Note – The important parts of the news are highlighted.Sometimes the news itself may not be important but certain parts of it or the text of it.
Conservation of natural resources:-
The National Mineral Policy (NMP), 2008 states that:–
1)Conservation of minerals shall be construed not in the restrictive sense of abstinence from consumption, or preservation for use in the distant future, but as a positive concept leading to augmentation of reserve base through improvement in mining methods, beneficiation and utilisation of low grade ore and rejects and recovery of associated minerals.
2)All mining shall be undertaken within the parameters of a comprehensive Sustainable Development Framework which, inter-alia includes guiding principles for a miner to leave the mining area in a better ecological condition after mining and for optimum utilization of the country’s natural mineral resources.
Renewable energy production data :-
| Source | Power Generation (in Billion Units) |
| Wind | 33.03 |
| Solar | 7.45 |
| Small Hydro Power (up to 25 MW) | 8.33 |
| Bio Power | 16.95 |
| Total | 65.76 |
| Source- Central Electricity Authority, Ministry of Power, New Delhi | |
Approval of National Hydrology Project for Flood Forecasts
The Govt. has approved the National Hydrology Project under Central Sector Scheme as an Externally Aided Project with support from the World Bank for Rs. 3679.77 crore. The National Hydrology Project (NHP) envisages establishing a system for timely and reliable water resources data acquisition, storage, collation and management. It will facilitate informed decision making through Decision Support Systems (DSS) for water resources assessment, flood management, reservoir operations, drought management, etc. Under the Project, it is proposed to build capacity of the State and Central sector organisations in water resources management through the use of Information Systems and adoption of State-of-the-art technologies like Remote Sensing.
Govt. starts UBIN drive for budding entrepreneurs
The Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion (DIPP) has begun an exercise for issuance of Unique Business Identification Number (UBIN) for budding entrepreneurs to start their new businesses without any delay.
The move is aimed at doing away with the need for separate registration with authorities ranging from the registrar of companies to the direct and indirect tax wings, the labour department and for export and import.
Currently, entities first need to get a Company Identification Number (CIN) from registrar of companies, followed by PAN from the income tax department and labour identification number.
Second Exomars in 2020
The European Space Agency has announced that the second Exomars mission will be launched in 2020. Exomars is the mars mission launched jointly by Russia and Europe.Like the first mission, the second Exomars mission will also be launched from Baikonur in Kazakhstan with the help of a Proton rocket. It involves a Russian-led surface platform and a European-led rover.
Army chief orders rightsizing study
In an attempt to make the world’s third largest standing Army a leaner and meaner fighting force, the Chief of the Army Staff, General Dalbir Singh, has ordered a high-level study to determine and recommend measures to improve its tooth-to-tail ratio.
Key Details:
- The study will comprehensively look at all arms and services, including logistics organisation and establishment to achieve right-sizing. Operational logistics will be reviewed, along with the philosophy and concepts to arrive at an optimal substance model both in peace and war.
- The other objective of the study is to achieve savings in manpower and cutting down on the burgeoning revenue expenditure to free up resources for military modernization.
- The study will also look at the impact of equipment modernisation and automation levels improved communication and critical infrastructure development to review stock levels, inventory management models and logistics chain which add to the “tail”.
Tooth-to-tail ratio :-
The tooth-to-tail ratio, referred to as T3R in the Army, is the ratio of fighting arms, which wage the actual battle such as infantry and armoured wings, to support services, such as logistics, signals and ordnance.
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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.