Daily Prelims Notes 18 June 2020

June 18, 2020
Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
Category: DPN

Table Of Contents

1. Khelo India State Centers of Excellence (KISCE)

Subject: Schemes

Context:

Ministry of Sports and Youth Affairs is going to establish Khelo India State Centres of Excellence (KISCE) under its flagship Khelo India Scheme.

Concept:

One KISCE will be identified in each state and union territory, with an effort to create a robust sporting ecosystem in the entire country.
In first phase, ministry has identified state-owned sports facilities in eight states which will be upgraded into Khelo India State Centre of Excellence (KISCE).
In order to upgrade the existing centre to the KISCE, the central government will extend a ‘Viability Gap Funding’ in sports science and technology support for sports disciplines practiced at the centre and also bridge the gaps in requirement of sports equipment, expert coaches and high performance managers.
The state and UT will run the centre and build capacity to turn it into the world-class sporting facility, and will be responsible for all aspects of management of the centre including, boarding, lodging and maintenance, while funds for critical gaps such as expert coaches, support staff, equipment, infrastructure will be extended through the Khelo India Scheme.

2. Review of Loan moratorium

Subject: Economy

Context:

The Supreme Court directed the Centre and Reserve Bank of India to review the moratorium scheme on term loans and create tailored schemes for various sectors.

Concept:

Initially in March, the central bank had allowed a three-month moratorium from paying EMIs and other loans on payment of all term loans due between 1 March and 31 May.
The central bank had on 22 May extended moratorium on term loans till 31 August amid the nationwide lockdown due to covid-19.
Moratorium is simply not to pay EMIs for that time period and no penal interest will be charged. It is not a concession of any kind and is simply a deferment of the payment to provide some relief to borrowers facing liquidity issues.
The interest would continue to accrue during the moratorium, which ultimately the borrower would have to pay.
The petitioner argued that no interest should be charged during the moratorium because people are facing “extreme hardship”.

3. Transfer fund from PM-CARES to NDRF

Subject: Schemes

Context:

Supreme court has given notice to center on a plea to transfer PM-CARES fund

Concept:

The petition urged the court to direct the government to prepare, notify and implement a national plan under the Disaster Management Act to deal with the pandemic.
It claimed that the Centre has been “refraining from divulging information” about the money “contributed to the PM CARES Fund till date”.

NDRF

The National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF), constituted under Section 46 of the Disaster Management Act, 2005, supplements SDRF of a State, in case of a disaster of severe nature, provided adequate funds are not available in SDRF.
It is a fund managed by the Central Government for meeting the expenses for emergency response, relief and rehabilitation due to any threatening disaster situation or disaster.
NDRF amount can be spent only towards meeting the expenses for emergency response, relief and rehabilitation.
It is financed through the levy of a cesson certain items, chargeable to excise and customs duty, and approved annually through the Finance Bill.
The requirement for funds beyond what is available under the NDRF is met through general budgetary resources.
A provision also exists in the DM Act to encourage any person or institution to make a contribution to the NDRF.
It is kept under “Public Accounts” of Government of India.
Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) audits the accounts of NDRF.
Department of Agriculture and Cooperation under Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) monitors relief activities for calamities associated with drought, hailstorms, pest attacks and cold wave /frost while rest of the natural calamities are monitored by Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).

PM-CARES

Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund, or the PM CARES Fund, was set up to tackle distress situations such as that posed by the COVID19 pandemic.
The fund receives voluntary contributions from individuals and organisations and does not get any budgetary support. Donations have been made tax exempt, and can be counted against a company’s corporate social responsibility (CSR)
It is also exempt from the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 2010, and accepts foreign contributions, although the Centre has previously refused foreign aid to deal with disasters such as the Kerala floods.
The Prime Minister chairs the fund in his official capacity, and can nominate three eminent persons in relevant fields to the Board of Trustees. The Ministers of Defense, Home Affairs and Finance are ex officio Trustees of the Fund.

Concerns

It is not clear whether the fund comes under the ambit of the RTI Act or oversight by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India, although independent auditors will audit the fund
The PM CARES web page is opaque regarding the amount of money collected, names of donors, expenditure of the fund so far, or names of beneficiaries. The PMNRF provides annual donation and expenditure information without any detailed breakup.
The PM CARES Fund’s trust deed is not available for public scrutiny.
The decision to allow uncapped corporate donations to the fund to count as CSR expenditure, a facility not provided to PMNRF or the CM’s Relief Funds goes against previous guidelines stating that CSR should not be used to fund government schemes.
A government panel had previously advised against allowing CSR contributions to the PMNRF on the grounds that the double benefit of tax exemption would be a “regressive incentive”

4. 75th UNGA

Subject:IR

Context:

Turkish diplomat VolkanBozkir was elected president of 75th UN General Assembly.

Concept:

The term United Nations was first coined by the U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and was first used as a collective pledge of representatives of 26 nations on the 1st January, 1942, as a commitment to continue to fight against the Axis Powers.
On October 24th, 1945, as many as 51 countries signed the United Nations Charter in South Africa.
The central role of the United Nations was the promotion of peace and security, development and human rights.

Bodies and mandate

The United Nations consists of six main organs – the General Assembly, the Security Council, the Economic and Social Council, the International Court of Justice, the Secretariat and the Trusteeship Council.
Second, there are a number of United Nations programmes and funds such as the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), UN Development Programme (UNDP), and UN Environment Programme (UNEP) etc. These programmes and funds fall under the Economic and Social Council of the UN but are also reported to the General Assembly.
The third set of actors within the UN is the specialised agencies and analogous bodies working in diverse areas such as agriculture, health, labour and meteorology. Well known among these bodies are UNESCO, ILO, FAO and the World Bank set of institutions

Main organs

The General Assembly:

It is the mainstay of the UN. It is the only forum where all countries sit down together and discuss their pressing problems.
Moreover, all nation states have equal voting rights regardless of their economic status. The vote of the General Assembly represents at one level world opinion.
The decisions of the General Assembly, however, are not legally binding on the Member States and only represent, at best, the moral authority of the community of nations.

Security Council:

The Security Council is the UN organ which is in charge of security and internationalpeace and deals with crises as they arise.
Under the UN Charter, the SecurityCouncil’s decisions are legally binding and the Member States are obligated to carry them out.
At present, the Security Council is made up of 15 members out of whom 5members are permanent. The 10 non-permanent members are periodically elected for a 2 year term.
The permanent members have the veto power, i.e. , they can block a proposalby casting a negative vote.

Economic and Social Council:

The Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) is the central UN forum with regard to international economic and social issues.
It has 54 members who are elected by the General Assembly for a three year term.
ECOSOC plays a central role instrengthening the regional cooperation for development as well as setting priorities interms of economic and social work.
Most of the UN programmes and funds and functional commissions includingenvironmental ones such as the Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) fallunder the purview of ECOSOC.
It thus coordinates the work of the UN specialized agencies, programmes and funds and undertakes follow-up action in terms of majorUN conferences. This role has become all the more important in the context of globalisation and with regard to issues such as sustainable development.Environmental concerns fall under the jurisdiction of ECOSOC.

Secretariat:

The UN Secretariat comprises various UN departments and is thus the backbone ofthe UN system.

International Court of Justice:

The International Court of Justice arbitrates on disputes between nation-state
It was established in June 1945 by the Charter of the United Nations and began work in April 1946.
The ICJ is the successor of the Permanent Court of International Justice (PCIJ), which was established by the League of Nations in 1920.

United Nations Trusteeship Council:

It is established to ensure that trust territories were administered in the best interests of their inhabitants and of international peace and security.
The trust territories—most of them former mandates of the League of Nations or territories taken from nations defeated at the end of World War II—have all now attained self-government or independence, either as separate nations or by joining neighbouring independent countries.
The last was Palau, formerly part of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, which became a member state of the United Nations in December 1994.

G-4 is a group of four countries i.e. Brazil, Germany, India and Japan which support each other’s bids for permanent seats on the United Nations Security Council (UNSC)
The G-4 countries have decided to prepare for a fresh push for reforms at the UNGA in 2020 when the UN celebrates its 75th anniversary.