1st July 2021
Google first’s Report under IT rules
News: Google has released its first transparency report under new IT rules
Why this report?
The Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 that came into force on May 26.
It requires the social media platforms with more than 50 lakh users in India to publish compliance reports every month mentioning the details of complaints received and action taken.
Further, the tech giant also needs to mention the number of specific communication links or parts of information they have removed or disabled access to, following proactive monitoring conducted by using automated tools.
Findings of the report:
The report said Google removed 59,350 pieces of content from its social media platforms in April.
It received over 27,700 complaints from individual users in India.
Nature of the complaints: Around 96% of the complaints received were related to issues of copyright, followed by trademark (1.3%), defamation (1%), legal (1%), counterfeit (0.4%) and circumvention (0.1%).
Green Pass
Green pass is the EU's Digital Covid certificate, which allows the people vaccinated with Covishield or Covaxin to travel to Europe.
After a series of negotiations Switzerland and Germany have allowed vaccinated people to travel to Europe.
Austria, Germany, Slovenia, Greece, Iceland, Ireland and Spain are among the countries who have allowed travel by people who have taken Covishield vaccines
Fiscal deficit
News: CAG (Comptroller and Auditor general) released the data on the fiscal deficit.
Findings:
The fiscal deficit of India in the first two months i.e. April-May, of fiscal year 2021-22 was at 8.2% of the Budget target.
Further, the revenue receipts rose even when the spending contracted by the end of May as per the data.
The spending on capital contracted by 41% in May after a rise in the month of April.
A rise in tax and non-tax receipts was witnessed.
A decrease in revenue expenditure also contributes to limiting the fiscal deficit.
Further the change in RBI accounting year from April- MArch contributed to increased Non-tax receipts to 47.9% of Budget Estimates, as RBI released its dividend payment to the government.
Data on Current account deficit in last quarter of financial year 2020
Findings of RBI’s report:
In the quarter of January- March, India’s current account deficit (CAD) widened to $8.1 billion which is $0.6 billion higher as compared to the same quarter last year.
The CAD stood at 1% of the gross domestic product (GDP).
Reasons for the widened Current Account deficit:
Increased trade deficit.
Decreased net invisible receipts.
A normalisation in import demand and a surge in gold imports were responsible for the widening of the current account deficit.
Further, the net external commercial borrowing had decreased to $6.1 billion in January-March compared with $9.4 billion a year earlier.
The portfolio investments, majority in equity form, increased by $7.3 billion against a decline of $13.7 billion.
Growth of Core Sector
News: Monthly data on core industry growth was released.
Findings:
As per the monthly report, Core sector output rose 16.8% in the month of May.
Out of eight, significant growth was seen in six sectors.
Steel output increased 59.3% in May as compared to a 40.4% decline in the same month of 2020.
The rise of 6.9% from a 9% contraction in May 2020 was witnessed in Coal production.
Decreased Growth was seen in fertiliser sector.