Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 16 April 2017
:: National ::
DST will be leading a Rs. 2,000-crore initiative to encourage more girls and women
The Department of Science and Technology will be leading a Rs. 2,000-crore initiative to encourage more girls and women to take up careers in the domain of science and engineering, where they are under-represented.
A pilot programme covering 100,000 girls and women, from school-going children to those interested in research, will be launched later this year.
Studies have found that when compared to the U.S., European Union, and several Asian countries, India fared reasonably well when it comes to enrolment of women in science and engineering, which stood at around 35%.
But the proportion of women in the science and engineering workforce was an abysmal 12%.
The current initiative, ‘Vigyan Jyoti’, envisages 500 contractual faculty positions for five years in universities and research organisations, and special scholarships for school girls.
Alongside mentoring, there would be a concerted effort to expose them to more areas of science and engineering, present role-models to inspire them, and conduct counselling sessions for parents and teachers.
The proposal is a key part of a report, Vigyan 2030: Science and Technology as the Pivot for Jobs, Opportunities and National Transformation, submitted by the secretaries of all Central science departments. Presented to PM.
GST to effect the citizens in many ways
GST will replace the myriad local, State-level and Central taxes that are built into the price you pay for products, and the service tax as well as cesses that are dovetailed to your outgoes when you dine at a restaurant or pay your mobile phone bills.
India may be a $2-trillion-plus economy with a large, booming domestic market, but is a nightmare for compliant businesses, thanks to multiple Central and State-level indirect taxes, such as sales tax, excise duty, Central VAT and State VAT.
The alphabet soup of taxes, differing regulations across 29 States, and difficulties in inter-State trade which often involve hours of highway snarls at border checkpoints.
This is to collect octroi and check documents, are a recipe for inefficiency and a proven incentive for tax evasion by sticking to the informal sector.
As a single tax that would replace all such duties and cesses, the GST will make India a unified market with a common tax structure, instead of 29 fractured markets.
One last thing worth noting: petroleum products and alcohol are being kept out of the GST net for now.
Nine years after the Indian economy was opened up in 1991, the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government first floated the idea of a simple, transparent and efficient GST regime to substitute the multiple Central and State taxes and cesses.
But, like several critical (and often inevitable) reforms in India, the GST took a tortuously long route to reach the cusp of reality — a route marred by resistance, flip-flops and political expediency.
Co-operative governance body called the GST Council, with representatives from the States and the Centre, has thrashed out the nitty-gritty of the new regime, including five rate slabs (zero, 5%, 12%, 18% and 28%).
Also an additional cess on top of the highest GST rate on sin goods, such as luxury cars and tobacco.
Unlike income tax, which just a small segment of India’s mammoth 1.3 billion-plus population end up paying, including the poorest of the poor, pay indirect taxes on products and services.
Besides improving tax compliance from traders, the GST regime is expected to boost economic growth by a percentage point or two, despite the risk of an initial blip, the government and industry bodies reckon.
Investors, often put off by India’s complex taxation structure, should find it easier and more attractive to do business in the country and create an important by-product for India’s fast-growing, young workforce — jobs.
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:: International ::
Mother of all bombs did huge damage to the IS
Afghan authorities reported a jump in fatalities from the American military’s largest non-nuclear bomb, declaring some 90 Islamic State fighters dead, as U.S.-led ground forces advanced on their mountain hideouts.
Dubbed the ‘Mother Of All Bombs’, the GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast was unleashed in combat for the first time, hitting IS positions in a remote area of eastern Nangarhar province.
The bomb smashed the terrorist organisation’s hideouts, a tunnel-and-cave complex that had been mined against conventional ground attacks, engulfing the remote area in a huge mushroom cloud and towering flames.
Mr. Shinwari said American and Afghan ground forces were slowly advancing on the mountainous area blanketed with landmines, but there were still some pockets of resistance from insurgents.
Security experts say IS had built their hideouts close to civilian homes, but the government said thousands of local families had already fled the area in recent months of fighting.