U.S. position on CAATSA unchanged despite China’s actions in neighbourhood
Paper: II
Mains: General Studies- II: Governance, Constitution, Polity, Social Justice and International relations.
Why In news:
Despite a change in the ground realities following the deadly clash between India and China along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) last month, the U. S’s message to countries, including India, on sanctions for the purchase of Russian arms has not changed. This message was reiterated in the context of India’s planned jet fighter deal with Russia at an estimated ₹18,148 crore.
Key Details:
- Exports to China in the last financial year stood at $16.6 billion, while imports aggregated at $65.26 billion.
- The trade deficit stood at $53.56 billion in 2018-19 and $63 billion in 2017-18.
- Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) from China in India also dipped to $163.78 million in 2019-20 from $229 million in the previous fiscal.
What is CAATSA?
- The Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) is a United States federal law that imposed sanctions on Iran, North Korea and Russia.
- It includes sanctions against countries that engage in significant transactions with the Russian defence and intelligence sectors.
F-1 visa students cannot take all classes online: U.S.
Paper: II
Mains: General Studies- II: Governance, Constitution, Polity, Social Justice and International relations.
Foreign students in the U.S., including thousands of Indians, are left facing the possibility of falling out of valid immigration status following a Department of Homeland Security rule on attending online classes.
What is the new rule?
- The U.S. rule, announced by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), an agency within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), says those F-1 and M-1 (non-academic and vocational students) visa holders planning to take only online classes in the fall (autumn) will not be allowed to remain in the U.S. Due to COVID-19, a number of universities are planning to shift all their classes online for the fall semester.
- Nonimmigrant F-1 and M-1 students attending schools operating entirely online may not take a full online course load and remain in the U.S.
- Those whose colleges and universities were moving to an online-only model would, therefore, have to leave the country or find another way to stay in status.
- Normally F-1 students are allowed to take one class or three credit hours online.
- According to ICE, active students currently in the United States enrolled in such programs must depart the country or take other measures, such as transferring to a school with in-person instruction to remain in lawful status. If not, they may face immigration consequences including, but not limited to, the initiation of removal proceedings.
Details:
- With at least 200,000 Indian students in the U.S, the country is the second-largest source of foreign students, China being the first.
- This difficult situation for students is exacerbated by the unprecedented disruption to international travel.
- The U.S. announcement comes weeks after U.S. President Donald Trump suspended H1-B highly skilled worker visas through the end of the year.
- Most of these visas go to Indian citizens each year.
Extend working days under MGNREGA’
Paper: II
Mains: General Studies- II: Governance, Constitution, Polity, Social Justice and International relations.
Why In news:
CPI Rajya Sabha MP Binoy Viswam in a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged to extend the quota of working days under the MGNREGA scheme to a minimum of 200 days and additionally, extend the limitations of the scheme to per adult individual rather than per household.
Key Details:
- At least 1.4 lakh poor rural households have already completed their quota of 100 days of work under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA).
- Another seven lakh households have completed 80 days.
Issue:
- With the COVID-19 pandemic and the lockdown resulting in thousands of unemployed migrant workers returning to their villages, many are now dependent on MGNREGA wages.
- Having completed the quota of 100 days of work, in the first three months of the year, they will not be eligible for further benefits under the scheme for the rest of the year.
- With work running out, the families are in a huge crisis.
- While the construction sector, which usually absorbs a large number of workers, has also collapsed, the demand for MGNREGA work has been increasing.
Way forward:
- Activists are urging the government to increase the limit to at least 200 days per household.
- The scheme contains a provision for districts affected by natural disasters to request an expansion of the scheme to allow for 150 days of work per household.
- Given that COVID-19 was declared a national disaster, activists have demanded that this provision be implemented immediately.
- Activists have argued that the limit should be imposed per adult individual rather than per household.
Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act
- The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, earlier known as the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act was passed on 7th September 2005 to augment employment generation and social security in India. It covers all districts of India except the ones with 100% urban population.
- It was also announced that three crore senior citizens, persons with disabilities and widows will get one-time additional amount of Rs 1,000 in two installments which will be provided through DBT (Direct Benefit Transfer) over a period of three months.
- This announcement was made as an initiative towards the loss caused by the Covid-19 outbreak. The 21 days lock down is expected to cost the Indian Economy a cost of around 9 lakh crores.
- Funds worth Rs 31,000 crore are also to be provided to augment medical testing, screening and providing better healthcare facilities to those who have been affected financially due to the Covid-19 outbreak.
‘Top priority’ to complete strategic roads
Paper: III
Mains: General Studies-III: Technology, Economic Development, Bio diversity, Environment, Security and Disaster Management
Why in news:
At a meeting convened to review the progress of the construction activities in the border areas with Border Roads Organisation (BRO) Director-General, the Defence Minister has directed the BRO that work on the strategic Darbuk-Shyok-Daulat Beg Oldi (DSDBO) road be completed by October 2020.
Issues:
- China has been objecting to Indian road and infrastructure development at several points along the Line of Actual Control (LAC).
- A road branching from the DSDBO road towards the Galwan Nalah is believed to be one of the reasons for their objections here.
Key Details:
- India has also been building 61 strategic Indo-China Border Roads (ICBRs), measuring 3,323.57 km, under the direction of the China Study Group (CSG).
- 75% of the construction is complete.
- Of these, 12 roads are in the Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, while three roads are in Sikkim.
- The Darbuk-Shyok-Daulat Beg Oldie (DSDBO) road has been in the making for around two decades. It is expected to be completed in 2020
- DBO is India’s northernmost corner, which in army parlance is called Sub-Sector North.
Significance of DSDBO:
- DBO is located only 9 km away from the Line of Actual Control with China and the road will help manage the border and the areas adjoining Aksai Chin, Chip Chap River and Jiwan Nalla.
- It will also ensure faster deployment of troops in the area.
- Before the laying of the road, the only way to reach the area was via the ALG, where heavy-lift aircraft, such as the C-130J, can land.
- From the DSDBO road, a road branches off towards Galwan Valley, a hill feature, which India wants to protect because it overlooks the area around the main road.
Mining giant told to pay $2 bn for Arctic spill
Paper: III
Mains: General Studies-III: Technology, Economic Development, Bio diversity, Environment, Security and Disaster Management
Why in News:
Russia’s state environmental watchdog said that metals giant Norilsk Nickel should pay an unprecedented $2 billion in damages over a huge Arctic fuel spill.
Key Details:
- Russia had declared a national emergency after a spill of 21,000 tonnes of diesel fuel.
- President Vladimir Putin has said he expects Norilsk Nickel to fully restore the environment.
- Norilsk Nickel is the world’s largest producer of nickel and palladium.
‘Centre won’t extend deadline for levy on foreign e-com firms’
Paper:
Mains: General Studies-III: Technology, Economic Development, Bio diversity, Environment, Security and Disaster Management
Why in News:
The government has made it clear that it is not considering extending the deadline for payment of Equalisation Levy by non-resident e-commerce players, even though a majority of them are yet to deposit the first installment of the tax.
Key Details:
- The 2% equalisation levy was introduced in the 2020-21 Budget and came into effect from April 1, 2020.
- The ‘equalisation tax’ is designed to provide a level playing field for resident marketplaces or providers who are subject to Indian income taxes.
- Providers subject to the tax obligations include non-resident who owns, operates, or manages a digital or electronic facility or platform for online sales of goods, online provision of services, or both.
- The provider is liable to the tax if they are providing their own goods or service, and if facilitating the sales on their electronic platforms of other sellers.
- The tax applies to e-commerce transactions on websites such as Amazon.com. Google in particular has been worried as the tax applies to advertising revenue earned overseas if those ads target customers in India.
- The levy is seen as aimed at taxing foreign companies which have a significant local client base in India but were billing them through their offshore units, effectively escaping the country’s tax system.
- As per law, late-payment would attract interest at the rate of 1% per month or part of the month. Non-payment could result in a penalty equal to the amount of equalisation levy, along with interest.
Issues:
- Tax experts point out that there are practical difficulties in getting PAN and many companies are not paying the equalisation levy as there is still considerable confusion and lack of clarity on the applicability of the same.
- It is believed that the requirement of having a PAN and an Indian bank account could cause administrative delays in remittance by non-residents.
- The levy has several issues that primarily include very wide coverage (even non-e-commerce companies could be covered), lack of clarity on how consideration needs to be determined especially in cases where the income is minuscule compared to the transactions facilitated by the non-resident e-commerce operators.
- Even transactions between non-residents are covered and this according to tax experts would be an extraterritorial overreach along with practical difficulty in implementation.