National Pension System

Background : Govt. has been looking after the Pension of its employees and because of this, its financial burden was increasing by leaps and bounds.

So, GoI launched this retirement scheme on 1st Jan, 2004
This scheme moves from a defined benefit pension to defined contribution based benefit pension system.


Regulator : Pension Fund regulatory and development Authority (PFRDA) set up in 2003 by an executive order. Constitutional amendment bill to give PFRDA statutory status was passed in 2013.

Salient Features of the bill : 

• Statutory status
• Name change of New Pension System to National Pension System
• mandatory for all central govt employees joined after jan 2004
• each subscriber will have a pension account and a fund manager to choose from. Both are portable.
• extended to other citizens after May 2009
• allowed FDI limit is 26%

More -
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Pension_Scheme
2. http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2011-12-29/news/30568962_1_nps-trust-fund-managers-national-pension-system
3. http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2011-08-25/news/29927190_1_nps-subscribers-fund-managers-returns
5. http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/parliament-passes-key-pension-bill-after-10year-delay/article5100899.ece
6. http://www.prsindia.org/billtrack/the-pension-fund-regulatory-and-development-authority-bill-2011-1600/
7. http://www.telegraphindia.com/1131028/jsp/business/story_17502380.jsp#.U0osP62SzGx

National Investment Fund (NIF)

Set up in 2005

http://www.thehindu.com/business/Economy/national-investment-fund-gets-nod-to-buy-psu-shares/article4316745.ece

Sugar Industry : Issues and Recommendation

2nd largest agro-based Industry in India after Cotton industry

Produced from

1. Sugarcane (India - 2nd largest producer after Brazil)
2. Sugar-beet
3. any other crop having sugar content

India - 2nd largest producer (~17%) after Brazil

Production (1/3rd) --> Sugar Mills --> Sugar, Bagasse, Molasses 

Production (2/3rd) --> Gur and Khandsari

Problems for the Industry

1. Low Yield
2. Short crushing season
3. Small and uneconomic size of mills
4. Old & obsolete machinery
5. Faulty Govt. Policies

Rangarajan Committee

More on this 

Mrunal's Blog and news reports

Rangarajan Committee

PM appointed


Key Recommendations -

• Domestically produced Natural Gas should be priced at an average of Intl. hub prices and cost of imported LNG

Currently, Production Sharing Contracts (PSC) provide for gas being sold at an arms-length price discovered through market bids invited from potential users.

More -
http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-business/another-round-of-gas-price-hike-in-offing/article4338225.ece

World Economic Forum

The annual meeting for 2013 is being held at Davos, Switzerland

Golden Triangle Collaboration between Governments, Companies & Civil Societies.

Verma Committee & Criminal Law Amendment Bill

Union Home Ministry constituted this 3 member committee in the wake of the brutal gang-rape of a Delhi medical student,  under the chairmanship of Retd. justice J.S. Verma to look into the amendments proposed in criminal law bill in general and crimes against women in particular.

Committee --> Recommendations

• On Rape 
• Redefine rape in IPC sec 375
• No to Death Penalty in case of rape charges
• Minimum sentence for a rapist should be increased from 7 to 10
• Maximum imprisonment to stay at "Life Imprisonment" which will always mean till one's death
• "Two Finger Test" should not be conducted on rape victims. Medical examination should be done by a board of 3 doctors to ensure consensus under the supervision of a senior female gynecologist. Deliberations of the board must be recorded in audio to help the court
• DNA and other samples should be sent to forensic lab within two days
• Medico-Legal Reports should be sent electronically by PDFs, digital signatures etc.
• Judges should be 'sensitized' and CJ should choose those who will try these cases, carefully.
• Juvenile Crime - 
• Age of juveniles should not be lowered from 18 to 16 (coz Juvenile Justice Act has failed - But why?)
• A new constitutional authority like CAG to deal with education and non-discrimination of women and children
• AFSPA - 
• Continuance of AFSPA should be reviewed in the context of providing legal services to women in conflict areas
• The Committee has criticised lack of reformatory and rehabilitation policies in jails and juvenile homes.
• Khap Panchayats - condemned and termed as 'extra constitutional'
• Electoral Reforms - 
• Representation of People Act, 1951 has to amended
• Tougher measures for MPs and MLAs convicted for crime
• Election commission has sent a proposal to the Parliament
• Insulate law making agencies from political or other influences
• Appoint retd. judges on ad-hoc basis to clear backlog from time to time
• On Sexual Harassment Bill - 
• A separate tribunal outside
• No compromise
• Till the case is disposed of, both should not be made to work together
• The Bill allows the employer to penalize false or malicious complaints

More -
http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/juvenile-justice-act-has-failed-miserably/article4337040.ece
http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/the-youth-have-shown-the-way-says-justice-verma/article4337052.ece
http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/dont-allow-armymen-to-take-cover-under-afspa-says-verma/article4337125.ece
http://www.prsindia.org/theprsblog/?p=2527

Usha Mehra Commission

set up to 

• inquire into various aspects of the shocking attack in Delhi
• suggest measure for safety and security of women, particularly in Delhi and NCR. 

Criminal Law (Amendment) Bill, 2012

• Introduced in LS by HM and is currently being examined by select committee on 
• Bill seeks to amend 
• IPC, 1860 - 3 new offences
• CrPC, 1973
• Evidence Act, 1872

More -

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/stalking-eveteasing-to-be-part-of-new-law-against-sex-offenders/1060384/

http://www.prsindia.org/billtrack/the-criminal-law-amendment-act-2012-2552/

Criminal Law (Amendment) Ordinance, 2012

Prez issues on Feb 3, 2013. 

Issuing Ordinance is not a discretionary power of the Prez

It has effected some provisions of the proposed Criminal Law (Amendment) Bill, 2013.

Provisions - 

Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC) & High Speed Rail Corridors (HSR)

Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC)

A project by Ministry of Railways by setting up a SPV (DFCIL)
Japan is funding it (technically and financially).

2 corridors -

1. Eastern (Ludhiana to Dankuni) ~ 1800 kms
2. Western (Dadri to JNPT)  ~ 1500 kms (under DMIC project)

DMIC components

1. Western DFC
2. intersection free six-lane expressway 
3. 3 ports
4. 6 airports
5. 8 NIMZs
6. 1 4000MW power plant

Why DFCs ?

1. Our emerging economy needs infrastructure to support it - fast movement of coal for power plants - fast movement of raw materials and finished products
2. decrease the load on the routes making passenger transport fast and safe
3. It will foster setting up of industrial corridors and logistics parks along its alignment.
4. It will help IR to serve market needs in a better way.

High Speed Rail Corridors (HSR)

Proposed in 6 routes in Rail Budget 2010.

1. Delhi-Chandigarh-Amritsar
2. Delhi-Agra-Kanpur-Lucknow-Varanasi-Patna
3. Pune-Mumbai-Ahmedabad
4. Kolkata-Haldia
5. Hyd-Vijaywada-Chennai
6. Chennai-Bangalore-Coimbatore-Ernakulam

Why HSRs ?

1. Fast mode of transport- will compete with Low cost flights in terms of cost factor
2. fuel effective - Energy requirement is 5 times less than that of flights and one third of that of cars
3. 30% less land requirement than that of an expressway
4. Environment friendly mode

It also proposed to set up a National High Speed rail Authority (NHSRA) on the lines of NHAI in road sector, to coordinate, plan and construction etc.

http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/laying-high-speed-train-corridor-to-cost-rs-80000-crore/article6999196.ece

Treaty to Reduce Mercury Emissions

Why Emission of mercury is detrimental for our environment?

Mercury is used in chemical industries and small scale mining.

The treaty -
The first legally binding international treaty

(14th) Finance Commission

Finance Commission

Art 280

• has provided for constitution of a Finance Commission by President every 5 year or earlier if necessary.
• has empowered Parliament to determine (Hence Finance Commission Act)
• Composition etc.

A quasi-judicial body.

Constitution lists 4 tasks for FC (4th one by 73rd amendment). President can assign anything else, if feels necessary.

FC vs. PC debate

14th Finance Commission

Jan 2013 : Govt. constituted the 14th Finance Commission under former RBI Governor Y.V. Reddy.
This five-member panel has to submit its report by 31st July, 2014.

It will recommend on -

1. Sharing of net proceeds from taxes between the states and the center.
2. Steps for pricing public utilities such as electricity, water, public transport and irrigation in an independent manner to guard these against policy fluctuations. 
3. Other issues like disinvestment, subsidies, GST compensation, sale of non-priority PSU 

The commission will also look into the state of finances, deficit and debt levels of the centre and the states, keeping in view, in particular, the fiscal consolidation roadmap recommended by the 13th Finance Commission.

It will suggest measures for maintaining a stable and sustainable fiscal environment consistent with equitable growth.

Mar 2015 : report released

Recommendations

1. State's share in tax proceeds to be raised to 42% from current 32%. - towards cooperative federalism.
2. Panchayats and Urban local bodies will directly be getting fund - states can have greater flexibility in deciding their own schemes and programs

Post-mortem

• Higher allocation in tax proceeds will be nullified by reduction in Centrally Sponsored Schemes (CSS)

References

1. Laxmikant

Deallocation of Coal Blocks

Economy :

• An expert committee under former cabinet secretary BK Chaturbedi is set us for restructuring of HAL board
• Am Inter-ministerial panel (IMG) on coal blocks has recommended de-allocation of 8 coal block, that were allotted to PSUs, because of non-utilization. earlier, it had recommendation same in case of 13 coal blocks allotted to private companies
• The blocks are being deallocated because these were not developed within the stipulated timeframe and no satisfactory explanation was given either.

Prelude : 

• Govt. allocates coal blocks among industrial houses.
• Aug 17, 2012 : CAG released a performance audit report on 'Allocation of Coal Blocks and Augmentation of Coal Production'.
• Some key findings of the audit report are - 
• Govt. did not allocate the coal blocks through competitive bidding process. This resulted in benefit of 1.86 lakh crores (approx.) for the private companies.

The IMG on coal was constituted for periodical review of the allocated coal blocks.

How the whole thing works.

CIL, under the jurisdiction of Coal ministry, produces over 80% of India's coal. It enters into a FSA or  Fuel Supply Agreement with the coal consumers. It, then, issues a Letter of Assurance (LoA) stating the commitment to provide a fixed quantity of coal, a promise which CIL has failed on number of occasions.