02.01.21 Assam (APSC) Current Affairs

ASSAM

 

Over 64,000 tourists have visited KNP since October 21

 

Over 64,000 people have visited the Kaziranga National Park and Tiger Reserve, home to the great one-horned rhinoceros, since it was reopened for tourists on October 21.

The park, which is also a Unesco World Heritage Site, usually remains closed between June and September because of the annual floods and reopens in November. However, tourism here suffered the double blow of anti-Citizenship Amendment Act protests and the novel coronavirus.

 

Kaziranga field director, P Sivakumar, said as many as 64,100 tourists visited the Kaziranga National Park and Tiger Reserve since October 21, 2020, while the revenue collected during the 70-day period was Rs 127.32 lakh. In 2018-19, over 47,10,971 domestic tourists and 25,739 foreign tourists had visited the park. The park director said the flow of home tourists in December was better than last season, but tourists from other states and abroad were very few.

 

The area of the third addition is 69.76 hectares (ha) and that of the fifth is 115.36 ha.
Sivakumar said as a part of water conservation efforts in 2020, five additional wetlands — Chirakhowa, Potahi, Deosur, Haldhibari and Banderdubi — were created which are huge and serve as habitats.

 

NORTH-EASTERN STATES

Work on 2nd bamboo depot in Tripura starts

 

The Tripura government has started construction of its second bamboo depot at Chakmaghat at Khowai in West Tripura to promote cultivation and popularize the use of bamboo.

The first depot is located at Kumarghat in Unokoti, North Tripura.

 

Bamboo has a great demand across the country and can have the prospect of becoming an industry if its production and marketing can be regulated scientifically.

INTERNATIONAL

Indias Minister Met The Top Leaders of Qatar

India’s External Affairs Minister met with Qatar’s top leaders and discussed strengthening economic and security cooperation between the two countries. This visit is part of India’s ongoing outreach to West Asia, which the government considers to be part of its neighbourhood expansion. Qatar is a member of the Gulf Cooperation Council.

India and Qatar agree to maintain regular consultation and coordination on all issues of mutual concern (including energy, power, petrochemical, investment, infrastructure, development, project export and education) in multilateral forums.

UK To Abolish the Tampon Tax

Beginning in 2021, the UK abolished the 5% Value Added Tax (VAT) on women’s sanitary products, commonly referred to as the tampon tax, & many activists call it sexist. Now it joins countries/regions that have eliminated this tax, including India, Australia and Canada.

Until December 31, the United Kingdom was still part of the European Union. During this period, regular products such as sanitary napkins and tampons were classified as non-essential goods, requiring member states to impose a 5% tax on them.

Today, Britain has withdrawn from the ranks of 27 member states, and it is not subject to its directives. According to the directive, since 1973, hygiene products have been subject to five different VAT rates-the lowest rate applicable since 2001 is 5%.

As a result, tax cancellation has been well received by women’s rights activists and Brexit supporters.

The EU itself has been abolishing regular product taxes. In 2018, the European Union issued proposals to change tax rules, but these proposals have not yet been accepted by all members

 

NATIONAL

New Rule in GST Will be Effective from New Year

 

The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) has made it mandatory for businesses with a monthly turnover of more than Rs. 50 lakh to pay at least 1% of their Goods and Services Tax (GST) liability in cash. It will be effective from 1st January 2021.

 

The new rule restricts the use of Input Tax Credit (ITC) for discharging GST liability to 99%.

So far, CBIC has booked about 12,000 ITC fraud cases and arrested 365 people so that this move will stop tax evasion through false invoices.

Provide ITC to offset taxes on the purchase of raw materials, consumables, goods or services used to manufacture goods or services. This helps avoid the cascading effect of taxes and double taxation.

 

FSSAI Slashes Limit for Trans-Fat Levels In Foods

 

The Food Safety & Standards Agency of India – FSSAI has passed amendments to foods to limit the amount of trans fatty acids – TFA in fats and oils from the current 5% to 3% in 2021 and 2% in 2022. Standard (Prohibition and Restriction of Sales) Regulations.

The revised regulations apply to edible refined oils, vanaspati (partially hydrogenated oils), margarine, bakery shortenings and other cooking media, such as vegetable fat spreads and mixed fat spreads.

Transfat is associated with an increased risk of heart attack and death from coronary heart disease.

According to data from the WHO (World Health Organization), due to the intake of industrially-produced trans-fatty acids, there are approximately 540,000 deaths worldwide each year.

The WHO has also called for the global elimination of Transfats by 2023.

 

Kochi Mangaluru Natural Gas Pipeline Dedicated to the Nation

 

The Prime Minister dedicated the Kochi-Mangaluru Gas Pipeline to the nation. This is a 450-kilometer-long pipeline built by Gail (India) Ltd.

 

It has a daily transportation capacity of 12 million metric standard cubic meters, and transports natural gas from the LNG (liquefied natural gas) regasification station in Kochi (Kerala) to Mangaluru (Dakshina Kannada District, Karnataka) while passing through The Ernakulam, Palakkad, Malapuram, Kozhikode, Kannur and Kasaragod regions of Thrissur.

Laying the pipeline is an engineering challenge because the route of the pipeline makes it necessary to traverse more than 100 water bodies.This is done through a special technique called “Horizontal Directional Drilling method”.

The total cost of the project is approximately Rs. 3000 crores.

The pipeline will provide Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) to households in the form of Pipeline Natural Gas (PNG) and environmentally friendly and affordable fuel to the transportation sector.

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