1. SAFFORN BOWL PROJECT
Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Science and Technology and Earth Sciences, Dr. Jitendra Singh informed Lok Sabha about the Safforn Bowl Project.
About:
- North East Centre for Technology Application and Reach (NECTAR) under Saffron Bowl project has identified few locations in Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya for saffron cultivation.
- In Arunachal Pradesh, there is a good growth of organic saffron with flowers. In Meghalaya, sample plantations were grown at Cherrapunji, Mawsmai and Lalingtop sites.
- The total cost of the whole project is Rs. 17.68 lakhs for Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya. Out of which, a tentative amount of Rs.6.00 lakhs has been earmarked for Barapani (Meghalaya) site.
- The following sites have been identified in Meghalaya under the said project:
- Barapani,
- Cherrapunji,
- Mawsmai,
- Shillong, and
- Lalingtop
- Barapani,
2. SCORPENE SUBMARINE ‘VAGIR’
The fifth submarine of Project 75, Yard 11879, Indian Navy’s Kalvari class commenced her sea trials on 01 February 2022.
About:
- The submarine was launched in Nov 2020 from the Kanhoji Angre Wet Basin of Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited (MDL). The submarine would be named Vagir, after commissioning.
- The submarine will now undergo intense trials of all its systems at sea, including propulsion systems, weapons and sensors. The submarine is scheduled for delivery to the Indian Navy in the year 2022 after completion of these trials.
3. WETLANDS
Union Minister for Environment, Bhupender Yadav, addressed the national level celebration of World Wetlands day 2022 held at Sultanpur National Park, a Ramsar site of Haryana.
About:
- World Wetlands Day is observed every year on February 2nd all over the world.
- It is celebrated to raise global awareness about the vital role of wetlands for people and our planet.
- This day also marks the date of the adoption of the Convention on Wetlands on February 2, 1971, in the Iranian city of Ramsar.
- This year’s theme of World Wetlands Day is “Wetlands Action for People and Nature”, which highlights the importance of actions to ensure the conservation and sustainable use of wetlands for humans and planetary health.
New Ramsar sites
- Two new Ramsar sites (Wetlands of International Importance), Khijadia Wildlife Sanctuary in Gujarat and Bakhira Wildlife Sanctuary in U.P were also announced on the occasion by Shri Yadav.
- India now has a network of 49 Ramsar sites covering an area of 10,93,636 hectares, the highest in South Asia. Bakhira Wildlife Sanctuary in UP provides a safe wintering and staging ground for a large number of species of the Central Asian Flyway.
- Khijadia Wildlife Sanctuary in Gujarat is a coastal wetland with rich avifaunal diversity providing a safe habitat to endangered and vulnerable species.
National Wetland Decadal Change Atlas
- On the occasion, "National Wetland Decadal Change Atlas” prepared by the Space Applications Centre (SAC), Ahmedabad was also released highlighting the changes which have happened in Wetlands across the country in the past decade.
- The original Atlas was released by SAC in 2011 and has over the years been used extensively by all the State Governments also in their planning processes.
4. SCHEME OF ASSISTANCE TO NATIONAL SPORTS FEDERATIONS
The Union Government has approved continuation of Scheme of Assistance to National Sports Federations (NSFs) with an outlay of Rs. 1575 crore for XV Finance Commission Cycle (2021-22 to 2025-26).
About:
- The Scheme of Assistance to NSFs is the flagship Central Sector Scheme.
- It is the main source of funding for preparation of national teams for all major national and international competitions, including the Olympic Games, Para-Olympics, Asian Games, Para Asian Games, Commonwealth Games (CWG) and other major international tournaments.
- The outlay in the cycle will be extended to NSFs to train and field national teams for national and international competitions between 2022 and 2026, prime among them, the Commonwealth and Asian Games of 2022, Olympics and Paralympics 2024 and Asian and Commonwealth Games in 2026.
- The financial support extended by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports through this Scheme will be used by NSFs to conduct national coaching camps, procure sports equipment and consumables, provide training of international standards to athletes etc.
5. EMERGENCY CREDIT LINE GUARANTEE SCHEME (ECLGS)
The Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS) will be extended to cover the next fiscal as well, with expanded guarantee cover of Rs 5 lakh crore, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in her budget presentation.
About:
- An additional guarantee amount of Rs 50,000 crore has been announced for the hospitality sector.
- Under ECLGS, which is for helping companies tide over liquidity crunch resulting from Covid-19 curbs, banks provide additional loans to existing borrowers without asking for extra collateral. To encourage banks, these loans are fully guaranteed by the government against credit losses. This scheme will be key to ensure that MSMEs impacted by intermittent lockdowns in states get funding to stay afloat.
- Sanctions and disbursements under the facility are relatively faster since lenders have the Central government guarantee in case of default against these loans.
- Hotels, restaurants, canteens, caterers, marriage halls, tour operators, as well as amusement parks and theatres can avail the facility. Accounts that are classified as non-performing assets or where overdues have crossed 60 days (SMA-II) are not eligible.
6. CENTRAL BANK DIGITAL CURRENCY (CBDC)
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced the launch of the Digital Rupee — a central bank digital currency (CBDC) — 2022-23 onwards.
About:
- Who will launch the CBDC? The Reserve Bank of India will launch the CBDC from the upcoming financial year. This follows the government’s plans to launch the CBDC that will be backed by blockchain technology.
- What is a CBDC? CBDC is a legal tender issued by a central bank in a digital form. It is similar to a fiat currency issued in paper and is interchangeable with any other fiat currency.
What is the need for CBDC?
- The goal is to provide users with convenience and security of digital as well as the regulated, reserve-backed circulation of the traditional banking system.
- he RBI has on several occasions flagged concerns of money laundering, terror financing, tax evasion, etc with private cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ether, etc and had planned to announce its own CBDC.
7. VIRTUAL DIGITAL ASSETS
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, in her Budget 2022 speech, announced a 30 per cent tax on income from virtual digital assets.
About:
- She further clarified that no deduction in respect of any expenditure or allowance shall be allowed while computing such income except the cost of acquisition.
- Additionally, she also proposed a TDS on payment made in relation to the transfer of virtual digital assets at 1 per cent above a monetary threshold.
- Additionally, if a virtual digital asset investor incurs losses during the transaction, it can’t be set off against any other income. The gifting of virtual digital assets has also been proposed to be taxed in the hands of the recipient.
- In the explanatory memorandum of the Finance Bill, the government stated, “To define the term “virtual digital asset”, a new clause (47A) is proposed to be inserted to section 2 of the Act.
8. OPEN CAST MINING
Five persons were found dead after part of an open cast coal mine caved in, in Dhanbad district of Jharkhand.
About:
- Officials said the deceased persons had illegally entered the open cast mine located at the Eastern Coalfields Limited (ECL) in Mugma.
- Open cast mining is a traditional ‘cone-shaped’ excavation done for surface mining of coal that does not deep shafts.
- Open-pit mining, also known as open-cast or open-cut mining and in larger contexts mega-mining, is a surface mining technique of extracting rock or minerals from the earth from an open-air pit, sometimes known as a borrow.
- This form of mining differs from extractive methods that require tunnelling into the earth, such as long wall mining. Open-pit mines are used when deposits of commercially useful ore or rocks are found near the surface.
9. IMPORT DUTY CHANGES IN BUDGET 2022
Signalling a move to protect domestic industries which are not necessarily capital, technology or labour intensive, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman introduced a slew of higher custom duties on items of daily use such as umbrellas, headphones, earphones, loudspeakers, smart meters, and imitation jewellery.
About:
- The customs duty on umbrellas was doubled to 20 per cent, while exemptions provided on import of parts of umbrellas were withdrawn.
- Similarly, the customs duty on single or multiple loudspeakers, whether or not mounted in their enclosures was hiked to 20 per cent from 15 per cent.
- Apart from umbrellas, the customs duty on headphones and earphones, whether or not combined with a microphone, and sets consisting of a microphone and one or more loudspeakers, was also hiked to 20 per cent from 15 per cent, while those on smart meters was raised to 25 per cent from 15 per cent.
- Import duty, meanwhile, was reduced for cut and polished diamonds, asafoetida, cocoa beans, methyl alcohol and acetic acid along with proposing to phase out the concessional rates in capital goods and project imports gradually and apply a tariff of 7.5 per cent.
One station-one product
- The decision falls in line with the other Budget announcement of popularising one station-one product to popularise local businesses and supply chains.
- One station-one product as a concept aims to promote a local product from each stop of the Indian Railways by making the railway station of that area a promotional and sales hub for the product.
10. RETROSPECTIVE CHANGES TO INCOME-TAX LAW
The Union Budget 2022-23 brought in some amendments to the Income Tax Act that would be effective retrospectively.
About:
- Making a retrospective amendment to the Income-tax Act from 2005-06, the Budget has clarified that cess and surcharge will not be allowed to be claimed as deductions in the form of expenditure, a practice that some companies and businesses were resorting to in the absence of legal clarity.
- Citing some court rulings over the years that had given benefit to taxpayers in claiming cess as expenditure and not tax, the tax department said the retrospective amendment is being done to correct the anomaly.
- The court rulings differentiated between income tax and education cess on income tax, and in absence of a specific disallowance for ‘education cess’, courts had taken a view beneficial for taxpayers in many cases.
- In order to nullify the effect of such court rulings and to consider such rulings against the intention of the law, a clarificatory amendment has been introduced in the income tax law, providing that any surcharge or education cess on income tax shall not be allowed as business expenditure.
What are the other amendments done retrospectively?
- The Budget has allowed exemption of the amount received for medical treatment and on account of death due to Covid-19 retrospectively from April 1, 2020.
- Separately, gifts and freebies to doctors shall not be treated as business expenditure under section 37 of the Income-tax Act.