Ed-1
Road bumps: On Fifteenth Finance Commission report
On Monday, the Fifteenth Finance Commission submitted its report with recommendations on the formula for sharing the divisible pool of tax revenues between the Centre and the States for the next five years to the President. The panel’s proposed fiscal road map, up to 2025-26, will only come into the public domain once it is tabled in Parliament, if not in the winter session, at least before the Union Budget for 2021-22 is presented. An action taken report would reveal the government’s acceptance or rejection of the panel’s prescriptions. When the Fourteenth Finance Commission recommended a sharp increase in their take-home cut from 32% to 42% of the divisible pool of revenues and the Centre accepted it, States had obvious cause to be upbeat. However, their actual shares of total taxes mopped up have turned out to be far lower as the Centre deployed more cesses and surcharges to garner additional revenues in recent years.
There are fresh reasons for the States to be anxious about the Commission’s revenue sharing recommendations, not in the least because of their recent stand-off with the Centre on how their GST compensation dues will be paid this year. While 22 States have now come on board with a solution conjured up by the Centre, there are still loose ends as more dues pile up over the next two years. Second, the Centre had tasked the Commission with assessing a few unusual ideas, including the creation of a non-lapsable fund for defence and security spending, and incentivising States for performance on reforms considered desirable by the Centre such as adoption of direct benefits transfer. Southern States are worried that the use of 2011 population data, instead of 1971, will penalise them for managing population growth better. All these have the potential to impact States’ actual share. The RBI’s assessment of State finances reveals they were already hurting from the slowing economy. The pandemic and the lockdowns have made things worse. Last year, this Finance panel had tabled an interim report for 2020-21 by saying a five-year forecast is tough when the economy is slowing down due to the effects of reforms like demonetisation and GST. Its final report comes at an even more uncertain time, with the pandemic throwing the global economy into a tailspin. That the panel has dedicated a volume entirely to States, analysing the development needs of each, is heartening. The Centre can allay States’ fears further by tabling the report soon so that any anxieties can be debated and laid to rest, and States can also plan upcoming Budgets with less uncertainty. Being receptive to States’ concerns can help forge a fresh cohesive federal compact for the coming years — a double engine that can hasten India’s return to high growth.
- road bump (noun) – speed bump, something that makes progress slower; obstruction, obstacle, setback.सड़क के गड्ढे
- Finance Commission (noun) – It is a Constitutionally mandated body that is at the centre of fiscal federalism. Set up under Article 280 of the Constitution of India, its core responsibility is to evaluate the state of finances of the Union and State Governments, recommend the sharing of taxes between them, lay down the principles determining the distribution of these taxes among States. The first Finance Commission was set up in 1951 and there have been fifteen so far.
- road map (noun) – schedule of a (complex) program.
- amid (preposition) – in the middle of, surrounded by; during.
- standoff (noun) – deadlock, stalemate, impasse (in a dispute/conflict).गतिरोध
- divisible pool (noun) – the taxes of the central government that it should share with the state governments in accordance with the recommendations of the Finance Commission.
- fiscal (adjective) – financial.
- in the public domain (phrase) – if something (e.g. information) is in the public domain, people generally know about it since it is not secret.
- table (verb) – submit, put forward, present, propose, introduce.
- prescription (noun) – (authoritative) recommendation, instruction, order, direction.नुस्खे
- ज़ाहिर--obvious
- उत्साहित--upbeat
- take-home (adjective) – (of salary/wages/payment) remaining after all deductions including taxes.
- cut (noun) – share, portion, allocation, allotment.
- cause (noun) – reason, grounds, motive, purpose.
- upbeat (adjective) – optimistic, positive, hopeful.
- mop up (phrasal verb) – account for, dispose of, dispatch, finish off, deal with (by absorbing final details of something).
- turn out (phrasal verb) – transpire, happen; come to be, become.
- deploy (verb) – use, utilize, employ.
- cess (noun) – a form of tax charged/levied over and above the base tax liability of a taxpayer. A cess is usually imposed additionally when the state or the central government looks to raise funds for specific purposes.
- surcharge (noun) – an additional charge/an extra fee.
- garner (verb) – gather, collect, accumulate.इकट्ठा करना, संचित करना
- anxious (adjective) – worried, concerned, distressed, bothered.चिंतित
- not in the least (phrase) – by no means, not at all, in no way, certainly not, absolutely not, definitely not.
- compensation (noun) – payment, repayment, settlement (for loss/damage).
- GST compensation (noun) – Under the GST law (In India), state governments are guaranteed full compensation for any revenue loss for the first five years after the introduction of the goods and services tax (GST) in July 2017. The compensation is a gap between actual revenue collected and projected revenue.
- dues (noun) – payment, contribution (which is (long) pending).
- on board (phrase) – join in a team/group as a member.
- conjure up (phrasal verb) – suggest, allude to, refer to; produce, materialize, generate (by magic).
- loose ends (noun) – unsettled or unexplained details.
- pile up (phrasal verb) – increase, raise in quantity.ढेर
- non-lapsable fund (noun) – it means the unspent amount from capital budget of the ministry will not lapse (revert/surrender back to the ministry if not consumed), and will continue (carry forward) in the next fiscal (financial year).
- incentivise (verb) – encourage, motivate, galvanize.
- Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) (noun) – a scheme launched by Government of India on 1 January 2013 to transfer the benefits and subsidies of various social welfare schemes like LPG subsidy, MNREGA payments, Old Age Pension, Scholarships etc. directly in the bank account of the beneficiary.
- penalise (verb) – punish, discipline.
- potential (noun) – possibility, potentiality, prospect.
- assessment (noun) – evaluation, appraisal, analysis.आकलन
- pandemic (noun) – the worldwide spread of a new disease; The illness spreads around the world and typically affects a large number of people across a wide area.
- lockdown (noun) – an emergency protocol implemented by the authorities that prevents people from leaving from a place; An extended state of confinement/encirclement/isolation of a person by the authority.
- to make matters/things worse (phrase) – to make the situation/condition even more bad/difficult.
- unusual --असाधारणअसामान्य
- interim (adjective) – provisional, temporary, transitional.
- forecast (noun) – prediction, indication, projection, prognosis, speculation, calculation (of future events or trends).
- slow down (phrasal verb) – reduce, lessen decrease (one’s activity).
- demonetisation (noun) – the act of deprive currency unit (note/coin) of its status as money.
- tailspin (noun) – a situation in which something begins to perform badly or to fail and becomes out of control; (emotional) collapse due to rapidly increasing chaos or panic; uncontrollable decline, downturn, breakdown.
- heartening (adjective) – encouraging, promising, hopeful.शाबाशी करना, प्रशंसा करना
- allay (verb) – reduce, diminish, decrease, lessen; alleviate, ease, relieve.निराकरणकरना, शांत करना, कम करना
- anxiety (noun) – concern/stress/tension, unease, apprehension, disquiet.
- lay something to rest (phrase) – to end/stop something (anxiety) by resolving an issue/problem.
- uncertainty (noun) – unpredictability, unreliability, riskiness/precariousness.
- receptive (adjective) – open-minded, responsive, approachable, amenable, willing to consider new ideas.ग्रहणशील
- forge (verb) – form, create, establish, set up.बनाना
- cohesive (adjective) – united, integrated, cooperated.जोड़नेवाला
- federal (adjective) – relating to a system of government in which establishments such as states or provinces share power with a national government.
- compact (noun) – treaty, pact, accord, agreement, deal.
- laid--रखी
- “double engine” government theory (phrase) – the concept behind “double engine” governments is that the same party (in this case BJP) should be in power in the state and at the Centre.
- hasten (verb) – push forward, advance, accelerate, expedite.
| जल्दी करना, ज्ल्दबाज़ी करना |
Ed-2
Dose of optimism: On India and COVID-19 vaccine
Multinational drug company Pfizer has announced promising results from its ongoing phase-3 trial of a potential COVID-19 vaccine. However, these early results, of the vaccine candidate being “90% protective” in the trial’s volunteers — nearly 40,000 are enrolled — is the only important detail that is public. Pfizer, which is using a vaccine candidate by German firm BioNTech, had disclosed in September that for a vaccine to be judged 60% effective, 164 volunteers would have to contract COVID-19. This includes both the vaccine and placebo groups. The claim of 90% is based on a sample of 94 volunteers but it is not known how many belonged to either group. It is also unclear if those who were eventually infected, manifested mild or moderate severity of disease. Though the results, according to Pfizer, were announced by an expert independent committee, they have not yet been announced by the standard procedure of a peer-reviewed journal. In short, there is still time to be reliably sure that the results actually hold up in a wider population.
Pfizer’s announcement may not have an immediate impact for India. Unlike ‘Covishield’ by the Serum Institute or ‘Covaxin’ by Bharat Biotech Ltd., there are no large phase-3 trials of the vaccine in India. While there were early discussions with Pfizer, there is as yet no confirmation on whether India can be assured of early access to even a fraction of the vaccine output in the event it is readied. The vaccine candidate is based on an m-RNA technology, which eschews the use of an infectious particle, such as a portion of the virus, and uses a piece of RNA that is then made into an antigen by the body’s own machinery. This reduces the odds of untoward reactions. It also does not need to be cultured in chicken eggs or other mammalian cells, allowing it be made faster and more inexpensively. Though it is at the frontier of novel vaccine production methods, there are still no commercially available m-RNA based vaccines. They also reportedly need to be refrigerated to nearly minus 70°C and India, with its limited cold chain infrastructure, lacks efficient vaccine storage capacity. However, irrespective of whether and when the Pfizer vaccine is available, there is reason for optimism. For one, it shows that scientists’ basic strategy — of developing a vaccine to target the spike protein of the virus — is correct and given that this is an approach most vaccine developers are following, the chances of several encouraging results are high. Given that another firm, Moderna, also employs an m-RNA based approach, it is likely that the new vaccine platform may prove to be a breakthrough approach in developing future vaccines. India must keep a close watch on such platform-technology and develop expertise. It must also not lose an opportunity to improve its cold chain infrastructure which currently is developed only for rudimentary vaccines.
ongoing--चल रही है
volunteers--स्वयंसेवकोंeventually--अंत में,फलतः
manifested-प्रकट
mild--हल्का
severity--तीव्रता
readied--तैयार होना,
eschews--त्याग करना, परहेज़ करना,
inexpensively--सस्ते में
frontier---सीमांत, सरहद, सीमा-प्रदेश
irrespective--निरपेक्ष, पृथक, बिना आक्षेप का
encouraging--उत्साहजनक,आशा देनेवाला
breakthrough--दरार, छेद
expertise--विशेषज्ञता
rudimentary--बुनियादी, प्राथमिक
Post a Comment