UniFocus IAS ( UNIFOCUS UNIVERSAL )

Union Minister for MSME Shri Narayan Rane launched the revamped CGTMSE Scheme NFRA examines proposals on new standard for accounting of insurance contracts viz. Ind AS 117 MoHUA launches the ‘City Beauty Competition’ Cabinet approves the Policy for the Medical Devices Sector Centre asks States to scrap taxes on power generation units FAO and the United Kingdom launch 5-year AIM4Forests programme National Panchayati Raj Day 28 States / UTs adopt the National Generic Document Registration System for Land Records First Ever Census on Water Bodies in India Indian Economic Service/Indian Statistical Service Examination, 2023

  Union Minister for MSME Shri Narayan Rane launched the revamped CGTMSE Scheme in Mumbai today. CGTMSE has been provided with an additional corpus support of ₹9,000 crore in the Union Budget for FY 2023-24 to revamp its Scheme to provide guarantee for additional ₹2 lakh crore to Micro & Small Enterprises. Accordingly, the major revamp measures were launched and disseminated to the lending institutions. The modifications included reduction in guarantee fees for loans upto ₹1 crore by 50% bringing the minimum guarantee fee to the level of 0.37% pa only. Another major change announced was raising of ceiling for guarantee from ₹2 crore to ₹ 5 crore and enhancing the threshold limit for claim settlement without initiation of legal action to ₹10 lakh. About CGTMSE: Credit Guarantee Fund Trust for Micro and Small Enterprises (CGTMSE) is jointly set up by Ministry of Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSME), Government of India and Small Industries Development Bank of India (...

The National Financial Reporting Authority (NFRA) held a meeting to examine the proposals received from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI), as required u/s 133 of the Companies Act, 2013), regarding a new Standard (Ind AS) for accounting of insurance contracts viz. Ind AS 117, here yesterday. The meeting was attended by the Executive Body of NFRA and Part time-members of the Authority from MCA, CAG, ICAI and the accountancy profession. NFRA will share its recommendations to Ministry of Corporate Affairs, after which Ind AS 117 has to be considered and notified by the Central Government under Companies (Indian Accounting Standards) Rules 2015. When notified, it will replace currently notified Ind AS 104,  Insurance Contracts . IFRS 17 ( IFRS stands for  International Financial Reporting Standard  ) , originally issued by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB), in May 2017, is a complete overhaul of the accounting for the Insurance Industry....

The ‘City Beauty Competition’ portal   https://citybeautycompetition.in   has been made live by the Ministry on April 26, 2023. Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) across the country can participate in this competition through an online process. The objective of the competition is to encourage and recognize the transformational efforts made by cities and wards across the country to create beautiful, innovative and inclusive public spaces. Under this competition, wards and public spaces in cities would be judged against five broad pillars viz., (i) accessibility (ii) amenities (iii) activities (iv) aesthetics and (v) ecology. The competition would felicitate the most beautiful wards and public spaces in the cities. While selected wards would be felicitated at the city and State levels, the top most beautiful public spaces in the cities under four categories viz. Waterfronts, Green spaces, tourist/ heritage spaces and market/commercial places would first be felicitated at the State level...

The Union Cabinet approved the National Medical Devices Policy, 2023. The medical devices sector in India is an essential and integral constituent of the Indian healthcare sector. The Indian medical devices sector’s contribution has become even more prominent as India supported the domestic and global battle against COVID-19 pandemic through the large scale production of medical devices & diagnostic kits, such as Ventilators, Rapid Antigen Test kits, Real-Rime Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) kits, Infrared (IR) Thermometers, Personal Protective Equipment(PPE) Kits & N-95 masks. The medical devices sector in India is a sunrise sector which is growing at a fast pace. The Government of India has already initiated implementation of PLI Scheme for medical devices and support for setting up of 4 Medical devices Parks in the States of Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh. Under the PLI scheme for Medical Devices, approved ( 26 ) and c...

The Centre on Wednesday warned states to not levy any cess like water cess on power generation as it is unconstitutional. Centre issued this warning as some states are imposing tax on power generation units.   It is because Seventh Schedule of the constitution did not enabled states to impose such taxes.   Centre’s contention is that tax imposed on power generation plants including thermal, hydro, wind, solar, nuclear, etc. will be finally born by consumers. But consumers for power plant of one state could be located in other states. Imposing tax on power plants is same as imposing tax by state on residents of other states which is unconstitutional.  Constitution empowered States to levy taxes only on consumption or sale of electricity in their jurisdiction but this does not include the power to impose any tax or duty on the generation of electricity. The Hindu

To celebrate  Earth Day , the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the United Kingdom launched  AIM4Forests , a five-year programme designed to accelerate country capabilities in forest monitoring as a part of global efforts to stop deforestation and forest degradation, and restore forests.  the AIM4Forests programme (Accelerating Innovative Monitoring for Forests) will support domestic forest monitoring based on modern technologies and technical innovation, and also leveraging UK expertise in academia, research & development and in the use of space data and remote sensing. About Earth Day: Earth Day  is an annual event on April 22 to demonstrate support for  environmental protection . First held on April 22, 1970, it now includes a wide range of events coordinated globally by EARTHDAY.ORG (formerly Earth Day Network)  including 1 billion people in more than 193 countries.  The official theme for 2023 is Invest In Our P...

The Nation celebrates 24th April of every year as National Panchayati Raj Day. 24 th  April marks a defining moment in the history of decentralization of power to the grassroots, with the institutionalization of Panchayati Raj, through the Constitution (73 rd  Amendment) Act, 1992 which came into force with effect from that day. Ministry of Panchayati Raj commemorates 24 th  April of every year as the National Panchayati Raj Day (राष्ट्रीय पंचायती राज दिवस) (NPRD), as the 73 rd  Constitutional Amendment came into force on this day. National Panchayati Raj Day is commemorated as a grand event on a big scale and is being generally held outside the National Capital. Some of the Initiatives: eGramSwaraj - Government eMarketplace Integration eGramSwaraj (eGS) was launched on the occasion of National Panchayati Raj Day on  24 th  April 2020 which was designed to operate as a single window solution for all day-to-day functioning of the Panchayats from Planning to ...

  As many as 28 States / UTs have adopted the National Generic Document Registration System (NGDRS) for  Land Records . The  Department of Land Resources (DoLR) says   eRegistration is being done in these States/UTs or they have started sharing data with the national portal of NGDRS through User Interface / API. According to the latest data provided by the Land Resources Division of the DoLR,  Unique Land Parcel Identification Number (ULPIN) or Bhu-Aadhar has been adopted by 26 States/UTs and pilot testing done in 7 more States /UTs.  Some States are also using ULPIN in SVAMITVA (Survey of Villages Abadi and Mapping with Improvised Technology in Village Areas) portal. About  National Generic Document Registration System (NGDRS)  :  A project initiated by the Department of Land Resources, Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India, the National Generic Document Registration System (NGDRS) is a common, generic and configurable applicati...

For the  first time in the history of the country, the Ministry of Jal Shakti has conducted the first-ever census of water bodies across the nation.  The census provides a comprehensive inventory of India's water resources, including natural and man-made water bodies like ponds, tanks, lakes, and more, and to collect data on the encroachment of water bodies.  The Census also highlighted disparities between rural and urban areas and varying levels of encroachment and  revealed crucial insights into the country's water resources . The census was launched under the centrally sponsored scheme, “Irrigation Census” in convergence with the 6th Minor Irrigation Census in order to have a comprehensive national database of all water bodies.  The information on all important aspects of the water bodies including their type, condition, status of encroachments, use, storage capacity, status of filling up of storage, etc was collected.  It covered all the water bodies lo...

Last Date for Submission of Applications : 09.05.2023 Age: A candidate must have attained the age of 21 years and must not have attained the age of 30 years on 1st August, 2023 i.e he/she must have been born not earlier than 2nd August, 1993 and not later than 1st August, 2002 Educational Qualification: (a) A candidate for the Indian Economic Service must have obtained a Post-Graduate Degree in Economics/Applied Economics/Business Economics/Econometrics from a University incorporated by of an Act of the Central or State Legislature in India or other Educational Institutes established by an Act Parliament or declared to be deemed as University under Section 3 of the University Grants Commission Act, 1956 or a Foreign University approved by the Central Government from time to time.  (b) A candidate for the Indian Statistical Service must have obtained a Bachelor's Degree with Statistics/Mathematical Statistics/Applied Statistics as one of the subject or a Master's degree in Stat...

PSLV-C55/TeLEOS-2 Mission Launched Successfully by ISRO UNESCO 1970 Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property Policy on ancient monument, antiquity, art treasure and Treasure –trove in India Policy for Protection of Heritage sites in India Protection of Heritages - International Cooperation Cabinet approves National Quantum Mission MeitY proposes rules to enable Aadhaar authentication by entities other than Government Ministries and Departments 13th Joint Trade Committee meeting of India and Thailand held in New Delhi Crop specific SOPs issued for use of pesticides with farming drones Ministry of Civil Aviation Launches UDAN 5.0

  PSLV-C55/TeLEOS-2 is launched successfully on April 22, 2023 at 14:19 hours IST from SDSC-SHAR, Sriharikota. This is a dedicated commercial mission through NSIL with TeLEOS-2 as primary satellite and Lumelite-4 as a co-passenger satellite. The satellites weigh about 741 kg and 16 kg, respectively. Both belong to Singapore. They are intended to be launched into an Eastward low inclination orbit. TeLEOS-2  The TeLEOS-2 satellite is developed under a partnership between DSTA (representing the Government of Singapore) and ST Engineering. Once deployed and operational, it will be used to support the satellite imagery requirements of various agencies within the Government of Singapore. TeLEOS-2 carries a Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) payload. TeLEOS-2 will be able to provide all-weather day and night coverage, and capable of imaging at 1m full-polarimetric resolution. LUMILITE-4 The LUMELITE-4 satellite is co-developed by the Institute for Infocomm Research (I 2 R) of A*STAR and ...

The 1970 Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property   urges States Parties to take measures to prohibit and prevent the illicit trafficking of cultural property. It provides a common framework for the States Parties on the measures to be taken to prohibit and prevent the import, export and transfer of cultural property. The return and restitution of cultural property is central to the Convention and its duty is not only to remember but to fundamentally safeguard the identity of peoples and promote peaceful societies whereby the spirit of solidarity will be strengthened. Thus, the 1970 Convention is fully in line with the Sustainable Development Goals defined in the United Nations 2030 Agenda. The 1970 Convention was a outcome of the 16th session of the General Conference of the Organization in 1970 and adopted on the14th of November that year. This Convention has made UNESCO a pioneer in the fight ...

The Ancient Monument and Archaeological Sites and Remain Act 1958 (AMASR Act 1958) was enacted by the Parliament with an aim ‘to provide for the preservation of ancient and historical monuments and archaeological sites and remains of national importance, for the regulation of archaeological excavations and for the protection of sculptures, carvings and other like objects’. This act was enacted after repealing (i) The ancient Monuments Preservation Act, 1904, (ii) The Ancient and Historical Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains (declaration of national importance) Act, 1951 and (iii) Section 126 of the States Reorganization Act, 1956. As per the AMASR Act 1958, the following are the definitions of the ancient monuments and antiquity.  (a) “ancient monument” means any structure, erection or monument, or any tumulus or place of interment, or any cave, rock sculpture, inscription or monolith, which is of historical, archaeological or artistic interest and which has been in exi...

CONSTITUTIONAL PROVISIONS FOR CONSERVATION  Conservation and Indian Constitutional Provisions  By incorporating Article 49 in the Directive principles of State Policy, the framers of the Constitution made it obligatory for the state to protect every monument of National Importance. Article 49 states that It shall be the obligation of the State to protect every monument or place or object of artistic or historical interest, declared by or under law made by the Parliament to be of national importance, from spoliation, disfigurement, destruction, removal, disposal or export, as the case may be. Article 51(A)(f)  The Constitution of India imposes a duty on every citizen to protect and preserve the rich heritage of our country. Article 51(A)(f) which deals with Fundamental Duties specifically imposes such a duty. Article 51(A)(f) is extracted herein:  “It shall be the duty of every citizens of India: - (f) To value and preserve the rich heritage of our composite culture;”...

World Heritage Convention: The  World Heritage Convention , adopted in 1972, is a legally binding instrument providing an intergovernmental framework for international cooperation for the identification and conservation of the world's most outstanding natural and cultural properties. The Convention sets out the duties of States Parties in identifying potential sites and their role in protecting and preserving them. By ratifying the  Convention,  each country enters in a system of international cooperation to protect the world cultural and natural heritage and pledges to conserve the World Heritage sites situated on its territory. The States Parties are encouraged to integrate the protection of cultural and natural heritage into regional planning programmes, set up staff and services at their sites, undertake scientific and technical conservation research and adopt measures that give this heritage a function in community day-to-day life. The Advisory Bodies to the World He...