NATIONAL CURRENT
AFFAIRS: gktoday
WETLAND CONSERVATION
IN INDIA:
“National Wetland Conservation
Programme (NWCP)” was implemented till 2012-13. However, for better
synchronization and to avoid overlap the NWCP has been merged with
another scheme “National Plan
for Conservation of Aquatic Ecosystems (NPCA)” for holistic conservation of lakes and wetlands.
Under NWCP, 115 wetlands in 24 states and two UTs have been identified for conservation and
management.
At the behest of Environment Ministry, the Space
Applications Centre
(SAC) Ahmedabad has prepared a National Wetland Inventory Atlas on 1:50,000 scale
using Indian Remote Sensing
Satellite III data of pre- and post-monsoon seasons during 2006-11.
As per the atlas, there are a total of 7, 57,060 wetlands covering
an estimated area of 15.26 million hectare, that is around 4.63% of the geographic area
of India.
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As per the law commission panel, the trial must
be expedited and concluded against MP’s or MLA’s within a one-year period for charges
framed against sitting MPs or MLAs. If trial is not concluded within a year
then (either) the MP/MLA may be disqualified at the expiry of the one-year period or the MP/MLAs’ right to vote in the
House as a member, remuneration
shall be suspended at
the expiry of the one-year period.
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TELECOM
FINANCE CORPORATION:
The central Government has proposed to
establish a Telecom Finance Corporation
(TFC) in the 12th Five Year Plan period (2012-17).
TFC would be registered as Non-Banking
Finance Company
and Non-Deposit
Infrastructure Finance Company.
It would be a Public Sector Unit (PSU) under the administrative control of
Department of Telecom (DoT).
The time frame to establish the main sources of
funds for TFC shall be through issue of taxable and tax-free bonds.
The other sources of funds include term loans from
banks/financial institutions and off-shore borrowings and borrowings from multilateral institutions such as Asian
Development Bank, International Monetary Fund, World Bank and other sovereign
funds.
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HIKE IN FDI IN DEFENCE MANUFACTURING SECTOR:
The
Union Cabinet cleared a proposal to enhance the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI)
limit in defence sector
to 49% from
the current 26%.
The
step is aimed at boosting domestic defence industry of the country that imports up to 70% of its military
requirements.
In the
Budget 2014-15, it was proposed to hike the composite limit of foreign
investment to 49% to be approved through the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) route
and with control of the enterprise to be in Indian hands.
At present, the
government allows
26% FDI in defence manufacturing.
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(SEBI) will be empowered and strengthened to clamp down on fraudulent investment schemes
and to seek information
from any entity related to an investigation.
Key points in Securities Laws
(Amendment) Bill 2014
·
SEBI will have the authority to seek
relevant information and records from any person
·
Any pooling of funds in any unregistered scheme or
arrangement, having corpus of
Rs 100 crore or more, shall be deemed to be a collective investment scheme
·
It provides for express powers for
the settlement (compounding)
·
Authorizes SEBI to set up Special Courts – to
expedite trial with powers such as the authority to seek call-data records
·
It provides SEBI powers of recovery of amounts
·
It empowers the institution to increase the penalty
imposed by an adjudicating officer
·
SEBI will have the authority to conduct search-and-seizure
operations related to probes under a designated court in Mumbai.
·
Section 15A-HB of the SEBI Act has
been amended and
prescribed a minimum penalty to be slapped for each violation.
The law in its current form
authorizes SEBI to carry out the search operations only after being permitted by the
magistrate of the area, which compromises with the secrecy of the move.
Previously, the Section 15A-HB prescribed one level of penalties to be imposed for various offences
but without any minimum level of penalty or range and without giving any
discretion to the Adjudicating Officers.
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NGRBA brought under Ministry of Water Resources
The National Ganga River Basin Authority
(NGRBA) has been
shifted from the Ministry of Environment to the Ministry of Water Resources . Hereafter,
all issues pertaining to conservation, development management and abatement of
pollution in river Ganga and its tributaries will also be directed by the
Ministry of Water Resources.
National
Ganga River Basin Authority (NGRBA)
The
government of India gave River
Ganga the status of a national river and constituted the NGRBA in February
2009, under Section
3(3) of the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986.
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