22 October 2018: UPSC Exam PIB Summary & Analysis

Read the daily PIB update and stay up-to-date on current affairs for the UPSC exam

2nd Report on Cross Border Insolvency

• The Insolvency Law Committee (ILC) constituted by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs has submitted its 2^ndReport to the Government, which deals with cross border insolvency. 
• The ILC has recommended the adoption of the UNCITRAL Model Law of Cross Border Insolvency, 1997, as it provides for a comprehensive framework to deal with cross border insolvency issues.  
• The Committee has also recommended a few carve outs to ensure that there is no inconsistency between the domestic insolvency framework and the proposed Cross Border Insolvency Framework.

About:

• The UNCITRAL Model Law has been adopted in as many as 44 countries and, therefore, forms part of international best practices in dealing with cross border insolvency issues. 
• The advantages of the model law are the precedence given to domestic proceedings and protection of public interest.
• The other advantages include greater confidence generation among foreign investors, adequate flexibility for seamless integration with the domestic Insolvency Law and a robust mechanism for international cooperation.
• The model law deals with four major principles of cross-border insolvency:
  • direct access to foreign insolvency professionals and foreign creditors to participate in or commence domestic insolvency proceedings against a defaulting debtor;
  • recognition of foreign proceedings & provision of remedies;
  • cooperation between domestic and foreign courts & domestic and foreign insolvency practitioners; and
  • coordination between two or more concurrent insolvency proceedings in different countries. 

Necessity for this recommendation:

• Many Indian companies have a global footprint and many foreign companies have presence in multiple countries including India. 
• The proposed Framework for Cross Border Insolvency will enable us to deal with Indian companies having foreign assets and vice versa, it still does not provide for a framework for dealing with enterprise groups, which is still work in progress with UNCITRAL and other international bodies. 

Workshop on Health and Nutrition Initiatives under Aspirational District Programme

• A one-day National Workshop for Orientation of District Officials of Aspirational Districts on Health and Nutrition, was organised by The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, in collaboration with Ministry of Women and Child Development.

Context:

• The State Health Ministers unveiled the Operational Guidelines on Aspirational Districts for Health and Nutrition and launched the e-Mitra Mobile Application.
• This is a first of its kind initiative by identifying 117 districts under the ‘Aspirational Districts’ Programme with an aim to quickly and effectively transform them.
• The Reproductive Maternal Newborn Child and Adolescent Health (RMNCH+A) program is an important pillar which will be strengthened under Aspirational Districts Programme.
• The operational guidelines on Aspirational Districts will provide a framework for implementing action to be undertaken for various health initiatives to guide the state, district, block programme officers and other stakeholders in organizing various activities expected to meet the vision for health by leveraging health and nutrition initiatives to bring transformation in the lives of people and meet their aspirations to be healthy.

Mobile app:

• The e-Mitra (Mobile Integrated Toolkit RMNCH+A ) app has been designed to complement the Aspirational District Programme and offers one stop solution to access RMNCH+A related statistics from different sources through a combination of approaches.

Women of India Organic Festival to be held at IGNCA

• The Ministry of Women and Child Development is organizing the 5th edition of the Women of India Organic Festival at Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, Janpath Road, New Delhi.

Aim:

• To boost organic culture and promote Women Organic Farmers and Entrepreneurs.
• Being the country’s largest organic festival, it bears witness to the fact that women are the torchbearers of the nation’s organic movement.

About:

• The WOI Festival has given a successful platform to empower women farmers and entrepreneurs in a festive and fruitful manner for the past 4 years. 
• It is a matter of great satisfaction for me that the Ministry’s efforts ultimately boost these illustrious rural women’s local communities and economy by creating jobs and keeping farmers thriving in addition to spreading awareness about the benefits of organic products.
• With over 500 women entrepreneurs coming together from across the country with their organic products such as cereals, rice, pulses, skin-care products, fabric, jewellery, etc, this is the perfect example of how the festival is creating a revolution and making women self-reliant.
• Participants from the remotest parts of the country travel and stay in Delhi for the entire duration of the Festival, while having the opportunity of selling their healthy and wholesome produce to the people of Delhi and surrounding areas.

Harit Diwali-Swasth Diwali

Context:

• The “Harit Diwali-Swasth Diwali” campaign is now merged with “Green Good Deed” movement that has been initiated as a social mobilization for conservation and protection of environment.

Background:

• Air pollution is a serious health issue in the country especially in the northern parts during winter seasons.
• The air pollution in the northern region is attributed to dust, burning of crops in certain states, burning of garbage construction and prevailing climatic conditions.
• This air pollution has serious impacts on the health of children aged people and people suffering from respiratory ailments.
• As a matter of practice people have been celebrating Diwali by bursting crackers. 
• Crackers contains combustible chemicals that include potassium chlorate powdered aluminum, magnesium, salts of barium, copper, sodium, lithium, strontium etc. and emits smoke on combustion of these chemicals along with sound. 
• This smoke and sound has health impacts on children, aged people and also animal and birds.
• The children were encouraged to light up their houses and their schools with candles and diyas.
• The above campaign was extremely successful and the air quality had not deteriorated post Diwali in 2017 unlike what was experienced in 2016.

To ace UPSC current affairs section, read more PIB articles here.

Also See: