Junior Digest

New Delhi , May 4,2024 : Taking a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Congress’s Jairam Ramesh asked the PM to clarify whether he will remove the 50 per cent reservation limit on SCs, STs, and OBCs.
Speaking with ANI, Jairam Ramesh said the Congress manifesto promises to raise the reservation limit as it is necessary for the SCs, STs, and OBCs to get their full rights. He said, “We have promised in our ‘Nyay Patra’ that we will increase this limit of 50 per cent reservation because it is necessary for SC, ST and backward classes to get full rights.”
He added further, “The Prime Minister has not broken his silence on this. Rahul ji has raised this question again and again. Our Congress President has repeatedly raised this question. Prime Minister please clarify, will you remove the 50 per cent limit or not?”
In 1992, the Supreme Court had held that caste-based reservations cannot exceed 50%.

New Delhi, May 1,2024: Driven by a strong increase in domestic transactions and imports, India’s gross Goods and Services Tax (GST) collections hit a record high in April 2024 and logged 12.4 per cent year-on-year growth at Rs 2.10 lakh crore during this period.

“After accounting for refunds, the net GST revenue for April 2024 stands at Rs 1.92 lakh crore, reflecting an impressive 17.1% growth compared to the same period last year,” Finance Ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.

The gross GST revenue collected in the month of April, 2023 was Rs 1.87 lakh crore.

In the month of April 2024, the central government settled Rs 50,307 crore to Central Goods and Services Tax (CGST) and Rs 41,600 crore to State Goods and Services Tax (SGST) from the Integrated Goods and Services Tax (IGST) collected. This translates to a total revenue of Rs 94,153 crore for CGST and Rs 95,138 crore for SGST for April, 2024 after regular settlement.

Out of total GST collection in April this year, CGST was Rs 43,846 crore while SGST was 53,538 crore.

As per official data, IGST during April this year stood at Rs 99,623 crore, including Rs 37,826 crore collected on imported goods. The Cess collected during this period was Rs 13,260 crore, including Rs 1,008 crore collected on imported goods.

New Delhi, May 1,2024: The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) successfully flight-tested the Supersonic Missile-Assisted Release of Torpedo (SMART) system from Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Island off the coast of Odisha early Wednesday morning.

Designed and developed by DRDO, SMART is a next-generation missile-based light-weight torpedo delivery system that will enhance the anti-submarine warfare capability of the Indian Navy far beyond the conventional range of lightweight torpedo, a Defence Ministry statement said.

This canister-based missile system consists of several advanced sub-systems, namely two-stage solid propulsion system, electromechanical actuator system, precision inertial navigation system etc.

The system carries advanced light-weight torpedo as payload along with parachute-based release system.

The missile was launched from the ground mobile launcher. Several state-of-the-art mechanisms such as symmetric separation, ejection and velocity control have been validated in this test.

Meanwhile, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh while complimenting the DRDO and the industry partners on the successful flight-test of SMART said, “The development of the system will further enhance the strength of our Navy”.

Secretary, Department of Defence R&D and Chairman DRDO Samir V Kamat also lauded the synergistic efforts of the entire SMART team and urged it to continue on the path of excellence.

Italy,May 03,2024: G7 energy and climate ministers agreed a timeframe Tuesday for phasing out coal-fired power plants, setting a goal in the mid-2030s, in a move hailed as significant by some environmentalists but described as “too late” by others.

The Group of Seven two-day meeting in Turin is the first big political session since the world pledged at the UN’s COP28 annual climate summit in Dubai in December to transition away from coal, oil and gas.

The G7 commits to “phase out existing unabated coal power generation in our energy systems during the first half of 2030s,” the final statement read.

However it left some wiggle room, saying nations could follow “a timeline consistent with keeping a limit of 1.5-degrees-Celsius temperature rise within reach, in line with countries’ net zero pathways”.

It also preserves a place for coal power if it is “abated”, meaning its emissions are captured or limited by technology — something criticised by many as unproven and a distraction from cutting fossil fuel use.

The G7 members are Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Negotiations over a fixed date were reportedly tricky. Some countries, and many environmentalists, had been pushing for a 2030 limit, but Japan — which relies heavily on coal — was reluctant to set a date at all.

The leaders of the G7 countries will produce their own statement after a summit in southern Italy in June.

‘What about gas?’

The 2015 Paris Agreement saw countries agree to cap global warming at “well below” 2C above preindustrial times — with a safer limit of 1.5C if possible.

To keep the 1.5C limit in play, the UN’s climate expert panel has said emissions need to be slashed almost in half this decade, but they continue to rise.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) has said that to reach net zero emissions by 2050 — a key milestone to limit global warming — advanced economies should end all power generation by unabated coal-fired power plants by 2030.

Franck Riester, the minister representing France on climate issues, said the coal phase-out date was “a strong commitment, a strong signal from the G7”.

But Andreas Sieber from environmental campaign group 350.org said it was “important yet insufficient progress”, while the Climate Analytics policy institute said “2035 is too late”.

“Many of these countries have already publicly committed to phase out dates ahead of 2030, and only have a small amount of coal capacity anyway,” Jane Ellis from Climate Analytics said in a statement.

She also pointed out it was “notable that gas has not been mentioned”, despite it being the largest source of the global increase in CO2 emissions in the last decade.

Germany — Europe’s biggest emitter of greenhouse gases — is unwilling to wean off gas, as is G7 host Italy, which is investing in new domestic gas facilities.

‘Capable of contributing’

The G7 ministers also tackled the thorny issue of plastic pollution amid a heated debate over how to best design a treaty addressing the scourge.

Plastic waste is now found everywhere from the summits of mountains to the ocean floor and in human blood and breast milk.

Broadly, the debate is between whether to focus on reducing production, or boosting recycling.

The ministers said they “aspired” to reduce and if necessary restrain the global production of plastic, and renewed their commitments to end plastic pollution by 2040.

That came as a penultimate round of UN-led negotiations to solve plastic pollution wrapped up in Canada with a world-first pact said to be within reach by year’s end — but without a cap on production.

Climate watchers are pushing for more funds for adaptation to climate change and energy systems for developing countries, and all eyes will be on the G7 finance minister’s meeting in at the end of May.

The ministers in Turin stressed Tuesday that efforts to raise money to help poorer countries deal with climate change should include “those countries that are capable of contributing”.

Under a UN climate treaty signed in 1992, only a small handful of high-income countries that dominated the global economy at the time were required to pay climate finance — not including China, which has since become wealthier, and is now the world’s largest polluter.

“By making it clear that we were calling on other countries to contribute, we want China to join us in this direction,” Riester told AFP

May 3, 2024 : BRICS countries could provide an alternative to the US dollar if the international monetary system collapses, International Monetary Fund (IMF) Executive Director for Russia Aleksei Mozhin told Sputnik.
“A lot is being written about the shortcomings of the current system. Moreover, many publications mention BRICS in the context that this association can offer an alternative,” Mozhin said.
BRICS countries could create a unit of account that would be built on a basket of currencies of the five member countries of the group, including the Brazilian real, the Russian ruble, the Indian rupee, the Chinese yuan, and the South African rand, according to Mozhin.
“This proposal is being discussed. In case the US dollar and international monetary system collapse, there will be a need to turn this unit of account into a real currency backed by commodities,” the Russian representative said.