Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Tropical Butterfly Conservatory
Mains level: Significance of butterflies for ecosystem
The Tropical Butterfly Conservatory Tiruchirappalli (TBCT) has been developed in Tamil Nadu’s Tiruchirappalli to create awareness among the public about the importance of the butterfly and its ecology.
Tropical Butterfly Conservatory
- The TBC is located in the Upper Anaicut Reserve Forest, sandwiched between the Cauvery and Kollidam rivers in Tiruchirappalli.
- It was inaugurated during November 2015 at Tiruchirappalli with the objective of propagating the importance of butterflies and conserving the biodiversity of the district through environmental education.
- It is spread over 27 acres and is considered to be Asia’s largest butterfly park.
- The park has an outdoor as well as indoor conservatory, a ‘Nakshatra Vanam’ and a ‘Rasi Vanam’ in addition to a breeding lab for non-scheduled species.
- So far, about 109 butterfly species have been observed here.
Conservation measures
- Eggs of non-scheduled butterfly species are collected and bred in captivity in the in-house incubation laboratory by keeping them in ventilated plastic containers with the leaves of host plants as feed.
- After attaining the transformation of larva (caterpillar) and pupa (transition), the adult butterfly finally comes out with gorgeous colours and at this stage they are released into the natural habitat.
- Non-scheduled butterfly species are bred and released by the park authorities into their natural surroundings.
Significance of butterflies
- Butterflies are known for their intrinsic, aesthetic, educational, scientific, ecological, health and economic values.
- As butterflies form an important part of nature’s food web, it is very essential to protect the species for ecological balance.
- They play a key role in the pollination of plant species, the global food chain depends on their well-being.
Various threats
- The major threats to butterfly diversity are destruction, degradation and fragmentation of their habitats, grazing, fires and application of pesticides and weedicides in agricultural and urban ecosystems.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Operation Sanjeevani
Mains level: India-Maldives Relations
An Indian Air Force (IAF) C-130J transport aircraft o delivered 6.2 tonne of essential medicines and hospital consumables to Maldives under Operation Sanjeevani.
Operation Sanjeevani
- At the request of the govt. of Maldives, the IAF aircraft activated Operation Sanjeevani and lifted these medicines from airports in New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Madurai before flying to the Maldives.
- Among other things, these medicines include influenza vaccines, anti-viral drugs such as lopinavir and ritonavir — which have been used to treat patients with COVID-19 in other countries.
- The flights are being operated on commercial basis following demands from pharmaceutical companies and their intermediaries and will carry cargo on inbound as well as outbound flights.
- The cargo operations will help the airline earn some revenue at a time there is a ban on passenger flights and the entire fleet is grounded.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: BCG Vaccine
Mains level: Coronovirus and the hunt for its vaccine
According to a US-based research, a combination of reduced morbidity and mortality could make the Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) vaccination a “game-changer” in the fight against novel coronavirus.
What is BCG Vaccine?
- Bacillus Calmette–Guérin (BCG) vaccine is a vaccine primarily used against tuberculosis (TB).
- In countries where TB or leprosy is common, one dose is recommended in healthy babies as close to the time of birth as possible.
- In areas where tuberculosis is not common, only children at high risk are typically immunized, while suspected cases of tuberculosis are individually tested for and treated.
How can TB vaccine help fight COVID-19?
- The BCG vaccine contains a live but weakened strain of tuberculosis bacteria that provokes the body to develop antibodies to attack TB bacteria.
- This is called an adaptive immune response, because the body develops a defense against a specific disease-causing microorganism, or pathogen, after encountering it.
- Most vaccines create an adaptive immune response to a single pathogen.
- Unlike other vaccines, the BCG vaccine may also boost the innate immune system, first-line defenses that keep a variety of pathogens from entering the body or from establishing an infection.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: CCI Green Channel
Mains level: Not Much
The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has received a request for merger of a company following green channel combination route.
What is a Green Channel Route?
- In a bid to facilitate mergers and acquisitions (combination) in the country, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) has taken inspiration from the customs department and established a ‘green channel’.
- Every Combination above a certain threshold, seeking to be sanctioned has to necessarily pass the CCI scanner in order to be approved.
- The CCI characterizes the ‘green channel’ as an automatic system of approval for Combinations wherein the Combination is deemed to be approved upon filing the notice in the format prescribed.
- The ‘green channel automatic approval upon notification route’ is a right step by CCI towards the propaganda of ease of doing business in India.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Countercyclical Capital Buffers (CCyB)
Mains level: Various minimum capital requirements measures
The RBI has announced that banks need not activate countercyclical capital buffers (CCyB) amid slowdown due to COVID-19 outbreak.
What is Countercyclical Capital Buffer (CCyB)?
- A capital buffer is a mandatory capital that financial institutions are required to hold in addition to other minimum capital requirements.
- CCyB is the capital to be kept by a bank to meet business cycle related risks. It is aimed to protect the banking sector against losses from changes in economic conditions.
- Banks may face difficulties in phases like recession when the loan amount doesn’t return.
- To meet such situations, banks should have own additional capital. This is an important theme of the Basel III norms.
CCyB framework in India
- The framework on CCyB was put in place by the RBI in terms of guidelines issued in 2015 wherein it was advised that the CCyB would be activated as and when the circumstances warranted.
- The framework envisages the credit-to-GDP gap as the main indicator, which is used in conjunction with other supplementary indicators.
- It requires banks to build up a buffer of capital in good times, which may be used to maintain flow of credit to the real sector in difficult times.
- The buffer was also meant to restrict the banking sector from indiscriminate lending in the periods of excess credit growth, which have often been associated with the building up of system-wide risk.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: WMA
Mains level: Tools for countering cash-flow mismatches
The RBI has raised the Ways and Means Advances, or WMA, limit by 30% for all States and UTs to enable them to tide over the crisis caused by COVID-19 outbreak.
What are Ways and Means Advances?
- The RBI gives temporary loan facilities to the centre and state governments as a banker to the government. This temporary loan facility is called WMA.
- It is a mechanism to provide to States to help them tide over temporary mismatches in the cash flow of their receipts and payments.
- It was introduced on April 1, 1997, after putting an end to the four-decade-old system of adhoc (temporary) Treasury Bills to finance the Central Government deficit.
- Under Section 17(5) of RBI Act, 1934, the RBI provides Ways and Means Advances (WMA) to the central and State/UT governments.
How is WMA availed?
- This facility can be availed by the government if it needs immediate cash from the RBI.
- The WMA is to be vacated after 90 days.
- The interest rate for WMA is currently charged at the repo rate.
- The limits for WMA are mutually decided by the RBI and the Government of India.
Types of WMA
There are two types of WMA — (1) Normal and (2) Special :
- Special WMA or Special Drawing Facility is provided against the collateral of the government securities held by the state.
- After the state has exhausted the limit of SDF, it gets normal WMA. The interest rate for SDF is one percentage point less than the repo rate.
- The number of loans under normal WMA is based on a three-year average of actual revenue and capital expenditure of the state.
Back2Basics
How the govt. meets temporary cash needs?
The fund deficit or cash-flow mismatches of the Government are largely managed through:
- Issuance of Treasury Bills
- Getting temporary loans from the RBI called Ways and Means Advances (WMA) and
- Issuance of Cash Management Bills (CMBs)
- Treasury Bills are short term (up to one year) borrowing instruments of the Government of India which enable investors to park their short term surplus funds while reducing their market risk.
- CMBs are short term bills issued by the central government to meet its immediate cash needs. The bills are issued by the RBI on behalf of the government having a maturity of less than 90 days.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Price Monitoring and Research Unit (PMRU)
Mains level: Drug prices monotoring mechanisms in India
The National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) has set up price monitoring and resource unit (PMRU) in the UT of Jammu and Kashmir. With this J&K has become the 12th State/UT where the PMRU has been set up.
Price Monitoring and Research Unit (PMRU)
- It is a registered society set up for drug price monitoring.
- PMRUs have already been set up by the drug price regulator NPPA in 11 states such as Kerala, Odisha, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana, Nagaland, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Mizoram.
Its composition
- The State Health Secretary would be the Chairman of the society and the Drugs Controller would be its member secretary.
- Its members include a State government representative, representatives of private pharmaceutical companies, and those from consumer rights protection fora.
- The society would also have an executive committee headed by the Drugs Controller.
Terms of reference
PMRU offers technical help to the State Drug Controllers and the NPPA to:
- Monitor notified prices of medicines
- Detect violation of the provisions of the DPCO
- Look at price compliance
- Collect test samples of medicines, and
- Collect and compile market-based data of scheduled as well as non-scheduled formulations.
Why need PMRU?
- Pharma companies have been accused of overcharging prices of drugs in the scheduled category fixed by the DPCO and those outside its ambit too.
- The suggestion to set up PMRUs was made against the backdrop of the lack of a field-level link between the NPPA and the State Drugs Controllers and State Drug Inspectors to monitor drug prices.
Expected outcomes
- The NPPA had fixed the prices of around 1,000 drugs and the unit would track if buyers were being overcharged.
- It would also check if pharma companies were hiking the prices of non-scheduled drugs by more than 10% a year.
- It will check if there is any shortage of essential medicines.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Voluntary Retention Route (VRR), Fully Accessible Route (FAR)
Mains level: Not Much
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has introduced a separate channel, namely ‘Fully Accessible Route’ (FAR), to enable non-residents to invest in specified government bonds with effect from April 1.
Fully Accessible Route (FAR)
- The move follows the Union Budget announcement that certain specified categories of government bonds would be opened fully for non-resident investors without any restrictions.
- Under FAR, eligible investors can invest in specified government securities without being subject to any investment ceilings.
- This scheme shall operate along with the two existing routes, viz., the Medium Term Framework (MTF) and the Voluntary Retention Route (VRR).
Benefits
- This will substantially ease access of non-residents to Indian government securities markets and facilitate inclusion in global bond indices.
- This would facilitate inflow of stable foreign investment in government bonds.
Back2Basics
Voluntary Retention Route (VRR)
- RBI had announced a separate scheme called VRR to encourage Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs) to undertake long-term investments in Indian debt markets.
- Under this scheme, FPIs have been given greater operational flexibility in terms of instrument choices besides exemptions from certain regulatory requirements.
- The details are as under:
- The aggregate investment limit shall be ₹ 40,000 crores for VRR-Govt and ₹ 35,000 crores for VRR-Corp.
- The minimum retention period shall be three years. During this period, FPIs shall maintain a minimum of 75% of the allocated amount in India.
- Investment limits shall be available on tap for investments and shall be allotted by Clearing Corporation of India Ltd. (CCIL) on ‘first come first served’ basis.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Sodium hypochlorite, Bleaching Powder
Mains level: Coronovirus outbreak and its mitigation
In Uttar Pradesh, migrant workers travelling to their home states, or their belongings, were sprayed with a disinfectant, apparently to sanitise them. The chemical in the spray was a sodium hypochlorite solution.
Sodium hypochlorite
- Sodium hypochlorite is commonly used as a bleaching agent, and also to sanitise swimming pools.
- As a common bleaching agent, sodium hypochlorite is used for a variety of cleaning and disinfecting purposes.
- It releases chlorine, which is a disinfectant. Large quantities of chlorine can be harmful.
- The concentration of the chemical in the solution varies according to the purpose it is meant for.
- A normal household bleach usually is a 2-10% sodium hypochlorite solution.
- At a much lower 0.25-0.5%, this chemical is used to treat skin wounds like cuts or scrapes. An even weaker solution (0.05%) is sometimes used as a handwash.
Note: The common bleaching powder is chemically referred to as Calcium hypochlorite and not Sodium hypochlorite.
Is the chemical safe?
- Sodium hypochlorite is corrosive and is meant largely to clean hard surfaces.
- It is not recommended to be used on human beings, certainly not as a spray or shower. Even a 0.05% solution could be very harmful for the eyes.
- A 1% solution can cause damage to the skin of anyone who comes in contact with it.
- If it gets inside the body, it can cause serious harm to lungs.
Does the chemical get rid of the novel coronavirus?
- The WHO recommends homemade bleach solutions of about 2-10% concentration to clean hard surfaces to clear them of any presence of the novel coronavirus.
- Cleaning hard surfaces with this solution can disinfect them not just from novel coronavirus but also help prevent flu, food born illnesses, and more.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Moratorium Option
Mains level: Not Much
The RBI has permitted banks to allow moratorium of three months on payment of instalments in respect of all loans including home, car and personal loan among others.
What exactly this moratorium means?
- Both the loan principal and interest are covered under the moratorium. This applies to all loans outstanding on March 1.
- We must note that this is a postponement, not a waiver.
- RBI’s wordings clearly say that the tenor for term loans across the board may be shifted by three months. This essentially means the loan will end 3 months later than was originally slated.
- Essentially, it means that payees won’t be treated as a defaulter even if you don’t pay your EMI till May 2020, and your CIBIL score won’t be affected.
- This moratorium period will not come free, and since the interest will continue to accrue on the outstanding portion of the loan during the moratorium period, it may increase the customers’ burden significantly.
The installments include:
- principal and/or interest components;
- bullet repayments;
- Equated Monthly installments;
- credit card dues
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Earth Hour
Mains level: Climate activism
The Earth Hour, observed annually on the last Saturday of March, was recently celebrated.
Earth Hour
- Earth Hour is a worldwide movement organized by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).
- It is held annually encouraging individuals, communities, and businesses to turn off non-essential electric lights, for one hour, from 8:30 to 9:30 p.m. on a specific day towards the end of March as a symbol of commitment to the planet.
- It was started as a lights-off event in Sydney, Australia, in 2007.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: PM-CARES Fund
Mains level: Not Much
Our PM has called for donations to the newly instituted PM-CARES Fund which has been formed on popular demand to help fight the novel coronavirus.
PM-CARES Fund
- The fund will be a public charitable trust under the name of ‘Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund’.
- The PM is Chairman of this trust and members include the Defence Minister, Home Minister and Finance Minister.
- Contributions to the fund will qualify as corporate social responsibility (CSR) spending that companies are mandated to make.
- The Fund accepts micro-donations as well.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Indian Scientists’ Response to CoViD-19 (ISRC)
Mains level: Not Much
Several Indian scientists have come together to form a Google group to address some of the concerns that the COVID-19 outbreak has thrown up.
Indian Scientists’ Response to CoViD-19 (ISRC)
- It is a voluntary group of scientists who regularly discuss the rapidly evolving situation with its dire need for science communication.
- With nearly 200 members, the group has scientists from institutions such as the NCBS, the IISc, the TIFR, the IITs, the IISERs and many others.
- The group aims to study existing and available data to bring out analyses that will support the Central, State and local governments in carrying out their tasks.
Self-assigned tasks
- Several working groups have been formed by scientists.
- They include one on hoax busting to address disinformation spreading with respect to the coronavirus and one on science popularization to develop material that explains concepts such as home quarantine.
- Other groups work on resources in Indian languages, mathematical models and apps.
Why such a group?
- The scientific community has realized their social and democratic responsibility in the current situation, both in terms of analysing the situation and reaching out to the public.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: COVID 19 diagnosis
Mains level: Coronovirus outbreak and its mitigation
The ICMR invited bids for an estimated 10 lakh antibody kits (for serological tests) for the diagnosis of COVID-19.
What are serological tests?
- Viral infections are mainly identified by two kinds of tests– genetic and serological.
- Genetic tests can identify infections that are active but cannot be used to detect past infections.
- To trace how infections like the novel coronavirus have spread so far, it is important to detect people who contracted the disease in the past and have recovered.
- This is what serological tests seek to determine.
How are the two different?
- The genetic test is conducted on a swab collected from the back of the throat, a liquid sample from the lower respiratory tract, or a simple saliva sample.
- For SARS-COV-2, the virus’s RNA is first converted into DNA.
- By a process called polymerase chain reaction (PCR), DNA fragments in the sample are copied exponentially — one is copied into two, the two are copied into four, and so on.
- Unlike genetic tests, which look for RNA in swab samples, serological tests work on antibodies in blood samples. Hence, they are also called ‘antibody tests’.
How serological tests work?
- Antibodies, or protective proteins produced by the immune system to neutralize pathogens such as bacteria and viruses, are present in one’s bloodstream for a considerable period of time after the infection has gone.
- To disable a pathogen, the antibody latches to a unique protein molecule on pathogen’s surface, called an antigen.
- Serological tests use antigen molecules to detect the presence of antibodies relevant to the infection.
- Generally, a blood sample is placed in a test tube that is lined with antigens on the inside. If the relevant antibodies are present, they latch on to the antigens.
- Such tests are relatively inexpensive, and can display results within a few minutes.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Keqiang Index
Mains level: NA
China’s GDP numbers which are preferably represented by Keqiang Index has been recently seen in news amid coronavirus outbreak.
Keqiang Index
- Li Keqiang index or Keqiang index is an economic measurement index created by The Economist to measure China’s economy using three indicators, as reportedly preferred by Li Keqiang.
- It uses three other indicators:
- the railway cargo volume,
- electricity consumption and
- loans disbursed by banks
- Li Keqiang currently the Premier of the People’s Republic of China, suggest the index as better economic indicator than official numbers of GDP.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Hantavirus
Mains level: Rise in zoonotic diseases and their possible causes
China has reported the death of a person from Yunnan Province who tested positive for the Hantavirus.
What is Hantavirus?
- The Hantaviruses are a family of viruses spread mainly by rodents. It is contracted by humans from infected rodents.
- Cases of the Hantavirus in humans occur mostly in rural areas where forests, fields and farms offer suitable habitat for infected rodents.
- A person can get infected if he/she comes in contact with a rodent that carries the virus.
- In the US and Canada, for instance, the Hantavirus carried by the deer mouse is responsible for the majority cases of the Hantavirus infection.
- Like this, there are various other kinds of Hantaviruses that find hosts in rodents, like the white-footed mouse and the cotton rat among others that may lead to infections in humans if transmitted.
Its origin
- The Hantavirus is not novel and its first case dates back to 1993, according to the US Centre for Disease Control (CDC).
- In the Americas, the family of viruses is known as ‘New World hantaviruses’.
Symptoms
- A person infected with the virus may show symptoms within the first to eighth week after they have been exposed to fresh urine, faeces or the saliva of infected rodents.
- Symptoms may include fever, fatigue, muscle aches, headaches, chills and abdominal problems.
- Four to ten after being infected, late symptoms of HPS may start to appear, which include coughing and shortness of breath.
Mortality risk
- It is the cause of Hantavirus pulmonary disease (HPS), a severe respiratory disease. The HPS can be fatal and has a mortality rate of 38 per cent.
- It remains unclear whether human-to-human transmission of the virus is possible.
- There have been no reports of human-to-human transmission of Hantavirus in the US.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Rivers mentioned in the newscard
Mains level: Not Much
Environmental organisations from across central and Eastern Europe have criticised a major project intending to link three rivers and provide seamless navigation between three of Europe’s peripheral seas, according to a statement.
Danube-Oder-Elbe Canal
- For centuries Europe’s rulers have dreamed of construction of a huge Y-shaped canal connecting the Elbe, Oder and Danube rivers, most of which would be on Czech territory.
- The Canal intends to connect the Danube, Oder and Elbe rivers and thus provide another navigable link from the Black Sea to the North and Baltic Seas.
- The Main-Danube Canal already provided a navigable connection between the Black Sea and the North Sea.
- Several hundred kilometres of artificial waterways would have to be built for the canal, according to the statement.
- Critics have called on the European Commission to ensure that the project be excluded from EU funding, and not be included as part of the Trans-European Transport Network.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Sheikh Mujib and his legacy
Mains level: NA
March 17 is the birth anniversary of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman (1920-1975), the founding leader of Bangladesh and the country’s first Prime Minister.
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman
- Before joining politics, Rahman studied law and political science in Kolkata and Dhaka and agitated for Indian independence.
- He is referred to as Sheikh Mujib or simply Mujib, the title ‘Bangabandhu’ meaning ‘friend of Bengal’.
- In 1949, he joined the Awami League, a political party which advocated greater autonomy for East Pakistan.
- A popular leader in East Pakistan, Rahman played an important role in the six-point movement and the Anti-Ayub movement.
Role in Bangladesh liberation
- In 1970, his party secured an absolute majority in the Pakistani general elections; the country’s first, winning more seats than all parties in West Pakistan, including Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party.
- The election results were not honoured; leading to a bloody civil war, and Sheikh Mujib declared Bangladesh’s independence from Pakistan on March 26, 1971.
- The declaration coincided with a ruthless show of strength by the Pakistani military, in which tanks rolled out on the streets of Dhaka and several students and intellectuals were killed.
- India under then PM Indira Gandhi provided full support to Rahman and Bangladesh’s independence movement, resulting in the creation of a sovereign government at Dhaka in January 1971.
His legacy
- Rahman, who had been arrested and taken to West Pakistan, returned to Bangladesh after being freed in January 1972.
- For the next three years, Rahman held the new country’s prime ministerial post, and became a celebrated icon in India as well, admired for his moving speeches and charismatic personality.
- On 15 August 1975, Rahman was killed in a military coup along with his wife and three sons, including 10-year-old Sheikh Russel.
- His daughters, the current Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her younger sister Sheikh Rehana, survived as they were abroad at the time.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Excise duty
Mains level: Changes in taxation after GST regime
The Central levies on petrol and diesel were hiked amid sliding global crude oil prices. But the price of petrol and diesel registered a decline after oil companies further cut auto fuel prices in light of the substantial fall in global crude oil prices.
What is Excise Duty?
- Excise duty is a form of tax imposed on goods for their production, licensing and sale.
- It is the opposite of Customs duty in sense that it applies to goods manufactured domestically in the country, while Customs is levied on those coming from outside of the country.
- At the central level, excise duty earlier used to be levied as Central Excise Duty, Additional Excise Duty, etc.
- Excise duty was levied on manufactured goods and levied at the time of removal of goods, while GST is levied on the supply of goods and services.
Purview of excise duty
- The GST introduction in July 2017 subsumed many types of excise duty.
- Today, excise duty applies only on petroleum and liquor.
- Alcohol does not come under the purview of GST as exclusion mandated by constitutional provision.
- States levy taxes on alcohol according to the same practice as was prevalent before the rollout of GST.
- After GST was introduced, excise duty was replaced by central GST because excise was levied by the central government. The revenue generated from CGST goes to the central government.
Types of excise duty in India
Before GST kicked in, there were three kinds of excise duties in India.
Basic Excise Duty
- Basic excise duty is also known as the Central Value Added Tax (CENVAT). This category of excise duty was levied on goods that were classified under the first schedule of the Central Excise Tariff Act, 1985.
- This duty was levied under Section 3 (1) (a) of the Central Excise Act, 1944. This duty applied on all goods except salt.
Additional Excise Duty
- Additional excise duty was levied on goods of high importance, under the Additional Excise under Additional Duties of Excise (Goods of Special Importance) Act, 1957.
- This duty was levied on some special category of goods.
Special Excise Duty
- This type of excise duty was levied on special goods classified under the Second Schedule to the Central Excise Tariff Act, 1985.
- Presently the central excise duty comprises of a Basic Excise Duty, Special Additional Excise Duty and Additional Excise Duty (Road and Infrastructure Cess) on auto fuels.
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Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: SIRT1
Mains level: NA
A study by researchers from the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai (TIFR) has revealed that glucose in the body controls the function of SIRT1 enzymes directly.
What is SIRT1?
- SIRT1 is an enzyme that deacetylates (removal of acetyl) proteins which contribute to cellular regulation.
- A shortage or absence of the control by glucose may lead to a diabetic-like state, while excess feeding and sustained low levels of SIRT1 can lead to obesity and enhanced ageing.
- This information is expected to tackle lifestyle disorders and ageing-related diseases.
How do they function?
- In normal healthy individuals, SIRT1 protein levels are known to increase during fasting and decrease during the feed, which is essential to maintain a balance between glucose and fat metabolism.
- The glucose controls the functions of a protein SIRT1 which in turn maintains everyday feed-fast cycles and is also associated with longevity.
- The feed-fast cycle is a basic pattern and the metabolism-related to this is largely taken care of by the liver.
- Thus, the study shows that both over-activation and under-activation of SIRT1 can lead to diseases.
- Glucose puts a check on the activity of SIRT1 in the fed state. In the absence of this check, SIRT1 activity increases and results in hyperglycemia in a fasted state, mimicking diabetic state.
- The constant feeding or high-calorie intake that leads to a sustained reduction in the levels of SIRT1 by glucose which is associated with ageing and obesity.
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