Gold Council to Aid Exports on the Anvil

The Government of India has decided to set up a Domestic Council for Gold to aid exports of jewellery and to create an ecosystem to harness the true potential for jewellery-making in the country.

• Also, a Coordination Committee will be set up to address of the gold industry. It will comprise senior officials of the Ministry of Commerce and members from the Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council, who will meet regularly to ensure that industry concerns are addressed on a priority basis.

Key Highlights

• The council would work towards industrial development, job creation, the building of regional clusters and strengthening of value chains.
• It will represent all the jewellers of India who will be the electoral college. They will form different interest groups and elect those who will sit in the council.
• The council will also provide domestic support for exports.

Background

• The gold industry sector is a USD 41 billion export industry and it contributes 7 per cent to the country’s economic growth and 15 per cent to exports.
• With the industry witnessing a crisis of sorts as banks have curtailed lending to traders (due to Nirav Modi scam) and have been demanding collateral security and extensive documentation.
• Gem and jewellery exports from India declined by 9 per cent between April and June to $10.1 billion against the $11.1 billion logged in 2017.
• Also, a 3 per cent Goods and Services Tax (GST) on exporters for procuring gold from nominated agencies is hampering jewellery exports from India.

All About the FASTag

• The FASTag is a reloadable tag that allows automatic deduction of toll without having to stop for carrying out the cash transaction. The tag uses radio frequency identification (RFID) technology and is fixed on the windscreen of the vehicle once active.

• The tag is valid for five years and comes in seven different colours — violet, orange, yellow, green, pink, blue, black. Each colour is assigned to a particular category of vehicles.
• It was rolled out in April 2016,  and the Government made it mandatory from December 1, 2017 for all new cars and trucks to be fitted with a FASTag before they were sold.
• To encourage the use of FASTags, the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) refunds 5% of the total monthly transactions.
• Indian Highways Management Company Limited (IHMCL) (a company incorporated by National Highways Authority of India) and National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI) are implementing this program.
• FASTag is presently operational at both, national and state highways.

Benefits

• Ease of payment – No need to carry cash for the toll transactions, saves time.
• Near non-stop movement of vehicles leading to lower fuel cost.
• Other benefits are:
  • Environmental benefit  : reduced air pollution, reduced use of paper.                                          
  • Social benefit : reduced toll payment hassles ,analytics for better highway management.
  • Economic benefit : reduced effort in management at toll plaza, reduced effort in monitoring centrally.

Government Panel To Study Stressed Power Sector

The government has decided to set up a high-level empowered committee to resolve the stress in the thermal power sector.

• The Committee will be headed by Cabinet Secretary with representatives from the Ministry of Railways, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Power, Ministry of Coal, and the lenders having major exposure to the power sector.
• The committee will look into the various issues in the thermal power sector and take steps to maximise the efficiency of investment.
• According to the Economic Survey 2016-17, non-performing assets (NPAs) in power generation account for around 5.9% of the banking sector’s total outstanding advances of Rs. 4.73 trillion.
• Other steps to be taken include- changes in the fuel allocation policy, regulatory framework, mechanisms to facilitate sale of power, payment security mechanisms, the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), asset restructuring company (ARC) regulations and any other measures proposed for revival of stressed assets so as to avoid such investments becoming non-performing assets (NPA).
• Rural Electrification Corp under the Power Ministry is working on a scheme, SAMADHAN to resolve the crisis.
• Under SAMADHAN (Scheme of Asset Management and Debt Change Structure, or Samadhan), the bankers’ consortium shortlisted 11 power plants with an overall capacity of over 12 GW, which are either complete or nearing completion, to take over their unsustainable debt of stressed power plants to avoid their liquidation.
• State-run Rural Electrification Corp. Ltd has identified projects with a total debt of around Rs. 1.8 trillion as part of the scheme, named Power Asset Revival through Warehousing and Rehabilitation, or ‘Pariwartan’.

Power Sector in India

• India’s power sector is one of the most diversified in the world. Sources of power generation range from conventional sources such as coal, lignite, natural gas, oil, hydro and nuclear power to viable non-conventional sources such as wind, solar, and agricultural and domestic waste.
• India is the world’s third largest producer and consumer of electricity.
• The Ministry of Power which started functioning independently in 1992 is primarily responsible for the development of electrical energy in the country.
• The Government has released its roadmap to achieve 175 GW capacity in renewable energy by 2022, which includes 100 GW of solar power and 60 GW of wind power.
• The Government is preparing a 'rent a roof' policy for supporting its target of generating 40 gigawatts (GW) of power through solar rooftop projects by 2022.
• 100% FDI is permitted under automatic route in the power sector.

Steps taken by the Government for development of Power Sector

• Deendayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana (DDUGJY) for rural areas: The scheme provides for
  • separation of agriculture and non-agriculture feeders
  • strengthening and augmentation of sub-transmission and distribution infrastructure in rural areas including metering at distribution
  • transformers, feeders and consumers end
  • rural electrification
• Integrated Power Development Scheme (IPDS) for urban areas: The scheme provides for
  • strengthening of sub-transmission and distribution networks in urban areas
  • metering of distribution transformers/feeders/consumers in urban areas
  • IT enablement of distribution sector and strengthening of distribution network
• Operationalization of Power System Development Fund (PSDF): PSDF shall be utilized for the project proposed by distribution utilities for
  • creating necessary transmission system of strategic importance
  • installation of shunt capacitors etc. for improvement of voltage profile in the grid
  • installation of standard and special protection schemes
  • renovation and modernisation of transmission and distribution systems for relieving congestion; etc.
• Ujwal Discom Assurance Yojana (UDAY): The scheme has been launched for operational and financial turnaround of Discoms.
• Pradhan Mantri Sahaj Bijli Har Ghar Yojana (Saubhagya): The scheme has been launched to ensure electrification of all willing households in the country in rural as well as urban areas.

Govt. Plans ‘ISRO-like’ Ocean Mission

Recently, the Union Earth Sciences Ministry has unveiled a blueprint of the ‘Deep Ocean Mission (DOM)’ to explore the deep recesses of the ocean.

Key Points

• It will develop an offshore desalination plant that will work with tidal energy.
• Also to be developed is a submersible vehicle that can go to a depth of at least 6,000 metres with three people on board.
• The mission proposes to explore the deep ocean similar to the space exploration started by ISRO about 35 years ago.
• The focus will be on technologies for deep-sea mining, underwater vehicles, and underwater robotics and ocean climate change advisory services, among other aspects.

India’s Share

• India has been allotted a site of 1,50,000 square kilometres in the Central Indian Ocean Basin (CIOB) by the UN International Seabed Authority for exploitation of polymetallic nodules (PMN).
• It is envisaged that 10% of recovery of that large reserve can meet the energy requirement of India for the next 100 years.
• It has been estimated that 380 million metric tonnes of polymetallic nodules are available at the bottom of the seas in the Central Indian Ocean.
• India’s Exclusive Economic Zone spreads over 2.2 million square kilometres and in the deep sea, lies “unexplored and unutilised”.

Arsenic Accumulation in Paddy Plants

• A recent publication by the Jadavpur University, has revealed rise in arsenic contamination of paddy plants from ground water in West Bengal.
• It also highlighted that the  concentration of ‘arsenic accumulation’ depended on the variety of paddy and its stage in the crop cycle.
• The study shows that arsenic uptake in the paddy plant reduces from root to grain, and that its concentration is related to the variety of the rice cultivated as well.
• The study have also raised concerns over the disposal of the contaminated rice straw which is used as animal fodder or burnt or sometimes left in the field itself to serve as fertiliser.
• In India,  West Bengal, Jharkhand, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh in the flood plains of the Ganga; Assam and Manipur in the flood plains of the Brahamaputra and Imphal rivers and Rajnandgaon village in Chhattisgarh state have been reported to be affected by arsenic contamination in groundwater.

EU Ruling on Gene Editing Technology

The European Court of Justice has ruled that altering living things using the relatively new technique of genome editing counts as genetic engineering.

• It ruled that the gene editing technology (also called mutagenesis) would follow the same stringent guidelines as conventionally genetically modified organisms (GMO).
• Genetic modification involves the introduction of foreign DNA into an organism, while gene editing involves editing of the organism’s native genome.
• The best-known genome-editing technique, known as CRISPR-Cas9, involves cutting strands of DNA with molecular "scissors". When the organism's natural repair systems kick in to repair the break, it presents scientists with the opportunity to insert the DNA sequence of their choosing - essentially rewriting the blueprint for life.
• Scientists studying the effects of CRISPR/Cas9 said it could cause unexpected genetic damage which could lead to dangerous changes in some cells.

What EU court ruled

• The Court of Justice said that organisms obtained by mutagenesis are GMOs within the meaning of the GMO Directive because the techniques and methods of mutagenesis alter the genetic material of an organism in a way that does not occur naturally.
• It, however, leaves out other mutagenesis techniques like irradiation. It has observed that these have a proven track record and need not be considered under the same bracket.
• All products made through gene editing to be regulated, assessed for their health and environmental impacts, and labelled.

Arguments of Scientists

• Scientists had hoped that gene editing technologies would find wider acceptance than GM, considering that gene editing does not involve introducing a foreign element into the plant’s genetic code.
• With gene editing, under appropriate regulations and policy, product development would be faster.
• Gene editing has the potential to make hardier and more nutritious crops as well as offering drug companies a new way to fight human disease.
• These techniques can be used to introduce new traits into a crop variety, for example, to make a plant resistant to herbicides. Yet the court ruling means that herbicide resistant crops produced through conventional breeding can be used freely, while crops produced using newer approaches must be subjected to intense scrutiny.

Arguments of Environmentalist

• Environmental organization have applauded the court’s decision and they have called for all products made through gene editing to be regulated, assessed for their health and environmental impacts, and labelled.
• Environmentalists, anti-GM groups and farmers concerned about the potential environmental and health impacts of all genetically engineered products said allowing gene editing would have ushered in a new era of “GMO 2.0” via the backdoor.
• These genetic engineering techniques have the potential to radically change the food system, threatening non-GMO and organic agriculture and the livelihoods that depend on it.
• The gene editing technology is not yet proven safe—an argument that may have gained weight after research suggested gene editing can cause risky collateral DNA damage.

Indian Scenario

• In India, as in the EU, GM crops have faced resistance from farmers and environmental groups that have called for proper study and labelling.
• India does not have any regulations on CRISPR as it does on GMO crops.

Important Facts for Prelims (30th July 2018)

National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System-II (NASAMS-II)

• It is an advanced air defence system jointly developed by United States (US) and Norway.
• India is in talks with the US to procure NASAMS-II to defend the National Capital Region (NCR), Delhi from aerial attacks (9/11 type attacks). It is in the Acceptance of Necessity (AoN) stage now.

• India is deploying a multi-tiered air defence network to fully secure its airspace from incoming fighter aircraft, missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV).
• The system would complement other systems such as the medium and long-range surface-to-air missile (SAM) systems that are under procurement in India.
• Apart from these imports, India is also developing an indigenous Ballistic Missile Defence (BMD) system.

‘DigiYatra’- A New Digital Experience for Air Travellers

• The Civil Aviation Ministry is close to rolling out DigiYatra service at airports which seek to make flying speedy and hassle-free.
• The basic objective is to reduce queues at airports and bring efficiency to the boarding process.
• The ‘DigiYatra’ is an industry-led initiative coordinated by the Ministry of Civil Aviation in line with Digital India’s vision to transform the nation into a digitally empowered society.
• The DigiYatra initiative envisages providing airline travellers in India, a pioneering ‘digitally unified flying experience’ across all stages of their journey. 
• It will deliver Indian customers a seamless, consistent and paperless service experience at every touch point of their journey.
• The platform will be built on 4 key pillars, like Connected Passengers, Connected Airports, Connected Flying and Connected Systems.

World Tiger Day

• Global Tiger Day, often called International Tiger Day, is celebrated on July 29 to give worldwide awareness about tigers.
• It was established at the St. Petersburg Tiger Summit in 2010 as a means to draw worldwide attention to the global plight of wild tigers.
• The celebration is one of the many features of the Tx2 pledge by  13 tiger range countries who committed to efforts that would double the world’s tiger population by 2022.
• Out of 9 subspecies of Tigers, 4 have become extinct. The extinct subspecies are: Bali, Javan, Caspian and South China tiger. The remaining 5-- Bengal, Indochinese, Malayan, Sumatran and Amur tiger are still found in the range countries.
• India had launched Project Tiger in 1973 to conserve tigers.  Till now, the coverage of “Project Tiger” has increased from 9 reserves to 50 tiger reserves spread across 18 states.