O°VISIONIAS INSPIRING INNOVATION CAGEPAD SEP, 2020 NEWS TODAY MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING (MoU) SIGNED BETWEEN MINISTRY OF AYUSH AND MoWCD FOR CONTROLLING MALNUTRITION * Convergence between Ministry of Women and Child Development (MoWCD) and Ministry of AYUSH will help address malnutrition through the principles and practices of ayurveda, yoga and other AYUSH systems. > AYUSH ministry will provide techni ;plementation of schemes like developing nutritious recipes based on regional and climatic, preferences etc, while WCD ministry will enable outreach of AYUSH systems through anganwadi centres > Itwill be aunched on pilot bassin 1,000 anganwvadi centres > POSHAN Abhiyaan or National Nutrition Mission is flagship programme under MoWCD to improve nutritional outcomes fr children, pregnant women and lactating mothers. > Nutri-gardens and medicinal gardens to be established in Anganwvadi centres with live demonstration to beneficiaries on how to use them ‘through various home-based preparations. > yoga classes for women and children at anganwadi centre * Anganwadi worker providing Ayurveda nutrition message to the community at ground level to be designated as ‘DHATRI'- Dedicated Health Activist to Replenish the Innutrition. * Ministries also launched hashtag #Ayush4Anganwadi for generating awareness about activities on digital media CONTRACT LABOUR SYSTEM SET FOR A MAJOR OVERHAUL * Government has sought to liberalise the contract labour system through labour codes introduced in Parliament by giving companies a free hand to hire such workers, along with an easier licensing regime. > Present contract labour law, Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act, 1970s intended to ‘encourage permanent roles, along with abolishing contract workers in jobs of perennial nature, * Contract workers are not employed directly by the employer, but by an intermediary or contractor on short-term contracts > Contract workers are outside the purview of retrenchment or layotf and trade union laws, making such arrangements attractive to businesses. * Key changes in Contract labour system > Single licence for establishments executing multiple projects by engaging contract workers {or five years > Contract labour law will not apply to firms hiring up to 50 workers. > Employment of contract labour in core activites of any establishment is prohibited but any sudden increase in volume of work can be a reason for employing contract workers in core activities, > Core activity is any activity for which the establishment is set up. > No cap on fixed-term contract renewal. FIFTEENTH FINANCE COMMISSION (FFG) IN ITS REPORT FOR a RECOMMENDED GRANTS FOR RURAL LOCAL BODIES Si * Grants have been recommended for all tiers of the Panchayati Raj and also to the Fifth and Sixth schedule areas. > Total sizeof the grants is R5.60,750 crore in 2020-21 * Grants are provided in two parts: > 50% as Basic Grant that are untied and can be used for location-specfic felt needs, except for salary or other establishment expenditure. > 50% as Tied Grant to be used for basic services of sanitation and maintenance of open-defecation free status and supply of drinking water, ain water harvesting and water recycling > One half of these Tied Grants shall be earmarked each to these two critical services > However, if any RLB has fully saturated the needs of one category, it can utilize the funds for the other category. * Grants willbe distributed to all the tiers of panchayats in following bands recommended by FFC > 70-85 % for village/gram panchayats > 10-25 96 for block/intermediate panchayats. > 5-15 9 for district/zila panchayats > In states having two-tier system, distribution will be: 70-85 9 for vilage/gram panchayats and 15-30% for distict/zilla panchayats FOREIGN CONTRIBUTION (REGULATION) AMENDMENT BILL (FCRA), 2020 INTRODUCED IN LOK SABHA BY HOME MINISTER + Bill seeks to amend Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 2010 to enhance transparency and accountability inthe receipt and utilisation of foreign contributions. > Foreign contrbutionis donation/ transfer of any currency, security or article (of beyond a specified value) by foreign source. ‘+ Reasons for amendment: Misappropriation oF miscutilisation of foreign contribution and inconsistency in ensuring basic statutory ‘compliances such as submission of annual returns by NGOs. * Changes Proposed > Prohibit public servant and corporation ‘owned or controlled by government to receive foreign donations. D> Earlier, the Act restricted politicians, politcal parties, members of the legislature, journalists etc, > Aadhar mandatory forall office bearers (of NGOs and other organisations seeking foreign contributions. > Limits use of foreign funds received for administrative purposes from current limit of 5096 to 20%, > Gives government powers to stop Utilisation of received but unutilised funds if government believes that such pperson has contravened provisions of the Act > Foreign funding is received only in designated “FCRA Account” specified by centre. + Several Civil societies organisations criticised the bill ast might create more hurdles and paperwork for them.LOK SABHA PASSES BILL TO AMEND COMPANIES ACT, 2013 * Bill seeks to amend Companies Act, 2013 aiming te improve ease of doing business and wil also reduce litigation burden on small businesses > Companies Act 2013 regulates incorporation of a company, responsibilities of company, directors, dissolution of a company. Key features * Decriminalise various compoundable offences which can be determined objectively and do not involve large public interest. > Generally, compoundable offences are those which can be settled by paying a certain amount af money. + Removes penalty for certain offences, reduces the amount of fine payable in certain offences, * Permit direct overseas listing of Indian corporates securities in permissible foreign jurisdictions, > Under current legal framework, Indian companies cannot directly list their securities abroad without getting themselves listed in domestic market + Relax corporate social responsibility requirement for companies with an obligation to spend Rs 50 lakh or less, where they will now not be required to.constitute a committee forthe same, * Setting up of additional benches of the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal in locations specified by the Centre. * Introduce a new chapter related to producer organisations - particularly beneficial to farmers, ALSO IN NEWS = Ministry of Panchayati Raj has launched this portal to strengthen e-Governance in Panchayati Raj Institutions across the country ‘= It aims to bring in better transparency in the decentralised planning, progress reporting and work-based accounting. * It provides a single window for capturing Panchayat information with the complete Profle of the Panchayat, details of Panchayat finances, asset details, activities taken up through Gram Panchayat Development Plan (GPP) ete. > For 2020-21, around 2.43 lakh Gram Panchayats have finalized their GPDP on e-Gramswaraj. €-GramSwaraj Portal Itis an integrated Web form offering 10 services by 3 Central Govt Ministries & Departments (Ministry of Corporate Affaits, Ministry of Labour & Department of Revenue) and One State Government. > It as introduced as a part of Government's Ease of Doing Business initiatives Ithelps by saving procedures, time and cost for starting a Business. > After introduction of SICet, the number of procedures have been reduced to 3 as against 10 earlier and time has also been reduced to 4 days as against 18 days earlier. sPice+ Refers toa company without active business operation or significant assets, which in some cases are used fer illegal purposes such as tax evasion, money laundering, obscuring ownership, benami properties ete. > However, in India Shell companies are not defined in any aw or act. Recently, Government has undertaken a special dive for identification and strike off Shell Companies based ‘on non-filing of Financial Statements (F5) consecutively for two years or more, > Companies removed as per Section 248 of Companies Act, 2013. Shell Company * itis a low-cost, paper-based test strip to detect COVID-19 in less than 30 minutes, Itis developed by Council of Scientific and Industral Research - Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biologyand Tata Group. Feluda test uses indigenously developed CRISPR gene-editing technalogy to identify and target the genetic ‘material of SARS-CoV2, the virus that causes Covid-19 > CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats) is used in c and treating and preventing the spread of ‘= The $1 billion World Bank loan for India to fight against coronavirus and strengthen national health systems comes with a condition of ‘universal eligibility” in procurements. This would mean that all preferential market access policies, including Public Procurement (Preference to Make In India) Order, Micro Small & Medium Enterprises (MSME) Policy, certain benefits to start-ups, shall not be applicable on purchases mace while implementing the national project. Feluda test recting genetic defects World bank seeks Universal eligibility Recent study shows that komedo dragons, world’s largest lizards could soon go extinct, IUCN status: Vulnerable and trade is prohibited under CITES. Habitat - t occurs on Komodo Island and a few neighbouring islands ofthe Lesser Sunda Islands of Indonesia, ‘Threats — Habitat loss due to Climate change and poaching > In 1980, Indonesia established Komodo National Park to protect the Komodo dragon and its habitat Komodo Dragons To be scrapped at ship breaking yard at Alang in Gujarat > Alang in Gujarat is the world's biggest ship breaking yard. ‘= It which was decommissioned in 2017 after 20 yeats of service with indian Navy and around 27 years pri to that in British Royal Navy. + Used in Op Parakram, post terrorist attack on Parliament (2001-02). Ete aan & 4 F frm, alts ia Carseat Aon ai O ol DETH! LUCKNOW JAIPUR HYDERABAD PUNE” AHMEDABAD CHANDIGARH Indian Naval Ship (INS) Viraat © /cisioniasdethi Nision AS ©) Aisionias_upsc ©) /VisionlAS_UPSC