Miscellanous Quiz: Bills, Laws & Miscellaneous |6 Apr, 2021

Trade of farmers’ produce: The Bill allows intra-state and inter-state trade of farmers’ produce outside: (i) the physical premises of market yards run by market committees formed under the state APMC Acts and (ii) other markets notified under the state APMC Acts. Such trade can be conducted in an ‘outside trade area’, i.e., any place of production, collection, and aggregation of farmers’ produce including: (i) farm gates, (ii) factory premises, (iii) warehouses, (iv) silos, and (v) cold storages.

Electronic trading: The Bill permits the electronic trading of scheduled farmers’ produce (agricultural produce regulated under any state APMC Act) in the specified trade area. An electronic trading and transaction platform may be set up to facilitate the direct and online buying and selling of such produce through electronic devices and internet. The following entities may establish and operate such platforms: (i) companies, partnership firms, or registered societies, having permanent account number under the Income Tax Act, 1961 or any other document notified by the central government, and (ii) a farmer producer organisation or agricultural cooperative society.

Market fee abolished: The Bill prohibits state governments from levying any market fee, cess or levy on farmers, traders, and electronic trading platforms for trade of farmers’ produce conducted in an ‘outside trade area’.

Source: PRSINDIA

Farming agreement: The bill provides for a farming agreement between a farmer and a buyer prior to the production or rearing of any farm produce. The minimum period of an agreement will be one crop season, or one production cycle of livestock. The maximum period is five years, unless the production cycle is more than five years.

Pricing of farming produce: The price of farming produce should be mentioned in the agreement. For prices subjected to variation, a guaranteed price for the produce and a clear reference for any additional amount above the guaranteed price must be specified in the agreement. Further, the process of price determination must be mentioned in the agreement.

Dispute Settlement: A farming agreement must provide for a conciliation board as well as a conciliation process for settlement of disputes. The Board should have a fair and balanced representation of parties to the agreement. At first, all disputes must be referred to the board for resolution. If the dispute remains unresolved by the Board after thirty days, parties may approach the Sub-divisional Magistrate for resolution. Parties will have a right to appeal to an Appellate Authority (presided by collector or additional collector) against decisions of the Magistrate. Both the Magistrate and Appellate Authority will be required to dispose of a dispute within thirty days from the receipt of application. The Magistrate or the Appellate Authority may impose certain penalties on the party contravening the agreement. However, no action can be taken against the agricultural land of farmer for recovery of any dues.

Source: PRSINDIA

The Essential Commodities Act, 1955 empowers the central government to designate certain commodities (such as food items, fertilizers, and petroleum products) as essential commodities.

The central government may regulate or prohibit the production, supply, distribution, trade, and commerce of such essential commodities.

The Bill provides that the central government may regulate the supply of certain food items including cereals, pulses, potatoes, onions, edible oilseeds, and oils, only under extraordinary circumstances.

These include: (i) war, (ii) famine, (iii) extraordinary price rise and (iv) natural calamity of grave nature.

Source: PRSINDIA

The Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2020 was introduced in Lok Sabha on September 20, 2020. The Bill amends the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 2010.

The Act regulates the acceptance and utilisation of foreign contribution by individuals, associations and companies. Foreign contribution is the donation or transfer of any currency, security or article (of beyond a specified value) by a foreign source.

Under the Act, certain persons are prohibited to accept any foreign contribution. These include: election candidates, editor or publisher of a newspaper, judges, government servants, members of any legislature, and political parties, among others.

The Bill adds public servants (as defined under the Indian Penal Code) to this list.

Public servant includes any person who is in service or pays of the government, or remunerated by the government for the performance of any public duty.

Source: PRSINDIA

Global Environment Outlook (GEO) is a series of reports on the environment issued periodically by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

The sixth edition of the Global Environment Outlook (GEO-6) provides a clear assessment of the current state of the environment, the challenges that we face and how well we have dealt with them, with due consideration given to gender, indigenous knowledge and cultural dimensions.

The assessment lays the foundation for continued socio-environmental assessments across relevant scales, with a thematic as well as an integrated focus, enabling and informing societal transitions and the tracking of Sustainable Development Goal targets and goals as well as previously agreed internationally environmental goals.

Using the integrated environmental assessment (IEA) methodology, UNEP has produced five GEO reports thus far, and the first edition of regional assessments which have analyzed environmental state and trends at the global and regional scales, described plausible outlooks for various time frames and formulated policy options.

Source: The Hindu

Ecological succession is a series of progressive changes in the species that make up a community over time.

Primary succession occurs when new land is formed or bare rock is exposed, providing a habitat that can be colonized for the first time.

What happens to this land during primary succession? First, weathering and other natural forces break down the substrate, rock, enough for the establishment of certain hearty plants and lichens with few soil requirements, known as pioneer species.

Algae, fungi, bacteria, lichens colonize on the bare rocks and provide organic materials for further higher level of colonization, while the planktons i.e., phytoplankton’s, zooplanktons provide base at the shallow water for further higher levels of succession in hydro sere.

Source: NCERT

Drylands are found in tropical and temperate latitudes and account for 41.3% of the global terrestrial area. They can be classified into four types – dry sub-humid, semi-arid, arid and hyper-arid lands – encompassing a variety of ecosystems.

The goal of the Global Drylands Initiative is to restore, sustainably manage and protect dryland ecosystems for multiple environmental, economic and social benefits.

The Initiative supports countries to adapt ecosystem management policy and practice to the unique conditions of the drylands and to the evolving challenges that the drylands face.

Further, as the IUCN Focal Point to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, the Global Drylands Initiative leads IUCN’s efforts to influence the global discource on Land Degradation and Sustainable Land Management.

In this case, the Initiative supports countries to implement their commitments to the Convention by demonstrating good practices on the ground, influencing the science-policy interaction of the Convention itself and working with other stakeholders to achieve Land Degradation Neutrality.

Source: IUCN

Effective Revenue Deficit is the difference between revenue deficit and grants for creation of capital assets.

The concept of effective revenue deficit has been suggested by the Rangarajan Committee on Public Expenditure.

It is aimed to deduct the money used out of borrowing to finance capital expenditure.

The concept has been introduced to ascertain the actual deficit in the revenue account after adjusting for expenditure of capital nature.

Focusing on this will help in reducing the consumptive component of revenue deficit and create space for increased capital spending.

Though the Budget documents have given targets for revenue deficit, the amendments to the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act 2003 have proposed to substitute the definitions of “effective revenue deficit” and “revenue deficit” with those of “Central government debt” and “general government debt” respectively.

Source: The Hindu

A liquidity trap is an economic situation where people hoard financial capital instead of investing or spending it.

As a result, the nation’s central bank can’t use expansionary monetary policy to boost economic growth. It often occurs when short-term interest rates are zero.

Source: Ramesh Singh

Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) is the central recruiting agency in India. It is an independent constitutional body in the sense that it has been directly created by the Constitution.

Articles 315 to 323 in Part XIV of the Constitution contain elaborate provisions regarding the composition, appointment and removal of members along with the independence, powers and functions of the UPSC.

The UPSC consists of a chairman and other members appointed by the president of India. The Constitution, without specifying the strength of the Commission has left the matter to the discretion of the president, who determines its composition. Usually, the Commission consists of nine to eleven members including the chairman.

Further, no qualifications are prescribed for the Commission’s membership except that one-half of the members of the Commission should be such persons who have held office for at least ten years either under the Government of India or under the government of a state.

The Constitution also authorizes the president to determine the conditions of service of the chairman and other members of the Commission.

Source: Laxmikanth