Passage 1
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has proposed that banks who are authorised dealers of foreign exchange should give reasonable opportunity to exporters of being heard before “caution-listing” them. The proposal is part of the draft of Foreign Exchange Management (Export and Import of Goods and Services) Act Regulations 2024 released on Tuesday by the central bank for public comments. Exporters who fail to realise payments for exports over [1] months are caution-listed. Once a firm gets the tag, then shipments can only be made by it against full advance payment or letter of credit. Under the current rules, all proceeds from exports of goods and services have to be brought back to the country within 270 days or nine months. This is proposed to continue under the new draft. Prior to 2020, caution listing was done by the RBI if payments for exports got delayed beyond 24 months and was done automatically by the computer system if the payment was not reflected against the shipped goods. This job was later given to the Authorised Dealers as sometimes banks failed to update the receipt of payment on time and the system at RBI would automatically caution-list them. With the new proposed guidelines if an exporter can demonstrate that the delayed payments are still being pursued then he might escape the caution list. According to the draft guidelines exporters who have been caution listed can undertake export only against receipt of advance payment in full or against an irrevocable letter of credit, to the satisfaction of the authorised dealer. As per the draft, every exporter should furnish to the specified authority a declaration specifying the amount representing the full export value of the goods or services.
“The amount representing the full export value of goods and services shall be realised and repatriated to India within nine months from the date of shipment for goods and date of invoice for services,” the draft reiterated
According to the draft, no advance remittance for the import of gold and silver should be permitted unless specifically approved by the RBI . The RBI said the proposed regulations are intended to promote ease of doing business, especially for small exporters and importers.
Source: https://www.financialexpress.com/business/banking-finance-rbi-
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Passage 2
From screening diabetes, blood pressure to taking stock of secondary schools with electricity or schools providing textbooks, Niti Aayog has planned to launch a campaign to assess the improvement at the most underdeveloped localities across India. According to a letter written by BVR Subrahmanyam, Chief Executive Officer of the government’s think tank NITI Aayog, has conceptualised “Sampoornata Abhiyan”, to carry out a campaign to achieve saturation in “six identified indicators” in districts and blocks.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the Aspirational Districts Programme (ADP) in 2018 to quickly and effectively transform the [1] most underdeveloped districts across the country. The letter said that both programs focus on improving governance to enhance citizens’ quality of life and improve service delivery in India’s remotest and less-developed districts and blocks. The campaign at the block level targets achieving indicators such as timely registration of pregnant women for antenatal care, regular intake of supplementary nutrition by them, and screening the block’s population for diabetes and blood pressure whereas at the district level, its targets include immunisation of children, secondary schools with functional electricity, and schools providing textbooks within one month of the academic session’s start.
“One way of accelerating progress is to focus on a few select indicators at one time and saturate them so that one can see quick impact,” Subrahmanyam wrote in the letter sent to district magistrates and district collectors of aspirational districts and blocks.
“The Hon’ble Prime Minister had also suggested the same,” he added.
The decided campaign “Sampoornata Abhiyan” will work to improve six indicators in districts and blocks. “To make this effort successful and to deliver a tangible impact on the ground”, the CEO has instructed districts and blocks to develop a three-month “action plan” in accordance with the identified indicators.
In these blocks, district officials will further track the progress on saturation each month. Further, these localities will implement awareness and behaviour change campaigns and the district officials will conduct concurrent monitoring field visits.
Source: https://www.news18.com/india/sampoornata-abhiyan-coming-soon-niti-
