IASTODAY DAILY CAPSULES -General Studies-02

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India needs fiscal-consolidation path to cut debt: IMF

News

• India needs to consolidate its finances by curbing expenditure and boosting taxes to trim its debt, the International Monetary Fund said.

To cut debt

• The IMF, which estimates India’s economy will expand 6.1% in the year through March, is set to reduce the prediction amid continuing weakness signaled by a decrease in rural consumption and lower business sentiment.
• The central bank recently cut its full-year GDP expansion forecast to 5% from 6.1%, after quarterly growth slowed to a six-year low.

Highlights

• Government debt rose to a three-year high of 68.1% of GDP in fiscal 2019, the IMF said. Its directors recommend India adopts measures to reduce this to the officially adopted target of 60% of GDP.
• The IMF, sees no scope for India to provide fiscal stimulus, given that it expects revenue from both income and general-sales taxes to decline this fiscal year.
• “Any growth impetus should instead come from other measures,” with further easing in monetary policy potentially being warranted, the IMF said.
• India’s central bank reduced its benchmark rate five times this year to support the slowing economy. It has introduced measures to bolster rate transmission after lenders failed to fully pass on its 135 basis points of policy easing since February.

Chief of defence staff, restructuring of Railway Board: Key Cabinet decisions today

News

• In a major step towards the integration of the defence services, the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) gave nod to the creation of a chief of defence staff (CDS), who will be the single-point military adviser to the government.

Creation of a chief of defence staff

• The government has approved the creation of a post of Chief of Defence Staff. The officer to be appointed as Chief of Defence Staff will be a four-star General and will also head the Department of Military Affairs.
• The CCS also approved the report of a high-level committee which finalised responsibilities and the enabling framework for the CDS.

Cabinet nod to NPR updation

• The Union Cabinet, headed by the Prime Minister, also approved a proposal to update the National Population Register(NPR), restructuring of the Railway Board and an ordinance to further amend Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code.
• The NPR exercise will require people to declare ‘date and place of birth of parents’ besides furnishing data on 21 points. The NPR exercise is to commence from April next year.
• Cabinet also approved the restructuring of the Railway Board by downsizing its strength from eight to five, including the chairperson, and merging its different cadres into a single Railway Management System.
• Instead of Railway Board Members for Traffic, Rolling Stock, Traction and Engineering, the newly constituted Board will have Members for Operation, Business Development, Human Resources, Infrastructure and Finance.
• Indian Railways will now have only one cadre Indian Railway Service, instead of current eight services for various departments including Engineering, Traffic, Mechanical and Electrical.
• Atal Bhujal Yojana, a Rs 6,000 crore scheme for sustainable management of groundwater resources, was also approved by the Union Cabinet. The scheme will cover 8,350 villages of Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh.
• The scheme entails the participation of communities in activities such as the formation of water user associations, monitoring and disseminating groundwater data, water budgeting, preparation and implementation of gram panchayat-wise water security plans and information, education and communication (IEC) activities related to sustainable groundwater management.

Goa to make schools a secure place for transgender students

News

• In a bid to prevent transgender students from facing harassment and stigma, the Goa government has issued guidelines to make its schools “inclusive” for such students and create an environment to make them feel secure.

Secure place

• In a circular issued to all government recognised elementary schools, Deputy Director of Education asked all the institutions to set up an anti-discrimination cell to keep a check on any prejudices against the transgender community.
• The schools have been directed to give admission to all students belonging to transgender community, and teachers are being sensitised about issues concerning transgenders, their life, culture, psycho-social and emotional conditions.

Telangana to declare 2020 as ‘the Year of AI’

News

• The Telangana government has decided to welcome the new decade by announcing the incoming year as ‘Year of AI”.

Year of AI

• A roundtable was organised in Hyderabad to formulate AI-specific incentives and Telangana’s AI strategy framework document. AI experts from all over the country are contributing to the document, and it will be finalised after several rounds of consultations.
• The state has already operationalised its Blockchain framework document and Drone framework document.
• With AI and Big Data Analytics expected to generate 800,000 jobs in India by 2021, Telangana will now launch it’s AI program in 2020, which will be implemented by NASSCOM and guided by the AI framework document.
• Several industry and academic leaders are collaborating to design the year of AI programme and will officially sign MoUs with the government.

To cut vehicular pollution by 2024, Delhi govt shifts focus to e-vehicles

News

• A quick rollout of 5,000 e-autos and getting online commerce companies to press more battery-operated bikes into service are the immediate objectives that the Delhi government seeks to achieve through its electric vehicle policy, which was cleared.

Electric vehicle policy

• The policy also makes it mandatory for all new private households and business establishments to keep 20% of their parking charging infrastructure for e-vehicles.
• The policy will be a major intervention towards tackling vehicular emissions, which has the “biggest share” in terms of sources of pollution.
• Vehicular contribution makes up 40% of PM2.5 in Delhi’s air and 80% of nitrogen oxides and carbon monoxide.
• The policy will come into force following a gazette notification and stay in effect for a period of three years, during which incentives offered under it can be availed.
• The objective of the policy, a draft of which was made public in November last year, is to ensure that electric vehicles comprise 25% 5 lakh in absolute numbers of all new vehicle registrations by 2024, in the next one year, Delhi may see at least 35,000 e-vehicles, of all categories, hitting the roads.
• The owners of e-vehicles will also be exempted from paying road tax and registration fees.

IASTODAY DAILY CAPSULES -General Studies-03

India successfully test-fires Quick Reaction Surface to Air Missile system

News

• India successfully test-fired its Quick Reaction Surface to Air Missile (QRSAM) system, likely to be inducted into the armed forces by 2021, from a base off Odisha coast.

Surface to Air Missile

• The missile, developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), was flight-tested from the
  Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Chandipur near here at 1145 hrs, a defence statement said.
• The QRSAM was flight-tested with full configuration in deployment mode intercepting the target mid-air, meeting the mission objectives.
• The entire event was monitored by ground telemetry systems, range radar systems and electro optical tracking system.
• The QRSAM weapon system, which operates on the move, comprises fully automated command and control, active array battery surveillance radar, active array battery multifunction radar and launcher.
• Both the radars are four-walled having 360-degree coverage with search on move and track on move capability.
• With this mission, the developmental trials of the weapon system have been successfully completed and it is expected to be ready for induction by 2021, the Defence statement said.

RBI allowed minorities from Bangladesh, Pakistan to open NRO bank accounts in 2018

News

• More than a year before Parliament amended the citizenship law (Citizenship Amendment Act), the Reserve Bank of India amended the  Foreign Exchange Management (Deposit) Regulations, 2016, enabling persons belonging to minority communities Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians from Bangladesh and Pakistan, and residing in India, to open an NRO account (Non-Resident Ordinary Rupee Account Scheme).

NRO account

• Such NRO accounts can be converted into a regular bank accounts once they become citizens of India.
• However, as in the case of CAA, Muslims from these two countries are excluded from the list of religious communities who can apply for such accounts.
• An NRO account is a savings or current account held in India that helps non-resident Indians manage income earned in India such as rent, dividends, interest or pension. An NRI can open a joint NRO account with one or more NRIs or Indian citizens.
• According to the Foreign Exchange Management (Deposit) (Amendment) Regulations, 2018, issued by the RBI on November 9, 2018, a person being a citizen of Bangladesh or Pakistan belonging to minority communities in those countries, namely Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians, who is residing in India and has been granted a Long Term Visa (LTV) by the Central Government is permitted to open with an authorized dealer only one NRO Account.
• Opening of accounts by individuals or entities of Pakistan nationality or ownership and entities of Bangladesh ownership requires prior approval of the Reserve Bank, the RBI said in its FAQ.
• The opening of such NRO accounts will be subject to reporting the details of the accounts opened by the concerned authorised bank to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on a quarterly basis as instructed vide AP (DIR Series) Circular No. 28 dated March 28, 2019, the RBI says.
• Individuals of Bangladesh nationality can open an NRO account subject to the individual(s) holding a valid visa and valid residential permit issued by Foreigner Registration Office (FRO)/ Foreigner Regional Registration Office (FRRO) concerned.

Conduct survey of households in Delhi’s unauthorised colonies: NGT panel

News

• The National Green Tribunal-appointed monitoring committee on the cleaning of the Yamuna has directed for a survey of Delhi’s unauthorised colonies to ascertain the number of houses dependent on septage tanks and those releasing waste directly to open drains leading into the river.

Unauthorised colonies

• According to details shared with the committee, 436 out of Delhi’s 1,798 unauthorised colonies have sewer network, leaving out nearly 6 million people who generate 3 million litres of septage per day.
• The direction was issued in a meeting held by the committee last week. The committee noted that the NGT had also directed in a September 11 order this year for a survey to be done, but the Delhi Jal Board and the Delhi Urban Development Department have not been forthcoming with the details.
• The survey would focus on a sample of colonies that are not connected to a sewer network and cover data on the number of houses, the population and the amount of septage released into drains or collected in tanks.
• Even in the 436 colonies connected to a network, a number of houses have either not taken connections or have made unofficial ones, the monitoring committee was told.

RBI purchases Rs 10,000-crore G-Secs, sells Rs 6,825 cr securities via OMOs

News

• The Reserve Bank purchased Rs 10,000 crore worth of long-term government securities and sold Rs 6,825 crore of four short-term securities through the special open market operations (OMOs).
• Last week, the RBI had announced simultaneous purchase and sale of government securities under OMOs for Rs 10,000 crore each.

Open market operations

• • In the OMO purchase of 6.45 per cent GS 2029, which is a benchmark security, the RBI received Rs 20,826 crore worth of bids from the participants but accepted Rs 10,000 crore of bids.
  • The central bank received 161 bids to purchase 6.45 per cent-2029 bonds whereas it accepted 145 bids. The cut-off yield to accept the bid was 6.546 per cent. The RBI offered to sell four government securities 65 per cent GS 2020; 7.80 per cent GS 2020; 8.27 per cent GS 2020 and 8.12 per cent GS 2020 through OMO sale.
  • It accepted only Rs 6,825 crore worth of bids for the four securities as against Rs 20,330 crore bids it received in the OMO sale auction. In terms of number of bids, the central bank received 30 bids for 6.65 per cent GS 2020; 26 for 7.80 per cent GS 2020, 13 for 8.27 per cent GS 2020 and 47 for 8.12 per cent GS 2020 but accepted 6, 13, 3 and 13 bids, respectively.
  • The completion of the purchase of the benchmark bonds worth at better than market rates implies its strong intent of bringing down the term premia, experts said.

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