Additional Information

• The Minerals Security Finance Network (MSFN) is a new initiative that emerged from the Minerals Security Partnership (MSP), a framework established by the United States in 2022. 
• India is now formally a part of the Minerals Security Finance Network, a US-led initiative aiming to strengthen cooperation among members to secure supply chains for critical minerals. 
  • The announcement, made by the US State Department on the margins of the United Nations General Assembly on September 23, involved a pact entered by 14 countries and the European Union
• India was included in the MSP in June 2023.
• India’s inclusion was especially significant because one of the core components of New Delhi’s economic strategy is an ambitious change in the mobility area, involving the conversion of a large portion of public and private transportation to electric vehicles.

What is Uniting for Peace Resolution?

• UN General Assembly resolution 377(V) is known as the Uniting for peace resolution which was adopted in 1950. The most important part of resolution is section A which states that where the Security Council, because of lack of unanimity of the permanent members, fails to exercise its primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security, the General Assembly shall seize itself of the matter.
• Origin: The Uniting for Peace resolution was initiated by the United States, in October 1950, as a means of circumventing further Soviet vetoes during the course of the Korean War.
• Objective: Under this, the UNGA granted to itself the power to deal with threats to the peace if the UNSC fails to act after a veto by a permanent member.
  • Such an interpretation sees the UNGA as being awarded ‘final responsibility’ for matters of international peace and security, by the UN Charter.
• Emergency Special Session (ESS): If not in session, the General Assembly may meet using the mechanism of the emergency special session. To date, 11 emergency special sessions have been convened.
  • First ESS was instigated after France and UK veto over UNSC resolution 119 during the Suez Crisis 1956.

• The Gorichen peak is located in Arunachal Pradesh

Additional Information

• Gorichen Peak is located in Arunachal Pradesh. Gorichen is the highest scalable peak in Arunachal Pradesh, towering at a height of over 21,300 ft above sea level. 
• The mountain is situated in the Tawang District.
•  Gorichen is a glacier-fed mountain group in the Eastern Himalayas.

Additional Information

GST Compensation Cess:

• • It is levied under Section 8 of The Goods and Services Tax (Compensation to State) Act, 2017.
• Why is GST Cess Levied?

• • • As GST is a consumption-based tax, the state in which the consumption of goods and supply happen would be eligible for the indirect tax revenue.
    • Hence, after GST comes into effect, some states that are net exporters of goods and/or services are expected to experience a decrease in indirect tax revenue.
    • To compensate the States for the loss in tax revenue, the GST Compensation Cess has been declared by the Central Government. 
• Usage of GST Cess:

• • • All the proceeds received from the GST compensation cess would be credited to a non-lapsable fund known as the GST Compensation Fund.
    • The funds would then be used for compensating tax revenue loss to States on account of GST implementation.
    • If any funds are unutilized, then at the end of the transition period, it would be shared in half by the Central Government and all State Governments.
    • The State government’s share would be distributed in the ratio of their total revenues from the State tax or the Union territory goods and services tax, in the last year of the transition period.
• Applicability:

• • GST Cess would be applicable to both the supply of goods or services that have been notified by the Central Government.
  • Also, both intrastate supplies of goods or services and interstate supplies of goods or services would attract GST cess.
  • In the GST regime, compensation cess at varied rates is levied on luxury, sin, and demerit goods (cigarettes, pan masala, gutkha, and other tobacco products, soft drinks, cars, etc.).

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• In 2022, the GST Council decided to extend the levy till March 2026 to repay the interest and the principle amount of the Rs 2.69 lakh crore worth loan taken in the 2021 and 2022 fiscal years to make good states’ revenue loss during Covid years.

• The above mentioned lines refer to Periyar EV Ramasamy

Explanation

• Periyar, born in 1879, is most known for his Self Respect Movement, which sought to restore Tamil identity and self-respect. He envisioned a Dravidian country in Dravida Nadu and founded the Dravidar Kazhagam (DK) political party.
•  Periyar began his political career as a Congress worker in his hometown, Erode. He disagreed with Gandhi on the issue of separate eating for Brahmin and non-Brahmin children at Gurukkulam, a Congress-sponsored school owned by nationalist leader V V S Iyer in Cheranmahadevi near Tirunelveli.
•  After failing to persuade the Congress to his viewpoint, Periyar resigned from the party in 1925 and joined the Justice Party and the Self Respect Movement, which attacked Brahmin domination in social life, particularly the bureaucracy.
•  Periyar’s name went outside Tamil Nadu during the Vaikom Satyagraha of 1924, a mass campaign demanding that lower caste people be allowed to use a public road in front of the famous Vaikom shrine.
• In the 1920s and 1930s, Periyar blended social and political change, challenging the conservatism of the Congress and the mainstream national movement in the Tamil area.
•  He recreated the Tamil identity as an egalitarian ideal untainted by the caste system, and pitted it against the Indian identity championed by Congress.
• He contended that caste was brought to Tamil Nadu by Aryan Brahmins who spoke Sanskrit and arrived from Northern India.