VISION

Tuesday, September 20, 2022

The HINDU Notes – 20th September 2022

aditya 14:19

📰 Oil Ministry seeks review of windfall tax, wants certain fields exempted

Ministry writes to Finance Ministry noting contracts have built-in mechanism to capture windfall gains; says additional tax may result in firms paying more than the gain itself

•The Oil Ministry has sought a review of the two-and-a-half-month old windfall profit tax on domestically-produced crude oil saying it goes against the principle of fiscal stability provided in contracts for finding and producing oil.

•The Ministry in the August 12 letter, reviewed by PTI, sought exemption for fields or blocks — which were bid out to firms under the Production Sharing Contract (PSC) and the Revenue Sharing Contract (RSC) — from the new levy.

•It stated that since the 1990s, companies had been awarded blocks or areas for exploration and production of oil and natural gas under different contractual regimes, wherein a royalty and cess is levied and the government gets a pre-determined percentage of profits.

•The Ministry, according to the letter, was of the opinion that the contracts have an in-built mechanism to factor in high prices as incremental gains get transferred in the form of higher profit share for the government. E-mails sent to the Oil Ministry as well as the Finance Ministry for comments remained unanswered.

‘Super-normal profit’

•India first imposed the windfall profit tax on July 1, joining a growing number of nations that tax super-normal profits of energy companies. While duties were slapped on the export of petrol, diesel and jet fuel (ATF), a Special Additional Excise Duty (SAED) was levied on locally-produced crude oil.

•The SAED on domestic crude oil was initially ₹23,250 per tonne ($40 per barrel) and in fortnightly revisions brought down to ₹10,500 per tonne.

•The government levies a 10-20% royalty on the price of oil and gas as also an oil cess of 20% on production from areas given to state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and Oil India Ltd. (OIL) on a nomination basis.

RSC regime

•These levies apart, fields were awarded under the PSC regime where the government gets about 50-60% of the profit made after deducting costs. The RSC regime specifically has a clause to capture windfall gains for the government.

•According to Oil Ministry calculations, the new levy in the case of PSC and RSC results in a situation where the operator ends up paying much more than the windfall gain itself.

•Besides, the contracts specifically provide for fiscal stability for the contracting parties, it said, adding any change of law or rule or regulation that adversely changes expected economic benefits to parties can lead to seeking revision and adjustments to the terms of the contracts.

•It added that it had got representations from major crude oil producers, including ONGC and OIL and Vedanta Ltd., for a review of the new levy as it was adversely impacting their investment plans. Concerns raised by these firms include economic unviability and contract clause violation, it added.

📰 The hijab case and the essential practices doctrine

THE HINDU NEWSPAPER IMPORTANT ARTICLES 20.09.2022

the hindu articles

aditya 07:15

Click Here to Like our Facebook page for latest updates and free ebooks

SSC CGL Syllabus 2022: Detailed Syllabus of Tier I and Tier II Exam

ssc Syllabus

aditya 19:58

SSC CGL Syllabus 2022: SSC CGL Syllabus 2022 is released along with the SSC CGL 2022 notification by the Staff Selection Commission. The Combined Graduate Level (CGL) Exam is conducted every year by the Staff Selection Commission for the candidates seeking Government jobs in various ministries of Government.

Daily Current Affairs, 19th September 2022

vision ias current affairs

aditya 19:49

1) International Equal Pay Day celebrates on 18 September

•International Equal Pay Day, celebrated on 18 September, represents the longstanding efforts towards the achievement of equal pay for work of equal value. The symbolic day aims at highlighting issues related to the gender pay gap and raising worldwide awareness. The main aim of the event is to end the history of gender discrimination that women are generally subjected to by getting paid less than their male counterparts.

2) World Bamboo Day 2022 observed on 18th September

•World Bamboo Day 2022 is observed on September 18 in order to raise awareness about the conservation of this extremely useful plant. Conceptualised by the World Bamboo Organisation (WBO), this day also promotes the bamboo industry by highlighting its concerns. Bamboo wood has long been used for various purposes in countries around the globe, especially in the east and southeast Asia. Bamboo grows on its and doesn’t require to be replanted, making it easily available.

3) Andaman and Nicobar Islands become India’s first Swachh Sujal Pradesh

•Union Jal Shakti Minister, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat declared Andaman and Nicobar Islands as India’s first Swachh Sujal Pradesh. With this accomplishment, all villages on the Andaman and Nicobar Islands have received the Har Ghar Jal certification and have been verified as ODF plus open defecation free. Safe and secure drinking water supply and its management is a crucial aspect of the Sujal and Swachh.

There are namely three important components of Sujal and Swachh state:

(i) safe and secure drinking water supply and management;

(ii) ODF Plus: ODF Sustainability and Solid and Liquid Waste Management (SLWM) and

(iii) cross-cutting interventions like convergence, IEC, action planning, etc

4) India-Russia Relations: From History To Contemporary Times

•India has remained a reliable strategic partner of Russia traditionally and remembers the help Moscow extended to India in its toughest times in the past. The development of India-Russia relations has been a key pillar of India’s foreign policy. Indo-Russian ties enjoy enhanced levels of cooperation in almost all areas of the bilateral relationships including political, security, defence, trade and economy, science and technology, and culture.

5) Vinod Aggarwal elected as new President of SIAM

•Auto industry body, Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) has elected Vinod Aggarwal as its new president for 2022-23. Aggarwal, the MD and CEO of Volvo Eicher Commercial Vehicles, succeeds Kenichi Ayukawa, the executive vice-chairman of Maruti Suzuki India. The SIAM also elected Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles managing director Shailesh Chandra as the vice-president, Satyakam Arya; and CEO & MD of Daimler India Commercial Vehicles was elected as the treasurer.

6) India’s CAD Likely to Remain Within 3% of GDP

•A weak rupee and elevated fuel prices will keep India’s current account deficit (CAD) under pressure with analysts seeing it at about 3% of GDP in FY23 compared to 1.2% in FY22 even as these will exert pressure on government finances. Subsidy expenditure is seen to rise to levels significantly higher than projected. Higher oil import bill on account of weak rupee will straddle several sectors, including fertilisers and metals, and also result in lower dividend receipts from state-run fuel retailers whose margins will be hit. Rupee hit a record low of 80 against US dollar for the first time in intra-day trade, before closing at 79.95.

7) A book titled “Ambedkar and Modi” released by former President Ram Nath Kovind

•Former President Ram Nath Kovind has launched a book titled ‘Ambedkar and Modi: Reformer’s Ideas Performer’s Implementation’. The book, compiled by Bluekraft Digital Foundation, explores the life and works of Dr BR Ambedkar while drawing a parallel with the initiatives and reforms taken by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to implement the ideals of the social reformer.

•The book features a foreword by music composer and Rajya Sabha member Ilaiyaraaja. It presents a convergence between the ideals of Dr Ambedkar and New India’s development journey. Focus has been laid on infrastructure, education, socio-economic mobility, gender equality, and self-reliance in the twelve chapters of the book.

8) BSF’s first female camel riding squad to be deployed along the India- Pak border

•Border Security Force (BSF) first female camel riding squad will be deployed along the India-Pakistan border in Rajasthan & Gujarat. The squad will participate for the first time in the BSF Raising Day Parade on 1st December. This Squad will be the first of its kind in the world. Giving this information, DIG BSF Bikaner, Pushpendra Singh Rathore said that Intensive training was given to this squad at the Bikaner Regional Headquarters of BSF under the supervision of skilled trainers.

The HINDU Notes – 18th September 2022

the hindu notes

aditya 13:07

📰 The gender pay gap, hard truths and actions needed

Asymmetries abound in India’s labour market and closing the gap is key to achieving social justice for working women

•India is among the most important countries when it comes to the global economic growth and structural transformation story. A commensurate improvement in its labour market outcomes and a fair distribution of the fruits of economic progress will spur further economic growth and the benefits it brings. But, unsurprisingly, in a country the size and diversity of India, asymmetries still abound in the country’s labour market.

Impact of the pandemic

•Yesterday was the Third International Equal Pay Day 2022 — the day falls on September 18 — and it is time to pause and reflect on the extent of progress made towards closing the gender pay gap and reaffirming our collective commitment to the effective and accelerated realisation of the principle ‘equal pay for work of equal value’. This ‘becomes all the more important in the present context’, given the disproportionate effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on women workers in terms of job and income losses. Full and productive economic growth requires a human-centred recovery from the pandemic, which will be made possible by improving women’s employment outcomes and reducing the gender pay gap.

•While the full impact of the pandemic is yet to be known, it is clear that its impact has been uneven, with women being among the worst affected in terms of their income security — partly due to their representation in sectors hard hit by COVID-19, combined with the gendered division of family responsibilities. Many women reverted to full-time care of children and the elderly during the pandemic, foregoing their livelihoods to do so.

A wider pay gap

•This is attested by the International Labour Organization’s “Global Wage Report 2020–21” which suggests the crisis inflicted massive downward pressure on wages and disproportionately affected women’s total wages compared to men. This greater wage reduction for women means that the pre-existing gender pay gap has widened.

•Despite notable progress in closing the gender pay gap over time in India, the gap remains high by international standards. Indian women earned, on an average, 48% less compared to their male counterparts in 1993-94. Since then, the gap declined to 28% in 2018-19 as in the labour force survey data of the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO). The pandemic reversed decades of progress as preliminary estimates from the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) 2020-21 show an increase in the gap by 7% between 2018-19 and 2020-21. The data further suggests that faster decline in female wages during the pandemic contributed to this decline, compared to a faster growth in male wages, which requires urgent policy attention.

Discrimination as factor

•While individual characteristics such as education, skills or experience explain part of the gender pay gap, a large part of the gender pay gap can still be attributed purely to discrimination based on one’s gender or sex. Gender-based discriminatory practices include: lower wages paid to women for work of equal value; undervaluation of women’s work in highly feminised occupations and enterprises, and motherhood pay gap — lower wages for mothers compared to non-mothers.

•At the international level, the United Nations has put the challenge of closing various forms of gender inequality at the heart of its actions. The ILO has enshrined ‘equal pay for work of equal value’ in its Constitution and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) provides an international legal framework for realising gender equality and addressing the intersecting forms of discrimination and vulnerabilities among women and girls.

Steps taken by India

•India has taken several steps in the legislative sphere to close the gender pay gap, especially at the low-end of the wage distribution. In this regard, it was one of the pioneering countries to enact the Minimum Wages Act in 1948 and followed by the adoption of the Equal Remuneration Act in 1976. In 2019, India carried out comprehensive reforms in both the legislation and enacted the Code on Wages.

•Evidence shows that the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) in 2005 benefited rural women workers and helped reduce the gender pay gap, both directly and indirectly. Directly, by raising the pay levels of women workers who participated in the programme, and indirectly, benefits accrued to women involved in agricultural occupations through higher earnings, as MGNREGA contributed to the rapid rise in overall rural and agricultural wages in the country.

•In 2017, the Government amended the Maternity Benefit Act of 1961, which increased the ‘maternity leave with pay protection’ from 12 weeks to 26 weeks for all women working in establishments employing 10 or more workers. This is expected to reduce the motherhood pay gap among mothers in the median and high-end wage earners working in the formal economy.

•Apart from enabling legislations, efforts are being made through the Skill India Mission to equip women with market-relevant skills to bridge the learning-to-livelihood gap and the gender pay gap.

•While the gender pay gap is slowly narrowing, at the current rate of progress it will take more than 70 years to close it completely. Accelerated and bold action is needed to prevent a widening of the gender pay gap and closing the existing gap.

•One of the targets of the UN Sustainable Development Goal 8 is “achieving full and productive employment and decent work for all women and men, including for young people and persons with disabilities and equal pay for work of equal value” by 2030. In support of this Goal, the Equal Pay International Coalition (EPIC), was launched in 2017 as a multi-stakeholder initiative led by the ILO, UN Women and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) that seeks to achieve equal pay for women and men everywhere.

•Equal pay for work of equal value is necessary to close the gender pay gap. Closing the gender pay gap is key to achieving social justice for working women, as well as economic growth for the nation as a whole.