As the Economic Survey made clear, India will never provide basic income that is literally universal. Our politics will never countenance government cheques being sent to the rich. But, government transfers to everyone except those at the top is a serious policy contender. And, such a scheme would be a QUBI.

More generally, QUBIs are schemes in which transfers are given to everyone who meets an easily identifiable criterion. That is, they are universal within a clearly identifiable category. In the Rythu Bandhu scheme, that category is all farmers who own land. This criterion can be applied because Telangana has titled nearly all land holdings, and has done so in an impressive fashion, without serious controversy or contestation, and within a short space of time.

Rythu Bandhu has, however, one undesirable property as social policy. Because payments to households are based on farm size, they can become regressive (hence the pressures to exclude large farmers from the scheme). In contrast, a pure UBI in which the same rupee amount is given to all households will be progressive because the effective subsidy rate (transfers as a share of household income) will be greater for the poor and decline with rising income.

In fact, viewed from this perspective, it could be the future of agricultural policy. Consider how. Think of the current system of support for agriculture.

Rythu Bandhu today is provided in addition to these schemes and hence can become fiscally unsustainable. However, if Rythu Bandhu is instead used to replace some or all of these schemes, three critical advantages would ensue. First, the surfeit of state capacity/administrative apparatus as well as financial resources—and all the patronage and corruption and inefficiency—devoted to administering the plethora of schemes for good, bad, and all states-of-the-world could be economised on.

Second, farm income could be decoupled from production, avoiding the serious distortions that have been created, especially from over-production of cereals (rice stocks are becoming pest-infested mountains) and the over-use of water and fertilisers . Third, the magnitudes that can be transferred can be increased so that farm incomes can be augmented substantially and quickly. One illustrative calculation is as follows: eliminating the fertiliser and power subsidy in Punjab would finance an annual transfer of about Rs 92,000 to every cultivator or Rs 50,000 to every agricultural worker. This compares with median agricultural household income of Rs 150,000 in Punjab, according to official estimates for the year 2013.

Third, it will be important to bring cultivators into the fold, as not all those who derive their income from agriculture are land owners . Under Rythu Bandhu, the hope is that market forces will lead to land owners sharing some of its benefits with agricultural labour. But, that might not be effective. Fourth, the usual pressures to cater to various groups—such as providing differing amounts of assistance to different types of farmers or different types of agriculture, irrigated versus rainfed—will lead to demands for finer targeting. This will lead to complexity of implementation as was seen with the GST. This temptation must be avoided.

The final challenge—or rather an opportunity—is this: schemes like Rythu Bandhu must be done within a cooperative federalism framework , not least because of a fundamental complementarity: states control the implementation apparatus (namely, the land titling) while the Centre can provide resources.

A kind of ‘Grand Bargain’ is thus possible between the Centre and the states. For example, the Centre could offer to finance part of the scheme, finding the funds by reducing the fertiliser subsidy . Alternatively, the Centre could convert some of its tied transfers into untied ones, giving states the freedom to use them for schemes of their choice, including QUBI to farmers.

Eat Right Movement: The movement aims to cut down salt/sugar and oil consumption by 30% in three years. It is built on two broad pillars of ‘Eat Healthy’ and ‘Eat Safe’. It also aims to engage and enable citizens to improve their health and well-being by making the right food choices.

Food Safety and Standards (Labeling and Display) Regulations 2018: The proposed regulations will prescribe the labeling requirements of pre-packaged foods and display of essential information on premises where food is manufactured, processed, served and stored. The draft Regulation also states that HFSS (high in fat, sugar or salt) food products shall not be advertised to children in any form. It also introduces labelling of genetically modified (GM) food.

It provides for stringent punishment including death penalty for those convicted of raping girls below the age of 12 years. The minimum punishment in case of rape of women has been increased from rigorous imprisonment of seven years to 10 years, extendable to life imprisonment.

In case of rape of a girl under 16 years, the minimum punishment has been increased from 10 years to 20 years, extendable to imprisonment for rest of life, which means jail term till the convicts’ “natural life”.

The punishment for gang rape of a girl below 16 years will invariably be imprisonment for the rest of life of the convict, another official said. Stringent punishment for rape of a girl under 12 years has been provided with the minimum jail term being 20 years which may go up to life in prison or death sentence. Gang rape of a girl under 12 years of age will invite punishment of jail term for the rest of life or death.

The measure also provides for speedy investigations and trial. The time limit for investigation of all cases of rape has been prescribed, which has to be mandatorily completed within two months.

The deadline for the completion of trial in all rape cases will be two months. A six-month time limit for the disposal of appeals in rape cases has also been prescribed.

There will also be no provision for anticipatory bail for a person accused of rape or gang rape of a girl under 16 years. It has also been prescribed that a court has to give notice of 15 days to a public prosecutor and the representative of the victim before deciding bail applications in case of rape of a girl under 16 years of age.

July 11 was established as World Population Day in 1989 by the United Nations and since then it has been celebrated on this date every year. The United Nations recognises World Population day as an important event to spread information of population-related issues across the globe.

Theme for 2018: World Population day will run on the theme “Family Planning is a Human right” this year.

Aim of World Population Day: Almost on the verge of completing three decades now, the internationally celebrated event aims to spread awareness on issues such as overpopulation, under-population and birth control. The world population is currently pegged at around 7 billion and according to UN reports is growing at a fast pace, adding 83 million people every year.

GII 2018: The GII 2018 marks the 11th edition of the GII, and the beginning of its second decade providing data and insights gathered from tracking innovation across the globe. This year’s edition, is dedicated to the theme of Energizing the World with Innovation.

It analyses the energy innovation landscape of the next decade and identifies possible breakthroughs in fields such as energy production, storage, distribution, and consumption. It also looks at how breakthrough innovation occurs at the grassroots level and describes how small-scale renewable systems are on the rise.

Performance of India: This year, India has moved up 3 places as compared to 60th rank in GII 2017 and emerged as top-ranked economy in Central and South Asia. It has consistently moving up on global ranking from 81st in 2015 to 57th this year. India is a top performer in the lower middle income group, where it is ranked at fifth position. It is the most innovative country in its region of central and southern Asia.

In the indicators that capture the quality of innovation inputs and outputs, India is ranked second after China in the lower and upper middle income group combined. However, India has fared badly on indicators such as ease of starting business, political stability and safety, overall education and environmental performance.

Dr. TCA Raghavan is the new Director General (DG) of Indian Council of World Affairs (ICWA). Appointment: He was selected by Governing Body and Governing Council of ICWA headed by Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu.

What is ICWA? It was established in 1943 by group of Indian intellectuals as think tank. It was established as non-official, non-political and non-profit organisation under Registration of Societies Act 1860.

It was declared institution of national importance by Indian Council of World Affairs (ICWA), 2001 enacted by Parliament. The Vice President of India is the ex-officio President of ICWA, while the Minister of External Affairs is its Vice-President.

ICWA is devoted exclusively for the study of international relations and foreign affairs. Vice President of India is its ex-officio President. It had conducted historic international conferences like Asian Relations Conference in 1947 under leadership Sarojini Naidu and United Nations and New World Order in 1994

As per the latest studies, climate change is threatening the Nilgiri tahr. It is estimated that the endangered wild goat could lose approximately 60% of its habitat, starting from the 2030s.

Background: There are only around 2,500 tahrs left in the wild and their population — “small and isolated, making them vulnerable to local extinction” — shows a “decreasing” trend, as per the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

Nilgiri Tahr- Key facts: IUCN status- It is listed in Schedule I of the Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act 1972. Endemic to the Nilgiri Hills and the southern portion of the Western Ghats in the states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala in Southern India. It is the State animal of Tamil Nadu. Currently, the only populations with more than 300 individuals are in Eravikulam National Park and in the Grass Hills in Anamalai.

National Organ and Tissue Transplant Organization (NOTTO) is a National level organization set up under Directorate General of Health Services, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW). National Network division of NOTTO would function as apex centre for All India activities of coordination and networking for procurement and distribution of Organs and Tissues and registry of Organs and Tissues Donation and Transplantation in the country.

It has following two divisions:
1. National Human Organ and Tissue Removal and Storage Network
2. National Biomaterial Centre.

What does the law say?
-> Going by the rule book, allocation of organs to recipients on the waiting list is based on criteria that include the date of registration and the medical condition of the recipient.
-> The wealth, race or gender of a person on the waiting list has no bearing on when and whether a person will receive a donated organ.
-> The Transplantation of Human Organs Act of 1994 makes it illegal to buy or sell human organs in India.
The shortage of organs is virtually a universal problem but India lags behind much of the rest of the world. It is not that there aren’t enough organs to transplant. Nearly every person who dies naturally, or in an accident, is a potential donor. There is a wide gap between patients who need transplants and the organs that are available in India.

Issue Area:
-> Bypassing Indian patients, foreigners are provided access to organs in breach of Norms established.
-> Organs have been harvested without the consent of a brain-dead patient’s family in order to meet the needs of foreign nationals.
-> In the year 2017, foreigners were the recipients in 31 heart transplants, 32 lung transplants, and 32 heart and lung transplants.
During the same year, Indians were the recipients in 91 heart transplants, 75 lung transplants, and 6 heart and lung transplants.
->Interestingly, while the wait list of active patients as on June 9, 2018 had 53 foreigners, it had 5,310 Indians.
-> Recently, NOTTO has flagged the organ transplant racket in Tamil Nadu.

Indian Mens Hockey Team : First Team To Be Included In Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS)

The Mission Olympic Cell (MOC) of Union Ministry of Sports and Youth Affairs has included entire Men’s Hockey team of India under the Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS).
This is first instance that entire team has been made beneficiary of the scheme as earlier only individual athletes from different sports were included as beneficiaries of the scheme.

Key Facts The decision to include hockey was taken after India’s performance had improved as they had finished runners up in Champions Trophy in Netherlands.
The 18 team members will be provided with monthly allowance of Rs. 50,000 each under the Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS).
The women’s team may be also included in the TOPS after reviewing its performance in the upcoming World Cup and following Asian Games.

Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS)
TOPS was launched by Ministry of Sports within the ambit of National Sports Development Fund (NSDF).
It aims at identifying and supporting potential medal prospects for upcoming Olympic Games.
It will provide selected sportspersons customized training at institutes having world class facilities and also other necessary support is being provided to the elite athletes.
It will also provide a benchmark for selection of athletes on par with international standards.
Under it, Sports Authority of India (SAI) and federations, which are members of Mission Olympic Cell (MOC), will be nodal agencies for disbursal for fund.
They will make payments directly to beneficiary person and institution concerned on behalf of athletes.
Abinav Bindra Committee was constituted to identify and support potential medal prospects for 2020 and 2024 Olympic Games under the scheme.

Rules promulgated in 2012 already required, among other things, appellants to include an index of the documents referred to in the appeal and to ‘duly authenticate and verify’ all the accompanying enclosures.

Instead of simplifying the requirements to make the process more people friendly, the proposed rules have placed an additional burden on citizens to provide a certificate stating that the matter under appeal or complaint has not been previously filed and disposed, and is not pending with the commission or any court.

The proposed rules state that each complaint must be accompanied with a copy of the RTI application submitted to the public information officer (PIO). The RTI Act provides for filing a complaint to the information commission in cases where a PIO has not been appointed or where a PIO has refused to accept an RTI application, among others.

Further, the proposed amendments, without any legal basis, require that a complaint should be filed within 90 days from the date the cause of complaint arose, failing which a request for condoning the delay is required. Under the RTI Act, while the procedure of appealing to the commission is time-bound, there is no timeframe within which a complaint has to be filed.

While the attempt by the government to define a process of looking into cases of non-compliance with the CIC’s orders is welcome, it appears to be hastily drafted. For instance, while the proposed rules state that a non-compliance complaint is to be filed within three months from the date of non-compliance, they do not specify whether such a complaint will be heard after all the pending appeals and complaints or if it will be treated as a continuing matter of the original appeal/complaint and hence be treated as a separate category to be taken up on a priority basis. Given that it takes a long time, often years, for appeals and complaints to come up for hearing in commissions, if a complaint regarding non-compliance is listed at the end of the queue, the matter will be rendered meaningless for the complainant.

Perhaps the most concerning provisions of the rules is the proposal to allow for the withdrawal of appeals based on a written communication by the appellant and closure of proceedings upon death of the appellant. There is no provision in the RTI Act which permits, or even leaves open, the possibility of appellants withdrawing their appeals and therefore, again the rules appear to go beyond the law.

The government has provided a window for people to send their comments on the proposed rules. This provides an opportunity to address the problematic provisions and to even formulate rules that would further the transparency regime in the country. For instance, while the Act empowers people to access information about a private body which can be accessed by a public authority under any other law, there are no rules to specify how this clause can be operationalised. This has resulted in the provision remaining largely unused despite its potentially transformative implications. Similarly, the central government could use this opportunity to define the accountability framework for implementation of section 4 disclosures, by fixing responsibility for compliance on specific officials in public authorities and linking it with the performance appraisal of such individuals.

SG is a rural cleanliness survey to rank all states and districts on basis of qualitative and quantitative evaluation.

The objective of SSG 2018 is to undertake ranking of states and districts on basis of their performance attained on key quantitative and qualitative Swachh Bharat Mission-Grameen (SBM-G) parameters.

The criteria of SSG-2018 include survey of public places, citizens’ perspective of cleanliness, their recommendations and data from SBM-G. As part of it, 6,980 villages in 698 districts across India will be covered. It will cover total 34,000 public places namely schools, anganwadis, public health centres, haat/bazaars/religious places in these villages.

OPCW is an intergovernmental organization that promotes, administers and verifies the adherence to the Convention on Prohibition of Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on their Destruction (CWC).

This convention outlaws production, stockpiling, and use of chemical weapons and their precursors. 190 member-states have signed and ratified this convention including India.

Six states- Angola, Egypt, Israel, Myanmar, North Korea and South Sudan are still outside the CWC. Why in news?

Until now, OPCW was only able to say whether chemical weapons were used – but not who had used them.

It had limited power to only send teams to alleged chemical weapons attack, collect samples and draw their conclusions. They were having only limited power of determining whether attack is chemical weapons or not. But whatever evidence they turned up, they were not having powers to point finger at particular country or non-state actor as the perpetrator for the attack.

It has granted itself new powers to help identify those responsible for chemical attacks in Syria. OPCW was established April 1997

It is headquartered in Hague, Netherlands. It was awarded Nobel Peace Prize in 2013 for overseeing global endeavour for permanent and verifiable elimination of chemical weapons.

Good rains, excessive sowing and the bumper harvest last year produced gluts in the market that sent the prices of many crops, and therefore farm incomes, crashing.

None of the economic tools available for protecting farm incomes — the price support scheme, the price stabilisation fund and the market intervention scheme — was employed to the best advantage.

Quick and precise adjustments to the export and import rules could have arrested the price fall by diverting the excess supplies to overseas markets. But the changes required were not carried out in time. Instead, inflows of imports were allowed to go on, which worsened the price situation.

This year’s Budget promised that the Minimum Support Prices (MSPs) would be at least 150% of production costs. The intention of assuring 50% profit margin over the cost of production is to make farming remunerative.

On the formula for calculating production costs for plugging into the MSP formula, farmer groups and the government are not as yet on the same page. But howsoever production costs are calculated, simply announcing higher MSPs will not raise farmer incomes. The system is not geared for scaling up procurement.

For several crops last year, the quantities procured were small portions of the total produce.

Although MSPs are announced for more than 20 crops, noteworthy procurement is conducted for three: paddy, wheat and sugarcane (procurement by sugar mills, not the government, given cane must be crushed within a few hours of being cut, or it dries, impacting sugar recovery drastically). Further, procurement frequently takes places at prices below the MSP, as is happening this year, according to reports. Finally, small and vulnerable farmers usually do not get paid MSPs at all, as they sell their produce to aggregators, not directly in mandis. In these circumstances, and given an imminent general election, the government is likely to take recourse to payments compensating for the difference between market prices and the MSP to appear farmer-friendly.

Alternative to MSP: The Telangana example Income support payments, paid on a per hectare basis through direct transfers, offer an administratively neater, economically far less distortionary and politically more attractive solution.

Telangana has announced such payments for farmers at the rate of Rupees 10,000/ha per season. The cost projections for scaling up this model to the national level, excluding the procurement of sugarcane, wheat and paddy, and non-MSP crops, are roughly as much as the estimated bill for the price differential payments.

The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), of which India is signatory too, is hindering biodiversity research and preventing international collaborations due to regulations that have risen due to its implementation.

The CBD is aimed at conserving biological diversity, sustainably using biological components and fair and equitable sharing of benefits (with local or indigenous communities) that may arise out of the utilisation of genetic resources.

India is one of the 196 countries that has committed to the CBD and ratified it in February 1994.

But this has generated unintended consequences for research; due to national-level legislations instituted by countries under the CBD, obtaining field permits for access to specimens for non-commercial research has become increasingly difficult.

It is being suggest that the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture or the Seed Treaty, which ensures worldwide public accessibility of genetic resources of essential food and fodder, could be used as a model for exchange of biological materials for non-commercial research.

Another solution may be to add an explicit treaty or annex in the CBD to promote and facilitate biodiversity research, conservation, and international collaboration. International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture It is popularly known as the International Seed Treaty.

It was adopted by the Thirty-First Session of the Conference of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations on 3 November 2001.

It is a comprehensive international agreement in harmony with the Convention on Biological Diversity, which aims at guaranteeing food security through the conservation, exchange and sustainable use of the world’s plant genetic resources for food and agriculture (PGRFA), as well as the fair and equitable benefit sharing arising from its use.

The Treaty aims at recognizing the enormous contribution of farmers to the diversity of crops that feed the world; establishing a global system to provide farmers, plant breeders and scientists with access to plant genetic materials; Ensuring that recipients share benefits they derive from the use of these genetic materials with the countries where they have been originated.

Vikas Engine is the workhorse liquid rocket engine powering the second stage of India’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), second stage and the four strap on stages of Geosynchronous Launch Vehicle (GSLV) and the twin engine core liquid stage (L110) of GSLV Mk-III

The World Customs Organization (WCO), established in 1952 as the Customs Co-operation Council (CCC) is an independent intergovernmental body whose mission is to enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of Customs administrations. As a forum for dialogue and exchange of experiences between national Customs delegates, the WCO offers its Members a range of Conventions and other international instruments, as well as technical assistance and training services provided either directly by the Secretariat, or with its participation. Besides the vital role played by the WCO in stimulating the growth of legitimate international trade, its efforts to combat fraudulent activities are also recognized internationally. WCO has also been responsible for administering the World Trade Organization’s Agreements on Customs Valuation, which provide a system for placing values on imported goods, and the Rules of Origin, which are used to determine the origin of a given commodity.

Under article 80 of the Constitution, the Council of States (Rajya Sabha) is composed of not more than 250 members, of whom 12 are nominated by the President of India from amongst persons who have special knowledge or practical experience in respect of such matters as literature, science, art and social service.They take part in the proceedings of the House as any other member. They, however, are not entitled to vote in the election of the President of India. But in the election of the Vice-President of India, they have a right to vote. A nominated member is allowed six months, should he decide to join a political party after he has taken his seat in the House in terms of article 99 of the Constitution. A nominated member has also been exempted from filing his assets and liabilities under Section 75A of the Representation of the Peoples Act, 1951 which requires the elected member to do so within 90 days of his making or subscribing oath/affirmation. Under MPLADS, the Nominated Members of the Rajya Sabha may select any Districts from any State in the Country for implementation of their choice of work under the scheme.

Habeas Corpus A writ of Habeas Corpus is used by the courts to find out if a person has been illegally detained. If the answer is yes, the court can order for his release. If a person has been illegally detained, he himself, a friend or even a relative can file a writ of Habeas Corpus. Habeas Corpus is Latin for ‘Let us have the body’ (or, let us see the person who has been illegally detained). Through Habeas Corpus, the court can thus also summon the person detained or imprisoned to the court. To file a Habeas Corpus petition Although generally a petition is to be filed by the person being detained or arrested, as per Habeas Corpus, any other person can do it on behalf of the detained individual. This writ (written petition) can be issued against a public authority or any particular individual.

Mandamus A writ of Mandamus is issued by a higher court to a lower court, tribunal or a public authority to perform an act which such a lower court is bound to perform. If a public official is not performing his duty, the court can order it or him/her to do that. Mandamus means we command. To file a Mandamus petition Mandamus or the ‘we command’ writ can be issued against anyone, including the president or governor of the state, a private person or chief justice. Any individual or a private body can file a writ petition of mandamus, subject to the person/persons having legal rights to do so, in the matter concerned.

Prohibition: A writ of prohibition, also known as a ‘stay order’, is issued to a lower court or a body to stop acting beyond its powers. While a writ of mandamus is issued for any activity that is not legal, the writ of petition is issued against the lower courts, such as magistrates and commissions, for inactivity in the matter of concern. The High Court and Supreme Court can issue the Writ of Prohibition.

Writ of Certiorari: The writ of Certiorari is issued by the Supreme Court to a Lower Court or any other body to transfer a particular matter to the higher courts than itself. The Writ of Certiorari is issued by the high court to the lower courts or tribunal, when an error of jurisdiction or law is believed to be committed. Writ of Certiorari is a curative writ.

Quo Warranto The writ of Quo Warranto (by what warrant) is issued to inquire about the legality of a claim by a person or authority to act in a public office, which he or she is not entitled to. The writ is only for the public offices and does not include private institutions/offices.

A writ can be filed only if your fundamental rights are being violated. Generally, you can file a writ petition against state and government agencies. However, a writ Petition can also be issued against private authorities when they are discharging public functions

Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA) is a statutory body of Ministry of Women & Child Development, Government of India.

It functions as the nodal body for adoption of Indian children and is mandated to monitor and regulate in-country and inter-country adoptions.

CARA is designated as the Central Authority to deal with inter-country adoptions in accordance with the provisions of the Hague Convention on Inter-country Adoption, 1993, ratified by Government of India in 2003.

CARA primarily deals with adoption of orphan, abandoned and surrendered children through its associated /recognised adoption agencies.

Union Home Ministry is planning to create National Database of Arms Licenses system from April 2019. The decision has been taken by exercising powers under Section 44 of the Arms Act, 1959 (54 of 1959) by amending the Arms Rules, 2016. These rules will be called the Arms (Second Amendment) Rules, 2018.

All the arms licence holders, new or old, will be included in a national database of arms licenses system and they will be issued a unique identification number (UIN) as well.

Every licensing and renewing authority will have to enter the data in the National Database of Arms Licenses system, which will generate a UIN, and with effect from April 1, 2019, any arms licence without UIN shall be considered invalid.

Additionally, any existing licensee holding multiple licenses – under Form III – shall on or before April 1 make an application for grant of a single license in respect of all firearms held by him or her under his or her UIN to the concerned licensing authority.

Where the applicant applying for a licence for restricted category of arms or ammunition is also a holder of a licence for permissible category, or where the applicant applying for permissible category of arms or ammunition is also a holder of a licence for restricted category, the licensing authority concerned shall issue a new licence for restricted or permissible category of arms or ammunition under the existing UIN of the licensee.

Separate licence books will be generated in case of each licence, separately for restricted and permissible categories of arms and ammunition with an overall ceiling of three firearms under a single UIN.

Weighing 2.5 ton, BrahMos ALCM is the heaviest weapon to be deployed on India’s Su-30 fighter aircraft. It has been modified by HAL to carry weapons.

It is a world-class weapon with multi-platform, multi-mission role and is capable of being launched from land, sea and air.

BrahMos is a joint venture between the Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO) of India and NPOM of Russia. The name Brahmos has been taken from two rivers – Brahmaputra and Moskva.

The heavyweight missile, integrated with the long-range fighter, is seen as a force multiplier for the IAF. The Brahmos cruise missiles have an effective strike range of around 290-300 km.

The land and warship versions have already been inducted by the armed forces.

The NTRO was created after the 1999 Kargil conflict as a dedicated technical intelligence agency. It reports directly to PMO and National Security Advisor(NSA). It has the right to lawfully intercept and monitor communications externally

Why in news? It has been brought under The Intelligence Organisations (Restriction of Rights) Act, 1985 The Act prevents employees of a notified agency from forming unions/associations, puts restrictions on the employee’s freedom of speech, bars any communication with the press, or publishing a book or other document without the permission of the head of the intelligence organisation.

NISPG has been prepared by MHA, based on experience of existing security standards and frameworks and global best practices and experience of implementation in the wake of expanding information security threat scenario.

It aims at improving information security posture of organization possessing any information, including classified information and does not restrict organizations from adopting additional stringent practices over and above these guidelines. It elaborates baseline information security policy and highlights relevant security concepts and best practices, which government ministries, departments, and organizations must implement to protect their information.

Changes from the past In 2013, cybersecurity, which was the sole preserve of the Home Ministry, was moved to the National Security Council Secretariat (NSCS) under the Prime Minister’s Office. The critical infrastructure was moved to the National Technical Research Organisation and the non-critical part to the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.

What are the other issues with the digital mechanism? There are issues relating to physical security of a computer. Like what happens if the device becomes obsolete? What about the hard disk, will it be destroyed before the computer is discarded? Then there are issues relating to the network as well. If information is riding on own cyber cable, then everything can be encrypted, but if it is riding on a commercially available one, then you will have to make sure that guidelines are complied with Basically, the whole policing system in India that began in 1860 is now being replicated in cyberspace. It will evolve gradually.

The new guidelines will also take care of that. If 50 people are accessing some data, it requires a wider security network. Audit trail has to be left, red flags should be raised. We need to take cognizance of the threats and accordingly upgrade the measures.

The Brus had fled Mizoram in 1997 following an unrest. Multiple efforts have been made since then to repatriate them.

Recently, Union Home Ministry committed to implement the agreement (BRU PACT) signed to repatriate nearly 33,000 Bru refugees, currently living in camps in Tripura, to Mizoram. The Central government will implement the agreement and all the benefits, including cash assistance, would be given to the refugees who abide by it.

As per the agreement, signed by the Central government and the governments of Tripura and Mizoram besides the MBDPF leadership, each of the 5,407 families will get Rs. 5,000 per month along with free ration for two years, besides house-building assistance of Rs. 1.5 lakh.

A one-time financial assistance of Rs. 4 lakh will also be given to each family but the amount will be kept as fixed deposit in the name of the family head. Around 8,000 Bru refugees have gone back to Mizoram since 1997 in six batches and they have been living peacefully in the State.

What is the purpose of a price index? The purpose of a price index is to quantify the overall increase or decrease in prices of several commodities through a single number. The price index is measured at fixed intervals and changes in it are an indicator of average price movement of a fixed basket of goods and services (that represent the entire economy). Thus, price index is reflective of the total change in price level paid by a producer or consumer.

What is ‘Wholesale Price Index’? Wholesale Price Index (WPI) represents the price of goods at a wholesale stage i.e. goods that are sold in bulk and traded between organizations instead of consumers. WPI is used as an important measure of inflation in India. Fiscal and monetary policy changes are greatly influenced by changes in WPI. In India, wholesale price index is divided into three groups:

Primary Articles (20.1% of total weight)
Fuel and Power (14.9%) and
Manufactured Products (65%)
Primary Articles
Food Articles
Non-Food Articles
Minerals
Food Articles from the Primary Articles Group account for 14.3%of the total weight.

Fuel, Power, Light & Lubricants
Coal
Mineral oils
Electricity
Manufactured Products
Food products
Beverages, Tobacco and Tobacco Products
Textiles
Leather and leather products
Wood and wood products
Paper and paper products
Rubber and plastic products
Chemicals & chemical products and
Several others.
The most important components of the Manufactured Products Group are Chemicals and Chemical products (12% of the total weight); Basic Metals, Alloys and Metal Products (10.8%); Machinery and Machine Tools (8.9%); Textiles (7.3%) and Transport, Equipment and Parts (5.2%).

What is Consumer Price Index (CPI)? Consumer Price Indices (CPI) measure changes over time in general level of prices of goods and services that households acquire for the purpose of consumption. It is the index of price prevailing in the retail market. CPI is widely used as a macroeconomic indicator of inflation, as a tool by governments and central banks for inflation targeting and for monitoring price stability, and as deflators in the national accounts. CPI is also used for indexing dearness allowance to employees for increase in prices. CPI is more relevant to the customer, since it measures changes in retail prices. CPI represents basket of essential commodities purchased by average consumer-food, fuel, clothing etc. The number of items in CPI basket include 448 in rural and 460 in urban. Thus, it makes it clear that CPI basket is broader than WPI basket.

Consumer Price Indices (CPI) released at national level are: CPI for Industrial Workers (IW)
CPI for Agricultural Labourers (AL)/ Rural Labourers (RL)

CPI (Rural/Urban/Combined).
While the first two are compiled and released by the Labour Bureau in the Ministry of Labour and Employment, the third by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) in the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation. What is the difference between WPI and CPI inflation? In the Indian context, 5 national indices are accounted for inflation measure that include WPI and other four CPI indices.

WPI based inflation: WPI index reflects average price changes of goods that are bought and sold in the wholesale market. WPI in India is published by the Office of Economic Adviser, Ministry of Commerce and Industry. Further, the data for WPI is monitored and updated on a weekly basis taking into account all the 676 items that form the index. An, important point to take note of is the whole sale price index (WPI) does not includes the cost of services. Further, as WPI accounts for changes in general price level of goods at wholesale level, it fails to communicate actual burden borne by the end consumer. WPI is the primary measure that is used by the Indian central government for ascertaining inflation as WPI in contrast to CPI accounts for changes in price at an early distribution stage.

CPI based inflation: In contrast, CPI is computed by executing a weighted average on a particular set of goods and services. The computation of CPI takes into account price changes and the actual inflation that affects the end consumer. CPI is thus a reflection of changes in the retail pricesof specified goods and services over a time period which are traded by particular consumer group. Note: Current WPI Base year is 2004-05=100. It is worth to note that the base year for CPI is 2012 currently.

Crux: Primary use of WPI is to have inflationary trend in the economy as a whole. However, CPI is used for adjusting income and expenditure streams for changes in the cost of living. WPI is based on wholesale prices for primary articles, administered prices for fuel items and ex-factory prices for manufactured products. On the other hand, CPI is based on retail prices, which include all distribution costs and taxes. Prices for WPI are collected on voluntary basis while price data for CPI are collected by investigators by visiting markets. CPI covers only consumer goods and consumer services while WPI covers all goods including intermediate goods transacted in the economy. WPI weights primarily based on national accounts and enterprise survey data and CPI weights are derived from consumer expenditure survey data.

Does RBI use WPI or CPI Inflation to manage monetary policy? While earlier the Reserve Bank of India used WPI inflation to manage monetary policy expectations, it is now the CPI inflation which is largely taken into account. The RBI highlights its inflation expectations based on the CPI inflation data that comes in. For example, it sets targets on CPI Inflation and monitors it accordingly. Many analysts for long had suggested that the RBI should move to the CPI data vs the WPI data, which had now happened in the last couple of years.

WPI Inflation Vs CPI Inflation: Which should you keep in mind? For the common man it is always better to keep retail inflation which is the CPI or the Consumer Price Inflation number in mind. It is a better measurement of what is largely happening with consumer prices. WPI inflation on the other hand is better known to individuals who track the wholesale prices and is of better significance to them. In any case both are a measure of inflation.

State Governments and UT Administrations will be advised to constitute a Committee to examine the cases. State Governments will place the recommendations of the Committee before Governor for consideration and approval under Article 161 of the Constitution. After the approval, the prisoners will be released.

What you need to know? Article 161: Article 161 deals with Power of Governor to grant pardons, etc, and to suspend, remit or commute sentences in certain cases. It states, the Governor of a State shall have the power to grant pardons, reprieves, respites or remissions of punishment or to suspend, remit or commute the sentence of any person convicted of any offence against any law relating to a matter to which the executive power of the State extends.

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN PARDONING POWERS OF PRESIDENT AND GOVERNOR: The scope of the pardoning power of the President under Article 72 is wider than the pardoning power of the Governor under Article 161. The power differs in the following two ways: The power of the President to grant pardon extends in cases where the punishment or sentence is by a Court Martial but Article 161 does not provide any such power to the Governor. The President can grant pardon in all cases where the sentence given is sentence of death but pardoning power of Governor does not extend to death sentence cases.

Way ahead: The process of granting pardon is simpler but because of the lethargy of the government and political considerations, disposal of mercy petitions is delayed. Therefore, there is an urgent need to make amendment in law of pardoning to make sure that clemency petitions are disposed quickly. There should be a fixed time limit for deciding on clemency pleas

The Bill amends the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009. The Act was having provision of no detention policy i.e. no child can be held back in any class until completion of elementary school (classes 1-8). The Bill amends provision related to no detention policy in the parent Act to empower central or state government to allow schools to hold back child in class 5, class 8, or in both classes. It mandates conducting, regular examination in class 5 and class 8 at end of every academic year.

In case, child fails class 5, class 8 examinations, he will be given additional instruction and opportunity for a re-examination (within two months from the declaration of the result). If child fails again in re-examination, he may be held back in class 5, class 8, or in both classes. The Bill empowers Union and State governments to decide whether to not hold back child in any class till completion of elementary education. Further, Union or State governments will decide manner and conditions subject to which child may be held back.

What is no detention policy? According to this provision “no child admitted in a school shall be held back in any class”. This translates into automatic promotions to the next class every year until Class VII. Instead of exams, schools are supposed to hold Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluations (CCE) for every child.

Criticism: The provision had attracted criticism with several states and schools complaining that it compromised on academic rigour and learning levels and quality at schools. The TSR Subramanian committee for formulation of the National Policy on Education has also suggested that ‘no detention’ policy should be discontinued after Class V. It had recommended restoration of detention provision, remedial coaching and two extra chances to each student such to move to a higher class. A sub-committee of the Central Advisory Board of Education also studied the issue closely and recommended a provisional detention clause at Classes V and VIII. In 2013, a parliamentary panel had also asked the ministry to ‘rethink’ on its “policy of automatic promotion up to Class VIII”.

NITI Aayog’s Women Entrepreneurship Platform(WEP) and Shri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC), Office of International Programmes (OIP) University of Delhi, had jointly organised a Two-Day International conference on “Empowering Women: Fostering Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Sustainability”.

About the Women Entrepreneurship Platform: Aim: The initiative is aimed at building an ecosystem for women across India to realize their entrepreneurial aspirations, scale-up innovative initiatives and chalk-out sustainable, long-term strategies for their businesses. This will be done through an enabling network of industry collaborations, partnerships, mentors and peer-to-peer connect.

What it does? From providing unique services such as credit evaluation of women-led startups by CRISIL and potential equity investments through an INR 10 crore fund established by DICE Districts, the WEP opens up avenues of growth and opportunity for women entrepreneurs.

Need for economic empowerment of women: Economically empowered women are major catalysts for development. There is greater recognition of the positive relationship between increased economic activity by women and improved social outcomes. Women often tend to reinvest their income in their children’s education, health and nutrition. This has a positive impact on the potential for economic growth.

The IUGS is an international non-governmental organization devoted to international cooperation in the field of geology.

It is a Scientific Union member of the International Council for Science (ICSU), which it recognizes as the coordinating body for the international organization of science.

IUGS promotes and encourages the study of geological problems, especially those of worldwide significance, and supports and facilitates international and interdisciplinary cooperation in the earth sciences.

IUGS is a joint partner with UNESCO for the International Geoscience Programme (IGCP) and they also participate in the Global Network of National Geoparks (GGN).

Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) has announced ‘Padhe Bharat- Badhe Bharat’ an initiative to promote reading culture among students. The initiative has been launched under ‘Samagra Shiksha’.

About ‘Padhe Bharat- Badhe Bharat’: Under this initiative, government will give an annual library grant to schools to allow students widen their ambit of learning. The grant will be given to Primary to Senior Secondary levels and will vary between Rs. 5000 and Rs. 20000.

About Samagra Shiksha scheme: ‘Samagra Shiksha’ is an overarching programme for school education extending from Primary till class 12. The programme was introduced in the Union Budget 2018-19 with the aim to treat school education holistically without segmentation of primary and secondary education. This programme subsumes the three erstwhile Centrally Sponsored Schemes of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) and Teacher Education (TE). It envisages the ‘school’ as a continuum from pre-school, primary, upper primary, secondary to senior secondary levels.

The major interventions, across all levels of school education, under the scheme are:
Universal Access including Infrastructure Development and Retention.
Gender and Equity, Inclusive Education.
Financial support for Teacher Salary.
Digital initiatives.
Entitlements under the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009 including uniforms, textbooks etc.
Pre-school, Vocational and Sports and Physical Education.
Strengthening of Teacher Education and Training.
Monitoring and Programme Management.

Major changes suggested in the PC Act, 1988 as reported by the Rajya Sabha Select Committee, 2016 include:

Giving a bribe as punishable offence: The Bill introduces the offence of ‘giving a bribe’ as a direct offence. However,

a person who is compelled to give a bribe will not be charged with the offence if he reports the matter to law enforcement authorities within seven days.

Redefining the Criminal misconduct: The Bill redefines the provisions related to criminal misconduct to only cover two types of offences: (i) fraudulent misappropriation of property; and (ii) illicit enrichment (such as amassing of assets disproportionate to one’s known sources of income).

Prior approval for investigation alleged to have been committed by a Public Servant: Before a police officer conducts any investigation into an offence alleged to have been committed by a public servant, prior approval of the relevant government or competent authority should be taken. Such approval would not be necessary in cases which involves the arrest of a person on the spot on the charge of taking a bribe.

Time limit for trial of cases: As per the Bill, trial by special judge should be completed within two years. If not, reasons for the delay must be recorded, for every six months of extension of time obtained. However, the total period for completion of trial may not exceed four years.

Background: The amendment to the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 was necessitated from the obligation of India to review the existing provisions of the Act so as to bring it in line with the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC).

The Lok Sabha has passed the Fugitive Economic Offenders Bill, which aims to deter fugitive economic offenders from evading the legal process by fleeing the country and remaining outside the jurisdiction of Indian courts.

Highlights of the Bill:
The Bill aims to curb the practice of evading the criminal prosecution by the economic offenders who flee from the country to stay out of the jurisdiction of Indian courts.
The Bill will give the right to the government to confiscate the property of such economic offenders in India and abroad. The Bill will also be applicable on the proxy-owned properties of the economic offenders.
The Bill defines the economic offenders as those against whom a legal warrant has been issued, but they refuse to adhere to the summons of the legal authorities.
The law balances itself with a provision that allows the accused to file an appeal in the High Court to state their case.
The Bill keeps the banks and other financial institutions at the Centre and seeks to help them recover the amount. The Bill will only be used for economic offences over Rs 100 crores.
The Bill makes provisions for a Court (‘Special Court’ under the Prevention of Money-laundering Act, 2002) to declare a person as a Fugitive Economic Offender.

Significance of the Bill:
The Bill is expected to re-establish the rule of law with respect to the fugitive economic offenders as they would be forced to return to India to face trial for scheduled offences.
This would also help the banks and other financial institutions to achieve higher recovery from financial defaults committed by such fugitive economic offenders, improving the financial health of such institutions.
It is expected that the special forum to be created for expeditious confiscation of the proceeds of crime, in India or abroad, would coerce the fugitive to return to India to submit to the jurisdiction of Courts in India to face the law in respect of scheduled offences.

Need for a law in this regard:
There have been several instances of economic offenders fleeing the jurisdiction of Indian courts, anticipating the commencement, or during the pendency, of criminal proceedings. The absence of such offenders from Indian courts has several deleterious consequences— first, it hampers investigation in criminal cases; second, it wastes precious time of courts of law; third, it undermines the rule of law in India.

Who is a fugitive economic offender?
A Fugitive Economic Offender is a person who has an arrest warrant issued in respect of a scheduled offence and who leaves or has left India so as to avoid criminal prosecution, or refuses to return to India to face criminal prosecution.

The National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) is the implementation wing of National Ganga Council which was set up in October 2016 under the River Ganga (Rejuvenation, Protection and Management) Authorities order 2016. The order dissolved National Ganga River Basin Authority.

NMCG has a two tier management structure and comprises of Governing Council and Executive Committee. Both of them are headed by Director General, NMCG. Executive Committee has been authorized to accord approval for all projects up to Rs.1000 crore.

The order envisages five tier structure at national, state and district level to take measures for prevention, control and abatement of environmental pollution in river Ganga and to ensure continuous adequate flow of water so as to rejuvenate the river Ganga as below:

National Ganga Council under chairmanship of Hon’ble Prime Minister of India.
Empowered Task Force (ETF) on river Ganga under chairmanship of Hon’ble Union Minister of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation.
National Mission for Clean Ganga(NMCG).
State Ganga Committees.
District Ganga Committees in every specified district abutting river Ganga and its tributaries in the states.

The road transport and highways ministry has proposed to make FASTags and vehicle tracking systems mandatory for commercial vehicles seeking a national permit.

As per the proposal, the vehicles will have to carry a sticker on the front wind screen confirming presence of the FASTag. FASTags are cards launched by National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) to allow cashless payment of toll fee and facilitate near non-stop movement of vehicles through toll plazas.

It employs RFID technology for making toll payments directly from the prepaid account linked to it. The draft amendments to the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 has already been issued by the ministry and the same will have to be cleared by parliament.

“The proposed amendment also provides that no fitness certification will be required at the time of registration for new transport vehicles sold as fully-built vehicles,” a statement from the ministry said.

It has also been proposed that fitness certificates of transport vehicles will be renewed for a two years for vehicles up to eight years old, and for one year for vehicles older than eight years.”

The government has also proposed that driving licence and ‘pollution under control’ certificate can be carried in either physical or digital form.

Located in Gujarat’s Patan, the 900-year-old structure is a major tourist attraction, a UNESCO World Heritage site, and was awarded as the cleanest iconic place in India in 2016. It is located on the banks of Saraswati River.

Who built it? It was built by the Solanki dynasty’s queen Udayamati in the 11th century as a memorial to her deceased husband Bhimdev I.

Architectural significance: Rani-ki-Vav was built in the complex Maru-Gurjara architectural style. It highlights the sanctity of water as it is designed as an inverted temple under the earth’s surface. The central theme is the Dasavataras, or ten incarnations of Vishnu, including Buddha. The avatars are accompanied by sadhus, brahmins, and apsaras (celestial dancers).

“In the context of this report, modern slavery covers a set of specific legal concepts including forced labour, debt bondage, forced marriage, slavery and slavery-like practices, and human trafficking”.

It is published by the Australia-based human rights group Walk Free Foundation.

The index estimates that on any given day in 2016 there were nearly 8 million people living in “modern slavery” in India — a claim strongly contested by the government on the grounds that its parameters were poorly defined and too wide-ranging

North Korea is at the top of the list with 104.6 per 1,000 and Japan registering the lowest prevalence rate of 0.3 per 1,000.

10th edition of the Delhi Dialogue (DD X) was held in New Delhi. This is the first major event to be organized after the ASEAN-India Commemorative Summit

It is a premier annual track 1.5 event to discuss politico-security, economic and socio-cultural engagement between India and ASEAN. It has been held annually since 2009 and political leaders, policy makers, senior officials, diplomats, think tanks and academicians from both sides participate in the discussions pertaining to ASEAN-India relations. It is aimed at finding a common ground and expanding the scope of cooperation between India and ASEAN nations.

Ministry of New and renewable Energy (MNRE) has drawn a scheme to set up number of solar parks across various states in the country, each with a capacity of Solar Projects generally above 500 MW.

The Scheme proposes to provide financial support by Government of India to establish solar parks with an aim to facilitate creation of infrastructure necessary for setting up new solar power projects in terms of allocation of land, transmission and evacuation lines, access roads, availability of water and others, in a focused manner.

As per the policy, these solar parks will be developed in collaboration with the State Governments. The implementation agency would be Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) on behalf of Government of India (GOI). The states shall designate a nodal agency for implementation of the solar park.

A solar park is a concentrated zone of development of solar power generation projects and provides developers an area that is well characterized, with proper infrastructure and access to amenities and where the risk of the projects can be minimized.

At the state level, the solar park will enable the states to bring in significant investment from project developers in Solar Power sector, to meet its Solar Purchase Obligation (SPO) mandates and provide employment opportunities to local population.

Hotel industry GST To be charged on Transaction Value and Not On Declared Tariff.

E-Books- GST on supply of e-books has been reduced from 18 to 5%

Composite supply of multimodal transportation Prescribe GST rate of 12% with full ITC under forward charge

Fabric Manufacturer- Refund of accumulated credit on account of inverted duty structure to fabric manufacturers. Earlier Fabrics attract GST at the rate of 5% subject to the condition that refund of accumulated ITC on account of inversion will not be allowed.

Quarterly filing of return- for the small taxpayers having turnover below Rs. 5 Cr as an optional facility.

NIL return filers- (no purchase and no sale) shall be given facility to file return by sending SMS.

Composition Scheme- Turnover limit Increased from Rs. 1 crore to Rs. 1.5 crore.

Composition dealers to be allowed to supply services- (other than restaurant services), for upto a value not exceeding 10% of turnover in the preceding financial year, or Rs. 5 lakhs, whichever is higher.

If Payment Not Made in 180 Days From Date Of Invoice- ITC availed by the recipient will be reversed, but liability to pay interest is Removed

Consolidated credit/debit notes in respect of multiple invoices issued in a Financial Year can be raised

Supply of services to qualify as exports-, even if payment is received in Indian Rupees, where permitted by the RBI.

Transactions Not to be treated as Supply and therefore no Tax (under Schedule III):

Scope of input tax credit is being widened- , and it would now be made available in respect of the following:

Parliamentary privileges are certain rights and immunities enjoyed by members of Parliament, individually and collectively, so that they can “effectively discharge their functions”. When any of these rights and immunities are disregarded, the offence is called a breach of privilege and is punishable under law of Parliament.

Who can move it? How? A notice is moved in the form of a motion by any member of either House against those being held guilty of breach of privilege. Each House also claims the right to punish as contempt actions which, while not breach of any specific privilege, are offences against its authority and dignity.

What are the rules governing privilege? Rule No 222 in Chapter 20 of the Lok Sabha Rule Book and correspondingly Rule 187 in Chapter 16 of the Rajya Sabha rulebook governs privilege. It says that a member may, with the consent of the Speaker or the Chairperson, raise a question involving a breach of privilege either of a member or of the House or of a committee thereof. The rules however mandate that any notice should be relating to an incident of recent occurrence and should need the intervention of the House. Notices have to be given before 10 am to the Speaker or the Chairperson.

What is the role of the Speaker/Rajya Sabha Chair? The Speaker/RS chairperson is the first level of scrutiny of a privilege motion. The Speaker/Chair can decide on the privilege motion himself or herself or refer it to the privileges committee of Parliament. If the Speaker/Chair gives consent under Rule 222, the member concerned is given an opportunity to make a short statement.

What is the privileges committee? In the Lok Sabha, the Speaker nominates a committee of privileges consisting of 15 members as per respective party strengths. A report is then presented to the House for its consideration. The Speaker may permit a half-hour debate while considering the report. The Speaker may then pass final orders or direct that the report be tabled before the House. A resolution may then be moved relating to the breach of privilege that has to be unanimously passed. In the Rajya Sabha, the deputy chairperson heads the committee of privileges, that consists of 10 members.

Punishment for bribe-taking enhanced: Minimum punishment of 3 yrs, extendable up to 7 yrs with fine; from the earlier 6 months, with extension up to 3 yrs.

‘Undue Advantage’ expanded: The earlier limited definition of “undue advantage” expanded to now include “anything other than legal remuneration”.

Gifts criminalised: Gifts received for established undue advantage/mala-fide motive are now considered an act of corruption.

Collusive bribe-givers criminalised:For the first time, the giving of bribe has now been made a direct offence on par with taking of bribe. At the same time, protection has been built-in against coercive bribery, as long as the victim comes forward within 7 days.

Corporate bribery criminalised: Superiors to be held if employee/agent has bribed with their approval, for advancement of the organisation’s interests.

Immediate forfeiture: Law enforcement empowered for immediate attachment & forfeiture of illegal property of a public servant, invoking provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

Timely trial mandated: To conclude the investigation and trial within 2 yrs, extendable up to 4 yrs.

National Culture Fund (NCF) was set up as a Trust under the Charitable Endowment Act, 1890 in November 1996 by the Government, with a view to mobilize extra resources through Public Private Partnerships.

The National Culture Fund is managed and administered by a council headed by Hon’ble Culture Minister to decide the policies and an Executive Committee headed by Secretary, Culture to actualize those policies.

The Fund aims at inviting the participation of the corporate sector, non-government organizations, private/public sector as well as individuals in the task of promoting, protecting and preserving India’s cultural heritage.

All the projects undertaken by the NCF are completed within a specified period, in accordance with an MoU signed by NCF with the concerned donor organization.

The donations/contributions to NCF are eligible for 100% tax deduction under the Income Tax Act, 1961 subject to the limits and conditions prescribed in the said Section and relevant Rules

What are Border Haats? They are market places organised by the two countries one day each week. It is not only a market for buying daily commodities but also a reunion spot for families living on both sides. Aim: The border haats aim at promoting the wellbeing of the people dwelling in remote areas across the borders of two countries, by establishing traditional system of marketing the local produce through local markets.

Negotiable Instruments (Amendment) Bill, 2017 Interim compensation: The Bill inserts new Section 143 A in parent Act to allow court trying offence related to cheque bouncing to direct drawer (person who writes cheque) to pay interim compensation to complainant. This compensation may be paid under certain circumstances, including where drawer pleads not guilty of accusation. It will not exceed 20% of cheque amount and will be paid by drawer within 60 days of trial court’s order to pay such compensation. Deposit in case of appeal: The Bill inserts another new Section 148-A in the parent act specifying that if drawer convicted in cheque bouncing case files appeal, appellate court may direct him to deposit minimum of 20% of fine or compensation awarded by trial court during conviction. This amount will be in addition to any interim compensation paid by drawer during earlier trial proceedings. Returning interim compensation: In case drawer is acquitted during trial or by appellate court, then court will direct complainant to return interim compensation (or deposit in case of an appeal case), along with interest. This amount will be repaid within 60 days of court’s order.

NCTE amendment Bill passed

Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana

Initiative to strengthen cybersecurity ecosystem in India in line Government’s vision for a ‘Digital India’.

It was launched in association with National e-Governance Division (NeGD) and industry partners.

Cyber Surakshit Bharat is first public-private partnership of its kind. It will leverage the expertise of the IT industry in cybersecurity.

The founding artners include leading IT companies such as Microsoft, Intel, WIPRO, Redhat and Dimension Data. Its knowledge partners include Cert-In, NIC, NASSCOM and FIDO Alliance and premier consultancy firms Deloitte and EY.

Objective: Spread awareness about cybercrime and building capacity for safety measures for Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) and frontline IT staff across all government departments

To appreciate the socially bold step, of an Inter-caste marriage, taken by the newly married couple and to extend financial incentive to the couple to enable them to settle down in the initial phase of their married life.

It is clarified that it should not be construed as a supplementary scheme to an employment generation or poverty alleviation scheme.

An Inter-caste marriage, for the purpose of this Scheme means a marriage in which one of the spouses belongs to Scheduled Caste and the other belongs to a Non-Scheduled Caste.

The marriage should be valid as per the law and duly registered under the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955. An affidavit of their being legally married and in matrimonial alliance would be submitted by the couple.

No incentive is available on second or subsequent marriage.

Proposal would be treated as valid if submitted within one year of marriage.

The total annual income of the newly married couple, both put together, should not be more than Rs. 5 lakh.

Invest India is the National Investment Promotion and Facilitation Agency of India and acts as the first point of reference for investors in India.

Invest India is set up as a non profit venture under the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, Ministry of Commerce and Industries, Government of India.

A joint venture: Operationalized in early 2010, Invest India is set up as a joint venture company between the Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion (DIPP), Ministry of Commerce & Industry (35% equity), Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) (51% equity), and State Governments of India (0.5% each).

Functions: The core mandate of Invest India is investment promotion and facilitation. It provides sector-specific and state-specific information to a foreign investor, assists in expediting regulatory approvals, and offers hand-holding services. Its mandate also includes assisting Indian investors to make informed choices about investment opportunities overseas.

POSHAN Abhiyaan (National Nutrition Mission) was launched by the Hon’ble Prime Minister on 8thMarch, 2018 in Jhunjhunu, Rajasthan.

Targets: The Abhiyaan targets to reduce stunting, under-nutrition, anemia (among young children, women and adolescent girls) and reduce low birth weight by 2%, 2%, 3% and 2% per annum respectively. The target of the mission is to bring down stunting among children in the age group 0-6 years from 38.4% to 25% by 2022.

National Anti-Trafficking Bureau: The Bill provides for the establishment of a National Anti-Trafficking Bureau to investigate trafficking cases and implement provisions of the Bill. The Bureau will comprise of police officers, and any other officers as required. It may take over the investigation of any offence under the Bill, that has been referred to it by two or more states. Further, the Bureau may: (i) request the state government to co-operate in the investigation, or (ii) transfer the case to the state government for investigation and trial, with approval from the central government.

Functions of the Bureau: Key functions of the Bureau include: (i) coordinating and monitoring surveillance along known routes, (ii) facilitating surveillance, enforcement and preventive steps at source, transit and destination points, (iii) maintaining coordination between law enforcement agencies and non-governmental organisations and other stakeholders, and (iv) increasing international cooperation with authorities abroad for intelligence sharing, and mutual legal assistance.

State Anti-Trafficking Officers: Under the Bill, the state government will appoint a State Nodal Officer. He will be responsible for: (i) follow up action under the Bill, as per the instructions of the State Anti-Trafficking Committee, and (ii) providing relief and rehabilitation services. The state government will also appoint a Police Nodal Officer at the state and district levels. The state government will also designate Anti-Trafficking Police Officers for each district, to deal with all matters related to trafficking in the district.

Anti-Trafficking Units: The Bill also provides for the setting up of Anti-Trafficking Units (ATUs) at the district level. ATUs will deal with the prevention, rescue, and protection of victims and witnesses, and for the investigation and prosecution of trafficking offences. In districts where an ATU is not functional, this responsibility will be taken up by the local police station.

Anti-Trafficking Relief and Rehabilitation Committee: The Bill provides for the establishment of Anti-Trafficking Relief and Rehabilitation Committees (ATCs) at the national, state, and district levels. These Committees will be responsible for: (i) providing compensation to victims, (ii) repatriation of victims, and (iii) re-integration of victims in society, among others.

Search and rescue: An Anti-Trafficking Police Officer or an ATU can rescue persons, if there is an imminent danger to them. They will be produced before a Magistrate or Child Welfare Committee for medical examination. The district ATC will provide relief and rehabilitation services to the rescued persons.

Protection and rehabilitation: The Bill requires the central or state government to set up Protection Homes. These would provide shelter, food, counselling, and medical services to victims. Further, the central or state government will maintain Rehabilitation Homes in each district, to provide long-term rehabilitation to the victims. Rehabilitation of victims will not be dependent on criminal proceedings being initiated against the accused, or the outcome of the proceedings. The central government will also create a Rehabilitation Fund, which will be used to set up these Protection and Rehabilitation Homes.

Time-bound trial: The Bill provides for setting up designated courts in each district, which will seek to complete trial within a year.

Penalties: The Bill specifies the penalties for various offences including for (i) trafficking of persons, (ii) promoting trafficking, (iii) disclosing the identity of the victim, and (iv) aggravated trafficking (such as trafficking for bonded labour and begging). For example, aggravated trafficking will be punishable with rigorous imprisonment of 10 years up to life imprisonment, along with a minimum fine of one lakh rupees. Further, the publishing of any material which may lead to the trafficking of a person will be punishable with imprisonment between five and 10 years, and a fine between Rs 50,000 and one lakh rupees.

Theme: “BRICS in Africa: Collaboration for Inclusive Growth and Shared Prosperity in the 4th Industrial Revolution”. The theme is intended to align and ensure strategic continuity with the approved themes for South Africa’s Chairship of both the South African Development Community (SADC) and the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA).

The new areas of BRICS cooperation as proposed by South Africa, are as follows: Establishment of a Working Group on Peacekeeping. Establishment of a Vaccine Research Centre for Collaboration with BRICS vaccine innovation and development partners – this is intended to be a physical research centre focused on research and development and vaccine innovation. Establishment of a BRICS Gender and Women’s Forum – intended as a dedicated track for gender and women’s issues, given the economic benefit to be derived from the socio-economic empowerment of women, particularly in developing countries. Establishment of a BRICS Tourism Track of Cooperation.

What is BRICS? BRICS is an acronym for the grouping of the world’s leading emerging economies, namely Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. Summits: The BRICS Leaders’ Summit is convened annually with discussions representing spheres of political and socio-economic coordination, in which member countries have identified several business opportunities, economic complementarities and areas of cooperation. Chairship: The Chairship of the forum is rotated annually among the members, in accordance with the acronym B-R-I-C-S. Over and above the summit, BRICS cooperation in the past decade has expanded to include an annual programme of over 100 sectoral meetings. Cooperation among members is predicated on three levels or “tracks” of interaction, namely: Track I: Formal diplomatic engagement between the national governments. Track II: Engagement through government-affiliated institutions, e.g. state-owned enterprises and business councils. Track III: Civil society and “people-to-people” engagement.

Facts for Prelims: The First BRIC Summit was held in June 2009 in Yekaterinburg, Russia. The Ninth BRICS Summit was held in Xiamen, China under the theme “BRICS: Stronger Partnership for a Brighter Future”. The leaders built on achievements already made with a share vision for future development of BRICS, discussed international and regional issues of common concern and adopted the Xiamen Declaration.

FDI Confidence Index: The AT Kearney Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) Confidence Index, created in 1998, is an annual survey of the business executives that ranks countries which are likely to attract the most FDI in the next three years. The Index is calculated as a weighted average of the number of low, medium and high responses to questions on the possibility of making a direct investment in a market over the next three years.

Global performers: The United States (US) topped the index, followed by Canada at 2nd and Germany at the 3rd place. China falls three spots to 5th place this year, the lowest ranking of the country in the history of the Index. Switzerland and Italy entered the top 10 for the first time in more than a decade, pushing out India and Singapore to 11th and 12th spots, respectively. Only four emerging markets appear among the top 25 countries for FDI intentions- China, India, Mexico and Brazil. The newcomers to the Index are all European countries- Denmark (20th), Portugal (22nd) and Norway (23rd). The countries, that appeared on the 2017 Index but do not appear this year, are all emerging markets: Thailand, the United Arab Emirates and South Africa.

Performance of India: India was ranked 11th, down from 8th in 2017 and 9th in 2016. Fall in India’s rankings may be due to teething troubles in implementation of goods and services tax (GST) and Government’s demonetisation decision in 2016. These policies may have deterred investors in the short term as they have disrupted business activity and weighed on economic growth Several of India’s reforms such as removing Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) and liberalising FDI limits in key sectors such as retail, aviation, and biomedical industries have maintained India’s high rankings in terms of FDI attractiveness.

About InnovateIndia portal: Aim: It aims to serve as the common point for all the innovation happening across the nation. How? It creates the much-needed innovations platform for registering both grassroots and deep-tech innovators at a national level. Those searching for a critical innovation can leverage the portal advantageously for the benefit of the economy as well as national social needs.”

Some of the features of this platform are: The platform is open to all Indian citizens. The users can View, comment, share, and rate the innovations crowdsourced on the #InnovateIndia platform. View the leaderboard which is calculated based on the votes on each innovation. Citizens can share their/organizations/someone else’s innovation on the platform by login to the MyGov website. These innovations can also be shared on various social media platforms such as WhatsApp, Facebook, and Twitter.

Significance of the portal: India has been a very innovation-oriented society, but our challenge has been a structured approach to innovation, capturing them and building an ecosystem to take them global. The new initiative to capture and support innovation from ground up, is aimed at creating a structured ecosystem to encourage, enhance and develop India’s innovative character.

About AIM: The Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) is the Government of India’s flagship initiative to promote a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship in the country.

AIM is mandated to create an umbrella structure to oversee innovation ecosystem of the country and revolutionizing the innovation eco-system – touching upon the entire innovation life cycle through various programs.

It is Asia’s highest honour and is often regarded as the region’s equivalent of the Nobel Prize.

It was established in 1957 by trustees of the New York City based Rockefeller Brothers Fund and Philippine government in the memory of Philippines’ third President Ramon Magsaysay.

It is awarded annually to individuals or organizations from Asia region for their altruistic and philanthropic service.

It carries Medallion bearing the likeness of the late President Ramon Magsaysay, cash prize and a certificate.

The Union Government gave its approval for establishment of the Clean Ganga Fund (CGF). The following broad activities will be financed from the Fund:

Any other activity as approved by the Trust.

The main features of CGF are:

In first of its kind event held by any government organization, the Indian Railways organized a programme on Ethics in Public Governance and Launched “Mission Satyanishtha” at a daylong event held at National Rail Museum, New Delhi, today i.e. 27.07.2018. Sh. Piyush Goyal, Minister of Finance & Corporate Affairs, Railways & Coal, administered the oath to the officers and supervisors at the programme.

Speaking on the occasion, Shri Piyush Goyal said “People define an organization and an organization defines its people, hence, work culture has to be improved and transparency brought about, data should be displayed on public domains so as to get constructive feedbacks from the users”. He further added “Lack of interest towards work in any system, may be termed as unethical amounting to corruption”.

Earlier in the day, Sh. Ashwani Lohani, Chairman, Railway Board inaugurated the event and introduced the subject to the participants. The Senior Officers and Staff members of Railways also participated in the event. The event was webcast live to all Zonal, Divisional and Production Units from the National Rail Museum.

The issue of Ethics, Integrity and probity in public life have been a matter of concern all over the government sector. In this context it is also extremely important that all railway servants adhere to impeccable conduct and integrity at all times. “Mission Satyanishtha” launched on 27th July 2018 aims at sensitizing all railway employees about the need to adhere to good ethics and to maintain high standards of integrity at work. Talks and Lectures on the subject are being organised all over the Indian Railways today for this purpose. The objectives of the Mission are:

To train every employee to understand the need and value of ethics in Personal and Public life.
To deal with ethical dilemmas in life and Public Governance.
To help understand the policies of Indian Railways on ethics and integrity and the employee’s role in upholding the same.
To develop inner governance through tapping inner resources.

Union Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has given her nod for the ‘acceptance of necessity for the acquisition of the National Advanced Surface to Air Missile System-II’.

Details :

NASAMS is owned by seven countries and has been integrated into the US’ National Capital Region’s air defense system since 2005.

In addition to the US, it is in service in Norway, Finland, Spain, The Netherlands and one undisclosed country.

It is also currently in production for Oman.

The National Advanced Surface to Air Missile System-II is the same system that is being used by the US for protecting Washington DC since 2005.

On the other hand, India is still relying on Russia missile systems to protect Delhi.

In addition to the missile shield, Indian defence establishment is also reworking on the strategies to protect the National Capital in event of an enemy attack.

The National Register of Citizens (NRC) is the list of Indian citizens of Assam.

Details :

The United Nations World Day against Trafficking in Persons is observed across the world on 30 July .

On this day, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) launched the campaign #igivehope to show victims of human trafficking.

The day aims at raising awareness of the plight of human trafficking victims, and promoting and protecting their rights.

In 2013, the General Assembly held a high-level meeting to appraise the Global Plan of Action. Member States also adopted resolution A/RES/68/192 and designated July 30 as the World Day against Trafficking in Persons.

Human trafficking is the trade of humans, most commonly for the purpose of sexual slavery, forced labour, or commercial sexual exploitation for the trafficker or others.

This may include providing a spouse in the context of forced marriage or the extraction of organs or tissues.

Human trafficking can occur within a country or trans-nationally.

It is a crime against the person because of the violation of the victim's rights of movement through coercion and because of their commercial exploitation.

It is thought to be one of the fastest-growing activities of trans-national criminal organizations.

The forthcoming UNODC Global Report on Trafficking in Persons 2016 identifies a clear pattern linking undocumented migration to trafficking in persons.

The UNODC report highlights the links between human trafficking and refugee flows from countries including Syria and Eritrea, and involving Rohingya refugees from Myanmar and Bangladesh.

The draft bill notes that “the right to privacy is a fundamental right and it is necessary to protect personal data as an essential facet of informational privacy.”

The bill also notes that it is necessary to create trust between the individual who provide their data and those who process this.

On the right to be forgotten, the bill notes that that ‘data principal’ which means the individual or the person providing their data, has a right to “right to restrict or prevent continuing disclosure.” But the bill does not allow for a right of total erasure like the European Union does.

It also gives a data processor considerable leeway when it comes to deciding on this ‘right to be forgotten.’ The bill notes that “the data fiduciary may charge a reasonable fee to be paid for complying with requests.”

The Bill also calls for privacy by design on part of data processors, and defines terms like consent, data breach, sensitive data, etc.

Data Protection Authority of India (DPA): It proposes setting up of a DPA, an independent regulatory body responsible for the enforcement and effective implementation of the law, consisting of a chairperson and six full-time members.

In case of any appeal against an order of the DPA, an appellate tribunal should be established or an existing appellate tribunal should be granted powers to hear and dispose of any appeal.

Highlights of the Bill: Punishment: It provides for stringent punishment including death penalty for those convicted of raping girls below the age of 12 years. The minimum punishment in case of rape of women has been increased from rigorous imprisonment of seven years to 10 years, extendable to life imprisonment. In case of rape of a girl under 16 years, the minimum punishment has been increased from 10 years to 20 years, extendable to imprisonment for rest of life, which means jail term till the convicts’ “natural life”. The punishment for gang rape of a girl below 16 years will invariably be imprisonment for the rest of life of the convict. Stringent punishment for rape of a girl under 12 years has been provided with the minimum jail term being 20 years which may go up to life in prison or death sentence. Gang rape of a girl under 12 years of age will invite punishment of jail term for the rest of life or death.

Speedy investigation: The measure also provides for speedy investigations and trial. The time limit for investigation of all cases of rape has been prescribed, which has to be mandatorily completed within two months. The deadline for the completion of trial in all rape cases will be two months. A six-month time limit for the disposal of appeals in rape cases has also been prescribed.

Bail related provisions: There will also be no provision for anticipatory bail for a person accused of rape or gang rape of a girl under 16 years. It has also been prescribed that a court has to give notice of 15 days to a public prosecutor and the representative of the victim before deciding bail applications in case of rape of a girl under 16 years of age.

Need for a stringent law: The number of reported cases of rapes of children increased in India by 82% in 2016 compared to 2015. A climate of violence, social and economic insecurity, alienation, and a progressive undermining of the status of women and children seem to have given an impetus to carry out crimes against women and children. Therefore, the legal system must give a clear signal that we as a nation consider the rape of children below the age of 12 as among the most heinous of offences. Making such crimes punishable by capital punishment certainly gives such a signal.

Over the last one and a half decade, the Central Road Fund (CRF) was a major revenue for the government to finance ambitious road projects. The CRF launched in 2000 is basically a cess imposed along with excise duty on petrol and diesel. The cess revenue was accrued to the CRF which was uniquely created and out of this major road projects were financed ever since its launch.

Conversion of CRF into Central Road and Infrastructure Fund (CRIF): The budget 2018 has amended the Central Road Fund Act, 2000, and has renamed the Central Road Fund as Central Road and Infrastructure Fund (CRIF). Main purpose of the amendment is to use the proceeds of the road cess under CRIF to finance other infrastructure projects including waterways, some portion of the railway infrastructure and even social infrastructure including education institutions, medical colleges etc.

The amendment prescribes that road cess is first credited to the Consolidated Fund of India and later, after adjusting for the cost of tax collection, should go to the CRIF. As per the amendment, the share for each infrastructure areas and projects from the CRIF shall be finalised by a Committee, constituted by the Central government. The Committee will be headed by the Finance Minister.

Who is a D-voter? Short for ‘dubious’ or ‘doubtful, this is a category of voters disenfranchised by the government for alleged lack of proper citizenship documents. Some 2.48 lakh people got the D-voter tag during NRC process

Who is a declared foreigner? D-voters are tried by special tribunals under the Foreigners’ Act and if they fail to defend their citizenship claim they are marked as declared foreigners and sent to any of six detention camps, which are within jails for criminals, for deportation. There were 91,206 declared foreigners as on December 31, 2017.

Why is NRC being updated in Assam? Officially, the NRC process will address the issue of illegal migrants, specifically from Bangladesh. The National Register of Citizens was first published in 1951 to record citizens, their houses and holdings. Updating the NRC to root out foreigners was a demand during the Assam Agitation (1979-1985).

Why is March 24, 1971 the cut-off date? There have been several waves of migration to Assam from Bangladesh, but the biggest was in March 1971 when the Pakistan army crackdown forced many to flee to India. The Assam Accord of 1985 that ended the six-year anti-foreigners’ agitation decided upon the midnight of March 24, 1971 as the cut-off date.

Who is a citizen in Assam? The Citizenship Act of 1955 was amended after the Assam Accord for all Indian-origin people who came from Bangladesh before January 1, 1966 to be deemed as citizens. Those who came between January 1, 1966 and March 25, 1971 were eligible for citizenship after registering and living in the State for 10 years while those entering after March 25, 1971, were to be deported.

What happens to the excluded 40 lakh? They will have to file for claims and objections and submit relevant documents for re-verification. The NRC office will issue claim forms from August 7 to 30, and these applicants would have to submit the forms from August 30 to September 28. The documents will be verified and accepted or rejected for the final NRC to be published on an unspecified date. The cases of those left out of the final NRC will be heard in the Foreigners’ Tribunals, after which applicants can approach the High Court.

Features of the Mission: The focus of the mission will be on deep-sea mining, ocean climate change advisory services, underwater vehicles and underwater robotics related technologies. Two key projects planned in the ‘Deep Ocean Mission’ report include a desalination plant powered by tidal energy and a submersible vehicle that can explore depths of at least 6,000 metres.

Significance of the Mission: The ‘Deep Ocean Mission’ plan will enable India to develop capabilities to exploit resources in the Central Indian Ocean Basin (CIOB). India has been allotted 75,000 square kilometres in the Central Indian Ocean Basin (CIOB) by UN International Sea Bed Authority for exploration of poly-metallic nodules. CIOB reserves contain deposits of metals like iron, manganese, nickel and cobalt.

Potential: It is envisaged that 10% of recovery of that large reserve can meet the energy requirement of India for the next 100 years. It has been estimated that 380 million metric tonnes of polymetallic nodules are available at the bottom of the seas in the Central Indian Ocean.

What are PMN? Polymetallic nodules (also known as manganese nodules) are potato-shaped, largely porous nodules found in abundance carpeting the sea floor of world oceans in deep sea. Besides manganese and iron, they contain nickel, copper, cobalt, lead, molybdenum, cadmium, vanadium, titanium, of which nickel, cobalt and copper are considered to be of economic and strategic importance.

About ISA: International Seabed Authority (ISA) is a UN body set up to regulate the exploration and exploitation of marine non-living resources of oceans in international waters. India actively contributes to the work of International Seabed Authority. Last year, India was re-elected as a member of Council of ISA. India’s nominees on Legal and Technical Commission and Finance Committee of the ISA were also elected last year.

Conservation efforts: The concentrated efforts of independent activists, government policies, amendments to the Wild Life Protection Act, and rising awareness have helped push the number of the wild cats to 2,226 in 2014, when the last tiger census was held.

Concerns and challenges: India has one of the lowest per capita forest areas in the world. Forests as carbon sinks are deemed to be a major mean of controlling climate change. Depletion of forests is responsible for reduction of tiger habitats.

Reduced food base: As forestlands fall to development projects, habitable land for animals that make for the tiger’s food base are also reduced.

Poaching: Another issue that has hindered tiger conservation in India and globally is poaching, which will persist as long as there is an illegal market for tiger body parts.

Climate change: Rising sea level as a result of climate change is on the verge of wiping out Sundarbans, one of the last remaining habitats of the Bengal tigers.

Conservation efforts: The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) has launched the M-STRIPES (Monitoring System for Tigers – Intensive Protection and Ecological Status), a mobile monitoring system for forest guards.