13 August 2019: UPSC Exam PIB Summary & Analysis

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August 13th, 2019 PIB:-Download PDF Here

Swachh Survekshan 2020

Context

Shri Hardeep Singh Puri, Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Housing & Urban Affairs launched the Swachh Survekshan 2020 (SS 2020), the fifth edition of the annual cleanliness survey conducted by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA)

Focus areas of Swachh Survekshan 2020

• Collect segregated waste and maintain till processing site
• Utilising capacity of wet waste processing facilities
• Treat and reuse waste water
• Curtail solid waste based air pollution
• Uplift social condition of informal waste pickers
• Promote procurement through GeM
• Assess Ganga Towns separately to accelerate action
• Engage technology driven monitoring

Difference between Swachh Survekshan 2020 and 2019

CSR expenditure to be made tax deductible

Context

Shri Injeti Srinivas, Secretary (Corporate Affairs), presented the Report of the High Level Committee on CSR to the Union Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs, Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman.

Recommendation

• The main recommendations include, making Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) expenditure tax deductible, provision for carry forward of unspent balance for a period of 3 – 5 years.
• The other recommendations include developing a CSR exchange portal to connect contributors, beneficiaries and agencies, allowing CSR in social benefit bonds, promoting social impact companies, and third party assessment of major CSR projects.
• The Committee has emphasized on not treating CSR as a means of resource gap funding for government schemes.
• It has emphasized on CSR spending as a board driven process to provide innovative technology based solutions for social problems.
• The Committee has also recommended that companies having CSR prescribed amount below Rs. 50 lakh may be exempted from constituting a CSR Committee.
• The Committee has also recommended that violation of CSR compliance may be made a civil offence and shifted to the penalty regime.

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August 13th, 2019 PIB:-Download PDF Here

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