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14th Aug 2021
WHAT IS THE DELHI GOVERNMENT’S ‘FACELESS’ TRANSPORT INITIATIVE?
Recently, the Delhi government has launched ambitious programme called the ‘Faceless’ Transport Initiative.
Need for Faceless Transport Initiative
- The RTO offices had over the years turned into dens of corruption as the nexus of middlemen and officials covered everything.
- It includes activities such as issuance of learner’s licenses to change of address in registration certificates (RC).
- It has been introduced by locking down four Regional Transport Offices (RTO).
- It is a one-stop destination for all transport department services ranging from driving licences to transfer of ownership of vehicles.
- It seeks to eliminate any scope of corruption by ending the need for people to visit the RTOs.
- Under the scheme, all the faceless applications will be processed within a period of seven days which add that the motor licence officers will be responsible to look into the complaints on priority basis.
- All services except permanent driving license and vehicle fitness are now faceless, thereby meaning applicants don't have to visit transport authority offices.
- The services will include those related to driving licence and registration certificates such as duplicate copies, change in address, international driving permit and transfer of ownership.
- Delhi will become the first state in the country to bring all transport-related services online, thereby allowing people save time and money spent on visiting MLOs.
- The e-learning licence (eLL) could be obtained by an applicant by undertaking an online test at home or workplace by using Aadhaar authentication.
- The guidelines developed by the Delhi government say that Aadhaar-based verification will be relied upon in dispensing the services online.
- A separate provision for those not having or willing to share their Aadhaar details has also been kept.
- An applicant, for example, for a learner’s licence will have to file an online application using an Aadhaar number by visiting the portal.
- Upon entering the Aadhaar number, an OTP will be sent to the Aadhaar-linked mobile number of the applicant.
- The verification of the documents will be done automatically as the application developed by the government will draw details from the central Aadhaar database.
- There will be separate provisions for making payments and making digital signatures.
- The two services for which a person will have to visit the RTO are:
- The driving test for getting a licence; and
- The vehicle fitness certificates
- The government has stressed the need to establish its “Sovereign Right to Taxation” by scrapping the retrospective levy.
- The word sovereignty comes from the Latin word ‘superanus’, and is traditionally understood to mean “supreme power”.
- The noted legal scholar John Salmond in his book Jurisprudence (1902) defines sovereign or supreme power as that “which is absolute and uncontrolled within its own sphere”.
- An act of sovereign power is one which cannot be prevented or annulled by any other power recognised by the constitution of the state.
- The Constitution of India gives the government the right to levy taxes on individuals and organisations.
- It also makes it clear that no one has the right to levy or charge taxes except by the authority of law.
- Any tax being charged has to be backed by a law passed by the legislature or Parliament.
- The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation defines tax as a pecuniary burden laid upon individuals or property owners to support the government.
- It provides that tax is not a voluntary payment or donation, but an enforced contribution, exacted pursuant to legislative authority.
- Taxes in India come under a three-tier system based on the Central, State and local governments, and the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution puts separate heads of taxation under the Union and State list.
- There is no separate head under the Concurrent list, meaning Union and the States have no concurrent power of taxation, as per the document.
- The government has assured that the amendment to retrospective income-tax law will not dilute India’s sovereign right to tax.
- The amendment was made after the apex court in 2012 gave a verdict that gains arising from indirect transfer of Indian assets were not taxable under the extant provisions of the Income Tax Act.
- The idea behind the banning Retrospective Tax, a sovereign government has right to tax, but to apply it in retrospect has created a lot of discontentment.
- Fan Tokens are a type of NFT (non-fungible token) which is a digital-only asset.
- The Fan Tokens are digital assets that represent the ownership of a voting right and give you access to earn unique club-specific rewards and experiences.
- The fan tokens are volatile assets and their value can drastically change overnight similar to Bitcoin and other digital currencies.
- Fans can purchase said crypto tokens with real-world money to gain access to exclusive content and augmented-reality games.
- The fan token holders also get to vote on mostly minor decisions related to their clubs.
- The fan tokens are created by a crypto platform called Socios.
- It includes kit designs, goal music, and the team’s destination for a pre-season tour.
- The more tokens a fan has, the more votes they get in the polls but ultimately, the polls are decided upon by the clubs.
- Fan Tokens aren’t about transaction but they are about ownership as a utility, which gives the access to a global community of fandom, rewards & team influence.
- It was instituted in the year 1985 under the Ministry of Labour & Employment.
- The Prime Minister’s Shram Awards are given in three categories namely Shram Bhushan Awards, Shram Vir/Shram Veerangana Awards and Shram Shree/Shram Devi Awards.
- It will be presented to the workmen as defined in the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947.
- The workmen solely engaged in routine service duties would not be eligible.
- It is awarded to workers employed in the Departmental Undertakings & Public Sector Undertakings of the Central and State Governments and Private Sector Units employing 500 or more workers.
- It is given for recognition of their distinguished performance, innovative abilities, outstanding contribution in the field of productivity and exhibition of exceptional courage and presence of mind.
- Its objective is to recognize the outstanding contributions made by workmen as defined in the Industrial Dispute Act, 1947 in organizations both in public and private sector.
- Shram Bhushan Awards: It is given to the workers who have made outstanding contributions in productivity and also shown innovative capabilities in high order.
- It carries a cash award of Rs. 100,000/- and a ‘Sanad’.
- Shram Vir/Shram Veerangana Awards: It is given to the workers who have a continuous record of dedicated service and has achieved high order of productivity.
- It carries a cash award of Rs. 60,000/- and a ‘Sanad’.
- Shram Shree/Shram Devi Awards: It is given to the workers who have shown extraordinary zeal and enthusiasm for work.
- It carries a cash award of Rs. 40,000/- and a ‘Sanad’.
- The nominated worker should be a workmen as defined in Industrial Disputes Act, 1947.
- He/She should have worked continuously atleast for the past 10 years in the nominating establishment.
- He/She should have distinguished record of performance in the industry or company.
- He/She should have regularity and punctuality in attendance.
- It is a bilateral maritime exercise between Indian Navy and Saudi Arabia Navy.
- Indian Navy's guided-missile destroyer INS Kochi reached Saudi Arabia for the "Al-Mohed Al-Hindi 2021" exercise.
- The UAE fielded a guided missile corvette and a Panther helicopter for the exercise with INS Kochi.
- It will showcase the reflection of growing defence and military cooperation between India and Saudi Arabia.
- It is taking place amid rising tension in the Gulf region after a drone attack on a merchant tanker off Oman killed a British national and a Romanian citizen.
- It comprises a number of shore and sea-based drills between the two navies.
- It is an indication of the highest level of trust and confidence between the member nations.
- It is a key confidence building measure (CBM) and an indication of the faith reposed by India on another nation or a group of member nations.
It enables forces to understand each other’s drills and procedures, overcome language barriers, and facilitate familiarisation with equipment capabilities.
- It facilitates understanding and familiarisation with new technologies that other countries may be utilizing and enables on-the-job training of each other’s crews.
- It promotes brotherhood and camaraderie between soldiers and militaries.
- It is a tool for projection of a nation’s soft power i.e. culture, language, customs, beliefs, food habits and lifestyle.
- He is also known as Balwant Moreshwar Purandare.
- He is popularly known as Shiv-Shahir (Shivaji's bard).
- He was born on July 29, 1922 at Saswad near Poona (now Pune).
- He is an eminent historian, author and theatre personality.
- His works are mostly based on the events related to the life of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, the 17th-century Maratha warrior, who laid the foundation of Hindavi Swarajya.
- He is mostly known for his popular play on Shivaji Maharaj - ‘Jaanata Raja’ - which was popular not only in Maharashtra but also in other states.
- He was conferred the “Maharashtra Bhushan” in 2015 and the country’s second highest civilian honour, “Padma Vibhushan” in 2019.
- Among Purandare’s prominent works is the monumental two-volume Raje Shivchhatrapati and Jaanta Raja, Maharaj, Shelarkhind, Gadkot Kille, Agra, Lal Mahal, Purandar, Rajgad, Panhalgad, Sinhagad, Pratapgad, Purandaryanchi Daulat, Mujaryache Mankari, Fulwanti, Savitri and Kalawantinicha Sajja.
- It is India’s first Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP) based chip for the conservation of pure varieties of indigenous cattle breeds like Gir, Kankrej, Sahiwal, Ongole etc.
- It was developed by the concerted efforts of scientists of National Institute of Animal Biotechnology (NAIB), Hyderabad.
- The NAIB is autonomous institution under the aegis of the Department of Biotechnology.
- It is purely indigenous and the largest cattle chip of the world.
- It has 11,496 markers (SNPs) more than that placed on 777K Illumina chip of US & UK breeds.
- It will have practical utility in the Governments schemes to achieve the goal of conservation of our own breeds with better characters.
- It will help towards doubling of farmers’ income by 2022.
- The NIAB has entered into a collaborative agreement with the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) to further the use of this chip in generating phenotypic and genotypic correlations.
- NIAB has also entered into an MoU with private industry to generate capability within India for designing and making our own SNP chips.
POSTED ON 14-08-2021 BY ADMIN
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General Studies
Political Science and International Relations
Some Reference Essays
List of previous year essay topics (1997-2019)
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