Current affairs- March 01, 2016

Union Budget 2016-17

Highlights of Union Budget 2016-17 Click here

Make In India initiative gets a leg up

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announced several proposals in the Union Budget 2016-17 to boost the government’s Make in India (MII) initiative.

• To help start-ups innovate, generate employment and be key partners in the MII programme, Mr.Jaitley proposed to back them through 100% deduction of profits for three out of five years for start-ups set up during April 2016 to March 2019. He said Minimum Alternate Tax will apply in such cases.
• It has also been proposed to grant foreign investors ‘Residency Status’ subject to certain riders. Currently, these investors are granted business visa only up to five years at a time.
• To strengthen the MII initiative, there was an allocation of Rs.1,804 crore towards the scheme for Investment Promotion and Amended Technology Upgradation Fund.
• A modification in Customs and Excise Duty structure has also been proposed to incentivise domestic value addition and push the MII campaign.
• Changes were proposed in Customs and Excise Duty rates on certain inputs, raw materials, intermediaries/components and other goods while several procedures were simplified.

Also, to incentivise the employers to recruit unemployed persons and bring into the books the informal employees and in turn, ensure new jobs are created in the formal sector, the Centre has decided to pay the Employee Pension Scheme contribution of 8.33% for all new employees enrolling in EPFO for the first three years of their employment.

East coast set to get sixth doppler radar

A new doppler radar to boost the weather forecasting system in the cycloneprone eastern coast will shortly commissioned in Gopalpur in Odisha.

• It will be the sixth such radar on the country’s east coast. The others are located in Chennai, Kolkata, Machilipatnam, Visakhapatnam and Paradip.
• The radar is indigenously built by Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL).

Significance of this move:

• The move to set up an additional radar assumes significance as the eastern coast is prone to cyclones and better forecast will help authorities in taking timely action. Gopalpur had faced the severe cyclonic storm Phailin in October 2013.
• The India Meteorological Department (IMD) had in November last year installed a doppler radar in Paradip, another coastal district in Odisha which was ravaged by a super cyclone in 1999.

What is ‘Doppler Radar’?

Doppler radar is an observational tool for monitoring and predicting severe weather events such as thunder storms, hailstorms, cyclones and tornados within a radius of 300 km. It not only gives information about precipitation but also about wind velocity.

• The Doppler weather radar system helps increase precision in weather forecasting.

How it operates?

This radar uses the Doppler effect to produce velocity data about objects at a distance. It does this by bouncing a microwave signal off a desired target and analyzing how the object’s motion has altered the frequency of the returned signal. This variation gives direct and highly accurate measurements of the radial component of a target’s velocity relative to the radar.

Twitter Launches Campaign To ‘Empower Women’

Taking cue from a study showcasing prevailing male dominance over both online and offline space, social networking site Twitter recently launched #Positionofstrength campaign to empower women to raise voices against any form of discrimination.

Key facts:

• The movement, which has been already been launched in Australia and Ireland, seeks to bridge the gender equality gap online in India and “inspire the next generation of women leaders to have an influential voice in society.”
• With this, Twitter hopes to strengthen the women empowerment movement and encourage women to amplify their voices in a secure and confident manner.
• For this, the social networking platform has partnered with the FICCI Ladies’ Organisation and the Observer Research Foundation to engage more women to find their voices online, communicate safely with confidence and network with other like-minded women and the global community at large.
• Under this campaign, twitter has introduced measures to empower our users with tools to mute, block and report abusive behaviour.
• In order to expand the reach of the programme, a series of round table sessions and workshops with women leaders has been scheduled to be organised throughout the year to discuss how to increase empowerment and safety for women, both online and in the physical world.
• Meanwhile, Twitter also launched its Safety Center in Hindi to ensure engagement and education of women locally to enable them to use the platform safely and with confidence.

Indo-Seychelles Joint Training ‘Ex Lamitye’

Exercise ‘Lamitye – 2016’, seventh in the series of Indo-Seychelles Joint Training Exercises, was recently concluded at Victoria, Mahe Island, Seychelles.

• This exercise aims to improve interoperability between both Armies in jointly fighting Counter Insurgency / Counter Terrorism.
• Focused on interoperability in drills pertaining to Counter Insurgency & Counter Terrorism, a number of activities and exercises were conducted during the joint training.

‘Exercise Lamitye’ meaning ‘Friendship in Creole’ has been a bridge between the Armed Forces of India and SPDF since 2001.