Daily News Summary-2nd January 2021

1) PM unveils project for affordable housing-The Hindu-2nd January

(GS 1- Urbanization; GS 2- Government policies and interventions for development; GS 3- Inclusive
growth)

In News

 Hon’ble PM laid the foundation of six Light House Projects (LHPs), as part of the Global
Housing Technology Challenge-India (GHTC-India) initiative.

Background

2019-20 - ‘Construction Technology Year’

o Hon’ble PM declared the year 2019-20 as ‘Construction Technology Year’.

o An E-Course on Vulnerability Atlas of India has already been launched as part of the
‘Construction Technology Year’.

NAVARITIH

o As part of ‘Construction Technology Year’, besides LHPs, a Certificate Course on Innovative

Construction Technologies namely NAVARITIH (New, Affordable, Validated, Research
Innovation Technologies for Indian Housing) and a Compendium of 54 innovative housing
construction technologies were identified through GHTC-India.

LHP NAME OF TECHNOLOGY TECHNOLOGY FROM

Indore Prefabricated Sandwich Panel System China
Rajkot Monolithic Concrete Construction using Tunnel Formwork France
Chennai Precast Concrete Construction System Finland and USA
Ranchi 3 D Volumetric Precast Concrete Construction System Germany
Agartala Structural Steel Frame with Light Gauge Steel Infill Panels New Zealand
Lucknow PVC Stay in Place Formwork System Canada

Salient Features of Light House Projects (LHPs)

o LHP shall mean a model housing project with around 1,000 houses built with shortlisted
alternate technology suitable to the geo-climatic and hazard conditions of the region.
o The minimum size of houses constructed under LHP shall be in accordance with the
prevailing guidelines of the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban).
o Houses under LHP will be designed keeping in view the dimensional requirements laid down
in National Building Code (NBC) 2016 with good aesthetics, proper ventilation, orientation,
as required to suit the climatic conditions of the location and adequate storage space, etc.

GHTC-India

o When: 2019
o By Whom: Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs
 o Aim: To identify and mainstream globally best available proven construction technologies
that are sustainable, green and disaster resilient through a challenge process which will
bring a paradigm shift in construction practices for affordable housing.

Components Of GHTC-India

1. Conduct of a biennial Construction Technology India, Expo-cum-Conference, to provide a

platform for all stakeholders to exchange knowledge and business
2. Identifying Proven Demonstrable Technologies from across the world, and
mainstreaming them through field level applications in Light House Projects (LHPs)
across India.
3. Promoting Future Technologies through establishment of Affordable Sustainable
Housing Accelerators-India (ASHA-India) for incubation and accelerator support.

Milestones & Timeline of GHTC-India

Incubation Centers

o Five Incubation Centers set up Under Affordable Sustainable Housing Accelerators – India
(ASHA-India) initiative under PMAY (U), have been launched for providing incubation
support to identify innovative materials, processes and technology for resource efficient,
disaster resilient and sustainable construction.

Celebrating Cooperative Federalism

o The cooperation extended by States in the projects is strengthening cooperative federalism.

o The PMAY(U) awards were instituted by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA)
in 2019 to recognize the outstanding contribution and performances by States, Union
Territories (UTs), Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) and beneficiaries.
Advantage of Light House Projects (LHPs)

o Mass use of these technologies from across the

globe will bring speed, sustainability, resource
efficiency, environment friendliness; disaster resilience, quality and durability in structures.
o This technology revolution will help fulfil the vision of ‘Housing for All’ by 2022.
o As a strategy, the new global cutting-edge technologies in construction will be adopted and
adapted in line with the government’s Atmanirbhar Bharat initiative.
o They will serve as live laboratories for facilitating transfer of technology to the field and its
further replication.

Opportunities for Planners, Builders, Students

o This is an opportunity for planners, architects, faculty and students etc. from various
universities and institutions to visit sites, learn from the technologies and mould them for
use in accordance with local requirements.

Fillip to Startups

o These will provide a major fillip to indigenous start-ups, innovators and such stakeholders.

Convergence of Other Schemes

o Other governments schemes would also be linked to these projects to provide facilities such
as water supply, electricity and LPG connection to the beneficiaries.

Benefit for Middle Class

o The Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act (RERA) had provided protection to
buyers.
o Real estate sector had been given ‘infrastructure’ status for easy availability of credit
facilities.
o Taxes on affordable and regular houses had been reduced significantly to encourage buyers.

Respite to Migrant Labourers During COVID through ARHCs

o COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in reverse migration of

urban migrants/ poor in the country.
o Urban migrants stay in slums/ informal settlements/ unauthorised
colonies/ peri-urban areas to save cost on housing.
o They need decent rental housing at affordable rate at
their work sites.
o In order to address this need, Ministry of Housing &
Urban Affairs has initiated Affordable Rental Housing
Complexes (ARHCs), a sub-scheme under Pradhan Mantri AWAS
Yojana- Urban (PMAY-U).

ANGIKAAR- A Campaign for Change Management

o It is a three-month campaign for social behaviour change focusing on creating awareness on

best practices in water & energy conservation, waste management, health, sanitation and
hygiene for beneficiaries of PMAY (U).
 o angikaar adopts a 3Cs Strategy - (Convergence, Community Engagement, Communication) to
create a 360-degree approach for behaviour change management.

Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana – Urban

o Since: 2015
o Nature: A flagship Mission of Government of India
o Implementation: Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA)
o Aim: To address urban housing shortage among the EWS/LIG and MIG
categories including the slum dwellers by ensuring a pucca house to all eligible urban
households by 2022.

o Approach: PMAY(U) adopts a demand driven approach wherein the Housing shortage is
decided based on demand assessment by States/Union Territories. State Level Nodal
Agencies (SLNAs), Urban Local Bodies (ULBs)/ Implementing Agencies (IAs), Central Nodal
Agencies (CNAs) and Primary Lending Institutions (PLIs) are main stakeholders who play an
important role in implementation and success of PMAY(U).
o PMAY(U) adopts a cafeteria approach to suit the needs of individuals based on the
geographical conditions, topography, economic conditions, availability of land,
infrastructure etc. The scheme has hence been divided into four verticals as given below:
 o Coverage: The Mission covers the entire urban area consisting of Statutory Towns, Notified
Planning Areas, Development Authorities, Special Area Development Authorities, Industrial
Development Authorities or any such authority under State legislation which is entrusted
with the functions of urban planning & regulations.
o The Mission promotes women empowerment by providing the ownership of houses in name
of female member or in joint name.
o Preference is also given to differently abled persons, senior citizens, SCs, STs, OBCs,
Minority, single women, transgender and other weaker & vulnerable sections of the society.

2) RBI launches Digital Payments Index – The Indian Express – 2nd January

RBI to create digital payments index to assess, capture extent of digitalisation – Live Mint
-2nd January

In News

 The Reserve Bank of India has constructed a composite digital payments index (DPI) to
capture the extent of digitisation of payments across the country.
 The payments index will be available from July 2020.

Digital Payments Index (DPI) by RBI

 As part of the Sixth Bi-monthly Monetary Policy Statement for 2019-20, the Reserve Bank of
India came up with an index called Digital Payments Index (DPI) to capture the extent of
digitisation of payments across the country.
 The RBI-DPI has been constructed with March 2018 as the base period, i.e., DPI score for
March 2018 is set at 100.
 The DPI for March 2019 and March 2020 work out to 153.47 and 207.84 respectively,
indicating appreciable growth.
 RBI-DPI is proposed to be published on RBI’s website on a semi-annual basis from March
2021 onwards with a lag of 4 months.

Parameters of DPI

 DPI comprises of 5 broad parameters that enable measurement of deepening and

penetration of digital payments in the country over different time periods.
 These parameters are:
  Payment Enablers (weight 25%),
 Payment Infrastructure – Demand-side factors (10%),
 Payment Infrastructure – Supply-side factors (15%),
 Payment Performance (45%) and
 Consumer Centricity (5%).

Each of these parameters have sub-parameters which, in turn, consist of various measurable
indicators as illustrated above.

Payment Enablers

 It comprises of multiple channels through which digital payments can be accessed. This
includes the internet, mobile, Aadhaar, bank accounts, merchants, and participants.
 The sub-parameters for payment infrastructure include credit cards, debit cards, prepaid
payment instruments, point of sale terminals, automated teller machines, quick response
codes, among others.

Payment Performance

 It carries the highest weight in the index.

 It would measure factors such as the volume and value of digital payments, unique users,
paper clearing, currency in circulation and cash withdrawals.

Customer Centricity

 Under this, the RBI would consider customer education and awareness, frauds, complaints,
declines and system downtime.

Nandan Nilekani Committee - The Reserve Bank of India had constituted a High-Level
Committee on Deepening of Digital Payments under the Chairmanship of Shri Nandan
Nilekani, former Chairman, UIDAI, in January 2019. This committee recommended the
setting up of Digital Payments Index.

The recommendations of the committee was incorporated in the Payment Systems

Vision 2021 for implementation.
Payment and Settlement Systems in India: Vision – 2019-2021 of RBI

 The Reserve Bank of India (RBI), under powers from the Payment and Settlement Systems
Act, 2007, has endeavoured to ensure that India has ‘state-of-the-art’ payment and
settlement systems that are not just safe and secure, but are also efficient, fast and
affordable.
 The RBI has been guiding the payment systems with its vision documents.
 The current vision document outlines the road map for the three-year period spanning from
2019 to 2021.
 Vision 2021 concentrates on a two-pronged approach of, (a) exceptional customer
experience; and (b) enabling an eco-system which will result in this customer experience.
 With this in view, the Vision aims towards, enhancing the experience of Customers;
empowering payment System Operators and Service Providers; enabling the Eco-system and
Infrastructure; putting in place a Forward-looking Regulation; supported by a Risk-focussed
Supervision.
 To achieve the above, the Vision envisages four goal-posts (4 Cs) – Competition, Cost,
Convenience and Confidence.

Way Forward

 Payments via digital modes are expected to make transactions more transparent and
thereby prevent tax evasion.
 The banking regulator and the government have been working on facilitating adoption of
cashless payment systems like digital wallets, internet banking, credit and debit cards.
 The government recently scrapped merchant discount rates (MDR) on payments made
through Rupay debit cards and the Unified Payments Interface (UPI).
 There are reports of the government planning to scrap MDR on all debit cards.

Merchant Discount Rate (MDR)

 It is the cost paid by a merchant to a bank for accepting payment from their customers via
digital means.
 The merchant discount rate is expressed in percentage of the transaction amount. It is also
applicable for online transactions and QR-based transactions.
 The amount that the merchant pays for every transaction gets distributed among three
stakeholders--the bank that enables the transaction, vendor that installs the point of sale
(PoS) machine and the card network provider such as Visa, MasterCard, RuPay.

3) Explained: How systematic changes led to record GST mop-up – Indian

Express – 2nd January

At Rs 1.15 lakh crore, GST mop-up hits record high in December 2020 – 2nd
January – Financial Express
(GS Paper 3- Indian Economy)

In News

 Goods and Services Tax (GST) collections in December rose 11.6 per cent year-on-year to Rs
1,15,174 crore, the highest level since the July 2017 rollout of the indirect tax regime.
 This has been the highest growth in monthly revenues in the last 21 months.

The Higher tax collections

 The December revenue, which comes from transactions done in November, was also up
9.7%, month on month.
 During the month (December), revenue from import of goods was 27% higher and the
revenue from domestic transactions (including import of services) was 8% higher than the
revenues from these sources during the same month last year.
 The gross goods and services tax (GST) collections shot up by 12% on year to Rs 1,15,174
crore in December, the highest monthly mop-up since the tax’s July 2017 launch.

The Trend So Far

 Following the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic, GST revenue collections had been posting a
contraction and was at a lower level than the previous year.
 The GST revenue collections remained in negative territory for the first five months of this
financial year, with a record low collection of Rs 32,172 crore in April, following the
lockdown in the country in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.
 With the opening up of the economy and resumption of economic activities, GST revenues
started to pick up since September.
 December marked the fourth month in which GST revenue collections have posted a year-
on-year growth.
 The increase in percentage terms is also aided partly by a low base effect.

The Reasons for the Uptick

 GST collections in December gained support from higher festive season sales led by diwali
consumption demand.
 The rollout of new technological systems of e-invoicing and action against tax evaders.
 A sustained momentum towards economic recovery also led to higher collections.
  Therefore, the combined effect of the rapid economic recovery post-pandemic and the
nationwide drive against GST evaders and fake bills along with many systemic changes
introduced recently, which have led to improved compliances.

Implications of the Volatility in GST Collections

 To what extent does the rise in GST receipts could be ascribed to economic recovery would
be clear only with the benefit of data on collections to be reported in the coming few
months.
 Other high-frequency economic indicators too broadly suggest a sustained recovery over the
three-four months through November, instead of forecasting with a single month’s rise as
discussed below.
 Having recorded the lowest contraction in seven months (0.1%) in September, the output of
eight core industries, which have an almost 40% share in the index of industrial production,
again slid by 0.9% in October and a sharper 2.6% in November, due to a drop in cement and
steel.
 Similarly, after scaling its peak in more than a decade in October, manufacturing activity, as
measured by the Purchasing Managers Index (PMI), hit a three-month low in November.
 Nevertheless, the fluctuations in order flow could discourage manufacturers to produce
more and hire more.
 Diesel sales picked up in a sustained manner in April-November and rail freight rose
sequentially in the five months through December, but electricity demand was down in
November.

Significance

 Till now, GST revenues have crossed Rs 1.1 lakh crore only three times since introduction of
GST.
 The highest monthly GST collection previously was Rs 1,13,866 crore reported in April 2019.
 The average growth in GST revenues during the last quarter (Q3) has been 7.3% compared
with (-) 8.2% during the second quarter and (-) 41.0% during the first quarter of the financial
year.
 The government has settled Rs 23,276 crore to CGST and Rs 17,681 crore to SGST from IGST
as regular settlement.
 Significant jump in GST on imports could indicate revival in demand on high-end products
like cell phones and electronic items.

Way Forward

 Tax experts noted that the government should provide a breakup of the GST revenues
collected through the filing of returns and through recovery drives by the GST authorities to
help in assessing the true picture of the extent of economic recovery.
 The proposed extension of electronic invoicing to all businesses will further prevent leakages
in GST revenues.
 Facilitating e-invoices can help curb tax evasions.
e-Invoice under GST laws

 e-Invoice for B2B transactions has been made mandatory for companies with turnover
of over Rs 500 crore from October 1 last year.
 It was notified to be extended to businesses with over Rs 100 crore turnover from
January 1 this year and is likely to be extended for all businesses beginning April 1.
 It has been seen as a major game-changer to curb tax evasion and plug leakages, which
in turn, may not even necessitate an urgent rollout of the proposed new GST return-
filing system that may have resulted in a fresh start for tax assessees under the indirect
tax regime.