Kapil Kathpal

RBI Report- CAD widens to 4.4% of GDP in Q2FY23

Banking &
• In accordance with the Reserve Bank of India data on India’s Balance of Financial News
Payments for the July-September quarter of FY 2022-23, India’s Current
Account Deficit widened in the Q2FY23

• CAD was $36.40 billion in Q2FY23 which is highest in more than a

decade.

• As a percentage of GDP, it was 4.4%, the highest since the June quarter
of 2013.

• Services exports reported growth of 30.2% on a year-on-year (y-o-y)

basis
Reserve Bank of India (RBI):
• Governor– Shaktikanta Das
• Net Foreign Direct Investment decreased to US$ 6.4 billion • Deputy Governors– Mahesh
Kumar Jain, Michael
• Net Foreign Portfolio Investment recorded inflows of US$ 6.5 billion Debabrata Patra, M.
Rajeshwar Rao, T. Rabi
• Net external commercial borrowings to India recorded an outflow of US$ Sankar
0.4 billion in Q2FY23 • Headquarters– Mumbai

• Non-resident deposits recorded net inflows of US$ 2.5 billion

 Kapil Kathpal
Interest Rates of Small Savings Schemes for Q4 FY23
Banking &
• The Department of Economic Affairs has raised the interest Financial News
rate on a number of small savings schemes for the fourth quarter
of the current fiscal year 2022– 23 which runs from January 1,
2023 – March 31, 2023.

• The GoI reviews the interest rates for small savings plans on a
quarterly basis.

• The Shyamala Gopinath Committee provided the formula to

calculate the interest rates for the small savings scheme.

• The committee recommended that the interest rates on various

schemes be 25-100 bps higher than the yields on government
bonds of similar maturity
 Kapil Kathpal
Rates of Interest (%) from
# Instrument 01.01.2023 to
31.03.2023
1 Savings Deposit 4
2 1 Year Time Deposit 6.6

3 2 Year Time Deposit 6.8

4 3 Year Time Deposit 6.9

5 5 Year Time Deposit 7

5 Year Recurring Deposit

6 5.8
7 Senior Citizen Savings 8
Scheme
8 Monthly IncomeAccount 7.1
Scheme
9 National Savings 7
Certificate
Public Provident Fund
10 (PPF) Scheme 7.1
11 Kisan Vikas Patra (KVP) 7.2 (will mature in 120 months)

Sukanya SamriddhiAccount
12 Scheme 7.6
 Kapil Kathpal
Indian Bank Unveils QR Bill-Based Payment System for
Chamundeshwari Electricity Supply Corporation Limited Banking &
Financial News
• Indian Bank unveiled the QR (Quick Response) code
bill payment system for Chamundeshwari Electricity
Supply Corporation Limited making it the first power
distribution company to offer such an initiative to
customers in Mysuru, Karnataka.

• This dynamic QR code that is linked to the unified

payments interface on printed electricity bills, will help
customers in making their payments
 Kapil Kathpal
RBI Keeps SBI, ICICI, HDFC as
Domestic Systemically Important Banks Banking &
Financial News
• The Reserve Bank of India said SBI, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank
remain domestic systemically important banks (D-SIBs).

• D-SIB means that the bank is too big to fail. According to the
RBI, some banks become systemically important due to their
size, cross-jurisdictional activities, complexity and lack of
substitute and interconnection. Banks whose assets exceed
2% of GDP are considered part of this group.

• In addition to the usual capital conservation buffer, D-SIBs will

need to maintain additional Common Equity Tier 1 (CET1).

• The additional CET1 required for D-SIBs was phased-in from

April 1, 2016 and became fully effective from April 1, 2019.
• The Reserve Bank had issued the framework for dealing with D-SIBs on July 22, 2014.

• The D-SIB framework requires the Reserve Bank to disclose the names of banks designated as D-SIBs
starting from 2015

• The Reserve Bank had announced SBI and ICICI Bank as D-SIBs in 2015 and 2016. Based on data
collected from banks as on March 31, 2017, HDFC Bank was also classified as a D-SIB

• The current update is based on the data collected from banks as on March 31, 2022
 Kapil Kathpal
Supreme Court upheld the
Demonetisation Process National News

• A five-judge Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court upheld the

Modi government’s 2016 decision to demonetise Rs 500 and Rs
1,000 currency notes, saying the decision was about executive policy
and could not be reversed.

• The court rejected the 58 petitions challenging demonetisation and

said the decision-making process of the government was not flawed.

• The judgment, authored by Justice B R Gavai, was agreed to by

judges S Abdul Nazeer, A S Bopanna, and V Ramasubramanian.
Justice B V Nagarathna faulted demonetisation in her dissenting
judgment

• The judgment said there was consultation between the Centre and
the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for six months, indicating a
“reasonable nexus between the measures undertaken and the object
sought to be achieved” and, therefore, the demonetisation notification
passed the test or doctrine of “proportionality”.
Coffee Export From India Rose Kapil Kathpal

Almost 2% to 4 Lakh tonne National News

• Coffee shipments from India rose 1.66 per cent to 4 lakh tonne in
2022

• Exports stood at 3.93 lakh tonne in 2021.

• In value terms, coffee export was higher at Rs 8,762.47 crore in

2022 as against Rs 6,984.67 crore in the previous year.

• Italy, Germany and Russia are the major export destinations for
the Indian coffee.

• More than 70% of the nation’s produce is exported. India is the

eighth-largest volume exporter of coffee, according to The Food
and Agriculture Organization
 Kapil Kathpal
Amit Shah lays the foundation stone of the
Central Detective Training Institute in Karnataka National News

• Union Home and Cooperation Minister Shri Amit Shah

has laid the foundation stone of the Central Detective
Training Institute at Devanahalli in Karnataka and
inaugurated the residential and administrative
complexes of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP).

• CDTI would help in fulfilling all these objectives for the

CAPFs as well as the police of neighboring States,
which has been running since 1956.
 Kapil Kathpal
‘SMART’ program for Ayurveda professionals launched National News

• The National Commission for Indian System of

Medicine and the Central Council for Research in
Ayurvedic Sciences, the two prominent institutions
under the Ministry of Ayush, Government of India for
regulating medical education and conducting scientific
research respectively, have launched ‘SMART’ (Scope
for Mainstreaming Ayurveda Research in Teaching
Professionals).

• The program aimed to boost scientific research in

priority healthcare research areas through Ayurveda
colleges and hospitals.
 Kapil Kathpal
DRDO’s celebrated 65th foundation day
National News
• Defence Research and Development Organisation has
marked the 65th Foundation Day of the Organisation,
which is celebrated on 1st January every year.

• On the occassion of the day, a DRDO monograph

‘Infrared Signatures, Sensors and Technologies’
authored by Dr Kamal Nain Chopra, a former DRDO
Scientist, was also released

DRDO
• Founded:1958
• Agency executive: Dr Sameer V Kamath, Chairman
• Headquarters: DRDO Bhavan, New Delhi
 Kapil Kathpal
Indian Library Congress Inaugurated in Kannur
National News
• Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan
inaugurated Indian Library Congress in Kannur,
Kerala.

• The inauguration event of the Indian Library

Congress was organized by the People’s
Mission for Social Development and Library
Council.

• Higher Education Minister Dr. R. Bindu will

inaugurate 100 new libraries in the district as
part of the event.
 Kapil Kathpal
PM Modi Inaugurated Dr. Syama Prasad Mookerjee
National Institute of Water and Sanitation National News

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the Dr.

Syama Prasad Mookerjee National Institute of Water
and Sanitation at Joka in Kolkata

• The Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation aims

to bridge the knowledge and capacity-building gap in
the field of public health engineering, sanitation &
hygiene, through short, medium, and long-term courses
which are not just related to engineering but also cover
aspects of management, health, accounting, law, and
public policies.
 Kapil Kathpal
Election Commission Launches ‘Mission-929’
National News
• The Election Commission is focusing on 929 polling booths across
Tripura, setting a target of 92 per cent voter turnout in the
assembly elections due early this year.

• The voter turnout was 89.5% in the 2018 Tripura assembly

election.

• The EC is also working on ‘Mission Zero Poll Violence’ to make

the assembly elections peaceful.

• The Tripura Legislative Assembly has 60 seats.

• The 12th legislative assembly term will end on 22 march 2023.

• Chief Minister of Tripura: Manik Saha

• Capital: Agartala
 Kapil Kathpal
‘Didir Suraksha Kawach’ and ‘Didir
Doot’ Initiatives in West Bengal National News

• West Bengal Chief Minister, Mamata Banerjee, has launched two

initiatives – ‘Didir Suraksha Kawach’ and ‘Didir Doot’.

• The programme, ‘Didir Suraksha Kawach’, will see 3.5 lakh party
leaders reach every block and cover 2 crore families in 60 days,
with workers staying in villages to understand the problems faced
by locals and promoting the TMC government’s flagship
programmes.

• An app, ‘Didir Doot’, has also been developed for people to

register their problems.

• This initiative follows Banerjee’s ‘Didi ke Balo’ programme in 2019,

which aimed to reach out to common people and was successful.
 Kapil Kathpal
Assam Achieves Zero Poaching of Endangered Rhinos
National News
• For the first time in nearly 45 years, Assam recorded zero
poaching of endangered rhinos in 2022.

• These animals, known for their valuable horns, were poached 191
times in Assam between 2000 and 2021. The highest number of
incidents occurred in 2013 and 2014, with 27 rhino deaths each
reported.

• In 2020 and 2021, two rhinos were killed each year. The last time
no poaching was reported in Assam was in 1977.

• Assam is home to nearly 2,900 one-horned rhinos, making it the

largest habitat for this species. According to the State of the
Rhinos Report 2022, the total population of one-horned rhinos,
found only in India, Nepal, and Bhutan, is 4,012.
 Kapil Kathpal
J&K Legal Aid Defence Counsel System
National News
• Recently, Acting Chief Justice of the Jammu & Kashmir
and Ladakh High Court, Justice Tashi Rabstan,
launched the Legal Aid Defence Counsel System in ten
districts of the Union Territory.

• The system, which aims to provide quality legal

services in criminal matters to eligible poor persons,
will be extended to the remaining ten districts in the
coming months.
 Kapil Kathpal
Election Commission appoints
Maithili Thakur as Bihar’s State Icon National News

• Maithili Thakur, a Folk Singer, was appointed

as the State Icon for Bihar by the Election
Commission

• Maithili Thakur, an Indian classical and folk

music-trained musician was recently chosen for
the Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar of
the Sangeet Natak Akademi (Akademi Award)
for her contribution to the folk music of Bihar for
2021.
 Kapil Kathpal
New Technology to filter micro-plastics from Water
Science & Tech
• Scientists from South Korea have developed a new water
purification system that can effectively remove microplastics from
water in just 10 seconds.

• The system uses a polymer that is relatively inexpensive and has

excellent adsorption performance and good photothermal
properties.

• Microplastics, tiny plastic particles that are less than 5mm in size,
have become a global problem. They have been found in water
bodies, soil, and air, and have even made their way into the
human food chain.
 Kapil Kathpal
MoU Signed for Commercial Production of
Indigenously-Developed ‘Lumpi-ProVac’ Vaccine MOUs

• A Memorandum of Understanding for the production of goat pox

vaccine and ‘Lumpi-ProVac’ vaccine has been signed in Nagpur

• This will play a major role in the efforts of the government to

control and eradicate the Lumpy Skin Disease.

• The Lumpy Skin Disease has been reported in India from 2019
while the first case was reported in Odisha.

• National Centre for Veterinary Type Culture, Indian Council of

Agricultural Research (ICAR) - National Research Centre on
Equines (ICAR-NRCE), Hisar (Haryana), in collaboration with
ICAR- Indian Veterinary Research Institute (IVRI), Izatnagar (UP)
developed a homologous live-attenuated LSD vaccine, named
Lumpi-ProVac against lumpy skin disease in animals.
 Kapil Kathpal
IIT-Madras & DRDO Partners to Introduce DIA-RCoE MOUs
• Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)-Madras has
created a ‘centre of excellence’ named
‘DRDO Industry Academia-Ramanujan Centre
of Excellence’ (DIA-RCoE) at a campus unit
set up by the Defence Research and
Development Organisation to develop
advanced technologies for national defence
and security.
 Kapil Kathpal
Tripura signs Rs 2,275 cr agreement with ADB Funds
Sanctioned
• The Tripura government has signed an agreement with Asian
Development Bank worth Rs 2,275 crore to strengthen and improve
power distribution efficiency in Tripura.

• Under this, ADB will support the state government’s efforts to strengthen
its power sector by replacing inefficient power plants and strengthening
the distribution system. The project will be implemented in the next three
years.

• Of the Rs 2,275 crore fund, the central government will repay Rs 1,820
crore while the state will provide Rs 455 crore.

• The state government will undertake massive renovation of two power

projects – Rukhia in Sepahijala district and Gumati Hydro project in
Gomati district.

Tripura:
• Governor– Satyadeo Narain Arya
• Chief Minister– Manik Saha
 Kapil Kathpal
ADB Grants USD 100 million to
Shriram Finance Limited Funds
Sanctioned
• Asian Development Bank has sanctioned USD 100 million (about
Rs 830 crore) External Commercial Borrowing, a five-year loan
to Shriram Finance Limited to provide vehicle loans to women
entrepreneurs.

• The credit will be issued towards the purchase of new and used
vehicles throughout India.

Shriram Finance Limited (SFL)

• Chairman – Jugal Kishore Mohapatra
• Headquarters – Mumbai
 Kapil Kathpal
UNSC adopts first-ever resolution on Myanmar
International

• The United Nations Security Council adopted its first

resolution on Myanmar in 74 years to demand an end
to violence and urge the military junta to release all
political prisoners, including former leader Aung San
Suu Kyi.

• Myanmar has been in crisis since the army seized Suu

Kyi’s elected government on Feb. 1, 2021, detaining
her and other officials.

• In the 15-member UNSC council for the Myanmar

crisis, China, Russia and India denied the vote. The
remaining 12 members voted in favor.
 Kapil Kathpal
Former IAS Kaki Madhava Rao Authored a
Book “Breaking Barriers” Books &
Authors
• Former IAS officer Kaki Madhava Rao has authored a
new book titled “Breaking Barriers: the Story of a Dalit
Chief Secretary” which addresses the details about the
dynamics of civil services at the ground level and also
fills the gap in the knowledge about micro policies and
governance.
 Kapil Kathpal
Rabindra Sangeet exponent
Sumitra Sen passes away Obituary

• Noted Rabindra Sangeet exponent, Sumitra Sen has passed away

• She will be remembered for her rendition of songs like Jokhon Porbe Na
Mor, Sokhi Vabona Kahare Bole and Mone Ki Dwidha.

• She was honoured with the Sangeet Mahasamman award by West

Bengal government in 2012.

• Rabindra Sangeet also known as Tagore Songs, are songs from the
Indian subcontinent written and composed by the Rabindranath Tagore,
winner of the 1913 Nobel Prize in Literature.

• Rabindra Sangeet refers to the 2000 plus songs and poetry of love and
devotion composed by Tagore. Out of these only 730 songs for which the
bard had written the notations are currently sung.
 Kapil Kathpal
Grammy-winning American singer
Anita Pointer Passed Away Obituary

• Anita Marie Pointer, a Grammy-winning American singer-

songwriter, passed away.

• She was best known as a founding member of the vocal group the
Pointer Sisters.

• “The Pointer Sisters” won 3 Grammys (1985 – Best Pop

Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal and Best Vocal
Arrangement For Two Or More Voices & 1975 – Best Country
Vocal Performance By A Duo Or Group )
 Kapil Kathpal
Global Family Day 2023 - January 1st
Important Days
• Global Family Day is celebrated on January 1, each
year.

• The day creates a sense of unity, community and

brotherhood across nations and cultures through the
idea of families.

• Global Family Day also coincides with the World Day of

Peace. The latter was established in 1967 and is
celebrated annually by the Catholic Church.