IEPFA
Why in news?
- The surprise move was prompted by a spike in headline inflation above the 4% medium-term target in October, while growth fell to a six-year low of 4.5% in the September quarter.
- Investor Education and Protection Fund Authority (IEPFA) signed a MOU with Bank of Baroda for Investor Awareness.
News summary
- In 2016, Government of India established Investor Education and Protection Fund Authority (IEPFA) under the provisions of section 125 of the Companies Act, 2013.
- The Authority is entrusted with the responsibility of administration of the Investor Education Protection Fund (IEPF), make refunds of shares, unclaimed dividends, matured deposits/debentures etc. to investors and to promote awareness among investors.
- IEPF has been set-up under Section 205C of the Companies Act, 1956 by way of the Companies (Amendment) Act, 1999.
Wildlife crime cases
Why in news?
- The Union Ministry of Environment informed parliament about the wildlife crimes.
News summary
- In 2018, 388 cases of wildlife-related crimes were registered under the Wildlife Protection Act.
- In nearly one in every three cases —123 of the 388 — the species involved was leopards or tigers.
- Leopards alone accounted for over one in five cases, at 81, while 42 cases involved tigers. In between the two big cat species were scheduled birds, which accounted for 61 cases, or a little over than one in seven.
Wildlife crime in 2018:
Why in news?
- Just five species accounted for two in every three cases — 259 of 388 — with leopards (21%), scheduled birds (16%) and tigers (11%) being followed by star tortoises or turtles (10%) and deer (9%). Ten species accounted for over 90% of the cases, the other five being elephants (7%), snakes (5%), rhinos (4%), mongooses (4%) and pangolins (a little under 4%).
- The remaining 10% were cases that involved 10 other species, including Tockay geckos and monkeys.
- Overall, the number of cases of wildlife crime has come down since 2016, when 565 were registered, and risen slightly since 2017, when 342 were registered.
- Under centrally sponsored schemes such as “Development of Wildlife Habitats, “Project Tiger” and “Project Elephant”, funds are provided to the governments of states and Union Territories,
Centre objects to Uttarakhand’s definition of forest
Why in news?
- The Union Ministry for Environment has objected to an Uttarakhand government’s notification defining the term ‘forest’.
Uttarakhand’s definition:
- In a notification on November 21, the Uttarakhand government said that in areas recorded as “deemed forest”, only tracts 10 hectares and more, and having a canopy density of greater than 60%, would be considered as forests.
- Land already registered as ‘reserved’ and ‘protected’ forests would be out of the remit of this definition. However, land recorded in government records as ‘revenue’ land could potentially be influenced by this definition of deemed forest.
Objection by Union Ministry for Environment:
- According to it, the Uttarakhand order was in “contravention” of the Supreme Court’s orders.
- The Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980 would be applicable to all areas recorded as forest in any government records.
Women Entrepreneurs in the Country
- Government of India informed Rajya Sabha about the various initiatives to encourage women entrepreneurship within the Country.
Initiatives to encourage women entrepreneurship within the Country:
- Start-up India aims to build a strong eco-system for nurturing innovation and Start-ups in the country under which 10% of the total corpus of Fund of Funds amounting to Rs 1000 crore, has been reserved for women led start-ups.
- Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) has launched a portal namely “Udyam Sakhi” for encouraging women entrepreneurs and to aid, counsel, assist and protect their interests.
- Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP), is a major credit-linked subsidy scheme to promote and set up MSMEs. Under the scheme the women entrepreneurs are provided 25% and 35% subsidies for the project set up in urban and rural areas respectively.
- Ministry of Skill Development is running a pilot project named ‘Economic Empowerment of Women Entrepreneurs and Start-ups by Women’ in collaboration with GIZ, Germany. The project pilots incubation and acceleration programmes for micro women entrepreneurs to start new businesses and scale up existing enterprises in Assam, Rajasthan and Telangana.