Windfall tax on crude reduced, export duty on diesel halved

• The taxes were introduced on July 1, as the Centre felt that elevated crude prices were allowing oil companies to make windfall profits, and that the exchequer must get a share of such gains.
• The reduction in tax rates follows the easing of crude oil prices in international markets.
• A windfall tax is a tax levied by governments against certain industries when economic conditions allow those industries to experience above-average profits.
• The idea is to target firms that were lucky enough to benefit from something they were not responsible for - in other words, a windfall.
• In other words, windfall tax is imposed on companies that have seen their profits extraordinarily not because of any clever investment decision or an increase in efficiency or innovation, but simply because of favourable market conditions.

Tri-services Missile Command on anvil as stand-off weapons era dawns

• The proposed missile command will be responsible for deployment of missile and rocket regiments against any hostile adversary and will be manned by commanders of the three services in rotation.
• This means that conventional missiles like BrahMos and Akash as well as Pinaka rockets will be placed under one command for rapid deployment against any adversary.
• The proposal to set up a missile command has been moved in the aftermath of the May 2020 East Ladakh stand-off with the PLA and the use of rockets and missiles in the Ukraine theatre by the Red Army.
• The missile command will be on similar lines as the tri-services cyber command and the space command as the future wars will hardly have any contact between troops unless used for capturing enemy territory.

Services output grows at slowest pace since March

• It was the 15th straight month the figure was above the 50-mark separating growth from contraction.
• The survey pointed out that Indian businesses become more confident in the outlook as inflation worries were tamed.
• The overall level of positive sentiment seen in September was the best in over seven-and-a-half years, according to the survey.

Purchasing Managers’ Index

• Purchasing Managers’ Index or PMI is an economic indicator, which is derived after monthly surveys of different companies.
• The index shows trends in both the manufacturing and services sector.
• The index helps in determining whether the market conditions, as seen by purchasing managers, is expanding, contracting or staying the same.
• It is used to provide information regarding the current and future business conditions.
• PMI is one of the closely watched indicators of business activity and helps in predicting the economic health of a country.
• There are two types of PMI — Manufacturing PMI and Services PMI. A combined index is also made using both manufacturing PMI and services PMI.
• A PMI number greater than 50 indicates expansion in business activity. A number less than 50 shows contraction. The rate of expansion is also judged by the difference from the mid-point (50) and also by previous month’s data.

Services output grows at slowest pace since March

• Around 62% of rural households in India have fully functional tap water connections within their premises, according to a survey commissioned by the Union Ministry of Water Resources to assess the functioning of the government’s marquee Jal Jeevan Mission.
• Tamil Nadu, Himachal Pradesh, Goa, and Puducherry reported more than 80% of households with fully functional connections, while fewer than half the households in Rajasthan, Kerala, Manipur, Tripura, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Mizoram and Sikkim had such connections.
• A fully functional tap water connection is defined as a household getting at least 55 litres per capita per day of potable water all through the year.
• Close to three-fourths of households received water all seven days a week and 8% just once a week.
• On an average, households got water for three hours every day, and 80% reported that their daily requirements of water were being met by the tap connections.
• The report mentions a concerning problem of chlorine contamination. Though 93% of the samples were reportedly free of bacteriological contamination, “most of the anganwadi centres and schools, had higher than the permissible range of residual chlorine and indicated inappropriate local dosing.

Election Commission launches year-long voter awareness program on All India Radio

• It is a year-long voter awareness program.
• The Matadata Junction program will be broadcast in 23 languages across the country.
• The weekly program covers all aspects of the Voter ecosystem and shall be broadcast every Friday on the All India Radio network.
• Each Program will be based on a particular Theme on the Electoral process.
• All the 52 Themes are aimed at encouraging all eligible citizens and especially the young and first time voters to vote and make an informed decision during the elections.
• The program includes a Citizen''s Corner where any citizen can ask a query or suggest any aspects of the voting.

YUVA 2.0: MoE launched PM’s Scheme for Mentoring Young Authors

• It is a Prime Minister’s scheme for mentoring young authors, and a programme to train young and budding authors below the age of 30 to promote reading, writing, and book culture in the country, and project India and Indian writings globally.
• The ministry of education (MoE) launched the YUVA 2.0 scheme in view of the significant impact of the first edition of the YUVA.
• The first edition witnessed a large-scale participation from young authors in 22 different Indian languages including English.
• It is in tune with the Prime Minister’s vision to encourage the youth to understand and appreciate India''s democracy.
• It will help to develop a stream of writers who can write on a spectrum of subjects to promote the Indian heritage, culture, and knowledge system.
• The National Book Trust, India, as the implementing agency under MoE will ensure the phase-wise execution of the scheme under well-defined stages of mentorship.
• The young authors will be trained by eminent authors and mentors from 1st March to 31st August 2023.

UAE''s new immigration laws come into effect today.

• Under UAE''s new immigration laws, the five-year green visa will allow foreigners to sponsor themselves without any help from UAE nationals or their employers. Freelancers, skilled workers, and investors are eligible for this visa.
• Now, green visa holders can sponsor their family members themselves.
• If the permit for a green visa holder expires, they will be given a period of up to six months to renew it.
• A 10-year expanded residency is also offered under the golden visa. Investors, entrepreneurs, and individuals with exceptional talents are eligible for a golden visa.
• According to the new immigration laws, golden visa holders will also enjoy the benefit of 100% ownership of their business.
• Tourist visas will allow the visitors to stay in UAE for 60 days, as per new rules.
• A five-year multi-entry tourist visa will allow visitors to stay in the UAE for up to 90 days in a row.
• And the job exploration visa will also allow professionals to seek employment opportunities in the UAE without a sponsor or host.

Fast-melting Arctic ice is turning the ocean acidic, threatening life

• The team of researchers identified a strong correlation between the accelerated rate of melting ice and the rate of ocean acidification.
• Scientists have predicted that by 2050, Arctic sea ice in this region will no longer survive the increasingly warm summers.
• As a result, the ocean’s chemistry will grow more acidic, creating life-threatening problems for the diverse population of sea creatures, plants and other living things that depend on a healthy ocean. Crabs, for example, live in a crusty shell built from the calcium carbonate prevalent in ocean water.
• Seawater is normally alkaline, with a pH value of around 8.1.
• The researchers point to sea-ice melt as the key mechanism to explain this rapid pH decrease, because it changes surface water in three primary ways.
  • First, the water under the sea ice, which had a deficit of carbon dioxide, now is exposed to the atmospheric carbon dioxide and can take it up freely.
  • The seawater mixed with meltwater is light and can’t mix easily into deeper waters, which means the carbon dioxide is concentrated at the surface.
  • The meltwater dilutes the carbonate ion concentration in the seawater, weakening its ability to neutralise the carbon dioxide into bicarbonate and rapidly decreasing ocean pH.

IAF inducts first made-in-India light combat helicopters: 5 points

• The indigenous Light Combat Helicopter (LCH) is set to be formally inducted into the Indian Air Force (IAF) at the Jodhpur air base.
• It is the only attack helicopter in the world which can land and take off at an altitude of 5,000 meters with a considerable load of weapons and fuel, meeting the specific requirements laid out by the Indian Armed Forces.
• It has the maximum take-off weight of 5.8 tonnes, maximum speed of 268 kilometers per hour, range of 550 kilometers, endurance of over three hours and service ceiling — the maximum density altitude to which it can fly — of 6.5 kilometres.
• The helicopter uses radar-absorbing material to lower radar signature and has a significantly crash-proof structure and landing gear.
• A pressurised cabin offers protection from nuclear, biological and chemical (NBC) contingencies.
• The helicopter is equipped with a countermeasure dispensing system that protects it from enemy radars or infrared seekers of the enemy missiles.
• As far as weapons systems are concerned, a 20 mm turret gun, 70 mm rockets and air-to-air missile systems are onboard.
• LCH is powered by two French-origin Shakti engines manufactured by the HAL.