Daily Prelims Notes 11 August 2020

August 11, 2020
Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
Category: DPN

No Comments

Table Of Contents

1. COVAX facility

Subject: IR

Context:

World Health Organization has renewed its invite to countries to join its COVAX facility.

Concept:

Covid-19 Vaccine Global Access (COVAX) facility is a mechanism designed to guarantee rapid, fair and equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines
The goal of COVAX is to deliver two billion doses of safe, effective vaccines that have passed regulatory approval and/or WHO pre-qualification by the end of 2021.
Earlier, as many as 75 countries expressed interest to protect their populations and those of other nations through joining the vaccine facility, WHO said in a 15 July statement.
COVAX is co-led by Gavi, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and WHO, working in partnership with developed and developing country vaccine manufacturers.
The shots will be delivered equally to participating countries proportional to their populations and deployed initially for healthcare workers.

2. GST

Subject: Economy

Context:

The Centre and the states are in a tussle over delayed compensation payments under GST

Concept:

The GST aims to streamline the taxation structure in the country and replace a gamut of indirect taxes with a singular GST to simplify the taxation procedure.
It has been established by the 101st Constitutional Amendment Act.
It is an indirect tax for the whole country on the lines of “One Nation One Tax” to make India a unified market.
The Goods and Services Tax (GST), rolled out in July 2017, marked a major shift from the traditional production-linked tax to a consumption-based tax.
The new regime subsumed state levies such as VAT, sales tax, octroi/entry tax together with central levies such as central excise and service tax.
States gave up some of their taxation rights in lieu of the Centre passing on their revenue share under GST and also compensating them for potential revenue losses in the first five years.
It is levied on the value addition and provides set offs. As a result, it avoids the cascading effect or tax on tax which increases the tax burden on the end consumer.
There is a provision of GST Councilto decide upon any matter related to GST whose chairman in the finance minister of India. It will approve all decision related to taxation in the country. It consists of Centre, states and UTs with legislature. Centre has 1/3rd voting rights and states have 2/3rd voting rights. Decisions are taken after a majority in the council.
GSTN is registered as a not-for-profit companyunder the companies Act. It has been formed to set up and operate the information technology backbone of the GST. While the Central (24.5%) and the state (24.5%) governments hold a combined stake of 49%, the remaining 51% stake is divided among five financial institutions

The consumer pays an overall rate under one of the major tax slabs — 5%, 12%, 18% and 28% — out of which half accrues to the Centre and half to the state where consumption happens.

Compensation cess

Compensation cess was introduced as relief for States for the loss of revenues arising from the implementation of GST.
States, in lieu of giving up their powers to collect taxes on goods and services after local levies were subsumed under the GST, were guaranteed a 14 per cent tax revenue growth in the first five years after GST implementation by the Central government.
States’ tax revenue as of FY16 is considered as the base year for the calculation of this 14 per cent growth.
Any shortfall against it is supposed to be compensated by the Centre using the funds specifically collected as compensation cess.
Compensation cess is levied on five products considered to be ‘sin’ or luxury goods like SUV, pan masala, cigrattes.
The collected compensation cessflows into the Consolidated Fund of India, and then transferred to the Public Account of India, where a GST compensation cess account has been created.
States are compensated bi-monthly from the accumulated funds in this account.

3. Sunspots

Subject: Science and tech

Context:

A massive Sunspot group, AR2770, was observed last week, claimed using images of the Sun’s surface from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO).

Concept:

Sunspots are areas that appear dark on the surface of the Sun.
They appear dark because they are cooler than other parts of the Sun’s surface.
It’s cool because they form at areas where magnetic fields are particularly strong. These magnetic fields are so strong that they keep some of the heat within the Sun from reaching the surface.
Most Sunspots appear in groups that have their own magnetic field, whose polarity reverses during every solar cycle, which takes around 11 years. In every such cycle, the number of Sunspots increases and decreases.

The magnetic field lines near sunspots often tangle, cross, and reorganize. This can cause a sudden explosion of energy called a solar flare.
Solar flares release a lot of radiation into space. If a solar flare is very intense, the radiation it releases can interfere with our radio communications here on Earth.
Solar flares are sometimes accompanied by a coronal mass ejection (CME for short).
CMEs are huge bubbles of radiation and particles from the Sun. They explode into space at very high speed when the Sun’s magnetic field lines suddenly reorganize.
When charged particles from a CME reach areas near Earth, they can trigger intense lights in the sky, called auroras.
When particularly strong, a CME can also interfere in power utility grids, which at their worst can cause electricity shortages and power outages. Solar flares and CMEs are the most powerful explosions in our solar system.

4. Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana

Subject: Schemes

Context:

The nationwide lockdown had a significant negative impact on inpatient care utilisation under the Pradhan Mantri Jan ArogyaYojana (PMJAY), where claim volumes fell by over 50%, with wide variation across the States and procedure types.

Concept:

The second component under Ayushman Bharat is the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojna
Ayushman Bharat PM-JAY is the largest health assurance scheme in the world which aims at providing a health cover of Rs. 5 lakhs per family per year for secondary and tertiary care hospitalization to over 10.74 crores poor and vulnerable families .
The households included are based on the deprivation criteria of Socio-Economic Caste Census 2011 (SECC 2011) for rural areas and occupational criteria of SECC in urban areas.
PM-JAY was earlier known as the National Health Protection Scheme (NHPS) before being rechristened. It subsumed the then existing RashtriyaSwasthyaBimaYojana (RSBY) which had been launched in 2008.
PM-JAY is fully funded by the Government and cost of implementation is shared between the Central and State Governments.
It covers up to 3 days of pre-hospitalization and 15 days post-hospitalization expenses such as diagnostics and medicines.
There is no restriction on the family size, age or gender.
Benefits of the scheme are portable across the countrye. a beneficiary can visit any empanelled public or private hospital in India to avail cashless treatment.
Public hospitals are reimbursed for the healthcare services at par with the private hospitals.

Socio economic caste census

SECC-2011 is the study of socio economic status of rural and urban households. The Ministry of Rural Development Government of India, commenced the Socio Economic and Caste Census (SECC) 2011, in June 2011 through a comprehensive door to door enumeration across the country.
SECC 2011 has three census components which were conducted by three separate authorities but under the overall coordination of Department of Rural Development in the Government of India.
- Census in Rural Area has been conducted by the Department of Rural Development (DoRD).
- Census in Urban areas is under the administrative jurisdiction of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation (MoHUPA).
- Caste Census is under the administrative control of Ministry of Home Affairs: Registrar General of India (RGI) and Census Commissioner of India.
The SECC, 2011 has the following three objective:

a) To enable households to be ranked based on their socioeconomic status. State Governments can then prepare a list of families living below the poverty line.

b) To make available authentic information that will enable caste-wise population enumeration of the country.

c) To make available authentic information regarding the socioeconomic condition, and education status of various castes and sections of the population.

5. National Building Code of India

Subject: Government laws

Context:

Tragedies like Ahmedabad hospital fire keep occurring regularly in India

Concept:

National Building Code of India covers the detailed guidelines for construction, maintenance and fire safety of the structures.
National Building Code of India is published by Bureau of Indian Standards and it is recommendatory document.
Guidelines were issued to the States to incorporate the recommendations of National Building Code into their local building bylaws making the recommendations of National Building Code of India as mandatory requirement.

6. World Elephant Day

Subject: Environment

Context:

Compendium on best practices of Human-Elephant Conflict Management in India was launched on eve of World Elephant Day

Concept:

World Elephant Day celebrated on August 12 is an international annual event, dedicated to the preservation and protection of the world’s elephants.
The goal of World Elephant Day is to create awareness on elephant conservation, and to share knowledge and positive solutions for the better protection and management of wild and captive elephants.
Asian elephants are listed as “Endangered” on the IUCN Red List of threatened species.
The current population estimates indicate that there are about 50,000 -60000 Asian elephants in the world. More than 60 % of the population is held in India.
Indian Elephant has also been listed in the Appendix I of the Convention of the Migratory species in the recently concluded Conference of Parties of CMS 13 at Gandhi Nagar, Gujarat in February 2020.
Elephant is the Natural Heritage Animal of India and India also celebrates this day to spread awareness towards conservation of the species.

7. World Biofuel day

Subject: Environment/ Economy

Context:

A webinar on the occasion of the World Biofuel day was organized by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, with the theme “Biofuels towards Atmanirbhar Bharat”.

Concept:

World Biofuel Day is observed every year on 10th August to create awareness about the importance of non-fossil fuels as an alternative to conventional fossil fuels and to highlight the various efforts made by the Government in the Biofuel sector.
World Biofuel Day is being celebrated by Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas since 2015.
Biofuels have multiple benefits such as reduction on import dependence, ensuring a cleaner environment, generating additional income for farmers and employment generation.
Since, 2014, the Government of India has taken a number of initiatives to increase blending of biofuels.
The major initiatives include administrative price mechanism for ethanol, simplifying the procurement procedures by OMCs, amending the provisions of Industries (Development & Regulation) Act, 1951, Long term ethanol procurement policy, ethanol distillation capacity addition and enabling lignocellulosic route for ethanol procurement.

8. Round tripping

Subject: Economy

Context:

Raising questions of round-tripping through a maze of firms, an influential Pune-based businessman received over Rs 52 crore from an IL&FS (Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services Ltd.) group company which he then used to repay his initial loan to the very same IL&FS company.

Concept:

Money leaves the country through various channels such as inflated invoices, payments to shell companies overseas, the hawala route and so on. After cooling its heels overseas for a while, this money returns in a freshly laundered form; thus completing a round-trip.
How does the money return to India? It could be invested in offshore funds that in turn invest in Indian assets. The Global Depository Receipts (GDR) and Participatory Notes (P-Notes) are some of the other routes that have been used in the past.

9. No Confidence Motion

Subject: Polity

Context:

The coalition government in Manipur won the confidence motion moved by Chief Minister N Biren Singh through a voice vote in the monsoon session of the Assembly

Concept:

A government can function only when it has majority support in the legislature.
The party can remain in power when it shows its strength through a floor test which is primarily taken to know whether the executive enjoys the confidence of the legislature.
If any member of the House feels that the government in power does not have a majority then he/she can move a no-confidence motion.
If the motion is accepted, then the party in power has to prove its majority in the House. The member need not give a reason for moving the no-confidence motion.