Latest News
15th March 2021
Privilege Motion
Recently, the opposition has said that it will table a privilege motion against Meghalaya Chief Minister for allegedly misleading the House on the power purchase agreement signed with NTPC in 2007.
Privilege Motion
Recently, Ecuador’s emergency service has said that the public and private activities in Chimborazo were suspended after five cantons received “significant” ash fall from Sangay Volcano.
Sangay Volcano
Recently, the Gujarat state irrigation department has begun replacing all its 29 floodgates after the 2015 flash floods damaged three floodgates of the Bhadar dam.
Bhadar Dam
- It is concerned with the breach of parliamentary privileges by a minister.
- It is moved by a member when he feels that a minister has committed a breach of privilege of the House.
- It can also be moved against one or more of its members by withholding facts of a case or by giving wrong or distorted facts.
- Its purpose is to censure the concerned minister.
- The powers, privileges and immunities of either House of the Indian Parliament and of its Members and committees are laid down in Article 105 of the Constitution.
- Article 194 deals with the powers, privileges and immunities of the State Legislatures,their Members and their committees.
- The parliamentary privilege refers to the right and immunity enjoyed by legislatures,in which legislators are granted protection against civil or criminal liability for actions done or statements made in the course of their legislative duties.
- While the Constitution has accorded special privileges and powers to parliamentarians and legislators to maintain the dignity and authority of the Houses but these powers and privileges are not codified.
- There are no clear and notified rules to decide what constitutes a breach of privilege and the punishment it attracts.
- Any act that obstructs or impedes either House of the state legislature in performing its functions, or which obstructs or impedes any Member or officer of such House in the discharge of his duty, directly or indirectly, to produce such results is treated as breach of privilege.
- It is a breach of privilege and contempt of the House to make speeches or to print or publish libel reflecting on the character or proceedings of the House, or its Committees, or on any member of the House for or relating to his character or conduct as a legislator.
- The Legislative Assembly Speaker or Legislative Council Chairman constitutes a Privileges Committee consisting of 15 members in the Assembly and 11 members in the Council.
- The members to the committee are nominated based on the party strength in the Houses.
- The Speaker or Chairman first decides on the motions.
- If the privilege and contempt are found prima facie, then the Speaker or Chairman will forward it to the Privileges Committee by following the due procedure.
- At present, there is no Privileges Committee in either House of the state legislature.
- The Privilege Committee has quasi-judicial powers which will seek an explanation from all the concerned.
- It will conduct an inquiry and will make a recommendation based on the findings to the state legislature for its consideration.
- The punishment can include communicating the displeasure of the state legislature to the offender, summoning the offender before the House and giving a warning, and even sending the offender to jail.
- The retail inflation data released separately showed the headline number rising to a three-month high of 5.03 per cent in February from a 16-month low of 4.06 per cent in January.
- The change in the consumer price index over a period of time is referred to as CPI-based inflation, or retail inflation.
- The CPI is an index measuring retail inflation in the economy by collecting the change in prices of most common goods and services used by consumers.
- The CPI is calculated for a fixed list of items including food, housing, apparel, transportation, electronics, medical care, education, etc.
- The CPI specifically identifies periods of deflation or inflation for consumers in their day-to-day living expenses.
- The CPI is used as a:
- Macroeconomic indicator of inflation;
- Tool by the central bank and government for inflation targeting and for inspecting price stability; and
- Deflator in the national accounts
- The domestic investor sentiment will likely take a hit, given concerns about rising inflation and contracting industrial production.
- The steep increase in commodity costs, especially oil prices, has started to gradually worry markets about the likely impact on corporate earnings.
- It might lead to concerns that the central bank will be compelled to normalise liquidity by revising interest rates sooner than anticipated.
- The excess liquidity in the system combined with volatility in fuel prices can poseupward risk to inflation.
- In India, there are four consumer price index numbers, which are calculated, and these are as follows:
- CPI for Industrial Workers (IW)
- CPI for Agricultural Labourers (AL)
- CPI for Rural Labourers (RL) and
- CPI for Urban Non-Manual Employees (UNME)
- The Ministry of Statistics and Program Implementation collects CPI (UNME) data and compiles it but the remaining three are collected by the Labour Bureau in the Ministry of Labour.
- It is a near-Earth asteroid will make its closest approach at a distance of about 1.25 million miles (2 million kilometers).
- It has been designated a “potentially hazardous asteroid”.
- The reason for the asteroid’s unusually speedy close approach is its highly inclined and elongated (or eccentric) orbit around the Sun.
- It was discovered in March 2001 by the Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research (LINEAR) program in Socorro, New Mexico.
- It appears to be faint when observed in infrared wavelengths, which suggests the object is likely less than 1 kilometer in diameter.
- It will provide an opportunity for astronomers to get a more precise understanding of the asteroid’s size and albedo.
- The astronomers can measure the chemical “fingerprints” of the minerals on the surface of the asteroid by studying the spectrum of light reflecting off the surface.
- If 2001 FO32 is identified as iron-rich then it would mean it’s denser and therefore more massive than a stony asteroid of a similar size.
- The observations showing a surface with low albedo (meaning that it’s dark) may indicate the asteroid contains a lot of carbon, suggesting it could be the nucleus of a long-dead comet.
Recently, Ecuador’s emergency service has said that the public and private activities in Chimborazo were suspended after five cantons received “significant” ash fall from Sangay Volcano.
Sangay Volcano
- It is one of the highest active volcanoes in the world and one of Ecuador's most active ones.
- It is located isolated east of the Andean crest.
- It was built within horseshoe-shaped calderas of two previous edifices, which were destroyed by collapse to the east, producing large debris avalanches that reached the Amazonian lowlands.
- It is an active stratovolcano.
- It is associated with the subduction of the Nazca Plate under the South American Plate at the Peru–Chile Trench.
- It contains two active volcanoes (Tungurahua and Sangay) and ecosystems ranging from tropical rainforests to glaciers.
- It is home to the endangered spectacled bear and mountain tapir (both only found in the Northern Andes).
- It is located in the central part of Ecuador on the Andes Mountains' eastern side.
- The park is located in the Morona Santiago, Chimborazo and Tungurahua provinces of Ecuador.
- It comprises tropical rainforests, cloud forests, montane forests, mountains, valleys, grasslands, wetlands, and even glaciers.
- It has been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1983.
- AT-1 Bonds are a kind of perpetual bonds without any expiry date that banks are allowed to issue to meet their long-term capital requirement.
- AT-1 bonds are a type of unsecured bonds that banks issue to shore up their core capital base to meet the Basel-III norms.
- Basel III norms require Indian banks to maintain a total capital ratio of 11.5%, split into 8% in tier 1 capital (own equity, reserves etc.) and tier 2 (supplementary reserves and hybrid instruments).
- They are treated as quasi-equity instruments under the law.
- The Reserve Bank of India is the regulator of AT-1 bonds.
- Like any other bonds, AT1 bonds are issued by banks and companies, which pay a fixed rate of interest at regular intervals.
- The issuing bank of these bonds has no obligation to pay back the principal to investors.
- These bonds are listed and traded on the exchanges.
- The investors cannot return these bonds to the issuing bank and get the money.
- It implies that there is no put option available to its holders.
- The issuing banks have the option to recall AT1 bonds issued by them (termed call option).
- The issuing banks can go for a call option five years after these are issued and then every year at a pre-announced period.
- The SEBI has told the mutual funds to value the AT-1 perpetual bonds as a 100-year instrument.
- It implies that the MFs have to make the assumption that these bonds would be redeemed in 100 years.
- The regulator has asked MFs to limit the ownership of the bonds at 10 per cent of the assets of a scheme.
- The reason for withdrawal of valuation norms for AT-1 bonds might lead to mutual funds making losses and exiting from these bonds, affecting capital raising plans of PSU banks.
- The government doesn’t want a disruption in the fund mobilisation exercise of banksat a time when two PSU banks are on the privatisation block.
- The banks are yet to receive the proposed capital injection in FY21 although they will need more capital to face the asset-quality challenges in the foreseeable future.
- The MFs have treated the date of the call option on AT1 bonds as maturity date.
- The treatment of AT-1 bonds as 100-year bonds raises the risk in these bonds as they become ultra-long-term.
- It could also lead to volatility in the prices of these bonds as the risk increases the yields on these bonds rises.
- The bond yields and bond prices move in opposite directions.
- It implies that higher yield will drive down the price of bond, which in turn will lead to a decrease in the net asset value of MF schemes holding these bonds.
- It will be difficult for MFs to sell these to meet redemption pressure because these bonds are not liquid.
- It would lead to mutual fund houses engaging in panic selling of the bonds in the secondary market leading to widening of yields.
- These bonds are perpetual and carry no maturity date and instead, they carry call options that allow banks to redeem them after five or 10 years.
- The banks issuing AT-1 bonds can skip interest payouts for a particular year or even reduce the bonds’ face value without getting into hot water with their investors.
- If the RBI feels that a bank is tottering on the brink and needs a rescue, it can simply ask the bank to cancel its outstanding AT-1 bonds without consulting its investors.
Recently, the Gujarat state irrigation department has begun replacing all its 29 floodgates after the 2015 flash floods damaged three floodgates of the Bhadar dam.
Bhadar Dam
- It is located at Lilakha village in Gondal taluka Rajkot.
- It is the second largest reservoir of Saurashtra.
- It has a gross storage capacity of 188.14 million cubic metres (mcm), the second-highest in the Saurashtra region after the Shetrunji dam.
- The construction work for this dam started in 1952 and water for irrigation from it was given to farmers for the first time in 1963.
- The Bhadar Dam and Shetrunji Dam are constructed across Shetrunji and Bhadar rivers.
- It originates from Jasdan taluka of Rajkot.
- It is one of the major rivers of Kathaiwar (Saurashtra) peninsula in Gujarat.
- There are 9 major tributaries of which 6 tributaries namely Gandali, Chapparwadi, Phopal, Utawali, Moj and Venu are feeding from the right.
- The remaining 3 tributaries are Vasavadi, Surwa and Galolio from the left.
- It originates from the Amreli district of Rajkot.
- Its tributaries are Satali, Thebi, Gagario, Rajaval, Kharo, Shel, Khari and Talaji.
- The state government has argued that the third rail line would lead to permanent fragmentation of the wildlife habitat in the state.
- The National Tiger Conservation Authority’s (NTCA) data has said that Jharkhand had just five tigers and that too they were not present in Palamau Tiger Reserve (PTR) area.
- It was constituted in 1974 because of its “rich and wide range of biological diversity”.
- It is spread over three districts i.e. Latehaar, Garhwa and Lohardaga with a total area of 1,026 square kilometres.
- It is surrounded by Daltonganj town on one side while the rest three sides are surrounded by “rich forest” of neighbouring forest division of Jharkhand and Surguja district of Chhattisgarh.
- The reserve forms a part of the Betla National Park.
- The vegetation in Palamau region comprises of moist deciduous and dry deciduous forests to include Sal and bamboo as the major components.
- It is bounded by North Koel River in the west and Auranga River on its north.
POSTED ON 15-03-2021 BY ADMIN
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General Studies
Political Science and International Relations
Some Reference Essays
List of previous year essay topics (1997-2019)
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