Govt. plans to hike RCS levy, airfares to group from April

Govt. plans to hike RCS levy, airfares to group from April

• From April next year, a component of our airfare that helps the government fund its regional connectivity scheme (RCS or UDAN) will be increased three times. 
• According to a government order on October 21, airlines will have to pay an RCS levy per departure of ₹10,000 instead of the current ₹5,000 from January1 to March 31; 2023.This will be further revised to ₹15,000 from April 1, 2023 to April 30, 2027. This is the first hike in the levy.
• Airlines, in turn, charge passengers an amount of ₹50 as part of the total airfare, along with other fare components that include the User Development Fee (UDF) and Passenger Service Fee, which are paid to the airport and the CISF.
• The RCS levy is used to help the government provide a subsidy to those carriers that connect tier 2and 3 cities and offer 50% of their seats at discounted rates under the government’s RCS scheme.

NCW aims to provide digital literacy to women

• Seeking to empower women digitally, the National Commission for Women (NCW) is expanding the ambit of its cyber security programme to enable women on using the digital space to enhance their career prospects, and use technology to their advantage. 
• The NCW onTuesday, launched the latest 4.0 version of its‘Digital Shakti’ programme, which was dedicatedto teach women to be safe online. 
• “Major focus would be on skilling women. There is a huge skill gap among women,” said Major Vineet Kumar, founder and global president of the Cyber Peace Foundation, which is partnering with the NCW and Meta to implement the programme.

Nine Russian banks open vostro accounts for ₹ trade

• Russia is the only country to engage with India’s rupee-based trade offer for now, and nine Russian banks have been permitted to open special vostro accounts to pave the way for such export import transactions, said Commerce Secretary Sunil Barthwal.
• For rupee trade to happen, it requires a balance of trade because it is not an international currency. 
• Among the nine Russian banks, Gazprom bank had opened an account with Kolkata based UCO Bank, while six others had opened an account with private lender IndusInd Bank.