IASTODAY DAILY CAPSULES -General Studies-01

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Keezhadi excavations: Sangam era older than previously thought, finds study

News

• In a major turning point in the cultural historiography of the ancient Sangam Age, the Tamil Nadu Archaeology Department (TNAD) has stated that the cultural deposits unearthed during excavations at Keeladi in Sivaganga district could be safely dated to a period between 6th century BCE and 1st century CE.

Keeladi artefacts

• This is the first time the date has been officially announced by the TNAD.
• The new findings, place Keeladi artefacts about 300 years earlier than previously believed 3rd century BCE.
• One of the six samples collected at the depth of 353 cm and sent for carbon dating test in the U.S. “goes back to 580 BCE.”
• The results from the fourth excavations suggest that the second urbanisation [the first being Indus] of Vaigai plains happened in Tamil Nadu around 6th century BCE as it happened in Gangetic plains.”
• The recent scientific dates obtained for Keeladi findings push back the date of Tamil-Brahmi script to another century, i.e., 6th century BCE.
• These results clearly ascertained that they attained literacy or learned the art of writing as early as 6th century BCE.
• Fifty-six Tamil-Brahmi inscribed potsherds were recovered from the site of excavation conducted by the TNAD alone.
• Pottery specimens from Keeladi confirmed that water containers and cooking vessels were shaped out of locally available raw materials.
• Recovery of 10 spindle whorls, 20 sharply pinpointed bone tip tools used for design creations, hanging stones of the yarn, terracotta spheres, copper needle and earthen vessels to hold liquid clearly attest to the various stages of weaving industry from spinning, yarning, looming and weaving and later for dyeing.

Hindi second-most used ‘Assistant’ language globally, says Google

News

• Hindi has emerged as the second-most used language globally on Google Assistant, the tech giant’s artificial intelligence powered assistant, behind just English, according to the tech giant.

Second-most used language

• Last year, Google had said its voice-based assistant had received about 4.5 lakh proposals for marriage in India.
• While Google didn’t share the number of people using Assistant (which competes with Apple’s Siri and Amazon’s Alexa), it said the product is available in over 30 languages across 80 countries.
• Tech companies like Google and Amazon are betting on vernacular languages as reports suggest that 90 per cent of new internet users in India are native language speakers.
• This makes it imperative for these tech companies to offer rich experience in local languages in India that is witnessing strong growth in internet usage as well as consumption of connected devices.
• Launched in India in 2017, Alexa was able to understand and pronounce names of popular places, names and songs in regional languages like Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Marathi and Punjabi but supported commands only in English.
• It had also hinted at support coming in for other Indic languages.
• Apart from Assistant, Google is adding more Indian languages to its other products.

IASTODAY DAILY CAPSULES -General Studies-02

Access to Internet is a basic right, says Kerala High Court

News

• The Kerala High Court held that the right to have access to the Internet is part of the fundamental right to education as well as the right to privacy under Article 21 of the Constitution.

Fundamental right

• Justice made the observation while ordering the Principal College, to re-admit a student who had been expelled from the college hostel for using her mobile phone beyond the restricted hours.
• The verdict came on a petition filed by student challenging her expulsion for not adhering to restrictions on the use of mobile phone.
• Petition contended that the use of mobile phones amounted to a violation of fundamental right to freedom of speech and expression under Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution.
• The Judge observed that the action of the college authorities infringed the fundamental freedom as well as privacy and would adversely affect the future and career of students who want to acquire knowledge and compete with their peers.

Centre proposes new draft Code on Social Security

News

• The Centre has proposed a new draft Code on Social Security that amalgamates eight laws covering Employees’ Provident Fund, maternity benefits and compensation among others that makes way for establishing funds for PF and pension as well as covering workers of the gig economy in social security schemes.

New draft Code

• The draft code, which was published by the Labour and Employment Ministry, will be up for public comments till October 25.
• It proposes PF, pension and insurance funds that would be administered by a central board. Employees would also be able to opt for the National Pension Scheme if they want.
• The draft code proposes schemes related to life and disability cover, health and maternity benefits and old-age protection for “gig workers and platform workers” as well as the unorganised sector.
• The government had proposed to combine 44 labour laws into four codes. After coming out with two codes on wages, occupational safety, health and working conditions it has not drafted the third.
• The code also says no employer can knowingly employ a woman six weeks after a delivery, miscarriage or medical termination of pregnancy.
• The Maternity Benefit Act, 1961, which is among the laws being subsumed by the code, had placed the six-week restriction for women after delivery or miscarriage, not mentioning medical termination.

SC asks High Court panel to probe allegations of illegal detention of children in J&K

News

• The Supreme Court assigned the Jammu and Kashmir High Court’s Juvenile Justice Committee to inquire into allegations of illegal detention of children some as young as 10 by security forces in Jammu and Kashmir, which is undergoing a period of lockdown following the reading down of Article 370.

IASTODAY DAILY CAPSULES -General Studies-03

NASA orbiter captures images of Chandrayaan 2 Lander Vikram’s attempted landing site

News

• As the deadline to re-establish communication with Chandrayaan 2’s Vikram lander nears, NASA’s moon orbiter has captured images of the lunar region where the Indian mission made an unsuccessful attempt to soft-land.

NASA’s moon orbiter

• NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) spacecraft has snapped a series of images during its flyby of Vikram’s attempted landing site near the moon’s uncharted south pole.
• The probability of establishing contact with the lander has a deadline of September 21 because after that the moon region will enter into a lunar night.
• NASA is validating, analysing and reviewing the images. It was near lunar dusk when the orbiter passed over, meaning large parts of the area were in shadow.
• The lander Vikram and rover Pragyan were supposed to be functional only for 14 days from the day of their touchdown.
• At the start of the mission, ISRO said the mission life of the lander and the rover will be one lunar day which is equal to 14 Earth days, whereas that of the orbiter will be one Earth year.
• The nights on the moon can be very cold, especially in the south polar region where Vikram is lying. Temperatures could drop to as low as minus 200°C during the lunar night. The instruments aboard the lander are not designed to withstand that kind of temperature. The electronics would not work and would get permanently damaged.
• Therefore, if no connection is established in the next days, ISRO may have to give up the hope to establish connection with the lander.

Govt. cuts corporate tax to spur investment, jobs

News

• In its boldest gambit yet to stir up the economy, the government issued an ordinance to reduce the corporate tax rate for domestic firms and new manufacturing units by 10 to 12 percentage points, effectively bringing India’s tax rates on par with its competing Asian peers.

Reduce the corporate tax rate

• The effective tax rate for domestic corporates, inclusive of surcharges, will fall from 34.94% to 25.17% if they stop availing any other tax sops. For new manufacturing firms set up after October 1, 2019 and commencing operations by March 31, 2023, the effective tax rate will fall from 29.1% to 17%.
• The slew of measures unveiled by Finance Minister, including a rollback of the enhanced surcharge levied on foreign portfolio investors in the Budget, and a reduction in the Minimum Alternate Tax (MAT) rate from 18.5% to 15% for all businesses, is estimated to cost the exchequer ₹1,45,000 crore a year in terms of revenue foregone.
• In order to promote growth and investment, a new provision has been inserted in the Income Tax law to allow any domestic company to pay income tax at the rate of 22% (from 30%), subject to the condition that they won’t avail any other (tax) incentives or exemptions.
• There will be no MAT levied on them and the effective tax rate for such firms will be 25.17%, including all surcharges and cess.
• To spur fresh investments and boost Make in India efforts, for new manufacturing companies incorporated after October 1, 2019 and commencing production by March 31, 2023, the income tax rate will be 15% from 25% at present. The effective tax rate for these companies will be 17.01%, compared to 29.1% at present. These firms will also be exempt from MAT.
• Firms currently availing income tax exemptions and incentives can opt for the new concessional tax regime with a headline tax rate of 22% after the expiry of their existing tax holidays or exemption periods.
• The foreign investors could also avail of the new tax rates, provided they had an establishment in the country or were investing equity into an Indian firm..
• The larger idea behind the exercise was to eventually phase out all exemptions and incentives. On the other hand, surcharges on income tax would be eased out too.

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