PUNJAB

Punjab seeks slashing duty on Covid related items

Punjab Finance Minister Manpreet Badal called upon the Centre to have “GST with a heart” as he sought a much lower tax regime on goods required to battle Covid ahead of the meeting of the GST Council.

The Fitment Committee of the GST Council has recommended against granting full exemption as that would result in increased cost of production of these goods. In this scenario, the opposition finance ministers may press for a token GST of 0.1 % on such items.

INTERNATIONAL

China-Russia to Begin the Biggest Nuclear Power Project

China and Russia started their largest Nuclear Power Projects. Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping attended the ceremony to start the construction of the project on May 19, 2021.

In 2018, Russia and China signed a Nuclear Energy Cooperation Project Agreement.

The countries agreed to build Units 3 and 4 of the Xudapu Nuclear Power Plant, as well as Units 7 and 8 of the Tianwan Nuclear Power Plant, as part of the agreement.

The construction of the above four units is a significant result of the countries’ collaboration in science and technology innovation and high-end equipment manufacturing.

The project’s contract value is twenty billion dollars.

The project’s nuclear reactors will be third-generation VVER-1200 reactors.

The reactors will produce 37.6 billion kilowatt hours of electricity once they are finished.

They will also reduce the use of fossil fuels and reduce CO2 emissions by 30.68 million tonnes.

Microsoft to Retire Iconic Internet Explorer

Technology giant Microsoft with more than 25 years of experience has decided to suspend its iconic Internet Explorer (IE) browser, which will take effect on June 15, 2022. The Internet Explorer (IE) browser was launched in 1995.

Highlights:

Microsoft recommends that its users switch to Microsoft Edge (2015) before June 15, 2022 for a faster, safer and more modern browsing experience.

Microsoft Edge has a built-in Internet Explorer mode (IE mode), so users can directly access old Internet Explorer-based websites and applications from Microsoft Edge.

Internet Explorer used to be the most widely used Web browser, with 95% of its usage share in 2003.

NATIONAL

States look to meet ‘Har Ghar Jal’ target ahead of national goal

As the Centre’s flagship programme to provide tap water connections to all rural households in the country has entered its third year of implementation, states and Union Territories (UTs) have started rolling out their annual planning exercise with objective to meet their respective targets ahead of the national goal of 2024.

Funds will be released by the ‘Jal Shakti’ ministry to the states/UTs as per their approved plans under the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) that aims to provide tap connections to all rural households in the country by 2024.

In addition to Rs 50,000 crore budgetary allocation for the JJM, there is also assured fund of Rs 26,940 crore available under the 15th Finance Commission grant for water and sanitation.

Nine states, UTs yet to adopt gender budgeting

Even though the government adopted gender budgeting in 2005-06 as a strategy to advance gender mainstreaming, nine states and Union Territories — Goa, Telangana, Haryana, Chandigarh, Meghalaya, Ladakh, Mizoram, Puducherry and Sikkim — are yet to adopt it. So far, 27 states UTs and 37 central ministries and departments have adopted gender budgeting.

The Gender Budget Statement (GBS) is a reporting mechanism to assess budgets which are being allocated for women and girls by different ministries and departments. Data shared by women and child development minister Smriti Irani in a written response to a question in Lok Sabha showed that for 2021-22, Rs 1,53,326 crore has been allocated for women and girls by 43 ministries, departments and UTs.

Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay National Welfare Fund For Sportspersons

The Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports has approved a grant of Rs 200,000 for V Tejaswini Bai of Karnataka, who won the Arjuna Award in 2011 and was a member of the women’s Kabaddi team, that won gold medal games at the Asian Olympic Games in 2014 and 2014 respectively. The Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay National Welfare Fund for Sportspersons (PDUNWFS) has approved financial assistance.

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