Mahila Shakti Kendra Scheme

The Government of India has approved a new scheme namely Mahila Shakti Kendra to empower rural women through community participation during 2017-18 up to 2019-20.

Key Highlights

• The Scheme is implemented through the State Government /UT Administration and is implemented with a cost-sharing ratio of 60:40 between centre and states except for North East and the Special Category States where the ratio is 90:10.
• It is envisaged to work at the national level (domain based knowledge support) and state level (State Resource Centre for Women) by providing technical support to the respective governments on issues related to women.
• District Level Centre for Women (DLCW) has also been envisaged for 640 districts to be covered in a phased manner. These centres to serve as a link between the village, block and state level in facilitating women-centric schemes and also give a foothold for Beti Bachao Beti Padhao (BBBP) scheme at the district level. 
• Community engagement through College Student Volunteers is to play an instrumental role in awareness generation regarding various important government schemes/ programmes as well as social issues as part of Block Level initiatives.

US, EU Agree to Ease Trade Tensions

United States (US) and the European Union (EU) agreed on a plan to defuse the festering trade dispute between the two major economies. The agreement is considered as a breakthrough that could avoid a trade war.

Key Highlights

• As per the agreement the US will not follow through with a threat to impose tariffs on automobiles that would hurt the dominant car industry in the EU.
• US and EU will work to “resolve” the existing duties on steel and aluminum imposed by US, which had angered many countries within the EU.
• Work towards eliminating all tariffs, trade barriers and subsidies related to non-auto industrial goods.
• Reform the World Trade Organization and reduce trading costs and regulatory barriers across the Atlantic.
• Agreed to suspend any new tariffs while the negotiations were going on.
• EU has also agreed to start buying more US soybeans, one of the main commodities targeted by China in its response to US tariffs. The bloc also would become a massive buyer of US liquefied natural gas.

Background

• The U.S. and EU account for about $1 trillion in transatlantic trade, and tensions have spiked due to trade disparities.
• On March 9, 2018 the United States imposed a 25% duty on steel and 10% on aluminum imports for an unspecified period.
• The objective of imposing heavy tariffs on imported steel and aluminum is to boost the US industry that has been suffering from “unfair” trade business practices.
• Unlike the punitive tariffs that the United States imposes on ‘dumped’ or unfairly subsidized goods from specified countries, these steel and aluminum tariffs would apply to all countries unless countries are eligible to request for an exemption.
• The imposition of tariffs has been classified as ‘safeguard’ tariffs aimed to stop a sudden, unforeseen and damaging import surge that could seriously damage a particular industry and are legal under World Trade Organization (WTO) rules.
• In justifying the measure, the US administration invoked a national security law – wherein countries are allowed this kind of recourse under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) in times of war and other emergencies.

Impact of new tariffs

• The European Union is the top trading partner of the United States in goods, and it is the top U.S. export market. The EU has responded by warning that it will retaliate with tariffs on a range of US imports.
• It could once again revive protectionist sentiment which has been on the wane following the recovery from the global economic meltdown.
• As a result, the US’s traditional allies, who will be hit the most from the tariffs, have warned of bilateral retaliation on a range of US imports including agriculture and technology.

Implications for the United States

• American steel and aluminum manufacturers would certainly get a boost, but it's not clear if they actually have the capacity to meet a huge surge in demand.
• Other sectors of American manufacturing would be hurt by rising steel and aluminum prices for automakers and other industries that use steel and aluminum in their production.
• With increasing manufacturing cost, the companies that make these products could pass the increased cost of raw materials to their consumers.

Implications for India

• India is a minor exporter of the two metals and with the market for steel consumption in India growing, the imposition of US tariffs would not have significant impact.
• However, the United States has been critical of India’s intellectual property rights standard and its high tariffs on certain products (Harley Davidson motorbikes) and has threatened to impose reciprocal tariffs on Indian goods (India ranks ninth on the list of trading partners that run a trade surplus with the US – it exports more to the US than what it imports).

Direct Benefit Transfer under MGNREGS

To streamline the fund flow mechanism and bring down delay in payment of wages, the Ministry of Rural Development has implemented the National Electronic Fund Management System (NeFMS) in 24 States and 1 Union Territory.

• This process reduces the delay in allocation of funds for payment of wages to the States and removes parking of funds at various levels.
• As per NREGA Soft, around 99% of the wages are being paid electronically (as on 24.07.2018) into the Bank/Post Office accounts of MGNREGA workers through Electronic Fund Management System (eFMS). Whereas in 2013-14, only 37% of the wages were paid electronically.
• The Ministry along with the States/UTs has been making concerted efforts for improving the timely payment of wages. States/ UTs have been advised to generate pay orders in time.
• This has resulted in considerable improvement in the status of timely generation of pay order and leading to improvement in actual time taken to credit wages in the workers account. In 2018-19 (as on 23.07.2018), 92% pay orders have been generated within 15 days.

Major Reasons for Delay in Generation of Pay Orders

• Delay in filling of attendance sheet on account of delayed submission of filled in Muster Roll by the Gram Rozgar Sahayak (GRS) or non-entry of attendance by Data entry operator within 2 days of closure of muster roll.

• Delay in measurement of work due to inadequate number of technicians.
• Delay in generation of wage list by data entry operator.
• Lack of IT infrastructure at gram panchayat level.
• Inadequate Core Banking Solution (CBS) based banking facility.
• Mismatch of wage seekers account information due to wrong entry of account particulars in NREGA Soft.

New Models for Airport Management

The Airports Economic Regulatory Authority of India Act, 2008, was enacted to provide an independent authority to protect the interests of airports, airlines and passengers, and to primarily regulate tariff for aeronautical services like housing or parking of an aircraft; ground safety, fuel and handling services etc.

• Over the years India has emerged as the third largest domestic aviation market in the world. The number of major airports increased from 12 to 27 between 2007 and 2017.
• The Airports Economic Regulatory Authority (AERA) has been under tremendous pressure with an increase in the number of private operators entering the airline/airport sector.
• Also, some of the major airports now function under public-private partnerships. Therefore, it was felt that if too many airports come under the purview of the Authority, it would be difficult to efficiently determine the tariffs and monitor the service standards of major airports.
• For engaging private partners in infrastructure projects, several business models like predetermined tariff or tariff-based bidding have come into place –wherein the project is awarded to whoever offers the lowest tariff.
• In this model, the market itself determines the charges and the regulator is not required to fix charges after the award of the project – but the 2008 Act does not cover such complexities.Therefore, the exponential growth in the sector has pushed the government to propose an Amendment Bill in 2018.
• The Airports Economic Regulatory Authority of India (Amendment) Bill, 2018, proposes to first amend the definition of “major airport” - as any airport with passengers in excess of 3.5 million from the existing 1.5 million.
• AERA will not determine the tariff structures in cases where such tariff amounts were a part of the bid document on the basis of which the airport operations were awarded.

RBI Moves to Wind-up CDR System

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is considering shutting down the corporate debt restructuring (CDR) system, its very first loan recast mechanism, after its inability to effectively tackle the non-performing assets problem.

• Nearly Rs.1.32 trillion worth of bad loans are presently undergoing restructuring under the CDR mechanism.
• RBI’s decision to wind up the cell comes after it issued a circular in February 2018 withdrawing all existing restructuring schemes - the CDR scheme, strategic debt restructuring (SDR) scheme and scheme for sustainable structuring of stressed assets (S4A) and 5/25.

Corporate Debt Restructuring (CDR)

• It is the reorganization of a company's outstanding debts, often achieved by reducing the burden of the debts on the company by decreasing the interest rates and/or increasing the time to repay. This allows a company to increase its ability to meet the obligations.
• The CDR system in India was framed in 2001 to restructure corporate debt outside the purview of debt recovery tribunals (DRT) and the Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction.
• Under the CDR rules, at least 75% of creditors (by value) should approve the resolution plan, which would make it binding on the remaining 25%.

Reasons for Failure of CDR

• Banks initially preferred to restructure loans rather than classifying them as non-performing assets. However, in some cases the banks may have been hasty in agreeing to restructure the debt and failed to adequately assess the ability of the borrowers to meet their restructuring commitments. This only delayed them from taking a hit on the loans rather than solving the underlying problems.
• Regulatory changes required that net present value of a loan after restructuring should be retained - this led to ballooning of debt which ultimately led to the collapse of the CDR framework.
• Most cases that have failed are from the infrastructure sector as restructuring packages typically prescribed shorter interest payment moratorium of two years only, even though these cases need long time to develop and pay back – generally more than 10 years.
• In many cases where there is provision for conversion of loan into equity, the companies obstruct the process of increasing authorised capital, getting board approval, etc. This is because the promoters hesitate from taking new investors on board which can reduce their overall stake in the company.
• Monitoring of CDR cases is another big issue. The banks don't have enough resources to oversee the large number of restructuring cases.
• Restructuring schemes also often turn futile because promoters are unable to sell non essential assets to mobilise resources as promised to their creditors.

AIM & MyGov Launches ‘Innovate India Platform’

Atal Innovation Mission and MyGov have collaborated together with NITI Aayog to launch the ‘#InnovateIndia Platform’. The platform will be a citizen-centric platform of the Government of India.

Key Highlights

• The portal will serve as the common point for all the innovation happening across the nation.
• It creates the much-needed innovations platform for registering both grassroots and deep-tech innovators at a national level.
• Those searching for a critical innovation can leverage the portal advantageously for the benefit of the economy as well as national social needs.

Some of the features of this platform are:

• It is open to all Indian citizens.
• The users can view, comment, share and rate the innovations crowdsourced on the platform.
• View the leaderboard which is calculated based on the votes on each innovation.
• Citizens can share their/organizations/someone else’s innovation on the platform.
• Innovations can also be shared on various social media platforms such as WhatsApp, Facebook, and Twitter

Government to Give Free Antiviral for Hepatitis C

The Government of India is set to launch an ambitious programme — National Viral Hepatitis Control Programme - to control viral hepatitis. As per the programme an expensive antiviral for Hepatitis C infections will be made available free of cost at all government hospitals.

Key Highlights

• The National Viral Hepatitis Control Programme will be launched on July 28 which is observed as World Hepatitis Day.
• It aims at both prevention and treatment of hepatitis which is among the leading causes of liver cancer, cirrhosis of liver and acute liver failure.
• The programme, part of the National Health Mission, will set up and upgrade facilities for the diagnosis and treatment primarily of hepatitis B and C.
• Designated treatment centres will provide the anti-viral to hepatitis C patients. They will also provide hepatitis B vaccine to babies born to mothers carrying the virus within 24 hours of birth.
• It aims to treat a minimum of 3 lakh hepatitis C cases over a period of three years.

Panel Finds Dosing Mismatches in Many FDCs

The Drug Technical Advisory Board (DTAB) sub-committee has found that many Fixed-Dose Combinations (FDCs) were formulated without due diligence, with dosing mismatches that could result in toxicity.

• It found that most pharma companies had not generated the “safety and efficacy data” of their own FDCs. The published literature they submitted to justify the FDC was not relevant to India and relied on a few biased studies.
• According to the sub-committee, of the 349 FDCs under review, 343 of them must be banned.

Consequences of Dose Mismatch

• In FDCs where there is a dosage mismatch among the ingredients, it would result in toxicity or contrarily lack of any effect on the patient.
• For most FDCs, their use would lead to unnecessary overuse, and the patients would be exposed to risk of multiple ingredients when one would suffice.

Background

• In 2017, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health and Family Welfare had observed that some state licensing authorities had issued manufacturing licences for several FDCs without prior clearance from Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO). This had resulted in availability of many FDCs, which have not been tested for efficacy and safety, putting patients at risk.
• CDSCO had earlier banned the use of 349 FDCs, against which the pharma companies had moved various courts.
• Finally the Supreme Court in its judgment in had referred the matter to DTAB for a fresh review on whether these drugs should continue to be marketed. Pursuant to this the Drug Technical Advisory Board (DTAB) had appointed a sub-committee to relook at FDCs and give its recommendations.

Supermarkets Flooded with Foreign GM Foods Despite Ban

Recently, researchers from Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) randomly tested 65 food samples in Gujarat, Punjab and Delhi-NCR and they have found that 32 per cent were GM positive.

• Under the Section 22 of the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, GM foods are not allowed to be manufactured, imported or sold in India unless approved under the Act.

Key Findings

• Out of 65 food samples, 30 were manufactured in India; of these, 17 per cent, were GM positive.
• Among the 35 imported samples- manufactured in Canada, the UAE, the US, the Netherlands and Thailand — 46 per cent, were GM positive.
• Domestically manufactured cottonseed oil samples tested GM positive, but no GM positive packaged oil sample mentioned GM ingredients on its label. But since India allows cultivation of only genetically modified BT cotton, the cottonseed oil extracted from it will be GM positive, too.

Implications of Poor Enforcement

• Most GM foods in the study did not disclose GM on their labels and 15 per cent made false claims saying they were GM-free.
• A consumer should be able to make an informed choice.
• Two of the eight infant food samples, imported from the US and the Netherlands, were GM positive, but the labels did not disclose this.

Einstein Was Right: Astronomers Confirm Key Theory of Relativity

Astronomers have finally confirmed the ‘gravitational redshift or Einstein shift’ with observational data. They got this result by tracking the movement of a star S2 as it passed through the gravitational field of a black hole Sagittarius A* (the huge black hole at the heart of the Milky Way).

• S2 is one member of a star cluster that surrounds Sagittarius A*. These stars reach extremely high speeds when they approach the black hole - S2 comes very close to Sagittarius A* once every 16 years.
• The Very Large Telescope (VLT) of The European Southern Observatory, in Chile, was used to find this evidence.

Process of Prediction

• Astronomers followed S2 before and after it passed close to the black hole on 19 May 2018, tracking its progress hour-by-hour. They then calculated its velocity and position using a number of instruments and compared it with predictions made by Einstein that the light would be stretched by the gravity, in an effect called gravitational redshift.
• The astronomers have found that light from the star has been stretched to longer wavelengths by the very strong gravitational field of Sagittarius A*. The results are perfectly in line with the theory of general relativity - and not explained by Sir Isaac Newton's ideas - which exclude such a shift.

Practical Utility

• The result will help scientists better understand the physics of black holes.
• It is important in astronomy to check that those laws of physics are still valid where the gravitational fields are very much stronger.
• The results are also perfectly in line with the theory of general relativity and therefore is a major breakthrough towards better understanding the effects of intense gravitational fields.
• Astronomers hope they can make practical use of the latest confirmation of Einstein’s theory by tracking shifts in S2’s trajectory, which could yield information on mass distribution around the black hole (i.e till what extent the effect of gravity is felt by the star S2).

Important Facts for Prelims (27th July 2018)

Pradhan Mantri Adarsh Gram Yojana

• Pradhan Mantri Adarsh Gram Yojana (PMAGY) aims at the overall development of selected SC majority villages.
• It aims to provide them with all the necessary facilities to ensure that the disparity between SC and non-SC population in terms of common socio-economic indicators is eliminated and the indicators are raised to at least the level of the national average.
• The performance of the scheme is being monitored in terms of achievement of the targets listed out in the Village Development Plan (VDP) prepared for each village.
• Under the PMAGY, the National Institute of Rural Development & Panchayati Raj (NIRD&PR) has been identified to provide technical resource support at the national level.

Ramon Magsaysay Awards, 2018

Recently, two Indians have been named for the 2018 Ramon Magsaysay Awards.

• Sonam Wangchuk (an educational reformer from Ladakh) and Bharat Vatwani (a psychiatrist who works for mentally ill street persons in Mumbai) are among six winners of the award, which “celebrates the greatness of spirit and transformative leadership in Asia.”
• The others are Youk Chhang from Cambodia, Maria de Lourdes Martins Cruz from East Timor, Howard Dee from the Philippines and Vo Thi Hoang Yen from Vietnam.

Eight-lane Bridge coming across Pamban Strait

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has started preparing a detailed project report (DPR) for construction of a world-class eight-lane road bridge across Pamban Strait to connect Rameswaram Island with the mainland.

• The existing (2.345-km-long Annai Indira Gandhi Bridge) road bridge, which was more than 29 years old, would be used for light motor vehicles.
• The bridge would be built on the lines of Bandra-Worli Sea Link cable-stayed bridge in Mumbai as part of the four-lane road project of the 39-km-long Paramakudi-Ramanathapuram section and 63-km-long Ramanathapuram-Rameswaram section.