G.K Updates

Government and Polity

Ahead of climate talks, India in touch with 40 nations

• Ahead of COP 24 (Conference of Parties to UNFCCC , to be held in Katowice , Poland) India is having discussions with 40 countries to forge alliances and compel developed countries to make good on past promises to provide enough finance and technology to face the challenges of global warming.
• Developed countries have promised to provide $100 billion annually to developing countries to check such warming. But it has not been fulfilled yet.
• The ‘Like Minded Developing Countries’ (India, China, Venezuela and Iran) and BASIC (Brazil, South Africa, India, China) are networks that are formed to lend weight to developing country concerns.

UNFCCC- The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change is an international environmental treaty adopted in 1992 at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. It was entered into force in 1994. The ultimate objective of this Convention is stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system

COP- They serve as the formal meeting of the UNFCCC Parties to assess progress in dealing with climate change. It is a group of 200 countries which meet annually to address the issue of global warming. Last COP 23 was held in Bonn Germany.

Economy and Banking

Trade deficit shrinks to 5-month low

• India’s trade deficit shrank to its lowest in five months in September, at $13.98 billion despite high oil prices
• However this decline is entirely due to the base effect resulting from September 2017 being an abnormally high growth month of about 26% in dollar terms
• Merchandise exports in September 2018 exhibited a positive growth of 9.65% in rupee terms. In dollar terms, there was a marginal negative growth in merchandise exports of 2.15% in September 2018

Trade deficit- Trade deficit is the excess of a country’s import bill over its export receipts. It is also referred to as a negative balance of trade (BOT). India runs a trade deficit, with its import bill on crude oil, precious metals, electronic goods and other items, far exceeding its export earnings.

Economy and Banking

Higher food prices drive wholesale inflation to 5.13%

• Wholesale inflation accelerated to 5.13% in September
• Growth in the Wholesale Price Index quickened in September from 4.53% in August.
• Out of three major groups, primary articles inflation increased sharply in September and fuel and light, and manufactured inflation moderated in September,

Wholesale Price Index (WPI) is an indicator of price changes in the wholesale market. It measures the changes in commodity price at selected stages before goods reach to the retail level. It is published by Office of Economic Advisor (Ministry of Commerce & Industry).It measures price movements of goods only.

Economy and Banking

Kreditech gets NBFC license from RBI

• The Germany-based Kreditech has been licensed by the RBI to operate as an NBFC with the first-of-its-kind license in the Indian financial history for digital lending business and app-based financing.
• “With a market potential of roughly $1 trillion in revenue for the next five years, India clearly is the most promising emerging market for Kreditech” said David Chan, CEO at Kreditech.

A Non-Banking Financial Company (NBFC) is a company registered under the Companies Act, 1956 engaged in the business of loans and advances, acquisition of shares/stocks/bonds/debentures/securities issued by Government, leasing, hire-purchase, insurance business, chit business but does not include any institution whose principal business is that of agriculture activity, industrial activity, purchase or sale of any goods (other than securities) or providing any services and sale/purchase/construction of immovable property. A non-banking institution which is a company and has principal business of receiving deposits under any scheme or arrangement in one lump sum or in installments by way of contributions or in any other manner, is also a non-banking financial company (Residuary non-banking company).

Sports

Youth Olympics: Indian men’s and women’s hockey team bag silver

• The Indian Under-18 men’s and women’s Hockey team secured silver in Youth Olympic Games.
• While the women suffered a heart-breaking 1-3 loss against hosts Argentina, the men were handed a 2-4 loss by Malaysia in their respective final of the hockey 5s competition on Sunday night.

Person/Events/Awards

IIT-Bombay tops QS ranking of Indian institutions

• Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, has topped the first-ever standalone ranking of Indian higher education institutions by QS(Quacquarelli Symonds).
• QS World University Rankings is an annual publication of university rankings by Quacquarelli Symonds.(Britain)
• Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, which tops Indian institutions in almost all rankings, stands second.
• The top 10 Indian institutions include seven IITs, with the IITs at Madras, Delhi, Kharagpur and Kanpur standing third, fourth, fifth and sixth, respectively, in the rankings.
• The University of Hyderabad stands seventh, the University of Delhi stands eighth in the rankings.
• Jawaharlal Nehru University, ranked sixth in NIRF is the most notable absentee in the ranking.

NIRF The National Institutional Ranking Framework is a methodology adopted by the Ministry of Human Resource Development in 2015 to rank institutions of higher education in India. First ranking was released in 2016. As per latest ranking in overall category IISc Bangalore ranked first.

International News

Uncertainty plagues U.K. talks with EU over Brexit

• To avoid the disturbances in her own party factions and domestic political arena , Prime Minister Theresa May rejected terms of a deal being negotiated with EU and which was close to be reached on agreement stage.
• The main issue which resulted in sudden turn in Brexit talks was time length of a temporary custom union that would act as a tool to prevent a hard border( with stringent rules and trade barriers) between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland once Britain leaves the EU.

Brexit - “British Exit” from the European Union (EU). A referendum was held on June 23, 2016, to decide whether Britain should exit or remain in the European Union and the result supported Brexit. Currently Britain and EU are negotiating the terms of exit.

EU  European Union is a political, trade and economic union founded in 1957. There are 51 countries in Europe, out of which 28 countries have signed a treaty to become a part of European Union.

The Euro Area (EA) is a subset of the EU, which is a monetary union of 19 of the 28 countries which use the common currency, Euro.

The Treaty of Lisbon is an international agreement that amends the two treaties which form the constitutional basis of the European Union. The Treaty of Lisbon was signed by the EU member states on 13 December 2007, and entered into force on 1 December 2009.