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Telecom and Postal Sector – Spectrum Allocation, Call Drops, Predatory Pricing, etc

Need to ensure that the digital gateways do not become gatekeepers of services

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: NA

Mains level: Digital gateways, market dominance of big tech and government regulations

digital

Context

  • The ease of living enabled by digital technologies has turned digital innovations into essential services for the common public. Considered a novelty earlier, the internet has become a necessity for most day-to-day affairs.

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Internet access and restrictions

  • To enable access to the internet, various gateways have come up in the last few decades in the form of telecom service providers, personal computers and smartphones, operating systems, etc.
  • However, when these gateways enable and restrict access to other gateways or networks, the openness of the internet is threatened.
  • They then shift roles from being a facilitator to a regulator, from being a gateway to a gatekeeper. Hence, the need for a code of conduct or regulation arises to keep the playing field level and accessible to all.

digital

Analysis: Telecoms and Government

  • Telecom service providers: Telecom companies have been instrumental in providing a gateway to essential communication services such as voice calls, internet data, and text messages.
  • Government measures to regulate telecoms: We have seen governments across the world take measures from time to time to regulate these entities to ensure democratic access for the public. If this code of conduct was not enforced on these gateway providers, the internet would not be what it is today. These providers would have turned into gatekeepers, and the internet would have been controlled by them, thwarting innovation and its democratic expansion.
  • Code of conduct cannot catch up the pace of emerging digital tech: With the rate at which digital technologies are evolving, the code of conduct and regulations can’t catch up with the new gateway providers that are emerging. One such example is distribution platforms for smartphone applications.
  • Benchmarks set by bigtechs helps to bring some hygiene in smartphone apps: The two prominent operating systems emerging for smartphones, Google and Apple, enjoy a lion’s share of the app store market. They brought in good practices to ensure basic hygiene for smartphone applications, maintained quality benchmarks for the content on their operating systems, and safeguarded the interests of their users.
  • Lack of full proof regulation would be a slippery slope: Though, without proper regulations to oversee how they decide on what should be weeded and whose interests should be guarded, it’s a slippery slope.

Policy on Net Neutrality put forwarded by Indian Government 

  • Enforcing a code of conduct on telecoms: Closer home, another example of the enforcement of this code of conduct on providers was when the Indian government came out with the policy on Net Neutrality which, inter-alia, stipulates that telecom networks should be neutral to all the information being transmitted through it.
  • Meaning of Net Neutrality: Networks should treat all communication passing through them equally, independent of their content, application, service, device, sender, or recipient address. Adopting Net Neutrality ensured that we took a democratic stance against Big Tech.

digital

Questionable practices of distribution platforms

  • Practices without consent of its users: Various practices range from restrictions on payment gateways, advertising choices, app policies and various other aspects of an application or business that could be considered discriminatory in both principle and practice.
  1. For instance, a case of Goggle’s Update: Recently a report placed before the Competition Commission of India found Google Play Store’s payments policy “unfair and discriminatory”. As per an update in Google’s Play Store billing policy in September 2020, all applications on its platform were mandated to use its payment services for any kind of in-app payments or subscriptions.
  2. Similar case of Apple’s appstore: Similar concerns have been raised for Apple’s App Store, with both platforms said to be charging up to 30 per cent commission on payments processed.
  • Market dominance and unilateral control over smartphone apps by the bigtechs: Google and Apple dominate the global market share of smartphone operating systems (OS). This has enabled them to garner unilateral control over the publishing of smartphone applications on their OS.
  • Developers are forced to bend to the diktats of these bigtech gatekeepers: Bigtechs force developers to make changes to their applications or resort to using their proprietary advertising engines if they wish their applications to see the light of day. As is evident from the overnight change in Google’s billing policy, various smartphone application-dependent businesses and developers continue to remain vulnerable to such internal business policy changes on these platforms.

European Union’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) sets an example

  • Recognising these concerns: The European Union has recently enacted the Digital Markets Act; it is expected to be implemented by early 2023.
  • Aims to keep digimarket open for competition: The Digital Markets Act regulation aims to keep digital markets innovative and open to competition, through ex-ante regulation.
  • Prohibit anti-competitive practices: The DMA will prohibit the implementation of the most harmful anti-competitive practices by the largest digital platforms.
  • Objective is to maintain balance: The objective is to balance the relationship between these platforms that control access to digital markets and the companies that offer their services there.

Conclusion

  • The Indian government has taken a huge leap forward in maintaining its sovereignty through the path-breaking and disruptive digital public goods it has created. Aadhaar, UPI, DigiLocker, and CoWIN are just a few names that adorn this list. However, there is still a wide dependence on various digital offerings enabled by multinational Big Tech companies. It is the need of the hour for the government to devise appropriate regulations to ensure a level playing field and not let the innovating gateways turn into tyrannical gatekeepers.

Mains Question

Q. India is the largest consumer of wireless internet. Analyze the role of big tech service providers in this and the role of government in ensuring a level playing field for all.

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Trade Sector Updates – Falling Exports, TIES, MEIS, Foreign Trade Policy, etc.

Rupee Settlement Mechanism draws interest from more nations

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: Rupee Settlement System for International Trade

Mains level: Read the attached story

rupee

India’s rupee trade settlement mechanism, a means of using rupees instead of dollars and other big currencies for international transactions, is attracting interest from more countries.

More countries are interested

  • Tajikistan, Cuba, Luxembourg and Sudan have begun talking to India about using the mechanism.
  • They have shown interest in opening special rupee accounts, called vostro accounts.
  • Opening of these accounts needs approval from the Reserve Bank of India.
  • It has already been used by Russia following the imposition of sanctions on Moscow over the Ukraine war.

Rupee Settlement System for International Trade

  • Banks acting as authorized dealers for such transactions would have to take prior approval from the regulator to facilitate this.
  • All exports and imports under the invoicing arrangement may be denominated and invoiced in Rupee.
  • The exchange rate between the currencies of the two trading partner countries may be market determined.
  • Exporters and importers can now use a Special Vostro Account linked to the correspondent bank of the partner country for receipts and payments denominated in rupees.
  • These accounts can be used for payments for projects and investments, import or export advance flow management, and investment in Treasury Bills subject to Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 (FEMA).
  • Also, the bank guarantee, setting-off export receivables, advance against exports, use of surplus balance, approval process, documentation, etc., related aspects would be covered under FEMA rules.

Benefits of such a mechanism

  • Trade facilitation: This will also facilitate trade with countries like Russia which are facing sanctions.
  • FOREX savings: India imports more than it exports so the country will also save foreign currency under the new arrangement.
  • Rupee appreciation: The rupee is at a historic low against the dollar. It will also help stabilize rupee.
  • Mitigating war impact: Payments had become a pain point for exporters immediately after the Russia-Ukraine war broke out, especially after Russia was cut off from the SWIFT payment gateway.
  • Convertibility easing: We see this as a first step towards 100% convertibility of rupee.
  • Energy security: It will also help buy discounted crude oil from Russia, which now accounts for 10% of all imported crude.
  • Export promotion: As such, the new mechanism will help India promote its exports.

Which countries would prefer this system?

  • War mongering Russia: For now, it looks like trade settlements in rupee will be limited to countries like Russia and Iran who are facing sanctions from the West
  • Bankrupt Sri Lanka: SL is going through economic turmoil and India has been consistently extending lines of credit to SL.
  • Immediate neighbors: Other countries may include immediate neighbors of India.

Rupees over Dollars: Why countries would prefer Rupees?

  • At a very simplistic level, this is like two Indians deciding to use an alternative mode of exchange that they have come up with, instead of using rupees.
  • In other terms, this is similar to the barter system.
  • The main reason for countries to want to trade with India in rupees is this:
  1. USD has been going through a phase of strength against most currencies in the world
  2. Strong USD performance has essentially made imports expensive for most countries
  3. Sri Lanka, which is going through one of its worst economic crises in decades, is a glaring example of a country in which the economy has come to a halt due to a drastic fall in forex reserves
  • While the Sri Lankan Rupee has declined over 83 percent against the US Dollar, its fall against the Indian Rupee has been lower at 70 percent.
  • So instead of paying 83 percent more to make purchases in USD, Sri Lanka can pay in Indian Rupees and save some money.

Challenges

  • Trade surplus countries’ preference: The question that RBI and the Indian government will have to answer is this – why would countries with a trade surplus with India want to trade in rupees?
  • Negative trade balance: China had a $73-billion trade surplus with India in 2021-22 – that is, Indian imports from China exceeded its exports to China by $73 billion.
  • Idle money lying useless: If China were to trade with India in rupees, it would have Indian rupees worth $73 billion (about ₹5.77 lakh crore) sitting idle in its Rupee Vostro accounts in an Indian bank.
  • Few countries interested: Countries whose exports to India are more than imports, will not be too enthusiastic to trade in rupees, especially if the difference is huge as in the case of China.

 

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Women Safety Issues – Marital Rape, Domestic Violence, Swadhar, Nirbhaya Fund, etc.

Acid Attack in India

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: NA

Mains level: Women safety and dignity issues

acid attack

An acid attack in in Delhi has once again brought back to focus the heinous crime of acid attacks and the easy availability of corrosive substances.

What is Acid Attack?

  • An acid attack, also called acid throwing, vitriol attack, or vitriolage, is a form of violent assault involving the act of throwing acid or a similarly corrosive substance onto the body of another.
  • It intends to disfigure, maim, torture, or kill.
  • Perpetrators of these attacks throw corrosive liquids at their victims, usually at their faces, burning them, and damaging skin tissue, often exposing and sometimes dissolving the bones.
  • The most common types of acid used in these attacks are sulphuric and nitric acid.
  • Hydrochloric acid is sometimes used but is much less damaging.

How prevalent are acid attacks in India?

  • Though heinous, acid attacks on women are not as prevalent a crime as others against women.
  • According to data compiled by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), there were 150 such cases recorded in 2019, 105 in 2020 and 102 in 2021.
  • West Bengal and UP consistently record the highest number of such cases generally accounting for nearly 50% of all cases in the country year on year.
  • The charge-sheeting rate of acid attacks stood at 83% and the conviction rate at 54% in 2019.
  • In 2020, the figures stood at 86% and 72% respectively.
  • In 2021, the figures were recorded to be 89% and 20% respectively.

What is the law on acid attacks?

  • Until 2013, acid attacks were not treated as separate crimes.
  • However, following amendments carried out in the IPC, acid attacks were put under a separate section (326A) of the IPC.
  • Such attacks made punishable with a minimum imprisonment of 10 years which is extendable to life along with fine.
  • The law also has provisions for punishment for denial of treatment to victims or police officers refusing to register an FIR or record any piece of evidence.
  • Denial of treatment (by both public and private hospitals) can lead to imprisonment of up to one year and dereliction of duty by a police officer is punishable by imprisonment of up to two years.

Creating deterrence against acid attack

(1) Clear rules

  • In 2013, the Supreme Court took cognizance of acid attacks and passed an order on the regulation of sales of corrosive substances.
  • Based on the order, the MHA issued an advisory to all states on how to regulate acid sales and framed the Model Poisons Possession and Sale Rules, 2013 under The Poisons Act, 1919.
  • It asked states to frame their own rules based on model rules, as the matter fell under the purview of states.

(2) Regulation of acid sale

  • In 2015, MHA issued an advisory to all states to ensure speedy justice in cases of acid attacks by expediting prosecution.
  • According to the MHA’s directions and the model rules, over-the-counter sale of acid was not allowed unless the seller maintains a logbook/register recording the sale of acid.
  • This logbook was to also contain the details of the person to whom acid is sold, the quantity sold, the address of the person and also specify the reason for procuring acid.
  • The buyer must also prove he/she is above 18 years of age.

(3) Effective monitoring

  • Sellers are also required to declare all stocks of acid with the concerned Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM) within 15 days and in case of undeclared stock of acid.
  • The SDM can confiscate the stock and suitably impose a fine of up to Rs 50,000 for a breach of any of the directions.

Rules for victim compensation and care

  • Free treatment: States are supposed to ensure that treatment provided to acid attack victims in any hospital, public or private, is free of cost.
  • Aftercare and rehabilitation: Based on Supreme Court directions, the MHA asked states to make sure acid attack victims are paid compensation of at least Rs. 3 lakhs by the concerned State Government/UT.
  • Funding to NGOs: MHA suggested states should also extend social integration programs to the victims for which NGOs could be funded to exclusively look after their rehabilitative requirements.

Preventing such attacks

  • Still on rise: The regulations on acid sales largely help in tracking the accused and not so much in prevention.
  • Regulatory bottlenecks: Acid is still easily available in many places. Then these are crimes of passion. In a majority of cases the accused is not even thinking about consequences.

Way forward

  • Things improve as social attitudes are changing and the focus of the police in dealing with crimes against women can cause some deterrence.
  • But the key to solving this problem will always remain in society.
  • We must create more awareness. Parents must teach their children the importance of boundaries and consent.

 

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Innovations in Biotechnology and Medical Sciences

What is DNA Fingerprinting?

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: DNA Fingerprinting

Mains level: Advanced criminology

dna

Delhi Police has established identity of a victim of brutal murder and mutilation by DNA fingerprinting.

What is DNA fingerprinting?

  • DNA fingerprinting was first developed in 1984 by Alec Jeffreys in the UK, after Jeffreys discovered that no two people could have the same DNA sequence.
  • Within three years of the discovery, the UK achieved the world’s first conviction based on DNA evidence in a case of rape and murder.

How is DNA fingerprinting done?

  • Each person’s DNA, except for identical twins, is unique.
  • By analyzing selected DNA sequences (called loci), a crime laboratory can develop a profile to be used in identifying a suspect.
  • DNA can be extracted from many sources, such as hair, bone, teeth, saliva, and blood.
  • Because there is DNA in most cells in the human body, even a minuscule amount of bodily fluid or tissue can yield useful information.
  • Samples may even be extracted from used clothes, linen, combs, or other frequently used items.

 

Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA)

  • DNA is the hereditary material in humans and almost all other organisms. Nearly every cell in a person’s body has the same DNA.
  • Most DNA is located in the cell nucleus (where it is called nuclear DNA), but a small amount of DNA can also be found in the mitochondria (where it is called mitochondrial DNA or mtDNA).
  • Mitochondria are structures within cells that convert the energy from food into a form that cells can use.
  • The information in DNA is stored as a code made up of four chemical bases: adenine (A), guanine (G), cytosine (C), and thymine (T).
  • Human DNA consists of about 3 billion bases, and more than 99 percent of those bases are the same in all people.
  • The order, or sequence, of these bases determines the information available for building and maintaining an organism, similar to the way in which letters of the alphabet appear in a certain order to form words and sentences.

How it is used in criminal investigation?

  • DNA evidence is used to solve crimes in two ways:
  1. If a suspect is known, that person’s DNA sample can be compared to biological evidence found at a crime scene to establish whether the suspect was at the crime scene or whether they committed the crime.
  2. If a suspect is not known, biological evidence from the crime scene can be analyzed and compared to offender profiles in existing DNA databases to assist in identifying a suspect.
  • Beyond its accuracy, DNA fingerprinting can also sift through crime scene evidence in different ways, previously unavailable to investigators.
  • For instance, advanced DNA fingerprinting can make separate prints of various individuals even from a sample mixture found at the crime scene — this is of help during gang rape investigations as each perpetrator can be individually identified.

DNA fingerprinting in India

  • By 1988, Lalji Singh, who had been in the UK from 1974 to 1987 on a Commonwealth Fellowship, developed DNA fingerprinting for crime investigations in Hyderabad.
  • Today, Lalji Singh, who passed away in 2017, is known as “the father of DNA fingerprinting in India.”
  • In 1989, DNA fingerprinting was first used in a case by the Kerala Police.
  • By the early 1990s, the technology had begun to be used for establishing paternity, and to link criminals and identify victims in sensational crimes.
  • From the 2000s onwards, the technology became a staple in rape cases where vaginal swab samples were matched with semen samples from suspects.

Challenges with DNA fingerprinting in India

  • It is vital to ensure that the DNA of the investigators does not get mixed with that of the victims or the suspects.
  • Thus, picking up samples from a crime scene with sterile tools and storing samples in a proper manner are crucial for the evidence to stand a judicial test.
  • While India has rules and guidelines regarding this, India’s police forces have a lot of catching up to do with counterparts overseas.
  • While central agencies such as CBI have the expertise to ensure that crime scenes are protected and correct procedure is followed, state police forces are inadequately trained or fully equipped.

Issues with such technology

  • The problem is not limited to the police awareness.
  • The capacity for DNA fingerprinting in the country itself is lacking.
  • DNA fingerprinting is available only at a few places — Maharashtra, West Bengal, Delhi, Hyderabad and Chandigarh.
  • Advanced practices in the technology are limited to the Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics (CDFD) in Hyderabad.

 

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GI(Geographical Indicator) Tags

Kerala’s 5 agricultural products get GI Tag

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: GI Tag

Mains level: Contribution of GI tags in rural economy

gi

Five agricultural products of Kerala have been granted Geographical Indication (GI) status.

Which are the 5 GI products?

  • These are the latest Geographical Indications that have been registered-
  1. Attappady Attukombu Avara: It cultivated in the Attappady region of Palakkad, is curved like a goat’s horn as its name indicates. Its higher anthocyanin content compared to other dolichos beans imparts violet colour in the stem and fruits. Anthocyanin is helpful against cardiovascular diseases along with its antidiabetic properties. Other than this, calcium, protein, and fibre content are also high. The higher phenolic content of imparts resistance against pest and diseases, making the crop suitable for organic cultivation.
  2. Attappady Thuvara: It is having seeds with white coat. Compared to other red grams, Attappady Thuvara seeds are bigger and have higher seed weight. This delicious red gram, which is used as vegetable and dal, is rich in protein, carbohydrate, fibre, calcium and magnesium.
  3. Kanthalloor-Vattavada Veluthulli (garlic): Compared to the garlic produced in other areas, this garlic contains higher amount of sulphides, flavonoids, and proteins. It is rich in allicin, which is effective against microbial infections, blood sugar, cancer, cholesterol, heart diseases, and damages to blood vessels. The garlic cultivated in this area is also rich in essential oil.
  4. Onattukara Ellu and its oil: It is famous for its unique health benefits. Relatively higher antioxidant content in Onattukara Ellu helps in fighting the free radicals, which destroy the body cells. Also, the high content of unsaturated fat makes it beneficial for heart patients.
  5. Kodungalloor Pottuvellari: It is cultivated in Kodungalloor and parts of Ernakulam is consumed as juice and in other forms. This snap melon, which is harvested in summer, is an excellent for quenching thirst. It contains high amount of Vitamin C. Compared to other cucurbits, nutrients such as calcium, magnesium, fibre and fat content are also high in that.
  • The unique features of the products, imparted by the agro-climatic conditions of the geographical area of their production, are the basis for getting a GI tag.

What are the other GIs tags awarded?

Adding to the present collection of Geographical Indications (GIs), nine new items, including-

  1. Gamocha of Assam
  2. Tandur red gram of Telangana
  3. Raktsey Karpo apricot of Ladakh, and
  4. Alibag white onion of Maharashtra

 

Do you know?

Karnataka and Tamil Nadu are states with the highest number of GI tags, followed by Kerala (35), Uttar Pradesh (34), and Maharashtra (31).

 

About GI Tag

  • Recognised by the World Trade Organization (WTO), GI is used to denote the geographical territory from where a product, be it agricultural produce, natural product, or manufactured.
  • It conveys the assurance of quality, distinctiveness, and attributes that are unique to that specific geographic region/place of origin.
  • India became a signatory to this convention, when, as a member of WTO, it enacted the Geographical Indications (Registration and Protection) Act, 1999, which came into effect on September 15, 2003.
  • To protect the GI of goods, a GI registry has been established to administer the GI of Goods (Registration and Protection) Act, 1999, under the Controller General of Patents, Designs & Trade Marks.

 

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Modern Indian History-Events and Personalities

Indian student at Cambridge decodes Panini’s Language Machine

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: Panini, Language Machine

Mains level: Not Much

panini

A grammatical problem by Panini that has defeated Sanskrit scholars since the 5th Century BC has finally been solved by an Indian Ph.D. student at the University of Cambridge.

Who was Panini?

  • Panini was a Sanskrit philologist, grammarian, and revered scholar in ancient India, variously dated between the 6th and 4th century BCE.
  • Since the discovery and publication of his work by European scholars in the nineteenth century, Panini has been considered the “first descriptive linguist” and even labelled as “the father of linguistics”.
  • Panini’s grammar was influential on such foundational linguists as Ferdinand de Saussure and Leonard Bloomfield.

Major literary works

  • Panini is known for his texts- Astadhyayi, a sutra-style treatise on Sanskrit grammar, verses or rules on linguistics, syntax and semantics in “eight chapters” which is the foundational text of the Vyakarna branch of the Vedanga.
  • His text attracted numerous bhashya (commentaries), of which Patanjali’s Mahabhashya is the most famous.
  • His ideas influenced and attracted commentaries from scholars of other Indian religions such as Buddhism.

What is the recent breakthrough?

  • Panini had an extraordinary mind and he built a language machine unrivaled in human history.
  • The 2,500-year-old algorithm decoded by him makes it possible, for the first time, to accurately use Panini’s so-called “language machine”.
  • This discovery makes it possible to “derive” any Sanskrit word, to construct millions of grammatically correct words, using Panini’s language machine.
  • This is widely considered to be one of the greatest intellectual achievements in history.

How does this language machine works?

  • Panini’s system – 4,000 rules detailed in his renowned work, the Astadhyayi, which is thought to have been written around 500 BC – is meant to work like a machine.
  • Feed in the base and suffix of a word and it should turn them into grammatically correct words and sentences through a step-by-step process.

Significance of this development

  • A major implication of the recent discovery is that now there is an algorithm that runs Panini’s grammar.
  • We can potentially teach this grammar to computers.
  • Computer scientists working on Natural Language Processing (NLP) gave up on rule-based approaches over 50 years ago.
  • NLP is a branch of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning.
  • So teaching computers how to combine the speaker’s intention with Panini’s rule-based grammar to produce human speech would be a major milestone in the history of human interaction with machines.

 

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Road and Highway Safety – National Road Safety Policy, Good Samaritans, etc.

Road ministry notifies new rules on BH Series registration mark for vehicles

Note4Students

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :

Prelims level: BH Series

Mains level: Not Much

bh series

The Ministry of Road Transport and Highway has notified new rules to further increase the scope of implementation of the BH series registrations for vehicles.

What is the update?

The transport ministry has proposed new rules that would permit transfer of vehicles with BH series registration mark to other persons, who are eligible or ineligible for the getting the series.

What is Bharat series (BH-series)?

  • There was a procedure of re-registration of a vehicle while moving to another state.
  • A vehicle bearing BH registration mark shall not require assignment of a new registration mark when the owner of the vehicle shifts from one State to another.
  • Format of Bharat series (BH-series) Registration Mark –

Registration Mark Format:

  1. YY BH #### XX
  2. YY – Year of first registration
  3. BH- Code for Bharat Series
  4. ####- 0000 to 9999 (randomized)
  5. XX- Alphabets (AA to ZZ)

Why such move?

  • Station relocation occurs with both Government and private sector employees.
  • Such movements create a sense of unease in the minds of such employees with regard to transfer of registration from the parent state to another state.
  • Under section 47 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, a person is allowed to keep the vehicle for not more than 12 months in any state other than the state where the vehicle is registered.

Who can get this BH series?

  • BH-series will be available on voluntary basis to Defense personnel, employees of Central Government/ State Government/ Central/ State PSUs and private sector companies/organizations.
  • The motor vehicle tax will be levied for two years or in multiple of two.
  • This scheme will facilitate free movement of personal vehicles across States/UTs of India upon relocation to a new State/UT.
  • After completion of the fourteenth year, the motor vehicle tax shall be levied annually which shall be half of the amount which was charged earlier for that vehicle.

 

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