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CURRENT AFFAIRS
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DECEMBER TO JUNE
2016-17
CONTENTS
1 POLITY GOVERNANCE AND SOCIAL ISSUES 01 – 34
2 ECONOMIC AND INDUSTRIAL ISSUES 35 – 50
3 NATIONAL ISSUES 51 – 59
4 INTERNATIONAL ISSUES 60 – 74
5 ENVIRONMENT 75 – 98
6 SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 99 – 124
7 MISCELLANEOUS 125 – 142
Questions with Solutions 143 – 159
1
NITI AAYOG
NITI Aayog’s Long Term Vision
The third meeting of the Niti Aayog’s Governing Councilheld recently with the main agenda of deliberating on the15-year Vision Document to accelerate the country’seconomic development.
Significance
The last Five Year Plan ended on March 31 will bereplaced by a three-year action plan.
This was to be part of a seven-year strategy thatwould in turn help realize a 15-year long-term vision.
The Governing Council consists of all Chief Ministersand Lieutenant Governors of States and UnionTerritories.
Vision
The new approach of the government envisaging a15 year long term vision, 7 year strategy and a3 year action agenda.
Period of the action agenda coincided with the periodof the 14th Finance Commission’s award. “This gavestability to the funding estimates of both Centre andStates.
Action agenda identified over 300 specific actionpoints which covers whole gamut of sectors.
The India 2031-32: Vision, Strategy and ActionAgenda visualize a fully literate society withuniversal access to health care.
It envisioned that per capita income wouldincrease three-fold to Rs 3.14 lakh in 2031-32 fromRs 1.06 lakh in 2015-16.
It states that the country’s GDP would rise to Rs469 lakh crore in 2031-32 from Rs. 137 lakh crorelevel in 2015-16.
The vision says that the central and state expenditurewill rise by Rs 92 lakh crore in 2031-32 to Rs 130lakh crore from Rs 38 lakh crore in 2015-16.
States were asked to take initiative on switchingIndia’s financial year to match the calendar year.
Shortcomings
This agenda is meant to be the first step towardsattaining the envisioned outcomes by 2031-32.
However, only a draft action agenda for the threeyears till 2019-20 was handed out.
Without the larger strategy and vision in place, thethree-year action plan is likely to be more of anabstract and might be reverted.
Asking that it is not yet apparent if the 12th Plan’sinnovation of painting alternative scenarios (of actionsand outcomes) has been adopted.
Madhya Pradesh becomes the first Indian state tochange its fiscal year to Jan-Dec starting 2018.
Background of Niti Aayog
The Government has replaced Planning Commissionwith a new institution named NITI Aayog (NationalInstitution for Transforming India).
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NITI Aayog also known by the acronym theNational Institution for Transforming India, isa Government of India policy think-tank establishedby the government to replace the PlanningCommission which followed the top-down model.
The stated aim for NITI Aayog’s creation is to fosterinvolvement and participation in the economic policy-making process by the State Governments of India.The emphasis is on bottom-up approach and makethe country to move towards cooperativefederalism.
OBJECTIVE OF NITI
To evolve a shared vision of national developmentpriorities, sectors and strategies with the activeinvolvement of States in the light of nationalobjectives.
The vision of the NITI Aayog will then provide aframework ‘national agenda’ for the Prime Ministerand the Chief Ministers to provide impetus to.
Composition of NITI Aayog
The NITI Aayog will comprise the following:
(a) Prime Minister of India as the Chairperson.
(b) Governing Council comprising the ChiefMinisters of all the States and Lt. Governors ofUnion Territories.
(c) Regional Councils will be formed to addressspecific issues and contingencies impacting morethan one state or a region. These will be formedfor a specified tenure. The Regional Councilswill be convened by the Prime Minister and willcomprise of the Chief Ministers of States andLt. Governors of Union Territories in the region.These will be chaired by the Chairperson ofthe NITI Aayog or his nominee.
(d) Experts, specialists and practitioners withrelevant domain knowledge as special inviteesnominated by the Prime Minister.
(e) The full-time organizational framework isshown below in infographic.
ICT VISION DOCUMENT 2025
Election commission has come up with ICT visiondocument 2025.
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About the Vision document:
It states the strategy of adopting recent technologies andconsolidating existing technologies in the Electionecosystem.
Major components of the ICT 2025
Integrated Software application.
GIS, Analytic and Integrated Contact Centre.
IT infrastructure including data center, IT security,disaster recovery.
Knowledge Management, Capacity building and socialmedia engagement.
VVPAT
Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT)or Verifiable Paper Record (VPR) is a method ofproviding feedback to voters using a ballotless votingsystem.
A VVPAT is intended as an independent verificationsystem for voting machines designed to allow votersto verify that their vote was cast correctly, to detectpossible election fraud or malfunction, and toprovide a means to audit the stored electronic results
Elections in India
Laws pertaining to the elections in India are containedin Part XV of the Indian Constitution. The provisionsmentioned in the Articles (324 to 329) cover allaspects of conducting elections starting from inclusionof names in electoral roll to formulation of lawspertaining to elections.
The Election Commission (EC) of India is the onlyentity that has been given the authority to supervise,direct and control elections. According to Article324, the Election Commission should comprise theChief Election Commissioner (CEC) and otherElection Commissioners, who will be appointed bythe President.
MISSION INDRADHANUSH
Union Government advances immunisation programmedeadline to 2018. The renewed focus on the missioncomes after Prime Minister Narendra Modi reviewed theproject threadbare last week at the meeting of the multi-modal platform PRAGATI (Pro-Active Governance andTimely Implementation).
About Mission Indradhanush
It was launched with the aim of expandingimmunization coverage to all children across Indiaby year 2020.
It depicts seven colours of the rainbow. Thus, ittargets to immunize all children against sevenvaccine preventable diseases namely Diphtheria,Pertussis, Tetanus, Childhood Tuberculosis, Polio,Hepatitis B and Measles.
Vaccines for JE (Japanese Encephalitis) and HIB(Haemophilusinfluenzae type B) are also beingprovided in selected states.
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PRAGATI(Pro-Active Governance and Timely Implementation)
It is a unique integrating and interactive platformwhich is aimed at addressing common man’sgrievances, and simultaneously monitoring andreviewing important programmes and projects ofthe Government of India as well as projects flaggedby State Governments.
REAL ESTATE ACT
(a) The Ministry of Housing and Urban PovertyAlleviation recently sections of the act which set theball rolling for States to formulate, within six months,rules and regulations as statutorily mandated.
(b) Since land is a State subject under the Constitution,even after the Centre enacts the legislation, Stategovernments will have to ratify them. States will haveto set up the Real Estate Regulatory Authority’s(RERA) and the Real Estate Appellate Tribunals andhave only a maximum of a year from the cominginto effect of the Act to do so.
(c) The Act’s preamble details the legislative intentionwhich is to primarily protect the interests ofconsumers and bring in efficiency and transparencyin the sale/purchase of real estate. The Act alsoattempts to establish an adjudicatory mechanism forthe speedy redress of disputes.
(d) RERA and the Appellate Tribunal are expected todecide on complaints within an ambitious periodof 60 days.
(e) As one of the largest job creators, the real estatesector contributes almost 6% towards the GDP.Mindful of this, the Act seeks to assist developers bygiving the regulator powers to make recommendationsto State governments to create a single windowclearance for approvals in a time-bound manner.
(f) Key provisions of the Act include a requirement fordevelopers to now register projects with RERA priorto any advertisement and sale. Developers are alsoexpected to have all sanction plans approved andregulatory clearances in place prior tocommencement of sale. Subsequent changes haveto be approved by a majority of buyers and theregulator.
(g) If there is non-compliance, RERA has the power toorder up to three years imprisonment of thepromoters of a project.
(h) Importantly, it requires developers to maintainseparate escrow accounts in relation to each projectand deposit 70% of the collections in such an accountto ensure that funds collected are utilized only forthe specific project. The Act also requires realestate brokers and agents to registerthemselves with the regulator.
Infographic: Times of India
What are the major concerns?
Despite continuous monitoring and follow up by theMinistry of Urban Development and Housing,Government of India, only nine states (AndhraPradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh,Maharashtra, Odisha, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh)and six union territories (Andaman and NicobarIslands, Chandigarh, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Damanand Diu, Lakshadweep, and National Capital Territoryof Delhi) have notified their respective Real Estate(Regulation and Development) Rules, 2017.
Another important clause in RERA is the escrowaccount clause. This is a key clause in RERA andwas put in to stop the builders from raising money
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for a project and then using it for other things likecompleting an earlier project or paying off debt thatwas due. The operational guidelines of many statesare not clear on this.
Present states of PDQ is real states
Conclusion
The onus is now on States to formulate rules andestablish the regulatory authorities on time and notalter the clauses mentioned in the act. Thereshouldn’t be just paper compliance, by designatingan existing authority to take additional charge as thereal estate regulator, as that would affect thetimeliness prescribed under the Act.
Finally, the new legislation is a welcome enactment.It will go a long way in assisting upstandingdevelopers. More importantly, it will ease the burdenon innocent home buyers who put their life’s savingsinto a real estate investment in the hope of havinga roof over their head but often find their dreamscome tumbling down.
HIV AND AIDS PREVENTION BILL, 2017 (PASSEDBY THE PARLIAMENT)
In News: Recently, the Parliament passed the HumanImmunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and Acquired ImmuneDeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) (Prevention and Control)Bill, 2017.
Aim of the Bill
The Bill seeks to prevent and control thespread of HIV and AIDS, prohibits discriminationagainst persons with HIV and AIDS.
It provides for informed consent and confidentialitywith regard to their treatment, places obligations onestablishments to safeguard their rights, and createsmechanisms for redressing their complaints.
Provisions of the Bill
Prohibition of discrimination against HIV positivepersons:
The Bill lists the various grounds on whichdiscrimination against HIV positive persons and thoseliving with them is prohibited.
These include the denial, termination, discontinuationor unfair treatment with regard to: employment,educational establishments, health care services,residing or renting property, standing for public orprivate office, and provision of insurance.
The requirement for HIV testing as a pre-requisitefor obtaining employment or accessing health careor education is also prohibited.
Every HIV infected or affected person below theage of 18 years has the right to reside in a sharedhousehold and enjoy the facilities of the household.
It also prohibits any individual from publishinginformation or advocating feelings of hatred againstHIV positive persons and those living with them.
Informed Consent and Disclosure of HIV Status
The Bill requires that no HIV test, medical treatment,or research will be conducted on a person withouthis informed consent.
No person shall be compelled to disclose his HIVstatus except with his informed consent, and ifrequired by a court order.
Informed consent for an HIV test will not be requiredin case of screening by any licensed blood bank, acourt order, medical research, and epidemiologicalpurposes where the HIV test is anonymous and notmeant to determine the HIV status of a person.
Establishments keeping records of information of HIVpositive persons shall adopt data protectionmeasures.
Role of the Central and State Governments
The central and state governments shall takemeasures to:
Prevent the spread of HIV or AIDS,
Provide anti-retroviral therapy and infectionmanagement for persons with HIV or AIDS,
Facilitate their access to welfare schemesespecially for women and children,
Formulate HIV or AIDS educationcommunication programmes that are ageappropriate, gender sensitive, and nonstigmatizing, and
Lay guidelines for the care and treatment ofchildren with HIV or AIDS.
