Whatsapp 93125-11015 For Details
Five states accounted for more than half of the total bank-assisted investment proposals made during the year 2022-23, mirroring the skewed pattern of industrialisation in the country.
On the other hand, overall investment plans shot up by 79.50 per cent with a record capital outlay of Rs 352,624 crore — the highest since 2014-15 — despite a rise in interest rates in the banking system during the year.
As many as 547 projects got assistance from banks and financial institutions during 2022-23 with a record high total project cost of Rs 2,66,547 crore as compared to 401 projects with a total project cost of Rs 1,41,976 crore during 2021-22, a surge of 87.7 per cent, says the study conducted by an RBI team.
The envisaged total cost of the projects financed by banks and financial institutions reached a new peak during 2022-23 since 2014-15.
The state-wise distribution of new investments has revealed that the top five states — Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Odisha, Maharashtra and Karnataka — together accounted for 57.2 per cent share (or Rs 2,01,700 crore) in total project cost during 2022-23, higher than 43.2 per cent share during 2021-22, the central bank study says.
Ahead of G20, Xi-Modi may meet at BRICS summit next week (Page no. 5)
(GS Paper 2, International Organisation)
China indicated that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping will have a bilateral meeting in South Africa when they attend the BRICS leaders’ summit in Johannesburg from August 22-24. The BRICS grouping comprises Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
If the in-person meeting takes place, it will be their first scheduled meeting since the border standoff started in May 2020.
The standoff has impacted bilateral ties, with minimal diplomatic engagement between the two countries over the last three years.
The two leaders did have a brief encounter at the dinner in Bali, Indonesia, during the G20 summit in November 2022.
The indication about the Johannesburg meeting came from China’s ambassador to South Africa Chen Xiaodong, who told reporters in Pretoria, “I am confident that as two nations, two countries, we will have direct talks, direct meetings,” at the August 22-24 summit.
There is no official confirmation of a scheduled bilateral meeting, but sources in New Delhi said the two leaders will be in the same venue — either the summit room or the leaders’ lounge for almost two days in Johannesburg, and a possible meeting can’t be ruled out.
Govt & Politics
G20 health ministers meet end with priorities of India receiving consensus (Page no. 9)
(GS Paper 2, International Organisation)
India’s G20 presidency has managed to build consensus on setting up an R&D and manufacturing network for vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostics, along with setting up a platform for making open-source, inter-operable digital solutions readily available, according to an “outcome document” released after the health ministers’ meeting under G20 ended in Gandhinagar.
The third priority on health emergency prevention preparedness and response ended with a commitment to negotiate a legally binding WHO convention, agreement, or other international instrument by May 2024, according to the 25-point outcome document and chair’s summary.
Global Initiative Digital Health — a platform for sharing digital goods and knowledge — was also launched at the meeting. It will have four pillars: investment tracker, ask tracker to track technologies the countries need, a library of available digital tools, and a platform for knowledge-sharing to implement these technologies at scale.
Agreement was not reached only on one paragraph of the documents on the Russia-Ukraine war. “The war in Ukraine has further adversely impacted the global economy,” the document notes.
Most members strongly condemned the war and stressed it is causing immense human suffering and exacerbating existing fragilities in the global economy — constraining growth, increasing inflation, disrupting supply chains.”
Valuable time lost: SC on HC adjourning abortion plea (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 2, Judiciary)
The Supreme Court expressed anguish at the manner in which the Gujarat High Court had dealt with a rape survivor’s plea for termination of her 26-week pregnancy.
A Bench of Justices B V Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan, which held a special sitting on Saturday, said valuable time had been lost by the time the High Court listed it for hearing, more than a week after receiving the medical report on August 10.
The counsel representing the appellant told the SC that the plea was filed before the HC on August 7 and it took it up the next day. The HC issued directions that a medical team be constituted to find out if abortion is possible.
The report was submitted to the HC on August 10 and a day later, the court took it on record and adjourned it till August 23. However, it took up the matter on August 17 and dismissed the prayer for abortion.
How can the court stand it over to 23rd August? How many valuable days would have been lost by then,” asked Justice Nagarathna, adding that “there has to be a sense of urgency in such matters, not a lackadaisical attitude treating it as a normal matter”.
In its order, the SC said, “Strangely, the High Court posted the case 12 days thereafter on 23.08.2023, losing sight of the fact that every day’s delay was crucial and of great significance having regard to the facts and circumstances of the case.
In the instant case, when the petitioner had approached the court, she was already 26 weeks pregnant. Therefore, we find that valuable time has been lost between 11.08.2023, when the report was placed before the High Court, and the order stating that the matter will stand over to 23.08.2023.”
Opinion
How the Bhakti movement flourished under Mughals (Page no. 13)
(GS Paper 1, Culture)
At a recent rally in Madhya Pradesh, Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a link between the 14th century social reformer and Bhakti saint Sant Ravidas and the Mughals.
While laying the foundation stone of a temple dedicated to Ravidas, Modi praised him for holding his ground and showing courage to fight against the “oppressive rule” of the Mughal Empire.
Placing Ravidas in the context of the Mughals is interesting because it is often forgotten, or rather ignored, that the Bhakti tradition, to which Ravidas belonged, emerged and even flourished in large parts of north India at a time that coincided with Muslim rule in the Subcontinent.
Although the Bhakti movement first emerged in the Tamil south between the sixth and ninth centuries CE, it spread to north India during the late Sultanate and Mughal periods.
As historians have noted, not only did the Bhakti movement in the north carry influences of the culture introduced by the Muslim rulers, it, in fact, flourished to a large extent thanks to the politico-administrative structure envisaged under the Sultanate and Mughal rulers.
In his book, A Geneology of Devotion: Bhakti, Tantra, Yoga and Sufism in North India (2019), Patton Burchett, a scholar of religious studies, has argued that the Bhakti of North India was one inflected by the values, institutions, and perspectives of Persian literary and political culture on the one hand, and by popular Sufism on the other.
World
Russia's Luna-25 spacecraft suffers technical glitch: Roskosmos (Page no. 14)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Technology)
Russia reported an “abnormal situation” on its moon-bound Luna-25 spacecraft, which launched earlier this month. The country’s space agency, Roscosmos, said the spacecraft ran into unspecified trouble while trying to enter a pre-landing orbit, and that its specialists were analysing the situation.
During the operation, an abnormal situation occurred on board the automatic station, which did not allow the manoeuvre to be performed with the specified parameters.
Roscosmos did not specify whether the incident will prevent Luna-25 from making a landing. The spacecraft is scheduled to land on the south pole of the moon on Monday, racing to land on Earth’s satellite ahead of an Indian spacecraft.
The lunar South Pole is of particular interest to scientists, who believe the permanently shadowed polar craters may contain water.
The frozen water in the rocks could be transformed by future explorers into air and rocket fuel. Also on Saturday, the Russian spacecraft produced its first results.
Though Roscosmos said the information was undergoing analysis, the agency reported that the preliminary data obtained contained information about the chemical elements of the lunar soil and that its equipment had registered a “micrometeorite impact.”
Economy
Govt. unveils green hydrogen standards, sets emission thresholds for production (Page no. 15)
(GS Paper 3, Environment)
The ministry of New and Renewable Energy on Saturday notified the green hydrogen standard for India, outlining the emission thresholds for production of hydrogen that can be classified as ‘green’. India became one of the few countries to have a definition for green hydrogen.
After discussions with multiple stakeholders, the ministry has decided to define green hydrogen as having a well-to-gate emission of not more than two kg carbon dioxide (CO2) equivalent per kg hydrogen (H2),” the ministry said in a statement.
The well-to-gate emission includes water treatment, electrolysis, gas purification, drying and compression of hydrogen. The scope of the definition encompasses both electrolysis-based and biomass-based hydrogen production methods.
The notification specifies that a detailed methodology for measurement, reporting, monitoring, on-site verification and certification of green hydrogen and its derivatives will be specified by the ministry of new and renewable energy.
The notification also specifies that the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) under the ministry of power will be the nodal authority for accreditation of agencies for the monitoring, verification and certification for green hydrogen production projects.
The government launched National Green Hydrogen Mission early this year with an aim to produce 5 million metric tonne (MMT) green hydrogen per annum with an associated renewable energy capacity of about 125 giga watt (GW) by 2030.
India’s foreign exchange reserves rise $708 million to 602.16 billion (Page no. 15)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
India’s foreign exchange reserves jumped USD 708 million to USD 602.161 billion for the week ended August 11, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said.
This is the first increase in the kitty after declining for three consecutive weeks. In the previous reporting week, the overall reserves had declined USD 2.417 billion to USD 601.453 billion.
In October 2021, the country’s foreign exchange reserves touched an all-time high of USD 645 billion. The reserves took a hit as the central bank deployed the kitty to defend the rupee amid pressures caused majorly by global developments since last year.
For the week ended August 11, the foreign currency assets, a major component of the reserves, increased USD 999 million to USD 534.399 billion, according to the Weekly Statistical Supplement released by the RBI.
Expressed in dollar terms, the foreign currency assets include the effect of appreciation or depreciation of non-US units like the euro, pound and yen held in the foreign exchange reserves.
Gold reserves were down USD 340 million to USD 44.34 billion, the RBI said. The Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) were up USD 51 million to USD 18.324 billion.
The country’s reserve position with the IMF was down USD 2 million to USD 5.098 billion in the reporting week, as per the apex bank data.