Trade Related Entrepreneurship Development Assistance Scheme (TREAD)
- The scheme is implemented by Ministry of MSME.
- It envisages economic empowerment of women through trade related training, information and counselling extension activities related to trades, products and services.
- Under the scheme financial loans are provided by nationalized banks and grants by government of India through NGOs.
- The focus is to promote self-employment and income generation activities for women mostly from SHG groups in non-farm sector.
Spice Park
- The Telangana Government is setting up a Spices Park in Nizamabad for turmeric.
- The idea of setting up of Spices Park is to eliminate middlemen and provide the farmers with remunerative prices for the commodity.
- Land and funds for Spices Park will be provided by the State Government and Spices Board of India will provide technical support.
- Spices Board is under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry and it is the regulatory and export promotion agency for Indian spices, headquartered in Kochi.
Eco-Sensitive Zones
- The Karnataka State Government has decided to limit the eco-sensitive zone (ESZ) around Kali Tiger Reserve.
- Eco-Sensitive Zones (ESZs) are areas notified by the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC), around Protected Areas, National Parks and Wildlife Sanctuaries.
- The purpose of declaring ESZs is to create some kind of shock absorbers to the protected areas by regulating and managing the activities around such areas.
- They also act as a transition zone from areas of high protection to areas involving lesser protection.
- An ESZ could go up to 10 kilometres around a protected area as provided in the Wildlife Conservation Strategy, 2002. And it may go beyond 10 kilometres in ecologically important patches.
- Though the word “Eco-Sensitive Zones” is not mentioned in the Environment protection act, a clause in the act states that central government can prohibit or restrict the location of industries and carrying on certain operations on the basis of considerations like the biological diversity of an area.
Proxy Voting
- Cabinet has recently cleared a proposal to extend proxy voting to Overseas Indians and NRIs by amending electoral laws.
- Presently, NRIs and overseas Indians are free to cast their votes in constituencies where they are registered.
- It requires the amendment of Representation of the People Act. After the amendment, proxy voting would also be allowed as other means to cast their votes in assembly and LokSabha elections from overseas.
- Proxy voting is a form of voting whereby a member may delegate his or her voting power to a representative, to enable a vote in absence.
- Currently, only service personnel are permitted to vote through proxy.
- However, the facility for NRIs will not be the same as that enjoyed by service personnel.
- Voters in the armed forces can nominate their relatives as permanent proxy to vote on their behalf. But NRIs cannot nominate one proxy for all polls.
Scrapping of No-Detention Policy
- Cabinet has recently approved the scrapping of No-Detention policy in schools.
- Right to Education Act 2009 includes a no detention policy where no child admitted in a school will be held back in any class or expelled till Class 8.
- Thus the proposal requires amendment of Right to Education Act.
- Under the proposal, states have been empowered to take decision on detaining the students in class 5 and 8. They will not be able to detain students at classes 6 and 7.
- There are certain safeguards such as remedial classes and an additional chance to pass the exam have been introduced.
Polythene Free Zones
- Ministry of Culture has recommended prohibition on use of polythene within 300 metres from the boundary of protected monuments.
- Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) has declared all ASI protected Monuments and Archaeological Sites as ‘Polythene Free Zone’.
- ASI, under the Ministry of Culture, is the premier organization for the archaeological researches and protection of the cultural heritage of the nation.
Clearing Houses for Securities Market
- SEBI has recently given the approval to Multi Commodity Exchange Clearing Corporation, a wholly-owned subsidiary of MCX, to act as a clearing corporation for a period of one year.
- A clearing house is an intermediary between buyers and sellers of financial instruments in the securities exchange market.
- The clearing houses are regulated by the SEBI Act and the Securities Contract (Regulation) Act.
- All members of an exchange are required to clear their trades through the clearing house at the end of each trading session and to deposit with the clearing house a sum of money based on clearinghouse margin requirements.
- SEBI has qualified National Securities Clearing Corporation Ltd (NSCCL), Indian Clearing Corporation Ltd (ICCL) and MCX-SX Clearing Corporation Ltd (MCX-SXCCL) in the Indian securities market.
- Each futures exchange has its own clearing house.
- Futures exchanges are where financial products are bought and sold at some agreed-upon date in the future with a price fixed at the time of the deal.
