Current Affairs 13th April 2018

Current Affairs 13th April 2018 - Important Points

• Cabinet delegates power to Finance and Oil Ministers to - Award oil and gas blocks
• India, Timor Leste sign MoU to expand cooperation in healthcare on - 11th April 2018
• ISRO successfully puts navigation satellite IRNSS-1I into orbit on - 12th April 2018
• New rehabilitation policy for slum dwellers approved by - Haryana Cabinet
• Reporting norms for Liberalised Remittance Scheme tightened by -  RBI
• Industrial production grows 7.1% in February 2018 by -  CSO

Current Affairs 13th April 2018 -  Details

Cabinet delegates power to Finance and Oil Ministers to - Award oil and gas blocks

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has deputized powers to Finance and Petroleum Ministers
to award oil and gas exploration units to effective bidders under Hydrocarbon Exploration Licensing Policy. Under Hydrocarbon Exploration Licensing Policy, exploration units are to be awarded double in a year and presently awarding of units needs the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs’ sanction.  Delegation of these powers will accelerate decision making process on awarding units and extra enhance comfort of doing business in petroleum and natural gas sector.

Hydrocarbon Exploration and Licensing Policy

Central Government had initiated Hydrocarbon Exploration and Licensing Policy in March 2016, as a
fresh policy commands for Exploration & Production in petroleum and natural gas segment. Its chief features are Revenue Sharing Contract, solitary Licence for exploration and production of conventional and unconventional hydrocarbon resources etc. Open Acreage Licensing Policy is also chief ground-breaking feature under Hydrocarbon Exploration Licensing Policy where stockholder can carve out units of their personal interest and present an EoI throughout year. Grounded on areas for which Expression of Interest has been articulated bidding is conducted every six months.

Did you know?

Under Hydrocarbon Exploration Licensing Policy, Empowered Committee of Secretaries considers Bid
Evaluation Criteria, organises consultations with bidders wherever required and makes suggestions to
Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs on award of units. Then Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs sanctions the awarding of units. The whole procedure, including Inter Ministerial Consultations is quite prolonged and time taking. It hinders ease of doing business. So, it was required to curtail duration of time taken for award of units and contract areas. Under Hydrocarbon Exploration Licensing Policy, the modest bidding is continuous .

India, Timor Leste sign MoU to expand cooperation in healthcare on - 11th April 2018

India and Timor Leste signed a MoU in the field of public health to outspread reasonable healthcare to the people of the Southeast Asian country on April 11th , 2018. The Memorandum of Understanding was inked during Krishan Pal Gurjar’s a four-day visit, who is the Minister of state for social justice and empowerment, to Timor Leste. 

Key Highlights of the MoU

• The deal was in the argument for over 5 years. Its inking is believed to open more avenues of collaboration between the 2 nations.
• Under the Memorandum of Understanding, India has presented to share its proficiency in matching IT with healthcare with the help of tele-medicine.
• India has also passed its commitment to partner with the nation in its socio-economic expansion.
• The 2 countries have also settled to have enhanced contact through bilateral institutional mechanisms to further fortify the present friendly relationships between the 2 nations.

More about Timor Leste

• It is a sovereign state, situated in Southeast Asia. It encompasses the eastern half of the island of Timor, an exclave on the north-western side of the island bounded by Indonesian West Timor. 
• It is separated from Australia which is its southern neighbour, by the Timor Sea. 
• East Timor was colonised by the Portuguese in the 16 th century and was known as Portuguese Timor until November 28th, 1975, when it was announced the independent territory. 
• 9 days later, it was attacked and captured by Indonesia and was declared Indonesia's 27th province the following year. 

ISRO successfully puts navigation satellite IRNSS-1I into orbit on - 12th April 2018

The ISRO on April 12th , 2018 released the navigation satellite IRNSS-1I. The satellite was put into trajectory on the PSLV-C41 rocket from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in coastal Andhra Pradesh.
More about IRNSS-1I satellite

• 8th in the series, IRNSS-1I finished the 1st phase of the Indian regional navigation constellation.
• This 1425-kilogram satellite is construct for a 10-year job in space. IRNSS-1I will be prepared for work in about a month after routine orbit tests.
• IRNSS-1I will be progressively forced in the coming days into a geostationary circular orbit 36000-kilometre away from Earth.
• IRNSS-1I also transports 2 types of payloads for navigation and ranging. The navigation payload will
  transmit navigation service signals to the subscribers, while the ranging payload having a C-band transponder for determining the accurate range of the satellite. 
• It also encompasses Corner Cube Retro Reflectors for laser ranging.

IRNSS-1I to replace IRNSS-1A satellite

IRNSS-1I is supposed to substitute IRNSS-1A, the 1st of the 7 navigation satellites, which became useless after its 3 rubidium atomic clocks failed. Although IRNSS-1I is the 9 th navigation satellite to be released in the ‘NavIC’ navigation fleet, it is calculated as the 8 th as the earlier one IRNSS-1H was misplaced in a faulty launch in August 2017.

New rehabilitation policy for slum dwellers approved by - Haryana Cabinet

The Haryana state cabinet sanctioned the Slum-In- Situ Rehabilitation Policy to deliver housing facility to the slum inhabitants in the state without displacing them to other areas, on April 12 th , 2018. The cabinet was headed by the CM Manohar Lal Khattar. 
Under the fresh policy, a sum of Rupees 1.67 lakhs per inhabitant unit will be issued to the creator for the building of the houses. The expenses for building the housing facility for the slum inhabitants will be tolerated by the Centre and the state government. While the Union government will issue financial help worth Rupees 1 lakh per residence unit, the state government will deliver help worth Rupees 67,000 per residence unit.
Key Highlights

• The shanty town, which are presently distributed on the government land, will be gathered partially with the help of group housing or flats.
• The carpet area preparation of 30 square meters will be replaced with 50 square meters.
• The remaining area following delivering the housing accommodation to the shanty-town residents will then be issued as free-sale component to cross-subsidise the developers.
• The decision would benefit for keep a eye on violation, as the leftover land could be utilised for other determinations.
• The allocation of the housing units would be directed under the Commissioner or Deputy Commissioner administration.
  Payment Details
• For Gurugram and Faridabad Municipal Corporation, the applicant will have to pay Rupees one lakh per housing unit in 2 years instalments. 
• In other Municipal Corporations, the applicant will have to pay Rupees 75,000 per housing unit.
• In case of Municipal Council and Municipal Committee, the applicant will have to pay Rupees 50000 and Rupees 25000 per housing unit.
• The lock-in period of an allocated housing unit under the plan will be for ten years. 

Reporting norms for Liberalised Remittance Scheme tightened by -  RBI

The RBI has strict reporting norms for the Liberalised Remittance Scheme under which individual can
shift up to US $2,50,000 overseas in a year. The motive behind stricting the norms is to advance monitoring and also to make sure that it compliance with Liberalised Remittance Scheme limits.
Key Points

• Presently, the Liberalised Remittance Scheme transfers are allowed by banks depending on declaration made by remitter.
• The monitoring of sticking to limit is narrowed to getting such declaration without independent verification, in absenteeism of reliable source of data.
• Now under strict reporting norms, daily reporting system by Authorised Dealer banks of transactions under Liberalised Remittance Scheme has been placed, which will be reachable to all the other Authorised Dealers.
• It will be compulsory for banks to upload daily transaction data undertaken by them under Liberalised Remittance Scheme.
  Liberalised Remittance Scheme
• Liberalised Remittance Scheme is facility delivered by Reserve Bank of India for entire resident persons including minors to freely remit up to defined amount in United States Dollar for current and capital account purposes both.
• The plan was introduced in February 2004 and its guidelines are provided under  Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999. After its release, the Liberalised Remittance Scheme limit was US $25,000, but it has been updated in stages consistent with prevailing macro and micro economic situations.
• Presently, Liberalised Remittance Scheme limit for all inhabitant individuals, is US $2,50,000
  per financial year.
• Under Liberalised Remittance Scheme, persons can avail remittances for foreign education, travel,
  Medicare, gifting and donations. The forwarded money can be utilised for purchase of shares and property also.

Industrial production grows 7.1% in February 2018 by -  CSO

As per to the information released by the Central Statistics Office, factory output calculated in terms of
the Index of Industrial Production had full-grown 7.1 per cent in February 2017. It was mainly boost by
robust performance of manufacturing sector coupled with capital goods and consumer goods. The Index of Industrial Production documented development of 8.54 per cent in November 2017, 7.1 per cent in December 2017 and 7.4 percent in January 2018. During April-February time period, Index of Industrial Production has decelerated to 4.3 per cent from 4.7 per cent compared to same period 2017-18 fiscal year. Index of Industrial Production
The Index of Industrial Production is compound indicator that calculates short period alterations in
volume of production of industrial goods. It is accumulated and printed monthly by Central Statistical
Organization.
Base year:

• The Central Statistical Organization had reviewed the base year of the Index of Industrial Production from 2004-05 to 2011-12 in May 2017 to get structural changes in economy and advances quality and representativeness of directories.
• The revised Index of Industrial Production shows the alterations in industrial sector and also bring into line it with base year of other macro-economic indicators like Wholesale Price Index and GDP.
  Sector wise items and weightages:
• It covers 407 item groups. The goods comprised falls into three groups including Manufacturing with 405 goods, Mining with one product and Electricity with one item.
• The volume of the 3 subdivisions are 77.63 percent, 14.37 percent, 7.9 percent respectively. The reviewed combined volume of 8 core Industries in the Index of Industrial Production is 40.27 percent.