ART AND CULTURE / HISTORY                                                  

1. Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya                                                         

GEOGRAPHY                                                                                     

1. Typhoon Phanfone batters Philippines, thousands hit                         

ECONOMY                                                                                          

1. RBI launches Prepaid Payment Instrument for your daily digital payments                                                                                        

2. Economic revival key to banks’ health                                               

3. Strict governance norms for banks soon, says RBI                            

4. Govt forms expert panel for time-bound resolution of disputes in oil & gas sector                                                                                       

ENVIRONMENT AND ECOLOGY                                                

1. Massive locust invasion threatens Gujarat farmers                            

ART AND CULTURE / HISTORY

Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya

GS PAPER - 01 HISTORY - Modern Indian history from about the middle of the eighteenth century until the present- significant events, personalities, issues

Context :

• The Prime Minister of India paid tribute to Pt. Madan Mohan Malaviya on his 158th birth anniversary (25th December, 2019).

Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya :

• Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya(1861 – 1946) was an Indian educationist and a Freedom Fighter.

  • He was also addressed as Mahamana.

Role in Indian Freedom movement:

• As a member of the Imperial Legislative Council, he participated in the important debates most notable being the prohibition of recruitment of Indian indentured labour to the British colonies.

• He was a moderate leader and opposed the separate electorates for Muslims under the Lucknow Pact of 1916.

• He had also attended the Second Round Table Conference in the year 1931.

• He popularized the term ‘Satyamev Jayate’.

  • However,the phrase originally belongs to the Mundaka Upanishad.

  • The term now is the national motto of India.

• In protest against the Communal Award which sought to provide separate electorates for minorities, Malaviya along with Madhav Shrihari Aney left the Congress and started the Congress Nationalist Party.

Contributions and organisations :

• He started composing poetry at the age of fifteen with the pen name ‘Makarand’.

• He founded “Prayaga Hindu Samaj”, and wrote several articles on the Contemporary issues and problems of the country.

• In 1887,he established “Bharat Dharma Mahamandal” to propagate Sanatan Dharma and Hindu culture.

• He also founded the Banaras Hindu University(BHU) at Varanasi in 1916 which was created under the B.H.U. Act, 1915.

• He also founded the Hindu Mahasabha in 1906 to oppose not the just claims of the Muslim community but the “divide and rule” policy of the British Government.

• He also started the ‘Abhyudaya’ as a Hindi weekly in 1907 and made it a daily in 1915.He also started the ‘Maryada’ a Hindi monthly in 1910 and ‘Leader’ an English daily in 1909.

                                                                                                                               Source :- The Hindu

GEOGRAPHY

Typhoon Phanfone batters Philippines, thousands hit

GS PAPER - 01 GEOGRAPHY - Important Geophysical phenomena such as earthquakes, Tsunami, Volcanic activity, cyclone etc.,

Context :

•  The Philippines was hit by typhoon Phanfone on 25th December 2019.

Typhoon Phanfone :

• Typhoon Phanfone is known as Ursula in the local language in the Philippines.

• It is the second typhoon after typhoon Kammuri which hit the Philippines recently.

• Phanfone is following a similar path as Super Typhoon Haiyan, which had hit the country in 2013.
   

  • Typhoon is a region-specific name of the Tropical Cyclone (swirling system of clouds and thunderstorms that originates over tropical or subtropical oceans).

• The Philippines is the first major landmass facing the Pacific cyclone belt. It is hit by about 20 storms and typhoons each year.

                                                                                                                           Source :- The Hindu

ECONOMY

RBI launches Prepaid Payment Instrument for your daily digital payments

GS PAPER - 03 ECONOMY - Important aspects of governance, transparency and accountability, e-governance- applications, models, successes, limitations, and potential; citizens charters, transparency & accountability and institutional and other measures.

Context :

• RBI launches new prepaid payment instrument for small digital transactions

Key Features of prepaid payment instrument (PPI) by RBI :

• The prepaid payment instrument(PPI) could be used only for purchase of goods and services up to a limit of ₹10,000 per month.

• PPIs shall be issued by bank and non-bank PPI issuers after obtaining minimum details of the holder.

• The amount loaded in such PPIs during any month shall not exceed ₹10,000 and the total amount loaded during the financial year shall not exceed ₹1,20,000.

• The PPI issuers shall provide an option to close the instrument at any time and also allow to transfer the funds ‘back to source’ at the time of closure.         

                                                                                                              Source :- Economic Times

Economic revival key to banks’ health

GS PAPER - 03 ECONOMY - Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.

Context :

• The Reserve Bank of India has released a report titled Trend and Progress of Banking in India 2018-19.

Key highlights of the Report :

• The Indian banking sector’s financial parameters such as bad loans and capital adequacy have shown an improvement in recent times.

• In 2018-19, the asset quality of scheduled commercial banks turned around after a gap of seven years with the overhang of stressed assets declining and fresh slippages arrested.

• Besides,recapitalization had helped public sector banks in shoring up their capital ratios.

• Hence,as a result of declining provisioning requirement,the banking sector returned to profitability in the first half of 2019-20.

Concern :

• Link with Economic growth:

  • The report, however, also notes that the overall health of the banking sector will depend on revival in economic growth.

  • The health of the banking sector hinges around a turnaround in macroeconomic conditions.

  • The growth slowdown of the country intensified with GDP growth for the second quarter of the current financial year dipping to a six-year low of 4.5%.

• Risk-averse Nature:

  • Despite the improvement in some of the important parameters, the risk-averse nature among lenders was worrisome.

  •  The waning of banks’ confidence in extending loans is worrisome, the Reserve Bank says in its report.

• Credit slowdown:

  • The slowdown of credit flow to the commercial sector in the first half of 2019-20 was evidence of the aversion to risk.

• Impeding the recovery in financial sectors:

  • This waning of confidence leading to credit slowdown is weighing on the overall economic activity. This is worrisome as it is taking hold at a time when the recent improvements in asset quality and profitability of the banking sector are at a nascent stage and capital ratios of public sector banks (PSBs) are shored up due to recapitalization by the government.

Way Forward :

• The capital infusion by the government in public sector banks is just not enough to meet the regulatory minimum.Hence,the banks might require more recapitalization.

• The financial health of PSBs should also be assessed by their ability to access capital markets rather than looking to the government as a recapitalizer of the first and last resort.

                                                                                                                      Source :- The Hindu

Strict governance norms for banks soon, says RBI

GS PAPER - 03 ECONOMY - Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.

Context :

• The Reserve Bank of India’s report on Trend and Progress of Banking in India 2018-19.

Background :

• The recent governance failures in some financial entities have brought to the fore the impact of the quality of corporate governance on efficiency in the allocation of resources as well as on financial stability.

More in the news :

• The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is planning to issue fresh corporate governance norms which will be in line with global best practices.

• The RBI in its Trend and Progress Report of Banking in India 2018-19, notes that the growing size and complexity of the Indian financial system underscores the significance of strengthening corporate governance standards in regulated entities.

Way forward :

• The RBI in the process of issuing draft guidelines on corporate governance for regulated entities, the objective of which is to align the current regulatory framework with global best practices, must be mindful of the context of the domestic financial system.

• In the case of cooperative banks, there is a pressing need for an umbrella organisation for the sector, which can provide liquidity and capital support to member-banks. The RBI has given approval for its formation. There is a need to ensure that its formation serves the intended purpose.

                                                                                                                     Source :- The Hindu

Govt forms expert panel for time-bound resolution of disputes in oil & gas sector

GS PAPER - 03 ECONOMY - Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.

Context :

• Government has constituted a Committee of External Eminent Persons/Experts for time-bound resolution of disputes in Oil and gas sector.

More about the committee :

• The committee will consist of three members.It will help the oil and gas sector get rid of disputes without having to resort to tardy judicial process.

• The committee will have a tenure of three years and the resolution will be attempted to be arrived at within three months.

• The panel will arbitrate on a dispute between partners in a contract or with the government over commercial or production issues for oil and gas.

• It shall exercise all powers and discharge all the functions necessary for carrying out conciliation and mediation proceedings as per the provisions of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act,1996.

• Once a resolution has been referred to the panel, the parties cannot resort to arbitration or court case to resolve it.

Significance :

• The country’s oil and gas sector has been plagued by disputes from cost recovery to production targets and companies as well as the government have resorted to lengthy and costly arbitration followed by judicial review, a process that takes years to resolve differences.

• Hence,this decision may lift overall business sentiment, especially in the oil and gas sector which in return will help the sector get rid of disputes choking investment in it.

                                                                                                                                              Source :- Business Standard

ENVIRONMENT AND ECOLOGY

Massive locust invasion threatens Gujarat farmers

GS PAPER - 03 ENVIRONMENT AND ECOLOGY - Conservation, environmental pollution and degradation, environmental impact assessment

Context :

• Farmlands in the International border region of Gujarat are under threat from locusts invasion or the hoppers (new-born locusts) invasion.           

Massive Locust Invasion :

• Locusts are flying in from Pakistan’s Sindh province and spreading in villages in Rajasthan and Gujarat where south western monsoon had prolonged this time.

• Originally, the locusts emerged in February this year from Sudan and Eritrea in Africa's Red Sea Coast.

• They travelled through Saudi Arabia and Iran to enter Pakistan, where they invaded the Sindh province and from there they moved into Rajasthan and Gujarat.

Impact :

• It causes significant damage to agriculture.

• Wherever locusts settle on a field, they destroy everything including the vegetation.

• Massive attack jeopardizes food security and livelihood of the farmers in the region.

• Among the affected crops: Groundnut, castor and cotton were main kharif crops while mustard, cumin and wheat are major Rabi crops.

Issues with the Control method of Locust Invasion:

• The insects fly in during the day and settle on the farms at night. Thus making it difficult to ward off the swarms.

• The farmers are using age old techniques like beating drums and vessels to scare the locusts away without much success.

• Fearful villagers use DJs, thali-belan, drums as a weapon to fight the insect.

• The State administration didn’t take any measure despite an alert from the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of a massive locust attack in South Asia covering Pakistan and India.

• Preventive measures were not taken despite the Locust Warning Organization (LWO) in Jodhpur had noticed the swarms and predicted their trajectory across the international border.

• Farmers feel that the government’s efforts and assurance are too little and too late.

• The FAO observes that an average swarm will destroy crops that could feed 2,500 people for a year.

Measures taken by India:

• India has a Locust Control and Research scheme that is being implemented through the Locust Warning Organisation(LWO) which was established in 1939.

• It was amalgamated in 1946 with the Directorate of Plant Protection Quarantine and Storage (PPQS) of the Ministry of Agriculture.

• The main objective of Locust Warning Organisation(LWO) is protection of standing crops and other green vegetation from the ravages of Desert locust which is one of the most dangerous pests occurring in desert areas throughout the world.

                                                                                                                        Source :- The Hindu

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