Poor banking governance: Most frauds show that banks did not observe due diligence, both before and after disbursing loans. Poor level of checks and balances in the banking system is one of the reason.
Poor monitoring: Lack of technology and fraud monitoring agencies to detect frauds makes the problem more complex. There is an absence of an effective mechanism to monitor the credit flow. Flawed risk-mitigation design, which creates an excessive focus on credit or market risks, but focuses less on operational risks also leading to more breaches.
Technological backwardness: Excessive dependence on manual supervision, at both external and internal levels makes it impossible to manually control and supervise the sheer volume of transactions.
Immoral behaviour: The disintegrating moral fibre of Indian businessmen, bankers and other white-collar professionals, nepotism in internal committees of banks, unnecessary political interventions lead to increased frauds.
Political interference: The political pulls and pressures on investigating agencies, and long-drawn processes of legal system act less as a deterrent.
India has initiated an anti-dumping probe against imports of a certain type of tiles, used for covering the floors in residential and commercial buildings, from China, Taiwan and Vietnam following a complaint by domestic players.
Why in news?
Countries start anti-dumping probes to determine whether their domestic industries have been hurt because of a surge in cheap imports.
The dumping has caused material injury to the domestic players. If established, the Directorate General of Trade Remedies (DGTR) would recommend an anti-dumping duty on these imports.
As a countermeasure, they India would impose these duties under the multilateral regime of the World Trade Organisation (WTO).
What is Dumping?
Dumping is a process wherein a company exports a product at a price that is significantly lower than the price it normally charges in its home (or its domestic) market.
This is an unfair trade practice which can have a distortive effect on international trade.
Anti dumping is a measure to rectify the situation arising out of the dumping of goods and its trade distortive effect.
What is Anti-Dumping Duty?
An anti-dumping duty is a protectionist tariff that a domestic government imposes on foreign imports that it believes are priced below fair market value.
In order to protect their respective economy, many countries impose duties on products they believe are being dumped in their national market.
In fact, anti-dumping is an instrument for ensuring fair trade and is not a measure of protection per se for the domestic industry.
Such ‘dumped’ products have the potential to undercut local businesses and the local economy.
Anti-dumping duties provide relief to the domestic industry against the injury caused by dumping.
Mechanism in India
The Department of Commerce recommends the anti-dumping duty, provisional or final.
The Department of Revenue in Finance Ministry acts upon the recommendation within three months and imposes such duties.
WTO and Anti-Dumping Duties
The WTO operates a set of international trade rules, including the international regulation of anti-dumping measures.
It does NOT intervene in the activities of companies engaged in dumping.
Instead, it focuses on how governments can—or cannot—react to the practice of dumping.
In general, the WTO agreement permits governments to act against dumping if it causes or threatens material injury to an established domestic industry.
Issues with such duties
Anti-dumping duties have the potential to distort the market.
In a free market, governments cannot normally determine what constitutes a fair market price for any good or service.
Back2Basics:
Countervailing duty (CVD)
Countervailing duty (CVD) is a specific form of duty that the government imposes in order to protect domestic producers by countering the negative impact of import subsidies.
CVD is thus an import tax by the importing country on imported products.
To make their products cheaper and boost their demand in other countries, foreign governments sometimes provide subsidies to their producers.
To avoid flooding of the market in the importing country with these goods, the government of the importing country imposes a countervailing duty, charging a specific amount on import of such goods.
How does it work?
The duty nullifies and eliminates the price advantage (low price) enjoyed by an imported product when it is given subsidies or exempted from domestic taxes in the country where they are manufactured.
It raises the price of the imported product, bringing it closer to its true market price.
In this way, the government is able to provide a level playing field for domestic products.
CVD and India
The World Trade Organization (WTO) permits the imposition of countervailing duty by its member countries.
In India, the CVD is imposed as an additional duty besides customs on imported products when such products are given tax concession in the country of their origin.
Who imposes countervailing measures in India?
The countervailing measures in India are administered by the Directorate General of Anti-dumping and Allied Duties (DGAD), in the commerce and industry ministry’s department of commerce.
The US has unveiled the Creating Opportunities for Manufacturing, Pre-Eminence in Technology, and Economic Strength (COMPETES) Act of 2022 that proposes to open up new vistas for talented individuals from across the world with a new start-up visa.
What is the COMPETES Act?
The bill provides $52 billion to encourage more semiconductor production in the US, and $45 billion for grants and loans to improve supply chain resilience and manufacturing, among other programs.
It also includes funding to address social and economic inequality, climate change, and immigration.
For instance, it provides an exemption for STEM PhDs from the green card cap and creates a new green card for entrepreneurs.
The bill also authorizes $600 million a year to construct manufacturing facilities to make the US less reliant on solar components made in Xinjiang, China.
Key provisions in the Act
The Act amends the Immigration and Nationality Act to create a new classification of “W” non-immigrants for entrepreneurs with an ownership interest in a start-up entity.
It seeks to establish procedures for foreign nationals with an ownership interest in a start-up entity to self-petition for lawful permanent resident status as an immigrant entrepreneur.
The bill exempts from the numerical limits on immigrant visas certain foreign nationals (and the spouses and children of such aliens) who have earned a doctoral degree in STEM.
Implications for Indians
It would mean more opportunities in the US for Indian talent, and for skilled workers.
Every year, the US administration issues 85,000 H-1B work permits.
Every year, Indians and Indian companies corner a lion’s share of the H-1B work permits issued that year.
With this new category, Indian professionals will likely have a better shot at opportunities that the Act is likely to provide.
The new chairman of the ISRO Dr S Somanath has indicated inauguration of indigenous new launch rockets, called the Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV).
What is SSLV?
The SSLV is a small-lift launch vehicle being developed by the ISRO with payload capacity to deliver:
It would help launching small satellites, with the capability to support multiple orbital drop-offs.
In future a dedicated launch pad in Sriharikota called Small Satellite Launch Complex (SSLC) will be set up.
A new spaceport, under development, near Kulasekharapatnam in Tamil Nadu will handle SSLV launches when complete.
After entering the operational phase, the vehicle’s production and launch operations will be done by a consortium of Indian firms along with NewSpace India Limited (NSIL).
Vehicle details
(A) Dimensions
Height: 34 meters
Diameter: 2 meters
Mass: 120 tonnes
(B) Propulsion
It will be a four stage launching vehicle.
The first three stages will use Hydroxyl-terminated polybutadiene (HTPB) based solid propellant, with a fourth terminal stage being a Velocity-Trimming Module (VTM).
SSLV vs. PSLV: A comparison
The SSLV was developed with the aim of launching small satellites commercially at drastically reduced price and higher launch rate as compared to Polar SLV (PSLV).
The projected high launch rate relies on largely autonomous launch operation and on overall simple logistics.
To compare, a PSLV launch involves 600 officials while SSLV launch operations would be managed by a small team of about six people.
The launch readiness period of the SSLV is expected to be less than a week instead of months.
The SSLV can carry satellites weighing up to 500 kg to a low earth orbit while the tried and tested PSLV can launch satellites weighing in the range of 1000 kg.
The entire job will be done in a very short time and the cost will be only around Rs 30 crore for SSLV.
Significance of SSLV
SSLV is perfectly suited for launching multiple microsatellites at a time and supports multiple orbital drop-offs.
The development and manufacture of the SSLV are expected to create greater synergy between the space sector and private Indian industries – a key aim of the space ministry.
In UPSC prelims, it is not the number of questions that you attempt but the number of mistakes you make decides whether you will score above 120 plus or even qualify at all.
Based on attempts in practice tests and number of mistakes in tests, you fall into these categories:
Red Zone category: 25 mistakes and above
Orange zone category: 15 to 25 mistakes
Green zone category: Less than 15 mistakes.
What should you do if you fall under the Red and Orange Zone categories?
A. RED ZONE CATEGORY: You need to have clarity in topics and have enhanced understanding. Once you have revised the content multiple times through keywords and notes, you can increase the number of attempts. There is no space for elimination and guesswork.
B. ORANGE ZONE CATEGORY: This category aspirants need to bring mistakes below 15. Complete short keyword notes for all subjects by February 20th. Avoid guess work and learn and practice the question solving techniques such as FCE (Factual Conceptual and Elimination) approach.
Way Forward for All UPSC Prelims 2022 Aspirants for the next 4 Months
There are no mistakes such as silly mistakes because either you are not reading properly or don’t remember them. Also, it happens when you are under confident or overconfident. Only intelligent elimination should be opted and that also can work if you have clarity of topics and study a topic holistically. Revision should be holistic. If you have not done an in-depth study of Polity, History and Environment even once, then it is high time.
This Saturday, Civilsdaily Mentor and UPSC 2017 AIR 674 Topper Megha Gupta Ma’am will be highlighting the different kinds of preparation strategies for red-zone, green-zone and orange-zone aspirants. From her own failures and successes, Megha Ma’am will be sharing the foolproof and easy methods to revise and recollect important prelims static + current affairs topics for 2022.
Key takeaways of Megha Gupta Ma’am Free Live Webinar on Prelims Preparation
1. Make a plan for the day. Day-to-day time management.
2. Dealing with negative emotions such as despair and stress. How did Megha Gupta stay confident when she was feeling down?
3. Her sources for current events, particularly from a prelims perspective. How did she retain daily current affairs knowledge through mental maps?
4. Making the UPSC CSE Prelims preparation process easier. Did Megha Ma’am read new sources while revising?
5. How can aspirants make use of Civilsdaily’s Free Group Study initiative on the Telegram Channel ? Megha Gupta responds.
6. What practices did Megha completely avoid that were popular among other aspirants?When should you develop your strategy and when should you follow toppers to clear UPSC?
Webinar Details
Study hard, break your limits. Then, get used to it. That’s how you prepare for UPSC-CSE. We hope this webinar will help all 2022 aspirants implement the suggestions of Megha Gupta Ma’am.
One of the largest producers of fruits and vegetables in the world to boost processed food in large quantities, India has formulated a unique Production-Linked Incentive Scheme (PLIS) which aims to incentivise incremental sales.
Progress made so far
A sum of ₹10,900 crore has been earmarked for the scheme.
Beneficiaries have been obliged to commit a minimum investment while applying for the scheme.
Under Category 1, firms are incentivised for incremental sales and branding/marketing initiatives taken abroad.
Assuming the committed investment as a fixed ratio of their sales and undertaking execution of at least 75% of the projects, the sector is likely to witness at least ₹6,500 crore worth of investment over the next two years.
New alternatives are being explored which have immense potential in replacing the staples of rice and wheat in the form of Nutri-cereals, plant-based proteins, fermented foods, health bars and even fresh fortified foods for pets.
By welcoming the new brands in the category, PLIS aims to create an enabling ecosystem for innovation in both food products and processes.
Way forward
1] Improve infrastructure
A study in the United States concluded that a 1% increase in public infrastructure increased the food manufacturing output by 0.06% in the longer run (https://bit.ly/3rOeE0l).
This correlation holds good for India too as a higher investment is being concentrated in States such as Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh.
These States as reported by the Good Governance Index 2020-21, ranked among the highest in the ‘Public Infrastructure and Utilities’ parameter with ‘Connectivity to Rural Habitations’ showing the highest improvement.
2] Improve profitability in export
For the exports market, it is now established that sales promotion is positively related to increased sales volume, but inversely related to profitability.
To bridge this gap, of the 13 key sectors announced under the PLIS, the ‘Food Processing PLIS’ earmarks a dedicated Category 3 for supporting branding and marketing activities in foreign markets.
This ensures that India’s share of value-added products in the exports basket is improved, and it may leverage on its unique geographical proximity to the untapped markets of Europe, the Middle East/West Asia, Africa, Oceania and Japan.
3] Access to credit
The access of micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) to finance is a perennial problem in the country, predominating due to a lack of proper credit history mechanism for MSMEs.
Smart financing alternatives such as peer-to-peer (P2P) lending hold potential for micro-food processors.
Access to working capital has in theory been addressed by the Trade Receivables Discounting System (TReDS), a platform for facilitating the financing/discounting of trade receivables of MSMEs through multiple financiers.
Conclusion
With growing populations, changing food habits and unrestricted use of natural resources, nations must come together and lay out a road map for a common efficient food value chain.
In UPSC prelims, it is not the number of questions that you attempt but the number of mistakes you make decides whether you will score above 120 plus or even qualify at all.
Based on attempts in practice tests and number of mistakes in tests, you fall into these categories:
Red Zone category: 25 mistakes and above
Orange zone category: 15 to 25 mistakes
Green zone category: Less than 15 mistakes.
What should you do if you fall under the Red and Orange Zone categories?
A. RED ZONE CATEGORY: You need to have clarity in topics and have enhanced understanding. Once you have revised the content multiple times through keywords and notes, you can increase the number of attempts. There is no space for elimination and guesswork.
B. ORANGE ZONE CATEGORY: This category aspirants need to bring mistakes below 15. Complete short keyword notes for all subjects by February 20th. Avoid guess work and learn and practice the question solving techniques such as FCE (Factual Conceptual and Elimination) approach.
Way Forward for All UPSC Prelims 2022 Aspirants for the next 4 Months
There are no mistakes such as silly mistakes because either you are not reading properly or don’t remember them. Also, it happens when you are under confident or overconfident. Only intelligent elimination should be opted and that also can work if you have clarity of topics and study a topic holistically. Revision should be holistic. If you have not done an in-depth study of Polity, History and Environment even once, then it is high time.
This Saturday, Civilsdaily Mentor and UPSC 2017 AIR 674 Topper Megha Gupta Ma’am will be highlighting the different kinds of preparation strategies for red-zone, green-zone and orange-zone aspirants. From her own failures and successes, Megha Ma’am will be sharing the foolproof and easy methods to revise and recollect important prelims static + current affairs topics for 2022.
Key takeaways of Megha Gupta Ma’am Free Live Webinar on Prelims Preparation
1. Make a plan for the day. Day-to-day time management.
2. Dealing with negative emotions such as despair and stress. How did Megha Gupta stay confident when she was feeling down?
3. Her sources for current events, particularly from a prelims perspective. How did she retain daily current affairs knowledge through mental maps?
4. Making the UPSC CSE Prelims preparation process easier. Did Megha Ma’am read new sources while revising?
5. How can aspirants make use of Civilsdaily’s Free Group Study initiative on the Telegram Channel ? Megha Gupta responds.
6. What practices did Megha completely avoid that were popular among other aspirants?When should you develop your strategy and when should you follow toppers to clear UPSC?
Webinar Details
Study hard, break your limits. Then, get used to it. That’s how you prepare for UPSC-CSE. We hope this webinar will help all 2022 aspirants implement the suggestions of Megha Gupta Ma’am.
HOW TO ATTEMPT ANSWERS IN DAILY ANSWER WRITING ENHANCEMENT(AWE)?
Daily 4 questions from General studies 1, 2, 3, and 4 will be provided to you.
A Mentor’s Comment will be available for all answers. This can be used as a guidance tool but we encourage you to write original answers.
You can write your answer on an A4 sheet and scan/click pictures of the same.
Upload the scanned answer in the comment section of the same question.
Along with the scanned answer, please share your Razor payment ID, so that paid members are given priority.
If you upload the answer on the same day like the answer of 11th October is uploaded on 11th October then your answer will be checked within 72 hours. Also, reviews will be in the order of submission- First come first serve basis
If you are writing answers late, for example, 11th October is uploaded on 13th October, then these answers will be evaluated as per the mentor’s schedule.
We encourage you to write answers on the same day. However, if you are uploading an answer late then tag the mentor like @Staff so that the mentor is notified about your answer.
*In case your answer is not reviewed, reply to your answer saying *NOT CHECKED*.
As an aspirant if you have taken many test series, but are unable to score above 100 marks and want to improve your scores before Mains 2022, then this program is for you!
If coaches of sportspersons have themselves been players, then shouldn’t mentors of UPSC aspirants have cleared UPSC Mains themselves?
It’s about time you find a Rahul Dravid or a Pullela Gopichand to mentor your Upsc preparation. Just practising test series without knowing the ways to present an answer is not the way to clear Mains. An ideal test series program should have 1-on-1 mentorship and guidance by veterans who have themselves topped the exams!
Instead of getting demotivated and comparing yourself to other students, get mentorship support like Kunal Aggrawal IRS did when he could only score 75/250 marks in Mains mock tests.
Why UPSC toppers are convinced that Smash Mains helped them succeed?
A serving IPS officer, who had written the Mains exam again in 2021 to aim for IAS posting, gave us his feedback of our Smash Mains Test Series
How has Smash Mains helped 2021-2022 Aspirants in Preparing for UPSC?
What do aspirants need in their UPSC preparation journey? They need a senior who will give them moral support and the required logistics to prepare for the tough exam in a simplified manner.
You can clear the exam only with confidence and consistency. And to achieve both, you require a personalised mentor. Many aspirants feel just attending classes or tests is not beneficial for them. So we tweaked our program to include mentorship both in our tests series and classes. Aspirants feel they can reach out to us anytime with their concerns and we are available to sort them out.
Dear Students,
For some of you prelims has never been a challenge for you. You have been missing the mains cut-off with a small margin (repeatedly). This means that there are some fundamental issueswith your approach. You might be aware or not about this. But just realization is not enough, you have to work on its execution as well. And bringing that to fruition will be possible through a guided process under a meticulously designed plan.
Smash mains is a highly personalized and intensive handholding program for the crème-de-la-crème (veterans) amongst UPSC aspirants (the intake is 50 students).
Note: The Entry is Restricted to those who have appeared in UPSC interview in the past 2 years or have missed the mains cut off by a whisker.
The focus is on identifying and highlighting the issues with your preparation (information / analysis / utilization). According to your strength and weaknesses, a tailor-made strategy is developed..
My marks in UPSC 2017 GS Mains paper were:
GS Paper 1 – 132
GS Paper 2 – 125
GS Paper 3 – 130
Key Takeways About Smash Mains 2022
Every 3rd Ranker in the Top 100 of UPSC 2020 is a Civilsdaily Student.
You don’t have to waste any more time finding the strategy (value added notes, test series or timetable ) for the next 3 months. You will get the guidance for it.
You will gain access to Civildaily’s Samachar Manthan – For holistic and comprehensive coverage of Current Affairs.
You will have exclusive membership to Smash Mains club in Habitat.
One of our other Civilsdaily Student cleared the exams in 2020 to become an IPS Officer. He wrote the 2021 exam again as he aims for an IAS posting. This is what he said about our program
After completing the Mains Test series, you will have a one-to-one detailed and in-depth interaction. Final refinements are done to every answer. Value addition material, as well as pointers, will be provided here. We will work with you to ensure you have enough material for value addition. Our focus will be on providing tips that add the missing X factor to your answers.
Why is Smash 2022 the best way to prepare for mains?
Individual attention and approachability are the USPs of this program. Listen to what our Smash Mains 2020 student and topper Pooja Gupta (AIR 42) says about the program.
Not putting Penguins among the Fowls – You already know how to write an average answer (you’re missing it by a few marks actually). You want to know how to increase your score from 90 to 110-115. The approach followed by other institutes in their Test series is the same for a veteran and a complete newbie and here lies the problem. Without personalizedone-to-one interaction, it will be difficult for you to rectify these minute yet very important shortcomings.
Evaluation is a strength of this program and we put it on a high priority. It shouldn’t be based on ‘model answers’ as there are 3-4 ways of approaching an answer. Only a seasoned player will be able to go beyond these model answers and be able to appreciate your approach (If it’s innovative) even if it differs from the model answers provided.
Test copies get checked in a time-bound manner. The questions, answers and material provided are of the highest quality.
Emphasis on execution and utilization of knowledge – Mains is not only about knowledge but the way you express the relevant knowledge in the most optimum manner.
AIR 148 UPSC 2020 topper and our Civilsdaily student, Ponmani explains why answer writing with mentorship is necessary for Mains.
Europe’s push for renewable energy at the cost of conventional fuel may end up causing a global food crisis.
Consequences of fuel shortage in Western Europe
Since August 2021, Western Europe has faced a problem with renewable energy – the wind doesn’t always blow when needed and the sun doesn’t always shine.
Commodity markets across the world operate on a balance of demand and supply — even seemingly “small” changes in either side of a few percentage points can push the prices up or down sharply.
High energy bills: Higher gas prices have pushed up energy bills for households and are expected to impact household spending and consumption as well.
High urea prices: Natural gas is used to produce urea – if gas prices go up, fertiliser also becomes expensive.
Some poor and middle-income countries are already starting to face problems of fertiliser availability — there are reports from several Indian states as well.
High food prices: The impact of expensive fertiliser will be felt some months down the line as expensive fertiliser and reduced harvests push up food prices.
India is relatively less affected as the share of natural gas in the country’s energy mix is low but will still face problems due to high food prices.
In 2007-08, when oil prices were high, there was a push to use “biofuels” led by the US and Europe.
The effects of the 2008 food price crisis were felt around the world, especially by the poor.
Lessons for India
Cheap and reliable energy sources should not be abandoned until the alternatives have been stringently stress tested.
India will be especially hard hit if oil prices spike as it imports close to 1.4 billion barrels of oil annually.
Consider the question “What are the inherent dangers in rapid transition to the green energy? Suggest the way forward for India.”
Conclusion
A blind push to shut down traditional sources of energy and move to less reliable “clean” energy can have second and third order effects.
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