16-Aug-2019: India has contributed $1 million to the UN Special Purpose Trust Fund for the Resident Coordinator System.
The Special Purpose Trust Fund (SPTF) is a specific fund housed within the UN Secretariat. It has been established to receive, consolidate, manage and account for all contributions and financial transactions of the new Resident Coordinator (RC) system, in a transparent and effective way.
Funding sources include three streams:
- Voluntary contributions from Member States.
- The doubling of cost-sharing amounts from UN entities who are members of the United Nations development system.
- A 1% levy applied to contributions for UN development-related activities earmarked to a single agency, single programme or project.
The UN Resident Coordinator (RC) system encompasses all organizations of the United Nations system dealing with operational activities for development, regardless of their formal presence in the country.
The RC system aims to bring together the different UN agencies to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of operational activities at the country level.
Resident Coordinators lead UN country teams in 129 countries and are the designated representatives of the Secretary-General for development operations.
1-Jun-2019: PM approves major changes in 'Prime Minister's Scholarship Scheme
In his first decision after being sworn-in to head the government for a second term, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who had made national security an important plank in the elections, approved a major change in the 'Prime Minister's Scholarship Scheme' under the National Defence Fund.
The rates of scholarship have been increased from Rs 2000 per month to Rs 2500 per month for boys and from Rs 2250 per month to Rs 3000 per month for girls.
The ambit of the Scholarship Scheme has been extended to the wards of State Police officials who are or were martyred during terror or Naxal attacks. The quota of new scholarships for the wards of state police officials will be 500 in a year.
The National Defence Fund (NDF) was set up in 1962 to take charge of the voluntary donations in cash and kind received for promotion of the national defence effort, and to decide on their utilisation.
Currently, the fund is being used for the welfare of the members of the Armed Forces, Para Military forces and Railway Protection Force, and their dependents. The fund is administered by an Executive Committee with the Prime Minister as the Chairperson and the Defence, Finance and Home Ministers as Members.
24-May-2019: ‘Elephant Bonds' to people who declare undisclosed income
A high level government-appointed committee on trade and industry has suggested it to issue ‘Elephant Bonds' to people for declaring undisclosed income to mandatorily invest 50%, reduce corporate tax rate, drop tit for tat approach on tariff wars with other countries, and set a target to double the exports (goods and services) to $1,000 billion by 2025. The fund, made from these bonds, will be utilised only for infrastructure projects.
The group, headed by former member of the Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council, also suggested allowing joint ventures and wholly owned subsidiaries of Indian parties to invest money in India as foreign direct investment (FDI) through funds earned overseas, under automatic route.
The panel said to simplify regulatory and tax framework for foreign investment funds and individual investors to enable the on-shoring of fund management activity of India-dedicated offshore funds and attract foreign individual investment into capital markets. Besides, it also suggested a reform of financial services sector policies to enable on-shoring of India-related financial services currently rendered from global financial services.
The government had constituted the High Level Advisory Group (HLAG) in September last year to look into the challenges arising from the current global trade scenario and suggest ways to boost the country's goods and services exports.
The recommendations to lower effective corporate tax rate, reducing cost of capital and simplifying regulatory and tax framework for foreign investment funds, are aimed at doubling India's exports of goods and services from $500 billion in 2018 to over $1,000 billion in 2025.
The group has suggested a separate regulation for medical devices and a single ministry for the sector, abolishing Essential Commodities Act and the APMC (Agricultural Produce Market Committee) to boost farm exports, and simplified medical visa regime along with a pan-India tourism board to promote tourism and medical value tourism.
For textiles and garments sector, it suggested modification in labour laws (like the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947) to remove limitation on firm size and allow manufacturing firms to grow.