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Daily Current Affairs – 18th, 19th and 20th June 2015, Thursday, Friday and Saturday

1. Union Govt hiked the MSP of pulses to boost output and control prices

(i) The Centre on Wednesday hiked the minimum support price (MSP) for pulses upto Rs 275 per quintal for this year to boost domestic output and check price rise.

(ii) This decision was taken by Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA), headed by PM Narendra Modi.

(iii)  MSP is the rate at which government buys the grains from farmers. Besides pulses, CEA has also approved the MSP of paddy by Rs 50 per quintal for common variety to Rs 1,410 per quintal and Grade A variety to Rs 1,450 per quintal for this year. 

2. Govt forms two committees for implementation of GST

(i) The Finance Ministry has formed two committees with the view of implementation of Goods and Services Tax from 1st April 2016, this move will integrate state and central taxes. 

(ii) A steering committee has been formed under the co-chairmanship of additional secretary, Department of Revenue and Member Secretary, Empowered Committee of State Finance Ministers. This Committee is to monitor the progress on consultations with various stakeholders like trade and industry and training of officers.

(iii) The second Committee has been formed under the Chairmanship of the Chief Economic Advisor, Ministry of Finance with an objective to recommend possible tax rates under GST, consistent with the present rate of taxes at the centre and the states.  

3. The Union Cabinet gives nod to the introduction of Bureau of Indian Standards Bill, 2015

(i) The Union Cabinet chaired by PM Modi, gave approval on Wednesday to introduce a new Bureau of Indian Standards Bill, 2015. 

(ii) The main objectives of the proposed legislation is as follows:

(a)  to establish the Bureau of Indian standards (BIS) as the National Standards Body of India 

(b) The Bureau to perform its functions through a Governing Council, which will consist of its President and other members 

(c) To include goods, services and systems, besides articles and processes under the standardisation regime 

(d) To enable the Government to bring under the mandatory certification regime such article, process or service which it considers necessary from the point of view of health, safety, environment, prevention of deceptive practices, security etc. This will help consumers receive ISI certified products and will also help in prevention of import of sub-standard products 

(e) To allow multiple types of simplified conformity assessment schemes including Self Declaration Of Conformity (SDOC) against any standard which will give multiple simplified options to manufacturers to adhere to standards and get a certificate of conformity, thus improving the “ease of doing business

(f) To enable the Central Government to appoint any authority, in addition to the Bureau of Indian Standards, to verify the conformity of products and services to a standard and issue certificate of conformity 

(g) To enable the Government to implement mandatory hallmarking of precious metal articles 

(h) To strengthen penal provisions for better and effective compliance and enable compounding of offences for violations

(i) To provide recall, including product liability of products bearing the Standard Mark, but not conforming to relevant Indian Standards; and Repeal of the BIS Act, 1986. 

4. Union Cabinet approves to increase India’s Solar Power capacity by 2022

(i)The Union Cabinet on Wednesday raised the solar power generation capacity target under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM) by five times 1,00,000 MW by 2022.

(ii) The target principally comprises of 40 GW (Solar) rooftop and 60 GW through large and medium scale grid connected solar power projects. 

(iii) The total investment is setting up 100 GW is estimated around Rs. 6,00, 000 crore, making India one of the world’s largest green energy producers, surpassing several developed countries.

5. Bangladesh won by 6 wickets against India

(i) India, dropped to a new low on Sunday loosing to Bangladesh in it’s first ever match by an embarrassing six wickets loss in the second ODI in a three match series at Mirpur.

(ii) Indian opener Shikhar Dhawan made a useful contribution of 53 runs while skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni looked in a terrible shape. The only significant stand of the Indian innings was between Dhawan and Virat Kohli (23) as they added 74 for the second wicket.

(iii) Following this victory, Bangladesh have also qualified for the 2017 ICC Champions Trophy, to be held in England.

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