Baba Kalyani Committee
- The Baba Kalyani committee constituted to study the existing SEZ policy of India submitted its report.
- One of the objectives of the committee was to make the SEZ policy compatible to WTO.
Make in India Targets
- Creating 100 million jobs by 2022.
- Achieving 25% of GDP from the manufacturing sector by 2022.
- increase manufacturing value to USD 1.2 trillion by 2025.
INDRA
- Tenth Indo-Russian Joint Exercise, INDRA scheduled in November.
- It is an exercise of the two armies.
SIMBEX
- SIMBEX is “Singapore-India Maritime Bilateral Exercise”
- It completed its Silver Jubilee ( 25th edition of the exercise) this year.
Reserves of RBI
- Of the existing reserves, a bulk of the funds are in contingency funds and in revaluation reserves.
- The contingency reserves, by definition, cannot be touched except in a crisis.
- To tap revaluation reserves, the RBI will have to sell assets and shrink its balance sheet. This will upset the money supply in the economy.
- RBI holds over Rs 3 lakh crore of surplus reserves
- RBI’s earnings soar whenever there is forex volatility as it ends up making profits while selling dollars.
- For 2017-18, the RBI transferred a dividend of Rs 50,000 crore to the government.
- In last 5 yrs, RBI transferred 75% of its income as surplus
Economic capital framework (ECF)
- The ECF refers to a formula for deciding the capital adequacy ratio for RBI
- Capital conservation buffer (CCB)
- Capital Conservation Buffer is the extra capital banks hold above their mandatory capital.
Prompt corrective action (PCA)
- There are 11 public sector banks out of 21 that are on the PCA.
- On the PCA, the Board for Financial Supervision (BFS) of the RBI takes a call like relaxation of NPA ratio.
- The BFS consists of the Governor, four Deputy Governors and a few other board members.
Global Education Monitoring Report
- Published by UNESCO
- Literacy levels in rural households of India dip with seasonal migration
- Construction sector absorbs the majority of short-term migrants.
- Inter-State migration rates doubled between 2001 and 2011.
Artificial Rain
- In a first for India, scientists are set to seed clouds to cause artificial rain in the capital.
- It will wash away toxic pollutants from the air.
- Clouds are seeded with silver iodide and other chemical substances to induce rain.
- This will be the first time clouds would be seeded in India to clear toxic air, although the country has tested the technique on a limited scale in the rain shadow region of Solapur in Maharashtra.
Malaria
- India recorded nearly 24% decline in cases in a year between 2016 and 2017. the only
- With 4% of global cases, India continues to account for the highest malaria burden outside sub-Saharan Africa.
- India plans to eliminate malaria by 2027, three years ahead of the global target.
- In India, three states — Odisha, Chhattisgarh and West Bengal- account for a major burden of malaria cases.
