Daily Current Affairs MCQ - Feb 3, 2021 - UPSC MCQ

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the Chauri Chaura Centenary Celebrations at Chauri Chaura, Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh, on 4th February 2021.

• The day marks 100 years of the ‘Chauri Chaura’ incident, a landmark event in the country’s fight for independence.

• The Chauri Chaura incident took place on 4 February 1922 at Chauri Chaura in the Gorakhpur district of the United Province (modern Uttar Pradesh) in British India.

• In this, a large group of protesters participating in the Non-cooperation movement clashed with police who opened fire. In retaliation the demonstrators attacked and set fire to a police station, killing all of its occupants.

• The incident led to the death of three civilians and 22 policemen.

• Mahatma Gandhi, who was strictly against violence, halted the non-co-operation movement on the national level on 12 February 1922 due to this incident.

Union Minister of Agriculture informed Lok Sabha about AGRI INDIA HACKATHON.

• The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) has started organizing KRITAGYA- a National level hackathon in the month of August 2020 to promote innovation in agriculture and allied sectors in the country.

• Advantages of organizing Agri-Hackathon are giving the students opportunity and faculties and innovators to showcase their innovative approaches & technologies in agriculture and allied sectors.

• Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) has also put in place an Institutional mechanism through Research Institutes, Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs) and Agriculture Universities (AUs) to address the problems being faced by the farming sector.

While presenting the Union Budget 2021-22 in Parliament the Union Minister for Finance announced a sharp increase in capital expenditure with BE of Rs 5.54 lakh crore which is 34.5% more than the BE of last financial year (Rs. 4.12 lakh crore).

• It is expected that the total capital expenditure during 2020-21 will be at around Rs 4.39 lakh crore.

• In the Capital Budget a sum of more than Rs. 44,000 crore has been kept in the Budget of Department of Economic Affairs. It will be provided for projects/programmes/departments that show good progress on Capital Expenditure and need further funds.

• More than Rs 2 lakh crore will be provided to States and Autonomous Bodies for their Capital Expenditure. The Government will work out specific mechanisms to nudge the States to spend more of their budget on creating infrastructure, the Minister added.

• Fiscal deficit in RE 2020-21 is pegged at 9.5% of GDP. It has been funded through Government borrowings, multilateral borrowings, Small Saving Funds and short term borrowings.

• Another Rs 80,000 crore would be needed for which Government would be approaching the markets in these 2 months.

• The fiscal deficit in BE 2021-2022 is estimated to be 6.8% of GDP. The gross borrowing from the market for the next year would be around 12 lakh crore.

• Finance minister will be proposing an amendment to the FRBM Act towards achieving Central Government fiscal deficit along the broad path indicated above.

Union Minister for Finance in her budget speech of 2021-22, proposed an outlay of Rs 3,05,984 crore over 5 years for a revamped reforms- based result-linked power distribution sector Scheme.

• The Scheme will assist DISCOMS for infrastructure creation, including pre-paid smart metering and feeder separation, up-gradation of systems, etc. tied to financial improvements.

• she also proposed to put in place a competitive framework to give consumers alternatives to choose from among more than one distribution companies.

• For a green and sustainable future, the Finance Minister also proposed to launch a comprehensive National Hydrogen Energy Mission in 2021-22 for generating Hydrogen from green power sources fulfilling the announcement made by Prime Minister in November 2020.

• The Union Minister of Finance announced several measures to augment road infrastructure in the Union Budget 2021-22 presented in the Parliament.

• An enhanced outlay of 1,18,101 crore has been provided for Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, of which 1,08,230 crore is for capital, the highest ever.

• More than 13,000 km length of roads, at the cost of Rs 3.3 lakh crore, has already been awarded under the 5.35 lakh crore Bharatmala Pariyojana project 3,800 kms have been constructed. By March 2022, another 8,500 kms would be awarded.

• Advanced Traffic management system with speed radars, variable message signboards, GPS enabled recovery vans will be installed in all new four and six-lane highways.

Some flagship corridors and other important projects that would see considerable activity in 2021-22 are:

• Delhi-Mumbai Expressway: Remaining 260 km will be awarded before 31.3.2021

• Bengaluru – Chennai Expressway: 278 km will be initiated in the current financial year. Construction will begin in 2021-22

• Delhi-Dehradun economic corridor: 210 km corridor will be initiated in the current financial year. Construction will begin in 2021-22

• Kanpur-Lucknow Expressway: 63 km expressway providing an alternate route to NH 27 will be initiated in 2021-22

• Chennai – Salem corridor: 277 km expressway will be awarded and construction would start in 2021-22

• Raipur-Vishakhapatnam: 464 km passing through Chhattisgarh, Odisha and North Andhra Pradesh will be awarded in the current year. Construction will start in 2021-22

• Amritsar-Jamnagar: Construction will commence in 2021-22

• Delhi –Katra: Construction will commence in 2021-22

Indian Railways has received a record outlay of Rs. 1,10,055 crore, of which Rs. 1,07,100 crore is for capital expenditure. This was announced in the Union Budget 2021-22.

• Indian Railways have prepared a National Rail Plan for India – 2030. The Plan is to create a ‘future-ready’ Railway system by 2030.

• Western Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC) and Eastern DFC are expected to be commissioned by June 2022.

• The Sonnagar – Gomoh Section (263.7 km) of Eastern DFC will be taken up in PPP mode in 2021-22. Gomoh-Dankuni section of 274.3 km will also be taken up in short succession.

• Future dedicated freight corridor projects namely East Coast corridor from Kharagpur to Vijayawada, East-West Corridor from Bhusaval to Kharagpur to Dankuni and North-South corridor from Itarsi to Vijayawada will be undertaken.

• 100% electrification of Broad-Gauge routes will be completed by December 2023. Broad Gauge Route Kilometers (RKM) electrified is expected to reach 46,000 RKM i.e., 72% by end of 2021 from 41,548 RKM on 1st Oct 2020.

The public transport system in urban areas got a major boost in the Budget for the year 2021-22.

• A new scheme will be launched at a cost of Rs.18,000 crores to support augmentation of public bus transport services. It will facilitate deployment of innovative PPP models to enable private sector players to finance, acquire, operate and maintain over 20,000 buses.

• Government plans to deploy two new technologies i.e. ‘MetroLite’ and ‘MetroNeo’ to provide metro rail systems at a much lesser cost with the same experience, convenience and safety in Tier-2 cities and peripheral areas Tier-1 cities.

The budget proposed Central counterpart funding to:

• Kochi Metro Railway Phase-II of 11.5 km at a cost of Rs.1957.05 crores.

• Chennai Metro Railway Phase –II of 118.9 km at a cost of Rs. 63,246 crores.

• Bengaluru Metro Railway Project Phase 2A and 2B of 58.19 km at a cost of Rs.14,788 crores.

• Nagpur Metro Rail Project Phase-II and Nashik Metro cost Rs.5,976 crores and Rs.2,092 crores respectively.

To achieve the target of National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP) in the coming years the Government proposes the following three steps :

1. Creation of institutional structures

2. A big thrust on monetizing assets

3. Enhancing the share of capital expenditure in Central and State budgets

• NIP launched in December 2019 with 6835 projects has now expanded to 7,400 projects and around 217 projects worth Rs. 1.10 lakh crore under some key infrastructure Ministries has been completed.

• A sum of Rs. 20,000 crore has been provisioned in the Union Budget to capitalize Development Financial Institution (DFI). A Bill will be introduced to set up DFI which will act as a provider, enabler and catalyst for infrastructure financing.

• to enable Debt Financing of InVITs and REITs by Foreign Portfolio Investors suitable amendments will be done in the relevant legislations.

• The Union Finance Minister announced the launch of a “National Monetization Pipeline” of potential brownfield infrastructure assets stating that Monetizing operating public infrastructure assets is an important financing option for new infrastructure construction.

• The Minister informed that an Asset Monetization dashboard will also be created to track the progress and provide visibility to investors.

• To further reduce litigation of small taxpayers, Smt. Sitharaman proposed to constitute a Dispute Resolution Committee. Anyone with a taxable income up to Rs. 50 lakh and disputed income up to Rs. 10 lakh, shall be eligible to approach the Committee.

• She also announced setting up of National Faceless Income Tax Appellate Tribunal Centre, wherein all communication between the Tribunal and the appellant shall be electronic.

• In the 75th year of independence, the Budget seeks to reduce the compliance burden on senior citizens of 75 years of age and above. Such senior citizens having an only pension and interest income will be exempted from filing their income tax return.

• The Budget proposes to notify rules for removing the hardship of Non-Resident Indians returning to India on their accrued incomes in their foreign retirement account. It proposes to make a dividend payment to REIT/InvIT exempt from TDS.

• The Finance Minister proposed extending the eligibility period for a claim of the additional deduction for Rs' interest. 1.5 lakh on loan taken for the purchase of an affordable house to 31st March 2022.

• To incentivize startups in the country, Smt. Sitharaman announced an extension in the eligibility for claiming tax holiday for startups by one more year till 31st March 2022.