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The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) directed banks and other lenders, including non-banking financial companies (NBFCs), housing finance companies and cooperative banks, to release all original movable or immovable property documents within 30 days of full repayment or settlement of personal loans by borrowers.
In case of delay, the lenders will have to compensate the borrowers by paying Rs 5,000 for each day of delay, the RBI said. The directions, released as part of responsible lending conduct, will be applicable to all cases where release of original property documents is due on or after December 1 this year.
Personal loans refer to loans given to individuals and include consumer credit, education loan, loans given for creation or enhancement of immovable assets (such as housing), and loans given for investment in financial assets like shares and debentures. The new directives will be applicable to all these loan categories.
The REs (regulated entities) shall release all the original movable or immovable property documents and remove charges registered with any registry within a period of 30 days after full repayment or settlement of the loan account.
In case where the delay is attributable to the RE, it shall compensate the borrower at the rate of Rs 5,000 for each day of delay, adding that the lender will have to communicate to the borrower the reasons for such delay.
IAF takes delivery of first C295 transport aircraft, 15 more from Spain i next 2 years (Page no. 1)
(GS Paper 3, Defence)
The Indian Air Force (IAF) received delivery of the first of the 56 C295 aircraft which are set to replace its ageing Avro-748 fleet.
Airbus Defence and Space said that the C295, in transport configuration and with an indigenous electronic warfare suite, will leave the Airbus production site in Seville, Spain, for Delhi in the next few days, piloted by a joint IAF-Airbus crew.
In September 2021, India formalised the acquisition of 56 Airbus C295 aircraft to replace the legacy Avro fleet of the IAF at a cost of Rs 21,935 crore.
The first 16 C295s of the 56 aircraft on order will be assembled at the San Pablo Sur site in Seville, with the second aircraft due to be delivered in May 2024 and the next 14 rolled out at a rate of one per month until August 2025.
Exports demand low, farmers call for lifting of curbs on basmati (Page no. 1)
(GS Paper 3, Environment)
The 56-year-old’s question relates to a department of commerce directive, on August 25, practically banning basmati rice exports priced at less than $1,200 per tonne.
APEDA (Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority) has been told to limit the issue of registration-cum-allocation certificate, mandatory for every transaction, only to shipments contracted above the floor price.
They are all ready for harvesting now or in the next couple of weeks. If there is not much demand from exporters, who else would buy our produce. Not many farmers can afford to hold back their crop till demand returns.
They need money to buy inputs for the next season, repay existing crop loans and also meet immediate household expenditures.
As per the August 25 directive, the $1,200/tonne floor price restriction for exports is to “remain effective till 15.10.2023 and the situation reviewed in the first week of October 2023”.
But that period, from mid-September to mid-October, is the peak marketing season for the 90-100 days’ basmati varieties.
The maturity time is more, at 115-125 days, for other improved Indian Agricultural Research Institute-bred Pusa varieties such as 1121 and 1401.
Express Network
One nation, One election: First meet of Kovind led panel likely next week (Page no. 6)
(GS Paper 2, Governance)
The first official meeting of the newly formulated committee on ‘one nation, one election’, to be chaired by former President Ram Nath Kovind, will most likely be held next week. Sources said all members are being asked about their availability so that a suitable date and time can be fixed.
On September 2, the government had named an eight-member high-level committee headed by Kovind to “examine and make recommendations for holding simultaneous elections” to Lok Sabha, state Assemblies, municipalities and panchayats.
It is likely that, sources say, the meeting will be held to coincide with the Special Session, when all ministers are already in New Delhi to attend the Parliament proceedings.
The panel, among others, has Union Home Minister Amit Shah, and MoS Arjun Meghwal as its members. The duo had met Kovind on September 6, days after the government notified the panel. They had described the nearly hour-long meeting as a “courtesy call”.
Congress MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, the lone Opposition voice in the panel, had declined to be a part of the exercise. When contacted about Chowdhury’s exit and whether there is a thought to replace him with another Opposition leader, Meghwal said, “It’s an election reform and should not be politicised. He (Chowdhury) must be having some political compulsion that he had to recuse himself from the panel.”
The minister of state for law and justice, whose department is the nodal department on the panel, is a special invitee, while the law secretary has been named as the secretary to the committee.
Meghwal said that they are in touch with members regarding their consent and availability for the first official meeting.
Govt & Politics
Women should get more representation in Politics (Page no. 7)
(GS Paper 2, Governance)
Amid opposition speculation that the women’s reservation Bill could be on the agenda of the special session of Parliament next week, President Droupadi Murmu pushed for increased representation of women in the Assembly.
Inaugurating the ‘National e-Vidhan Application’ (NeVA), Murmu, in her address to the Gujarat Assembly, also called for more representation of women in politics in general.
Today, women are performing excellently in every field, be it science and technology, defence or sports. Their representation in politics should also increase.
I visit educational institutions across the country and meet girl students. I have seen an eagerness in their eyes to do something for the country and society. If they get the right opportunity, they can also contribute in nation building, while standing shoulder to shoulder with men. Participation of half of the total population is very important for the overall development of the country.
Praising Gujarat for taking several initiatives in various sectors like education, power, health, water, infrastructure and manufacturing, Murmu said the inauguration of an “e-Assembly” was an important step towards transforming it into a “digital House”.
She said that through NeVA, MLAs could learn and adopt the best practices of Parliament and other State Assemblies. She expressed confidence that the initiative, inspired by the goal of “one nation, one application”, would bring more speed and transparency in the functioning of the Gujarat Assembly.
Express Network
Lancet commission flags concern over increase in tuberculosis deaths (Page no. 8)
(GS Paper 2, International Organisation)
The world is not on course towards ending tuberculosis, a new Lancet Commission on TB has said, flagging concerns over the increase in TB deaths for the first time in 20 years.
According to the Commission’s review report slated for release on Thursday, there has been a deterioration in the rate of decline in TB mortality and two-thirds of tuberculosis deaths occurred in just eight countries, and over half occurred in India (33%), Indonesia (10%), and Nigeria (8%).
As per the Global TB report 2022, India reported 5.04 lakh deaths in 2021 as against 5.52 lakh in 2010. In 2017, however, the number of deaths reported were 4.62 lakh.
While the Covid pandemic had an impact on the ability of global health systems to prevent, screen and treat TB, the report estimated that one-third of people were undiagnosed and untreated in 2022.
Progress towards ending tuberculosis has been minimal in some countries and substantial in others. Especially for the highest burden countries, the biggest challenge to ending tuberculosis has been insufficient case finding and diagnosis,”
The report comes at a time when a United Nations High Level Meeting on TB will be held on September 22 and makes a strong case for focusing on a new menu of tools that according to Dr Eric Goosby, Commission co-Chair, UCSF Professor of Medicine and former UN Special Envoy on Tuberculosis, `has the potential to revolutionise TB prevention, diagnosis and treatment.
Explained
Nipah cases reported in Kerala: What makes this virus deadly (Page no. 9)
(GS Paper 2, Health)
Cases of Nipah infection have been found in Kerala again, after two people were confirmed to have died of the viral disease in Kozhikode district.
Two others, aged nine and 24, are under treatment. They are family members of the first victim, who died on August 30.
Kerala health Minister Veena George held a high-level meeting to review the situation in Kozhikode. Union Health minister Mansukh Mandaviya said a central team of experts has been sent to the state.
While the Nipah virus does not spread as quickly as the Covid-19 virus, it is more deadly. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the overall global case fatality rate of Nipah is estimated at 40% to 75%.
Nipah is a zoonotic disease, which means it is transmitted to humans through infected animals or contaminated food. It can also be transmitted directly from person to person through close contact with an infected person, the WHO says.
Its symptoms, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), fever, headache, cough, sore throat, difficulty in breathing, and vomiting.
Operation Polo (Page no. 9)
(GS Paper 2, Governance)
Wednesday marks the 75th anniversary of Operation Polo, the military action launched by the Indian Army on September 13, 1948, to integrate the princely state of Hyderabad.
The Nizam of Hyderabad was dithering on joining India ever since Independence on August 15, 1947. The military offensive in Hyderabad state was termed as ‘Police Action’ at the time by the then home minister Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and the Nizam’s forces surrendered to the Indian Army by September 18.
The Nizam of Hyderabad state, Mir Osman Ali Shah, had the intention of keeping his state as an independent entity and did not join India or Pakistan after Independence.
The Nizam took advantage of the fact that the Indian government got preoccupied with the Kashmir war soon after Independence and all focus and resources were diverted toward tackling the Pakistani threat to Jammu and Kashmir.
The Nizam signed a standstill agreement with India in November 1947. This essentially meant that a status quo would be maintained between the Indian dominion and the Hyderabad state till a solution was found to the imbroglio.
The agreement was signed for a period of one year during which the Indian government would not exercise any authority over Hyderabad and all conditions prevalent at the time of signing the agreement would continue.
India’s supply chain opportunity (Page no. 9)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
Amid the efforts to cut dependence on China-centric global supply chains, countries such as Vietnam have grabbed the China+1 headlines more than India.
However, the announcement at the G20 Leaders’ Summit on the landmark India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC) has the potential to make India an Asian hub in global supply chains.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Washington DC in June showed that supply chains are at the centre of the latest chapter in India-United States relations.
Supply chains — variously described as global production networks, production fragmentation, or global value chains — refer to the geographical location of stages of production (such as design, production, assembly, marketing, and service activities) in a cost-effective manner.
Global supply chains have been the leading model of industrial production since the 1980s, influencing the pace and nature of globalisation and regionalisation.
The shift in industrial production from local and regional supply to global supply took place gradually over the last 100 years.
Global supply chains can be found in a wide range of simple (textiles and clothing, food processing and consumer goods, etc.) and complex industries (e.g., automotives, aircraft, machinery, electronics and pharmaceuticals).
Editorial
The new sharing (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 2, Governance)
The 122nd Constitutional Amendment of 2016 giving the Union and states concurrent powers of indirect taxation has been the most far-reaching change from a fiscal standpoint, since the setting up of the First Finance Commission in 1951.
The Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime, introduced in 2017, is based on a system of concurrency of indirect taxes, where every transaction attracts central as well as state GST.
The inter-state transactions, as well as imports, are levied an integrated GST. With this, a consumption-based taxation system has replaced a production-based one.
The collection of indirect taxes in the state where goods or services are consumed, and not in the state where they are produced, changes both the vertical as well as the horizontal dynamics of federalism.
Earlier, the central sales tax, an origin-based tax, effectively exported the tax burden from rich and manufacturing states to the consuming states, contributing to horizontal imbalances.
Now, the destination principle for cross-border trading ensures that the poorer, consuming states benefit at the cost of more affluent and industrialised ones.
The IGST, for instance, charged during the inter-state supply of goods or services has been transferred to the destination state.
This move from the principle of origin to the principle of destination is reconfiguring the balance of power amongst states.
Yet, the federal fiscal transfer system continues to be designed for, and is based on, the principles of jurisdictional separation that is germane to the origin-based tax era. Its distributional criteria is also based on the earlier regime.
The disconnect between the operational tax regime and the principles and criteria of tax sharing is inimical to the fiscal federal system and can create fault lines in the political economy of federalism.
Ideas Page
One big fat election (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 2, Governance)
Politicians may sometimes act, or seem to act, for honourable reasons. While that is an intriguing phenomenon, what interests me is the fact that their political rivals invariably accuse them of acting “from political motives.”
And, just as routinely, this is strenuously denied by the original, “honourable”, politicians. This is, prima facie, puzzling.
They are, after all, professional politicians — what other motives could they conceivably, credibly, have? What this reveals is, of course, the deep-seated suspicion of, and even revulsion with, all politics and politicians in the minds of the people at large — politicians, themselves, not excluded.
One Nation One Election (ONOE) seeks to weaponise this suspicion and revulsion by minimising the daily practice of democracy, the jostling and the clamour of the democratic marketplace, to one quinquennial electoral extravaganza, one gigantic pan-Indian “road show.” This is a fact that we can only contemplate with fear in our hearts.
There is a long, and even honourable, history of dissatisfaction with democratic politics. In any case, the institution of full adult franchise-based democracy in a largely illiterate country, steeped in feudal and caste-based social practices, was always a huge gamble.
Our own neighbourhood has sprouted “benign” dictators and generals who masquerade as saviours of the people. General Ayub Khan introduced what he chose to call “basic democracy” in Pakistan.
Our ONOE aspires to some form of “limited democracy.” Still, it addresses a real dissatisfaction, and one must take that on board.
Economy
Govt approves Rs 1650 cr for 75 lakh new PMUY connections over 3 years (Page no. 17)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved the expansion of the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) in order to add 75 lakh poor households to the scheme’s beneficiary base over three years at an estimated cost of Rs 1,650 crore.
The nod to PMUY expansion and the scheme of release of grant to public sector oil marketing companies (OMCs) for the same follows the government’s August 29 announcement of slashing cooking gas prices for all domestic consumers by Rs 200 per cylinder and expanding the beneficiary base of PMUY to 10.35 crore from 9.60 crore at present.
The price cut and expansion of PMUY, which came ahead of Assembly elections in five states later this year and the Lok Sabha elections next year, was described by the government as its gift to the people on the occasion of Raksha Bandhan and Onam.
The Rs 1,650 crore estimate only for the cost of connection to the new 75 lakh beneficiaries of PMUY over 2023-24, 2024-25, and 2025-26, and does not include the targeted subsidy of Rs 200 per 14.2-kg cooking gas cylinder for up to 12 refills per year.
Under PMUY, cooking gas connections are issued to women members of poor households, and the connection, stove, and the first cylinder are given free of charge.
The per-cylinder subsidy of Rs 200, which beneficiaries get as a bank transfer from the OMCs, is also borne by the government as the OMCs are reimbursed for it.
Govt’s car battery recycling project gets traction as top EV maker sign up (Page no. 17)
(GS Paper 3, Environment)
At least 59 electric vehicle (EV) makers that use lithium-ion batteries like MG Motor, Ola Electric, Ather Energy, Tata Motors, and Mahindra & Mahindra have registered for recycling battery waste on an online portal operationalised by India’s apex pollution control authority earlier this year.
Producers registering on the portal are granted a five-year certificate as part of a mandated process to facilitate the proper management of battery waste.
Other big manufacturers to register on the platform include producers of hybrid electric vehicles like Toyota Kirloskar and players such as Yamaha Motor, which is planning to launch EVs, alongside 16 recyclers, including lithium-ion recyclers like NCR-based BATX Energies and Prithvi Cleantech, and Mumbai-based LICO.
As per Battery Waste Management Rules (BWMR) 2022, producers of batteries containing lithium, nickel, cobalt, and lead must ensure environmentally sound management of waste batteries produced by them in the form of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) compliance.
EPR compliance is based on the polluter pays principle which puts the onus of management of waste generated by used products on the producer.
The European Union also requires producers in member countries to collect battery waste and recover a minimum of 50 per cent lithium from end-of-life batteries by 2027, in its efforts to promote a circular economy. In India too, EPR compliance has been mandatory for the recycling of plastic packaging waste.
BWMR allows producers to either recycle battery waste themselves or provide it to recyclers registered with relevant state pollution control boards in exchange for EPR certificates.
Global debt fell as share of GDP in 2022: IMF (Page no. 17)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
The International Monetary Fund on Wednesday said that the global debt as a share of economic output fell significantly in 2022 for the second year in a row, but the decline may be ending as a post-Covid growth surge fades.
The IMF said in an update to its Global Debt Database that the world's total debt to-GDP ratio fell last year to 238 per cent from 248 per cent in 2021 and 258 per cent in 2020.
But the decline for the past two years, driven by strong growth and stronger-than-expected inflation, has recouped only about two thirds of the Covid-induced spike in global debt. The ratio remains well above the 2019 level of 238 per cent of GDP.
China has played a central role in increasing global debt in recent decades as borrowing outpaced economic growth, and its debt burden has defied the moderating trend, growing to 272 per cent of GDP in 2022 from 265 per cent in 2021.
Those levels are similar to the United States, which saw its total debt-to-GDP ratio fall to 274 per cent in 2022 from 284 per cent in 2021, according to the IMF report.
The world has been on a debt "rollercoaster" for three years, but debt is likely to rise again over the medium-term, and the IMF urged governments to adopt strategies to help reduce debt vulnerabilities -- both in public debt, household debt and non-financial corporate debt.
World
Beijing appoints envoy in Kabul first in 2yrs since Taliban takeover
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
A new Chinese ambassador presented his credentials to the Taliban's prime minister in Kabul, Afghan officials said, adding it was the first appointment of a foreign envoy at the ambassadorial level since the Taliban took power in 2021.
The Taliban have not been officially recognised by any foreign government. It was not immediately clear if Wednesday's appointment signalled any steps by Beijing towards formal recognition of the Taliban.
China's foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment. "Mohammad Hassan Akhund, the Prime Minister of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, accepted the credentials of Mr Zhao Xing, the new Chinese ambassador to Afghanistan, during a ceremony," said the Taliban administration's deputy spokesman, Bilal Karimi, in a statement.
A Taliban administration foreign ministry spokesman confirmed he was the first ambassador appointed since August 2021 when the Taliban took over as foreign forces withdrew.
China's previous ambassador to Afghanistan, Wang Yu, took up the role in 2019 and ended his tenure last month.
Other nations and international delegations, such as Pakistan and the European Union, have sent senior diplomats to lead diplomatic missions in Kabul but they have taken on a 'chargee d'affaires' title, usually meaning they are responsible for ambassadorial duties but do not formally hold the role of ambassador.