Daily Current Capsules 08^th April 2022

Prelims Factoids
37th meeting of the Parliamentary Official Language Committee

What's the NEWS

• Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation presided over the 37th meeting of the Parliamentary Official Language Committee
• The Home Minister unanimously approved the sending of the 11th Volume of the Committee's report to the President of India.

Highlights

• The Union Home Minister informed members that now 70 percent of the agenda of the Cabinet is prepared in Hindi.
• 22,000 Hindi teachers have been recruited in the eight states of the North East.
• Nine tribal communities of the North East have converted their dialects' scripts to Devanagari. Apart from this, all the eight states of the North East have agreed to make Hindi compulsory in schools up to Class X.

Know! about Parliamentary Official Language Committee

• The Parliament Official Language Committee was constituted in the year 1976 under the Official Language Act, 1963.
• It is a high-powered parliamentary committee.
• It has 30 members from the Parliament, 20 from the Lok Sabha and 10 from the Rajya Sabha.
• Home Minister is the chairman of this committee.
• This committee has been divided into three sub-committees to monitor the progress of official language work smoothly.
• These committees have taken oral evidence of 882 dignitaries, including Chief Justices of High Courts, Chief Ministers of States and Governors and have inspected more than 14,000 offices so far.
• On the basis of this work, the committee has so far presented ten chapters of its presentation to the President.
• The President's order on the recommendations made is to review the progress.
• The main objective of this conference is to use Hindi, the official language in the work of the government.

Financial Inclusion/GSIII
Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana

What's the NEWS

• The Finance Ministry is celebration the 7th anniversary of providing financial inclusion through the pillars of Pradhan Mantri MUDRA Yojana (PMMY)

Know! about PMMY

• PMMY was launched by the Prime Minister on 8th April, 2015, for providing loans up to Rs. 10 Lakh to the non-corporate, non-farm small/micro enterprises.
• The Scheme has helped in creating an enabling environment particularly for small businesses and has helped generate large-scale employment opportunities at the grass roots level.
• Objective - to provide institutional credit to micro, small and medium enterprises in a hassle free/seamless manner."
• The other noteworthy focus of PMMY has been able to extend credit to growing number of beneficiaries from the ‘aspirational districts' identified by Niti Aayog
• Implementation of Financial Inclusion (FI) programme in the country is based on three pillars, namely, Banking the Unbanked, Securing the Unsecured and Funding the Unfunded.
• One of the three pillars of FI - Funding the Unfunded, is reflected in the FI ecosystem through PMMY, which is being implemented with the objective to provide access to credit for small entrepreneurs.

PMMY and its achievements over the last 7 years:

• Under PMMY loans are provided up to Rs. 10 Lakh through Member Lending Institutions (MLIs) viz; Banks, Non Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs), Micro Financial Institutions (MFIs), other financial intermediaries, in three categories namely, ‘Shishu', ‘Kishore' and ‘Tarun' which signifies the stage of growth or development and funding needs of the borrowers.

1. Shishu : covering loans up to Rs. 50,000/-
2.  Kishore : covering loans above Rs. 50,000/- and up to Rs. 5 lakh
3. Tarun : covering loans above Rs. 5 lakh and up to Rs. 10 lakh

• With an objective to promote entrepreneurship among the new generation aspiring youth, it is ensured that more focus is given to Shishu category loans followed by Kishore and Tarun categories.
• Loans under PMMY are provided to meet both term loan and working capital components of financing for income generating activities in manufacturing, trading and service sectors, including activities allied to agriculture such as poultry, dairy, beekeeping, etc.
• The rate of interest is decided by lending institutions in terms of RBI guidelines. In case of working capital facility, interest is charged only on money held overnight by borrower.

Achievements of this Scheme

• More than 34.42 crore loans for an amount of Rs 18.60 lakh crore have been sanctioned since launch of the scheme (as on 25.03.2022). Approximately 22% of the total loans have been sanctioned to New Entrepreneurs.
• 4.86 crore PMMY loans accounts with sanctioned amount of Rs. 3.07 lakh crore extended in current FY (As on 25.03.2022)
• Approximate 68% loans of the total number of loans have been sanctioned to Women Entrepreneurs
• The average ticket size of the loans is about Rs 54,000/-
• 86% of the loans are of ‘SHISHU' category
• Almost 22% of the loans have been given to New Entrepreneurs
• About 23% of the loans have been given to SCs and STs borrowers; About 28% of the loans have been given to OBCs borrowers (Total 51% loans have been sanctioned to SC/ST/OBC categories of borrowers)
• About 11% of the loans have been given to Minority community borrowers

Other relevant information

Interest Subvention of 2% on prompt repayment of Shishu loans extended under PMMY for a period of 12 months to all eligible borrowers as announced under Atma Nirbhar Bharat Package (ANBP)

Know! about Pradhan Mantri MUDRA Yojana (PMMY)

• Launched on April 8, 2015 for providing loans upto 10 lakh to the non-corporate, non-farm small/micro enterprises.
• These loans are classified as MUDRA loans under PMMY.
• These loans are given by Commercial Banks, RRBs, Small Finance Banks, Cooperative Banks, MFIs and NBFCs.
• The borrower can approach any of the lending institutions mentioned above or can apply online through portal.

Economy/GSIII
Hackathon Sprint 01

What's the NEWS

• International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA), in its endeavour to support a World Class FinTech Hub at GIFT IFSC, had launched I-Sprint'21, the global FinTech Hackathon as part of InFinity Forum 2021

Hackathon highlights

• InFinity Forum is IFSCA's flagship financial technology event, uniting the world's leading minds in policy, business and technology to explore and advance the biggest ideas in FinTech and to develop those ideas into global solutions and opportunities.
• "Sprint01: BankTech under the banner of I-Sprint'21 was launched with the focus on Banking Sector and was hosted by IFSCA and GIFT City in collaboration with NITI Aayog.
• The Partners to the Hackathon were ICICI Bank, HSBC Bank, International Centre for Entrepreneurship and Technology (iCreate), Zone Startups and Invest-India.
• The Hackathon was open to all eligible FinTechs from across the globe and was one of its kind being backed by a Financial Sector Regulator.
• A prize money of Rs. 24 lacs have been announced for the winners of Sprint01: BankTech by iCreate.
• The winners of the Hackathon will be allowed direct entry into the applicable IFSCA Regulatory/Innovation Sandbox.
• They will receive Regulatory guidance and handholding. After successful exit from the respective Sandbox, they shall get an opportunity to set up businesses at GIFT IFSC.

Economy/GSIII
IFSCA inks MoU with GVFL Limited for strengthening the FinTech ecosystem in GIFT IFSC

What's the NEWS

• The International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA) and GVFL Limited signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for co-operation and collaboration to support and facilitate FinTech ecosystem in GIFT IFSC.

The International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA)

• It is a unified regulator responsible for development and regulation of financial products, financial services and financial institutions in the International Financial Services Centre(s) (IFSC) established in India.
• IFSCA endeavors to encourage the promotion of financial technologies (‘FinTech') initiatives in financial products and financial services across the spectrum of banking, insurance, securities, and fund management etc. in IFSC and give boost to the establishment of a world class FinTech Hub at GIFT IFSC comparable with other International Financial Centers (IFCs) around the globe.

GVFL Limited is pioneer of Venture Capital in India.

• Promoted by World Bank and Government of Gujarat in 1990, GVFL is an independent, autonomous Board managed venture finance company based in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India.
• The main purpose of the Company is to support venture capital ecosystem in multiple sectors including FinTech sector by funding and encouraging entrepreneurs with innovative Ideas.

Benefits of GIFT -IFSC

• The GIFT-IFSC is well poised to serve FinTech companies with its robust ecosystem, domestic and international networking and concentration of Financial Institutions.
• IFSC also offers the unique advantage of being a separate financial jurisdiction within India with no restriction on currency convertibility and a unified regulator for Banking, Capital Markets, Insurance and Funds Management which enables FinTech firms having innovative idea or solutions cross cutting across the banking, capital or insurance sector to have seamless interaction with the unified regulator enhancing ease of doing business.

Know! about Venture capital (VC)

• It is a form of private equity financing that is provided by venture capital firms or funds to startups, early-stage, and emerging companies that have been deemed to have high growth potential or which have demonstrated high growth
• Venture capital firms or funds invest in these early-stage companies in exchange for equity, or an ownership stake.
• Venture capitalists take on the risk of financing risky start-ups in the hopes that some of the firms they support will become successful.

International Organisations/GSII
Weapons of mass destruction

What's the NEWS

• The Weapons of Mass Destruction and their Delivery Systems (Prohibition of Unlawful Activities) Amendment Bill, 2022 has been unanimously passed in Lok Sabha.
• The Bill amends the earlier 2005 law in India on WMDs - The Weapons of Mass Destruction and their Delivery Systems (Prohibition of Unlawful Activities) Act, 2005.
• The 2005 Act prohibits unlawful activities (such as manufacturing, transport, or transfer) related to weapons of mass destruction, and their means of delivery.
• There was an urgent need to have provision to ban financing for Weapons of Mass Destruction as the existing legislation was silent on this aspect.
• The present bill empowers the Government to freeze, seize or attach funds or other financial assets or economic resources for preventing such financing.
• A need was felt to fulfil India's international obligations by adhering to the recommendations of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and United Nations Security Council's targeted financial sanctions against financing of WMDs.

Know! about Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMDs)

It (WMDs) is usually understood to cover nuclear, biological, and chemical (NBC) weapons.
A weapon of mass destruction is a nuclear, radiological, chemical, biological, or other device that is intended to harm a large number of people.
India's 2005 WMD Act also defines Weapons of mass destruction as biological, chemical, or nuclear weapons.

The use of chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons is regulated by a number of international treaties and agreements.

• The Geneva Protocol, 1925 - It banned the use of chemical and biological weapons
• Biological Weapons Convention, 1972 - India has signed and ratified
• Chemical Weapons Convention, 1992 - India has signed and ratified
• The use and proliferation of nuclear weapons is regulated by treaties such as Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) - India has neither signed nor ratified

Regional and Global Grouping/IR/GSIII
United Nations Human Rights Council.

What's the NEWS

• The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) recently voted on a draft resolution to suspend Russia from the United Nations Human Rights Council.
• This was in response to the alleged war crimes committed by Russia in Bucha, Ukraine where more than 300 bodies of civilians were found after the withdrawal of the Russian forces.
• In all, 93 countries voted in favour, 24 against while 58 abstained (India chose to abstain from the vote)
• This met the two-thirds majority benchmark in which only the voting members, not abstentions, are counted from the 193-member General Assembly.
• As a result, Russia now stands suspended from the UN Human Rights Council.
• Libya was the last country to be suspended from UNHRC in 2011 because of violence by forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi against angry protestors.

Know! about UN Human Rights Council

• The UN Human Rights Council (HQ. Geneva, Switzerland) was established in 2006 as an inter-governmental body within the United Nations system.
• The UNHRC holds regular sessions three times a year: March, June and September.

Objectives:

• To promote and protect human rights around the world.
• To investigate allegations of breaches of human rights in United Nations member states.
• To address important thematic human rights issues such as freedom of association and assembly, freedom of expression, freedom of belief and religion, women's rights, LGBT rights, and the rights of racial and ethnic minorities.
• UNHRC has 47 members and they are elected by the members of the United Nations General Assembly by simple majority
• They are elected on the basis of regional group for the tenure of 3 years and members are not eligible for immediate re-election after serving two consecutive terms.

1. African States: 13 seats
2. Asia-Pacific States: 13 seats
3. Latin American and Caribbean States: 8 seats
4. Western European and other States: 7 seats
5. Eastern European States: 6 seats

• The UN General Assembly (UNGA) can suspend the rights and privileges of any Council member that it decides has persistently committed gross and systematic violations of human rights during its term of membership.

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