GS Analyst: Daily Current Affairs

Context:

The increasing dominance of mobile apps and app stores in the digital ecosystem has raised concerns about user privacy, security, and control over personal data.

Evolution of Internet Access:

• Early Internet Design: The Internet was initially designed to operate in a distributed manner, empowering individual machines to connect and interact without centralized control.
• Increased accessibility: Services such as emails, websites, and chats flourished, facilitating information sharing and e-commerce, driven by the accessibility and standardization of protocols and languages.
• App Space: However, the rise of mobile devices prompted a shift towards native mobile apps, leading to the introduction of app stores and a shift in control dynamics.

Challenges and Antitrust Cases:

• Scrutiny: App stores, acting as gatekeepers, have faced scrutiny and legal challenges for imposing high app taxes and allegedly abusing their dominant positions.
• Privacy concerns: Cases against tech giants like Google and Apple highlight concerns over control, revenue sharing, and user privacy within the app ecosystem.
• Reconsideration: The ongoing battle between businesses, app stores, and regulatory bodies underscores the need for users to reconsider the reliance on apps and advocate for alternatives such as web browsers for accessing internet services.

Context:

The recently released State of the Global Climate report by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) highlights 2023 as the hottest year in recorded history, raising concerns over the alarming rise in global temperatures and its adverse impacts.

Temperature Records and Environmental Impacts:

• Worrisome findings: The WMO report confirms 2023 as the warmest year on record, accompanied by numerous records being broken in areas like ocean temperatures, glacier retreat, and diminishing Antarctic ice cover.
• Rising sea levels and increased frequency of extreme weather events like heat waves, torrential rains, and tropical cyclones further underscore the severity of climate change's impacts.
• Impact on socio-economic activities: These events disrupt various socio-economic activities, including agriculture, posing significant challenges to global development.

Election Season as an Opportunity:

• Discussion: Amidst election season in many democracies, including India, the WMO report serves as a timely catalyst to initiate discussions on climate change across the political spectrum.
• Public awareness: Political parties have the opportunity to commit to enhancing public awareness on climate change and outlining concrete steps to mitigate global warming.
• Integral element: Addressing climate change becomes integral to India's pursuit of global leadership and economic prosperity, and political parties should incorporate climate action plans into their election agendas.

Context:

Recent financial data reveals robust growth in revenue collections for the financial year 2023-24, with significant increases in both net direct tax collections and Goods and Services Tax (GST) revenues.

Strong Revenue Performance:

• Direct Tax and GST Collections: Net direct tax collections surged by 19.9% by mid-March, reaching 97% of the revised Budget targets for the financial year.
• GST revenues stood at a robust Rs20.18 lakh crore, with gross GST revenues in March crossing Rs1.78 lakh crore, marking the second highest tally since the rollout of GST six and a half years ago.
• Average monthly collections in 2023-24 have grown by 11.6% to over Rs1.68 lakh crore, setting a new revenue normalcy for the coming fiscal year.

Factors Driving Revenue Growth:

• Tax evasion: Increased collections may partly result from tax demands raised for past years and intensified efforts to curb tax evasion, particularly through measures targeting fake invoices and fraudulent input tax credits.
• Growth in net GST revenues and rising gross collections from domestic transactions indicate heightened economic activity in the last quarter of 2023-24.
• Reform: The strong revenue trajectory offers the government an opportunity to focus on essential reforms to the tax system, including rationalizing multiple GST rates, expanding its scope to include excluded items like electricity and petroleum products, and reducing high levies on key products such as cement and insurance.