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EDITORIALS & ARTICLES
27th Oct 2021
GOVERNMENT AMENDS INDIAN TELEGRAPH RIGHT OF WAY RULES, 2021
The Central Government has notified the Indian Telegraph Right of Way (Amendment) Rules, 2021 recently.
- It incorporates the provisions related to nominal one-time compensation and uniform procedure for establishment of Overground Telegraph Line in the Indian Telegraph Right of Way Rules, 2016.
- The amount of one-time compensation for establishment of overground telegraph line will be maximum one thousand rupees per kilometre.
- Documentation for RoW application for overground telegraph line has been made simple.
- There will be no fee other than Administrative fee and Restoration charges for establishing, maintaining, working, repairing, transferring or shifting the underground and over ground telegraph infrastructure.
- These amendments will ease Right of Wayrelated permission procedures for establishment and augmentation of Digital Communications Infrastructure across the country.
- With a robust pan India digital infrastructure, the digital divide between rural-urban and rich-poor will be bridged.
- E-governance and financial inclusion will be strengthened; doing business will be easy; information and communication needs of citizens and enterprises will be fulfilled.
- Ultimately, the dream of India’s transition to a digitally empowered economy and society will be translated into reality.
- Banni buffaloes are also known as “Kutchi” or “Kundi”.
- The breeding tract includes the Banni area of Kutch district of Gujarat.
- The breed is maintained by Maldharis, under locally adapted extensive production system in its breeding tract.
- They are trained to graze on Banni grassland during night and brought to the villages in the morning for milking.
- The buffalo is mostly black in color.
- Forehead is elongated and straight with no slope towards horn base.
- The body size ranges from medium to large, and generally covered with hairs.
- IVF is a series of procedures used to help with fertility or prevent genetic problems and assist with the conception of a child.
- It is the most effective form of Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART). IVF may involve eggs, sperm, or embryos from a known or anonymous donor.
- During IVF, mature eggs are collected from ovaries and fertilized by sperm in a lab.
- The fertilized egg (embryo) is transferred to a uterus, one full cycle of IVF takes about three weeks.
- IVF is a treatment for infertility or genetic problems.
- Sometimes, it is offered as a primary treatment for infertility in women over age 40.
- Multiple births
- IVF increases the risk of multiple births if more than one embryo is transferred to uterus.
- Premature delivery
- Use of IVF increases the risk, that the baby will be born early or with a low birth weight.
- Miscarriage
- The rate of miscarriage for women who conceive using IVF is about 15% to 25%. But the rate increases with maternal age.
- Egg-retrieval procedure
- Use of a needle to collect eggs could possibly cause bleeding, infection or damage to the bladder and blood vessel.
- Birth defects
- Age is the primary risk factor in the development of birth defects.
- More research is needed to determine whether babies conceived using IVF might be at increased risk of certain birth defects.
- The new guidelines will be applicable from October 2022.
- Base Layer
- It includes NBFCs with an asset size below Rs 1,000 crore.
- It will include peer-to-peer lending platforms, account aggregators, NBFCs not accessing public funds nor having any public interface.
- Middle Layer
- It consists of all deposit-taking and non-deposit taking NBFCs with an asset size of Rs 1,000 crore and above, primary dealers, infrastructure debt fund NBFCs, housing and infrastructure finance companies.
- Upper Layer
- It comprises of NBFCs which are identified by the RBI as warranting enhanced regulatory requirement based on a set of parameters and scoring methodology.
- Top Layer
- NBFCs in the upper layer may be moved to the top layer if the potential systemic risk from specific companies rises.
- The top 10 NBFCs will automatically fall into the upper layer.
- NBFCs in the Upper Layer must maintain a minimum common equity tier-1 capital of 9% of risk weighted assets.
- Upper Layer NBFCs will be required to hold differential provisioning towards different classes of standard assets.
- They must follow the exposure framework of the RBI.
- Large exposure of an NBFC to all counterparties and groups of connected counterparties will be considered for exposure ceilings.
- The RBI has prescribed an internal limit for exposure toward other NBFCs.
- NBFCs in the base layer are subject to regulations as currently applicable to non-deposit-taking NBFCs.
- In the middle layer they will follow regulations as applicable for non-deposit-taking systemically important NBFCs.
- NBFCs must move to a 150-day NPA recognition norm by March 31, 2024.
- NPA recognition at 120 days of overdue must be achieved by March 31, 2025.
- NBFCs must follow 90-day NPA recognition cycle by March 31, 2026.
- NBFCs are required to make an internal assessment of the need for capital, commensurate with the risks in their business, like commercial banks.
- They must follow a uniform exposure limit of 25% and 40% of Tier-1 capital for single borrower and group borrowers, respectively.
- 27 States and UTs improved their scores compared to SEEI 2019.
- Out of these, seven States — Assam, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Punjab, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu — improved by more than 10 points.
- The index categorized States into four based on the score.
- Those with above 60 points are ‘front-runners’, states with 50-60 points are ‘achievers’, 30-49.5 points are ‘contenders’ and less than 30 points would get ‘aspirant’ status.
- The performance has been measured through 68 indicators across six sectors: buildings, industry, municipalities, transport, agriculture and distribution companies (Discoms), and cross sector initiatives.
- Help drive Energy Efficiency (EE) policies at the state and local level.
- Highlight best practices and encourage healthy competition among states.
- Track progress in managing the states’ and India’s energy footprint.
- Set a baseline for EE efforts and provide a foundation to set state specific EE targets.
- Institutionalize data capture and monitoring of EE activities by states.
- The declaration accused China of a litany of human rights violations against the Uighurs, including torture, forced sterilisation and forced disappearances.
- It was signed by the United States, several European and Asian member states and others.
- In answer, China accused the U.S. for “ethnic cleansing” against Native Americans and accused France of committing “crimes against humanity” in its former colonies.
- The Uyghurs are a group of people who live mostly in the Xinjiang area of China.
- There are about 12 million Uyghurs, mostly Muslim, living in Xinjiang, which is officially known as the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR).
- They have been living there for at least several hundred years.
- They are generally regarded as a Turkic people, which means they speak a language related to Turkish and have ancestors who came from the traditional homeland of the Turks - north of central Asia.
- But studies of their genetic make-up suggest that they also have ancestors who came from other parts of the world, with European DNA mixed with Chinese, south Asian, Siberian, and central Asian.
- They see themselves as culturally and ethnically close to Central Asian nations.
- Recent decades have seen a mass migration of Han Chinese (China's ethnic majority) into Xinjiang, allegedly orchestrated by the state to dilute the minority population there.
- Xinjiang lies in the north-west of China and is the country's largest region.
- Xinjiang is a mostly desert region and produces about a fifth of the world's cotton.
- It is autonomous, meaning - in theory - it has some powers of self-governance. But in practice, both regions are subjected to major restrictions by the central government.
- The region is also rich in oil and natural gas and because of its proximity to Central Asia and Europe.
- In the early 20th Century, the Uyghurs briefly declared independence for the region but it was brought under the complete control of China's new Communist government in 1949.
- The small island nations suffer losses to as much as 10% of their GDP due to natural disasters.
- Two-thirds of the countries in the world suffer the highest relative losses due to disasters.
- The highest hazard risks relative to the size of their capital stock.
- Some countries have lost 80% to 90% of their GDPs in single disaster events in the past.
- Launched by: Prime Minister of India at the 2019 UN Climate Action Summit in September 2019.
- Aim:
- To promote disaster-resilient infrastructure.
- To promote research and knowledge sharing in the fields of infrastructure risk management, standards, financing, and recovery mechanisms.
- Secretariat: New Delhi
- Responsibility:
- Its focus is on developing disaster resilience in ecological, social, and economic infrastructure.
- It goals to achieve substantial changes in member country's policy frameworks and future infrastructure investments, along with a major decrease in the economic losses suffered due to disasters.
- Significance:
- It is the second major coalition launched by India outside of the UN.
- It is seen as India's attempts to obtain a global leadership role in climate change matters.
- Members: 22 countries and 7 organisations.
- Main thematic areas that guide CDRI's work: Governance and Policy, Risk Identification and Estimation, Standards and Certification, Capacity building, Innovation & Emerging Technology, Recovery and Reconstruction, Finance and Community based approaches.
- Melioidosis (Whitmore’s disease) is an infectious disease that can infect humans or animals.
- Caused by: Bacterium Burkholderia pseudomallei
- This bacterium is commonly found in soil and fresh surface water in South Asia, Southeast Asia, and northern Australia.
- It was originally identified in Burma, in 1911 among morphine addicts.
- It is spread to humans and animals through direct contact with the contaminated water or soil.
- Symptoms: Fever, skin changes, pneumonia, and abscesses, to severe with inflammation of the brain, inflammation of the joints, and low blood pressure that causes death.
- Person-to-person or animal-to-human transmission is extremely rare.
- No vaccination has been found yet.
- It is found especially in males from rural areas.
- Diabetes and alcoholism being the commonest risk factors.
- Six ISINs maturing per financial year should be allowed for plain vanilla debt securities as compared to 12 at present.
- An International Securities Identification Number (ISIN) is a 12-digit alphanumeric code that uniquely identifies a specific security.
- The organization that allocates ISINs in any particular country is the country's respective National Numbering Agency (NNA).
- It is used for uniquely identifying securities like stocks, bonds warrants and commercial papers. It is a unique number assigned to a security that is universally recognizable.
- ISINs are used for numerous reasons including clearing and settlement. The numbers ensure a consistent format so that holdings of institutional investors can be tracked consistently across markets worldwide.
- IIGF will be conducted jointly by Ministry of Electronics and IT, NIXI and Multistakeholder Group from 8th to 11th of November, 2021.
- The India Internet Government Forum is an initiative associated with the UN Internet Governance Forum (UN-IGF).
- The Internet Governance Forum (IGF) is a multi-stakeholder platform bringing representatives together from various groups to discuss public policy issues related to the Internet.
- The multi-stakeholder concept is well adopted by IGF (Internet Governance Forum) under UN and by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).
- Theme of IIGF 2021: ‘Empower India through Power of Internet’
- The event will witness enlightening discussions on the road to Digitization in India.
- IIGF has been constituted in conformance to IGF-Paragraph 72 of the Tunis Agenda of the UN-based Internet Governance forum (IGF).
- India & Internet- India’s Digital Journey and her Global Role,
- Equity, Access & Quality – High-speed Internet for All and
- Cyber Norms and Ethics in Internet Governance.