13 July 2021: PIB Summary & Analysis

July 13th, 2021, PIB:- Download PDF Here

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. BHIM–UPI
2. CSIR-CSIO’s UV-C Disinfection Technology
3. Prelims Facts

1. BHIM–UPI

Context:

BHIM–UPI launched in Bhutan.

Details:

• On the occasion, India’s Finance Minister said that the services have started in Bhutan under India’s neighbourhood first policy.
• She also said that the BHIM UPI is one of the brightest spots and an achievement for digital transactions in India during the time of the COVID-19 pandemic with more than 100 million UPI QRs having been created in the last 5 years.
  • The BHIM UPI in 2020-21 has processed 22 billion transactions worth value Rs 41 lakh crore.
• With this launch, Bhutan becomes the first country to adopt UPI standards for its QR deployment.
• RuPay cards are also accepted in Bhutan with it being officially launched in Bhutan in 2019 during PM Modi’s visit.
• Hence, Bhutan is also the only country to both issue and accept RuPay cards as well as accept BHIM-UPI.
• Over 200,000 tourists from India travel to Bhutan every year.
• Bharat Interface for Money (BHIM) is India’s digital payment application (app) that works through UPI, a system that powers multiple bank accounts into a single mobile application.

Read more about BHIM in the linked article.

2. CSIR-CSIO’s UV-C Disinfection Technology

Context:

The UV-C Disinfection Technology developed by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) to be installed in Parliament.

Details:

• The Union Minister of State for Science & Technology held a meeting with senior scientists of CSIR to discuss the modalities of installing the system in the Parliament ahead of the monsoon session.

About the Technology:

• The UV-C Disinfection Technology is essentially an air duct system which has been developed by the Chandigarh based CSIR-CSIO (Central Scientific Instruments Organisation) and can be used in auditoriums, large conference rooms, class-rooms, malls, etc.
• It provides a relatively safer environment for indoor activities amid the pandemic.
• The CSIR-CSIO developed product is tested for more than 99 % disinfection and could be used as a retrofit solution to Air Handling Units (AHUs) of buildings, transport vehicles and other spin off applications.
• The UV-C is an energy efficient system, improves airflow through coils, enhances indoor air quality, requires less maintenance, easy to retrofit with any existing system having AHU ducts, and has low initial setup cost. The system comes with commercialized standards and certifications.
• CSIR-CSIO has transferred the technology to many companies for commercialisation.

3. Prelims Facts

Directorate General of GST Intelligence (DGGI)

• DGGI is a law enforcement agency under the Central Board of Indirect Taxes & Customs (CBIC), Department of Revenue, Ministry of Finance responsible for fighting tax evasion in India.
• DGGI is entrusted with the task of collection, collation and dissemination of intelligence relating to evasion of Goods and Services Tax (GST) (introduced w.e.f. 01.07.2017) and duties of Central Excise and Service Tax on an all India basis.
  • It develops intelligence, especially in new areas of tax evasion through its intelligence network across the country and disseminates such information, by issuing Modus Operandi Circulars and Alert Circulars to sensitize the field formations about the latest trends in duty evasion.
  • Wherever found necessary, this Directorate General, on its own or in co-ordination with field formations, organizes operations to unearth evasion of GST, Central Excise Duty and Service Tax.
• It was founded in 1979 as the Directorate General of Anti-Evasion and was later renamed the Directorate General of Central Excise Intelligence.
• It was renamed DGGI after GST was introduced in India.
• It is a part of NATGRID.

Read previous PIB here.

July 13th, 2021, PIB:- Download PDF Here