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A new Parliament building awaits as the Monsoon Session was announced on Saturday, from July 20 to August 11. However, with both the ruling BJP and Opposition parties in election mode, and continuing Manipur violence expected to prominently feature in the House, the Session is expected to be as turbulent as the past few ones have been.
While the government is set to bring crucial Bills, including the legislation to replace its ordinance that took away substantial powers from the Delhi government, the Congress is upbeat after the Karnataka poll win and will want to press its advantage ahead of the Assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh.
BJP will use the House floor to highlight Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s successful foreign visits abroad, the infrastructure push under his government, and its initiatives to contain inflation.
Among the legislation expected in the short Session — likely to have a total of 17 working days — are the much-awaited Digital Personal Data Protection Bill and the Forest Conservation (Amendment) Bill, besides the Bill to replace the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Ordinance.
Govt. & Politics
PM: Every farmer gets annual benefit of Rs. 500000 this is Modi guarantee (Page no. 8)
(GS Paper 2, Governance)
Saying that his government’s annual spend on the agriculture sector and farmers is over Rs 6.5 lakh crore, Prime Minister Narendra Modi that each farmer is ensured a benefit of about Rs 50,000 every year.
Addressing the inaugural session of the 17th Indian Cooperative Congress, Modi said that before 2014, small and medium farmers were deprived of government benefits.
Farmers used to say that they got very little aid from the government. And whatever little aid was available used to go into the accounts of middlemen. Small and medium farmers remained deprived of the benefits of government schemes,” he said.
This situation has changed in the last nine years. Today, crores of small farmers are getting the PM Kisan Samman Nidhi. No more middlemen, no bogus beneficiaries.
In the last four years, Rs 2.5 lakh crore has been transferred directly in the bank accounts of farmers. In contrast, the total agriculture budget of five years before 2014 was less than Rs 90,000 crore.
New Parliament building: In phase 2 of art project focus on India traditions and freedom movement (Page no. 8)
(GS Paper 2, Governance)
The new Parliament building houses an extensive collection of around 5,000 artworks, but, just over a month into its inauguration, plans are already afoot for the next phase of the art project, which will focus on the freedom movement and Indian traditions.
While the concept and proposal are ready, the execution may take another year, The Indian Express has learnt. The next phase will include around eight new galleries — split equally between the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha Foyers — besides artwork to adorn the dining halls.
The first floor will also have two galleries — one on the role of women in the nation’s development and another one showcasing the role of tribal leaders in the freedom movement.
The first floor will also have two galleries — one on the role of women in the nation’s development and another one showcasing the role of tribal leaders in the freedom movement.
The Rajya Sabha Foyer will have two new galleries on the upper ground floor (on India’s knowledge and Bhakti traditions) and two on the first floor (on the Indian connection with nature and traditional sports). The other walls of the building will be decorated with shlokas and other sacred symbols.
Opinion
Discovering democracy in America (Page no. 11)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
Althing, 48 km East of Reykjavik, Iceland, is believed to be the seat of the oldest Parliament in the world (c. 930). Iceland is rich, but humble, and is a democratic country. Not all countries with a parliament are democracies. Examples of this kind are well known.
India has a parliament but there are, increasingly, questions whether India is truly a democracy. It was therefore reassuring to hear the Honourable Prime Minister declare on his recent visit to the United States that India “is a democracy”.
He uttered the word ‘democracy’ 14 times in his address to the joint session of the US Congress. News reports say that he ‘pushed back’ at a question on minority rights and free speech from a reporter at the White House.
Ms Sabrina Siddique, WSJ reporter, was lucky that she was allowed to ask a question — a privilege that has been denied to journalists in India during the last nine years. The prime minister’s answer (as translated) was surprisingly long and detailed:
There are 203 million Muslims (14.2 per cent of the population), 33 million Christians (2.3 per cent), 24 million Sikhs (1.7 per cent) and other minorities in India. Are they discriminated against is a question that must be put to them.
World
Sri Lanka's Parliament approves plan to restructure domestic debt (Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
Sri Lanka’s parliament approved a domestic debt restructuring plan on Saturday that is crucial to continue a $2.9 billion bailout from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
The plan passed with a majority of 122 votes in the 225-member parliament. Sri Lanka tumbled into its worst financial crisis in more than seven decades last year after the country’s dollar reserves shrank to record lows, triggering mass protests, a foreign debt default and the resignation of its former president.
To put its debt on a sustainable footing and pass an IMF review, Sri Lanka unveiled a much-anticipated domestic debt restructuring framework last Thursday that seeks to rework part of the island nation’s $42 billion domestic debt.
This debt restructuring plan is essential for Sri Lanka to meet the target set by the IMF agreement to reduce debt from the current 128% of GDP to 95% of GDP by 2023”.
Opposition parties called for more transparency in implementing the plan and stronger protection for pension fund holders.
This restructuring will disproportionately affect pensioners and that is an extremely unfair move by the government. The island’s economy improved it secured the$2.9 billion bailout from the IMF in March, which helped tame inflation, improve dollar inflows and appreciate its currency.
Sri Lanka is asking international bondholders to take a 30% haircut and is seeking similar concessions from investors in its domestic dollar-denominated notes.
Implementing the domestic debt plan is also crucial to push forward negotiations with bondholders and key bilateral creditors China, Japan and India.
Economy
GST helped increase revenue buoyance of states, says FM (Page no. 13)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
The Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime has reduced the tax burden on consumers with a lower tax incidence on many common use items and has increased revenue buoyancy for states and Centre.
Stating that the all-round benefits of the indirect tax regime are “exemplary”, she said GST revenue buoyancy for states has improved to 1.22 after its implementation from 0.72 before the rollout of GST.
GST has brought in greater tax buoyancy as a result of which, more than your GSDP growth, your tax collection is growing. Therefore, both Centre and states benefit. We have to dispel this myth that states are losing out after having joined hands for GST…Today, no state suffers after GST, and that is despite Covid.
The multiplicity of taxes in the pre-GST regime resulted in a “tax-on-tax” effect, causing the same product to be taxed multiple times and hence becoming costlier for the consumers.
Giving a comparison of the tax rates pre- and post-GST, Sitharaman said, “GST has done justice to the consumers by bringing the rates down compared to the previous regime”.
Why RBI penalised credit info companies and what borrowers should do now (Page no. 13)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI), earlier this week, slapped a total penalty of over Rs one crore on four credit information companies (CICs) for their failure to update credit information of borrowers which leads to big problems for bank customers while applying for banking services like loans and credit cards.
The central bank slapped a monetary penalty of Rs 26 lakh on TransUnion CIBIL Ltd, Rs 24.75 lakh on Experian Credit Information Company of India Pvt Ltd, Rs 24.25 lakh on Equifax Credit Information Services and Rs 25.75 lakh on CRIF High Mark Credit Information Services for non-compliance with certain provisions of the act and rules governing credit information companies.
The RBI conducted statutory inspection of these four companies for the financial position as on March 31, 2021 and examination of the inspection report, supervisory letter and all related correspondence pertaining to the same revealed that certain data relating to the credit information, especially updating credit information, maintained by the companies was not accurate and complete.
The RBI issued notices to these companies advising it to show cause as to why penalty should not be imposed for its failure to comply with the provisions of the CIC (R) Act read with CIC Rules.
The RBI came to the conclusion that the charge of non-compliance with various provisions were substantiated and warranted imposition of monetary penalty on the company.