Important Facts  :-

1) SC Collegium on mission mode to fill vacancies-

2) GST Council not for inclusion of petroleum products: FinMin

All About GST –

• The Goods and Services Tax (GST) is a value-added tax levied on most goods and services sold for domestic consumption. It is a destination-based taxation system.
• In India, GST Bill was first introduced in 2014 as The Constitution (122nd Amendment) Bill.
• 1 July 2017: GST applied across India.
• This got an approval in 2016 and was renumbered in the statute by Rajya Sabha as The Constitution (101st Amendment) Act, 2016. Its provisions:
• Central GST to cover Excise duty, Service tax etc, State GST to cover VAT, luxury tax etc.
• Integrated GST to cover inter-state trade. IGST per se is not a tax but a system to coordinate state and union taxes.
• Article 246A – States have power to tax goods and services.

GST Council

• Article 279A – GST Council to be formed by the President to administer & govern GST. It’s Chairman is Union Finance Minister of India with ministers nominated by the state governments as its members.
• The council is devised in such a way that the centre will have 1/3rd voting power and the states have 2/3rd.
• The decisions are taken by 3/4th majority.

3) 10 year time frame available to implement NEP: Kasturirangan

The new National Education Policy had taken into consideration all aspects and concerns of educators and students, said K. Kasturirangan, the chairman of the policy’s drafting committee.

“We are aware of the geographical and economic imbalances. We have a 10year time frame (to implement) and another 10 years to evaluate it,” he said. In a wide-ranging discussion, Mr. Kasturirangan said experiences from across the country had been studied, which led the committee to come up with a mechanism to develop every student’s capabilities, be it in learning languages, communicating or developing technical expertise.

The policy had been drafted with the aim of exploiting the unique capability of a human being.

All about NEP –

4)  Australia informed India about AUKUS, says envoy –

Australia had informed India about the new enhanced trilateral security partnership with the U.S. and the U.K. — AUKUS —formally announced, Australian High Commissioner Barry O’Farrell.

The Australian Prime Minister and the Foreign Affairs and Defence Ministers spoke to their Indian counterparts to inform them about the decision. However, it was not discussed during the inaugural India-Australia 2+2 ministerial dialogue.

AUKUS would help improve Australia’s defence capabilities in line with the country’s 2020 Defence Strategic Update and would not affect the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, which is more of a diplomatic forum.

All About AUKUS-

• trilateral security partnership for the Indo-Pacific between Australia, the U.K. and the U.S. (AUKUS).
• Co-operation across emerging technologies (applied AI, quantum technologies and undersea capabilities).

5) Major restructuring of Railways on anvil

The recommendations of the Principal Economic Adviser Sanjeev Sanyal for Rationalisation of Government Bodies and Proposal for the Ministry of Railways calls for winding up the Central Organisation for Railway Electrification (CORE), the Central Organisation for Modernisation Of Workshops (COFMOW), the Centre for Railway Information Systems (CRIS) and the Indian Railways Organisation for Alternative Fuel (already closed on September 7, 2021).

Main Merger recommendations are :-

Central Organisation for Railway Electrification (CORE),

Central Organisation for Modernisation Of Workshops (COFMOW),

Centre for Railway Information Systems (CRIS) and

Indian Railways Organisation

• Winding up of the CRIS, and handing over all its work to the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC).
• RailTel, one of the largest telecom infrastructure providers in the country, would be merged with the IRCTC.
• Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd. (RVNL), which implements projects relating to creation and augmentation of railway infrastructure, could be merged with Indian Railway Construction Limited (IRCON).

6) Australia shrugs off China anger on nuclear subs –

Australia on Friday shrugged off Chinese anger over its decision to acquire U.S. nuclear-powered submarines, while vowing to defend the rule of law in airspace and waters where Beijing has staked hotly contested claims.

U.S. President Joe Biden announced the new Australia-U.S.-Britain defence alliance on Wednesday, extending U.S. nuclear submarine technology to Australia as well as cyber defence, applied artificial intelligence and undersea capabilities.