Current Affair 1:

Union Government Launches Automated Certification for Indian Exporters

 

News:

Indian Government unveiled a significant initiative to issue system based automatic ‘Status Holder’ certificates under the Foreign Trade Policy (FTP) 2023.

What are its benefits?

1. Now the exporter will not be required to apply to the office of Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) for a Status Certificate and the export recognition will be provided by the IT based system.
2. It reduces compliance burden and promotes ease of doing business and also recognizes the need and importance of collaboration within the Government.
3. At present, the exporter is required to file an online application along with an export certificate from a Chartered Accountant for grant of Status. The new arrangement will lead to a simplified regime where no applications are invited from exporters and
4. the certification is granted every year in August based on annual export figures.

The Status Holder certification program provides credibility to the Indian exporters in the international markets. In addition, it provides certain other privileges including simplified procedures under FTP 2023 and priority custom clearances on self-declaration basis, exemption from compulsory negotiation of documents through banks, exemption from filing Bank Guarantee for FTP schemes etc.

With the launch of this new system, the Department of Commerce, Ministry of Commerce and Industry will be recognizing about 20,000 exporters under FTP 2023 as Status Holders which will be a quantum jump from the earlier number of 12,518 exporters. This will enable the Government to hand hold a larger number of small exporting entities and create a vibrant export ecosystem and help reach our export target of US$ 2 Trillion by 2030.

Current Affair 2:

2023 Economics Nobel Prize

 

This year’s Laureate in the Economic Sciences, Claudia Goldin, provided the first comprehensive account of women’s earnings and labour market participation through the centuries. Her research reveals the causes of change, as well as the main sources of the remaining gender gap.

Women are vastly underrepresented in the global labour market and, when they work, they earn less than men. Claudia collected over 200 years of data from the US and showed that female participation in the labour market did not have an upward trend over this entire period, but instead forms a U-shaped curve.

The participation of married women decreased with the transition from an agrarian to an industrial society in the early nineteenth century, but then started to increase with the growth of the service sector in the early twentieth century. Goldin explained this pattern as the result of structural change and evolving social norms regarding women’s responsibilities for home and family.

During the twentieth century, women’s education levels continuously increased, and in most high-income countries they are now substantially higher than for men. Goldin demonstrated that access to the contraceptive pill played an important role in accelerating this revolutionary change by offering new opportunities for career planning.

Why there is earning gap between men and women for long years even after the above mentioned change?

According to Goldin, part of the explanation is that educational decisions, which impact a lifetime of career opportunities, are made at a relatively young age. If the expectations of young women are formed by the experiences of previous generations – for instance, their mothers, who did not go back to work until the children had grown up – then development will be slow.

Current Affair 3:

Importance of Watermeal

 

News:

Scientists from Thailand are conducting groundbreaking research into the potential of watermeal, the world's smallest flowering plant, as a source of nutrition and oxygen for astronauts.

Importance:

Watermeal is rootless, stemless plant typically floats on the surface of water bodies in regions like Thailand and other parts of Asia. Its simplicity and rapid growth rate make it an ideal candidate for studying the effects of altered gravity on plant development.

Researchers, explains their interest in watermeal: "Because watermeal doesn’t have any roots, stems or leaves, it is basically just a sphere floating on a body of water. That means we can focus directly on the effects that gravity shifts will have on its growth and development."

Watermeal is a prolific producer of oxygen through photosynthesis and a rich source of protein. In Thailand, it has been part of the local diet for generations, appearing in dishes ranging from soups to salads.

 

Current Affair 4:

Atmospheric Perturbations around the Eclipse Path (APEP) mission

 

Just read this one paragraph:

<< Previous Next >>