POLITY AND GOVERNANCE

1. Manmohan Singh set to lose SPG cover                                                                   

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

1. Modi, Johnson agree to step up bilateral cooperation                                             

ECONOMY

1. Markets likely to react positively on Monday after FM's announcements              

2. IMF report flags several delays in India’s data reporting                                         

ENVIRONMENT AND ECOLOGY

1. PM calls for mass movement against single-use plastic from Oct 2                      

POLITY AND GOVERNANCE 

Manmohan Singh set to lose SPG cover

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

Context :

• The Central Government has withdrawn Special Protection Group(SPG) cover for former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

More in the news:

• The decision has reportedly been taken after a three-month review involving the Cabinet Secretariat and the Ministry of Home Affairs with inputs from intelligence agencies the Research and Analysis Wing and the Intelligence Bureau.

• According to the procedures laid down by the SPG Act, 1988, the government had renewed Dr. Singh’s SPG detail for a year after he demitted office in 2014, and subsequently, on an annual basis after reviewing the threats faced by him and his wife.

• The elite protection force of about 3,000 officers meant for the Prime Ministers, the former Prime Ministers and their families would now be tasked with protecting only Mr. Modi, Congress president Sonia Gandhi and her children Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.

• SPG cover would only be reduced on the basis of threat levels as defined in the SPG Act of 1988.

• The government is technically within the law to withdraw SPG protection to any former Prime Minister. However, the government had chosen not to do so for Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who demitted office in 2004 and had SPG protection until he passed away in 2018.

                                                                                                                        Source :- The Hindu

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

Modi, Johnson agree to step up bilateral cooperation

GS PAPER - 02 INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS - Bilateral, regional and global groupings and agreements involving India and/or affecting India's interests

Context :

• Indian Prime Minister has met the UK Prime minister at the sidelines of G-7 summit being held in Biarritz,France.

More in the news:

• The two leaders discussed ways to strengthen bilateral cooperation in trade, defence and security.

• This meeting came against the backdrop of the Indian government revoking the special status to Jammu and Kashmir and bifurcating the state into two Union Territories.

• During the discussion,UK Prime minister said that the issue of Kashmir is a bilateral issue between India and Pakistan which needs to be resolved through dialogue.

• The trade issues were also discussed between the two countries.UK is the third largest Foreign direct investment(FDI) in India and is among India’s main trading partners.

• The trade between the two countries is around Euro 13.6 billion in 2018. Moreover,trade had increased at an average rate of 8.8% per year between 2002 and 2018.       

                                                                                                                                                        Source :- The Hindu

ECONOMY

Markets likely to react positively on Monday after FM's announcements

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

Context :

• The markets are expected to react positively on Monday following the slew of announcements made by the Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

Why Such a measure :

• These measures were announced in the backdrop of domestic and global growth concerns, weakening demand for India companies and the threat of escalation of tariff war between US and China.

Steps taken :

• The withdrawal of the higher tax surcharge on short-term and long-term capital gains made by foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) and domestic investors.

• capital infusion of ₹70,000 crore in public sector banks

• Addressing delayed GST payments

• securing transmission of lower repo rates among others.

Impacts :

• The financial markets are expected to respond well to the withdrawal of surcharge as now there will be more clarity on regulations for foreign investors.

• The move to infuse liquidity and boost consumption through bank capital recapitalisation should help stabilise the economy and prevent further growth erosion.

• It may also revive the investors confidence.

                                                                                                                                      Source :- Business Standard

IMF report flags several delays in India’s data reporting

GS PAPER - 03 ECONOMY - Effects of liberalization on the economy

Context :

• According to the IMF’s “Annual Observance Report of the Special Data Dissemination Standard for 2018”, India failed to comply with multiple requirements prescribed in the Special Data Dissemination Standard (SDDS) — a practice mandatory for all IMF members.

More in the news:

• While India failed to comply with multiple requirements prescribed in the Special Data Dissemination Standard (SDDS), comparable economies comprising the BRICS grouping of Brazil, China, South Africa and Russia, have maintained a near impeccable record in the same period.

• While the IMF acknowledged India’s deviations, it termed them “non-serious”.

• However, independent observers see these deficiencies as a result of indifference to data dissemination procedures.

• When the IMF was asked to explain why India’s non-observance was deemed as non-serious , their statistical department persisted that this was due to information availability in other government websites and National Summary Data Page (NSDP).

Concern :

• The most recent data from the National Crime Records Bureau dates back to 2016 and accident statistics have not been updated since 2015.

• A recent report published by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), shows that inconsistencies have crept into the dissemination of fiscal datasets as well.

• Also, India’s non-compliance in multiple categories in 2018 and to an extent in 2017 breaks with an otherwise near perfect dissemination record.

• India, in 2018, has deviated from the SDDS in at least one instance in all the data categories listed.

• In 2018, in at least nine data categories, India has not disseminated data. None of the other BRICS countries’ reports records missing data for the period.

• India’s non-compliance with IMF standards is a recent phenomenon. The “X”s for non-dissemination of data and “O”s for data categories missing from the ARC were few and far between in India’s reports in the 2006-2016 period. The graphic lists such instances since 2006.

Importance of Special Data Dissemination Standard (SDDS):

• The IMF launched the SDDS initiative in 1996 to guide members to enhance data transparency and help financial market participants with adequate information to assess the economic situations of individual countries.

• India subscribed to the SDDS on December 27, 1996.

• The yearly observance report for each member country lists the compliances and deviations from the SDDS under each data category for that year.

• There are over 20 data categories which IMF considers for this report to capture a nation’s economic health including national accounts (GDP, GNI), production indices, employment, and central government operations.

• The report lists three types of deviations from SDDS.

  • The first deals with delays in data dissemination from the periodicity prescribed in the SDDS.

  • The second occurs when member countries do not list a data category in their Advance Release Calendars (ARC) despite the category being mandated by the SDDS.

  • The third deviation occurs when data is not disseminated at all for a particular period.

• The IMF document also states that, monitoring observance of the SDDS is central to maintaining the credibility of the IMF’s data standards initiatives and its usefulness to policymakers.

• It further states that if the IMF staff considers a non-observance as a “serious deviation” then procedures would be initiated against the member country.

                                                                                                                                                      Source :- The Hindu

ENVIRONMENT AND ECOLOGY

PM calls for mass movement against single-use plastic from Oct 2

GS PAPER - 03 ENVIRONMENT AND ECOLOGY - Conservation, environmental pollution and degradation, environmental impact assessment

Context :

• PM on his monthly radio address ‘Mann ki Baat’, Prime Minister announced that, a new mass movement against the use of plastic would be launched when the country observes the 150 birth anniversary of the Father of the Nation.

More in the news:

• Prime Minister urged people to observe the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi this year as a day to make India plastic-free and exhorted municipalities, NGOs and the corporate sector to come up with ways for safe disposal of accumulated plastic waste before Diwali.

• He urged all municipalities, municipal corporations, district administrations, gram panchayats, government and non-governmental bodies to work towards ensuring adequate arrangement for collection and storage of plastic waste.

• The call for a mass movement comes days after Mr. Modi’s Independence Day’s address in which he had urged people to shun ‘single-use’ plastic to protect the environment.

• The Prime Minister also urged people to participate in the annual ‘Swachhta Hi Seva’ or ‘the quest for cleanliness is service’ campaign.           

                                                                                                                                          Source :- The Hindu

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