02.04.17 Daily Current Affairs

e-Visa

• With a view to stimulating economic growth, increasing earnings from the export of services like tourism, medical value travel, travel on account of business thereby making India an attractive destination for foreign direct and portfolio investment, Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, at its meeting held on November 30, 2016, had approved various measures for liberalization, simplification and rationalization of the visa regime in India.
• With effect from tomorrow i.e. April 1, 2017, e-Visa has further been sub-divided into 3 categories i.e. e-tourist visa, e-Business visa and e-Medical visa.
• E-visa facility has been extended to the nationals of 161 countries for entry through 24 airports (E-visa service was earlier granted through 16 airports) and 3 Indian Ports i.e. Cochin, Goa and Mangalore to tap the potential of cruise tourism from different countries. (that means entry through both airports and seaports)
• This service will also be provided from Mumbai and Chennai seaports shortly.
• The liberalization of the visa regime will considerably facilitate entry of foreigners into India for tourism, business and medical purposes. Consequently, the arrival of foreigners in India is expected to go up substantially in the coming years. This will in turn give a boost to the tourism, medical and business sectors resulting in substantial increase in direct and indirect employment in these sectors.

South Asia Growth Quadrangle

• The South Asia Growth Quadrangle (SAGQ) was launched in April 1997 by the Foreign Ministers of Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, and Nepal (BBIN).
• The Ninth Summit of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) on May 1997 in Male, Maldives endorsed SAGQ as a subregional initiative under SAARC.
• The goals of SAGQ are:
• to create an enabling environment for accelerating economic growth;
• to overcome infrastructural constraints;
• to make optimal use of and further develop the complementarities in the subregion, and
• to develop economic and institutional linkages and nodal points for facilitating cooperation on policy framework and project implementation.

South Asia Subregional Economic Cooperation (SASEC)

• SASEC program of Asian Development Bank (ADB) is expanding towards the East with Myanmar formally becoming the 7th member of SASEC in 2017.
• Myanmar was accorded an observer status of SASEC in 2013 when ADB’s annual meeting was held in Noida, India. Myanmar has been participating in annual SASEC Nodal Officials’ meetings as an observer since 2014. It was invited by the participating countries of SASEC countries to become a full member in 2015.
• The SASEC program was formed in 2001 in response to the request of the four countries of South Asia – Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Nepal – from ADB to assist in facilitating economic cooperation among them. These four countries comprise the South Asia Growth Quadrangle (SAGQ), formed in 1996, as a vehicle for accelerating sustainable economic development through regional cooperation. As a project-based partnership, the SASEC program has been helping realize regional prosperity by enhancing cross-border connectivity, facilitating faster and more efficient trade and promoting cross-border power trade.
• Maldives and Sri Lanka joined SASEC in 2014, further expanding opportunities for enhancing economic linkages in the sub-region.
• SASEC member countries recognize that most of SASEC’s multimodal connectivity initiatives include Myanmar. Road corridors in Myanmar provide the key links between South Asia and Southeast Asia. Ports in Myanmar will provide additional gateways to the landlocked North Eastern region of India. Development of multi-modal connectivity between North Eastern region of India, Bangladesh and Myanmar has the potential of unleashing tremendous economic energy in the sub-region.

Index of Industrial Production

• The Index of Industrial Production (IIP) is an index for India which details out the growth of various sectors in an economy such as mining, electricity and manufacturing.
• The Eight Core Industries comprise nearly 38 % of the weight of items included in the Index of Industrial Production (IIP). 
• In ascending order of their weights in the IIP: Fertilisers, Natural Gas, Cement, Coal, Crude Oil, Refinery Products, Steel and Electricity.

Purana Qila

• Why in News? Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), National Culture Fund (NCF) and NBCC (India) Limited, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) here for the ‘Conservation, development & maintenance of Purana Qila project’ at Purana Qila, New Delhi under NBCC’s CSR initiative.
• History: Sher Shah Sur seems to have razed to the ground the city of Dinpanah built by Humayun, and on the same site, which was also perhaps the site of Indraprastha, believed to be the capital of the Pandavas, he raised the citadel of Purana-Qal'a with an extensive city-area sprawling around it. Among the seven cities of Delhi, the Purana-Qal'a is the sixth. It seems that the Purana-Qal'a was still incomplete at Sher Shah's death in 1545, and was perhaps completed by Humayun, although it is not exactly certain which parts were built by the latter.