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  • Perseids Meteor Shower

    The Perseids meteor shower is going to be active from August 17-26.

    Try this question from CSP 2014:

    Q.What is a coma, in the content of astronomy?

    (a) Bright half of material on the comet

    (b) Long tail of dust

    (c) Two asteroids orbiting each other

    (d) Two planets orbiting each other

    What is the Perseids meteor shower?

    • The Perseids meteor shower peaks every year in mid-August. It was first observed over 2,000 years ago.
    • The Perseids occur as the Earth runs into pieces of cosmic debris left behind by the comet Swift-Tuttle.
    • The cloud of debris is about 27 km wide, and at the peak of the display, between 160 and 200 meteors streak through the Earth’s atmosphere every hour as the pieces of debris.
    • They travel at the speed of some 2.14 lakh km per hour; burn up a little less than 100 km above the Earth’s surface.

    What are Meteor Showers?

    • Meteors are bits of rock and ice that are ejected from comets as they manoeuvre around their orbits around the sun.
    • As meteors fall towards the Earth, the resistance makes the space rocks extremely hot and, as meteorites pass through the atmosphere, they leave behind streaks of glowing gas that are visible to the observers and not the rock itself.
    • Meteor showers, on the other hand, are witnessed when Earth passes through the trail of debris left behind by a comet or an asteroid.
    • When a meteor reaches the Earth, it is called a meteorite and a series of meteorites, when encountered at once, is termed as a meteor shower.
    • According to NASA, over 30 meteor showers occur annually and are observable from the Earth.

    Where do the Perseids come from?

    • The comet Swift-Tuttle, which was discovered in 1862 by Lewis Swift and Horace Tuttle, takes 133 years to complete one rotation around the sun.
    • The last time it reached its closest approach to the sun was in 1992 and will do so again in 2125.
    • Every time comets come close to the sun, they leave behind dust that is essentially the debris trail, which the Earth passes through every year as it orbits around the Sun.

    Back2Basics:

     

  • Making sense of population growth of India

    The article analyses and explains the declining trend in India’s total fertility rate. The aspirational revolution in the parents explains such decline. 

    What the projections say

    • A new study was published in The Lancet, and prepared by the Seattle-based Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME).
    • It argues that while India is destined to be the largest country in the world, its population will peak by mid-century.
    • And as the 21st century closes, its ultimate population will be far smaller than anyone could have anticipated, about 1.09 billion instead of approximately 1.35 billion today.
    • It could even be as low as 724 million, the study projects.
    • Until 2050, the IHME projections are almost identical to widely-used United Nations projections.
    •  It is only in the second half of the century that the two projections diverge with the UN predicting a population of 1.45 billion by 2100, and the IHME, 1.09 billion.

    Present trends in India’s fertility rate

    •  In the 1950s, India’s Total fertility rate (TFR) was nearly six children per woman; today it is 2.2.
    •  Between 1992 and 2015, it had fallen by 35% from 3.4 to 2.2.
    • It is even below the replacement rate in 18 States and Union Territories.

    What explains the trends

    • One might attribute it to the success of the family planning programme.
    • But family planning has long lost its primacy in the Indian policy discourse.
    • Punitive policies include denial of maternity leave for third and subsequent births, limiting benefits of maternity schemes and ineligibility to contest in local body elections for individuals with large families.
    • However, these policies are mostly ignored in practice.

    Aspirational revolution

    •  It seems highly probable that the socioeconomic transformation of India since the 1990s has played an important role.
    • Over the years parents began to rethink their family-building strategies.
    • Smaller families when compared with a bigger family with same income level, invest more money in their children by sending them to private schools and coaching classes.
    • It is not aspirations for self but that for children that seems to drive fertility decline.

    Consider the question “Examine the factors responsible for the declining trends in the total fertility rate for India. What are its implications for country?”

    Conclusion

    Demographic data suggest that the aspirational revolution is already under way. What we need to hasten the fertility decline is to ensure that the health and family welfare system is up to this challenge and provides contraception and sexual and reproductive health services that allow individuals to have only as many children as they want.

  • Clause 6 of the Assam Accord

    In February, a government-appointed committee had submitted its recommendations for implementation of Clause 6 of the Assam Accord, a key provision that has been contentious for decades.

    Must read:

    https://www.civilsdaily.com/burning-issue-assam-nrc/

    What is Clause 6?

    • It is a part of the Assam Accord which came at the culmination of a movement against immigration from Bangladesh.
    • It reads: “Constitutional, legislative and administrative safeguards, as may be appropriate, shall be provided to protect, preserve and promote the cultural, social, linguistic identity and heritage of the Assamese people.”
    • For recognition as citizens, the Accord sets March 24, 1971, as the cutoff.
    • As immigrants up to the cutoff date would get all rights as Indian citizens, so Clause 6 was inserted to safeguard the socio-political rights and culture of the “indigenous people of Assam”.

    What has happened since?

    • Several committees have been set up over the years to make recommendations on the implementation of Clause 6.
    • None of them made headway on the provision’s contentious issues, however, until the latest CAA move.
    • Following widespread protests against the CAA, the government gave an urgent push to Clause 6 to pacify the Assamese community.

    Recommendations of the recent report

    • Headed by retired High Court judge Biplab Kumar Sarma the committee was asked to fast-track its report.
    • It submitted its report in Feb but the government did not make its contents public.
    • But some Assamese activists independently made the contents public.
    • Its brief was to define the “Assamese people” and suggest measures for the safeguard of their rights. The definition of “Assamese people” has been a subject of discussion for decades.

    Key propositions

    The committee has proposed that the following be considered Assamese people for the purpose of Clause 6. All citizens of India who are part of:

    • Assamese community, residing in the Territory of Assam on or before January 1, 1951; or
    • Any indigenous tribal community of Assam residing in the territory of Assam on or before January 1, 1951; or
    • Any other indigenous community of Assam residing in the territory of Assam on or before January 1, 1951; or
    • All other citizens of India residing in the territory of Assam on or before January 1, 1951; and
    • Descendants of the above categories

    Why 1951?

    • During the Assam agitation, the demand was for detection and deportation of migrants who had illegally entered Assam after 1951.
    • The Assam Accord, however, set the cutoff on March 24, 1971. The National Register of Citizens (NRC) was updated based on this cutoff.
    • Clause 6 is meant to give the Assamese people certain safeguards, which would not be available to migrants between 1951 and 1971.
    • If the recommendation is accepted, those who migrated between 1951 and 1971 would be Indian citizens, but they won’t be eligible for safeguards meant for Assamese people”.

    What are these safeguards?

    Among various recommendations, the key is the reservation of seats in Parliament, Assembly and local bodies; reservation in jobs; and land rights. The panel recommends the Assamese people be given:

    • 80 to 100% reservation in the parliamentary seats of Assam, Assembly seats and local body seats be reserved for the “Assamese people”.
    • 80 to 100% of Group C and D level posts (in Assam) in central government/semi-central government/central PSUs/private sector
    • 80 to 100% of jobs under Government of Assam and state government undertakings; and 70 to 100% of vacancies arising in private partnerships
    • Land rights, with restrictions imposed on transferring land by any means to persons other than “Assamese people”.

    Several other recommendations deal with language and cultural and social rights. On language, it recommends:

    • Assamese language shall continue to be official language throughout the state with provisions for use of local languages in Barak Valley, Hill Districts and the Bodoland Territorial Area Districts.
    • Mandatory provision of an Assamese language paper for recruitment in state government services with alternatives for Barak Valley districts, BTAD and Hills Districts.
    • To set up Academies for all-round development of each of the indigenous tribal languages including, Bodo, Mishing, Karbi, Dimasa, Koch-Rajbongshi, Rabha, Deuri, Tiwa, Tai and other indigenous languages.

  • Hindu Women’s Inheritance Rights

    The Supreme Court has expanded a Hindu woman’s right to be a joint legal heir and inherit ancestral property on terms equal to male heirs.

    What is the ruling?

    • The SC Bench ruled that a Hindu woman’s right to be a joint heir to the ancestral property is by birth and does not depend on whether her father was alive or not when the law was enacted in 2005.
    • The Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act, 2005 gave Hindu women the right to be coparceners or joint legal heirs in the same way a male heir does.
    • Since the coparcenary (heirship) is by birth, it is not necessary that the father coparcener should be living as on 9.9.2005, the ruling said.

    What is the 2005 law?

    • The Mitakshara school of Hindu law codified as the Hindu Succession Act, 1956 governed succession and inheritance of property but only recognised males as legal heirs.
    • The law applied to everyone who is not a Muslim, Christian, Parsi or Jew by religion.
    • Buddhists, Sikhs, Jains and followers of Arya Samaj, Brahmo Samaj are also considered Hindus for the purposes of this law.
    • In a Hindu Undivided Family, several legal heirs through generations can exist jointly.

    Background

    • Traditionally, only male descendants of a common ancestor along with their mothers, wives and unmarried daughters are considered a joint Hindu family.
    • The legal heirs hold the family property jointly.
    • Women were recognised as coparceners or joint legal heirs for partition arising from 2005.
    • The 174th Law Commission Report had also recommended this reform in Hindu succession law.
    • Even before the 2005 amendment, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu had made this change in the law, and Kerala had abolished the Hindu Joint Family System in 1975.

    What did the law bring in?

    • Section 6 of the Act was amended that year to make a daughter of a coparcener also a coparcener by birth “in her own right in the same manner as the son”.
    • The law also gave the daughter the same rights and liabilities “in the coparcenary property as she would have had if she had been a son”.
    • The law applies to ancestral property and to intestate succession in personal property — where succession happens as per law and not through a will.

    How did the case come about?

    • While the 2005 law granted equal rights to women, questions were raised whether the law applied retrospectively and if the rights of women depended on the living status of their father.
    • Different benches of the Supreme Court had taken conflicting views on the issue. Different High Courts had also followed different views of the top court as binding precedents.
    • The Prakash v Phulwati (2015) case held that the benefit of the 2005 amendment could be granted only to “living daughters of living coparceners” as on September 9, 2005 (the date when the amendment came to force).
    • In February 2018 a bench headed by Justice A K Sikri held that the share of a father who died in 2001 will also pass to his daughters as coparceners during the partition of the property as per the 2005 law.

    The present case

    • These conflicting views led to a reference to a three-judge Bench in the current case.
    • The ruling now overrules the verdicts from 2015 and April 2018.
    • It settles the law and expands on the intention of the 2005 legislation to remove the discrimination as contained in section 6 of the Hindu Succession Act, 1956.
    • It gave equal rights to daughters in the Hindu Mitakshara coparcenary property as the sons have.

    What was the government’s stand?

    • The solicitor argued in favour of an expansive reading of the law to allow equal rights for women. He referred to the objects and reasons of the 2005 amendment.
    • The Mitakshara coparcenary law not only contributed to discrimination on the ground of gender but was oppressive and negated the fundamental right of equality guaranteed by the Constitution.

  • [pib] Krishi Megh: A Cloud-based Data Recovery Centre

    Union Minister of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare has launched the Krishi Megh Data Recovery Centre.

    Do not get confused with the name ‘Krishi Megh’. One might mistakenly relate it to some weather forecasting tool of the Indian Meteorological Department.

    Krishi Megh

    • The Krishi Megh has been set up at National Academy of Agricultural Research Management (NAARM), Hyderabad.
    • It has been set up under the National Agricultural Higher Education Project (NAHEP), funded by both the government and World Bank.
    • It has been built to mitigate the risk, enhance the quality, availability and accessibility of e-governance, research, extension and education in the field of agriculture in India.
    • Currently, the main data centre of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) is at the Indian Agricultural Statistics Research Institute (IASRI) in New Delhi.

    Back2Basics: Cloud Storage

    • It is a cloud computing model that stores data on the Internet through a cloud computing provider who manages and operates data storage as a service.
    • It is delivered on demand with just-in-time capacity and costs, and eliminates buying and managing your own data storage infrastructure.
    • It gives agility, global scale and durability, with “anytime, anywhere” data access.

  • In news: Loya Jirga

    The Afghan Loya Jirga approves release of 400 ‘hard-core’ Taliban prisoners.

    The term seems peculiar. We may expect a prelim question on the same.

    What is Loya Jirga?

    • A Loya Jirga is a special type of jirga, or legal assembly, in Pashtunwali, the traditional code of laws of the Pashtun people.
    • It is mainly organized for choosing a new head of state in case of sudden death, adopting a new constitution, or to settle national or regional issue such as war.
    • It predates modern-day written or fixed laws and is mostly favoured by the Pashtun people but to a lesser extent by other nearby groups that have been influenced by Pashtuns (historically known as Afghans).
    • In Afghanistan, Loya Jirgas have been reportedly organized since at least the early 18th century when the Hotaki and Durrani dynasties rose to power.

  • Making up for shortfalls in GST collection

    The article deals with the issue of shortfall in the GST compensation cess and the challenge Central government faces to pay the promised compensation to the states.

    Background of the cess

    • GST subsumed several taxes, including those which were the preserve of the States.
    • Therefore it required an amendment to the Constitution of India.
    • The amendment affected the Seventh Schedule, so it required ratification by the legislatures of half the States.
    • Before the GST, States exporting goods to other States collected a tax.
    • But the GST is a destination-based tax, i.e., the State where the goods are sold receive the tax.
    • This implies that manufacturing States would lose out while consuming States would benefit.
    • So, in order to convince manufacturing States to agree to GST, a compensation formula was created.
    • Under which States were promised compensation for loss of revenue for a period up to five years.
    • The Act for compensation to states assumed that the GST revenue of each State would grow at 14% every year, from the amount collected in 2015-16.
    • This scheme is valid for five years, i.e., till June 2022.

    Compensation cess fund

    • A compensation cess fund was created from which States would be paid for any shortfall.
    • An additional cess would be imposed on certain items and this cess would be used to pay compensation.
    • The Act states that the cess collected and “such other amounts as may be recommended by the [GST] Council” would be credited to the fund.
    • In the first two years of this scheme, the cess collected exceeded the shortfall of States.
    • In the third year, 2019-20, the fund fell significantly short of the requirement.

    The problem and its source

    •  A key source of the problem is that the 2017 Act guaranteed a tax growth rate of 14%, which is unachievable this year.
    • The 14% target was too ambitious to start with.
    • Given the government’s inflation target at 4%, this implied a real GDP growth plus tax buoyancy of 9%.
    • But, the Central government is constitutionally bound to compensate States for loss of revenue for five years.

    Solution to the problem

    1) The Constitution could be amended to reduce the period of guarantee to three years thus ending June 2020.

    • But most States would be reluctant to agree to this proposal.
    • It could also be seen as going back on the promise made to States.

    2) The Central government could fund this shortfall from its own revenue.

    •  The Centre’s finances are stretched due to shortfall in its own tax collection combined with extra expenditure to manage the health and economic crisis.

    3) The Centre could borrow on behalf of the cess fund.

    • The tenure of the cess could be extended beyond five years until the cess collected is sufficient to pay off this debt and interest on it.

    4) the Centre could convince States that the 14% growth target was always unrealistic.

    • If the Centre can negotiate with States through the GST Council to reset the assured tax level, it could then bring in a Bill in Parliament to amend the 2017 Act.

    Consider the question “What were the reasons for making provisions under GST for paying the states compensation for tax revenue shortfall? What are the implications of the provision for the Central government?”

    Conclusion

    The Constitution makes it obligatory for the Centre to make up for shortfall by the States. The cess collected will not be sufficient for this purpose. The GST Council, which is a constitutional body with representation of the Centre and all the States, should find a practical solution.

    B2BASICS

    Source: https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/making-up-for-shortfalls-in-gst-collection/article32319744.ece

  • Increasing dependence on indirect taxes and issues with it

    India, with a tax-GDP ratio of 10.9 per cent in 2019 needs an overhaul of its tax system. This article analyses India’s growing dependence on indirect taxes and its implications for the poor.

    Important changes in direct taxes

    • The wealth tax was abolished in 2016.
    • Wealth tax was replaced by a 2 per cent surcharge on super-rich individuals with taxable income of over Rs 10 crore.
    • But the government rolled back the increase in surcharge in 2019.
    • Corporate taxes were slashed from 30 per cent to 22 per cent to attract foreign investors and induce Indian companies to invest.
    •  Cuts in corporate tax that have resulted in a revenue loss of Rs 1.5 lakh crore have contributed to making the state poor.

    Increasing indirect taxes and cess

    • The share of indirect taxes has increased by up to 50 per cent of the gross tax revenue in FY2019 from 43 per cent in FY2011.
    • The combined share of customs and excise duties and value-added tax reached an all-time high of 10.5 per cent of GDP.
    • This high was following a three-year-long steady increase in customs or excise duty on commonly used goods, such as petroleum products, metals and sugar, automobiles and consumer durables.
    • This is also when the service tax was hiked steadily to 18 per cent under GST from 12.4 per cent in 2014.
    • Swachh Bharat cess and Krishi Kalyan cesses were imposed in addition to GST.
    • The permanent nature of these cesses has been widely opposed by the states and criticised by the CAG.
    • CAG has pointed out the lack of transparency and incomplete reporting in accounts on the utilisation of amounts collected under cesses.
    • All of this is troubling because indirect taxes often penalise the poor and the middle class more than the rich.

    Case for the wealth tax

    • High tax rates on the wealthy in Europe have played a key role in ensuring a strong social security net for the poor.
    • This successful example should encourage India to consider the rationale for a wealth tax.
    • Higher taxes on the super-rich could be used for cash transfers and a fiscal stimulus, that, in India, at 1 per cent of GDP each, have been negligible so far.
    • A wealth tax, a COVID-19 cess on the super-rich and a surcharge on the super-rich for their income from listed equity shares are critical for mitigating the current situation.

    Issues with such policy

    • Cuts in corporate taxes, increased indirect tax revenues, decreased capital expenditure and practically no change in revenue expenditure on health and education show that India’s taxation policy is more business-friendly than pro-poor.
    • This is happening at a time when a supply-side oriented approach to the economy is counter-cyclical.
    • Faced with increased expenditure amid pandemic Centre increased the duty on fuel by a record Rs 10 per litre on petrol when global crude prices have been falling.
    • This speaks of the government’s increased dependency on indirect tax-based revenues.

    Examine the implications of India’s growing dependence on indirect tax revenue? Suggest the measures to reduce such dependence.

    Conclusion

    COVID-19 may be a blessing in disguise if it allows India to reform its tax system in order to make it work towards inclusive growth and sustainable development rather than targeting only investment-led economic growth.

    bACK 2 BASICS
    GO THROUGH THE ARTICLE BELOW FOR MORE INFORMATION ON TAXATION:

    Taxation in India: Classification, Types, Direct tax, Indirect tax

  • What is the Negative Imports List for Defence?

    The Defence Ministry announced a list of 101 items that it will stop importing.

    Try this question for mains:

    Q.Being one of the top importers of defence equipment India is well placed to enhance its domestic manufacturing capacity of defence equipment. Yet, India lacks it after repeated attempts to achieve it. Examine the reasons for this and suggest measures to overcome this anomaly.

    Negative Imports List

    • The negative list essentially means that the Armed Forces—Army, Navy and Air Force—will only procure all of these 101 items from domestic manufacturers.
    • The manufacturers could be private sector players or Defence Public Sector Undertakings (DPSUs).

    Why such a decision?

    • Reduce imports: As per the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, which tracks defence exports and imports globally, India has been the second-largest importer between 2014 and 2019 with US$ 16.75 billion worth of imports.
    • Boost domestic industry: By denying the possibility of importing the items on the negative list, the domestic industry is given the opportunity to step up and manufacture them for the needs of the forces.
    • Boost exports: The government has been hoping that the defence manufacturing sector can play a leading role in boosting the economy, not just for the domestic market, but to become an exporter as well.

    Items included in the negative list

    The items mentioned in the negative imports list include:

    • water jet fast attack craft to survey vessels, pollution control vessels, light transport aircraft, GSAT-6 terminals, radars, unmanned aerial vehicles, to certain rifles, artillery guns, bulletproof jackets, missile destroyers, etc.

    Impact of the move

    • The items in the list are of proven technologies and do not involve any critical or cutting-edge technology for a next-generation weapon system or platform.
    • Little benefits for domestic players in short-run: Against each of these items are mentioned a year when import embargo would kick in, leading to apprehensions that demands will be placed with foreign vendors until then, leaving very little for domestic producers.
    • The biggest challenge for the government and the armed forces will be to keep this commitment to domestic producers in the event of an operational requirement.

  • Submarine Cable Connectivity to Andaman and Nicobar Islands

    PM has launched the submarine Optical Fibre Cable (OFC) connecting Andaman & Nicobar Islands to the mainland.

    Try this PYQ:

    Q. Consider the following statements regarding optical fibres:

    1. A layer called the cladding, which has a refractive index more than that of the core, surrounds the core of the optical fibre.
    2. Light is propagated in an optical fibre by refraction and internal reflection.

    Which of the above statements is/are correct?(CSP 2010)

    (a) 1 only

    (b) 2 only

    (c) Both 1 and 2

    (d) Neither 1 nor 2

    What is a submarine communications cable?

    • A submarine communications cable is a cable laid on the seabed between land-based stations to transmit telecommunication signals across stretches of ocean and sea.
    • The optical fibre elements are typically individually coated with plastic layers and contained in a protective tube suitable for the environment where the cable will be deployed.
    • Compared to satellites, using internet connection through submarine cables is more reliable, cost-efficient and of large capacity.

    About the project

    • About 2,300 km of submarine optical fibre cable (OFC) has been laid at a cost of about Rs 1,224 crore to provide better connectivity in the UT.
    • The project envisages better connectivity from Chennai to Port Blair and seven other Islands — Swaraj Deep (Havelock), Long Island, Rangat, Hutbay (Little Andaman), Kamorta, Car Nicobar and Campbell Bay (Great Nicobar).
    • The project is funded by the government through the Universal Service Obligation Fund under the ministry of communications.
    • The foundation stone for the project was laid by PM Modi in December 2018 at Port Blair.

    Expected outcomes

    • The OFC will enable the delivery of faster and more reliable mobile and landline telecom services to Andaman & Nicobar Islands, at par with other parts of India.
    • The submarine optical fibre cable link will deliver bandwidth of 2 x 200 Gigabits per second (Gbps) between Chennai and Port Blair, and 2 x 100 Gbps between Port Blair and the other islands.
    • 4G mobile services, which were constrained due to limited backhaul bandwidth provided via satellite, will also see a major boost.

    Benefits of the project

    • Better connectivity in the region will facilitate the delivery of e-governance services such as telemedicine and tele-education.
    • E-commerce: Small enterprises will benefit from opportunities in e-commerce, while educational institutions will utilise the enhanced availability of bandwidth for e-learning and knowledge sharing.
    • Business Process Outsourcing services and other medium and large enterprises too also benefit from better connectivity.
    • Low cost internet:The internet bills in Andaman and Nicobar will also come down substantially.