Kotak merges alternate fund, advisory into $18-billion asset management business

Assets Under Management:

• What is it? AUM is the total market value of investments a financial institution owns or manages on behalf of its clients.
• These assets can include various types of financial products, such as mutual funds, hedge funds, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), pension funds, and other investment vehicles.
• AUM can be calculated in different ways, depending on the firm’s discretion.
• The calculation is done on the basis of either the total capital that the firm handles or calculating the Individual client’s money.
• AUM fluctuates daily reflecting the variable returns from stocks, mutual funds and change in prices of fixed investment.
• Importance of AUM:
  • AUM helps to build the market value of the firm.
  • It can be used as a market tool to attract potential new customers. The higher a firm''s AUM is, the more likely people are to trust them and invest with them.
  • A fund''s management fees and expenses are often calculated as a percentage of AUM.

Book value and Market value of a company

• A company''s book value is the amount of money shareholders would receive if assets were liquidated and liabilities paid off. The book value of an asset is strictly based on the company’s balance sheet.
• The market value is the value of a company according to the markets based on the current stock price and the number of outstanding shares.
• When the market value is less than book value, the market doesn''t believe the company is worth the value on its books.
• A higher market value than book value means the market is assigning a high value to the company due to expected earnings increases.

Technical Textile Market Set to Soar Past USD 272.3 Billion

Technical Textiles

• Technical Textiles are textile products that are manufactured primarily for their functionality and use rather than aesthetic appeal.
• They are designed to have high levels of physical, mechanical, thermal, and/or chemical properties for use in specific applications within industrial sectors such as earthworks, construction, civil engineering, transport, defense, medical, and healthcare.

Technical Textiles Mission in India:

• The Ministry of Textiles has launched NTTM to increase the penetration level of technical textiles in India while leveraging the extraordinary growth rate of the sector.
• The aim of the mission is to position India as a global leader in Technical Textiles.
• The mission will comprise the following four components:
  • Research, Innovation and Development;
  • Promotion and Market Development;
  • Export Promotion;
  • Education, Training, Skill Development;
• Implementation: The NTTM has been approved with an implementation period of four years starting from FY 2020-21 till FY 2023-24. The total outlay of the mission is INR 1480 Cr.
• Target: The Mission has a target to take the domestic market size of the technical textile sector to $ 40-50 Bn by the year 2024 with an average growth rate of 15-20% per annum.

Rajasthan DGP says will file charge sheet at the earliest in Bhilwara teenage murder case

Charge Sheet

• According to Section 173 of Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), a charge sheet is a report generated by police officers after investigating a case.
• It contains all the stringent records right from the commencement of investigation procedure of lodging an FIR to till the completion of investigation and preparation of final report.
• It contains the names of the people brought in the custody, the charges they are brought in for and the identity of the accusers.
• Once the charge sheet has been submitted to a court of law, prosecution proceedings against the accused begin.
• Time limit for filing a Charge Sheet:
  • It is to be filed within 60 days from the date of arrest of the accused in cases triable by lower courts and 90 days in cases triable by Court of Sessions.
  • If the charge sheet is not filed within the prescribed time mentioned above, the accused has a right to default bail.
• A charge sheet is distinct from the First Information Report (FIR).

First Information Report (FIR)

• It is a written document prepared by a Police officer based on information given by an aggrieved person or any other person either in writing or made orally about the commission of a Cognizable Offence.
• Investigation is started only after filing of the FIR.
• Who can file an FIR? Anyone can file a FIR, whether it is the victim, victim’s family or friends, or any witness to a crime.
• An FIR can only be lodged in case of cognizable offences.

Cognizable Offence

• It is one in which the police may arrest a person without warrant.
• The police are authorized to start investigation into a cognizable case on their own and do not require any orders from the court to do so.

Many states, UTs yet to implement key disaster response tool

Incident Response System

• IRS is a combination of facilities, equipment, personnel, procedure and communications operating within a common organizational structure, with responsibility for the management of assigned resources to effectively accomplish stated objectives pertaining to an incident.
• Functions:
  • In line with administrative structure and DM Act 2005, Responsible Officer (RO) is designated at the State and District level as overall in charge of the incident response management.
  • RO may delegate responsibilities to the Incident Commander (IC), who in turn will lead/manage the incident through Incident Response Teams (IRTs).
  • IRS functions through Incident Response Teams (IRTs) in the field. An IRT is a team comprising all positions of IRS organization; headed by Incident Commander (IC).
  • On receipt of Early Warning, RO activates IRTs. In case of a disaster without any warning, local IRT will respond and contact RO for further support, if required.
  • IRTs pre-designated at all levels, i.e. State, District, Sub-Division and Tehsil/Block.
  • IRT’s lowest administrative unit (SubDivision / Tehsil / Block) will be the ‘first responder’.
  • If the incident becomes complex and beyond the control of local IRT, higher level IRT will be informed / take over the response management. In such cases the lower level IRT will merge with the higher level IRT.
  • When lower level of IRT merges with a higher level, IC of lower level may play the role of Deputy IC or Operations Sections Chief (OSC) or any other duty that the IC of higher authority assigns.

National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA):

• Parent body: Ministry of Home Affairs.
• Primary Objective: To coordinate response to natural or man-made disasters and for capacity-building in disaster resiliency and crisis response.
• It is responsible for framing policies, laying down guidelines and best-practices and coordinating with the State Disaster Management Authorities (SDMAs**) to ensure a holistic and distributed approach to disaster management.**
• Origin: NDMA was established through the Disaster Management Act enacted by the Government of India in 2005.
• Organisation setup:
  • The Prime Minister is the ex-officio chairperson of the NDMA, who chairs a 9-member board.
  • The remainder of the board consists of members nominated based on their expertise in areas such as, planning, infrastructure management, communications, meteorology etc.

Hindi is not in competition with local languages: Amit Shah

Committee of Parliament on Official Language

• The Committee of Parliament on Official Language was set up in 1976 under Section 4 of The Official Languages Act, 1963.
• Section 4 of the Act says “there shall be constituted a Committee on Official language, on a resolution to that effect being moved in either House of Parliament with the previous sanction of the President and passed by both Houses”.
• Under the provisions of the 1963 Act, the panel submits its report to the President, who “shall [then] cause the report to be laid before each House of Parliament, and sent to all the State Governments”.
• The Committee is chaired by the Union Home Minister, and has, in accordance with the provisions of the 1963 Act.
• The committee consists of 30 members — 20 MPs from Lok Sabha and 10 MPs from Rajya Sabha.
• The mandate of the Committee is to review the progress made in the use of Hindi for official purposes, and to make recommendations to increase the use of Hindi in official communications.
• The first Report of the Committee was submitted in 1987.

Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh Inaugurates 132nd Durand Cup in Kokrajhar

Durand Cup

• It is Asia’s oldest and the world’s third oldest football tournament, in which top Indian football clubs from across the country participate.
• The inaugural edition took place in Shimla in 1888, when it started off as an Army Cup, open only to the British Indian Army troops in India.
• The tournament is named after its founder Sir Henry Mortimer Durand.
• It was begun as a football tournament for different departments and regiments of the Armed forces of India and the princely states.
• Since independence, the army’s presence is maintained by the participation of several clubs of different regiments of the Indian Armed Forces as guest invitees.
• The Durand Cup tournament is unique where in the winning team walks away with three trophies,
  • The Durand Cup (a rolling trophy and the original prize).
  • The Shimla Trophy (also a rolling trophy and first given by the residents of Shimla in 1904).
  • The President''s Cup (for permanent keep and first presented by Dr. Rajendra Prasad, India’s first President, in 1956).

Scientists design first-ever 2D composite quantum material useful for spintronic devices like transistors & diodes

• Scientists focused their computational research on 2-D quantum materials, which are materials with confined geometry in one of the directions. 2-D materials are important as they are easier to assimilate in devices.
• This material can help interfacing with other substrates (2D substrates like graphene) in spintronic devices like spin transistors, spin diodes, and spin filters that take advantage of electron spin, a quantum property of electrons, to achieve higher performance.
• The team focused on creating composite 2-D quantum materials, which are quantum materials exhibiting two apparently different quantum properties, but connected by the basic requirement of symmetries.
• In their study, by proper choice of materials ingredients, the workers managed to demonstrate the existence of two distinct quantum phenomena, - Rashba effect, (a momentum-dependent splitting of spin bands) and nonlinear anomalous Hall effect, arising from anomalous velocity of the electrons, in the same 2-D material.
• With the 2D composite material designed computationally, the scientists hope that the challenges of manufacturing Janus MXenes in the lab and at a large scale will be gradually overcome to bring benefits for devices, energy security, and the economy.

Tata Play set to expand bandwidth with exclusive capacity on GSAT-24

GSAT-24

• It was built by ISRO for NewSpace India Limited (NSIL) which was successfully placed into geostationary orbit by the Ariane 5 rocket.
• It is a 24-Ku band communication satellite weighing 4,180 kg with pan-India coverage for meeting DTH application needs.
• It was the first demand driven communication satellite mission undertaken by NSIL post space sector reforms.
• It is configured on ISRO''s proven I-3k Bus with a mission life of 15 years.

NewSpace India Limited

• NewSpace India Limited (NSIL) NewSpace India Limited headquartered in Bengaluru is a Central Public Sector Enterprise (CPSE).
• It is a commercial arm under Department of Space (DoS), Government of India.
• It was incorporated in March 2019 and was set up to take high technology space-related activities in India.
• Under the new space policy reforms announced by the Government of India in June 2020, NSIL is to undertake operational satellite missions on a “demand-driven” model.
• They are responsible to build, launch, own and operate the satellite and provide services to customers.

Dr Jitendra Informs Rajya Sabha About ‘NIDHI’ Program For StartUps

NIDHI Program

• National Initiative for Developing and Harnessing innovations (NIDHI) program was launched in 2016.
• It is an umbrella programme conceived and developed by the Innovation & Entrepreneurship division, Department of Science & Technology.
• Aim: To nurture start-ups through scouting, supporting and scaling innovations.
• Key stakeholders: Various departments and ministries of the central government, state governments, academic and R & D institutions, mentors, financial institutions, angel investors, venture capitalists and private sectors.
• Funding: By the National Science & Technology Entrepreneurship Development Board (NSTEDB).

Key Components of the Program

• The NIDHI- PRAYAS (Promoting and Accelerating Young and Aspiring Innovators and Startups) program at Proof-of-Concept level provides mentoring and financial support to innovator for converting their ideas into prototypes.
• NIDHI Entrepreneurs-In-Residence (EIR) Program provides fellowships to the students opting for entrepreneurship.
• The NIDHI Seed Support Program provisions availability of early-stage seed support funding to startups and the NIDHI Accelerator program speeds up the investment readiness of the startups.
• The NIDHI program has been helpful in creating state-of-the art infrastructure for incubating startups in technology sectors through Technology Business Incubators (TBIs) and Centres of Excellence (CoE).
• NIDHI Accelerator: An accelerator is typically a 3-6 months fast track structured program helping ideas get accelerated to the next orbit.

Indian Army Inducts Swathi Mk2 Radar For Mountain Surveillance

Swathi Mountains

• The Swathi Mountains WLR is an advanced electronically scanned phased array radar.
• It is specifically designed for operations in mountainous and high-altitude areas.
• It was developed by Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) in Bengaluru.

Weapon Locating Radar

• The WLR stands as a critical asset for modern militaries, employing advanced signal processing techniques to autonomously detect and track hostile artillery, mortars, and rocket launchers.
• It even tracks friendly fire trajectories, enabling precise calculations for more accurate artillery strikes.
• The radar''s sophistication lies in its ability to detect and track small projectiles across the battlefield while factoring in environmental conditions for precise launch and impact point estimations.
• A hallmark of the WLR is its high mobility and swift deployment capabilities, allowing it to adapt to changing operational requirements efficiently.
• Its slewable platform further enhances its agility, enabling the scanning of different areas without the need for physical repositioning.
• The WLR also acts as a potent friendly force multiplier by providing critical information on enemy weapon systems.

Swathi Palins vs. Swathi Mountains:

• The Swathi radar comes in two versions: the Swathi Plains (WLR) and the Swathi Mountains (WLR-M).
• The Swathi Plains version is primarily designed to locate hostile guns, mortars, and rockets, and it can also track the fall of shot from friendly weapons for corrective measures on flat terrains like Plains, as the name of the version suggests.
• Swathi Mountains version:
  • It is a more compact and mobile version specifically designed for operations in mountainous and high-altitude terrains.
  • It is capable of detecting mortar shells and rockets and tracking projectiles.
  • It classifies projectile and non-projectile targets, rejecting unwanted signals like birds, clutter, and aircraft.
  • It offers trajectory estimation and launch/impact point extrapolation, automatically correcting for height to enhance accuracy.
  • The radar system is equipped to store and display trajectory data and maintain communication with higher echelons for better coordination.