ART AND CULTURE                                                                           

1. PM Narendra Modi, Mongolian president unveil Lord Buddha statue in Ulaanbaatar                                                                  

POLITY AND GOVERNANCE                                                             

1. Amit Shah launches (ERSS- Dial 112), ‘E-Beat Book’ System and ‘E-Saathi’ App                                                                       

2. 29thMeeting of the Northern Zonal Council                              

ECONOMY                                                                                             

1. 37Th GST council meeting highlights                                       

2. RBI expands scope of Bharat Bill Payment System                

ENVIRONMENT AND ECOLOGY                                                      

1. Climate crisis, air and water pollution emerging threats to children: Unicef                                                                            

MISCELLANEOUS                                                                               

1. Global Goalkeepers Goals Award 2019                                   

ART AND CULTURE

PM Narendra Modi, Mongolian president unveil Lord Buddha statue in Ulaanbaatar

GS PAPER - 01 ART AND CULTURE - Indian culture will cover the salient aspects of Art Forms, Literature and Architecture from ancient to modern times.

Context :

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Mongolian President Khaltmaagiin Battulga on Friday jointly unveiled a statue of Lord Buddha at the Gandan Monastery in Mongolia.

Background :

• Modi had offered prayers at the Gandan Tegchenling Monastery during his visit to Mongolia in 2015 and had announced to gift a statue of Lord Buddha to the monastery, underlining the common Buddhist heritage and civilizational links between our two countries and peoples.

More in the news:

• statue of Lord Buddha and his two disciples, installed at the historic Gandan Tegchenling Monastery in Ulaanbaatar, capital of Mongolia (a Buddhist majority country).

• The Statue depicts Lord Buddha in a sitting posture along with his two disciples conveying the message of compassion along with peace and co-existence.

• The statue was installed and consecrated at the Gandan Monastery earlier this month during the third edition of SAMVAAD dialogue held in Ulaanbaatar from 6 – 7 September 2019.

  • Third edition of SAMVAAD dialogue brought together Buddhist religious leaders, experts and scholars from different countries to deliberate on contemporary issues related to Buddhism.

Gandan Tegchenling Monastery :   

• It is a prominent centre of Mongolian Buddhists and a treasure house of valuable Buddhist heritage.

• Built in the mid 19th century

• it is the only monastery where Buddhist services continued to function even during the Communist period.

• It hosted the 11th General Assembly of Asian Buddhist Conference for Peace (ABCP) from 21-23 June 2019 marking the 50th anniversary of the Conference.

  • Over 150 guests from 14 countries including India, South Korea, Russia, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, North Korea, LPDR, Thailand, Japan etc. had participated in the event.

                                                                                                                                                                 Source :- PIB

POLITY AND GOVERNANCE

Amit Shah launches (ERSS- Dial 112), ‘E-Beat Book’ System and ‘E-Saathi’ App

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

Context :

• The Union Home Minister Mr. Amit Shah launched three citizen-centric services of the Chandigarh Police which are Emergency Response Support System (ERSS- Dial 112), ‘E-Beat Book’ System and ‘E-Saathi’ App, in Chandigarh.

Emergency Response Support System (ERSS - Dial 112) :

• ERSS is one of the key projects of the Union Ministry of Home Affairs under the Nirbhaya Fund.

• ERSS provides a single emergency number (112), and a computer-aided dispatch of field resources to the location of distress.

• Citizens can send their emergency information through call, SMS, email and through the 112 India mobile app.

• Till now, there were more than 20 emergency helpline numbers, for various kinds of emergencies needing the help of rescue forces in the domains of fire, health, police, etc.

• This was ineffective since the public would often get confused with the numbers and end up wasting time calling the wrong emergency service.

• To avoid this, the Dial 112 is created, which is a single number for immediate assistance services from police (100), health (108), fire (101), and women (1090).

• Initially, 16 states and Union Territories are planning to roll-out the service.

• In the future, more emergency services would be covered in this initiative.

E-Beat Book :

• It is a web and mobile-based application which will ease the collection, updation and analysis of information related to crime and criminals in real-time.

• The E-Beat Book would be linked with the Crime and Criminal Tracking Network & Systems (CCTNS), which would help in real-time updation of crime/criminal data.

• Every Beat Officer would be having an android phone to use the App.

‘E-Saathi’ App:

• This App is intended to help the general public, including senior citizens, to remain in touch with the police and also give suggestions to facilitate participative community policing.

• The beat officer would be able to provide services like passport verification, tenant verification, servant verification, character certification, etc. at a click of a button through the App, without people needing to visit the police station.

                                                                                                                               Source :- PIB

29thMeeting of the Northern Zonal Council

GS PAPER - 02 POLITY - Separation of powers between various organs dispute redressal mechanisms and institutions

Context :

• Union Minister for Home Affairs will chair the 29th meeting of the Northern Zonal Council(NZC) at Chandigarh.

Zonal Councils:

• The Zonal Councils are statutory bodies.

• They were established under the States Reorganization Act,1956.

• The act divided the country into five zonal councils namely Northern, Central, Eastern, Western and Southern councils.

• In addition to the above Zonal Councils,a North-Eastern Council was also created by a separate Act of Parliament called North-Eastern Council Act of 1971.

• The members of North Eastern council includes states such as Assam, Manipur, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Meghalaya, Tripura and Sikkim.

Objective :

• To bring out national integration

• To arrest the growth of acute State regionalism, linguism and particularistic tendencies

• To enable Centre and the States to co-operate and exchange ideas and experiences

• To establish a climate of cooperation amongst States for successful execution of development projects.

Members :

• Each zonal council consists of the following members

  • Chairman – Union Home Minister

  • Vice Chairman are the Chief Ministers of the States included in each zone by each holding office for a period of one year at a time

  • Members are the Chief Minister and two other Ministers as nominated by the Governor from each of the States and two members from Union Territories included in the zone.

                                                                                                                                Source :- PIB

ECONOMY

37Th GST council meeting highlights

GS PAPER - 03 ECONOMY - Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.

Context :

• The Goods & Services Tax (GST) Council held a meeting on 20th September 2019 to decide on tax moderation, keeping in mind the revenue position and the need to boost sagging economic growth.

More in the news:

• The GST Council had its 37th meeting in Goa in the backdrop of economic growth hitting a six-year low of 5% for the first quarter of the current fiscal (April - June 2019).

• There have been demands pouring in from various sectors — from biscuits to automobiles and Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) to hotels — to reduce tax rates in the wake of the economic slowdown.

Key Highlights :

• To factor in the creation of Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir as well as Ladakh, suitable amendments in the Central GST Act, the Union Territories’ GST Act, and the corresponding State GST Acts were approved.

• The central government slashed corporate tax rates for domestic firms from 30% to 22% and for new manufacturing companies from 25% to 15% to boost economic growth.

• The new effective tax rate inclusive of surcharge and cess for domestic companies would be 25.17% and for new domestic manufacturing companies would be 17.01%.

  • These rates would be applicable to those companies who forego the current exemptions and incentives.

  • Also, the Minimum Alternate Tax (MAT) will not apply to such companies.

Slashed tax Rates :

• In a major boost to gems and jewellery sector, the Council recommended to reduce GST on cut and polished semi-precious items

• outdoor catering

• hotel room tariffs

• Marine fuel

• GST on cups, plates made from flower, leaves and bio-friendly material has been reduced to zero from 5%.

Exempted from Tax  :

• Exemption from GST/IGST is being given on import of specified defence goods not being manufactured indigenously, it's being extended only up to 2024           

                                                                                                                        Source :- The Hindu

RBI expands scope of Bharat Bill Payment System

GS PAPER - 03 ECONOMY - Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.

Context :

• The Reserve Bank of India has expanded the scope of the Bharat Bill Payment System (BBPS) by adding other categories of recurring payments through the portal.

Bharat Bill Payment System (BBPS) :

• BBPS is an interoperable platform for repetitive bill payments.It functions under the aegis of National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI).

• It is a one-stop payment platform for all bills providing an interoperable and accessible anytime anywhere bill payment service to customers across the country.

• Presently it  enables a customer to pay bills such as telephone, water, gas, direct-to-home (DTH) and electricity at a single location—electronic or physical.

• The RBI has now decided to expand the scope and coverage of BBPS to  other recurring payments such as school fees, municipal taxes, insurance premiums can also be paid via BBPS.

• The expansion would increase the user base of Bharat Bill Pay along with providing an efficient, cost-effective alternative to existing systems and enhance consumer confidence and experience.

                                                                                                                                                          Source :- Livemint

ENVIRONMENT AND ECOLOGY

Climate crisis, air and water pollution emerging threats to children: Unicef

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

Context :

• Climate crisis, air and water pollution are the biggest emerging global threats to children, warned Henrietta Fore, executive director at United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) in an open letter.

Key Highlights :

• Children are the victims of rampant destruction to the planet and a global climate crisis

• It is threatening their basic rights

  • a clean environment to live in, clean air to breathe, water to drink and food to eat.

• It is also is likely to increase the global burden of hunger and malnutrition for the next generation of children as a result of droughts and floods that threaten food production

• More than half a billion children live in areas with extremely high flood occurrence and almost 160 million in high-drought severity zones.

• Rise in extreme weather patterns and toxic air, prolonged drought, access to water and flash floods are part of this crisis aggravated by climate change

• At least 200 million to one billion people may have to migrate due to environmental crisis

• Prolonged conflicts, rising mental health disorders, mass migrations, statelessness, data rights and online privacy and online misinformation are the other major challenges facing children.

Air and Water Pollution :

• While more than 90 per cent of the world’s children breathe toxic air every day, air and groundwater pollution will worsen children’s health.

• By 2040, one in four children will live in areas of extreme water stress and thousands will be made sick by polluted water.           

                                                                                              Source :- Down To Earth; The Hindu

 MISCELLANEOUS

Global Goalkeepers Goals Award 2019

GS PAPER - 03 AWARDS AND ACHIEVEMENTS

Context :

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi was conferred upon the Global Goalkeepers Goals Award 2019 by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

More in the news:

• Goalkeepers is a catalyst for action towards 17 Global Goals for Sustainable Development.

• ‘Goalkeepers’ brings leaders from all over the world together and works towards fighting inequality and ending poverty.

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be honoured with the 2019 ‘Global Goalkeeper Award’ by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for his leadership and commitment to the Swachch Bharat Abhiyaan.
   

• The annual awards, in five categories, are presented to leaders and individuals for their efforts in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

• The five categories are:

  • Progress Award (age 16 – 30),
     

  • Changemaker Award (age 16 – 30),
     

  • Campaign Award (age 16 – 30),
     

  • Goalkeepers Voice Award (any age) and
     

  • Global Goalkeeper Award (any age): This special recognition celebrates a political leader who has demonstrated their commitment to the Global Goals through impactful work in their country and/or globally.

                                                                                                                                         Source :- PIB

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