Vol. - VII No.

10 October 2017

VERDICT ON
TRIPLE TALAQ

Articles
Right to Privacy
NOTA in Rajya Sabha Poll
Gist Medium Term Fiscal Target
of
Yojana, Article 35 A & Its Significance
Kurukshetra,
PIB
Economic Survey Volume -II
 Triple Talaq

CONTENT
Vol. - VII No. 10 October 2017

Articles
4 Triple Talaq 49 Bilateral Relations & World
Agreements with Nepal and Switzerland
6 Right to Privacy Indian Ocean Exercise
No Data from China on Brahmaputra This Year
8 NOTA in Rajya Sabha Poll India, China Question ‘Trade Distorting’ Farm Subsidies
BRICS Agriculture Research Platform
10 Medium Term Fiscal Target India-China Battle Over Tibet’s Medicine

12 Article 35A & Its Significance 52 Ecology & Environment

Report on Climatic Change and Agriculture Research
13 Economic Survey Volume-II Earth Overshoot Day
Guidelines for Diverting Forest Land

Regular Rights to Explore Polymetallic Nodules

Ocean Forecasting for Two Countries
Measles-Rubella (MR) Campaign Widens its Reach
34 Socio-Economic Development Army to Get MRSAM

Policy Repo Rate Reduced to 6% 55 Gist of Yujana

NITI Aayog Releases Ease of Doing Business Report Who will Benefit from GST and How?
The State Banks (Repeal and Amendment) Bill, 2017 GSTN Network
New Metro Rail Policy The Concept of GST
Merger of Public Sector Banks Cooperative Federalism: Some Valid Criticism Against GST
The Code on Wages, 2017 Introduced Role of Self Help Groups in new ‘Social Economy’
Global Commission on the Future of Work Major Applications of ICT in Agriculture
BHUVAN
43 The Nation 61 Micro News
OBC List to be SubCategorised Awards

Changes Suggested in Surrogacy Bill Sports News

Stalking: A Serious Crime against Women News from States

Digital Police Portal under CCTNS Project Persons in News

Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissues Act, 1994 Death

NHRC Issues Notice on Rohingyas Reports/Index

NAAC Launches Revised Accreditation Framework Summit/Conference

Important Days

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Triple Talaq
Verdict on Triple Talaq
B
y declaring the discriminatory practice of instant
triple talaq as unconstitutional, the Supreme Court
has sent out a clear message that personal law can
no longer be privileged over fundamental rights.
Verdict Explained
Majority Verdict:
●● The majority verdict attempts a delicate balancing act
between individual rights enshrined in Article 14 and
religious freedoms guaranteed by Article 25.
●● Justice Joseph found that triple talaq was against the
mandate of Quran and therefore impermissible.
●● Justices Nariman and Lalit also made the more
fundamental argument that triple talaq violated
Article 14 and therefore needed to be struck down.
●● Justice Nariman cited the Constitution’s Article
13(1) which demands that all colonial-era laws not in
consonance with fundamental rights be struck down.
This is an important intervention.
●● Justice Rohinton F. Nariman, writing for himself
and Justice U.U. Lalit, held that the 1937 Muslim
Personal Law (Shariat) Application Act had codified
all Muslim personal law, including the practice
of triple talaq. This brought it within the bounds of
the Constitution. He then held that because talaq-e-
biddat allowed unchecked power to Muslim husbands
to divorce their wives, without any scope for
reconciliation, it was “arbitrary”, and failed the test
of Article 14 (equality before law) of the Constitution.
The practice, therefore, was unconstitutional.
Current Affairs Survey | October 2017 |
Minority Verdict:
CJI J S Khehar, Justice S Abdul Nazeer call to consider
legislation; injunction for now:
●● Minority judgment expressed apprehension about
the inroads “rationalists” may make into other
“personal law” practices.
●● It advises judges to exercise absolute restraint, and not
activism, in matters of religious faith.
●● Having declared instant talaq a matter of religious
faith, minority judgment asks whether “a court, based
on a righteous endeavour, can declare that a matter
of faith, be replaced — or be completely done away
with?”
●● “The Constitution assures believers of all faiths,
that their way of life, is guaranteed, and would not
be subjected to any challenge, even though they may
seem to others — and even rationalists practising the
same faith — unacceptable, in today’s world and age,”
it said.
Essence of Majority Verdict:
●● Three of the five judges on the Constitution Bench
have not accepted the argument that instant
talaq, or talaq-e-biddat, is essential to Islam and,
therefore, deserves constitutional protection under
Article 25.
●● The biggest virtue of the two opinions constituting
the majority judgment is that they do not have to
undermine any religious tenet to make their point.
●● The main ground on which the practice has been
struck down is a simple formulation: that “this
form of talaq is manifestly arbitrary in the sense
that the marital tie can be broken capriciously and
whimsically by a Muslim man without any attempt
at reconciliation so as to save it.”
Essence of Minority Judgment
●● The minority judgment asked the government to
frame a law on triple talaq, especially instant talaq.
●● It is not for a court to determine whether
religious practices were prudent or progressive or
regressive.
●● Religion and ‘personal law’ must be perceived, as it
is accepted, by the followers of the faith.
●● The dissenting opinion privilege community claims
over individual constitutional rights
●● It also conflated the freedom of religion with
personal law, thereby advancing a position where
religion could become the arbiter of individuals’
civil status and civil rights.
4|

Talaq-ul-biddat and Talaq-ul-sunnat: Key
Questions Answered
Has the Supreme Court struck down the triple
talaq or only the instant triple talaq?
The Supreme Court has struck down the instant triple talaq
and not the triple talaq itself.
What is the difference?
The instant triple talaq is the pronouncement of three
talaqs at one go, whereas the standard triple talaq involves
a waiting period — optimally of three lunar months —
between the first talaq and the finalisation of the divorce.
Will Parliament have to promulgate a law
now?
No. Such a proposal was made by the Chief Justice of India
but his view was part of the minority judgment.
The majority judgment, which set aside the instant triple
talaq , takes precedence. Any violation of the order can be
addressed under the domestic violence law.
How did the instant triple talaq come into being
in India?
●● All matters of divorce are routed through the courts.
In India, the Muslim Personal Law (Shariat)
Application Act came into force in 1937.
Current Affairs Survey | October 2017 |
Triple Talaq
●● The British, who then ruled India, were trying to
ensure that Indians were governed in their personal
lives by their own cultural norms.
●● Since 1937, the Shariat Application Act has governed
aspects of Muslim social life such as marriage,
divorce, inheritance and family relations.
●● The act lays down that the State shall not interfere
in matters of personal dispute. No government has
contested the act.
Why does India have Personal Laws?
Each religious community in India has certain unique
practices in family life, from marriage to inheritance
and from marital separation to maintenance and
adoption.
The Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan, which fought
triple talaq in court, has sought codification of Muslim
law to remove unjust practices.
●● Many of these are unfair to women, in different ways.
●● India allows each community to practise its personal
law, but these cannot violate constitutional rights.
●● There are also civil alternatives like the Special
Marriages Act which any citizen can opt to follow.
●● Under Ambedkar’s stewardship, Hindu personal law
was codified in the 1950s by Parliament.
●● The majority religion is easier to reform; Pakistan,
Bangladesh, etc. have reformed Muslim law while
being cautious with Hindu practices.
●● Indian lawmakers have also been more hesitant to
change religious laws for minorities.
●● In 1986, the Supreme Court’s Shah Bano judgment
for maintenance was amended by Parliament, in a way
that placated the Muslim clergy.
●● Muslim personal law has not been codified by
Parliament, except through the Shariat Act of 1937
and the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights of
Divorce) Act of 1986. Judges have to rely on Islamic
jurisprudence in a case-by-case manner.
5|
Right to Privacy
Right to Privacy
A
nine-judge Supreme Court bench unanimously
ruled on August 24 that privacy is a fundamental
right, protected as an intrinsic part of the right
to life and personal liberty and as part of the freedoms
guaranteed by the Constitution.
Salient Points of the latest Privacy Judg-
ment
●● Privacy is a constitutionally protected right emerging
primarily from the guarantee of life and liberty in
Article 21 of the Constitution.
●● It includes the preservation of personal intimacies,
sanctity of family life, marriage, procreation, the
home and sexual orientation.
●● Privacy connotes a right to be left alone. It safeguards
individual autonomy and recognises one’s ability to
control vital aspects of his/her life.
●● Privacy is not an absolute right, but any invasion must
be based on legality, need and proportionality.
●● Informational privacy is a facet of this right. Dangers
to this can originate from both state and non-state
actors.
●● Government must put in place a robust regime for
data protection. It must bring about a balance between
individual interests and legitimate state concerns.
What were the arguments
on either side?
The petitioners say that the:
●● SC has recognised the fundamental right to privacy in
an unbroken chain of judgments.
●● Privacy is associated with and is the bulwark of other
rights. There can be no dignity without privacy, and
dignity is part of the Preamble, which is part of the
Constitution’s basic structure.
●● Privacy is located in the golden trinity of Articles 14,
19, and 21.
●● They argue that the Constitution is a living d1ocument.
Its interpretation must be in accord with passage of
time and developments in law. They say India has
international obligations to recognise a fundamental
right to privacy.
The respondents say that:
●● Privacy is a vague concept, and vague concepts cannot
be made fundamental rights.
●● Some aspects of privacy are covered by Article 21.
Current Affairs Survey | October 2017 |
●● Its other aspects should be regulated by laws only, not
separately as a fundamental right.
●● Right to life of others is more important than right to
privacy.
●● If right to privacy impedes Aadhaar, then it would
deprive millions of food and shelter.
●● Framers intentionally did not include privacy in
fundamental rights section.
Impact of Privacy Verdict
Aadhar:
●● The nine-bench will decide:
a) if the scheme puts a reasonable restriction on the
fundamental right to privacy
b) whether the purpose of collecting the personal data is
a “legitimate state interest” beneficial for the public
●● The judgment will have bearings on 17 government
notifications making Aadhaar a must to access welfare
benefits
Will Section 377 Go?
●● The Constitution Bench ripped ripped apart its own
judgment of 2014 upholding Section 377 of the
Indian Penal Code, which criminalises consensual
sexual acts of adults in private.
●● The Bench observed that the chilling effect of
Section 377 “poses a grave danger to the unhindered
fulfilment of one’s sexual orientation, as an element
of privacy and dignity.” In separate judgments,
the Constitution Bench, led by Chief Justice of
India J.S. Khehar, concluded that the 2014 verdict
by a two-judge Bench of the court pandered to a
“majoritarian” view to deny the LGBT community
their inherent fundamental rights of life, personal
liberty, equality and gender discrimination.
●● The 2014 judgment’s view that “a miniscule
fraction of the country’s population constitutes
lesbians, gays, bisexuals or transgenders” was not a
sustainable basis to deny the right to privacy, Justice
D.Y. Chandrachud observed in his judgment
6|
 Right to Privacy
Data Protection/WhatsApp: 1998: Mr X vs Hospital Z
●● The judgment calls for a robust data protection regime Privacy is not absolute
not only against the State but also private players. The case concerned revealing the HIV status of a patient
●● This direction in the judgment may have a by a doctor. A divisoon bench held the right to privacy is
bearing on the pending challenge to a 2016 not absolute. A doctor may disclose a patient’s HIV status
contract entered into between WhatsApp and to their partner.
Facebook in 2016 to share user information
2008: Hinsa Virodhak Sangh Vs. Mirzapur Moti
including messages, pictures, videos, etc.
Kuresh Jamat
Section 377 IPC:
Choice of personal
●● The judgment gives a new lease of life to the prolonged A division bench upheld the closure of slaughterhouses in
fight to decriminalize Section 377 IPC, a colonial Ahmedabad during the Jain Paryushan festival. It also
era provision criminalizing consensual sexual acts observed that what one eats is part of one’s right to
of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) privacy.
adults in private.
●● In this judgment, the nine-judge Bench observe that 2009: Jamiruddin Ahmed vs State of West Bengal
Section 377 has a “chilling effect” on privacy and Raid without reason not okay
dignity of individuals. The penal section, the judgment A division bench ruled that search/seizure without
concluded, “poses a grave danger to the unhindered recording valid reasons violates the right to privacy
fulfilment of one’s sexual orientation, as an element 2011: Ram Jethmalani & Others vs Union of India
of privacy and dignity”.
Can’t reveal bank details without valid grounds
Privacy and the Supreme Court: Seven
Popularly known as the “Black Money Case”, here the
Cases that Upheld the Right to Privacy Supreme Court held that revealing an individual’s bank
account details without establishing grounds to accuse
1964: Kharak Singh Vs State of UP & Others
them of wrongdoing violates their right to privacy.
Surveillance Intrudes into Privacy
Among the most cited cases in India when it comes to 2012: SC takes Suo Moto notice of the Ramlila
privacy. Here, a amajority of a six-judge bench held that Maidan incident
unlawful intrusion into the home violates personal liberty. Right to sleep is part of Right to Privacy
1997: PUCL vs Union of India The SC took suo motu cognizance of the crackdown on
sleeping anti-corruption protesters camping at Ramlila
Telephone Tapping Invades privacy
Maidan led by Baba Ramdev. Identifying right to sleep
A division bench held that a telephone conversation is as an aspect of the right to dignity and privacy, the court
an exercise in freedom of expression, and that telephone refused to permit “illegitimate intrusion into a person’s
tapping is an invasion of privacy privacy as right to privacy is implicit in the right to life
and liberty”.
Why was the Judgment Required?
2012 onwards: Main case challenging the Aadhaar schme was files, all subsequent cases (23) were tagged to it.
Main Case: Justice KS Puttaswamy (Retd) & Another vs. Union of India
Challenged Aadhar scheme itself, saying it violates fundamental rights to privacy and equality. Also challenged
mandatory Aadhaar use for PDS, LPG, MGNREGA, pension scheme, Jan Dhan Yojna.
September 2013:
SC issued interim order: No
The SC also included all states and UTS as parties to the matter. Karnataka, Bengal, Punjab, Kerala and Puducherry
argued on the petitioner’s side in the privacy hearings.
October 2015: SC Referred cases to the Constitution Bench (5 judges or more).
July 2017: Constitution bench of 5 judges to hear all Aadhaar cases. This bench referred only the question of whether
a fundamental right to privacy exists to a nine-judge constitution bench.
August 2017: The Constitution bench delivered the verdict.
After this verdict, the five-judge bench will continue hearing cases against Aadhaar. The ruling will impact its decision
whether Aadhar violates right to privacy

Current Affairs Survey | October 2017 | 7|

NOTA in Rajya Sabha
NOTA in Rajya Sabha Poll
Two Big Issues Raised
●● The Election Commission recently asked the returning
officer (RO) of the Rajya Sabha poll in Gujarat to
reject votes cast by two Congress MLAs who had
shown their ballot papers to persons other than their
authorised party agent.
●● Before Rajya Sabha Elections, Congress party
knocked on the door of the Supreme Court asking
for a stay on the use of NOTA option in Rajya Sabha
elections. However, the Supreme Court refused the
stay, and said that the case against NOTA in Rajya
Sabha elections will be heard later as a Constitutional
matter.
Secrecy in Electoral Process
Citing Rules 39A and 39AA of the Conduct of Election
Rules, 1961, the EC said the rule was very clear that the
elector has to show his ballot paper only to the authorised
representative of his party and no one else.
●● As per the Conduct of Election Rules 1961, the
procedure laid down for the Rajya Sabha elections
calls for a ballot-in-secret.
●● Secrecy under Rule 39A mandates that the elector cannot
declare his ballot to anyone; any deviation results in the
invalidation of the ballot by the presiding officer.
Duty-based Measure and Right-based
Measure
All electoral polling, either for the presidency, vice-
presidency, Parliament, or state assemblies, is in essence a
secret ballot. However, there are two means of executing
such ends:
I. The duty-based measure
II. The rights-based measure
Secrecy aims to protect the vote as it affords the right
to the voter to keep silent over the choice of candidate.
Duty-based Measure:
The duty-based measure imposes secrecy as a statutory
duty not only on the election authorities but also on the
voter. The voter even by his consent cannot declare his
choice; doing so would invalidate his vote.
Right-based Measure:
●● The rights-based measure provides the voter the right
to keep his vote a secret.
Current Affairs Survey | October 2017 |
●● Such a right creates a correlative duty on the election
authorities to afford voting facilities and procedures
that do not disclose the vote.
●● But the voter can choose to not opt for secrecy.
●● The voter is given legal anonymity for the vote he
casts, but he may choose to claim authorship over the
same.
Rule 39A creates secrecy in the nature of a duty-based
measure.
NOTA in Rajya Sabha Poll
Should NOTA (none of the above) be an option in a
State Assembly vote for the Rajya Sabha, as it is for the
electorate in direct elections?
It is important to note that open ballots are used in the Rajya
Sabha elections. These elections follow a proportional
representation system based on the single transferable
vote, unlike the general elections to the Lok Sabha, which
are conducted with secret ballots (or votes) and based on
the first-past-the-post principle.
Why NOTA became a Controversial Issue in recent
Rajya Sabha Poll?
●● In principle, the presence of the NOTA option for the
legislator allows the possibility of a protest vote against
the party high command for choosing candidates who
are not agreeable to her, without having to choose
candidates from opposing parties.
●● The principle of a protest vote remains the same even
if these are indirect elections.
●● The party high command can issue a whip for a Rajya
Sabha candidate, but anti-defection law provisions do
not apply for NOTA vote, and a defiant MLA is not
disqualified from membership of the House.
●● The argument against it in Rajya Sabha elections is
that these, unlike the Lok Sabha elections, do not
run on the first-past-the-post system but depend on
proportionally representative single transferable
votes, listing candidates according to the preference
directed by the party to which an MLA belongs.
●● What is common, however, is the principle of
rejection: a Rajya Sabha elector can register his or her
disapproval of his or her high command’s choice by
voting Nota. Presumably, that is one of the reasons
why Nota remains for these Rajya Sabha elections,
apart from the fact that it has always been on the
ballot papers for the Rajya Sabha vote as on the EVMs
8|

for the Lok Sabha vote since 2014, when it was first
implemented.
●● The Supreme Court has in the past held that open
ballot votes in Rajya Sabha elections against the
whip will not lead to disqualification as the Tenth
Schedule, pertaining to anti-defection provisions,
has a different purpose.
10th Schedule
The 10th Schedule to the Indian Constitution, that is
popularly referred to as the ‘Anti-Defection Law’ was
inserted by the 1985 Amendment to the Constitution.
‘Defection’ has been defined as, “To abandon a position or
association, often to join an opposing group”.
The law was added via the 52nd Amendment Act, 1985.
Reasons for the Addition
The reasons for the addition of this Schedule were
explained by the Statement of Objects and Reasons of the
Fifty-second Amendment (1985) to the constitution in the
following words, “The evil of political defections has been
a matter of national concern.
If it is not combated, it is likely to undermine the very
foundations of our democracy and the principles which
sustain it.
With this object, an assurance was given in the address by
the President to Parliament that the government intended
to introduce in the current session of Parliament an anti-
defection Bill. This Bill is meant for outlawing defection
Current Affairs Survey | October 2017 |
NOTA in Rajya Sabha
and fulfilling the above assurance.”
What are the grounds for disqualification under
the Anti-Defection Laws Articles 102 (2) and 191
(2)?
●● If an elected member voluntarily gives up his
membership of a political party
●● If he votes or abstains from voting in such House
contrary to any direction issued by his political party
or anyone authorised to do so, without obtaining prior
permission.
As a pre-condition for his disqualification, his abstention
from voting should not be condoned by his party or the
authorised person within 15 days of such incident.
What were the loopholes?
●● As per the 1985 Act, a ‘defection’ by one-third of the
elected members of a political party was considered a
‘merger’. Such defections were not actionable against.
●● The Dinesh Goswami Committee on Electoral
Reforms, the Law Commission in its report on “Reform
of Electoral Laws” and the National Commission to
Review the Working of the Constitution (NCRWC)
all recommended the deletion of the Tenth Schedule
provision regarding exemption from disqualification
in case of a split.
Finally, the 91st Constitutional Amendment Act, 2003,
changed this. So now at least two-thirds of the members
of a party have to be in favour of a “merger” for it to have
validity in the eyes of the law.
9|
Medium Term Fiscal
Medium-Term Expenditure Framework
S
policy.
ection 3 of the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget
Management (FRBM) Act, 2003 requires the
Government to place three Statements of fiscal
Basics Explained
What are the Three Statements of Policy?
●● The Medium-term Fiscal Policy Statement
●● The Fiscal Policy Strategy Statement
●● The Macroeconomic Framework Statement in both
Houses of Parliament along with Annual Financial
Statement and Demands for Grants
Why Fourth Statement is Presented Then
Section 3 of the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget
Management (FRBM) Act, 2003 was amended to require
the Government to lay a fourth statement viz., the Medium-
Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) Statement in both
Houses of Parliament, immediately following the session
of the Parliament in which the budget has been presented.
About MTEF
●● The MTEF Statement set forth a three-year
rolling target for the expenditure indicators with
specification of underlying assumptions and risks
involved.
●● The MTEF is essentially a vertical expansion of the
aggregates of the expenditure projections in the fiscal
framework presented along with the Annual Financial
Statement and Demands for Grants.
●● The objective of the MTEF is to provide closer
integration between budget and the FRBM Statements.
●● It provides medium-term perspective to the fiscal
management and furthers the Government’s
commitment towards fiscal consolidation.
Balance of Payments
●● During 2016-17, merchandise exports valued at US$
276.5 billion were 5.4% higher than its level of US$
262.3 billion in 2015-16.
●● Merchandise imports during 2016-17 were US$
382.7 billion, which was 0.5% higher than US$ 381.0
billion in 2015-16.
●● Consequently, the trade deficit in 2016-17 reduced by
US$ 12.5 billion to US$ 106.2 billion from US$ 118.7
billion in 2015-16.
Current Affairs Survey | October 2017 | 10|
●●
●●
Oil imports increased by US$ 4bn from US$ 82.9
billion in 2015-16 to US$ 86.9 billion in 2016-17.
Non-oil imports declined by 0.7% to US$ 295.9
billion in 2016-17 from US$ 298.1 billion in 2015-16.
Reforms in Food Subsidy
NFSA 2013:
●● As regards Food subsidy, implementation of the
National Food Security Act has become universal
from 1st November, 2016. All the States/UTs have
now adopted NFSA, 2013 expanding the food subsidy
coverage to approximately 80 crore beneficiaries.
●● The provision for Food subsidy has been kept at Rs
1,45,339 crore in BE 2017-18.
Fair Price Shops:
●● Reforms in food subsidy have been initiated, 6 States
have automated all their Fair Price Shops (FPSs).
●● In addition, a total of Rs 1,77,746 FPSs have been
automated with ePoS machines and 72%ration cards
have already been seeded with Aadhar.
Fertilizer Subsidy:
●● Making headway in fertilizer subsidy reforms,
Department of Fertilizers has chalked out a programme
to implement DBT in modified form through pilot
projects in 16 Districts.
●● As an outcome of neem coating of urea, Kharif 2016
was the first season when entire urea consumed came
to be neem based.
●● This has been estimated to bring down the consumption
of urea by 8.66 lakh metric tonne compared to the
previous year.
Fiscal Targets Met
●● As per provisional accounts of the Government of
India, the Fiscal Deficit target in 2016-17 has been
met and stood at 3.5% of GDP.
●● The Revenue Deficit of the Government
outperformed the target and stood at 2% of GDP in
2016-17. This was against the Revised Estimates of
2.1% of GDP.
●● The Effective Revenue Deficit stood at 0.9% of GDP
as envisaged in the Revised Estimates.
●● Interest payments constitute the largest component
of Centre’s revenue expenditure

Major Subsidies
●● Major subsidies include those on food, fertilizer and
fuel.
●● The expenditure of the Government on these major
subsidies have been budgeted to be Rs 240339 crore
in 2017-18.
●● Among the three, food subsidy bill compose nearly
60% of the major subsidy bill and fertilizer comprise
nearly 29%. The subsidy on fuel takes up the rest.
The subsidy bill as a % of GDP is budgeted to be 1.4%
in 2017-18. This ratio has been projected to decrease by
0.1 percentage point over the course of the next two years.
Grants to States
●● Centralised provisions for Grants to States mainly
include Grants as recommended by Finance
Commission (Revenue Deficit Grants, Disaster Relief
Grants to States & Grants to Local Bodies to States)
and other grants/transfers viz., Special Assistance,
Grants to autonomous Councils, Areas covered under
Current Affairs Survey | October 2017 | 11|
Medium Term Fiscal
sixth Schedule of the Constitution and Additional
Central Assistance for Externally Aided Projects etc.
●● Finance Commission grants are given to state
Governments.
●● These recommendations are derived from Art 275 (1)
of the Constitution of India.
●● Grants –in-Aid for creation of capital assets are
given by the Government to the State Governments
and to autonomous bodies.
●● These grants are classified as revenue expenditure in
the Government’s accounts.
Capital Expenditure
●● The amount of capital expenditure has been budgeted
to be Rs 3, 09, 801 crore in 2017-18.
●● This amount is projected in the medium term to
increase to Rs 3,41,000 crore and Rs 3,90,000 crore
2018-19 and 2019-20 respectively.
●● Capital expenditure constitutes 14.4% of total
expenditure in BE 17-18.
Geopolitics
Article 35A & Its Significance
A
three-judge bench of the Supreme Court will hear
a petition filed by two women of J&K origin who
have challenged Article 35 A of the Constitution,
maintaining that it is discriminatory to women. This law
accords special rights and privileges to the citizens of
Jammu and Kashmir.
What is Article 35A?
●● Article 35A of the Constitution empowers J&K
legislature to define state’s ‘permanent residents’ and
their special rights and privileges.
●● It was added to the Constitution through a presidential
order of 1954 and the then J&K government’s
concurrence.
What is its significance to J&K?
●● Through 1927 & 1932 notifications, Dogra ruler of the
princely state of J&K, Maharaja Hari Singh imposed a
law that defined state subjects and their rights.
●● The law also regulated migrants to state. J&K joined
India through accession signed by its ruler Hari Singh
in October 1947.
●● After J&K’s accession, popular leader Sheikh
Abdullah took over reins from Dogra ruler. In 1949,
he negotiated J&K’s political relationship with the
Centre, which led to the inclusion of Article 370 in
the Constitution.
●● Article 370 guarantees special status to J&K,
restricting Union’s legislative powers over three areas:
defence, foreign affairs and communications.
●● However, under the 1952 Delhi Agreement between
Abdullah and Nehru, several provisions of the
Constitution were extended to J&K via presidential
order in 1954. Article 35A was listed then.
●● J&K’s Constitution was framed in 1956. It retained
Maharaja’s definition of permanent residents: All persons
born or settled within the state before 1911 or after having
lawfully acquired immovable property resident in the state
for not less than ten years prior to that date.
Why is Article 35A being Debated?
●● An NGO, We the Citizen, challenged 35A in SC
in 2014 on grounds that it was not added to the
Constitution through amendment under Article 368.
●● It was never presented before Parliament, and came
into effect immediately, the group argued.
●● In another case in SC recently, two Kashmiri women
argued that the state’s laws, flowing from 35A had
disenfranchised their children.
Current Affairs Survey | October 2017 | 12 |
Why are political parties and separatists
opposed to tinkering with 35A?
●● Fear that it would lead to further erosion of J&K’s
autonomy and trigger demographic change in
Muslim majority valley. Political parties say
Kashmir resolution lies in greater autonomy:
separatists fan paranoia against possibility of
Hindus ‘flooding’ the valley.
●● However, in the last 70 years, demography of Kashmir
Valley has remained unchanged even as Hindu
majority in Jammu and Buddhists in Ladakh have
rights to buy property and settle in the Valley.
Permanent Residents Law
●● All emigrants from Jammu & Kashmir, including
those who migrated to Pakistan, are considered
state subjects.
●● The descendants of emigrants are considered state
subjects for two generations.
a) Permanent residents law prohibits non-permanent
residents from permanent settlement in the state,
acquiring immovable property, government jobs,
scholarships and aid.
b) It was also interpreted as discriminatory against J&K
women. It disqualified them from their state subject
rights if they married non-permanent residents.
●● But, in a landmark judgment in October 2002,
J&K High court held that women married to non-
permanent residents will not lose their rights. The
children of such women don’t have succession
rights.
J&K High Court’s Ruling
●● In July 2015, the division bench of J&K high court
enumerated the importance of Article 35A and said
this law, which has been applied to J&K, clarifies the
already existing constitutional and legal position and
does not extend something new to the state.
●● The court had observed that Article 35A was only
a clarificatory provision to clear the issue of
constitutional position obtaining in the rest of country
in contrast to J&K.
●● “The power of Parliament to make laws in respect of
J&K is circumscribed and it can make laws for it only
where permitted by the state and not otherwise, and
that too in accordance with the mechanism prescribed
by Article 370 of the Constitution of India”, the court
said, emphasizing that the Constitution could not
apply , by its own force, to J&K. nn
 Economic Survey Volume-II

Economic Survey (Volume-II)

Topic 01: GST: Misconceptions ●● Services: Previously, since only the Centre imposed
the service tax, agents had to register with, and hence
and Reality file to, only one authority. Now, agents will have to
register in all states that they operate in and file in
Misconceptions & Reality each of them. The increased compliance requirements
will be faced only by a small number of agents with
a pan-India presence whose ability to comply will
be commensurately greater. Going forward, there is
scope for more centralized procedures to minimize the
compliance burden.
●● Small Traders: Much has been made of the additional
compliance burden on small traders and agents. This
overlooks some important changes in the other direction.
The GST has significantly raised turnover thresholds for
inclusion in the tax net. As a result, out of about 87 lakh
agents that were previously in the tax net (states VAT,
central excise and service tax) about 70 lakh remain in
the GST net. A significant number of small traders with
turnover less than 20 lakh may have opted out.

Key Benefits of the GST

Misconception 1: Increased Complexity of tax structure
It is inaccurate to suggest that the GST is more complicated 1. Furthering Cooperative Federalism:
than the system it replaced, for two related reasons.
●● Nearly all domestic indirect tax decisions to be taken
1. Previously, every good faced an excise tax levied by jointly by Centre and states.
the Centre and a state VAT. There were at least 8-10
rates of excises and 3-4 rates of state VATs, the latter 2. Reducing corruption and leakage:
potentially different across states. So, a structure of
●● Self-policing: invoice matching to claim input
multiple rates has been reduced to a structure of 6 tax credit will deter non-compliance and foster
rates. compliance. Previously invoice matching existed only
2. Uniformity or the principle of “one good, one tax” all for intra-state VAT transactions and not for excise and
over India is now a reality. Previously, different states service tax nor for imports.
could impose different taxes on any given product and
3. Simplifying complex tax structure and unifying tax
these could be different from that levied by the Centre.
rates across the country:
So, relative to the past, there is now uniformity rather than
multiplicity as well as considerably less complexity.
4. Creating a common market:
Misconception 2: Additional Compliance Burden ●● Will eliminate most physical restrictions and all taxes
●● Goods: It is true that there will be additional on inter-state trade.
documentation requirements on all those who are
now part of the GST net. But the filing requirements 5. Furthering ‘Make in India’ by eliminating bias in favour
will comprise filling one set of forms per month (not of imports (“negative protection”):
three as has been alleged because filling the first
●● Will make more effective and less leaky the domestic
automatically fills the two others). This will not be an
tax levied on imports (IGST, previously the sum of
additional burden because similar, sometimes more
the countervailing duty and special additional duty),
onerous, requirements existed under the previous state
which will make domestic goods more competitive.
VAT and central excise regimes.

Current Affairs Survey | October 2017 | 13|

Economic Survey Volume-II
6. Eliminating tax bias against manufacturing/reducing
consumer tax burden:
●● By rectifying breaks in the supply chain and allowing
easier flow of input tax credits, GST will substantially
eliminate cascading (paying taxes at each stage on
value added and taxes at all previous stages, such as
with the Central Sales Tax).
7. Boosting revenues, investment, and medium-term
economic growth:
●● Investment will be stimulated, because scope of input
tax credit for capital purchases will increase.
●● Tax base will expand through better compliance.
●● Embedded taxes in exports will be neutralized.
Hidden Benefits of GST
Textile and clothing sector is now fully part of the tax net:
●● Previously, some parts of the value chain, especially
fabrics, were outside the tax net, leading to
informalisation and evasion.
●● Some anomalies favoring imports of fabrics over
domestic production will need to be rectified but
overall the tax base has expanded.
One segment of land and real estate transactions has been
brought into the tax net:
●● “Work Contracts”, referring to housing that is being
built is now under the tax net. This in turn would allow
for greater transparency and formalization of cement,
steel, and other sales, which tended to be outside the
tax net.
●● The formalization will occur because builders will
need documentation of these input purchases to claim
tax credit.
It will Rectify the Inadequacies of the previous system:
●● The GST will rectify the inadequacies of the previous
system of domestic taxes levied on imports—the
countervailing duty to offset the excise tax and the
Special Additional Duty (SAD) to offset the state VAT.
Topic 02: Farm Loan Waivers:
Macroeconomic Impact
Recently, announcements or promises of farm loan waivers
have been made in some form by Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka,
Maharashtra, Punjab, and Tamil Nadu.The Supreme Court
of India has stayed the decision of the Madras High Court
to provide loan waivers to all farmers instead of only to
small and marginal farmers. There is the possibility of a
contagious spread to other states. This is in contrast to the
previous episode in 2007-08 when farm loan waivers were
awarded India-wide by the Centre.
Current Affairs Survey | October 2017 | 14|
Arguments in Favour
Proponents have seen waivers as a means of helping farmers
who have been subject to stress from successive shocks
to agriculture: two years of inadequate rain followed by a
year of large price declines.
Arguments Against
●● These waivers will have a long-term impact on the
culture of loan repayments and induce moral hazard:
waivers favor those who have borrowed relative to
those who have been more thrifty, and those who have
borrowed relative to those who have repaid their loans.
●● They also favor those who have borrowed from formal
sources relative to those who have borrowed, often at
more usurious terms, from informal sources.
●● Some have also suggested that there are more efficient
and targeted ways of helping farmers.
Macro-Economic Impacts
At its most basic, farm loan waivers simply transfer
liabilities from private sector to public sector balance sheets.
The impact on aggregate demand will then depend on
which sector has the greater propensity to consume out of
wealth. Of course, states don’t actually have a propensity to
consume out of wealth, but there is a link between the two
because their spending is influenced by their need to respect
their Fiscal Responsibility Legislation (FRL) targets. So, if
they assume higher debt, they will in many cases need to
cut other spending (or increase taxes). Once these spending
changes take place, there will be second-round effects.
The waivers will have four effects on aggregate demand:
●● Private consumption impact via increases in private
sector net wealth
●● Public sector impact via changes in government
expenditure/taxes
●● Crowding out impact via higher borrowings by state
governments
●● Crowding in impact via higher credit availability as
bank NPAs fall
Key Issues associated with Farm Loan Waiver
●● What explains the sudden demand for loan waivers?
●● Is it possible that farm stress has actually intensified
when weather conditions are the best they’ve been in
years?
Difficulty in Measuring Agrarian Distress
Agrarian stress is difficult to measure objectively. The
manifestations are easy to see—demands for loan relief
and restiveness in a number of states—but it is difficult
to disentangle their political and economic origins. For
example, the widespread demand for loan waivers could
simply be a demonstration effect from the UP-loan waiver.
Nevertheless, there seem to be proximate economic causes
for stress, reflected in lower prices and lower farm revenues.

Broad Patterns of Agrarian Distress
Falling Prices:
●● There does seem to be a decline in real farm revenues
in pulses and some vegetables like potato.
●● In the agricultural year ending in June 2017, relative
to the previous year, real revenues have declined most
in the case of moong (30%) and least in the case of
potatoes (4%) with arhar and moong posting declines
of around 10 and 28%, respectively.
●● However, the prices of onion and tomato started rising
recently.
Regional Variations:
●● Uttar Pradesh appearsto have done reasonably well in
most crops,including wheat and potatoes. In the caseof
wheat, there was a substantial increasein procurement,
reflected in a decline inthe magnitudes sold at prices
below MSP.
●● In contrast, Madhya Pradesh, which hadrecently been
favoring wheat, saw an increasein the amount of sale
at prices below MSP.
Increased Supply:
Increased supply led to largedeclines in prices.
The puzzle is why itreduced prices so much that it
depressed farmrevenues.Two possible explanations
suggestthemselves:
●● Outlets for farmers werenarrow on account of
stock limits onwholesalers and retailers and there
wererestrictions on exports whereas importswere
more liberal on some commodities.
●● There may also be somebehavioral factors at
play. Increased plantingof pulses last year was
a response both torecord high market prices as
well as largeincreases in MSP with promises by
thegovernment of more effective procurement.
Topic 03: Impact of Financial
Inclusion
The launch of Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY)
in August 2014 has committed India to an ambitious agenda
of financial inclusion in mission mode. As this initiative
approaches the close of its third year, it is appropriate to
assess its impact in outcome terms, identify key takeaways,
and look at the way ahead.
Impact
Gender Issue in Financial Inclusion
●● As of March 2014, womenconstituted about 28% of all
savingsaccounts, with 33.69 crore accounts. As ofMarch
2017, according to data from top 40banks and RRBs,
Current Affairs Survey | October 2017 | 15|
Economic Survey Volume-II
women’s share has risen toabout 40%. This includes 14.49
croreaccounts opened by women under PMJDY,out of a
total of 43.65 crore women’saccounts. This represents a
sizeable and rapidgrowth in financial inclusion of women.
●● Effective financial inclusion shouldbe reflected not
only in terms of access butin the use of financial
services. In terms ofdeposit mobilisation, the
average balancein accounts opened under PMJDY
hasregistered steady growth, from $1,065 peraccount
in March 2015 to $2,236 in March2017.
Status of Zero Balance Accounts
●● Zero balance accountsunder PMJDY has declined
consistently fromnearly 58% in March 2015 to
around24% as of December 2016.
●● Aadhaar-enabledpayments, the principal mode
oftransactions at Banking Correspondent (BC)outlets,
have also witnessed a rapid growth,growing from 0.3
crore per month in August 2015 to 2.3 crore in August
2016 and 6.8crore in May 2017.
●● As a result of expansionin and strengthening of
inter-operability,the share of transactions performed
bycustomers of one bank at the BC outlet ofanother
bank (“off-us” transactions) has alsorisen, growing
steadily from less than 1% of all transactions at BC
outlets till April2016 to nearly 17% in May 2017.
Basic Savings Bank Deposit Account(BSBD)
●● BSBD accounts being the basic savingsaccount
product introduced specificallyfor unbanked persons,
the growth in these accounts is a key parameter for
assessing growth in financial inclusion.
●● Prior to thelaunch of PMJDY, since introduction
ofBSBD accounts in 2005 till July 2014, thenumber
of such accounts had grown to25.54 crore. After the
launch of PMJDY, thenumber of BSBD accounts
rose rapidly to51.50 crore by December 2016, of
which26.20 crore were accounts opened underPMJDY,
representing more than half of thetotal.
Rural Accounts
●● While the number ofrural accounts opened under
PMJDY hasgrown from 8.0 crore in August 2015 to
14.8crore in August 2016 and 17.2 crore in May2017,
the growth in transactions is at a ratemuch faster than
the rate of growth of the rural account base.
●● Thus, use of accountsin terms of both deposits
and transactionsthrough BC outlets has registered
impressivegrowth, which has positive consequences forthe
viability of and the continued growth ofthe BC network.
Economic Survey Volume-II
Topic 04: Climate Change: India’s
Policy and Actions
India’s Stand on Climate Change
As far as India is concerned, it has reaffirmed its
commitment to the environment and climate change at
the highest political level. India has positioned itself as
a sustainability leader, extensively supporting cleaner
energy. India needs to have a rational approach that
balances environment, climate, economic development
and energy security needs. India needs to concentrate on
cleaner forms of energy including cleaner coal, renewables
and natural gas to fuel inclusive economic development.
India’s GHG Emission Profile
●● According to India’s Biennial UpdateReport (BUR),
India emitted 21,36,841.2 Gg(Giga gram) CO2
equivalent (2.1 billion tonnesof CO2eq) in the year
2010 from energy,industrial processes and product use
(IPPU),agriculture and waste sectors (excludingland
use, land use change and forestry(LULUCF).
●● In 2010, the year forwhich comparable figures are
available, India’s emissions are lower than GHG
emissions ofChina (11.2 billion tonnes CO2eq), USA
(6.7billion tonnes CO2eq), European Union (4.8billion
tonnes CO2eq) and Brazil (2.9 billiontonnes CO2eq).
India’s Actions on Sustainable Develop-
ment and Climate Change
A large number of focused initiativeshave been taken in
various sectors of theeconomy to ensure a pathway of
loweremission and climate resilient development.
Sustainable Development Goals
National Green Corridor Programme:
●● To address the fluctuations/variability inthe renewable
power supply, Government in 2013 announced a
National Green Corridor Programme (NGCP).
●● The Power Grid Corporation of India isdeveloping
the inter-state transmission corridor and the
state transmission utilities are responsible for
setting up and strengthening the intra-state
transmissioninfrastructure.
●● Intra State transmission schemes under Green Energy
Corridors(GEC) are to be funded as 20% equity of the
State Govt., 40% grant from National Clean Energy
and Environment Fund (NCEEF) and 40% soft loan,
whereas, the inter Statetransmission schemes are to be
fundedas 30% equity by Power GridCorporation of
India Ltd. (PGCIL) and70% as soft loan.
●● At the Central Governmentlevel, NITI Aayog has been
Current Affairs Survey | October 2017 | 16|
assigned the roleof overseeing the implementation of
SDGs,while the Ministry of Statistics& Programme
Implementation (MoSPI) is evolving the related
national indicators.
●● NITI Aayog hascarried out a detailed mapping of
the 17Goals on Nodal Central Ministries, Centrally
Sponsored Schemes (CSSs) including ‘coreof
the core’, ‘core’, and ‘optional’ schemes; on the
government initiatives and alsoof each of the 169
targets on concerned Central Ministries.
●● Several States/UTs havealso carried out a similar
mapping of theSDGs and related targets on their
respectiveDepartments and programmes for
fasterimplementation of SDGs.
●● Much of our national developmentagenda is mirrored
in the SDGs and thereforemany of the government
programmes andinitiatives are already aligned with SDGs.
●● As a signatory to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable
Development, India is committed to participate in the
international review of progress of SDGs on a regular basis.
●● High-Level Political Forum (HLPF):
●● The central platform for international follow-up and
review of the 2030 Agenda is the High-Level Political
Forum (HLPF), which has started meeting annually
since 2016 under the auspices of the UN Economic
and Social Council (ECOSOC).
●● In the HLPF, UNmember countries are expected
to presenttheir Voluntary National Review (VNR)
onimplementation of SDGs. The VNRs thusserve as
a basis for international reviewof progress of SDGs.
●● India presented its Voluntary National Review among
44countries in the annual review by the HLPFheld in
July 2017.
India’s Green Initiatives
National Clean Energy and Environment Fund:
●● Through Finance Bill 2010-11 a corpus called
National Clean Energy Fund (NCEF) was created
out ofcess on coal produced/imported (“polluter
pays” principle) for thepurposes of financing and
promotingclean energy initiatives, funding research
in the area of clean energy or for any other purpose
relating thereto.
●● Subsequently,the scope of the Fund has been expanded
to include clean environment initiatives also.
●● The coal cess which was collected at$50 per tonne of
coal since June 22, 2010was increased several times
subsequently.
●● The coal cess was increased to $400 pertonne in the
Union budget 2016-17, andthe same has been renamed
as “CleanEnvironment Cess”. Accordingly, thename
of NCEF has been changed toNational Clean Energy
and Environment Fund (NCEEF).

●● However, the Goodsand Services Tax (Compensation
toStates) Act, 2017 which has been notified
●● on 12.04.17, provides that coal cess,along with some
other cess on panmasala, tobacco, aerated water etc.
would constitute GST Compensation Fund andthe
same would be utilized to compensatethe States for
five years for potential losseson account of GST
implementation.
●● After five years any amount left wouldbe shared on 50
per cent basis betweenCentre and States.
National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC):
●● The Government of India has been taking several
steps inits action against climate change.
●● TheNAPCC, launched in June 2008, whichincludes
eight national missions: JawaharlalNehru National
Solar Mission, National Mission for Enhanced
Energy Efficiency,National Water Mission,
National Missionfor a Green India, National
Mission onSustainable Habitat, National Mission
forSustainable Agriculture, National Missionfor
Sustaining the Himalayan Ecosystemand National
Mission on Strategic Knowledge for Climate Change.
●● Each mission is anchored under a Ministry,which is
responsible for its implementation and lays down the
budget provisions andactionable priorities for it.
R&D for Clean Coal Technologies:
●● In2016, R&D Project for “Development ofAdvanced
Ultra Supercritical Technology for Thermal Power
Plants”on a Mission Mode, at an estimated costof
$1554 crore has been approved bythe Cabinet
Committee on EconomicAffairs.
National Green Highways Mission:
●● The Ministry of Road Transport andHighways (MoRTH),
has promulgatedGreen Highways (Plantations,
Transplantations, Beautification andMaintenance) Policy –
2015 to developgreen corridors along National Highwaysfor
sustainable environment and inclusive growth.
●● Under the aegis of the Policy, development of
green corridors isproposed along developed and
upcomingNational Highways in the width availablein
existing Right of Way (ROW) in theform of median
and avenue plantations.
●● National Green Highways Mission(NGHM) under
National HighwaysAuthority of India (NHAI) has
beenentrusted with the task of planning,implementation
and monitoring roadside plantations along one lakh
km network ofNational Highways.
Faster Adoption and Manufacturingof Hybrid & Electric
Vehicles (FAMEIndia):
●● Under FAME-India Scheme,under the National Electric
MobilityMission Plan for 2020, Department ofHeavy
Industry has extended demandincentives of $127.8 Crore for
purchase of1,11,897 Electric/Hybrid vehicles sinceinception
of the Scheme on 1st April, 2015 till February, 2017.
Current Affairs Survey | October 2017 | 17|
Economic Survey Volume-II
●● To promote ecofriendly vehicles, the Government
hasbeen offering incentives on electric andhybrid
vehicles of up to $29,000 for bikesand $1.4 lakh for
cars under the schemein pilot mode till February 2017.
Topic 05: Energy, Climate Change and
India’s Strategy
Current Energy Mix
Within the energy mix of the country,coal accounts for
nearly 55% of thetotal primary energy supply, followed
byoil at 30%, and natural gas at 9%. Only 2% of total
primary energyis supplied by renewable energy sources.
Within the power sector, thermal power(particularly coal)
dominates the share of total installed power capacity in India.
Coal based thermal power accounts for around 59%
of the total installed capacity of 327 GW, while 18% of
the installed capacity is coming from renewable energy
sources (RES). Out of the total RES installed capacity of
57 GW, around 56% is wind based power.
Future Electricity Transition Scenarios
●● India has set itself ambitious targets in the area of
renewable energy.Moving ahead in this direction,
India is implementing the largest renewable energy
expansion programme in the world.
●● It envisages an increase in the overall renewable
energy capacity to 175 GW by 2022.This includes 100
GW of solar, 60 GW of wind, 10 GW of biomass, and
5 GW of small hydro power capacity.
●● The capacity addition in coal based power plants
is expected to be around 50 GW between 2017 and
2022. Further, according to these projections, no more
addition in the installed capacity of coal based power
generation would be required in the period 2022 to
2027. As a result, the share of renewables in total
installed capacity in this scenario is likely to increase
to around 43% in 2027.
Energy’s Role in Sustainable Develop-
ment
●● India is at a stage of development thatrequires it to
grow at a fast rate and lift thelarge number of their
citizens from below thepoverty line.
●● Energy deprivation levels fora sizeable portion of
population remain athigh levels. The SDG 7 is to
ensure access toaffordable, reliable, sustainable and
modernenergy for all.
●● The importance given to secureenergy access is also
due to the fact that accessto energy is intertwined
with the variousother economic and social
developmentalobjectives such as poverty alleviation,
Economic Survey Volume-II
health,industrialisation, education, provision
ofcommunication infrastructure, and climatechange
mitigation among others.
Present Scenario:
●● The per capita energy consumption in India continues
to be only around one-third of the global average and
one-eleventh that in the United States.
●● There is a lack of access to better forms of energy.
An analysis of the type of fuel used for cooking by
households in India would show that a majority of
households still rely on firewood as fuel for cooking.
●● To improve the health of women and children in rural areas
who are most affected by indoor air pollution due to use of
bio-mass as cooking fuel, initiatives have been taken like
Pradhan Mantri UJJWALA Yojana aimed at distribution
of about 50 million LPG cylinders by 2018-19.
●● Government is also coming out with other initiatives
namely “Ujjawala Plus” which will address the
cooking needs of deprived people who are not covered
under the Socio-Economic Caste Census (SECC) 2011.
●● PratyakshHastantritLabh (PAHAL) scheme was
introduced for direct transfer of LPG subsidies to the
consumers’ bank accounts.
●● The DeenDayalUpadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana
(DDUGJY) was launched as its principal vehicle to
achieve the goal of electricity for all by 2022, by first
achieving 100 per cent village electrification by 2018.
Topic 6: The Financial Sector and
Green Initiatives
Priority Sector Lending Includes New Tar-
gets
●● A core of the financial policy in Indiais the Priority
Sector Lending (PSL)requirement for banks to allocate
40% of lending to key socially importantsectors such
as agriculture and small and medium-sized enterprises.
●● In 2015, RBIincluded lending to social infrastructure
and small renewable energy projects within the
targets, thereby, giving afurther fillip to green
financing.
●● In therenewable energy segment, as per thenotification
of the RBI in May 2016,bank loans of up to $15 crore
for solar-basedpower generators, biomass-basedpower
generators, wind mills, micro-hydelplants, etc. will be
considered partof PSL.
Projects Signed by NDB
New Development Bank (NDB) is thefirst Multi-lateral
Development Bankestablished by developing countries
andemerging economies – Brazil, Russia,India, China and
Current Affairs Survey | October 2017 | 18|
South Africa (BRICS)– in accordance with the agreement
onNew Development Bank signed on 15thJuly, 2014
in Fortaleza, Brazil. NDB’sobjectives are in line with
the BRICScountries’ own development goals, with an
increased focus on sustainable development and hence
NDCs.
●● In 2016,the NDB has approved seven projects,
ofwhich two are in India, for a total of overUS$ 1.5
billion, in the areas of renewableand green energy,
and transportation. Thetwo loans approved for India
amount to US$ 600 mn.
●● The renewable energygeneration project in India will lead
togeneration of about 500 MW RenewableEnergy thereby
preventing generation of 815,000 tonne CO2 per annum.
●● US$ 250million sovereign guaranteed loans willbe given
to Canara Bank in three tranchesunder this project.
ECB Norms Liberalised for Green Projects
The External Commercial Borrowing (ECB) norms have
been further liberalized so that green projects can tap this
window for raising finance across the borders. Extant
guidelines permit use of ECB proceeds to retire outstanding
Rupee loans provided minimum average maturity of ECB
is 10 years or ECB is denominated in Rupees. ECB can
also be raised to refinance existing ECB provided all-in-
cost is lower than that of existing one and residual maturity
is not reduced.
●● The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI)
has, in May 2017, put in place the framework for
issuance of green bonds and the listing requirements
for such bonds, which will help in raising funds from
capital markets for green projects.
●● Large corporates integrating sustainability in their
core businesses are included in the Bombay Stock
Exchange’s green indices, the GREENEX and
CARBONEX.
●● GREENEX was introduced in 2012 and comprises
of 25 of India’s biggest companies. The S&P BSE
CARBONEX seeks to track the performance of
the companies in the S&P BSE 100, based on their
commitment to mitigating risks arising from climate
change in the long run.
●● Companies Act 2013 directs companies having a
certain level of profits, to spend 2% of their annual
profit on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
activities. Estimates indicate that a fair share of the
available CSR funding of about $220 billion (US$
3.5 billion) annually will be invested in environment
initiatives from this window.

Climate Insurance
EconomicSectors Exposed to the Changing Climate
●● India is one of the world’s most vulnerable countries
to climate change, with its economic sectors highly
exposed to the changing climate.
●● Estimates indicate that currently, India incurs losses of
about US$ 9-10 bn, annually, due to extreme weather
events. Of these, nearly 80% of losses remain uninsured.
●● From 2014-15, natural catastrophe (NatCat) losses for
Indian insurance companies were estimated at US$ 11bn.
Climate Insurance is Limited to Agriculture Sector
●● In India, climate-related insurance is limited to the
agriculture sector, primarily in the form of crop
insurance. Eleven states in India submitted memoranda
reporting crop loss due to natural calamities like
drought, hailstorm, cold wave etc and was approved to
the tune of US$ 2.3 bn during 2015-16 (NDRF, 2016).
●● Yet, in the agriculture sector, it is estimated that only
19% of farmers make use of crop insurance.
●● In the agricultural insurance segment, there are few
players with the most prominent being the public
owned Agriculture Insurance Company of India Ltd.
(AIC) followed by NABARD.
●● While AIC is taking several innovative steps and
launching products for niche segments – such as Rubber
Plantation Insurance, Bio-Fuel Plants Insurance, Mango
Weather Insurance, Potato Contract Farming Insurance,
Rabi Weather Insurance, etc. – it is unable to effectively
cover the entire agriculture sector.
●● The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority
(IRDA) estimates that approximately US$ 7.5 bn is
needed to increase insurance penetration to 6%, of
which US$ 3.7 bn will need to be foreign investment.
●● To strengthen agricultural insurance in the country,
in Kharif 2016, the Pradhan Mantri FasalBimaYojna
(PMFBY) was introduced. Under PMFBY, farmers
have insured their crops during kharif 2016 and 32.6
mn farmers have been covered under PMFBY and
Weather Based Crop Insurance Schemes (WBCIS) as
on November 2016. As per Budgetary Estimates (BE),
Government of India has allocated US$ 846 mn under
for PMFBY during 2016-17. The scheme is being
implemented by AIC and some private insurance
companies.
●● Innovative products supported by risk models and
reinsurance pools can provide huge opportunities to
the insurance industry in India. One such model is
that of Catastrophe Risk Pools (CRP) that aim to put
the focus on proactive financial planning to deal with
adverse impacts of natural disasters, instead of relying
on fund-raising efforts after disasters, resulting in
reduced economic losses as well as lowering the
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Economic Survey Volume-II
impact of disasters on the national budget.
●● Financial instruments used in creating these could
include contingency funds, contingent loans, grants,
besides other risk transfer solutions.
Topic 7: Rising Anti-globalization and
Trade Restrictive Measures
Growing Anti-globalization
●● In recent years, anti-globalization tendencies have
surfaced with the recent developments in the US during
and after the elections and the Brexit referendum with
people viewing trade, immigration, and multilateral
engagements with some amount of skepticism and
becoming wary of the benefits of globalization.
●● In addition to this, studies suggest that despite the
reduction in global inequality since 1990s, inequality
within countries has increased, especially among the
advanced economies.
●● Similarly, the IMF’s World Economic Outlook (April
2017) states that a number of middle-skill jobs in
advanced economies have been lost as a result of
technological change since the early 1990s and the
distribution of income has continued to favour the
highest earners leaving little room for those with
lower incomes to advance.
●● On average, across 21 OECD countries, it is estimated
that 9% of jobs are at high risk of automation, while
another 25% of jobs are likely to experience major
retooling because of automation.
●● Studies also indicate that to some degree this malaise
reflects a macroeconomic policy mix that has failed
to sustain sufficient demand growth in the world
economy.
Rising Trade Restrictive Measures
●● There is a rapid rise in recent years of many trade
restrictive measures including several types of non-
tariff barriers (NTBs).
●● New restrictions on visas and the risk of a backlash
against the movement of persons, add to a situation
that is of growing concern.
●● As per the WTO’s seventeenth monitoring report on
G20 trade measures (30 June 2017), a total of 42 new
trade-restrictive measures were implemented by G20
economies during the review period (mid-October
2016 to mid-May 2017), including new or increased
tariffs, customs regulations and rules of origin
restrictions, amounting to a monthly average of six
measures.
●● This represents a slight increase over the previous
period, but still remains lower than the longer-term
Economic Survey Volume-II
trend observed from 2009-2015 of seven per month.
●● The steady accumulation of trade-restrictive measures
since the financial crisis has also gradually increased
the share of global trade affected by such restrictions.
●● In mid-October 2016, the share of world imports
covered by import-restrictive measures implemented
since October 2008 and still in place was 5% and the
share of G-20 imports covered was 6.5%.
●● The trade coverage of the trade-restrictive measures
affecting imports introduced during the latest review
period (mid-October 2016 to mid-May 2017) was US$
47 billion, i.e. 0.37% of the value of G20 merchandise
imports or 0.29% of the value of world merchandise
imports.
Recent Trade Policy Measures
Foreign Trade Policy (2015-20)
The new Foreign Trade Policy (2015-20) launched on
1st April, 2015 links rules,procedures and incentives for
exports andimports with other initiatives such as “Makein
India”, “Digital India” and “Skills India”.
●● It consolidates five different incentive schemes under
the earlier policy for rewardingmerchandise exports
into a single scheme,namely the Merchandise Exports
from IndiaScheme (MEIS).
●● For the services sector, theServices Exports from
India Scheme (SEIS)has been introduced replacing
the Served from India Scheme.
●● The Interest Equalisationscheme on pre and post
shipment rupeeexport credit was also approved by
the CabinetCommittee on Economic Affairs (CCEA)
on18th November 2015 w.e.f. 1st April 2015for 5
years and will be evaluated after three years.
●● A new scheme Trade Infrastructure for Export
Scheme (TIES) has been approved to be implemented
from 2017-18 for 3 years.
●● Besides many trade facilitation measures havealso
been taken like reducing the numberof documents,
introducing simplified IEC(Importer Exporter Code)
from 1st April2016, doing away with the issuance
of physicalcopy of IEC, sharing export realization
datawith states and encouraging states to preparetheir
export strategies resulting in 17 statespreparing their
export strategies, simplifyingAayatNiryat forms, etc.
Anti-Dumping Measures
●● In 2015, 230 anti-dumping investigationswere initiated
by all countries withUSA overtaking India, initiating
about 42 investigations. However, in 2016,India has
again become the highest initiator of anti-dumping
investigations initiating 69out of a total of 228
investigations initiatedby G-20 members, followed by
Current Affairs Survey | October 2017 | 20|
the USA (37)and Australia (25) (WTO, 2017).
●● Since the global slowdown, complaintsof dumping
have been rising. India conducts anti-dumping
investigations on the basis ofapplications filed by
the domestic industrywith prima facie evidence of
dumping ofgoods in the country, injury to the domestic
industry and causal link between dumpingand injury
to the domestic industry.
●● During the fiscal year 2016-17, India initiated 44anti-
dumping investigations and issuedpreliminary
findings in 5 anti-dumpinginvestigations, final
findings in 28 antidumpinginvestigations, and final
finding inone anti-circumvention of anti-dumping
dutyinvestigation.
Reviving and Accelerating India’s Mer-
chandise Exports: Policy Reforms
To achieve a respectable share of 5% in World exports,
India’s export growth rate (CAGR) has to be around26.5%
for at least 5 years (2017-2021) assuming that global
growth continues at the CAGR of 1.5% (2010-15). For this
some major strategies and trade policy reforms are needed
along with specific measures.
Major Strategies and Trade Policy Reforms
●● Demand based export basket diversification rather
than a mere supply based strategy as the ranks of
items at 4-digit level in world top imports and ranks
of India’s exports of these items to the world show a
great deal ofmismatch with India exporting 96.5% of
items in the World’s top 100 import items at 4-digit
level and83.2% at 6-digit level in terms of numbers
in 2015, which however constitute only 1.6% of top
100world imports in value terms.
●● Rationalizing tariffs as the realized tariffs (BCD)
is very low at 2.8% in 2015-16 and less than one
fourththe average applied tariffs due to various
exemptions. If refunds and customs duty drawbacks
are deducted fromgross customs revenue then the net
realized tariffs (BCD) would be still less.
●● Though different rates of tariffs arelevied for various
reasons, there is scope for reducing average applied
tariffs by selectively reducing tariffs acrossmany lines,
while retaining higher tariffs for sensitive and important
items. Consequently, WTO bound tariffscould also be
reduced which can help India to take a more pro-active
role in WTO and bilateral negotiations.
●● Streamlining Export Promotion Schemes as many
duties have been subsumed under GST and if tariffs
arereduced to realized or near realized levels, some
export promotion schemes can be phased out.
●● The dutydrawback rates can also be revised
downwards. The revenue saved could be used for
export marketing efforts.

●● FDI linked and Value-Added Exports particularly
high-tech exports as in China and some ASEAN
countries.
●● Having useful FTAs/CECA’s with some major
countries while actively expanding engagement with
BRICS andASEAN where India enjoys competitive
advantage.
●● National Priority Sector for Exports and greater
States’ participation in exports by linking devolution
of fundsto states with export effort of states.
●● Besides the major strategies, there are many cross-
cutting trade policy issues and sector-specific issues
like making power available at competitive rates
including lower rates for non-peak hours which can
be a game changer fortextiles exports; and giving a
big push to electronics hardware exports including a
Hardware-Software combination and moving from
assembling to building a robust manufacturing base
with a well settled value chain.
Topic 8: Multilateral and Bilateral/
Regional Negotiations and India
The US withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership
(TPP), rising protectionism and opinion veering back to
WTO negotiations in many countries have led to a window
of opportunity for successful negotiations at WTO.
Negotiation at WTO
●● The eleventh Ministerial Conference of the WTO
(MC11) is scheduled to be held in December 2017 in
Buenos Aires, Argentina. Discussions for an outcome
in MC11 are underway in the WTO and in the various
informal meetings at the level of Trade Ministers in
the sidelines of major events.
●● In all these meetings, India has underscored the need
for implementation of Ministerial Decisions taken
at previous WTO Ministerial Conferences in Bali
and Nairobi, especially those relating to the issue of
public stockholding for food security purposes and
an agricultural Special Safeguard Mechanism for
developing countries.
●● India has also emphasized the need for outcomes on
other issues in the Doha agenda, with special and
differential treatment to the developing countries
remaining at the core of any negotiations in the WTO.
Trade Facilitation Agreement
●● The WTO’s Trade FacilitationAgreement represents
an important milestoneby creating an international
framework forreducing trade costs. The objectives of
thisagreement are in consonance with India’s“Ease of
Doing Business” initiative.
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●● Indiaconsiders “Trade Facilitation” to be particularly
important for developing countries. Evenmodest
reductions in the cost of trade transactions would have
a positive impacton trade for both the developed and
thedeveloping world.
●● As per its commitment,India notified its category “A”
commitments in March 2016 and later on ratified the
TradeFacilitation Agreement (TFA) in April 2016.
●● Approximately 70% of the totalprovisions given under
TFA have been notifiedas category “A”. Remaining
provisions havebeen classified under category “B”
whichare to be implemented after a transitionperiod
of 5 years.
●● A National Committee on Trade Facilitation (NCTF)
has been set upto facilitate both domestic coordination
andimplementation of the provisions of TFA.
●● An Action Plan containing specific activitiesto further
ease out the bottlenecks to trade,has also been prepared.
Given the increasingimportance of trade in services
for the worldas a whole, India has taken the initiative
tolaunch discussions on Trade Facilitation inServices
(TFS) Agreement at the WTO, asa counterpart of the
goods-specific TradeFacilitation Agreement.
Status of Some Recent Bilateral/Regional
Cooperation Agreements of India
RCEP Agreement among ASEAN + 6 FTA Partners (Austra-
lia, China, India, Japan, South Korea and New Zealand):
●● Based on the Declaration of the Leaders during the
ASEAN Summit in November, 2012, negotiations
for a Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership
Agreement (RCEP) between the 10 ASEAN member
states and its 6 FTA partners commenced in May, 2013.
●● The 3rd Intersessional RCEP Ministerial was recently
concluded in Hanoi from 21-22 May, 2017.
●● India will be hosting the 19th RCEP Round from 18-
28 July, 2017 in Hyderabad. The negotiations cover a
number of areas like trade in goods, services, investment,
intellectual property, economic & technical cooperation,
competition and legal & institutional issues.
India-Sri Lanka ETCA:
●● India and Sri Lanka have an existing free trade
Agreement, covering trade in goods, which was
signed in 1998 and entered into force in March 2000.
●● In December 2015, India and Sri Lanka agreed to start
negotiations for a new comprehensive agreement titled
‘Economic and Technology Cooperation Agreement
(ETCA)’.
●● The scope of the Agreement includes trade in services,
investment issues and cooperation in various fields
such as technology, customs, standards,etc apart from
trade in goods.
Economic Survey Volume-II
●● Four Rounds of Negotiations have been held so far
with the latest Round held on 24th-26th April 2017 in
New Delhi.
India - EU BTIA:
●● Negotiations were launched on 28th June 2007 in
the areas of Goods, Services, Investment, Sanitary
and Phyto-sanitary Measures, Technical Barriers to
Trade, Trade Facilitation and Customs Cooperation,
Competition, IPR & GIs. etc.
●● The negotiations were revived with 4 stocktaking
meetings in January, February, July and November,
2016.
India - Thailand CECA: The 30th round of the Trade
Negotiation Committee was held on 13-14 July, 2016 in
New Delhi The Early Harvest Scheme on 82 items has
been implemented.
India-Korea CEPA Review:
●● During the Joint Committee meeting at the Ministerial
level held on 18 June, 2016 in New Delhi, the two
sides declared commencement of negotiations for
upgrading India-Korea CEPA.
●● Two rounds of negotiations for upgrading India-Korea
CEPA have been held so far with the 2nd round of
negotiations held on 13-14 February, 2017 in New Delhi.
India-EaEU FTA:
●● The joint feasibility study group (JFSG) report was
finalised by India and EaEU (Eurasian Economic
Union) in Sep, 2016.
●● India has received approval from the competent
authority to initiate the FTA negotiations. However,
EaEU is still in the process of receiving the necessary
approval from the competent authorities.
Topic 8 : Agriculture and
Allied Sectors
Profile of Agricultural Households
The median agricultural incomes (asmeasured by income
from cultivation, netof cost and unsold produce valued at
localmarket rates) at about Rs19,250 in 2012-13or about
Rs1600 per month, are still meagre(NSS, 2012-13).
Pattern of expenditure on productive assets by agricul-
tural households:
●● The percentage of monthly average household
expenditure on productive assets shows that among
the households that possess less than 0.4 hectares of
land, almost 50% of average expenditure is incurred
on livestock and poultry.
Current Affairs Survey | October 2017 | 22|
●● The marginal farmers as part of their
incomediversification strategy have productiveassets
like livestock and poultry. In a mixed(crop-livestock)
farming production system,livestock can supplement
incomes, providereplacement for manual labour,
supplementnutritional needs and can also be used
ascollateral in times of financial distress.
Indebtedness among cultivator households:
●● The indebtedness of households is anindicator of
their vulnerabilities to shocks,poverty and economic
insecurity. The dataon indebtedness of cultivator
households inIndia reflects the lack of economic
security.
●● The distribution of total ruralhousehold debts between
the two categories of households in the rural sector,
namely,cultivators and non-cultivators, shows
that74% of the total debt in 2012 wasaccounted for
by the cultivator households,declining from 80% in
1991.
●● However,the percentage of cultivator
householdsindebted increased to 35% in 2012from
26% in 1991 and is a cause forconcern.
●● Further, the State level analysis ofindebtedness
among agricultural householdsbased on the
size of land holding possessedshows an inverse
relationship betweenindebtedness and the size of land
holdingpossessed by the agricultural households.
●● Inthe States of Bihar and West Bengal, morethan 80%
of agricultural householdswith marginal land holdings
are indebted.
The pattern of agricultural holdingsand the profile of
agricultural householdsin India indicate that there is
dominance ofsmall farmers/small farm holdings in
theagriculture sector, who are highly indebtedand are
vulnerable to shocks and poverty.In such a scenario, it is
imperative to assessthe various types of risks that farmers
facein agriculture and suggest ways to reduceand mitigate
risks to make agriculture aneconomic activity which will
provide stableand sustainable incomes to the small farmers.
Risks in Agriculture
Agriculture, like other economicactivity entails risks.
Managing and reducingthe risks in agriculture activities
can increasethe incomes, profitability, and ensure stable
income flows to the farmers. In order tomanage and reduce
risks, there is need toanalyze, categorize and address them.
Thereare risks related to production owing to issuesof
inputs such as water management, marketand price risks
like sudden fall in prices dueto bumper crop.

Production Risks
The agriculture production is determined by factors like
irrigation, availability of quality seeds and use/overuse
of fertilisers. The yield per hectare of wheat in India is
less than the world average and less than one-third of the
best performing nation, suggesting scope for significant
improvement as a means to increase income of wheat
farmers.
The overall agricultural labour productivity of India in
terms of GVA per worker is less than a third of that in
China and about 1% of that in the frontier countries.
Declining response ratio of inputs like fertilisers:
●● The soil health is adversely impactedby the
indiscriminate use of chemicalfertilisers.
●● The lower pricing of fertilisers bygovernment has
resulted in farmers resortingto larger use of fertilisers
like urea.
●● Theskewed distribution of fertilizer subsidy,pricing
policies, and the resultant imbalancesin the use of
fertilizer, require correctivemeasures to retain soil
fertility.
Towards addressing these issues, the soil health
cardsinitiative and the Direct Benefit Transfer(DBT) on
fertilizer have been introduced ona pilot basis in selected
districts, which aresteps in the direction to correct
distortions.
Weather related Environmental Risksand Water Stress
●● Water is the most critical input foragriculture and
the risks associated withagriculture are directly
proportional to water stress.
●● In a scenario of water stress,cultivation of water
intensive crops likesugarcane/cereal/grain need to
be replacedby less water intensive crops like pulses
andvegetables and shifting of water intensivecrops to
less water-stressed regions.
●● The costbased water pricing can help to correct
waterstress and increase availability of water.
●● The water use efficiency in conventionalirrigation
ranges from 30% to 50% against 80% to 95% inthe
case of Micro Irrigation (MI) including drip irrigation.
●● With MI system, irrigationcosts across States have reduced
by about 30% and in case of fertilizer use, the savingis
about 28% in consumption in thesurveyed states.
Addressing Weather related environmental risks:
●● To reduce weather/climate/environmental risks, the
effective use ofweather-climate forecasts along with
Current Affairs Survey | October 2017 | 23|
Economic Survey Volume-II
cropmodel and advanced IT and communication can
benefit the farming community.
●● A studyaiming to assess Economic Impact of
AAS(Agro-meteorological Advisory Service(AAS),
a mechanism to provide relevantmeteorological and
agricultural practicesinformation to help the farmer
improveagricultural production; (both in quantityand
quality) carried out during 2003 to 2007in 15 districts
covering 3 kharif and 3 rabiseasons, concluded that
the farmers savedsignificant quantity of farm inputs
likeseeds, water, pesticides and fertilizers, reapedbetter
harvest and made their farming moreprofitable by
using the AAS. In general therewas a net gain ranging
from 8 to 10% tofarmers who used the information
providedby the AAS system.
Price Risks
The Indian farmer faces priceuncertainties, for his produce
in seasonsduring a year, across years owing to supplyand
demand fluctuations, speculation andhoarding by traders.
The price risks emanatingfrom an inefficient APMC
market, are severefor farmers in India since they have very
lowresilience owing to the perishable nature ofproduce,
inability to hold produce, hedgein surplus/shortage
scenarios or to insureagainst losses.
The market price determined bydemand and supply, gets
impacted by surplusand shortages, however, the response
of thefarmer, impacted by expectations is only with a lag.
Three Scenarios
●● In year/season 1, if there is a shortage of a crop,
the market price increases but thefarmer does not
necessarily benefit because his output is low and the
price increase in themarket, takes place in the post
procurement sale/transaction.
●● In year/season 2, basedon higher price in the previous
year/season(in the market and not necessary of
theprocurement) the farmers expectations soarand he
alongwith other farmers, increasesthe sown area and
so supply. The increases inoutput in year/season 2,
result in oversupply and reduction/sharp reduction in
prices, attimes below the MSP and the farmer loses.
●● In year 3, there is a curtailment of sown areaand so
supply reduces but price increases.The farmer is
still not able to benefit fromhigher prices because of
curtailed supply.
Afarmer in the above scenarios can benefit onlyif his
pattern of sowing is contra-cyclical,akin to trading in
the stock market, for whichhe needs to be educated. The
farmer shouldadopt a stable pattern of sowing so that inthe
long run he receives the average price ofthe produce.
Economic Survey Volume-II
Distress Sale by Farmers
●● There have been several reportsof distress sale by
farmers, especially ofperishables including in the
last few years oftomatoes in Odisha, Maharashtra
and TamilNadu, coconuts in coastal Andhra
Pradesh,potatoes in Andhra Pradesh, Punjab andWest
Bengal, onions in Maharashtra, MadhyaPradesh and
Odisha.
●● Earliest memoriesrecall distress sale of cane
sugar in 1978-79 in Western Uttar Pradesh. This
compilationonly intends to highlight that large
expansionof output accompanied by normal
demand,leaves little room for MSP operations
tomaintain the floor level of prices.
Possible Solutions
Possiblesolutions lie in increasing food processing in
conventional and modern forms; staggeringsowing and so
outputs, an option only inirrigated areas; introduce seed
varieties thathave longer shelf life, take shorter timeto mature,
and can be planted in differentseasons, soils and regions.
Role Played by MSPs
●● The Minimum Support Price (MSP)announced by
the Government for 23 cropsattempts to cover the
price risks faced bythe farmer. The MSP backed
procurementof crops by government agencies,
intendsto benefit the farmers directly. However,
thedata on awareness of MSP and procurementamong
farmers suggeststhat the awareness of MSP and
procurementoperations is high only with regard to
cropslike paddy and wheat.
●● However, for an individual farmer whoproduces one
or two crops, the benefits ofMSP is more than offset
since he consumesother crops also, for which he pays a
higherprice. In respect of the crop that he sells atMSP,
in case he is a net buyer or a buyer atthe margin, he ends
up paying a higher pricefor the quantity purchased.
Credit Risks
Credit is an important mediating inputfor agriculture to
improve productivity. Accessto institutional credit enables
the farmer topurchase inputs on cash, tide over periodstill
receipt of payment from sale of produce,which at times
is delayed and staggered, andalso to invest to enhance
productivity andalso output.
●● The predominance of informal sourcesof credit for
farmers is a concern. As per theNSSO 70th round data
(relating to Januaryto December 2013), 40% of the
fundsof farmers still come from informal sources.
●● Local money lenders account for almost 26% share
of total agricultural credit.These borrowings are at
significantly higherrates of interest.
Current Affairs Survey | October 2017 | 24|
In addition to reducing theshare of informal credit, there is
a need toprovide timely and affordable credit to theresource
constrained group, the small andmarginal farmer.
The ratio of agricultural credit toagricultural GDP has
increased from 12per cent in 2001-02 to around 40 per
centin 2016-17. The Government’s priority toenhance
capital formation in agriculturearrested the declining
trend in the share oflong term credit in agriculture over
past fewyears in 2016-17, when it rose to 35 per cent.
Towards this end, the corpus of Long TermRural Credit
Fund (LTRCF) of NABARDwas increased to Rs 15,000
crore in 2016-17.The regional disparity in thedistribution of
agricultural credit also needsto be addressed. The coverage of
agriculturecredit is very low in the north-eastern andeastern
regions of the country. Against theagricultural credit flow target
of Rs 8,737 crorein North Eastern Region (NER) for 2016-
17, the achievement in terms of amountdisbursed was only
Rs 4,756 crore (uptoDecember 2016). The agricultural credit
flowtarget for NER in 2017-18 has been fixed atR 9,380 crore.
Other risks (market and policy risks)
The market risks that arise in agriculturetrade, both
domestic and international aremainly due to uncertainty
in the policies ofagricultural trade and market policies
pursuedby the government from time to time.
●● Theagriculture markets under the AgriculturalProduce
Market Committee (APMC) Actof the State
Governments, with around2,477 principal regulated
markets based ongeography (the APMCs), and 4,843
submarketyards are regulated by the respectiveAPMCs.
●● The posts in the market committeeand the market board
– which supervisesthe market committee are occupied by
thepolitically influential, who enjoy a cosyrelationship
with the licensed commissionagents, who in turn
exercise monopoly power,at times by forming cartels.
The farmers loseout in the APMC market dynamics.
●● There is need to remove all restrictionson internal
trade on agricultural commoditiesand dismantle
fragmented legislations thatgovern agriculture.
●● At present, there arefour legislations in existence/
formulation toregulate agriculture markets,i.
Model APMC Act, 2016 to replace thepresent state
legislations on markets,ii. Agricultural Produce
Trading(Development and Regulation) Act,2017,iii. A
law that would regulate contractfarming andiv. A law/
regulation that would regulatee-NAM.
●● Several legislations of the State andCentre ensure
that the agricultural marketsare fragmented and
the benefits to thefarmers remain low. The above
legislations need to be dismantled and move towards
aCommon National Agriculture Market asenvisaged
in the e-NAM initiative.
The perishable farm produce needs tobe kept outside the

purview of present APMC,Act/ proposed Model APMC,
Act 2016 ashas been stated in the Budget Speech (2017-
18), in para 29, by the Finance Minister that, “Market
reforms will be undertaken and theStates would be
urged to denotify perishablesfrom APMC.” This will
give opportunity tofarmers to sell fruits and vegetables
throughthe government created electronic tradingportal
and get remunerative prices.
Horticulture
The key challenge that the horticulture sector faces in India
are post-harvest losses, availability of quality planting
material and lack of market access for horticultural produce
of small farmers. The combined wastage (harvest and post-
harvest) for horticulturecrops between 5 to 15% in the
case of fruits and vegetables is very high, comparedto the
range of 5 to 6% in the caseof cereals, around 6 to 8% for
pulsesand 5 to 10% for oilseeds.
●● During 2016-17, 7554 post-harvestinfrastructure,
801 markets infrastructure were established under
MIDH (Mission forIntegrated Development of
Horticulture), toreduce wastages which range
between 5 to 16percent in the case of horticultural
crops.
●● The availability of quality plantingmaterial, specially
processable and exportablevarieties, has been another
area of concernin the horticulture sector. Under
MIDH,financial assistance is provided for settingup
and modernization of nurseries, tissueculture labs,
seed and planting materialproduction, seed processing
infrastructure and import of planting materials.
●● To further step up the availability of quality
plantingmaterial, the fund allocation for
interventionsrelated to planting material under MIDH
hasbeen enhanced to about 10% from this financial
year along with accreditation ofnurseries.
●● The majority of the horticulturalproducers are
small and marginal farmers.This, along with high
perishability of theproduce, present challenges to
marketing of horticultural produce.
●● The weakness inthe horticultural supply generally
resultsinto cyclical glut/shortages and price spike/
troughs.
●● To improve the market access forhorticulture
producers, several steps havebeen initiated under
MIDH.
●● The small andmarginal farmers have been mobilized
toform Farmer Producer Organisation (FPO)/Farmer
Interest Group (FIG). From thisyear, the FPO model
– enabling FPOs todirectly market their produce – is
beingimplemented on pilot basis.
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Economic Survey Volume-II
Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisher-
ies
In India’s predominantly mixed crop-livestockfarming
system, dairying hasbecome an important secondary
sourceof income for millions of rural familiesand has
assumed the most important rolein providing employment
and income generating opportunities particularly for
marginal and women farmers.
●● Most of themilk is produced by animals reared by
small,marginal farmers and landless labourers.
●● About 15.46 million farmers have beenbrought under
the ambit of 165835 villagelevel dairy corporative
societies up to March 2015.
●● Government of India is makingefforts for strengthening
the dairy sectorthrough various Central sector Schemes
like“National Programme for Bovine Breedingand
Dairy Development”, National DairyPlan (Phase-I)
and “Dairy EntrepreneurshipDevelopment Scheme”.
●● India continues to be the largestproducer of milk in world.
Several measureshave been initiated by the Government
toincrease the productivity of livestock, whichhas
resulted in increasing the milk production significantly.
●● During the years 2014-15 and2015-16 the milk
production registered anannual growth rate of 6.27%.
Theper capita availability of milk is around 337grams
per day in 2015-16.
●● It is noteworthy that women have playeda key role
in the development of the dairysector as producers,
women cooperativesand in marketing. As per
NDDB, the annualgrowth rate of all women Dairy
CooperativeSocieties is about 10%.
●● Hence measuresto enhance women’s involvement
in the dairyprojects of the government needs
emphasisthrough appropriate mechanisms and
fundallocation earmarked for specific gender
components.
●● There are approximately 43.8lakh women producers
of which 3.29 lakhare Management Committee
Members. Representation of womenin Management
Committees also needs to beincreased.
●● The economics of livestock farming and the future
of this source of livelihooddepends on the terminal
value of assets, inthis case the no-longer-productive
livestock. If social policies drive this terminal
valueprecipitously down, private returns couldbe
affected in a manner that could makelivestock farming
less profitable.
●● Thisdeclining terminal value arises both becauseof
the loss of income from livestock as meatand the
additional costs that will arise fromhaving to maintain
unproductive livestock.
●● It is possible that social policies could affectsocial
returns even more adversely. However,the cultural
and social norms will influenceto a great extent the
behavior and choicesmade by the population.
Economic Survey Volume-II
Topic 9: Food Management
The main objectives of foodmanagement is procurement of
foodgrainsfrom farmers at remunerative prices,distribution
of foodgrains to consumers,particularly the vulnerable
sections ofsociety at affordable prices and maintenanceof
food buffers for food security and pricestability.
Key Components of Food Management
●● The instruments used are MinimumSupport Price
(MSP) and Central Issue Price(CIP).
●● The nodal agency which undertakesprocurement,
distribution and storage offoodgrains is the Food
Corporation of India(FCI).
●● Procurement at MSP is open-ended,while distribution
is governed by the scale ofallocation and its offtake by
the beneficiaries.
●● The offtake of foodgrains is primarily underthe
Targeted Public Distribution System(TPDS) and
other welfare schemes of theGovernment of India.
Procurement of Foodgrains: Foodgrains, pulses and
minor cropsare procured at the Minimum Support
Price(MSP) fixed by the Government.
Decentralised Procurement Scheme:
●● The DCP has the objectives to ensurethat MSP is
passed on to the farmers, toenhance the efficiency of
procurementof PDS and to encourage procurement
innon-traditional States.
●● The system enablesextending the benefits of MSP to
localfarmers, to save on transit losses and costsand
enables procurement of foodgrainsmore suited to
local taste for distributionunder the TPDS.
●● The DCP, introduced in 1997-98,is operationalised
through food grainsprocurement and distribution by
the StateGovernments themselves.
●● Under thisscheme, the designated DCP States procure,
store and issue foodgrains under TPDS andother
welfare schemes of the Government ofIndia.
●● The Central Government undertakesto meet the entire
expenditure incurred bythe State Governments on the
procurementoperations as per the approved costing.
●● While the Central Government monitors thequality
of foodgrains procured under thescheme and reviews
the arrangements madeto ensure that the procurement
operationsare carried on smoothly, there have
beeninstances of diversion of stocks.
Foodgrain stocking norms for the central pool (Buffer
norms):
●● The main objectives of the foodgrain stocking
Norms (Buffer Norms) is tomeet the prescribed
minimum stockingnorms for food security, to
Current Affairs Survey | October 2017 | 26|
ensure monthlyreleases of foodgrains for the TPDS/
OtherWelfare Schemes and to augment supply
ineventualities like emergency situations arisingout of
unexpected crop failure, naturaldisasters etc.
●● The Government of India hasrevised the Buffer Norms
w.e.f. January, 2015and the nomenclature of buffer
norms hasbeen changed to “Foodgrain Stocking
Norms for the Central Pool”.
Prudent Management of Foodgrain
Stocks
To ensure adequate availability ofwheat and rice in
central pool, to keep acheck on the open market prices,
to augmentthe domestic availability and to ensure
foodsecurity, the Central Government has takenfollowing
steps for prudent management offoodgrains stocks:
●● Steps have been taken to maximizeprocurement of
wheat and rice and MSPof wheat and paddy has been
increasedsuccessively.
●● State Governments, particularly throughthe
Decentralized Procurement (DCP)States are
encouraged to maximizeprocurement of wheat
and rice by taking up procurement of paddy from
farmersby State Agencies.
●● Strategic reserves of 5 million tonnesof food grains
over the existing buffernorms has been maintained to
be used inextreme situations.
●● Sale of wheat and rice was undertakenthrough Open
Market Sale Scheme(OMSS) (Domestic) to check
inflationarytrend in food security.
●● Central Issue Prices (CIPs) of rice andwheat have not
been revised since July,2002.
Food Security & Food Subsidy
National Food Security Act, 2013 (NFSA):
●● The National Food Security Act, 2013(NFSA) is an
important initiative for foodsecurity of the people.
With a view to makereceipt of foodgrains under TPDS
a legalright, Government of India has enactedNFSA
which came into force w.e.f. 5-7-2013.
●● The Act provides for coverage of upto 75% of the
rural population and upto 50% of the urban population
for receivingsubsidized foodgrains under Targeted
PublicDistribution System (TPDS), at Rs.1/2/3 perkg
for coarse grains/wheat/rice respectivelyat 35 kg
per family per month to householdscovered under
Antyodaya Anna Yojana(AAY) and at 5 kg per person
per month topriority households.

Food Subsidy:
●● The provision of minimum nutritionalsupport to the
poor through subsidizedfoodgrains and ensuring price
stability indifferent states are the twin objectives of
thefood security system.
●● In fulfilling its obligationtowards distributive justice,
the Governmentincurs food subsidy.
●● While the economic costof wheat and rice has
continuously gone up,the issue price has been kept
unchangedsince 1st July, 2002.
●● Due to implementationof NFSA, CIP has further
gone down forAPL and BPL categories. The
Government,therefore, continues to provide large
andincreasing amounts of subsidy on food grainsfor
distribution under the TPDS/NFSA andother nutrition-
based welfare schemes andopen market operations.
Topic 10: Urban Infrastructure with a
Note on Smart City Mission
Cities are regarded as “engines ofgrowth” for economies.
The confluence ofcapital, people and space in cities
unleashesthe benefits of agglomeration, creating afertile
environment for innovation of ideas,technologies and
processes which produce huge economic returns. Cities
in Indiagenerate two-third of national GDP, 90% of tax
revenues and the majority offormal sector jobs, with just
a third of thecountry’s population. Despite being centers
of opportunity, the cities of India bringwith them a host
of environmental andinfrastructure challenges, from
pollutionto lack of civic amenities like drinkingwater,
sewage, housing and electricity,which disproportionally
impacts the morevulnerable poor population. For
addressing these issues, the Government has takenvarious
steps to improve urban infrastructure like Swachh Bharat
Mission (SBM, urban),Atal Mission for Rejuvenation
and UrbanTransformation (AMRUT), Heritage
CityDevelopment and Augmentation Yojana(HRIDAY)
and Smart Cities Mission.
Smart City Mission
India is witnessing rapid urbanizationand the phenomenon
requires a major policyresponse. As part of the policy
response,the government conceived of the Smart
CityMission. Let it be clear that “smartness” inthis context
should not be confined merelyto the application of digital
technologies.
Right from the beginning, the definitionof the “smart city”
was left open. The realshift was to move from rigid master-
plansand silos to a more ecosystem approach.
The four key ingredients of a thriving urbanecosystem are
institutional infrastructure,physical infrastructure, social
infrastructureand economic infrastructure. So, the smart
city approach aims to upgrade urbanecosystems either
Current Affairs Survey | October 2017 | 27|
Economic Survey Volume-II
through targeted strategic interventions using one of the
ingredientswith city-wide impact (Pan City Initiatives)or
through simultaneously upgrading morethan one ingredient
in a defined space (AreaBased Project). It is understood
that theexact implementation of such a strategy hasto be
customized to the specific context.
A sibling programme called Heritage CityDevelopment and
Augmentation Yojana(HRIDAY) has also been initiated to
look atthe special needs of heritage cities.
The Government of India launched theSmart Cities
Mission on 25 June 2015. It wasproposed to cover 100
cities over the period2015-16 and 2019-20. Some of the
uniquefeatures of the Smart Cities’ Mission inIndia are:
(i) Selection of cities through a citychallenge competition
(ii) Implementationby Special Purpose
Vehicles- companiesowned by municipal authorities
(iii) Centralgrant funds used for leveraging funds fromother
sources
(iv) Citizen participation inplanning and implementation of
the Missionto ensure sustainability and accountability
Following this process, 60 cities (20cities in Round 1 in
January 2016, 13 citiesin fast track round in May 2016 and
27 citiesin Round 2 in September, 2016) have beenselected
so far. The other 40 cities are expected to beselected in the
3rd round of the competitionthis year.
A total investment of Rs 1,33,368.5 crorehas been proposed
by the 60 cities undertheir smart city plans. Projects focusing
onrevamping an identified area (Area BasedProjects) are
estimated to cost Rs 1,05,621crore. Smart initiatives across
the city (PanCity Initiatives) account for the remainingRs
26,141 Crores of investments. Besides ABPand Pan city
projects an amount of Rs 1604.5crore has been kept aside
for O&M cost ofthe Mission and other contingencies.
Priority interventions at the city level include developing
an integrated commandand control centre, integrating data
frommultiple departments leading to bettercoordination
and effective service delivery,smart water management
through use of technology to reduce non- revenue
water,smart roads, heritage and “place-making”projects.
Topic 11: Industry and Infrastructure
The Industrial sector in India, includingconstruction,
is an important contributor tothe growth with the
sector accounting for31.1% of the total Gross Value
Added(GVA) in 2016-17. A strong and a robustindustrial
and manufacturing sector helps inpromoting domestic
production, exports andemployment, all of which can be
catalysts forhigher growth in the economy.
Changes in New IIP Series 2011-12
The basket of goods for Index of Industrial Production has
been revised from the basse year of 2004-05 to 2011-12.
Economic Survey Volume-II
The methodological changes introduced are summarised
as below:
●● The IIP in the new series consists of three sectors i.e.
Mining, Manufacturing and Electricity.
●● The new basket consistsof 407 item groups with 259
item groups common with the old basket.
●● The weights for the new series at the sectorallevel have
been calculated using the GVA figures from National
Accounts Statistics (NAS) with base year 2011–12.
●● In the revised IIP basket, data on a total of 109 item
groups have been collected in value terms rather than
inquantities. This is done so as to avoid jumps in data
since many of these products have a life span of greater
than one month. Such items have been classified as
‘work under progress’.
●● The value data collected for these item groups
havebeen deflated using the Wholesale Price Index
(WPI) 2011-12 in absence of a Producers Price
Index.
●● The Use basedclassification has replaced Basic Goods
with Primary Goods.
●● A new category named Infrastructure/
ConstructionGoods has been introduced.
Sector- wise Issues and Initiatives
MSME Sector:
●● The Micro, Small and MediumEnterprises (MSME)
sector in India plays acrucial role by providing
large employmentopportunities, industrialization of
ruralareas, reducing regional imbalances etc.
●● TheMSME sector contributed 33% of industrial GVA
and 31% of industrial Gross DomesticProduct (GDP)
at constant prices (base2011-12).
●● The sector faces problems in terms ofgetting adequate,
cheap and timely availabilityof institutional credit.
●● The decline in credit to MSME sector canbe attributed
to deteriorating health of public sector banks due to
piling up of NPAs.
●● Recently, RBI has brought some changes in priority
sector lending guidelines for MSME Sector by
including a sub-target of 7.5% of Adjusted Net Bank
Credit for lending to ‘Micro’ enterprises.
●● The Government has also initiated the Pradhan
Mantri Mudra Yojana for development and
refinancing activities relating to micro industrial units.
●● The purpose of MUDRA is to provide funding to the
non-corporate small business sector. The Government
has also set up Micro Units Development and
Refinance Agency (MUDRA) Bank.
Steel Sector:
●● The steel sector is one of the core industries in the economy.
Current Affairs Survey | October 2017 | 28|
India is the 3rd largest producer of Steel in the world.
●● The domestic production of total finished steel in
2016-17 has been 101.3 million tonnes as compared
to 91 million tonnes in 2015-16.
●● In the backdrop of China’s recent economic
slowdown, the global steel industry has faced major
distress due to decline in global demand including
China’s demand for steel.
●● In addition, excess capacity in steel production led to
dumping of steel by China, South Korea and Ukraine
into Indian markets at low prices.
●● In response to this, the Government in 2016,
introduced a host of measures like raising Basic
Customs Duty, imposition of Minimum Import Price
(MIP) and anti-dumping duties in order to shield the
domestic producers.
●● The Indian Government notified the Minimum
Import Price of steel in February 2016 for a period
of one year.
Clothing and Textiles Sector
●● The Apparel sector is a highlyemployment intensive
industry especially for women.
●● In the perspective of China losingshare in the global
market for exports in theapparel sector on account of
rising costs ofproduction, the time is ripe for India to
makeforays into this market.
●● However, variouschallenges exist before India can
reap thebenefits of this situation.
●● India’s competitorslike Bangladesh and Vietnams’
exports haveduty free access to markets of USA,
EUand Japan. Other challenges include, highdomestic
taxes on man-made fabrics vis avis cotton based
fabrics; stringent labour regulations; and high logistics
cost.
●● To address these constraints, the Government on 22nd
June 2016 approvedRs6,000 crore special package for
textile& apparel sector to boost employmentcreation,
exports and investment.
●● Amongother incentives, the subsidy under Amended
Technology Upgradation Fund Scheme(ATUFS)
was increased from 15% to 25% for the garment
sector. A unique feature ofthe scheme is to disburse
the subsidy onlyafter the expected jobs are created.
Key initiatives taken by the Government
to boost industrial performance
Make In India:
●● The ‘Make in India’ programme hasbeen launched
globally on 25th September2014 which aims at making
India a global hubfor manufacturing, research &
innovationand integral part of the global supply chain.

●● This initiative is based on four pillars of
NewProcesses, New Infrastructure, New Sectorsand
New Mindset.
Startup India:
●● Startup India is a flagship initiative ofthe Government
of India, intended to builda strong eco-system for
nurturing innovationand Startups in the country
that will drivesustainable economic growth and
generatelarge scale employment opportunities.
●● TheGovernment through this initiative aimsto
empower Startups to grow throughinnovation and
design.
Ease of Doing Business:
●● The Government has taken up a series ofmeasures to
improve Ease of Doing Business.
●● The emphasis has been on simplificationand
rationalization of the existing rules andintroduction
of information technology tomake governance more
efficient and effective.
●● The “distance to frontier” (DTF) scoremeasurement
used by the World Bank toascertain the distance
between each economyand the best performance
in that categoryhas improved for seven of the 10
indicators in the World Bank’s Doing Business
report-2017, released in October, 2016.
●● States toohave been brought on board in the process
toexpand the coverage of these efforts.
Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) Policy:
●● In May, 2016, Government for the firsttime adopted a
comprehensive National Intellectual Property Rights
(IPR) policy tolay future roadmap for intellectual
property.
●● This aims to improve Indian intellectual property
ecosystem, hopes to create aninnovation movement
in the country andaspires towards “Creative India;
Innovative India”.
●● Objective of this policy is to:
1. Increase IPRawareness
2. Stimulate generation of IPRs
3. Havestrong and effective IPR laws
4. Modernizeand strengthen service-oriented
IPRadministration
5. Get value for IPRs throughcommercialization
6. Strengthen enforcementand adjudicatory mechanisms
for combatingIPR infringements
7. To strengthen andexpand human resources, institutions
andcapacities for teaching, training, research and skill
Current Affairs Survey | October 2017 | 29|
Economic Survey Volume-II
building in IPRs
●● A Cell for Intellectual Property RightsPromotion
and Management (CIPAM) hasbeen created under
the aegis of Departmentof Industrial Policy and
Promotion (DIPP)for addressing the 7 identified
objectives ofthe Policy.
●● An MOU has also been signed with U.K, Singapore
and E.U in the field ofIntellectual Property Trademark.
●● Pendencyin awarding patents has also come
downfrom 3 months in 2015-16 to 1 month by the end
of Financial Year 2016-17.
●● In addition tothis, India’s rank in Global Innovative
Indexhas gone up from 81 in 2015 to 66 in 2016.
Topic 12: Services Sector
Some Recent Developments in Services Trade Policies and
Services Negotiations: Multilateral and Bilateral. These
include the following.
India’s Submission on Trade Facilitation in Services (TFS)
at WTO:
●● India tabled a draft legal texton TFS at the WTO on
22nd February 2017.
●● The objective behind India’s TFS proposal isto initiate
discussions at the WTO on howto comprehensively
address the numerousborder and behind-the-border
barriers, across all modes of supply and address the
key issues pertinent to facilitating trade in services,
such as transparency, streamlining procedures and
eliminating bottlenecks.
India’s Submission on Mode 4 (trade through temporary
movement of natural persons for supply of services) at
the WTO:
●● India submitted a paper on “Mode 4: Assessment
of Barriers to Entry”, in March 2016 at the WTO
highlighting the increasingly complex nature of
barriers to mode 4 entry.
●● These include selective measures by our key trading
partners’ subjective definitions of sub-categories
under the Intra-corporate transferees resulting in
rejection of bona fide applications and undermining
the commitments, and non-portability of social
security contributions.
Trade in Services Agreement (TISA) and India’s stand:
●● At present, there are 23 membersparticipating in the
plurilateral TISAdiscussion with none of the BRICS
andASEAN member states participating.
●● Indiaand some other like-minded developingcountries
have expressed concern from timeto time on this
plurilateral agreement as it willendanger the conclusion
Economic Survey Volume-II
of the Doha Roundby disturbing the delicate
balance arrived atbetween Agriculture, NAMA and
Servicesafter years of intense negotiations at theWTO.
●● With the withdrawal of the US fromTrans-Pacific
Partnership (TPP), the futureof TISA, which is led
by developed countrieslike the US has also become
uncertain.
Bilateral/Plurilateral Agreements and India:
●● Indiahas signed comprehensive bilateral
tradeagreements, including Trade in Services,with the
Governments of Singapore, SouthKorea, Japan, and
Malaysia.
●● A Free TradeAgreement (FTA) in services
and investmentwas signed with the ASEAN in
September,2014 which came into effect from 1st July,
2015.
●● India has since joined the RegionalComprehensive
Economic Partnership(RCEP) plurilateral negotiations
which is the only mega-regional FTA of which India
is a part.
India is also engaged in bilateral FTAnegotiations including
trade in services with different countries:
Developments in OECD:
●● The OECD ispreparing a Services Trade
RestrictivenessIndex (STRI) for different countries
including India.
●● While this is a new initiative,its suitability for trade
negotiations anddomestic policies needs to be
examined asthere are some concerns to be addressed.
Topic 13: Social Infrastructure,
Employment and
Human Development
Primary Education
The primary level learning is thefoundation on which a
child’s educationis built and it is of great importance toget
the same right. The Annual Status onEducation Report
(ASER) by the PrathamEducation Foundation since 2005,
highlightsshortcomings in the school educationaloutcomes
in India in rural areas.
Enrollment:
●● As per ASER, 2016 at the all Indialevel, the enrolment
marginally increasedfor all age groups between 2014
and 2016.
●● The enrolment for the age group 6-14 increased from
96.7% in 2014 to 96.9% in 2016.
Current Affairs Survey | October 2017 | 30|
●● The enrolment for the agegroup 15-16 has also
improved marginallyfor both boys and girls, rising
from 83.4% in 2014 to 84.7% in 2016.
Out of School Children:
In some states, the proportion ofout of school children (age
6-14) increasedbetween 2014 and 2016.
These includeMadhya Pradesh (from 3.4% to 4.4%),
Chhattisgarh (from 2% to2.8%), and Uttar Pradesh (from
4.9% to 5.3%). In 3 States, namely,Rajasthan (9.7%), Uttar
Pradesh (9.9%) and Madhya Pradesh (8.5%)the proportion
of out of school girls (agegroup 11-14) remains more than
8%.
Learning Outcome:
●● Nationally, the reading ability hasimproved marginally
in early grades ingovernment schools.
●● The proportion ofchildren in Std III who are able to
read atleast Std I level text has gone up, from 40.2%
in 2014 to 42.5% in 2016.
●● Thefact that the ASER report compares the skillsof Std
III children in Std I levels is an example of the state of
the learning outcomes ofthe primary education.
●● The arithmetic skillshave also shown marginal
improvement ingovernment schools in primary grades.
●● Theall India (rural) figures for basic arithmetichave
improved slightly for Std III in 2016as compared
to 2014 from 25.4% to27.7%. This is the first
year since 2010,that there is an improvement in
arithmeticlearning outcomes, which is attributableto
improved performance in governmentschools.
●● However, the trend analysis of theASER report indicates
that the results of thereading and arithmetic skills of the class
VStandard have not improved and is an area ofconcern.
Reasons for Lower Learning Outcomes:
●● While ‘The Right of Children toFree and Compulsory
Education Act’,2009 (RTE), has significantly
improvedthe enrolment level in primary schoolsacross
the country, the challenge of qualityin terms of learning
outcomes remainsto be addressed, as is evident from
dataof rural India.
●● The problem lies in the approach which focused
almost entirely on inputs such as specificationsfor
infrastructure of schools, pupil-teacherratios, teacher
qualifications, teacher salaries,etc.
●● Besides, the overburdening of teacherswith
administrative responsibilities ofschools especially at
primary levels has had an adverse impact on learning
outcomes.
●● There is a need to shift focus on quality ofeducation
by getting the input-outcomesmatrix right.
●● One of the critical inputs needed forimproving the

learning outcomes is pupilteacher ratio (PTR) which
the RTE Act hasmandated for each school.
●● However, ASER,2016 report points out that there is
no directcorrelation between PTR and learning levels
across primary schools in India.
●● States complying with PTR provision ofRTE Act have
lower learning outcomes.
●● Further, the lower learning outcomesmay be attributed
to input factors such asthe absence of professionally
qualified andregular teachers, lack of remedial
education for class appropriate learning, shortage of
ITbased teaching aids; performance in schools due to
absence of teachers and also students,despite attempts
to address the latter throughmid-day meals.
Some Solutions to the Problems of Primary
Education
Direct Transfer of Funds:
●● The salaries to teachers/staff shouldbe directly
remitted like in DBT usingthe Aadhaar identity, linked
to bio-metricattendance.
●● DBT, presently being done forscholarship and other
payments to students,should achieve a target of
transfer of 100% of the funds transferred.
●● DBT will helpprevent delays in transmission of
resources, leakages and diversions. It will also
addresssituations, where in some states there are
arrears in the payment of salaries to teachers.
●● Non-payment of salaries to teachers ordelayed
payments de-motivates them anddirects them to
alternative sources of incomeat the cost of their
primary teaching function.
Pilot project on attendance in Schools:
●● A pilot should be launched in sixmonths, one school
(one at all levels-primary,secondary and senior/
higher secondary) inevery block should be subject
to biometricattendance system for teachers, staff
andstudents, which will help to improve outcomes.
●● This should be centered around each class/session and
not on a daily basis. This shouldbe accompanied with
independent setting ofexamination papers and neutral
evaluation.
●● Based on the feedback of this pilot, thesame should be
modified and extended toall schools in all blocks in
India before theend of 2021-22
Secondary Education
The secondary education is astepping stone to higher
education thatequips and empowers students with
skillsimportant for the most important school level and the
labour market.
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Economic Survey Volume-II
RMSA-Integrated:
The RashtriyaMadhyamikShiksha Abhiyan (RMSA)-
Integrated, launched to enhance access andimprove quality
of education at secondarystage, envisages enhancing the
enrolmentfor classes IX-X by providing a secondaryschool
within a prescribed distance of everyhabitation, improving
quality of educationimparted at secondary level by making
allsecondary schools conform to prescribednorms, removal
of gender, socio-economicand disability barriers, universal
access tosecondary level education by 2017, anduniversal
retention by 2020.
Gross Enrolment Ratio:
●● The GER at all India level for secondary schools is
only 80%, waybelow the target of providing universal
access and reaching 100% enrolment.
●● Thegross enrolment ratio (GER) at secondarylevel
(includes class 12th) has increasedfrom 56.8% in
2011-12 to 65.3% in 2014-15 (Provisional).
●● However,this pattern is not uniform across India
andacross different social groups.
●● It can be seen that the drop-out rateamong ST students
for 2014-15 is muchhigher at around 25% compared
tothe all India annual average drop-out rate at17.1%.
What needs to be done:
●● There is a need to work for a GER of100% by the
target year of 2020-21. A target GER of 100% should
alsobe accompanied with Net Enrolment Ratio(NER)
target of 100%, along with atransition rate of 100%
from both primary to secondary and then to higher/
senior secondary.
●● This should be accompanied with targets on learning
outcomes to beassessed for the same standard and not
incomparison to lower standard, as done in theASER
survey.
●● The focus of school education so farhas been on
creating physical infrastructure,which is underutilized
and needs to shiftto improving utilization of assets.
●● A listof schools that are working in single shiftneeds
to be prepared and steps be taken toidentify potential
utilization of the second/additional shift for either
a separate girls’ primary school/senior secondary
school, etc.
Optimizing use of infrastructure in schools
●● Reap gains from the synergy and efficiency of co-
location of schools at all levels of schooling
●● Improve utilisation of physical infrastructure –
classrooms, science labs and equipment, different
coursestreams, computers/computer rooms, IT
infrastructure, arts/crafts/culture room/s, toilet and
drinking waterfacility, playground and equipment,
Economic Survey Volume-II
counsellor and principal rooms, etc.
●● Continuity for students when they move from primary
to secondary and then to higher/senior secondary
andso improve the transition rate from primary to
secondary and then to higher/senior secondary
●● Single school for siblings amongst others things
facilitate safe movement/transport to and within the
school
●● Improved teacher retention by ensuring their
progression including their promotions at three levels
of schooling
Gender Parity Index (GPI):
●● The Gender Parity Index (GPI) measures the relative
participation ineducation of male and female students
atdifferent levels of attendance. At the abovehigher
secondary level, the GPI basedon Net Attendance
Ratio (NAR) is muchlower than the parity line, which
is also thecase in rural India compared to urban India.
The lower NAR of girls in thehigher secondary levels
can be corrected byimproving accessibility to higher
secondary schools.
●● The ‘Digital Gender Atlas forAdvancing Girls’
Education’, an importantaid that provides rank
comparison of Statesunder various indicators defined
for upperprimary and secondary schools from 2012-
2013 to 2013-14 needs to be updated on aregular/
annual basis to take further correctivemeasures by
identifying the most backwarddistricts to make
education more inclusive.
Higher Education
In the tertiary level education in India,on the one hand
there is an increase in the number of degree, technical/
professionalcolleges while on the other hand the
labourmarket is unable to get appropriately skilledlabour
force to meet its demand in varioussectors. There is
a disconnect between highereducation in terms of
several parameters thatgo beyond the award of a degree,
namelyinadequate learning, inappropriate learning,old
curriculum, focus on general as opposedto specialized
learning and last but mostimportantly quality of learning.
The degree,technical/professional colleges should
offervalue added learning, which is not only stateof the art
but also ensures that degree holdersare employable.
Towards a Healthy India
The Government is committed toachieving the Sustainable
Development Goal(SDG-3) for health - “Ensure healthy
livesand promoting wellbeing for all at all ages”by 2030.
Towards this, the Governmenthas formulated the National
Health Policy,2017, which aims at attaining the highestlevel
of good health and well-being, throughpreventive and
Current Affairs Survey | October 2017 | 32|
promotive health careorientation in all developmental
policies,and universal access to good quality healthcare
services, without anyone having to facefinancial hardship
as a consequence.
Salient features of the National Health Policy, 2017:
●● Raising public health expenditure to 2.5% of the
GDP in a time bound manner. The States would
beincentivised for incremental State resources for
public health expenditure. General taxation will
remain thepredominant means for financing health
care.
●● Providing larger package of assured comprehensive
primary health care through the Health and Wellness
Centers,which includes geriatric health care, palliative
care and rehabilitative care services.
●● Provide at the district level most of the secondary
care which are currently provided at a medical college
hospital.
●● Every family would have a health card that links them
to primary care facility and be eligible for a defined
packageof services anywhere in the country.
●● Free drugs, free diagnostics and free emergency care
services in all public hospitals.
●● Supports voluntary service in rural and under-
served areas on pro-bono basis by recognized
healthcareprofessionals under a ‘giving back to
society’ initiative.
●● Establishment of National Digital Health Authority
(NDHA) to regulate, develop and deploy digital
healthacross the continuum of care.
●● Setting up of a separate, empowered medical
tribunal for speedy resolution to address disputes /
complaintsregarding standards of care, prices of
services, negligence and unfair practices. Standard
Regulatory frameworkfor laboratories and imaging
centers, specialized emerging services such as assisted
reproductive techniques,surrogacy, stem cell banking,
organ and tissue transplantation and Nano Medicine
will be created as appropriate.
●● Strengthening regulation of medical devices and
establishing a regulatory body for medical devices
to unleashinnovation and the entrepreneurial spirit
for manufacture of medical device in India. The
policy supportsharmonization of domestic regulatory
standards with international standards.
●● With the objective of ensuring the rights, safety and
well-being of clinical trial participants, the policy
recommendsthat specific clause(s) be included in the
Drugs and Cosmetics Act for its regulation.
●● Timely revision of National List of Essential
Medicines (NLEM) along with appropriate price
control mechanismsfor generic drugs.
●● Establishing federated national health information
architecture, to roll-out and link systems across public

andprivate health providers at State and national
levels consistent with Metadata and Data Standards
(MDDS) &Electronic Health Record (EHR), will be
supported by the policy.
●● Creation of registries (i.e. patients, provider,
service, diseases, document and event) for enhanced
public health/big data analytics, creation of health
information exchange platform and national health
information network, useof National Optical Fibre
Network, use of smartphones/tablets for capturing
real time data, are key strategies ofthe National Health
Information Architecture.
Human Development: International Com-
parisons
Given that human choices are infinite, itis recognized
that at all levels of development,the three essential ones
are for people to leada long and healthy life, to acquire
knowledgeand to have access to resources neededfor a
decent standard of living. If theseessential choices are not
available, manyother opportunities remain inaccessible.
●● The Human Development Index (HDI) captures
these basic dimensions of humandevelopment and
is an important indicatorof standard of living in a
country based onthe indices for life expectancy,
educationalattainment and per capita income.
●● India’s rank of 131 out of 188countries in the latest
Human DevelopmentReport (HDR) 2016 with the
HDI value for2015 at 0.624 has slid one rank from
130 in2014 (HDR, 2015).
●● In comparison to other nations in the BRICS grouping,
India has thelowest rank, Russia at 49, Brazil at 79,
Chinaat 90 and South Africa at 119.
●● India’s HDI of 0.624 is also below theaverage of
countries in the medium humandevelopment group
(0.631) but marginallyhigher than the HDI average of
South Asiancountries (0.621).
●● Between 1990 and 2015,India’s HDI value increased
from 0.428 to0.624, an increase of 45.8%.
●● The meanyears of schooling for India is the lowest
incomparison to other BRICS nations. TheLife
Expectancy at Birth (LEB) is also lowerthan that of
Bangladesh, Brazil, China, andRussia, but higher than
that of South Africa.
●● The two indicators of income inequality,namely the
Income Gini coefficient andthe quintile income ratio
show that there isincrease in inequalities over time in India.
●● For India, the Income Gini coefficient is35.2 during
2010-15 which is higher than33.6 reported during
2005-13 (HDR, 2015),reflecting an increase in the
income inequality,while the quintile income ratio also
hasregistered a marginal increase from 5.0 in2005-
Current Affairs Survey | October 2017 | 33|
Economic Survey Volume-II
2013 to 5.3 in 2010-2015.
●● The inequality indicators of India are lower thanthat
for many other developing countries likeSouth Africa
(63.4), Brazil (51.5), Malaysia (46.3), China (42.2),
the Russian Federation(41.1), Indonesia (39.5) and Sri
Lanka (39.2),as well as countries like the USA, Chile
andArgentina. It is necessary to address theissues
causing widening of inequalities acrossvarious
sections for equitable developmentand progress of the
country.
Gender Development Index (GDI):
●● The Gender Development Index(GDI) which is
calculated for 160 countriesin 2015, has placed India
into Group 5, withGDI value at 0.819.
●● The HDI valuefor females in India is 0.549 in contrast
with0.671 for males, and the female HDI valueis
higher than that of 2014 at 0.525.
●● Though the mean years of schooling for girls in Indiaat
4.8 in 2015 has registered an increasefrom 3.6 years
reported in the year 2014, it islower than that for males.
●● The male–femaledisparities in access to education
persist in the society and interventions are neededto
overcome the social barriers to equalizeopportunities
for learning.
Gender Issues:
Empowering women to participatefully in economic
life across all sectorsis essential to build stronger
economies,achieve internationally agreed goals
fordevelopment and sustainability, and improvethe quality
of life for women, men, families and communities (UN
Women, 2011).
●● The findings of the NFHS-4 (2015-16)show an
increase in empowerment of womenaged 15-49 years
across major indicators.
●● There is an improvement in the indicatorsthat reflect
empowerment with an increasein the percentage
of women having savings account and increase in
the percentage ofwomen having a say in household
decisionmaking.
●● Among the States, Goa has themaximum number
of women with a bankor savings account that they
themselves use.
●● Women have also started having a say indecision
making process with Sikkim havingthe largest
percentage of women havinga say in household
decision making.
●● Inmajority of the States, more than 80% of married
women participate in householddecision making
process which is a reflectionof greater autonomy and
it is a pathway toempowerment in other spheres of life.
Regular Column
Policy Repo Rate
Reduced to 6%
The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) released the third
Bi-Monthly Monetary Policy Statement of 2017-18.
Inflation
The MPC noted that factors that could have led to a rise
in inflation have either reduced or did not materialise.
These include:
i. Fall in headline inflation (includes food and energy
prices) below the projected rate
ii Fall in food and fuel inflation over the past three
months
iii. Smooth roll-out of GST
iv. A normal monsoon
Key Decisions
●● The policy repo rate (at which RBI lends money to
banks) was reduced from 6.25% to 6% by a majority
vote of the members.
●● The reverse repo rate (at which RBI borrows money from
banks) was reduced from 6% to 5.75%.
●● The marginal standing facility rate (at which banks
can borrow additional money) and bank rate (at which
RBI buys or rediscounts bills of exchange) were
also reduced from 6.50% to 6.25%. is restricted to Delhi and Mumbai.
Current Affairs Survey | October 2017 | 34 |
NITI Aayog Releases Ease of
Doing Business Report
The NITI Aayog released the Ease of Doing Business
Report.21,22 The Report is based on a survey of 3,500
manufacturing firms across the country.
Key Observations
Growth Rate
●● There may be a link between ease of doing business
and growth in state economies.
●● Faster growing states exhibited fewer delays granting
clearances, and were more flexible in implementing
labour and environment laws.
Labour
●● Compliance with labour laws was difficult.
●● Reforming labour laws and bringing flexibility in their
implementation may make it easier to do business.
Power:
●● Facilitating power sector reforms will ensure that businesses
have steady and uninterrupted access to electricity.
●● With the country reporting a surplus in power
generation, there may be an opportunity to lower costs,
and opening up the distribution sector for competition.
Access to Finance
●● Half of the businesses do not borrow from financial
institutions.
●● One-third consider access to finance as a major business
obstacle.
The report suggested that enhancing low cost access to
capital may improve the business environment.
Dissemination of Information
●● There is a need to ensure better bdissemination of
government information related to procedures, to
businesses.
●● For example, the survey found that some businesses were
unaware about the single window facilities created by the
states to facilitate grant of clearances and permissions.
The World Bank’s Doing Business survey shows
that it takes 26 days to set up a business but this

Single Window System
●● The Single window system allows businesses to
complete regulatory formalities from a single location
or institution.
●● The lack of awareness about the presence of such a
system in states is surprising.
●● The survey was carried out by Niti Aayog along with
along with the IDFC Institute, a Mumbai-based think
tank.
Three Bills Related to GST Passed by Parlia-
ment
Three Bills related to the Goods and Services Tax (GST)
were passed in Lok Sabha. Since these are money bills,
they will be deemed to have been passed by Parliament.
These Bills replace three Ordinances promulgated in
July 2017.
Key Features of these Bills
The Central Goods and Services Tax (Extension to
Jammu and Kashmir) Bill, 2017
●● The Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 provides
for the levy of Central GST on supplies of goods and
services within a state.
●● It applies to the whole of India except Jammu and
Kashmir.
●● The Bill extends the provisions of the Act to Jammu
and Kashmir.
The Integrated Goods and Services Tax (Extension
to Jammu and Kashmir) Bill, 2017
●● The Integrated Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017
allows for the levy of Integrated GST on inter-state
supplies of goods and services.
●● It applies to the whole of India except Jammu and
Kashmir.
●● The Bill extends the provisions of the Act to Jammu
and Kashmir.
The Punjab Municipal Corporation Law (Extension
to Chandigarh) Amendment Bill, 2017
●● The Bill amends the Punjab Municipal Corporation Law
(Extension to Chandigarh) Act, 1994.
●● The 1994 Act regulates the functioning of the Municipal
Corporation of Chandigarh.
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Socio-Economic Development
●● Under the 1994 Act, the central government has the
power to levy Entertainment Tax and Entertainment
Duty for Chandigarh.
●● The Bill transfers these powers from the central
government to the Municipal Corporation of
Chandigarh.
●● Further, it deletes the provisions which allow the
Municipal Corporation of Chandigarh to levy Octroi
and taxes on vehicles and animals.
Committee Constituted to Draft a
Data Protection Bill
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology
constituted a Committee of experts to deliberate on a
data protection framework.
The Committee will be headed by Justice B. N. Srikrishna
and consists of members from government, academia,
and industry.
The Committee will study key issues with respect to data
protection, and recommend methods to address them.
The Committee will also suggest a draft Data Protection
Bill.
Do You Know?
●● The Constitution (101st Amendment) Act, 2016
subsumes Entertainment Tax with GST, except where it
is levied by a panchayat or a municipality.
●● The 2016 Act also subsumes Entry Tax, including
Octroi, within the ambit of GST.
The State Banks (Repeal and
Amendment) Bill, 2017
The State Banks (Repeal and Amendment) Bill, 2017 was
passed in Lok Sabha, and is currently pending in Rajya
Sabha.
The Bill seeks to repeal the two Acts:
●● The State Bank of India (Subsidiary Banks) Act, 1959
●● The State Bank of Hyderabad Act, 1955
These Acts established the State Bank of Bikaner, State
Bank of Mysore, State Bank of Patiala, State Bank of
Travancore, and State Bank of Hyderabad.
Regular Column
Key Points
●● These banks were subsidiaries of the State Bank of
India (SBI).
●● This is consequent to the Union Cabinet approving the
acquisition of these banks by SBI in February 2017.
●● The Bill makes amendments to the State Bank of India
Act, 1955 to remove references related to subsidiary
banks.
New Metro Rail Policy
The Union Cabinet approved the new Metro Rail Policy.
The Policy seeks to provide for private investments across
a range of metro operations.
Key Features
Promoting Public Transport:
●● In order to ensure that the least cost mass transit mode
is selected for public transport, the new policy mandates
alternate analysis.
●● Under this, an evaluation of other modes of mass
transit in terms of demand, capacity, cost and ease of
implementation will be undertaken.
Other modes of mass transit include Bus Rapid
Transit System, light rail, tramways,
and regional rail.
Taskforce on AI
The Ministry of Commerce and Industry constituted
a Taskforce on Artificial Intelligence for Economic
Transformation.
The Taskforce will be chaired by Dr V. Kamakoti, and
comprise experts, academics, and industry leaders in
the field of artificial intelligence.
The Taskforce will explore possibilities to leverage
artificial intelligence for development across various
fields. Artificial intelligence is the use of computing to
replicate human intelligence (e.g., driverless cars).
Current Affairs Survey | October 2017 | 36 |
Private Investments:
●● The Policy makes the public private partnership (PPP)
component mandatory for availing central assistance
for new metro projects.
●● Since metro projects are capital intensive, private
investment and other innovative forms of financing
have been made compulsory to meet the resource
demands.
●● Private participation could be either for the complete
provision of metro rail or for certain unbundled
components (such as automatic fare collection, and
operation and maintenance of services).
Last Mile Connectivity:
●● The Policy seeks to ensure last mile connectivity (from
the metro station to the final destination point), which is
currently either inadequate or absent.
●● It requires states to commit to provide necessary
last mile connectivity through feeder services
(buses, e-rickshaws), and non-motorised transport
infrastructure, such as walking and cycling pathways.
Transit Oriented Development (TOD)
●● The policy seeks to look at metro rail projects as urban
transformation projects.
●● It mandates TOD to promote compact and dense urban
development along metro corridors.
●● States will have to adopt innovative mechanisms like
value capture financing tools such as land pooling,
betterment levy to mobilize resources for financing
metro projects.
Authorities
●● The setting up of an Urban Metropolitan Transport
Authority (UMTA) has been made mandatory.
●● The UMTA will prepare comprehensive mobility plans
for cities to ensure complete multi-modal integration
between various modes of transport.
Merger of Public Sector Banks
The Union Cabinet gave its in-principle approval for public
sector banks to merge. This is aimed at consolidating public
sector banks to create strong and competitive banks.
Key Features of the Framework
●● Decisions to merge banks would be based on commercial
considerations.
●● Proposals should be initiated from the boards of the
respective banks.
●● The final scheme for merger will be notified by the
central government, in consultation with the RBI.
Background:
●● In 1991, it was suggested that India should have fewer
but stronger Public Sector Banks.

●● However, it was only in May 2016 that effective action
to consolidate public sector banks began to be taken by
announcing amalgamation of six banks into the State
bank of India.
●● The decision is expected to facilitate the creation of
strong and competitive banks in public sector space.
●● It will meet the credit needs of a growing economy,
absorb shocks and have the capacity to raise resources
without depending unduly on the state exchequer.
The Code on Wages, 2017
Introduced
The Code on Wages, 2017 was introduced in Lok Sabha.
Four Acts
●● The Code consolidates four Acts, with some
modifications.
●● These Acts are:
i. the Payment of Wages Act, 1936
ii. the Minimum Wages Act, 1949
iii.the Payment of Bonus Act, 1965
iv.the Equal Remuneration Act, 1976
The Code will apply to establishments where any
industry, trade, business, manufacturing or occupation
is carried out. This will also include government
establishments.
Key Features
National Minimum Wage:
●● The central government may notify a national minimum
wage for the country.
●● It may fix different national minimum wage for different
states or geographical areas.
●● The minimum wages decided by the central or state
governments will not be lower than the national
minimum wage.
●● The central or state governments will not reduce the
minimum wages fixed by them, if these wages are
higher than the national minimum wage.
Minimum Wage:
●● The Code requires employers to pay at least the
minimum wages to employees.
●● These wages will be notified by the central or state
governments.
●● The wages will be determined based on time, or number
of pieces produced, among others.
●● The central or state governments will review or revise
the minimum wage every five years.
Payment of Wages:
●● Wages will be paid in coins, currency notes, by cheque,
| 37 | October 2017 | Current Affairs Survey
Socio-Economic Development
or through digital or electronic mode.
●● The wage period will be fixed by the employer as either:
(i) daily, (ii) weekly, (iii) fortnightly, or (iv) monthly.
Bonus:
●● The employer will pay employees an annual bonus of at
least: (i) 8.33% of their wages, or (ii) Rs 100, whichever
is higher.
●● The employer will also distribute a part of the gross
profits amongst the employees (allocable surplus).
Maximum Bonus:
●● An employee can receive a maximum bonus of 20% of
his wages.
●● This will include any amount distributed as allocable
surplus.
●● If this surplus exceeds the maximum bonus payable to
all employees in a year, a certain amount will be carried
forward to the following years (up to four years).
●● The amount carried forward will not exceed 20% of the
total wages payable to all employees during the year.
Global Commission on the
Future of Work
The International Labor Organization (ILO) has established
a high-level body to examine the relationship between
work and society.
About the Commission
●● The Commission on the Future of Work will address how
the future of work can deliver decent and sustainable
jobs for all, thereby contributing to achieving SDG 8
(decent work and economic growth).
●● The global body’s examination will seek to provide the
analytical basis for the delivery of social justice in the
21st century.
●● under the ILO’s Future of Work Centenary Initiative,
the body will organize its work around four “centenary
conversations,” including: work and society; decent
jobs for all; the organization of work and production;
and the governance of work.
Future of Work Centenary Initiative
●● The Future of Work Centenary Initiative is a series of
national dialogues, international events and assessments
launched by ILO in 2013.
●● It aims to provide a better understanding of the forces
and trends transforming the world of work, including
technology development, impacts of climate change, and
the changing character of production and employment.
●● The activities are expected to culminate in a Centenary
Declaration to be adopted in 2019, marking ILO’s 100th
anniversary.
Regular Column
“Mentor India” Campaign
NITI Aayog on August 23 launched the Mentor India
Campaign.
Key Points
●● It is a strategic nation sbuilding initiative to engage
leaders who can guide and mentor students at Atal
Tinkering Labs.
●● Labs have been established across the country as a
part of the Atal Innovation Mission.
●● Mentor India is aimed at maximizing the impact of Atal
Tinkering Labs.
●● The idea is to engage leaders who will nurture and
guide students in the Atal Tinkering Labs.
●● These labs are non-prescriptive by nature, and mentors
are expected to be enablers rather than instructors.
Atal Tinkering Labs are dedicated works spaces where
students from Class 6th to Class 12th learn innovation
skills and develop ideas that will go on to transform
India.
Atal Innovation Mission
●● NITI Aayog’s Atal Innovation Mission is among one of
the flagship programs of the Government of India.
●● It aims to promote innovation and entrepreneurship in
the country to set up the Atal Tinkering Labs across the
country.
Govt to HCs: Monitor Court
Adjournments
To ensure that India improves its ranking in the World
Bank’s Ease of Doing Business index, the government
wants high courts to monitor and regularly provide figures
to it on the cases disposed of by district courts in which the
courts have adhered to the limit of three adjournments as
mandated in the Civil Procedure Code (CPC).
Key Points
What is CrPC?
●● Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) rules say that no
judge can give repeated adjournments in a case ­­not
more than three ­­unless it is extremely unavoidable.
Why the Government is Serious about CrPC
●● Of about 3.15 crore cases pending in courts, over 10%
have been pending for over 10 years, largely due to
repeated adjournments by judges.
●● India failed to improve its ranking in the World Bank
index in the last two years and has been placed at 130
out of 190 economies surveyed in 2017.
●● Its record worsened particularly in ‘protecting minority
investors’ and in ‘resolving insolvency’.
Current Affairs Survey | October 2017 | 38 |
Evergreen Revolution
The NITI Aayog has drafted the three years action plan
for all the sectors including agriculture. The action plan on
agriculture deals with remunerative prices for farmers and
raising productivity.
Strategy chalked out for increase in production of pulses,
use of wasteland, seed village programme and model
contract farming are as below:
Increase in production of Pulses
●● National Food Security Mission (NFSM-Pulses) is
being implemented in 638 districts of 29 States in the
country.
●● The interventions covered under NFSM-Pulses include:
i. cluster demonstrations on improved package of practices
ii. demonstrations on cropping system
iii. distribution of High Yielding Varieties (HYVs),
resource conservation technologies/tools
iv. efficient water application tools and cropping
system based training for increasing production and
productivity of pulses
Under this scheme, new initiatives have been taken
up during 2016-17 i.e., creation of seed hubs, breeder
seed production, minikit distribution, cluster frontline
demonstrations etc.
Use of wasteland
PMKSY is principally for development of rainfed portions
of net cultivated & culturable wastelands.
Seed Village programme
To upgrade the quality of farmer’s saved seeds financial
assistance for distribution of foundation/certified seeds at
50% cost of the seeds for agricultural crops for half an acre
per farmer was available up to the year 2013-14.
From the year 2014-15, the financial assistance for
distribution of foundation/certified seeds at 50% cost of the
seeds for cereal crops and 60% for pulses, oilseeds, fodder
and green manure crops for production of quality seeds is
now available for one acre per farmer.
Certified Seed Production of Pulses, oilseeds,
Fodder & Green Manure crops through Seed
Village
●● In order to enhance certified seed production of Pulses,
oilseeds, Fodder & Green manure crops in the country,
this component has been initiated from 2014-15.
●● Under this component the financial assistance for
distribution of foundation seeds at 75% cost of the
seeds for pulses, oilseeds, fodder and green manure
crops for production of Certified Seeds is available for
the farmers.
 Socio-Economic Development
Model Contract Farming Act ●● All stakeholders will be under pressure from the day
of signing of the MOU to initiate reforms or processes
●● In pursuance of announcement in the Union budget
which will show improvement in education and learning
2017-18, Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare
outcomes.
has constituted a Committee on 28.02.2017 to formulate
a Model Contract Farming Act for adoption by the
States. Consultation Paper on Open
●● This Model Act on Contract Farming would address the Access
constraints in promoting contract farming in a holistic
manner by the States. Long Term Irrigation Fund

Transformative Change in
Health & Education sectors
In a major push to competitive, cooperative federalism,
NITI Aayog, on August 8 announced partnership with
three States each to radically transform their Health and
Education sectors.

States Selected
●● NITI Aayog has selected Uttar Pradesh, Assam, and
Karnataka to improve healthcare delivery and key
outcomes in these States.
●● In Education, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, and
Jharkhand have been selected for support to better The Union Cabinet approved raising extra budgetary
learning outcomes. resources of up to Rs 9,020 crore by NABARD for 99
The six States have been chosen after a rigorous irrigation projects in 2017-18.
competitive process based on comprehensive metrics
to determine potential for impact and likelihood of These resources will be raised by issuing bonds to
success. states at an interest rate of 6% per annum.
SATH Initiative
The irrigation projects are being implemented under
●● This three-way partnership between NITI, State
the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana.
Governments and a knowledge partner for each of
the sectors is part of the Sustainable Action for
This measure has been introduced as a large number
Transforming Human Capital (SATH) initiative of
NITI Aayog. of irrigation projects under the Yojana were incomplete
●● NITI Aayog has been working to foster co-operative due to inadequate funds.
federalism by ranking states through health, water,
education, and agricultural indices.
●● However, SATH has been launched to go beyond The Ministry of Power released a consultation paper on
ranking states and to handhold them in improving their Open Access.
social sector indicators.
What is Open Access?
Why SATH is a Challenging and Ambitious ●● Most consumers buy power from distribution companies
Initiative: (discoms), who buy it from the generation companies.
●● SATH is a challenging and ambitious initiative as ●● Under Open Access, certain consumers can buy
the baseline of various indicators and parameters of power directly from generation companies through
education and health in the States are in public domain. nondiscriminatory (or direct) access to the transmission
●● It defines a new dimension for cooperative federalism, and distribution network.
where NITI Aayog and its knowledge partner will Key Issues Identified in the Paper
actively aid implementation of their recommendations,
in addition to just policy inputs. Frequent shifting of Open Access consumers:

| 39 | October 2017 | Current Affairs Survey

Regular Column
●● It was observed that Open Access consumers shift
frequently between discoms and other sources of power.
●● This affects the discoms’ ability to manage power Do You Know?
procurement efficiently.
yy The 1981 Act provides for the establishment of the
●● It recommended that customers should be required to
schedule power for at least 24 hours whenever they seek National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development
Open Access. (NABARD).
Cross subsidy surcharge yy NABARD is responsible for providing and regulating
●● Open Access consumers are also required to pay a facilities like credit for agricultural and industrial
Cross Subsidy Surcharge (CSS) which is calculated by
development in the rural areas.
the State Electricity Regulatory Commissions (SERCs).
●● However, in order to keep Open Access competitive, the
CSS is capped at 20%, under the Tariff Policy, 2016.
●● It was noted that the CSS is often insufficient to recover
NABARD
the entire loss of cross subsidy on account of consumers (Amendment) Bill, 2017
procuring power through the Open Access route.
●● It was recommended that SERCs should determine CSS The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development
based on category wise cost of supply, thus identifying (Amendment) Bill, 2017 was passed by Lok Sabha. The
real cross subsidy. Bill seeks to amend the NABARD Act, 1981.
●● Further, SERCs should introduce differential CSS for Key Features of the Bill
peak, normal and off-peak hours.

Committee to Frame a New

National Mineral Policy
On August 8, the Supreme Court directed the central
government to revisit the National Mineral Policy, 2008
and implement a new policy before December 31, 2017.
●● In light of this, the Ministry of Mines set up a Committee
(Chair: Dr. K. Rajeswara Rao, Additional Secretary,
Ministry of Mines) to frame a new National Mineral
Policy.
●● The Committee will submit its report by October 31,
2017.
The terms of reference of the Committee include:
●● Reviewing the National Mineral Policy, 2008, and
suggesting a new policy. Increase in capital of the NABARD:
●● The Committee must also consider measures that may ●● Under the 1981 Act, NABARD may have a capital of
need to be undertaken for bringing in transparency, Rs 100 crore. This capital can be further increased to Rs
balanced social and economic growth, and the 5,000 crore by the central government in consultation
sustainability of the mining industry. with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
●● Suggesting recommendations for the conservation and ●● The Bill allows the central government to increase this
development of minerals, environmental protection, capital to Rs 30,000 crore.
and measures to assess the carrying capacity of mining ●● Further, the capital may be increased over Rs 30,000
regions. crore by the central government in consultation with the
●● Suggesting measures to improve the survey and RBI, if necessary.
exploration of minerals, scientific methods of mining,
manpower development, infrastructure development, Transfer of the RBI’s share to the central
financial support for mining, and research in mining. government:
●● and recommending development of strategic minerals. ●● Under the 1981 Act, the central government and the
●● Examining and reviewing the fiscal aspects conducive to RBI together must hold at least 51% of the share capital
the promotion of mineral exploration and development. of NABARD.

Current Affairs Survey | October 2017 | 40 |


●● The Bill provides that the central government alone
must hold at least 51% of the share capital.
●● Further, the Bill transfers the share capital held by the
RBI (valued at Rs 20 crore) to the central government.
●● Consequently, the central government will pay an equal
amount to the RBI.
Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME):
●● The Bill replaces the terms ‘small-scale industry’ and
‘industry in the tiny and decentralised sector’ with the
terms ‘micro enterprise’, ‘small enterprise’ and ‘medium
enterprise’ as defined in the MSME Development Act,
2006.
●● Under the 1981 Act, NABARD was responsible for
providing credit and other facilities to industries having
an investment of upto Rs 20 lakh in machinery and
plant. The Bill extends this to apply to enterprises with
investment upto Rs 10 crore in the services sector.
‘Making India Hub of
Arbitration’
The High-Level Committee on Making India Hub of
Arbitration (Chair: Justice B. N. Srikrishna) submitted its
report.
Why was the Committee Formed?
●● The Committee was formed in December 2016 to
review the efficacy of existing arbitration mechanisms
(dispute resolution involving a neutral third party). community monitored rural transport services.
●● Recommend legislative changes that will facilitate
international commercial arbitration, among others.
Recommendations
●● A specialised Arbitration Bench should be created in
Courts to handle commercial disputes.
●● It suggested changes in provisions of the Arbitration
and Conciliation Act, 1996.
●● The International Centre for Alternative Dispute
Resolution should be declared an institute of national
importance. The Institute, currently functioning under
the Ministry of Law and Justice, should be taken over
by an Act of Parliament.
●● The post of an ‘International Law Adviser’ should be
created. The Adviser will coordinate the dispute
APCI:
●● An Arbitration Promotion Council of India (APCI)
should be established as an autonomous body.
●● The APCI may recognize professional institutes for
providing accreditation to arbitrators, and conduct
training workshops.
●● It should have representative from stakeholders for
grading arbitral institutions in India.
| 41 | October 2017 | Current Affairs Survey
Socio-Economic Development
“Pradhan Mantri Kisan
Sampada Yojana”
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs on August 23
approved the renaming of the new Central Sector Scheme
- SAMPADA (Scheme for Agro-Marine Processing and
Development of Agro-Processing Clusters) as “Pradhan
Mantri Kisan Sampada Yojana (PMKSY)” for the period
of 2016-20 coterminous with the 14th Finance Commission
cycle.
Earlier, CCEA in its meeting held in May, 2017 approved
the new Central Sector Scheme - SAMPADA (Scheme
for Agro-Marine Processing and Development of Agro-
Processing Clusters) with same allocation and period.
Aajeevika Grameen Express
Yojana
The Ministry of Rural Development has launched a
new sub-scheme, Aajeevika Grameen Express
Yojana (AGEY) under the Deendayal Antyodaya
Yojana – National Rural Livelihoods Mission
(DAY-NRLM).
Salient Features
●● Under AGEY, members from SHGs will operate road
transport services in backward areas.
●● This will help in providing safe, affordable and
●● It will connect remote villages with key services and
amenities (such as markets, education and health) for
the overall economic development of the area.
●● To operate, a SHG member will be provided an interest
free loan of upto Rs 6.50 lakh for purchase of the
vehicle.
●● This amount will be loaned out by the Community
Based Organisation from their Community Investment
Fund (seed fund).
●● Alternatively, the Community Based Organisation
will own the vehicle and lease it to a SHG member to
operate the vehicle and pay lease rental to it.
●● AGEY will initially be implemented in 250 blocks in
the country on a pilot basis. Each block will be provided
with upto six vehicles to operate the transport services.
Data Generation for Gender
Indicators for SDGs
The formulation of a roadmap for data generation and
data utilization of gender indicators especially for SDGs
requires close collaboration between ministries of national
and state governments, their statistical counterparts, as
well as a wide range of partners.
Regular Column
To explore actionable steps in this direction, MoSPI Implementation (MoSPI) has been contextualizing the
(Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation) global indicator framework for India.
organized a two-day National Consultation on Data ●● The Ministry placed a Draft National Indicator
Generation for Gender Indicators of Sustainable Framework for SDGs in the public domain for wider
Development Goals in collaboration with UN Women on consultation, which is expected to be finalised shortly.
21-22 August. National Workshop on Data Gaps in Gender
Objectives of the National Consultation Statistics
●● To apprise Central social sector ministries and state ●● The MoSPI and MWCD organized a National Workshop
governments about the need for gender indicators and on Data Gaps in Gender Statistics, with support from
gender statistics for the Vision 2030 for SDGs. UN Women and UNFPA, in 2015.
●● To discuss the way forward with national and state ●● Identifying the gaps in gender data through this
government stakeholders to monitor the national gender workshop, it was recommended that - a gender analysis
indicators for the SDGs. of existing Management Information Systems (MIS) of
●● To facilitate collaborative learning and knowledge line Ministries needed to be undertaken in order to
exchange by sharing the latest best practices on data strengthen them for gender-responsive data.
collection or use or dissemination of gender indicators ●● It was also recommended to undertake few new
for SDGs. surveys on the themes, on which there continues to be a
●● To seek recommendations for facilitating user-producer dearth of data, like, Asset Ownership and Control, Time
dialogues to increase accessibility, quality and demand Use Surveys, Violence Prevalence, etc.
for gender statistics, through engagements of statistical ●● Based on the recommendations of the National
offices with policy and decision makers. Workshop on Data Gaps in Gender Statistics, 2015,
SDG5: Progress in India UN Women and UNFPA had developed a Framework
and Roadmap for Collecting Statistics on the Status of
●● For SDG5, the Ministry of Women and Child
Women in India.
Development (MWCD) has been identified as the nodal
ministry.
●● The Ministry of Statistics and Programme
Forex Reserves: The Problem of Plenty
yy Backed by strong foreign inflows, reserves have risen by over $23 billion so far in the current financial year.
yy Sustained intervention by the RBI has brought India close to getting included in the currency manipulation
watch list of the US.
yy But despite intervention by the RBI, the rupee has appreciated by around 6% since the beginning of the year,
though the weakening dollar has also played a role.
yy While strong foreign flows and rising reserves would be comforting for policymakers on the one hand, they
pose significant policy challenges on the other.
yy Non-intervention or insufficient intervention would result in further appreciation of the rupee and affect
India’s competitiveness.
There have been at least two instances in recent history that support the
idea of intervention when necessary:
yy First, on the back of strong inflows, the RBI accumulated reserves at an accelerated pace between 2006 and
early 2008, which helped India deal with the consequences of the 2008 global financial crisis.
yy Second, inadequate intervention in the years preceding the 2013 taper tantrum episode resulted in a higher
current account deficit and India got pushed dangerously close to a crisis.
So how can the central bank deal with this problem of plenty?
yy One option is to work with the government and use an instrument like market stabilization scheme bonds
and continue to build reserves. But, in this case, the cost would keep rising as higher reserves would attract
more flows. Rising reserves will reduce the currency risk for foreign investors.
yy The other option is that now that India has adequate reserves and stable macros, it reassesses the kind
of foreign funds it wants. For instance, flows in the form of equity capital are more stable and less risky
compared with debt.

Current Affairs Survey | October 2017 | 42 |


OBC List to be Sub-
Categorised
The Union Cabinet on August 23 approved the setting up of
a commission to examine the issue of sub-categorisation of
Other Backward Classes (OBC).
Remit of the Commission
●● The Cabinet has approved the setting up of the
commission to report on the extent of inequalities
within castes listed as OBCs on the Central list and
find out scientific ways of sub-categorising the most
backward among them.
●● This will pave the way for the provision of sub-quotas
for the most backward castes within the OBCs.
●● This means that the most backward OBC groups will
compete among themselves for government jobs,
educational seats, fellowships and so on rather than
with the better-off OBC castes.
OBC Reservations Offered at Present
Social Implications of the OBC
Sub-categorisation
At present, many feel that the more advanced OBC castes
corner the lion’s share of the benefits and have become
influential.
Sub-categorisation will offer more opportunities to the
most backward castes among the OBCs.
| 43 | October 2017 | Current Affairs Survey
The Nation
●● At present, there is a single Central OBC list, with
entries from each State.
●● People belonging to all these castes can seek reservation
from within the single 27% OBC reservation pie for
Central government jobs and Central educational
institutions.
●● Nine States, however, have already sub-categorised
OBCs. These are Andhra Pradesh, Telangana,
Puducherry, Karnataka, Haryana, Jharkhand, West
Bengal, Bihar, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu.
●● OBC reservation became a reality after the
implementation of the Mandal Commission report,
which categorised many castes as constituting the
backward classes and deserving of quotas. New castes
have been added to the list over the years.
Can it Affect Any Castes or Groups Adverse-
ly?
●● Yes, it may adversely affect the more advanced castes
among the OBCs, such as the Yadavs.
●● Since the Supreme Court had imposed a cap of 50% on
reservation, OBC quotas at the Centre cannot exceed
the present 27%.
Creamy Layer Cap Raised
●● The Cabinet also increased the “creamy layer” ceiling
for the Other Backward Classes to Rs 8 lakh per annum
from the existing Rs 6 lakh for Central government jobs.
●● So, whatever will be carved out as a sub-category
can come only from within this 27% quota pie,
thus reducing the number of seats available for the
better-off OBCs.
●● The Scheduled Castes already have a 15% quota and the
Scheduled Tribes 7.5%.
●● This means that the umbrella of reservation is widened
and those earning up to Rs 8 lakh per annum would now
get the benefits.
Changes Suggested in
Surrogacy Bill
The report of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on
Health and Family Welfare on the Surrogacy (Regulation)
Bill, 2016 has recommended several changes in the bill to
bring it on par with the international practices.
Regular Column
Recommendations
Committee Objects to the Exclusion of Some
Categories
It has come down hard on the exclusion of divorced or
widowed women and live-in couples. It said:
●● Surrogacy is one of the least used options by childless
Indians. If all these categories are to be banned then
why have surrogacy at all.
●● The Government should broad base the eligibility
criteria in this regard and widen the ambit of persons
who can avail surrogacy services by including live-in
couples, divorced women/widows.
Altruistic Surrogacy
The committee has also taken a strong view against
allowing only “altruistic” surrogacy by a “close relative”,
which could potentially open up other forms of exploitation
against surrogate mothers.
Why has the Committee Objected to Altruistic
Surrogacy?
●● Permitting women to provide reproductive labour for
free to another person but preventing them from being
paid for their reproductive labour is grossly unfair and
arbitrary.
●● Pregnancy is not a one-minute job but a labour of nine
months with far-reaching implications regarding her
health, her time and her family.
●● In the altruistic arrangement, the commissioning couple
gets a child; and doctors, lawyers and hospitals get paid.
However, the surrogate mothers are expected to practice
altruism without a single penny” despite risking their
health and lives and facing loss of remuneration during
the period.
Age Restrictions
It has come down against age restrictions:
Bill’s Features:
●● As per the Surrogacy Bill, altruistic ethical surrogacy is
allowed for infertile Indian married couples where the
woman is between 23-50 years and the man is between
26-55 years.
●● The couple should be legally married, as per thse Bill,
for at least five years and should be Indian citizens.
●● They cannot have a surviving child — either biological
or adopted — except when they have a child who is
mentally or physically challenged or suffers from a life-
threatening disorder with no permanent cure.
Committee’s Objections
●● It would be unrealistic to expect that all infertile persons
will have a close relative between 25 and 35 years of age,
having one child, satisfying all conditions as prescribed
in the Bill and would voluntarily consent to be a surrogate
mother altruistically for the infertile couples.
●● This condition of close relative being surrogate mother
will therefore cause acute dearth and unavailability of
women to act as a surrogate mother and shut all options
for the medically infertile for whom surrogacy is the
only option to have their biological child.

Against Global Practice Stalking: A Serious Crime

against Women
Is Stalking a Crime

It
noted that “altruistic surrogacy across the world means
compensated surrogacy and a range of monetary
payments to surrogate mothers are permitted as
reasonable compensation.”
Stalking was not considered a distinct crime until 2013.
In a patriarchal societal system, allowing only “altruistic”
The J. S. Verma committee recommendations behind the
surrogacy is likely to leave dependent women in the
Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2013 made stalking a
families vulnerable.
non- bailable offence.
And the pre-condition also violates the basic rights of
Women can stalk too; the 2013 law makes stalking a
privacy, as well as reproductive autonomy, of the couple
gender- neutral crime.
intending to become parents through surrogacy.

Current Affairs Survey | October 2017 | 44 |


Recently, daughter of an IAS officer was targeted by two
men in Chandigarh. The incident has yet again brought the
focus on stalking.
Why Stalking is Considered a Serious Crime
against Women
●● Stalking is meant to induce fear, and is often a prelude
to violence.
●● The potential of violence in stalking must first be
recognized.
●● It can end in molestation, abduction, rape, maiming —
acid attacks are common — and murder.
●● Disappointed suitors, fantasizing strangers, obsessed
or vengeful individuals, or men out to ‘get’ a woman
— stalkers are criminals in the making and must be
stopped as soon as there is a complaint.
Stalking is a Form of Sexual Harassment
●● Statistics bear out that even though stalking cases have
been rising over the past few years, convictions remain
abysmally low.
●● Of the 7,132 cases of stalking registered in 2016 only
Near Relative
The proposed amendment seeks to include the following
in the definition of ‘near relative’:
(i) step father, step mother
(ii) step brother, step sister, step son, step
daughter and their spouses
(iii) spouses of sons and daughters of recipient
(iv) brothers and sisters of recipient’s spouse and their
spouses
(v) brothers and sisters of recipient’s parents and their
spouses and
(vi) first cousins (having common grandparents) of the
recipient and their spouses
| 45 | October 2017 | Current Affairs Survey
The Nation
379 resulted in convictions ­a rate of only 5%. With such
numbers it’s hardly surprising that stalking continues to
be so widespread.
●● Moreover, a lacklustre approach to tackling stalking
emboldens more serious crimes against women.
●● Part of the solution needs to be shunning the VIP culture
and sense of entitlement that encourages stalking and
other crimes. Accused from influential backgrounds
or with powerful connections interfere in police
investigation, leading to delays and sabotage.
Digital Police Portal under
CCTNS Project
The Union Home Ministry on August 21 launched the
Digital Police Portal under the Crime and Criminal
Tracking Network & Systems (CCTNS).
Salient Features
●● The Digital Police Portal will enable citizens to register
FIRs online.
●● The portal will initially offer seven Public Delivery
Services in 34 States & UTs.
●● Public delivery system includes: Person and Address
Verification e.g. of employees, tenants, nurses etc,
permission for hosting Public Events, Lost & Found
Articles and Vehicle theft etc.
●● The portal will enable restricted access to law
enforcement agencies on topics such as Antecedent
Verification and make assessment of FIRs.
Transplantation of Human
Organs and Tissues Act, 1994
The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has invited
comments on a proposed amendment to the Human Organs
and Tissues Transplantation Act, 1994. The comments will
be accepted until September 25, 2017.
About the Act
●● The Act regulates the removal, storage, and
transplantation of human organs for therapeutic
purposes.
●● It also seeks to prevent commercial dealing of organs.
●● Under the Act, only near relatives can donate their
organs (before their death) to the concerned recipients
in need of such organs.
Proposed Amendments
The proposed amendment seeks to expand the
definition of ‘near relative’.
●● Under the 1994 Act, ‘near relative’ was defined as
‘spouse, son, daughter, father, mother, brother or sister’.
Regular Column
●● This definition was expanded in 2011 to include
‘grandfather, grandmother, grandson, and
granddaughter’.
The Ministry noted that expanding the definition
has not led to an increase in the availability of
living donors.
This is because:
(i) grandparents are not able to donate due to age or some
adverse medical condition, and
(ii) grandchildren are too young to donate organs.
A further expansion of this definition is being
proposed to address the following issues:
(i) the demand for organs exceeds the supply despite the
expansion of definition of ‘near relatives’ in 2011, and
(ii) increased incidents of organ trading due to the mismatch
between such supply and demand.
NHRC Issues Notice on
Rohingyas
India’s Refugee Policy
India has had an age-old tradition of according
humanitarian protection to refugees and asylum seekers.
It has followed a very liberal refugee policy.
However, the absence of a refugee specific legislation can
be attributed to India’s volatile situation in South Asian
politics and the threat of terrorism faced by it.
Even in such absence of a specific law, India has addressed
the needs of refugees who have fled from their home
country into its territory.
India hosted around 420,400 refugees, including
some 110,000 from Tibet who fled since China’s 1951
annexation. Another 102,300, mostly Tamil Sri Lankans,
escaped fighting between the Liberation Tigers of Tamil
Eelam and the Sri Lankan armed forces.
There were about 36,000 Buddhist ethnic Chakmas and
Hajongs from present-day Bangladesh who fled to Arunachal
Pradesh after Muslim annexation of their land in 1964.
India has accorded differential treatment to refugees
belonging to different countries.
Current Affairs Survey | October 2017 | 46 |
The National Human Rights Commission on August 18
issued a notice to the Union Ministry of Home Affairs.
The notice was issued over the planned deportation of
about 40,000 Rohingya immigrants from Myanmar, asking
for a detailed report within four weeks.
Issues Raised by NHRC
●● Rohingyas, who have crossed into India and are residing
here for long, have a fear of persecution once they are
pushed back to their native country.
●● NHRC highlighted the Supreme Court’s decisions
that say the Right to Life and Personal Liberty under
Article 21 of the Constitution apply to all, irrespective
of their citizenship.
●● Though India is not a signatory to the 1951 Convention
on Refugees and the 1967 Protocol, it is a signatory to
many United Nations and world conventions on human
rights.
●● Till today, the country has evolved a practical balance
between human and humanitarian obligations on the
one hand and security and national interests on the
other.
Internal Security Concerns The Centre has said illegal
immigrants like the Rohingyas pose grave security
challenges as they may be recruited by terror groups.
●● The issue of refugees is always a sensitive topic, but
there are security related factors involved:
a. Influx of refugees causes a strain on local infrastructure
and resources of which we already have limited
b. It can affect the demographic balance, Jammu already
being a source of tension
360-Degree Approach is Not
Transparent
The government’s new system of rating officers on the
basis of a 360-degree approach is opaque and susceptible
to bias, manipulation and lacks fairness, a parliamentary
standing committee has said.
Key Concerns raised by the Committee:
What is the 360-degree Approach?
yy The 360-degree approach is a new multi-source
feedback system for performance appraisal of
bureaucrats started by the current government for
future postings.
yy The system seeks to look beyond the ratings received
in appraisal reports written by their bosses.
yy It relies on feedback of juniors and other colleagues for
an all-round view.
 The Nation
●● The report mentions that most central posts of joint- ●● The Bill amends this provision to empower the
secretary level and upwards go to IAS officers and central or state government to allow schools to
adds that the majority of top posts should not go to any hold back a child in class 5, class 8, or in both
one service leaving others services out in the Central classes.
Staffing Scheme. ●● The amendment Bill states that a regular examination
●● Since the new 360-degree system hinges on feedback may be held in class 5 and class 8 at the end of every
about officers received from people who have worked academic year.
with them — juniors and peers included— the committee ●● If a child fails in these examinations, he will be
noted that such feedback could lack objectivity. given additional instruction and the opportunity for a
●● Feedback received from subordinates and stakeholders reexamination (within two months from the declaration
could be biased or lack objectivity, particularly if the of the result).
officer had to discipline his subordinates or he was ●● If he fails in the re-examination, the child may be held
unable to meet the unjustified demands of stakeholders. back in class 5, class 8, or in both classes.
●● Acting on such feedback behind the back of the officer ●● The central and state government may also decide to
may not be legally tenable particularly if it adversely not hold back the child in any class till the completion
affects the empanelment prospects of the officer. of elementary education. Further, the central or state
●● The 360-degree approach does not have any statutory government will decide the manner and the conditions
backing, or supported by any Act. subject to which a child may be held back.
●● The report also mentions the report of the Second
Administrative Reforms Commission to say that the Key Questions Related to Education
multi-source feedback system was not suitable for India. What was the Original Purpose of RTE?
●● When the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory
The RTE (Second Amendment) Education Act became law in 2010, it appeared to be a
Bill, 2017 bulwark against the various ills that prevent continued
schooling of all children up to the secondary level.
The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education ●● The guarantee of uninterrupted schooling that the Act
(Second Amendment) Bill, 2017 was introduced in Lok Sabha. provides under sections 16 and 30(1) was founded on
the no-detention policy until Class 8.
The Bill amends the Right of Children to Free and
Compulsory Education Act, 2009. Has the Act Failed to Serve its Purpose?
India’s elementary education system may be getting better
Original Provisions and Amendments
at providing access to greater numbers of children, but has
Section 16 of the RTE Act, which came into effect in never really been able to answer the question, what is the
March 2010, currently states that no child admitted in a measure of its success?
school shall be held back in any class or expelled till she
completes elementary education, which is Class VIII.
‘Swasth Bachche, Swasth Bharat’ Launched
‘Swasth Bachche, Swasth Bharat’ Programme was launched on August 21.
About the Programme
This is, an initiative of Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan to prepare a physical Health and Fitness Profile Card for more than
12 lakhs of Kendriya Vidyalaya students.
Swasth Bachche, Swasth Bharat programme will provide a comprehensive and inclusive report card for children covering
all age groups and children of different abilities.
Objectives
Making students, teachers and parents aware about the importance of good health and fitness and encouraging 60
minutes of play each day.
To imbibe values of Olympics and Paralympics amongst students.
Bring back the childhood amongst children and make physical activity and recreational games an integral part of learning
process.
Motivating potentially outstanding performers in various games and sports of excellence, using technology for data
capture and analytics.
Giving access to schools.

| 47 | October 2017 | Current Affairs Survey

Regular Column
●● If producing curious minds that have had exposure to
life skills is the test, the system generally scores poorly,
since it primarily emphasises competition,
tests and scores.
●● In spite of policy improvements, it has to contend with
a significant dropout rate.
NAAC Launches Revised
before 1947.
●● The Bill also seeks to amend three Acts to delete some
provisions, and rectify drafting errors.
●● These three Acts are:
 The Plantations Labour Act, 1951
 The Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of
Children) Act, 2015
 The Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act,
2016

Accreditation Framework
The National Assessment and Accreditation Council
(NAAC) has released the revised accreditation framework.

About NACC: The NAAC is an autonomous

body established by the University Grants
Commission to assess and accredit institutions
of higher education.

The Revised Framework

●● The framework used for this process takes into
consideration aspects including: (i) educational
outcomes, (ii) curriculum, (iii) faculty, (iv) governance,
and (v) financial well-being.
●● The revised framework incorporates qualitative and
quantitative methods for assessment and accreditation.
●● The draft framework was previously pilot tested on
certain select higher education institutions.
Key features of the framework are as follows:
●● Simplification of process and ICT: The
revised framework will be more Information and
Communications Technology (ICT) intensive. Further,
simplification of the accreditation process is envisaged
through a reduction in number of questions and the
number of visit days during the assessment.
●● Additions to the current grading pattern: A system
of applying minimum qualifiers for achieving a grade
will be implemented.
●● Differences in the metrics, weightages and benchmarks
to universities, autonomous colleges and affiliated
colleges have also been proposed.
●● The assessment process envisages enhanced
participation by the students and alumni.
Repealing and Amending
(Second) Bill, 2017
The Repealing and Amending (Second) Bill, 2017 was
introduced in Lok Sabha.
Key Points
●● It seeks to repeal 131 Acts.
●● Of these, 38 are amending Acts, where changes
proposed by them have already been incorporated into
the principal Acts.
●● Further, among the Acts being repealed, 30 were passed
Sankalp Se Siddhi Programme
To take forward the initiative of Prime Minister Narendra
Modi for a New India movement from 2017 - 2022, a Sankalp
Se Siddhi (Attainment through Resolve) Programme was
organized at Sri Ramalinga Sowdambigai College of Science
and Commerce, Onappalayam, Coimbatore on 12 August,
2017. The New India Movement 2017-2022 envisages an
India free of Poverty, Corruption, Terrorism, Communalism,
Casteism and Un-cleanliness.
The RTE (Amendment)
Bill, 2017
The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education
(Amendment) Bill, 2017 was passed by Parliament.
Key Points
●● The Bill amends the Right of Children to Free and
Compulsory Education Act, 2009 to extend the deadline
for teachers to acquire the prescribed minimum
qualifications for appointment.
●● Under the Act, if a state does not have adequate
teacher training institutions or sufficient number of
qualified teachers, the provision to possess minimum
qualifications is relaxed for a period not exceeding five
years i.e. till March 31, 2015.
●● The Bill further adds to this provision by stating
that those teachers who do not possess the minimum
qualifications as on March 31, 2015 will acquire the
minimum qualifications within a period of four years
i.e., by March 31, 2019.

Current Affairs Survey | October 2017 | 48 |


Agreements with Nepal and
Switzerland
The Prime Minister of Nepal, and the President of
Switzerland visited India in August 2017.
Key Agreements Signed
Nepal:
●● India and Nepal signed eight agreements.
●● These include agreements related to:
i.) implementation of India’s grant towards post-earthquake
reconstruction in certain sectors in Nepal
ii.) modalities of using India’s grant for the reconstruction
of 50,000 houses in Nepal
iii.) the cost sharing and safeguard issues related to the
construction of the Mechi bridge at the Indo-Nepal
border
iv.) drug demand reduction and prevention of illicit
trafficking of narcotic drugs.
Mechi River at Indo-Nepal border
●● The Union Cabinet on August 23 approved a
Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to be signed
between India and Nepal for starting construction of a
new Bridge over Mechi River at Indo-Nepal border.
●● The new bridge is part of upgradation of the Kakarvitta
(Nepal) to Panitanki Bypass (India) on NH 327B
covering a length of 1500 meters including a 6 lane
approach road of 825 meters.
●● Bridge is the ending point of Asian Highway 02 in
India leading to Nepal and provides critical connectivity
to Nepal.
●● National Highway and Infrastructure Development
Corporation (NHIDCL) under Ministry of Road
Transport & Highways has been designated as the
implementing agency for this project.
Switzerland:
●● India and Switzerland signed two agreements.
●● These agreements are regarding:
i.) technical cooperation in the railway sector
ii.) the establishment of George Fernandes Institute of
Tunnel Technology at Goa.
Current Affairs Survey | October 2017 | 49 |
Bilateral Relations & World
Indian Ocean Exercise
The Indian Ocean Naval Symposium (IONS) is holding
its maiden International Maritime Search and Rescue
Exercise (IMMSAREX) in November this year.
Participating Countries
●● The exercise of the IONS, currently chaired by
Bangladesh, will see the participation of ships and
aircraft of countries of the Indian Ocean littorals and
observer countries.
●● While India will be participating as a member country,
China’s People’s Liberation Army Navy has agreed to
participate as an observer.
About IONS: The IONS is a multilateral maritime
cooperation initiative aimed to promote cooperation among
navies of the Indian Ocean littoral states. At present, the
IONS has 23 Indian Ocean Region (IOR) littoral states’
navies as members and 9 states as observers which include
China.
Significance of the Exercise
●● The exercise comes at a time of intensifying competition
among regional navies for dominance in the Indian
Ocean.
●● Navies of China and Japan are presently observers, in
addition to member states like India, France, Iran and
the U.K.
Maritime Security:
●● Under the charter of business adopted in 2014, the
grouping has working groups on Humanitarian
Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR), Information
Security and Interoperability (IS&I) and anti-piracy
Regular Column
now renamed as maritime security.
●● India has considerably expanded its engagement with
countries to further its own interests as well as to check
the rapid expansion of Chinese naval forays in the
Indian Ocean.
●● Other countries in the region are also engaged in rapid
expansion of their military capabilities.
The working group’s conferences are held annually and
India had chaired the one on HADR in May this year and
Pakistan had chaired the meeting on IS&I in July.
No Data from China on
Brahmaputra This Year
India recently said that China has not shared any water-
related data about the Himalayan rivers in the current year.
Under an agreement, China has committed to share annual
hydrological data with India but the same has not been
shared this year.
Existing Mechanism
●● There is an existing mechanism named India-
China Expert-Level mechanism, started in 2006 to
share hydrological data during the flood season for
Brahmaputra and Satluj rivers.
●● Under the MoUs, the hydrological data is to be shared
between May 15 to October 15 every year but from
May 15 till now, India has no data from China.
Why Cooperation is Necessary
●● The responsibility of sharing data is with China as it
hosts the points of origin of the Brahmaputra and Satluj.
●● The upper reaches of the Yarlung Zangbo (the upper
stream of the Brahmaputra) are in Southwest
China’s Tibet Autonomous Region, so China agreed
to share hydrological data with India to help it prevent
hydrological disasters such as flooding and drought,
and carry out cooperation on the development and
utilization of hydrological resources
●● Hydrological data capture trends in water levels that
help downstream countries like India prepare better for
floods.
Current Affairs Survey | October 2017 | 50 |
India, China Question ‘Trade
Distorting’ Farm Subsidies
India and China have challenged a major flexibility given
to developed countries whereby they can concentrate their
Do You Know?
Under the WTO norms, most developing countries
cannot provide product-specific support exceeding 10%
of the value of production of the agricultural product
concerned, called de minimis. However, developed
nations and some developing ones are not constrained
by this 10% limit.
subsidies on a few farm products which allows them more
policy space and causes distortions in global agricultural
trade.
India and China have jointly prepared a paper in which
they have argued that the subsidies given under this
flexibility by developed members including the US, EU
and Canada amounts to nearly $160 billion, which is more
than 90% of the total global entitlements “resulting in a
major asymmetry in the rules on agricultural trade”.
What the Paper Highlights
●● The paper stresses on the need to eliminate this
flexibility as a pre-requisite for consideration of other
reforms in domestic support negotiations.
●● The paper has cited examples where the product support
given by developed countries exceeded even the value
of production in some years.
●● Subsidies to mohair and wool by the US; tinned
pineapple, cotton and tobacco by the EU while the
subsidy dole out by Canada to tobacco in 2009 was
more than thrice the value of production.
Aggregate Measurement of Support (AMS):
●● The subsidies here are called the Aggregate
Measurement of Support, or AMS, which is the annual
level of support or subsidies expressed in monetary
terms.
●● The subsidy can be for a particular agricultural product
in favour of the producers (product specific) or it can be
given to farmers in general.
●● Hence, the subsidy on any product can be as high as the
total support.
●● Agricultural input subsidies (on fertiliser, electricity,
and seeds) to low-income or resource-poor producers,
along with investment subsidies, are exempt from the
AMS calculation.
●● As per the paper, “AMS is the most trade distorting
element in global trade in agriculture”.

What is Trade Distorting Subsidy?
Trade distorting subsidies are defined by the WTO that
subsidies that affect trade severely.
E.g agriculture subsidies whose main intention is providing
food security and livinghood security to the poor consumers
and farmers. Which is further classified in three categories:
●● Amber box-which affect the trade most. Upper cap for
developing countries 10%. and for developed countries
it is 5% of production cost of agricultural produce.
●● Blue box-moderate severe-maximum limit is 8% for
developing countries.
●● Green box-Which practically did not affect trade at all.
It generally applied on agricultural development and
environmental sustainability and policies.
Harmful Impact:
Because of this indifference future commodity market is
highly speculative and volatile, prices of commodities not
reflect actual supply and demand.
This harm poor farmer as they do not get the benefits
of international price rise but conversely loses when
market flooded with imported agricultural produce when
international price fall and sometimes poor consumer have
to pay more in their domestic market.
BRICS Agriculture Research
Platform
The Union Cabinet on August 2 gave its ex-post facto
approval for a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU)
signed among India and various BRICS countries for
establishment of the BRICS Agriculture Research Platform
(BRICS-ARP).
About the Platform
●● During the 7th BRICS Summit held on 9thJuly 2015 at
Ufa in Russia, Prime Minister Narendra Modi proposed
to establish BRICS Agriculture Research Centre which
will be a gift to the entire world.
●● The Centre will promote sustainable agricultural
development and poverty alleviation through strategic
cooperation in agriculture to provide food security in
the BRICS member countries.
●● BRICS-ARP will be the natural global platform for
science-led agriculture-based sustainable development
Current Affairs Survey | October 2017 | 51 |
Bilateral Relations & World
for addressing the issues of world hunger, under-nutrition,
poverty and inequality, particularly between farmers’ and
non-farmers’ income, and enhancing agricultural trade.
India-China Battle Over
Tibet’s Medicine
India and China are locked in a protracted battle over a
What is Sowa-Rigpa?
Commonly known as the Amchi system of medicine,
it is believed to have originated in the 3rd century BC,
and is one of the world’s oldest and best documented
medical traditions.
The heart of the tradition is in Dharamsala, the seat
of the Tibetan government in exile, but it is also
practised in Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, Darjeeling,
Lahaul & Spiti and Ladakh.
Outside India, Sowa-Rigpa is practised in Tibet,
Mongolia, Bhutan, parts of China, and Nepal.
medicine.
●● India has sent Sowa-Rigpa, the Tibetan system of
medicine, as its official entry for UNESCO’s prestigious
Intangible Cultural Heritage list.
●● Beijing, too, has sent a similar entry, claiming Sowa-
Rigpa as its own.
●● Chinese experts attacked India for staking claim to the
legacy of ancient Tibetan medicine. The Tibetan medicine
system originated in Tibet and has developed on the
Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in northwest and southwest China.
Entries Made by Both Countries
●● The Indian entry, titled “Sowa-Rigpa, knowledge of
healing or science of healing”, was submitted in March
2017.
●● The Chinese dossier, “Lum medicinal bathing of Sowa
Rigpa, knowledge and practices concerning life,
health and illness prevention and treatment among
the Tibetan people in China”, had been submitted a
few years earlier.
Both entries will come up for consideration in the
UNESCO list in 2018.
India’s Stand:
●● In its defence, the Ministry of Culture has said India had
been preparing the nomination dossier for Sowa-Rigpa
for many years.
●● Top levels of government had got involved in the attempt to
speed up India’s bid ahead of the 2018 session of UNESCO’s
Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the
Intangible Cultural Heritage, sources said.
Regular Column
Report on Climatic Change and
Agriculture Research
The Standing Committee on Agriculture (Chair:
Mr. Hukm Deo Narayan Yadav) submitted its report
on ‘Comprehensive Agriculture Research based on
Geographical Conditions and Impact of Climatic Changes
to ensure Food Security in the Country’.
Key observations and recommendations made by the
Committee include:
Impact of Climate Change on Agriculture
●● The Committee noted that climate change effects
include rising sea levels, and changes in the frequency
of rainfall, floods and drought.
●● It further observed that climate change affects the yields
of major crops.
●● In this regard, the Committee stated that there is a need
to find solutions to address challenges in agriculture
due to climate change.
●● Consequently, it recommended that allocations to
research projects under the National Innovations in
Climate Resilient Agriculture should be increased.
Crop Residue
●● The Committee noted that though burning of crop
residue is banned, it continues to add to the high levels
of pollutants in the environment.
●● Around 20% (130-140 million tonnes) of the crop
residue is burnt annually in the country.
●● The Committee stated the following causes as reasons
for burning of crop residue: (i) shortage of agricultural
labour, (ii) short interval between crops, and (iii)
mechanised farming.
●● In this regard, the Committee recommended that
ecofriendly utilisation of crop residue should be taken
up using new technologies.
Current Affairs Survey | October 2017 | 52 |
Earth Overshoot Day
This year Earth Overshoot Day was observed on August 2.
What is EOD?
●● First calculated by economist Andrew Simms, EOD
represents the day, each year, when the world goes into
deficit spending — ecologically speaking.
●● The day, this year, is Wednesday, August 2.
●● Simply speaking, the day the world completely
consumes all the natural resources produced that year
is EOD, or the day when our consumption exceeds the
earth’s capacity to regenerate natural resources.
Environmental Degradation
Since it was first calculated, the EOD has been moving up
the calendar, from December 19 in 1987 to August 2 this
year — just seven months into the year — revealing the
shocking rate at which environmental degradation is taking
place.
●● According to the Global Footprint Network, which
calculates EOD every year, about 60% of the world’s
ecological footprint is made up by carbon emissions,
which the world is attempting to curb under the Paris
climate change agreement.
●● However, voluntary emission cuts are not enough to
keep the planet on a sustainable footing.
Rapid Exhaustion
●● Overfishing, wastage of food, overharvesting forest
resources are all factors that are contributing to the rapid
exhaustion of the world’s natural resources, resulting in
depletion, poverty, and a large number of species facing
extinction.
●● According to estimates, to sustain the current level of
consumption, we need a whole new earth by 2030.

“Economic growth and development is critical for India
— improved education, health, and job opportunities
along with better infrastructure are much needed”.
●● However, if not properly planned and implemented,
such growth can also pose a significant challenge to the
natural environment.
●● The future lies in development trajectories that also
reduce humanity’s ecological footprint.
Guidelines for Diverting Forest
Land
The World Wide Fund for Nature’s (WWF) Living Planet
Report, released in 2016, had said there was a 58
per cent decline in global populations of fish, birds,
mammals, amphibians and reptiles between 1970 and
2012.
The economic viability of any development project that
involves diversion of forest land may now reduce with the
environment ministry coming up with new cost benefit
analysis guidelines.
Key Points
●● The new guidelines submitted to the National Green
Tribunal (NGT) by the ministry comprise a number
of new costs for diversion of forest land including
possession costs and habitat fragmentation costs.
●● The enhanced cost of diverting forest land will come
into effect only when the process of arriving at the net
present value (NPV) of forests, as prescribed by the
Supreme Court in 2008, is re vised.
The New Guidelines
●● According to the new guidelines, the ecosystem service
cost of diversion will be assessed based on the NPV
formula.
●● While 30% of the NPV will be added to the diversion
Current Affairs Survey | October 2017 | 53 |
Environment and Ecology
cost as the cost of “possession of forest land”, an
additional 50% of NPV cost will be added as “habitat
fragmentation cost”.
●● 10% of NPV cost will be added for loss of animal
husbandry productivity and soil moisture conservation
costs.
The environment ministry till now was doing the
cost-benefit analysis based on guidelines drafted in
2004, which, experts say, are outdated. The ministry
came up with new guidelines in compliance with the
National Green Tribunal (NGT’s) order a few years ago
in Uttarakhand activist Vimal Bhai’s petition against
displacement of forest dwellers due to a hydroelectric
project.
Ecological Services
●● The new cost-benefit guidelines account for various
ecological services like water recharge, nutrients in the
soil, carbon sequestration and others.
●● They also account for the cost of possession of forest
land by the project proponent.
Rights to Explore Polymetallic
Nodules
India’s exclusive rights to explore polymetallic nodules
from seabed in Central Indian Ocean Basin (CIOB) have
been extended by five years.
About the Exclusive Rights
●● These rights are over 75000 sq. km of area in
international waters allocated by International Seabed
Authority for developmental activities for polymetallic
nodules.
●● The estimated polymetallic nodule resource potential
is 380 million tonnes, containing 4.7 million tonnes of
nickel, 4.29 million tonnes of copper and 0.55 million
tonnes of cobalt and 92.59 million tonnes of manganese.
●● This was approved unanimously in the 23rd session of
International Seabed Authority (ISA) concluded on
August 18, 2017 at Kingston, Jamaica.
ISA
●● International Seabed Authority (ISA) is a UN body set
up to regulate the exploration and exploitation of marine
non-living resources of oceans in international waters.
India actively contributes to the work of International
Seabed Authority.
●● Last year, India was re-elected as a member of Council
of ISA. India’s nominees on Legal and Technical
Commission and Finance Committee of the ISA were
also elected last year.
Regular Column
India: A Pioneer Investor
●● India is the first country to have received the status of a
pioneer investor in 1987 and was allocated an exclusive
area in Central Indian Ocean Basin by United Nations
(UN) for exploration and utilization of nodules.
●● India is one among the top 8-countries/contractors and
is implementing a long–term programme on exploration
and utilization of Polymetallic Nodules through
Ministry of Earth Sciences.
●● This includes survey and exploration, environmental
studies, technology development in mining and
extractive metallurgy, in which significant contributions
have been made.
●● While, the extraction of metals from the polymetallic
nodules lying at the deep ocean floor is not yet found
to be economically viable at this stage, an area of about
7860 square km has been identified in the CIOB for
the First Generation Mine Site on the basis of detailed
surveys and analysis.
●● Environmental studies for mining of deep-sea
polymetallic nodules were also carried out to evaluate
the possible impacts of mining on deep-sea environment.
Ocean Forecasting for Two
Countries
The Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services
(INCOIS) of the Ministry of Earth Sciences inaugurated
the Ocean Forecasting System for Comoros, Madagascar,
and Mozambique at the third Ministerial Meeting of
Regional Integrated Multi-Hazard Early Warning System
for Asia and Africa (RIMES), held at Port Moresby, Papua
New Guinea, on August 25.About Ocean Forecast
●● The ocean forecast and early warming information
on high wave, currents, winds, tides, sub-surface
ocean conditions cater to users like fishermen, coastal
population, tourism sector, coastal defence officials,
marine police, port authorities, research institutions and
offshore industries of these countries.
●● These ocean services are aimed towards safety at the
sea. The system would offer oil spill advisory services,
high wave alerts, port warnings, forecast along the ship
routes in addition to tsunami and storm surge warnings
and help in search and rescue operations.
●● These ocean services are aimed towards safety at the
sea. INCOIS is already providing these operational
services to Maldives, Sri Lanka and Seychelles.
●● The ocean forecast and early warning services are most
essential for safe navigation and operations at sea and
the blue economic growth of many of these Indian
Ocean rim countries and Island Nations.
Current Affairs Survey | October 2017 | 54 |
Measles-Rubella (MR)
Campaign Widens its Reach
●● India, along with ten other WHO South East Asia Region
member countries, have resolved to eliminate measles
and control rubella/congenital rubella syndrome (CRS)
by 2020.
Key Points
●● In this direction, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare
has initiated measles-rubella (MR) vaccination
campaign in the age group of 9 months to less than 15
years in a phased manner across the nation.
●● The campaign aims to cover approximately 41 crore
children and is going to be the largest ever vaccination
campaign worldwide.
●● All children from 9 months to less than 15 years of age
will be given a single shot of Measles-Rubella (MR)
vaccination during the campaign.
●● Following the campaign, MR vaccine will become a
part of routine immunization and will replace measles
vaccine, currently given at 9-12 months and 16-24
months of age of child.
●● The first phase of measles-rubella vaccination campaign
has been successfully completed in five states, namely,
Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Goa, Lakshadweep and
Puducherry.
●● The Measles-Rubella campaign is a part of global
efforts to reduce illness and deaths due to measles and
rubella/CRS in the country. Measles immunization
directly contributes to the reduction of under-five child
mortality, and in combination with rubella vaccine, it
will control rubella and prevent CRS.
Army to Get MRSAM
After years of wait, the Indian Army will finally get an
advanced medium-range surface to air missile (MRSAM)
system by 2020 which will be able to shoot down ballistic
missiles, fighter jets and attack helicopters from a range of
around 70 km.
Key Points
●● The missile system will be produced by premier defence
research organisation DRDO in collaboration with the
Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI).
●● The MRSAM system will be capable of shooting down
enemy ballistic missiles, aircraft, helicopters, drones,
surveillance aircraft and AWACS (Airborne Warning
and Control Systems) aircraft, the official said on
condition of anonymity as he is not authorised to speak
to the media.
●● The current version of MRSAM is operational with the
Indian Air Force and the Navy.

Yojana, August 2017
Who will Benefit from GST and How?
Benef for Consumer:
●● In the Indian GST regime, the Consumers will benefit
from lower prices due to removal of cascading in
taxes and efficiency gains.
●● Final price of goods is expected to be lower due
to seamless flow of input tax credit between the
manufacturer, retailer and supplier of services;
●● Average tax burden on companies is likely to come
down which is expected to reduce prices and lower
prices mean more consumption
Benefits for Trade and Industry:
●● The trade and industry will benefit because of uniform
single indirect tax throughout the country, seamless
flow of input tax credit, removal of tax related barriers
at inter-state borders, reduced logistic costs, end to
end IT enabled systems and minimal interface with
the tax authorities.
Benefits for Manufacturers:
●● The manufacturers will be able to take more rational
decisions with regard to sourcing of raw materials,
location of manufacturing and warehousing facilities.
Benefits for Governments:
●● The Central and the state governments will witness
tax buoyancy and the tax collection costs will reduce
significantly.
Current Affairs Survey | October 2017 | 55 |
Gist of Yojana, Kurukshetra, PIB
Exports:
●● Exports will become more competitive as goods and
services will be exported without any taxes embedded
in them.
Make in India:
Ease of Doing Business:
yy Simpler tax regime with fewer exemptions
yy Reduction in the multiplicity of taxes that are at
present governing our indirect tax system leading to
simplification and uniformity
yy Reduction in compliance costs – No multiple record
keeping for a variety of taxes – so lesser investment
of resources and manpower in maintaining records.
yy Simplified and automated procedures for various
processes such as registration, returns, refunds, tax
payments, etc.
yy All interaction to be through the common GSTN
portal – minimal public interface between the
taxpayers and the tax administration
yy Common procedures for registration of taxpayers,
refund of taxes, uniform formats of tax return,
common tax base, common system of classification
of goods and services will lend greater certainty to
taxation system.
●● Will help in create a unified common national market
for India, giving a boost to Foreign investment and
“Make in India” campaign
●● Will mitigate cascading of taxes as Input Tax Credit
will be available across goods and services at every
stage of supply.
●● Harmonization of laws, procedures and rates of taxes
●● More efficient neutralization of taxes especially for
exports therby making our products more competitive
in the international market and give boost to Indian
Exports
●● Average tax burden on companies is likely to come
down which is expected to reduce prices and lower
prices mean more consumption, which in turn means
more production thereby helping the growth of the
industries. This will create India as a “Manufacturing
Hub”.
Does the GST Fulfill Constitutional Requirements
of Fiscal Federalism?
The duel GST introduced in India is keeping with the
Constitutional requirements of fiscal federalism.
Gist of Yojana, Kurukshetra, PIB

Why did the Introduction of GST Require the Constitutional Amendment?

The introduction of GST in India required amendment in the Constitution as prior to the Constitutional amendment
the fiscal powers between Centre and the States were clearly demarcated as per the entries in the Union List and
the State List.
How taxes were collected and Shared before GST
yy The Centre had the powers to levy tax on the manufacture of goods (except alcoholic liquor for human
consumption, opium, narcotics etc) while the states had the power to levy tax on the sale of goods.
yy In case of inter-state sales, the Centre had the power to levy a tax (the Central Sales Tax) but the tax was
collected and retained entirely by the states.
yy As for services, only the Centre was empowered to levy the Service Tax.
As both the levels of Government have distinct responsibilities to perform, according to the division of powers
prescribed in the Constitution, both the states and the centre needed resources to be raised. Therefore, amendment
was required in the Constitution so as to concurrently empower the centre and the states to levy and collect GST.

Surgical Strike on Black Money
GST is essentially the second surgical strike (after
demonetization) on black money as every trader has to
be registered and get the GSTIN (registration number)
and submit a monthly or a quarterly tax collection
statement. Accounting by every trader becomes now
legit and mandatory.
●● The portal will be accessible to the central government
which will track down every transaction at its end
while the taxpayers will be having a vast service to
return/file their taxes and maintain records.
●● The IT network will be developed by private firms
which will tie up with the central government and will
take its share of stakes accordingly.

Constitution (101st Amendment) Act 2016: The Concept of GST

●● The Constitutional amendment empowers the Centre
and the States to levy and collect the Goods and
Services Tax (GST).
●● The GST has been defined as a tax on supply of goods
or services or both, except supply of alcoholic liquor
for human consumption.
●● On the other hand, five petroleum products viz.
petroleum crude, motor spirit (petrol), high speed
diesel, natural gas and aviation turbine fuel have
temporarily been kept and the GST Council can decide
the date from which they shall be included in GST.
●● On inter-State supply of goods and services, an
Integrated GST (IGST) would be levied and collected
by the Centre.
●● The following taxes will be bound together by the
GST: Central Excise Duty, Commercial Excise Duty,
Commercial Tax, Value Added Tax (VAT), Food Tax,
Central Sales Tax (CST), Octroi, Entertainment Tax, Entry
Tax, Purchase Tax, Luxury Tax, Advertisement tax.
●● GST is a consumption based tax, therefore, taxes
are paid to the state where the goods or services are
consumed not in the state in which they were produced.
GSTN Network
●● As a parallel development, a “goods and Services
Tax” Network (GSTN), a non-profit organization has
been formed to create a platform for all the concerned
parties i.e. stakeholders, government, taxpayers to
collaborate on a single portal.
●● It is not taxation at source.
●● It is a destination tax or rather it is a consumption tax.
●● A product is manufactured in Tamil Nadu and travels
through the country and say reaches Delhi, where the
buyer or consumer pays the tax for it. Both the centre
and state have their share in this tax.
●● With India being a federal setup where both the
Central and State government have independent
powers of taxation, GST in India is a duel levy where
the Central Government will levy and collect Central
GST (CGST or central tax) and the States will levy
and collect State GST (SGST or State Tax) on inter-
state supply of goods or services. The Centre will also
levy and collect integrated GST (IGST or Integrated
Tax) on inter-States supply of goods or services.
●● Besides there will be a levy of Union territory GST
(UTGST or Union Territory Tax) on intra-Union
territory supplies that take place in Union territories
without legislatures.
●● Also, for gathering of resources that would be required by
the Central Government to pay the States as compensation
on account of any loss that they might suffer due to
introduction of GST, a GST Compensation cess is being
levied on certain sin and luxury goods or services.
●● Import of goods is treated as inter-State supplies
and would be subjected to IGST in addition to the
applicable customs duties.
●● Import of services is treated as inter-State supplies
and would be subject to IGST on reverse charge basis.

Current Affairs Survey | October 2017 | 56 |


Balancing Federal Fiscal Relations
The problem with GST is that, the tax, like all taxes, is
dependent on the economy doing well. Conceptually, the
GST should broaden the tax base. The tax GDP ratio could
increase to 16% from the current 10%. However, whether
this would be achieved, would depend on the next year or
so.
Challenges:
●● States face an ever-increasing cost curve. With the 7th
Pay Commission being implemented, their wage bills
are expected to go up considerably.
●● A rush to write off farm loans started by Uttar Pradesh,
has till now seen three state governments agreeing to
write off loans.
GST: Complex Implementation
GST is a simple tax but its implementation has been
complex as it has a five-layered taxation slab for various
commodities. Luxury goods become costlier, items of
mass consumption become cheaper.
●● India’s public debt, which is the sum total of central
and state debt, as a percentage of GDP already stands
at 67%, the highest among major Asian economies,
except for Japan.
●● Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has reported that the
debt-to-state GDP ratio of as many as 17 India states
increased in the past year.
●● The Gross Fiscal Deficit-GDP ratio in 2015-16 has
already breached the 3% ceiling considered fiscally
prudent for the first time since 2004-05.
Cooperative Federalism: Some Valid Criti-
cism Against GST
The State of Tamil Nadu, which opposed many clauses in
the GST had a point when it said that it had implemented
wide ranging social sector reforms on the back of cash
generated from its taxation programme.
●● It is true that the Southern state has done remarkably
well in its social parameters.
●● Tamil Nadu’s health and education parameters have
helped catapult it way ahead of its rivals and are
comparable to that of Organisation for Economic Co-
operation and Development (OECD) countries.
Criticism:
●● Legally speaking the GST Amendment Act effectively
transfers the power of taxation over large swathes of
possible taxation to an unelected body.
●● Effectively, the GST Council, set up by the Act, takes
on the power of deciding tax rates from both the
Parliament and State Legislatures and these have to
be implemented across the country.
Current Affairs Survey | October 2017 | 57 |
Gist of Yojana, Kurukshetra, PIB
●● Without going into the issue of weightage of voting
powers within the GST Council, the fact remains that
this Council will now be the Supreme legislative body
in determining tax rates on all goods and services
through the length and breadth of the country and not
the directly or indirectly elected members of Parliament
and State legislature. In essence, this will be like an
educated super-body elected by Electors, without any
direct responsibility to citizen-voters.
Municipal Tax
Entry taxes by municipal bodies, entertainment tax
levied by local bodies, stamp duties, products such as
alcohol and fuels, and electricity cesses are still not
covered by GST. This gives them the right to increase
or decrease these taxes and thus build greater financial
independence from state governments.
Kurukshetra, August 2017
E-agriculture
Information and communication technology in agriculture
(ICT in agriculture), also known as e-agriculture, is
developing and applying innovative ways to use ICTs in
the rural domain, with a primary focus on agriculture.
●● ICT in agriculture offers a wide range of solutions to
some agricultural challenges.
●● It is seen as an emerging field focusing on the
enhancement of agricultural and rural development
through improved information and communication
processes.
●● In this context, ICT is used as an umbrella term
encompassing all information and communication
technologies including devices, networks, mobiles,
services and applications.
●● E-agriculture continues to evolve in scope as new
ICT applications continue to be harnessed in the
agriculture sector.
Role of Self Help Groups in new ‘Social
Economy’
Self-Help Groups are examples of the new “social
economy” emerging in India.
●● These self-help groups need to be further strengthened
and given further encouragement as they form
collectives of rural entrepreneurship that can generate
steady income for rural entrepreneurship that can
generate steady income for rural citizens, particularly
women.
●● Digital literacy can play a crucial role in this. Educating
rural people, particularly the youth and women, can
Gist of Yojana, Kurukshetra, PIB
empower them to set-up and advance their individual
and collective enterprises.
●● Under the National Rural Livelihood Mission,
the Government is planning more rural women led
Ajeewika stores to provide them outlet to sell products
produced by self-hel groups, directly to consumers.
●● These women can be trained in digital technology
skills and mode of payment, thereby giving a further
boost to production activities of self-help groups.
Major Applications of ICT in Agriculture
GPS Receivers:
●● In agriculture, the use of the Global Positioning
System provides benefits in geo-fencing, map-making
and serveying.
●● GPS receivers dropped in price over the years, making
it more popular for civilian use.
●● With the use of GPS, civilians can produce simple yet
highly accurate digitised map without the help of a
professional cartographer.
Geographic Information Systems, or GIS:
●● They are extensively used in agriculture, especially in
precision farming.
●● Land is mapped digitally, and pertinent geodetic data
such as topography and contours are combined with
other statistical data for easier analysis of the soil.
What is E-agriculture?
yy E-agriculture involves the conceptualization,
design, development, evaluation and application of
innovative ways to use ICTs in the rural domain, with
a primary focus on agriculture.
yy Provisions of standards, norms, methodologies,
and tools as well as development of individual and
institutional capacities, and policy support are all
key components of e-agriculture.
●● GIS is used in decision making such as what to plant
and where to plant using historical data and sampling.
Smartphone Mobile Apps in Agriculture:
●● The use of mobile technologies as a tool of intervention
in agriculture is becoming increasingly popular.
●● Smartphone penetration enhances the multi-
dimensional positive impact on sustainable poverty
reduction and identify accessibility as the main
challenge in harnessing the full potential in agricultural
space.
●● The reach of smartphone even in rural areas extended
the ICT services beyond simple voice or text messages.
●● Several smartphones apps are available for agriculture,
horticulture, animal husbandry and farm machinery.
Challenges of Current Insurance Schemes
Current Affairs Survey | October 2017 | 58 |
●● Currently, the infrastructure to measure crop loss
accurately is outdated which makes it difficult to
make loss assessments uniformly.
●● Financial Stability Report by RBI highlights that
linkage of loans with insurance doesn’t meet good
response from banks as the burden of Priority Sector
Lending is already there on banks.
●● Getting data on reliable yield and price is difficult
because it keeps on fluctuating from season to season.
●● Low penetration of Financial Institutions also
adds to the cause of poor insurance coverage.
●● The existing insurance schemes are unable to protect
the farmer against price fluctuations.
●● The time taken to fulfill claims claims is quite high.
This is despite the rules stating settlement within 45
days.
Boosting Agricultural Productivity
●● Expand the services of Kissan Call Centres for easy
reach to farmers (2018-19).
●● Make provision to enable the companies investing
in Agriculture Technology Management Agency
(ATMA).
●● ‘National Programme for Space Application in
Agricultuire (NPSAA)’ as a comprehensive platform
to harvest the advantages of space technology in
agriculture & allied sectors.
●● Space and Information Technologies will be leveraged
to improve efficiency, speed & accuracy of Crop
Cutting Experiments (CCEs) and ensure timely
settlement of claims of the farmers in accordance with
prescribed timelines in the Guidelines, to be ensured
in 2017-18.
How Financial Inclusion is Constructed
Digital Technology for Rural India
Now, the Government has taken various initiatives
to reach the rural masses by implementation of all
pro-poor programmes through cost-effective digital
technology:
yy Pradhan Mantri Jan-Dhan Yojana
yy Aadhaar
yy Mobile Banking
yy JAM (Jan Dhan-Aadhaar Mobile) Trinity
yy Direct Transfer or DBT
yy Digital Boost to MGNERGA
yy e-Money
yy Twitter Samvad
yy Digital Life Certificates
yy Digital-locker-India
yy PRAGATI

Financial Inclusion is usually construed in two ways:
●● Countering the exclusion from the payment system
●● Countering the exclusion from the formal financial
services
●● The approach is based on the following principles:
●● Adequacy and Availability of financial services to all
sections of the society
●● Awareness of financial services
●● Affordability and Accessibility of appropriate financial
products through a combination of conventional and
alternative delievery channels and technology enabled
services and processes.
BHUVAN
It is a satellite based-geo platform by ISRO, reaching out
to the rural people. It acts like a clearing house for satellite
data. Essentially a software that integrates and processes
ground inputs with satellite data for diverse needs. Three
important applications are there which have remote reach
for use of rural population:
CHAMAN (Coordinated program on Horticulture
Assessment and Management using Geo-Informatics. It
will help in:
●● Digital inventory of all horticulture zones in the
country
●● Deciding cold storage hubs
●● Managing inflation through accurate data of food
stock
FASAL (Forecasting Agricultural output suing Space,
Agro-meteorology and Land based observations). It will
do the following:
●● Monitor crop health
●● Can be used directly to study crop locations
NADAMS (National Agricultural Drought Assessment
and Monitoring System)
●● Remote sensing real-time information on current or
developing drought at state, district and sub-district
level
Press Information Bureau
CCRAS
●● The Central Council for Research in Ayurvedic
Sciences (CCRAS), an autonomous body under the
Ministry of AYUSH is conducting the various research
oriented health programs.
●● These include i.e. SwasthaRakshan Program (SRP),
Ayurveda mobile health care programme under the
Schedule Caste Sub Plan (SCSP) and Tribal Health
Care Research Programme (THCRP) through its 25
centres across the country to collect and document
demographic information along with their other issues.
●● The CCRAS is delivering the concept of pathya and
Current Affairs Survey | October 2017 | 59 |
Gist of Yojana, Kurukshetra, PIB
apathya for the propagation and extension of health
care services through Information, Education and
Communication (IEC) and verbal communications
during various programmes such as SRP, THCRP,
SCSP and regular OPDs of the institutes.
National Family Health Survey
●● As per the National Family Health Survey (NFHS)-4
(2015-16), 35.7 per cent children below five years are
underweight, 38.4 per cent are stunted and 21 per cent
are wasted in the country.
●● The indicator “Children under 5 years who are
underweight (weight-for-age)” is one of the
composite indicator for child malnutrition.
●● Central governments have initiated various programs
like MAA (Mothers Absolute Affection) to promote
exclusive breast feeding; Pradhan Mantri Surakshit
Matritva Abhiyan.
Survey for Quality of Education in Govern-
ment Schools
●● The National Council of Educational Research and
Training (NCERT) conducts periodic national surveys
of learning achievement of children in classes III, V,
VIII and X.
●● Four rounds of National Achievement Survey (NAS)
for class V, three rounds for classes III and VIII and
one round for class X, have been conducted so far.
●● These surveys reveal improvement in learning
achievement levels of pupils, in identified subjects
from first round to fourth round.
From current year onwards, Government has decided
to conduct Survey of Learning Outcomes as National
Achievement Survey with district as the sampling unit.
●● The Survey of Learning Outcomes as National
Achievement Survey will assess the competencies
developed in the students studying in grades III, V and
VIII in government and government aided schools.
●● In order to focus on quality of education, the Central
Rules to the RTE Act, 2009 have been amended on
20th February, 2017 to include reference on class-
wise and subject-wise Learning Outcomes.
●● The Learning Outcomes for each class in
Languages (Hindi, English and Urdu), Mathematics,
Environmental Studies, Science and Social Science
up to the elementary level have, accordingly, been
finalized and shared with all States and UTs.
Depletion of Groundwater Resources
●● The National Water Policy (2012) formulated by
Ministry of Water Resources, RD & GR, inter-alia,
advocates conservation, promotion and protection
of water and highlights the need for augmenting the
availability of water through rain water harvesting,
direct use of rainfall and other management measures.
Gist of Yojana, Kurukshetra, PIB
●● The National Water Policy (2012) has been forwarded
to all State/UTs and concerned Central Government
Ministries/Departments for adoption.
●● The Government of India has circulated a Model
Bill to all the States/UTs to enable them to enact
suitable ground water legislation for its regulation and
development, which includes provision of rain water
harvesting.
●● So far, 15 States/UTs have adopted and implemented
the ground water legislation on the lines of Model bill.
●● Central Ground Water Authority (CGWA) has been
constituted under “The Environment (Protection)
Act, 1986” for the purpose of regulation and control
of ground water development and management in the
Country.
Appointment of Lokpal
●● The Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act, 2013 came into force
w.e.f. 16.01.2014.
●● The Government initiated the process for appointment
by convening the Selection Committee meeting on
03.02.2014.
●● The Selection Committee under Section 4(1) of
the Act, also constituted an eight Member Search
Committee on 21.02.2014 in terms of section 4(3) of
the Act.
●● Two members of the Search Committee declined the
offer of appointment.
●● Looking into such difficulties experienced and to
remove certain difficulties in the operationalisation
of the Act including issues relating to appointment
of Chairperson and Members of Lokpal, etc. in the
absence of a Leader of Opposition recognized as
such in the Lok Sabha, the Government introduced
the Lokpal and Lokayuktas and other related law
(Amendment) Bill, 2014 in Lok Sabha on 18.12.2014.
●● The Bill was referred to the Department –related
Parliamentary Standing Committee on Personnel,
Public Grievances, Law and Justice for examination
and report. The said Committee has submitted its
report in the Parliament on 07.12.2015.
Small Farmers Agri-Business Consortium
●● The Government established Small Farmers’ Agri-
Business Consortium (SFAC) as a Society in 1994 to
facilitate agri-business ventures by catalyzing private
investment through Venture Capital Assistance (VCA)
Scheme in close association with financial institutions.
●● The setting up of State level SFAC as counterpart
agency of Central SFAC for agribusiness projects was
part of the Scheme.
●● The Scheme envisaged a corpus contribution from
Central SFAC of Rs. 50.00 lakh to each State which
establishes a State Level SFAC.
Current Affairs Survey | October 2017 | 60 |
●● So far, 21 States have received funds for Central
SFAC for setting up of State SFAC.
Joint Project between NASA and ISRO
●● ISRO and NASA are working towards realisation
of NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR)
mission by 2021.
●● In NISAR mission, NASA is responsible for
development of L-band SAR and ISRO is responsible
for development of S-band SAR.
●● The L & S band SAR will be integrated with ISRO’s
spacecraft and launched on-board India’s GSLV.
●● ISRO and NASA have a framework agreement for
cooperation in the exploration and use of outer space
for peaceful purposes signed in 2008.
●● Under this framework agreement, ISRO and NASA
have executed an implementing arrangement for
cooperation in NISAR mission, which is valid until
2034 and provides scope for joint activities on science
& applications of NISAR data after the launch.
Biosphere Reserves
●● “Biosphere Reserve (BR)” is an international
designation by UNESCO for representative parts of
natural and cultural landscapes extending over large
area of terrestrial or coastal/marine ecosystems or a
combination thereof.
●● BRs are designated to deal with one of the most important
questions of reconciling the conservation of biodiversity,
the quest for economic and social development and
maintenance of associated cultural values.
●● BRs are thus special environments for both people
and the nature and are living examples of how human
beings and nature can co-exist while respecting each
other’s needs.
●● There are 18 Biosphere Reserves in the country.
e-Shakti initiative of NABARD
●● e-Shakti is a pilot project of National Bank for
Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) for
digitisation of Self Help Groups (SHGs).
●● It was initiated to address certain concerns like
improving the quality of book keeping of SHGs and to
enable banks to take informed credit decisions about
the group through a Management Information System
(MIS).
The project covers 25 districts and 1,30,176 SHGs have
been digitised as on 31st March, 2017.
●● As per information compiled by NABARD, about
69,696 SHGs of the SHGs which have been digitised
are credit linked as on 31st July, 2017.
●● No SHG has been de-recognised on account of, or, after
digitisation. The digitisation project does not impact the
profit/ loss position of the SHGs.

»» AWARDS
Saraswati Samman
»» Eminent Konkani writer
Mahabaleshwar Sail has been
honoured with the Saraswati
Samman 2016 for his novel
Hawthan.
»» The award comprises a cash prize
of Rs 15 lakh and a citation.
»» Best known for his work,
‘Paltadcho Munis’, which inspired
a film by the same name, Sail is a
renowned bi-lingual writer based
in Goa.
»» Published in 2009, ‘Hawtha’ is
a work of fiction presenting the
cultural map of the traditional
potter community of Goa.
Global Agriculture Leader-
ship Award
»» The Indian Council of Food and
Agriculture (ICFA) has announced
the Global Agriculture Leadership
Award to Telangana chief minister
K Chandrasekhar Rao.
»» The award has been conferred
on the Telangana CM for his
transformational role in bringing
Current Affairs Survey | October 2017 | 61 |
Micro News
News National Sports Awards – 2017
National Sports Awards are given every year to recognize and reward excellence
in sports. Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award is given for the spectacular and most
outstanding performance in the field of sports by a sportsperson over a period
of four year, Arjuna Award is given for consistency outstanding performance
for four years, Dronacharya Award for coaches for producing medal winners
at prestigious International sports events, Dhyan Chand Award for life time
contribution to sports development.
Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna 2017: 1. Devendra (Para Athlete), 2. Sardar Singh
(Hockey)
Dronacharya Awards 2017: 1. Late Dr. R. Gandhi (Athletics), 2. Heera Nand Kataria
(Kabaddi), 3. G.S.S.V. Prasad (Badminton (Lifetime), 4. Brij Bhushan Mohanty
(Boxing (Lifetime), 5. P. A. Raphel (Hockey (Lifetime), 6. Sanjoy Chakraverthy
(Shooting (Lifetime), Roshan Lal (Wrestling (Lifetime)
Arjuna Awards 2017: 1. V.J. Surekha (Archery), 2. Khushbir Kaur (Athletics), 3.
Arokia Rajiv (Athletics), 4. Prasanthi Singh (Basketball), 5. Sub. LaishramDebendro
Singh (Boxing), 6. Cheteshwar Pujara (Cricket), 7. Harmanpreet Kaur (Cricket),
8. Oinam Bembem Devi (Football), 9. S.S.P. Chawrasia (Golf), 10. S.V. Sunil
(Hockey), 11. Jasvir Singh (Kabaddi), 12. P. N. Prakash (Shooting), 13. A. Amalraj
(Table Tennis), 14. Saketh Myneni (Tennis), 15. Satyawart Kadian (Wrestling), 16.
Mr. Mariyappan (Para-Athlete), 17. Varun Singh Bhati (Para-Athlete)
Dhyan Chand Award: 1. Bhupender Singh (Athletics), 2. Syed Shahid Hakim
(Football), 3. Sumarai Tete (Hockey)
new systems and improving farm educational organisation for
sector. making a “transformative and
»» KCR has been providing free positive” difference for the future
power to farmers, waived 1 lakh of Asia and the world.
loan of every farmer, supplying »» London-born Dev Patel, who
fertilizers in time and announced to became popular with his debut
credit 4000 per acre per crop to film Slumdog Millionaire, will be
every farmer. felicitated with the Asia Society
2017 Asia Game Changers Award
Asia Society Game Chang- at a ceremony to be held at the
ers Award United Nations, New York, in
November.
Bharat Gaurav
»» Former India hockey captain
Dhanraj Pillay has been awarded
with East Bengal football club’s
highest honour.
»» Pillay has played a huge role
in reviving the Indian team and
»» Indian-origin actor Dev Patel performed brilliantly during his 15-
is to be honoured by a leading year career.
Micro News
»» He represented the country in four
Olympics, World Cups, Champions
Trophy and Asian Games.
»» He played total 339 matches for
India, scoring 170 goals.
»» SPORTS NEWS
»» He holds the world record of 9.58
seconds in the 100 and 19.19 in the
200, both set in Berlin in 2009.
U-15 SAFF football Champi-
onship
»» The India football team came from
behind to defeat Nepal 2-1 to win
at Emirates Arena in Glasgow,
Scotland.
»» Japan’s Nozomi Okuhara defeated
tournament favourite PV Sindhu of
India on August 27.
»» This was Japan’s first gold medal in
the history of the tournament.

the South Asian Football Federation

National Sports Museum
»» The Ministry of Youth Affairs
and Sports is going to establish
National Sports Museum, first of its
kind, at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium,
New Delhi.
»» The Museum will showcase the
India’s achievements in sports and
also focus on the traditional sports
within the country.
»» Accordingly, the proposed
Museum would go beyond the
classical approach of a collection
of memorabilia to become an
interactive venue of interest for all
age groups.
UEFA Men’s Player of the
(SAFF) Under-15 Championship
on Sunday.
»» The tournament was held in Nepal.
»» Bangladesh and Bhutan captured
third and fourth place in the
tournament, respectively.
»» Bangladesh’s Foysal Ahmed (6
goals) was declared the top scorer
of the tournament while India’s
Vikram Pratap Singh was chosen as
the Best Player of the tournament.
World Badminton Champi-
onships 2017
»» The 2017 BWF World
Championships of badminton
were held from 21 to 27 August
»» NEWS FROM
STATES
Green Climate Fund
»» The 2030 Water Resources
Group (2030WRG) will help the
Maharashtra Government raise
$270 million from the Green
Climate Fund.
»» It will be invested in integrated
watershed programmes such as
Jalyukt Shivar Yojana.
»» The Green Climate Fund (GCF)
is a new fund under the UN and
is guided by the principles and
provisions of the UN Framework
Convention on Climate Change.

Year Award
»» Real Madrid forward Cristiano
Ronaldo has won the UEFA Men’s
Player of the Year award for the
2016/17 season.
»» Ronaldo picked up the trophy for
the second consecutive season
and third time in total, having also
received the accolade in 2013/14.
»» He finished ahead of two other
shortlisted candidates, Barcelona
and Argentina forward Lionel
Messi and Juventus and Italy
goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon. Gobindobhog Rice Gets Geographical Indication Status
Gobindobhog rice,a speciality from Burdwan district of West Bengal, has got
Usain Bolt Retires
the geographical indication (GI) status. The state government had applied for GI
»» Usain Bolt has announced his status for Gobindobhog rice on August 24, 2015.
retirement.
The region of Burdwan is known as the rice bowl of Bengal.
»» He is the only sprinter to capture
As a result of getting the GI tag, rice from other regions or rice of other varieties
the 100- and 200-metre track titles
cannot be branded as ‘Gobindobhog’.
at three consecutive Olympics.

Current Affairs Survey | October 2017 | 62 |


»» The 2030WRG is hosted by the
International Finance Corporation
and is a public-private-civil society
collaboration for water resources
reform in developing economies.
»» Its ultimate aim is to close the gap
between water demand and supply
by the year 2030.
North Koel Reservoir Pro-
ject
»» The Union cabinet on August 16
gave its green signal to complete the
remaining works of the North Koel
Reservoir Project in Jharkhand and
Bihar at an estimated expenditure
of over Rs 1,622 crore.
»» Completion of the North Koel
Reservoir Project will create
annual irrigation potential for
1,11,521 hectares of agricultural
land (91,917 hectares in Bihar and
19,604 hectares in Jharkhand).
»» It will take care of irrigation needs
of farmers in the most backward
and drought-prone areas of Palamu
and Garhwa districts in Jharkhand
and Aurangabad and Gaya districts
in Bihar.
Agri Price Forecasting
Model
»» The Agriculture Department of
Karnataka has signed an MoU with
Microsoft India to develop a ‘farm
price forecasting model’ using
the latest IT tools in a bid to help
farmers, administrators and other
stakeholders understand the market
behaviour in advance.
»» The proposed initiative is said to be
the first-of-its-kind in the country,
as it is a ‘multi-variate’ one that
takes into consideration factors
beyond the conventional supply-
demand equation.
»» It will examine a slew of related
factors, including weather, rainfall
and external factors, that impact
market behaviour.
Project Varshadhari
»» The cloud seeding experiment by
Karnataka Government taken up at
cost of Rs 35 crore, called Project
Varshadhari, began on August 21.
Current Affairs Survey | October 2017 | 63 |
Micro News
Scheme to Provide Legal Aid
The Centre in association with the National Legal Service Authority (NALSA) has
launched ‘Tele-Law’ scheme in Bihar.
It is aimed at providing an opportunity for the common man to access legal aid
easily.
Under the scheme, villagers can have access to legal consultation with the help
of para legal volunteers at Common Service Centre (CSC) which will be equipped
with computers and Internet facility.
»» This cloud seeding operation, a first children & youth towards the
in Magadi and Ramanagaram, aims mainstream of society, providing
to condense small water particles by them suitable opportunities to
clouds (size less than 10 microns) recognise their potential.
to droplets of 50 microns, which »» With this community Policing
can constitute rains. initiative, Delhi Police will create
awareness about their potential
SheMeansBusiness through sports, Nukkad Nataks and
skill development training.
»» The mission is to prevent the
youth from committing crime
and delinquent acts as well as to
encourage them to partner with
police in maintaining law and
order, management of crime and
connecting with the community at
large.
»» Chief minister Naveen Patnaik on
August 10 launched ‘She Means India’s First Videsh Bhavan
Business’ programme of Facebook
for women entrepreneurs in Odisha.
»» Under the scheme 25, 000 women
entrepreneurs and self-help group
(SHG) members will be given
training on digital marketing skills
within next one year.
Mission YUVA
»» In an attempt to make a more
comprehensive society, Delhi »» India’s first Videsh Bhavan was
Police launched ‘YUVA’, an inaugurated in Mumbai on August
initiative to engage and steer street 28.
Micro News
»» Located in the Bandra Kurla
Complex (BKC), Videsh Bhavan
integrates all offices under the
MEA in the State.
»» The Bhavan will house four major
MEA offices: Regional Passport
Office, Protector of Emigrants
Office, Branch Secretariat and the
Regional Office of Indian Council
of Cultural Relations.
Jharkhand Passes Anti-con-
version Bill
»» The Jharkhand Assembly on August
12 passed the anti-conversion Bill.
»» The Religious Freedom Bill-2017
will now be sent to the Governor,
following whose approval it would
go to the President for assent.
»» The Bill has provision for
imprisonment of three years and
fine of Rs 50,000 or both, and
four year- imprisonment and Rs
1 lakh fine, or both, if the person
converted is a minor, woman or
a member of Scheduled Caste or
Scheduled Tribe.
»» PERSONS IN
NEWS
Rajiv Kumar
Vice-President of India on August
11.
»» Naidu contested the election against
Opposition candidate Gopalkrishna
Gandhi.
Prasoon Joshi
»» Noted Bollywood lyricist-
screenwriter and ad guru Prasoon
Joshi has replaced Pahlaj Nihalani
as CBFC chairperson.
»» Joining Prasoon Joshi on the
Censor Board will be Vidya Balan,
Gautami Tadimalla, Narendra
Kohli, Naresh Chandra, Neil
Herbert, Vivek Agnihotri, TS
Nagabharana, Ramesh Patange,
Vani Tripathi, Jeevitha Rajasekhar
and Mihir Bhuta among others.
Dipak Misra
»» Justice Dipak Misra was on August
28 sworn in as the 45th Chief
Justice of India.
»» Justice Misra, 64, assumes office
following the retirement of Justice
J S Khehar.
»» Justice Misra will remain in office
till October 2, 2018.
S. Aparna
»» S. Aparna, an IAS officer from
Gujarat cadre has been appointed
as Executive Director, World Bank
to represent the constituency of
India, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Sri
Lanka for three years.
»» At the World Bank, she will replace
Subhash Garg, who was recently
appointed Economic Affairs
Secretary, Ministry of Finance.
Pushpa Bhargava
»» Veteran molecular biologist and
a vehement critic of genetically
modified crops, Pushpa Mittra
Bhargava, 89, died on August 1.
»» A strident critic of multinational
seed companies, Bhargava was
opposed to the introduction of
genetically modified crops — from
cotton to brinjal and, most recently,
transgenic mustard — in India.
Sanjaya Baru
»» Sanjaya Baru, who was media
advisor to former Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh, has been named
new secretary general of the

India Opens First Partition Museum

»» Economist Dr Rajiv Kumar was on
Saturday named as the new vice-
chairman of NITI Aayog.
»» The government also appointed Dr
Vinod Paul, a pediatrician at the AIIMS,
as a member of the NITI Aayog.
Venkaiah Naidu
»» Former Union minister Venkaiah
Naidu was sworn in as the 13th
A new museum on the Partition of the Indian subcontinent opens recently in
Amritsar, as the two South Asian giants mark seven decades as independent
nations.
The exhibitions are housed in the red-brick Town Hall building in the north Indian
border city of Amritsar.
They include photographs, newspaper clippings and donated personal items
meant to tell the story of how the region’s struggle for freedom from colonial
rule turned into one of its most violent episodes.

Current Affairs Survey | October 2017 | 64 |


Federation of Indian Chambers of India’s gold winning football team
Commerce and Industry (Ficci). at the first Asian Games in 1951,
»» He will replace A Didar Singh. passed away on August 28. A
prolific striker, Khan represented
»» DEATH India in two Olympic
»» Games -- 1948 in London and
1952 in Helsinki apart from two
Rishang Keishing
Asian Games in Delhi and 1954 in
Manila.
»» Khan, who played as a striker
represented India in 11 matches
and made his debut against France
in the London Olympics.
»» He scored 3 goals including one
against Yugoslavia in the 1952
Helsinki Olympics.
Sanwar Lal Jat
»» Former Manipur Chief Minister and
veteran Congress leader Rishang
Keishing, 97, died on August 22.
»» He was a freedom fighter and
member of India’s first parliament
(1952-57).
»» He retired from the Rajya Sabha
as its oldest member in 2014 after
serving two terms since being
elected to the upper house in 2002.
»» Sanwar Lal Jat, 62, former Union
Ahmed Khan
Minister and BJP MP from Ajmer,
passed away on August 9.
»» He had served as Minister of
State for Water Resources in the
Narendra Modi government.
Vijay Nambisan
»» Poet and writer Vijay Nambisan,
54, who became the first All India
Poetry Champion in 1988, passed
away on August 10.
»» He co-authored Gemini, a poetry
»» Ahmed Khan, 91, a member of
Milkha Singh Appointed WHO’s Ambassador
for Physical Activity
Sprint legend Milkha Singh has been appointed as the World Health Organisation’s
goodwill ambassador for physical activity in South-East Asia Region (SEAR).
As WHO goodwill ambassador, Singh, also known as ‘the Flying Sikh’, will promote
WHO SEAR’s non-communicable diseases (NCDs) prevention and control action
plan which seeks to reduce the level of insufficient physical activity by 10 per
cent and NCDs by 25 per cent by 2025.
Regular exercise and physical activity help reduce the risk of non-communicable
diseases such as heart diseases, stroke, diabetes and cancer – that are now
increasingly afflicting people across the world.
Current Affairs Survey | October 2017 | 65 |
Micro News
book, with Jeet Thayil and Dom
Moraes.
»» He championed the ethical use of
language and made an appeal to
readers, writers and enthusiasts of
literature in his book ‘Language as
an Ethic’.
»» REPORTS/INDEX
Retirement Index
»» In a global retirement index of 43
countries, India has ranked the
lowest.
»» The index by French asset
management company Natixis
Global, ranks countries on the basis
of four factors -- the material means
to live comfortably in retirement;
access to quality financial services
to help preserve savings value and
maximize income; access to quality
health services; and a clean and
safe environment.
»» Switzerland, Norway and Iceland
topped the ranking.
Global Liveability Index
»» Melbourne is the most liveable city
in the world, followed by Austrian
capital, Vienna and Canada’s
Vancouver in the second and third
place respectively, reveals a survey.
»» Others in the 10 most liveable cities
in the world include Toronto at the
fourth place, followed by Calgary
(5th), Adelaide (6th), Perth (7th),
Auckland (8th), Helsinki (9th) and
Hamburg (10th).
»» According to the Global Liveability
Report compiled by the Economist
Intelligence Unit (EIU), no Indian city
was ranked in the top ten or bottom ten
in the most liveable city ranking.
»»SUMMIT/
CONFERENCE
15th BIMSTEC Ministerial
Meeting
»» The 15th BIMSTEC ministerial
meeting was held in Kathmandu on
11 August.
Micro News
»» Central Government has declared
»» The ministerial meeting was
August 7 as National Handloom
preceded by the 18th session of
Day, to be celebrated every year
the BIMSTEC Senior Officials’
due to its significance in India’s
Meeting (SOM).
history, as ‘Swadeshi Movement’
»» The Meeting considered and was launched in 1905 on this day.
approved the Reports of the
Seventeenth and Eighteenth National Sports Day
Sessions of the BIMSTEC »» The National Sports Day in India is
Senior Officials’ Meetings held
celebrated on 29 august every year.
in Kathmandu, Nepal on 07
»» This day marks the birthday of Dhyan
February 2017 and 10 August 2017
Chand, the hockey player who won
respectively.
gold medals in Olympics for India in
India-Asean Youth Summit the years 1928,1932 and 1936.
»» The five-day long India-Asean
World Humanitarian Day
Youth Summit was held in Bhopal,
»» World Humanitarian Day (WHD) is
Madhya Pradesh from August 14-
held every year on August 19 to pay
18.
tribute to aid workers who risk their
»» The summit with the theme
lives in humanitarian service, and to
– “Shared Values, Common
rally support for people affected by
Destiny” - was jointly organised
crisis around the world.
by the Ministry of External Affairs,
»» 2017 WHD campaign: #NotATarget
India Foundation and the state
government.
»» Over 200 delegates from Indonesia,
Singapore, Philippines, Malaysia,
Brunei, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos,
Myanmar, Vietnam and India
participated in the summit.

»» IMPORTANT DAYS
»» On 2 December 2009, the 64th
session of the United Nations
General Assembly declared 29
August the International Day against
Nuclear Tests by unanimously
adopting resolution 64/35.
»» The resolution calls for increasing
awareness and education “about World Elephant Day
the effects of nuclear weapon test
World Elephant Day is an annual global event celebrated across the world on
explosions or any other nuclear
August 12, dedicated to the preservation and protection of elephants.
explosions and the need for their
cessation as one of the means of The goal of World Elephant Day is to create awareness about the plight of
achieving the goal of a nuclear- elephants and to share knowledge and positive solutions for the better care and
weapon-free world.” management of captive and wild elephants.
»» 2010 marked the inaugural African elephants are listed as “vulnerable” and Asian elephants as “endangered”
commemoration of the International in the IUCN Red List of threatened species.
Day against Nuclear Tests.
As per the available population estimates, there are about 400,000 African
National Handloom Day elephants and 40,000 Asian elephants.
»» National Handloom Day is Union Environment, Forest and Climate Change Minister, Dr. Harsh Vardhan,
observed on August 7 to encourage launched ‘Gaj Yatra’ on August 12, a nationwide campaign to protect elephants
people to use hand-made loom in on the occasion of World Elephant Day. The campaign is planned to cover 12
the country. elephant range states.

Current Affairs Survey | October 2017 | 66 |