UPSC Daily Current Affairs- 24th December 2022 | Current Affairs & Hindu Analysis: Daily, Weekly & Monthly PDF Download

GS-I

Context

The Joynagar Moa, the popular Bengal sweet got 10 year extension for its Geographical Indication (GI) tag.

Joynagar Moa

• The moa is a popped-rice ball held together with fresh date-palm jaggery, extracted from the beginning of December till the end of February.
• Its manufacture is so synonymous with Joynagar, a settlement on the outskirts of Kolkata, that it earned the Geographical Indication tag of Joynagar Moa in 2015.

How is it made?

• A moa is made with khoi (puffed rice). The best ones are made with khoi from a rice variety known as kanakchur.
• It uses cardamom and Bengal’s legendary nolen gur (a liquid jaggery made from date palms and found only in winter).

Geographical Indication (GI)

• A GI is a sign used on products that have a specific geographical origin and possess qualities or a reputation that are due to that origin.
• Nodal Agency: Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), Ministry of Commerce and Industry
• India, as a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO), enacted the Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and Protection) Act, 1999 w.e.f. September 2003.
• GIs have been defined under Article 22 (1) of the WTO Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement.
• The tag stands valid for 10 years.

Source: The Hindu

GS-II

Context

The government discontinued the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY) and has decided to provide free foodgrains to all 81 crore beneficiaries covered under the National Food Security Act (NFSA) for one year.

About PMGKAY

• PMGKAY is a food security welfare scheme announced by the GoI in March 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic in India.
• The program is operated by the Department of Food and Public Distribution under the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution.
• The scale of this welfare scheme makes it the largest food security program in the world.

Targets of the scheme

• To feed the poorest citizens of India by providing grain through the Public Distribution System to all the priority households (ration card holders and those identified by the Antyodaya Anna Yojana scheme).
• PMGKAY provides 5 kg of rice or wheat (according to regional dietary preferences) per person/month and 1 kg of dal to each family holding a ration card.

Success of the scheme

• Pandemic mitigation: It was the first step by the government when pandemic affected India.
• Wide section of beneficiaries: The scheme reached its targeted population feeding almost 80Cr people.
• Support to migrants: It has proven to be more of a safety net to migrant people who had job and livelihood losses.
• Food and Nutrition security: This has also ensured nutrition security to children of the migrant workers.

Limitations of the scheme

• Corruption: The scheme has been affected by widespread corruption, leakages and failure to distribute grain to the intended recipients.
• Leakages: Out of the 79.25 crore beneficiaries under the National Food Security Act (NFSA), only 55 crore have so far received their 5 kg.
• Inaccessibility: Many people were denied their share due to inability to access ration cards.
• Low consumption: Livelihood losses led to decline in aggregate demand and resulted into lowest ever consumption expenditure by the people owing to scarcity of cash.
• Resale of subsidized grains: This in turn led to selling of the free grains obtained in the local markets for cash.

Source: Indian Express

Context

Recently, Google has approached the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) challenging the Competition Commission of India (CCI) order on unfair business practices.

About

• Google, was slapped with a fine of Rs 1,338 crore by CCI after being found guilty of anti-competitive behaviour in the Android mobile application ecosystem

What are Anticompetitive practices?

• It refers to a wide range of business practices in which a firm or group of firms may engage to restrict inter-firm competition to maintain or increase their relative market position and profits without necessarily providing goods and services at a lower cost or of higher quality.

What is CCI?

• The Competition Commission of India (CCI) was established in March 2009 by the Government of India under the Competition Act, 2002 for the administration, implementation, and enforcement of the Act.
• Composition of the CCI
  • The Commission consists of one Chairperson and six Memberswho shall be appointed by the Central Government.
  • It is a quasi-judicial body which gives opinions to statutory authorities and also deals with other cases.
  • The Chairperson and other Members shall be whole-time Members
• Objectives:
• It will eliminate practices having adverse effects on competition.
• To Promote and sustain competition.
• It helps in protecting the interests of consumers.
• Ensuring freedom of trade in the markets of India.
• It will Establish a robust competitive environment through:

What is NCLAT?

• It was constituted under Section 410 of the Companies Act, 2013 for hearing appeals against the orders of the National Company Law Tribunal(s) (NCLT), with effect from 1st June 2016.
• Functions:
  • Hearing appeals against the orders passed by NCLT(s) under Section 61 of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 (IBC).
  • To hear and dispose of appeals against any direction issued or decision made or order passed by the Competition Commission of India (CCI).
  • It also hears and disposes of appeals against the orders of the National Financial Reporting Authority.

Source: The Hindu

Context

The Union Minister of State for Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution, recently informed that to date 21,890 Standards for products, process specifications, service sectors, code of practice, and methods of test terminology have been published by the BIS.

About:

• Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), the National Standards Body of India established under the BIS Act 2016.
• Objective: Harmonious development of the activities of standardisation, and quality assurance of goods and articles.
• It works under the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution.
• BIS represents India in International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC).

What is ISO?

• It is an independent, non-governmental international organization with a membership of 167 national standard bodies.
• Through its members, it brings together experts to share knowledge and develop voluntary, consensus-based, market-relevant International Standards that support innovation and provide solutions to global challenges.

What is IEC?

• The IEC is a global, not-for-profit membership organization, whose work underpins quality infrastructure and international trade in electrical and electronic goods.
• The IEC brings together more than 170 countries and provides a global, neutral and independent standardization platform to 20 000 experts globally.
• It administers 4 Conformity assessment systems whose members certify that devices, systems, installations, services and people work as required.

Source: Indian Express

GS-III

Context

Recently, the Ministry of Science and Technology has said that 15 Startups are selected for the NIRMAN accelerator program.

About

• This is the first cohort of the NIRMAN Accelerator Program launched by Start-ups Incubation and Innovation Centre (SIIC) IIT Kanpur.
• The accelerator program is supported by the Department of Science and Technology (DST) under the Ministry of Science & Technology through its NIDHI scheme.

What is National Initiative for Developing and Harnessing Innovations (NIDHI) scheme?

• It is an umbrella programme conceived and developed by the Innovation & Entrepreneurship division, Department of Science & Technology.
• Aim: To nurture start-ups through scouting, supporting and scaling innovations.
• Key stakeholders: Various departments and ministries of the central government, state governments, academic and R & D institutions, mentors, financial institutions, angel investors, venture capitalists and private sectors.
• Funding: By the National Science & Technology Entrepreneurship Development Board (NSTEDB).
• NIDHI Accelerator: An accelerator is typically a 3-6 months fast track structured program helping ideas get accelerated to the next orbit.

Objectives of NIDHI-Accelerators

• To fast-track the growth of potential start-ups through rigorous mentoring and networking support in a short span through existing TBIs.
• To attract subject matter experts, mentors, and angel investors to get associated with technology Business Incubators through structured accelerator programs.
• To build a vibrant start-up ecosystem, by establishing a network between academia, financial institutions, industries and other institutions.
• To act as a hub for several incubators in the region, so that high-potential start-ups can be fast-tracked for increased exposure and validation.

Characteristics of NIDHI -Accelerator Programs

 It is envisaged that 2 broad types of Accelerator Programs will be supported by NSTEDB under this scheme

• Sectoral Programs: These are accelerator programs focused specifically on start-ups focused on a certain sector or theme. For example Smart Cities or healthcare.
• Non-Sectoral Programs:Non-sectoral accelerator programs are most relevant for locations where a critical mass of ventures within a specific sector may not exist.

Source: Indian Express

No Money for Terror conference hosted by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs concluded with a commitment from the 93 participating nations to end all financing of terror, including through the use of emerging digital technologies such as VDAs.

• VDAs for illicit activities: The concerns around the misuse of VDAs for illicit activities require careful legislative responses and forward-looking regulatory guardrails.
• Non reporting and non-transparency: On a fundamental level, these concerns stem from a lack of reporting and transparency norms, and an absence of international consensus on regulatory design.
• Lack of reliable data: The Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) Deputy Director highlighted the difficulty in regulating VDAs, given the lack of reliable data on VDA transactions.
• Unregulated transactions: This allows bad actors to engage in unchecked transactions and defraud investors, as evinced by one of the (erstwhile) largest VDA exchanges FTX.

• Leveraging G20 Presidency: As one of the highest-ranked countries in terms of VDA adoption, and now with the G20 presidency, India has a critical role to play in shaping the global regulatory environment.
• Empowering anti-money laundering authorities: In the short term, a viable approach for India is in taking the industry and the investor into confidence by allowing anti-money laundering (AML) authorities visibility over VDA transactions, and the power to impose controls upon them and prosecute in the event of any misuse.
• India should adopt FATF guidelines: There are several international templates to this effect. The Financial Action Task Force Guidelines on Virtual Asset Transactions (FATF Guidelines) are a case in point, which have been adopted by various jurisdictions, including the EU, Japan and Singapore.

• Minimum anti-money laundering standards: The FATF prescribes minimum Anti-money laundering standards that countries should employ to prevent the likelihood of misuse, and the FATF Guidelines prescribe the same for VDA transactions.
• Licensing and reporting of VDAs: The Guidelines are applicable to VDA service providers of member states like India. Key features of the FATF Guidelines include licence/registration requirements and extensive reporting and record-keeping obligations for VDA service providers.
• Travel rule obligations: One such obligation is the Travel Rule, which requires service providers to record the originator and beneficiary’s account details, transaction amount, and purpose of transaction for all wire transfers.
• Verifying identity above certain threshold: Customer due diligence obligations, which include verifying the customer and beneficiary’s identities should be conducted for all transactions exceeding $1,000.
• Obligation on service provider: The FATF Guidelines also require VDA service providers to perform enhanced due diligence obligations (such as corroborating the customer’s identity with a national database or potentially tracing the customer’s IP address to ensure there are no links to illicit activities) when a transaction is with a higher-risk country.

• PMLA includes reporting obligation: India’s existing Anti-money laundering framework under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA) already applies these regulatory tools over traditional financial institutions. Notably, the PMLA also includes reporting obligations for overseas transactions that fall under the ambit of “suspicious transactions” under the framework.
• PMLA doesn’t apply to VDAs: Currently, the PMLA does not apply to the VDA industry.
• government can bring VDA under PMLA: The government has the power to notify any “designated business or profession” as a reporting entity under the PMLA and can issue a notification that classifies VDA service providers as a designated business.

• With the Digital Data Protection Bill and the Digital India Act already in the pipeline, Indians and digital businesses will soon have a coherent rights and responsibility framework to operate within. The time is ripe to extend regulatory oversight over the VDA industry so as to ensure that tech-innovation flourishes in a responsible, accountable manner.

Source: PIB