Daily Current Capsules - 02^nd JULY 2019

Internal Security/State Specific
Nagaland to initiate its own version of NRC from July 10
Relevance IN-Prelims ( about Nagaland NRC and about NRC ) + Mains ( GS III internal security)

What's the NEWS

• Nagaland has decided to start a variant of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) that neighbouring Assam is updating.
• Nagaland Home Commissioner R. Ramakrishnan issued a notification for the setting up of the Register of Indigenous Inhabitants of Nagaland (RIIN).

Know! more about Nagaland NRC

• It is aimed at preparing a master list of all indigenous peoples and checking the issuance of fake indigenous inhabitant certificates.
• Designated teams will fan out to each village and urban ward from July 10, less than a month before Assam is to publish the final NRC.
• To be monitored by the Home Commissioner, Nagaland's exercise for collecting information on locals and non-locals has a 60-day deadline.
• The RIIN, will be prepared after an extensive survey with the help of a village-wise and ward-wise list of indigenous inhabitants based on official records.
• It will be prepared under the supervision of each district administration.

Know! about NRC

• The National Register of Citizens (NRC) is a register containing names of all genuine Indian citizens residing in India. The register was first prepared and its updation process was put into action after the 1951 Census of India
• The NRC is now being updated in Assam to include the names of those residents(or their descendants) who appear in the NRC, 1951, or in any of the Electoral Rolls up to the midnight of 24 March 1971 or in any one of the other admissible documents issued up to mid-night of 24 March 1971, which would prove their presence in Assam or in any part of India on or before 24 March 1971.
• The updation process of NRC started in the year 2013 under the strict monitoring and supervision of the Supreme Court of India.
• On the midnight of 31 December 2017, Part Draft NRC was released and subsequently on 30 July 2018, the Complete Draft of NRC was released

Economic Development
UN MSME Day
Relevance IN - Prelims ( about MSMEs) + Mains ( GS III economic developments)

What's the NEWS

• The Micro, Small and Medium sized Enterprises Day (MSME) Day was celebrated across the world on 27 June.
• Theme for 2019 - Big Money for Small Business: Financing the SDGs
• The UN General Assembly in its 74^th Plenary held on the 6th April, 2017 declared 27^th June as Micro, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises Day, recognizing the importance of Micro, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises in achieving sustainable development goals and in promoting innovation, creativity and sustainable work for all.

Know! about micro, small, or medium-sized enterprise

• The criteria for defining the size of a business differ from country to country. As a reference, the European Commission's definition of micro-, small and medium-sized enterprises is established according to the number of employees and the annual turnover or balance sheet:
• The choice of MSME definition could depend on many factors, such as business culture, the size of the country's population, industry and the level of international economic integration.
• According to the data provided by the International Council for Small Business (ICSB), formal and informal Micro-, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (MSMEs) make up over 90% of all firms and account on average for 60-70% of total employment and 50% of GDP.
• These enterprises, which generally employ fewer than 250 persons, are the backbone of most economies worldwide and play a key role in developing countries.
• These types of enterprises are responsible for significant employment and income generation opportunities across the world and have been identified as a major driver of poverty alleviation and development.
• MSMEs tend to employ a larger share of the vulnerable sectors of the workforce, such as women, youth, and people from poorer households.
• MSMEs can even sometimes be the only source of employment in rural areas. As such, MSMEs as a group are the main income provider for the income distribution at the "base of the pyramid".
• MSMEs should be the first responders to societal needs and provide the safety net for inclusiveness.

MSME Challenges

• Although MSMEs generate the most new jobs, they face many challenges in day-to-day operations and to grow.
• Access to finance is often cited as one of the primary obstacles that affect MSMEs disproportionately.
• According to the World Bank, there are 200 to 245 million formal and informal enterprises that do not have a loan or overdraft, but are in need of one, or do have a loan but still find access to finance as a constraint. More than 90 percent are MSMEs.
• Financing constraints are also magnified for informal firms, which tend to be small in size, and although often less productive than formal enterprises, contribute significantly to economic activity and employment.
• Informal firms are estimated to account for around 74 percent of all MSMEs in the world, and around 77 percent of all MSMEs in developing countries.
• Unregistered firms rely mostly on informal financing, which - although important in facilitating access to finance - is associated with lower firm growth and increased firm illegality.
• With the goal of overcoming these challenges, the International Trade Center, United Nations' entity, works in the internationalization of micro and SMEs.
• The center has launched its flagship report: "The SME Competitiveness Outlook 2019: Big money for small businesses

How they contribute to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals

• Micro-, small and medium sized enterprises are vital in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, in particular in promoting innovation, creativity and decent work for all.
• Efforts to enhance access to finance for SMEs across key sectors of national economies are an important element of implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
• SDG targets 8.3 and 9.3 call for enhancing the access of SMEs to financial services. In addition, SMEs are an important element in the implementation of SDG 8 (decent work and economic growth) and SDG 9 (industry, innovation and infrastructure.

Celebrations in India

• The Ministry of Micro Small and Medium Enterprises organized an international convention on the theme "Indian MSMEs, Global Aspirations" in New Delhi to observe the International MSME Day.
• Further, as part of continued celebrations, the second edition of the International SME Convention 2019 is to be held from 28^th - 29^th June, 2019 .
• 100 SMEs selected by a jury from among 34011 nominations from across India are also being felicitated under the aegis of the 6th Annual India SME 100 Awards.

Electoral Reforms
Electoral Bonds
Relevance IN - Prelims ( about electoral reforms) + Mains ( GS II electoral reforms + important aspects of governance, transparency and accountability)
What's the NEWS

• Union Ministry of Finance recently announced the launch of 11^th tranche of electoral bonds sale starting from 1-10 July.
• This is 1^st issuance of electoral bonds after conclusion of 17^th general elections and formation of new government.

Know! all about Electoral Bonds

• Electoral bonds are being pitched as an alternative to cash donations made to political parties in a bid to bring transparency in political funding.
• On January 2, 2018, the government had notified the Electoral Bond Scheme 2018
• It was touted as an alternative to cash donations and to ensure transparency in political funding
• Non-disclosure of names of donors would add to the woes of the Indian democracy, say critics
• The Supreme Court refused to withdraw electoral bonds but directed all political parties to submit receipts of amounts received and details of identity of donors in a sealed cover to the Election Commission.
• The Supreme Court has asked all the parties to submit their electoral bond details to the Election Commission by May 30.
• The court said this was an interim arrangement to not to tilt the balance in favour of one political party

Know! more about Electoral bonds

• On January 2, 2018, the government had notified the Electoral Bond Scheme 2018. It was touted as an alternative to cash donations and to ensure transparency in political funding.
• As per the provisions of the scheme, electoral bonds may be purchased by an Indian citizen or a company incorporated or established in India.
• Only political parties registered under Section 29A of the Representation of the Peoples Act, 1951 and has secured no less than one per cent votes in the last Lok Sabha elections are eligible to receive electoral bonds.
• The electoral accounts are issued by the State Bank of India (SBI). The electoral bonds can be purchased in the months of January, April, July and October.
• Political parties are allotted a verified account by the Election Commission and all the electoral bond transactions are done through this account only.
• The donors can buy these electoral bonds and transfer them into the accounts of the political parties as a donation. The electoral bonds are available in denominations from Rs 1,000 to Rs 1 crore.
• The bonds remain valid for 15 days and can be encashed by an eligible political party only through a bank account with the authorised bank within that period only.
• Every donor has to provide his/her KYC detail to the banks to purchase the electoral bonds. The names of the donors are kept confidential.
• Before 2017, the electoral bonds scheme was for donation of over Rs 20,000. In 2017, the government capped the donation limit at Rs 2,000.

Economic Developments
Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation

Statistics Day

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about statistics day + about P.C Mahalanobis) + Mains ( GS III economic development)
What's the NEWS

• The Government has been celebrating the Statistics Day, to popularize the use of Statistics in everyday life and sensitize the public as to how Statistics helps in shaping and framing policies.
• It has been designated as one of the Special Days to be celebrated at the national level and is celebrated on the birth anniversary of Prof. P C Mahalanobis, on 29^th June, in recognition of his invaluable contribution in establishing the National Statistical System.
• The event is being jointly organized by the Ministry of Statistics and Program Implementation (MoSPI) and Indian Statistical Institute. Shri BibekDebroy, Chairman, Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister and President, Council of Indian Statistical Institute, Shri Pravin Srivastava, Chief Statistician
• The winner of Prof. C.R. Rao Award 2019 for notable contribution in the field of Statistics will be felicitated during the program.
• Every year, Statistics Day is celebrated with a theme of current national importance, that runs for a year by way of several workshops and seminars, aimed at bringing about improvements in the selected area.
• The theme of Statistics Day, 2019 is "Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)". The theme has been chosen for intensive and focused discussions towards filling the data gaps and improvement of timelines/quality in SDGs.

• MoSPI is responsible for the development of National Indicator Framework (NIF) for measuring the progress of the SDGs and associated targets at the national level.
• NIF will give appropriate direction to the policy makers and the implementers of various schemes and programs.

Know! about PC Mahalanobis

• He was an Indian scientist and applied statistician who lived from 29 June 1893 to 28 June 1972.
• He became 1st Indian statistician to receive world recognition and is called as Father of Indian Statistics. He is also referred as chief architect of Indian statistical system.
• In 1931 he established Indian Statistical Institute (ISI) in Kolkata and contributed to design of large-scale sample surveys.
• In 1933 institute founded journal Sankhya, 1^st Indian statistical journal, along the lines of Karl Pearson's Biometrika.
• In 1959 ISI was made an autonomous body of Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation (MoS&PI).
• After 1947 (Post-independence), he served as the honorary statistical adviser to cabinet and helped in establishment of Central Statistical Organisation (CSO), the National Sample Survey (NSS) and the Annual Survey of Industries (ASI).
• He had made pioneering studies in anthropometry India but in 1936 he introduced statistical measure called Mahalanobis distance, widely used in cluster analysis and classification techniques for which he is widely known. He was also a member of the 1^st Planning commission (1951-56) of free India.
• The II Five Year Plan (1957-62) relied on Mahalanobis's mathematical description of Indian economy and this plan encouraged development of heavy industry in India and later came to be known as Basic Industry strategy of economic Growth or Nehru-Mahalanobis Model
  
  

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