📰 Ease of business: India in top 100
Will leapfrog 30 places in World Bank assessment of 190 nations
•India will leapfrog 30 places to the 100th position out of 190 countries in the World Bank's Doing Business Report, high-level sources have confirmed to The Hindu .
•According to a source involved in the exercise — the report is expected to be released on October 31 — “India will hit a century.”
•This huge jump in the country's ranking is thanks to reforms in areas such as ‘starting a business’, ‘dealing with construction permits’, and ‘resolving insolvency’, where it was placed a lowly 155, 185 and 136 respectively last year.
•The source said, “The low rank last year galvanised India to act. There was an explicit order from the Prime Minister (Narendra Modi) to ensure faster reforms to improve India’s rankings.” India was ranked a poor 130 overall last year, up by just one place from the 131 rank in the previous year.
Future prospects
•On the future prospects for India, the source said, “If India maintains this momentum, it can jump to a rank in double digits next year,” adding that Mumbai and Delhi — the two cities covered in the Report — had responded well to the government’s call for improvement. The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion systematically worked with the line ministries and State governments to “get things done on the ground”, the source said.
📰 Stem cell aid for dystrophy
Experiment using fruit flies may help understand muscle disorders in humans
•Using advances in stem cell science, Indian researchers are trying to understand the mystery of muscle-related problems such as muscular dystrophy, a progressive muscle disorder.
•At the National Centre for Biological Sciences (a part of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research), Bengaluru, researchers studied the muscles of Drosophila or the fruit fly and discovered a new group of stem cells that are involved in the repair of injured tissue. Exercises such as running and lifting weights cause damage to muscles but they recover and are suitable for work again. How is this achieved?
•“We thought we can study this in the most easily accessible model, i.e. the fruit fly. These are small flying insects we often see hovering over ripened banana. We were puzzled as to how an insect could fly for so long, much like how we humans run and walk throughout our life. It is a simple question with vast implications to understand things about muscles in general. The fruit fly emerged as a simple model,” says Rajesh Gunage, a senior author of the new study that was published recently in the peer-reviewed eLife Science .
Pin prick experiment
•Researchers designed a simple ‘pin prick’ assay as an experimental strategy. The ‘pin prick’ assay involves using a tiny metal pin with dimensions that are close to those of an adult’s eyebrow hair. “Using this we could induce non-life-threatening damage to the tiny flight muscles of the fly and observe them for recovery of flight,” says Dr. Gunage.
•Flight muscles, as the name suggests, are involved in flying and are equated to human muscles of the leg or arm. Much like the recovery of damaged muscles in the case of a runner who recovers from it and starts to run again, researchers were surprised to see fruit flies take wing again after a brief period of recovery.
•Detailed analysis led to the discovery of novel stem cells. Team members observed that the pin injury activates stem cells and causes them to multiply. These new cells then become part of the injured muscles to help them recover from the injury.
•“Anybody can do this experiment even at home. All you need is a small pin and a banana. Banana attracts small flying insects such as the Drosophila. All you need to do is prick them in the thorax with a pin to injure their muscles. Initially, they fail to fly due to injury but soon, due to stem cells, the damage is reversed and they are set into action again. Within no time you can see them resume their normal flight,” says Dr. Gunage.
•Finding answers to questions such as how a different diet, regular exercise affect muscles or even about a possible drug expected to enhance muscle function can now be found. “It just makes many difficult experiments easy to perform with much less effort,” the research team noted.
📰 do GST rules need to be tweaked?
What is the problem?
•Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia recently said the Goods and Services Tax rate structure needed to be tweaked, prompting the question why this is the case, and if it were to be revised, what would those changes involve. Ever since Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on October 4 that GST procedures would be reviewed and bottlenecks removed, the GST Council has taken decisions and its officials have made comments that underscore the aim of this revision. At the last GST Council meeting on October 6, a slew of decisions was announced, from rate reductions to the easing of compliance norms.
•The way the GST is structured now, there are seven rates — 0%, 0.25%, 3%, 5%, 12%, 18%, and 28% — applicable to various goods, not counting the various cesses levied over and above the highest rate of 28%. This is a far more complex rate structure than that applied in the 160-odd countries that have implemented a unified tax structure like the GST. Most of these countries have two rates of tax, while some even have one.
•This multiplicity of rates has created a huge compliance burden on companies, since the classification system is not always easy to understand. For example, soon after the launch of GST, the government had to clarify that chocolate-covered barfis would be taxed at 5%, the same rate as normal barfis. The confusion arose because the GST Council had said anything that used cocoa as an input would be taxed at 28%.
•The Revenue Secretary also suggested that, going forward, the GST Council would look into pruning the number of items in the 28% slab. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, at a recent press conference, confirmed that Mr. Adhia’s comments were in line with the government’s stated objectives.
Are there many rates?
•The revision of rates matters for several reasons. The whole point of implementing such a ‘Good and Simple Tax,’ as Mr. Modi dubbed it, was to reduce the compliance burden on companies and improve the ease of doing business. The multiplicity of rates is hindering this, since companies are having to spend more on preparing themselves for the inevitable litigation, not to mention hiring of tax consultants to oversee the monthly filings of detailed returns.
•Being an indirect tax, the GST affects each and every person during almost every transaction they conduct over the course of their normal day — whether it is at a restaurant, barber, cigarette shop or movie theatre. A revision of rates would thus affect the common man directly. In this context, the people of Gujarat — the Prime Minister’s home State, which is going to the polls soon — are particularly sensitive to the GST rollout. In line with that, the Gujarat government has announced that all GST payments on drip irrigation equipment would be borne by it. Another important aspect to keep in mind while discussing the revision of GST rates is the other party involved in taxation — the government. The government’s argument for the number of rates in GST is that the higher 28% ‘luxury and sin’ rate offsets the loss of revenue due to most items of common use being placed in the 5% or exempt categories. The government needs to maintain its tax collections, so any rate revision needs to be informed by that imperative.
What is the road map?
•Mr. Jaitley has also spoken about the possibility of collapsing the 12% and 18% rates into a single slab once the implementation of the indirect tax regime settles down. So, eventually, we could see a GST rate structure with at least one fewer rate.
•Another problem that may be addressed, according to Mr. Adhia’s statement, is the categories of items themselves. He said: “There is a need for harmonisation of items chapter wise,” which means similar items now in different tax slabs — like chocolate syrup and sugar syrup, for example — could be brought under a single rate. At its next meeting on November 10, the GST Council could revise the rates on more items and even include real estate in the ambit of GST. With the Gujarat election schedule announced, it is not clear how much more relief the Centre can give traders from the State on the GST till the results are announced on December 18. For now, the Prime Minister has asked traders wary of joining the GST net not to worry about their past operations being under the scanner — taxmen will not be allowed to scrutinise their past records.
📰 The original Red Fort of Delhi
Lal Kot, built by Raja Anangpal Tomar, is not the same as Lal Qila
•Delhi’s Red Fort, or Lal Qila, is not only an iconic structure but is synonymous with the city. However, much before the Lal Qila, there was another Red Fort in Delhi called Lal Kot, which was built by Anangpal Tomar in the eighth century. It is the original Red Fort of Delhi. Let me clarify that Lal Qila was not built on the ruins of Lal Kot; they are quite far away from each other.
History of Delhi
•We have documented proof for the foundation of Delhi from the first Tomar king onwards. Raja Anangpal Tomar founded it in AD 736. He probably chose the rocky Aravalli hills in Mehrauli as his headquarters for the strategic and military advantages it offered. It was one of the reasons why Qutbuddin Aibak, the first Sultan of Delhi, and some of his successors continued to live in the Lal Kot/Qila Rai Pithaura area for some years till Kaikobad moved to Kilokhari.
•Delhi was built over several years as successive rulers felt the need for fortification against enemies, or wanted to go closer to sources of water, or just wanted to create a magnificent city. The seven cities are still extant; the eighth city was designed and built by Edwin Lutyens.
•The first city of Delhi — Lal Kot/Qila Rai Pithaura — is situated in Mehrauli. The seventh city of Shahjahanabad, where Lal Qila is situated, is 23 km away from Lal Kot. In between are the ruins of the five other extant cities: Siri, Jahanpanah, Tughlaqabad, Firozabad and Dinpanah/Sher Shah Garh.
•The first city stretched from Lado Sarai to Mehrauli. Later this area was expanded and renamed Qila Rai Pithaura after the famous ruler Raja Prithviraj Chauhan (AD 1169-1191).
•The Tomars ruled over it from AD 736 but it was Anangpal II who re-peopled it and built Delhi’s first Red Fort in AD 1052. It seems probable that Anangpal II was forced to move to Delhi from Kanauj after the attack by Mahmud of Ghazni on Kanauj. Here, the Tomar kings, Anangpal and his successors, reigned undisturbed for a century, during which time they were able to build the city walls and construct masonry, dams, and tanks.
•Basheeruddin Ahmed in Waqeat-e-Darul Hukumat Dehli and Gordon Risley Hearns in The Seven Cities of Delhi refer to an invasion and conquest of Delhi by Chauhan Rajputs in AD 1151 after which they reached an arrangement that the Tomar should marry a Chauhan princess so that their offspring becomes the king of Delhi.
•That son was Prithviraj. He fortified the walls of his grandfather’s fort, erecting massive stone ramparts around it and extending its original boundaries. The excavations undertaken by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) in this area showed that the citadel was oblong in plan and “the high stonewalls to its west which enlarge the original enclosure and are usually regarded as its area are a later construction”. It also shows the presence of a palatial building built by Prithviraj. The Turk rulers called it Qila Rai Pithaura after him.
•Raja Prithviraj fought two battles against Sultan Mohammad of Ghor. In the first, Prithviraj defeated the Sultan in Tarain. In the second battle, Prithviraj was defeated after which, according to historians, he was taken to Ghor as a prisoner. With this, the city of Delhi changed hands and became the capital of the Delhi Sultans.
The gates around Lal Kot
•Lal Kot, which lies inside Sanjay Van, a medicinal forest, is now mostly in ruins and its stone ramparts and remains of a moat survive only at very few places. The walls are 28-30 feet thick and about 60 feet in height. They are surrounded by a ditch. The bastions are 60-100 feet in diameter; the intermediate towers are 45 feet in diameter on top and well splayed out below. Qila Rai Pithaura, which extends beyond that, is also in the same state with only some portions of its walls still erect.
•The victorious Turks entered Lal Kot through the Ranjit Gate, which was then renamed Ghazni Gate. The ruins and stones of this gate lie within the present Lal Kot walls a short way inside from the Fateh Burj.
•General Alexander Cunningham traced the remains of ten gates in the 19th century for the ASI. We know the names of some of the gates: Badaun, Ranjit, Sohan, Barka, Hauz Rani and Fateh. The defences of Ranjit Gate were breached by the invading army of Qutbuddin Aibak. It entered Qila Rai Pithaura from this gate near the tomb of Adham Khan, Akbar’s general. Badaun Gate was the busiest under the Delhi Sultans. Most of the movement here related to state administrative work. The remains of the Badaun Gate are in the Qila Rai Pithaura grounds in the Qutub Golf Club.
📰 Enabler for MSMEs eyes 21% growth
National Small Industries’ Corp. has sought more equity funding from Centre
•The National Small Industries Corporation (NSIC), a government enterprise that facilitates information, credit, technology and marketing for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), is looking at business to the tune of Rs. 24,000 crore this year.
•“Our business turnover in 2007 was about Rs. 2,300 crore. From 2007, we moved towards self-dependence and last year, the business turnover was about Rs. 20,600 crore. This year, there are challenges faced by SMEs for various reasons. We are looking at business of Rs. 24,000 crore to Rs. 25,000 crore,” said Ravindra Nath, chairman-cum-managing director of NSIC.
•The profit NSIC earned last year was Rs. 165 crore. In 2015-2016, the company had business of Rs. 21,242 crore.
•Some of the sources of revenue for NSIC, which caters to about 1.25 lakh MSMEs across the country through different schemes, are interest earned for credit offered to the units, membership charges, training centres, and raw material distribution.
•“Government equity in the enterprise now is Rs. 532 crore. We are in discussion with the government for more equity, especially needed for credit services. We are yet to ascertain how much we need,” he said.
Finance facilitation
•On the services offered by NSIC, he said that about 10,000 units seen benefit so far from the online finance facilitation centre started last year. The organisation is talking to State Governments to set up technical service centres in each State. “We have seven technical service centres where we train people according to industry needs. We need infrastructure to expand the service.
•“Through the tie-ups, the State government will provide the infrastructure and NSIC will invest in plant and machinery,” he said. It has signed an MoU with the Haryana government to set up a centre at Faridabad and the Punjab government has given its consent for a centre at Rajpura.
•Following the visit of officials from South Korea, Malaysia, and Taiwan to the NSIC Advanced Training Centre, it is working out details to showcase MSME technologies in these countries at the facilities provided.
•The host country will also display its technologies. This will enable technology transfers and joint ventures, Mr. Nath said.
📰 SCIENCE-PLANET-SNOW
Snow on hot planet
•The Hubble Space Telescope has spotted a blistering-hot giant exoplanet, Kepler 13Ab, where the atmosphere “snows” titanium dioxide - the active ingredient in sunscreen.The finding provides insight into the complexity of weather on exoplanets, and may be useful for gauging habitability.
