World Bank cuts India’s growth projection to 6%
Context : The World Bank declares India’s growth rate is projected to fall to 6%.
World bank Report :
In the first quarter of 2019-20, the economy experienced a significant and broad-based growth deceleration with a sharp decline in private consumption on the demand side and the weakening of growth in both industry and services on the supply side, the report said.
Reflecting on the below-trend economic momentum and persistently low food prices, the headline inflation averaged 3.4% in 2018-19 and remained well below the RBI’s mid-range target of 4% in the first half of 2019-2020. This allowed the RBI to ease monetary policy via a cumulative 135 basis point cut in the repo rate since January 2019 and shift the policy stance from neutral to accommodative.
“The general government deficit is estimated to have widened by 0.2 percentage points to 5.9% of the GDP in 2018-19. This is despite the central government improving its balance by 0.2 percentage points over the previous year. The general government debt remained stable and sustainable – being largely domestic and long term-at around 67% of GDP, the report said.
Poorest households at risk :
The report, said disruptions brought about by the introduction of the GST and demonetisation, combined with the stress in the rural economy and a high youth unemployment rate in urban areas may have heightened the risks for the poorest households.
The significant slowdown in the first quarter of the fiscal year and high frequency indicators, thereafter, suggested that the output growth would not exceed 6% for the full fiscal year, the bank said.
The report said the consumption was likely to remain depressed due to slow growth in rural income, domestic demand (as reflected in a sharp drop in sales of automobiles) and credit from non-banking financial companies (NBFCs).
way forward :
The main policy challenge for India is to address the sources of softening private consumption and the structural factors behind weak investment, the bank said.
“This will require restoring the health of the financial sector through reforms of public sector banks’ governance and a gradual strengthening of the regulatory framework for NBFCs, while ensuring that solvent NBFCs retain access to adequate liquidity.”
“It will also require efforts to contain fiscal slippages, as higher-than-expected public borrowings could put upward pressure on interest rates and potentially crowd-out the private sector,” it said.
According to the bank, the main sources of risk included external shocks that result in tighter global financing conditions, and new NBFC defaults triggering a fresh round of financial sector stress.
source : the hindu
Many denied PDS rice due to non-seeding of Aadhaar
In News
- The ‘One Nation, One Ration Card’ scheme seems to be not working in favour of many in Odisha, according to a survey that found that hundreds of people have not been provided rice through the PDS for two months due to non-seeding of Aadhaar.
- The study also found that exclusion due to Aadhaar linking is more prevalent in tribal areas.
- The survey was conducted during the first week of October by the Odisha chapter of the National Right to Food Campaign, an informal network of organisations and individuals working on right to food issues
One Nation, One Ration card
- The national portability of Ration cards will ensure all beneficiaries especially the migrants in getting access to PDS across the nation from any PDS shop of their own choice.
- This will provide freedom to the beneficiaries as they will not be tied to any one PDS shop and reduce their dependence on shop owners and curtail instances of corruption.
- There will also be creation of a Central Repository of all Ration Cards to help national level de-duplication.
- This initiative shall be helpful for the large migratory population of the country, who migrate from one part of the country to another in search of job or employment, marriage, or any other reason, and find difficulty in accessing subsidised foodgrains in the present system.
- The challenges for this scheme involves that all PDS shops should install ePoS machines and all ration cards have to be seeded with Aadhaar numbers.
Project Beehive
In News
- The Army’s Corps of Electronics and Mechanical Engineers (EME) has launched a major initiative under Project Beehive for automation of the entire Corps
- The objective is to enable real-time monitoring and response of its 2,000 workshops across the country.
- The Army is collaborating with the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology on this and EME officers are part of the product development
- Each of them will be able to track their equipment and readiness in realtime. On a click, all critical readiness states will be displayed. The equipment, how much mileage was done, when is the next service due and so on. It allows easy forecast of requirements
- The Army had earlier automated its workshops under WASP (Workshop Honey bees) which is now being upgraded to be on same level with Beehive.
The Tumpek Kandang ceremony at Bali Zoo
Context : The Tumpek Kandang ceremony is a tribute to God of Creator and Preserver (God Shiva). It is celebrated in Bali Zoo on October 12 2019.
Purpose : The ceremony was to pray for an eternal safety and a healthy state of the animals, also to hope for a disease-free condition.
Highlights of ceremony :
- To respect the meaningful bond that grow in a relationship between human and other well-beings, especially animals, which by some means, the celebration also gave hope to wildlife preservation.
- All animals were well-fed with special treats and the temple master sprinkled each of them with holy water.
- This ceremony is also a way to appreciate compassion towards all animals at Bali Zoo.
- On a different note, Tumpek Kandang is also associated with Tri Hita Karana, a Balinese philosophy of life. The philosophy teaches us three causes of well-being, one of them is Palemahan which is a Balinese word to remain care about our surroundings and that surely include animals.
- The unique vibe and colorful atmosphere of Tumpek Kandang succesfully attracted many domestic and international tourists that happened to be at Bali Zoo during the ceremony was held.
- The spirit of this ceremony is to keep the balance between human and animals since they have mutually beneficial relationship.
source : the Hindu