Daily Current Affairs MCQ - Feb 2, 2021 - UPSC MCQ

Health and Wellbeing have found sharp focus and central positioning in the Union Budget 2021-22. There is a steep increase of 137 per cent in the Budget outlay for Health and Wellbeing.
Jal Jeevan Mission (Urban)
- The Union Budget has announced the launch of the Jal Jeevan Mission (Urban).
- It aims at a universal water supply in all 4,378 Urban Local Bodies with 2.86 crore household tap connections and liquid waste management in 500 AMRUT cities.
- It will be implemented over 5 years, with an outlay of Rs 2,87,000 crore.

Swachch Bharat, Swasth Bharat
- For further swachhta of urban India, the Budget has focused on complete faecal sludge management and wastewater treatment.
- The Urban Swachh Bharat Mission 2.0 will be implemented with a total financial allocation of Rs 1,41,678 crore over a period of 5 years from 2021-2026.

Clean Air
- To tackle air pollution's burgeoning problem, It is proposed to provide Rs 2,217 crore for 42 urban centres with a million-plus population in this budget.

Scrapping Policy
- A voluntary vehicle scrapping policy forms a crucial part of the Union Budget, to phase out old and unfit vehicles.
Vehicles would undergo fitness tests in automated fitness centres – after 20 years in case of personal vehicles, and after 15 years in case of commercial vehicles.

Presenting the Union Budget 2021-22 in Parliament today, the Union Minister for Finance outlined the plans for reforms in one of the six pillars of the budget, i.e., Minimum Government, Maximum Governance.
- The forthcoming Census could be the first digital census in India'sIndia's history and has been allocated Rs. 3,768 crore in the year 2021-2022.
- To ease doing business for those who deal with Government or CPSEs, and carry out contracts, it is proposed to set up a Conciliation Mechanism and mandate its use for quick resolution of contractual disputes. This will instil confidence in private investors and contractors.
- To bring about transparency, efficiency and governance reforms in the nursing profession, The National Nursing and Midwifery Commission Bill will be introduced by the government for passing.
- It is now proposed to take further measures to rationalize the functioning of Tribunals.
- Centre will give a grant of Rs. 300 crore to the Government of Goa for celebrating the diamond jubilee year of the state's liberation from Portuguese rule.

While presenting the Union Budget 2021-22, the Union Minister for Finance announced that the Government would amend the Insurance Act, 1938 to increase the permissible FDI limit from 49% to 74% and allow foreign ownership and control with safeguards.
- Under the proposed new structure, most Directors on the Board and key management persons would be resident Indians, with at least 50% of Directors being Independent Directors. A specified percentage of profits is retained as a general reserve.
- An Asset Reconstruction Company Limited and Asset Management Company would be set up to consolidate and take over the existing stressed debt and then manage and dispose of off the assets to Alternate Investment Funds.
- To consolidate the financial capacity of Public Sectors Banks, the Government has proposed further recapitalization of Rs. 20,000 crore during fiscal 2021-22.
- To help the depositors of banks currently under stress, the Government will amend the DICGC Act, 1961 in the current Parliament session.
- For NBFCs with a minimum asset size of Rs. 100 crores, the minimum loan size eligible for debt recovery under the Securitisation and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interest (SARFAESI) Act, 2002 is proposed to be reduced from the existing level of Rs. 50 lakhs to Rs. 20 lakhs, the Minister added.

During the budget 2021-22, Union Minister for Finance announced that the Government would consolidate the provisions of SEBI Act, 1992, Depositories Act, 1996, Securities Contracts (Regulation) Act, 1956 and Government Securities Act, 2007 into a rationalized single Securities Markets Code.
- The Government will support the development of a world-class Fin-Tech hub at the GIFT-IFSC.
- To instil confidence amongst the Corporate Bond Market participants during times of stress and generally enhance secondary market liquidity, Union Budget 2021-22 proposes creating a permanent institutional framework.
- To protect the investors, the Finance Minister proposed introducing an investor charter as a right of all financial investors across all financial products.
- To establish a regulated gold exchange system in the country, SEBI will be notified as the regulator and Warehousing Development and Regulatory Authority will be strengthened to set up a commodity market ecosystem arrangement.

Union Minister for Finance while presenting the Union Budget FY 2021-22 announced that government had approved a policy of strategic disinvestment of public sector enterprises that will provide a clear roadmap for disinvestment in all non-strategic and strategic sectors.
- Existing CPSEs, Public Sector Banks and Public Sector Insurance Companies to be covered under it.
- Twofold classification of Sectors to be disinvested :
- Strategic Sector: Bare minimum presence of the public sector enterprises and remain privatized or merged or subsidiaries with other CPSEs or closed. Following 4 sectors to come under it :
Atomic energy, Space and Defence
Transport and Telecommunications
Power, Petroleum, Coal and other minerals
- Banking, Insurance and financial services
- Non- Strategic Sector: In this sector, CPSEs will be privatized, otherwise shall be closed.

While presenting the Union Budget 2020-21 announced key initiatives in the Petroleum & Natural Gas Sector.
- Ujjwala Scheme, which has already benefitted 8 crore households, will be extended to cover 1 crore more beneficiaries.
- 100 more districts will be being added to the City Gas Distribution Network in the next three years.
- A Gas pipeline project will be taken up in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.
- An Independent Gas Transport System Operator will be set up to facilitate and coordinate the booking of common carrier capacity in all-natural gas pipelines on a non-discriminatory open access basis.

Union Minister for Finance announced 9 measures for Agriculture Sector as part of inclusive development for aspirational India while presenting the Union Budget 2021-22.
1. It is proposed to extend SWAMITVA Scheme to all States/UTs. This year, PM Narendra Modi had launched SWAMITVA Scheme to bring transparency in property ownership in villages.
2. To provide adequate credit to our farmers, the Finance Minister enhanced the agricultural credit target to Rs 16.5 lakh crore in FY22.
3. The Finance Minister also announced the Rural Infrastructure Development Fund's enhanced allocation from Rs 30,000 crore to Rs 40,000 crore.
4. It is proposed to double Micro Irrigation Fund, started with a corpus of Rs 5,000 crore under NABARD, by augmenting it by another Rs 5,000 crore.
5. It is proposed to increase the scope of ''Operation Green Scheme'' that is presently applicable to tomatoes, onions, and potatoes (TOPS), to be enlarged to include 22 perishable products.
6. The Finance Minister proposed to integrate 1,000 more mandis with e-NAM to bring transparency and competitiveness.
7. The Finance Minister proposed to make available the Agriculture Infrastructure Fund to APMCs for augmenting their infrastructure facilities.
8. 5 major fishing harbours – Kochi, Chennai, Visakhapatnam, Paradip, and Petuaghat – will be developed as economic activity hubs.
9. To promote seaweed cultivation, Smt. Sitharaman proposed a Multipurpose Seaweed Park to be established in Tamil Nadu.

To strengthen the country's overall research ecosystem, the Union Budget FY 2021-22 announced a slew of new initiatives to boost innovation and R&D in the country.
- The Finance Minister proposed an outlay of Rs 50,000 crore, spread over five years, for National Research Foundation.
Rs 1,500 crore has been proposed for a scheme that will provide financial incentive to promote digital modes of payment and further boost digital transactions.
- A new initiative called the National Language Translation Mission (NTLM) has been proposed that will digitize the wealth of governance-and-policy related knowledge on the Internet and be made available in major Indian languages.
- New Space India Limited (NSIL), a PSU under the Department of Space, will execute the PSLV-CS51 launch, carrying the Amazonia Satellite from Brazil and a few smaller Indian satellites.
- Four Indian astronauts are also trained on Generic Space Flight aspects, in Russia for the Gaganyaan Mission, slated to be launched for December 2021.
- To better understand the realm of Oceans Smt. Sitharaman proposed to launch a Deep Ocean Mission with a budget outlay of more than Rs 4,000 crores, over five years.

Union Minister for Finance proposed reforms for small companies and MSMEs to strengthen the startup ecosystem while presenting Union Budget 2021-22 in Parliament.
- It is proposed to take up decriminalization of the Limited Liability Partnership (LLP) Act, 2008 on similar lines of decriminalizing the procedural and technical compoundable offences under the Companies Act, 2013 now complete.
- It is proposed to revise the definition under the Companies Act, 2013 for Small Companies by increasing their thresholds for Paid-up capital from "not exceeding Rs 50 lakh" to "not exceeding Rs 2 crore" and turnover from "not exceeding Rs 2 crore" to "not exceeding Rs 20 crore".
- It is proposed to incentivize the incorporation of One Person Companies (OPCs) by allowing OPCs to grow without any restrictions on paid-up capital and turnover and allowing their conversion into any other type of company at any time.
- During the coming fiscal 2021-22, the Government will launch data analytics, artificial intelligence, machine learning-driven MCA21 Version 3.0. This Version of MCA 3.0 will have additional modules for e-scrutiny, e-Adjudication, e-Consultation and Compliance Management.

Union Budget 2021-22 proposes Qualitative Strengthening of 15,000 Schools to include all National Education Policy components.
- Also, 100 new Sainik Schools will be set up in partnership with NGOs/private schools/states.
- It is proposed to set up a Higher Education Commission of India as an umbrella body having 4 separate vehicles for standard-setting, accreditation, regulation, and funding.
- It is also proposed to set up a Central University in Leh for accessible higher education in Ladakh.