Current Affairs – 22nd Apr 2024

Articles Covered

  1. INSV TARINI RETURNS TRIUMPHANT AFTER HISTORIC TRANSOCEANIC EXPEDITION BY INDIAN NAVY’S WOMEN OFFICERS
  2. Mount Erebus
  3. Ministry of Panchayati Raj organizes National Colloquium on Grassroots Governance on 24th April, 2024 to mark National Panchayati Raj Day
  4. Llama 3, Meta’s most sophisticated and capable large language model yet
  5. Forests a national asset and a major contributor to financial wealth, says Supreme Court
  6. NASA Mars sample return program is expensive and will take too long
  7. BFI Biome Virtual Network Program
  8. National Organ and Tissue Transplant Organization (NOTTO)
  9. tax collections for the fiscal year 2023-24
  10. Rampage Missile

INSV TARINI RETURNS TRIUMPHANT AFTER HISTORIC TRANSOCEANIC EXPEDITION BY INDIAN NAVY’S WOMEN OFFICERS

  1. The Indian Naval Sailing Vessel (INSV) Tarini has returned triumphant to her base port at Goa on 21 Apr 24 after a historic transoceanic expedition of nearly two months duration.
  2. The expedition was undertaken in double-handed mode by Lt Cdr Dilna K and Lt Cdr Roopa A, women officers of the Indian Navy. Their exceptional journey marks a historic milestone as they become the first from India to accomplish such a feat.
  3. The expedition was Flagged off from Goa by renowned circumnavigator and their mentor Cdr Abhilash Tomy (Retd) on 28 Feb 24. After 22 days of navigating through the unpredictable elements of the Indian Ocean, INSV Tarini arrived at Port Louis, Mauritius, on 21 Mar 24. This historic moment was celebrated with a series of events where the officers had the privilege of interacting with government officials from the Mauritius Coast Guard and the Indian High Commission. In a gesture of camaraderie and collaboration, the vessel also undertook a training sortie with personnel from the Mauritius Coast Guard embarked, strengthening bilateral ties and fostering goodwill between the two maritime nations.
  4. Following a hectic schedule at Port Louis, Lt Cdr Dilna K and Lt Cdr Roopa the officers prepared to embark on their return journey to Goa. Departing on 30 Mar 24, the officers faced continuous challenges posed by heavy winds, adverse sea states, and rough seas. Their indomitable spirit and steadfast resolve propelled them forward, guiding INSV Tarini safely back to Goa on 21 Apr 24.
  5. Their accomplishments underscore the Indian Navy’s commitment to promoting gender equality and empowering women in the maritime domain. Undeterred by the challenges encountered during their expedition, the officers demonstrated exceptional seamanship and resilience, embodying the spirit of adventure and exploration.

The two officers now prepare for their next monumental voyage, a circumnavigation of the globe (Sagar Parikrama – IV expedition) on INSV Tarini scheduled to commence in Sep this year.

  • This remarkable achievement will not only inspire but also pave way for future generations of personnel especially women in the Indian Navy to volunteer for challenging maritime adventure activities.
  • INSV Tarini was flagged in by Commanding Officer INS Mandovi and Naval Station Commander North Goa at the boat pool of INS Mandovi, in presence of naval personnel and families of Station Mandovi, symbolizing the collective achievement and camaraderie within the Indian Navy.

Mount Erebus

 Mount Erebus, an active volcano in Antarctica, has been in the news for spewing gold dust worth $6000 every single day.

Mount Erebus

  • It is the most southerly active volcanoon Earth.
  • Location: It is situated on Ross Island, Antarctica.
  • It was discovered in 1841 by the British explorer Sir James Clark Ross, who named it after his ship, the Erebus.
  • It stands at an elevation of about 3,794 meters (12,448 feet).
  • It’s a stratovolcano, characterized by a conical shapeand layers of hardened lava, tephra, and volcanic ash.
  • Mount Erebus is known for its persistent lava lake.
  1. The lake has been active since at least 1972and is one of only a few long-lived lava lakes on Earth.
  2. It constantly churnsand occasionally spews bombs of molten rock in Strombolian eruptions.

(Strombolian eruptions: Strombolian eruptions are moderately explosive eruptions of basaltic magma with moderate gas content. Strombolian eruptions consist of intermittent, discrete explosive bursts which eject pyroclasts as high as hundreds of feet into the air in firework-like incandescent rooster-tails. The discrete blasts in this eruption style are caused by vesiculation of the lava at the vent. A sustained eruptive column is not developed. Strombolian eruptions are louder than Hawaiian eruptions, and generally are of more viscous magma)

Because the volcano is in a remote location, researchers monitor it using satellites.

Stratovolcano

  1. It is a tallsteep, and cone-shaped type of volcano.
  2. Unlike flat shield volcanoes, they have higher peaks.
  3. They are typically found above sub duction zones, and they are often part of large volcanically active regions, such as the Ring of Fire that frames much of the Pacific Ocean.
  4. Strato Volcanoes comprise the largest percentage (~60%) of the Earth’s individual volcanoes, and most are characterized by eruptions of and esite and dacitelavas that are cooler and more viscous than basalt.
  5. These more viscous lavas allow gas pressures to build up to high levels. Therefore, these volcanoes often suffer explosive eruptions.
  6. They are usually about half-half lava and pyroclastic material, and the layering of these products gives them their other common name of composite volcanoes.

At the peak, strato volcanoes usually have a small crater. The crater may be filled with water or ice, or it may contain a volcanic dome during a period of relative inactivity.

Ministry of Panchayati Raj organizes National Colloquium on Grassroots Governance on 24th April, 2024 to mark National Panchayati Raj Day

  1. The Ministry of Panchayati Raj is organizing a National Colloquium on “Governance at the Grassroots after Three Decades of the 73rd Constitutional Amendment” on 24thApril, 2024, at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi in observance of National Panchayati Raj Day.
  2. Secretary, Ministry of Panchayati Raj Shri Vivek Bharadwaj and Secretary, Department of Rural Development Shri Shailesh Kumar Singh will inaugurate the National Colloquium in the presence of Additional Secretary, Ministry of Panchayati Raj Dr. Chandra Shekhar Kumar and other senior officials.
  3. The National Colloquium on Grassroots Governance aims to facilitate dialogue and collaboration among stakeholders, including officials from Central and State Governments, NIRD&PR, faculty members from SIRD&PRs, academicians, subject matter experts, representatives of UN Agencies, and Civil Society Organizations (CSOs).
  4. Key topics of discussion will include the role of digital technology in transforming public service delivery, initiatives of MoPR aimed at transforming Panchayat Governance, and the convergence of digital governance initiatives of various Ministries/ Departments.
  5. This one-day Colloquium offers a unique platform to assess achievements, identify challenges, and explore opportunities for enhancing grassroots governance and public service delivery through Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs). Discussions will focus on the evolution of principles of Good Governance in rural areas and pathways for strengthening PRIs as vehicles for effective public service delivery.
  6. The Ministry of Panchayati Raj’s ongoing efforts towards digital empowerment form the foundation of its mission to realize the concept and vision of Smart Panchayats.
  7. Through robust e-governance initiatives, the Ministry is committed to enhancing transparency, efficiency, and people’s participation in grassroots governance. Training programs are also underway to ensure the meaningful implementation of digital strategies.
  8. The Ministry sensitizes and engages citizens in grassroots governance through partnerships with States/ UTs.
  9. As a third tier of government and the primary interface between the union government and rural communities, Panchayats play a crucial role in promoting Ease of Living and Ease of Doing Business in rural India. The Ministry’s digital initiatives are instrumental in promoting self-reliance, creating sustainable livelihoods, supporting inclusive development and advancing Localization of Sustainable Development Goals (LSDGs) across Gram Panchayats nationwide.
  10. The Ministry of Panchayati Raj commemorates the 24th of April every year as National Panchayati Raj Day (NPRD) with profound zeal and fervour, marking the enactment of the Constitution (73rd Amendment) Act, 1992, which came into force on 24thApril, 1993.
  11. The National Colloquium on Grassroots Governance holds particular significance as it coincides with three decades of the Constitution (73rd Amendment) Act and two decades since the creation of the Ministry of Panchayati Raj.
  12. The Ministry of Panchayati Raj is dedicated to empowering grassroots governance and accelerating progress on LSDGs across rural India through innovative initiatives and digital interventions.

Llama 3, Meta’s most sophisticated and capable large language model yet

Meta will be integrating its latest model into its proprietary virtual assistant — Meta AI. It claims Llama 3 outperformed Gemma 7B, Claude 3 Sonnet, and Mistral 7B in various benchmarks.

Meta is pitching its latest models as the most sophisticated AI models, steering way ahead of its peers such as Google, Mistral, etc., in terms of performance and capabilities.

Recently, Meta introduced its most capable Large Language Model (LLM) “Llama 3”.

  1. Meta also introduced an image generator, which updates pictures in real-time even as the user types out the prompt.
  2. Llama or Large Language Model Meta AI is a family of LLMs introduced by Meta AI in February 2023. 
  3. Meta released Llama 2 in July last year, a significantly upgraded version of its first LLM.

Llama 3:

  • Structure:It is based on the Llama 2 architecture and has been released in two sizes, 8B and 70B parameters.
  • Both sizes come with a base model and an instruction-tuned version that has been designed to augment performance in specific tasks.
  • Characteristics Features:
  • Significant Performance:It is claimed to be the most sophisticated model with significant progress in terms of performance and AI capabilities.
  • According to the company, the post-training processes have led to greatly improved capabilities like reasoning, code generation, and instruction following making Llama 3 more steerable.
  • Llama 3 can be used to create different forms of texts such as poems, code, scripts, and musical pieces.It can summarise factual topics and can also be used to translate languages.
  • Powering Conversation: The instruction-tuned version is meant for powering AI chatbots that are meant to hold conversations with users.
  • Open-source Ethos:It has also embraced an open-source ethos of releasing early and enabling the dev community (a community of software engineers) to get access to the models while they are still in development.
  • According to Meta, it has built the best open-source models that are on par with the best proprietary models available today.
  • Strengthen Interaction: All models of Llama 3 support context lengths of8,000 tokens.This allows for more interactions, and complex input handling compared to Llama 2 or 1.
  • More tokens here mean more content input or prompts from users and more content as a response from the model.
  • Safety & Security:Meta has said that it is dedicated to developing Llama 3 in a responsible way. It offers various resources to help others use it responsibly as well.
  • This includes introducing new trust and safety tools with Llama Guard 2, Code Shield, and CyberSec Eval 2.
  • Integration: Meta said that it has integrated Llama 3 into Meta AI which can be used on Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger, and the web. 
  • It is readily available for developers as Meta has integrated the LLM into the Hugging Face ecosystem.
  • It is also available via Perplexity Labs, Fireworks AI, and on cloud provider platforms such as Azure ML and Vertex AI.

Forests a national asset and a major contributor to financial wealth, says Supreme Court

The judgment has come at a pivotal time when the controversial Forest Conservation (Amendment) Act of 2023 has attracted widespread criticism

“It is the spirit of the forest that moves the earth,” a Bench headed by Justice M.M. Sundresh observed in a judgment based on an appeal filed by the State of Telangana against a High Court decision “graciously gifting” forest land to a private person. The State’s Forest officials, expected to preserve the forest, had made matters worse by filing conflicting affidavits in court about the nature of the land in question. The apex court ordered ₹5 lakh in costs from both the State government and the private persons. The State was asked to open an enquiry against its own forest officials.

Key Highlights of the Supreme Court Judgement

  • Carbon Credit as Financial Wealth of Nation: The SC bench highlighted that the concepts of carbon credit and green accounting to evaluate a nation’s wealth had become a reality.
  • A country with excess forest cover may sell its excess carbon credit to the one in deficit. This underlines the significance of forests in contributing to the financial wealth of a country.
  • Economic Value of India’s Forests as Carbon Sinks: India’s forests serve as a major sink of carbon dioxide (CO2). The conservative estimate values the mitigation at $5 per tonne of CO2 sequestered within our forests.
  • This substantial carbon sink, estimated at approximately 24,000 metric tons of CO2, equates to a value of $120 billion or ₹6 lakh crores.
  • Reference to a 2022-2023 report of the Reserve Bank of India: It highlighted the climate change and changing patterns of rainfall could cost the economy 2.8% of its GDP and depress the living standards of nearly half of its population by 2050.
  • India could lose anywhere around 3% to 10% of its GDP annually by year 2100 due to climate change.
  • Broad Spectrum Impact: The report suggests the potential impact of climate change on society, leading to serious job losses in every sector.
  • Therefore, the adverse effect will be on the future of the nation as a whole, as against an identifiable group.

Forest

  • According to the 1996 Godavarman Judgement: “forest” would include:
  • Any land recorded as “forest” in government records; and 
  • Any land that satisfied the dictionary definition of forest. (TheOxford Dictionary defines forest as “a large area covered with trees and undergrowth.”)

Status of Forests in India:

  • Forest Status in India:  India’s total forest cover underwent a net increase of 38,251 sq. km from 2001 to 2021. This increase was mainly in terms of open forest cover, where tree canopy density is 10-40%.
  • In the same period, forest cover with canopy density above 40% declined by 10,140 sq. km.

Forest cover: Forest cover refers to land greater than one hectare in size with tree canopy density (percentage of land covered by tree canopy) is greater than 10%.

Significance of Forests

  1. Preserving Biodiversity: Forests are home to over 80% of terrestrial biodiversity, including 80% of amphibians, 75% of birds, and 68% of mammals, underscoring the importance of Forest in preserving diverse ecosystems.
  2. Carbon Sink: Forests are the largest storehouses of carbon after the oceans, as they absorb carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere through the process of photosynthesis. 
  3. Water Cycle:  Forests play a critical role in the water cycle. They absorb rainwater and release it gradually, reducing the risk of floods and ensuring a constant supply of freshwater to rivers and streams.
  4. Forests also help recharge groundwater aquifers.
  5. Local Weather: Forests enhance local precipitation and improve water holding capacity of soil, regulate water cycle, maintain soil fertility by returning the nutrients to the soil through litter.
  6. Ecosystem Services: Forests provide a wide range of ecosystem services, including pollination of crops by forest-dwelling insects, regulation of micro climates, and habitat for pollinators and predators that benefit agriculture.
  7. Reservoirs of Genetic Diversity: Forests have great biological importance as reservoirs of genetic diversity apart from playing an important role in regulating earth’s climate.
  8. Crucial Buffer:  As the impacts of climate change become more frequent and severe, forests can provide a crucial buffer for our communities, emphasizing the importance of forest in climate resilience and disaster mitigation.

Threats to Forests in India

  1. Deforestation: Rampant unlawful logging sports for wooden, fuelwood, and other forest area merchandise threaten the integrity of India’s forests.
  2. Encroachment of Forest lands for agricultural enlargement, urbanisation, and commercial improvement exacerbates deforestation charges.
  3. Mining and Infrastructure Development:  Large-scale mining operations and infrastructure projects, together with roads, highways, and dams, frequently result in substantial forest area clearance and habitat destruction.
  4. Unsustainable Land Use Practices: Unsustainable land use practices, including transferring cultivation, mono culture plantations, and overgrazing, contribute to forest degradation and loss of biodiversity.
  5. Fragmentation of forests because of land conversion results in habitat fragmentation, disrupting ecological processes and diminishing wildlife populations.
  6. Forest Fires: Forest fires pose an enormous hazard to forest ecosystems, particularly in the dry season. These fires now not only damage vegetation but also degrade soil quality and disrupt environmental dynamics.
  7. Changing Weather Patterns: Climate change-triggered phenomena, including erratic rainfall, extended droughts, and elevated frequency of intense weather activities, adversely affect Forest fitness and resilience.
  8. Spread of Invasive Species: Changes in temperature and precipitation regimes facilitate the unfolding of invasive species, disrupting native ecosystems and outcompeting indigenous flora and fauna.
  9. Ineffectiveness of CAMPA: Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA) does not adequately address ecosystem resilience. Biodiversity, which develops over long periods, is richest in older forests.
  10. Thus, replacing mature forests with new saplings adversely impacts biodiversity, climate regulation, carbon storage, and water resources.

India’s Forest Conservation Efforts

Protected Areas in India:

  1. NATIONAL PARK, WILDLIFE SANCTUARY –India boasts an in-depth community of countrywide parks and flora and fauna sanctuaries geared toward keeping biodiversity and shielding endangered species.
  2. Key examples encompass the JIM CORBETT NATIONAL PARK
  3. Kaziranga National Park, and Sundarbans National Park.
  4. BIOSPHERE RESERVE -They serve as crucial ecological hotspots, promoting conservation and sustainable improvement.

Afforestation and Reforestation:

  1. National Afforestation Programme (2002):  It aims at ecological restoration of degraded forests and to develop the forest resources with peoples’ participation, with focus on improvement in livelihoods of the forest-fringe communities, especially the poor.
  2. Green India Mission (2014): It targets to increase forest and tree cover to mitigate climate change, enhance atmosphere services, and improve livelihoods.
  3. It aims to increase forest/tree cover to the extent of 5 million hectares and improve quality of forest/tree cover on another 5 mha of forest/non-forest lands.
  4. It also aims to increase forest-based livelihood income of about 3 million households.
  5. Joint Forest Management: Collaborative efforts among Forest area departments and local communities through Joint Forest Management (JFM) results in afforestation, reforestation, and sustainable forest management practices.
  6. Community-Based Total Conservation:
  7. Van Panchayats: Van Panchayats, or forest councils, empower nearby communities to participate in Forest control, conservation, and recreation activities, fostering a feel of ownership and stewardship.

Landmark T.N. Godavarman Thirumulpad Judgment:

  1. Expanded View: The Supreme Court took an expanded view of forest tracts worthy of protection.
  2. Must Protected: It said that forests had to be protected irrespective of how they were classified and who owned them.
  3. Concept of Deemed Forests:This brought in the concept of ‘deemed forests,’ or tracts that were not officially classified as such in government or revenue records. 
  4. States were asked to constitute expert committees to identify such ‘deemed forests.’ 

In the 28 years that have passed since the judgement, only a handful of States have constituted such committees or made public the extent of such ‘deemed forests’ within their territories.

  • Tribal and Indigenous Forest Rights: Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 recognises tribal and indigenous forest rights and guarantees their involvement in forest conservation and management.

Forests Policy and Legislation in India:

  • Forest Conservation Act (1980):It regulates diversion of forest lands for non-forest areas, making sure sustainable use and conservation of Forest resources.
  • Environment Protection Act 1986: It is an umbrella legislation under which various rules and notifications have been framed and issued to take care of the different dimensions of Forest.
  • Wildlife (Protection) Act (WPA),1972:It provides protection to listed flora and fauna and establishes a network of ecologically important protected areas.
  • It empowers the central and state governments to declare any area a wildlife sanctuary, national park or closed area.

Constitutional Framework for Forests in India:

  1. Inclusion in Concurrent List: Forests are classified under the Concurrent List of the Constitution of India.
  2. Transfer of Jurisdiction: The 42nd Amendment Act of 1976transferred the jurisdiction over forests and protection of flora and fauna from the State List to the Concurrent List.
  3. Fundamental Duty: Article 51A (G) emphasises the essential obligation of citizens to shield and preserve the natural environment, consisting of forests.

Directive Principles: Article 48 A of the DPSP mandates Government’s efforts to preserve and improve the environment, consisting of safeguarding forests and the natural world.

The Act prohibits hunting of animals except with permission of an authorized officer when the animal has become dangerous to human life or property or so disabled or deceased as to be beyond recovery.

  • National Forest Policy (1988): It offers a framework for sustainable forest control, biodiversity conservation, and network participation in forest area governance.
  • Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA):
  • Aim:It was established to compensate for forest loss due to development projects. 
  • Set up Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management & Planning Authority (CAMPA)at central & state level.
  • Fund Allocation: Establishes a National Compensatory Afforestation Fund under the Public Account of India, & a State Compensatory Afforestation Fund under the Public Account of each state.
  • The National Fund receives 10%State Fund gets 90% of funds collected.
  • Fund Utilization:The funds are utilized for afforestation, regeneration of forest ecosystem, wildlife protection & infrastructure development.

NASA Mars sample return program is expensive and will take too long

NASA’s Mars sample return program has been deemed too expensive while also taking too much time.

NASA’s Perseverance Rover, named Percy, in 2023 created the first “sample depot on Mars” by deploying ten rock sample tubes.

These tubes are intended to be brought back to Earth as part of the Mars Sample Return (MSR) mission.

  1. Challenges for Mars Sample Return (MSR) mission: The return program has been described as highly constrained and challenging due to the hugecost burden and execution schedule in 2040. 
  2. NASA is collaborating with internal departments to formulate a fresh strategy grounded in innovative and established technology. 

Mars Sample Return (MSR) Mission:

  • About: It aims to deliver material from the Martian surface to Earth.
  • NASA and ESA Collaboration: Both NASA and the European Space Agency are working together on it.
  • Transporting Samples for Mars Ascent: ESA’s “fetch” rover is supposed to take the samples collected by Perseverance and take them to a NASA-provided Mars ascent vehicle which will then launch into Mars’s orbit.
  • Bringing Samples Back to Earth: Then, an Earth Return Orbiter will take these samples from the ascent vehicle and bring them back to Earth.

Perseverance Rover:

  • Objective:  To study signs of ancient life, and collect samples of soils & rocks that can be sent back to Earth for future missions.
  • Mission Duration: At least one Mars year (approximately 687 Earth days)
  • Launched: July 30, 2020, from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida.

BFI Biome Virtual Network Program

Centre for Cellular and Molecular Platforms (C-CAMP) has joined the Blockchain for Impact (BFI) Biome Virtual Network Program to accelerate transformative healthcare solutions through biomedical innovation.

BFI Biome Virtual Network Program

  1. It will nurture cutting-edge biomedical science and innovation and accelerate the impact of transformative scientific advances in moving the needle for key healthcare challenges in India.
  2. It has a robust pipeline of biomedical innovations in several critical areas such as infectious disease diagnostics, antimicrobial resistance, CELL THERAPY, immuno-oncology, regenerative tissues, digital health tech to name a few.
  3. This initiative unites incubators and research institutes under a single umbrella. This fosters collaborations among the stakeholders in the translational pipeline, the process of transforming research discoveries into real-world applications.
  4. Through this program, BFI will allocate over $ 200,000 over the course of three years, leveraging C-CAMP’s expertise to develop essential programs for healthcare-based startups.

C-CAMP

  • It is an initiative supported by the Department of Biotechnology and has been a catalyst of cutting-edge research and innovation in the life sciences since 2009.
  • It is mandated to promote entrepreneurship and innovation. It has created and fostered an entrepreneur-friendly culture in and around the Academic/Research environment through its involvement in SEED funding schemes for startups.

National Organ and Tissue Transplant Organization (NOTTO)

  • NOTTO is a national level organization set up under the Directorate General of Health Services, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India.
  • It functions as the apex centre for all India activities of coordination and networking for:
  • procurement and distribution of organs and tissues; and
  • registry of Organs and Tissues Donation and Transplantation in the country.

It has following two divisions:

National Human Organ and Tissue Removal and Storage Network:

  1. It would function as the apex centre for all India activities of coordination and networking for the procurement and distribution of Organs and Tissues and registry of Organs and Tissues Donation and Transplantation in the country.
  2. This has been mandated as per the Transplantation of Human Organs (Amendment) Act 2011.

National Biomaterial Centre (National Tissue Bank):

  1. The Transplantation of Human Organs (Amendment) Act 2011 has included the component of tissue donation and registration of tissue Banks.
  2. The main thrust and objective of establishing the centre is to fill up the gap between ‘Demand’ and ‘Supply’ as well as ‘Quality Assurance’ in the availability of various tissues.
  3. ActivitiesCoordination for tissue procurement and distribution; Donor Tissue ScreeningRemoval of Tissues and Storage; Preservations of TissueLaboratory screening of Tissues; Tissue Tracking; Sterilization, Records maintenance; Data Protection and Confidentiality; Quality Management in tissues; Patient Information on tissues; Development of Guidelines; Protocols and Standard Operating Procedures; Trainings, Assisting as per requirement in registration of other Tissue Banks.
  1. The Union Health Ministry has issued the directive to eliminate commercial dealings in organs, especially those involving foreign citizens.
  2. NOTTO-ID is mandatory for considering allocation of organs in the case of a deceased donor transplant; this ID in the case of a living donor transplant shall also be generated at the earliest, maximum within 48 hours after the transplant surgery is done.
  3. NOTTO-ID must be generated by the hospital from the NOTTO website.
  4. It has also called for stricter monitoring of such transplants by the local authorities.

All cases of organ transplants will be allocated a unique National Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation (NOTTO)-ID for both the donor and the recipient, according to a recent directive by the Union Health Ministry.

tax collections for the fiscal year 2023-24

  • The net direct tax collections for the fiscal year 2023-24 reached ₹19.58 trillion, marking a 17.7% increase from the previous fiscal year 2022-23.
  • Exceeding Budget Estimates: This figure surpassed the initial budget estimate by ₹1.35 trillion and the revised estimate (RE) mentioned in the interim budget by ₹13,000 crore.
  • If refunds are added to the collection, the resultant gross direct tax collection grew 18.5 per cent to Rs 23.37 trillion during FY24 from Rs 19.72 trillion during FY23.
  • Refunds of Rs 3.79 trillion were issued during 2023-24, showing an increase of 22.7 per cent over Rs 3.09 trillion issued the previous year.
  • Rise in Personal Income Tax Collection: In FY24, the actual growth in personal income tax collection exceeded expectations, reaching 25.3% compared to the 22.7% projected in the Revised Estimates (RE) over the FY23 collection.
  • Significance of Increased Income Tax Collections:  Net income tax collections surged by 25.2%. This is significant for two reasons:
  • The higher tax payments suggest increased earnings, indicating prosperity among taxpayers.
  • It may indicate an expansion of the tax base.
  • Lower than Anticipated Corporation Tax Growth: The growth in corporation tax was lower than anticipated, standing at 10.3% instead of the 11.7% forecasted in the RE.
  • The government reduced the corporation tax rate to 22% (25.17% including cess and surcharge) from the previous 30% starting from FY20 for companies that do not utilize any exemptions or incentives.
  • The tax rate was lowered to 15% for newly established domestic companies incorporated on or after October 1, 2019, engaged in fresh investments in manufacturing until March 31, 2023.
  • This deadline was subsequently extended until March 31, 2024.
  • Trend in Indirect Tax Collection: As indirect tax collection exceeded the RE for FY24, it is anticipated that the total tax revenue will surpass the RE.
  • The indirect tax collection for FY24 surpassed the RE of Rs 14.84 trillion by a considerable margin, primarily due to record GST collection.

Direct Tax: 

  1. About: It is a type of tax that is levied directly on the income, wealth, or property of individuals or organizations.
  2. Unlike indirect taxes, which are levied on goods and services and are paid indirectly by consumers (such as sales tax or VAT), direct taxes are paid directly to the government by the taxpayer.
  3. Significance:  The tax rate increases as income or wealth increases which promotes a sense of fair distribution of the tax burden based on ability to pay.
  4. Income Tax:  Imposed on individual, liable to pay the tax directly to the Government and bear the burden of the tax himself.
  5. Corporation Tax: Levied on the profit of corporations and companies.

Government Initiatives to Improve Direct Taxes:

  • Faceless E-assessment Scheme (2019) & Faceless Appeals (2020):  It removes direct interaction between taxpayers and assessing officers/ appellate authorities fostering transparency and reducing bias.
  • Document Identification Number (DIN):  A unique DIN is assigned to every communication related to tax matters, facilitating easy tracking and verification.
  • Pricing Agreements (APAs): It allows taxpayers and tax authorities to pre-agree on how to price international transactions, minimizing future disputes and fostering certainty.
  • Vivad se Vishwas Act, 2020: It provides a window for settling pending direct tax disputes, offering reduced penalties and fees for timely resolution.

Indirect Tax:  It is the tax levied on the consumption of goods and services. It is not directly levied on the income of a person. 

Indirect tax is generally imposed on suppliers or manufacturers who pass it on to the final consumer.

Rampage Missile

Israel recently used the Rampage, an efficient air-to-surface missile, in an attack on an Iranian military base.

Rampage Missile

  1. It is a long-range, supersonic, air-to-ground, seekerless, precision strike missile.
  2. It was developed by Israel Aerospace Industries and Israeli Military Industries Systems.
  3. It has been developed for use in missions aimed at destroying high-quality, well-protected targets,such as communication and command centers, air force bases, maintenance centers, and infrastructure.

Features:

  • It is 4.7m (15.4ft) long and has a total weight of 570kg.
  • It may travel at supersonic speeds, making it difficult to identify and intercept with air defense systems.
  • It has a range of over 190 miles.
  • It can carry 150 kg of explosives.
  • It has a blast fragmentation or general-purpose warhead.
  • It can be fired from an aircraft or as a stand-alone system and uses GPS/INS guidance navigation and anti-jamming capabilities.
  • It can also adjust its path mid-flight, to precisely hit the target it was programmed to hit.
  • It can operate in any weather conditions, day or night.
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