Current Affairs for UPSC, UPPSC, UPSSSC 2021

1. Current Affairs

2. Local sales by SEZ units without import tag
Reference News-
The government is considering a proposal to allow producers in Special Economic Zones (SEZs) to sell
their output to the domestic market without treating them as imports. It is also reviewing the
exclusion of export-oriented units (EOUs) and SEZs from the recently notified tax refund scheme for
exports.
• It was also emphasized recently that despite the rise in freight rates and input costs, SEZ and
EOU units had not been given benefits under the Remission of Taxes and Duties on Export
Products (RoDTEP) scheme.
What is the RoDTEP Scheme?
• The Remission of Duties and Taxes on Exported Products (RoDTEP) Scheme was announced in
2019 by the Government of India and it became effective on 1 January 2021.
• It allows exporters to receive refunds on taxes and duties that are not exempted or refunded
under any other scheme.
• Aim: To boost the export of goods that was poor in volume.
• It replaces the Merchandise Export from India Scheme (MEIS).
• It is a combination of the MEIS and the Rebate of State and Central Taxes and Levies (RoSCTL).
• Under this scheme, refund would be claimed as a percentage of the Freight On board (FOB)
value of exports.
What are Special Economic Zones (SEZ)?
• It is a specifically delineated duty-free enclave, deemed to be foreign territory for the purposes
of trade operations and duties and tariffs.
• Goods and services going into the SEZ area from Domestic Tariff Area (whole India except SEZ)
shall be treated as exports and goods coming from the SEZ area into DTA shall be treated as
imports.
• SEZ units may be set up for manufacture of goods and rendering of services.
• The business and trade laws are different from the rest of the country.
• SEZs are located within a country’s national borders.
• Their aims include increasing trade balance, employment, increased investment, job creation
and effective administration
• The present rule governing SEZ units is that SEZ units may import/procure goods and services
from DTA without payment of import duty. But when SEZs are selling goods into DTA then
Import/Customs Duty is imposed.

3. Cairn Energy to end tax dispute with India
Reference news
The U.K.-based Cairn Energy is working with the Government of India to expedite “documentation and
payment of refund” of $1.06 billion of retrospective taxes.
• In its half-yearly report, Cairn said it plans to return $700 million to the shareholders through
special dividends and buybacks, out of the expected tax refund from the Indian government.
Recent Amendment to I-T laws by the Indian government
• The government recently amended the income tax laws to scrap the retrospective tax
provisions introduced in 2012-13, under which Cairn was taxed in 2014 for a corporate
restructuring undertaken in 2006-07.
• The tax department subsequently froze the firm’s shares as part of the proceedings and sold
them off to recover the claimed tax dues.
• The changes propose to refund the taxes levied retrospectively if the affected taxpayers drop all
pending litigation and forego any interest and damages claims.
Tribunal verdict
• An international arbitration tribunal, scrutinizing the tax dispute, last year ruled in Cairn’s
favour and awarded $1.2 billion in damages to the company. While the government has filed an
appeal against the verdict, Cairn has filed lawsuits in several overseas jurisdictions to enforce
the tribunal’s award.
Background
• The year in reference, 2006-07, was one in which big corporate changes and developments took
place in Cairn Energy.
• It was the year in which it not only undertook a corporate re-organisation, but also floated an
Indian subsidiary, Cairn India, which in early 2007 got listed on the Indian bourses.
• Through the corporate re-organisation process, Cairn Energy had transferred all of its India
assets, which were until then held by nine subsidiaries in various countries, to the newly-formed
Cairn India.
• But the tax authorities claimed that in the process of this re-organisation, Cairn Energy had
made capital gains worth ₹24,500 crore. This, the department asserted, was the basis of the tax
demand of 1.6 billion USD.
• In 2011, the U.K.-based Vedanta Resources bought a nearly 60% stake in Cairn India. In fact,
four years after this, Cairn India received a tax notice for not withholding tax for the gains
ascribed to its former parent company.

4. CSCs and Passport Services
Reference News:
The Common Services Centres (CSC) has received approvals to manage and operate Passport Seva
Kendra kiosks in rural areas.
Key takeaways
• The village-level entrepreneurs (VLEs), who operate the CSCs, will be entrusted with collecting
documents, photographs and other details necessary for the passport process as well as the
initial non-police verification.
• A nominal fee of up to Rs 100 could be charged for the same.
• The pilot for the programme was launched at a few CSCs in Haryana and Uttar Pradesh.
• Full-fledged services will be rolled out nationwide soon
What is CSC?
• The CSC is a special purpose vehicle of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology
(MeitY).
• CSCs are physical facilities for delivering Government of India e-Services to rural and remote
locations where availability of computers and Internet was negligible or mostly absent.
• They are multiple-services-single-point models for providing facilities for multiple transactions
at a single geographical location.
Current function of CSCs
o At present, CSCs are allowed only to fill and upload application forms for others, pay an
applicable fee on an applicant’s behalf, and schedule an appointment for them.
• It has over the past three years tied up with partners, both in the public and private sector,
across domains by leveraging their presence across the country.
• They have done tie-ups with domestic and multinational corporations as well such as Tata,
PepsiCo, Unibic foods, etc.
• During lockdown, VLEs also opened up Grameen e-store for easy delivery of essential and non-
essential items in villages, gram panchayats and other rural areas.

5. Impact of climate change on El Niño-Southern Oscillation
Reference News-
There is a growing body of research suggesting that climate change can cause extreme and more
frequent El Niño and La Niña events.
• A study was conducted recently on this using one of South Korea’s fastest supercomputers,
Findings of the latest study:
1. Increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide can cause a “weakening of future simulated ENSO sea
surface temperature variability.”
2. Future El Niño events will lose heat to the atmosphere more quickly due to the evaporation of
water vapour.
3. In the future there will be a reduced temperature difference between the eastern and western
tropical Pacific, inhibiting the development of temperature extremes during the ENSO cycle.
4. Also, there can be a weakening of tropical instability waves in the projected future, which can
cause a disruption of the La Niña event.
What are the Niño and La Niña?
They are two natural climate phenomena
occurring across the tropical Pacific Ocean
and influence the weather conditions all
over the world.
• While the El Niño period is
characterised by warming or
increased sea surface temperatures
in the central and eastern tropical
Pacific Ocean, a La Niña event
causes the water in the eastern Pacific Ocean to be colder than usual.
• Together, they are called ENSO or El Niño-Southern Oscillation.

6. Right to Sit to be mandated in Tamil Nadu:
Reference News
The Tamil Nadu government has tabled a Bill in the Legislative Assembly making it mandatory for
establishments to provide seating facilities for employees. It is popularly being called the “Right to
Sit”.
Right to Sit:
• It is aimed to benefit thousands of employees of large and small establishments, particularly
those working in textile and jewelry showrooms.
• The bill mandates for every premises of establishments to have suitable seating arrangements
for all employees so that they may take advantage of any opportunity to sit in the course of
their work.
• The bill seeks to amend the Tamil Nadu Shops and Establishments Act, 1947, by adding a sub-
section.
Need for:
• Persons employed in shops and establishments in the State are made to stand throughout their
duty time resulting in varied health issues.
• Most owners of shops and other retail outlets forbid women, the bulk of the shop workforce, to
sit. Even leaning against a wall was punished. They had developed varicose veins and joint pain
from standing.
Right to Sit would avoid the ‘on their toes’ situation throughout the working hours.
Inspired from Kerala:
A few years ago, workers of textile showrooms in Kerala had gone on a protest demanding the ‘Right
to Sit’, prompting the government there to amend the Kerala Shops and Establishments Act in
2018. This in turn provided seating arrangements for them.
Daily Topic
World Air Quality Report 2020
Why in News
The World Air Quality Report, prepared by Swiss organisation IQAir, mentions that 22 of the top 30
most polluted cities globally are in India.
 The Report aggregated PM2.5 data from 106 countries.
Key Points
 World Capital City Ranking:
o Delhi has been ranked as the world's most polluted capital city followed by Dhaka
(Bangladesh), Ulaanbaatar (Mongolia), Kabul (Afghanistan), Doha (Qatar).
 World Country Ranking:

7. o Bangladesh has been ranked as the most polluted country followed by Pakistan and India.
o The least polluted country is Puerto Rico, followed by New Caledonia, US Virgin
Islands respectively.
 World City Ranking:
o Hotan in China is the most polluted city with an average concentration of 110.2 µg/m³ followed
by Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh at 106.
 Indian Scenario:
o Shows a boost in Delhi’s air quality by approximately 15% from 2019 to 2020.
• Delhi has been listed as the 10th
most polluted city and the top polluted capital city in the
world.
o Ghaziabad is the second most polluted city in the world followed by Bulandshahar, Bisrakh
Jalalpur, Bhiwadi, Noida, Greater Noida, Kanpur and Lucknow.
o Compared to north Indian cities, the cities in the Deccan recorded relatively better air
quality, remaining above the daily WHO limits of 25 µg/m3 for most part of 2020.
• However, every city in India observed air quality improvements compared to 2018 and
earlier, while 63% saw direct improvements against 2019.
o Major sources of India’s air pollution include transportation, biomass burning for cooking,
electricity generation, industry, construction, waste burning, and episodic agricultural burning.
• 2020 was a particularly severe year for agricultural burning in which farmers set fire to
crop residue after a harvest. Farm fires in Punjab increased 46.5% over 2019.
 Covid and Its Impact :
o In 2020, the spread of Covid-19 raised new concerns as exposure to particle pollution was
found to increase vulnerability to the virus and its impact on health.
o Early reports suggest that the proportion of Covid-19 deaths attributed to air pollution
exposure ranges from 7% to 33%.
Air Pollution in Delhi
 Air pollution in Delhi-NCR and the Indo Gangetic Plains is a complex phenomenon that is
dependent on a variety of factors.
 Change in Wind Direction:
o October usually marks the withdrawal of monsoons in Northwest India and during this time,
the predominant direction of winds is northwesterly.
o The direction of the wind is northwesterly in summers as well, which brings the dust from
northern Pakistan and Afghanistan.
 Reduced Wind Speed:
o High-speed winds are very effective at dispersing pollutants, but winters bring a dip in wind
speed overall as compared to in summers which makes the region prone to pollution.

8. o Also, Delhi lies in a landlocked region which does not have a geographical advantage that
eastern, western or southern parts of the country enjoy where the sea breeze disperses the
concentrated pollutants.
 Stubble Burning:
o Stubble burning in Punjab, Rajasthan and Haryana is blamed for causing a thick blanket of
smog in Delhi during winters.
• It emits large amounts of toxic pollutants in the atmosphere which contain harmful gases
like methane (CH4), carbon monoxide (CO), volatile organic compounds (VOC) and
carcinogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.
o Farm fires have been an easy way to get rid of paddy stubble quickly and at low cost for several
years.
 Vehicular Pollution:
o It is one of the biggest causes of dipping air quality in Delhi in winters and around 20%
of PM2.5 in winters comes from it.
 Dust Storms:
o Dust storms from Gulf countries enhance the already worse condition. Dry cold weather means
dust is prevalent in the entire region, which does not see many rainy days between October
and June.
o Dust pollution contributes to around 56% of PM10 and the PM2.5 load.
 Dip in Temperatures:
o As temperature dips, the inversion height is lowered and the concentration of pollutants in the
air increases when this happens.
• Inversion height is the layer beyond which pollutants cannot disperse into the upper layer
of the atmosphere.
 Firecrackers:
o Despite the ban on cracker sales, firecrackers are a common sight on Diwali. It may not be the
top reason for air pollution, but it definitely contributed to its build-up.
 Construction Activities and Open Waste Burning:
o Large-scale construction in Delhi-NCR is another culprit that is increasing dust and pollution in
the air. Delhi also has landfill sites for the dumping of waste and burning of waste in these sites
also contributes to air pollution.
Major Measures Taken
 Subsidy to farmers for buying Turbo Happy Seeder (THS) which is a machine mounted on a
tractor that cuts and uproots the stubble, in order to reduce stubble burning.
 The introduction of BS-VI vehicles, push for electric vehicles (EVs), Odd-Even as an emergency
measure and construction of the Eastern and Western Peripheral Expressways to reduce
vehicular pollution.

9.  Implementation of the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) to tackle the rising pollution in the
Capital. It includes measures like shutting down thermal power plants and a ban on
construction activities.
 Development of the National AQI for public information under the aegis of the Central Pollution
Control Board (CPCB). AQI has been developed for eight pollutants viz. PM2.5, PM10, Ammonia,
Lead, nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide, ozone, and carbon monoxide.
Way Forward
 Appropriate political will and aware citizenry is a prerequisite to tackle the menace, otherwise,
all the measures will remain on paper only and greater public transparency is essential to the
success of winning the war on air pollution.
 There is no better watchdog than active citizens, which is why the pollution targets must be
made public every year for their perusal and to be evaluated at the end of the year.
 Breathing clean air is a fundamental right of every Indian citizen. Therefore, human health must
become a priority when it comes to tackling air pollution.