National Current Affairs – UPSC/KAS Exams- 20th November 2018

UK India Business Council’s Ease of Doing Business report

Topic: Indian Economy

IN NEWS: According to the latest edition of the U.K. India Business Council’s Ease of Doing Business report the perception among U.K. businesses that corruption is a major barrier in doing business in India has halved.

More on the Topic

• This decline shows a major improvement, indicating that the current government’s efforts to mitigate corruption appear to be delivering tangible and much-desired results.
• The report noted that initiatives such as Aadhaar, electronic submission of government documents, acceptance of electronic signatures, and the push to file taxes online, have all reduced face-to-face interactions where corruption is most likely to take place.

Concerns:

• Those currently doing business in India cite ‘taxation issues’ as a consistent barrier, whilst those looking to enter the Indian market understandably rate ‘identifying a suitable partner’ as their most salient issue after a considerable decline in reports of ‘legal and regulatory impediments’ from 2017 to 2018”.
• There remain significant complaints about around the lack of transparency around business approvals, particularly in the case of statutory approvals for investments.

New Hopes:

• The respondents to the survey agreed that the government’s ‘e-biz’ initiative towards faster clearances would improve the business environment

E Biz Initiative:

• The eBiz initiative, being piloted by the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, seeks to provide comprehensive Government-to-Business (G2B) services to business entities with transparency, speed, and certainty.
• It aims at reducing the points of contact between business entities and Government agencies, standardizing “requirement information”, establishing single-window services, and reducing the burden of compliance, thereby benefitting stakeholders such as entrepreneurs, industries and businesses, industry associations, regulatory agencies, industrial promotional agencies, banks and financial institutions, and taxation authorities.

Source:The Hindu

Govt plans linking e-way bill with FASTag

Topic: Indian Economy

IN NEWS: The Revenue Department is planning to integrate e-way bill with NHAI’s FASTag mechanism and DMICDC’s Logistics Data Bank (LDB) services, to facilitate faster movement of goods and check GST evasion.

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• The proposal,will improve operational efficiencies across the country’s logistic landscape. Currently, lack of harmonisation under the ‘track and trace’ mechanism in terms of sharing information among different agencies is affecting the ease of doing business in the country. Besides, it is also impacting the logistic costs of the companies.
• The proposal will also help in preventing goods and services tax (GST) evasion by unscrupulous traders who take advantage of the loopholes in the supply chain.

E Way Bill System

• E-Way Bill is the short form of Electronic Way Bill. It is a unique document/bill, which is electronically generated for the specific consignment/movement of goods from one place to another, either inter-state or intra-state and of value more than INR 50,000, required under the current GST regime.
• When e-Way Bill is generated, a unique e-Way Bill Number (EBN) is made available to the supplier, recipient and the transporter.
• The e-Way Bill replaces the Way Bill, which was a physical document and existed during the VAT regime for the movement of goods.
• e-Way Bills are generated either via online e-way bill system or SMS. The bill needs to be generated before the start of the movement of goods about supply/ reasons other than supply/ inward supply from an unregistered person.

Fast Tag Mechanism:

• FASTag is a simple to use, reloadable tag which enables automatic deduction of toll charges and lets you pass through the toll plaza without stopping for the cash transaction.
• FASTag is linked to a prepaid account from which the applicable toll amount is deducted. The tag employs Radio-frequency Identification (RFID) technology and is affixed on the vehicle’s windscreen after the tag account is active.

Source:PIB

Innovative crop drying technology to boost harvest

Topic: Indian Economy

In news: An innovative drying technology, Solar Bubble Dryer, developed jointly by International Rice Research Institute, Philippines; Grainpro, a leading post-harvest solution providing company; and University of Hohenheim, Germany, was introduced to farmers of Odisha.

More on the Topic:

• The SBD is a low-cost drying technology that aims to provide a simple and flexible alternative to sun-drying, while protecting from spillage, animals, weather and vehicles running over the grains.
• The new technology has been developed in such a way that farmers can dismantle the machinery and reassemble it on their own. Power can be drawn both from solar energy and traditional electricity.
• The SBD is in use in almost all southeast Asian countries since 2016.

Significance:

• The quantitative loss in traditional sun-drying method is estimated to be in the range of 15 to 30% between harvesting and milling. Due to quality loss, farmer do not get proper price of their produce.
• After harvesting, moisture content in paddy is found between 20 to 24% and it needs to be brought down to below 14% in order to protect the stock from insect attack and fungus formation.

Source:The Hindu

SC to direct States to draft witness protection scheme

Topic: Polity and Governance

In news: The Supreme Court on Monday said that it would direct all the states to implement the draft witness protection scheme framed by the Centre in consultation with the National Legal Services Authority (NALSA).

More on the Topic:

• In April this year, the Centre had informed the top court that it had framed a draft witness protection scheme and it was circulated among the states and Union Territories administration for comments.
• The court had asked the Centre to finalise the scheme after getting response from the states and Union Territories.

Salient Features of the Draft:

• The salient features of the Scheme is that it not only categorises threats into Three Types but also provide various protection measures for witnesses.
• Scheme provide for identity protection as well as method of giving new identity to a witness.
• It even has a provision for Relocation of a witness with a new identity. Duty to decide witness protection applications is caste on Legal Service functionaries working under NALSA.

Source:The Hindu

5.Ease of Doing Business Grand Challenge

Topic: Indian Economy

In news: The Prime Minister launched the Ease of Doing Business Grand Challenge at New Delhi.

More on The Tpic:

• The objective of this challenge is to invite innovative ideas based on Artificial Intelligence, Internet of Things, Big Data Analytics, Blockchain and other cutting edge technology to reform Government processes. The platform for the Grand Challenge is the Startup India Portal.

Source:PIB

Enforcement Directorate (ED)

Topic: Indian Economy

In news: Prime Minister Narendra Modi headed Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) has appointed Senior IRS officer Sanjay Kumar Mishra as full-time Director of Enforcement Directorate.

More On Enforcement Directorate:

• The Directorate of Enforcement is a law enforcement agency and economic intelligence agency responsible for enforcing economic laws and fighting economic crime in India.
• It is part of the Department of Revenue, Ministry of Finance, Government Of India.
• It is composed of officers from the Indian Revenue Service, Indian Police Service and the Indian Administrative Service.
• The prime objective of the Enforcement Directorate is the enforcement of two key Acts of the Government of India namely, the Foreign Exchange Management Act 1999 (FEMA) and the Prevention of Money Laundering Act 2002 (PMLA)
• The ED’s (Enforcement Directorate) official website enlists its other objectives which are primarily linked to checking money laundering in India.

Literacy levels in rural India suffer from migration of families

Topic: Social Justice

In news: Literacy levels in rural households of India dip with seasonal migration, the UNESCO global education monitoring report 2019 has observed, bringing out the educaonal challenges thrown up by migration.

Highlights of the Report:

• In India, 7 million children aged 6 to 14 lived in rural households with a seasonal migrant in 2013. About 28% of youth aged 15 to 19 in these households were illiterate or had not completed primary school, compared to 18% of the cohort overall.
• About 80% of seasonal migrant children in seven cities lacked access to education near work sites, and 40% are likely to end up in work rather than education, experiencing abuse and exploitation.
• The report says that the construction sector absorbs the majority of short-term migrants. “A survey in Punjab state of 3,000 brick kiln workers in 2015-16 found that 60% were inter-State migrants.
• Between 65% and 80% of all children aged five to 14 living at the kilns worked there seven to nine hours per day. About 77% of kiln workers reported lack of access to early childhood or primary education for their children.
• Inter-State migration rates have doubled between 2001 and 2011. “An estimated 9 million migrated between States annually from 2011 to 2016”.
• It also warns of the negative impact on education for children who are left behind as their parents migrate: “Test scores were lower among left-behind children aged 5-8.”

How India Tackling The Problem

• The Right to Education Act in 2009 made it mandatory for local authorities to admit migrant children. National-level guidelines were issued, allowing for flexible admission of children, providing transport and volunteers to support with mobile education, create seasonal hostels and aiming to improve coordination between sending and receiving districts and states.

The Bottlenecks:

• The report sees the growth of slums and informal settlements — where schools are often scarce — due to migration as a challenge. “18% of the students displaced by a riverfront project in Ahmedabad dropped out and an additional 11% had lower attendance.
• A pilot programme used on brick kiln sites from 2010-2011 in Rajasthan to track the progress of out-of-school children did not improve learning in any substantial way. Teachers on the sites cited culture, language, lifestyle, cleanliness and clothing as major barriers between them and the kiln labour community. Teacher and student absenteeism were rampant.