Cabinet approves ratification of the Paris Agreement
The Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has given its approval to ratify the Paris Agreement (on Climate Change) on 2nd October 2016, the day of Gandhi Jayanti.
Paris Agreement was adopted by 185 nations last year on 12th December 2015 and India signed the Paris Agreement in New York early this year on 22nd April 2016. A total of 191 countries have signed to the Paris Agreement so far.
As per the provisions of the Paris Agreement, the treaty will come into force as and when 55 countries contributing to 55 % of total global emission ratify the agreement. So far, 61 countries have deposited their instruments of ratification, acceptance or approval accounting in total for 47.79% of the total global greenhouse gas emissions.
India’s decision to ratify the agreement will take the number of cumulative level of emission of countries that have ratified the agreement so far to 51.89%. With the gathering momentum and willingness expressed by several other countries to ratify the agreement before the end of this year, it is expected that the Agreement will enter into force soon and give a thrust to the global actions to address climate change.
With its decision to ratify the Agreement, India will be one of the key countries that will be instrumental in bringing the Paris Agreement into force. Given the critical role that India played in securing international consensus on Paris Agreement, today’s decision will further underline India’s responsive leadership in the community of nations committed to global cause of environmental protection and climate justice.
While agreeing to ratify the Paris Agreement, the Cabinet has also decided that India should declare that India will treat its national laws, its development agenda, availability of means of implementation, its assessment of global commitment to combating climate change, and predictable and affordable access to cleaner source of energy as the context in which the Agreement is being ratified.
Paris Agreement pertains to post-2020 climate actions. In the pre-2020 period, developed countries are to act as per Kyoto Protocol and some developing countries have taken voluntary pledges.
Varistha Pension Bima Yojana, 2003 and Varistha Pension Bima Yojana, 2014
The Union Cabinet under the Chairmanship of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has given its ex-post facto approval for the Varishtha Pension Bima Yojana (VPBY) 2003 launched on 14th July, 2003 and Varistha Pension Bima Yojana (VPBY) 2014 launched on 14th August, 2014.
The Schemes are implemented through Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) of India, and the difference between the actual yield earned by LIC on the funds invested under the Scheme and the assured return committed by the Government is paid as subsidy to LIC.
Both are pension schemes intended to give an assured minimum pension to the Senior Citizens based on an assured minimum return on the subscription amount. The pension is envisaged until death from the date of subscription, with payback of the subscription amount on death of the subscriber to the nominee.
Both the schemes VPBY – 2003 and VPBY – 2014 are closed for future subscriptions. However, policies sold during the currency of policy are being serviced as per the commitment of guaranteed 9% return assured by the Government under the schemes.
Project SAKSHAM
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, chaired by the Prime Ministerhas approved ‘Project SAKSHAM’, a New Indirect Tax Network (Systems Integration) of the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC).
It will help in:
• implementation of Goods and Services Tax (GST),
• extension of the Indian Customs Single Window Interface for Facilitating Trade (SWIFT) and
• other taxpayer-friendly initiatives under Digital India and Ease of Doing Business of Central Board of Excise and Customs.
CBEC’s IT systems need to integrate with the Goods & Services Tax Network (GSTN) for processing of registration, payment and returns data sent by GSTN systems to CBEC, as well as act as a front-end for other modules like Audit, Appeal, Investigation. There is no overlap in the GST-related systems of CBEC and GSTN
Cabinet approves acquisition of 29.9 percent stake in LLC Taas-Yuryakh Neftegazodobycha and 23.9 percent stake in JSC Vankorneft by Indian Consortium
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, chaired by the Prime Minister has given its approval to an Indian Consortium comprising Oil India Limited (OIL), Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) and Bharat Petro Resources Limited (BPRL) for acquiring 23.9 percent stake in JSC Vankorneft and 29.9 percent stake in LLC Taas-Yuryakh from M/s Rosneft Oil Company (Rosneft), the National Oil Company (NOC) of Russian Federation (Russia). Rosneft operates Vankor and Tass-Yuryakh fields and are its wholly owned subsidiaries.
The acquisition of stake in Vankorneft will provide 6.56 Million Metric Ton of Oil Equivalent (MMTOE) and 29.9 percent stake in Taas-Yuryakh will provide 0.5 MMTOE initially and 1.5 MMTOE by 2019.
The acquisition is in line with India’s stated objective of adding high quality international assets to its Exploration & Production portfolio and thereby augmenting India’s energy security. The Consortium will be paying US $ 2020.35 million for acquiring stake in Vankorneft and US $ 1242 million for acquiring stake in Taas-Yuryakh. Earlier in May 2016 ONGC Videsh Ltd (OVL) completed the formalities of acquiring 15% stake in Vankorneft at the cost of US $ 1.284 billion which gave OVL 4.11 MMTOE.
The acquisition will add 8.06 MMTOE to India’s overseas oil and gas asset. It will also provide an opportunity to Indian public sector Oil and Gas companies to absorb newer technologies with Rosneft and British Petroleum (BP). BP acquired 20% stake in Taas-Yuryakh from Rosneft last year.
New Coal Distribution Policy amended to increase annual cap of coal through State Nominated Agencies and amend phrase of Small and Medium Sector
Union Ministry of Coal has issued an order with respect to the amendment to the New Coal Distribution Policy (NCDP), 2007 to increase the annual cap of coal from 4200 tonnes per annum for sale through State Nominated Agencies (SNA) to 10,000 tonnes per annum. In addition to raising the annual cap of coal, the Ministry has also amended the phrase, ‘small and medium sector’, as mentioned in the NCDP to ‘small, medium and others’.
The rationale for the amendment, as cited in the order, is that only small and medium sector consumers, having requirement less than 4200 tonnes per annum were entitled to take coal through SNA, large units having requirement of less than 4200 tonnes per annum were not recommended for coal by the District Industries Centre (DIC).
Moreover, the limit of requirement of less than 4200 tonnes per annum needed to be revised as small units might have expanded over a period of time.
As adequate quantity of coal at notified price through SNA would be available for this sector , this amendment is seen as one of the many steps taken by the Government to improve ease of doing business in the country and make more coal available for the small , medium and other sectors.
Import of Fireworks
Fireworks in India have been declared as restricted item under ITC (HS) in respect of import by Director General of Foreign Trade. The manufacture, possession, use, sale, etc. of any explosive containing Sulphur or sulphurate in admixture with any chlorate is banned in the country.
Possession and sale of fireworks of foreign origin in India is illegal and punishable under the Law.
Till date, no license for import of fireworks has been granted under the Explosives Rules, 2008 by Petroleum & Explosives Safety Organization, a subordinate office of Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion.
India climbs steadily in the Global Competitiveness Index; Improves its ranking by 16 places for the second year in a row;. Now placed 39th among 138 countries, ahead of BRICS countries other than China.
The Global Competitiveness Index released by the World Economic Forum is one of the major studies which indicates how a country scores in the scale of global competitiveness.
The Index is calculated by aggregating indicators across 12 pillars which again are clubbed together in three broad sub-indices, namely basic requirements, efficiency enhancers and innovation and sophistication factors.
The report covers both business and social indicators which, directly or indirectly, impacts the competitiveness of the country in the global arena.
The 12 pillars underlying GCI include Institutions, Infrastructure, Macroeconomic environment, health and primary education, higher education and training, goods market efficiency, labour market efficiency, financial market development, technological readiness, market size, business sophistication and innovation.
India’s competitiveness has improved this year across the board, in particular in goods market efficiency, business sophistication and innovation. The macroeconomic environment also improved due to better monetary and fiscal policies and lower oil prices.
Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) Measures
- Maharashtra has developed GIS applications for mapping disasters and advocated the use of technology in mitigating the impact of disasters.
- In the wake of excellent post-disaster work done by Gujarat after the 2001 Bhuj earthquake, a memorial – the Smriti Van Memorial – which will be a visual manifestation of hope and courage is also being constructed
- Nagaland is one of the first States to form Disaster Management Authorities at the village level.
- Rajasthan’s Mukhyamantri Jal Swavlamban Abhiyan is a step forward towards a solution to the water crisis in the arid State.
- Sikkim implemented the mitigation measures that it took to contain the possibility of a Glacial Lake Outburst Flood at the South Lhonak Lake in north Sikkim.
- West Bengal has created a mobile application to monitor the progress of Multi-Purpose Cyclone Shelters, being constructed under NDMA’s flagship National Cyclone Risk Mitigation Project.
- India also hosted the first South Asian Annual Disaster Management Exercise (SAADMEx) for disaster managers and leaders from SAARC countries in 2015.
- The second BRICS Conference on Disaster Management, which led to the Udaipur Declaration and the roadmap to a Joint Action Plan, was held at Udaipur, Rajasthan in August this year.
- NDMA is also working on developing an Earthquake Disaster Risk Index for 50 identified vulnerable cities
- A failsafe communication system with advanced technology and equipment is also being developed. The National Disaster Management Services, which will connect all the State Headquarters and another 80 vulnerable districts in its first phase, will keep the communication lines open even during a disaster.
- NDMA has released Guidelines on School Safety, Hospital Safety and Minimum Standards for Shelter, Food, Water, Sanitation and Medical Cover in Relief Camps.
RICS Labour and Employment Ministerial meeting held under BRICS India presidency, 2016
- BRICS comprising of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa are five major emerging economies comprising 43% of the world population, 37% of the world GDP and 17% of the world trade. BRICS began their association primarily with discussions on economic issues of mutual interest. Overtime, the areas of cooperation have widened to include topical global issues.
- The First BRICS Labour & Employment Ministers’ meeting held in Ufa, Russia recognized that Employment Pillar is essential and thus laid the foundation of BRICS Employment Working Group (BEWG)
- India’s initiatives and transformative decisions particularly the recent amendment to child labour act for putting complete ban on employment of children below 14 years of age, the enhanced paid maternity leave of 26 weeks, revision of minimum wages, and broad initiatives at employment generation were acknowledged by BRICS nations as well as ILO.
- The forum acknowledged the centrality of employment generation to the overall policy objective of sustainable development. A broad consensus was reached on “encouaging social security agreements” and “networking of labour institutions of BRICS member states” and these have been included in the BRICS Labour and Ministerial Declaration.
SCATSAT-1
- Recently ISRO launched of PSLV-C35, carrying advanced satellite SCATSAT-1
- SCATSAT-1 will help provide wind vector data products for weather forecasting cyclone detection and tracking services to the users
Revision of National List of Essential Medicines (NLEM), 2015
Based on the scientific criteria, the Core Committee recommended inclusion of 106 medicines and deletion of 70 medicines from the earlier NLEM, 2011.
The Pharmaceutical Pricing Policy entails the price control of only schedule-1 medicines which are included in the NLEM.
The medicines, which ceased to be part of NLEM, 2015 and Schedule-1, will only be monitored as non-scheduled medicines.
Non-scheduled medicines are allowed an increase of upto 10% in the prices every year, which is monitored by the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA).
The criteria for deletion of medicines from National List of Essential Medicines is as follows:-
- The medicine has been banned in India.
- There are reports of concerns on the safety profile of a medicine.
- A medicine with better efficacy or favourable safety profiles and better cost-effective is now available.
- The disease burden for which a medicine is indicated is no longer a national health concern in India.
- In case of antimicrobials, if the resistance pattern has rendered a medicine ineffective in Indian context.
Yudh Abhyas 2016
The two week exercise included a Company Group from an Infantry Battalion of Indian Army and 5th Battalion 20th Infantry Regiment of the US Army.Exercise Yudh Abhyas 2016 has been conducted at Chaubattia, Uttarakhand
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Steve Ovett, the famous British middle-distance athlete, won the 800-metres gold medal at the Moscow Olympics of 1980. Just a few days later, he was about to win a 5,000-metres race at London’s Crystal Palace. Known for his burst of acceleration on the home stretch, he had supreme confidence in his ability to out-sprint rivals. With the final 100 metres remaining,
[wptelegram-join-channel link=”https://t.me/s/upsctree” text=”Join @upsctree on Telegram”]Ovett waved to the crowd and raised a hand in triumph. But he had celebrated a bit too early. At the finishing line, Ireland’s John Treacy edged past Ovett. For those few moments, Ovett had lost his sense of reality and ignored the possibility of a negative event.
This analogy works well for the India story and our policy failures , including during the ongoing covid pandemic. While we have never been as well prepared or had significant successes in terms of growth stability as Ovett did in his illustrious running career, we tend to celebrate too early. Indeed, we have done so many times before.
It is as if we’re convinced that India is destined for greater heights, come what may, and so we never run through the finish line. Do we and our policymakers suffer from a collective optimism bias, which, as the Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman once wrote, “may well be the most significant of the cognitive biases”? The optimism bias arises from mistaken beliefs which form expectations that are better than the reality. It makes us underestimate chances of a negative outcome and ignore warnings repeatedly.
The Indian economy had a dream run for five years from 2003-04 to 2007-08, with an average annual growth rate of around 9%. Many believed that India was on its way to clocking consistent double-digit growth and comparisons with China were rife. It was conveniently overlooked that this output expansion had come mainly came from a few sectors: automobiles, telecom and business services.
Indians were made to believe that we could sprint without high-quality education, healthcare, infrastructure or banking sectors, which form the backbone of any stable economy. The plan was to build them as we went along, but then in the euphoria of short-term success, it got lost.
India’s exports of goods grew from $20 billion in 1990-91 to over $310 billion in 2019-20. Looking at these absolute figures it would seem as if India has arrived on the world stage. However, India’s share of global trade has moved up only marginally. Even now, the country accounts for less than 2% of the world’s goods exports.
More importantly, hidden behind this performance was the role played by one sector that should have never made it to India’s list of exports—refined petroleum. The share of refined petroleum exports in India’s goods exports increased from 1.4% in 1996-97 to over 18% in 2011-12.
An import-intensive sector with low labour intensity, exports of refined petroleum zoomed because of the then policy regime of a retail price ceiling on petroleum products in the domestic market. While we have done well in the export of services, our share is still less than 4% of world exports.
India seemed to emerge from the 2008 global financial crisis relatively unscathed. But, a temporary demand push had played a role in the revival—the incomes of many households, both rural and urban, had shot up. Fiscal stimulus to the rural economy and implementation of the Sixth Pay Commission scales had led to the salaries of around 20% of organized-sector employees jumping up. We celebrated, but once again, neither did we resolve the crisis brewing elsewhere in India’s banking sector, nor did we improve our capacity for healthcare or quality education.
Employment saw little economy-wide growth in our boom years. Manufacturing jobs, if anything, shrank. But we continued to celebrate. Youth flocked to low-productivity service-sector jobs, such as those in hotels and restaurants, security and other services. The dependence on such jobs on one hand and high-skilled services on the other was bound to make Indian society more unequal.
And then, there is agriculture, an elephant in the room. If and when farm-sector reforms get implemented, celebrations would once again be premature. The vast majority of India’s farmers have small plots of land, and though these farms are at least as productive as larger ones, net absolute incomes from small plots can only be meagre.
A further rise in farm productivity and consequent increase in supply, if not matched by a demand rise, especially with access to export markets, would result in downward pressure on market prices for farm produce and a further decline in the net incomes of small farmers.
We should learn from what John Treacy did right. He didn’t give up, and pushed for the finish line like it was his only chance at winning. Treacy had years of long-distance practice. The same goes for our economy. A long grind is required to build up its base before we can win and celebrate. And Ovett did not blame anyone for his loss. We play the blame game. Everyone else, right from China and the US to ‘greedy corporates’, seems to be responsible for our failures.
We have lowered absolute poverty levels and had technology-based successes like Aadhaar and digital access to public services. But there are no short cuts to good quality and adequate healthcare and education services. We must remain optimistic but stay firmly away from the optimism bias.
In the end, it is not about how we start, but how we finish. The disastrous second wave of covid and our inability to manage it is a ghastly reminder of this fact.