Daily Current Affairs – 13 – March – 2020

Why oil prices are crashing?

Topic : GS 3 Effect of policies and politics of developed and developing countries on India’s interests, Indian diaspora.

Context

• Oil prices saw their biggest single-day crash in almost 30 years.
• The price fell following the price war initiated between Saudi Arabia and Russia, two of the world’s largest oil producers. 

What happened to the OPEC-Plus alliance?

• Following the fall of oil prices below $30 a barrel in 2014, Saudi Arabia and Russia came together to cut output and steady prices. 
• Known as the “OPEC Plus’ ‘ arrangement (Russia is not a member of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries, or OPEC), this alliance kept production lower and pumped up the prices. 
• The OPEC-Plus cooperation collapsed last week after Russia rejected a Saudi request to effect more cuts in output given the fall in demand owing to the economic impact of the coronavirus outbreak. 
• The fear of glut at a time of slowing demand (supply and demand shock) rattled the markets, crashing prices.

What does Saudi Arabia want?

• As Russia was not ready to cut its output further, the Saudis moved to the attack mode. 
• The plan is to flood the markets with Saudi oil and depress the prices, which would hurt all oil exporters. 
• Saudhi arabia wants to bring Russia to the negotiating table and bleed U.S shale oil producers. 

What’s Putin’s plan?

• Though Russia had been cooperating with OPEC for three years, there’s a growing opinion in Moscow that the output cut was hurting Russian energy companies. 
• Russian companies also want to open the taps and gain more market share. 
• Furthermore, there’s a convergence of interests between Saudi Arabia and Russia in hurting the U.S. shale oil companies, which are flooding markets with shale oil and challenging the supremacy of traditional oil producers in determining the prices.
• Russia may target to weaken both U.S. shale oil industry and the OPEC’s clout in the market.

Source : The Hindu

Major Ports Authority Bill introduced in LS

Topic  :  GS 3 Infrastructure: Energy, Ports, Roads, Airports, Railways etc. 

A bill which seeks to provide autonomy to India’s top 12 major ports and improve their efficiency and competitiveness was introduced in Lok Sabha 

Major Port Authorities Bill 2020 bill aims at

• Decentralize decision making 
• Infuse professionalism in governance of major ports. 
• Impart faster and transparent decision making benefiting the stakeholders and better project execution capability.  

Salient features of the Major Port Authorities Bill 2020.

• Compact : It reduced the number of sections of the Major Port Trusts Act, 1963 from 134 to 76.  
• A compact Board with professional independent Members will strengthen decision making and strategic planning.  
• Provision has been made for inclusion of representatives of State Government in which the Major Port is situated, Ministry of Railways, Ministry of Defence and Customs, Department of Revenue as Members in the Board apart from a Government Nominee Member and a Member representing the employees of the Major Port Authority.
• Port Authority has now been given powers to fix tariff which will act as a reference tariff for purposes of bidding for PPP projects.  
• The Board of Port Authority has been delegated the power to fix the scale of rates for other port services and assets including land.
• The role of Tariff Authority for Major Ports (TAMP) has been redefined.   An Adjudicatory Board has been proposed to be created to carry out the residual function of the erstwhile TAMP for Major Ports
• The Boards of Port Authority have been delegated full powers to enter into contracts, planning and development, fixing of tariff except in national interest, security and emergency arising out of inaction and default.  
• Provisions of CSR & development of infrastructure by Port Authority have been introduced.
• Provision has been made for safeguarding the pay & allowances and service conditions including pensionary benefits of the employees of major ports and Tariff of Major Ports.

Tariff Authority for Major Ports

The Tariff Authority for Major Ports (TAMP) was constituted in April 1997 to provide for an independent Authority to regulate all tariffs, both vessel related and cargo related, and rates for lease of properties in respect of Major Port Trusts and the private operators located therein.

Source : The Hindu pib pib Business Standard

New environment impact norm cuts time for public hearing

Topic : GS 3 Conservation, environmental pollution and degradation, environmental impact assessment

A set of key updates to India’s Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) Act proposes to reduce the time given to people to air objections.

Highlights of draft EIA notification

• It proposes to give people 20 days time to raise concerns regarding a project instead of earlier 30 days.
• It requires that the public-hearing process be wrapped up in 40 days, as opposed to the existing norm of 45 days.

What is the public hearing process in EIA?

• It is considered a key component of the EIA. 
• An organisation has to submit a detailed plan, as part of the EIA process, that details the nature, need, potential impact and remedial measures, if their proposed infrastructure project threatens to significantly impact a region. 
• As part of the process, representatives of the company, State and district administration representatives must discuss the environment impact management plan, record objections from residents of the region and submit these to a committee of experts, constituted by the Union Environment Ministry, 
• The committee of experts will take a holistic view of the comments and the management plan and decide on whether to accord clearance to the project.
• While expert committees constituted by the MoEF appraise projects, those below a certain size are appraised by State-level authorities called the State Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA).

Environmental Impact Assessment

• Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is a process of evaluating the likely environmental impacts of a proposed project or development, taking into account inter-related socio-economic, cultural and human-health impacts, both beneficial and adverse.

Source : The Hindu CBD

Norms being finalised to make social media platforms accountable

The government is finalising the ‘intermediaries guidelines’ to make the social media platforms, including Facebook and Twitter, more responsive and accountable.

The proposed amendments make it mandatory for platforms such as WhatsApp, Facebook and Twitter to trace the “originator” of “unlawful” information and remove such content within 24 hours of notice.

Source : The Hindu