NITI Aayog

 

 NITI Aayog – UNDP Launched Handbook on Sustainable Urban Plastic Waste Management

NITI Aayog and UNDP India launched a handbook to promote sustainable management of plastic waste in the urban areas of the country.

https://www.niti.gov.in/sites/default/files/2021-10/Final_Handbook_PWM_10112021.pdf

Dr. Rajiv Kumar, Vice Chairperson, NITI Aayog emphasized, “Generating mass awareness” is the key for achieving sustainable plastic waste management in the cities. He further added “The Indore model of spreading mass awareness and explaining importance of waste management at household level needs to be adopted by other cities. It will be the key to make plastic waste management a people’s movement.”

Summary of the Handbook:

Urban local bodies (ULBs) are mandated under the Municipal Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016, and the Plastic Waste Management Rules, 2016, to manage municipal solid waste and plastic waste at the city level. The handbook is a repository of 18 case studies/best practices from India, including 4 from south Asian countries divided into four major components, including a) Technical models for recycling, b) Material Recovery Facilities (MRF), c) Governance for effective plastic waste management, and d) IEC and Digitization.

The book covers every aspect of the entire plastic waste management service chain and will enable Urban Local Bodies and other stakeholders involved in the sector to learn from the successful business and service models covered under this handbook to plan for efficient plastic waste management in their cities according to their requirements and guidelines.

Types of Plastic & their application:

Components for setting up a Plastic Waste Management (PWM) Model:

·         Component I:  Technical model for plastic waste recycling and management –Based on an integrated and inclusive approach by involving different stakeholders and their social benefits.

·         Component II: Material Recovery Facility – For improved plastic waste management implementation. This explains the complete functioning of a material recovery facility (MRF), beginning from site identification, construction and waste processing mechanisms at the MRF.

·         Component III: Institutionalization of MRFs in governance bodies - Mainstreaming of waste pickers in the plastic waste management system would result in improved socio-economic conditions for waste pickers and increased recognition in society.

·         Component IV: IEC and Digitalization – This component includes the development of knowledge management mechanisms by establishing an in-built adoptive feedback system from different stages of plastic waste value chain.

 

The models detailed in the Handbook aim to bring sustainable plastic waste management into practice. The various systems approach detailed out in the report are aligned with the Swachh Bharat Mission 2.0 and the Plastic Waste Management Rules, 2016 and 2018. These models ensure compliance with regulations and improve resource utilization. The models not only focus on managing plastic waste but also on social inclusion and protection for waste pickers by improving their socio-economic conditions. To implement these models, the role of different stakeholders such as ULBs, recyclers, service providers, brand owners and waste pickers are detailed in this Handbook.

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NASA’s LUCY – The First Mission to the Trojan Asteroids

 

NASA’s LUCY 

      – The First Mission to the Trojan Asteroids

NASA is about to embark on a space archaeology mission for the ages. Out in Jupiter's orbit lies a collection of rocks known as the Trojan asteroids -- fossils from the earliest era of our solar system. These time capsules are locked in a dance around the sun and could hold the key to unlocking the origins of the giant planets that was formed some 4.5 billion years ago.

Lucy will be the first space mission to study the Trojans. The mission takes its name from the fossilized human ancestor (recovered from Ethiopia in 1974) whose skeleton provided unique insight into humanity's evolution. Likewise, the Lucy mission will revolutionize our knowledge of planetary origins and the formation of the solar system.

Lucy is set to be launched on October 16^th 2021 and, with boosts from Earth's gravity, will complete a 12-year journey to eight different asteroids — a Main Belt asteroid and seven Trojans. The Trojans orbit the Sun in two loose groups, with one group leading ahead of Jupiter in its path, the other trailing behind. All of the Trojans are thought to be abundant in dark carbon compounds.

Lucy will use three science instruments to study the asteroids, including colour and black-and-white cameras, a thermometer, and an infrared imaging spectrometer to determine the composition of the asteroids' surface materials. The spacecraft will communicate with Earth using its antenna, which also can be used to help determine the masses of the asteroids.

Once the Lucy mission has finished, the spacecraft will remain in a stable orbit that retraces the path of its exploration between Earth and Jupiter, and it won't have a chance of colliding with either for over 100,000 years. Eventually, if the orbit does grow unstable, it will likely head on a doomed mission to the sun or get kicked out of our solar system.

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Child Labour in India

 

 CHILD  LABOUR

                                    "Shine a light"

Child Labour refers to a crime where children are forced to work from a very early age. It is like expecting kids to perform responsibilities like working and fending for themselves. The average age for a child to be appropriate to work is considered fifteen years and more. Children falling below this age limit won't be allowed to indulge in any type of work forcefully. Because child labour takes away the kid's opportunity of having a normal childhood, proper education and physical and mental wellbeing. In many countries, it is illegal but still, it's far away from being completely eradicated.

 

CAUSES AND EFFECTS OF CHILD LABOUR

Child Labour happens due to several reasons. Firstly, it happens in countries that have a lot of poverty and unemployment. When the families are incapable of earning, they force the children to work so they can have enough money to survive. Similarly, if the adults of the family are unemployed, the younger ones have to work in their place.

 Moreover, when people do not have access to the education they will ultimately put their children to work. The uneducated only care about a short term result that is why they put children to work so they can survive their present. Furthermore, the profit minded attitude of various industries is also a major cause of child labour. They hire children because they can pay them less for the same work as an adult. As children work more than adults and also at fewer wages, they prefer children. They can easily influence and manipulate them. They only see their profit and this is why they engage children in factories. 

The continuing persistence of child labour and exploitation possess a threat to national economies and has severe negative short and long term consequences for children such as denial of education and undermining physical and mental health.

CHILD LABOUR IN INDIA

Child labour deprives children of their childhood, interferes with their ability to attend regular school, and that is mentally, physically socially or morally dangerous and harmful. The Census of India 2011 reports 10.1 million working children in the age group of 5-14 years, out of whom 8.1 million are in rural areas mainly engaged as cultivators (26%) and agricultural laborer's (32.9%).

The side-effects of working at a young age are:   

          Risk of contracting occupational diseases like skin diseases, diseases of the lungs, weak eyesight, TB etc., vulnerability to sexual exploitation at the workplace. deprivation of education.

CONSTITUTIONAL AND LEGAL PROVISIONS

According to Article 24 of the Indian Constitution any type of forced labour is prohibited. Article 24 states that a child under 14 years cannot be employed to perform any hazardous work Article 39 states that the health and strength of workers, men and women and the tender age of children are not abused. In the same manner, Child Labour Act (Prohibition and Regulation) 1986 prohibits children under the age of 14 years to be working in hazardous industries and processes. Policy interventions such as MGNREGA 2005, the Right to Education Act 2009 and the Mid Day Meal Scheme have paved the way for children to be in schools along with guaranteed wage employment for rural families. 

Further, with the ratification International Labour Organization conventions Nos. 138 and 182 in 2017, the Indian government have demonstrated its commitment to the elimination of child labour including those engaged in hazardous occupations.

MAJOR CHILD PROTECTION LAWS IN INDIA

• Children Pledging of Labour Act, 1933
• Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation Act, 1986)
• Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006
• Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009
• Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012

ERADICATION OF CHILD LABOUR

To eradicate child labour, we need to formulate some very effective solutions which will save our children. To begin with, one can create several unions that solely work to prevent child labour. We need to keep the parents in the loop to teach them the importance of education. If we make education free and the people aware, we will be able to educate more and more children who won't have to do child labour. Moreover, making people aware of the harmful consequences of child labour is a must. Every family must earn their . minimum income to survive and prevent child labour. It will decrease the level of poverty and thus minor labour.

Child trafficking should be eliminated by the governments of all countries. Child workers should be substituted by adult workers as about 800 million grown-ups are jobless in this world. In this way, an adult will get work and children will be free from labour. Work opportunities should be improved for adults to overcome the problem of poverty and child labour. Company owners of factories, industries, mines, etc. should take the oath of not including children in any type of work or job.

LET'S STOP IT...…..

Child labour is a huge social obstacle that requires to be resolved on an instant basis with the help of both, people (particularly parents and teachers) and the government. Children lead a flourishing future of any developing country, so it is the responsibility of all the adult citizens to ensure that they are not exploited. They should get a proper chance to evolve and grow within the happy atmosphere of family and school. They should not be restricted by the parents only to secure the economical scale of the family and by the companies to get labour at a low cost.

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Pandora Papers

 

Pandora Papers?

The Pandora papers investigation is a leak of almost 12 million documents that reveals hidden wealth, tax avoidance and, in some cases, money laundering by some of the world's rich and powerful. It is the world’s largest ever journalistic collaboration under the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) involving more than 600 journalists from over 150 media outlets in 117 countries.

There are at least 380 persons of Indian nationality in the Pandora Papers. Of these, The Indian Express has so far verified and corroborated documents related to about 60 prominent individuals and companies.

 

 

 

What does it unveil?

The Pandora Papers reveal how the rich, the famous and the notorious, set up complex multi-layered trust structures for estate planning, in jurisdictions (tax havens) which are loosely regulated for tax purposes, but characterized by air-tight secrecy laws.

This is particularly in jurisdictions that are loosely regulated for tax purposes, but characterized by air-tight secrecy laws.

The purpose for which trusts are set up are many is two-fold:

Tax-avoidance - to hide their real identities and distance themselves from the offshore entities so that it becomes near impossible for the tax authorities to reach them and

Tax evasion - to safeguard investments — cash, shareholdings, real estate, art, aircraft, and yachts — from creditors and law enforcers.

Pandora v/s Panama v/s Paradise papers

The Panama and Paradise Papers dealt largely with offshore entities set up by individuals and corporates respectively.

The Pandora Papers investigation shows how businesses disguised as Trusts have created a new normal with rising concerns of money laundering, terrorism funding, and tax evasion.

 

Trusts?

A trust can be described as a fiduciary arrangement where a third party, referred to as the trustee, holds assets on behalf of individuals or organizations that are to benefit from it.

It is generally used for estate planning purposes and succession planning. It helps large business families to consolidate their assets — financial investments, shareholding, and real estate property.

 

Is Trust Legal in India?

The Indian Trusts Act, 1882, gives legal basis to the concept of trusts. While Indian laws do not see trusts as a legal person/ entity, they do recognize the trust as an obligation of the trustee to manage and use the assets settled in the trust for the benefit of ‘beneficiaries’. India also recognizes offshore trusts i.e., trusts set up in other tax jurisdictions.

 

If Legal? Why Investigate?

There are legitimate reasons for setting up trusts and many set them up for genuine estate planning. A businessperson can set conditions for ‘beneficiaries’ to draw income being distributed by the trustee or inherit assets after her/ his demise. But trusts are also used by some as secret vehicles to park ill-gotten money, hide incomes to evade taxes, protect wealth from law enforcers.

 

Why overseas trusts?

Overseas trusts offer remarkable secrecy because of stringent privacy laws in the jurisdiction they operate in. The key tacit reasons why people set up trusts are:

Maintain a degree of separation: Businesspersons set up private offshore trusts to project a degree of separation from their personal assets.

Hunt for enhanced secrecy: Offshore trusts offer enhanced secrecy to businesspersons, given their complex structures. The Income-Tax Department can get information only with the financial investigation agency or international tax authority.

Avoid tax in the guise of planning: Businesspersons avoid their NRI children being taxed on income from their assets by transferring all the assets to a trust. Further, the tax rates in overseas jurisdictions are much lower than the 30% personal I-T rate in India plus surcharges, including those on the super-rich (those with annual income over Rs 1 crore).

Prepare for estate duty eventuality: There is pervasive fear that estate duty, which was abolished back in 1985 when Rajiv Gandhi was PM, will likely be re-introduced soon. Setting up trusts in advance, business families have been advised, will protect the next generation from paying the death/ inheritance tax, which was as high as 85 per cent.

Flexibility in a capital-controlled economy: India is a capital-controlled economy. Individuals can invest only $250,000 a year under the Reserve Bank of India’s Liberalized Remittance Scheme (LRS). To get over this, businesspersons have turned NRIs, and under FEMA, NRIs can remit $1 million a year in addition to their current annual income, outside India.

The NRI angle: Offshore trusts, as noted earlier, are recognized under Indian laws, but legally, it is the trustees — not the ‘settlor’ or the ‘beneficiaries’ — who are the owners of the properties and income of the trust. An NRI trustee or offshore trustee taking instructions from another overseas ‘protector’ ensures they are taxed in India only on their total income from India.

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https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/why-do-the-pandora-papers-matter-7550033/

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-58780561

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National Clean Air Programme revamped

 

         

National Clean Air 

                     Programme revamped   

                                 

The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has directed the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) to modify the National Clean Air Programme. They have proposed to reduce the air pollution 20-30 per cent by 2024. Recently, Delhi has received the first allotted funds of Rs 18 crore for attaining this target by 2024.

About NCAP:

It was launched by MoEFCC in January 2019 and was a pioneering effort in the country to frame a national framework for air quality management with a time-bound reduction target. It aims to reduce the concentration of coarse (particulate matter of diameter 10 micrometer or less, or PM10) and fine particles (particulate matter of diameter 2.5 micrometers or less, or PM2.5) by at least 20% in the next five years, with 2017 as the base year for comparison. The plan also included 102 non-attainment cities, across 23 States and Union territories, which were identified by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) based on their ambient air quality data between 2011 and 2015.

Non-attainment cities: These are those that have fallen short of the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for over five years.

NGT’s comments:

·         Right to Clean Air stood recognized as part of Right to Life and failure to address air pollution was the denial of Right to Life under Article 21.

·         The enforcement of the ‘Sustainable Development’ principle and ‘Public Trust Doctrine’ required stringent measures to be adopted to give effect to the mandate of international obligations for which the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 and other laws had been enacted.

NGT’s Directives:

·         The timeline to reduce air pollution by 20-30% by 2024 needs to be reduced.

·         The current target of 20-30% air pollution reduction should be increased.

·         Make intensive plans to shift to e-Vehicles and CNG vehicles. Also, promote public transport system, better clean roads and walkways, fuel quality upgrade, traffic management in cities to reduce pollution and congestion.

·         State Pollution Control Boards to ensure assessment and installation of the requisite number of real-time online continuous Ambient Air Quality Monitoring Systems within six months.

·         The Central Pollution Control Board to set up an expert team to design a model for source apportionment and carrying capacity assessment within two months which may be replicated for all the non-attainment cities.

ü Source Apportionment: It is the practice of deriving information about pollution sources and the amount they contribute to ambient air pollution levels.

ü Carrying Capacity: The concept of ‘carrying capacity’ addresses the question as to how many people can be permitted into any area without the risk of degrading the environment there.

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