CURRENT AFFAIRS
02 April 2021
NATIONAL NEWS:
A) Government withdraws order on rate cut on small savings schemes.
Hours after notifying significant cuts in small savings instruments’ returns for this quarter, the government has backtracked on these sharp cuts. This is the first time that the Centre has scrapped the notified interest rates on small savings schemes after switching to a quarterly interest rate setting system in April 2016. The government appears to have had a rethink owing to a sharp backlash on social media about the middle class being squeezed. Retail inflation has been breaching the 6% mark and the government has also decided to tax Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF) savings starting this year. Interest rates of small savings schemes of GoI shall continue to be at the rates which existed in the last quarter of 2020-2021, ie, rates that prevailed as of March 2021. Orders issued by oversight shall be withdrawn, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in a tweet early Thursday morning. Given the amount of bureaucratic paperwork behind each government notification, an oversight of this nature is unusual. The last round of rate reductions was in the April to June quarter of 2020, when small savings rates had been cut between 0.5% and 1.4%.The rates notified on Wednesday night for the April to June 2021 quarter were 40 basis points (0.4%) to 110 basis points (1.1%) lower on various instruments. The sharpest cut was proposed in the quarterly interest rate paid on one year term deposits, from 5.5% in the January to March quarter to 4.4% in this quarter. The rate of return on the Senior Citizen Savings’ Scheme was cut from 7.4% to 6.5%, while the Sukanya Samriddhi Account Scheme’s return was reduced from 7.6% to 6.9%. The rate of return on the popular Public Provident Fund (PPF) scheme was reduced from 7.9% to 7.1% last April and further slashed to 6.4% for this quarter, before the minister announced the rollback on Thursday morning.
B) Vaccine centres to stay open on all days in April.
The Centre has decided to operationalise both public and private COVID Vaccination Centres (CVCs) on all days in April, according to a statement from the Health Ministry on Thursday. The Centre has directed all States and UTs to make necessary arrangements to provide vaccination at the centres on all days, including gazetted holidays, during April. This step has been taken after detailed deliberations with the States/UTs on March 31, to optimally utilise all COVID Vaccination Centres across the public and private sectors to ensure rapid increase in the pace and coverage of COVID vaccination, noted the release. It added that the decision was in line with the graded and pro-active approach employed for Covid-19 vaccination. Covid-19 vaccination for all people above 45 has started from April 1.
C) Bengal elections: Mamata Banerjee alleges irregularities in Nandigram.
Alleging irregularities in the polling process in Nandigram, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday said that she will approach the courts over the issue. Banerjee, who is a candidate from Nandigram, reached a polling booth at Boyal in the Assembly segment, where allegations were made that her party polling agent was not allowed inside the booth. He have come here to prove that 80% of the votes have been rigged here. Since morning, about 63 complaints have been made but not a single action has been taken, Banerjee told journalists at the polling booth. The Chief Minister said that outsiders were trying to create trouble and the Central forces were protecting them under instructions from the Home Ministry. She also urged Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar to ensure a free and fair poll. While the Chief Minister sat inside a polling booth at Boyal Primary School for almost an hour, supporters of both the Trinamool Congress and the BJP came face to face with each other outside. The police and security personnel guarded the primary school by forming a human chain. Passions ran high among the supporters of both the TMC and the BJP, who raised slogans against each other. The security personnel did their best to prevent clashes. The voting started in the morning and the candidate is coming out now. You can understand the situation, BJP candidate Suvendu Adhikari said. Adhikari, who lauded the efforts of Central forces and Election Commission, said 70 % of polling was over. Nandigram went to the polls with 29 other Assembly constituencies in the second phase on Thursday. By 5 p.m. 80.43% of the 75.94 lakh voters who were set to exercise their franchise in the second phase of the polls had cast their votes.
D) Rajinikanth to be bestowed with Dada Saheb Phalke award.
Five days ahead of the Tamil Nadu polls, the Narendra Modi government on Thursday announced the Dadasaheb Phalke Award for Rajinikanth for his contributions as an actor, producer and screenwriter. Announcing the decision in Delhi on Thursday, Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar said, For the last 50 years, Rajinikanth has been ruling the film industry. His work is like the sun. Through his talent and hard work, he has made a space for himself in the hearts of millions of people. He will be conferred the award on May 3, a day after the results of the Assembly elections are announced. Instituted in 1969, the Dadasaheb Phalke Award is India’s highest award in cinema. It is presented annually at the National Film Awards Ceremony by the Directorate of Film Festivals, an organisation of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. Reacting to the news of him being honoured with the 51st Dadasaheb Phalke Award, Rajinikanth thanked Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and several other friends, family members and mentors for the award. He further added that he dedicate this award to his friend, bus driver Raj Bahadur, for recognising his acting ability and providing encouragement, his brother Thiru Sathyanarayana Rao Gaikwad for making many sacrifices to help him follow his dreams even when we lived in poverty, his mentor K Balachander for giving him his first break and making him Rajinikanth, all his film producers, directors, technicians distributors, theatre owners, the media, the Tamil people who have helped him thrive, and my fans all over the world.
E) EC bars DMK’s A. Raja from campaigning for 48 hours.
The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Friday debarred DMK deputy general secretary A. Raja from campaigning for 48 hours with immediate effect, besides reprimanding him for violation of the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) for making certain remarks against AIADMK leader and Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami. It also delisted Raja’s name from the list of DMK’s star campaigners. Raja’s interim reply to the notice issued by the Commission was not found satisfactory, it said. As for his request for hearing his side through his advocate, the Commission said, More time to represent is an attempt to buy time which the Commission cannot afford to give in the midst of elections. The Commission urged the former Union Telecom Minister to be watchful and not to make intemperate, indecent, derogatory, obscene remarks and lower the dignity of women in future during election campaign. Following a complaint from the AIADMK, the ECI had issued a notice to Raja on March 30 and the following day, the DMK MP had submitted his interim reply to the Commission.
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
A) Biden lets H-1B ban expire.
U.S. President Joe Biden on Thursday let the ban on foreign workers visa, in particular H-1B, lapse as the notification issued by his predecessor Donald Trump expired, a move which is likely to benefit thousands of Indian IT professionals. Amidst a national lockdown and the Covid-19 crisis, Trump had in June last year issued a proclamation that suspended entry to the U.S. of applicants for several temporary or non-immigrant visa categories, including H-1B, arguing that these visas presented a risk to the U.S. labour market during the economic recovery.
B) Pakistan defers decision to import sugar, cotton from India.
Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Mahmood Qureshi on Thursday said that the decision to import cotton and sugar from India has been deferred, citing the abrogation of Article 370. He said that the normalisation of ties is impossible until the decisions taken on August 5, 2019 are reconsidered by India. In a video released earlier today, the Minister said the Economic Coordination Committee’s (ECC) decision was deferred following a debate in the Cabinet. An impression was emerging that ties with India are moving towards normalisation and trade has been opened. He said it was impossible to normalise relations until the unilateral decisions taken by India on August 5, 2019 are reconsidered. On August 5, 2019, India had revoked the special status granted to Jammu and Kashmir under Article 370. Pakistan’s Minister for Human Rights Shireen Mazari said in a tweet soon after a Cabinet meeting chaired by Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on Thursday that it had turned down the proposal. PM made clear there can be no normalisation of relations with India until they reverse their actions viz Kashmir of August 5 2019, tweeted Mazari. The Cabinet decision comes a day after Pakistan’s new Finance Minister Hammad Azhar on Wednesday announced that the country will lift a nearly-two year long ban on the import of cotton and sugar from India after a meeting of the ECC chaired by him.
