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District Collectors and Deputy Commissioners will be the primary
nodes for receiving, disposing and monitoring grievances.
Implementation - It will be available round the clock with
applicant OTP authentication, acknowledgement to applicant at
each stage, feedback by complainant, and grievance submission
through call centre by making a phone call between 9:30 a.m. to
5:30 p.m. on all days except Sunday.
International Relations
Q - What is U.K’s first major post-Brexit trade agreement?
Britain announced its first major post-Brexit trade agreement — a
deal with Japan — as its negotiations with the European Union
become increasingly fractious.
The Department for International Trade said the accord, which
largely replicates the current EU-Japan deal, will be worth £15.2
billion ($19.5 billion).
The government said U.K. businesses will benefit from tariff-free
trade on 99% of exports to Japan and that it will give British
businesses a gateway to the Asia-Pacific region.
Britain has taken back control of trade policy & will continue to
thrive as a trading nation outside the EU.
GS 3
Economic Development
Q – What is the ‘post-devolution revenue deficit grant’?
The government on September 10, 2020 released ₹6,195.08 crore
to 14 States as the sixth equated monthly instalment of the Post
Devolution Revenue Deficit Grant as recommended by the 15th
Finance Commission.
Post devolution revenue deficit grants: About a third of the total
revenue collected by the Centre is directly transferred to states as
their share in the divisible pool.
However, the Finance Commission also provides a mechanism for
compensation of any loss incurred by states, which is called post-
devolution revenue deficit grants. This Finance Commission Grant
forms the second largest chunk of Finance Commission transfers after
the assistance to local rural bodies.
A.P, Assam, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Punjab, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, Tripura, Uttarakhand and West Bengal are the 14 States.
Environment
Q – What is Net Present Value (NPV) Pay and how is it delaying the
exploration activity in the mines?
The Net Present Value (NPV), as it is called, is a monetary
approximation of the value that is lost when a piece of forest land has
been razed. This is on the basis of the services and ecological value
and there are prescribed formulae for calculating this amount which
depends on the location and nature of the forest and the type of
industrial enterprise that will replace a particular parcel of forest. The
SC mandates this must be paid by those who use forest land for non-
forestry purposes.
The Ministry of Mines has requested an expert advisory committee of the Environment Ministry to exempt it from the Supreme Court-mandated fees that prospectors pay when they dig exploratory boreholes in forests.
They argued that “... all areas of exploration are not converted into
mining. Only about 1% cases are converted to mining. Considering
these, payment of NPV is regarded as an avoidable expenditure. Even
payment of NPV at a rate of 2% or 5% is one of the major challenges
which leads to delay in the exploration activities”.
The Forest Advisory Committee, the Environment Ministry constituted panel, however recommended that the Ministry “may consider charging NPV on borehole basis instead of the present practice of charging 2 or 5% NPV of the total forest area in the lease area.”