7 August 2024, The Hindu
Govt. blinks on capital gains tax on real estate
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GS 2: Indian Economy and issues relating to planning, mobilisation of resources, growth, development and employment.
- In an apparent bid to nip the widespread criticism of the changes in the long-term capital gains tax regime announced in the Budget, the Government has decided to grant some relief on the provisions pertaining to taxation of immovable property.
- Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had announced in her Budget speech that the tax on long-term capital gains was being reduced from 20% with indexation benefits, to 12.5% without indexation benefits.
CBI probe sought into ‘malpractics’ in organ transplantation
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GS 1: Population and associated issues
- A writ petition has been filed in the Madras High Court seeking a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the alleged organ transplantation malpractices committed by some private hospitals in collusion with certain officials of the Transplant Authority of Tamil Nadu (TRANSTAN).
- Justice N. Seshasayee adjourned the petition filed by 32-year-old L. Jagannathh, a kidney transplant beneficiary from Tiruvannamalai, to August 19.
- In his affidavit, the litigant had narrated the travails faced by him during the wait for the organ and the irregularities he came across.
Range of complaints regarding Auroville township referred to agencies, says MoS
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GS 3: Challenges to internal security through communication networks, basics of Cyber security, money-laundering and its prevention
- The Union Government has referred a range of complaints, including dubious land exchanges, encroachment, cybercrime and money laundering in Auroville, to the appropriate bodies/agencies, Minister of State for Education Sukanta Majumdar has said in Parliament.
- Replying to a set of questions pertaining to the universal township, which is under the oversight of the Ministry of Education, raised by D. Ravi Kumar in the Lok Sabha, Mr. Majumdar said representations and complaints have been received from several quarters, including community residents, on various matters related to activities in Auroville.
From e-commerce deliveries to traffic management, Gurugram takes the aerial route
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GS 1: Urbanisation
- Every time Mudit Bansal spots a drone appear on the horizon, navigating its way through high-rises, heading towards his multi-storey apartment complex, Fresco, to make a delivery, the market strategist at a multinational IT company experiences a “child-like” zest.
- “If I ever happen to see a drone up there, I stop for a few seconds to behold the spectacle. It is an amazing technology,” said Mr. Bansal, visibly excited over just having received a pack of snacks, some frozen food and a bottle of coke delivered by air.
Powering up to get to the $30-trillion economy point
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Prelims: Indian Economy
- Commentary on the India growth story often betrays a hint of premature triumphalism.
- Facts such as our 7%-plus GDP growth rate and India being the fastest-growing large economy in the world today, are repeated to buttress prophecies such as the 21st century being ‘India’s century’.
- There is a belief that in India’s case, economic growth is inevitable.
- We must remember that several countries have been here before, at the very juncture where India stands today.
- However, most have failed to go the last mile and emerge as developed nations.
- For India to avoid such a fate and become a $30-trillion economy by 2047, as envisaged by the government, we must relentlessly pursue rapid economic growth built on liberal economic policies that harness the private sector.
- In this pursuit, many would continue to decry India’s income inequality. We must not get swayed or overly affected by such criticism.
A shift in the U.S. to autocratic trends
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GS 2: Effect of policies and politics of developed and developing countries on India’s interests
- Since the Second World War, Washington has defined its foreign policy as a moral conflict between democracies and dictatorships, though this definition proved malleable and redacted to those siding with the United States and those against.
- The binary between democracy and autocracy is now further blurred by political trends within the U.S. itself.
- In the past, American presidential politics comprised differences over policy and principle, when Presidents and Congress jostled for advantage and the boundaries of executive authority were negotiated.
- Despite serious disagreements, the norms of civility and forbearance prevailed in a mood consistent with democratic governance.
Counting the ‘poor’ having nutritional deficiency
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GS 2: Issues relating to poverty and hunger.
- The National Sample Survey Office recently released a detailed report based on the Household Consumption Expenditure Survey (HCES): 2022-23.
- Along with the report, the unit-level data on household consumption expenditure (HCE) is available in the public domain.
- The HCES collected data on the quantities of various food items consumed by households during specified reference periods and the total value of consumption of different food and non-food items.
- This analysis uses this information to convert the quantities of consumed food items into their total calorific value, and then compares the estimated per capita per day calorie intake of household members in the lower expenditure classes with the average per capita daily calorie requirement for a healthy life.
- This analysis addresses two key issues: one, how one defines the ‘poor’ and two, the measurement aspect of the nutritional level.
Set for a stand-off with Governor
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GS 2: Issues and challenges pertaining to the federal structure
On U.P.’s stringent anti-conversion law
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GS 2: State legislatures—structure, functioning
- The Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly on July 30 passed the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion (Amendment) Bill, 2024, significantly altering the original 2021 anti-conversion law by making its provisions more stringent, and critics say, susceptible to misuse.
- Since 2017, multiple BJP-ruled states have enacted or amended anti-conversion laws to restrict religious conversions through marriage, deceit, coercion, or enticement.
- These measures are ostensibly aimed at combating “love jihad” — a theory, primarily promoted by Hindutva groups, which alleges that inter-faith marriages are sites of potential forced conversions.
Has the U.K. changed its stance on ICC arrest warrants?
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GS 2: Important International institutions, agencies and fora- their structure, mandate
- On July 26, Britain abandoned its intent to challenge the prosecutor’s application for arrest warrants before the International Criminal Court (ICC) against Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant.
- The latest move signals a second policy shift by the Labour government, from the previous Conservative government, after it restored funding for the UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.
- The chief prosecutor of the Hague Court, Karim Khan, on May 20, applied to the pre-trial chamber to serve arrest warrants against Hamas leaders Ismail Haniyeh and Mohammed Deif (since killed) and Yahya Sinwar, as well as Mr. Netanyahu and Mr. Gallant.
- The move was consequent to the brutal fallout from Hamas’s Operation al-Aqsa flood on October 7, 2023, and Israel’s Operation Iron Swords in retaliation.
On the physics of pressure: how the microscopic world interacts with us
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Prelims: General Science
- We again have a leopard visiting us on the IIT Kanpur campus.
- We already have porcupines, a million dogs, nilgais, snakes, and scorpions.
- Leopards are a new addition to this thriving ecosystem.
- It’s probably something about the wet monsoon air of Kanpur that beckons these creatures, as well as the students and faculty members.
- The courses are starting again now after the summer break, as is the grind.
- As students old and new gather, the academic pressure begins to rise.
- Pressure is an interesting thing: we often don’t like it and try to avoid it, but it is indispensable.
- It’s everywhere and there is a bit of wonderful physics hiding in it.
Military-to-military cooperation in question as political crisis continues in Bangladesh
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GS 3: Security challenges and their management in border areas, Role of external state and non-state actors in creating challenges to internal security
- Former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina continues to remain at the Hindon Air Force Station near Delhi, where she landed after fleeing her country on Monday (August 5). The C130J aircraft that brought her to India has flown out of the base.
- While uncertainty prevails in the neighbouring country, there are apprehensions over the future of the strong military-to-military cooperation that had significantly deepened over the years, especially under Ms. Hasina’s government, as India looked to counter Chinese influence in the neighbourhood, including by supplying military hardware to Dhaka.
‘Food costs hit 11-month peak in July on pricier vegetables’
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GS 3: Inclusive growth and issues arising from it
- Food-plate costs shot up to an 11-month high for non-vegetarians as well as vegetarians in July, fuelled by a sharp 55% month-on-month surge in prices of tomato and a spike of 20% and 16% in onion potato prices, respectively, as per Crisil’s monthly cost tracker for home-cooked meals.
- The average cost of a vegetarian meal increased 11% from June to July to touch ₹32.6, as per Crisil’s estimates, while a non-vegetarian plate cost increased 6% to ₹61.4, the highest level since September 2023.
