1) Guru Nanak :-
News:-The President of India sent his greetings to fellow countrymen on the eve of birthday of Guru Nanak Devji.
About :-
- Founder of Sikhism and the first of the ten Sikh Gurus. He was associated the Bhakti Movement .
- Nanak was born on 15 April 1469 at Rāi Bhoi Kī Talvaṇḍī (present day Nankana Sahib, Punjab, Pakistan) near Lahore
- Nanak’s teachings can be found in the Sikh scripture Guru Granth Sahib, as a vast collection of revelatory verses recorded in Gurmukhi.
- Guru Nanak emphasized that all human beings can have direct access to God with no need of rituals or priests
- He also rejected the path of renunciation and emphasized the leading of householder’s life, while being unattached to gross materialism.
- Nanak’s teaching is understood to be practised in three ways:
Vaṇḍ Chakkō: Sharing with others, helping those with less who are in need
Kirat Karō: Earning/making a living honestly, without exploitation or fraud
Naam Japna: Meditating on God’s name to control the five weaknesses of the human personality.
2)Torana Gate in Kuala Lumpur
News:-Prime Minister of India and Kuala lumpur inaugurated Torana gate.
- The intricately carved Torana, inspired by the Toranas of the great Buddhist sculpture of Sanchi, has carvings and relief work representing ancient Indian art as well as the Islamic art form.
- Toranas, built by the great Mauryan dynasty ruler, Ashoka, in first century BC, essentially depict symbols related to Buddhism. There is the Bodhi Tree, the lotus flowers, the jatakas tales and many other such illustrations
3)SAADMEx- 2015
- On the initiative of the Government of India, first “South Asian Annual Disaster Management Exercise (SAADMEx)” -2015 is being organized in New Delhi and NCR region from November 23-26, 2015. National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) is playing the lead role in conducing SAADMEx- 2015 with the support of National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), National Institute of Disaster Management (NIDM), Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) and Union Ministry of External Affairs (MEA)
- The main objective being to enhance the disaster response capacity.
- About :- http://upsctree.com/2015/11/09/09-nov-2015/
4)Bhavishya:-
- Its online Pension Sanction and Payment Tracking System.
- The Bhavishya system will introduce transparency and establish accountability in the pension sanction and payment process. It will help to eliminate delays and bring satisfaction to the retiring employees and pensioners
- Under the online system, progress of a particular pension case can be tracked by the individual as well as the administrative authorities for all actions preparatory to grant of pension and other retirement benefits as well as monthly pension paid after retirement.
- Bhavishya has various stakeholders – i) Individual (Retiree & Pensioner), ii) Drawing & Disbursing Officer, iii) Head of Office (HOO), iv) Directorate of Estate (DOE), v) Pay & Accounts Offices (PAO) and vii) Central Pension Accounts Office (CPAO). By ensuring complete transparency, this system would obviate delays in sanction and payment of pension
5)Smart Cities:-
News:- Smart cities to move people not cars, through efficient public transport . Atal Mission and Smart City Mission seek to address urban mobility issues.
What is Smart City:-
- There is no specific definition of smart city as such. It varies from people to people and country to country.But , in a broader sense it has the objective of promoting cities that provide core infrastructure and give a decent quality of life to its citizens, a clean and sustainable environment and application of ‘Smart’ Solutions.
- Components of smart city :-
- Accordingly, the purpose of the Smart Cities Mission is to drive economic growth and improve the quality of life of people by enabling local area development and harnessing technology, especially technology that leads to Smart outcomes. Area- based development will transform existing areas (retrofit and redevelop), including slums, into better planned ones, thereby improving liveability of the whole City.
- New areas (greenfield) will be developed around cities in order to accommodate the expanding population in urban areas.
- Application of Smart Solutions will enable cities to use technology, information and data to improve infrastructure and services.
Features :-
- Promoting mixed land use in area based developments–planning for ‘unplanned areas’ containing a range of compatible activities and land uses close to one another in order to make land use more efficient. The States will enable some flexibility in land use and building bye-laws to adapt to change
- Housing and inclusiveness – expand housing opportunities for all
- Creating walkable localities –reduce congestion, air pollution and resource depletion, boost local economy, promote interactions and ensure security. The road network is created or refurbished not only for vehicles and public transport, but also for pedestrians and cyclists, and necessary administrative services are offered within walking or cycling distance
- Preserving and developing open spaces – parks, playgrounds, and recreational spaces in order to enhance the quality of life of citizens, reduce the urban heat effects in Areas and generally promote eco-balance;
- Promoting a variety of transport options – Transit Oriented Development (TOD), public transport and last mile para-transport connectivity
- Making governance citizen-friendly and cost effective – increasingly rely on online services to bring about accountability and transparency, especially using mobiles to reduce cost of services and providing services without having to go to municipal offices. Forming e-groups to listen to people and obtain feedback and use online monitoring of programs and activities with the aid of cyber tour of worksites
- Giving an identity to the city – based on its main economic activity, such as local cuisine, health, education, arts and craft, culture, sports goods, furniture, hosiery, textile, dairy, etc
- Applying Smart Solutions to infrastructure and services in area-based development in order to make them better. For example, making Areas less vulnerable to disasters, using fewer resources, and providing cheaper services
AMRUT:-Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation
The Mission focuses on the following Thrust Areas:-
i. Water Supply,
ii. Sewerage facilities and management,
iii. Storm Water drains to reduce flooding,
iv. Pedestrian, non-motorized and public transport facilities, parking spaces, and
v. Enhancing amenity value of cities by creating and upgrading green spaces, parks and recreation centers, especially for children.
6)Stridhan :-
News:-Woman Can Seek ‘Stridhan’ Back if Marriage Not Dissolved: Supreme Court
- A woman can always seek her ‘stridhan’ back from her husband and his family members even if the marriage has not been dissolved by a judicial decree of divorce, the Supreme Court has ruled.
- The Court observed –
It is quite clear that there is a distinction between a decree for divorce and decree of judicial separation; in the former, there is a severance of status and the parties do not remain as husband and wife, whereas in the later, the relationship between husband and wife continues and the legal relationship continues as it has not been snapped,” a bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra said and set aside Arunachal High Court’s judgment against a woman.The woman was denied the relief on the ground she could not be called an aggrieved person as she had filed an application seeking the seizure of stridhan after she had got judicial separation.
- ‘Stridhan’ is movable or immovable assets, received during the lifetime, by a woman either prior to marriage or at the time of marriage or at child birth.
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Petrol in India is cheaper than in countries like Hong Kong, Germany and the UK but costlier than in China, Brazil, Japan, the US, Russia, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, a Bank of Baroda Economics Research report showed.
Rising fuel prices in India have led to considerable debate on which government, state or central, should be lowering their taxes to keep prices under control.
The rise in fuel prices is mainly due to the global price of crude oil (raw material for making petrol and diesel) going up. Further, a stronger dollar has added to the cost of crude oil.
Amongst comparable countries (per capita wise), prices in India are higher than those in Vietnam, Kenya, Ukraine, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Venezuela. Countries that are major oil producers have much lower prices.
In the report, the Philippines has a comparable petrol price but has a per capita income higher than India by over 50 per cent.
Countries which have a lower per capita income like Kenya, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, and Venezuela have much lower prices of petrol and hence are impacted less than India.
“Therefore there is still a strong case for the government to consider lowering the taxes on fuel to protect the interest of the people,” the report argued.
India is the world’s third-biggest oil consuming and importing nation. It imports 85 per cent of its oil needs and so prices retail fuel at import parity rates.
With the global surge in energy prices, the cost of producing petrol, diesel and other petroleum products also went up for oil companies in India.
They raised petrol and diesel prices by Rs 10 a litre in just over a fortnight beginning March 22 but hit a pause button soon after as the move faced criticism and the opposition parties asked the government to cut taxes instead.
India imports most of its oil from a group of countries called the ‘OPEC +’ (i.e, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Russia, etc), which produces 40% of the world’s crude oil.
As they have the power to dictate fuel supply and prices, their decision of limiting the global supply reduces supply in India, thus raising prices
The government charges about 167% tax (excise) on petrol and 129% on diesel as compared to US (20%), UK (62%), Italy and Germany (65%).
The abominable excise duty is 2/3rd of the cost, and the base price, dealer commission and freight form the rest.
Here is an approximate break-up (in Rs):
a)Base Price | 39 |
b)Freight | 0.34 |
c) Price Charged to Dealers = (a+b) | 39.34 |
d) Excise Duty | 40.17 |
e) Dealer Commission | 4.68 |
f) VAT | 25.35 |
g) Retail Selling Price | 109.54 |
Looked closely, much of the cost of petrol and diesel is due to higher tax rate by govt, specifically excise duty.
So the question is why government is not reducing the prices ?
India, being a developing country, it does require gigantic amount of funding for its infrastructure projects as well as welfare schemes.
However, we as a society is yet to be tax-compliant. Many people evade the direct tax and that’s the reason why govt’s hands are tied. Govt. needs the money to fund various programs and at the same time it is not generating enough revenue from direct taxes.
That’s the reason why, govt is bumping up its revenue through higher indirect taxes such as GST or excise duty as in the case of petrol and diesel.
Direct taxes are progressive as it taxes according to an individuals’ income however indirect tax such as excise duty or GST are regressive in the sense that the poorest of the poor and richest of the rich have to pay the same amount.
Does not matter, if you are an auto-driver or owner of a Mercedes, end of the day both pay the same price for petrol/diesel-that’s why it is regressive in nature.
But unlike direct tax where tax evasion is rampant, indirect tax can not be evaded due to their very nature and as long as huge no of Indians keep evading direct taxes, indirect tax such as excise duty will be difficult for the govt to reduce, because it may reduce the revenue and hamper may programs of the govt.