ETEN Enlightens-Daily Current Capsules (Prelims Prep. Prominence) 29th June 2018
Enlighten about HECI vs UGC
Science and Technology
First government blockchain centre to be set up in Hyderabad
Use to secure land records in Telangana through blockchain
technology The banking sector has already started using blockchain technology
The Centre is considering a proposal to set up a Centre of Excellence for
blockchain technology in Hyderabad to drive innovation.
Agencies Involved
The proposal has been submitted by C-DAC Hyderabad, along with the
Institute for Development and Research in Banking Technology (IDRBT)
and Veermata Jijabai Technological Institute (VJTI), Mumbai.
The Centre of Excellence, proposed to come up at C-DAC’s Hyderabad
unit, will be the first one by the government for blockchain technology
The planning is to use blockchain to digitise and secure land records for
Telangana.
IT firms such as Infosys, TCS, Wipro and Cognizant had made
significant investments in blockchain technology, while banks had
already started using the technology, he added.
Enlighten about the blockchain technology
A blockchain is a continuously growing list of records, called blocks,
which are linked and secured using cryptography.
Each block typically contains a cryptographic hash of the previous
block,a timestamp, and transaction data.
By design, a blockchain is resistant to modification of the data.
It is "an open, distributed ledger that can record transactions between two
parties efficiently and in a verifiable and permanent way".
For use as a distributed ledger, a blockchain is typically managed by a
peer-to-peer network collectively adhering to a protocol for inter-node
communication and validating new blocks.
Once recorded, the data in any given block cannot be altered retroactively
without alteration of all subsequent blocks, which requires consensus of
the network majority.
Blockchains are secure by design and exemplify a distributed computing
system with high Byzantine fault tolerance.
Decentralized consensus has therefore been achieved with a blockchain.
This makes blockchains potentially suitable for the recording of events,
medical records, and other records management activities, such as
identity management, transaction processing, documenting provenance,
food traceability and voting.
Economy
Plenary meeting of The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) – Paris
(France)
WHAT
The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) once again put Pakistan on its
Grey List of countries involved in providing monetary assistance to
terrorism and related causes for failing to curb terror financing on its soil.
This will be second time Pakistan has been grey listed by FATF
First time it was placed in the list for three years from 2012 to 2015.
What would be the Impact of Grey-listing
It will endanger Pakistan’s handful of remaining banking links to outside
world, causing financial difficulties to its fragile economy.
It will further shrink Pakistan’s economy and make it harder to meet its
mounting foreign financing needs, including potential future borrowings
from International Monetary Fund (IMF).
It will lead to downgrading of Pakistan’s debt ratings by international
banking and credit rating agencies
It will also suspend international funds and aid to Pakistan such as
Coalition Support Funds (CSF), money which US owes to Pakistan for
military operations.
It will also impacts its imports and exports, widening its existing huge
current account deficit (CAD).
Enlighten about Financial Action Task Force (FATF)
FATF is an inter‐governmental policy making body that aims to establish
international standards for combating money laundering and terrorist
financing.
It was established in 1989 during the G7 Summit in Paris (France) to
combat the growing problem of money laundering.
It comprises over 39 member countries including India.
FATF Secretariat is housed at headquarters of OECD in Paris, France.
Initially, FATF was only dealing with developing policies to combat
money laundering. But in 2001 its purpose was expanded to act against
terrorism financing.
FATF sets standards and promote effective implementation of legal,
regulatory and operational measures for combating money laundering,
terrorist financing and other related threats to integrity of international
financial system.
FATF Sets international standards to combat money laundering and
terrorist Financing.
Government Schemes Solar Charkha Mission
Launched by President Ram Nath Kovind
Enlighten about the mission
The government will disburse subsidy of Rs 550 crore to thousands of
artisans, generating employment in rural areas.
It was launched during the event of Udyam Sangam (National MSME
Conclave) on the occasion of World MSME Day (observed on 27 June).
Enlighten about the Ministry involved
Ministry of Micro Small and Medium Enterprise (MSME) will cover 50
clusters across the country including in the Northeast and each cluster
will employ 400 to 2,000 artisans.
Its ultimate aim is to generate employment in rural areas and contribute to
the green economy.
It also aims at linking five crore women across the country to the
initiative.
Infrastructure Development Two new Strategic Petroleum Reserves (SPR)
Chandikhol in Odisha and Padur in Karnataka
Approved by the The Union Cabinet
WHAT
Establishment of additional 6.5 Million Metric Tonne (MMT) Strategic
Petroleum Reserves (SPR) facilities at Chandikhol in Odisha and Padur in
Karnataka.
It also approved construction of dedicated SPMs (Single Point Mooring)
for the two SPRs.
Enlighten about The SPR
The SPR facilities at Chandikhol and Padur will be underground
rockcaverns.
They will have capacities of 4 MMT and 2.5 MMT respectively.
These facilities will provide an additional supply of about 12 days of
petroleum reserves and is expected to augment India’s energy security.
They will be built up project under Public Private Partnership (PPP)
model to reduce budgetary support of Government of India.
The terms and conditions of such PPP participation will be determined by
Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas in consultation with Ministry of
Finance
Enlighten about the statics of SPR in India (Phase I )
Under phase I of SPR programme the government has built three
underground crude oil storage facilities (Strategic Petroleum Reserves)
with total capacity of 5.33 MMT capacity at Vishakhapatnam (Andhra
Pradesh, storage capacity of 1.33 million tonnes), Mangalore (Karnataka,
1.5 million tonnes) and Padur (Kerala, 2.5 million tonnes) to provide
energy security of 10 days of consumption in response to external supply
disruptions.
They are maintained by Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserves Ltd
(ISPRL), a special purpose vehicle (SPV), which is wholly owned
subsidiary of Oil Industry Development Board (OIDB) under Ministry of
Petroleum & Natural Gas.
Important Personalities
Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis’s 125th birth anniversary
He was awarded the Padma Vibhushan by the Government of India for
his stastical work, and his contribution to India's second five year plan.
An applied statistician and scientist Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis' 125th
anniversary and in honour of this occasion Google has dedicated its
today's doodle
He was born on 29 June 1893 in West Bengal and graduated from King's
College, Cambridge.
Enlighten about Mr Mahalanobis
He is known for his pioneering work in statistics and is most often
remembered by the "Mahalanobis distance", a way of measurement used
in population studies and was one of the members of the first Planning
Commission of India.
He was also awarded one of the highest civilian awards, the Padma
Vibhushan by the Government of India.
India's second five year plan (1956-1961) which laid heavy emphasis on
the development of the public sector and rapid industrialization also
followed the Mr Mahalanobis model which emphasizes the importance of
building a strong domestic consumption goods sector, which was crucial
to the nascent Indian economy and had a lasting impact on the nation's
development.
He also taught at Presidency College (Kolkata) where, in 1931, he was
responsible for founding the Indian Statistical Institute.
He further laid the foundations of Indian statistical system through the
National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) and the Central Statistical
Organisation (CSO)
Mr Mahalanobis, a man of diverse scientific interests combined other
disciplines like anthropology, economics, physics to develop better
approaches in the field of population studies, consumption and crop
yields. Later on, he collaborated with both top economists and
mathematicians from around the world.
Index/Report India moves up a spot to 35th on real estate transparency index
Report suggests that India is one of the 10 countries that have
registered maximum improvement in transparency in real estate over
the last two years
India has moved up just one spot in the global real estate transparency
index from 36 in 2016 to 35 in 2018, despite the implementation of the
Real Estate (Regulation And Development) Act or RERA, according to a
report by real estate advisory firm Jones Lang LaSalle Inc. (JLL).
RERA was implemented in May 2016 to bring accountability and
transparency into the sector.
However, unlike a few states such as Maharashtra and Karnataka, several
states have been slow in its implementation.
The countries in the top 30 ranks have been defined as transparent
markets, while those in the top 10 are categorized as highly transparent,
according to the report that comes out every two years.
The UK, Australia, the US, France and Canada are the top five countries.
Since 2014, India has moved up by five spots from 40th in the global real
estate transparency index.
Factors of measuring the index
The index measures transparency based on factors such as data
availability, authenticity and accuracy; governance of public agencies as
well as stakeholders of the realty sector; transaction processes and costs
associated with those; and the regulatory and legal environment
Improved market fundamentals, policy reforms and liberalization of
foreign direct investment into realty sector and retail and strengthening of
information in public domain were main influencers, along with
digitization of property records and assigning industry status to affordable
housing
The report also pointed out that a rise in private equity (PE) investments
over the last four years is an indicator of the growing confidence large PE
funds have in the Indian market.
PE investment in Indian realty has grown every year from $2.2 billion in
2014 to $6.3 billion in 2017, according to the report.
Ranking will improve in future (if)
The country’s ranking is likely to improve further in GRETI 2020 mainly
on the back of the comprehensive implementation of RERA in all states
of India, introduction of insurance policies for land title, pseudo-
ownership of properties weeded out through ‘Benami Transactions Act’
and the sector aligning itself well with goods and services tax regime
Sources – LiveMint , The Hindu , Indian Express