IASTODAY DAILY CAPSULES -General Studies-02

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Govt cancels 6 coal block allocations of 4 states for failing to operationalise mines

News

• The Coal Ministry cancelled allocations of six blocks with state-run power generation companies of Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Odisha and Maharashtra.

Cancels allocations

• These coal blocks, with geological reserve of around 4 billion tonne, had been allocated to the states in the 2007-10 period to serve as fuel reserves for future power generation projects.
• None of these power projects saw the light of the day and no significant development has been made to operationalise these mines, leading to the ministry de-allocating the coal blocks.
• The development takes place at a time when captive coal production (25.1 MT in FY19) is still much lower than the peak output of 43.2 MT from 42 operational blocks in FY15, when the Supreme Court had cancelled 204 licences saying these were allocated in an illegal and arbitrary manner.

Gujarat govt sends 116 teams to tackle locust attacks

News

• A TOTAL of 116 tractor mounted spray teams by both the Central and the state governments have been put to use to control locust attacks in Gujarat which have, so far, affected 124 villages in 17 talukas of four districts.

Locust attacks

• Following the demand of farmers, the state government started providing electricity supply throughout the day to the affected villages, so that sprinklers may be used during daytime which would stop the insects from sitting on the crops.
• A total of 124 villages in four northern districts of Gujarat have been affected by the locust attacks. Among these, the worst affected are 114 villages under 13 talukas of Banaskantha district bordering Rajasthan, five villages under a taluka of Mehsana district, four villages of two talukas in Patan district and one village in Sabarkantha district.
• The state government’s tracking teams communicate the location where the insects settle at night, so that the locust control teams from the Central government can spray insecticide early morning in an effective manner.
• While farmers have being ruing about huge damage to their crops, the state government claims to have controlled locust attack in the state.

IASTODAY DAILY CAPSULES -General Studies-03

RBI’s Financial Stability Report: Progress may stall, gross NPA ratio likely to rise to 9.9% by Sept 2020

News

• A Reserve Bank of India (RBI) report released showed that the worst may not be over for banks on the bad loan front as gross non-performing asset (GNPA) ratio of banks may increase to 9.9 per cent by September 2020 from 9.3 per cent in September 2019.
• The GNPA ratio of banks stood at 9.3 per cent in March 2019, the RBI said in its Financial Stability Report (FSR).

Financial Stability Report

• It noted that banks’ credit growth remained subdued at 8.7 per cent year-on-year in September 2019, down from 13.2 per cent in March 2019. Private sector banks registered double-digit credit growth of 16.5 per cent in September 2019.
• Even as banks have started pursuing recovery of loans and sought resolution under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, the central bank’s report indicates that the trend of rising NPAs is yet to be firmly arrested.
• In the event of severe stress, GNPAs may rise to 10.5 per cent by September 2020. The capital adequacy ratio for a clutch of 53 banks, could slip to levels of 14.1 per cent a year down the line from 14.9 per cent currently in a baseline scenario.
• It noted while the banking system has shown signs of stabilisation, state-owned banks’ performance needs to improve and they need efforts to build buffers against disproportionate operational risk losses.
• The central bank wrote that NBFCs reported stress in asset quality during H1 2019-20 with the gross NPA ratio going up from 6.1 per cent as at end-March to 6.3 per cent as at end-September.
• The net NPA ratio remained steady at 3.4 per cent during this time. As of end-September 2019, the capital adequacy of the NBFC sector stood at 19.5 per cent, lower than 20 per cent as of end-March 2019.
• The state-run banks’ CRAR improved to 13.5 per cent from 12.2 per cent during the same period. Bank-wise distribution of asset quality showed that while 24 banks had GNPA ratios of under 5 per cent, four banks had GNPA ratios higher than 20 per cent in September 2019.
• The asset quality of agriculture and services sectors, as measured by their GNPA ratios, deteriorated to 10.1 per cent in September 2019 as compared to around 8 per cent in March 2019. For the industry sector, the slippages during the period declined to 3.79 per cent from around 5 per cent in March 2019.

This tiger becomes India’s ‘first’ ever to have walked nearly 1,700 km

News

• The radio-collared sub-adult tiger, TWLS-T1-C1, from Tipeshwar Wildlife Sanctuary in Yavatmal district of Vidarbha, continues to evoke awe and curiosity about his seemingly unstoppable journey.
• Now, into the seventh month since he began in June, the tiger has logged nearly 1,700 km. This, incidentally, is the longest any tiger in India is known to have walked.

Longest tiger in India is known to have walked

• The tiger had travelled 1,500 km till his journey to Ajanta. After his return to Dnyanganga, it is estimated to have logged nearly 1,700 km.
• The journey hasn’t been linear but often back and forth across eight districts in Maharashtra and Telangana (Adilabad district). It has often moved into human-dominated landscapes. But besides one small incident of attack on a group of men in Hingoli district of Marathwada, that perhaps got too close for his comfort, the tiger hasn’t harmed anyone.
• After remaining stable in the Dnyanganga Wildlife Sanctuary of Buldana for over two weeks, the tiger had started his journey further towards Ajanta Hills in Aurangabad district. After reaching there, it immediately started returning to Dnyanganga and, he reached Dnyanganga again.
• Incidentally, it was the first tiger to inhibit Dnyanganga.

Telangana revenue dept sees 45% rise in corruption; 24% overall increase in cases against govt officials

News

• The number of corruption cases filed against revenue department officials in Telangana spiked by 45% in 2019 with 54 cases filed in past one year against the 2018 count of 34.

Corruption cases

• • Corruption among Telangana government officials seems to have risen significantly this year with data showing about 24 per cent increase in the number of corruption cases registered against them in 2019 as compared to that of 2018.
  • Going by the annual figures related to cases registered against government officials, the Telangana Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) registered as many as 173 cases in 2019 whereas the agency had lodged 139 cases in the year before.
  • The department of municipal administration and urban development (MAUD) recorded 25 cases in 2019 against 15 in 2018.
  • As many as 13 cases were filed against health department employees this year compared to just four last year. In the department of energy, 12 cases were lodged in 2019 as against eight cases in the year before. In the transport department, the number of cases increased to 24 from 19 in past one year.
  • The departments of home, law, irrigation, agriculture, Panchayati Raj and rural development, and education have seen no significant rise or fall in the number of cases against officials.
  • Those arrested in trap and disproportionate assets cases are produced in ACB courts and sent to judicial remand. If the employee or the officer is under judicial custody for more than 48 hours, he/she is suspended. A detailed inquiry is then conducted with the accused given a chance to present his case. A report is then sent to the government through the Vigilance Commission following which it is decided whether the case is fit for prosecution or departmental action.

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