Current Affairs Assam July 08-14, 2018
( Covers all important Assam Current Affairs & GK topics for the week of July 08-14, 2018 )
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July 8
7 New Greenfield projects under Bharatmala projects
Indian government is expected to launch seven greenfield projects to construct 3,000km of expressways under the ₹ 5.35 trillion Bharatmala scheme.
In the first phase, the road network is set to connect Delhi-Vadodara, Chennai-Salem in Tamil Nadu, Kharagpur-Siliguri in West Bengal, Delhi-Bilaspur, Durg-Aurang in Chhattisgarh, Mangaluru-Chitradurga in Karnataka and Ambala-Kathputli in Haryana. The longest stretch of 1,000km will be built between Delhi and Vadodara.
The greenfield projects would cost 40-60% less than expansion of brownfield projects, mainly because the land prices in brownfield projects are over twice the cost of land elsewhere.
Under the first phase of the Bharatmala project, 24,800km of roads and highways will be built over five years for an estimated cost of ₹ 5.35 trillion.
FACTFILE – Bharatmala Pariyojana
- Bharatmala Pariyojana is an umbrella programme of centrally-sponsored and funded road and highways project of the Government of India.[1] The total investment for 83,677 km (51,994 mi) committed new highways is estimated at 5.35 lakh crore, making it the single largest outlay for a government road construction scheme.
- The project will build highways from Gujarat and Rajasthan, move to Punjab and then cover the entire string of Himalayan states – Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand – and then portions of borders of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar alongside Terai, and move to West Bengal , Sikkim, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, and right up to the Indo-Myanmar border in Manipur and Mizoram.
- Special emphasis will be given on providing connectivity to far-flung border and rural areas including the tribal and backward areas.
- Bharatmala will connect 550 district headquarters (from current 300) to minimum 4-lane highway by raising the number of corridors to 50 (from current 6) and move 80% freight traffic (40% currently) to national highways by connecting 24 logistics parks, 66 inter-corridors of total 8,000 km, 116 feeder routes of total 7,500 km and 6 7 north east multimodal waterway ports.
- The ambitious umbrella programme will subsume all existing highway projects including the flagship National Highways Development Project (NHDP), launched by the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government in 1998.
IMPS fund transfer doubles to Rs 3.23 lakh crore in Q1 of FY 2019
Transfer of funds through Immediate Payment Service (IMPS) crossed a whopping Rs 3.23 lakh crore in April-June quarter of 2018-19, which is almost double the amount recorded in the year-ago period.
As per the data of National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), Rs 3,23,826.79 crore was transferred through IMPS during the first quarter 2018-19, which was Rs 1,74,419.45 crore during April-June, 2017-18.
FACTFILE – Immediate Payment Service (IMPS)
- IMPS is an instant real-time inter-bank electronic funds transfer system in India. Unlike NEFT and RTGS, the service is available 24/7 throughout the year including bank holidays.
- It is managed by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) and is built upon the existing National Financial Switch network.
- NPCI publicly launched IMPS on November 22, 2010 and now there are 53 commercial banks, 101 Rural/District/Urban and cooperative banks, and 24 PPIi signed up for the IMPS service.
- IMPS offers an instant, round-the-clock interbank electronic fund transfer service that can be accessed through multiple channels like mobile, internet, ATM, SMS, Branch and USSD (*99#).
Central Govt planning to bring Assam tea workers under Govt insurance schemes
Govt of india is planning to bring more than 8 lakh workers working in different tea gardens spread across Assam under Govt insurance schemes. The Pradhan Mantri Jivan Jyoti Bima Yojna and Pradhan Mantri Suraksha BimaYojna will back these tea labourers with a sum of Rs 2 lakh in case of permanent disability or death. This will be a major step in ensuring the social security of garden workers whose families struggle to make ends meet after the death of the bread-earner.
The government will transfer the annual premium of Rs 330 for Jivan Jyoti Bima Yojana and Rs 12 for Suraksha Bima Yojana to the accounts of insurance holders.
The Assam government will soon increase the daily wage by Rs 30 by taking the total wage to Rs 167 in Brahmaputra Valley and Rs 145 in Barak Valley Gardens, which was to be effective from March 1 2018 year and garden owners have agreed to pay the arrears as early as possible.
This wage will be paid till a decision is taken to fix a new daily wage by the one-man committee of additional chief secretary Kumar Sanjay Krishna after discussion with all stakeholders. The committee will decide a single wage for gardens in the Brahmaputra and Barak valleys
FACTFILE – Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana
- Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana is a government-backed Life insurance scheme in India. It was originally mentioned in the 2015 Budget speech by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in February 2015.
- As of May 2015, only 20% of India’s population has any kind of insurance, this scheme aims to increase the number.
- It is available to people between 18 and 50 years of age with bank accounts. It has an annual premium of ₹330.
- The GST is exempted on Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana.
- In case of death due to any cause, the payment to the nominee will be ₹2 lakh.
FACTFILE – Pradhan Mantri Suraksha BimaYojana
- Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana is a government-backed accident insurance scheme in India. It was originally mentioned in the 2015 Budget speech by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in February 2015.
- Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana is available to people between 18 and 70 years of age with bank accounts.
- It has an annual premium of ₹12 exclusive of taxes.
- The GST is exempted on Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana.
- In case of accidental death or full disability, the payment to the nominee will be ₹2 lakh and in case of partial Permanent disability ₹1 lakh. Full disability has been defined as loss of use in both eyes, hands or feet. Partial Permanent disability has been defined as loss of use in one eye, hand or foot.
- This scheme will be linked to the bank accounts opened under the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana scheme. Most of these account had zero balance initially. The government aims to reduce the number of such zero balance accounts by using this and related schemes.
July 9
China agreed to cut tariffs on Indian Medicines
India and China have reached an agreement on reduction of tariffs on the import of Indian medicines, particularly cancer drugs, to China, days after a Chinese movie on a leukaemia patient highlighted the need for paving the way for import of cheap Indian medicines.
According to some report, about 4.3 million people are diagnosed with cancer annually in China.
Indian drugs, especially cancer curing medicines, are in big demand in China as they are far cheaper than their western counterparts.
In May 2018, China had lifted tariffs on the import of cancer drugs but Indian companies still legally market their drugs in there as it requires license from China’s food and drug administration.
Recently, India and China have stepped up negotiation to import Indian rice, sugar and pharmaceuticals to reduce India’s trade deficit in the bilateral trade.
FACTFILE – India-China Bilateral Trade
- China is India’s largest trading partner.
- The India-China bilateral trade has reached $84.44 billion in 2017, which is a 18.63% year-on-year increase. The volume of bilateral trade for the first time touched $80 billion, well above the $71.18 billion registered in 2016.
- The bilateral trade stagnated around $70 billion for several years, despite leaders of both nations setting a $100 billion target for 2015.
- In otherwise dominated by the Chinese exports, was about 40% increase of Indian exports to China in 2017 totaling to $16.34 billion.
China launches two remote sensing satellites for Pakistan
China successfully launched two remote sensing satellites for Pakistan, PRSS-1 and PakTES-1A from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in northwest China, marking the first international commercial launch for the Long March-2C rocket in about 19 years.
The PRSS-1 is China’s first optical remote sensing satellite sold to Pakistan. It is the 17th satellite developed by the China Academy of Space Technology (CAST) for an overseas buyer. And the PakTES-1A is a scientific experiment satellite developed by Pakistan, was sent into orbit via the same rocket.
The PRSS-1 will be used for land and resources surveying, monitoring of natural disasters, agriculture research, urban construction and providing remote sensing information for the Belt and Road region.
It is also the first international commercial launch for a Long March-2C rocket within nearly two decades after it carried Motorola’s Iridium satellites into orbit in 1999.
ISRO signed MoU with Uttar Pradesh Police to help it map crimes
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Uttar Pradesh Police to help it map crimes. The UP Police will make its data available to ISRO and through the latter’s analytical software and predictive systems, map, visualize and create reports about criminal incidents in the state.
ISRO’s software will also allow the UP Police to build profiles of serial offenders and criminals and also keep a record of complainants, which will help the officers in predictive policing so that they can not only solve the crime, but also actively prevent it.
The tools and technologies for this purpose have been developed by the Advanced Data Processing Research Institute (ADRIN) in Hyderabad.
FACTFILE – The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)
- The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is the space agency of the Government of India headquartered in the city of Bangalore.
- Its vision is to “harness space technology for national development while pursuing space science research and planetary exploration.
- Formed in 1969, ISRO superseded the erstwhile Indian National Committee for Space Research (INCOSPAR) established in 1962 by the efforts of independent India’s first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, and his close aide and scientist Vikram Sarabhai.
- It is managed by the Department of Space, which reports to the Prime Minister of India.
I-T dept sells 40% of Cairn shares
The Income Tax department has sold roughly 40 percent of Cairn Energy plc’s shareholding in Vedanta to recover a part of the Rs 10,247 crore retrospective tax it had raised against the British firm.
While an international arbitration tribunal is to begin final hearing in Cairn’s challenge to the tax imposed retrospectively, the I-T department realised USD 216 million from selling some of the firm’s residual holding in Vedanta.
The income tax department had seized nearly 10 per cent of Cairn’s shareholding in its erstwhile subsidiary Cairn India after issuing a Rs 10,247 crore tax demand notice in January 2014.
FACTFILE – The Income Tax Department
- Income Tax Dept is a government agency in charge of monitoring the income tax collection by the Government of India.
- It functions under the Department of Revenue of the Ministry of Finance.
- It is responsible for administering following direct taxation acts passed by Parliament of India. The IT Department is also responsible for enforcing the Double Taxation Avoidance Agreements and deals with various aspects of international taxation such as Transfer pricing. Finance Act, 2012 seeks to grant Income Tax Department powers to combat aggressive Tax avoidance by enforcing General Anti Avoidance Rules.
Dipa Karmakar wins Gold in Gymnastics World Challenge Cup
Tripura’s Dipa Karmakar created history by becoming the first Indian gymnast to clinch a gold at a global event, as she emerged triumphant in the vault event of FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Challenge Cup at Mersin, Turkey.
The 24-year-old gymnast had finished fourth in vault event in the 2016 Rio Olympics, scored 14.150 to win the top prize. She had topped the qualification with a score of 13.400. This is Dipa’s first medal in Artistic Gymnastics World Challenge Cup.
FACTFILE – World Challenge Cup
- World Challenge Cup series is an important competition in the calendar of International Gymnastics Federation.
- There are six events in the World Challenge Cup series this year and this is the fourth leg of the season.
- The Artistic Gymnastics World Cup is a competition series for artistic gymnastics sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique (FIG).
- It is one of the few tournaments in artistic gymnastics officially organized by FIG, as well as the World Championships, the gymnastics competitions at the Olympic Games and the Youth Olympics.
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