Merged PSBs must cut stake in insurers
Category: Economy
- After the merger of 10 public sector banks (PSBs) into four, two of them will hold over 15% stake in two different insurance companies, individually.
- According to insurance regulations, a bank cannot hold more than 15% stake in more than one insurance company.
- Having more than 15% stake in an insurance company gives the status of the promoter to the entity.
- One entity cannot be a promoter of two insurance companies.So, the banks have to completely exit one insurance company or cut stake to 15%.
₹100 lakh-crore infra projects
Category: Economy
- The government has constituted a high-level task force to identify infrastructure projects for ₹100 lakh-crore worth investment to be made by 2024-25 as India aims to become a $5-trillion economy.
- This would include greenfield and brownfield projects costing above ₹100 crore each.
- The task force will comprise secretaries from different Ministries, senior officials and the NITI Aayog CEO.
- It will identify technically feasible and financially/economically viable infrastructure projects that can be initiated in 2019-20.
- To achieve the target of scaling India’s GDP to $5 trillion by 2024-25, the country needs to spend about $1.4 trillion (₹100 lakh crore) from the fiscal 2019-20 to 2024-25 on infrastructure.
- In the past decade (fiscal 2008-17), India invested about $1.1 trillion in infrastructure.
- Prime Minister, in his Independence Day speech, had said that ₹100 lakh crore would be invested in infrastructure over the next five years. These will include social and economic infrastructure projects.
3D-printed cookies
Category: Sc/tech
- Scientists have used 3D-printing to make automobile parts and prosthetics before but now 3D-printing food is becoming a reality.
- Researchers from the Indian Institute of Food Processing Technology (IIFPT), Thanjavur, have printed a nutritious snack using millets, green gram, fried gram and ajwain seeds.
- Taking just five to seven minutes to print, followed by a microwave drying process, this technology may help in customising food according to the individuals’ nutritional requirements.
- Earlier this year, the team had earlier made egg yolk and egg white into a printable form.
- Though this may not be a solution to any food crisis or help altering the food manufacturing process, it may prepare ourselves for the future.
- Perhaps one day this method may help print food at the International Space Station or any such environment.
- Instead of increasing the shelf life, printing food when and where needed can be a better option.
Black spots
Category: Governance
- The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has issued new guidelines to State governments for identifying accident ‘black spots’ on national highways and rectifying them.
- A black spot is defined as a stretch not more than 500m in length where five accidents have taken place or where ten fatalities have happened in the last three years.
- Recently, Minister for Road Transport and Highways said the government had prepared a ₹14,000-crore plan to identify black spots.
- The Ministry has reached out to the World Bank for funds after approval from the Ministry of Finance.
Automatic Identification System (AIS)
Category: Sc/tech
- There has been a huge increase in Chinese deep-sea fishing trawlers in the southern Indian Ocean far from the Chinese coast which has raised concerns.
- The trawlers were, however, not in India’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) but beyond.
- Occurrences are recordings of the Automatic Identification System (AIS) aboard trawlers and ships recorded when they are activated. So a trawler can be recorded multiple times based on its AIS signature.
- The maritime movements in the region are tracked at the Navy’s Information Management and Analysis Centre (IMAC) at Gurugram, which is the single-point centre interlinking all the coastal radar chains and other inputs along the coastline.
- The AIS information comprises name, MMSI number, position, course, speed, last port visited, destination and so on. This information can be picked up through various AIS sensors including coastal AIS chains and satellite based receivers.
- To address this, the National Maritime Domain Awareness initiative aims to integrate fishing, ports, customs so that the database is available to everyone. Currently, the States have their databases.
- There has been a national effort to install AIS systems on ships under 20m for which a pilot study has been carried out.
- AIS works through satellite and the ISRO has already delivered 1000 transponders for trails in Gujarat and Tamil Nadu.
