About Classification and definition of MSMES:

Importance of MSME in Indian Economy

• The MSMEs contribute around 30 per cent to India’s GDP.
• It employs  about 11 crore people.
• MSMEs constitute nearly 40 per cent of total exports, and more than half of them are located in rural India.
• The MSME sector can immensely  boost the Atmanirbhar Bharat initiative.
• By providing employment and income, SMEs can raise income, living standards and consumer spending.
• With global manufacturing moving out of China, Indian SMEs can play a key role in sustaining the manufacturing that is shifted to India.

Factors which led to the growth of MSME:

• Increasing internet penetration, customer’s customisation  with digital payments fuelled by B2C (business-to-consumer) ecommerce players facilitate MSME sector growth.
• Small industries and retail businesses in tier-II and tier-III cities create opportunities for people to use banking services and products.
• Campaigns like Digital India, Skill India, Startup India  and Make in India aim to provide MSME players a definitive push towards enhanced productivity.
• Younger generation with the spirit of entrepreneurship and the changing trend targeting fields other than agriculture activities  is creating job prospects for others. 

Opportunity areas for MSMEs in India

(1.) Telecommunications

• Domestic manufacturing of low-cost mobile phones, handsets, and devices.
• Manufacturing of telecom networking equipment, including routers and switches.
• Mobile customer data analytics – services oriented toward analytical solutions and development of value-added services.

(2.)  Healthcare

• Manufacturing of personal protective equipment (PPE) and face masks.
• Manufacturing of low-cost medical devices and medical accessories.
• Telemedicine and diagnostic labs.

(3.) Electronics

• Domestic manufacturing of low-cost consumer electronics, consumer durables
• Electronic Systems Design and manufacturing including semiconductor design, electronic components.
• Strategic electronics, as the government is keen on encouraging the domestic manufacturing of products needed by the security forces.

Issues faced by MSMEs in India

• Regulatory limits on their assets discourage MSMEs from further expanding their  operations.
• Only after a gap of 14 years (2006 to 2020) the government revised the definition of MSMEs by factoring in inflation and depreciation. This made the MSMEs to operate at a low scale by creating subsidiaries/sister concerns with a view to receiving incentives from the government.
• Inadequate and untimely credit – 9/10 MSMEs depend on informal sources for their working capital and term loans.
• Non-registration of firms, technological obsolescence, negligible market linkages, information asymmetry.

Areas to improve in MSME sector:

• Better access to efficient factors of production.
• Friendly labour reforms.
• Sustainable acquisition policy.
• Vibrant entrepreneurship culture.
• Enabling infrastructure.
• Simplified tax policy.
• Easy credit access and better return payment mechanisms.
• Redressal system on recovery of payments (such as PSUs).
• Scaling up the state support in establishing and marketing of SMEs.

Way forward:

• The Indian MSME sector is the mainstay of the country’s economic structure and acts as a bulwark for the Indian economy, providing resilience to ward off global economic shocks and adversities.
• The issues faced by MSMEs  must be addressed on an urgent basis to revive the economy thumped by the pandemic.
• Apart from the fiscal stimulus, the sector requires a political-economy approach that prioritizes MSME interests.
• India needs to ease the regulatory burden of small units and aid their survival through fiscal support. Above all, they need a level-playing field vis-à-vis big businesses.

Reference : The Hindu Link

Context:
Telangana stood first in the country in the list of highest number of open defecation free (ODF Plus) villages under the Swachh Bharat Mission (Grameen) Phase-II programme till December 31, 2021.

Factors considered in the Household Survey for ODF declaration:

1. Access to toilet facility
2. 100 per cent usage
3. Fly-proofing of toilet
4. Safe septage disposal
5. Hand-washing before meals
6. Hand-washing with soap after defecation
7. Availability of soap and water in or near the toilet

Factors considered in the Village Survey for ODF declaration:

8. No visible faeces found in the environment/village
9. Proper usage of school toilet
10. Safe confinement of excreta in school toilet
11. Proper usage of anganwadi toilet
12. Safe confinement of excreta in anganwadi toilet

About Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM):

• The Swachh Bharat Mission – Urban (SBM-U), launched on 2nd October 2014 aims at making urban India free from open defecation and achieving 100% scientific management of municipal solid waste in 4,041 statutory towns in the country. 

The objectives of the mission are mentioned below: 

• Elimination of open defecation
• Eradication of Manual Scavenging
• Modern and Scientific Municipal Solid Waste Management
• To effect behavioural change regarding healthy sanitation practices
• Generate awareness about sanitation and its linkage with public health
• Capacity Augmentation for ULB’s
• To create an enabling environment for private sector participation in Capex (capital expenditure) and Opex (operation and maintenance)

The Mission has the following components:

• Household toilets, including conversion of insanitary latrines into pour-flush latrines;
• Community toilets
• Public toilets
• Solid waste management
• IEC & Public Awareness
• Capacity building and Administrative & Office Expenses (A&OE)

Phase 1 of the Swachh Bharat mission lasted till October 2019.

• The objectives of the first phase of the mission also included eradication of manual scavenging, generating awareness and bringing about a behaviour change regarding sanitation practices, and augmentation of capacity at the local level.

 Phase 2 will be implemented between 2020–21 and 2024-25.

• The second phase will be implemented on a mission mode between 2020-21 and 2024-25.
• The second phase will focus on Open Defecation Free Plus (ODF Plus), which includes ODF sustainability and solid and liquid waste management (SLWM).
• The ODF Plus programme will converge with MGNREGA, especially for grey water management, and will complement the newly launched Jal Jeevan Mission.
• The programme will also work towards ensuring that no one is left behind and everyone uses a toilet.
• The fund sharing pattern between the Centre and States will be 90:10 for North-Eastern States and Himalayan States and UT of J&K; 60:40 for other States; and 100:0 for other Union Territories, for all the components.

Objectives of Swachh Bharat Mission- Urban:

• Eradication of open defecation in all statutory towns
• 100% scientific management of municipal solid waste in all statutory towns
• Effecting behaviour change through Jan Andolan

Key Components under Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban 2.0

The following will be the key components for implementation under SBM-U 2.0:

 Sustainable Sanitation:

• The Mission will focus on ensuring complete access to sanitation facilities to serve additional population migrating from rural to urban areas in search of employment and better opportunities over the next 5 years. 
• Complete liquid waste management in cities in less than 1 lakh population. 

Sustainable Solid Waste Management:

• 100 percent source segregation of waste along with functional Material Recovery Facilities (MRFs) in every city,  with a focus on phasing out single use plastic.
• Setting up of construction & demolition (C&D) waste processing facilities and deployment of mechanical sweepers in National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) cities and in cities with more than 5 lakh population
• Remediation of all legacy dumpsites, so that 14,000 acres of locked up land lying under 15 crore tonnes of legacy waste are freed up.

Challenges for SBM

• The massive task is to include people who still lack toilets, overcome partial toilet use, and retrofit toilets which are not yet sustainably safe.
• The quality of toilets constructed left much to be desired, and local level malpractice.
• Rural and small town faecal sludge management as tanks and single pits fill up and are difficult to empty.
• Overemphasis on toilet construction rather than focussing on all parameters.
• The ODF status has been mainly awarded to the village, district or state only based on the number of toilets built without mention of termination of fecal-oral transmission and absence of visible feces in the environment as major parameters in the SBM guidelines.
• Waste Treatment: Despite considerable progress in the door to door waste collection, only one-third of the waste being generated is being processed.
• Manual Scavenging

Need of the hour

• Creating demand for toilets: higher proportion of funds should be directed towards educating people about hygiene and the social marketing of toilets.
• Ground-level verification: To resolve the issue of over/under reporting of government set targets, verification of facts on the ground with the help of  local and village governments.
• Disposal of feces: proper facilities for the disposal of excreta should be established which goes untreated and harms the environment.
• Sewage Treatment and solid waste management: Different cost-effective technologies must be adopted for sewage treatments and proper disposal of waste from toilets.
• Manual scavenging: Use of technology in eradicating the practice of manual scavenging. Educating and empowering the lower castes through laws by encouraging them to pursue alternative jobs and possibly providing them with subsidies to build latrine facilities can also be a step in this direction.

Context

• Govt planning to blend 15 per cent green hydrogen with piped natural gas. 

• The government is planning to blend 15 per cent green hydrogen with piped natural gas (PNG) for domestic, commercial and industrial consumption. The move is in line with India’s ambitious targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and becoming carbon neutral by 2070.

What is Green Hydrogen?

• Green hydrogen is defined as hydrogen produced by splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen using renewable electricity.
• This method uses an electrical current to separate hydrogen from oxygen in water. If the electricity needed for electrolysis is generated from renewable sources such as solar or wind, the production of hydrogen in this way emits no greenhouse gasses.

Advantages of Green Hydrogen

• 100 % sustainable: green hydrogen does not emit polluting gases either during combustion or during production.
• Storable: hydrogen is easy to store, which allows it to be used subsequently for other purposes and at times other than immediately after its production.
• Versatile: green hydrogen can be transformed into electricity or synthetic gas and used for domestic, commercial, industrial or mobility purposes.
• Transportable: it can be mixed with natural gas at ratios of up to 20 % and travel through the same gas pipes and infrastructure – increasing this percentage would require changing different elements in the existing gas networks to make them compatible.

Disadvantages of Green Hydrogen

• High cost: Energy from renewable sources, which are key to generating green hydrogen through electrolysis, is more expensive to generate, which in turn makes hydrogen more expensive to obtain. According to The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), the cost of green hydrogen production is $5-$6 per kg. At this rate, it is not easy for industries like steel, fertilizer and long-range shipping to adopt this fuel.
• High energy consumption: The production of hydrogen in general and green hydrogen in particular requires more energy than other fuels.
• Safety issues: Hydrogen is a highly volatile and flammable element and extensive safety measures are therefore required to prevent leakage and explosions.

Green Hydrogen initiatives in India

• National Hydrogen Energy Mission
• To keep pace with global companies, the National Hydrogen Mission was announced in the Budget Speech of FY 2021-22 to produce hydrogen from green energy sources. The scheme was announced putting Green Hydrogen at the heart of India’s energy security and climate change.
• Recently, India’s largest oil and gas sector company, Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) has announced its plans to go green. The company has recently announced its plans to become a net zero carbon firm by 2035. RIL has plans to invest INR 600 billion to build a 5000-acre green energy complex in Jamnagar, Gujarat.5 The complex will house an electrolyser plant to produce green hydrogen.

The Hindu link

Context: 

• The GST Council recently decided to temporarily roll back the increase in tax rate for the textiles sector at an emergency meeting.

About GST Council

• GST (Goods and Services Tax) Council  is a constitutional body under Article 279A. The Council makes recommendations to the Union and State Government on subjects  related to Goods and Service Taxes in the country. It  was introduced by the One Hundred and First Constitutional Amendment Act, 2016. 

• Constitution of the Council
  
  The GST council consists of the following members:
  The Union Finance Minister will be the Chairperson as a member, the Union Minister of State will be in charge of Revenue of Finance. The Minister in charge of finance or taxation or any other Minister nominated by each State government, as members.

Decision making in the GST Council

• Every decision of the Goods and Services Tax Council shall be taken at a meeting by a majority of not less than three-fourths of the weighted votes of the members present and voting, in accordance with the following principles:
  (1) the vote of the Central Government shall have a weightage of one-third of the total votes cast.

(2) the votes of all the State Governments taken together shall have a weightage of two-thirds of the total votes cast, in that meeting.

The Indian Express Link

Context:

• The Union Education Minister  launched a 100 days reading campaign ‘Padhe Bharat’ today.  
• The launch of 100 Days Reading Campaign is in alignment with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020  which emphasises on promotion of joyful reading culture for children by ensuring availability of age appropriate reading books for children in local/mother tongue/regional/tribal Language.

About the campaign:

• Padhe Bharat  campaign will focus on children studying in Balvatika to Grade 8.The reading campaign will be organised for 100 days (14 weeks) starting from 1st January 2022 to 10th April 2022.
• The reading campaign aims to have participation of all stakeholders at national and state level including children, teachers, parents, community, educational administrators etc. 
• One activity per week per group has been designed with the focus on making reading enjoyable and building lifelong association with the joy of reading. 
• The 100 days reading campaign will also focus on Indian languages including mother tongue/local/regional languages. This will help in promoting the local language and culture of our society.

Objective of the campaign

• The 100 days Reading Campaign is envisaged to support and encourage students, along with their schools, teachers, parents, and communities, in every possible way and encourage children to read for joyful learning experience. 

Implementing agency

• The Department of School Education & Literacy invites all stakeholders to participate wholeheartedly in this campaign to build a strong foundation for our children.

The Indian Express link

Context

• Recently, NASA has announced the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) .
• Webb, the world’s premier space science observatory, will succeed the Hubble Space Telescope, NASA’s flagship telescope that has been in service for more than three decades now.

Features of Hubble Telescope

• NASA says Webb isnot Hubble’s replacement — rather, its successor whose science goals were motivated by the results from Hubble.
• Webb will primarily study the universe in the infrared, while Hubble looks at it mainly at optical and ultraviolet wavelengths. 
• Infrared observations are important because light at this wavelength can penetrate the dust that shrouds newly formed stars and planets, and make them visible.
• Webb’s mirror is much larger than Hubble’s; it can, therefore, look farther back into time than Hubble. Also, Hubble is in a much closer orbit around Earth than Webb will be.

Context

• The Ministry of Finance released details about the electoral bonds scheme.

What are Electoral Bonds?

• An electoral bond is designed to be an interest-free bearer instrument like a Promissory Note — in effect, it will be similar to a bank note that is payable to the bearer on demand.
• It can be purchased by any citizen of India or a body incorporated in India. A person being an individual can buy Electoral Bonds, either singly or jointly with other individuals.
• The electoral bonds were announced in the 2017 Union Budget.
• The bonds will be issued in multiples of ₹1,000, ₹10,000, ₹1 lakh, ₹10 lakh and ₹1 crore and will be available at specified branches of State Bank of India. 
• They can be bought by the donor with a KYC-compliant account. 

Context

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to release the 10th installment of financial benefit under the PM-KISAN scheme.

About the scheme

• Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) is a Central Sector Scheme with 100% funding from Government of India.
• Aim : To augment the income of the farmers by providing income support to all landholding farmers’ families across the country.
• The Scheme initially provided income support to all Small and Marginal Farmers’ families across the country, holding cultivable land upto 2 hectares. Its ambit was later expanded w.e.f. 01.06.2019 to cover all farmer families in the country irrespective of the size of their land holdings. 
• Under the Scheme an amount of Rs. 6000/- per year is transferred in three 4-monthly installments of Rs. 2000/- directly into the bank accounts of the farmers, subject to certain exclusion criteria relating to higher income status.
• Eligibility : All landholder farmer’s families in the country are eligible for the PM-Kisan Scheme subject to the prevalent exclusion criteria. Farmers who do not own any land are not eligible for this scheme.

Context

• The government has launched a facility for overdraft (OD) of Rs. 5,000/- to verified SHG members under DAY – NRLM having accounts under the prime Minister Jan Dhan Yojana.
• This facility has been initiated in pursuance of the announcement made by the Finance Minister in her budget speech of 2019-20.

About

• Aajeevika-National Rural Livelihoods Mission (NRLM) was launched by the Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD) in 2011. 
• Aided in part through investment support by the World Bank, the scheme aimed at helping the rural poor by enabling them to increase household income through sustainable livelihood enhancements and improved access to financial services.
• NRLM has the mandate of reaching out to 100 million rural poor in 6 lakh villages across the country.
• In 2015, the program was renamed Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Rural Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NRLM).

Context

• The Government of India has released the Good Governance Index 2021 prepared by DARPG on Good Governance Day (25th December).

About the Index

• Good Governance Index (GGI) 2021 Framework covered ten sectors and 58 indicators. 
• The sectors of GGI 2020-21 are
  • Agriculture and Allied Sectors,
  • Commerce & Industries,
  • Human Resource Development,
  • Public Health,
  • Public Infrastructure & Utilities,
  • Economic Governance,
  • Social Welfare & Development,
  • Judicial & Public Security,
  • Environment, and
  • Citizen-Centric Governance.
• The GGI 2020-21 categorises States and UTs into four categories, i.e., (i) Other States – Group A; (ii) Other States – Group B; (iii) North-East and Hill States; and (iv) Union Territories.