Daily CURRENT AFFAIRS

NEWS

The Union Home Ministry has refused to renew the FCRA registration of Missionaries of Charity (MoC), a Catholic religious congregation set up by Nobel laureate Mother Teresa due to some adverse inputs

ABOUT FCRA

• Foreign funding of persons in India is regulated under FCRA Act and is implemented by the Ministry of Home Affairs.
• The Act ensures that the recipients of foreign contributions adhere to the stated purpose for which such contribution has been obtained.
• Under the Act, organisations are required to register/renew themselves every five years.
• Registered NGOs can receive foreign contributions for five purposes — social, educational, religious, economic and cultural.

Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Amendment Act, 2020

• Prohibition to accept foreign contribution: The Act bars public servants from receiving foreign contributions.
• Transfer of foreign contribution: The Act prohibits the transfer of foreign contribution to any other person not registered to accept foreign contributions.
• Aadhaar for registration: The Act makes Aadhaar number mandatory for all office bearers, directors or key functionaries of a person receiving foreign contribution, as an identification document.
• FCRA account: Foreign contribution must be received only in an account designated by the bank as FCRA account in such branches of the State Bank of India, New Delhi.
• Reduction in use of foreign contribution for administrative purposes: Not more than 20% of the total foreign funds received could be defrayed for administrative expenses. In FCRA 2010 the limit was 50%.
• Surrender of certificate: The Act allows the central government to permit a person to surrender their registration certificate.

If 2020 was the year when Covid hit India and 2021 was the year when India’s economy recovered from that shock, then 2022 should be the year that will provide a snapshot of the economy as it is coming out of the Covid impact. It can then be compared with how the economy was in 2019 to figure out what has changed and what needs policy attention.

By the end of the financial year 2021-22, India’s GDP is expected to come back to the pre-Covid level . India is following K-Shaped recovery.

K-shaped recovery

• What it means - some sectors/ sections of the economy have registered a very fast recovery, many are still struggling.
• Who did well - firms that were already in the formal sector and had the financial wherewithal to survive the repeated lockdowns and disruptions.
• 90% of all employment in India happens in the informal sector. When the medium, small and micro enterprises (MSMEs) lose out to their counterparts in the formal economy, it results in the same GDP being produced with fewer people in jobs.

CHALLENGES TO RECOVERY

Unemployment concerns

• Stagnant employment situation over the past many years.
• Easing of the situation will require time
• It requires the government to actively act in a manner that tries to address the change of shift introduced by Covid.
• Persistently high levels of unemployment can pose a challenge for social cohesion. As we witnessed in Haryana and Jharkhand, locals may demand laws to bar migrants from other states.

Private consumption slump : Private consumption expenditure is the biggest engine of GDP growth in India. It accounts for over 55% of all GDP. To a great extent, it is down because of job and income losses

Widening inequalities

• Oxfam India report detailed how Covid was widening existing inequalities
• World Inequality Report pegging India as one of the worst performers
• India stands out as a poor and very unequal country, with an affluent elite
• While the top 10% and top 1% held respectively 57% and 22% of total national income, the bottom 50% share had gone down to 13%.

Rising poverty : A recent study has found that between 2012 and 2020, India witnessed an increase in the absolute number of poor — the first such reversal in poverty alleviation since Independence.

Persistently high inflation

• Typically, there tends to be silver lining in phases when an economy is failing to create many jobs: The inflation rate stays low.
• Higher crude oil prices and high domestic taxation, supply bottlenecks in different commodities, both retail and wholesale inflation stayed too high.

WHAT FACTORS DECIDE RECOVERY IN UPCOMING YEARS

OMICRON

• Expectation of 2022 completely depends on the assumption that the Omicron variant does not lead to any substantial loss of life and/or economic disruption.
• If adverse events happen, concerns about lives will yet again dominate those about livelihoods.
• A lot may depend again on the pace of vaccination — including the booster doses.

UNION BUDGET

• In times of such upheaval, the Budget is more than just an accounting exercise.
• Government would be expected to lay out its plan to tackle high unemployment, high inflation, widening inequalities and rising poverty levels
• Lot depends on how the government sees the economic situation

ELECTIONS: Policymaking can be impacted by electoral pressures

NPAs

• Before Covid disrupted India’s economy, high levels of non-performing assets (NPAs) were one of the biggest stumbling blocks.
• During Covid, mandatory asset quality reviews have been suspended. But when they are re-started in 2022 they may jump high.

EXTERNAL FACTORS:  Several key central banks, especially the US Fed, have started tightening their monetary policy in light of the high inflation in the developed countries. This, in turn, will force India’s RBI to raise interest rates as well.

NEWS

Minister for Road Transport and Highways asked automobile manufacturers to manufacture flex-fuel vehicles complying with BS-6 norms within six months.

FLEXIBLE FUEL VEHICLES (FFVS)

What

• Modified version of vehicles
• Run both on gasoline and doped petrol with different levels of ethanol blends.
• Have compatible engines to run on more than 84 percent ethanol blended petrol.

Benefits

• Reduce use of polluting fossil fuels and cutting down harmful emissions.
• Present a different advantage as they will allow vehicles to use different blends of ethanol mixed petrol available in different parts of the country.
• Logical extension of the Ethanol Blended Petrol (EBP) programme launched by the Union Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas in January 2003.
• Since India has surplus produce of corn, sugar and wheat, the mandatory blending of ethanol programme will help farmers in realising higher incomes.

Disadvantages/challenges

• Customer acceptance will be a major challenge since the cost of ownership and running cost are going to be very high compared with 100 per cent petrol vehicles.
• Ethanol also acts as a solvent and could wipe out the protective oil film inside the engine thereby could cause wear and tear.

CONTEXT

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has chosen Gurugram, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Mumbai, Chandigarh, Delhi, Jamnagar, Ahmadabad, Chennai, Hyderabad, Lucknow, Pune, and Gandhi Nagar to be among the first cities to get 5G services in 2022.

WHAT IS 5G TECHNOLOGY

• Latest upgrade in long-term evolution (LTE) mobile broadband networks.
• Works in three bands — low-, mid- and high-frequency — all of which have their uses as well as limitations.
• Low-band spectrum
  • Shown great promise in terms of coverage
  • Maximum Internet speed is limited to 100 Mbps (megabits per second)
  • Can be used for commercial cellphone users
  • May not be optimal for specialised needs of industries.
• Mid-band spectrum
  • Offers higher speeds than low-band
  • Has limitations in terms of coverage area and penetration of signals.
  • May be used by industries and specialised factory units for building captive networks.
• High-band
  • Offers the highest speed among the three
  • Extremely limited coverage and signal penetration strength
  • Speeds have been tested to be as high as 20 Gbps (gigabits per second
  • Maximum Internet data speed in 4G has been recorded at 1 Gbps.

ARE OTHER COUNTRIES AND GLOBAL COMPANIES AHEAD OF INDIA?

• More than governments, global telecom companies have started building 5G networks
• In the US, companies such as AT&T, T-mobile, and Verizon have taken the lead
• In China, some telcos such as China Unicom had started 5G trials in 2018, and have since rolled out the commercial services for users.
• South Korean company Samsung, which had started researching on 5G technology way back in 2011, has taken the lead when it comes to building the hardware for 5G networks for several companies.

WHAT CHANGES FOR CONSUMERS?

• Rich experiences on their phones and other connected devices
• Uusers will be able to stream videos with multiple camera angles during sports matches or even play immersive video games using VR headsets or other accessories.
• Enable a mesh of connected Internet of Things (IoT)-enabled devices and services with zero-fail rate, as in the case of connected cars.
• Spawn high-speed mobile broadband connectivity to replace existing broadband services, especially in locations where these services are constrained, provided there isn’t a huge price differential.
• Some newer devices in the market claim to be 5G-ready.
• Equipment makers such as Ericsson believe that within 5 years, India will have 500 million 5G subscriptions.

WHERE DOES INDIA STAND IN TERMS OF TRIALS AND LAUNCH?

• Auction of 5G spectrum would be delayed by at least one quarter as telecom service providers are yet to complete their trials and test various aspects.
• Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) is in the final stages of stakeholder consultations, and is likely to submit its recommendations to the DoT early next year.
• Bharti Airtel has conducted trials in partnership with Ericsson for mobile phones already in the market, Vi has conducted some for enterprise and business solutions, and Reliance Jio Infocomm has completed building its indigenous 5G network and is now conducting trials of connected drones, speed test and other aspects

WHY BIG CITIES BE AMONG THE FIRST?

• Telecom service providers have been working with telecom equipment makers and conducting trials at test sites in these cities.
• Telecom services penetration is high making it easier to convince more people to upgrade from 4G.

• Since the costs for 5G services are initially going to be on the higher side, it would be wise to test the service in areas where more consumers would find them affordable.
• Provide all kinds of locations, such as walled complexes and open spaces, that are suitable for testing of various 5G bands.

NEWS

Vikram Misri former Ambassador to China has been appointed Deputy National Security Adviser

NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL

• Executive government agency
• Tasked with advising the Prime Minister’s Office on matters of national security and strategic interest.
• Established by the former Prime Minister of India Atal Bihari Vajpayee on 19 November 1998
• Brajesh Mishra as the first National Security Advisor.
• Prior to the formation of the NSC, these activities were overseen by the Principal Secretary to the preceding Prime Minister.
• Members –
  • National Security Advisor (NSA
  • Deputy National Security Advisors
  • Ministers of Defence, External Affairs, Home, Finance of the Government of India
  • Vice Chairman of the NITI Aayog are members of the National Security Council.
• PM can chair the meeting of NSC (for eg – PM chaired the meeting of NSC Post Pulwama to discuss heightened tension with Pakistan).
• Other members may be invited to attend its monthly meetings, as and when it is required.

ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE

• The NSC is the apex body of the three-tiered structure of the national security management system in India.
• The three tiers are the Strategic Policy Group, the National Security Advisory Board and a secretariat from the Joint Intelligence Committee.

NEWS

NITI Aayog, has released the health index of States and Union Territories taking 2019-2020 as the reference year.

DETAILS

• Report title - "Healthy States, Progressive India"
• Ranks states and Union Territories on their year-on-year incremental performance in health outcomes as well as their overall status
• What is State Health Index –
  • Annual tool to assess the performance of states and UTs
  • Weighted composite index based on 24 indicators
  • Grouped under the domains of 'Health Outcomes', 'Governance and Information', and 'Key Inputs/Processes'
  • Has been assigned weights based on its importance with higher score for outcome indicators.
• Kerala has again emerged as the top ranking state in terms of overall health performance among larger states, while Uttar Pradesh is the worst, according to the report.
• Tamil Nadu and Telangana have emerged as the second and third best performers, respectively. However, Uttar Pradesh ranked at the top in terms of incremental performance by registering the highest incremental change from the base year (2018-19) to reference year (2019-20).
• Among the smaller states, Mizoram emerged as the best performer in overall performance as well as incremental performance
• Among UTs, Delhi and Jammu & Kashmir ranked among the bottom UTs in terms of overall performance but emerged as the leading performer in terms of incremental performance.

• The animal adoption fee in zoos across Karnataka has been hiked. A decision in this regard was taken at the 149th board meeting of the Zoo Authority of Karnataka (ZAK), which controls the zoos in the State. The species have been categorized in diamond class, gold class, silver class, and bronze class. The adoption is possible for a sum of ₹1,000 to ₹3,00,000 per annum.
• Rare black stick-like drawings of human beings have been found in two caves at Paibogula village in Kurnool district close to the Kundu River. These sites have rock art in black, red, and white pigments, along with cupules or cup marks of varying sizes, which need to be studied further for the exact dating
• Seven-term Rajya Sabha MP Mahendra Prasad passes away. He was the founder of Aristo Pharmaceuticals
• Edward. O. Wilson, the trailblazing U.S. scientist, professor and author whose study of insects and clarion call to protect earth earned him the nickname “Darwin’s natural heir” passed away