Daily Current Capsules - 14th August 2020
Defence
Indian Coast Guard Offshore Patrol Vessel ‘Sarthak' launched


Relevance IN - Prelims( about OPV Sarthak)
What's the NEWS

• An Offshore Patrol Vessels (OPV) for the Indian Coast Guard was launched and re-christened as Indian Coast Guard Ship ‘Sarthak'

Know! about OPV Sarthak

• OPV Sarthak is the 4th in the series of five OPVs.
• It has been designed & built indigenously by M/s Goa Shipyard Limited (GSL) in line with the Prime Minister's vision of ‘Make in India'.
• The Ship is fitted with state-of-the-art Navigation and Communication equipment, sensor and machinery.
• The 105 Metre ship displaces approximately 2350 tons and is propelled by two 9100 KW diesel engines designed to attain a maximum speed of 26 knots, with an endurance of 6000 Nautical Miles.
• The ship is designed to embark and carry a twin-engine helicopter, four high speed boats and one inflatable boat for swift boarding and Search & Rescue operations.
• The ship is also capable of carrying limited pollution response equipment to undertake oil spill pollution response at sea.
• The ship launched today, has about 70% indigenous content, thus providing the necessary fillip to the Indian shipbuilding industry
• The ship will be deployed extensively for EEZ surveillance, Coastal Security and other duties as enshrined in the Coast Guard charter of duties, to safeguard the maritime interests of the Nation.

Indian Coast Guard

• It is the fourth largest Coast Guard in the world, it has established itself as a reliable force.
• It not only protects our coastline and coastal community, but also protects economic activities, and maritime environment in the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).

Know! about the 05 CG OPV project of Goa Shipyard ltd (GSL)

• The 05 CG OPV project is a follow-on of 06 CG OPV Project, completed in 2017.
• With focused efforts towards ‘Make In India', the indigenous content has been increased from 60%, for 06 CG OPV Project, to 70% for the ongoing 05 CG OPV Project.
• The contract for 5 CGOPVs was signed by GSL with MoD on 26th Aug 2016 and commencement of production of first vessel was formally started within 3 months
• These Vessels are scheduled to be delivered between Jan 2020 to Jun 2021.
• The Naval OPV is based on the in-house design developed by GSL through its R&D. Four of these vessels have been constructed for the Indian Navy by GSL.
• These vessels have successfully proved the specified performance and sea worthiness during operations in service with the Indian Navy.
• Similar vessels are under construction at GSL for Sri Lanka Navy.

Know! about the Samarth-class offshore patrol vessel

• These are a series of eleven offshore patrol vessels being built by Goa Shipyard Limited for the Indian Coast Guard.
• The construction of Samarth class was motivated by a desire to triple the Coast Guard assets in the aftermath of 2008 Mumbai attacks.
• They are an improvement over the earlier Sankalp class, with a larger beam and more powerful engines.
• The ships are being constructed in two batches-a batch of six ordered in May 2012 that was completed in December 2017 and a follow-on batch of five ordered in August 2016.

1st Batch

1. ICGS Samarth
2. ICGS Shoor
3. ICGS Sarathi
4. ICGS Shaunak
5. ICGS Shaurya
6. ICGS Sujay

Follow-up batch

       7. ICGS Sachet
       8. ICGS Sujeet
       9. ICGS Sajag
      10. ICGS Sarthak
Governance
Transparent Taxation - Honouring the Honest

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about the Transparent Taxation + about Taxpayers Charter) + Mains ( GS II Important aspects of governance, transparency and accountability, e-governance- applications)



What's the NEWS

• Prime Minister launched a platform for "Transparent Taxation - Honouring the Honest

Know! about the launched platform

• The platform of "Transparent Taxation - Honouring the Honest, has been launched to meet the requirements of the 21st century taxation system.
• The platform has major reforms like Faceless Assessment, Faceless Appeal and Taxpayers Charter.
• Faceless Assessment and Taxpayers Charter have come into force from today while the facility of faceless appeal will be available for citizens across the country from 25th September i.e. Deen Dayal Upadhyay's birth anniversary.
• The new platform apart from being faceless is also aimed at boosting the confidence of the taxpayer and making him/her fearless.
• The new facilities launched today are a part of the Government's resolve to provide maximum governance with minimum government.

Know! some recent tax reforms

• The latest laws reduced the legal burden in the tax system where now the limit of filing cases in the High Court has been fixed at up to 1 crore rupees and up to 2 crores for filing in the Supreme Court.

• Initiatives like the 'Vivaad Se Vishwas' Scheme pave the way for most of the cases to be settled out of court.

• Tax slabs have also been rationalised as a part of the ongoing reforms where there is zero tax upto an income of 5 lakh rupees, while the tax rate has reduced in the remaining slabs too.
• The ongoing reforms aim at making the tax system Seamless, Painless, Faceless.

Taxpayers Charter

• The Prime Minister also launched launch of Taxpayers Charter
• It is a significant step where the taxpayer is now assured of fair, courteous and rational behavior.
• The charter takes care of maintaining the dignity and sensitivity of the taxpayer and that is based on a trust factor and that the assessee cannot be merely doubted without a basis.

Challenges

• It can also not be denied that only 1.5 Crore people pay the taxes in a country of 130 crores.
• Prime Minister urged people to introspect themselves and come forward to pay the taxes due.

 

 

Agriculture & Farmers Welfare
India ranks first in number of organic farmers and ninth in terms of area under organic farming

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about the facts related to organic farming in India and steps taken by the government) + GS III ( farmer's welfare- Major crops cropping patterns in various parts of the country
What's the NEWS

• India ranks first in number of organic farmers and ninth in terms of area under organic farming.

Know! about organic farming present statics

• Sikkim became the first State in the world to become fully organic and other States including Tripura and Uttarakhand have set similar targets.
• North East India has traditionally been organic and the consumption of chemicals is far less than rest of the country.
• The major organic exports from India have been flax seeds, sesame, soybean, tea, medicinal plants, rice and pulses, which were instrumental in driving an increase of nearly 50% in organic exports in 2018-19, touching Rs 5151 crore.
• Modest commencement of exports from Assam, Mizoram, Manipur and Nagaland to UK, USA, Swaziland and Italy have proved the potential by increasing volumes and expanding to new destinations as the demand for health foods increases.

Know! the steps taken by the government to promote organic farming

• With the aim of assisting farmers to adopt organic farming and improve remunerations due to premium prices, two dedicated programs namely Mission Organic Value Chain Development for North East Region (MOVCD) and Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana (PKVY) were launched in 2015 to encourage chemical free farming.
• Both PKVY and MOVCD are promoting certification under Participatory Guarantee System (PGS) and National Program for Organic Production (NPOP) respectively targeting domestic and exports markets.
• The Food Safety and Standards (Organic Foods) Regulations, 2017 are based on the standards of NPOP and PGS.
• The consumer should look for the logos of FSSAI, Jaivik Bharat / PGS Organic India on the produce to establish the organic authenticity of the produce.
• PGS Green is given to chemical free produce under transition to ‘organic' which takes 3 years.
• About 40,000 clusters are being assisted under PKVY covering an area of about 7 lakh ha. MOVCD has brought in its fold 160 FPOs cultivating about 80,000 ha.
• The organic e-commerce platform www.jaivikkheti.in is being strengthened for directly linking farmers with retail as well as bulk buyers.

Social Issues
Empowering Tribals, Transforming India
Relevance IN - Prelims ( about the Online Performance Dashboard and its objective) + Mains ( GS II Social Justice + e governance- transparency and accountability)
What's the NEWS

• CEO,NITI Aayog inaugurated the"Online Performance Dashboard "Empowering Tribals, Transforming India"developed by the Ministry of Tribal Affairs (MoTA)

• The launch was made during the meeting taken by NITI Aayog to review the progress of Centrally Sponsored Scheme / Central sector schemes of

 

•  MoTA in the light of national development agenda, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), strategy for New India and other policy initiatives.

Know! about the Online Performance Dashboard

• Performance Dashboard is an interactive and dynamic online platform that showcases updated & real-time details of 11 schemes / initiatives of the Ministry for achieving these SDGs.
• The Dashboard captures performance of 5 Scholarship Schemes of Ministry wherein every year about 30 lakh underprivileged ST beneficiaries reap benefit to the tune of INR 2500 crores.
• The Dashboard also displays the details of functional schools under Eklavya Model Residential Schools (EMRS) scheme, schools under construction and district wise details of students in various EMRS schools.
• The Dashboard is part of Digital India Initiative to work towards empowering Scheduled Tribes and will bring efficiency and transparency in the system.
• The joint initiative of the Ministry with Facebook under Going Online as Leaders (GOAL) program and Sickle Cell Support Corner can also be viewed.
• The Dashboard has been developed by Centre of Excellence of Data Analytics (CEDA), organization under National Informatics Centre (NIC) with domain name (http://dashboard.tribal.gov.in).

Know! about Sustainable Development Goal

• SDGs were adopted in September, 2015 as a part of the resolution, 'Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development'.
• At the Central Government level, NITI Aayog has been assigned the role of overseeing the implementation of 17 SDGs in the country.

Difference between CSS and CS

• Under Central sector schemes(CS), it is 100% funded by the Union government and implemented by the Central Government machinery.
• Under Centrally Sponsored Scheme (CSS) a certain percentage of the funding is borne by the States in the ratio of 50:50, 70:30, 75:25 or 90:10 and the implementation is by the State Governments.

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