Norms for minimum environmental flow (e-flow) for Ganga:

• The e-flows are the acceptable flow regimes that are required to maintain a river in the desired environmental state.
  
  
• The norms will apply to the upper Ganga River Basin - starting from originating glaciers and through respective confluences of its head tributaries which meet at Devaprayag up to Haridwar - and the main stem of the river Ganga up to Unnao district of Uttar Pradesh.
  
  
• The flow conditions will be monitored at hourly intervals from time to time.
  
  
• The Central Water Commission (CWC) will be the designated authority for supervision, monitoring, regulation of flows.
  
  
• The central government through National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) may direct release of additional water in the river Ganga to meet special demand as and when required.
  
  

Structures included & excluded:

• Any dam or structure meant for diversion of river flows for the purpose of irrigation, hydro-power and domestic or industrial use will now have to maintain the minimum flow.
  
  
• However, mini and micro projects, which do not alter the flow significantly are exempted.
  
  
• Projects, which currently do not meet the norms, will have to comply with it within three years.
  
  

Comment:

• In the words of Union water resources minister, "The notification will ensure the river Ganga's 'Aviralta' or continuous flow."
  
  
• Uninterrupted flow of water in any river is important to keep it clean through its natural ecological functions and processes.
  
  

About:

• Biecco Lawrie Limited (BLL) is a Schedule ‘C’ Central Public Sector Enterprise (CPSE) with 67.33% and 32.33% equity share held by Oil Industry Development Board (OIDB) and Government of India
  
  
• The Company is Headquartered at Kolkata, West Bengal.
  
  
• It operates in four business segments: Switchgear Manufacturing, Electrical Repair, Projects Division and Lube blending & filling facility.
  
  
• The Company has consistently been under financial stress and has had performance-related issues. In this background, Government has decided to close it.
  
  

About:

• National Jute Manufacturers Corporation Ltd. (NJMC) is a Public Sector Undertaking (PSU) under the administrative control of Ministry of Textiles.
  
  
• It was formed in 1980 through the nationalization of six jute mills, namely, Kinnison, Khardah, National, Alexandra, union, all in the state of West Bengal and RBHM Katihar in Bihar.
  
  
• It is headquartered in Kolkata, West Bengal.
  
  

Closure of NJMC:

• Due to financial losses the company was referred to the Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (BIFR) in 1993.
  
  
• The company's primary product was hessian jute bags used for packaging of food grain used by the various State Governments. Over the years, the demand for hessian bags has eroded and it has been found to be no longer commercially viable to run the company.
  
  
• The recent decision will benefit the Government exchequer in reducing recurring expenditure incurred in operating both the sick CPSEs in running their activities.
  
  

About:

• Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF) is a specialized by-product of crude or petroleum used to power aircraft.
  
  
• ATF also known as Jet fuel is a colourless, combustible, straight-run petroleum distillate liquid. Its principal uses are as jet engine fuel.
  
  
• The governing specifications in India are IS 1571: 2001.
  
  

ATF–Grades:

• There are currently two main grades of ATF are in use in civil commercial aviation: jet A-1 and jet A, both are kerosene type fuels.
  
  
• Another grade is also found called Jet –B which is wide cut kerosene (a blend of gasoline and kerosene) but it is rarely used except in very cold climates.
  
  

Objectives and Targets:

• Turnover of $400 billion in domestic electronics manufacturing by 2025,
  
  
• Promoting ease-of-doing business for the entire Electronic System Design and Manufacturing (ESDM) sector,
  
  
• Production of one billion mobile handsets by 2025, valued at $190 billion including export of 600 million mobile handsets valued at $110 billion.
  
  
• Push the start-up ecosystem in emerging technology areas such as 5G, Internet of Things, artificial intelligence and machine learning, and their applications in areas such as defence, agriculture, health, smart cities and automation.
  
  
• Develop core competencies in all the sub-sectors of electronics, including semiconductors, telecommunication equipment, medical electronics, defence electronics etc.
  
  
• Establishing standards setting body in the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) to develop standards for electronics, IT, e-governance, among others.
  
  

Incentives to be provided to industry for expansion of electronics hardware manufacturing:

• Promotion of manufacturing of electronic goods covered under the Information Technology Agreement (ITA-1) of the World Trade Organization;
  
  
• Replacing the M-SIPS (Modified Special Incentive Package Scheme) with schemes that are easier to implement such as interest subsidy and credit default guarantee, etc.,
  
  
• For supporting both greenfield and brownfield manufacturing clusters, either a new scheme will be formulated or the existing Electronics Manufacturing Clusters (EMC) Scheme will be modified.
  
  

About:

• NCVT and the NSDA are the existing regulatory institutions in the skills space. Now these have been merged into NCVET.
  
  
• Regulatory functions currently being carried out by the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) through the Sector Skill Councils (SSCs) will also be housed in the NCVET.
  
  
• Functions of NCVET: To regulate the functioning of entities engaged in vocational education and training and establish minimum standards for the functioning of such entities;
  
  
• Composition: The Council would be headed by a Chairperson and will have Executive and Non-Executive Members.
  
  

Recent decision:

• Sachin Chaturvedi heads Delhi-based think tank Research and Information System for Developing Countries (RIS).
  
  
• Revathy Iyer is a former Indian Audit and Accounts Services (IAAS) officer.
  
  
• Both have been appointed by the Central Government under Section 8 of the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934, for a period of four years with effect from September 19, 2018.
  
  

Central board of the RBI:

• The board members are not responsible for setting the interest rate, but will provide a broader guidance to the central bank.
  
  
• With the recent appointments, RBI will now have 18 members on its central board, including four deputy governors and the governor.
  
  
• The Economic Affairs Secretary and Financial Services Secretary of the Finance Ministry are also on the board.
  
  

Background:

• Scientific Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (SAC-PM) under the Chairmanship of C.N.R. Rao, recommended creation of new institutes devoted to science education & research named “Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research” broadly on the lines of IISc. Bangalore.
  
  
• The IISERs will provide top quality basic science education at the Under-Graduate and Post-Graduate levels, PHDs & Integrated PHDs.
  
  
• These institutions have been declared by an Act of Parliament as Institutes of National Importance.
  
  
• The institutes were created by the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), under The National Institutes of Technology (Amendment) Bill, 2010 (an amendment of the National Institutes of Technology Act, 2007).
  
  

List of Institutes:

• Seven IISERs have been established across the country at Bhopal, Berhampur, Mohali, Pune, Kolkata, Thiruvananthapuram and Tirupati.
  
  
• IISER, Tirupati was established in 2015 and IISER, Berhampur was established in 2016. These institutes are presently functioning from transit campuses.
  
  

About:

• Title of Section 124 of Indian Penal Code, 1860 is “Assaulting President, Governor etc. with intent to compel or restrain the exercise of any lawful power”.
  
  
• This provision attempts to ensure the safety of the constitutional head of the union and that of any state so that they can exercise their lawful powers unhindered.
  
  
• Punishment under this section is simple or rigorous imprisonment for a term extending up to seven years, and fine.
  
  
• Assault, wrongful restraint and criminal force have been defined under sections 351, 339 and 350 of the Code respectively.
  
  

About:

• Sir Chhotu Ram (1881 – 1945) was a prominent politician in British India's Punjab Province.
  
  
• He was a co-founder of the National Unionist Party which ruled the United Punjab Province in pre-Independent India and kept Congress and Muslim League at bay.
  
  
• He belonged to the peasants of Jat community and championed the interest of oppressed peasants in pre-Independent India. For his efforts, he was knighted in 1937.
  
  
• In 1944, he as the then Punjab Revenue Minister, signed the agreement for the Bhakra-Nangal multipurpose dam project with the Raja of Bilaspur.
  
  
• He was popularly known as Deen Bandhu (which translates as messiah of the poor).
  
  

Key findings for 2017:

• Overall fatalities in road accidents and the total count of such incidents declined marginally. The total number of accidents dropped 3.3% in 2017 to 4.64 lakh, with the overall number of lives lost in these crashes declining 1.9% to 1.47 lakh.
  
  
• However, Pedestrians and cyclists suffered the biggest increase in fatalities in road accidents.
  • The number of pedestrians killed in road accidents jumped by 29.9% to 20,457 and he number of cyclists killed surged by 37.7% to 3,559.
    
    
  • Pedestrians and cyclists together accounted for 16.2% of the total fatalities in road accidents during 2017.
    
    
  
  
  
• Almost 7 out of 10 two-wheeler and four-wheeler users who died in an accident did not follow the mandatory requirement of wearing helmets and seat belts.
  
  
• The top four traffic violations that led to road fatalities are: (1) Over-Speeding accounted for 66.7% of total deaths in road crashes, (2) driving on the wrong side claimed 6.4%, (3) drunken driving2%, and (4) use of mobile phones accounted for 2.1% of total road deaths.
  
  
• Tamil Nadu topped in number of accidents, while P. topped in the number of fatalities.
  
  
• The composition of vehicular population in 2016: Two-wheelers (73.5%), followed by cars, jeeps and taxis (13.1%), other vehicles (8.1%), goods vehicles (4.6%) and buses (0.8%).
  
  
• The increase in personalized means of transport and decline in share of public transport is a major cause for the incidence of road mishaps. The total number of registered motor vehicles in the country grew at the rate of 9.9% between 2006 and 2016.
  
  

Recommendations:

• There is an urgent need to make adequate and reliable funding available.
  
  
• Developing a National Forest Fire Prevention Management (FFPM) Action Plan which should delineate the roles and responsibilities of the MoEFCC, state forest departments, communities and disaster agencies.
  
  
• Adapt technology to local conditions and increase engagement with local communities to give communities a greater say in decision-making process.
  
  
• Support forest fire management through improved data and research to fill knowledge gaps.
  • A National Forest Fire Information Database, bringing together satellite-based remote sensing data, and field-reported data, will be instrumental for assessing longer-term trends across states and regions and for planning fire prevention and response.
    
    
  • Define a National Research Agenda for Fire Management and provide funding for scientific research in Fire Management.
    
    
  
  
  
• Put more emphasis on better fire prevention practices and a well-equipped and trained workforce to fight fires.
  
  
• Urgently fill the vacancies for field staff, particularly in fire-prone areas
  
  
• Institute standard management practices as well as scale up the best practices.
  
  

About:

• On September 25, “The NCT of Delhi, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweep, Daman and Diu, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Chandigarh (Police Service) Rules, 2018”, were notified.
  
  
• Under it a new police Service will be constituted for the 6 UTs consisting of persons appointed to the Service under rule 6 and 7.
  
  
• 533 posts will be covered under the new rules including Assistant Commissioners of Police (ACPs) and Deputy Superintendents of Police (DSP).
  
  
• According to it, Non-IPS officers could be posted in any of the six UTs and will be at the direct disposal of Home Ministry (Earlier these postings were decided by the respective UT administrators).
  
  
• The rules will come into play upon promotion or direct recruitment of inspectors to the post of ACPs. Half of the posts at ACP rank will be filled through direct recruitment and the other half through promotion.
  
  
• The post/grade/service eligible for induction into the entry grade for the new service would include personnel currently employed as inspectors.
  
  

Comment:

• It is the first step towards the creation of a central police cadre allowing for the posting of police personnel across the country irrespective of the force they are initially inducted into.
  
  
• A central pool allowing inter-transferability would also ensure that local police personnel do not fall prey to serving vested interests in their home services.
  
  
• Local police personnel in smaller locations such as Daman & Diu would be able to learn modern policing methods from the capital city and go back home to employ these effectively.
  
  

Background:

• In 2012, Ekta Parishad movement mobilised more than 60,000 landless people from across the country for a similar padayatra from Gwalior to Delhi.
  
  
• They disbanded at Agra after then Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh promised homestead land of ten cents for all landless rural poor households and a draft National Land Reform Policy, as part of a ten-point agreement.
  
  
• To enforce the agreement, the Centre set up a 15-member task force on land reforms headed by the then rural development minister Jairam Ramesh and Tribal Affairs minister V Kishore Chandra Deo.
  
  
• However, After Mr. Ramesh quit as Rural Development Minister, the taskforce was shut down. But, now the government has agreed to reconstitute it to have an institutional mechanism to deal with the issue of Land Reform.
  
  

Scouting and guiding:

• What is it? The Scouts & Guides is a voluntary, non-political, educational movement for young people, open to all without distinction of origin, race or creed.
  
  
• Purpose: To contribute to the development of young people in achieving their full physical, intellectual, social and spiritual as individuals, as responsible citizens and as members of the local, national and international communities.
  
  
• Bharat Scouts and Guides and Hindustan Scouts and Guides. These two organizations have been recognized by the Ministry of youth affairs for conducting scouting and guiding activities all across the country. The Ministry gives them grant-in-aid.
  
  

Brief history of the scouts & guides:

• The Scouting Movement was conceptualized as far back as 1890 by Lord Baden Powell and the first Scout Camp was organized in 1907.
  
  
• Initially, Scouting was a movement intended for the benefit of British boys. In or around the year 1911, a corresponding movement was started for girls and came to be known as the Guide Movement.
  
  
• In India, the Scouts Movement started in 1909 and the Guide Movement in 1911. 
  
  

About:

• The MedWatch mobile health app is conceived by the doctors of Indian Air Force (IAF) and developed in house by Directorate of Information Technology (DIT) with ZERO financial outlay.
  
  
• ‘MedWatch’ is the first mobile health app in the three Armed Services and will provide correct, Scientific and authentic health information to air-warriors and all citizens of India.
  
  
• The app is available on www.apps.mgov.gov.in and provides information on basic First Aid, Nutritional Facts, Vaccination Record Card, BMI calculator, helpline numbers and web links.
  
  

Section 151A of RPA, 1951:

• Section 151A of RPA, 1951 mandates ECI to fill the vacancies in the Parliament/state legislatures through bye elections within 6 months from the date of occurrence of the vacancy, provided that the remainder of the term of a member in relation to a vacancy is 1 year or more.
  
  

Recent decision:

• Vacancies from Bellary (ST), Shimoga and Mandya constituencies of Karnataka occurred on May 18 and May 21, 2018 respectively. The term of the sixteenth Lok Sabha is upto June 3, 2019.
  
  
• As the vacancies from Karnataka have occurred more than one year before the expiration of the term of House, bye elections are required to be held under Section 151A of R P Act 1951 to fill these vacancies within six months from the date of occurrence of vacancies.
  
  

About:

• Cyclone ‘TITLI’ is expected to intensify further into a Severe Cyclonic Storm and cross east coast of India between Kalingapatnam (north Andhra Pradesh) and Gopalpur (south Odisha) in the morning of 11th October.
  
  
• Cyclonic storm ‘LUBAN’ is very likely to intensify into a Severe Cyclonic Storm by tonight. It is very likely to move west-north-westwards towards Yemen & South Oman Coasts during next 5 days.
  
  

Paul M Romer: Endogenous Growth Theory

• Paul M Romer, currently an economics professor at New York University’s Stern School of Business, is credited with laying the foundations of “endogenous growth theory”, a rich area of research into the regulations and policies that encourage new ideas and long-term prosperity.
  
  
• to Robert M Solow, winner of the 1987 Economics Prize, technological innovation was “exogenous”. It just happened and so long as it did, long-term growth in output and broad human welfare was guaranteed.
  
  
• However, to Romer, far from being “exogenous”, technological change was “endogenous” and arising from “intentional investment decisions made by profit-maximising agents”.
  
  
• According to him, policy makers should stop trying to fine-tune the business cycle and instead promote new technology.
  
  

William D Nordhaus:

• Professor William Nordhaus, of Yale University, was the first person to create a model that described the interplay between the economy and the climate.
  
  
• His fundamental contribution is in “endogenising” climate change in long-term growth models.
  • The quantitative Integrated Assessment Models (IAMs) developed by him in the mid-1990s helped evaluate different economic growth paths with their implications for climate.
    
    
  • IAMs were used in the newly released report of the IPCC.
    
    
  
  
  
• According to him, economic growth involves carbon-dioxide emissions contributing to global warming and climate change, which generates the greatest of negative externalities and market failures.
  
  

About:

• The ‘1.5 Health Report’, is a synthesis of the health content of IPCC report compiled by experts from University of Washington, World Health Organisation and Climate tracker.
  
  
• Prediction: Global warming is likely to reach 1.5 degree Celsius (above pre-industrial levels) between 2030 and 2052 if it continues to increase at the same rate.
  
  
• Impact on Indian subcontinent:
  • Kolkata and Karachi among cities that could face an increased threat of heat waves equivalent to their deadly 2015 heat waves. Climate change is significantly contributing to increased heat-related mortality.
    
    
  • India and Pakistan could be worst affected in the event of a 2-degree Celsius increase.
    
    
  
  
  
• Climate change as Poverty Multiplier:
  • Climate change is also projected to be a “poverty multiplier” through food insecurity, higher food prices, income losses, lost livelihood opportunities, adverse health impacts and population displacements.
    
    
  • Limiting global warming to 1.5 degree Celsius as against 2 degree Celsius can reduce the number of people exposed to climate-related risks and poverty. It can also result in reduced losses in yields of maize, rice, wheat and other cereal crops, particularly in Asia.
    
    
  
  
  
• Way ahead: For global warming to be contained at 1.5 degrees C, the net human-caused CO2 emissions would need to fall by 45% from 2010 levels by 2030, reaching net zero by around 2050.
  
  

About:

• ‘Sextortion', a cyber-crime which has been observed in the West, is now a reality in India.
  
  
• In this, people, after visiting pornographic websites, found themselves being extorted with records of their online activities as leverage. It also includes extorting sexual favours from the victim instead of money.
  
  
• Sextortion is done using various methods.
  • One method involves chatting with an unsuspecting victim posing as a girl and getting them to send compromising pictures of themselves, which are then used for blackmail.
    
    
  • Another involves placing links on pornographic websites which, if clicked on, record the victim's activities.
    
    
  
  
  
• Perpetrators of the crime install back door programmes on the websites for the purpose of recording the activities of their victims.
  
  

About:

• The task force, headed by then Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) Member Arbind Modi, was constituted in November 2017 in order to review the Income-tax Act, 1961 and to draft a new Direct Tax Law in consonance with economic needs of the country.
  
  
• The task force is learnt to have prepared a draft report but a final submission has not been made.
  
  
• The convenor of the task force retired from the post of Member (Legislation), CBDT on September 30. Now the future course of action on the draft report is unclear as Modi was the only serving government official on the panel.
  
  

About:

• National Housing Bank (NHB) is an apex financial institution for housing.
  
  
• Its key objectives are:
  • Registering, regulating and supervising Housing Finance Company (HFCs) at regional and local level;
    
    
  • Providing financial and other support to such institutions and
    
    
  • co-ordinating with other Regulators.
    
    
  
  
  
• Parent agency: NHB is a wholly owned subsidiary of Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
  
  
• Origin: It was established in 1988 under the National Housing Bank Act, 1987.
  
  

Sovereign Gold Bond Scheme FY19:

• The Sovereign Gold Bond Scheme FY19 retains the incentives offered in the earlier tranche—of 2.5% interest rate and capital gains tax exemption on redemption.
  
  
• Sovereign gold bonds will be sold every month from October 2018 to February 2019 through banks, Stock Holding Corporation of India Ltd, designated post offices, and recognized stock exchanges, a finance ministry statement said.
  
  
• The tenor of the bond will be for a period of eight years with exit option in the fifth, sixth and seventh year.
  
  
• Payment for the bonds can be made through demand draft, cheque and electronic banking, while cash payment is allowed up to a maximum of ₹ 20,000.
  
  
• Comment:
  • Since their introduction in late 2015, the gold bonds were never issued with such high frequency. The last tranche of such bonds was issued only in April.
    • The government has decided to promote gold bond scheme, conscious of the fact that that hiking the customs duty on gold from the current 10 per cent to trim imports also raises risks of smuggling.
      
      
    
    
    
  
  
  

Arguments in favour:

• Many a time, people vote for personalities. So, they are entitled to know whether the person they elect is fit enough to lead them for the next five years
  
  
• The death of former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa within seven months of assuming office in May 2016 should be taken into consideration.
  
  
• When declaration of assets and criminal antecedents had been made mandatory, why not health condition too?
  
  

Arguments against:

• Insisting on declaring the health condition of candidates is not right because it was a sensitive issue involving the right to privacy of individuals.
  
  
• The law of the land did not empower the Election Commission of India (ECI) to force candidates to declare their health condition.
  
  

About:

• A megalith is a large stone that has been used to construct a structure or monument, either alone or together with other stones.
  
  
• The word megalithic describes structures made of such large stones without the use of mortar or concrete, representing periods of prehistory characterised by such constructions.
  
  
• The construction of these structures took place mainly in the Neolithic period and continued into the Chalcolithic period and the Bronze Age.
  
  

About:

• The waterway from Manjhighat at Ganga-Gaghra river confluence to Faizabad/Ayodhya along Gaghra River for a length of 354 km was declared as NW-40 during the year 2016, as part of Government’s renewed push to develop inland waterways sector in the country.
  
  
• The Detailed Project Report on the development of NW-40 envisages terminal at five locations – Ayodhya, Mahirpur (Tanda/Kalwari), Dohrighat, Tortipar and Manjhighat.
  
  
• Significance:
  • Together with NW-1 (on river Ganga), NW-40 will be a major transport modal choice for cargo and passenger movement.
    
    
  • The DPR on NW-40 projects movement of various categories of cargo, namely, agricultural products, industrials products, coal (for Tanda power plant), coarse sand and other general goods etc. through inland vessel capacity up to 1000 tonne.
    
    
  • Besides cargo and passenger movement, NW-40 will provide a connectivity to tourist and pilgrimage places along river Gaghra and Ganga.
    
    
  
  
  

Interpol:

• The International Police Organisation is commonly known as Interpol.
  
  
• It is an international organization facilitating international police cooperation against cross-border terrorism, trafficking, and other crime.
  
  
• Membership: The admission of two new members has made it a 192-member body.
  
  
• Governance: All decisions regarding the activities of INTERPOL are made by the General Assembly which is it’s ’s supreme governing body which meets annually.
  
  
• It is ‘NOT’ a unit or part of united nation system. It is an independent international organization.
  
  
• HQ: Lyon in France.
  
  
• Founded in: 1923
  
  

NASA’s Voyager 2:

• Launched in 1977, Voyager 2 is a little less than 17.7 billion kilometres from Earth, or more than 118 times the distance from Earth to the Sun.
  
  
• Since 2007 the probe has been travelling through the outermost layer of the heliosphere – the vast bubble around the Sun and the planets dominated by solar material and magnetic fields.
  
  
• Voyager scientists have been watching for the spacecraft to reach the outer boundary of the heliosphere, known as the heliopause.
  
  
• Once Voyager 2 exits the heliosphere, it will become the second human-made object, after Voyager 1, to enter interstellar space.
  
  

Interstellar Space:

• ‘Inter’ means between. ‘Stellar’ refers to stars. Interstellar space is the part of space that exists between stars.”
  
  
• Boundary:
  • Scientists define the beginning of interstellar space as the place where the sun’s constant flow of material and magnetic field stop affecting its surroundings. This place is called the
    
    
  • It marks the end of a region created by our sun that is called the
    
    
  • The sun creates this heliosphere by sending a constant flow of particles and a magnetic field out into space at over 670,000 miles per hour. This stream is called the ‘solar wind.’
    
    
  
  
  

About:

• Type of force: Ganga Task Force (GTF) will comprise of ex-servicemen. It is a unit of the Territorial Army deployed in the services of the Ganga with the approval of Ministry of Defence for four years till December 2020.
  
  
• Mandate: It will help the U.P. government with crowd management, spreading awareness on keeping the river clean and stop people and industry from polluting the river.
  
  
• Training agencies: GTF is specially trained by the Ministry of Defence. It has also been trained by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) to measure the health of the river.
  
  
• Background: In 2015, the government, through an executive order, had cleared the creation of such a force. However, a defined mandate — such as to punish or imprison the violators — is being debated out in a forthcoming ‘Ganga Bill,’ currently under discussion.
  
  

About:

• Capital Gain: Any profit or gain that arises from the sale of a ‘capital asset’ is a capital gain.
  
  
• Capital Gains Tax: This gain or profit is considered as income and hence charged to tax in the year in which the transfer of the capital asset takes place. This is called capital gains tax, which can be short-term or long-term.
  
  
• Examples of capital assets: Land, building, house property, vehicles, patents, trademarks, leasehold rights, machinery, and jewellery.
  
  
• The following are not considered capital asset:
  • Any stock, consumables or raw material, held for the purpose of business or profession
    
    
  • Personal goods such as clothes and furniture held for personal use
    
    
  • Agricultural land in rural India
    
    
  • 6½% gold bonds (1977) or 7% gold bonds (1980) or national defence gold bonds (1980) issued by the central government
    
    
  • Special bearer bonds (1991)
    
    
  • Gold deposit bond issued under the gold deposit scheme (1999)
    
    
  
  
  

Types of Capital Assets:

• Short-term capital asset: An asset which is held for not more than 36 months or less is a short-term capital asset. The criteria of 36 months have been reduced to 24 months in the case of immovable property being land, building, and house property, from FY 2017-18.
  
  
• Long-term capital asset: An asset that is held for more than 36 months is a long-term capital asset. The reduced period of aforementioned 24 months is not applicable to movable property such as jewellery, debt-oriented mutual funds etc. The assets are:
  • Equity or preference shares in a company listed on a recognized stock exchange in India
    
    
  • Securities (like debentures, bonds, govt securities etc.) listed on a recognized stock exchange in India
    
    
  • Units of UTI, whether quoted or not
    
    
  • Units of equity oriented mutual fund, whether quoted or not
    
    
  • Zero coupon bonds, whether quoted or not
    
    
  
  
  
• Tax on long-term capital gain: Long-term capital gain is taxable at 20% + surcharge and education cess.
  
  

About:

• The Maharashtra government in the budget session of the Assembly amended the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products (Prohibition of Advertisement and Regulation of Trade and Commerce, Production, Supply and Distribution) Act, 2003.
  
  
• Under this, a fine of ₹1 lakh and imprisonment up to three years will be imposed for violations. The offence has been made non-cognisable.
  
  
• The home department will be responsible for the enforcement.
  
  
• The move to ban hookah parlours gained momentum after the fire at Kamala Mills in December 2017, which claimed 14 lives.
  
  
• After Gujarat, Maharashtra will be the second State to implement the ban.
  
  

About:

• Status: It is an autonomous institution under the Union Ministry of Culture.
  
  
• Origin: It was launched in 1985.
  
  
• Location: New Delhi.
  
  
• Objective: It has been designated by the Government of India as the nodal agency for a data bank on art, humanities and cultural heritage.
  
  
• It has also been identified by UNESCO as nodal agency for the development of regional databases for South and South East Asian countries on art, cultural heritage and life-styles.
  
  

About:

• Indology is the academic study of the history and cultures, languages, and literature of India.
  
  
• It means studying Indian society using concepts of Indian civilization, instead of concepts of European sociology.
  
  
• ICCR Distinguished Indologist Award:
  • It is an annual award instituted in 2015 by Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR).
    
    
  • Cash prize: US$ 20,000.
    
    
  • It is given to a person for one’s exemplary contribution to Indology.
    
    
  • Past Recipients: