Daily CURRENT AFFAIRS

Daily Current Affair - UPSC/KAS Exams - 25th Dec 2021

NEWS

According to a recent statement issued by RBI, Financial Inclusion has helped monetary policy transmission in India

DETAILS

• Involving people in the monetary policy process and promoting financial inclusion has helped RBI improve policy transmission
• Financial inclusion is found to improve the transmission of interest rate-based monetary policy impulses in two ways. First, the financially excluded would typically prefer cash savings. But as inclusion increases, their preference shifts from cash to interest-bearing bank deposits and other financial assets. Consequently, financial savings turn more sensitive to interest rates.
• Second, financial inclusion is expected to expand the access to bank credit, which is interest sensitive and affected by changes in the policy rate. Hence financial inclusion enhances the potency of interest-rate based monetary policy by causing an increasing number of people to become responsive to interest rate cycles.
• Observing that financial inclusion appeared to have increased, with the level of the RBI’s financial inclusion index rising from 49.9 in March 2019, to 53.1 in March 2020, and further to 53.9 in March 2021
• Financial inclusion appeared to be the lowest in rural, agriculture-dependent areas where food was the main source of income.
• Efficacy of monetary policy in achieving its stabilisation objective increases by targeting a measure of prices that includes food prices rather than one that excludes them such as core inflation
• In India, food accounts for 46% of the CPI, among the highest shares globally
• The lower the level of financial inclusion, therefore, the stronger is the case for price stability being defined in terms of headline inflation rather than any measure of core inflation that strips out food and fuel

MAHITI FOR PRELIMS

• Financial Inclusion means that individuals and businesses have access to useful and affordable financial products and services that meet their needs – transactions, payments, savings, credit and insurance – delivered in a responsible and sustainable way
• Monetary policy is adopted by the monetary authority of a country that controls either the interest rate payable on very short-term borrowing or the money supply.

TOKENISATION NORMS

NEWS

The Reserve Bank of India has extended the implementation date of card-on-file (CoF) tokenisation norms by six months

DETAILS

• What is Tokenisation: Tokenisation means replacement of actual card details with an alternate code dubbed as “token”. The token will be unique for a combination of card, token requestor and device. This token us used to do card transactions in contactless mode at point-of-sale terminals, code payments and quick response.
• What is Card-on-File (CoF): In CoF transaction, cardholder authorises a merchant to store his/her Mastercard or Visa payment details. The cardholder then authorises same merchant to bill the stored Mastercard or Visa account.
• In September 2021, the RBI prohibited merchants from storing customer card details on their servers with effect from January 01, 2022, and mandated the adoption of card-on-file (CoF) tokenisation as an alternative to card storage. It applies to domestic, online purchases.
• A tokenised card transaction is considered safer as the actual card details are not shared with the merchant during transaction processing.

NEWS

Vice Admiral Tarun Sobti, VSM assumed charge as Director General, Project Seabird

ABOUT PROJECT SEABIRD

• The largest naval infrastructure project for India, Project Seabird involves the creation of a naval base at Karwar on the west coast of India.
• INS Kadamba
  • Is an Indian Navy base located near Karwar in Karnataka.
  • First phase of construction of the base was code-named Project
  • Completed in 2005.
  • Third-largest Indian naval base
  • Expected to become the largest naval base in the eastern hemisphere after the completion of expansion Phase IIB.
  • Integrated strategic naval base of the Indian Navy.
  • Accommodate the operational fleet of Western Naval Command
  • Reduce the traffic in the existing naval base located at Mumbai.
  • Third functional naval base after those in Mumbai and Visakhapatnam.
  • Fully complies with the MARPOL regulations

NEWS

Union home minister Amit Shah will inaugurate the Bharat Darshan Park in Punjabi Bagh area of South Delhi built with scrap and waste material

DETAILS

• Glimpse of the replicas of 21 monuments, including the likes of Taj Mahal, Victoria Memorial Hall and Mysore Palace
• Undertaken by the South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC)
• Constructed over a period of 22 months in an area spanning across 8.5 acres using 350 metric tonnes of waste material — old automobile parts, iron rods and electricity poles.
• Previously, the civic body had launched a similar project titled ‘Waste to Wonder Park’ at Sarai Kale Khan.

PERSONS IN NEWS

NEWS

The Good Governance Day (GGD) is celebrated every year in India on December 25 to mark the birthday anniversary of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee

ABOUT

ATAL BIHARI VAJPAYEE

• 25 December 1924 – 16 August 2018
• Indian politician
• Three terms as the prime minister of India
• One of the co-founders and a senior leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party
• Member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh
• Is also noted as a poet and a writer.
• Member of the Indian Parliament for over five decades
• Served as the Member of Parliament for Lucknow
• Retired from active politics in 2009 due to health concerns
• During his tenure as prime minister, India carried out the Pokhran-II nuclear tests in 1998.
• Sought to improve diplomatic relations with Pakistan, travelling to Lahore by bus to meet with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.
• After the 1999 Kargil War with Pakistan, he sought to restore relations through engagement with President Pervez Musharraf, inviting him to India for a summit at Agra.
• Conferred India's highest civilian honour, the Bharat Ratna

NEWS

PM pays tributes to Pt. Madan Mohan Malaviya on his Jayanti

ABOUT

Madan Mohan Malaviya

• Freedom fighter and social reformer
• Born in Allahabad
• Took early education under the ‘pathshala’ system
• Graduated from the Muir Central College (today’s Allahabad University) in 1879
• Served as the President of the INC on four occasions.
• Awarded the Bharat Ratna posthumously in 2014.
• Editor of a Hindi magazine, ‘Hindosthan’, ‘Indian Opinion’ in 1889
• Started a Hindi weekly ‘Abhyudaya’, an English daily ‘Leader’, a Hindi newspaper ‘Maryada’.
• Instrumental in founding the Benares Hindu University in 1916, became its Vice-Chancellor till 1939.
• Opposed to separate electorates to Muslims and the Lucknow Pact.
• Against the INC’s participation in the Khilafat Movement.
• Participant in the Second Round Table Conference in 1931.
• Started Ganga Mahasabha to oppose construction of dams in the Ganga.
• Worked for the temple entry of Dalits at the Kalaram Temple at Nashik, Maharashtra.
• Founded the organisation Shri Mathura Vrindavan Hasanand Gochar Bhoomi in Vrindavan.

SNIPPETS

A new technology accelerator and incubation centre was launched at the CSIR-NAL campus in the city to nurture aerospace start-ups.

Karnataka Renewable Energy Development Ltd. (KREDL) was awarded the first prize in National Energy Conservation 2021 in the category of State performance awards (Group-1) sector.

INS Khukri, the first of the indigenously built Missile Corvettes, was decommissioned after 32 years of glorious service