User talk:Gaurav4291/DEC2015

Dec-Vision

Paris Agreement

• COP-21
• Aim to keep global warming under 1.5 C or well under 2 C

Germline editing

• Germline refers to egg and sperm which combine to form embryo
• Germline editing is genetic engineering of embryo – such that changes are observed in the offspring
• Crispr/Cas9 system – developed by Chinese institute – a method of germline editing

ATP

• Adenosine tri-phosphate
• Transports chemical energy within cells for metabolism
• Considered as molecular unit of currency of intracellular transfer of energy

Cervical cancer

• After breast cancer, cervical cancer is the 2nd most common cancer among women in India.
• Health ministry to bring HPV (Human papilloma virus) under universal immunisation programme

Lancet

• Medical journal
• It published a report – india comes last among BRICS nations in the field of healthcare
• In 2015, WHO declared India free of Maternal and neo natal tetanus

Insolvency and bankruptcy code

• Currently there are multiple laws dealing with bankruptcy – companies act, SARFAESI, etc.

Provisions:

• A unified code
• Fixed time line 180 days, extendable by 90 days
• New regulator – insolvency and bankruptcy board of India (IBBI)
• Setting up of a tribunal

Financial stability report

• Bi-annually published by RBI

Vijay kelkar committee

• On PPP infrastructure development
• Setting up of Independent regulator for separate sectors
• Amendment of Prevention of corruption act – to differentiate cases of graft from cases of genuine mistake

Zero coupon bond

• A bond issued at a heavy discount from the face value and which pays no interest

Arvind Subramanian report

• On GST
• Removal of 1% levy on inter-state movement
• Standard GST in the range of 17-18%
• RNR (revenue neutral rate) of GST – 15 to 15.5%
• Three tier GST – essential goods to be taxed at 12%, demerit goods (cars, pan masala, aerated drinks) at 40% and remaining at standard rate of 17-18%
• The revenue neutral Rate - At which if all goods and services are taxed there will not be any revenue loss for both states and the Centre.
• Excluded real state, alcohol, electricity and petroleum products while calculating tax rate

Deepak mohanty committee

• On medium term path for financial inclusion
• Phase out interest subvention scheme in agriculture
• Banks have to make extra efforts in opening accounts for frmales
• Govt. should take sukanya shikhsa (deposit scheme) – as a welfare measure
• Adhaar should be linked with credit accounts
• Mobile banking – for last mile connectivity
• Digitisation of land records

NIIF

• National investment and infrastructure fund
• Fund to enhance infrastructure financing in the country
• Will have a governing council

BEPS

• Base erosion profit sharing project

Strategic crude oil reserves

Afghanistan

• Joins WTO

Seychelles

• India to build Naval base

National waterways bill

• Shipping and navigation comes under Union list
• Water supply, drainage canals comes under state list
• Amendment to declare 101 inland waterways to national water ways
• NW1 – Ganga - Haldia to Allahabad
• NW2 – Brahamputra - Dubri to sadiya
• NW3 – west coast canal (Kerala)
• NW4 – Godavari, Krishna canal, Buckingham canal
• NW5 – Brahamani delta canals (Orissa)
• NW6 – Barak (in process)

Katoch committee

• On bulk drugs
• Bulk drugs or active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) – are the active raw material used in a drug
• India currently imports 80% of bulk drugs or APIs to be used as raw materials in pharma sector from China
• Recommendations:
• 1. Establishment of Large Manufacturing Zones (LMZs)/ Mega Parks for APIs with common facilities at a concessional rate or free of cost maintained by a separate Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV).
• 2. Mega Parks need to be provided with common facilities such common Effluent Treatment Plants (ETPs), Testing facilities, Assured power supply, Common Utilities/Services such as storage, testing laboratories, IPR management etc.
• 3. Large manufacturing zones could be set up in National Manufacturing Investment Zones/ petroleum, Chemicals and Petrochemical Investment Regions (PCPIRs) in states that have the requisite facilities/system in place.
• 4. The bulk drug industry is one of the major polluting industries so it is necessary to have proper rules and regulations to check on the pollution level and the quality of output.
• 5. There is an urgent need to start few large API intermediate clusters to transform the nation as one such cluster can bring around one billion dollar per year.
• 6. Single window clearance and fiscal and Financial incentives such as tax breaks, soft loans etc should be made available.
• 7. Recommended to reduce imports from China

Underground coal gasification

• Underground Coal Gasification (UCG) is an alternative method of converting deep coal into gas using a series of boreholes operated remotely from the surface.
• Air or a combination of oxygen and steam are injected into the gasification panel within the coal seam. The coal is then heated and controlled reactions convert solid coal into product gas, known as “syngas”, which is extracted at the surface.
• The syngas is mixture of hydrogen, carbon monoxide, methane, CO2 and higher hydrocarbons.

WTO

• Afghanistan joins WTO

Insolvency and bankruptcy code

• Today, bankruptcy proceedings in India are governed by multiple laws — the Companies Act, SARFAESI Act, Sick Industrial Companies Act, and so on. The entire process causes a lot of delay thus locking capital for a long period.
• Salient features:
• 1. A unified code for greater legal clarity.
• 2. Fixed a timeline of 180 days, extendable by another 90 days, to resolve cases of insolvency or bankruptcy.
• 3. A new regulator — the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI) to regulate professionals/agencies dealing with insolvency and informational utilities.
• 4. Bill proposes for information utilities and an individual insolvency database.
• 5. Setting up of a specialized Bench at the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) to adjudicate bankruptcy cases over companies, limited liability entities. Appeals from the order of NCLT shall lie to the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (“NCLAT”).
• 6. Debt Recovery Tribunal (“DRT”) shall be the Adjudicating Authority with jurisdiction over individuals and unlimited liability partnership firms. Appeals from the order of DRT shall lie to the Debt Recovery Appellate Tribunal (“DRAT”).
• 7. The code allows the corporate debtor itself to initiate the insolvency-resolution process once it has defaulted on a debt.
• 8. Prioritization of claims by different classes of creditors.

Vijay kelkar report

• to revamp and Revitalise PPP model of development.
• The Key Recommendations:
• 1. Setting up independent regulators to address stalled infrastructure projects of various sectors
• 2. Amendment to the Prevention of Corruption Act to clarify the difference between cases of graft and genuine errors in decision-making
• 3. Easier funding and Promotion of zero coupon bonds by Governments, Banks and Financial institutions.
• 3.1.To ensure viability of PPP projects with long gestation periods. For ex. In development of airports, ports and railways.
• 3.2 Will help to achieve soft lending for user charges in infrastructure sector.
• 3.3 Building up of risk assessment and appraisal capabilities by banks and
• 3.4 Provision for monetisation of viable projects that have stable revenue flows after engineering, procurement and construction delivery.
• 4. Endorsement of the 3PI
• 4.1 They can function as a centre of excellence, enable research, and review and roll out activities to build capacity
• 5. Focus on service delivery instead of fiscal benefits for better identification and allocations of risks between the stakeholders and contracts for the PPP projects.
• 6. Setting up of an Infrastructure PPP Project Review Committee (IPRC)
• 6.1 Aim-To deal with the problems being faced by such projects
• 6.2 Composition - one expert each from economics background and one or more sectoral experts preferably engineers and legal experts.
• 6.3 Mandate- To evaluate and send its recommendations in a time-bound manner upon a reference being made of "actionable stress" in any infrastructure project developed in PPP mode beyond a notified threshold value.
• 7. Infrastructure PPP Adjudication Tribunal (IPAT).
• 7.1 To be chaired by a former Supreme Court Judge or former High Court Chief Justice,
• 7.2 Proposed at least one technical and financial member
• 8. Adoption of the model concession agreements (MCA) for
• 8.1 Proper assessment of managing risk
• 8.2 Renegotiation framework in the bid document itself
• 8.3 MCAs for each sector be reviewed to capture the interests of all participating stakeholders — users, project proponents, concessionaires, lenders and markets
• 9. Sector specific recommendations
• 9.1 Airports: Government should encourage the PPP model in greenfield as well as brownfield projects
• 9.2 Railways: An independent tariff regulatory authority to help Railways to tap PPP opportunities
• 9.3 Roads: Increase concession period for BOT projects
• 9.4 Power: Not many power projects are under PPP. Need to address power sector finances as they are hurting bank loan.
• 9.5 Ports: Move from pre-TAMP (tariff authority for major ports) to current-TAMP
• 10. Change in attitudes and mindsets the authorities. E.g.
• 10.1 Public agencies partnering the private sector,
• 10.2 Government departments supervising the PPPs,
• 10.3 Auditing and legislative institutions providing oversight of the PPPs
• 11. PPP model not viable in very small projects
• 11.1 The committee advised against adopting PPP structures for very small projects, since the benefits of delivering small PPP projects may not be commensurate with the resulting costs and the complexity of managing such partnerships over a long period.
• 12. Issue of Swiss Challenges-
• 12.1 Unsolicited Proposals (“Swiss Challenge”) may be actively discouraged as they bring information asymmetries into the procurement process and
• Result in lack of transparency and fair and equal treatment of potential bidders in the procurement process.

Arvind Subramanian committee

• Gave report on GST
• 1. Removal of 1% levy on inter-state movement,
• 2. The standard GST rate in the range of 17-18 per cent.
• 3. Revenue neutral rate (RNR) of GST at 15-15.5 per cent.
• 3. Three-tier GST rate structure
• A. Essential goods will be taxed at a lower rate of 12 per cent
• B. Demerit goods such as luxury cars, aerated beverages, pan masala and tobacco products will be taxed at 40 percent
• C. Remaining all goods will be taxed at a standard rate of 17-18%

World bank report

• ‘ENDING EXTREME POVERTY, SHARING PROSPERITY: PROGRESS AND POLICIES’
• The World Bank has revised the global poverty line, previously pegged at $1.25 a day to $1.90 a day (approximately Rs. 130)
• This has been arrived at based on an average of the national poverty lines of 15 poorest economies of the world.
• World bank has used MMRP method
• What is MMRP?
• 1. In this method, for some food items, instead of a 30-day recall, only a 7-day recall is collected.
• 2. For some low-frequency items, instead of a 30-day recall, a 1-year recall is collected
• 3. The low-frequency items include expenditure on health, education, clothing, durables etc

Nairobi package

• WTO meeting in Kenya, 2015
• It culminated in the adoption of the "Nairobi Package", a series of six Ministerial Decisions on agriculture, cotton and issues related to least-developed countries (LDCs).
• Special Safeguard Mechanism (SSM) for Developing Country Members- a mechanism that would allow developing countries to temporarily raise import tariffs on agriculture products in cases of import surges or price declines.
• Public Stockholding for Food Security Purposes -used by some developing countries to purchase food at administered prices and distribute it to poor people.
• Export competition:
• 1. The elimination of agricultural export subsidies, new rules for export credits, international food aid and exporting state trading enterprises etc. Collectively, these issues are known as "export competition".
• 2. It would be particularly meaningful for farmers in poor countries who cannot afford to compete with rich countries which artificially boost their exports through subsidization.
• Cotton - On market access, the Nairobi draft proposal asks that cotton from least-developed countries (LDCs) be given duty-free and quota-free access to the markets of developed countries — and to those of developing countries declaring that they are able to do so — from 1 January 2016.
• Least-Developed Countries (LDCs) issues:
• 1. Preferential Rules of Origin for Least Developed Countries - WTO agreements include provisions aimed at increasing LDCs’ trade opportunities and allowing LDCs flexibility in implementing WTO rules.
• 2. Implementation of Preferential Treatment in Favour of Services and Service Suppliers of Least Developed Countries and Increasing LDC Participation in Services Trade
• The Nairobi declaration was disappointing on multiple fronts for India:
• 1. India failed in its objectives to secure credible outcomes on its demands for SSM, permanent solution for public stockholding programmes for food security and
• 2. the reaffirmation to continue the DDA negotiations. India has returned with very few, if any, of its demands met.

PSL norms

• RBI has revised priority sector lending target for RRB (regional rural banks)
• From 60 to 75%
• Categories under priority sector include - 1. Agriculture; 2. Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises; 3. Export Credit; 4. Education; 5. Housing; 6. Social Infrastructure; 7.Renewable Energy; and 8. Others