1.SMALL FINANCE BANKS:
The small finance bank will primarily undertake
basic banking activities of acceptance of deposits and lending to unserved
and underserved sections including small
business units, small and marginal farmers, micro and small industries and
unorganised sector entities.
Functions:
·
Take small deposits and disburse
loans.
·
Distribute mutual funds, insurance
products and other simple third-party financial products.
·
Lend 75% of their total adjusted net
bank credit to priority sector.
·
Maximum loan size would be 10% of
capital funds to single borrower, 15% to a group.
·
Minimum 50% of loans should be up to
25 lakhs.
What
they cannot do:
·
Lend to big corporates and groups.
·
Cannot open branches with prior RBI
approval for first five years.
·
Other financial activities of the
promoter must not mingle with the bank.
·
It cannot set up subsidiaries to
undertake non-banking financial services activities.
·
Cannot be a business correspondent of
any bank.
The
guidelines they need to follow:
·
Promoter must contribute minimum 40%
equity capital and should be brought down to 30% in 10 years.
·
Minimum paid-up capital would be Rs
100 cr.
·
Capital adequacy ratio should be 15%
of risk weighted assets, Tier-I should be 7.5%.
·
Foreign shareholding capped at 74% of
paid capital, FPIs cannot hold more than 24%.
·
Priority sector lending requirement of
75% of total adjusted net bank credit.
·
50% of loans must be up to Rs 25 lakh.
2.SAGARMALA INITIATIVE:
·
The Sagarmala project seeks to develop
a string of ports around India’s coast.
·
The objective of this initiative is to
promote “Port-led
development” along India’s 7500 km long coastline.
·
It aims to develop access to new
development regions with intermodal solutions and promotion of the optimum
modal split, enhanced connectivity with main economic centres and beyond
through expansion of rail, inland water, coastal and road services.
·
The Union Ministry of Shipping has been appointed as the nodal ministry for this
initiative.
·
Port Infrastructure Enhancement,
including modernization and setting up of new ports.
·
Efficient Evacuation to and from
hinterland.
Other
objectives:
·
It also aims at simplifying procedures
used at ports for cargo movement and promotes usage of electronic channels for
information exchange leading to quick, efficient, hassle-free and seamless
cargo movement.
·
It also strives to ensure sustainable
development of the population living in the Coastal Economic Zone (CEZ).
3.INDO-U.S. EXPEDITION DISCOVERS NATURAL GAS IN INDIAN OCEAN:
·
A large natural gas discovery has been
made in the Indian Ocean following a joint expedition by India and the U.S.,
opening up a new resource to meet energy needs.
·
India’s Oil Ministry and the U.S.
Geological Survey made the discovery of large, highly enriched accumulations of
natural gas
hydrate — an icy form of the fuel
— in the Bay of Bengal.
·
This is the first discovery of its kind
in the Indian Ocean that has the potential to be producible.
Natural
gas hydrates:
·
Natural gas hydrates are a naturally
occurring, ice-like combination of natural gas and water found in oceans and
polar regions.
·
Gas hydrates are considered as vast
resources of natural gas and are known to occur in marine sediments on continental shelf margins.
·
By nature this gas is mostly methane.
Methane gas hydrate is stable at the seafloor at water depths beneath about 500
meters.
Distribution:
·
The amount of gas within the world’s
gas hydrate accumulations is estimated to greatly exceed the volume of all known
conventional gas resources.
·
Gas hydrate resources in India are
estimated at 1,894 trillion cubic meters and these deposits occur in Western, Eastern and
Andaman offshore areas.
·
According to the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration gas hydrate deposits along ocean margins are
estimated to exceed known petroleum reserves by about a factor of three.
4.CHARGE - SYNDROME:
·
CHARGE syndrome is a disorder that
affects many areas of the body. CHARGE stands for coloboma, heart defect,
atresia choanae (also known as choanal atresia), retarded growth and
development, genital abnormality, and ear abnormality.
·
The pattern of malformations varies
among individuals with this disorder, and infants often have multiple
life-threatening medical conditions. About two third of cases are due to a CHD7 mutation.
·
The major characteristics of CHARGE
syndrome are more specific to this disorder than are the minor characteristics.
·
Many individuals with CHARGE syndrome
have a hole in one of the structures of the eye (coloboma), which forms during
early development.
5.CLEAN GANGA’ PROJECT LAUNCHED AT 100 PLACES:
The Central government has launched 231 projects
under the ‘Namami Gange’ project.
This would take it closer to achieving its Clean
Ganga objective.
Namami Gange Programme:
·
The Union government approved “Namami
Gange” Program in May 2015.
·
It integrates the efforts to clean and
protect the Ganga River in a comprehensive manner.
·
Among other things, the programme will
focus on pollution abatement interventions namely Interception, diversion &
treatment of wastewater flowing through the open drains through bio-remediation
/ appropriate in-situ treatment / use of innovative technologies.
·
The program has a budget outlay of Rs.
20,000 crore for the next 5 years.
·
Under this programme, the focus of the
Government is to involve people living on the banks of the river to attain sustainable
results.
6.PRASHIKSHAK:
·
‘Prashikshak’, the teacher education portal
for District Institutes of Education and Training (DIETs) was recently launched
by the government.
·
It is a unique IT Initiative taken up
under DIET.
·
Prashikshak is a unique IT initiative,
a first of its kind in the
·country,
which will contain a comprehensive database of all DIETs in the country with
all relevant performance indicators.
·
It will help benchmark DIETs to enable
aspiring teachers to make informed choices about their future.
·
At the same time, it will give the opportunity
to Central and State Governments to do real time monitoring of the
institutions.
·
Prashikshak was established through
joint collaboration between Ministry of Human Resource Development and Central Square
Foundation.
·
The objective of Prashikshak is to
define quality benchmarks and help DIETs to make informed decisions about their
institutes, compare the
·performance
of their institute against other DIETs in the state/country as well as helping
aspiring teachers make informed decision making.
7.FLYING DAGGERS 45:
·
Two indigenous Tejas Light Combat Aircrafts
were recently inducted into the IAF squadron, known as the ‘Flying Daggers 45’.
·
The aircraft is equipped to handle
air-to-air missiles, air-to-surface missiles, anti-ship missiles, bombs and
rockets.
·
It is considered to be the lightest
multi-role supersonic aircraft of its class. HAL (Hindustan Aeronautics Limited),
DRDO (Defence Research and Development Organisation) and ADA (Aeronautical
Development Agency) are the key state-run defence companies that are behind the
design and development of this Light Combat Aircraft.
·
The combat aircraft uses fourth
generation technologies and has
intentionally been made longitudinally unstable to enhance manoeuvrability.
·
The Tejas has a ‘glass cockpit’ which displays ‘real-time’
information to the pilot. The multi-role radar on Tejas – which was developed
as Indian–Israeli venture – is meant to facilitate all weather use of a variety
of air-to-air and air-to-surface weaponry.
·
It is the primary targeting sensor on
the LCA.
For more details: Vetrii IAS Academy Chennai
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