7.32 lakh jobs created in Nov, says EPFO

Employment generation in the formal sector increased by 48 per cent to touch a 15-month high of 7.32 lakh in November as compared to 4.93 lakh in the year ago month, according to the latest EPFO payroll data. Around 73.50 lakh new subscribers were added to social security schemes of the EPFO from September 2017 to November 2018. This indicates that these many jobs were created in the past 15 months. The EPFO, however, revised downwards its payroll data for October to 6.66 lakh against the earlier estimate of 8.27 lakh. It also revised the cumulative job addition data from September 2017 to October 2018 downwards 16.4 per cent to 66.18 lakh from the earlier forecast of 79.16 lakh. The lowest number of 55,831 subscribers were added to the EPFO schemes in March, the data showed.

JNPT features in global top 30 ports list

The Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) has become India’s only port to get listed among the top 30 global container ports. “The JNPT got listed among the top 30 container ports globally, as per the latest Lloyds Report. JNPT notched up five spots, to be 28th on the list, compared to its previous ranking,” the shipping ministry said. Various new processes activated under the ease of doing business initiative have not only helped in overall growth of the port business, but also allowed the Exim trade to save time and cost, which in turn have accentuated the growth story, it said. The JNPT also launched an app service to facilitate better tracking of consignment and ease the trade process for their Exim partners.

India joins Innovation Index at 54th spot

India makes its debut in the 2019 Bloomberg Innovation Index at 54th spot while South Korea retained the global crown. Improvements by Germany in research and education brought Europe’s largest economy to second spot. The US moved up to eighth place, a year after cracks in education scores pushed it out of the top 10 for the first time. The UAE made the highest debut at 46th place. Brazil rejoined the index at 45th spot after not being ranked last year. The index, in its seventh year, analyses dozens of criteria using seven metrics, including research and development spending, manufacturing capability and concentration of high-tech public companies. Patent activity boosted the scores for China and Israel, which was a big winner by jumping five spots to fifth overall.

Priyanka Gandhi named Cong gen secy

Priyanka Gandhi Vadra was appointed AICC general secretary for Uttar Pradesh East by her brother and Congress chief Rahul Gandhi. The move also marked Priyanka’s official entry into politics. Priyanka has always confined her role in overseeing campaigning in Amethi and Raebareli, the constituencies of Rahul and mother Sonia Gandhi, respectively. There has been demands for a prominent role for 47-year-old Priyanka to revive the Congress in Uttar Pradesh, which was a party bastion till the mid-1980s. At present, the party has only two Lok Sabha from UP. Jyotiraditya Scindia was appointed general secretary for UP West. The party also replaced Ashok Gehlot - the Rajasthan chief minister - as AICC general secretary (organisation) with K.C. Venugopal.

Indian Navy’s drill covers entire coastline

The Navy launched a multi-agency drill on January 22 covering the entire 7,516 km-long Indian coastline and exclusive economic zone and involving 13 coastal states and Union territories to check the efficacy of maritime security and surveillance. Nearly 150 ships, 40 aircraft and other strategic assets of the Navy and Coast Guard have been deployed as part of the Sea Vigil exercise. There have been biannual coastal security exercises at the level of states, but for the first time an exercise involving all coastal states, islands and all Central and state agencies is being carried out. “The exercise aims to comprehensively and holistically validate the efficacy of measures taken since the Mumbai terror attacks,” said Navy spokesman Capt. D.K. Sharma.

MHA assuages fears over Citizenship Bill

Indian citizenship would not be granted to any foreigner without the consent of state governments concerned after the passage of the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, the home ministry said on January 22. Ministry spokesperson Ashok Prasad said every application for Indian citizenship will be vetted by the deputy commissioner or district magistrate concerned, who will carry out due diligence and submit it to the state government concerned. “The state government also has to conduct an inquiry through its agencies. Only then, an individual will be granted Indian nationality. Without the state government’s recommendations, no one will be given Indian citizenship,” he said.

Rajan tips India to overtake China

India will eventually surpass China in economic size and will be in a better position to create the infrastructure being promised by Beijing in South Asia, former RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan said. Addressing a session on Strategic Outlook for South Asia at the WEF meeting in Davos, he said the Indian economy would continue to grow, while the growth rate is slowing down in China. “India will become bigger than China eventually as China would slow down and India would continue to grow. So, India will be in a better position to create the infrastructure in the region which China is promising today,” he said. The comments assume significance with China working on a lot of infrastructure projects across the region, including in Nepal and in Pakistan.

Govt to approve power tariff policy soon

The Union government will soon approve the power tariff policy, which would provide for a penalty for unscheduled power cuts by distribution companies from April 1, said Power Minister R.K. Singh. Talking about power sector reforms, he said that the second version of UDAY scheme meant for the revival of debt-laden discoms is being worked out and would be launched with more technological interventions to reduce their aggregate, technical and commercial losses. About stressed assets, he said as many as nine such projects with total capacities of 11,400 MW have been resolved while efforts are on to bring others out of the woods. There are 60 stressed power projects in India, he added.

Domestic aviation registers 18.6% growth

The number of flyers on domestic routes increased to 13.89 crore in 2018 from 11.71 crore in 2017, a growth of 18.6 per cent, according to Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) data. The figure for December was 1.26 crore as compared to 1.12 crore in December 2017, a growth of 12.91 per cent. IndiGo’s market share increased from 39.6 per cent in 2017 to 41.5 per cent in 2018. The budget carrier flew 5.76 crore passengers domestically in 2018 as compared to 4.63 crore in 2017. Due to intense competition, the domestic market share of Air India, Jet Airways and SpiceJet fell marginally even though their passenger count rose by 20.31 lakh, 11.43 lakh and 16.72 lakh, respectively.

India shares Kartarpur corridor coordinates

India on January 22 shared with Pakistan the coordinates of the crossing point of the proposed Kartarpur corridor, which will link Baba Nanak village in Punjab to Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Narowal in Pakistan. The MEA said India has proposed to Islamabad two set of dates, February 26 and March 7, for the visit of a Pakistani delegation to New Delhi to discuss and finalise the modalities. Earlier, Pakistan said it shared a draft agreement with India and invited New Delhi to urgently send a delegation to Islamabad to negotiate and finalise the proposal. Both sides are yet to finalise the modalities of travel of the pilgrims. The MEA said it has proposed two sets of dates for the visit by the Pakistani delegation so that Indian pilgrims can visit the holy site via the corridor at the earliest.

Pravasi Teerth Darshan Yojana launched

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on January 22 launched the Pravasi Teerth Darshan Yojana under which a group of Indian diaspora will be taken on a government-sponsored tour of religious places in India twice a year. The first batch of 40 Indian-origin people are at the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas in New Delhi and from there they will begin their tour. They will be taken to religious places of all major religions in India and the government will bear all the expenses including the airfare from their country of residence. All people of Indian origin aged 45 to 65 can apply and a group will be selected out of them with first preference given to people from Girmitiya countries such as Mauritius, Fiji, Suriname, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica.

Panel to study GST revenue shortfall

A panel of finance ministers decided on January 22 to scrutinise the GST collection on services by states to find out if they are taxing them correctly, said Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Modi. The panel has been formed by the GST Council to look into the revenue shortfall being faced by states after the implementation of GST. The seven-member Group of Ministers (GoM) headed by Modi also decided to look into issues concerning input tax credit with a view to finding out if they were contributing to the revenue shortfall. “It has been decided that a committee of officers will study the collection of tax on services by the states. It is apprehended that states may not be collecting the due GST on services as unlike the Centre they do not have expertise in taxing services,” Modi said.

Pak, UAE sign $3 bn bailout package

Pakistan and the UAE on January 22 signed a $3 billion bailout package, as part of Abu Dhabi’s support to boost the cash-strapped country’s dwindling dollar reserves. Last December, the UAE had announced to provide $3 billion financial assistance to Pakistan after Saudi Arabia made a similar commitment to help Islamabad successfully overcome international payment crisis and to avoid a stringent IMF deal. The UAE had committed the aid during Prime Minister Imran Khan’s visit to Qatar last month to seek investment. Pakistan has a 15-year contract with Qatar for supply of LNG. Saudi Arabia and the UAE have played a major role in helping Pakistan to meet around $12 billion shortfall in balance of payments in 2018-19, officials said.

China’s PLA undergoes strategic shift

China’s military - the world’s largest - has cut the size of its land-based army by about 50 per cent and significantly boosted its navy and air force as part of an “unprecedented” strategic shift designed to transform the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) into a comprehensive modern force. The 2 million-strong Chinese military has significantly boosted its navy, air force and new strategic units and downsized its land-based army, the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported quoting a state-run Xinhua report. In a feature report highlighting the “transformational changes” made by the PLA, Xinhua said “this new data is unprecedented in the history of the PLA. The army now accounts for less than 50 per cent of the total number of PLA troops; almost half of our non-combatant units have been made redundant, and the number of officers in the PLA has been reduced by 30 per cent”.

Greenland’s ice melting at record pace

Researchers have warned that Greenland’s melting ice, which causes sea levels to rise, disappeared four times faster in 2013 than in 2003 and is noticeable across the Arctic island and not just on glaciers. “While 111 cubic kilometres of ice disappeared per year in 2003, 10 years later this figure had almost quadrupled to 428 cubic kilometres,” said the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) Space Lab. Until now, most of Greenland’s ice melt was observed on the ice cap, predominantly on the glaciers in the island’s northwest and southeast. But most of the ice loss from 2003 to 2013 was from Greenland’s southwest region, which is largely devoid of large glaciers. “These are notable and surprising changes we are seeing in the ice melt pattern,” said DTU professor Shfaqat Abbas Khan.

Newsmakers

The 27th Saraswati Samman was conferred upon eminent Gujarati poet Sitanshu Yashaschandra. Organised by the K.K. Birla Foundation, the award for 2017 was given to Yashaschandra for his collection Vakhar.

Former IAS officer Skandan Krishnan will be the fourth adviser to Jammu & Kashmir Governor Satya Pal Malik. His appointment comes over a month after B.B. Vyas resigned following his selection as a UPSC member.

Aparna Kumar has become the first female IPS and ITBP officer to successfully conquer the South Pole. She finished her trek in eight days on January 13 during which she and seven other team members walked 180 km.

Pacer Mohammed Shami became the fastest Indian bowler to take 100 wickets in One-Day Internationals in his 56th match at Napier against New Zealand. Shami overtook Irfan Pathan, who achieved the feat in 59 matches.