1. Delhi Government launches Electric Vehicle Policy:-
- The Delhi government launched Electric Vehicle Policy that aims to boost the city’s economy, reduce pollution levels and generate employment in the transport sector.
- In the last five years, air pollution in the National Capital Region has reduced by 25%.
- The Government plans to reduce it further with the new policy
- The government aim is to ensure that increasing the EV usage up to 25% by the year 2024 from 0.2 %.( present).
- The government also offers low interest rates, waive off registration fees and road tax on new EV.
- It also aims to create 200charging stations in the next one year in Delhi.
- Under the EV Policy, the Delhi government also provides incentives and subsidies in addition to the incentives under the Centre’s Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Electric Vehicles in India (FAME).
- The Centre needs to take stronger measures to meet the goal of electric vehicles comprising 30% of auto sales by 2030.
- The corona virus crisis has hit the auto industry.
Centers Initiatives on EV:
- The government aims to see 6 million electric and hybrid vehicles on the roads by 2020 under the National Electric Mobility Mission Plan 2020.
- FAME scheme for improving electric mobility in India.
- The GST reduction for electric vehicles from 12% to 5%.
- The Union power ministry categorized charging of batteries as a service, which will help charging stations operate without licenses.
- Implementation of smart cities would also boost the growth of electric vehicles.
2. Minimum wage must be shaped by aim of enhancing incomes and consumption:-
India is facing a structural demand problem, that the jobs have been lost due to COVID-19 shock.
Boosting demand in domestic is important for an economic revival as external demand is muted.
India’s growth has been driven by demand generated by the top people in socio-economic pyramid, but now it has slowed.
Data from the Periodic Labor Force Survey (2018-19) :-
- Less than 10% workforce is engaged in regular formal jobs, earning a decent minimum wage.
- 14 % are engaged in regular informal jobs and report, earning slightly below a minimum wage.
- 50 % and 24 % workforce from self employed and casual workers respectively and earnings that are considerably below a decent minimum amount.
- Casual workers are at the bottom of the employment structure.
Ways to increase in demand:-
A significant share of India’s workforce is trapped in low paid informal work.
Those who are at the bottom of socio-economic pyramid turn them as consumer. In order to realize this we need to enhance their incomes. For that following steps need to be taken:-
- Structural economic changes are required to increase the incomes of low wage workers.
- The Code on Wages (2019) seeks to universalize minimum wages and extend them to the unorganized sector.
- The minimum wages should be raised for unorganized workforce.
- A large share of casual workers is engaged in agriculture and construction work by raising their minimum wages can enhance their earnings.
- At present, MGNREGA wages are not covered under the Minimum Wages Act. It needs to be modified.
3. India’s Global Hunger Index:-India ranked 102nd on the Global Hunger Index, despite high food production.
Nutritional security requires measures to improve protein and remove vitamin deficiencies.
Global Hunger Index (GHI) Report is prepared by the Concern Worldwide (an Irish agency) and the Welt Hunger Hilfe (a German organization)
The report is based on four GHI indicators namely:
- Undernourishment
- Child stunting.
- Child wasting.
- Child mortality.
India’s child wasting rate was extremely high at 20.8% – the highest
India’s rank has slipped from 95th position (in 2010) to 102nd (in 2019)
Child wasting:-Child wasting refers to the share of children under the age of five who are wasted i.e., they have low weight with respect to their height, reflecting acute under nutrition.
4. A lot of task of digitizing India:-
Recently released “Digital Light at the End of the COVID Tunnel for India” shows that digital technologies can create employment.
India is facing following challenges:-
- India was the worst performer on the “social distance readiness index” that show the poor digital preparedness to operate during a pandemic.
- Digitizing India has to tackle gender gaps. Only 21 per cent of women are mobile internet users, while the percentage for men is twice that number.
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- Add to that the many societal factors that make it difficult for women and girls to enjoy full digital freedoms.
- In rural India, where two-thirds of the country lives, just about a quarter of the population has internet access.
- Differences in digital access mean differences in the quality of education.
- Misusing of data in absence of data governance policy.
- India must be viewed in the geopolitical context. Present India is edging closer to the US corner in the tech Cold War between the US and China. This may discourage foreign investments.
They make the follow recommendations:-
- Digital preparedness:-Streamlining the regulations to enhancing the country’s digital and physical foundations
- Developing more progressive data accessibility laws.
- Government must invest in skill-building and education.
- Investor must work on closing the gender accessing digital gaps.
- Government should work on Data governance guidelines.
- In changing global order, Investors association with domestic player(jio) is better than foreign companies(Tik Tok).
5. Indian pangolin:-
Telangana Forest Department has exposed the poaching of pangolins in the forests of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.
Three to four kilograms of pangolin scales were seized for which three to five animals might have been killed.
Indian pangolin:
- Has thick scaly skin
- Hunted for meat and used in traditional Chinese medicine.
- Pangolins are among the most trafficked wildlife species in the world.
These species are listed under Schedule I Part I of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, IUCN Red List
6. Uttarakhand, Maharashtra had the highest leopard poaching in India:
- A recent study on the seizure and mortality of ‘common leopards’ by TRAFFIC India has revealed that 596 leopard deaths from 2015 to 2019 were linked to illegal wildlife trade and activities.
- The records indicated that 140 leopards were killed by poachers
- The paper titled ‘‘SPOTTED” also said that the highest numbers of poaching incidents were reported from the States of Uttarakhand and Maharashtra.
- Shrinking habitats: Leopards are threatened by habitat destruction and human-wildlife conflict.
- The conservation status of common leopards was elevated from ‘Near Threatened’ in 2008 to ‘Vulnerable’ in 2015 by the International Union of Conservation of Nature (IUCN).