Current Affair 1:

Steel Production in India

 

Steel is a deregulated sector, and the role of the Government is that of a facilitator. Export of steel is dependent on factors such as global market conditions, demand and supply, cost of input raw materials such as iron ore, coking coal etc. which are market linked.

To facilitate a more conducive policy environment for more competitive domestic steel making and therefore exports, Government has taken many steps, including the following: -

• Policy intervention through calibration of import and export duties on iron ore, pellets, coking coal, iron and steel products between May-November ’22.
• Mining and Mineral Policy reforms to enhance production/availability of iron ore.
• Reduction of Basic Customs Duty uniformly to 7.5% on Semis, Flat and Long products of non-alloy, alloy and stainless steels vide Union Budget 2021-22.
• Exemption of Basic Customs Duty (BCD) on CRGO raw materials and steel scrap up to 31.03.2024.
• Notification of steel scrap recycling policy to enhance availability of domestically generated scrap.

The overall import of total finished steel (non-alloy + alloy/stainless) has displayed a declining trend during the last three years. The data on overall import of finished steel in last three years is as follows: -

Current Affair 2:

Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry launched the ‘City Finance Rankings 2022’

 

News:

The Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry on March 20 launched the ‘City Finance Rankings 2022’ under which urban local bodies in the country will be evaluated based on their financial health.

The urban local bodies, which take part in the rankings, will be evaluated on 15 indicators across three key parameters — resource mobilisation, expenditure performance and fiscal governance.

The rankings have been launched with the objective of evaluating, recognising and rewarding municipal bodies across the country on the basis of the quality of their current financial health and improvement over time in financial performance.

The effort also aims to identify areas in the financial performance of the cities where they can make further improvements. This will enable them to deliver quality infrastructure and services and hence a good quality of life to citizens.

The cities will be ranked on the basis of their scores under four population categories — above 40 lakh, 10 lakh-40 lakh, one lakh to 10 lakh and below one lakh. Awards would be given to the top three cities in each category.

Quality Control of India (QCI), as the Project Monitoring Unit, will provide handholding support to the urban local bodies during the data collection process.  The government has invited urban local bodies across the country, numbering more than 4,500, to take part in the initiative.

Current Affair 3:

Wet waste processing

 

For wet waste processing, mainly two technologies are being used, namely, (1) Bio methanation and (2) Composting.

Bio-methanation

Bio-methanation technology and its business viability has been proved by several Government Institutions and Private Entrepreneur.

Bio-methanation is a natural process of anaerobic degradation of organic materials resulting in production of biogas (a mixture of methane and carbon dioxide).

Current Affair 4:

Export of Defence Products

 

The value of defence export during the last five years is as under:

 

 

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