Daily Current Affairs 27 October 2023 – IAS Current Affairs

Current Affairs 27 October 2023 focuses on Prelims-Mains perspective. Major events are :

India’s Green Hydrogen Move

Source: PIB
GS II: Environment

Overview

1. News in Brief
2. India’s Green Hydrogen Move and Renewable Capacity

Why in the News?

India’s plans to produce so-called green hydrogen where the gas is produced without resulting in fossil fuel emissions may end up worsening pollution if proper checks and balances are not in place, according to a study by Environmental and Energy thinktank, Climate Risk Horizons (CRH).

News in Brief

• The MNRE has defined green hydrogen as hydrogen produced in a way that emits no more than two kg of carbon dioxide per kg of such hydrogen.
• Producing one kg of grey hydrogen as it is known ends up emitting nine kg of carbon dioxide.
• While a detailed methodology is awaited, the definition as it stands leaves a lot to interpretation.
• The main concern is that if electrolysers were run 24×7, they would be expected to operate even at night when no solar power is available.
• If electricity comes from India’s coal-powered grid in general, it will in fact increase carbon emissions.
• Since about 70% of the electricity on the grid is coal-generated — more in non-daylight hours when solar generation is nil
• The vast majority of projects have not disclosed their source of electricity.
• It is also not clear if those few projects have committed to meeting 100% of their requirement from these sources.

India’s Green Hydrogen Move and Renewable Capacity

• Piloted by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), expects to manufacture five million tonnes by 2030.
• This would require the installation of renewable energy capacity worth 125 GW and the use of 250,000 gigawatt-hour units of power, equivalent to about 13% of India’s present electricity generation.
• Supported by a newly released ₹400 crore research and development program green hydrogen mission aims to produce 5 million metric tons (MMT) of green hydrogen annually by 2030.
• This is over and above the 500 GW of RE capacity that India has committed to install by 2030 as part of the Paris Agreement.
• As of August 2023, India’s total renewable energy (RE) capacity stood at 131 GW.
• The 2030 green hydrogen plan envisages adding an equivalent RE capacity by 2030.
• India installed only 15 GW of new solar and wind capacity in 2023, against the 45 GW per year needed to reach the 2030 target.

What are the Challenges in Green Hydrogen Move?

• Grid-powered electrolysis
  • Green hydrogen, generated through grid-powered electrolysis, might possess embodied carbon emissions higher than that of traditional grey hydrogen made from fossil fuels.
  • 70% of India’s electricity is coal-based, any fraction of this requirement sourced from the coal-powered grid will substantially increase emissions.
• Achieving the 2030 target would necessitate approximately 250 TWh of electricity or about 13% of India’s current electricity generation.
• Source Not Disclosed
  • The majority of projects have not disclosed their electricity sources.
• Future demand for green hydrogen is not guaranteed
  • The majority of countries around the world still do not have a specific hydrogen development strategy.
  • This type of hydrogen is not yet in real demand for practical application.

India’s Tax Base Has Widened

Source: PIB
GS III: Economy

Overview

1. News in Brief
2. About tax Base

Why in the News?

India’s tax base has widened sharply since 2013-14.

About tax Base

• With individuals moving up the income ladder and the proportion of superrich taxpayers’ incomes declining.
• The overall number of income tax (IT) returns filed by individuals has risen from 3.36 crore to 6.37 crore through assessment years 2013-14 to 2021-22.
• There is also an increase in the number of returns filed by individual taxpayers across various ranges of gross total income.
• In the range of gross total income up to ₹5 lakh, the number of returns filed by individual taxpayers has increased from 2.62 crore in AY 201314 to 3.47 crore in AY 202122, registering an increase of 32%.
• This range of income includes individuals having income below the taxable limit who may not be filing returns.
• For higher income ranges of ₹5 lakh to ₹10 lahks, and ₹10 lahks to ₹25 lakh, the number of individual returns surged 295% and 291% over the period, respectively.
• This indicates that individual taxpayers are showing a positive trend of migration to a higher range of gross total income.
• Proportionate contribution of the gross total income of the top 1% of individual taxpayers visàvis all individual taxpayers has decreased from 15.9% to 14.6%
  • The share of the bottom 25% of taxpayers increased from 8.3% to 8.4% over the same period.
• The proportion of the gross total income of the middle 74% group of individual taxpayers increased from 75.8% to 77% in the above period.
  • The average gross total income for individual taxpayers increased from about ₹4.5 lahks to about ₹7 lakh over the nine-year period, representing an increase of 56%.
• The increase in average gross total income for the top 1% of individual taxpayers is 42% while that for the bottom 25% of individual taxpayers is 58%.
• The data indicates robust growth in the gross total income of individuals across different income groups subsequent to AY 2013-14.
• Adding this was reflected in the increase in net direct tax collections from ₹6.38 lakh crore in 2013-14 to ₹16.61 lakh crore in 2022-23.

Rule Banning Use of Donor Gametes

Source: The Hindu
GS II: Governance; GS III: Science and Technology

Overview

1. News in Brief
2. What was the Rule?
3. What are Gamets?

Why in the News?

The Supreme Court has protected the right of parenthood of a woman, suffering from a rare medical condition, by staying the operation of a law which threatened to wreck her hopes to become a mother through surrogacy.

News in Brief

• The woman has Mayer Rokitansky Kuster Hauser syndrome in which absent ovaries and absent uterus.
• Hence she cannot produce her own eggs/ oocytes.
• However, a government notification on March 14 this year amended the law, banning the use of donor gametes.
• Two judge Bench stayed the operation of the law which threatened to wreck her hopes of becoming a mother.

What was the Rule?

• Intending couples must use their own gametes for surrogacy.
• The petition was filed in the Supreme Court challenging the amendment as a violation of a woman’s right to parenthood.

Argument Against The Amendment

• The amendment contradicted Sections 2(r) and 4 of the Surrogacy Act, 2021, which recognised the situation when a medical condition would require a couple to opt for gestational surrogacy in order to become parents.
• Rule 14(a) of the Surrogacy Rules which listed the medical or congenital conditions owing to which a woman could choose to become a mother through gestational surrogacy.
• The amendment cannot contradict Rule 14(a) which specifically recognises the absence of a uterus or any allied condition as a medical indication necessitating gestational surrogacy.

What are Gamets?

• Gametes are specialized sex cells responsible for sexual reproduction in organisms.
• These cells are produced in the gonads (testes in males and ovaries in females) and are involved in fertilization.

In humans, there are two types of gametes 

1. Sperm: These are the male gametes produced in the testes. Sperm are small, motile cells that carry genetic material and are typically involved in egg fertilising.
2. Egg or Ovum: These are the female gametes produced in the ovaries. Eggs are relatively large cells that also carry genetic material and are involved in the fertilization process upon union with a sperm cell.

During sexual reproduction, a sperm and an egg fuse during fertilization to form a zygote, which contains the combined genetic material of both gametes. This marks the beginning of the development of a new organism.

The Surrogacy (regulation) Act, 2021

Prohibition and regulation of surrogacy clinics

Applicable to: Surrogacy clinic, paediatrician, gynaecologist, embryologist, registered medical practitioner or any person

• No surrogacy clinic, unless registered under this Act.
• Do not conduct or cause abortion during the period of surrogacy without the written consent of the surrogate mother and on authorisation of the same by the appropriate authority concerned.
• Do not store a human embryo or gamete for the purpose of surrogacy
• Any form of conduct or cause to be conducted sex selection for surrogacy is prohibited (Including Couples).

Written informed consent of the surrogate mother

• Explained all known side effects and aftereffects of such procedures to the surrogate mother concerned
• Obtained in the prescribed form, is the written informed consent of the surrogate mother to undergo such procedures in the language she understands.
• The surrogate mother shall have the option to withdraw her consent for surrogacy before the implantation of the human embryo in her womb.

Prohibition to abandon child born through surrogacy

• The intending couple or intending woman shall not abandon the child.
• Whether within India or outside, for any reason whatsoever.
• Including but not restricted to, any genetic defect, birth defect, any other medical condition, the defects developing subsequently, sex of the child or conception of more than one baby and the like.

Rights of Surrogate Child

• A child born out of a surrogacy procedure shall be deemed to be a biological child of the intending couple or intending woman.
• The said child shall be entitled to all the rights and privileges available to a natural child under any law for the time being in force

National Assisted Reproductive Technology and Surrogacy Board

The Board shall consist of

• Minister in charge of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, the Chairperson, ex officio
• Secretary to the Government of India in charge of the Department dealing with the surrogacy matter, Vice-Chairperson, ex officio;
• Three women Members of Parliament, of whom two shall be elected by the House of the People and one by the Council of States, Members, ex officio
• Three Members of the Ministries of the Central Government in-charge of Women and Child Development, Legislative Department in the Ministry of Law and Justice and the Ministry of Home Affairs, not below the rank of Joint Secretary, Members, ex officio
• Director General of Health Services of the Central Government, Member, ex officio
• Ten expert Members
• Four Chairpersons of the State Boards
• An officer, not below the rank of a Joint Secretary to the Central Government.

Daily Current Affairs: Click Here

Rate this Article and Leave a Feedback