Topics
- POSTPONEMENT OF CAFÉ REGULATIONS
- INDIA DOWNGRADED ITS STATUS IN FREEDOM IN THE WORLD 2021 REPORT
- 17 COUNTRIES ALONG WITH INDIA FACE U.S. ANTI-DUMPING TAX
- WORLD HEARING DAY
Postponement of BS CAFÉ regulations
Context: Recently, Carmakers from the Society of India Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) requested Ministry for Road Transport to postpone implementation of BS VI CAFÉ Phase II regulations.
- The request for postponement is that the industry is still recovering from the impact of COVID.
- CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel Efficiency) regulations are similar norms to BS VI.
- CAFÉ regulations are in force in many advanced as well as developing nations, including India.
- In India, CAFE regulations were first mooted in 2017 by the Union Ministry of Power (MoP) under Energy Conservation Act, 2001.
- The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) is the nodal agency responsible for monitoring and reporting a summary of annual fuel consumption by automobile manufacturers at the end of each fiscal year.
CAFE | BS 6 |
Mainly focus on COx emissions | Focuses on overall emissions such as SOx,NOx |
Focuses to improve fuel efficiency of vehicles and reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions | Focuses more on reducing harmful exhaust gases from the tailpipe of new vehicles |
- The‘corporate average’refers to sales-volume weighted average for every carmaker
- under CAFE, average corporate CO2 emission must be less than 130gm/km till 2022 and below 113gm/km thereafter.
- The norms are applicable for petrol, diesel, Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) and Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) passenger vehicles.
Significance
- The reduced carbon footprint leads to increased fuel economy.
- The idea of CAFÉ is to push manufacturers to achieve fuel efficiency targets by producing and selling more fuel-efficient models, including electric vehicles
- Serve the twin purposes of reducing dependence on oil for fuel and controlling pollution as They aim at
- lowering fuel consumption (or improving fuel efficiency) of vehicles by lowering Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions
India downgraded its status in Freedom in the World 2021 Report
Context:Recently, The Freedom in the World 2021 report has downgraded India’s status from ‘Free’ to ‘Partly Free’.
- In 2020 India ranked at the 83rd position along with Timor-Leste and Senegal
- India’s score was 67, a drop from 71/100 from last year (reflecting 2019 data) downgrading it from the free category last year (based on 2020 data).
Key Findings
- The decline in global democracy over the last 15 years can be seen as nearly 75% of the world’s population lived in a country that faced deterioration over the last year
- Finland, Norway and Sweden scored 100 and were the most free countries
- least free with a score of 1 are Tibet and Syria
- The U.S. dropped three points over one year, down to 83/100.
- China, classified as ‘not free’, dropped a point from last year going down to 9/100.
Published by
- USA based human rights watchdog Freedom House
- It is largely funded through USA government grants
- It has been tracking the course of democracy since 1941.
Based on
- Political rights indicators such as the electoral process, political pluralism and participation and government functioning.
- Civil liberties indicators related to freedom of expression and belief, associational and organizational rights, the rule of law and personal autonomy and individual rights.
- Countries are declared as “free”, “partly free” or “not free”.
Analysis on India’s downfall
- Uttar Pradesh’s law prohibiting forced religious conversion through interfaith marriage
- Regarding CAA – government actions on protesters
- journalists arrest who criticized official’s pandemic response
- elevating Hindu nationalist interests and creating anti Muslims feeling – for example The ruling Hindu nationalist movement also encouraged the scapegoating of Muslims, who were disproportionately blamed for the spread of the virus.
- shut down of Internet connectivity in Kashmir as well as on Delhi’s borders
- dangerous and unplanned displacement of millions of internal migrant workers because of lockdown
17 countries along with India face U.S. anti-dumping tax
Context:The U.S. Department of Commerce is preparing to tax aluminium sheet exporters from 18 countries after determining that they had benefited from subsidies and dumping.
- The US International Trade Commission (ITC), an independent body, must approve the final decision by April 15 to impose anti-dumping or countervailing duties.
Harmed by competing imports
- The investigation, launched under the Donald Trump administration, had been requested by nearly a dozen U.S. aluminium alloy manufacturers, including Arconic and Aleris Rolled products, which felt they were being harmed by competing imports at lower prices.
- President Joe Biden‟s administration determined that imports from Germany in particular ($287 million in 2019) benefited from dumping, ranging from 40% to 242%.
- The same is true for aluminium alloy sheets from Bahrain ($241 million), which the administration said benefited from pricing below the cost of production or the local market of 83%.
Anti-dumping Duty
- In international trade practise, dumping happens when a country or a firm exports an item at a price lower than the price of that product in its domestic market.
- Dumping impacts the price of that product in the importing country, hitting margins and profits of local manufacturing firms.
- Anti-dumping duty is imposed to rectify the situation arising out of the dumping of goods and its trade distortive effect.
- Anti-dumping duty is different from countervailing duty. The latter is imposed in order to counter the negative impact of import subsidies to protect domestic producers
WORLD HEARING DAY
Context:World Hearing Day is held on 3 March each year
- It aims to raise awareness on how to prevent deafness and hearing loss and promote ear and hearing care across the world.
- World Hearing Day 2021 will mark the launch of the first-ever World Report on Hearing (WRH).
- Theme for 2021: Hearing Care for ALL! Screen, Rehabilitate, Communicate
- The Report has been developed in response to the World Health Assembly resolution (WHA70.13), adopted in 2017 as a means of providing guidance for Member States to integrate ear and hearing care into their national health plans.
- The report proposes a set of key H.E.A.R.I.N.G. interventions that must be delivered through a strengthened health system to realize the vision of ‘Integrated people-centered ear and hearing care’ (IPC-EHC).
Indian scenario
- According to WHO 2018 report the disabling hearing loss affected 2.9% of the population and was noted to effect communication, education and work.
- The prevalence of total hearing loss, unilateral &bilateral was found to be as high as 9.93%.
- National Programme for Prevention and Control of Deafness will target over 6% of India’s population with Disabling Hearing Loss. The program was launched in 2006.