Current Affair 1:

Harnessing the unrealised potential of agroforestry

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Expanding the land area under agroforestry systems, which integrate trees alongside crops, is a promising strategy to offset greenhouse gas emissions and could help achieve India’s Nationally Determined Contributions to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

This was revealed by the study:

 

As per the author, boosting the area under agroforestry can also contribute to the National Mission for a Green India under the National Action Plan on Climate Change 2011 and the National Forest Policy 2018.

Advantages of Agroforestry:

1. Agroforestry systems, which integrate trees in agricultural landscapes, have been recognised by scientists for their role in mitigating climate change by acting as a carbon sink: trees sequester atmospheric carbon in their biomass.
2. Agroforestry practices can also enhance soil organic carbon, which is a component of soil organic matter and is the largest carbon stock in terrestrial ecosystems.
3. These systems provide additional benefits such as improving soil health, advancing food security, supporting livelihoods, reducing biodiversity losses and the rate of land degradation, among others.

Recognising the potential of agroforestry in meeting various developmental and environmental goals, India launched a National Agroforestry Policy in 2014. By increasing the area under agroforestry, the policy aims to address the increasing demand for timber, food, fuel, fodder, fertiliser and fibre whilst creating employment and generating income.

Major types of Agroforestry:

Among three different types of agroforestry practices, the researchers found that agrosilvopastoral systems (which integrate crops, trees and livestock) had the highest biomass carbon stocks and soil organic carbon than agrisilvicultural (crops and trees) and silvopastoral (trees and livestock) systems.

We need to increase land under Agroforestry. As per the report: By increasing the area under all agroforestry systems from the existing 16.7 million hectares (ha) in the first scenario to 21.3 million ha in the second scenario by 2050 the total carbon sequestered rises from 10.5 to 13.6 Petagrams CO2 eq.

Current Affair 2:

NIPUN Bharat Programme

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Read introduction:

The programme will be implemented in the mission mode, with the use and strengthening of the existing mainstream structures. The Department of School Education and Literacy, Ministry of Education (MoE) will be the implementing agency at the national level and will be headed by a Mission Director.

Objectives of the Mission:

The success of NIPUN Bharat will primarily depend on teachers, so, there will be a special emphasis on capacity building of teachers.  A special package for foundational literacy and Numeracy under NISHTHA is being developed by NCERT and around 25 lakh teachers teaching at pre-primary to primary grade will be trained this year.

NIPUN Bharat aims to cover the learning needs of children in the age group of 3 to 9 years. 

Constitutional Provisions regarding education: Part IV of Indian Constitution, Article 45 and Article 39 (f) of Directive Principles of State Policy (DPSP), has a provision for state-funded as well as equitable and accessible education. The 42nd Amendment to the Constitution in 1976 moved education from the State to the Concurrent List. The 86th Amendment in 2002 made education an enforceable right under Article 21-A.

 

Current Affair 3:

India joins OECD/G20 Inclusive Framework tax deal

Background:

In 2015, the OECD identified the tax challenges of the digitalisation of the economy as Action 1 of the Base Erosion and Profit Shifting ("BEPS") Action Plan.

Action 1 addresses the tax challenges of the digitalisation of the economy, and specifically aims to identify and address the main challenges that the digitalisation of the economy poses for the existing international tax rules.

The work under Action 1 responds to tax challenges of the digitalisation of the economy, which result from three key phenomena:

• scale without mass – the possibility of having substantial economic activity in a jurisdiction without any physical presence;
• reliance on intangible assets – the increased economic importance of intangibles such as computerised information (software and databases); innovative property (copyrights, designs, trademarks, and R&D); and economic competencies (brand equity, social networks, aspects of advertising and marketing); and
• the centrality of data – the increased value belonging to data, including consumer data.

The emergence of these phenomena raises the question of whether our current international income tax rules remain appropriate, observing that new intangible value drivers have eroded the need for physical proximity to target markets and undermined the existing profit allocation and nexus rules.

For example, Facebook derives value from the French market but has no traditional nexus in France – i.e., no permanent establishment – and as a result France has no ability to receive tax revenue from the value that Facebook derives from its digital presence in France.

It is a two-pillar framework:

• Pillar One concerns nexus and profit allocation and works toward the creation of new taxing rights for market jurisdictions.
• Pillar Two takes up the more general BEPS goal of preventing the shifting of profits to low-tax jurisdictions and aims to ensure a minimum level of taxation

For the first time ever in international tax matters, OECD and G20 countries worked together to develop the G20/OECD BEPS Project to equip governments with domestic and international instruments needed to tackle tax avoidance.

In July 2021, 131 member jurisdictions of the G20/OECD Inclusive Framework, representing more than 90% of global GDP, joined an agreement for a two-pillar solution to address the tax challenges arising from the digitalisation of the economy. The agreement, together with an implementation plan, will be finalised in October 2021 with a view to being implemented in 2023.

India has joined the G20–OECD inclusive framework deal.

Impact/implications on India:

India will have to roll back the equalisation levy that it imposes on companies such as Google, Amazon and Facebook when the global tax regime is implemented.

What is BEPS?

Base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) refers to tax planning strategies used by multinational enterprises that exploit gaps and mismatches in tax rules to avoid paying tax.

Current Affair 4:

Attorney General

Important topic today for us Attorney General. We will try to cover every detail of Attorney General Today.

Now, the important part is:

The Act enacted to regulate terms, duties and conditions of Law officer in India including Attorney General: Law Officer (Conditions of Service) Rules, 1987. Read every point mentioned.

Term of Law officer:

Duties of Law officer:

A law officer shall not:

Now we will see List of Attorneys and Order of Precedence of Attorney:

 

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