Daily CURRENT AFFAIRS

Daily Current Affair - UPSC/KAS Exams - 28th June 2021

What is in news : Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa on Sunday released a postal envelope bearing the portrait of Nadaprabhu Kempegowda, the founder of Bengaluru city, on his birth anniversary and restarted the construction work of the Kempegowda Study Centre at Jnanabharati

Kempe Gowda

• Kempe Gowda was a chieftain under the Vijayanagara kings and ruled over most parts of Karnataka in the 16th century.
• He was born in 1513 in a village near Yelahanka.Kempe Gowda was a just and humane ruler and is widely accepted as the founder of Bangalore.
• He visualized a city with military cantonment, water tanks, temples etc. that provide employment to tradesmen.
• Subsequently, he approached the Vijayanagara kings for the approval and laid the foundations for Bangalore City in 1532.
• Kempe Gowda’s planned city had eight access gates and wide roads.
• He ensured that collection of revenue is just and equitable in the city.
• Planned urban development of the Bengaluru city is a testimony to the capability of Kempe Gowda that even today despite unprecedented challenges of population, traffic and environmental pollution, Bengaluru remains as a Garden City.
• In the 1550s, Kempe Gowda struck coins known as Pagodas.
• This act of his incurred the displeasure of the Vijayanagara kings and he was imprisoned for five years.
• After an illustrious reign of three decades, Kempe Gowda died in 1570.

What is in news : Much-anticipated  BENGALURU SUBURBAN RAIL project seems to be taking shape with the state government announcing that work on it will start in 3 months. The project, expected to be completed by 2026 , has often been dubbed as “India's most integrated rail project”.

What is the Bengaluru Suburban Rail Project:

• The Bengaluru Suburban Rail Project (BSRP) was first proposed in 1983 and has since then been one of the dreams of many Karnataka governments.
• The project was first proposed by an expert team from the then Southern Railway (now Bengaluru falls under the purview of South Western Railway) and was estimated to be run across 58 kilometres.
• The proposal then was submitted as part of Karnataka's first Transportation Survey commissioned by the then Chief Minister R Gundu Rao.
• The project aims to link Bengaluru to its satellite townships, suburbs, and surrounding rural areas by a rail-based rapid-transit system.
• With air-conditioned and metro-like trains expected to run across the network, BSRP will also provide a faster, safer and more comfortable mode of travel to hundreds and thousands of rural and urban commuters

Who is in charge of conceptualising and implementing the project: The Rail Infrastructure Development Company, Karnataka, (K-RIDE) — a joint venture of the government of Karnataka and the Union Ministry of Railways — is in charge of conceptualising and implementing the rail project. It is estimated to be completed by 2026 at a cost of Rs 15,767 crore.

What are the four corridors called:

• All four corridors have been named after common regional flowers found in and around Bengaluru: Sampige (Champa), Mallige (Chameli), Parijata (Prajakta), and Kanaka (Priyardarsha). Interestingly, the first letters of these varieties can be put together as "Samparka", which in Kannada means connectivity.
• Corridor-1 or “Sampige” connects KSR Bengaluru City (Majestic) to Devanahalli with 15 stations in between and runs across 41.40 kilometres.
• "Mallige", otherwise known as Corridor-2, will connect areas between Baiyappanahalli Terminal and Chikkabanavara. Running across 25 kilometres it consists of 14 stations.
• Corridor-3 or "Parijata" will be 35.52-kilometres long with 19 stations between Kengeri and Whitefield
• "Kanaka" or Corridor-4 will have another 19 stations connecting the remaining 46.24-kilometre-long rail route.

What will the Smart Station Hubs offer:

• K-RIDE plans to evolve all 57 stations to integrated commercial hubs (smart station hubs) where people can work, park, shop, eat and trade.
• "These hubs are planned to be multi-storied and will support multiple businesses, monetising land parcels in and around stations, utilising air-space for commercial activities, and enabling rail-to-rail, rail-to-metro and rail-to-air changeover

SOCIAL ISSUES

What is in news : Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) organised an online event on June 25, 2021 to commemorate 6 years of launch of three Urban Missions namely Smart Cities Mission, AMRUT and Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Urban.

Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Urban (PMAY-U)

PMAY-U, under the aegis of ‘Housing for All’, cater to urban housing shortage among EWS/LIG and MIG categories including slum dwellers and seeks to provide them a ‘pucca’ house by 2022. About 1.12 crore houses have been sanctioned under it out of which 82.5 lakh houses have been grounded and 48 lakh have been completed.

Atal Mission for Rejuvenation & Urban Transformation (AMRUT)

AMRUT mission was launched to tackle the issues of Water Supply, Storm Water Drainage to reduce flooding, Sewerage and septage management, Non-motorized Urban Transport and creating green space or parks across 500 cities with population of more than 1 lakh.

Smart Cities Mission

It is a transformational Mission launched with the aim of bringing a paradigm shift in practice of urban development. Projects developed under it are multi-sectoral and mirror aspirations of local population. 69 Smart cities have developed and operationalised their Integrated Command & Control Centres (ICCCs) as of now. These operational ICCCs functioned as war-rooms for COVID management.

What is Phytosanitary certificate: It is an important official declaration which is required for export and import of plants and plant material. This certificate shows that, consignment is free from pests & diseases. This certification is provided to prevent spread of pests & diseases to countries importing the consignment. It also prevents introduction of new pests and diseases.

How this certification is provided: Each country has their own requirements for this certificate. Certification is done under the guidelines given by National Plant Protection Organization (NPPO) or authorities equivalent to it.  Parameters of this certificate are in accordance with the guidelines issued by World Trade Organization (WTO) agreement. It is an important component of final Act of General Agreement of Tariff and Trade GATT 1994.

What is in news: Serbia market has opened its market for Indian potatoes, onions, pomegranate, and pomegranate arils.

What does it mean : As per Agriculture and Processed Food Export Development Authority (APEDA), phytosanitary certificate is not required to export pomegranate fruits & arils and onion bulbs growing in India. However, this certificate is required for export of potatoes

What is in news : Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has decided to prescribe guidelines on distribution of dividend by NBFCs in order to induce a greater transparency and uniformity in practice.

Details :

• Guidelines will be effective for the declaration of dividend from profit for financial year 2021-2022 and onwards.
• Board of directors will consider the proposals for dividend.
• They will take into account the supervisory findings of Reserve Bank (National Housing Bank for HFCs) on divergence in classification and provisioning of non-performing assets (NPAs).
• Board will also ensure that total dividend proposed for financial year does not exceed ceilings as specified in these guidelines.
• As per circular, RBI will not entertain any request for ad-hoc dispensation on declaration of dividend.

How can NBFCs comply with guidelines?

• As per guidelines, NBFCs will need to comply with minimum prudential requirements to be eligible to announce dividend.
• One of the eligibility criteria is, net NPA ratio should be less than 6% in each of last three years as well as at the close of financial year for which dividend is being proposed.
• For NBFCs, that do not accept public funds & do not have any customer interface, no specific ceilings on dividend payout have been set.
• Maximum dividend payout ratio for core investment companies has been set at 60%, standalone primary dealers at 60% and for other NBFCs at 50%.

Non-Banking Financial Companies

• A Non-Banking Financial Company (NBFC) is a company registered under the Companies Act, 1956 engaged in the business of loans and advances, acquisition of shares/stocks/bonds/debentures/securities issued by Government or local authority or other marketable securities of a like nature, leasing, hire-purchase, insurance business, chit business but does not include any institution whose principal business is that of agriculture activity, industrial activity, purchase or sale of any goods (other than securities) or providing any services and sale/purchase/construction of immovable property.
• A non-banking institution which is a company and has a principal business of receiving deposits under any scheme or arrangement in one lump sum or in instalments by way of contributions or in any other manner is also a non-banking financial company (Residuary non-banking company).

What is the difference between banks & NBFCs

• NBFCs lend and make investments, and hence their activities are akin to that of banks; however, there are a few differences as given below:
• NBFC cannot accept demand deposits;
• NBFCs do not form part of the payment and settlement system and cannot issue cheques drawn on itself.
• Deposit insurance facility of Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporation is not available to depositors of NBFCs, unlike in case of banks.
• Unlike Banks which are regulated by the RBI, the NBFCs are regulated by multiple regulators; Insurance Companies- IRDA, Merchant Banks- SEBI, Micro Finance Institutions- State Government, RBI and NABARD.
• The norm of Public Sector Lending does not apply to NBFCs.
• The Cash Reserve Requirement also does not apply to NBFCs.

What is in news : The Prime Minister paid homage to Rishi Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay on his Jayanti.

Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay

• Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay — the legend who gave India its national song Vande Mataram — was a gifted story-teller too.
• Born on June 27, 1838, to a Brahmin family in a North 24 Parganas village, Bankim was a bright student. He went to Hooghly Mohsin College and later graduated in Arts from the Presidency College in Calcutta. He later studied law too. Son of a government official, Chandra Chattopadhyaya who served as the deputy collector of Midnapur, Bankim too joined the British government after completing his studies. He became the deputy collector of Jessore and later a deputy magistrate.
• His epic Anandamath — set in the background of the Sanyasi Rebellion (late 18th century), when Bengal was facing a famine too — made Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay an influential figure on the Bengali renaissance who kept the people of Bengal intellectually stimulated through his literary campaign. The novel became synonymous with India’s struggle for freedom from the British — who banned it.
• India got its national song, Vande Mataram, from Anandamath.
• Though Bankim remained in government service for long, he found his calling in writing — much like his elder brother Sanjeebchandra. He had studied Sanskrit and was very interested in the subject, but later took on the responsibility to make Bengali the language of the masses. Interestingly, however, his first published work — a novel — was in English.

What is in news : Denmark has become the first country to ratify International Solar Alliance Framework Agreement (ISA FA) after amendments in the ISA FA entered into force on January 8, 2021

International Solar Alliance (ISA)

• ISA is an alliance of more than 122 countries initiated by India, most of them being sunshine countries, which lie either completely or partly between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn, now extended to all members of UN.
• The Paris Declaration establishes ISA as an alliance dedicated to the promotion of solar energy among its member countries.
• Objectives: The ISA’s major objectives include global deployment of over 1,000GW of solar generation capacity and mobilisation of investment of over US$ 1000 billion into solar energy by 2030.
• What it does: As an action-oriented organisation, the ISA brings together countries with rich solar potential to aggregate global demand, thereby reducing prices through bulk purchase, facilitating the deployment of existing solar technologies at scale, and promoting collaborative solar R&D and capacity building.
• When it entered into force:  When the ISA Framework Agreement entered into force on December 6th, 2017, ISA formally became a de-jure treaty based International Intergovernmental Organization, headquartered at Gurugram, India.

By : Bank for International Settlements

Key points

• As per data, bank credit-to-GDP ratio has increased to a five-year high at about 56% in 2020.
• However, this increase is way behind its peers and is half of the G20 average.
• Total outstanding bank credit was at $1.52 trillion in 2020 at the credit-to-GDP ratio of 56%. However, this was the second lowest among all other Asian countries.
• In case of emerging market peers’ credit-to-GDP ratio is 135.5% while it is at 88.7% in advanced economies.
• Massive credit-driven stimulus which government pushed to help tide over impact of covid-19 pandemic in 2020, incremental credit growth increased by only 5.56%. It was the lowest recorded growth. In 1962, the growth rate was at 5.38%.
• Bank Credit Growth: As per analysts, bank credit growth is the key indicator of economic growth. Credit-GDP ratio of 100% is the ideal, indicating robust demand for credit without fear of bubble in making. High credit-to-GDP ratio indicates aggressive & active participation of banking sector in real economy. Lower credit-to-GDP ratio indicates the need for more formal credit.
• BRICS member: Credit-GDP ratio for other four BRICS members is as follows- Brazil-50.8%, Russia-88.12%, China-161.75% and South Africa-40.1%.

What is in news : Birth centenary of PV Narasimha rao celebrated.

PV Narasimha Rao

• Was born on 28th June 1921 in erstwhile Nizam's Hyderabad state.
• Was a freedom fighter, academician, and literary figure. He was also the 9th Prime Minister of India from 1991 to 1996.
• Published ‘SahasraPhan’, a Hindi translation of the famous Telugu Novel ‘Veyi Padagalu’.

Economic Reforms:

• He sought to dismantle the restrictions imposed under the license raj, reduce red tape and make Indian industries more competitive.
• He is known for bringing the policy of economic liberalisation in India.
• The economic liberalisation in India is referred to the liberalisation of the country's economic policies.
• It was initiated in 1991 with the goal of making the economy more market- and service-oriented, and expanding the role of private and foreign investment.

Foreign Policy:

• In terms of foreign policy, he established diplomatic relations with Israel.
• The Look East Policy of India was also initiated during his tenure.
• He is also known for reversing decades of unfriendly relations between India and the United States by bringing them together.

Constitutional Reforms: The 73rd and 74th Constitutional Amendments Act empowering local bodies were enacted during his tenure

• Kerala’s Fisheries Department has constituted a seven-member committee to study and submit report on methods to resolve issues related to safety at sea. Committee is headed by P. Sahadevan who was former additional director of fisheries.
• Japan is all set to provide India a $10 million assistance for building cold chain facilities to safely store covid-19 vaccines.
• The Karnataka State government will organise a three-day annual Bengaluru Habba from next year to mark the birth anniversary of Bengaluru founder Nadaprabhu Kempe Gowda.
• Olympic-bound archer Deepika Kumari helped India claim three recurve gold medals in the Archery World Cup Stage-3
• Prime Minister inaugurated a Zen Garden and Kaizen Academy at AMA, Ahmedabad. Zen in Japanese mean meditation.