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 IN THE HEADLINES
India needs to grow over 8 pc a year to become USD 5-trillion economy by 2024-
25: Amitabh Kant

 India needs to grow at over 8 per cent annually to become a USD 5-trillion economy by 2024-
25, Niti Aayog Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Amitabh Kant
 Noting that no country in the world has grown without penetrating global markets, Kant said
exports hold key to the country's economic growth.
 The Niti Aayog CEO insisted that India needs to continue opening up its economy and the
country should push aggressively for globalisation
 India needs to get into sunrise areas of industries, whether it is electric vehicle (EV) or battery
manufacturing
 The Niti Aayog CEO said India has taken many structural reforms such as goods and services
tax, Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code and direct benefit transfer (DBT). A total of Rs 90,000
crore has been saved by the government due to DBT
 India is also facing several challenges, he said, adding that there is a huge gender disparity in
India, so we need to focus on health and education of girls.
 IN THE HEADLINES
Inter-ministerial group suggests banning of private cryptocurrencies in India

 An inter- ministerial committee has suggested banning of private cryptocurrencies, like bitcoin,
and criminalising any activities related to virtual currencies.
 It, however, pitched for introduction of an official digital currency with a status of a legal tender
and appropriately regulated by the Reserve Bank of India.
 The government had constituted an inter- ministerial committee (IMC) on November 2, 2017,
under the chairmanship of the economic affairs secretary, with secretary of the
Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Sebi chairman and an RBI deputy governor
as members to study the issues related to virtual currencies, and propose specific actions
 As of now, there are around 2,116 cryptocurrencies, with a market capitalisation of USD
119.46 billion, The report said that other than Bitcoin, several other cryptocurrencies have
emerged, including Ethereum, Ripple and Cardano.
 As virtual currencies and its underlying technology are still evolving, the group has proposed
that the government may establish a standing committee to revisit the issues addressed in the
report as and when required.
 These private cryptocurrencies lack all the attributes of a currency. There is no fixed nominal
value of these private cryptocurrencies i.e. neither act as any store of value nor they are a
medium of exchange
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