Start-Up India Stand-Up India
The “Start-up India, Stand-up India†action plan, unveiled by Prime Minister on Saturday promised many sops for the young start-up ecosystem in India.
Incentives to promote entrepreneurship in India.
1) Start-up profits to be tax free for 3 years
2) Compliance scheme to be based on self certification. No labour inspection for 3 years
3) Mobile app from April to register start-ups in a day
4) Fast track mechanism for start-up patent applications with 80% cost rebate
5) Exit for start-ups within 90 days
6) Fund of funds with Rs.2500 crore a year for four years
7) Tax exemption on capital gains
8) Sector specific incubators, seed funds under Atal Innovation Mission
Analysis
Tailoring policy to get the government out of the way of start-ups was the underlying theme at the StartUp India Stand Up India. With 4,200 startups, India ranks 3rd globally. Of $18 billion pumped into Indian startups between 2010-15, $9 billion came in 2015 alone. 9 Indian startups have been valued at more than a billion dollars. Increase in number of incubators: 80 in 2014, 110 in 2015; 50% outside Delhi, Bengaluru, Mumbai.
Worldwide startups are known to create more jobs as compared to bigger companies. India’s young population coupled with the boom in services sector could herald India as a global hub of startups. Startups are also associated with bringing in innovation, efficiency and technical know-how in the economy. Since many of these start-ups target the developed markets in USA and Europe it could also add to the exports of goods/services.
Souce: The Hindu
Panel to revisit National Policy on farmers
An expert committee will be set up to re-examine the National Policy for Farmers 2007 (NPF) amidst growing number of suicides by farmers, the government has told the Supreme Court.
The Agriculture Ministry told the Supreme Court that suicides continue to be reported despite the NPF being in place for the past eight years.
“There is, thus, a need for an integrated approach and re-look at the present policy…. the present government recognises the need for supporting the farmers and has taken a number of steps for increasing production, productivity, realise remunerative prices and risk mitigation,†the Ministry said in an affidavit.
It said that Minimum Support Price for various crops was as per the Commission on Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP) to promote de-risk farming and cut losses.
Analysis
The National Commission on Farmers(NCF), chaired by Prof. M. S. Swaminathan, submitted five reports through the period December 2004 – October 2006. Following from the first four, the final report focused on causes of famer distresses and the rise in farmer suicides, and recommends addressing them through a holistic national policy for farmers. National Policy on Farmers 2007 as a result of these recommendations failed to curb the trend in farmers suicide.
Agrarian distress has led farmers to commit suicide in recent years. Â The major causes of the agrarian crisis are: unfinished agenda in land reform, quantity and quality of water, technology fatigue, access, adequacy and timeliness of institutional credit, and opportunities for assured and remunerative marketing. Â Adverse meteorological factors add to these problems.
Farmers need to have assured access and control over basic resources, which include land, water, bioresources, credit and insurance, technology and knowledge management, and markets. Â The NCF recommends that “Agriculture” be inserted in the Concurrent List of the Constitution.
Microbots application in Medicine and Manufacturing
Microbotics (or microrobotics) is the field of miniature robotics, in particular mobile robots with characteristic dimensions less than 1 mm. The term can also be used for robots capable of handling micrometer size components.
While the ‘micro’ prefix has been used subjectively to mean small, standardizing on length scales avoids confusion. Thus a nanorobot would have characteristic dimensions at or below 1 micrometer, or manipulate components on the 1 to 1000 nm size range. A microrobot would have characteristic dimensions less than 1 millimeter, a millirobot would have dimensions less than a cm, a minirobot would have dimensions less than 10 cm (4 in), and a small robot would have dimensions less than 100 cm (39 in).
Scientists are using “mini force fields†to independently control individual microrobots operating within groups, an advance aimed at using the tiny machines in areas including manufacturing and medicine. The robots are too small to put batteries on them, so they can’t have onboard power. Magnetic fields are used to generate forces on the robots. It’s like using mini force fields. Independently controlled microbots working in groups might be useful in building micro-electromechanical systems, or MEMS, minuscule machines that could have numerous applications from medicine to homeland security. Microbots equipped with probe-like “force sensors†might then be used to detect cancer cells in a biopsy.
Source: The Hindu
India-China Security Co-operation
India is all set to overhaul its security cooperation agreement with China and further liberalise visa norms for the neighbouring country, a senior government official said.
A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed in 2005 between the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Ministry of Public Security, People’s Republic of China, is being revisited to expand its scope, said the official. The MoU was signed for exchange of security-related information to combat terrorism.
Analysis
India has been trying to rope in China to counter Pakistan’s strategy of safeguarding terrorists. Indian agencies say that the United Liberation Front of Asom leader, Paresh Baruah, shuttles between China and Myanmar to run his extortion and terror rackets.
As per initial reports India and China will exchange information on terrorist activities, terror groups and their linkages and share experience on anti-hijacking, hostage-like situations and coordinate positions on anti-terrorism endeavours at regional and multilateral levels.
The new agreement will also factor in contemporary global threats like the Islamic State, as many Chinese nationals are also learnt to have joined the extremist outfit, especially those from the Uighur region who are fighting for a separate state.
In the new contemporary realities where no state is safe from terrorist attacks, enhanced mutual cooperation is essential.
Source: The Hindu
