New Company for Commercial Exploitation of Research and Development         

Plan to make use of Nuclear Wastes                                                                          

Working Group for Revision of WPI                                                                           

Commerce and Industry Minister reviews draft National Logistics Policy             

India’s Agreement with the World Bank to Eliminate TB                                         

Govt has taken several steps to increase enrolment of girls in higher studies     

Right to Education of children of migrant workers                                                   

National mission on natural language translation soon                                          

Bombay High Court upholds reservation for Marathas                                            

New Supreme Court roster allows top five judges to hear PIL matters                  

Lok Sabha passes Bill on homoeopathy council                                                    

SEBI tightens norms for mutual fund investments                                                 

New Company for Commercial Exploitation of Research and Development

GS PAPER - 02 GOVERNANCE - Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.

Context :

• New Space India Limited (NSIL), has been incorporated, as a wholly owned Government of India, under the administrative control of Department of Space (DOS) to commercially exploit the research and development work ISRO Centres and constituent units of DOS.

New Space India Limited (NSIL) Functions :

• Small Satellite technology transfer to industry, wherein NSIL will obtain license from DOS/ISRO and sub-license it to industries

• Manufacture of Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV) in collaboration with Private Sector

• Productionisation of Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) through Indian Industry

• Productionisation and marketing of Space based products and services, including launch and application

• Transfer of technology developed by ISRO Centres and constituent units of DOS

• Marketing spin-off technologies and products/services, both in India and abroad; and

• any other subject which Government of India deems fit.

Significance :

• This would enable Indian Industries to scale up high-technology manufacturing

• Also production base for meeting the growing needs of Indian space programme and would further spur the growth of Indian Industries in the space sector.

                                                                                                                              Source :- PIB

Plan to make use of Nuclear Wastes

GS PAPER - 02 GOVERNANCE - Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.

Context :

• India has adopted “closed fuel cycle”, where spent nuclear fuel is regarded as a material of resource.

Closed Fuel Cycle :

• Closed fuel cycle aims at reprocessing of spent fuel for recovery of Uranium and Plutonium and recycling them back to the reactor as fuel.

• This finally leads to a very small percentage of residual material present in spent nuclear fuel requiring their management as radioactive waste.

Safe management of  radioactive waste :

• Safe management of radioactive waste has been accorded high priority right from the inception of our nuclear energy programme.

• With the advent of new technologies based on partitioning of waste, emphasis is accorded to separation and recovery of these useful radio-isotopes so as to make use of the waste for various societal applications.

• Utmost emphasis is given to waste volume minimization, effective containment and isolation of radio-activity followed by near zero discharge of radioactivity to the environment.

                                                                                                                                                                  Source :- PIB

Working Group for Revision of WPI

GS PAPER  - 03 ECONOMY - Indian Economy and issues relating to planning, mobilization of resources, growth, development and employment. Inclusive growth and issues arising from it.

Context :

• The Government of India has decided to constitute a Working Group for the revision of the current series of Wholesale Price Index (Base 2011-12).

The Terms of Reference of the Working Group are:

• To select the most appropriate Base Year for the preparation of a new official series of Index Numbers of Wholesale Price (WPI) and Producer Price Index (PPI) in India.

• To review commodity basket of the current series of WPI and suggest additions / deletions of commodities in the light of structural changes in the economy witnessed since 2011-12.

• To review the existing system of price collection in particular for manufacturing sector and suggest changes for improvement.

• To decide on the computational methodology to be adopted for monthly WPI/PPI.

• To examine the existing methodology of compilation of PPI approved by Technical Advisory Committee on Series of Prices and Cost of Living and suggest further improvement in compilation and presentation. The Working Group may recommend roadmap for switch over from WPI to PPI.

• To examine the method of computing linking factor adopted so far and suggest appropriate change in method of computing linking factor, if necessary.

• To suggest any other improvements as may be necessary for enhancing the reliability of the official series of WPI / PPI.

Need for revision of the CUrrent Series :

• The current series of Wholesale Price Index (WPI) with 2011-12 as base year was introduced in May 2017.

• Since 2011-12, significant structural changes have taken place in the economy.

• Therefore, it has become necessary to examine the coverage of commodities, weighting diagram and related issues pertaining to the existing series of index numbers of WPI.

                                                                                                                             Source :- PIB

Commerce and Industry Minister reviews draft National Logistics Policy

GS PAPER - 03 ECONOMY - Infrastructure: Energy, Ports, Roads, Airports, Railways etc.

Context :

• Union Minister of Commerce and Industry & Railways, reviewed the draft National Logistics Policy.

• The Ministry also  proposed action plan for implementation of the policy prepared by the Department of Logistics, Ministry of Commerce and Industry.

National Logistic Policy :

• The draft National Logistics Policy has been prepared in consultation with the Ministries of Railways, Road Transport and Highways, Shipping and Civil Aviation.

• Commerce and Industry Minister in his opening remarks urged that all the four Ministries and their departments must leverage existing infrastructure to support each other in the logistics chain.

• Piyush Goyal directed that all four Ministries must work in coordination with each other so that the 14% logistics cost of India’s GDP may be brought down to 9%.

Logistic Sector :

• India’s logistics sector is highly defragmented and the aim is to reduce the logistics cost from the present 14% of GDP to less than 10% by 2022.

• As per the Economic Survey 2017-18, the Indian logistics sector provides livelihood to more than 22 million people and improving the sector will facilitate 10 % decrease in indirect logistics cost leading to the growth of 5 to 8% in exports.

• Further, the Survey estimates that the worth of Indian logistics market would be around USD 215 billion in the next two years compared to about USD 160 billion currently.

                                                                                                                             Source :- PIB

India’s Agreement with the World Bank to Eliminate TB

GS PAPER - 02 GOVERNANCE  - Issues related to the Health.

Context :

• The World Bank and the Government of India signed a Loan Agreement of $400 Million to expand the coverage and the quality of interventions for the control of Tuberculosis (TB), which kills approximately half a million people in India every year.

• The World Bank supported Program will cover Nine State in the country to achieve the target of eliminating TB

World Bank Programme to Eliminate TB :

• The World Bank’s Program Towards Elimination of Tuberculosis will support the Government of India’s (GoI) National Strategic Plan to end TB in India by 2025. 

• It will do so by helping improve and strengthen diagnostics and management of drug-resistant tuberculosis and increase the capacity of public institutions engaged in monitoring and treating TB in the country.  

• The World Bank and Govt. of India has over a two-decade long successful partnership in TB control.

The National strategic Plan  for TB elimination 2017 -2025 :

• Drug resistant TB is a major public health threat and despite a growing number of TB cases being notified, India has more than a million “missing” cases every year with most of them being either undiagnosed or inadequately diagnosed and treated in the private sector.

• The Program seeks to ensure that these private sector providers adhere to established protocols of timely diagnosis, notification and effective management of TB.

• The Program will provide financial incentives to private sector care providers for reporting cases of TB and ensuring that their patients complete the treatment regimen.

• It will also provide Direct Benefit Transfers to patients for acquiring the critical nutrition needed during treatment.

• The Program will help the GoI strengthen the monitoring and implementation of Nikshay – a web-based TB case monitoring system introduced by the government

• The Program will also strengthen the detection, treatment and monitoring of Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis and will track progress in detection of additional drug resistance.

• It will also support the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare to develop and implement a human resource plan to meet institutional capacity needs at the Centre and State level, for the successful implementation of the NSP.

                                                                                                                              Source :- PIB

Govt has taken several steps to increase enrolment of girls in higher studies

GS PAPER - 02 GOVERNANCE - Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Education, Human Resources.

Context :

• The Government is committed towards encouraging girl students for taking up higher studies.

Steps taken by government :

• The University Grants Commission (UGC) has two specific schemes for promotion of Women’s Studies in Universities & Colleges namely:

  • Development of Indian Studies in Indian Universities & Colleges and

  • Capacity Building and Women Managers in Higher Education.

• For supporting single girl child, special scholarship schemes are there namely:

  • Post-Graduate Indira Gandhi Scholarship for Single Girl Child and

  • Swami Vivekananda Single Girl Child Scholarship for Research in Social Science.

• UGC has special schemes for promotion of women hostels in Universities and Colleges and establishment of Day Care Centres therein.

• UGC has provided support for eight exclusive women universities.

• The All India Council for Technical Education is implementing the PRAGATI scholarship scheme for assistance of girls pursuing technical education.

• To improve female enrolment in the Indian Institute of Technology (IITs), the Government has decided to increase female enrolment in B. Tech. Programmes of IITs from the current 8% to 14% in 2018-19, 17% in 2019-20 and 20% in 2020-21 by creating supernumerary seats.

• The Government has also decided to increase female enrolment from existing 14% to 20% over a period of 2-4 years by creating supernumerary seats in undergraduate programmes.

                                                                                                                               Source :- PIB

Right to Education of children of migrant workers

GS PAPER - 02 GOVERNANCE - Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Education, Human Resources.

Context :

• The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009 provides for free and compulsory elementary education of equitable quality to all children, including the children of migrant workers, of 6-14 years age.

Samgra Siksha Abhiyan :

• Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) was designated as a vehicle programme for universalization of elementary education up-to 2017-18, which was implemented in coordination with the States and UTs.

• Now, the provisions of RTE Act are implemented through the Samagra Shiksha which subsumes the erstwhile Centrally Sponsored Schemes of SSA, Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) and Teacher Education (TE).

• Samagra Shiksha – an Integrated Centrally Sponsored Scheme for School Education has been launched throughout the country, as on overarching programme for the school education sector extending from pre-school to class XII.

• This scheme aims towards ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education at all levels of school education.

• Under the scheme since its inception, approval has been given for setting up 2.04 lakh primary and 1.59 lakh upper primary schools across the country.

• Further, to address the issue of seasonal migration for varying periods, States are using various strategies which are supported by Government of India under Samagra Shiksha.

• All States and UTs are required to conduct household surveys/ update household surveys annually to identify out of school children.

  • These surveys also collect information on children affected by migration of their families

• In order to ensure provision of elementary education to these children, various interventions are supported under Samagra Shiksha such as

  • Provision of seasonal hostels/residential camps in villages during the period of migrations of families,

  • Residential and non-residential special training centres for out of school, dropout and migrant children,

  • Provision of mid-day meal, free textbooks and free uniforms as per norms of the scheme.

                                                                                                                                Source :- PIB

National mission on natural language translation soon

GS PAPER - 02 GOVERNANCE - Government policies and interventions  for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.

Context :

• The Ministry of Electronics and IT is planning to place a Rs. 450 crore proposal before the union cabinet for Natural Language Translation.

National Mission on Natural Language Translation :

• Natural Language Translation aims to make science and technology accessible to all.

• Using a combination of machine and human translation, the mission will eventually enable access to teaching and researching material bilingually- in English and one’s native Indian language.

• It is one of the key missions identified by the Prime Minister’s Science, Technology and Innovation Advisory Council (PM-STIAC).

• The IT ministry is the lead agency for implementation of the mission along with the Ministry of Human Resource Development and Department of Science and Technology.

• The PM-STIAC is an overarching body that identifies challenges in certain areas of science and technology and then creates a road map to deal with these challenges.

• It is planned to set up an ecosystem which involves central and state government agencies and start-ups who will work with scientists and build implementable solutions.

• Under the mission, translation activities would help generate employment for educated unemployed.

• The mission would help students teachers, authors, publishers, translation software developers and general readers.

                                                                                                                               Source :- The Hindu

Bombay High Court upholds reservation for Marathas

GS PAPER - 02 POLITY - mechanisms, laws, institutions and Bodies constituted for the protection and betterment of these vulnerable sections.

Context :

• Bombay HC Upholds Maratha Reservation; But Says 16% Not Justifiable

Sc Verdict :

• The Court has held that 16% reservation is not justifiable and ruled that reservation should not exceed 12% in employment and 13% in education as recommended by Backward Commission.

• With this, the reservation in Maharashtra stands at 70%, including the 10% for economically weaker sections.

• The Court held that 50% ceiling for reservation can be exceeded under "exceptional and extraordinary circumstances" and observed that the Maratha reservation was based on justifiable data submitted by the Backward Commission.

More in the news:

• Post Maratha Reservation, the total reservation in Maharashtra effectively increased from 52% to 68%, way past the 50% ceiling set by the Supreme Court.

• Further,this judgment has also led to Maharashtra having the second highest quantum of caste-based reservations in the country at 64-65% after Tamil Nadu.

Background :

• The demand for Maratha reservation beganed in the 1980s.

• In 1992, the Maratha Mahasangh had made a representation to the state government to provide reservation to the community.

• In 2018,the state government had constituted SBCC and asked it to submit a report on the Marathas.

  • The report found that 6.77% of the community entered college,37% were below the poverty line and 71% were landless or marginal farmers.

• In November 2018, the government enacted a legislation putting the Marathas in a special category of socially and educationally backward class and gave them the benefit of 16% reservation in education and state government jobs.

                                                                                                                                                         Source :- The Hindu

New Supreme Court roster allows top five judges to hear PIL matters

GS PAPER - 02 POLITY - Indian Constitution- historical underpinnings, evolution, features, amendments, significant provisions and basic structure.

Context :

• With the Supreme Court all set to work in its full strength of 31 judges from July 1 after summer vacation, Chief Justice of India (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi has notified a new roster of work which said that top five judges of the Supreme Court will be hearing Public Interest Litigation (PIL) matters.

• The announcement will undo the earlier protocol under which such cases were restricted only to the CJI and the second senior-most judge after the CJI.

Background :

• The subject wise roster system was introduced by former CJI Dipak Misra in 2018 in the backdrop of ’master of roster’ controversy which erupted after the press conference by four senior judges, who alleged that the CJI was selectively assigning cases to benches of preferences, ignoring seniority of judges.

• On May 24, when the Supreme Court was on vacation, four new judges were administered the oath of office by the CJI taking the overall number of judges to 31 — the full sanctioned strength of the top court since 2008.

More in the news:

• CJI will deal with the PIL matters and it would be his discretion to assign PIL cases to other top four judges

• Petitions on letters received, matters related to social justice, elections, company law, monopoly and restrictive trade practices, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, Security Exchange Board of India, Insurance and Reserve Bank of India would be heard by the bench headed by the CJI.

• The CJI has also kept with himself matters concerning arbitration, habeas corpus, criminal cases, contempt of court and ordinary civil matters.

• His Bench will also deal with the issues relating to the appointment of constitutional functionaries, statutory appointments and appointment of other law officers.

• Besides matters pertaining to judicial officers and commissions of enquiry, would also be allocated before the Bench headed by the CJI.

• Benches led by four other senior most judges have been allocated different matters by CJI.

• Other 10 Benches have been assigned regular matters related to taxes, property, land and acquisition, service and compensation matters.

                                                                                                                                                         Source :- The Hindu

Lok Sabha passes Bill on homoeopathy council

GS PAPER - 02 GOVERNANCE - Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Education, Human Resources.

Context :

• The Lok Sabha has passed the Homoeopathy Central Council (Amendment) Bill, 2019.

• It amends the Homoeopathy Central Council Act, 1973 .

• The Bill replaces the Homoeopathy Central Council (Amendment) Ordinance, 2019 that was promulgated on March 2, 2019.

Homoeopathy Central Council (Amendment) Bill, 2019 :

• The Act sets up the Central Council of Homoeopathy which regulates homoeopathic education and practice.

• The affairs of the Central Homoeopathy Council have been entrusted to a Board of Governors comprising eminent and qualified homoeopathy doctors and eminent administrators till such a time the council is reconstituted.

• The tenure has been extended since the council could not be reconstituted within one year due to non-updation of State registers of homoeopathy during general elections.

Issues :

• There have been several instances of serious malpractices in the Council, even after the Centre taking steps to bring transparency in the Council’s affairs.

• There have been reports that many members of the Council are still continuing even after their terms have long ended.

• There have been charges of misconduct against the president of the Council, for allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs 20 lakh to set up a new Homeopathy college.

• The bill is opposed by the opposition parties, which demanded that the government should further examine the proposed legislation, saying there should be supervision mechanism for homoeopathy and ayurvedic medical institutions.

• The government was also criticised for frequent use of ordinances, stating that it is against the spirit of democracy.

                                                                                                                       Source :- The Hindu

SEBI tightens norms for mutual fund investments

GS PAPER - 03 ECONOMY  - mobilization of resources, growth, development and employment. Inclusive growth and issues arising from it.

Context :

• The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has tightened rules for debt mutual funds in the wake of the recent credit crisis that led to the values of these schemes taking a hit.

• The changes are based on recommendations made by the mutual fund advisory committee constituted by SEBI to limit liquid fund exposure to a single sector, especially to non-banking finance companies (NBFCs) catering to the housing sector.

More in the news :

• SEBI’s board had decided on key reforms over liquid funds, credit rating firms, promoters’ pledge of shares, and royalty payments.

• It is said that MFs will now be mandated to invest in only listed non-convertible debentures.

• From now, liquid and overnight schemes will not be permitted to invest in short term deposits, debt and money market instruments having structured obligations or credit enhancements.

• Liquid funds can invest a maximum of 20% of their assets in a single sector as against the current cap of 25%, and must keep aside at least a fifth of their assets in cash equivalents to meet sudden redemption pressures.

  • Liquid funds are debt mutual funds that can invest in securities up to a maturity of 91 days.

• It has also reduced liquid funds’ exposure to the so-called credit-enhanced securities to 10% of Assets under Management.

  • A credit enhancement is typically a promoter guarantee or the offer of shares as collateral in order to enhance the creditworthiness of specific debt paper.

  • These are also referred to as loan against shares (LAS).

• The cap on sectoral limit of 25% shall be reduced to 20%. The additional exposure of 15% to HFCs shall be restructured to 10% to HFCs and 5% in securitised debt.

• Promoters, promoter groups and persons acting in concert (PACs) will need to disclose the reason for creating an encumbrance as soon as 20% of their share capital is leveraged.

• SEBI also approved the framework for issuance of differential voting rights (DVRs) and the introduction of superior voting rights for tech companies, which will be effective from July 01, 2019.

                                                                                                            Source :- Economic Times

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