Dec 11th 2024 Current Affairs

Index:

1. Mental health of gig workers and Human Rights

CONTEXT: President Droupadi Murmu on Tuesday said that business leaders must ensure the growing gig economy did not adversely impact the mental health of gig workers.

Speaking at an event organised by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) on Human Rights Day, she described cybercrimes and climate change as new threats to human rights, and emphasised the need to ponder the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI), which has both good and bad impacts on human lives.

“Cybercrimes and climate change are new threats to human rights. The digital era, while being transformative, has also brought with it complex issues such as cyberbullying, deepfakes, privacy concerns, and the spread of misinformation. These challenges underscore the importance of fostering a safe, secure, and equitable digital environment that protects the rights and dignity of every individual,” the President said.

Human Rights

Human Rights Day, observed every year on 10th December highlights the importance of human rights as a foundation for justice, peace, and equality.

2024 Theme: “Our Rights, Our Future, Right Now” emphasizes the relevance of human rights in shaping a peaceful and sustainable future.

Historical Significance: Human Rights Day was established in 1950 to commemorate the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), adopted by the United Nations on 10th December, 1948, which outlined fundamental human rights for all.

The UN Human Rights Council, established in 2006, promotes global human rights protection through its 47 member States(including India) and works on addressing violations and emergencies.

The Council’s secretariat is the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), based in Geneva, Switzerland.

National Human Rights Commission (NHRC)

The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) is an independent statutory body established to protect and promote human rights in India.
It is responsible for reviewing and addressing human rights violations and making recommendations for the protection and promotion of human rights.
NHRC was established under the Protection of Human Rights Act (PHRA), 1993.
It is an embodiment of India’s concern for the promotion and protection of human rights.

It is established in conformity with the Paris Principles (1991), adopted at the first international workshop on national institutions for the protection of human rights.

Appointment: The chairperson and members of the NHRC are appointed by the President of India, based on the recommendations of a committee consisting of

Prime Minister
Speaker of the Lok Sabha
Minister of Home Affairs
Leader of the Opposition (Lok Sabha)
Leader of the Opposition (Rajya Sabha)
Deputy Chairman (Rajya Sabha)

Term: Three years or till the age of seventy years for both the Chairperson and Members.

Removal: The Chairperson or any other Member of the Commission shall be removed from his office by order of the President on the ground of proved misbehavior or incapacity after the inquiry of the Supreme Court.

Global Alliance for National Human Rights Institutions (GANHRI)

The Global Alliance for National Human Rights Institutions (GANHRI) is an organisation affiliated to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
It is a global network of national human rights institutions (NHRIs) that works to promote and protect human rights.
GANHRI represents 120 NHRIS from around the world.
GANHRI’s mission is to unite, promote, and strengthen NHRIS to operate in line with the UN Paris Principles.

Accreditation by the GANHRI

Sub-Committee on Accreditation (SCA) reviews NHRIS every five years, and there is an appeal process for NHRIS to ensure greater transparency and due process.
In a unique peer-review-based accreditation process, GANHRI ensures individual NHRIS’ compliance with internationally recognised standards-the Paris Principles-to ensure their independence, pluralism and accountability.

2. PM POSHAN Scheme

CONTEXT: The Centre has announced that it will bear the additional cost of 425.62 crore on account of inflation in food material cost under the centrally sponsored PM POSHAN Scheme in the financial year 2024-25.

Under the scheme, one hot cooked meal is served to 11.7 crore students studying in Balvatika and Classes 1 to 8 in 10.24 lakh government and government-aided schools.
On the basis of the inflation index provided by the Labour Bureau, the Education Ministry has enhanced the material cost of pulses, vegetables and oil by 13.7%.
Each Balvatika and primary school student is eligible for 20 grams of pulses, 50 grams of vegetables and five grams of oil. Similarly, each upper primary student is eligible for 30 grams of pulses, 50 grams of vegetables and seven grams of oil.
In September 2021, the Union Cabinet approved the Government Scheme called Pradhan Mantri Poshan Shakti Nirman, or PM-POSHAN, aiming to provide one hot cooked meal in Government and Government-aided schools.
With a financial outlay of Rs 1.31 trillion, this scheme replaced the national Mid-day Meal Scheme.
It’s launched for an initial five-year period, from 2021-22 to 2025-26.

• The PM-POSHAN scheme provides 100 grams of food grains per day to primary (1-5) and 150 grams to upper primary (6-8) schoolchildren, ensuring a minimum of 700 calories. It also extends to balvatikas (ages 3-5) in pre-primary classes.

3. Cess and Surcharge

A cess imposed by the central government is a tax on tax, levied by the government for a specific purpose. Generally, cess is expected to be levied till the time the government gets enough money for that purpose.

For example, a cess for financing primary education – the education cess (which is imposed on all central government taxes) is to be spent only for financing primary education (SSA) and not for any other purposes.

A cess is different from the usual taxes like excise duty and personal income tax as it is imposed as an additional tax besides the existing tax (tax on tax).

For example, the education cess of 3% on personal income tax of 30% is imposed as a tax on the prevailing 30%. As a result, the total tax rate goes up to 30.9% (30% basic rate + 3% (cess) of the 30%).

Tax revenue from Cess are first credited to the CFI and the Central Government may, after due appropriation made by Parliament, utilise the money for the specified purposes.

For example, the proceeds are kept as Central Road Fund (CRF) in the case of fuel cess (on petrol and diesel).

Another major feature of cess like surcharges is that the Centre need not share it with states.

Surcharge

Surcharge is a charge on any tax, charged on the tax already paid. As the name suggests, surcharge is an additional charge or tax.
The main surcharges are that on personal income tax (on high income slabs and on super rich) and on corporate income tax.
From the revenue side, surcharges are important as around 35% of all cesses and surcharges comes from the surcharge on direct taxes.
A common feature of both surcharge and cess is that the centre need not share it with states.

Following are the difference between the usual taxes, surcharge and cess.

The usual taxes goes to the consolidated fund of India and can be spend for any purposes.
Surcharge also goes to the consolidated fund of India and can be spent for any purposes. Whereas cess goes to Consolidated Fund of India but can be spend only for the specific purposes.

4. How producer bias affects consumers

Producer bias refers to the bias that economic policymakers have to frame policies that are in favour of the interests of producers rather than in the general interest of consumers.

Producer bias adversely affects economic growth of a country as policies that are favourable towards producers adversely affect the living standards of the general population.
It should be noted that the ultimate aim of economic production is to satisfy the needs of consumers, who benefit from better products and cheaper prices, rather than the interests of producers who would ideally want to benefit by offering inferior products at high prices.
In other words, a country that strictly sticks to policies that protect producers from competition would produce very little for people to consume, affecting the living standards of everyone in the long-run.
Take the case of a government policy that restricts the entry of new producers into a certain industry in order to protect existing producers.
The policy would stop the entry of new producers into the industry who could increase the overall supply of the product in the market, or maybe even offer better products, and lead to a drop in prices.
The most clear-cut example of producer bias in today’s world is that of tariffs imposed by policymakers against foreign imports in order to protect domestic producers and jobs.

Public choice economists have attributed the prevalence of producer bias in policymaking to the greater lobbying power that producers have as compared to consumers.

5. Extent of Global Share of solar energy

On November 5, the World Solar Report 2024 by the International Solar Alliance (ISA) was released. From 1.22 GW in 2000, the world’s solar capacity has surged to 1,419 GW in 2023, charting a CAGR of about 36%. Today, solar capacity represents three-quarters of all renewable capacity additions worldwide.

The 2024 World Solar Report shows that the average auction prices for utility-scale solar photovoltaic (PV) projects have consistently decreased across all regions.

As of 2023, China dominates solar PV as 43% (609 GW) of the cumulative capacity of solar panels installed globally is from China.

The U.S. contributes 10% (137.73 GW). Japan, Germany, and India each captured a 5-6% share.

Emerging solar markets like Brazil, Australia, Italy, and Spain each contributed about 2%.

Solar PV manufacturing has nearly doubled in capacity for wafers, cells, and modules in 2023. China maintained the highest share in component manufacturing in 2023, with 97% in wafers, 89% in cells, and 83% in module installation capacity.

The International Solar Alliance (ISA) is an intergovernmental organization that was launched in 2015, by the Prime Minister of India and the President of France, at the United Nations Climate Change Conference held in Paris.

ISA is an action-oriented, member-driven, collaborative platform for increased deployment of solar energy technologies.

The ISA is guided by its ‘Towards 1000’ strategy, which aims:

To mobilize USD 1000 billion of investments in solar energy solutions by 2030

To deliver energy access to 1000 million people using clean energy solutions To install 1000 GW of solar energy capacity.

To mitigate global solar emissions to the tune of 1000 million tonnes of CO2 every year.

Vision: Let us together make the sun brighter.

Mission: Every home, no matter how far away, will have a light at home.

Headquarter: National Institute of Solar Energy (NISE) in Gurugram, India.