Hindu Notes from General Studies-01

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Telangana sees sharp drop in groundwater table

News

• Residents of Hyderabad are drawing between 600% and 140% of the annual recharge of groundwater table, according to scientists at the Telangana Groundwater Department.

Beyond News

• The groundwater table in Hyderabad and Telangana is going down rapidly as the extraction rate is high. On an average, Hyderabad is drawing 340% of the annual recharge volume.
• The worst-affected areas due to sharp decline in the water level are the western and northern parts of the metropolis that include densely-populated areas.
• The State average water level during May 2019 dropped to 14.56 mbgl from 12.73 mbgl in 2018 showing a decline of 1.83 mbgl. How is this dipping water level impacting the residents of the city can be seen from the uncertainty they face every summer.
• The Composite Water Management Index by Niti Aayog listed Hyderabad as one of the cities that would reach zero groundwater level by 2020 along with 20 other major cities, including Delhi and Bengaluru. The Niti Aayog also mentioned that this would affect about 100 million people across the country.
• A ray of hope for Telangana is the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project that is expected to pump a massive volume of Godavari water and make it available to large areas in the State.

Hindu Notes from General Studies-02

India beats U.S. at WTO in renewable energy case

News

• A WTO dispute resolution panel has ruled in favour of India in a case against the U.S. saying that America’s domestic content requirements and subsidies provided by eight of its states in the renewable energy sector are violative of global trade norms.

Beyond News

• The panel concluded in its ruling that “the measures” of the US “are inconsistent” with certain provisions of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). It said the U.S. has “nullified or impaired benefits accruing to India under that agreement”.
• GATT aims to promote trade by reducing or eliminating trade barriers like customs duties.
• The ruling stated that 10 measures implemented by the U.S. pertaining to renewable energy sector are inconsistent with its obligations under GATT 1994.
• In 2016, India dragged the U.S. to WTO’s dispute settlement mechanism over America’s domestic content requirements and subsidies provided by eight states in the renewable energy sector.
• Washington, California, Montana, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Michigan, Delaware and Minnesota were the eight States providing subsidies.
• India had stated that the measures are inconsistent with global trade norms because they provide less favourable treatment to imported products than to like domestic products, and because the subsidies are contingent on the use of domestic over imported goods.
• The ruling of dispute panel can be challenged in WTO’s appellate body which is part of the dispute settlement mechanism of the Geneva-based multilateral body. The ruling comes at a time when there are trade tensions between the two countries.
• The U.S. has rolled back export incentives from India under its GSP programme and New Delhi has imposed higher customs duties on 28 American products.
• The two countries are also at loggerheads on a number of other disputes at the WTO. The U.S. has challenged certain export promotion schemes of India, while India has challenged U.S.’s unilateral hike on customs duties on certain steel and aluminium products.

Rajya Sabha passes bill to amend Special Economic Zones law

News

• The Rajya Sabha cleared the Special Economic Zones (Amendment) Bill, 2019, that seeks to allow trusts to set up units in special economic zones, a day after the Lok Sabha passed the measure.

Beyond News

• The Bill will replace the Special Economic Zones (Amendment) Ordinance, 2019.
• This is a small amendment that has a large impact on investment, job and growth.

Hindu Notes from General Studies-03

Desert-dwelling carnivorous dinosaur’s bones found in Brazil

News

• A desert-based carnivorous dinosaur that used claws to capture small prey 90 million years ago has been unearthed in southern Brazil.

Beyond News

• Over a metre and a half in length, the fossil remains of the Vespersaurus paranaensiswere found in Cruzeiro do Oeste municipality of Parana state, a team of palaeontologists from Brazil and Argentina said in a statement.
• The Vespersauruswas a theropod, a group of two-footed, meat-eating dinosaurs that included the better known Tyrannosaurus and Velociraptor.
• Footprints now believed to belong to this new species of dinosaur were discovered in Cruzeiro do Oeste in the 1970s.
• The northeastern region of Parana was once a desert and the dinosaur’s remains suggest that the Vespersauruswas well adapted to that type of climate.
• Other dinosaur species have been found there and, according to the scientists, the latest discovery must “catapult” palaeontological investigations in the region.

SEBI tightens norms for mutual fund investments

News

• In a reaction to a series of credit-related events that put investor money at risk, markets regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) tightened norms on investments by mutual funds(MFs).

Beyond News

• Last month, the markets watchdog had questioned the legality of an agreement between some fund houses and the Essel Group, giving the business house time till September to repay its dues.
• SEBI is also looking into the recent stake sale by Emami promoters in the company to raise ₹1,600 crore from a group of investors, including SBI Mutual Fund.
• SEBI’s board had decided on key reforms over liquid funds, credit rating firms, promoters’ pledge of shares, and royalty payments.
• SEBI said MFs will now be mandated to invest in only listed non-convertible debentures. All fresh investments by MFs in commercial papers (CPs) and equities will also be allowed only in listed securities and liquid mutual fund schemes will have to hold at least 20% in liquid assets.
• Valuation of securities in debt funds will now be on mark-to-market value and hence, there will uniformity across the industry with fair valuation of each debt security.”
• The cap on sectoral limit of 25% shall be reduced to 20%. The additional exposure of 15% to HFCs shall be restructured to 10% to HFCs and 5% in securitised debt.
• In a further tightening, promoters, promoter groups and persons acting in concert (PACs) will need to disclose the reason for creating an encumbrance as soon as 20% of their share capital is leveraged.
• SEBI also approved the framework for issuance of differential voting rights (DVRs) and introduction of superior voting rights for tech companies, which will be effective from July 01, 2019.

Indians’ money in Swiss banks falls, hits second-lowest level in two decades

News

• Money parked by Indian individuals and enterprises in Swiss banks, including through India-based branches, fell by nearly 6% in 2018 to 955 million Swiss francs (about ₹6,757 crore) to hit its second-lowest level in over two decades, Swiss National Bank (SNB) data showed.

Beyond News

• Aggregate funds of all foreign clients of Swiss banks also fell by over 4% to CHF 1.4 trillion (nearly ₹99 lakh crore) in 2018, as per the annual banking statistics released by the Zurich-based central banking authority of Switzerland.
• The ‘locational banking statistics’ of the Bank for International Settlement (BIS), which the Indian and Swiss governments had said last year was a more reliable measure for deposits by Indian individuals in Swiss banks, showed a greater fall of 11% for 2018.
• According to the SNB, its data for ‘total liabilities’ of Swiss banks towards Indian clients takes into account all kinds of funds of Indian customers at Swiss banks, including deposits from individuals, banks and enterprises. This includes data for branches of Swiss banks in India, as also non-deposit liabilities.
• The funds, described by the SNB as ‘liabilities’ of Swiss banks or ‘amounts due to’ their clients, are the official figures reported by the banks and do not indicate the quantum of the much-debated alleged black money held by Indians there.
• The official SNB figures also do not include the money that Indians, non-resident Indians (NRIs) or others might have in Swiss banks in the names of entities from different countries.
• The SNB data had shown the total liabilities of Swiss banks towards Indian clients rising by over 50% in 2017 to CHF 1.01 billion (₹7,000 crore), reversing a three-year downward trend.
• The lowest ever amount of CHF 675 million, ever since Switzerland began making the data public in 1987, was recorded in 2016.
• As per the latest figures, the total customer deposits of Indian clients rose to CHF 572 million in 2018, but funds held through banks fell to CHF 104 million, while money parked through securities and other instruments and via fiduciaries also declined.
• A new framework has been put in place for automatic exchange of information between Switzerland and India to help check the black money menace with effect from January 1, 2018.
• Detailed financial information on all Indian residents that have an account maintained by a Swiss financial institution in 2018 will be provided for the first time to the Indian tax authorities in September 2019 and on a yearly basis thereafter. The information would also include accounts that would be closed during 2018.
• While Switzerland has already begun sharing foreign client details on evidence of wrongdoing provided by India and some other countries, the new framework would expand the cooperation.
• A number of strategies have been deployed by the government to combat the stashed-funds menace, in both overseas and domestic domain, which includes enactment of a new law, amendments to the Anti-Money Laundering Act and compliance windows for people to declare their hidden assets.
• The tax department had detected suspected black money running into thousands of crores of rupees post investigations on global leaks about Indians stashing funds abroad and has launched prosecution against hundreds of them, including those with accounts in the Geneva branch of HSBC.

Hindu Notes from General Studies-04

Selfies are five times deadlier than shark attacks

News

• Selfies, which have become a global sensation in the last decade or so, have remarkably killed five times more people than shark attacks.

Findings

• The death toll has crept up incrementally each year as smartphones become more sophisticated and selfie-sticks increase the range at which people can snap themselves, prompting them to take bigger risks for the perfect shot.
• Between October 2011 and November 2017, at least 259 people died taking selfies around the globe, according to the Journal, compared to just 50 people killed by sharks in the same period.
• While women take the most selfies, young men, who are more prone to take risks, make up three quarters of the selfie deaths in drownings, crashes, falls or shooting accidents.
• India, with a population of more than 1.3 billion and 800 million cell phones, holds the record for the number of people dying in the act of photographing themselves, with 159 recorded so far.
• That is more than half of the global total and a testament of sorts to the nation’s love of group photos and its youthful population. The situation has become so dire that the country has set up “no selfie” zones 16 of them in the city of Mumbai alone. The country came in far ahead of Russia (16 deaths), the United States (14) and Pakistan.
• In Russia, people have fallen from bridges and high-rise buildings, shot themselves or even died while handling a land mine. Police issued a guide to “selfies without danger” in 2015.
• In the United States, most of those involved in selfie deaths fatally shot themselves while seeking the perfect pose. A number of people have fallen to their deaths at the Grand Canyon.
• Rescue services in Croatia used Twitter to ask tourists to “stop taking stupid and dangerous selfies” after a Canadian miraculously survived a 75-metre fall in the Plitvice lakes region.

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