Pib

Pib

1. Real Estate act- a pioneering legislation, to have a long term transformative effect.

The Housing Sector plays a catalytic role in fulfilling the demand for housing and infrastructure in the country and is the second largest sector after agriculture providing employment to 6.86% of the workforce in the country. While the sector has grown significantly in recent years, it has largely been unregulated, with absence of professionalism and standardization, and lack of adequate consumer protection. It has also largely been opaque, with consumers often unable to procure complete information, or enforce accountability against builders and developers in the absence of effective regulation. The biggest fallout affecting the sector is delay in project completion; diversion of funds collected from buyers; one-sided contracts in the absence of adequate supply; reneging on contractual commitments by both the developers and the buyers; and constraints in financing and investment options available to the sector, thereby affecting its long-term growth.

RERA Act itself is a response to the dire need of Indian consumers and in discharge of the sovereign functions towards public interest. The Act upholds the spirit of federalism by allowing the States to set up the Regulatory Authority and the Appellate Tribunal, and the role of the Central Government is limited to Union Territories without legislature. The Act is aimed at consumer protection, by creating an online system for information sharing so that there is mutual trust between the developer and the buyers, and projects are implemented in time.

2. The Services in ‘Manufacturing of Alumina and Aluminium’ and ‘Mining of Bauxite’ declared as Public Utility Service for a further period of six months

3. Pre-ponement of introduction of BS -VI grade auto fuels in NCT Delhi

Taking into account the serious pollution levels in Delhi and adjoining areas, Petroleum Ministry in consultation with Public Oil Marketing Companies has decided for preponement of BS-VI grade auto fuels in NCT of Delhi w.e.f 01.04.2018 instead of 01.04.2020. OMCs have also been asked to examine the possibility of introduction of BS-VI auto fuels in the whole of NCR area w.e.f 01.04.2019.

4. GST Rate Changes Come into effect on 178 items where rate has been brought down from 28% to 18%; Consumers may take note of reduction in Price/MRP on these Goods

In the 23rd meeting held on the 10th November, 2017, the GST Council had recommended major relief in GST rates on certain goods. These rate changes have been brought into effect from the 15th November, 2017. On 178 items the GST rate has been brought down from 28% to 18%. With reduction of rate coming into effect, a consumer shall be charged the revised reduced rates of 18% on these items with effect from the 15thNovember, 2017.

5. Vice President Inaugurates AP AgTech Summit 2017

The Vice President of India, Shri M. Venkaiah Naidu has said that combine Agricultural Technology with Information Technology to improve Agricultural Sector in the country.

The Vice President said that we have formidable challenges confronting us and we have set for ourselves a very ambitious target of doubling farmers’ income by 2022. If we have to achieve this, the progress in various sources of growth has to be accelerated by 33 percent.

The Vice President said that technology can help improve farmers’ lives in a number of ways - to know the health of the soil and help him choose from a variety of crops that can be grown on the land; forecasting the seasonal conditions in advance; intensification and diversification of farming in order to increase productivity and farmers’ incomes; diversify towards other allied occupations as well like dairy and forestry; conservation of water, rain water harvesting, construction of check dams, drip and sprinkler irrigation; infrastructure like rural roads, dependable quality power, godowns, cold storage facilities, refrigerated vans and market yards; food processing; timely credit facilities at reasonable interest rates and farmer-friendly insurance policies and the market. We need to work collaboratively and strategically to make a difference in the lives of our farmers and tap into the nature’s bounty, he added.

6. Asia Pacific Cert (APCERT) Discuss Building Trust in Digital Economy

First ever Asia Pacific Computer Emergency Response Team (APCERT) Open Conference in India and the first in South Asia was held in New Delhi on November 15, 2017.

India was selected to be part of the steering committee of APCERT along with 6 (Australia, China, Japan, Korea, Malaysia and Taiwan) other countries to shape the agenda for the next 2 years across the region.

In India, cyber security professionals got an opportunity to attend a highly content rich technical conference, interact with the Asia Pacific incident response leaders in cyber security and the International community got to see the skills and depth of some of the cyber security start-ups from India.

The spectrum of topics covered included setting up sectoral CSIRTS, Nation State exploits, vulnerabilities of block chain, secure communication in industrial internet, cyber crime in financial technology ecosystem, building a sharing economy, machine learning, malicious behaviour in encrypted traffic, mobile security and Artificial Intelligence.