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Daily News Updates- 21/07/2021

Credits- The Economic Times

[‘Daily News Updates’ will provide you with a simplified understanding of the important economic/financial events across the country]

Demand for RERA in West Bengal

Homebuyers have urged the West Bengal state government to implement the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016. What is RERA?

The Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act of 2016 (also known as the RERA Act) was enacted to regulate the real estate sector in India. The Act was passed in 2016 & came into force in May 2017.

RERA Act is a model Act passed by the Central Government. Each state has to notify its own Act based on the Central RERA Act. This is because the land is a concurrent subject

The RERA was enacted to address the absence of professionalism & standardisation, lack of adequate consumer protection in India’s Real Estate Sector, and protect the interests of the homebuyers. The Act has various provisions for fulfilling its objectives- promoters have to register their real-estate projects with RERA, the amount collected by the promoter from the homebuyers must be put in a separate escrow account and used only for construction purposes, buyers can get a refund if there is a delay, etc. [Read- WHAT IS RERA ACT OR REAL ESTATE (REGULATION AND DEVELOPMENT) ACT?].

However, West Bengal enacted its own law- West Bengal Housing Industry Regulation Act, 2017 (WBHIRA), which was held unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in May. Per the Supreme Court, the WBHIRA was more or less identical to the Central RERA but did not include adequate protections for homebuyers. Hence, it encroached upon the Central RERA as both the laws were in direct conflict, and in such a scenario, the central law would prevail. [As per Article 254 of the Constitution, if any state-made law is in conflict with a law made by the Parliament (RERA in this case) for any matter in the concurrent list, the central law would prevail. However, if the state law is made after the central law (as in this case), the state can seek the President’s assent post which the law can prevail in that state. In this case, the assent was not received].

What does the latest Serological Survey reveal about COVID?

A serological survey is undertaken to assess the prevalence of a disease in the population. It is done by measuring the presence of antibodies produced against the virus. In the recent survey conducted by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), two-thirds of the Indian population were found to have developed antibodies against the COVID-19 virus. ‘The latest survey, conducted between June and July, showed that 67.6% of the population was exposed to SARS-CoV-2, a massive increase from the 24.1% people found with covid antibodies in the January survey.’ However, several experts have warned that the data has little relevance when it comes to herd immunity (at which the virus stops spreading quickly) as natural immunity against COVID-19 weakens after a few months, and a person can be re-infected. Further, there can emerge a new variant that escapes this immunity altogether. Hence, they have warned against any complacency.

[The ICMR’s latest survey was conducted on 28,975 individuals apart from 7,252 healthcare workers. This was the fourth serosurvey; the last one was conducted in December-January 2021, where 24.1% of Indians were found with antibodies. Many experts have called for larger population surveys to understand the virus and the antibody response better].

Stock Limit on Pulses Relaxed

In a previous edition of Daily News Updates, we noted that “on 2nd July 2021, the Government imposed a stock limit on pulses till October 31st with immediate effect to reduce the price of pulses” and we had criticized the move by discussing its possible implications. Due to protests, stock limits have been relaxed in just two weeks. “Under the revised stock limit, wholesalers can now keep 500 metric tonnes (MT) of pulses at a time provided the quantity of any one pulse does not exceed 200 MT. Under the old order, the maximum stock that wholesalers could keep was 200 MT, with the quantity of a single pulse restricted to a maximum of 100 MT.” Importers have been wholly exempted, while the limit of 5 MT for retailers has been kept intact.

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