PERIYAR IAS CURRENT AFFAIRS 15-MARCH-2018
Paper 1:
Topic: urbanization, their problems
and their remedies.
Annual Survey of India’s City-Systems (ASICS)
Context: The fifth edition of
the Annual Survey of India’s City-Systems
(ASICS) by Janaagraha Centre for Citizenship and Democracy has been released.
About the survey:
The objective of the survey was to measure the preparedness of
cities to deliver high quality infrastructure and services in the long term by
evaluating “city systems”.
§ The survey spans 23 Indian cities and factors in answers to 89
questions. The cities were scored based on the quality of laws, policies,
institutions and institutional processes that together help govern them.
§ ASICS groups questions into four categories: urban planning & design; urban capacities &
resources; transparency, accountability & participation; and empowered
& legitimate political representation.
Performance of various cities:
§ Pune, Kolkata and Thiruvananthapuram top the country in terms of
urban governance.
§ Delhi and Mumbai figure in the sixth and ninth positions
respectively.
§ Among the medium cities (with a population of up to one million),
Ranchi has broken into the top 10 with a score of 4.1. Bengaluru and Chandigarh
(perceived as a planned city) figured at the bottom of the list.
§ On a scale of 10, the 23 cities – many of which are part of the
government’s flagship smart cities mission – scored between 3 and 5.1 on four
key components of governance.
Concerns and challenges:
§ A majority of its cities “grossly underprepared” to deliver a high
quality of life in the long term. And many surveyed cities are far behind
cities such as London, New York and Johannesburg, which topped global
benchmarks with 8.8, 8.8 and 7.6 points respectively.
§ The cities assessed in the study are found to be generating only
39% of the funds they spend on an average, with Patna raising just 17% on its
own. Only Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad and Pune generate over 50% of the amount they
spend from their own revenue.
§ The study found that in several cities, their own revenues did not
even cover staff salaries. “Lack of adequate revenue sources of their own
severely constrains the ability of our cities to invest in infrastructure and
service delivery.
§ The pace of reforms in India has been painfully slow. Recurring
floods, garbage crises, air pollution, fire accidents, building collapses and
dengue outbreaks are symptoms of this deeper governance crisis in our cities.
§ The survey also found urban capacities across cities suffering
from rampant staff vacancies, inadequate domain experience of senior municipal
officers, and powerless mayors and councils. Commissioners were found to have
only have 2.7 years of experience in urban management on an average. Average
staff vacancy stood at 35%, with Guwahati bottoming out at 60%.
§ The mayor and councils in our cities are toothless. They don’t
have full decision-making authority over critical functions such as planning,
housing, water, environment, fire and emergency services.
§ No city in India has effective policies to deter plan violations,
a deficiency that leads to the mushrooming of slums and unauthorised colonies.
While all its 23 cities scored zero on this parameter, London, New York and
Johannesburg notched a perfect 10 out of 10.
§ Moreover, most of the country’s town and country planning acts
date back to the previous century. It has one planner per four lakh citizens
(as opposed to 48 in the United States and 148 in the United Kingdom).
Way ahead:
Lack of legislative imagination and political will has resulted in
state governments not fixing city governance. The need now is to fix city
governance on a war footing. There will be no change unless the state
government empowers municipalities.
What’s important?
§ For Prelims: ASICS Survey and performance of various cities.
§ For Mains: Urbanization- challenges, issues and solutions, need
for elected mayor, need for autonomy.
Sources: the hindu.
Paper 2:
Topic: Statutory, regulatory and
various quasi-judicial bodies.
Central Council for Research in Ayurvedic Sciences (CCRAS)
Context: CCRAS has developed and
commercialized the following two drugs:
1. AYUSH 82 An Anti Diabetic Ayurvedic Formulation.
2. AYUSH SG An Anti-Rheumatoid Arthritis preparation.
Background:
CCRAS is actively involved in scientific process of drug
development adopting prevalent guidelines such as Good Clinical Practices
Guidelines for ASU drugs (GCP-ASU), Ministry of AYUSH and National ethical
guidelines for Bio-Medical Research (ICMR), WHO guidelines for traditional
medicines etc. as per requirement and as feasible through its peripheral
institutes.
About CCRAS:
The Central Council for Research in Ayurvedic Sciences (CCRAS) is
an autonomous body of the Ministry of
AYUSH (Ayurveda, Yoga & Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and
Homeopathy), Government of India.
§ It is an apex body in India for the formulation, coordination,
development and promotion of research on scientific lines in Ayurveda and
Sowa-Rigpa system of medicine.
What’s important?
§ For Prelims: CCRAS.
§ For Mains: Significance of AYUSH.
Sources: pib.
Topic: Government policies and
interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of
their design and implementation.
Avoidance of Double Taxation
Context: The Union Cabinet has
approved an Agreement for the Avoidance of Double Taxation and the Prevention
of Fiscal Evasion with respect to taxes on income between India and Iran.
Benefits of the agreement:
§ The Agreement will stimulate flow of investment, technology and
personnel from India to Iran & vice versa, and will prevent double
taxation.
§ The Agreement will provide for exchange of information between the
two Contracting Parties as per latest international standards. It will thus
improve transparency in tax matters and will help curb tax evasion and tax
avoidance.
BEPS:
The proposed Agreement also meets treaty related minimum standards
under G-20 OECD Base Erosion & Profit Shifting (BEPS) Project, in which
India participated on an equal footing.
What is BEPS? BEPS refers to tax
avoidance strategies that exploit gaps and mismatches in tax rules to
artificially shift profits to low or no-tax locations.
What is DTAA?
A DTAA is a tax treaty signed between two or more countries. Its
key objective is that tax-payers in these countries can avoid being taxed twice
for the same income. A DTAA applies in cases where a tax-payer resides in one
country and earns income in another. India has DTAAs with more than eighty
countries, of which comprehensive agreements include those with Australia,
Canada, Germany, Mauritius, Singapore, UAE, the UK and US.
Why is it important?
DTAAs are intended to make a country an attractive investment
destination by providing relief on dual taxation. Such relief is provided by
exempting income earned abroad from tax in the resident country or providing
credit to the extent taxes have already been paid abroad. DTAAs also provide
for concessional rates of tax in some cases.
Legal provisions in this regard:
In so far as India is concerned, the Central Government is
authorized under Section 90 of the Income Tax Act, 1961 to enter into an
Agreement with a foreign country or specified territory for avoidance of double
taxation of income, for exchange of information for the prevention of evasion
or avoidance of income-tax chargeable under the Income-tax Act, 1961.
What’s important?
For Prelims and Mains: BEPS, DTAA- need, challenges and
implementation.
Sources: pib.
Topic: Important aspects of
governance, transparency and accountability, e-governance- applications,
models, successes, limitations, and potential; citizens charters, transparency
& accountability and institutional and other measures.
World Consumers Day
What is it? 15 March is World
Consumer Rights Day (WCRD), an annual occasion for celebration and solidarity
within the international consumer movement. It marks the date in 1962 President
John F Kennedy first outlined the definition of Consumer Rights.
Significance of the day: It is an opportunity to promote the basic rights of all
consumers, for demanding that those rights are respected and protected, and for
protesting the market abuses and social injustices which undermine them.
Theme: ‘Making digital
marketplaces fairer’.
Key facts:
§ WCRD was first observed on 15 March 1983, and has since become an
important occasion for mobilising citizen action.
§ Consumers International (CI), which was founded in 1960 organises
WCRD. It is the only independent and authoritative global voice for consumers
and has over 220 member organisations in 115 countries around the world.
Consumer protection act:
India adopted the Consumer Protection Act, later in 1986, thus
providing a legal face to the Indian consumers. One of the strongest campaigns
for addressal and protection of consumer rights in India, is “Jago Grahak Jago”
which literally translates into, “wake up consumers”! This multimedia campaign
from Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Government of India is aimed at creating an
aware consumer.
Sources: pib.
Topic: Important aspects of
governance, transparency and accountability, e-governance- applications,
models, successes, limitations, and potential; citizens charters, transparency
& accountability and institutional and other measures.
e-office programme
Context: The government has
presented the Certificates of Appreciation to 34 Ministries/departments for
implementation of e-office programme in their respective
ministries/departments.
The awards have been given by the Department of
Administrative Reforms & Public Grievances (DARPG), Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions,
Government of India.
About e- office programme:
E-Office is one of the Mission Mode Projects under Digital India Programme.
§ The e-Office solution enables core operations of the Government at
all levels to be performed in a virtual ‘paper-less’ environment. This
application is, thus, a major step in realizing the objective of an open and
responsive Government.
§ The Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DAR&PG)
is the nodal Department for implementation of e-Office project. National
Informatics Centre (NIC) is the technical partner in this project.
The objectives:
§ To improve efficiency, consistency and effectiveness of government
responses.
§ To reduce turnaround time and to meet the demands of the citizens
charter.
§ To provide for effective resource management to improve the
quality of administration.
§ To reduce processing delays.
§ To establish transparency and accountability.
Sources: pib.
Paper 3:
Topic: Science and Technology-
developments and their applications and effects in everyday life Achievements
of Indians in science & technology; indigenization of technology and
developing new technology.
Neutrino project
Context: The India-based Neutrino
Observatory (INO) project has got a fresh lease of life with the Ministry of
Environment and Forests (MoEF) taking it up as a special case and granting it
environmental clearance to set up the lab in Bodi West hills.
Two conditions:
While granting EC, the committee stipulated specific conditions,
of which two are key for the project to take off.
§ One is the consent to establish and operate to be obtained from
the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB).
§ Also, the INO team has to obtain the necessary forest and National
Board for Wild Life clearances as per law. The Mathikettan Shola National Park in Idukki district,
Kerala, is situated within five km from the project site.
About the project:
§ The India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO) Project is a
multi-institutional effort aimed at building a world-class underground
laboratory with a rock cover of approx.1200 m for non-accelerator based high
energy and nuclear physics research in India. The initial goal of INO is to
study neutrinos.
§ It is a mega-science project under the XII five-year plan of
Government of India with an investment of about 1350 crores, jointly funded by the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) and
the Department of Science and Technology (DST).
The project includes:
§ Construction of an underground laboratory and associated surface
facilities at Pottipuram in Bodi West hills of Theni District of Tamil Nadu.
§ Construction of an Iron Calorimeter (ICAL) detector for studying
neutrinos.
§ Setting up of National Centre for High Energy Physics at Madurai,
for the operation and maintenance of the underground laboratory, human resource
development and detector R&D along with its applications.
What are neutrinos?
Neutrinos, first proposed by Swiss scientist Wolfgang Pauli in
1930, are the second most widely occurring particle in the universe, only
second to photons, the particle which makes up light. In fact, neutrinos are so
abundant among us that every second, there are more than 100 trillion of them
passing right through each of us — we never even notice them.
Neutrinos occur in three different types, or flavours. These are
separated in terms of different masses. From experiments so far, we know that
neutrinos have a tiny mass, but the ordering of the neutrino mass states is not
known and is one of the key questions that remain unanswered till today. This
is a major challenge INO will set to resolve, thus completing our picture of
the neutrino.
Why detect them?
Neutrinos are by far the most numerous of all the particles in the
universe (other than photons of light) and so even a tiny mass for the
neutrinos can enable them to have an effect on the evolution of the Universe
through their gravitational effects.
§ There are other recent astrophysical measurements that provide
information on the evolution of the Universe and it is crucial to seek
complementary information by direct determinations of the masses of neutrinos
and their other properties. In a sense, neutrinos hold the key to several
important and fundamental questions on the origin of the Universe and the
energy production in stars. We have some partial answers but many details are
still awaited from future experiments.
§ Yet another important possible application of neutrinos is in the
area of neutrino tomograph of the earth, that is detailed investigation of the
structure of the Earth from core on wards. This is possible with neutrinos
since they are the only particles which can probe the deep interiors of the
Earth.
Why should the laboratory be situated underground?
Neutrinos are notoriously difficult to detect in a laboratory
because of their extremely weak interaction with matter. The background from
cosmic rays (which interact much more readily than neutrinos) and natural
radioactivity will make it almost impossible to detect them on the surface of
the Earth. This is the reason most neutrino observatories are located deep
inside the Earth’s surface. The overburden provided by the Earth matter is
transparent to neutrinos whereas most background from cosmic rays is
substantially reduced depending on the depth at which the detector is located.
What are the benefits to local people from this project?
§ The construction contract will specify that local labour should be
used, based on the skill levels, to the maximum extent possible.
§ Furthermore, gainful employment will be there for a small number
of people by way of sourcing of services and daily needs for the INO facility and
for the upkeep of buildings and landscapes.
§ A major benefit will be for schools and colleges in the region as
the students interested in science can benefit from the outreach activities as
well as doing projects at the lab.
Sources: the hindu.
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