PERIYAR IAS CURRENT AFFAIRS 2-FEBRUARY-2018
Paper 2:
Topic: Welfare schemes for
vulnerable sections of the population by the Centre and States and the
performance of these schemes; mechanisms, laws, institutions and bodies
constituted for the protection and betterment of these vulnerable sections.
Ayushman Bharat for a new India
-2022
The Government has announced
two major initiatives in health sector, as part of Ayushman Bharat programme.
These two health sector initiatives under Ayushman Bharat Programme will build
a New India 2022 and ensure enhanced productivity, well being and avert wage
loss and impoverishment. These Schemes will also generate lakhs of jobs,
particularly for women.
The initiatives are as follows:
Health and Wellness Centre: The National Health
Policy, 2017 has envisioned Health and Wellness Centres as the foundation of
India’s health system. Under this 1.5 lakh centres will bring health care
system closer to the homes of people. These centres will provide comprehensive
health care, including for non-communicable diseases and maternal and child
health services. These centres will also provide free essential drugs and
diagnostic services. The Budget has allocated Rs.1200 crore for this flagship
programme. Contribution of private sector through CSR and philanthropic institutions
in adopting these centres is also envisaged.
National Health Protection
Scheme: The second flagship programme under Ayushman Bharat is
National Health Protection Scheme, which will cover over 10 crore poor and
vulnerable families (approximately 50 crore beneficiaries) providing coverage
upto 5 lakh rupees per family per year for secondary and tertiary care
hospitalization. This will be the world’s largest government funded health care
programme. Adequate funds will be provided for smooth implementation of this
programme.
Sources: the hindu.
Topic: Government policies and
interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of
their design and implementation.
‘Khelo India School Games’
Context: Khelo India School Games
as a part of the Khelo India Programme has been launched. The mission aims to
develop a sporting culture in the country, identify talents from grassroots and
groom them for international success. The Khelo India Games will witness
athletes fight it out in 16 disciplines at various venues in the Capital.
About Khelo India Programme:
The Khelo India programme has
been introduced to revive the sports culture in India at the grass-root level
by building a strong framework for all sports played in our country and
establish India as a great sporting nation.
Sources: the hindu.
Topic: Issues relating to
development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health,
Education, Human Resources.
More tribal areas to get
Ekalavya schools
Context: The government has
proposed to establish Ekalavya Residential School in each block of the country
where tribal people constitute a majority of the population. It has been
decided that by the year 2022, every block with more than 50% ST population and
at least 20,000 tribal persons, will have an Ekalavya Model Residential School.
Eklavya Model Residential
Schools (EMRS)?
Eklavya Model Residential
School Scheme was started in 1998 and first school was started in the year 2000
in Maharashtra. EMRSs have been functioning as institutions of excellence for
tribal students.
As per existing EMRS Guidelines
of 2010, at least one EMRS is to be set up in each Integrated Tribal
Development Agency (ITDA) / Integrated Tribal Development Project (ITDP) having
50% ST population in the area.
The capital cost for setting up
the school complex, including hostels and staff quarters etc. has been
earmarked at Rs. 12 crore with a provision to go up to Rs.16 crore in hill
areas, deserts and islands. Recurring cost during the first year for these
schools would be Rs. 42000/-per child, with a provision of raising it by 10%
every second year to compensate for inflation etc.
Sources: the hindu.
Topic: Bilateral, regional and
global groupings and agreements involving India and/or affecting India’s
interests.
Ashgabat agreement
Context: India has been admitted
to Agreement on the Establishment of an International Transport and Transit
Corridor” between Iran, Oman, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan signed on April 25,
2011, known as the Ashgabat Agreement. All the four founding members have
consented to the accession of India and India’s accession to the Agreement will
enter into force on February 3, 2018.
Significance of this accession:
Accession to the Agreement
would diversify India’s connectivity options with Central Asia and have a
positive influence on India’s trade and commercial ties with the region. It
also assumes significance given Beijing’s One Belt, One Road (OBOR) initiative
of which the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), that leads to Gwadar port
in Pakistan passing through Pakistan-administered Kashmir, is a major part.
India’s stand has been that while it is all for connectivity, such initiatives
should respect the territorial integrity of other countries.
About Ashgabat agreement:
The Ashgabat Agreement aims to develop
a shortest trade route between Central Asian countries and Iranian and Omani
ports. The Ashgabat Agreement has Oman, Iran, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan as
founding members. Kazakhstan has also joined this arrangement subsequently. In
October 2016, Pakistan also formally joined the Ashgabat Agreement.
The
Iran-Turkmenistan-Kazakhstan (ITK) railway line will be the major route
according to the Ashgabat Agreement, which became operational in December 2014
and was also included as part of India-funded North-South international
transport corridor (NSITC).
Facts for Prelims:
Ashgabat, known as Poltoratsk
between 1919 and 1927, is the capital and the largest city of Turkmenistan in
Central Asia, situated between the Karakum Desert and the Kopet Dag mountain
range.
Sources: the hindu.
Paper 3:
Topic: Indian Economy and issues
relating to planning, mobilization of resources, growth, development and
employment.
Gift City gets unified
regulator
Context: The International
Financial Service Centre (IFSC) at Gift City, Gujarat has received a major
boost with the Finance Minister proposing a unified regulator for the special
finance zone along with tax benefits for non-residents and non-corporate
entities operating there.
This assumes significance as
various government agencies and regulators, including the Reserve Bank of India
and Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), have oversight on entities
that operate in the zone.
Way ahead:
The announcement of setting up
of unified regulator for IFSC in India would help India achieve its full
potential in the global financial markets. Globally, most of the financial
centres host unified regulator in the same centre. This decision would help in
establishing GIFT IFSC as a global financial hub.
What is an IFSC?
An IFSC caters to customers
outside the jurisdiction of the domestic economy. Such centres deal with flows
of finance, financial products and services across borders. London, New York
and Singapore can be counted as global financial centres. Many emerging IFSCs
around the world, such as Shanghai and Dubai, are aspiring to play a global
role in the years to come.
What are the services an IFSC
can provide?
§ Fund-raising services for
individuals, corporations and governments.
§ Asset management and global
portfolio diversification undertaken by pension funds, insurance companies and
mutual funds.
§ Wealth management.
§ Global tax management and
cross-border tax liability optimization, which provides a business opportunity
for financial intermediaries, accountants and law firms.
§ Global and regional corporate
treasury management operations that involve fund-raising, liquidity investment
and management and asset-liability matching.
§ Risk management operations such
as insurance and reinsurance.
§ Merger and acquisition
activities among trans-national corporations.
Sources: the hindu.
Topic: Awareness in the fields of
IT, Space, Computers, robotics, nano-technology.
BharatNet Project
Context: To further promote the
Centre’s BharatNet project for providing broadband services in 2.5 lakh gram
panchayats of the country, the finance ministry has proposed an allocation of
Rs 8,175 crore, which will be used towards completing the second phase of the programme
under which 1.5 lakh gram panchayats will be covered.
About BharatNet project:
Bharat Net sought to connect
all of India’s households, particularly in rural areas, through broadband,
forming the backbone of the government’s ambitious Digital India programme. It
proposes broadband connectivity to households under village panchayats and even
to government institutions at district level. The project is being funded
through the Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF).
In its first phase, the BharatNet
project saw over one lakh gram panchayats being connected across the country
with high speed optical fibre network as of December 31, 2017. Under the first
phase, the project saw 2,54,895 km of optical fibre cable being laid covering
1,09,926 gram panchayats out of which 1,01,370 gram panchayats have been
provided active connectivity.
Universal Service Obligation
Fund:
USOF, established in 2002,
provides effective subsidies to ensure telegraph services are provided to
everyone across India, especially in the rural and remote areas. It is headed
by the USOF Administrator who reports to the Secretary, Department of Telecommunications
(DoT).
Funds come from the Universal
Service Levy (USL) of 5% charged from all the telecom operators on their
Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR) which are then deposited into the Consolidated
Fund of India, and require prior parliamentary approval to be dispatched.
The USOF works through a
bidding process, where funds are given to the enterprise quoting the lowest
bid. However, the funds for NOFN were made an exception to this process since
BBNL was the sole party involved in the implementation having being
specifically created for it.
Sources: the hindu.
Topic: Awareness in the fields of
IT, Space, Computers, robotics, nano-technology.
Revitalising Infrastructure and
Systems in Education (RISE)
Context: The government has
announced a new initiative called Revitalising Infrastructure and Systems in
Education (RISE).
Key facts:
§ The initiative aims to step up
investments in research and related infrastructure in premier educational
institutions, including health institutions. It will have a total investment of
₹1,00,000-crore in the next four years.
§ Higher Education Financing
Agency (HEFA) would be suitably structured for funding this initiative. The
manner in which investment in institutions is provided is likely to be the same
as is practised in HEFA, but there may be different windows for different
institutions.
About HEFA:
What is it? The Union Cabinet
had approved HEFA in September 2016 as a Special Purpose Vehicle with a public
sector bank (Canara Bank). It would be jointly funded by the promoter/bank and
the MHRD with an authorised capital of ₹2,000 crore. The government equity
would be ₹1,000 crore.
Functions: HEFA will leverage
the equity to raise up to ₹20,000 crore for the funding of
world-class infrastructure at the IITs, IIMs, the National Institutes of
Technology (NITs) and such other institutions. The agency is also expected to
mobilise Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) funds from public sector units
(PSUs) and corporates. These would be released as grants to eligible
institutions for promoting research and innovation.
Significance of HEFA: Funding
from HEFA is expected to boost infrastructure, especially state-of-the-art
laboratories, in key institutions such as the Indian Institutes of Technology
(IITs), the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs), and the Indian Institutes
of Information Technology (IIITs).
Sources: the hindu.
Topic: money laundering and its prevention.
Bill to amend the Prevention of
Money-laundering Act, 2002
Context: Government has introduced
Bill to amend the Prevention of Money-laundering Act, 2002 through Finance Act,
2018. The Amendments aim at further enhancing the effectiveness of the Act,
widen its scope and take care of certain procedural difficulties faced by the
Enforcement Directorate in prosecution of PMLA cases.
Proposed amendments:
§ Amendment in definition of
“proceeds of crime”: A key proposed change is in the definition of “proceeds of
crime”, which now also allows the ED to proceed against assets of equivalent
value located even outside the country.
§ Amendment in bail provisions:
In a move to de-link PMLA proceedings from those in scheduled offences pursued
by other agencies, an amended Section 45(1) proposes uniform applicability of
bail conditions, instead of only those crimes listed in its schedule that
attract more than three years’ imprisonment.
§ The amendment to Section 8(8)
allows the Special Court, if it deems fit, to consider the claims for the
purposes of restoration of such properties also during the trial. The
government has introduced a new Sub-Section (2) of Section 66, making it
mandatory for the ED to share relevant details with other agencies.
PMLA 2002:
Prevention of Money Laundering
Act, 2002 is an Act of the Parliament of India enacted to prevent
money-laundering and to provide for confiscation of property derived from
money-laundering. PMLA and the Rules notified there under came into force with
effect from July 1, 2005.
The Act and Rules notified
thereunder impose obligation on banking companies, financial institutions and
intermediaries to verify identity of clients, maintain records and furnish
information.
Sources: the hindu.
Facts for Prelims:
Bhasha Samman:
Context: Magahi writer Shesh
Anand Madhukar, who has been working extensively for the development of the
language, has been honoured with this year’s Sahitya Akademi Bhasha Samman
award. He is the second writer of Magahi language to be given the award.
About Bhasha Samman: Sahitya
Akademi currently honours writers from 24 regional languages, but Bhasha Samman
identifies those languages which are equally spoken in different parts of the
country. The award is an attempt to make the writers of other languages feel
equally important. The award comprises a Rs 1 lakh cheque and a memento.
About Magahi language: The
Magahi language, also known as Magadhi, is a language spoken in Bihar-Jharkhand
region of eastern India. Magadhi Prakrit was the ancestor of Magadh, from which
the latter’s name derives. It is believed to be the language spoken by Gautama
Buddha. It was the official language of the Mauryan court, in which the edicts
of Ashoka were composed.
Geospatial world excellence
award:
Context: Odisha has bagged
Geospatial World Excellence Award-2018 for successful IT application on
tracking of mineral production, dispatch and value accrued on real time basis
through its i3MS website based software.
Geospatial World Excellence
Awards: Initiated in 2007, Geospatial World Awards is an
internationally-acclaimed private award recognizing exemplary innovations and
practices in the global geospatial industry. With the ceremony taking place at
Geospatial World Forum every year, Geospatial World Awards have recognized over
150+ individuals and organizations till date.
New wildlife sanctuary at
Ghodazari:
The Maharashtra government has
approved Ghodazari in Chandrapur district as a new wildlife sanctuary in the
state. The sanctuary, in the North East of Tadoba, will include 159 sq km of
Brahmapuri forest.
Sela pass:
Context: Finance Minister Arun
Jaitley today announced the government’s plan to build a tunnel through the
Sela Pass located at an elevation of 13,700 ft which will ensure faster
movement of troops in Tawang, a strategically- located town in Arunachal Pradesh
bordering China.
About the Sela pass: The Sela
pass is located between the Tawang and West Kameng districts of Arunachal
Pradesh and considered crucial from strategic perspective. Sela Lake, near the
summit of the pass, is one of approximately 101 lakes in the area that are
sacred in Tibetan Buddhism.
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