1st JANUARY 2025 ENGLISH TNPSC CURRENT AFFAIRS PDF TNPSC SHOUTERS
December GST revenue Rs. 1.77 lakh crore
- Out of the Rs. 1,76,857 lakh crore collected in December, Central GST is Rs. 32,836 crore, State GST is Rs. 40,499 crore, Integrated GST is Rs. 47,783 crore, and Cess is Rs. 11,471 crore.
- There is an increase of 7.3 percent compared to December 2023 (Rs. 1.65 lakh crore). In December, GST on domestic transactions increased by 8.4 percent to Rs. 1.32 lakh crore, and GST on imports increased by 4 percent to Rs. 44,268 crore. The amount refunded this month is Rs. 22,490 crore.
- This is as compared to the GST revenue collected in November last year at Rs. 1.82 lakh crore (an increase of 8.5%). The highest was in April 2024 at Rs. It is noteworthy that the GST collection has been 2.10 lakh crores.
- It is noteworthy that the decision to observe the year 2025 as the year of reforms was taken in a high-level committee meeting headed by Rajnath Singh. In that regard, reform measures are to be taken to make the security forces technologically advanced and ready for multi-pronged integrated action plans.
- It has been reported that in the defense sector in 2025, attention has been paid to technologies including cyber, space, artificial intelligence and related machine learning, hypersonic and robotics.
- The aim of this concept is to establish a unified control for the three services with the aim of improving the bond between the three services.
- India's Jasprit Bumrah has become the first Indian to reach the highest number of points (907) in the ICC Test bowlers' rankings. Earlier, Indian spinner Ravi Ashwin was at the top with 904 points. Now, Bumrah has surpassed him and set a new record.
- With this, he has reached the 17th position in the world's highest Test ranking ever achieved by a bowler. He has tied with England's spinner Derek Underwood.
- The Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has approved the proposal of the Department of Fertilizers to extend the One-time Special Package on DAP beyond the NPS subsidy of Rs. 3,500 per metric tonne from 01.01.2025 till further orders, to ensure availability of Di-Ammonium Phosphate at affordable prices to farmers.
- Subsidy for P&K fertilizers has been administered under the NPS scheme since 01.04.2010. The Union Government has provided huge relief to farmers by keeping the price of Di-Ammonium Phosphate (DAP) fertilizer unchanged, while continuing to give priority to ensuring the welfare of farmers.
- Despite geopolitical constraints and volatility in global market conditions, the Government adopted a farmer-friendly approach by ensuring availability of DAP to farmers at affordable prices for the 2024-25 Kharif and Rabi seasons.
- The Cabinet had in July 2024 approved a one-time special package on DAP beyond the NPS subsidy of Rs. 3,500 with an outlay of approximately Rs. 2,625 crore from 01.04.2024 to 31.12.2024.
- The Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi today approved continuation of Pradhan Mantri Crop Insurance Scheme and Weather Based Crop Insurance Scheme till 2025-26 with a total allocation of Rs. 69,515.71 crore from 2021-22 to 2025-26. This decision will help farmers across the country protect their crops from natural calamities till 2025-26.
- Apart from this, the Cabinet has also approved the use of technology on a large scale in the implementation of the scheme to enhance transparency, calculation of compensation and settlement of claims and has approved the creation of a Fund for Innovation and Technology with a corpus of Rs. 824.77 crore.
- The fund will be used to fund technological initiatives and research and development under schemes like YES-TECH and WINDS. At least 30% emphasis is being given to yield estimation using remote sensing technology.
- 9 major states namely Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka are currently implementing this technology. Madhya Pradesh has adopted 100% technology-based yield estimation.
- The Weather Information and Network Data Systems (WINDS) plan to set up automatic weather stations at district level and automatic rain gauge stations at panchayat level. Under the WINDS project, it is planned to generate hyperlocal weather data with a 5-fold increase in the current network size.
- 9 major states namely Kerala, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Puducherry, Assam, Odisha, Karnataka, Uttarakhand and Rajasthan are working on implementing the ‘WINDS’ project. Other states have also expressed interest in implementing the project.
- All efforts have been made to provide maximum benefits under these schemes to all farmers in the North Eastern States on priority basis. For this, the Central Government shares 90 percent of the premium subsidy with the North Eastern States.
- However, since the scheme is a voluntary scheme and the total area under cultivation in the North Eastern States is low, flexibility has been provided to avoid handing over of funds and to reallocate funds to other development projects where funds are required.
