Comprehensive News Analysis - 09 April 2016

A. GS1 Related

1. 400-year-old ban on women at Shani temple goes

Topic: Society

Category: gender issues

Location: The Hindu

Key points:

• the Shani Shingnapur temple in Maharashtra on Friday lifted the 400-year-old ban on the entry of women at the sanctum sanctorum
• On April 1, the Bombay HC held that it was the women’s fundamental right to go to places of worship and the government was duty-bound to protect it

B. GS2 Related

1. Ministry to rate tech best suited to manage waste

Topic: Governance

Category: governmental intervention

Location: The Hindu

Key points:

• The Department of Science and Technology (DST) will analyse the technologies available locally as well as internationally and recommend best ways of waste management

Tags: biomethanation

2. Road to Smart Cities not smooth

Topic: Governance

Category: government policies and intervention

Location: The Hindu

Key points:

• there is still a need for reforms at various levels to successfully implement the Smart Cities programme- WEF Report(Reforms to Accelerate the Development of India’s Smart Cities’ report by the WEF and PwC)
• “archaic” bureaucratic processes, land acquisition delays and uncertaintiesblamed
• Environmental concerns,institutional setup, and sector-specific issues to be taken care of
• ULBs to be strengthened-The revenue collected by ULBs in India is less than 0.9 per cent of the gross domestic product, significantly less than that of Brazil (7.4 per cent) and South Africa (6 per cent)
• Tags: WEF, Smart Cities Project

3. China, Sri Lanka eye new infra road map to anchor ties

Topic: India’s Neighbours

Category: China, Sri Lanka

Location: The Hindu

Key points:

• Decisions that emerged of the meetings between PMs of China and SriLanka:
• Colombo port city project to go ahead
• construction of an industrial park at Sri Lanka’s Hambantota port to be prioritized
• Chinese companies to be encouraged to develop industrial parks, special economic zones, and engage in the processing and manufacturing sector in Sri Lanka
• a preferential buyer credit loan agreement signed for the construction of an extension of section two of the Southern Highway( Colombo to Matara)
• The AIIB and the Asian Development Bank to co-finance projects  in Sri Lanka

Tags: AIIB, ADB, Hambantota port

4. Dashboards to monitor Make In India, rank States

 Topic : Governance

Category: governmental policies

Location: The Hindu

Key points:

• MII Dashboard and EODB Dashboards released
• The MII Dashboard allow ministries to update on the progress made by them in short and medium-term targets and facilitate timely delivery of identified action points and allow for monitoring and identification of delays in implementation
• The EODB Dashboard will allow States to report their progress on the reforms they need to undertake under the State Level Business Reforms Action Plan as well as in validation of responses received from them by the DIPP

Tags: MII, EODB, DIPP

C. GS3 Related

1. FIPB clears FDI proposals worth Rs.505 crore

Topic: Economy

Category: Foreign investment

Location: The Hindu

Key points:

• Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB), chaired by Economic Affairs Secretary, has approved 10 proposals out of 18 on the agenda worth 505 crore
• Singapore-based Helix Investmentproposal worth Rs.475 crore was approved

Tags: FIPB, FDI

2. Fed’s Yellen says rate increases on track

Topic: Economy

Category: world economy

Location: The Hindu

Key points:

• the Federal Reserve may hike interest rates as the US economy is on solid course with hints of inflation
• inflation would not be held down much longer by the strong dollar and low oil prices- Yellen said
• A gradual path of hike is prescribed

Tags: Federal Reserve, inflation

3. New technology helps understand genomes

Topic: S & T

Category: Biotechnology

Location: The Hindu

Key points:

• Researchers at the Gladstone Institutes in U.S have developed a computational method, called TargetFinder which can predict where non-coding DNA interacts with genes
• noncoding DNA called enhancers act like an instruction manual for a gene, dictating when and where a gene is turned on
• Most genetic mutations that are associated with disease occur in enhancers, making them an incredibly important area of study
• When an enhancer is far away from the gene it affects, they connect by forming a three-dimensional loop
• Using machine learning technology, the researchers analysed hundreds of existing datasets from six different cell types to look for patterns in the genome that identify where a gene and enhancer interact

Tags: genome, DNA

D. GS4 Related

E. Important Editorials: A Quick Glance

The Hindu

1. Welcome waste as new wealth

Topic: Governance

Category: waste management

Key points:

• the Ministry of Environment and Forests has notified the new Solid Waste ManagementRules, 2016 with clear responsibilities assigned to various classes of consumers
• the rules issued 16 years back failed abysmally. Waste was transported to suburbs- now mountains of wastes are causing air and water pollution
• the provisions in the new rules for hotels and restaurants to support composting, or biomethanation, and for large housing societies, commercial establishments and other bulk producers to segregate waste have to be strictly enforced
• Local bodies have to align their operations, including waste management contracts, with the new rules under the annual operating plan
• The Ministry should also enlist the services of rag pickers under formal systems such as cooperatives
• If ‘wet’ waste is separated from the rest, compost so produced can make cities and towns clean and green
• millions of tonnes of recyclable plastic, precious metals and other materials can be salvaged
• landfills swallow precious wealth every day. The time has come to recover it.

Indian Express:

1. Sort out the tax maze

Topic: Economy

Category: Taxation

Key Points:

• Tax havens are likely to be used not just for illegal activity but even for legitimate businesses when tax rates are higher, the system is complicated and capital controls restrict foreign financial transactions
• The difference between tax evasion and tax avoidance is a thin line. Tax evasion involves not paying taxes on your income and is illegal. Tax avoidance, on the other hand, is about managing your taxes across different tax jurisdictions
• Tax havens such as Panama, the British Virgin Islands and the Bahamas try to attract business by offering low tax rates and easy compliance
• India ranks 157 in the ease of paying taxes.
• the effective tax on profit is higher in India: The corporate tax rate and the dividend distribution tax put together make the tax rate on profits nearly 50 per cent
• The capital gains tax makes financial transactions unattractive
• Capital controls – Under the Liberalised Remittance Scheme (LRS), every Indian resident is allowed to invest $2,50,000 abroad every year from income on which tax has already been paid
• A provision in the Finance Bill introduced in 2015 made it criminal not to declare foreign assets in annual tax returns
• Rationalisation of capital controls should be a top priority. Second, India must move to a simple tax regime with lower compliance costs.

Others

1. Business Standard: Standing up to prejudice

Topic: Governance

Category: Social sector

Key Points

• The “Stand Up India” scheme, a programme focused on entrepreneurship and empowerment for excluded groups within the market economy is certainly a more practical way of helping these sections than reserving jobs in government institutions, especially given the shrinking market for such employment.
• It is aimed at turning job seekers into job creators
• the project has time-bound deliverables: 250,000 approvals in 36 months for loans between Rs 10 lakh and Rs 1 crore, repayable in up to seven years
• The programme involves refinancing options via the Small Industries Development Bank of India for which the government has put in an initial amount of Rs 10,000 crore and, later, a Rs 5,000-crore corpus is to be created for credit guarantees
• loan disbursals alone is not enough. There is a need of an institution to spearhead implementation. One such institution already exists – the National Scheduled Castes Finance and Development Corporation was set up as far back as 1989
• In areas where tribal societies may need to lose land for industrial projects, schemes like this can be invaluable for creating the kind of small entrepreneurial framework that accounted for China’s growth
• Handing out loans is also fundamentally different from empowering people with the connections needed for successful businesses
• Only a progressive political messaging can make the change a durable one.

2. Business Line: Exceeding expectations

Topic: Economy

Category: Taxation

Key points:

• For the first time since 2007-08, the Centre’s gross tax collection has exceeded targets — both the one set in last year’s Budget, as well as the slightly higher Revised Estimate.
• Tax collections, at ₹14.60 lakh crore, topped the revised target of ₹14.55 lakh crore
• How was this possible?
• the high central excise duty that the government imposed on petroleum products, increasing it incrementally with every dip in global prices made it possible
• the Centre may not be able to hike taxes on petroleum products further as the international prices have almost stabilized
• The monsoon performance has a direct bearing on rural demand
• Additional cess and restrictions on sale of large diesel cars could also decrease the Centre’s tax revenues — corporate tax, excise duty on vehicles and fuel, customs duty on parts, all would be affected
• Even then, smart use of technology and revenue intelligence can help the Centre grow its tax collections
• Revenue authorities had started using third party information provided by banks, credit card companies, bond issuers etcto track down tax evaders last year
• Continued use of technology and data mining to track down evaders would significantly help improve collections
• implementation of the Goods and Services Tax, with its high reliance on information technology to record transactions as well as taxes on each transaction, can also reduce evasion and boost collections

F. Concepts-in-News: Related Concepts to Revise/Learn:

1. DTAA
2. Genome
3. Revenue budget
4. GAAR
5. FIPB

G. Fun with Practice Questions 🙂

Question 1: Which of the following are true about FIPB?

Question 2:Which of the following statements are true?

Question 3:Which of the following countries are not members of the AIIB?

Question 4: Which of the following elements are not found in DNA?

Question 5:Which of the following are true about DTAA?

H. Archives:

You can check out some more recent News Analysis sections to build even more context

08th April 2016: Daily News & Current Affairs Analysis

07th April 2016: Daily News & Current Affairs Analysis

06th April 2016: Daily News & Current Affairs Analysis

05th April 2016: Daily News & Current Affairs Analysis

04th April 2016: Daily News & Current Affairs Analysis

03rd April 2016: Daily News & Current Affairs Analysis

02nd April 2016: Daily News & Current Affairs Analysis

01st April 2016: Daily News & Current Affairs Analysis

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