RBI showers ₹1.76 lakh crore bonanza on government
Category: Economy
- The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) decided to transfer ₹1.76 lakh crore to the Centre which is likely to address the precarious fiscal situation of the government to a great extent.
- The ₹1.76 lakh crore includes the central bank’s 2018-19 surplus of ₹1.23 lakh crore and ₹52,637 crore of excess provisions identified as per the revised Economic Capital Framework adopted at the board meeting.
- The RBI said that as financial resilience was within the desired range, the entire 2018-19 net income of ₹1.23 lakh crore had been transferred.
- The RBI had formed a committee, chaired by former Governor Bimal Jalan, to review its economic capital framework and suggest the quantum of excess provision to be transferred to the government.
- The committee was formed after a demand from the government for more money. The RBI Board has accepted all the recommendations of the Jalan committee.
- The panel recommended a clear distinction between the two components of economic capital – realized equity and revaluation balances.
- It was recommended that realized equity could be used for meeting all risks/ losses as they were primarily built up from retained earnings, while revaluation balances could be reckoned only as risk buffers against market risks as they represented unrealized valuation gains and hence were not distributable.
- The committee also recognised that RBI’s provisioning for monetary, financial and external stability risks is the country’s savings for a ‘rainy day’, (a monetary or financial stability crisis), which has been consciously maintained with the RBI in view of its role as the Monetary Authority and the Lender of Last Resort.
- The ‘Surplus Distribution Policy’, as recommended by the committee, says only if realized equity is above its requirement, the entire net income will be transferable to the government.
PM highlights war on single-use plastic
Category: Environment
- Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his address at a G7 session on environment here , highlighted India’s large-scale efforts towards eliminating single-use plastic, conserving water, harnessing solar energy and protecting the flora and fauna for a sustainable future.
- Modi is attending the G7 summit in the French town of Biarritz on a special invitation of French President Emmanuel Macron.
- Modi said India would achieve most of the Conference of the Parties (COP21) climate change goals set for 2030 in a year and a half.
- As many as 195 nations took part in the 21st session of the COP21 of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Paris from November 30 to December 12, 2015.
- The nations negotiated and adopted the Paris Agreement in which India made four commitments, including reducing greenhouse gas emission intensity of its GDP by 33-35% below 2005 levels by 2030, under its Nationally Determined Contributions. T
- The country pledged that 40% of its power capacity would be based on non-fossil sources and the country would create an additional “carbon sink” of 2.5 to 3 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent through additional forest and tree cover by 2030.
Rupee breaches 72-a-dollar mark
Category: Economy
- The rupee crashed about 59 paisa to hit 72.25 intraday after some major currencies, including the Chinese yuan, suddenly weakened against the dollar.
- The rupee’s depreciation came despite the surge in domestic equities after Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced several measures to boost the slowing economy.
- The rupee had come under pressure in recent times due to both domestic and global factors.
- The ongoing trade war between the U.S. and China has impacted emerging market currencies and the rupee was no exception.
- Domestically, weaker growth and slower direct tax collection have been causes for concern for currency market participants.
- The rupee continues to watch Chinese currency movements and the broader dollar bias which, at this juncture, points towards further rupee weakness owing to a weak global environment.
India’s child well-being index
Category: Welfare
- Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Himachal Pradesh and Puducherry topped the charts in the child well-being index, a tool designed to measure and track children’s well-being comprehensively.
- Meghalaya, Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh featured at the bottom of the list.
- The report is an attempt to look at how India fairs on child well-being using a composite child well-being index.
- The dimensions of the index include healthy individual development, positive relationships and protective contexts.
- The report highlights the multi-dimensional approach towards measuring child well-being — going beyond mere income poverty.
5 mn hectares of land set to be rejuvenated
Category: Environment
- India had committed to rejuvenate 50 lakh hectares (5 million) of degraded land between 2021 and 2030.
- India faces a severe problem of land degradation, or soil becoming unfit for cultivation. A
- bout 29% or about 96.4 million hectares are considered degraded.
- This January, India became part of the “Bonn Challenge”, a global effort to bring 150 million hectares of the world’s deforested and degraded land into restoration by 2020, and 350 million hectares by 2030.
- At the UNFCC Conference of the Parties (COP) 2015 in Paris, India also joined the voluntary Bonn Challenge and pledged to bring into restoration 13 million hectares of degraded and deforested land by 2020, and an additional 8 million hectares by 2030.
- Schemes such as the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana, Soil Health Card Scheme, Soil Health Management Scheme and Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana are seen as prongs to tackle this land degradation.
- India for the first time will be hosting the 14th session of the Conference of Parties (COP-14) of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) from September 2 to 13.
- Land everywhere was bearing the brunt of severe climate change already which would lead to extreme food insecurity if steps weren’t taken.
