World Economic Forum’s: Global Gender Gap Report 2021

GS-Paper-1: Social issue and Sociology Optional – UPSC PRELIMS – Mains Application

Context: World Economic Forum report is providing essential insight about Gender and its empowerment and status which UPSC candidates can utilize in PT for facts and in Sociology optional and ESSAY writing as a reference of Women's status.

WEF AIMS and Objective: https://www.weforum.org/

Facts:
It was first published in 2006 by the WEF. It benchmarks 156 countries on their progress towards gender parity in four dimensions:

Economic Participation and Opportunity,

Educational Attainment,

Health and Survival and

Political Empowerment.

Over the Index, the highest possible score is 1 (equality) and the lowest possible score is 0 (inequality).

Aim: To serve as a compass to track progress on relative gaps between women and men on health, education, economy and politics. Through this annual yardstick, the stakeholders within each country are able to set priorities relevant in each specific economic, political and cultural context.

Region Wise Rank:

1. South Asia incidentally is one of the worst performing regions, followed only by the Middle East and northern Africa.
2. Largest Gender Gap in Political Empowerment: The gender gap in political empowerment remains the largest: women represent only 26.1% of some 35,500 parliament seats and just 22.6% of over 3,400 ministers worldwide.
3. In 81 countries, there has never been a woman head of state, as of 15th January, 2021. Bangladesh is the only country where more women have held head-of-state positions than men in the past 50 years.
4. Economic Participation: The countries with the largest gender gaps in economic participation include Iran, India, Pakistan, Syria, Yemen, Iraq, and Afghanistan.
5. Timeframe to Close the Gap: It will take South Asia 195.4 years to close the gender gap, while Western Europe will take 52.1 years.

EPF tax rules- Social Security

GS-Paper-3: Economic issue and Economics Optional – UPSC PRELIMS – Mains Application

Context: The new EPF tax rules will come into effect from April 1, 2021, as announced in the Union Budget of 2021. Highly important for UPSC-PRELIMS and EPFO examination.

For EPFO PREPARATION: https://www.aspireias.com/upsc-epfo

Free SOCIAL SECURITY Booklet: https://www.aspireias.com/uploads/upladfile/Social_security_(2).pdf

Existing rule?

If a person contributes more than the limit prescribed under Section 80C of the Income Tax Act, he cannot get a tax break on his excess contribution. The earnings on contributions rarely suffered taxation since tax laws pegged tax-free earnings to higher rates than the interest rate on the EPF.

Moreover, the person will pay tax on their corpus, only if he withdrew it within 5 years from the comment of the contribution. This taxation framework incentivised employees to use the EPF as their primary retirement savings and it acted as a risk-free retirement savings mode.

What is the new rule?

• The new tax regulation will label a person as a high net worth individual if he misuses EPF by contributing more than Rs 2.5 lakh per annum to the EPF.
• The limit is Rs 5 lakh in cases where employers do not make contributions to the provident fund.

What is the issue with new rules?

• With the new rule coming into effect, the government assumes what is adequate for an individual on retirement.
• The decision on a common threshold of adequacy is incorrect and suffers from the flaw of a one-size-fits-all approach.
• Moreover, the word ‘misuse’ that was used to justify the imposition of the tax is difficult to comprehend.
• This is because EPF is solely a payroll deduction and cannot be contributed in any other manner.

• The new clause of taxing the amount exceeding the limit prescribed in the act brings the EPF to the borders of double taxation.
• 65% of EPF is invested in government securities and the rest is invested largely in PSU bonds and earnings available to the employee through the interest credit mechanism.
• Despite the stickiness of these interest rate declarations and there often being higher than market rates, it is certain that the government does not subsidise this interest rate credit.

Why it is difficult to administer?

• In addition to these flaws, there are difficulties in administrating the new tax rule.
• Due to the change of the threshold from Rs 2.5 lakh to Rs 5 lakh, there can be various interpretations surrounding the applicability to EPF.
• It is also unclear if the interest on such excess contributions is taxed once during the year of contribution or throughout the term of investment in EPF.
• The mechanism of tax communication from the EPFO to the member also remains uncertain.

Important Points

• The EPF remains a subsidy-free, pay-what-is-earned retirement fund and typifies safety with governance.
• Though pension funds are seen by governments in multiple policy contexts, they should remain, foremost, the retirement funds of the beneficiaries.

• Regulations governing contributions, taxation, investments, administration and benefits should be made in the interest of the beneficiary.
• But it seems that other imperatives dominate the agenda in pension policymaking in India.
• Therefore, the resultant outcomes are sub-optimal from a beneficiary point of view.
• Therefore the policymakers need to relook the new rules and the immediate rollback of it demonstrates the will of the policymakers to encourage retirement savings.

National Capital Territory of Delhi Amendment Bill, 2021

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) moved the NCT of Delhi (Amendment) Bill, 2021 to the Lok Sabha where it proposed that “government” in Delhi means the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi.

Key Provisions:

• Delhi’s present status is a Union Territory with a Legislative Assembly - an outcome of the 69th Amendment Act.
• The act introduced Articles 239AA and 239BB in the Constitution.
  • They have created the Union Territory of Delhi with a legislative assembly.
  • The administrator appointed under Article 239 is designated as Lieutenant Governor.
    • There shall be a council of ministers to aid and advise LG.
  • Subjects such as public order, police and land are not under the jurisdiction of the Delhi government.
    • The Centre will maintain these provisions.
• Article 239AA(4) mandates that in case of a difference of opinion between the L-G and the Council of Ministers, the L-G has to refer the issue to the President.
  • Until the decision is pending before the President, the L-G can use his discretion to take immediate action if urgency requires him/her to take an action.
• The NCT of Delhi Act, 1991 was passed to supplement the constitutional provisions relating to the Assembly and the Council of Ministers in the national capital.
• The act outlines few important provisions such as:
  • the powers of the Assembly
  • the discretionary powers enjoyed by the L-G
  • duties of the Chief Minister with respect to the need to furnish information to the L-G.

Salient features of the NCT of Delhi (Amendment) Bill 2021

• The NCT of Delhi (Amendment) Bill aims to amend few clauses of the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi Act, 1991 (GNCTD Act 1991) mentioned below:
  • Section 21 – This section deals with the restrictions on laws passed by the Legislative Assembly concerning certain matters.
    • The Bill provides that the term “government” referred to in any law made by the Legislative Assembly will imply Lieutenant Governor (L-G).
  • Section 24 – This section deals with assent to Bills passed by the Legislative Assembly.
    • The L-G will reserve the bills for the consideration of the President in matters including bills that diminish the powers of the High Court of Delhi, the President directed the L-G to reserve a bill, etc.
      • The NCT of Delhi (Amendment) Bill requires the L-G to reserve bills for the President that incidentally cover any of the matters outside the purview of the powers of the Legislative Assembly.
  • Section 33- It mentions that the Legislative Assembly will make rules to regulate the procedure and conduct of business in the Assembly.
    • The 2021 NCT bill states that such rules must be consistent with the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the Lok Sabha.
  • Section 44 – It deals with the conduct of business. Accordingly, all executive decisions taken by the elected government should be under the L-G’s name.
• The 2021 bill empowers the L-G to specify his suggestions on certain matters.
• His opinions has to be taken before making any executive action on decisions of the Minister/ Council of Ministers.

Insurance Amendment Bill, 2021

The government introduced a bill in Rajya Sabha to amend the Insurance Act, of 1938 and raise the foreign direct investment cap to 74% from 49%.

Provisions:

• The Act allows foreign investors to hold up to 49% of the capital in an Indian insurance company, which must be owned and controlled by an Indian entity.
• The Bill increases the limit on foreign investment in an Indian insurance company from 49% to 74%, and removes restrictions on ownership and control.
• However, such foreign investment may be subject to additional conditions as prescribed by the central government.
• The Act requires insurers to hold a minimum investment in assets which would be sufficient to clear their insurance claim liabilities.
• If the insurer is incorporated or domiciled outside India, such assets must be held in India in a trust and vested with trustees who must be residents of India.

Insurance companies are facing liquidity pressure and the higher limit would help meet the growing capital requirement.

Mahendragiri Biosphere Reserve

Odisha government has proposed a second biosphere reserve in the southern part of the state at Mahendragiri.

• Similipal Biosphere Reserve is Odisha’s first such reserve, which was notified in 1996.
• The area of the proposed Mahendragiri Biosphere Reserve is spread over Gajapati and Ganjam districts in the Eastern Ghats and is near the Mahendragiri peak.

Soura Tribe:

• They are a Munda ethnic group from eastern India living in southern Odisha and north coastal Andhra Pradesh.
• They are known by various names such as Savara, Sabara, Sora, and Soura.
• The Soras speak Sora, a Munda language
• They practice shifting cultivation, with a few gradually taking up settled agriculture.

Biosphere Reserves

• Biosphere Reserve (BR) is an international designation by UNESCO for representative parts of natural and cultural landscapes extending over a large areas of terrestrial or coastal/marine ecosystems.
• BRs are designated to deal with the quest for economic and social development and maintenance of associated cultural values.
• BRs are thus special environments for both people and nature and are living examples of how human beings and nature can co-exist while respecting each others’ needs.

Criteria for BR

• A site that must contain an effectively protected and minimally disturbed core area of value of nature conservation.
• The core area should be typical of a bio-geographical unit and large enough to sustain viable populations representing all trophic levels in the ecosystem.
• The management authority to ensure the involvement/cooperation of local communities to bring a variety of knowledge and experiences to link biodiversity conservation and socio-economic development while managing and containing the conflicts.
• Areas potential for preservation of traditional tribal or rural modes of living for harmonious use of the environment.

Global Wind Report 2021

The Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) has released the Global Wind Report, 2021.

About Global Wind Report:

• The Global Wind Report highlights the role of wind power on the road to net zero emissions.

Key Findings of the report:

• The world’s capacity to generate electricity from wind jumped 53% in 2020.
• A total of 93 gigawatts (GW) capacity was installed in the year.
  • However, this is not sufficient for the world to reach a ‘net zero’ emission status by 2050.
  • The world needs to install a minimum of 180 GW of new wind energy capacity every year.
• At present, the world has a total wind energy capacity of 743 GW.
• This has helped avoid an annual CO2 emission of over 1.1 billion tonnes which is equivalent to the volume of carbon South America emits in a year.
• China and the United States accounted for 75% of the new installations and over half the world’s wind power capacity.

India’s Wind Power Capacity:

• India’s total installed wind power capacity was 38GW (Feb-2021), the 4th largest installed wind power capacity in the world.

About Global Wind Energy Council(GWEC):

• The Global Wind Energy Council (GEWC) was established in 2005 to provide a credible and representative forum for the entire wind energy sector at an international level.
• Its mission is to ensure that wind power is established as one of the world’s leading energy sources, providing substantial environmental and economic benefits.
• Headquarters: Brussels,Belgium.

Vajra Prahaar Exercise between India & US

The 11th edition of Indo-US Joint Special Forces Exercise Vajra Prahar was conducted at Special Forces Training School located at Bakloh, Himachal Pradesh.

About Exercise Vajra Prahar:

• Exercise Vajra Prahar is a Special Forces joint military training exercise.
• It takes place alternately in India and the US since 2010.
• The exercise enables sharing of best practices and experience in areas such as joint mission planning capabilities and operational tactics.

Other Exercises between India and US:

• Yudh Abhyas- It is a joint military exercise between India and the US.
• Tiger Triumph- It is a tri-service military exercise between India and the US.

What are Special Forces?

• Special Forces of India refer to those Special forces units that are specifically organised, trained, and equipped to conduct and support special operations.
• The three branches of the Indian Armed Forces have separate special forces units namely:
  • Para SF: Parachute Regiment (Special Forces) is the special force of the Indian Army. This unit formed in 1966 in the aftermath of the 1965 Indo-Pakistan war.
  • MARCOS: Marine Commando Force also called MARCOS established in 1987. It is the special forces unit of the Indian Navy.
  • Garud Commando Force: It was established in 2004. They are the special forces of the Indian Air Force (IAF).
• There are other special forces that are out of military control. They operate under civilian organizations such as the Home ministry’s National Security Guard.

Other Exercises India participates in :

Heart of Asia Peace Conference

India’s Foreign Minister is attending the 9th ministerial conference of the Heart of Asia – Istanbul Process in Dushanbe, Tajikistan.

About Heart of Asia-Istanbul Process:

• It is a regional initiative of Afghanistan and the Republic of Turkey.
• It was launched in November 2011 in Istanbul, Turkey.
• The process aims to promote economic and political cooperation for Afghanistan's peace through dialogue and confidence-building measures (CBMs).
• The platform comprises 15 participating countries, 17 supporting countries, and 12 supporting regional and international organizations.
  • India is one of the participating countries.
  • Other participating countries are Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, China, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Uzbekistan, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, United Arab Emirates
• The Heart of Asia-Istanbul Process is based on three pillars:
  • Political Consultations to resolve disputes in the region and Afghanistan.
  • Implementation of the Confidence Building Measures (CBMs) and
  • Cooperation with Regional Organizations.
• The Directorate-General for Regional Cooperation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Afghanistan is the De facto Secretariat.
• India co-hosted the 6th Heart of Asia Ministerial Conference in Amritsar, Punjab in 2016.

National Award for Excellence in Forestry

The National Award of Excellence for Outstanding Research in Forestry for the year 2019 has been awarded to Kannan C S Warrier, a scientist at the Institute of Forest Genetics and Tree Breeding (IFGTB). This award is conferred by the Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education (ICFRE).

The award has been awarded to Kannan C S Warrier for releasing three salt-tolerant productive clones of Casuarina that are suitable for salt-affected soils, for the first time in the country. India has 6.73 million hectares of salt-affected land and is also the largest producer of Casuarina in the world which makes the production of these clones a significant achievement.

Casuarina

• Casuarina, also known as kattadi and savukku, is a plant genus with over 17 species with Casuarina equisetifolia was introduced in India in the 19^th century.
• They have a role in nitrogen fixation in symbiotic association with the bacteria Frankia.
• They provide fuel wood, and pulp for paper making and of late are a preferred choice for biomass-based power generation.
• They are also used at construction sites for scaffolding.
• They are used as shelterbelts in coastal areas and windbreaks for protecting agricultural crops and banana plantations.
• They also play a key role in reclaiming mined areas and afforesting nutrient-poor sites.

• Warrier has also done extensive work on the conservation of endangered sacred groves in Alappuzha district of Kerala.

DSIR-PRISM Scheme

DSIR-PRISM Scheme will be aligned with three National Initiatives like Unnat Bharat Abhiyan (UBA), Smart India Hackathon (SIH) and Rural Technology Action Group (RuTAG), IIT Delhi. Dept. of Scientific and Industrial Research - Promoting Innovations in Individuals, Startups and MSMEs (DSIR-PRISM) scheme supports individual innovators enabling inclusive development of India.

• It aims at transforming an innovator into a technopreneur by promoting and funding implementable and commercially viable innovations created for society.
• PRISM extends its support to any citizen of the country through Direct Benefit Transfer for idea development, prototype development and pilot scaling, and patenting in the core technology areas.

Areas - Affordable Healthcare, Water, Sewage Management, Green Technology, Clean Energy, Industrially Utilizable Smart Materials, Waste to Wealth aligned with our National objectives. PRISM considers Intellectual Property (IP) as belonging to the innovators.

The grant is given in two phases: Phase I and Phase II, catering to both the initial innovation stage and the advanced enterprise setup phase through DSIR outreach-cum-cluster innovation centres across India.