Daily Prelims Notes 6 September 2021

September 6, 2021
Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
Category: DPN

Daily Prelims Notes

6 September 2021

Table Of Contents

Subject: Environment

Context:

The rampant coal mining in Nagaland, coupled with waste discharge from tea estates and encroachment have been sounding death knells for River Bhogdoi in Assam.

Concept:

The river is on the south bank tributaries of the mighty river Brahmaputra, originates from Mokokchung in Nagaland where it is also known as Tsujenyongnullah.
From its origin in the Naga Hills, it flows through the City of Jorhat and then it merges with another river and its name becomes Gelabill. The previous name of the river was Desoi
The total catchment area of the inter-state river (flowing between Assam and Nagaland) is 1,545 square kilometres and travels 160 kilometres before joining Dhansiririver near its confluence with Brahmaputra.

Issues

Bhogdoi is one of the most polluted rivers in Assam and 351st among the polluted rivers in the country.
Coal mining in Nagaland introduced high levels of manganese in the river,
Locals had also complained of tea brewed from it tasting bitter.
The drains carry industrial and residential wastes. The river has also become heavily silted, reducing its carrying capacity. There have been no systematic studies done to save the river
The high BOD indicates low water quality and less oxygen for aquatic life.
The massive encroachments along the river bank have been not only making the river narrower but also increasing the filth and garbage.
Disposing human excreta and cremating dead bodies along the river bank are gradually contaminating the soil and water of the region. This is increasing the threat of water-borne diseases.

2. Inspiration4 mission

Subject: Science and Technology

Context: Entrepreneur Elon Musk’s SpaceX announced Friday that ‘Inspiration4’, its first all-civilian, non-governmental spaceflight, is on track for launch on September 15.

Concept:

The Crew Dragon spacecraft is set to be launched from NASA’s Kennedy Space Centre in Florida in the US. It will take a group of four private citizens into space for three days.

Inspiration4 mission

The mission involves circling the Earth for three days, and then splashing down into the Atlantic Ocean.
Inspiration4 will orbit the Earth at 575km, higher than the International Space Station (408km) and the Hubble space telescope (547km).
This will be the farthest distance travelled by a crewed mission since 2009, when astronauts last went to repair the Hubble.
The Dragon module will be usually, the SpaceX module is used for travelling to the ISS, where it has to dock or join the floating laboratory.
Inspiration4 is not going to the ISS, the docking port has been removed and has been replaced with a dome window instead.
This dome window will offer breath-taking views of the Earth for the four travellers. The window has been inspired by the Cupola, a module on the ISS used to make observations about our planet.
According to a report, the journey will present an opportunity for collecting large amounts of health data that will aid in planning future crewed space missions.
As per the report, they will collect data on ECG (electrocardiograph) activity, movement, sleep, heart rate and rhythm, blood oxygen saturation, cabin noise and light intensity, which will help in assessing behavioural and cognitive changes over the journey.

3. Atal Pension Yojana

Subject: Government Schemes

Context: Atal Pension Yojana has emerged as the most popular social security scheme under the National Pension System with over 2.8 crore subscribers, mainly from the non-metro centres.

Concept:

Total assets under management (AUM) for the National Pension System schemes saw a year-on-year growth of over 38 per cent, and stood at ₹5.78 lakh crore at the end of the year. NPS had 4.2 crore registered users.

Ranking Pension Schemes

Atal Pension Yojana has emerged as the most popular social security scheme under the National Pension System with over 2.8 crore subscribers,
The State Government Scheme ranks second with 11 per cent share,
The central autonomous bodies (CAB) continued to account for the least number of subscribers of NPS with a share of 1 per cent,
State autonomous bodies (SAB) with a share of 2 per cent.

Atal Pension Yojana

The scheme was launched on 9th May, 2015, with the objective of creating a universal social security system for all Indians, especially the poor, the under-privileged and the workers in the unorganised sector.
Administered By: Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority through National Pension System (NPS).
Any citizen of India can join the APY scheme. The age of the subscriber should be between 18-40 years. The contribution levels would vary and would be low if a subscriber joins early and increases if she joins late.

Benefits:

It provides a minimum guaranteed pension ranging from Rs 1000 to Rs 5000 on attaining 60 years of age.
The amount of pension is guaranteed for lifetime to the spouse on death of the subscriber.
In the event of death of both the subscriber and the spouse, the entire pension corpus is paid to the nominee.
Contributions to the Atal Pension Yojana (APY) are eligible for tax benefits similar to the National Pension System (NPS).

National Pension System

NPS is a government-sponsored pension scheme. It was launched in 2004 for government employees.
Now, any individual citizen of India (both resident and non-resident) in the age group of 18-65 can join NPS.

4. TB Alliance

Subject: Science and Technology

Context: In Indian drugmaker has been roped-in by TB Alliance to make its tuberculosis drug pretomanid and strengthen global supplies.

Concept:

TB Alliance is a not-for-profit product development partnership (PDP), uniquely positioned to leverage a global network of public and private partners to most efficiently advance TB drug development.
A PDP builds partnerships between the public, private, academic, and philanthropic sectors to drive the development of new products for underserved markets.
PDPs retain direct management oversight of their projects, though much of the laboratory and clinical work is done though external research facilities and contractors.
This model minimizes costs, including overhead and investments in infrastructure, while optimizing scientific capability to speed new TB drug development.
In 2019, TB Alliance became the first not-for-profit organization to develop and register an anti-TB drug.
TB Alliance is a non-profit drug developer and its pretomanid is the third new drug developed for TB in over 40 years, after bedaquiline (from Johnson and Johnson) and delaminid (from Otsuka Pharmaceutical).
TB Alliance’s President, had indicated that a collaboration was in the offing with an Indian drug marker to shore-up global supplies.
Pretomanid is part of a three drug regimen that includes bedaquiline and linezolid and is used to treat those with extensive drug-resistant TB (XDR-TB) or multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB), who are treatment-intolerant or non-responsive.

5. Payments banks end of the day balance

Subject: Economy

Context: Payments banks (PBs) want the Reserve Bank of India to raise the maximum end of the day balance a customer can maintain with them from ₹2 lakh to ₹5 lakh in sync with the increase in the deposit insurance cover.

Concept:

PBs executives feel an enhancement in the limit will be opportune as the Deposit Insurance and Credit Guartee Corporation (DICGC) has increased the deposit insurance cover fivefold to ₹5 lakh.
DICGC insures bank deposits such as savings, fixed, current, and recurring ones. Previously, under the Guidelines for Licensing of PBs, these banks could hold a maximum day-end balance of ₹1 lakh per customer. This was in line with the then deposit insurance cover of ₹1 lakh.
The deposit insurance cover was raised to ₹5 lakh, with effect from 2020, the maximum balance a customer can hold in a PB at the end of the day was not increased.
The RBI had doubled the maximum balance a customer can hold at end of the day in a PB to ₹2 lakh
Micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), small traders and merchants can benefit if limit is enhanced to ₹5 lakh.
CASA pool Further, this can also increase PBs pool of low-cost current account, savings account (CASA) deposits.
PBs are niche banks that leverage technology for financial inclusion and are aimed at small businesses and low-income households.

6. Appointment for post of MD/ WTD in UCB

Subject: Economy

Context: After a ruling by the Gujarat High Court in 2013, which was upheld by the Supreme Court in 2021, the Madhya Pradesh High Court has stayed the implementation of RBI’s notification.

Concept:

As per RBI data on May 31, there are 1,531 UCBs in the country — 53 scheduled and 1,478 non-scheduled.
The Banking Regulation (Amendment) Act was meant to provide additional power to the central bank for effectively regulating co-operative banks.
For the Eligibility criteria of holding the post of MD/ WTD, the RBI debarred persons such as Member of Parliament or State Legislature or Municipal Corporation or Municipality or other local bodies , persons engaged in any other business or vocation, director of a company (except non-profit one), a partner of any firm which carries on any trade, business or industry, having substantial interest in any company or working as director, manager, managing agent, partner or proprietor of any trading, commercial or industrial concern will not be eligible
The tenure of the posts will not be for more than five years at a time, subject to a minimum period of three years at the time of first appointment, unless terminated or removed earlier.
He/she will be eligible for re-appointment. The performance of MD/WTD shall be reviewed by the board annually. Also, the post cannot be held by the same incumbent for more than 15 years. However, after a cooling period of three years, reappointment is possible.

Issues

The co-operative is part of the State List in the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution while banking is a part of the Union.
The power to legislate co-operative societies falls exclusively with the State and not within the domain of the Union, much less the RBI.
The 97th Constitution Amendment (2011) provided that in case of a co-operative society carrying on the business of banking, the provisions of the Banking Regulation Act 1949 will apply.

7. Account Aggregator

Subject: Economy

Context: The eight of India’s major banks — State Bank of India, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, IDFC First Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, HDFC Bank, IndusInd Bank and Federal Bank joined the Account Aggregator (AA) network that will enable customers to easily access and share their financial data

Concept:

According to the Reserve Bank of India, an Account Aggregator is a non-banking financial company engaged in the business of providing, under a contract, the service of retrieving or collecting financial information pertaining to its customer.
It is also engaged in consolidating, organizing and presenting such information to the customer or any other financial information user as may be specified by the bank.
The AA framework was created through an inter-regulatory decision by RBI and other regulators including Securities and Exchange Board of India, Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority, and Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) through and initiative of the Financial Stability and Development Council (FSDC).

Structure

It has a three-tier structure: Account Aggregator, FIP (Financial Information Provider) and FIU (Financial Information User).
An FIP is the data fiduciary, which holds customers’ data. It can be a bank, NBFC, mutual fund, insurance repository or pension fund repository.
An FIU consumes the data from an FIP to provide various services to the consumer. An FIU is a lending bank that wants access to the borrower’s data to determine if the borrower qualifies for a loan. Banks play a dual role as an FIP and as an FIU.
An AA should not support transactions by customers but should ensure appropriate mechanisms for proper customer identification. An AA should share information only with the customer to whom it relates or any other financial information user as authorized by the customer.
The licence for AAs is issued by the RBI
The AA framework allows customers to avail various financial services from a host of providers on a single portal based on a consent method, under which the consumers can choose what financial data to share and with which entity.

Purpose of AA

An Account Aggregator allows a customer to transfer his financial information pertaining to various accounts such as banks deposits, equity, mutual fund and pension funds.
There are 19 categories of information that fall under ‘financial information’, besides various other categories relating to banking and investments. For sharing of such information, the FIU is required to initiate a request for consent by way of any platform/app run by the AA.

Advantages

It reduces the need for individuals to wait in long bank queues, use Internet banking portals, share their passwords, or seek out physical notarisation to access and share their financial documents.
An Account Aggregator is a financial utility for secure flow of data controlled by the individual.
Account Aggregators are an exciting addition to India’s digital infrastructure as it will allow banks to access consented data flows and verified data.
This will help banks reduce transaction costs, which will enable us to offer lower ticket size loans and more tailored products and services to our customers.
It will also help us reduce frauds and comply with upcoming privacy laws. Data transmitted through the AA is encrypted. AAs are not allowed to store, process and sell the customer’s data.
An AA creates secure, digital access to personal data at a time when Covid-19 has led to restrictions on physical interaction.