Daily Prelims Notes 13 February 2021
- February 13, 2021
- Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
- Category: DPN
Daily Prelims Notes
13 February 2021
By
Santosh Sir
All 6 Prelims qualified
4 CSE Mains qualified
If I can do it, you can too
Table Of Contents
- Inter-state Workmen Act (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act 1979
- Collegium
- Losar
- Leader of Opposition
- News Showcase
- Affordable Rental Housing Complexes scheme (ARHCs)
- Tax buoyancy
- Hot money
1. Inter-state Workmen Act (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act 1979
Subject: Polity
Context: Jharkhand CM said the state had received a commitment from BRO to recruit labourers directly from the state, register itself under the Inter-State Migrant Workmen Act, and sign an MoU, yet, there had been many complaints from labourers.
Concept:
- Issue is that it is alleged that when labourers go to work for BRO, they are paid only half the salary they are promised thus violating the contract and promise.
Key provisions of the Act:
- It regulates the employment of inter-State migrants and their conditions of service.
- It puts in place a system of registration of such establishments employing inter-state migrants.
- The wages of the migrant workers must not be lower than the wages mentioned in the Minimum Wages Act.
- The wage rates, number of holidays, working hour and other conditions of recruitment of a migrant worker must be same as those extended to other local workmen in the same establishment provided that nature of their work is same.
- It is applicable to every establishment that employs five or more migrant workmen from other States; or if it had employed five or more such workmen on any day in the preceding 12 months.
- The principal employer is prohibited from employing inter-State workmen without a certificate of registration from the relevant authority.
- The law also lays down that every contractor who recruits workmen from one State for deployment in another State should obtain a license to do so.
- Contractors are bound by certain conditions. Ex- committing them to providing terms and conditions of the agreement or any other arrangement on the basis of which they recruit workers.
Subject: Polity
Context: The current CJI is set to retire in a month with 14-month tenure coming to next month, yet, not a single judge to the SC has been appointed (around 6 vacancies).
Concept:
- Collegium system was born through “three judges’ case”and it is in practice since 1998. It consists of the Chief Justice of India and four most senior judges of Supreme Court for appointment and transfer of judges and decides on the recommendations for persons to be appointed as SC and HC judges.
- The collegium recommends names to the Centre and the Centre also recommends name. The collegium after considering the names again sends the file to the government.
- If the Collegium resends the same name again then the government has to give its assent to the names. But time limit is not fixed to reply.
Evolution and working of the collegium system in India
It is based on the interpretation of the term “Consultation” as mentioned in the Art 124 and Art 217 of the Constitution, and evolved through three judges cases
- In the First Judges case (1982), the Court held that consultation does not mean concurrence and it only implies exchange of views.
- In the Second Judges case (1993), the Court reversed its earlier ruling and changed the meaning of the word consultation to concurrence.
- In the Third Judges case (1998), the Court opined that the consultation process to be adopted by the Chief Justice of India requires ‘consultation of plurality judges.
- The sole opinion of the CJI does not constitute the consultation process. He should consult a collegium of four senior most judges of the Supreme Court and even if two judges give an adverse opinion, he should not send the recommendation to the government.
- The court held that the recommendation made by the chief justice of India without complying with the norms and requirements of the consultation process are not binding on the government.
Subject: Art and Culture
Context: Tibetan New Year is being celebrated today.
Concept:
- It is a festival of Tibetan Buddhism.
- It is celebrated on lunisolar (a calendar in many cultures whose date indicates both the Moon phase and the time of the solar year.) Tibetan calendar.
- It is celebrated on various dates depending on depending on location (Tibet, Bhutan, Nepal, India, and Pakistan) tradition.
- It corresponds to a date in February or March in the Gregorian calendar.
- It is known as Lhochhar in Nepal.
- In Ladakh religious offering is made to the deities in domestic shrines or GOMPAS.
- Cultural event, rituals and traditional performances are also organized.
Context: Mallikaarjun Kharje is set to succeed Ghulam Nabi Azad as the Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha.
Concept:
- It is the leader of the largest opposition political party not having less than 1/10th of the total seats of the house. (Ex- In Lok Sabha a party which is largest opposition party and has at least 55 seats can stake claim).
- In 1969 for the first-time official leader of opposition was recognized.
- It is a statutory office under the Salary and Allowances of Leaders of Opposition in the Parliament Act, 1977.
- The Speaker needs to recognize him/her as the Leader of Opposition.
- His main role is to provide for constructive criticism of the government and provide for a ready alternate government.
- They are entitled salary, allowances and other facilities equivalent to that of cabinet minister.
- Currently, there is no leader of opposition in Lok Sabha as the Congress has 52 seats only.
Subject: Events of International importance
Context: Google proposed to the Australian govt “News Showcase” product which could be used to compensate news publishers under the upcoming law.
Concept:
- The google is embroiled in a tussle with the Australian government over a proposed legislation that would require it to pay news publishers.
- News Media Bargaining Code by the Australian govt will be a “mandatory code of conduct” which the Australian government says is meant to fix the “bargaining power imbalances” between news media businesses and tech giants.
- The code proposes that digital platforms such as Google and Facebook pay for using links and content from news publishers.
- It also requires that digital platforms will “provide registered news business corporations with advance notification of planned changes to an algorithm or internal practice that will have a significant effect on covered news content.
About News Showcase
- It proposes it as a workable solution within framework of above code.
- It will involve a licensing deal from Google, which includes publications such as the Crikey, The Conversation, The New Daily and regional newspapers from Australian Community Media.
- Product will be added to Google News (mobile, Android and iOS app) and the Discover feed, which appears on the Google Search app.
- Participating publications get monthly payments from Google for their curated articles, which appear in a carousel. These could also include access to select paywalled content from publishers.
- Google will also pay monthly fees.
- Google has done similar deals for News Showcase in France and in other countries.
6. Affordable Rental Housing Complexes scheme (ARHCs)
Subject: Welfare schemes
Context: ARHCs are seen as part of Atma Nirbhar Bharat and seeks to create a sustainable ecosystem of affordable rental housing solutions for urban migrants/ poor.
Concept:
- It is a sub-scheme under Pradhan MantriAwasYojana – Urban (PMAY-U) and is under Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs.
- It will be implemented by Public/Private bodies either by converting the existing Government funded vacant complexes into ARHCs or by constructing, operating and maintaining ARHCs on their own available vacant land.
- It envisages to create a conducive ecosystem for Public/ Private Entities through policy incentives which will leverage investment for creating affordable rental housing stock.
- Beneficiaries for ARHCs will be from Economically Weaker Section (EWS)/ Low Income Group (LIG) who are urban migrants/poor. They include labour, urban poor (street vendors, rickshaw pullers, other service providers etc.), industrial workers and migrants working with market/ trade associations, educational/ health institutions, hospitality sector, long term tourists/ visitors, students or any other persons of such category.
Following incentives/ benefits have been proposed by Government of India and State/UT Governments:
- Exemption of Income Tax on any profits and gains derived from operation of ARHCs on similar lines as that of ‘Affordable Housing’ under section 80-IBA of Income Tax Act, 1961;
- Exemption of GST on any profits and gains derived from operation of ARHCs.
- Project finance/loan at lower interest rate through concessional window under Affordable Housing Fund (AHF) by Housing Finance Companies (HFCs) and Priority Sector Lending (PSL) by Commercials Banks;
- Provision of “Use Permission” changes for houses on vacant land, if needed;
- 50% additional Floor Area Ratio (FAR)/ Floor Space Index (FSI) free of cost;
- Single window approval of design/ drawings and other statutory approvals within 30 days;
- Necessary trunk infrastructure facilities like road, sanitation services, water, sewerage/septage, drainage, electricity etc. up to the project site without any additional cost to Entity;
- Municipal services such as water supply, electricity, house/ property tax, sewerage/ septage charge etc. for operation of ARHCs will be levied at par with residential projects; and
- Additional grant in the form of Technology Innovation Grant (TIG) is provisioned by Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) for using innovative, sustainable, green and disaster-resilient technologies as well as building materials for cost effective, faster and quality construction of ARHCs. TIG of Rs. 60,000/- per house (Single Bedroom), Rs. 1,00,000/- (Double Bedroom) and Rs. 20,000/-per Dormitory Bed will be provided as per Scheme Guidelines.
Subject: Economy
Context: the finance secretary said the revised estimates of revenue and expenditure for the current fiscal were realistic and tax buoyancy expectations are realistic.
Concept:
- Tax buoyancy explains relationship between the changes in government’s tax revenue growth and the changes in GDP.
- It refers to the responsiveness of tax revenue growth to changes in GDP.
- When a tax is buoyant, its revenue increases without increasing the tax rate.
- A similar looking concept is tax elasticity. It refers to changes in tax revenue in response to changes in tax rate.
Tax buoyancy depends mainly on
- Size of the tax base
- Tax administration regime
- Reasonableness and simplicity of the tax rates
- Wealth creation
Trends
- Tax buoyancy was fairly moderate between 1 and 1.3 in 4 of 7 years between 1991-92 and 1997-98 and was poor in the remaining 3 years
- During the 2004-05 to 2008-09 period, the first 4 years recorded tax buoyancy between 1.3 and 1.7, a creditable performance.
- In the fifth year (2008-09), there was a sharp fall in tax buoyancy to about 0.2.
- The 2014-19 period saw steady performance in tax buoyancy.
Subject: Economy
Context: The Reserve Bank of India’s strategy to shift some of its rupee intervention to the forwards market is drawing hot money in India.
Concept:
- Hot money refers to the currency that quickly and regularly moves between financial markets and is invested for short-term.
- In this investors lock in the highest available short-term interest rates for large gains.
- It is less flexible and bring in volatility in economy (Ex- FPI is often referred to as “hot money” because of its tendency to flee at the first signs of trouble in an economy.).
- Banks usually attract “hot money” by offering relatively short-term certificates of deposit (CD) that have above-average interest rates. As soon as the institution reduces interest rates or another institution offers higher rates, investors with “hot money” withdraw their funds and move them to another institution with higher rates.
About certificate of deposit
- Certificate of Deposit (CD) is a money market instrument and it is negotiable and equivalent to a promissory note.
- It is either issued in dematerialized form or in the form of a usance promissory note.
- It is issued in lieu of the funds deposited at a bank for a specified time period.