Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 08 October 2022

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The Council, which was set up in 1997 jointly by the government, Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry (ASSOCHAM),
Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI).
To celebrate the journey of quality and excellence that India stands for, QCI has launched a marquee campaign–Gunvatta SeAtmanirbharta: India’s quality movement.

Objectives of QCI

To monitor and administer the National Quality Campaign to educate both suppliers and consumers on modern conceptsof quality.
To develop appropriate capacities at the level of Governments, Institutions and enterprises for implementing & institutionalizingcontinuous quality improvement.
To develop, establish & operate National Accreditation programmes in accordance with the relevant international standards.
To promote quality competitiveness of India's enterprises especially MSMEs through adoption of and adherence to qualitymanagement standards and quality tools.

The Central government recently refuted the news reports claiming inaccuracies in NHA and reduction in out-of-pocket expenditure by terming it “misleading and incorrect.”

About:

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare stated that the recent NHA estimates (2018-19) show a substantial reduction in out-of-pocket expenditure (OOPE), reaffirming the government’s commitment towards easing the citizens’ financial burden.
It further said that the main source of information for OOPE was based on NSO data of 2017-18 whereas the previous estimates were based on 2014.

What is National Health Accounts (NHA)?

It provide detailed information on expenditure incurred within the health sector of the country. It is a tool to describe health expenditures and the flow of funds in both Government and private sector in the country.

The Nobel Peace Prize for 2022 has been awarded to human rights advocate Ales Bialiatski from Belarus, the Russian human rights organisation Memorial, and the Ukrainian human rights organisation Center for Civil Liberties.

About Ales Bialiatski of Belarus:

Ales B ialiatski, who is in jail since 2021, is a vocal critic of Putin’s ally, President Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus. In 1995, Bialiatski founded the Belarus human rights group Viasna (Spring).
He was first jailed in 2011 for evading taxes. He was released in 2014, before being arrested again in 2021 during mass public protests in Minsk against elections that opposition activists said had kept Lukashenko in power the previous year.

Memorial group of Russia

It was established by human rights activists in the former Soviet Union during the Gorbachev years of glasnost and perestroika, and among its founders were 1975 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Andrei Sakharov and Russian mathematician Svetlana Gannushkina.
Its objective was to record atrocities committed during the communist regime, especially under Joseph Stalin. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Memorial grew to become the largest human rights organisation in Russia.

According to a new World Bank report, titled “Poverty and Shared Prosperity 2022: Correcting Course”, the Covid pandemic has been the biggest setback to global poverty alleviation in decades.
Poverty and Shared Prosperity is a biennial series that provides the latestestimates and trends in global poverty and shared prosperity.
The World Bank adopted a new extreme poverty line of $2.15 per person perday, which replaces the $1.90 poverty line, based on 2017 purchasing powerparities (PPPs).

Key Findings

The pandemic increased the global extreme poverty rate to an estimated 9.3%in 2020, up from 8.4% in 2019.
The primary reasons for such economic setbacks are: severe economicdownturn during Covid and the recent war in Ukraine.

The government cut the windfall tax on domestically-produced crude oil to Rs 8,000 per tonne from Rs 10,500, and halved the levy on export of diesel to Rs 5 per litre.

About:

The taxes were introduced on July 1, as the Centre felt that elevated crude prices were allowing oil companies to make windfall profits, and that the exchequer must get a share of such gains. The reduction in tax rates follows the easing of crude oil prices in international markets.

Windfall Tax:

Windfall taxes are designed to tax the profits a company derives from an external, sometimes unprecedented event— for instance, the energy price-rise as a result of the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
Governments typically levy a one-off tax retrospectively over and above the normal rates of tax on such profits, called windfall tax.

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has issued a Request forProposal for consultants to revamp National Informatics Centre (NIC).

About:

NIC was established in 1976 with the objective of providing technology-driven solutions to the Central and State Governments.
It comes under MeitY and acts as a technology partner of the government, helping in designing and development of IT systems, providing Information and Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructure etc.
NIC products and Platforms: SVAMITVA, Bhavishya, PM-KISAN, National Judicial Data Grid etc.

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