National Florence Nightingale Awards:-
The National Florence Nightingale Awards are given by Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India as a mark of recognition for the meritorious services rendered by the nurses and nursing professionals in the country.
Navy phases out Sea Harrier aircraft, inducts MiG 29k/Kub into INAS 300
The Indian Navy bid adieu to the illustrious British-built Sea Harrier as it inducted the MiG 29k/Kub aircraft into the INAS 300 naval aviation squadron.
The White Tigers or INAS 300 who stand for excellence, determination and aggressive spirit, heralded the era of carrier borne aviation into the Indian Navy. Almost six decades ago the squadron was commissioned at RNAS Brawdy with its distinctive ‘White Tiger’ logo and equipped with the Sea Hawk aircraft. After providing yeoman service for over two decades, the squadron was subsequently reincarnated with Sea Harriers in 1983. This premier carrier borne fighter squadron achieved iconic status in the Indian Navy with its distinguished service, receiving numerous gallantry awards which include one Maha Vir Chakra, four Vir Chakras and one Nau Sena Medal.
From the time the white tigers came into being, ‘Three Hundred’ as the squadron is colloquially called, brought about transformational change in concept of naval operations. INAS 300 with its potent sea harriers formed the teeth of naval combat power and consequently was the center piece of naval operational strategy. With their professionalism, the White Tigers assured control of these as by ensuring air dominance for the Carrier Battle Group and were a force to reckon with, with their combat skills appreciated by many which included foreign navies as well as the Indian Air Force.
After 33 years sterling service, the sea harriers were being de-inducted from the Navy and under took its last flight today. To continue the proud ‘White Tiger’ legacy, the squadron has been re-equipped with the new and more lethal MiG 29Ks. INAS 300 would thus be re-equipped with the new swing role air dominance fighter giving the squadron enhanced combat power and offensive capability. For the versatile White Tigers, this resurrection also marks a full cycle from commissioning ‘Tail Hooking Sea Hawks’ to the ‘Vectored Thrust’ Sea Harrier era; and now with the induction of the MiG-29k to this elite squadron, marks the return of the ‘Tail Hookers’.
Creation of landslide compendium
Landslides are a common geomorphic hazards in the states of Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir. In all these three Himalayan states landslides are generally triggered by heavy rainfall almost every year and also often by major earthquakes in this active Himalayan Fold-Thrust-Belt.
Available landslide susceptibility and inventory maps along important pilgrimage routes, road-corridors, river basins and site-specific large scale (1:2000 or larger) landslide maps have already revealed that within these Himalayan states, many parts of mountainous tracts and locations are highly vulnerable and susceptible to landslides.
GSI has launched a two-year project to create a landslide compendium for north western Himalayas in 2014
National Technology Day
National Technology is being celebrated on May 11 across India.
Key facts:
- National Technology Day is a very special day for Indian Technology since 1999. The event is marked with great pride as the country achieved a huge technological progression on this particular day.
- It was on this day that the first, indigenous aircraft “Hansa-3” was test flown at Bangalore.
- India also performed successful test firing of the Trishul missile on the same day, May 11 and executed three successful nuclear tests, carried out at Pokhran, in Rajasthan – Buddha Smiling.
- The theme for this year’s Technology Day is ‘Technology enablers of Startup India’.
- On this day, the President of India gives National Technology Award to companies and also to individuals for their great contributions to science.
Few Facts:-
- Fearing Chinese support in the unrest at Tawang, the government has decided not to go ahead with the planned hydroelectric projects in the district without consulting the local people and the monks, who have been protesting against the dams.It was at the forefront of Indo-China war in 1962.
- Tawang is a town on India-China border in Arunachal Pradesh.The area is historically part of Tibet and is claimed by both the People’s Republic of China and the Republic of China (Taiwan). It is inhabited by the Monpa people. Visitors to Tawang district require a special Inner Line Permit from the government. The district has two main rivers, the Tawang Chhu and the Naymjang Chhu, that together have 10 main tributaries. These two rivers meet each other before exiting the district in a southwesterly direction. There are two major religious festivals of the Monpas viz “LOSAR” and “TORGYA“. Both festivals are celebrated once annually. The LOSAR is celebrated to the commencement of New year. Every third year of Torgya, the festival of Dungyur is celebrated.
Receive Daily Updates
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.