1)India to sell rupee bonds:-
- The Union Government has decided to launch Rupee Bonds “in some countries” to provide long term finance for infrastructure development in the country.
- This will be in addition to the setting up National Investment and Infrastructure Fund and launching of Tax Free Infrastructure Bonds.
- These bonds are also called Masala Bonds.
- It will help as alternate financing and easy the forex pressure on India.
2)Jan Aushadhi:-
- The Government has launched ‘Jan Aushadhi Scheme’ to make available quality generic medicines at affordable prices to all, especially the poor, throughout the country, through outlets known as Jan Aushadhi Stores (JASs)
- Under the Jan Aushadhi Scheme, the State Governments are required to provide space in Government Hospital premises or any other suitable locations for the running of the Jan Aushadhi Stores (JAS)
- Any NGO/Charitable Society/Institution/Self Help Group with experience of minimum 3 years of successful operation in welfare activities, can also open the Jan Aushadhi store outside the hospital premises
Bottlenecks in the scheme:-
- Over dependence on support from State Government.
- Poor Supply Chain management.
- Non-prescription of Generic Medicines by the doctors.
- State Governments launching free supply of drugs
- Lack of awareness among the public
Remedial Measures :-
- Increasing the number of products from 361 to 504 medicines and 161 surgical and consumable items
- Improving the supply chain mechanism through appointing Distributors and C&F agents in different States.
- Increasing the number of functional stores.
- Strengthening the Operating Agency i.e., BPPI(Bureau of Pharma PSUs of India (BPPI)) through augmenting of manpower.
- Relaxation in the eligibility criteria of Operating Agency for JAS.
3) The Man who Knew his Cows – Verghese Kurien
News:- Google has dedicated a doodle on him.
- Verghese Kurien (26 November 1921 – 9 September 2012) was an Indian social entrepreneur known as the “Father of the White Revolution” for his Operation Flood, the world’s largest agricultural development programme. National Milk Day is celebrated on his birth anniversary.
- This transformed India from a milk-deficient nation to the world’s largest milk producer, surpassing the United States of America in 1998,with about 17 percent of global output in 2010–11, which in 30 years doubled milk available to every person.
- He founded around 30 institutions of excellence (like AMUL, GCMMF, IRMA, NDDB) which are owned, managed by farmers and run by professionals. As the founding chairman of the Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), Kurien was responsible for the creation and success of the Amul brand of dairy products. A key achievement at Amul was the invention of milk powder processed from buffalo milk
Operation Flood :-
- Milk is a highly perishable commodity, which is in short supply in summer and in excess supply in winter . The market can not contract and expand according to supply, therefore, you need balancing facilities. And once you have these balancing facilities, which you enable to carry forward the winter production and capture the market, procurement falls into your laps. This was the objective and methodology of Operation Flood.
- Through Operation Flood, milk has been transformed from a commodity into a brand, from insufficient production to sufficient production, from rationing to plentiful availability; from loose unhygienic milk to milk that is pure and sure, from subjugation to as symbol of farmer’s economic independence, to being the consumer’s greatest insurance policy for good health.
- Operation Flood has three major achievements to its credit: making dairying India’s largest self-sustainable rural employment program; bringing India self-sufficiency in milk production; trebling the nation’s milk production within a span of two and half decades to make India the world’s largest milk producer.
His Words:-
- Milk is the only commodity which has to be collected twice a day, every day of the year. Thus, cooperatives are the only logical system for the dairy industry. About 85% of the industry in the US, Denmark and Australia is run by cooperatives. No other system will work for milk
Trivia:- It is well known that who are selected in UPSC , as part of their Bharat Darshan , they get a chance to meet Mr Kurien and most of them who encountered him ,knows his passionate dislike for bureaucracy .(Not bureaucrats as such but the way of working of Bureaucracy)
4) SEBI and BSEC Sign MoU :-
- The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) on Sunday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC) on co-operation and technical assistance.
- The MoU is aimed at promoting economic links, enhancing investor protection, and development of capital markets. Sebi has so far signed MoUs with 21 nations
About :-
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) is the regulator for the securities market in India.It was established in the year 1988 and given statutory powers on 12 April 1992 through the SEBI Act, 1992.
Composition:-
- The chairman who is nominated by Union Government of India.
- Two members, i.e., Officers from Union Finance Ministry.
- One member from the Reserve Bank of India.
- The remaining five members are nominated by Union Government of India, out of them at least three shall be whole-time members.
Function:-
- Approve by−laws of stock exchanges.
- Require the stock exchange to amend their by−laws.
- Inspect the books of accounts and call for periodical returns from recognized stock exchanges.
- Inspect the books of accounts of financial intermediaries.
- Compel certain companies to list their shares in one or more stock exchanges.
- Registration of brokers.
Question to think over :-
At the time of Independence , India had a functioning stock market, a fairly developed banking sector and well developed corporate practices , then why it took so long to create a regulator for stock exchange such as SEBI ( created in 1992 when we got independence in 1947 )
Try to find the answer yourself and post it if you like .
Recent Posts
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.