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Journalism of Courage
Take a look at the essential events, concepts, terms, quotes, or phenomena every day and brush up your knowledge. Here’s your UPSC Current Affairs knowledge nugget for today on the key highlights of PM’s Independence Day speech.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s 103-minute address on the 79th Independence Day celebrations was the longest I-Day speech by any Indian PM till date. In his speech, PM Modi made a few key announcements in various sectors — technology, economic, job and security sectors. These announcements hold relevance for your UPSC exam; thus, let’s know about them.
1. Pradhan Mantri Viksit Bharat Rojgar Yojana (PM-VBRY): PM Modi launched Pradhan Mantri Viksit Bharat Rojgar Yojana for the youths of India. Under this Rs 1 lakh-crore scheme, the government will provide Rs 15,000 to the youths securing jobs in private companies.
— PM-VBRY incentivises the creation of new jobs across various sectors, with a special focus on manufacturing, and provides financial benefits to registered employers.
2. Sudarshan Chakra Mission: PM Modi announced the launch of Sudarshan Chakra Mission — a major defence initiative aimed at protecting India’s strategic, civilian, and religious sites from enemy threats.
— “India is set to launch Mission Sudarshan Chakra to build powerful weapon system to thwart any attempt by enemies to attack us,” he said. He added the government aims to integrate the latest technological tools so that all the public places are covered by the nationwide security shield by 2035.
3. Next generation GST reforms: PM Modi promised next generation reforms in Goods and Services Tax (GST) by Diwali. These reforms, he said, will provide ‘substantial’ tax relief to common man and benefit small and medium enterprises, by reducing tax on daily-use items.
— In his address, Modi said the time has come to undertake reforms in GST as the indirect tax regime has completed 8 years. PM Modi signalled that the much-awaited rationalisation of GST may be rolled out soon, linking it to cutting the tax burden impacting people.
4. Tenfold rise in nuclear energy by 2047: PM Modi said India is rapidly working on 10 new nuclear reactors and has pledged to increase its nuclear energy capacity tenfold by 2047.
— The government has set a target of 100 GW nuclear power capacity by 2047, a massive increase from the current 8.18 GW. To achieve this, the Nuclear Energy Mission for Viksit Bharat has been launched, focusing on enhancing domestic capabilities. It is also important for realising the Panchamrit climate action plan (Five Nectar) set by India at COP 21.
— Notably, unlike renewables like solar or wind, nuclear energy offers a reliable source of on demand electricity generation, and is not susceptible to weather-related interruptions.
5. Bedrock of a Viksit Bharat is also a self-reliant Bharat: Amid the shadow of the US-imposed tariffs which could impact the economy, Modi put a lot of stress on self-reliance in all spheres – from defence, space sector, critical minerals, energy, semiconductors to fertiliser, pharmaceutical production and from operating systems to cyber security, deep tech to artificial intelligence – saying “the bedrock of a Viksit Bharat is also a self-reliant Bharat” and “the greater a nation’s reliance on others, the more its freedom comes into question”.
6. Made-in-India semiconductor chips: PM Modi announced that made-in-India semiconductor chips will hit the market by the end of this year, marking a major milestone in India’s technological advancement. He said that the semiconductor initiative has been taken forward in mission mode. Six different units are being set up on the ground.
— Most modern-day semiconductors are integrated circuits, also referred to as ‘chips’ — essentially a set of minute electronic circuits comprising transistors and diodes, as well as capacitors and resistors, and the myriad interconnections between them.
— Semiconductors are majorly made up of silicon and consist of millions or billions of transistors that act like miniature electrical switches that flip on and off to process data such as images, radio waves, and sounds.
— Semiconductors are an essential component of electronic devices, enabling advances in communications, computing, healthcare, military systems, transportation, clean energy, and countless other applications.
7. High-Powered Demography Mission: In his Independence Day address Prime Minister Narendra Modi highlighted the dangers of demographic imbalance caused by infiltration and illegal migration in border areas, PM Modi announced the launch of a high-powered demography mission.
8. Dedicated Reform Task Force: PM Modi also announced the creation of a dedicated Reform Task Force to take forward the next-generation reforms. The mandate of this task force would be to accelerate economic growth, cut red tape, modernise governance, and prepare Bharat for the demands of a $10 trillion economy by 2047.
1. The India Semiconductor Mission was launched in 2021. It is a strategic initiative undertaken by the government of India to promote the domestic semiconductor industry. Its goal is to improve semiconductor design and manufacturing capabilities domestically and to encourage innovation, employment, and economic growth.
2. The India Semiconductor Mission operates under the guidance of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) and other relevant government bodies.
1. The Goods and Services Tax (GST) is one of the biggest economic and taxation reforms undertaken in India.
2. It came into effect in 2017 and was billed as an attempt to simplify the existing tax structure in India, where both the Centre and states levied multiple taxes, and to make it uniform.
3. GST is essentially a consumption tax and is levied at the final consumption point. The principle used in GST taxation is Destination Principle. It is levied on the value addition and provides set offs. As a result, it avoids the cascading effect or tax on tax which increases the tax burden on the end consumer.
What is/are the most likely advantages of implementing ‘Goods and Services Tax (GST)’? (2017)
1. It will replace multiple taxes collected by multiple authorities and will thus create a single market in India.
2. It will drastically reduce the ‘Current Account Deficit’ of India and will enable it to increase its foreign exchange reserves.
3. It will enormously increase the growth and size of the economy of India and will enable it to overtake China in the near future.
Select the correct answer using the code given below:
(a) 1 only
(b) 2 and 3 only
(c) 1 and 3 only
(d) 1, 2 and 3
| Answer Key |
| (a) |
(Sources: Knowledge Nugget: How is Nuclear Energy Mission relevant for UPSC Exam?, PM Independence Day speech: From GST reforms to Sudarshan Chakra Mission, here are Modi’s key announcements)
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