PERIYAR IAS CURRENT AFFAIRS 16-APRIL-2018
Topic: Welfare
schemes for vulnerable sections of the population by the Centre and States and
the performance of these schemes.
Pradhan Mantri Ujwala Yojana
Context: Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) was launched
in the state of Telangana on the birth anniversary of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar.
About the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana:
Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana aims to provide LPG (liquefied petroleum gas)
connections to poor households.
Who is eligible? Under the scheme, an adult woman member of a below
poverty line family identified through the Socio-Economic Caste Census (SECC)
is given a deposit-free LPG connection with financial assistance of Rs 1,600
per connection by the Centre.
Identification of households: Eligible households will be identified in
consultation with state governments and Union territories. The scheme is being
implemented by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas.
Some of the objectives of the scheme are:
§ Empowering women and protecting their health.
§ Reducing the serious health hazards associated with
cooking based on fossil fuel.
§ Reducing the number of deaths in India due to unclean
cooking fuel.
§ Preventing young children from significant number of
acute respiratory illnesses caused due to indoor air pollution by burning the
fossil fuel.
What makes LPG adoption necessary?
About 75 crore Indians, especially women and girls, are
exposed to severe household air pollution (HAP) from the use of solid fuels
such as biomass, dung cakes and coal for cooking. A report from the Ministry of
Health & Family Welfare places HAP as the second leading risk factor
contributing to India’s disease burden.
According to the World Health Organization, solid fuel
use is responsible for about 13% of all mortality and morbidity in India
(measured as Disability-Adjusted Life Years), and causes about 40% of all
pulmonary disorders, nearly 30% of cataract incidences, and over 20% each of
ischemic heart disease, lung cancer and lower respiratory infection.
Significance of the project:
PMUY has been a revolutionary initiative that has
transformed the lives of more than 3.57 crore households spanning across the
length and breadth of the country. The initiative is in line with Governments
aim to eradicate energy poverty, thereby promoting economic empowerment.
Way ahead:
The PMUY is a bold and much-needed initiative, but it
should be recognised that this is just a first step. The real test of the PMUY
and its successor programmes will be in how they translate the provision of
connections to sustained use of LPG or other clean fuels such as electricity or
biogas. Truly smokeless kitchens can be realized only if the government follows
up with measures that go beyond connections to actual usage of LPG. This may
require concerted efforts cutting across Ministries beyond petroleum and
natural gas and including those of health, rural development and women and
child welfare.
What’s important?
§ For Prelims: PMUY.
§ For Mains: PMUY and its significance.
Sources: pib.
Topic:
Important International institutions, agencies and fora, their structure,
mandate.
UN launches road safety trust fund
Context: UN has launched road safety trust fund aimed at
spurring action to help save lives in road accidents.
About the Fund:
§ The United Nations Road Safety Trust Fund aims to
accelerate progress in improving global road safety by bridging the gaps in the
mobilization of resources for effective action at all levels.
§ The Fund will mobilize resources from governments,
intergovernmental or non-governmental organizations, the private sector,
philanthropic organizations and individuals.
§ UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) will be the
secretariat for the Trust Fund.
§ The Trust Fund will support efforts along the five
pillars of the Global Plan for the Decade of Action for Road Safety, which
include strengthened road safety management capacities, improved safety of road
infrastructure and broader transport networks, enhanced safety of vehicles,
improved behaviour of road users and improved post-crash care.
Significance of the fund:
§ It is estimated that every $1,500 contributed to the Fund
could save one life, prevent 10 serious injuries and leverage $51,000 towards
investments in road safety.
§ The United Nations Road Safety Trust Fund has the
potential to galvanize our global efforts to address the road safety situation,
building on the progress made and experience gained over the Decade of Action
for Road Safety 2011-2020.
A global concern:
Road traffic deaths and injuries have become a serious
and urgent global concern. Around 1.3 million drivers, passengers and pedestrians
die each year, and up to 50 million are injured on the world’s roads.
Beyond human suffering, road traffic deaths and injuries
cause significant economic losses to individuals and societies, keeping
millions of people in poverty and creating an estimated $1.85 trillion burden
on the global economy each year. This makes addressing road safety one of the
most pressing social, economic, health and development challenges of our time.
Resolution on road safety:
The UN General Assembly also adopted a resolution on road
safety, sponsored by Russia, in which it called for a host of measures to
prevent road accidents and to minimising the resulting damage. One of the
measures, it urged, the adoption policies and measures to implement vehicle
safety regulations to ensure that all new motor vehicles meet applicable
minimum regulations for the protection of occupants and other road users, with
seat belts, airbags and active safety systems fitted as standard equipment.
Facts for Prelims:
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted by
United Nations Member States in 2015, contains targets on road safety in two of
its 17 Sustainable Development Goals:
§ Sustainable Development Goal 3: “Ensure healthy lives and
promote well-being for all at all ages”.
§ Target 3.6: By 2020, halve the number of global deaths
from road traffic accidents.
§ Sustainable Development Goal 11: “Make cities and human
settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable”.
What’s important?
§ For Prelims: Road safety fund, SDGs on road safety,
resolution on road safety.
§ For Mains: Road safety and the need for international
collaboration in this regard.
Sources: the hindu.
Topic:
Important International institutions, agencies and fora, their structure,
mandate.
Asian premium
Context: India is planning to coordinate with China and
other Asian countries to voice against the “Asian Premium” being charged by the
Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). Soon, the countries
will chalk out the strategy that would result in getting better price from OPEC
countries.
What is Asian premium?
Asian Premium is the extra charge being collected by OPEC
countries from Asian countries when selling oil. The premium is determined in
large part by the official selling prices (OSPs) set by Saudi Arabia, Iran,
Iraq, and Kuwait, which supply about 15 percent of the world’s crude among
them. They set differential prices against benchmarks on a monthly basis,
adjusting them to account for regional variations.
Why countries, including India, are against
Asian premium?
§ India, which sources 85% of its crude oil supplies from
OPEC member countries, wants producers to offer discounts rather than charge a
premium, as today it has become buyer’s market.
§ The direction of crude flow from West Asia has now
shifted to Asia. Besides, with OPEC deciding not to reduce production, there is
a tilt in the demand-supply balance.
§ Earlier, crude flow was from West Asia to North America
and the pricing also depended on the market. Now, with the shale revolution, the
flow has shifted to Asia.
Impacts:
If crude is received at a fair price without paying Asian
Premium, gross refining margins will improve and it will result in
competitively priced petroleum products.
Way ahead:
Asian Premium was historically never justified and so not
justifiable in the changed market scenario where Asian countries are the major
buyers. Therefore, any measure that erodes the advantage of geography for Asian
countries and promotes a policy of subsidising oil traffic to distant
destinations is not, and cannot be, in the interest of sustainable development.
OPEC:
§ The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries
(OPEC) is a permanent, intergovernmental Organization, created at the Baghdad
Conference in September 1960, by Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and
Venezuela.
§ Currently, the Organization has a total of 14 Member
Countries.
§ OPEC had its headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, in the
first five years of its existence. This was moved to Vienna, Austria, on
September 1, 1965.
§ OPEC’s objective is to co-ordinate and unify petroleum
policies among Member Countries, in order to secure fair and stable prices for
petroleum producers; an efficient, economic and regular supply of petroleum to
consuming nations; and a fair return on capital to those investing in the
industry.
What’s important?
§ For Prelims: Asian premium and Opec.
§ For Mains: Asian premium- need for elimination and
impacts on developing countries.
Sources: the hindu.
Topic: Effect
of policies and politics of developed and developing countries on India’s
interests, Indian diaspora.
US places India under watch list
Context: The United States Treasury Department has put India
again on the currency manipulator watchlist as the country’s foreign exchange
net addition and the bilateral trade surplus with the US have breached two of
the three criteria determining manipulation.
What is Treasury report all about?
The Treasury report is required by Congress to identify
countries that are trying to artificially manage the value of their currency to
gain a trade advantage, for example by keeping the exchange rate low to promote
cheaper exports.
The US Treasury Department uses three
parameters to determine a currency manipulator:Bilateral trade surplus with the US to be $20 billion,
current account surplus at 3% of country’s GDP, and net purchases of foreign
currency to 2% of country’s GDP over a year.
Key facts:
§ The “monitoring list” includes those “major trading
partners that merit close attention to their currency practices.”
§ In addition to India, the other countries in the list are
China, Germany, Japan, Korea and Switzerland.
§ Countries remain on the list for two report cycles “to
help ensure that any improvement in performance versus the criteria is durable
and is not due to temporary factors.”
Way ahead:
The report called for all the countries on the list to
implement economic reforms to address their surpluses.
Sources: the hindu.
Paper 3:
Topic:
Infrastructure- roadways and energy.
FAME scheme
Context: The government has decided to extend the Faster
Adoption and Manufacturing of (Hybrid) and Electric Vehicles (FAME) scheme by
six months until 30 September 2018, or till the time the second phase of the
scheme is approved by it.
About FAME India scheme:
What is it? With an aim to promote eco-friendly vehicles, the
government had launched the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of (Hybrid &)
Electric Vehicles in India (FAME-India) scheme in 2015.
Aim: The
FAME India Scheme is aimed at incentivising all vehicle segments, including
two-wheelers, three wheeler auto, passenger four-wheeler vehicle, light
commercial vehicles and buses. The scheme covers hybrid and electric
technologies like a strong hybrid, plug-in hybrid and battery electric
vehicles.
Facts: FAME
India – Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Hybrid and Electric vehicles in
India – is a part of the National Electric Mobility Mission Plan. The scheme
envisages Rs 795 crore support in the first two fiscals. It is being
administered by the Heavy Industries Ministry.
Way ahead:
Electric vehicles (EVs) seem to be gaining in prominence
as part of the renewable energy zeitgeist. However, mainstreaming electric
vehicles will require an overhaul of the country’s energy and transport
infrastructure. For example, EV charging stations will have to be set up on a
war footing, and electricity generation will have to improve significantly even
as its piggybacks on the push for solar energy. EV technology (especially the
battery) will have to become much cheaper before it can perform well in a
price-sensitive market like India.
What’s important?
§ For Prelims: FAME scheme.
§ For Mains: Need for EV policy.
Sources: the hindu.
Topic: Money
laundering.
Financial Action Task Force (FATF)
Context: India will have to make money laundering an
explicitly standalone offence to upgrade its compliance ahead of the on-site
mutual evaluation by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), which is due in
November-December 2020.
Background:
FATF had undertaken mutual evaluation of India in 2010
when the body expressed satisfaction with the measures taken by the country.
However, in its report, the FATF highlighted a number of lacunae in the then
extant legislation, for which it suggested changes.
What’s the issue?
As per FATF recommendations, money laundering should be
made a standalone offence. However, despite several amendments, the Prevention
of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) remains a predicate-offence-oriented law. This
means a case under the Act depends on the fate of cases pursued by primary
agencies such as the CBI, the Income Tax Department or the police.
About FATF:
What is it?
The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) is an
inter-governmental body established in 1989 on the initiative of the G7.
It is a “policy-making body” which works to generate the necessary political
will to bring about national legislative and regulatory reforms in various
areas.
Objectives:
The objectives of the FATF are to set standards and
promote effective implementation of legal, regulatory and operational measures
for combating money laundering, terrorist financing and other related threats
to the integrity of the international financial system.
What it does?
The FATF monitors the progress of its members in
implementing necessary measures, reviews money laundering and terrorist
financing techniques and counter-measures, and promotes the adoption and
implementation of appropriate measures globally. In collaboration with
other international stakeholders, the FATF works to identify national-level
vulnerabilities with the aim of protecting the international financial system
from misuse.
What’s important?
§ For Prelims: FATF, PMLA.
§ For Mains: PMLA amendments, Terrorist funding- prevention
and issues.
Sources: the hindu.
Facts for Prelims:
Babur cruise missile:
Context: Pakistan has successfully test fired an enhanced
version of indigenously-built Babur cruise missile.
Key facts:
§ ‘Babur Weapon System-1 (B)’ is a low-flying,
terrain-hugging missile, which carries certain stealth features and is capable
of carrying various types of warheads. It can deliver conventional and
non-conventional weapons with a range of 700 kilometres.
§ It incorporates advanced aerodynamics and avionics that
can strike targets both at land and sea with high accuracy.
§ It is equipped with the Terrain Contour Matching (TERCOM)
and all time Digital Scene Matching and Area Co-relation (DSMAC) technologies,
which enable it to engage in various types of targets with pinpoint accuracy
even in the absence of GPS navigation.
Comments
Post a Comment