader scheme of things, it is a victory for Indian arbitration and a sigh of relief for arbitral institutions.
Conclusion
The judgment is a reaffirmation of the fact that India is gradually stepping towards being an “arbitration-friendly” jurisdiction.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: IBC 2016
Mains level: Paper 3- Right timing in the use of IBC matters
Understanding the role of IBC 2016
- For reasons sometimes a company may experience stress, that is, is unable to repay the debt in time — implying that it has assets less than claims against it.
- So, when a company has inadequate assets, the claim of an individual creditor may be consistent with its assets while claims of all creditors put together may not.
- In such a situation, creditors may rush to recover their claims before others do, triggering a run on the company’s assets.
- The IBC provides for reorganisation that prevents a value-reducing run on the company.
- It aims to rescue the company if its business is viable or close it if its business is unviable, through a market process.
- Restructuring: The claims of creditors are restructured, which may be paid to them immediately or over time.
- In case of closure, the assets of the company are sold, and proceeds are distributed to creditors immediately as per the priority rule.
- Reorganisation by financial creditor: The IBC entrusts the responsibility of reorganisation to financial creditors as they have the capability and the willingness to restructure their claims.
Why so much variation in haircut?
- Where the company does not have adequate assets, realisation for financial creditors, through a rescue, may fall short of their claims known as haircut.
- The IBC process yields a zero haircut (100% recovery of claimed amount) in one case and 100 per cent haircut (i.e. 0% recovery) in another.
- Factors: It depends on several factors, including the nature of business, business cycles, market sentiments, and marketing effort.
- It critically depends on at what stage of stress, the company enters the IBC process.
- If the company has been sick for years, and its assets have depleted significantly, the IBC process may yield a huge haircut or even liquidation.
- A haircut is typically the total claims minus the amount of realisation/amount of the claims.
- But this formulation may not tell the complete story.
- The realisation often does not include the amount that would be realised from equity holding post-resolution, and through the reversal of avoidance transactions and the insolvency resolution of guarantors — personal and corporate.
- It also does not include realisations made in other accounts.
- The amount of claim often includes NPA, which may be completely written off, and the interest on such NPA.
- These understate the numerator and overstate the denominator, projecting a higher haircut.
Significance of IBC
- A haircut should be seen in relation to the assets available and not in relation to the claims of creditors.
- The market offers a value in relation to what a company brings on the table, not what it owes to creditors.
- Value maximisation: So, the IBC maximises the value of existing assets, not of assets that probably existed earlier.
- Market determined value: The IBC enables and facilitates market forces to resolve stress as a going concern.
- Resolution applicants, who have many options for investment, including in stressed companies, compete to offer the best value.
- If the best value offered by the market is not acceptable to creditors, the company is liquidated.
- Maximum realisation: In addition to rescuing the company, the IBC realises, of the available options for creditors, the highest in percentage terms.
Conclusion
It is a tool in the hands of stakeholders to be used at the right time, in the right case, in the right manner.
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Back2Basics: Avoidable Transactions in IBC 2016
- The UNCITRAL Legislative Guide on Law of Insolvency defines avoidance proceedings as “provisions of the insolvency law that permit transactions for the transfer of assets or the undertaking of obligations prior to insolvency proceedings to be cancelled or otherwise rendered ineffective and any assets transferred, or their value, to be recovered in the collective interest of creditors.”
- It is very important for the Resolution Professional (RP) or the liquidator to identify such transaction and file applications to avoid it so that creditors can collect their claims.
- The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 (IBC) contains four types of avoidable transactions- preferential, undervalued, defrauding creditors and extortionate transactions.
- Usually, the avoidable transactions should be made within the prescribed relevant time or look back period.
- Look back period is the relevant time up to which an RP or a liquidator can go back to scrutinize an expected avoidable transaction.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Power of the Speaker
Mains level: Paper 2- Need to make Speakers independent and impartial
Context
The decline in the functioning of India’s Parliament — and state assemblies as well — is caused by one primary reason: The lack of independence and impartiality of the Speaker.
Important role of the Speaker
- Our Constitution, after extensive debate, adopted the Westminster model of governance.
- In the Lok Sabha, as in the United Kingdom, the Speaker is the supreme authority; he has vast powers and it is his primary duty to ensure the orderly conduct of the business of the House.
- Constitutional law points out the two essential qualities of a Speaker: Independence and impartiality.
- As the principal spokesperson of the Lok Sabha, the Speaker represents its collective voice.
- Indeed, the supremacy of Parliament is emphasised by Article 75(3) of the Constitution: “The Council of Ministers shall be collectively responsible to the House of the People”.
- Pandit Nehru referred to the Speaker as “the symbol of the nation’s freedom and liberty” and emphasised that Speakers should be men of “outstanding ability and impartiality”.
How role of Speaker matters in functioning Legislature
- Power to allow debate or discussion: It is the Speaker’s duty to decide what issues will be taken up for discussion.
- He has the sole discretion to permit an adjournment motion to be tabled or to admit a calling attention notice, if the issue is of urgent public importance.
- The present practice of the Speaker continuing to be an active member of the ruling party has the inevitable result of his refusing to allow any debate or discussion that may be essential in national interest but may embarrass the ruling party.
- This inevitably leads to constant disruption of Parliament by the Opposition.
- The stalling of parliamentary proceedings has led to the passing of important bills in several sessions without any discussion.
- Violation of separation of power between legislature and executive: The most dangerous consequence is the vastly increased powers that the executive — the bureaucracy — begins to command by default.
- In 1951, a nine-judge bench of the Supreme Court (In Re Delhi Laws Act Case) held that essential legislative functions cannot be delegated to the bureaucracy; law-making must remain the domain of the legislature.
- This constitutional mandate is now increasingly and consistently being violated by issuing rules and notifications that have far-reaching consequences.
- The new rules on information technology and electronic commerce are clear instances of changes that should have come about by a parliamentary law.
- And worse still is the power given to the executive to issue retrospective notifications — a step unknown to any civilised democracy.
- Partisan conduct in anti-defection law issues: Several judgments on the anti-defection law have been rendered by the Supreme Court.
- A common factor that shows up in these rulings is the blatant, partisan conduct of speakers in state assemblies.
Way forward
- Speaker should resign from Party: It should be made mandatory that the Speaker ought to resign from his party and his sole allegiance must be to the Constitution and to maintaining the dignity of the House.
- The separation of powers is part of the basic structure of our Constitution.
- It is imperative that the Speaker of every legislature resigns from his party to honour his constitutional obligation of independence and impartiality.
- This must be accepted as the primary responsibility of every ruling party, both at the Centre and in each state, and made into a constitutional convention.
Conlcusion
The option is a binary: Either allow Parliament and state legislatures to descend into terminal decline or make the Speaker truly independent and let every legislature perform its constitutional function.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Collegium system, NJAC
Mains level: Not Much
The Supreme Court Collegium, led by Chief Justice of India (CJI) N.V. Ramana has recommended to the government nine names for appointment as apex court judges.
Significant appointments
- The Collegium has for the first time, in one single resolution, recommended three women judges.
- It has thus sent a strong signal in favor of the representation of women in the highest judiciary.
- The process scripted history by naming Karnataka High Court judge B.V. Nagarathna, who may become India’s first woman CJI.
What is Collegium System?
- The Collegium of judges is the Indian Supreme Court’s invention.
- It does not figure in the Constitution, which says judges of the Supreme Court and High Courts are appointed by the President and speaks of a process of consultation.
- In effect, it is a system under which judges are appointed by an institution comprising judges.
- After some judges were superseded in the appointment of the CJI in the 1970s, and attempts made subsequently to effect a mass transfer of High Court judges across the country.
- Hence there was a perception that the independence of the judiciary was under threat. This resulted in a series of cases over the years.
Evolution: The Judges Cases
- First Judges Case (1981) ruled that the “consultation” with the CJI in the matter of appointments must be full and effective.
- However, it rejected the idea that the CJI’s opinion, albeit carrying great weight, should have primacy.
- Second Judges Case (1993) introduced the Collegium system, holding that “consultation” really meant “concurrence”.
- It added that it was not the CJI’s individual opinion, but an institutional opinion formed in consultation with the two senior-most judges in the Supreme Court.
- Third Judges Case (1998): On a Presidential Reference for its opinion, the Supreme Court, in the Third Judges Case (1998) expanded the Collegium to a five-member body, comprising the CJI and four of his senior-most colleagues.
The procedure followed by the Collegium
Appointment of CJI
- The President of India appoints the CJI and the other SC judges.
- As far as the CJI is concerned, the outgoing CJI recommends his successor.
- In practice, it has been strictly by seniority ever since the supersession controversy of the 1970s.
- The Union Law Minister forwards the recommendation to the PM who, in turn, advises the President.
Other SC Judges
- For other judges of the top court, the proposal is initiated by the CJI.
- The CJI consults the rest of the Collegium members, as well as the senior-most judge of the court hailing from the High Court to which the recommended person belongs.
- The consultees must record their opinions in writing and it should form part of the file.
- The Collegium sends the recommendation to the Law Minister, who forwards it to the Prime Minister to advise the President.
For High Courts
- The CJs of High Courts are appointed as per the policy of having Chief Justices from outside the respective States. The Collegium takes the call on the elevation.
- High Court judges are recommended by a Collegium comprising the CJI and two senior-most judges.
- The proposal, however, is initiated by the Chief Justice of the High Court concerned in consultation with two senior-most colleagues.
- The recommendation is sent to the Chief Minister, who advises the Governor to send the proposal to the Union Law Minister.
Does the Collegium recommend transfers too?
- Yes, the Collegium also recommends the transfer of Chief Justices and other judges.
- Article 222 of the Constitution provides for the transfer of a judge from one High Court to another.
- When a CJ is transferred, a replacement must also be simultaneously found for the High Court concerned. There can be an acting CJ in a High Court for not more than a month.
- In matters of transfers, the opinion of the CJI “is determinative”, and the consent of the judge concerned is not required.
- However, the CJI should take into account the views of the CJ of the High Court concerned and the views of one or more SC judges who are in a position to do so.
- All transfers must be made in the public interest, that is, “for the betterment of the administration of justice”.
Loopholes in the Collegium system
- Lack of Transparency: Opaqueness and a lack of transparency, and the scope for nepotism are cited often.
- Judges appointing Judge: The attempt made to replace it by a ‘National Judicial Appointments Commission’ was struck down by the court in 2015 on the ground that it posed a threat to the independence of the judiciary.
- Criteria: Some do not believe in full disclosure of reasons for transfers, as it may make lawyers in the destination court chary of the transferred judge.
Scope for transparency
- In respect of appointments, there has been an acknowledgment that the “zone of consideration” must be expanded to avoid criticism that many appointees hail from families of retired judges.
- The status of a proposed new memorandum of procedure, to infuse greater accountability, is also unclear.
- Even the majority opinions admitted the need for transparency, now Collegium’s resolutions are now posted online, but reasons are not given.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: G-Secs
Mains level: Not Much
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has announced that it will conduct an open market purchase of government securities of ₹25,000 crore under the G-sec Acquisition Programme (G-SAP 2.0).
Answer this PYQ in the comment box:
Q.Consider the following statements:
- The Reserve Bank of India manages and services the Government of India Securities but not any State Government Securities.
- Treasury bills are issued by the Government of India and there are no treasury bills issued by the State Governments.
- Treasury bills offer are issued at a discount from the par value.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
(a) 1 and 2 only
(b) 3 Only
(c) 2 and 3 only
(d) 1, 2 and 3
Post your answers here:
What are Government Securities?
- These are debt instruments issued by the government to borrow money.
- The two key categories are:
- Treasury bills (T-Bills) – short-term instruments which mature in 91 days, 182 days, or 364 days, and
- Dated securities – long-term instruments, which mature anywhere between 5 years and 40 years
Note: T-Bills are issued only by the central government, and the interest on them is determined by market forces.
Why G-Secs?
- Like bank fixed deposits, g-secs are not tax-free.
- They are generally considered the safest form of investment because they are backed by the government. So, the risk of default is almost nil.
- However, they are not completely risk-free, since they are subject to fluctuations in interest rates.
- Bank fixed deposits, on the other hand, are guaranteed only to the extent of Rs 5 lakh by the Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporation (DICGC).
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Nuclear Fusion Reaction
Mains level: Cleaner energy resources
California based researchers have announced that their experiment has made a breakthrough in nuclear fusion research.
What exactly is Nuclear Fusion?
- Nuclear fusion is defined as the combining of several small nuclei into one large nucleus with the subsequent release of huge amounts of energy.
- The difference in mass between the reactants and products is manifested as either the release or the absorption of energy.
- Nuclear fusion powers our sun and harnessing this fusion energy could provide an unlimited amount of renewable energy.
- An example of nuclear fusion is the process of four hydrogens coming together to form helium.
What was the experiment?
- In the experiment, lasers were used to heat a small target or fuel pellets.
- These pellets containing deuterium and tritium fused and produced more energy.
- The team noted that they were able to achieve a yield of more than 1.3 megajoules of heat energy.
- This megajoule of energy released in the experiment is indeed impressive in fusion terms.
How was the new breakthrough achieved?
- The team used new diagnostics, improved laser precision, and even made changes to the design.
- They applied laser energy on fuel pellets to heat and pressurize them at conditions similar to that at the center of our Sun. This triggered the fusion reactions.
- These reactions released positively charged particles called alpha particles, which in turn heated the surrounding plasma.
- At high temperatures, electrons are ripped from an atom’s nuclei and become a plasma or an ionized state of matter. Plasma is also known as the fourth state of matter.
- The heated plasma also released alpha particles and a self-sustaining reaction called ignition took place.
Future prospects: Benefits
- It is expected that fusion could meet humanity’s energy needs for millions of years.
- Fusion fuel is plentiful and easily accessible: deuterium can be extracted inexpensively from seawater, and tritium can be produced from naturally abundant lithium.
- Future fusion reactors will not produce high activity, long-lived nuclear waste, and a meltdown at a fusion reactor is practically impossible.
- Importantly, nuclear fusion does not emit carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, and so along with nuclear fission could play a future climate change mitigating role as a low carbon energy source.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Kigali Agreement
Mains level: Ozone depletion and its threat
The Union Cabinet has given its approval for ratification of the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer for phase down of Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) by India.
What is Montreal Protocol?
- The Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer is an international agreement made in 1987.
- It was designed to stop the production and import of ozone-depleting substances and reduce their concentration in the atmosphere to help protect the earth’s ozone layer.
- It sits under the Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer.
Objectives
- The convention was adopted in 1985 and has highlighted the adverse effect of human activity on ozone levels in the stratosphere and the discovery of the ‘ozone hole’.
- Its objectives are to promote cooperation on the adverse effects of human activities on the ozone layer.
- It has since undergone nine revisions, in 1990 (London), 1991 (Nairobi), 1992 (Copenhagen), 1993 (Bangkok), 1995 (Vienna), 1997 (Montreal), 1998 (Australia), 1999 (Beijing) and 2016 (Kigali).
India and the Protocol
- India became a Party to the Protocol on 19 June 1992 and since then has ratified the amendments.
What is the Kigali Amendment?
- It is an international agreement to gradually reduce the consumption and production of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs).
- It is a legally binding agreement designed to create rights and obligations in international law.
- While HFCs do not deplete the stratospheric ozone layer, they have high global warming potential ranging from 12 to 14,000, which has an adverse impact on climate.
What are the Ozone Depleting Substances?
Ozone-depleting substances are chemicals that destroy the earth’s protective ozone layer. They include:
- chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs)
- halons
- carbon tetrachloride (CCl4)
- methyl chloroform (CH3CCl3)
- hydro Bromo fluorocarbons (HBFCs)
- hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs)
- methyl bromide (CH3Br)
- bromochloromethane (CH2BrCl)
Where are they used?
The main uses of ozone-depleting substances include:
- CFCs and HCFCs in refrigerators and air conditioners,
- HCFCs and halons in fire extinguishers,
- CFCs and HCFCs in foam,
- CFCs and HCFCs as aerosol propellants, and
- Methyl bromide for fumigation of soil, structures and goods to be imported or exported.
Now answer this PYQ:
Q.Consider the following statements:
Chlorofluorocarbons, known as ozone-depleting substances are used:
- In the production of plastic foams
- In the production of tubeless tyres
- In cleaning certain electronic components
- As pressurizing agents in aerosol cans
Which of the statements given above is/are correct? (CSP 2012)
(a) 1, 2 and 3 only
(b) 4 only
(c) 1, 3 and 4 only
(d) 1, 2, 3 and 4
Post your answers here.
Why phase them out?
Implementation strategy and targets:
- India will complete its phase-down of HFCs in 4 steps from 2032 onwards with a cumulative reduction of 10% in 2032, 20% in 2037, 30% in 2042, and 80% in 2047.
Major Impact
- HFCs phasedown is expected to prevent the emission of up to 105 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent of GHGs, helping to avoid up to 0.5 degrees Celsius of global temperature rise by 2100, while continuing to protect the ozone layer.
- It will achieve energy efficiency gains^ and carbon dioxide emissions reduction – a “climate co-benefit,”
- HFCs phrase-down implementation will involve synergies to maximize the economic arid social co-benefits, besides environmental gains.
- There would be scope for domestic manufacturing of equipment as well as alternative non-HFC and low-global warming potential chemicals to enable the industry to transition to the low global warming potential alternatives as per the agreed HFC phase-down schedule.
- In addition, there would be opportunities to promote domestic innovation for new generation alternative refrigerants and related technologies.
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From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: International Bullion Exchange
Mains level: Not Much
The International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA) has inaugurated the pilot run/soft launch of the International Bullion Exchange scheduled to go live on October 1, 2021.
What is Bullion?
- Bullion is gold and silver that is officially recognized as being at least 99.5% and 99.9% pure and is in the form of bars or ingots.
- Bullion is often kept as a reserve asset by governments and central banks.
- To create bullion, gold first must be discovered by mining companies and removed from the earth in the form of gold ore, a combination of gold and mineralized rock.
- The gold is then extracted from the ore with the use of chemicals or extreme heat.
- The resulting pure bullion is also called “parted bullion.” Bullion that contains more than one type of metal, is called “unparted bullion.”
The Bullion Market
- Bullion can sometimes be considered legal tender, most often held in reserves by central banks or used by institutional investors to hedge against inflationary effects on their portfolios.
- Approximately 20% of mined gold is held by central banks worldwide.
- This gold is held as bullions in reserves, which the bank uses to settle the international debt or stimulate the economy through gold lending.
- The central bank lends gold from their bullion reserves to bullion banks at a rate of approximately 1% to help raise money.
- Bullion banks are involved in one activity or another in the precious metals markets.
- Some of these activities include clearing, risk management, hedging, trading, vaulting, and acting as intermediaries between lenders and borrowers.
What is International Bullion Exchange?
- This shall be the “Gateway for Bullion Imports into India”, wherein all the bullion imports for domestic consumption shall be channelized through the exchange.
- The exchange ecosystem is expected to bring all the market participants to a common transparent platform for bullion trading.
- It would provide efficient price discovery, assurance in the quality of gold, enable greater integration with other segments of financial markets and help establish India’s position as a dominant trading hub in the World.
Answer this PYQ:
What is/are the purpose/purposes of the Government’s ‘Sovereign Gold Bond Scheme’ and ‘Gold Monetization Scheme’?
- To bring the idle gold lying with India households into the economy
- To promote FDI in the gold and jewellery sector
- To reduce India’s dependence on gold imports
Select the correct answer using the code given below:
(a) 1 only
(b) 2 and 3 only
(c) 1 and 3 only
(d) 1, 2 and 3
Post your answers here.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Special theory of relativty
Mains level: Paper 3- Theories of relativity
Context
In 1921, the Nobel Prize Committee concluded that Einstein would have to wait and the Committee decided not to award the Prize to anyone in 1921. Opinions changed in a year and when Einstein did receive the 1921 Prize in 1922.
Background
- Noble Prize was not awarded for his theories of relativity but for “his services to Theoretical Physics, and especially for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect”.
- The citation harked back to the revolutionary theories that Einstein had established in 1905. ‘Annus Mirabilis’, or the Year of Miracles, is how 1905 is remembered by physicists because Einstein, only 26 then, published four remarkable papers that year.
- One of them explained that light was made of photons and when the light shone on metal, each photon’s energy correlated to the electron’s speed on the metal’s surface.
- This theory redefined the composition of light and Einstein himself dubbed it revolutionary.
- It was for this that he received the Nobel Prize.
Special theory of relativity
- The special theory of relativity was published in 1905.
- James Maxwell had established that light was an electromagnetic wave and the value of its speed was calculated. Building on this,
- Speed of light remains constant for all observers: Einstein understood that while moving from one frame of reference to another, which is moving at a different speed, the speed of light remains a constant.
- He gave a physical interpretation to the equations governing the transformation from one frame to another based on this fact.
- Time slows down when measured from the rest: Einstein’s theory establishes that time moves slower within a moving body when measured from a point at rest (but moves normally within the moving body itself).
- Length reduces: The length of the moving body contracts when measured from an outside point at rest.
- When a moving body emits light, the length contraction and time slowdown of the moving body are just exactly what are needed to restore the speed of light to its constant value.
- Einstein’s insight was that there was no absolute time because time was measured by the simultaneity of two events and this simultaneity would be observed differently.
- As lagniappe to the scientific community, Einstein published his famous mass-energy equivalence E=mc2 in late 1905.
- A mundane example of the application of the special theory of relativity is the use of GPS on our phones.
General theory of relativity
- The theory is general enough to apply to all forms of motion, including those where gravity does not appear.
- Einstein worked out equations using tensors, the mathematical implement to describe the transformation of different dimensions.
- In November 1915, Einstein completed the general theory of relativity.
- As per this theory, space and time form a continuum, like a fabric, and every object in the universe distorts this fabric, much like how dropping a large ball distorts a taut trampoline sheet.
- This distortion is gravity. It produces two effects.
- One, the fabric causes any other object in the vicinity to move towards the heavier object and this is why gravity causes an object to pull things towards it.
- Two, it bends light in the process of attracting it.
Conclusion
In just two decades, Einstein led physics out of its traditional moorings, laid the entablature of modern physics on Newtonian and Maxwellian pillars of classical physics and opened it up to newer questions.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: UN Security Council
Mains level: Paper 2- Afghanistan issue
Context
The Afghan government and its defence forces have completely collapsed. The world over, television screens are full of images of the extraordinary takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban.
Background of the US intervention in Afghanistan
- The original trigger for the US military intervention in Afghanistan was the 9/11 attacks.
- The objective then was to eliminate the al Qaeda sanctuaries hosted by the Taliban.
- That goal was quickly attained, as was another one — the elimination of Osama Bin Laden in Abbottabad, Pakistan, in 2011.
- The US was thereafter stuck into a vortex in which its mission oscillated between counter-terrorism and counter-insurgency.
- The military presence in Afghanistan has been questioned by the US political firmament for a decade.
Factors driving the US exit
- China factor: The US now regards China as its principal strategic competitor.
- China’s muscle-flexing in the East and South China Seas calls for a renewed effort by the US to protect its stakes.
- The rise of China is the main geo-strategic threat for the US.
- In 2001, the US had taken its eye off the ball in diverting its attention to the global war on terror.
- Beginning with Afghanistan, it meandered through Iraq, Libya and Syria, with mixed results.
- Taiwan: China’s recent ratcheting up of pressure on Taiwan has also sounded the alarm.
Implications of Taliban’s return for region
- The new regime in Kabul is likely to open the door to economic investments from China.
- At the geopolitical level, the BRI may well receive a boost, given China’s interests in connectivity that could straddle the region, from Pakistan to Iran.
- Pakistan has shown alacrity in welcoming the change of guard in Kabul.
- The change in Afghanistan has security implications for India and the region at large.
- A spill-over of any chaos and instability in Afghanistan beyond its borders could give terrorism a shot in the arm.
- It could also singe Pakistan if it does not review its malevolent practices, which favour terror as an instrument of state policy.
Way forward for India
- India should prioritise the welfare of the Afghan people, whenever the opportunity presents itself.
- Currently, about 2,500 Afghan students are enrolled in educational and vocational institutions across India.
- They will no doubt wish to extend their scholarships.
- As a close neighbour, India has keen stakes in ensuring a stable, secure and developed Afghanistan.
- As the rotational President of the UN Security Council for August, India has an opportunity to engage important stakeholders on the way forward.
- Beyond that too, India’s presence in the UN Security Council till the end of 2022 will provide a platform to explore options with greater flexibility.
Conclusion
The global community needs to underscore the continued participation of women in governance in Afghanistan and keep an eye on violations of human rights and international humanitarian law.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: National Livestock Mission
Mains level: Paper 3- Addressing the lack of quality and affordable fodder and feed through Sub-Mission on Fodder and Feed
Context
The government recently announced a Sub-Mission on Fodder and Feed.
Why availability of good and affordable quality feed and fodder matters
- A study by the Indian Grassland and Fodder Research Institute has observed that for every 100 kg of feed required, India is short of 23.4 kg of dry fodder, 11.24 kg of green fodder, and 28.9 kg of concentrate feed.
- Low milk productivity: The lack of good quality feed and fodder impacts the productivity levels of cattle.
- This is one of the chief reasons why Indian livestock’s milk productivity is 20%-60% lower than the global average.
- High input cost: If we break down the input costs, we find that feed constitutes 60%-70% of milk production costs.
- When the National Livestock Mission was launched in 2014, it focused on supporting farmers in producing fodder from non-forest wasteland/grassland, and cultivation of coarse grains.
- However, this model could not sustain fodder availability due to a lack of backward and forward linkages in the value chain.
Why Sub-Mission on Fodder and Feed is significant
- As about 200 million Indians are involved in dairy and livestock farming, the scheme is important from the perspective of poverty alleviation.
- The Sub-Mission on Fodder and Feed intends to create a network of entrepreneurs who will make silage (the hub) and sell them directly to the farmers (the spoke).
- Bringing down the input cost: The large-scale production of silage will bring down the input cost for farmers since silage is much cheaper than concentrate feed.
- Objective: The revised scheme has been designed with the objectives of increasing productivity, reducing input costs, and doing away with middlemen (who usually take a huge cut).
- Since India has a livestock population of 535.78 million, effective implementation of this scheme will play a major role in increasing the return on investment for our farmers.
About the Sub-Mission on Fodder and Feed
- The scheme will provide 50% capital subsidy up to ₹50 lakh towards project cost to the beneficiary for infrastructure development and for procuring machinery for value addition in feed such as hay/silage/total mixed ration.
- Private entrepreneurs, self-help groups, farmer producer organizations, dairy cooperative societies, and Section 8 companies (NGOs) can avail themselves of the benefits under this scheme.
- The scheme can be used for covering the cost of infrastructure/machinery such as bailing units, harvester, chaff cutter, sheds, etc.
Challenges and solution
- Seasonal availability: A major challenge in the feed sector emanates from the fact that good-quality green fodder is only available for about three months during the year.
- Fermenting green fodder: Ideal solution would be to ferment green fodder and convert it into silage.
- Hence, under the fodder entrepreneurship program, farmers will receive subsidies and incentives to create a consistent supply chain of feed throughout the year.
Conclusion
The mission will help marginal farmers reduce their input costs and help them in increasing the return on capital employed.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Oil Bonds
Mains level: Oil prices volatility and its impact on India
The Centre has argued that it cannot reduce taxes on petrol and diesel as it has to bear the burden of payments in lieu of oil bonds issued by the previous UPA government to subsidize fuel prices.
What are Oil Bonds?
- Oil bonds are special securities issued by the government to oil marketing companies in lieu of cash subsidy.
- These bonds are typical of a long-term tenure like 15-20 years and oil companies are paid interest.
- Before the complete deregulation of petrol and diesel prices, oil marketing companies were faced with a huge financial burden as the selling price of petrol and diesel in India was lower than the international market price.
- This ‘under-recovery is typically compensated through fuel subsidies allocated in the Union budget.
- However, between 2005 and 2010, the UPA government issued oil bonds to the companies amounting to Rs 1.4 lakh crore to compensate them for these losses.
Why do governments issue such bonds?
- Compensation to companies through issuance of such bonds is typically used when the government is trying to delay the fiscal burden of such a payout to future years.
- Governments resort to such instruments when they are in danger of breaching the fiscal deficit target due to unforeseen circumstances that lead to a collapse in revenues or a surge in expenditure.
- These types of bonds are considered to be ‘below the line’ expenditure in the Union budget and do not have a bearing on that year’s fiscal deficit, but they do increase the government’s overall debt.
- However, interest payments and repayment of these bonds become a part of the fiscal deficit calculations in future years.
Backgrounder: Deregulation of fuel prices
- Fuel price decontrol has been a step-by-step exercise, with the government freeing up prices of aviation turbine fuel in 2002, petrol in 2010, and diesel in 2014.
- Prior to that, the government would intervene in fixing the price at which retailers were to sell diesel or petrol.
- This led to under-recoveries for oil marketing companies, which the government had to compensate for.
- The prices were deregulated to make them market-linked, unburden the government from subsidizing prices, and allow consumers to benefit from lower rates when global crude oil prices tumble.
- Price decontrol essentially offers fuel retailers such as Indian Oil, HPCL or BPCL the freedom to fix prices based on calculations of their own cost and profits.
- However, the key beneficiary in this policy reform of price decontrol is the government.
Impact: Loss of consumers
- While oil price deregulation was meant to be linked to global crude prices, Indian consumers have not benefited from a fall in global prices.
- The central, as well as state governments, impose fresh taxes and levies to raise extra revenues.
- This forces the consumer to either pay what she’s already paying, or even more.
Why are the Oil Bonds in news?
- As prices of petrol and diesel climb steeply, the Centre has been under pressure to cut the high taxes on fuel.
- Taxes account for 58 per cent of the retail selling price of petrol and 52 per cent of the retail selling price of diesel.
- However, the government has so far been reluctant to cut taxes as excise duties on petrol and diesel are a major source of revenue, especially at a time the pandemic has adversely impacted other taxes such as corporate tax.
- The government is estimated to have collected more than Rs 3 lakh crore from tax on petrol and diesel in the 2020-21 fiscal year.
The blame game
- The present government has blamed the UPA regime for its inability to cut taxes.
- It pointed out that the bonds issued by the Manmohan Singh government have weakened the financial position of the oil marketing companies and added to the government’s fiscal burden now.
- It is an argument that has been often repeated since 2018.
What budget documents show
- Budget documents show that such bonds will be up for redemption over the next few years — beginning with two to be redeemed in the current fiscal year — till 2026.
- The government has to repay a principal amount of Rs 10,000 crore this year, according to these documents.
- The government has paid around Rs 10,000 crore annually as interest over the last decade.
- The government is likely to pay a similar amount of interest for the current fiscal as well.
Is the issuance of such special securities restricted to the UPA era?
- Besides oil bonds, the UPA era also saw the issuance of fertilizer bonds from 2007 to compensate fertilizer companies for their losses due to the difference in the cost price and selling price.
- However, the issuance of such special securities is not limited to the UPA regime.
- Over the years, the Modi government has issued bank recapitalization bonds to specific public sector banks (PSBs) as it looked to meet the large capital requirements of these PSBs without allocating money from the budget.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Not much
Mains level: NPA Crisis
The contentious issue of whether banks should disclose inspection reports by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is back in the news once again after a division bench of the Supreme Court referred writ petitions filed by banks to another bench for reconsideration.
What is RBI’s inspection on banks?
- The Banking Regulation Act, 1949 empowers the Reserve Bank of India to inspect and supervise commercial banks.
- These powers are exercised through on-site inspection and off-site surveillance.
- RBI carries out dedicated and integrated supervision overall of credit institutions, i.e., banks, development financial institutions, and non-banking financial companies.
- The Board for Financial Supervision (BFS) carries out this function.
- Banks currently disclose the list of wilful defaulters and names of defaulters against whom they have filed suits for loan recovery.
Note: CAMELS is an international rating system used by regulatory banking authorities to rate financial institutions, according to the six factors represented by its acronym. The CAMELS acronym stands for “Capital adequacy, Asset quality, Management, Earnings, Liquidity, and Sensitivity.”
Why in news now?
- In 2015, the Supreme Court had come down on the RBI for trying to keep the inspection reports and defaulters list confidential.
- This was aimed for the public disclosure of such reports of the RBI, much against the wishes of the banking sector.
- The SC had said the RBI has no legal duty to maximize the benefit of any public sector or private sector bank, and thus there is no relationship of ‘trust’ between them.
- It added that the RBI was duty-bound to uphold the public interest by revealing these details under RTI.
What is the issue?
- The RBI was allowed to make such reports public following the Supreme Court order.
- The SC had wanted full disclosure of the inspection report.
- However, the court agreed that only some portions on bad loans and borrowers would be made public.
- Banks have been refusing to disclose inspection reports and defaulters’ lists.
Issues with report publication
- Bank defamation: As banks are involved in dealing in money, they fear any adverse remarks — especially from the regulator RBI — will affect their performance and keep customers away.
- Trust of the account holder: Banks are driven by the “trust and faith” of their clients that should not be made public.
- The invalidity of RTI: On the other hand, private banks insisted that the RTI Act does not apply to private banks.
- Right to Privacy: Banks also argued that privacy is a fundamental right, and therefore should not be violated by making clients’ information public.
Why are banks against disclosing inspection reports?
- Many feel that the RBI’s inspection reports on various banks, with details on alleged malpractices and mismanagement, can open up a can of worms.
- As these reports have details about how the banks were manipulated by rogue borrowers and officials, banks want to keep them under wraps.
- Obviously, banks don’t want inspection reports and defaulters’ lists to be made public as it affects their image.
- Customers may also keep out of banks with poor track records.
Try this PYQ now:
Q.In the context of the Indian economy non-financial debt includes which of the following?
- Housing loans owed by households
- Amounts outstanding on credit cards
- Treasury bills
Select the correct answer using the code given below:
(a) 1 only
(b) 1 and 2 only
(c) 3 only
(d) 1, 2 and 3
Post your answers here (You need to sign-in for that).
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Financial Inclusion Index
Mains level: Financial inclusion of masses
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has announced the formation of a composite Financial Inclusion Index (FI-Index) to capture the extent of financial inclusion across the country.
Financial Inclusion Index
- The FI-Index will be published in July every year.
- The index captures information on various aspects of financial inclusion in a single value ranging between 0 and 100, where 0 represents complete financial exclusion and 100 indicates full financial inclusion.
- It has been conceptualized as a comprehensive index incorporating details of banking, investments, insurance, postal as well as the pension sector in consultation with the government and respective sectoral regulators.
- It has been constructed without any ‘base year’ and as such it reflects cumulative efforts of all stakeholders over the years towards financial inclusion.
Parameters of the index
- The FI-Index comprises three broad parameters viz.,
- Access (35%),
- Usage (45%), and
- Quality (20%)
- These parameters are the identification of the customer, reaching the last mile, and providing relevant, affordable and safe products.
- The index is responsive to ease of access, availability and usage of services, and quality of services for all 97 indicators.
This year’s highlight
- The annual FI-Index for the period ended March 2021 stood at 53.9 compared with 43.4 for the period ended March 2017.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Bioethanol, Ethanol blending
Mains level: Ethanol blended petrol (EBP) Program
India has been promoting 2G bioethanol to achieve its E20 target.
What is Bioethanol?
- Biomass has always been a reliable source of energy.
- Cultivated biomass has begun to be used to generate bioethanol.
- They are categorised as first (1G), second (2G) and third-generation (3G), based on the source of raw material used for bioethanol production.
Its types
- 1G bioethanol: Raw materials required are corn seeds and sugarcane; both are food sources. There is not enough food for everyone; so the use of 1G is a major concern. However, some countries have enough raw materials to manufacture 1G.
- 2G bioethanol: It can be produced using inedible farm waste left over after harvest. Corn cobs, rice husks, wheat straw and sugarcane bagasse can all be transformed into cellulose and fermented into ethanol that can then be mixed with conventional fuels.
- 3G bioethanol: Algae grown in wastewater, sewage or saltwater can be used to produce bioethanol. Water used for human consumption is not required. The benefit of 3G is that it does not compete with food. Nevertheless, economic viability remains a critical issue.
Ethanol blending in India
- India currently blends approximately 8.5 per cent ethanol with petrol.
- It is estimated that ethanol production in India will triple to approximately 10 billion litres per year by 2025.
- The 2G plant will play a major role in making bioethanol available for blending.
- In addition to reducing agricultural waste incineration, it can also help meet the goal of converting waste into energy.
Moves for production
- The first 2G ethanol biorefinery is being set up at Bathinda, Punjab.
- Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) plans to set up four 2G ethanol plants that will convert agricultural waste into biofuel, reducing toxic air pollution in northern India.
- Additionally, HPCL has plans to build four plants to produce ethanol using grains, such as surplus maize, surplus rice and damaged grain.
Innovations in this field
- An Indian company has filed a patent for loop reactor technology.
- It is a long, serpentine tubular reactor, in which fermentable sugars are converted to ethanol with the help of brewer’s yeast.
- This sparked an idea to come up with reactive pipeline technology, wherein the pipeline connects the sugar factories where the ethanol is produced to the blending depot at the closest oil manufacturing companies.
- Reactive pipeline technology is poised to be a game-changer for sugar factories and grain-based distilleries since uninterrupted raw material supply is a major challenge.
Benefits offered by ethanol blending
(1) Energy security
- The Union government has emphasized that increased use of ethanol can help reduce the oil import bill.
- India’s net import cost stands at $551 billion in 2020-21. It is estimated that the E20 program can save the country $4 billion (Rs 30,000 crore) per annum.
(2) Emission reduction
- Use of ethanol-blended petrol decreases emissions such as carbon monoxide (CO), hydrocarbons (HC) and nitrogen oxides (NOx), the expert committee noted.
- Higher reductions in CO emissions were observed with E20 fuel — 50 per cent lower in two-wheelers and 30 per cent lower in four-wheelers.
Some issues to be addressed
(1) Fuel efficiency
- There is an estimated loss of six-seven per cent fuel efficiency for four-wheelers and three-four per cent for two-wheelers when using E20, the committee report noted.
- These vehicles are originally designed for E0 and calibrated for E10.
(2) Recalibrating engines
- The use of E20 will require new engine specifications and changes to the fuel lines, as well as some plastic and rubber parts due to the fuel’s corrosive nature.
- The engines, moreover, will need to be recalibrated to achieve the required power, efficiency and emission-level balance due to the lower energy density of the fuel.
Conclusion
- The country’s target of 20 per cent ethanol blending in petrol (E20) by 2025 can play a key role in reducing crude oil imports and bolstering India’s energy independence.
- But India may miss an earlier goal set by him in 2015 — of reducing crude oil import dependency 10 per cent by 2022.
- The target is far from being met and the country’s import dependency is only increasing.
- The country’s target of 20 per cent ethanol blending in petrol (E20) by 2025 can play a key role in reducing crude oil imports and bolstering India’s energy independence.
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Back2Basics: EBP Programme
- Ethanol Blended Petrol (EBP) programme was launched in January 2003 for the supply of 5% ethanol blended petrol.
- The programme sought to promote the use of alternative and environment-friendly fuels and to reduce import dependency for energy requirements.
- OMCs are advised to continue according to priority of ethanol from 1) sugarcane juice/sugar/sugar syrup, 2) B-heavy molasses 3) C-heavy molasses and 4) damaged food grains/other sources.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: MEIS, RODTEP Scheme
Mains level: Export promotion schemes in India
The Centre has notified the rates and norms for the Remission of Duties and Taxes on Exported Products (RoDTEP) scheme asserting that it would put ‘direct cash in the pockets of exporters’ soon.
RoDTEP Scheme
- RoDTEP is a scheme for Exporters to make Indian products cost-competitive and create a level playing field for them in the Global Market.
- It has been kicked in from January 2021, replacing the earlier Merchandise and Services Export Incentive Schemes (MEIS and SEIS) that were in violation of WTO norms.
- The new RoDTEP Scheme is a fully WTO compliant scheme.
- It will reimburse all the taxes/duties/levies being charged at the Central/State/Local level which are not currently refunded under any of the existing schemes but are incurred at the manufacturing and distribution process.
Answer this PYQ:
Q.With reference to the international trade of India at present, which of the following statements is/are correct?
- India’s merchandise exports are less than its merchandise imports.
- India’s imports of iron and steel, chemicals, fertilizers and machinery have decreased in recent years.
- India’s exports of services ye more than its imports of services.
- India suffers from an overall trade/current account deficit.
Select the correct answer using the code given below:
(a) 1 and 2 only
(b) 2 and 4 only
(c) 3 only
(d) 1, 3 and 4 only
Post your answers here (You need to sign-in for that).
Why need such a scheme?
- The scheme was announced last year as a replacement for the Merchandise Export from India Scheme (MEIS), which was not found not to be compliant with the rules of the World Trade Organisation.
- Following a complaint by the US, a dispute settlement panel had ruled against India’s use of MEIS as it had found the duty credit scrips awarded under the scheme to be inconsistent with WTO norms.
Coverage of the scheme
- It covers about 75% of traded items and 65% of India’s exports.
- To enable zero-rating of exports by ensuring domestic taxes are not exported, all taxes, including those levied by States and even Gram Panchayats, will be refunded under the scheme.
- Steel, pharma, and chemicals have not been included under the scheme because their exports have done well without incentives.
Back2Basics: Merchandise Exports from India Scheme (MEIS)
- MEIS was launched with an objective to enhance the export of notified goods manufactured in a country.
- This scheme came into effect on 1 April 2015 through the Foreign Trade Policy and was in existence till 2020.
- It intended to incentivize exports of goods manufactured in India or produced in India.
- The incentives were for goods widely exported from India, industries producing or manufacturing such goods with a view to making Indian exports competitive.
- The MEIS covered almost 5000 goods notified for the purpose of the scheme.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Major rivers of the world
Mains level: NA
The federal government in the US has declared a water shortage for the Colorado river basin due to a historic drought.
Try this PYQ
Q. Consider the following pairs
River – Flows into
- Mekong — Andaman Sea
- Thames — Irish Sea
- Volga — Caspian Sea
- Zambezi — Indian Ocean
Which of the pairs given above is/are correctly matched?(CSP 2020)
(a) 1 and 2 only
(b) 3 only
(c) 3 and 4 only
(d) 1, 2 and 4 only
Post your answers here (you need to sign-in for that).
Colorado River
- The Colorado River flows from the Rocky Mountains into the southwestern US and into Mexico.
- The river is fed by snowmelt from the Rocky and Wasatch mountains and flows a distance of over 2,250 km (river Ganga flows through a distance of roughly 2,500 km) across seven states and into Mexico.
- The Colorado River Basin is divided into the Upper (Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and northern Arizona) and Lower Basins (parts of Nevada, Arizona, California, southwestern Utah and western New Mexico).
- In the Lower Basin, the Hoover Dam controls floods and regulates water delivery and storage.
- Apart from the Hoover dam, there is the Davis Dam, Parker Dam and the Imperial Dam that regulate the release of water from the Hoover Dam.
Major lakes in its basin
- Lake Mead is the largest reservoir in the US in terms of volume and was formed in the 1930s by the Hoover Dam in Southern Nevada.
- Its main source of water is obtained from the Rocky Mountain snowmelt and runoff.
- The other is Lake Powell, the reservoir created by the Glen Canyon Dam in Arizona.
Reasons for shortage
- Since the year 2000, this river basin has been experiencing a prolonged drought.
- This persistent drought has led to a lowering down of the water levels in the basin’s reservoirs to meet the demand over the years.
- But even with great water storing capacity, over the years the demand for water from the basin has increased whereas supply is restricted.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Maharaja Ranjit Singh
Mains level: Not Much
A bronze statue of the first ruler of the Sikh Empire, Maharaja Ranjit Singh, was vandalized in Pakistan.
Who was Maharaja Ranjit Singh?
- Maharaja Ranjit Singh (13 November 1780 – 27 June 1839), popularly known as Sher-e-Punjab or “Lion of Punjab”, was the first Maharaja of the Sikh Empire.
- He survived smallpox in infancy but lost sight in his left eye.
- Prior to his rise, the Punjab region had numerous warring misls (confederacies), twelve of which were under Sikh rulers and one Muslim.
- Ranjit Singh successfully absorbed and united the Sikh misls and took over other local kingdoms to create the Sikh Empire.
- He repeatedly defeated invasions by outside armies, particularly those arriving from Afghanistan, and established friendly relations with the British.
Empirical expansion
- Ranjit Singh’s trans-regional empire spread over several states. His empire included the former Mughal provinces of Lahore and Multan besides part of Kabul and the entire Peshawar.
- The boundaries of his state went up to Ladakh — Zorawar Singh, a general from Jammu, had conquered Ladakh in Ranjit Singh’s name — in the northeast.
- His empire extended till Khyber pass in the northwest, and up to Panjnad in the south where the five rivers of Punjab fell into the Indus.
- During his regime, Punjab was a land of six rivers, the sixth being the Indus.
His legacy
- Ranjit Singh’s reign introduced reforms, modernization, investment into infrastructure, and general prosperity.
- His Khalsa army and government included Sikhs, Hindus, Muslims, and Europeans.
- His legacy includes a period of Sikh cultural and artistic renaissance, including the rebuilding of the Harmandir Sahib in Amritsar, Takht Sri Patna Sahib, Bihar, and Hazur Sahib Nanded, Maharashtra under his sponsorship.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: IPCC
Mains level: Paper 3- What IPCC report seeks to convery
Context
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) recently released the Working Group I contribution to the Sixth Assessment Report (AR6). It is the first of four that the Panel will issue over the next one and a half years.
What does the report say?
- Global surface temperature is now higher by 1.07oC since the pre-industrial era.
- The impact of climate change on the atmosphere, oceans and land is unmistakably of human origin and this impact is picking up pace.
- Carbon dioxide is the dominant source of warming.
- Aerosols contribute to reducing the impact of warming by other greenhouse gases, by almost a third.
- Methane reduction, while needed overall, is particularly significant only as part of the endgame as the drastic reduction of aerosols actually leads to an increase in warming.
- The report expectedly projects an increase in climate extremes due to global warming, with heatwaves, extreme rainfall events and occurrence of extreme sea levels all expected to intensify and be more frequent.
- A major finding of the report is that air pollution reduction and steep climate change mitigation are not complementary goals but require independent efforts over the short and medium-term
- With the inclusion of the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology’s Earth System Model among the climate models used in AR6, India too has joined the climate modelling fraternity.
About the net-zero emission targets
- The report’s clear message is that reaching net zero was not the determining factor for the world to limit itself to a 1.5oC , or 2oC, or indeed any specific temperature increase.
- The report is clear that it is the cumulative emissions in reaching net zero that determine the temperature rise.
- India’s Ministry for Environment, Forest and Climate Change was quick to note this point about net zero in a statement, adding that “historical cumulative emissions are the cause of the climate crisis that the world faces today”
- The limitations of the remaining carbon budget for 1.5oC are so stringent — a mere 500 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide for an even chance of keeping to the limit — that they cannot be met by promises of net-zero 30 years from now.
- Equally, the disconcerting finding is that the world is set to cross the 1.5oC limit within 10-15 years.
Implications for India
- India has contributed less than 5% of global cumulative emissions to date, with per capita annual emissions a third of the global average.
- India is also the only nation among the G20 with commitments under the Paris Agreement that are even 2oC warming-compatible.
- India needs its development space urgently to cope with the future, one where global temperature increase may be closer to 2oC.
- Even if India completely stops its emission which is 3 billion tonnes in carbon dioxide equivalent terms, for the next 30 years, with others’ emissions remaining the same, will buy the world less than two years of additional time for meeting the Paris Agreement temperature goals.
Way forward
- Equity: Focusing on definite cumulative emission targets keeping equity and historical responsibility in view,
- Immediate reduction by developed countries: Immediate emission reductions by the developed countries with phase-out dates for all fossil fuels.
- Investment: Massive investment in new technologies and their deployment,
- Climate finance: a serious push to the mobilisation of adequate climate finance is the need of the hour.
Conclusion
This is the message that the IPCC report has sent to this year’s climate summit and the world. The message is a dire warning, all the stakeholders should heed the warning.
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