Insights Daily Current Events, 15 July 2016
Paper 3 Topic: Indian Economy and issues relating to planning, mobilization of resources, growth, development and employment.
Income Declaration Scheme extended to September 2017
The Centre has announced an extension of a deadline under the Income Declaration Scheme, aimed at bringing undeclared income and assets into the tax net to, September 30, 2017.
Details:
- The government has also decided to stagger the due dates for the payments. According to the new plan, a minimum of 25% of the tax, surcharge and penalty is to be paid by November 30, 2016, another 25% by March 31, 2017, and the remaining amount by September 30, 2017. The previous deadline for the entire payment of the tax, interest, and penalty was November 30, 2016.
- The government also clarified about a pending issue on whether the tax, surcharge and penalty could be paid with undisclosed income not included in the amount that was originally declared, effectively reducing the rate payable from 45% to 31%. If a person declared Rs.100 lakh as undisclosed income under the scheme, then he would have to pay a total of Rs.45 lakh as tax, surcharge and penalty. In case this is paid from other undisclosed income, then “the declarant will not get any immunity under the Scheme.”
Background:
The Income Declaration Scheme offers people with undisclosed income to declare it by paying a penal tax rate of 45% on such income. An amendment in this regard was also recently moved in the Finance Bill, 2016. The Finance Bill has imported Section 138 of the Income Tax Act into the declaration scheme’s ambit. Bringing in Section 138 to the Scheme brings in objectivity on confidentiality of income tax information and the limitations thereof.
Sources: the hindu.
Paper 2 Topic: Bilateral, regional and global groupings and agreements involving India and/or affecting India’s interests.
Sri Lanka urged to ratify cluster convention
Peace activist in Sri Lanka have pitched strongly for an early ratification of the Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM). Experts say, this move will not only provide solace to those who were traumatised by the decades-long war in Sri Lanka but also reassure people of the country that such a heinous practice will not be resorted to in future.
Convention on Cluster Munitions:
The Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM) is an international treaty that addresses the humanitarian consequences and unacceptable harm to civilians caused by cluster munitions, through a categorical prohibition and a framework for action.
- The Convention prohibits all use, production, transfer and stockpiling of cluster munitions. In addition, it establishes a framework for cooperation and assistance to ensure adequate care and rehabilitation to survivors and their communities, clearance of contaminated areas, risk reduction education and destruction of stockpiles.
- Adopted in May 2008 in Dublin, Ireland, the Convention on Cluster Munitions entered into force on 01 August 2010.
- As of 16 June 2016, a total of 119 states have joined the Convention, as 100 States parties and 19 Signatories.
Countries that ratify the convention will be obliged “never under any circumstances to”:
- Use cluster munitions.
- Develop, produce, otherwise acquire, stockpile, retain or transfer to anyone, directly or indirectly, cluster munitions.
- Assist, encourage or induce anyone to engage in any activity prohibited to a State Party under this Convention.
Sources: the hindu.
Paper 2 Topic: Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Education, Human Resources, issues relating to poverty and hunger.
India felicitated by WHO
India recently received the official citation from WHO and UNICEF for Elimination of Maternal and Neonatal Tetanus and for being YAWS-free.
- India is the first country to be officially acknowledged as being Yaws-free.
- India was validated for Maternal and Neonatal Tetanus Elimination (MNTE) in April 2015, much ahead of the global target date of December 2015.
Yaws – key facts:
- Yaws is a chronic disfiguring and debilitating childhood infectious disease caused by Treponema pallidum subspecies pertenue.
- It is one of the first diseases targeted by WHO and UNICEF for eradication nearly in the 1950s.
- The disease affects skin, bone and cartilage. Humans are currently believed to be the only reservoir, and transmission is from person to person.
- Yaws is cured by a single oral dose of an inexpensive antibiotic azithromycin.
- Yaws forms part of a group of chronic bacterial infections commonly known as the endemic treponematoses. These diseases are caused by spiral bacteria of the genus Treponema, which also includes endemic syphilis (bejel) and pinta. Yaws is the most common of these infections.
- The disease is found primarily in poor communities in warm, humid and tropical forest areas of Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Pacific.
- About 75-80% of people affected are children under 15 years of age, and they constitute the main reservoir of infection. Peak incidence occurs in children aged 6–10 years, and males and females are equally affected.
- Transmission is through direct (person-to-person) non-sexual contact of minor injuries of an uninfected person with the fluid from the yaws lesion of an infected person. Most lesions occur on the limbs.
Tetanus:
- Tetanus is a non-communicable disease contracted through exposure to the spores of the bacterium, Clostridium tetani, that exists worldwide in soil and in animal intestinal tracts, and as such can contaminate many surfaces and substances.
- As a result of the ubiquity of the bacterium causing tetanus, the disease cannot be eradicated.
- Neurotoxins produced under anaerobic conditions in wounds contaminated with the bacterial spores lead to tetanus.
- Tetanus occurring during pregnancy or within 6 weeks of the end of pregnancy is called “maternal tetanus”, while tetanus occurring within the first 28 days of life is called “neonatal tetanus”.
- People of all ages can get tetanus but the disease is particularly common and serious in newborn babies and their mothers when the mothers` are unprotected from tetanus by the vaccine, tetanus toxoid.
- Tetanus can be prevented through immunization with tetanus-toxoid-containing vaccines (TTCV). Neonatal tetanus can be prevented by immunizing women of reproductive age with TTCV, either during pregnancy or outside of pregnancy. This protects the mother and – through a transfer of tetanus antibodies to the fetus – also her baby.
- Additionally, clean practices when a mother is delivering a child are also important to prevent neonatal and maternal tetanus.
- People who recover from tetanus do not have natural immunity and can be infected again and therefore need to be immunized. To be protected throughout life, WHO recommends that an individual receives 3 doses of DTP in infancy, followed by TTCV boosters at school-entry age (4-7 years), in adolescence (12-15 years), and in early adulthood or during the first pregnancy.
Sources: pib.
Paper 2 Topic: Bilateral, regional and global groupings and agreements involving India and/or affecting India’s interests.
Loan agreement between ADB and India
The Government of India and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) have signed a $100 million loan agreement to strengthen key irrigation and drainage system and improve water management in the Vennar sub-basin of the Cauvery delta in Tamil Nadu.
Details:
- The financing will be used to strengthen embankments of six major irrigation water channels in the Vennar system and rehabilitate 13 irrigation pumping schemes.
- The project aims to improve existing infrastructure and will provide flood protection and renewed access to irrigation.
- The loan will support Tamil Nadu’s water resources professionals to manage resources better, and with greater involvement of the stakeholders they service.
- Communities will be involved in planning and delivery of water services. Flood forecasting and warning systems will be installed and a flood risks map drawn up to help communities respond more effectively to extreme events.
- The loan from ADB’s ordinary capital resources has a 25-year term. The Water Resources Department of the State of Tamil Nadu is responsible for implementing the project, which is expected to be completed by December 2020.
Background:
The Cauvery river basin is a critical source of water for agriculture, both within Tamil Nadu and neighbouring states. The vast majority of the delta’s population is engaged in farming and fishing.
Sources: pib.
Facts for Prelims:
- The Indian Army’s Strike 1 unit that is based in Mathura recently demonstrated its capabilities to seamlessly cross rivers during a training exercise along the Yamuna on a stretch near the cantonment there. The exercise code named “Megh Prahar” was undertaken using the formation of its spearhead armoured division that is based in Hisar, Haryana. It also showcased the variety and versatility of equipment and the war-waging potential of the DOT (department of transport). Megh Parhar would help in testing the effectiveness of the T-90 & BMP-2 tanks of the Army in fighting along river obstacles.
- The Union Government has started the operation ‘Sankat Mochan’ to evacuate Indian citizens stranded in South Sudan’s capital Juba. The operation is being undertaken by Indian Air Force (IAF) and will be headed by Union Minister of State (MoS) for External Affairs General (Retd.) VK Singh.
